The Seattle Chamber of Commerce is probably not going to like us very much, but honesty compels. This is what it looks like in this town sometimes. This was taken in the University District of Seattle over the weekend. Photo by MS(R)MHi again and yep, from the ramparts of the Bastion on the Puget Sound, it’s been another interesting week. January’s been an exceptionally wet month, with most of the western part of Washington on flood and landslide alert. But it’s nothing compared to what Haiti and other parts of North America and the UK have gone through. We’re cognizant of that and reflecting on it some as we dry out.
Our hearts and prayers continue to go out to all those impacted by the Haiti Quake. We are very proud that two former American presidents for forming a non-partisan organization to fund the long haul restoration of that devastated island nation. We also applaud President Barack Obama and his staff for, what in our personal experience at the trenches end of this kind of thing, has been a prompt, measured and well orchestrated response to this natural disaster.
Given that my own True North was among the first to respond, that gratitude extends to Canada and some beyond the five flags this modest weekly ezine reaches.
The entire international community is united in this one and I’m encouraged. It seems that more and more of us agree with English cleric and essayist John Donne, who, in Meditations 17, contended that no man is an island.
Thank you, one and all and that having been said and some closer to home…
We are also flying the Northstar flag at half mast this week as Washington State mourns the loss of one of its own to the earthquake in Haiti. The body of 22-year-old Molly Hightower was found in the wreckage of the orphanage where she worked as a volunteer. Molly was a credit to her country, her region, her community and her family. If you’d like to be inspired by a good example, please go here.
And yes, the Michelle in the headline is Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama, daughter of blue collar stock in Chicago who took her bachelors in sociology from Princeton and her law degree from Harvard and was a corporate lawyer assigned to mentor a new attorney when she met her husband.
So we’d like to take this opportunity to wish America’s First Lady a happy birthday. She turned 46 this past Sunday, January 17. For more on this remarkable individual, please go here.
SURVIVING HARD TIMES
There’s a certain irony in this one. At press time, we’re still watching the results of the senatorial race in Massachusetts. Their Democratic candidate and our governor, Christine Gregoire, have something in common besides gender and political affiliation. Chris was Washington State’s attorney general before she became our state’s chief executive. She’s promised to create 40,000 jobs at a time when there are a third of a million of us on unemployment. To find out why I think she’s going to be able to pull this off, please go here.
MORE GOOD NEWS
We meant to run this one last week but Haiti took center stage. Seven women from the International Community celebrated the new decade by skiing to the South Pole. This one’s in the finest tradition of Shackleton and Amudsen both and coming from a gene pool of strong women, I just rocked with this one and I have a feeling some of you will too. This is REAL adventure. So yep, please go here.
CRITTER STUFF
Well, thank you very much to a very distant cousin in Australia for this one. Not being inclined to dance with wolves or swim with anything bigger than I am, I remain terminally baffled by this one. I am, however reminded (constantly, sigh) that this would be a pretty boring little magazine if we had to rely on me for content. So yep, this one is about the thrill of going to Fiji and getting in the water with sharks. Have fun being a Devonian lunch and tell ‘em Charlie sent ya. Sharks. Brrrrrrrrrr.
Back on dry land and closer to home that Fiji, a species which was once nearly hunted into extinction in the Cascade Mountains of the American Pacific Northwest, and with which I’ve had some personal experience, is not only surviving but expanding its range. Yep, the howl of the wolf is being heard once again in the Deep Reaches.
If you’ve ever gone back three days into these or any other peaks and heard the primordial symphony these majestic creatures create, you’ll understand why some of us welcome them back as neighbors. For more on this one, please go here.
FROM YOU GUYS FOR YOU GUYS
FROM WINTER THE DOLPHIN AND OUR FRIENDS AT THE CLEARWATER MARINE AQUARIUM
We are all aware of the tragedy that is currently occurring in Haiti. CMA is doing our part by helping the Hilton Clearwater Beach collect donations for the relief effort. Hilton Clearwater Beach has received a donation of a 40’ container from A-Saf-T-Box and it is up to us to help fill it. Hilton will be accepting donations and Clean the World will pick up the container as it gets full to have it shipped.
Our hearts and prayers continue to go out to all those impacted by the Haiti Quake. We are very proud that two former American presidents for forming a non-partisan organization to fund the long haul restoration of that devastated island nation. We also applaud President Barack Obama and his staff for, what in our personal experience at the trenches end of this kind of thing, has been a prompt, measured and well orchestrated response to this natural disaster.
Given that my own True North was among the first to respond, that gratitude extends to Canada and some beyond the five flags this modest weekly ezine reaches.
The entire international community is united in this one and I’m encouraged. It seems that more and more of us agree with English cleric and essayist John Donne, who, in Meditations 17, contended that no man is an island.
Thank you, one and all and that having been said and some closer to home…
We are also flying the Northstar flag at half mast this week as Washington State mourns the loss of one of its own to the earthquake in Haiti. The body of 22-year-old Molly Hightower was found in the wreckage of the orphanage where she worked as a volunteer. Molly was a credit to her country, her region, her community and her family. If you’d like to be inspired by a good example, please go here.
And yes, the Michelle in the headline is Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama, daughter of blue collar stock in Chicago who took her bachelors in sociology from Princeton and her law degree from Harvard and was a corporate lawyer assigned to mentor a new attorney when she met her husband.
So we’d like to take this opportunity to wish America’s First Lady a happy birthday. She turned 46 this past Sunday, January 17. For more on this remarkable individual, please go here.
SURVIVING HARD TIMES
There’s a certain irony in this one. At press time, we’re still watching the results of the senatorial race in Massachusetts. Their Democratic candidate and our governor, Christine Gregoire, have something in common besides gender and political affiliation. Chris was Washington State’s attorney general before she became our state’s chief executive. She’s promised to create 40,000 jobs at a time when there are a third of a million of us on unemployment. To find out why I think she’s going to be able to pull this off, please go here.
MORE GOOD NEWS
We meant to run this one last week but Haiti took center stage. Seven women from the International Community celebrated the new decade by skiing to the South Pole. This one’s in the finest tradition of Shackleton and Amudsen both and coming from a gene pool of strong women, I just rocked with this one and I have a feeling some of you will too. This is REAL adventure. So yep, please go here.
CRITTER STUFF
Well, thank you very much to a very distant cousin in Australia for this one. Not being inclined to dance with wolves or swim with anything bigger than I am, I remain terminally baffled by this one. I am, however reminded (constantly, sigh) that this would be a pretty boring little magazine if we had to rely on me for content. So yep, this one is about the thrill of going to Fiji and getting in the water with sharks. Have fun being a Devonian lunch and tell ‘em Charlie sent ya. Sharks. Brrrrrrrrrr.
Back on dry land and closer to home that Fiji, a species which was once nearly hunted into extinction in the Cascade Mountains of the American Pacific Northwest, and with which I’ve had some personal experience, is not only surviving but expanding its range. Yep, the howl of the wolf is being heard once again in the Deep Reaches.
If you’ve ever gone back three days into these or any other peaks and heard the primordial symphony these majestic creatures create, you’ll understand why some of us welcome them back as neighbors. For more on this one, please go here.
FROM YOU GUYS FOR YOU GUYS
FROM WINTER THE DOLPHIN AND OUR FRIENDS AT THE CLEARWATER MARINE AQUARIUM
We are all aware of the tragedy that is currently occurring in Haiti. CMA is doing our part by helping the Hilton Clearwater Beach collect donations for the relief effort. Hilton Clearwater Beach has received a donation of a 40’ container from A-Saf-T-Box and it is up to us to help fill it. Hilton will be accepting donations and Clean the World will pick up the container as it gets full to have it shipped.
The Haitian community is in need of canned food, clothing, packaged bottled cases of water, sheets, towels, blankets, hygiene products (shaving cream, razors, soap, lotions, deodorant, tooth brushes & tooth paste), and any pre-packaged, pre-made foods and products that don’t require cooking. This is one of several large hygiene product collections that Clean the World is currently mobilizing and organizing in addition to their normal processing and collection. Additionally, Royal Caribbean has graciously offered space on cruise ships this weekend and next weekend to deliver hygiene products into the northern region of Haiti, where Clean the World has direct distribution on the ground.
Cap Haitien Health Network and Evangelical Church of Haiti (ECH) will assist in providing transportation from the northern region into the impact zone as soon as the items arrive. As a CMA supporter, we know you want to make a difference and this is a wonderful opportunity to directly assist in the relief efforts. To make a donation, simply bring your items directly to the bell station at Hilton Clearwater Beach between 9am and 5pm each day this week. If you have any questions please feel free to reach out to Mike Morris at mike.morris@hilton.com or 727-461-3222 ext. 195.
For more information about Clean the World, visit http://www.cleantheworld.org. For information about Hilton Clearwater Beach visit http://www.clearwaterbeachresort.com.
Thank you for your support~
Click here to learn more about Clearwater Marine Aquarium or become a member of the CMA family
FROM BELOW THE MASON DIXON IN RESPONSE TO OUR ITEM ABOUT ARLINGTON, WASHINGTON GOATS EATING RECYCLED CHRISTMAS TREES
Here in the South, Christmas trees are frequently tied together along with a concrete block and put in lakes and ponds to build structure where bass and crappies can be found soon after the immersion. Many of them don't go to waste or wind up in a landfill. I abhor the cutting of trees and believe that Christmas trees should only be purchased at a Christmas tree farm. As a youth and even as a young father I went on the Christmas tree cutting expedition but as I've aged my views, as is often the case, have changed. The older I get, the more amazed I am at how much I DON'T know
Well, this one’s not exactly in the category of YOU GUYS THINK I MAKE THIS STUFF UP. It’s more insidious. It’s like WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?! . There’s an eight-year-old New Jersey Cub Scout whose mother swears that young man cannot get on commercial transportation without a lot of extra hassle simply because he’s on the Transportation Security Administration’s Watch List.
And he’s only on that list because he shares the same name as someone (we can only assume, at this point) who “deserves” to be on it. Unflipping real that some acreage in Detroit almost became scorched earth because of someone who should have been on it was not caught and this evolving Boy Scout gets a bad time from the country he’s in training to serve. I guess this belongs under yet a third category. GIME ME A BREAK.
That’s it for this week. We’ve got some cool stuff down below you might want to check out. Stay the course, gang. We’re getting there and we’re going to make it. And thanks once again for the ear. And stuff.
Rusty
NORTHSTAR RECOMMENDS (and also looks for same from you guys)
FUN STUFF
Interactive
Take this test to see how your memory compares with the average. Click here for fun games to improve your memory.
Virtual Experiences
How about a trip to Seattle’s Woodland Park Zoo to watch a couple of grizzly bears in their Northwest setting? Yep, click here and thanks to our friends at Puget Sound NBC affiliate KING 5.
If you’re into a real interesting and visual escape, we certainly recommend The Art In LA website. It’s a virtual art gallery created by a real gentle, occasionally obnoxious but totally good-hearted soul with standards as fine as those of any engineer I’ve ever met. It’s also a good place for healthy meditation. If you’re lucky, you might just run into the artist herself. Her name is Colleen and she’s a trip, trust me. Yep, she was born under the fourth flag on our masthead.
REVIEWS
Music CDs
Over the holidays, I had a chance to experience Susan Boyle’s “I Dream A Dream” CD. And if ever there was a good time for this one, it is surely now, when it seems as though the whole world could use some hope, some inspiration and an example of how a complicated soul simply expressed can make a difference. I was a professional dance and show combo leader with time in grade at 18 and I know what it takes to move an audience.
It’s a lot more than just being able to sing well. To sing for working class people, who don’t really believe anybody who hasn’t been where they have, it takes being able to get inside the song and become that song.
Check out the selections on her CD. They include: Wild Horses; I Dreamed A Dream; Cry Me A River; How Great Thou Art; You’ll See; Daydream Believer; Up To The Mountain; Amazing Grace; Who I Was Born To Be; Proud; The End of the World; and Silent Night.
Susan does that with each and every one of them. Getting into the song and becoming the song. Like most folks, I suspect, I wanted to hear I Dream A Dream first. That was the same stellar experience the first time I watched her totally wow a panel of British judges and then do it all over again in the Colonies as it were.
As I listened, though, to the other songs, I totally forgot about Susan, the one who did that one. Like she did, I became the soul of those for whom these songs are written and for whom she sings them. It wasn’t hard because I am one of those.
And as haunted as hard times make all of us, including me, she took me to a place where people experience it about as deep as it cuts and yet survive to grow and find a better life. She made me feel a little less lonely and a lot more connected.
I was brought up to believe that whatever a person did in this life, they should never forget who they are as a person. Ms. Boyle has done that both by personal example and in her art. I expect me and mine will be in her debt for some while.
Thank you, Susan, Lass. We are honoured by your society.
To purchase this online, we invite you to go here.
Good Reads
For those into words that resonate, there are fewer finer contemporary craftsman I know than a man named Mike Browne, professionally known as Tomatoman Mike and the publisher of The Tomato Man Times. He’s as Northern Californian as John Steinbeck, albeit with a dash of Sam Clemmons, Bret Harte and Robert W. Service in him. He’s a romp to read, trust me.
FOR YOUR ONLINE SHOPPING CONVENIENCE
We invite you to do all your amazon.com through by tapping the photo of Susan or the ad. The Northstar Journal receives a 15% commission on whatever you purchase through this link.
SURVIVING HARD TIMES
I made chowder, you made pickles. Let’s trade
I so love it when my “home and native land” proves yet again that they have something to teach the International Community about surviving hard times. You’ll love this one, gang. With thanks to the Toronto Globe & Mail.
And lest we think this is limited to country folk, consider this one, headlined, Bootstrapping taken to new extremes in tech industry
Or how about a seasonable application regarding Christmas trees? (This will be a real stretch for those of you in Toronto, New York, Dublin, London and Paris) Ever imagine having one delivered to your home by bicycle? Real close to the category of You Guys Think I Make This Stuff Up so by all means, go here ye yahoos of little faith
HEALTH
Ten foods that really do help prevent cancer.
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
WorldStart.com - The best source of computer information, tips, education, entertainment, industry news, graphics and useful websites.
PC World – This is the best source we’ve found yet for totally free, useful, reliable and secure (no viruses) downloads ranging from games through utilities and with a nice selection of screen savers, etc. What I particularly appreciate about it is how easy the site is to navigate. They also have a daily letter featuring two “daily downloads.”
CCleaner - Free software downloads and software reviews - CNET Download.com
The home of Spybot-S&D! “For the past few years I've been using two free programs to remove the tracking cookies we accumulate every time we visit a site. Both have proven safe and reliable. Try them. You'll be surprised at the amount of binary barnacles your pore little hard accumulates as it sails the cyber seas. Sorry, but neither program eliminates alliterative purple patch prose. Like mine.”
Mike Browne, Sacramento, CA
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
Overview
For those interested in what’s going on in the world of magazines and newspapers in general, we highly recommend Woodenhorsepub.com. They publish a weekly online newsletter for media professionals and for readers simply interested in the future of the publications they enjoy and an advance on new ones they might. Their website is located here.
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.
BBC Knowledge Magazine – designed to give the American magazine National Geographic the proverbial run for its money,
News
BBC – Best source of international news.
The New York Times – Best source of American news.
The Vancouver Sun -- outstanding source for Canadian national, provincial, and world news.
Reuters – Best source of an international perspective on American headlines.
Sightline Daily (formerly Tidepool) – Best source of Pacific Northwest regional news. Delivered daily by email, it covers Alaska, British Columbia, California, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington. They also put out an excellent weekly environmental edition.
KING 5 News – Best source of video news of Seattle and the Greater Puget Sound.
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
No comments:
Post a Comment