Yasmine Bouagga of UW’s Daily has been running a short series profiling a few Iraqi refugees, here in Seattle and elsewhere. They have powerful stories to tell.

• Out of home
• Resettling in Seattle

Today’s theme for Saturday in the Seattle Times and Seattle PI is sports. Specifically, sports for your pet.

(Photo by the Chinese news agency Xinhua)

(Photo from the R2 Fish School kit)

My puppy can dribble a basketball and tear apart a stuffed animal in 0.3 seconds. My cat could win a gold medal in sleeping. My tortoise…well let’s just say he would participate in the Special Olympics. Anyone else have a special pet?

I go to the Fremont Rudy’s to get my hair cut. I’ve been several times since I moved to Fremont in January. I don’t mind the usual wait of 20 or 30 minutes because Rudy’s has a plethora of reading material. There’s something for everyone, really. And if you’re the kind of person who doesn’t mind perusing softcore porn in public, Rudy’s is the place for you, too.

When I started going there earlier this year I noticed several Playboys hanging from the magazine rack. “Huh,” I thought to myself. “What kind of person would look at Playboy while waiting to get a haircut?” That was the totality of my thought on the subject until tonight when I noticed a kid (probably 12 years old) and his middle-aged father waiting to get haircuts. See, right behind the kid’s head hung a Penthouse. I paused at the sight and wondered if this trip to the barber was a little uncomfortable for the kid’s dad.

Dad: You sit here, Bobby. Here’s an issue of Seattle Sound. It’s cool, trust me.
Son: Why dad? I want to sit over there.
Dad: [Lame excuse for why the kid needs to face away from the wall.]

Honestly, if I was 12 years old and walked into a barbershop to see a Penthouse hanging on the wall I’d run home and call all of my friends and tell them to go get a haircut right now. But as an adult, for some reason, it made me stop and think. It’s amusing, really. I mean, I get it Rudy’s. You’re hip. You’re edgy. You’re not to be trifled with. But when I saw the Penthouse hanging behind the kid’s head, it all seemed so… affected.

Your stylists/barbers are still good, though. That’s the most important thing.

What say you? Is Rudy’s cooler for offering softcore porn in its waiting area or are they trying too hard? I’m genuinely curious what Seattle thinks about this (if anything at all).

On Wednesday I pointed you [mb] to a story about after six months of a guy crushing on a fellow Metro rider, a guy and his bus crush, met, dated, and eventually got engaged (on the bus). I couldn’t decide if it was cute or not (you really have to like the bus to not mind it being the site of your engagement, and it gives you a whole new perspective on fellow passengers).

It was certainly more prolonged and typical Seattle style than the story from last summer about NY Girl of My Dreams, and the guy who found his train crush via billboard, viral social networking, and network news. Today, Rex (fimoculous) points out a new site that bypasses craigslist’s missed connections, alt-weekly’s I SAW U’s, and massive ad buys called subwaycrush.com. (wher a Link-alike has already been spottedon the L-train [#] .)

Do you, like Paul Constant [slog], think that is impossible to translate to Seattle’s Metro? If so, is it the bus experience or the Seattle psyche?

I walked into today’s festivities at Qwest Field without expectation. It’s a good thing, too, because the first thing the Dalai Lama said was (paraphrasing), “Don’t expect much today. I’m an old man whose words are mostly empty.”

It began, though, with color and pageantry that seemed quite out of place in the ¾ full stadium. I’d only ever been to Qwest Field for football and soccer games so it was odd to see so many stern, focused, and sober people gathered.

King 5’s Carolyn Douglas was the emcee and her awkward, overly fawning introduction set the tone for some 40 minutes worth of speeches before the Dalai Lama said a word. Perhaps the best speech, surprisingly, came from Governor Gregoire. She was decidedly apolitical in her remarks about the importance of caring for children and her introduction of the Dalai Lama was appropriately respectful and tinged with just the right amount of gravitas.

Finally, the Dalai Lama was introduced to a standing ovation from the estimated 45,000 in attendance. He ambled slowly toward the front of the stage, his posture and gait not belying his age of 73. He smiled and bowed toward the audience several times and with a dismissive wave and a laugh urged everyone to sit down. Then he walked back to his seat, the Governor to his right and his interpreter to his left, and began to talk.

The next 40 minutes he spoke non-stop about compassion. He talked about compassion in the family, in the workplace, between nations, and especially toward the underprivileged. It was difficult to catch every word as the sound echoed throughout the stadium and his accent was thick. However, his message wasn’t lost. It being that there is another way and compassion is its primary component. The loudest applause came when he remarked about how we are all connected.

“The very concept of ‘we’ and ‘they’ no longer there. Whole world should consider part of you. Therefore, according to that reality, concept of war is outdated.”

I went today merely because I was curious. I’m not religious and am pretty cynical about celebrity – so, the idea that a religious celebrity could win me over seemed absurd. But the Dalai Lama is a charismatic guy who seems completely genuine in his advocacy for compassionate living. After hearing him speak in person, it was hard to walk away without feeling good that he’s in the world.

[poll=2]

Former Seattle Metblogs writer Jeremy says his girlfriend was awarded a $72,000 tax refund from the IRS. Ah, the joys of misplaced decimal points.

He’s looking for suggestions for what to do with this unexpected windfall. Hey Jeremy: the Metblog beer pool always accepts contributions.

An update to this post. The eviction notice was extended through April 18th, giving Csaky time to move his possessions. A second stroke of good luck followed, with two neighbors giving Squirrelman an RV to live in. According to the Seattle PI article:

Brandon Ferrante, 28, and Maria Bolander, 27, neighbors who watched Csaky build his treehouse and befriended the self-taught carpenter, found the RV on Craigslist after they learned of Csaky’s situation.

The pair, along with their landlords, Janet Yoder and husband Robby Rudine, agreed to buy the rig for $500 after its owner offered a special “Squirrelman” discount.

“It broke our hearts,” Ferrante said of the eviction notice. “He’s taken care of the neighborhood. We couldn’t sleep at night. We decided to make it happen.”
The RV — a 22-foot aging Monaco — arrived at 6:40 p.m. Tuesday, delivered by the owner, Timothy Custer.

When Custer witnessed the commotion around the doomed treehouse, though, he had a change of heart. He sold the rig to Csaky for a penny.

Full article here.

HOW TO HELP
People who wish to donate to Csaky, or know of a place to park his RV, should contact Janet Yoder at jlyoder@aol.com or send contributions in David’s name to Lake Union Mail, 117 E. Louisa St., Seattle 98102.

I tend to gravitate toward these stories when I’m up too late with a glass of wine nearby.

Squirrelman, aka David Csaky built a home for himself in the trees located on public land. Over the span of two years, he has managed to bring in many of the comforts of a typical home, including a sink and occasionally power for a small television when neighbors loan him an extension cord. One neighbor even forwards mail to Squirrelman.

The neighbors have accepted him into their neighborhood. It doesn’t appear that he is a nuisance to the majority of those who live nearby, most interviewed in the Seattle PI article mentioned that he kept the area clean and crime had gone down. Yet, one person complained to the City, prompting officials to start the process of evicting Squirrelman. He has no where to go that will accept his pets (a ferret, rat, and squirrel).

Here is the full article. I know that these laws and regulations are in place to help protect city property, but in this case, Squirrelman wasn’t doing bothering anyone. It’s one of those cases that saddens me and wish that the City could sometimes make exceptions.

People in Seattle sure love their dogs–every day it seems like I see a ton of different dogs out and about with their people. The AKC recognizes that Seattleites love their dogs by including Seattle in their web collection of lists of top breeds in top cities. [#]

The most popular breed in Seattle is the Labrador Retriever. The Golden Retriever and Yorkshire Terrier are number 2 and 3, respectively, and numbers 4 and 5 are the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel and the Poodle. The Pomeranian is number 6 and the Pug is number 7, which seems kind of low to me–there are times when I’ve seen up- to a dozen different pugs a day and if I’d guessed, they’d be the breed I’d have guessed to be most popular here. Also surprising to me is the Bulldog at number 8. I can’t even remember the last time I saw one around town. Finally, two of my favorite breeds round out the top ten with a tie: the Daschund and the German Shepherd. Labrador retrievers are popular just about everywhere (if you’ve ever known one, you know why) but Seattle dog owners otherwise resist following the trends that apply to the rest of the US, generally preferring “portable and apartment friendly toy breeds,” according to Lisa Peterson of the AKC. In a city where a substantial portion of the population lives in apartments or condos, this totally makes sense–the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, a dog well sized for apartment life, isn’t even close to the top 10 list for any other major city.

Photo by Miika S via Creative Commons

Dana of the Three Imaginary Girls has, as you might have heard, spent the last nine months growing a new human. And now the baby is here:

You can imagine how a buzz we’ve been at imaginary headquarters since about 24 hours ago when imaginary Dana first realized the baby was ready to say hello. We’ve been following her email updates and funny phone text messages since then, with a bottle of champagne ready for this most exciting announcement:

Ainsley Rose Fiona Bos has arrived!

Baby, mom, dad and kitty Fellini are all stellar and ready to rock!!! [TIG]

A welcome home mixtape is already being constructed, of course, and any suggestions can be left in the comments over at TIG. Congrats to the new imaginary family!