photo by our own denny trimble [flickr] who checked out the I-Sustain photoshoot [dailyscore] over the weekend. If you see something cool, let us know about it via our group pool [#]

• A case of the bad neon = wtf mac store [flickr]
• Mark you calendar: Bike Polo in Cal Anderson on Wednesday. [nwff]
• Advice to Tacoma court clerk: If a prisoner sends you sweet nothings through the prison mail, and asks you to intercede on his behalf, just say no. Quote Meatloaf: “I’d do anything for love, but I won’t do that.” [abovethelaw]
• On the occasion of George W. Bush’s visit, an enthusiastic Republican youth proves that irony is, in fact, dead. [slog]
• Still, other presidents have gotten better receptions in Seattle. [bigblog]

Everybody’s favorite President is getting ready to make a grand appearance at 4:30 this afternoon at Bellevue Hyatt Regency to support U.S. Rep Dave Reichart. As we get closer and closer to the magical time, 400 (plus) anti-war protesters continue to line the streets in Bellevue, marching from an earlier rally to the intersection at NE 8th and Bellevue Way. [times]

I’m all for protesting the ridiculousness that is called our President, however, here’s a little word of advice from Metroblogging Seattle:

If you’re going to make a protest sign, please use the proper form of their/they’re/there. Otherwise, you’re going to come across looking like a completely uneducated idiot, which doesn’t support your cause.

Happy protesting, Seattle! (or Bush supporting)

Photo by Adam Harvey

Last week, whilst perusing the West Seattle Blog (who are those masked bloggers anyway?) I noticed a small entry about a restaurant for sale in the 98116 area [wsb]. They opened up comments for guessing on which restaurant it could be and some people started speculating that it was Blackbird Bistro, a restaurant I love for its super delicious ginger cosmos (infused on site!) and yummy rotating breakfast menu [mb].

I admit it, I totally panicked. I wrote a hasty email to the address listed on Blackbird’s site and crossed my fingers that the speculation was not true.

Well, I must have been living clean the last couple of days, because my begging the heavens above resulted in a very nice email from “Eric at The Bird” declaring that “the rumors are NOT true” and that they are not closing or selling or in any way taking away those Blackbird bloody mary’s from my Saturday morning routine.

PHEW! It may not seem like such a predicament to some, but I love that place. Contrary to the experiences of some of the commenters on the WSB post, I have never had a bad meal or bad service there and its demise would have crushed me. So there.

Over the weekend, the Post-Intelligencer recapped the gridpocalypse that wasn’t as gridpocalyptic as some predicted [p-i]. Even though things weren’t catastrophic, Some interesting stats about the highway during construction:

• delays as long as 45 minutes
• traffic backed up for two miles past the construction area
• speeds averaged 10 mph.
• volume increased on Route 99 and Interstate 405.

The big story is that volumes on I-5 still were as much as 44 percent lower than a year ago, although it doesn’t seem like this can be explained by alternate forms of transport, which mostly spiked on the first day of construction, dropped thereafter, while generally remaining higher than normal throughout:

• 1,000 additional riders who took King County buses daily during construction (a 10 to 12 percent increase)
• Sounder trains from Tacoma ran 45 percent higher ridership (dropped and leveled off)
• Hundreds more commuters used the Water Taxi (587 during the first morning rush hour to 183 three days later)

All of this non-catastrophy is already inspiring people to come up with schemes to solve future traffic problems before they begin. So far, ideas include a commuting schedule inspired by drought scheduling [bikeseattle] and a lottery-like “license-plate cordon around downtown” to determine daily city driving privileges [times]. Others wonder if “adjustment” is really so surprising or necessarily even a good thing. [citycomforts]

But just when you thought that the non-nightmare was over, the President comes to town to snarl traffic and raise money. [p-i]

I was on the bus on Saturday, heading to (and then from) Greenwood, and scattered all around Greenlake there seemed to be cardboard cutouts of children. It looked like they were holding signs that said something, and on the back of them was more writing, but I was not going to get off the bus just to see what they were. They didn’t appear to be fixed in place; or anyway, I watched a strong gust of wind knock a couple of them over.

I figured that if anyone would know what they were it would be you, our brilliant and lovely Metroblogging Seattle readers. Any ideas?

Update: Aaron O. solves the mystery–they’re for Seattle Family Services’ Don’t Just Look Away campaign, which will put hundreds of lifesize cutouts of children around Seattle, Bellevue, Redmond, and elsewhere in King County. They’ll be holding signs that say things like, “We live in a car” and “We had to leave because my daddy hit my mommy.”

The early hours of Tuesday bring us the rare opportunity to witness a total lunar eclipse. Our friends at NASA have all the info you’ll need.

Photo by J.C. Rojas via Flickr.

I’m heading into the hills Monday night with a couple of cameras and a few friends to carry them for me, but you won’t need to leave the city to see this. So take a nap after work, and wake your ass up around 2AM to catch the show! The weather looks promisingly clear and pleasantly warm, with lows in the mid-50s.

You can be sure that thousands of dilated pupils on The Playa will be looking up at the same moon as you are.

Bonus round: If you’re a super-astro-photo-nerd like I aspire to be, you’ll also have a chance to catch an Iridium Flare while you’re up (though the pre-dawn light may drown it out). Flickr has many shiny, shiny examples of these lovely alignments of the sun, a satellite’s trajectory, the angle of its panels, and your location on the ground at a certain time.

If you’ve ever wanted a box of bar towels with dancing elephants on them or a dozen leopard print flasks or “I love you” candles in bulk, get yourself down to Ballard Avenue today between 12 and 3 for Archie McPhee’s sidewalk sale.

Now, I know you’re about to ask: “But Patricia Jane, Archie McPhee had their sidewalk sale back in July, didn’t they?”

Of course they did. I even have a box of crap in my bedroom to prove it. But they decided they had so much crap that a second sidewalk sale was needed. So get their early for the best selection of crap… err… merchandise. I know I’m hoping to find the motherload of wedding favors. Hmmm, I wonder if my guests would prefer the leopard print flasks, the dancing elephants, or boxes and boxes of cocktail demons?

You’re the kingpin of metro Seattle conservabloggers. You could argue that you’re a minor local celebrity. I mean, having a regular gig in The Stranger once upon a time counts for something, right? I mean, you’re not exactly MySpace maven Ken Schram, but a decent-sized chunk of the locals know who you are.

So, you know that with a little bit of celebrity comes a little bit of the fishbowl. If you aren’t thrifty, clean, loyal, and obey the law of the pack, then people are going to talk. And if you cultivate an image that’s counter to the conventional wisdom of everyone else in town, some people are going to be predisposed to having a negative opinion about you. Like this guy.

Having dealt with the constant vitriol by retreating to the safety of your young family, you schlep down to your local and have yourself some dinner. There’s this waitress there. Maybe she’s a little crazy, maybe she just hates you with the burning hate that’s hotter than the twin suns of Tatooine. Whatever. You undertip her by Seattle standards, 10%. (I mean, really Stefan, 10%? What did she do, serve you the BLUE Plate Special when you wanted it on a RED plate?) Maybe the kid was being five.

And then it turns out the waitress was blogging it.

Now, you had two options before you. You could take the high road, shrug it off, not even mention it on your blog, drop her a private email telling her to take all the shots at you but your family was off-limits, and just let it go.

But the high road… no, that’s not what Ol’ Stefan Sharkansky would do.

So, congratulations, Stefan. By publicly responding to something you probably should have just let go you made yourself look as petty as Ms. Vindictive did. In fact, now she’s a sympathetic character, and you look like a bloviating boob reinforcing this town’s stereotypes about the right wing. And bonus points for going after her at both her jobs!

Way to go!

Update (day late edition): Show’s over, folks. Or is it? No, it’s just turning into a gossipy pissing match. More like a slapfight, really.

I hemmed and hawed over whether I should delete this post. Ultimately, I’ve decided that stet is probably the right option. I’ve always been a optimist about blogs, that they are tools of great good that build community, spread ideas, and spread freedom and the free exchange of ideas. But there are some detractors who think blogs are nothing but aliterate devices of unprofessional people who act like thirteen year olds. To those who decry blogging, it’s about stroking egos, spreading libel and slander, and using massive retaliation, bullying, and intimidation to crush others.

And I usually wave those people off as just print journalists unwilling to grok the media paradigm shift of the last ten years. But then something like this comes along, where you have three people playing out exactly what they say happens — a little slander and a lot of bullying. So, in the end, I can’t delete this, because in a sense, I’d be saying that a single mom and a Stanford-educated computer programmer can’t act like a seventh grade drama queen and an eighth grade uber-bully instead of being adults.

The critics have a point. Doesn’t mean we can’t hope for better, but it is worrisome when they’re right.

Bork-bork jokes aside, Marcus Samuelsson is probably one of the best-known Swedes in New York City, and certainly one of the more innovative chefs in Manhattan. In partnership with owner Håkan Swahn, his two restaurants (Aquavit and Riingo) have re-imagined Scandinavian culinary traditions for a new, transnational world. An example is the way Samuelsson has combined traditional Swedish expertise in pickling herring with the way that sushi is constructed and presented in Japanese cuisine.

Samuelsson is coming to Seattle this Thursday as part of Starbucks’ “Coffee is Culinary” tour (a claim which comes as no surprise to anyone who’s ever eaten Trader Joe’s Chocolate-Covered Espresso Beans.) Seems our own local mega-roastery has asked to the Swedish chef to co-design some new coffee blends (Ubora & Joya del Dia). Samuelsson is also touring to promote a new cookbook showcasing food from his native Africa, called (with apologies to Tracy Kidder?) The Soul of a New Cuisine. Catch him at 1pm on Thursday, August 30th at the Madison Park Starbucks (4000 East Madison).

Local literary magazine Rivet is throwing a fair this Sunday, August 26th, at the Richard Hugo House on Capital Hill. For $7 you get admission to the fair, which includes a pie-eating contest, a cakewalk, and musical performances from local bands, including The Maldives. Spend a little more and get a variety of schwag. The Rivet Fair kicks off at 1 pm, see their site for full schedule.