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Canadian-born Redmond resident and typecast actor James Doohan died last night at age 85. Known mainly for his role on Star Trek, the actor came to accept his fate as being forever remembered as a fictional space engineer:

In 1973, he complained to his dentist, who advised him: “Jimmy, you’re going to be Scotty long after you’re dead. If I were you, I’d go with the flow.”

“I took his advice,” said Doohan, “and since then everything’s been just lovely.” [cnn]

Condolences to his family and fans and cheers to Doohan for finding a wise dental practitioner. We should all be so lucky.

The DeLuxe Bar and Grill (on the Southwest corner of the Broadway, Mercer, and 10th Intersection of Capitol Hill) has come up with several lovely concoctions perfect for sunset drinking. I stumbled upon the Key Lime Pie Kazi quite by accident last weekend and was so thrilled by it that I found it necessary to return Monday for another.
The Key Lime Pie Kazi is a refreshing blend of Vanilla Stoli, Triple Sec, Rose’s Lime and lime juice. It is shaken with ice and filtered into a martini glass that is lined with, get this, graham cracker crumbs. My server told me Monday that the secret ingredient not listed is pineapple juice. I couldn’t taste any, but will take it into consideration when I set up my -ROH lab in the garage.

If fruity isn’t your thing, may I suggest the Chocolate Hazelnut Milkshake? Chocolate and Coffee Hazelnut vodkas mixed with Frangelico and half and half (2% available upon request) and served in a pint glass over ice. Dairy Queen, go to hell!
Aside from cocktails, the bar offers an extensive collection of beers and microbrews on tap along with Thomas Kemper’s root beer for the group teetotaller.

The food at Deluxe is rather hit and miss. I am told the burgers are good; a bonus is that you can get any one on the menu for $4.99 on Wednesdays. They come with thick, well-seasoned fries that still look like they came from a potato (always a bonus).
The salads sound incredible on the menu, but I was disappointed when I received the Smoked Cheddar Pear Salad. The cheddar and pear was sliced for the sake of presentation and sacrificed function; it is never my intent when eating a salad to have to reach for my knife. I was also highly insulted to discover the dark, rich greens were simply a mascarade over chunks of iceberg lettuce; the bane of my existence! If I want iceberg, I’ll go to Denny’s.
On the appetizer menu, the Arepas are a sure winner. Moist corn and cheddar cakes grilled and served with fresh avocado and a spicy tomato salsa. It’s a fabulous blend of flavors. The artichoke dip is tasty as well, but a little too heavy for my taste.

To summarize – go for the drinks, head elsewhere for the food. There is no reason to risk unsatisfaction when there is plenty of good grub elsewhere on Capitol Hill. If you get stuck with the munchies and are unwilling to interrupt conversation, your safest bet is a burger.

A Little Bit of Knowledge
An electrician believes he’s discovered a flaw in Einstein’s theory of relativity and sets out to prove to the world that he’s right. And other stories of people who think a little knowledge makes them experts. Pictured: Six-year-old DJ, with his two dads, Dan Savage and Terry Miller. DJ is being raised by two gay men, but he has a six-year-old’s understanding of what gay means. Which is to say, he doesn’t understand it at all. Though he does oppose gay marriage. Broadcast the weekend of July 22-24 in most places, or available via RealAudio next week.

http://thislife.org/images/shows/293/dan_dj_terry.jpg

Sure, the real world news cycle is now obsessed (Karl Rove, who?) with John Roberts, the person chosen to fill a vacancy on the Supreme Court [nyt]. But here in Seattle, there’s another surprising opening: on their weblog, the Stranger reports [#] that Helen Loveridge has resigned as director of the Seattle International Film Festival and is heading back to England after running a record-breaking festival this year. (I think that Loveridge was the second director in the history of the festival — she took over the in September 2003 after SIFF founder Darryl Macdonald left to become the director of the Palm Springs International Film Festival).

At one of the SIFF parties this year, I talked to Helen about her upcoming search to find a new apartment. I just assumed that it would be a new place on Capitol Hill, not in an entirely different country! Perhaps the SIFF logo of birds flying off into the distance was meant to be symbolic?

Dust off your resumés, the festival is already looking for a replacement; there’s no word on the schedule for the confirmation hearings.

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update: The P-I has a few more details [#]

Though it’s a bit of a challenge to write about this one, I’m compelled to note on the far-off-the-wall, mind-bending news item that left water-cooler discussions at the office speechless. I’m surprised none of my Seattle Metroblogging colleagues have yet bantered about the freakish activities in the rural town of Enumclaw, 45 long miles southeast to our dear city of Seattle. So, here I am daring to give you the story for those not in the know [or perhaps you just don

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Greetings and Salivations!

It looks like I’ll be setting up shop in a little corner of the Seattle Metblog so I figure this would be a good place to give you an idea what my little workshop looks like and why I put it here.

I am a recent transplant to the Pacific Northwest. I move here by way of 5 years in Los Angeles, 2 in San Diego, 15 in Pittsburgh, 15 in Philadelphia, with just a touch of New York City, and 8 1/2 months where I was temporarily insane and felt Baton Rouge would be a good idea. Yup, mamma raised me to be on of them thar city fell’rs. (Please tell me I needn’t flavour with well placed ‘sic’ markers)

What this translates to is that this venue will be as much a learning process for me as I figure out everything from the mundane veterinarian all the way to the strangest underground dive. Oh, and you’re gonna get a look into the casinos of the Pacific Northwest. I’m no Wil Wheaton, but I think I could take him heads up. Yeah, we can consider this a challenge.
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