Just in case you forgot that the show is set in “Seattle”, tonight’s episode of Grey’s Anatomy opens with a
Space Needle flyover.

The nice thing about this show is that every episode starts with a voiceover. This really helps with the recaps,
because right away the home audience knows what’s going to happen. Today’s is pretty general, Seattle Grey is
monologuing about fairy tales — “you grow up and the fairy tale disappears” — as she and Dempsey go through the
morning routine. In the kitchen, Isabel is in the midst of cupcake crisis. She and George have been up all night, but
the recipe just isn’t right and she won’t call her mom (perhaps there are no phones in the trailer park). We learn that
Dempsey is a Muselix man, and we know that he’s been having breakfast at
the house that Alzheimer’s built for the past week. Before letting go of the fairy tale, Meredith decides to try out a
bowl of unpleasant cereal.

After a quick flyover of the least famous buildings in all of Seattle, we find ourselves hanging out with Sandra Oh in Ye Olde Abortion Clinic. She’s trying to fit a pregnancy termination into her busy schedule. The lady behind the desk suggests alternatives, but she’s taking to the wrong surgeon. Dr. Oh promises to rearrange her work hours to fit in the abortion in a timely fashion.

After the jump, the rundown on paralysis as a metaphor for relationship troubles, the psychic solution to recipe angst, intubation as aphrodisiac, the application of Jewish law to heart surgeries, and much much more on another dramatic week in Seattle Grace Hospital.
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As Starbucks Celebrates a Decade of Frappuccino® Blended Beverages, we thought it might be nice to mention the latest Blended Coffee® drink: Mint Mocha Chip. No, not Mint Chocolate Chip, you yokel — that one’s been around for a long time. The new hotness Mocha Chip is an “indulgent blend of rich Starbucks coffee, cool mint, chocolate, chocolate chips and ice, mixed with our creamy Frappuccino coffee base, and topped with sweet whipped cream and a mocha drizzle.” Whereas the old and busted Mint Chocolate Chip is an “indulgent blend of our decadent non-coffee Frappuccino Cr

According to a small note in today’s PI, the Washington State Department of Health Tobacco Prevention and Control Program has designated tomorrow as “Smoke-Free Sunday”, which is intended to promote the growth of smoke-free restaurants. The article provides a link to a secondhandsmokesyou.com webpage that provides listings of smoke-free restaurants in Washington by county.

I’m not a militant anti-smoker — I smoke maybe 3 or 4 times a year and really enjoy it when I do — but I am a foodie. I hate it when other people’s smoke ruins the taste of a good meal. Fortunately, it’s not all that hard to find smoke-free restaurants in Seattle. On a recent visit to Machiavelli’s, that wonderful Italian place on the corner of Pine and Melrose, I discovered that they had recently gone smoke-free. Even Six Arms, the McMenamin’s pub just a block away (Pike and Melrose), is now smoke-free until 9:00 most days.

(Discerning meat eaters seeking a restaurant that combines the pleasures of good food and good tobacco can go to El Gaucho for a perfect steak and an after-dinner cigar and brandy in the Cigar Room. Expect to pay big bucks, but it will be an evening to remember.)

In today’s news it’s reported that “extra law enforcement” will be prowling around looking for unbuckled drivers as part of the “Click it or Ticket” campaign from now until June 5th. (every unworn seatbelt is a $101 fine)

The numbers are disturbing: within King County we have a 97 percent compliance rate, and within the state it’s 94 percent. Is it really worth it to send “extra” law enforcement out looking for these last few pikers? Couldn’t you just tell your regular law enforcement guys, “oh, just one more thing. Pull them over if they aren’t wearing seatbelts.”?

If you had extra law enforcement, why wouldn’t you send them out to — oh, I dunno — maybe improve traffic? How about pulling over the people who drive really slowly in the left lane instead? I wouldn’t mind getting a 97 percent compliance rate of people who can drive to at least the speed limit, around town.

I’ve lived close to cottonwoods and poplars for most of my life so I am absolutely not surprised to look outside and see that it’s snowing in my backyard. A couple of weeks ago, I looked out and I could actually make out individual grains of pollen standing thickly in the air (thank goodness the rain came to wash it away); now it’s poplar fluff or cottonwood fluff drifting eerily past my window like a cartoon snowstorm with big fat flakes. I once had cottonwood fluff clog up my air conditioner (this is back in the good old Colorado days when it was actually worth having an air conditioner around). Pretty soon there will be enough for me to run out and make fluff angels in the grass, or build a fluffy snowman. We’ll pack it into bags and save it for the winter (it’s very VERY flammable).

I wonder how the bees dodge it.

Okay, so maybe libraries aren’t your thing. Maybe you just can’t handle the not inconsiderable hassle of trying to find parking in Ballard*, yet would like to show off your civic pride. Or perhaps you just can’t get enough of Mayor Greg Nickels. Head on down to the celebration of the opening of the new City Hall Civic Plaza Saturday, May 14 from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m., on the new Plaza at Fourth Avenue and Cherry Street downtown.

In attendance will be Mayor Nickels, members of the Seattle City Council, the Washingtong Middle School Jazz Band, the TT Minor Marching Band, the Mariner Moose, and a variety of cultural performing arts groups. Also in attendance will be a photographer who will capture a group photo of everyone present which will then be placed in a time capsule to be buried under the plaza and reopened in 50 years.

If that’s not incentive enough, they’re also offering free popcorn, poetry readings, and free umbrellas to the first 300 kids to arrive.
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*Of course you could always take the bus. Ballard has almost as much regular service as Downtown.

Saturday, May 14, marks the opening of the new Ballard Branch of the Seattle Public Library and the adjacent Ballard Neighborhood Service Center.

The new branch–encompassing 15,000 square feet of space–is located at 5614 – 22nd Ave NW–hosts an eventful Opening Day presided over by such luminaries as Mayor Greg Nickels, City Librarian Deborah Jacobs and the Library Book Fairy “Lulu”.

Also taking part in the celebration is Les Femmes d’Enfer, who bill themselves as the “Northwest’s Only All-Gal Cajun Band. Having seen them play, I can attest to the high quality of their lively, engaging performance that can make even the most retiring of wallflowers get up and dance.

Schedule as follows:

12:00 p.m. Dedication Ceremony with City Librarian Deborah L. Jacobs, Mayor Greg Nickels, Library Board Trustee Linda Larson, City Council President Jan Drago, City Councilman David Della, Department of Neighborhoods Director Yvonne Sanchez, representatives from the Friends of The Seattle Public Library and the Citizen Implementation Review Panel, the Library book fairy “Lulu”.

12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. – Les Femmes d’Enfer will perform in the main area of the library.

1 p.m. to 1:45 p.m. – Market Street Singers will perform in the library meeting room.

1 p.m. to 2 p.m. – Artists Andrew Schloss and Dale Stammen will discuss the artwork in the lobby at the neighborhood service center.

2 p.m. to 3 p.m. – An architectural panel will discuss the building design in the library meeting room.

2 p.m. to 3 p.m. – Author Carl Deuker will read from his new novel for young adults, “Runner,” in the teen area of the library.

3 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. – Ballard High School String Quartet will perform in the main area of the library.

3:15 p.m. to 4 p.m. – Bygdedeal Scandinavian Group will perform in the library meeting room.

4 p.m. – Event ends.

The branch closes at 6 p.m., giving one plenty of time to check out a book or two and head down the street to Mr. Spot’s Chai House for some celebratory refreshment.

Once again, the compare and contrast and occasionally columnar comparison of the contents of the weekly papers falls victim to the obligations of trying to get a PhD. [Ed: this is why real web personalities get "guest 'bloggers"]. Once again, you’re on your own to figure out which is the weekly for you.

The main thing that you need to know is that this week’s papers don’t feature SIFF pullout guides, the “FLIP-FLOPS!” story advertised on the cover of the Stranger is more about the Microsoft Gay Rights (or Not) saga and not about U-district footwear, and the Seattle Weekly shares your sadness about Star Wars displacing SIFF at the Cinerama [#]. Finally, this week’s “Table of Contents” in the Stranger is the best ever.

As ever, we apologize for the inconvenience.

image: seattleinternational.org

So, it leaked that Seattle

I have a rather pointless fondness for nice round numbers, and so am overly excited about the fact that next Wednesday is the 25th anniversary of the Mount St Helens eruption.

The US Forest Service puts a wonderfully short description of the day on their website. There’s also a link to commemorative events but it’s worth it to note a few of them here:

• “Stories from eyewitness survivors,” to be held at the recently re-opened Johnston Ridge Observatory on Saturday 14th (or in Kelso if for some reason Helen decides on re-booming).
• Free volcano day (no fees charged at the monument and at the visitors’ center on SR 504) on the actual anniversary date next Wednesday. Come dare fate to strike again on a milestone occasion!
• On Saturday 21st, the finals for Castle Rock’s Volcano Building Competition (seriously, the real one was enough, right?).
  

My friends can be divided into two groups of people: those who Know Where They Were when Mount St Helens went “ka-plooey” (I believe that’s the technical term), and those who Know Of Mount St Helens Going “ka-plooey”. I’m in the latter group, and have been regaled by many a story of ash and loud noises, but am always up for hearing more, so I’d love to hear from our readers — where were you when the mountain went ka-plooey?