Welcome to the World, J-46

Hi again and yep, from the ramparts of the Bastion on the Puget Sound, it’s been another interesting week. In a lot of ways, a lot more interesting than some in recent memory. Yep, a bit bigger lineup this week than usual so we might as well strap in and get on with it, eh?

Storms That Have Battered the Pacific Northwest
Contrary to seditious rumors floating about, Seattle has not been blown back to the Idaho state line. It’s only felt like it As of this writing, we’re between storms. No real high winds or heavy rains expected. Just thunderstorms.

I guess the rain gods have punished us enough for now. What I thought was so totally appropriate is that new PEMCO commercial that depicts a Seattle couple donning wool socks and sandals. That is so totally us. I’d show you mine but the screen’s not quite big enough for Birkenstocks built by the local boatyard. I’m 6’3” so the math isn’t rocket science.

To Gordon Lightfoot, a Brief Requiem
As also a Canadian, there’s been some somber reflection at the crossing over of Gordon Lightfoot, who died this week at the age of 71. To me, from his quiet statement of love to a woman whom he wished could read his silences as well as she could his words, (If You Could Read My Mind) to the unforgettably muted thunder and outrage over the Sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald, he spoke to the soul of a nation, strong, vibrant, and reckonable but without pretense and without bluster.

New Breast Examination Report
This new report about when women should start having regular mammograms ten years or so later now? Survival in general has always depended on at least a good diet, regular exercise, minimizing at risk behaviors, and learning how to manage stress.

It’s like the word “cool.” We all know what it means and having lost two of my own to this one, I’m not about to insult a five-country readership by preaching to the choir. For a short link to this one. please go here.

In Appreciation of Sarah Palin
I watched Sarah Palin on The Oprah Winfey Show and since I don’t take politics so seriously that I can’t appreciate the individual behind the office, as it were, I had a good time with it.

I like Sarah. Granted, I think she gets away with a lot sometimes but then don’t we all. Or wish we could. (Sigh). She’s got everyone from unreconstructed male chauvinists to radical feminists interested in what she has to say.

I like the options she generates. But there’s one thing that still bothers me. When an American national news reporter, Katie Couric, asked her what magazines and newspapers she read, Sarah didn’t give a straight answer and she didn’t when asked that same question on The Oprah Winfrey Show. I kept going like, “Sarah, just name three? They’re just filling in the blanks.”

Then I got to thinking about how busy she must be, as mother, grandmother and wife up there in the frozen north with a husband gone a great deal of the time. So I figure she doesn’t have a lot of time to sit around reading newspapers and magazines. And talk radio’s not a real big option either. There just isn’t much, left, right or center on.

But that’s not what’s important up there. Up there, it’s about the land and close survival. In as hard and as unforgiving a place as ever an angry God created, post Eden. Hell, I got offered an invitation, knowing my love of aviation and horses, to come up and learn how to ride their mosquitoes. I
She may not be what all of America needs, but before I’ll consign her to one more dog and pony show and take deep issue with those millions who supported her and the ticket, I’ll certainly give her a much fairer hearing than I feel she’s received so far. Regardless the jackass or the pachyderm, she is an American and this is a big country.

CRITTER STUFF

Welcome to the world, J-46. You’re a real cutie, Sweetheart. Yep, our orca neighbors had a blessed event. There are three clans, or pods as they’re more properly called, which visit the Salish Sea/Puget Sound. In 2005, they were an endangered species when their population dipped to 79. With this new addition, that number now stands at 87. For more on this one and a look at this little darlin’, please go here.

From the sea into the air for these next two. Thanks to recovery efforts by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and based on a 2007 U.S. Fish and Wildlife plan, that delightful feathered beachcomber, the snowy plover, is making the proverbial comeback. The Portland Oregonian’s Lynne Terry reports the agency counted 201 to 208 birds on Oregon beaches between April and September. That is the highest number since monitoring began in 1990, when biologists estimated there were only 50 adult plovers. Nice going folks. Finest kind. And for more, on this one.


“Today we can say the brown pelican is back," said Interior Secretary Ken Salazar in a conference call with reporters in Washington. "Once again, we see healthy flocks of these graceful birds flying over our shores. The brown pelican is endangered no longer." The Associated Press’ Dina Cappello goes on to say that this is after four decades when the scales could have been tipped either way. Again, nice going folks and for more, please go here.

TO YOUR HEALTH

Well, here’s something hippies and half the known world has known since the first cave person took a long walk in the sun on a full stomach and that is that meditation is good for you. Apparently that’s now been documented in a clinical study conducted to see if TM could reduce the rate of cardiac incidents. Thanks to one of our British readers for this one and for more on it, click the blue print.

UNDER THE CATEGORY YOU GUYS THINK I MAKE THIS STUFF UP

The City of Seattle has found a unique way to defray the cost of maintaining its water egress and sewer systems and preventing flooding at the same time. They’ve initiated an “Adopt a Street Drain” campaign that residents are really getting into. The City supplies all the tools and other resources and folks in the neighborhood do the rest. Yep, this is one of those ideas that is working other places and I’m certain can in some communities who haven’t yet tried it. Yep, click here.

And this will come as real good news to chocolate lovers and thank you, Francesca, love of my life, for this one. There’s a Spanish firm that’s come up with a low calorie version but one that has chemicals in it that trick the brain into thinking your stomach’s full. That sounds a little weird to me but we read it in the Daily Mail so it must be true. Check it out.


A quick correction regarding the author of the Francesca Diaries. I had a brain freeze and said she got her architectural degree from Oxford University when, in fact, she graduated from Warwick University. She lives in the shire of Oxford, not far from the town.

Well, that’s it for this week, folks. Take care, stay well and thanks once again for the ear.

Rusty


NORTHSTAR RECOMMENDS

TO YOUR HEALTH

If you’d like to know whether your eating habits are either adding years to your life or taking them off, take this RealAge quiz. It will not only score your real age against your health age but give you a program for improvement. I’ve been working this one for about a month now and yep, I feel a lot better.

Want to know how to live to be 100? Try this one.

Ever had trouble getting behind eating a lot of fruits and vegetables despite how good they are for you? Ever had trouble selling that one to your kids and grandkids? Ever been totally sold on the idea then gone to the market and been totally tasered by the price of good health in some places? If your answer is yes to any or all of the above, you really need to check this site out. Fruits and veggies: more matters.

ONLINE TOOLS FOR THE KIT

Free People Search – This is an American online White Pages that I found really simple, quick and user friendly. I looked for myself under the several versions of my name and it found them all. It’s also free and doesn’t involve anything to download.

Know Thy Elected Officials - Just type in your zip code and this site will supply you with the names and contact information for your legislators from the state level up. This is a two click site with a host of other relevant features.

MEDIA

Entertainment

U Got Style is a monthly ezine dedicated to independent films. Fully illustrated, it features hard news, interviews, reviews and a wide variety of other information. It’s also fun to read.

Vinyl Cafe with Stuart McLean – Live from the smallest record store in North America. Canadian humor, entertainment and commentary at its maple leaf best. Popular on National Public Radio in the States.

News

The New York Times – Best source of American news.

Reuters – Best in world news and an international perspective on American headlines.

Sightline Daily (formerly Tidepool) – The “Reuters of the American West.” Updated and informative news shorts with links to the source. Its editors draw from a coverage area which includes Alaska, British Columbia, California, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington. They also put out an excellent weekly environmental edition.

The Vancouver Sun -- outstanding source for Canadian and world news.


TALENT FOR HIRE
Rusty Miller, Freelance Photojournalist – Whether it’s a one time press release, book or product review, difficult business correspondence, resume or classified ad composition you need, take a look at the services offered menu on my writer-for-hire homepage and we’ll get together on it.

Are you a travel editor looking for color shots of Seattle? Are you an art dealer looking for new work to carry on consignment? You might enjoy checking out a gallery of my work for sale