January 2008

18 things to do with your kids

By Lauri Hennessey

Okay, it's a new year again.

Sure, 2008 sounds like science fiction (I think it all started sounding science-fictiony when we hit 1990, so I have nowhere to go but down). But a new year is a new year.

We all want to do better as parents, right? But we are busy. We all want to make resolutions in the new year. But keeping them takes time. And we all want share great values with our kids, but we look up, and we have never got around to it.

That's where the clip and save philosophy comes in.

'Fred Claus' is fun to watch

Director: David Dobkin

Rated PG

(Two Stars)

By Bruce Bulloch

The best movies are an ethereal alchemy of talent and skill, while the worst are a perfect storm of bad choices. But those films that find themselves in the undistinguished middle are sometimes not so much consistently mediocre as incomplete. They fire brilliantly on a couple of pistons, just not all of them.

I must disagree with my fellow-Lutheran, Ron Marshall.

In my opinion, Jim McDermott did the right thing in voting against that resolution affirming the primacy of Christianity. The proposal is blatantly contrary to the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion. Enact such a law and you can say "bye-bye" to freedom of religion.

Further, I would offer that if the proponents of that resolution were trying to witness; this kind of legislation is not an appropriate evangelism tool.

In your Dec. 26, 2007, letters to the editor, Suzanne Uschold, a Denny parent, writes that she would "hate to see one more thing I voted for in this city overturned," Well, my dear, not to fear. If Seattle Public Schools does not go forward with this plan, you can rest assured it is not because of how we voted.

There is a fiction being foisted upon this community that we voted to combine these schools. Au contraire.

Seattle is best choice

By Richard Conlin

On Monday, Dec.

Is 30 too many? Is 30 enough?

Thirty is the number of people appointed to the new Alaskan Way Viaduct Stakeholder Advisory Committee, chosen to represent commercial, community and civic interests surrounding what will replace the center section of the viaduct after it's razed in 2012.

But not everyone feels the range is fully covered. And few know how they were chosen.

"We haven't a clue how the committee was picked," said Jerome Cohen, immediate past president of the West Seattle Chamber of Commerce. "We were surprised by the selection process.

A frequently used buzzword these days is sustainability, which refers to methods for perpetuating the lifespan of everything from plants to architecture.

Megawatt is a nonprofit organization that was established four years ago to bolster the sustainability of West Seattle. Although it helped the broader community, the group realized it cannot sustain itself.

Seattle City Light is urging its customers to be on guard against telephone con artists posing as utility bill collectors.

A City Light customer reportedly received a phone call from people claiming to be a City Light employee.

Macy's essay contest

Madison Middle School sixth grade student Alia Paddock recently won the Macy's "Follow a Leader" essay contest.

The competition involved writing a letter to one of 26 Seattle business leaders. Alia chose to write to Brenda F. Barnette CEO at the Seattle Humane Society for Seattle King County. There were 600 entries submitted by students in grades four through 12. Alia was one of the 26 entry winners.

She received a $1,000 U.S. savings bond and attended a luncheon at the Seattle Times with the business leaders and the contest winners.

County Councilmember Dow Constantine will chair the Council's Transportation Committee and Committee of the Whole under a leadership plan unanimously approved in December.

Constantine was also elected as the Council's vice chairman for policy and will continue his service on the Sound Transit Board.

"I'm honored to be chosen for these key King County Council leadership positions," said Constantine.