SAMOAN TSUNAMI SURVIVORS, THE FIRST CLOWN IN SPACE AND HOUSES MADE OF STRAW

Photo by Randy L. Rasmussen – The Portland Oregonian

Lydia Doleman at work constructing one of her straw houses in Portland, Oregon

Hi again and yep, from the ramparts of the Bastion on the Puget Sound, it’s been another interesting week. Our hearts certainly go out to the survivors of the tsunami which struck the Samoan Islands on Tuesday. Apparently caused by a big undersea earthquake (8.0), it struck so fast there was virtually no warning and all the coastal and lowland areas were literally wiped out by the big waves. As of this writing, the death toll stands at 99. The Samoan Islands have a population of 277,000, about a quarter of it in the American portion. President Obama has declared it a disaster area and Australia and New Zealand have already dispatched aid and assistance.

We note with personal sadness the passing of Mary Travers, of the American folk group Peter, Paul and Mary. During the Sixties and Seventies, hers was a voice which gave so many of us a reason to carry on. Though best remembered for songs like Leavin’ on a Jet Plane and Puff the Magic Dragon, the one for which I am most grateful to her for is a ballad of Irish rebellion entitled “The Risin’ of the Moon.” So thank you for that one too, Mary, and yes, Lass, your grandchildren are carrying on.

Well, the existence of water on the moon has now been confirmed, thanks to NASA’s Moon Mineralogy Mapper and the Indian rocket and launch system which got it there. Results of the mission suggest that a sustainable manned moon colony could be a reality within the next two decades. It’ll be kind of interesting taking a romantic evening walk in 2029, gazing up at a beautiful full moon and realizing that there are other couples up there, strolling among the hydroponics and gazing at a beautiful full earth. For more on a very successful international space venture, please go here and here.

Well, the first clown to ever leave earth is currently enroute to the International Space Station aboard a Russia Soyuz to entertain the troops as it were. I’m hoping this Merry Andrew is good because if he’s not, he could also be an international embarrassment for Canada. But wealth has its privileges and this billionaire reportedly paid $34-million for the chance to audition. A long shot, perhaps, but our money’s riding with him because his name is Guy Laliberte and he’s the founder of Cirque du Soleil.

Well, for this next one, there has to be a totally new category somewhere between “Jeez, Ya Think?” and “Why am I not incredibly surprised?” Apparently spanking children reduces their IQ points, according to a study released by the International Conference on Violence, Abuse and Trauma in San Diego last month. The findings contend that physical abuse causes post traumatic stress in children and that this is linked to decreased intelligence. I’m just surprised it took scientific research to prove that hitting a kid isn’t good for that kid. So now we can add that to a list of reasons why a compassionate and rational creature does not cause injury or ham to those smaller and weaker than itself. Maybe it’s just me but I don’t hit kids because it’s not cool. I don’t need any other reason than that.

For this week’s critter story, we go to the bottom of the world. Yep, Oz is in the news again. An early morning surfer spotted a young orca trapped in a shark net off a Gold Coast beach, which is in Queensland, on Australia’s east coast, south of Brisbane. The surfer, who also happened to be captain of the Miami Beach (Queensland, Australia) Surf Life Saving Club, contacted the Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries, whose rescue team arrived on the scene 40 minutes later. Before a crowd of 250 concerned, spectators, rescue was affected without injury to the juvenile orca. The entire operation took just a little under four hours. For more information and a video on this splendid animal rescue, please go here.

In the midst of all this debate on national health care, I found it interesting that in a recent study released by the not-for-profit research and performance evaluation Conference Board of Canada ranked the Maple Leaf tenth on a list of 16 countries for health care and the U.S., last. The study measured:

Life expectancy
Mortality due to diabetes
Self-reported health status
Mortality due to musculoskeletal system diseases
Premature mortality
Mortality due to mental disorders
Mortality due to cancer
Infant mortality
Mortality due to circulatory diseases
Mortality due to medical misadventures
Mortality due to respiratory diseases

I found this study absolutely fascinating. It offers comparisons in all categories, is well illustrated and communicates in language amazingly free from political bias and industry rhetoric. Here’s how the 16 nations ranked and the grade the Conference Board game them.

Japan, Switzerland, Italy and Norway received As. Canada, Sweden, France, Finland, Germany and Australia got Bs and the Netherlands, Austria and Ireland, Cs. Denmark and the United Kingdom joined the U.S. at the bottom of the dumpster with a grade of D. For more information, please go here.

And finally, I really got a kick out of this one. Remember that fairytale we heard as kids about the three little pigs and the big bad wolf? I think the morals of that one were build with bricks and don’t antagonize something that already wants to make a sandwich out of you. Well, in Oregon, they’re making houses out of straw and nobody’s huffing and puffing them down.

Contractor Lydia Doleman, owner of Flying Hammer Productions, admits that the technology isn’t new but in fact originated in Nebraska, where trees are at a premium. She built her first such home in Colorado, at the age of 20. Now, she’s making them work in the soggy Northwest, where she has the endorsement of the Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance and the support of Portland’s Bureau of Planning and Sustainability. For more about this extraordinary woman and the impact her straw houses are having on the Northwest, please go here.

Well, that’s it for this week. Thanks again for the ear. Take care, stay well and God Bless.

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 People Finders

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
BBC – Best source for international news

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.

Sightline Daily (formerly Tidepool) – The “United Press International/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. Update and informative collected news shorts from those sources. They also put out an excellent weekly environmental edition.

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.

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? Check out galleries of my work here and here.

ONCE AGAIN, IN PRAISE OF A PRESIDENT BUT NOT SO MUCH A WINNING COACH

The University of Washington's Husky Stadium (photo by MS(R)M)

Hi again and yep, from the ramparts of the Bastion on the Puget Sound, it’s been another interesting week. And it’s time, once again, to praise a president. I’m referring to Mr. Obama’s address before the United Nations General Assembly today.

From the start of the presidential primaries, Barack Obama has consistently contended that it is not up to a national chief executive, the Congress, or any other elected official or body of same alone to solve the problems which afflict this nation.

We are not a monarchy. We are a democratic republic. We elect those who govern us and we decide whether they stay in office to do what we are paying them to do. By popular initiative and referendum, we also decide for ourselves which laws work best for us and which do not. So it’s all of us working together that will bring this nation back into a realm of reasonable prosperity and good humor.

President Obama made it very clear to the UN General Assembly that, by the same token, it is not up to America alone to solve the problems which plague the global community but rather that it is incumbent upon each nation ~ however large, however small ~ to participate in that process. And he issued a stern warning to those who would stand in the way of such progress.

“The people of the world want change. They will not long tolerate those who are on the wrong side of history.”

As of this writing, there are 300,000 unemployed Americans living in states where the jobless rate stands at 8.5 percent and whose benefits will end on September 30. Congressman Jim McDermott (D-Washington) has proposed legislation extending those benefits another 13 weeks. This measure is expected to reach President Obama’s desk with no problem. It’s nice to know someone on the Hill is watching out for us. Thanks, Jim, and yep, I’m pleased you’re my Congressman as well.

Under the category, “Okay, that makes sense,” the International Energy Commission reports that worldwide usage of electronic devices and electrical appliances is making it extremely tough to fight the effects of global warming, primarily because of the number of new power plants necessary, including coal-fired ones in countries where other sources are not an option. The IEC found, for instance, that in 1980, Americans owned three electronic consumer devices. That number now stands at 25.

Many of these items waste an incredible amount of energy while operating and some continue to draw power even when they’re turned off. That means that the only way to actually keep the energy bill down is to unplug everything except refrigerators and washers and dryers, which have been under federal efficiency guidelines in America since 1990. Since then, efficiency has increased 45 percent for the former and a whopping 70 percent for the latter.

The IEC is calling for a number of measures to bring the rest of the devices we feel we need to survive under the same standards. They’re also calling for consumers to either unplug the “gadgets” they aren’t using or to use Smart Power Strips, which themselves turn off, thus denying power to everything plugged into them. For more information on what each of us can do in these regards, please go here.

Closer to the Bastion, the Northwest Energy Council has determined (and is moving to establish them) that the same tougher standards would, by 2029, reduce by 85 percent the current anticipated energy needs in Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana. That’s the equivalent of 20 new power plants and it is consistent with a region which has been moving in this direction for almost two decades now.

I’ve got a confession to make now, a sort of coming out of the closet as it were. (Watch the interest level zoom off the scale now.) Ever since I was small, I’ve always felt this special kinship with trees and to this day, yep, I hug ‘em. Well, University of Washington researchers have discovered there might actually be a basis for that attraction. They’ve discovered electricity in them. It’s not very much but it’s there and can apparently be boosted enough to run a monitor of its own health. Applications for this one in agriculture, forestry management, the timber industry and environmental landscaping are staggering to me.

I don’t usually comment on sports and for several reasons. First, they’ve changed a lot since the days when the Giants played at Candlestick Park and second, there are a lot more teams, especially in the National Collegiate Athletic Association, than when I graduated from California State University, Long Beach in 1976, after serving in Vietnam with the United States Navy.

So this isn’t so much about athletics as it is good sportsmanship and it’s about as close to the Bastion on the Puget Sound as it gets because I live three blocks from this commentary’s source. I’m referring to this past weekend’s University of Washington 16-13 “upset” over the University of Southern California.

The UW Huskies have a new coach and that Steve Sarkasian was also an assistant coach for USC did not escape me either. In a pre-contest press conference, Sarkasian contended that it would not be long before this chronically losing football team would reverse the trend, presumably because he is now in command. Fine, a little confidence I can understand.

It was what Sarkasian said after that narrow victory which surprised and infuriated me. He told the media that the UW did not play exceptional ball against USC. Excuse me? Anyone who follows NCAA sports knows that there is only one way to defeat the Trojans and that’s by giving it everything you’ve got. And as USC’s record proves, most of the time, that’s not enough.

So with all due respect to their coach and his breach of tact and good sportsmanship, I’d like to praise the young men of the University of Washington who took their hearts to the gridiron, gave it their all, and defeated the mighty Trojans. Finest kind, mates. Finest kind.

Well, that’s it for this week. Thanks again for the ear. Take care, stay well and God Bless.

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
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.

Sightline Daily (formerly Tidepool) – The “United Press International/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. Update and informative collected news shorts from those sources. They also put out an excellent weekly environmental edition.

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.

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

GOODBYE, MR. SWAYZE AND WELCOME TO THE FRIENDLY SKIES OF CALIFORNIA’S WINE COUNTRY TO THE NOBLE PEREGRINE FALCON

Peregine Falcon

Hi again and yep, from the ramparts of the Bastion on the Puget Sound, it’s been another interesting week. And a sad one for the loss of Patrick Swayze, another good human being who shared the best of himself as an actor with those who loved his work; and as a good human being with those who had the honor and privilege of knowing him more intimately.

I remember him not so much for Dirty Dancing or even Ghost as I do for this outrageous film, A Tall Tale, in which he starred, along with Oliver Pratt, another of my favorite actors, as Pecos Bill. I grew up on legends like that so when I also got to see John Henry and Paul Bunyan, et al, it was like, yep, maybe not anywhere else, but in America, we have those who can lasso and ride a tornado and swing one mean axe. It was painted in the broadest possible brushstrokes and Swayze, who is not real tall, played it grandly.

The other film strikes deeper on a different level because despite the fact that the American government’s made some real mistakes abroad and her people have acted at times with what the International Community has considered incredible self-indulgence, there’s a lot more to us than that. Despite our size and power, we are yet historically a young and growing nation. Like any other, we are prone to wear our ignorance, our shortcomings, our character flaws and our mistakes in judgment on our proverbial sleeves.

I worry that groups bent on the destruction of anything not like them might read that the wrong way, and assume that Americans are not willing to die on their own shores to protect what they so cherish. The reality is that Americans die every day in defense of their country. I was raised by two generations of law enforcement and that’s the first among many examples which come to mind.

Red Dawn to me clearly demonstrated what Americans will do if pushed to the max. I don’t know how many of you remember the premise for that one but it was the invasion of a small town in the American Rocky Mountains and was a microcosm for apparently another world war. In it, Patrick Swayze starred as the leader of a handful of teenagers who rose up after their parents were rounded up and executed. That resistance group became known as the Wolverines. Yes, Jennifer Grey was his costar in that one.

It was a savage film and it was not made to glorify violence, promote anarchy, or to vilify those who brought this war to our shores. It was not meant to suggest that killing ~ under any circumstances ~ is pleasant, but rather that long after the land has restored itself, the human memories of what happened will remain. I’ve been to battlegrounds across the Pacific, including Nagasaki’s Ground Zero and yes, each and every one of them was haunted. In Red Dawn, they were too.

So to me, Patrick Swayze played to an American love of tall tales and big dreams. And he also resonated what Americans of any age will do if violence is brought to their land as it has been several times in the recent past. Our learning curve, by international standards, may be long
but we are neither weak nor stupid. It would be a tragic mistake in judgment to assume either.

Oookay, off the soapbox and moving right along here, I have got to love the reader who felt the need to share this bon mot of human behavior. Seems there was this couple in Wichita, Kansas whose options for romantic privacy were apparently slim next to none. They climbed into a dumpster to cuddle and stuff and were interrupted (apparently during the “stuff” part) by two old guys who robbed them at pocketknife point and then departed. The police apprehended the ‘perps’ so the couple got their belongings back.

I’m just trying to imagine, from both the police officers’ perspective and the couple themselves, the dialogue that must have gone on around what they were doing in the dumpster in the first place. What this also tells me is that this is NOT Dorothy’s Kansas. You guys accuse me every once in awhile of making this stuff up. So if you don’t believe me, check it out here. This was weird.

Closer to home, we here in Seattle are saying good-bye to a woman who not only proved there was no gender ceiling but also who epitomizes the best in community law enforcement. Her name is Linda Pierce and she was one of four assistant chiefs of police. Her time with the Seattle Police Department included, according to Seattle Times reporter Steve Miletich, command of “the Special Operations Bureau, overseeing operations and planning, the arson and bomb units, Harbor Patrol and the operational support and criminal intelligence sections.”

Chief Pierce is leaving to run the public safety department for the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation. She and her husband, who recently retired, have a home back there in this extreme northeastern part of Washington, on the Canadian border. We wish her and her family well and express our sincere gratitude for the exemplary service she gave this community.

As far as critter stories, there have been no new mountain lion incidents up our way but as I got out and sampled local opinion, I found some profound misconceptions about cougars that, if acted on, could really make things complicated for all involved. So far that hasn’t happened yet here but it has other places. So here’s a site that tells you how it really is with these magnificent cats. I’m suggesting reading this before you try to pet one or reach for the Winchester on the gun rack.

Well, vineyard owners in California have come up with a way to protect their grape harvest from the hordes of starlings which swoop in on them each year this time and which so far have proven pretty much immune to any other measures employed in these regards. I’m not a fan of starlings. I wouldn’t be if I was a bird. They are second on the obnoxious scale only to bluejays, with whom I also have issues.

So it comes as some personal satisfaction to learn that peregrine falcons are patrolling those friendly skies. Falconers hire out to individual land owners in an arrangement that seems to be working very well and is certainly not without precedent. Anyone with the slightest interest in falcons knows that they’ve been doing things like this for at least as long as the first wild dogs decided to share a cave and a fire with us. For a look at one of these noble works of talons, beak, feathers and superb aerodynamic engineering, please go here.

I’m also some relieved ~ as I’m sure most of you will be too ~ to learn that scientists have apparently decided that a squid’s brain may not have been as good a model to study how human gray matter works as they for awhile thought.. Apparently it’s taken them fifty years to reach this conclusion. Yep, I’ll give you a sec with that one.

First of all, I want to know what madness possessed these over-educated idiots in the first place. I have bad hair days but I have never remotely resembled this weird looking thing out of a Jules Verne nightmare.

Second, what conclusions were reached and what was tried on humans as a result of this profound hiatus from good sense? I mean, rats are a stretch for me too in these regards and I do not keep them as pets because with a Maine coon cat for a roomie, anything caged, breathing and smaller than a German shepherd puppy is a Sasha meal waiting to happen. There is totally no way a squid fits into this scenario. Now all that needs to happen is to learn that it’s been for half a century also in part funded by tax dollars. Alaska’s Bridge to Nowhere made better sense. At least it was good practice for those who planned and built it.

And on a final note, I was absolutely thrilled to learn that the University of Washington (three blocks from here) has been awarded a $126-million grant to build a 500 mile power and Internet grid along the floor of the Pacific Ocean on the Juan de Fuca plate. According to KING FIVE (NBC affiliate) television news reporter Lori Matsukawa:

“Researchers believe the data gathered will help them understand all sorts of natural phenomena such as volcanoes, earthquakes, storms, rainfall patterns, tsunamis, algae blooms, oxygen depletion and sea life. Natural events that influence climate change.”

These are good things for us who live here to know and what’s cool is that so much of what can be learned can be applied, appropriately modified, elsewhere. To me, it’s an appropriate use of both science and the funding source. I like it a lot better than thinking about my tax dollars going into finding out how much like a squid we’re not.

Until next week then, thanks once again for the ear. Take care, stay well and God Bless.

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
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.

Sightline Daily (formerly Tidepool) – The “United Press International/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. Update and informative collected news shorts from those sources. They also put out an excellent weekly environmental edition.

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.

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

COMING ATTRACTIONS

In the weeks to come, we’re going to create ~ in addition to Northstar Recommends ~ a Northstar General Store in which you, the readers, will have an opportunity to market your own goods and services and, as well, to shop here. We’re going to get real creative with this and whenever possible, we’ll have tried what we’re carrying on the shelves, as it were. We’ll be taking a straight ten percent for this, via Paypal. We’ll also consider barter and trade.
If you’ve got any recommendations of your own and are interested in the General Store, email me and we’ll talk.

WEIGHING IN ON THE NATIONAL HEALTH CARE DEBATE, AMERICA’S FIRST RESIDENTIAL INTERNET ADDICTION CENTER AND THE COUGAR WHO CLOSED DOWN DISCOVERY PARK

Hi again and yep, from the ramparts of the Bastion on the Puget Sound, it’s been another interesting week. How many of you caught President Obama’s address to Congress last night? I did and I enjoyed it for several reasons. I’ve worked in the health care industry and I understand the complexities of the issues discussed. Political speeches are also a form of performance art in our house and, in my opinion, our national chief executive is one of the most captivating orators since John F. Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

When I was living in Oregon, I worked for the local community hospital as their public relations person. My chief responsibility was to educate the general public on how this particular health care system worked and profile the physicians, staff and services offered by the facility and its dozen or so satellite clinics.

I was fortunate in that this particular health care provider was one of the most efficiently administered rural facilities in the Northwest. Its doctors ~ several of them from the Middle East, India and Asia ~ were extremely well educated and, though older than many of their American contemporaries, impressively experienced in providing quality health care under difficult and challenging circumstances.

So simply informing the public through the local media about Umpqua Valley Community Hospital was relatively easy because I did not have to justify the kinds of conditions to which President Obama alluded when he said that one of the ways this health care program was to be funded was by cleaning up and reforming existing health care providers. Implicit in this, I am assuming, is the promulgation of common performance standards and legal sanctions to enforce them.

I’ve worked in the health care industry here in Seattle, as well, and because of privacy and confidentiality issues, I can’t go into specifics. I can, however, witness for need for an examination of the infrastructure because some of it simply is not working. Some patients receive outstanding care. Others go through hell just trying to get the basics. President Obama said, in no uncertain terms, that no American should be treated that way and I concur. And if the industry cannot police itself, I don’t see that we have much choice but to do it for them. As the president also reminded us, we, the American people, are the government.

Well, this next one seems to fall under the classification of “Bound To Happen Sooner or Later.” It’s also nudging the weirdness scale because from the Bastion, looking east across Lake Washington to Redmond, we can almost see the first residential treatment center in the United States specifically for those who have become addicted to the Internet.

Yep, Redmond’s also the headquarters of Microsoft so to me, it’s a little like having the pub and the alcohol rehab facility in the same building. Convenient to say the least and certainly more than a little ironic.

But there’s no doubt in my mind the need is certainly there and the program appears to be extremely well designed and cost-reasonable. It’s called ReSTART and for more information, please go here.

Well, for the last week or so, a 140 lb. male cougar’s been making himself at home in Seattle’s Discovery Park. It didn’t hurt anyone but it certainly aroused some interesting reactions. Some of the citizenry felt really put out that Fish and Wildlife was closing the park for the weekend in order to simply the search, capture and subsequent relocation of this big cat.

I’m thinking to myself, if I knew that there was a mountain lion prowling around Cowan Park here in my neighborhood, would I still want to go there for a picnic? Would I want to maybe accidentally get in the way of said puma trying to elude capture? Maybe it’s just me but…ummmmm…no.

This story also explains why it seems the true first citizens of this land seem to move so easily and so often through this state’s largest metro region. There’s a railroad line running north and south with a greenbelt on the right-of-way. Seattle’s essentially right in the middle of a great deal of natural habitat and these creatures ~ Discovery Park had a black bear hanging out several years back ~ are essentially just passing through. If they overstay and get caught, they get a humane assist making it home. Works in my house.

Finally, we’d like to extend our wishes for a speedy recover to Prairie Home Companion’s Garrison Keilor who, Monday, suffered a minor stroke. He drove himself to a St. Paul, Minnesota hospital after “feeling ill.”

For years, he’s been a regular visitor to my home and to millions of others in North America and beyond. I’ve found his radio show one of the most wholesome, entertaining and ingenuous on the air waves and while it bothers me that Garrison had that attack, I am more than a little relieved that it looks like he’s going to be okay and be around awhile longer. He’s 67.

Well, that’s it for this week and thanks once again for the ear. Until next time, take care, stay well and God Bless.

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
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.

Sightline Daily (formerly Tidepool) – The “United Press International/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. Update and informative collected news shorts from those sources. They also put out an excellent weekly environmental edition.

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.

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


Other Blogs
The Tomatoman Times – a life commentary blog with the blended stylings of John Steinbeck, Mark Twain, Jack London and Will Rogers. Poignant, at times rancorous but very contemporary and ultimate celebration.

Lords and Ladies of Leisure is sooooo misnamed and it’s an example of the humour with which a Seattle high tech victim deals with the wonderful world of unemployment. Kerri Marshall’s admittedly offbeat sense of humour spices up a blog also rich in practical advice. The comments from her readers are almost as entertaining of she is. If you’ve got a few minutes and want a little perspective on your own hard times, I highly recommend this one.

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

COMING ATTRACTIONS

In the weeks to come, we’re going to create ~ in addition to Northstar Recommends ~ a Northstar General Store in which you, the readers, will have an opportunity to market your own goods and services and, as well, to shop here. We’re going to get real creative with this and whenever possible, we’ll have tried what we’re carrying on the shelves, as it were. We’ll be taking a straight ten percent for this, via Paypal. We’ll also consider barter and trade.

If you’ve got any recommendations of your own and are interested in the General Store, email me and we’ll talk.

LOS ANGELES NATIONAL FOREST BURNS, NORTH AMERICA NOW HAS 1.2-MILLION SQUARE FEET OF GREEN ROOFS AND ANOTHER COUGAR IS SPOTTED WITHIN SEVERAL MILES OF

Another view of Seattle from the Bastion on the Sound
Washington State Convention Center Sky Bridge
Photo by MS(R)M

Hi again and yep, from the ramparts of the Bastion on the Puget Sound, it’s been an interesting week. First, and specifically for those of you reading this from the Los Angeles area, our hearts go out to you and our prayers are certainly with you. As this “goes to press,” The Standard Fire has claimed some 219 square miles of prime Angeles National Forest, taken the lives of two firefighters, consumed over 60 homes and still threatens 10,000 others.

Masha, who runs coffee kiosk where I go when I need to slip out of the Bastion and associate with the hoi polloi for local perspective had the news on her portable tv set. A couple of her other customers were discussing the Standard Fire and one of them contended that population density was responsible for a lot of what happens every fire season there and that a lot of this could be avoided by zoning ordinances limiting the number of people and structures allowed to live in high disaster potential areas.

It’s a nice idea but it presupposes that all of us have a choice about where we’d like to live. In a “Don’t work, don’t eat” economy, people tend to live as close to their workplace as possible. Three Southern California cities rank among the top ten longest commutes in the nation, according to the US Census Bureau and Los Angeles is ninth on that list.

In terms of an outstanding example of what a human being can accomplish, this week, we cross the Pond to the United Kingdom for a story about an English teenager who set out alone to circumnavigate the globe and become the youngest person (by several weeks) to do so. Sixteen-year-old Mike Perham undertook the adventure, however, for something far more important than a Guinness World Record and here’s the story within the story on this one.

Mike’s goal was to raise 24,000 pounds (about $38,400) for his two favourite charities, Save the Children and the Tall Ships Youth Trust, which gives underprivileged children the chance to learn to sail. Mike, who was born in Hertsfordshire, England and raised in Potters Bar, crossed the Atlantic in 2006 – 2007 with his father Peter accompanying him in a separate boat. Mike’s transglobal sail was made alone. For more on this remarkable young man, please go here.

Well, this next one is straight out of Little House on the Prairie and the days of sod huts. And it’s sure catching on. It’s a roof made of sedum and other succulents native to that part of Montana where these roofs are being raised, harvested and manufactured. There are apparently 1.2-million square feet of these roofs in North America now and one is currently slated for the Nintendo Company’s new building in Redmond, Washington. The product is called Xero Flor and it’s based on a system devised in Germany and modified for use in North America. To us, this is yet another example of how environmental manufacturing can not only improve the quality of life of its consumers but bring a new income source into the local economy.

This week’s critter story strongly suggests why we live in the Bastion on the Puget Sound, replete with moat, drawbridge, ramparts, battlements and all that other cool castle stuff. There’s another cougar been sighted ambling around a neighborhood about two miles from here, near the Woodland Park Zoo. That’s the closest one’s come to where we live, in the University District. And it can’t come as good news to the University of Washington. Their mascot is a husky. Their rival is Washington State University. Guess what “Wazoo’s” mascot is? Hint: it doesn’t bark.

This latest mountain lion was spotted by a resident arriving home around midnight. She got out of her car and just told it to go away. The fact that the big cat complied with such alacrity says I think as much about the caliber of Seattle women as it does a good-natured instinct for survival. Authorities are on top of the situation and if this one is treed, it will be tranquilized and transported back to the woods from where it likely came.

And I’m definitely proud to report that Washington State ranks just third behind California and Massachusetts in reducing its dependency on fossil fuels, cleaning up the environment and promoting an economically feasible green agenda. Governor Christine Gregoire, this state’s former attorney general, has taken a tough stand on these issues and her influence on the state legislature in Olympia has resonated to all levels of government.

The electrification of Seattle is more of the more obvious results. She sold the green agenda to the constituency and they’ve embraced it with the same quiet enthusiasm that characterizes positive change in the region as a whole. She’s proven, as well, that if Washington can do it, it can be done.

Lots of good and positive things going on then and, at least in our house, more than enough reason for remaining optimistic. This Recession has been an expensive lesson for a lot of us and in ways so vast as to be almost beyond human ken and so obvious as to defy denial, we have changed and I believe for the better. I rather imagine that comes as some relief to the rest of the species with whom we share the planet.

Take care, stay well and we’ll see you next week

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
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.

Sightline Daily (formerly Tidepool) – The “United Press International/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. Update and informative collected news shorts from those sources. They also put out an excellent weekly environmental edition.

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.

The Vancouver Sun, outstanding source for Canadian and world news.
.
Other Blogs
The Tomatoman Times – a life commentary blog with the blended stylings of John Steinbeck, Mark Twain, Jack London and Will Rogers. Poignant, at times rancorous but very contemporary and ultimate celebration.

Lords and Ladies of Leisure is sooooo misnamed and it’s an example of the humour with which a Seattle high tech victim deals with the wonderful world of unemployment. Kerri Marshall’s admittedly offbeat sense of humour spices up a blog also rich in practical advice. The comments from her readers are almost as entertaining of she is. If you’ve got a few minutes and want a little perspective on your own hard times, I highly recommend this one.

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

COMING ATTRACTIONS

In the weeks to come, we’re going to create ~ in addition to Northstar Recommends ~ a Northstar General Store in which you, the readers, will have an opportunity to market your own goods and services and, as well, to shop here. We’re going to get real creative with this and whenever possible, we’ll have tried what we’re carrying on the shelves, as it were. We’ll be taking a straight ten percent for this, via Paypal. We’ll also consider barter and trade.

If you’ve got any recommendations of your own and are interested in the General Store, email me and we’ll talk.

NATION SAYS FAREWELL TO THE LAST OF THE KENNEDY BROTHERS AND TELLS FIRST LADY SHE CAN WEAR SHORTS ON HOLIDAY

SEATTLE

A skyline a good mayor helped to sculpt

Photo by MS(R)M

Hi again, folks. Well, this house joins the nation in mourning the passing of U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy (D) MA. His passing marks the end of what many considered a political dynasty; others, an almost Shakespearean royal family rocked by assassination, scandal, a bit of Prince Machiavelli and more than a hint of Camelot.

In praising the youngest Kennedy brother’s contributions during nearly 50 years in Congress, Sen. Orrin Hatch, (R) Utah cited a list which included a federally funded program for HIV/AIDS victims; health insurance for lower-income children, and tax breaks to fund medical research and development for rare diseases.

"Ted Kennedy was an iconic, larger than life United States Senator whose influence cannot be overstated."

Senator Kennedy, whose sister Eunice Kennedy Shriver passed away last week, was 77 and succumbed to a malignant brain tumor. For a look at the life and times of this remarkable ~ if not often controversial ~ American, please go here.

I was so relieved last week to note that, according to a Today Show poll, 83 percent of those responding approve of the First Lady wearing shorts. The news was greeted by a flood of congratulations to Michelle from a host of world leaders, including those in Ottawa, Dublin, London, Paris, Moscow, Beijing, Teheran and Austin, Texas. Many also said that it’s motivated them to take us, the American people, much more seriously for having decided that raging issue so decisively and in such relatively short order.

And without special interest groups. Or lobbyists, unions, picket lines, boycotts, protest marches, media blitzes and talk show barrages. We took a look, as a people, at the serious issues facing us and decided that this one must be dealt with swiftly, efficiently, and in no uncertain terms. We decided that a young woman who looks cool in shorts should be allowed to wear them on holiday. In public. And best of all, we did it together.

Well, here’s one that might have totally slipped under the Weird Radar, if nothing else but for the headline alone. Who needs gasoline if you have old beer? I mean what are we talking about, a garage full of partial empties and six packs with a couple cans we overlooked during the last orgy? This is Seattle. They don’t let you live like that here. It sets a bad example and encourages the wrong kind of people to come here.

But this comes from the Los Angeles Times so I took a look and what they’re talking about is this $10,000 machine that can take any organic waste and convert it to ethanol. It’s apparently just breaking the market and one of the investors in the system’s distributor is former L.A. Laker Shaquille O'Neal. It’s called the MicroFueler and you can visit their website here

The “Classiest Act in Politics” goes this week to Seattle two-term mayor Greg Nickels who finished third in this month’s primary and whose concession speech and press conference were totally lacking in rancor, recrimination or the least bit of ill humor. Greg’s served Seattle well for almost eight years and in citing what he felt were the contributions of his administration, he did not use the first person singular, nor did he limit those achievements to the political sector. It was about what “we” as the citizens of Seattle accomplished together. I hope his successor has Greg’s instinctive understanding of government’s role, as least as we’ve defined it here in our town.

Well, two critter stories this week and the first one is NOT fuzzy. But for anyone who loves watching what they keep discovering in the ocean, this one’s a trip. And again, you have GOT to love whoever writes the headlines. This one’s from the Portland Oregonian, my alma mater, and it’s slugged (newspaper talk for “titled”) “Flamboyant, deep-sea worms discovered off Oregon's coast”.

Okay, the fact that it creeps me out a little to think of someone getting to know a new species of deep sea worm discovered by watching the monitor of a remote controlled submarine 9,000 – 11,000 feet off the coast of Oregon well enough to ascribe personality traits to it, I do have to admire the spirit of discovery.

But a part of me is going to be watching this one real closely. We have tamed stranger species only to end up in the belly of the tiger, as it were. My general rule is that if I can’t meet these folks on their own turf or they on mine, it’s like give my best to the wife and family and have a good life. I do not box with bears, croon with cougars, dive with dolphins, fly with eagles, romp with Republicans or dance with wolves. They’re not that desperate for company and neither, quite yet, am I. Flamboyant worms. Yeah, that’s an image to cuddle up with.

Apparently Montana’s decided that collisions between 18-wheelers and grizzly bear, elk, deer, etc. along a 56 mile stretch of highway crossing a very popular migration path can be resolved on the side of interspecies cooperation rather than an apology for big road kill.

Not to mention what happens in a collision between the average grizzly and the occupants of these cute little phone booths on wheels insidious foreign nations have been covertly introducing into this country for some while now.

So human Montanans are building like 43 of these big wildlife crossing tunnels UNDER the highway. There’s some inspirational civil engineering and design going into these. The entire project is slated to be finished before this year’s first snows so if you’d like to see what this one looks like in development, here’s the site.

Well, that’s it for this week folks. We’re making it through this and it’s only a matter of applying what we’re learning now and hanging in just a bit longer. And we’re tough and we can do that, right?

Thanks once again for the ear. Take care, stay well and God Bless. We here at Northstar are honoured by your society.

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.

Other Blogs
The Tomatoman Times – a life commentary blog with the blended stylings of John Steinbeck, Mark Twain, Jack London and Will Rogers. Poignant, at times rancorous but very contemporary and ultimate celebration.

Lords and Ladies of Leisure is sooooo misnamed and it’s an example of the humour with which a Seattle high tech victim deals with the wonderful world of unemployment. Kerri Marshall’s admittedly offbeat sense of humour spices up a blog also rich in practical advice. The comments from her readers are almost as entertaining of she is. If you’ve got a few minutes and want a little perspective on your own hard times, I highly recommend this one.

Media
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.

Sightline Daily (formerly Tidepool) – The “United Press International/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. Update and informative collected news shorts from those sources. They also put out an excellent weekly environmental edition.

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.

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

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.

Talent For Hire
Rusty Miller, Freelance Photojournalist -- Yep, a little self-promotion here to help pay for the blog. Take a look at the services offered menu on my writer-for-hire homepage and samples of my digital lens work on my photography website. If you see something you like, email me and we’ll get together on it.

Are you a travel editor looking for colour 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.

COMING ATTRACTIONS

In the weeks to come, we’re going to create ~ in addition to Northstar Recommends ~ a Northstar General Store in which you, the readers, will have an opportunity to market your own goods and services and, as well, to shop here. We’re going to get real creative with this and whenever possible, we’ll have tried what we’re carrying on the shelves, as it were. We’ll be taking a straight ten percent for this, via Paypal. We’ll also consider barter and trade.

If you’ve got any recommendations of your own and are interested in the General Store, email me and we’ll talk.

LETTER TO A SOLDIER; HANG IN THERE SUU KYI AND NEW CROPDUST CIRCLES IN EASTERN WASHINGTON STATE

Ralph, a neighbour. Photos by MS(R)M

With thanks again to Siobhan

Hi again, folks. Nice to see you and I hope all has been well in your house. There’s been some interesting things going on in the world of Northstar and I’ll certainly get to them in a moment. But because this is a reader-interactive column, what needs to come first is a letter from one of you about a young American soldier who is going to war.

Hey Mick,

How are you? I enjoyed all your articles. I have been busy with a friend who's son is going to War. He has a son (just a babe) and a wife and is 26. He is going to be a foot soldier in the Infantry. First Tour of Duty. Family is proud of him and what he has accomplished, but, Mom is sick with worry as well as his wife. We are all praying for this war to end and bring our troops home.

Seem's like we have been in war forever through out the ages and it doesn't get any easier does it? Only new technology. When we mention to other vet's re: a foot soldier their response is (oh not good) under their breath. And this is very unsettling. Since you were in the war in the 60"s I thought maybe you could write an article for all those who are new to this world of war. And for the mother's family of those just getting started on their journey.
Thank you for listening and again a fan of your writing.

Your friend,

Lara,
dragonflychild4@aol.com
North Carolina

Lara, between your letter and my response? There is no way to sanitize war. Despite the fact that this soldier has had the finest combat training in the world, there is no way to truly EMOTIONALLY prepare for battle, no more than there is for life in general because each person experiences it differently. I know this from my own experiences and the experiences of others.

The battlefield does not judge. It executes the judgments of others and it does not discriminate between the noble and the base, the brave or the timid, the honest or the immoral. A battlefield has no conscience, no compassion, so sense of justice. It is a place where people are killed and the last discrimination it does not make is between military and civilian.

This is the baseline reality of war and as much as I wish there was a way to soften that, I cannot because it only makes reality harder to face up the road.

It sounds like this soldier has a good family who will support him while he's there. I would urge his mother not to worry so much as to simply plan out the next few months and be in contact with him as time and circumstance allow.

This young man also has the backing of his nation. Even those who do not agree with any of the wars still support the Americans sent to fight them. Morale is a critical factor in any war and in these regards, this generation of American warriors is far better off than some past generations have been. Yes, to have the love of family and nation often does make heroes and survivors of every son and daughter who serves.

I would counsel the family of this soldier to put their son's life in the hands of God now and to continue to live as though he was coming home at the end of his tour. Statistically, he has a much better chance of making it than he does not. That's not a guarantee but it is realistic. How free are we to truly love someone if all we can see and feel is the tragedy of a loss that may not, in fact, occur? Is it not better to mourn when mourning is appropriate?

And until then to celebrate each moment, each day that is to be shared?

Mick
aka Rusty

Okay, take a second with that. I sure did. Maybe a couple more seconds because this next one involves an American veteran who swam across a lake in Rangoon and ended up getting the already house-arrested Burmese opposition leader and Nobel peace laureate and her housekeeper five more years in prison. They let him stay there two days and he got caught swimming back.

What really just pops the flipping lid off this particular jar of briny pickles is that this yo-yo would still be in prison had it not been for the intervention of one of the most respected men in this country, Senator Jim Webb (D-VA), who, for all his military, journalist, legal and legislative credentials and influence could not get Suu Kyi or her housekeeper released.

I respected Jim Webb when we served in some of the same theatres of operation and I respect him now. This American veteran was not a soldier and he had no business being over there in the first place. The idiot tried the same thing the year before.

Meanwhile, here’s the Asia living Statue of Liberty who has been under house arrest for the last fourteen years and is not in the best of health but whose stand earned her the Nobel Peace Prize, frail in health, and facing five years in prison.

To me, it’s not a matter of leaving no one behind. Someone got left behind and she was far more a soldier than this rescued American was. What got left behind? WHO got left behind? A frail, softspoken symbol of Burmese freedom got left behind. I’m hoping Captain Webb’s not quite done with this yet. I wouldn’t be.

Well, under critter stories this week, we’ve got a couple of them which strongly suggest that humans are NOT at the top of the evolutionary ladder, but a rather loose and precarious rung in it.

Bobcats have joined black bears and cougar in wandering Seattle’s suburbs as if they owned the place. Local residents are not real thrilled with this newest wave of immigration but appeals to State Fish and Game are to no avail because the bobcat is not classified the same way cougars and black bear are.

The bobcat is considered a nuisance, which means, “deal with them but don’t kill ‘em.” And because there are also rabbits, squirrels and a host of other natural prey in the area, these small wild cats are not going after pets or small children. As Darwin has suggested, survival is not about the strongest but the most adaptable. Yep, I’m leaving that one just hanging there.

This other one involves a Canadian couple on vacation and a squirrel popping up in a photo these humans had taken with a self-timer. There seems to be some controversy about whether this photo was enhanced and my experience tells me it probably wasn’t. I got mugged by an American/Seattle squirrel several years ago while taking lunch at the Convention Center, where I was also working at the time.

It wanted my peanut butter sandwich and I was so stunned and yet somehow refreshed by the straight forward and unvarnished single mindedness of purpose of this creature that I did not put up much resistance.

I did not, however, eat lunch in the same place again. Until I figure out where that squirrel’s going with this, I’m not feeding it. Human being of some 6’3 and 170 versus a creature about six inches long and maybe three pounds. The squirrel took the round and probably the match.

And what’s really weird is that I am really okay with that. Just like I am having bald eagles, black bear, bobcats, cougars, raccoons, Republicans, rich folks, two mountain ranges and three volcanoes for neighbours.

Speaking of which and NOT something I need to be reminded of daily, the Cascade Volcano Observatory is getting $2.4-million in federal funding to upgrade its monitoring system. We’re being told that this is just to provide us earlier warning in the event of an eruption, not necessarily that one is anticipated. Yet in this same story is a reminder that Mount St. Helens still rumbles to life occasionally. And get this. Washington’s not the only state getting this kind of money.

According to the KING 5 story, “There is also $7.56 million for the Alaska Volcano Observatory, $3.3 million for the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, $950,000 for Yellowstone Volcano Observatory, $800,000 for upgrading networks in the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas, and $200,000 for the Long Valley Observatory in California."

Yep, you can run like a hyper-caffeinated hamster in an exercise wheel but you can’t hide. If there’s a volcano with your name on it, right? Sometimes you really pay a lot for the good view up here.

Well, this last one sort of redefines “weird” to me but there’s a possibility than extraterrestrials may be vacationing in a tiny wheat farming community 65 miles west of Spokane, Washington. Last week, five new rings and a circle were found impressed into a wheat field out there and this is the second time ~ not the same field ~ that this has happened in as many years.

So, a lot of people from University of Washington scientists to folks wearing tinfoil hats to at least one naked dancing troup have been flocking to Wilbur again, spending their money and going home. This despite the fact that some crop circles have been proven hoaxes in the past. It’s got to be real entertainment for this village of some 900. It’s also a good weekend vacation getaway from most of the Northwest what with the oscillating cost of gasoline and limited discretionary funds.

Are we making the trip “east of the mountains”? Ummm, nope. Something tells me UFOs really are visiting Wilbur, Washington. I’m not so sure some of them aren’t staying. I know my luck. I’d meet one of them.

And I honestly can’t imagine what I’d say to someone in a John Deere t-shirt, denim jeans with a butt crack and an accent somewhere between Spokane and Sirius the dog star. Wilbur is not Disneyland and if it worth traveling 8.6 light years to visit, I shudder to think about how amusing life must be on the home planet.

Until next week, folks, take care, stay well and God Bless. And thanks once again for the ear.

Mick
Aka Rusty

NORTHSTAR RECOMMENDS

To Your Health
If you’d like to know how 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.

Other Blogs
The Tomatoman Times – a life commentary blog with the blended stylings of John Steinbeck, Mark Twain, Jack London and Will Rogers. Poignant, at times rancorous but very contemporary and ultimate celebration.

Lords and Ladies of Leisure is sooooo misnamed and it’s an example of the humour with which a Seattle high tech victim deals with the wonderful world of unemployment. Kerri Marshall’s admittedly offbeat sense of humour spices up a blog also rich in practical advice. The comments from her readers are almost as entertaining of she is. If you’ve got a few minutes and want a little perspective on your own hard times, I highly recommend this one.

Ask Barbie, Advice Columnist. -- a blog that delivers the amiable maternalism of Ms. Landers, the slightly off-centre humour of Erma Bombeck and the ingenuousness of an unreconstructed romantic with no axes to grind.

Media
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.

Sightline Daily (formerly Tidepool) – The “United Press International/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. Update and informative collected news shorts from those sources. They also put out an excellent weekly environmental edition.

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.

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

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.

Talent For Hire
Rusty Miller, Freelance Photojournalist -- Yep, a little self-promotion here to help pay for the blog. Take a look at the services offered menu on my writer-for-hire homepage and samples of my digital lens work on my photography website. If you see something you like, email me and we’ll get together on it.

Are you a travel editor looking for colour 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.

COMING ATTRACTIONS

In the weeks to come, we’re going to create ~ in addition to Northstar Recommends ~ a Northstar General Store in which you, the readers, will have an opportunity to market your own goods and services and, as well, to shop here. We’re going to get real creative with this and whenever possible, we’ll have tried what we’re carrying on the shelves, as it were. We’ll be taking a straight ten percent for this, via Paypal. We’ll also consider barter and trade.

If you’ve got any recommendations of your own and are interested in the General Store, email me and we’ll talk.