Air Force One Landing At Boeing Field. Photo courtesy of http://www.boeing.com/
Hi again from the Bastion on the Puget Sound. Hi again from the Bastion on the Puget Sound. Well, President Obama paid Seattle a visit this past week. Sometimes I really think this emerald city on the shores of the Salish Sea is just a little too laid back though. Or maybe it’s just my Andy of Mayberry sensibility. I mean, I expected it to be all over the media with a parade planned and interviews and live coverage from landing to take off.
Ummm, not quite. His imminent visit ran as another local headline. Three people I talked to personally didn’t know he was coming or that he’d arrived. I asked them if ~ had they known ~ they’d have taken the time to join the small crowd downtown hoping to see him. One person asked me:
“Is he granting personal audiences?”
When I explained to him that popes tend to do that a little more often than presidents, he just went like “Oh, THAT Obama.” Then he thought and said, “Presidents probably don’t do BYOB parties when they come to town either?” I told him I didn’t know for sure but that I’d never been invited to one personally.
So I asked him once again if he’d have taken time off to try to spot Mr. Obama downtown, to which he responded, “The pope Obama or the president Obama?”
The other two people I asked were part of the same small crowd at The Northstar Journal yard sale we’re running this week and wisely declined comment.
I know one person who should have known and didn’t. He’s a pilot from Chelan County, in the eastern and remote part of the state. But they have the same media we do here, just not as much of it. (I am sometimes so jealous of them for that reason.) So it’s not like he didn’t get the word because the mail stage was a little late arriving.
And how this individual got a pilot’s license is beyond me. It is impossible to fly the friendly skies of the Greater Puget Sound in anything from an ultra-light to a four banger Beechcraft and not see Boeing Field. If there is such a thing as more impossible than that, it would be to miss a landed, tethered and chocked Air Force One.
That had to have been on the minds of the two fighter pilots whose “scrambling” produced the back to back pair of sonic booms heard Tuesday afternoon shortly before two p.m. There’s been some construction in the University District so until I checked my email and got a news alert from the Seattle Times (thanks, guys), I didn’t pay much attention to it. Then when I found out the President really wanted his visit (to campaign for one of our US senators) to be low key, I thought, well, that apparently didn’t work very well either. He’d have attracted less attention here with the Mother of All Parades than he did with two sonic booms.
One of the things I appreciate about Barack Obama is that he has an extremely well developed sense of irony. Another I truly value in him is that he’s not afraid to laugh at himself. He can apologize without being an apologist and I think that speaks well of his character.
I’m sure he’ll remember his visit to Seattle. Thanks to those two sonic booms, so will the rest of us. Thank you, Mr. President, for giving us a laugh when we all really needed one.
Ummm, not quite. His imminent visit ran as another local headline. Three people I talked to personally didn’t know he was coming or that he’d arrived. I asked them if ~ had they known ~ they’d have taken the time to join the small crowd downtown hoping to see him. One person asked me:
“Is he granting personal audiences?”
When I explained to him that popes tend to do that a little more often than presidents, he just went like “Oh, THAT Obama.” Then he thought and said, “Presidents probably don’t do BYOB parties when they come to town either?” I told him I didn’t know for sure but that I’d never been invited to one personally.
So I asked him once again if he’d have taken time off to try to spot Mr. Obama downtown, to which he responded, “The pope Obama or the president Obama?”
The other two people I asked were part of the same small crowd at The Northstar Journal yard sale we’re running this week and wisely declined comment.
I know one person who should have known and didn’t. He’s a pilot from Chelan County, in the eastern and remote part of the state. But they have the same media we do here, just not as much of it. (I am sometimes so jealous of them for that reason.) So it’s not like he didn’t get the word because the mail stage was a little late arriving.
And how this individual got a pilot’s license is beyond me. It is impossible to fly the friendly skies of the Greater Puget Sound in anything from an ultra-light to a four banger Beechcraft and not see Boeing Field. If there is such a thing as more impossible than that, it would be to miss a landed, tethered and chocked Air Force One.
That had to have been on the minds of the two fighter pilots whose “scrambling” produced the back to back pair of sonic booms heard Tuesday afternoon shortly before two p.m. There’s been some construction in the University District so until I checked my email and got a news alert from the Seattle Times (thanks, guys), I didn’t pay much attention to it. Then when I found out the President really wanted his visit (to campaign for one of our US senators) to be low key, I thought, well, that apparently didn’t work very well either. He’d have attracted less attention here with the Mother of All Parades than he did with two sonic booms.
One of the things I appreciate about Barack Obama is that he has an extremely well developed sense of irony. Another I truly value in him is that he’s not afraid to laugh at himself. He can apologize without being an apologist and I think that speaks well of his character.
I’m sure he’ll remember his visit to Seattle. Thanks to those two sonic booms, so will the rest of us. Thank you, Mr. President, for giving us a laugh when we all really needed one.
IN OTHER NEWS
For those of us especially in rural areas of America where public and/or motorized transportation is still an option, this is good news. As Associated Press reporter Sandy Shore reports in a story headlined Gas Prices Should Fall After Labor Day. It’ll be interesting to see if that makes a difference in the emissions level. I, for one, would like to think that high gasoline prices are just one reason we don’t drive as much.
This one did NOT come as real good news because agricultural pesticides have been discovered to be the prime cause of a condition which afflicts an estimated three to seven percent of American children. It’s called attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or ADHD. Yep, for more on this one.
For those of us especially in rural areas of America where public and/or motorized transportation is still an option, this is good news. As Associated Press reporter Sandy Shore reports in a story headlined Gas Prices Should Fall After Labor Day. It’ll be interesting to see if that makes a difference in the emissions level. I, for one, would like to think that high gasoline prices are just one reason we don’t drive as much.
This one did NOT come as real good news because agricultural pesticides have been discovered to be the prime cause of a condition which afflicts an estimated three to seven percent of American children. It’s called attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or ADHD. Yep, for more on this one.
Well, Beaverton, Oregon joined the ranks of towns and cities in the Northwest which are allowing the raising of chickens within the city limits. As per the Seattle ordinance of the same nature, this came with a caveat. Hens are allowed but not roosters. We strongly suspect that just outside the city limits, there must be growing industry of roosters raised more for studding than for skewering. In some ways, this does NOT look like Old MacDonald’s farm. For more, yep, go here.
SURVIVING HARD TIMES
I have never felt that it took a lot of money to buy happiness and while that might work on a philosophic level, it has also earned me the reputation for being a profound cheapskate and a splendid example of about how far this whole “it’s the thought that counts” shtick can be carried. Thanks to a University of Washington student who bought something really cool from us, at the Northstar Journal Surviving Hard Times Yard Sale, for about two-thirds of an already marked down price, I feel somehow redeemed. Check out this National Public Radio interview tagged Actually, Buying Happiness Isn't Very Expensive
ON THE CANCER FRONT
I try, sometimes very hard, to provide positive news about the War on Cancer or WAC, as I’ve chosen to call it. As most of you long time readers know, I lost a stepmother, a stepfather and a fiancée to one form of this disease or another. I ran across something though that needs to be shared because as most of us know, cancer is never just about the one battling it. Several of you are parents of children who contracted this disease. This article asks a “simple” question. If your child was diagnosed with terminal cancer, would you tell them? I’ll warn you now, this is NOT a fun read. Our thanks to Derek and Marjean, in Suffolk, England and to the Mail Online. Yep, go here.
RESOURCES AND RELATED LINKS:
Cancer Research Journal
National Cancer Institute (American)
Fighting Breast Cancer: Breast Cancer Survivor Stories
Science Daily: Health & Medicine News
American Cancer Statistics 2009
Canadian Cancer Statistics 2009
HEALTH NEWS
Well, in our ongoing campaign for a fit readership, we’ve found something else fun that makes a difference and that’s bicycling. It’s not the obvious cardio-vascular benefits alone either. It’s like even five minutes of it and fat cells get nervous and easier to burn or shed. Yep, for more on this one.
Well, in our ongoing campaign for a fit readership, we’ve found something else fun that makes a difference and that’s bicycling. It’s not the obvious cardio-vascular benefits alone either. It’s like even five minutes of it and fat cells get nervous and easier to burn or shed. Yep, for more on this one.
Post Alley, part of the Greater Farmers Market. Photo by Rusty MillerFor those of you planning to visit Seattle this month and plan to visit the Space Needle, there’s a free concert series going on there too. What some people who fly in for business or a convention do is have their hotel fix them a picnic lunch, then ask the concierge which bus goes to the Seattle Center/Space Needle and for a schedule, and then combine fine dining and a stellar view with some deli sandwiches, a grassy knoll and some outstanding sounds. Yep,check it out here.
If you’re visiting Seattle and would like to have a rather atypical experience, you might want to consider packing a lunch, leaving your hotel and grabbing a Metro bus for a short ride across the Ship Canal to the neighborhood of Fremont and a walking tour which includes mini-parks, some extremely interesting statues and vistas of two lakes, a towering dormant volcano and two mountain ranges that are simply not to be believed. For details, please go here
If you’re wondering why so many of us here are so passionate about the Pacific Northwest and the old adage that a picture is worth a thousand words, check out this slideshow of Mount Rainier taken recently and yes, on a sunny day.
SUMMER GUIDE: Let us steer you to the best beaches, festivals and fun.
SEATTLE FACTS AND FIGURES
Seattle Rainfall in Comparison To Other US Cities
Seattle Geography & Climate
For more information about Seattle
For live cameras on Seattle, the Puget Sound and Washington State
CRITTER STUFF
SUMMER GUIDE: Let us steer you to the best beaches, festivals and fun.
SEATTLE FACTS AND FIGURES
Seattle Rainfall in Comparison To Other US Cities
Seattle Geography & Climate
For more information about Seattle
For live cameras on Seattle, the Puget Sound and Washington State
CRITTER STUFF
Diamonds may be a girl’s best friend but a dog is man’s or so the old saws say. It’s certainly true in the case of canines and long before the vaulted St. Bernard. They continue to do so today and thanks to what they are doing with American combat troops, young men and women are surviving the unmitigated hell that war is. If you’re looking for another reason to be proud of the four-footed member(s) of the family, this’ll do it for you. If you love stories about animal heroes, this will definitely make your morning. Yep, go here.
Recommended Related Links:
Go Northwest: Northwest Wildlife Websites
BBC’s wildlife finder
National Geographic Daily News - Animals
Retrieverman’s Weblog: Engaging articles on domestic & wildlife in the American South
YOU GUYS THINK I MAKE THIS STUFF UP
I am the first person to agree that the sooner one gets started in a chosen career, the greater the chances of success. That’s why musicians and athletes don’t usually have normal lives as children. The disciple and focus it takes to learn a musical instrument, to swim competitive, to do gymnastics, the ballet and the arts in general isn’t something the pre-adolescent attention span is prepared to handle. Apparently that’s also true of criminals. To read about how a 10-year-old Jesse James finally got busted and why he’s being charged as an adult, yep, go here.
Well, that’s it for now. Thanks for the ear. Before you leave, if you’re in a shopping mood and into some interesting choices? We’ve got a “reader stocked” General Store that you might want to check out. If you’d like to sell something with us or know someone who does, email us at minstrel312@aol.com and we’ll see what we can do.
The Northstar Journal is funded by contributions from readers like yourself. If you enjoyed this edition and would like to contribute to the next, please click the donate button below.
Rusty 
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