Weird

The list grows longer once the public weighs in on local taboos.

Six things you cannot say in Seattle

Posted Thu, Jun 11, 6 a.m.

Seattle doesn’t like to say No. (Look how many times we tried to say Yes to the monorail.) But that doesn’t mean we’re a city without no-nos.

Isolation for sale

Posted Mon, May 18, 6 a.m.

Mining towns like Metaline Falls are struggling as auto sales slump, but across the border in British Columbia there is evidence that other places have found a future with another valuable resource.

The dive king

Posted Fri, May 8, 6 a.m.

If Rick Steves were a drunk, this might be the book he'd write. Seattle's grittiest bars and taverns are the subject of a new guide to local dives, shadowy repositories of the real, slurring-its-words Seattle.

If sturgeon could talk

Posted Wed, Apr 29, 6 a.m.

By Daniel Jack Chasan

A short history of Lake Washington, as told to our author by one very long fish

Cure the economy by reviving 'animal spirits'

Posted Fri, Mar 6, 6 a.m.

A bright blue scrotum, vicious chimps, Bobo, and sexually incompetent pandas: Here's a stimulus package of wildlife stories that could lead to an economic recovery.

Jean Godden: madcap days at The P-I

Posted Mon, Jan 19, 6 a.m.

By Jean Godden

The paper generated legendary tales and unforgettable characters. Here are some that Godden, who joined The P-I in 1974, deems suitable for public consumption.

Does Seattle have a fashion sense?

Posted Mon, Dec 22, 6 a.m.

By Lisa Albers

In a place where people show up at the opera in fleece, what should beauty look like?

Up yours, Virginia

Posted Tue, Dec 2, 6 a.m.

Dispatch from the War on Christmas: Atheists make fools of themselves in Olympia while violence breaks out at Wal-Mart. The sacred season is now a very, very sick season.

Sarah Palin, comic book heroine

Posted Tue, Oct 28, 4:33 p.m.

By Bob Simmons

A Bellingham publishing entrepreneur sees force and fortune in the Palin story, no matter how it turns out.

Indiana Jones, meth addict

Posted Sun, Oct 12, 4:09 p.m.

The strange link between looting Indian artifacts and methamphetamine users.

Pit bulls, bears, and lipstick: more attacks involving animals

Posted Tue, Sep 16, 4 a.m.

Lessons learned from the places where people, animals, and politics collide.

Sidewalk crack addict

Posted Mon, Aug 4, 11 a.m.

By Steve Clifford

As a public service, we bust a few myths. Suffice it to say that all roads do not lead to Rome.

All the rage

Posted Mon, Jul 28, 4 p.m.

What's to blame for all the anger as cyclists, drivers, and citizens fight over their rights on the streets? Is it $4 gas? Young punks? Class warfare? Poor urban design? It's time to theorize.

Vanity profanity! The 600 license plates banned by the state

Posted Thu, Jul 24, 8 p.m.

By Peter Lewis

Try as they might, some motorists can't outsmart officials when it comes to custom license numbers. On the other hand, sometimes seemingly illicit alphanumerics are actually demonstrably proper.

More fun than Deliverance!

Posted Fri, Jul 18, 5 a.m.

Spend your summer vacation in Eastern Washington, an exotic locale where lakes are slippery, the Scablands surprising, and wheat farmers are smashing stuff for fun.

When animals attack, and also when they don't

Posted Mon, Jun 30, 5 p.m.

It's the time of year when animal-human encounters are on the rise. Bears are picnicking on hikers, moose are invading trailer parks, and muskrats are blamed for destroying entire towns. You could be next.

The animal-waste problem is, and is not, a load of crap

Posted Tue, Jun 10, 10 a.m.

By Bob Simmons

Researchers in Snohomish County estimate that pets there account for waste equivalent to a city of 32,000. That's a lot of nasty bacteria in surface-water runoff.

The case of the doomed diner

Posted Wed, May 21, 11 p.m.

Seattle's Landmarks Board greenlights the demolition of Ballard's Googie landmark. The decision leaves a lot of wreckage in its wake.

Annals of Northwest secession

Posted Tue, May 6, midnight

A primer of regional separatist movements, real and imagined.

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Other media

Fireworks: A bad idea whose time has passed The grinch makes a case against a July 4 tradition. "The professional fireworks display is an exercise in pomposity, aggression, triumphalism, and hubris." Also, they're hegemonic.

SLATE

Naked came the french fry thief Near Vancouver, BC a streaker makes off with a woman's spuds.

VANCOUVER SUN

Baseball's shocking death toll There are a lot of ways that hard ball can be lethal and naturally there are statistics-wonks to track the fatalities.

SLATE

Danny Westneat: Learning to love Aurora, Seattle's hellish highway The columnist used to live near Aurora, where he (unlike Mayor Bozeman) found some charms.

SEATTLE TIMES

Tacoma's nose out of joint at thought of Spokane having more fraud With Spokane named a scam city by Forbes, Tacoma fights back with its own long roll of dishonor.

NEWS TRIBUNE (TACOMA)

Blog posts

With street food goes responsibility

Posted Thu, Jun 18, 6 a.m.

Just what is Seattle's favorite, indigenous hot dog of choice?

A gross anecdote to chew over

Posted Mon, Jun 15, 4 p.m.

Seattle scores high on another list of top places to visit.

There's no Bigfoot?

Posted Sun, Jun 7, 8:03 p.m.

It's one thing to doubt the existence of God, but this?

Mossback of the Week!

Posted Wed, Apr 29, 5 p.m.

A story about old growth on a young man. Portland claims to be the beardiest city in the Northwest, so how come the World Beard Champion is from Olympia?

River of coffee?

Posted Thu, Apr 2, 2 p.m.

A Washington place name proposal that could make a mark in latte land.

Happy Nazi New Year

Posted Thu, Jan 1, 4:50 p.m.

2009 starts with a bang in terms of Nazi stories, which were a strong theme in 2008 too. In addition, we gained insights into the similar reading habits of Bush and Hitler.

Filling the polling void

Posted Wed, Dec 3, 3 p.m. 2008

by Mike Henderson

The story of the Federal Way kid who returned $10,000 he found in a bathroom makes its way into the national mania for polls. Are you ethical? (Yes or no.)

Can we please dispense with the clichés when the campaign is over?

Posted Fri, Oct 31, 11:13 a.m. 2008

by Clark Fredricksen

Joe the plumber, game-changer, maverick, in the tank — the list is seemingly endless. Whatever happened to a good old Swiftboat?

Snohomish bank robber figures out new use for Craigslist

Posted Thu, Oct 2, 11:06 a.m. 2008

by Jonathan Hiskes

Someone's got to be hashing out the film rights to this right now. In a heist reminiscent of The Thomas Crown Affair and the Joker's crew of lookalikes in the Dark Knight's opening bank robbery, a thief in southern Snohomish County apparently recruited unwitting decoys on Craigslist to aid his escape.

Police told the Everett Herald that a man who robbed an armored-car guard in Monroe Tuesday posted a job ad on Craigslist to flood the scene of his escape with hopeful workers. According to a witness, the man dressed in a blue shirt and dust mask. After pepper-spraying the guard, he fled toward a nearby creek, where he may have used an inner tube to escape in Woods Creek, toward the nearby Skykomish River.

Sarah Palin's socialist 'sandwich'

Posted Sat, Sep 27, 1 p.m. 2008