Hurricane Katrina taken on Aug. 28, 2005, at 11:45 AM EDT by NOAA when the storm was a Category Five hurricane. Photo courtesy of Flickr user GISuser.com.

Our friends in New Orleans are blogging while making preparations for Hurricane Gustav’s arrival. Metblogger Craig, a New Orleans restaurant owner and Katrina survivor, has chosen to weather the storm instead of abide by the mandatory evacuation order. From his latest dispatch:

We’ve had a series of customers today, most of which have announced they are also staying. They’re grateful there is SOMEplace open, even if they’re on their way out of town, since EVERYplace is closed. You know things are serious when both the Wal-Mart and the Discount Zone convenience store are closed. But we’re cheered a bit at the latest storm tracking report, which shows landfall of the center a little farther west than anticipated. Every mile west that landfall occurs puts us farther from the strongest winds.

I’ve talked with about everyone I need to talk to, informing them we’re staying. I finally turned my phone off last night to simply stop the calls and the texting and the explaining. We both slept very well, though we were up early to get things cranked up down here.

The city isn’t a ghost town. Traffic is more like early Christmas morning, with only occasional vehicles. We’ll park where we want to block the front doors tonight. But it’s apparently still a mess on the main highways getting out. Glad we’re not fighting that.

You’re doing a heckavu job, Craigie. (Really.)

You can follow Hurricane Gustav here. Best wishes to everyone down there — stay safe!

Photo courtesy of Flickr user John Pastor.

Our favorite local virtual big box retailer is set to release an updated version of its mysteriously bestselling e-book reader. Kindle 2.0 should be available in late September or early October, according to BusinessWeek. In addition to a larger screen, a less clunky design, and fixes to some of the more annoying UI features, the new Kindle is rumored to be aimed at students. Given the notoriously bad manufacturing and supply chain issues, I would expect the new Kindle to be consistently sold out until Fall of 2010.

Do you have a Kindle? Do you like it? I’ve still never seen one in the wild. I’m starting to think that a good scavenger hunt task would be to find someone with a Kindle and have your picture taken with it.

[via Business Week, Ars Technica]

Photo of ghostly server at Asteroid Cafe courtesy of smooshmasterflex.

We’re apparently in the last throes of Asteroid Cafe’s existence. Supposedly, a rent increase will close Asteroid for good in less than two weeks. I’m surprised it lasted as long as it did in its strange location sandwiched between Dad Watson’s and Anytime Fitness on Fremont Ave. I much preferred its original location on 45th in Wallingford — complete with a large fake asteroid sitting atop its roof. That said, the food was excellent and the staff friendly and efficient. It’s a shame to lose such a consistently good restaurant. I have my doubts that any restaurant could make a go of it in that location. With Asteroid gone, I predict either lots of turnover in that space or a full conversion into offices (which is really what it was made for).

So, get there before they close (I heartily recommend the Riggatoni alla Salsiccia). And be sure to ask about their final blowout party on August 31st. Best of luck to the employees — I hope you guys land on your feet.

Asteroid Ristorante e Bar Italiani
3601 Fremont Ave #207
Seattle, WA 98103
206.547.9000
http://www.asteroidcafe.com/

Pagliacci Pizza really wants us to vote. Click the picture for a larger view.

With my pizza last week came a lesson on how democracy is supposed to work. Thanks Pagliacci! Your seasonal Tomato Basil pizza was amazing and now I know why we vote in November as opposed to June. Next time, though, please cite your sources. The whole underside of the box was left unused.

(Seriously, vote. And seriously, their seasonal Tomato Basil pizza is amazing.)

Sculptor Kevin Pettelle drapes his arm around his creation called Late for the Interurban.

Many hundreds of people attended; lots of red noses in the crowd.

Lt. Governor Brad Owens, King County Executive Ron Sims, Congressman Jim McDermott, and Governor Christine Gregiore attended the unveiling. J.P. Patches himself can be seen to the right of the clock.

J. P. Patches' sidekick Gertrude

A police officer is the first to donate to the ICU2 TV fund. All proceeds go to Children's Hospital.

A Keystone Cop directs a group of clowns away from busy 34th Ave in Fremont.

Willie Bloomquist attempts to throw out a runner at 2nd base. photo by kevin.devin

If you’re a casual fan, you’ve probably forgotten all about the Mariners. You may even think that by now, after several years of miserable personnel decisions and a mostly lopsided win-loss record, they may be headed for a rebound. Please allow me to disabuse you of that notion vis-à-vis commentary regarding the Mariners’ recent choice not to part ways with starting pitcher Jarrod Washburn and his absurd contract:

U.S.S. Mariner:

In case you weren’t sure, today was a great reminder that we’re all rooting for the worst run organization in baseball. There’s not another franchise with worse leadership or more incompetence in positions of power. From the CEO on down, these people don’t know baseball. They don’t know how to run a baseball team, build a roster, or win baseball games.

This organization is a massive collection of failures. They pile ridiculous decisions on top of each other, only outdoing their stupidity with an arrogance that refuses to learn from their mistakes. They are the Pets.com of MLB, only they refuse to go out of business.

I’m far too attached to the childhood memories I have to ever root for another team, but if the M’s screw up this offseason and don’t completely overhaul the baseball operations department, hiring somebody who actually understands baseball, I’ll spend the next few years rooting for these people to fail miserably and be embarrassed publicly.

These people don’t deserve success. They deserve to be looking for new jobs.

Fire them all.

Lookout Landing:

For some reason the Twins generously granted the Mariners a glorious opportunity to at least partially undo one of their greatest recent mistakes, and they passed it up. In so doing, they only confirmed that, while Bavasi may be gone, his legacy remains, and that this is an organization that doesn’t understand the first, most fundamental thing about building a baseball team. This was a gimme. This was some higher power saying “hey you guys have been through enough, here, let me give you a break.” And the Mariners didn’t care. They just didn’t care. Were this a college exam, the exam consisted of one question, and the question was “Spell the word ‘blue’,” and the multiple choice answers were (A) blue, (B) green, (C) yellow, (D) black, and the Mariners wrote “6″ on their Scantron. This was the easiest test you could imagine, and the Mariners failed.

They failed.

Just sayin’.

I don’t what’s worse, that KOMO thought this was a good idea or that Jenni Hogan agreed to it.

Drayer’s firing is especially puzzling. Her blog was well regarded by the difficult-to-please Mariners blogging community and her interviewing skills were second to none. That she was able to earn the respect of the most hard core fans while fitting in with the players in the clubhouse was a very unusual feat. No reason was given for her firing but the M’s horrible season has surely lead to a ratings decline. Additionally, this is KOMO’s final year broadcasting Mariners games and it appears they’ve already started divesting.

Next year KIRO will broadcast Mariners games resuming the duties they lost in 2003 [times]. They would be smart to hire Drayer post haste.

[via Geoff Baker]

Today, we finally receive the news his comeuppance may be close at hand. According to 10ZenMonkeys the plaintiff in the $75,000 lawsuit filed against Fortuny in April was finally able to find a valid address for him and a summons has been issued. This means at least one victim of Fortuny’s will get his day in court.

According to the suit Fortuny “acted with actual malice to harm and deceive the individuals responding to the Craigslist ad.” The suit demands a jury trial and seeks a full slate of damages — compensatory, statutory, and punitive, plus attorney’s fees and costs.

“Plaintiff has suffered, and continues to suffer, harm arising from the foregoing wrongful conduct by Mr. Fortuny,” the lawsuit complains, identifying the victim as John Doe and arguing that the incident affected his private life “and the manner in which he is viewed among family, friends, and colleagues.”

I don’t know if this suit has legs but I do know which side of the fence I’m sitting on. Did I mention Fortuny will be representing himself?

[via waxy]

What’s your favorite Seattle song?