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Memento mori
The second anniversary of the John T. Williams shooting is today, in case you needed another reminder of how little the establishment cares about the lives of the poor.
Williams was a homeless, hearing-impaired Native American who was often seen meandering in my neighborhood. I knew him on sight, although not by name. Once he had a sort of necklace ( Read more... ) -
¡Bienvenidos!
Dear moderate Akin-haters:
Welcome to the feminist soiree! It makes no difference to your hostesses that it took you a while to get here. It's hard to internalize the idea that a large percentage of the population thinks that women don't have bodily autonomy. They don't even understand how women's bodies work!
They have wives and sisters and you ( Read more... ) -
Put the mute back in commute
An open letter to those who have decided to live on the opposite side of Lake Washington from where they work, then complain endlessly about their commute:
Shut up. Shut up. Shut up.
Is your commute slow? Yes, there's a fucking glacial lake in the middle of it and you're not driving a fucking boat. Is it now costly? Yes, and why should the rest ( Read more... ) -
He kindly stopped for me
I'm going to visit my Gran this week. Last time I went to Acacia, I looked at their website ahead of time to make sure the mausoleum was going to be unlocked. They didn't list their hours, and I actually sat there for a minute trying to figure out how to obtain that information. Obviously there was a way to do that before the internet. Oh, ( Read more... ) -
Hydroplanes and hyperactivity
I haven't been to the Seafair hydro races since I worked for Rainier Brewing Co.'s PR department. Every year we'd sponsor the Rainier Cup, and every year the Miss Budweiser would win it. The Miss Bud was the Yankees of Lake Washington: an entity fueled by millions of corporate dollars for the purpose of dominating and thereby ruining what used to ( Read more... ) -
Does organic food turn people into jerks?
Does organic food turn people into jerks? It's an interesting question to pose. Fortunately, when stated in the interrogative rather than the declarative ("Organic food turns people into jerks") you absolve yourself of any imperative to present evidence. After all, you're just asking an innocent question. Tea Partiers have been pulling this off ( Read more... ) -
The Hasselblad Way
While cropping and uploading Jim's wedding pictures last night, I was reminiscing about my days as a wedding photographer -slash- advice columnist for Wednet.com. I read a lot of bridal guides and a lot of books on wedding photography, so I got to see the so-called Wedding/Industrial Complex from both sides.
Bridal guides would tell you that you ( Read more... ) -
Fur tuxedo
My cat Oswald is an orphan who's been in my care since he was 48 hours old. He was the first orphan that the Progressive Animal Welfare Society had entrusted me with, and having no idea what I was doing, I bought a copy of "Hand-Raising the Orphaned Kitten." I still have it; the edges of its cover are perforated with holes from when he was ( Read more... ) -
Devil's advocate
If you ever find yourself beginning a sentence with, "To play devil's advocate..." stop yourself. You are about to say something that can be accurately summarized below. Preserve your interpersonal relationships and save valuable time.
"I've noticed that you seem to care about this topic. Personally, I have no stake in it, but apparently you do. ( Read more... ) -
Sensitivity
People use the word sensitive to mean one of two things. "She's so sensitive," means either a) "She is capable of real empathy," or b) "If there is any possible way to construe what you said as an insult, she will find it."
Thing is, I have never seen these two traits exist simultaneously in the same person. People of the first type are also the ( Read more... )