Perils of Caffeine in the Evening

Portapotty on Steroids

Seattle paper reported today ( http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/120831_cruise06.html ) that a cruise ship accidentally-on-purpose dumped 40 tons of raw sewage into inland waters on its way to berth in Seattle.  I cringed a couple years ago when the Port of Seattle started stumping for more Alaska cruise ship docking.  Chamber of Commerce types always tout tourism as a ‘clean’ industry, but cruise ships are about the filthiest industry you could court.  They’re allowed to dump outside the three-mile limit, but it irks me that they’re allowed to dump water at all - gray, black or otherwise.  And water’s not all they ‘accidentally’ dump - there’s garbage, restaurant waste and oil-laden bilge.  Here’s a more polished synopsis:

 http://www.bluewaternetwork.org/campaign_ss_cruises.shtml 

I’ve always been an ardent environmentalist, but since taking up sea kayaking a couple years ago, I am more acutely aware of water on Puget Sound and elsewhere, and its quality.  I can paddle a good ways beyond 3 miles, and I really don’t care to dip my paddle into whatever’s coming out of these ships.

It’s a combination of sweet soul and some edgier stuff, including a knockout cover of Led Zeppelin’s ‘No Quarter’.  (This is the only cover they do, though - everything else is original)  The lead vocalist, Reggie Watts, can sound like Otis Redding, Soundgarden and Barry White in different parts of their set.  We’ve been following them for the last 3 years or so, and delighting in various spinoff projects that members of the band show up for.  Looks like they’re making a play for the next level with this tour.

What I’m Listening To

KEXP, a Seattle station, via the miracle of Holiday Inn Express’ free WiFi connection.  KEXP started as a college station at the University of Washington.  They played a delightful collection of indie, world music and just plain weird stuff.  It was always the poor stepchild to the NPR station, KUOW, and was getting strangled in the bathtub (one of the more colorful Republicanisms) until Paul Allen offered it space and funding through his Experience Music Project (that piece of melted crayon you see next to the Space Needle when you fly into Seattle on a bad-weather approach from the north).

We were all afraid he might make it an all-Hendrix, all-the-time tribute to his idol, but as far as we can tell, there has been no influence over the programming.  This is a good thing, since his other ventures into the entertainment field, the Seattle Seahawks and the Portland Trailblazers, have not flourished under his touch.  The station plays a healthy portion of local bands, and sponsors some of the most interesting live events in the city.  John Richards, the morning DJ, has become something of a local personality.  His show starts in few short minutes at 6am PDT.

Check them out at http://www.kexp.org/   It’s commercial-free!

What I’m Listening To

KEXP, a Seattle station, via the miracle of Holiday Inn Express’ free WiFi connection.  KEXP started as a college station at the University of Washington.  They played a delightful collection of indie, world music and just plain weird stuff.  It was always the poor stepchild to the NPR station, KUOW, and was getting strangled in the bathtub (one of the more colorful Republicanisms) until Paul Allen offered it space and funding through his Experience Music Project (that piece of melted crayon you see next to the Space Needle when you fly into Seattle on a bad-weather approach from the north).

We were all afraid he might make it an all-Hendrix, all-the-time tribute to his idol, but as far as we can tell, there has been no influence over the programming.  This is a good thing, since his other ventures into the entertainment field, the Seattle Seahawks and the Portland Trailblazers, have not flourished under his touch.  The station plays a healthy portion of local bands, and sponsors some of the most interesting live events in the city.  John Richards, the morning DJ, has become something of a local personality.  His show starts in few short minutes at 6am PDT.

Check them out at http://www.kexp.org/   It’s commercial-free!

Road Games

So, as soon as I settle on a new theme, I leave town again.  This is the Milwaukee edition of my Seattle blog.  As noted below, I usually stay in a Residence Inn here.  However, the client has been on-again, off-again about doing an Atlanta side trip, so I did not reserve Monday & Tuesday at the RI, and, sure enough, the ATL jaunt is off, and RI had no availability.  Man, what happened to the war, SARS and the fear of travelling?

Meanwhile, I kept hearing that Holiday Inn Express had free WiFi for their guests, so I decided to check it out.  Wow, it’s painless, and really fast, at least from where I’m sitting, propped up in bed blasting away.  I didn’t really miss cooking, at least tonight.  Had a sub from Quizno’s (sorry, Leah.  It had that manufactured chicken stuff they use in tenders, an alfredo sauce of some kind festooned with bacon.  Prototypical road food.).

Will Amazon deliver there?

Meanwhile, back in Seattle, another barrier to the wired life is under siege.  The simplicity of the binary world of number 1, number 2 is about to become a lot more complex.  Microsoft is proposing to roll out the MSN iLoo, a porta-potty with a web interface:

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/120677_iloo06.html

It reads like an Onion article or, except for the absence of animal life, something from Pesky the Rat.  I’m taking it seriously, however, as I’m aware of no tradition of Cinco de Mayo Fool tricks.  So now you can log on while dropping logs.  I really like the bit about printing urls on the toilet paper.  Gives a new meaning to banner advertising.  Some of the urls may lead to popups, as well. 

Actually, there’s a fraudulent aspect to my apparent surprise here.  Since going WiFi with my home network, I have more than once taken my laptop into the can to continue reading something.  Maybe it was the newspaper, or maybe it was your very own blog, dear reader!  I don’t really feel so weird about that, but then no one has espied me either going in or coming out, either.  It’s between us, OK?  I am truly ashamed to admit, however, that I have answered my cell phone in public restrooms at least twice.  Once was between planes in an airport, and I must have felt a deep sense of urgency about the call.

Blue Mischief

Another fascinating (in the way that a car crash is fascinating) news thread is the awful murder-suicide by the Tacoma police chief committed on his wife.  It seems every day brings another revelation of nasty behavior by the chief, and coverup by those around him.  I’ll let professionals do the reporting this time (there’s something about writing from bed that makes one ever so devil-may-care):

http://snurl.com/1an1

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/jamieson/120502_robert05.html

We’ve all, perhaps, been around couples when something, some incident or comment, rings some warning bell.  If you’re like me, you blink, then let it pass because a) your meddling might be unwelcome to either party, and b) once you interfere, the victim has to be extricated in the fastest manner possible.  You wonder, too, if there isn’t some reciprocity involved between the couple.  And the impetus to control and subservience is the central staple of more than one major religion.

I have no expertise in these matters, so I’m certainly not going to pontificate.  But I know I will be less reticent the next time one of those little bells goes off, and at least observe sharply and listen closely.

Road Games

So, as soon as I settle on a new theme, I leave town again.  This is the Milwaukee edition of my Seattle blog.  As noted below, I usually stay in a Residence Inn here.  However, the client has been on-again, off-again about doing an Atlanta side trip, so I did not reserve Monday & Tuesday at the RI, and, sure enough, the ATL jaunt is off, and RI had no availability.  Man, what happened to the war, SARS and the fear of travelling?

Meanwhile, I kept hearing that Holiday Inn Express had free WiFi for their guests, so I decided to check it out.  Wow, it’s painless, and really fast, at least from where I’m sitting, propped up in bed blasting away.  I didn’t really miss cooking, at least tonight.  Had a sub from Quizno’s (sorry, Leah.  It had that manufactured chicken stuff they use in tenders, an alfredo sauce of some kind festooned with bacon.  Prototypical road food.).

Will Amazon deliver there?

Meanwhile, back in Seattle, another barrier to the wired life is under siege.  The simplicity of the binary world of number 1, number 2 is about to become a lot more complex.  Microsoft is proposing to roll out the MSN iLoo, a porta-potty with a web interface:

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/120677_iloo06.html

It reads like an Onion article or, except for the absence of animal life, something from Pesky the Rat.  I’m taking it seriously, however, as I’m aware of no tradition of Cinco de Mayo Fool tricks.  So now you can log on while dropping logs.  I really like the bit about printing urls on the toilet paper.  Gives a new meaning to banner advertising.  Some of the urls may lead to popups, as well. 

Actually, there’s a fraudulent aspect to my apparent surprise here.  Since going WiFi with my home network, I have more than once taken my laptop into the can to continue reading something.  Maybe it was the newspaper, or maybe it was your very own blog, dear reader!  I don’t really feel so weird about that, but then no one has espied me either going in or coming out, either.  It’s between us, OK?  I am truly ashamed to admit, however, that I have answered my cell phone in public restrooms at least twice.  Once was between planes in an airport, and I must have felt a deep sense of urgency about the call.

Blue Mischief

Another fascinating (in the way that a car crash is fascinating) news thread is the awful murder-suicide by the Tacoma police chief committed on his wife.  It seems every day brings another revelation of nasty behavior by the chief, and coverup by those around him.  I’ll let professionals do the reporting this time (there’s something about writing from bed that makes one ever so devil-may-care):

http://snurl.com/1an1

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/jamieson/120502_robert05.html

We’ve all, perhaps, been around couples when something, some incident or comment, rings some warning bell.  If you’re like me, you blink, then let it pass because a) your meddling might be unwelcome to either party, and b) once you interfere, the victim has to be extricated in the fastest manner possible.  You wonder, too, if there isn’t some reciprocity involved between the couple.  And the impetus to control and subservience is the central staple of more than one major religion.

I have no expertise in these matters, so I’m certainly not going to pontificate.  But I know I will be less reticent the next time one of those little bells goes off, and at least observe sharply and listen closely.

Seattle Musings

As I struggle to find a voice for this blog, perhaps at least some of it should focus on this city that I have become passionate about.

What of the Emerald City, touted, to our bemusement and dismay as ‘most liveable’ by several of those breathless publications in the late 80s and 90s?

We moved here from Ohio in 1974, when that building to the right (Smith Tower) was the 2nd or 3rd tallest building in town.   That should provide a pretty solid frame of reference for the jumble of current events as the city grapples with the psychological implications of the move of Boeing’s headquarters to Chicago, the dot-com implosion and the departure of Lou Piniella to Tampa Bay.

There are a couple of riveting news threads working in the area right now.

The Coach and the Coucher

(all I know about French I got from the Pointer Sisters, so go easy on me.  It may not be precise, but it sounds dirty)

Former Washington State football coach Mike Price accepted a dream job last fall as head coach at Alabama, for 7 years at $10 million.  Folks around here grudgingly wished him well, but wondered how this affable and apparently guileless Northwesterner would fare in the steamy intrigue of the Southeast Conference, and Alabama in particular.  Still, if Selma Hayek (allusion intended) calls and says, “C’mon, honey, I need a real man to escort me through the labiarinthine travails of the world”, some (but not me, dear, if you ever find this and read it) might look in the mirror, suck in the gut, suspend their disbelief, peck the hometown honey on her sleeping forehead so as not to wake her, and head the old AMC Pacer down the driveway toward whatever destiny awaits.

Well, destiny awaited Mike Price in the form of a topless dancer named Destiny Stahl.  While at a celebrity golf tournament in Pensacola, he seems to have spent a night of accelerating inebriation, spending $200 on lap dances from the aforementioned Ms. Stahl.  The momentum of this night of debauchery did not subside until Price received a phone call on the golf course from his hotel saying that the young woman ensconced in his room had ordered “one of everything” from the room service menu and wanted it to go.  Price, married 35 years, scurried to the hotel to pay the bill, and probably hoped that the whole mess would sink noiselessly into the murk of the redneck riviera.

That may have been the case for those of us who have not been charged with carrying the hopes and dreams of an entire state out of a dark night of NCAA sanctions and into the deserved aurora of vindication, but Price, unfortunately, had signed on to do just that.  It’s not clear what set of circumstances served to out these incidents, but it started hitting the fan in big gobs early the next week.

There was early speculation that the University would let Price keep his job, based somewhat on his previously unblemished record and, more to the point, that this is just a godawful time to change coaches.  It’s high recruiting season, and anyone with any sort of resume is already employed.

On Saturday, however, the university regents decided to fire Price.  There is just a gaggle of tragic elements here: 1) Price could have coached at WSU for at least another decade and, coming off two 10-win seasons and a Rose Bowl appearance, could have done it for a lot of money; 2) Two of Price’s sons were on the Alabama staff as assistant coaches, and are almost surely out the door with him; 3) Price had not yet signed his contract with Alabama, haggling over terms of a buyout clause, so he may not receive a penny more on his lucrative expectations.

This is something that could happen to many of us in the right circumstances.  I’m just finishing a drink that, followed by another, could head me down that path.  (but do not affright, dear reader, I have just filled my glass with the purest water imaginable)  I’m not going to cast aspersions at him, I’m just kind of fascinated by the circumstances and consequences, the high drama of it all.  I guess I’m persuaded, however, by the comments of a public school teacher here who said that he surely would be fired for any one of Price’s offenses, and he doesn’t have nearly the bank account.

The charmingly self-deprecating Washington State Cougar nation has a term for their perceived propensity to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory: “Coug-ing it”.  This incident must represent the highest form of the practice.

Seattle Musings

As I struggle to find a voice for this blog, perhaps at least some of it should focus on this city that I have become passionate about.

What of the Emerald City, touted, to our bemusement and dismay as ‘most liveable’ by several of those breathless publications in the late 80s and 90s?

We moved here from Ohio in 1974, when that building to the right (Smith Tower) was the 2nd or 3rd tallest building in town.   That should provide a pretty solid frame of reference for the jumble of current events as the city grapples with the psychological implications of the move of Boeing’s headquarters to Chicago, the dot-com implosion and the departure of Lou Piniella to Tampa Bay.

There are a couple of riveting news threads working in the area right now.

The Coach and the Coucher

(all I know about French I got from the Pointer Sisters, so go easy on me.  It may not be precise, but it sounds dirty)

Former Washington State football coach Mike Price accepted a dream job last fall as head coach at Alabama, for 7 years at $10 million.  Folks around here grudgingly wished him well, but wondered how this affable and apparently guileless Northwesterner would fare in the steamy intrigue of the Southeast Conference, and Alabama in particular.  Still, if Selma Hayek (allusion intended) calls and says, “C’mon, honey, I need a real man to escort me through the labiarinthine travails of the world”, some (but not me, dear, if you ever find this and read it) might look in the mirror, suck in the gut, suspend their disbelief, peck the hometown honey on her sleeping forehead so as not to wake her, and head the old AMC Pacer down the driveway toward whatever destiny awaits.

Well, destiny awaited Mike Price in the form of a topless dancer named Destiny Stahl.  While at a celebrity golf tournament in Pensacola, he seems to have spent a night of accelerating inebriation, spending $200 on lap dances from the aforementioned Ms. Stahl.  The momentum of this night of debauchery did not subside until Price received a phone call on the golf course from his hotel saying that the young woman ensconced in his room had ordered “one of everything” from the room service menu and wanted it to go.  Price, married 35 years, scurried to the hotel to pay the bill, and probably hoped that the whole mess would sink noiselessly into the murk of the redneck riviera.

That may have been the case for those of us who have not been charged with carrying the hopes and dreams of an entire state out of a dark night of NCAA sanctions and into the deserved aurora of vindication, but Price, unfortunately, had signed on to do just that.  It’s not clear what set of circumstances served to out these incidents, but it started hitting the fan in big gobs early the next week.

There was early speculation that the University would let Price keep his job, based somewhat on his previously unblemished record and, more to the point, that this is just a godawful time to change coaches.  It’s high recruiting season, and anyone with any sort of resume is already employed.

On Saturday, however, the university regents decided to fire Price.  There is just a gaggle of tragic elements here: 1) Price could have coached at WSU for at least another decade and, coming off two 10-win seasons and a Rose Bowl appearance, could have done it for a lot of money; 2) Two of Price’s sons were on the Alabama staff as assistant coaches, and are almost surely out the door with him; 3) Price had not yet signed his contract with Alabama, haggling over terms of a buyout clause, so he may not receive a penny more on his lucrative expectations.

This is something that could happen to many of us in the right circumstances.  I’m just finishing a drink that, followed by another, could head me down that path.  (but do not affright, dear reader, I have just filled my glass with the purest water imaginable)  I’m not going to cast aspersions at him, I’m just kind of fascinated by the circumstances and consequences, the high drama of it all.  I guess I’m persuaded, however, by the comments of a public school teacher here who said that he surely would be fired for any one of Price’s offenses, and he doesn’t have nearly the bank account.

The charmingly self-deprecating Washington State Cougar nation has a term for their perceived propensity to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory: “Coug-ing it”.  This incident must represent the highest form of the practice.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/horsey/viewbydate.asp?id=835

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/horsey/viewbydate.asp?id=835

The Flight Line

I can’t stay silent any longer!  When was the last time George W. Bush had a flight suit on?  Hmm, could it have been just before he deserted the Texas National Guard?  He’s turned “teflon” form a kitchen wonder to a dirty word.