July 2016

By Amanda Knox

The paparazzi like to describe their relationship with celebrities as symbiotic, and when you look at the Kardashians, that seems like a reasonable way to frame it. But just because a few socialites have learned to exploit their own exploitation, as doctors have discovered medical uses for the leech, does not make the celebrity-paparazzi relationship mutually beneficial.

Do most celebrities sign up for their entire lives to be fodder for entertainment? Perhaps some do. And yes, famous actors and musicians benefit from being recognizable for their work. But the current media culture isn’t satisfied with covering just the art they make. The paparazzi interfere in their personal lives, humiliate, glamorize, defame and dehumanize them. Why? Because we want them to.

Westwood / Roxhill / Arbor Heights Community Council Agenda

Date: 08/01/2015 Location: SW Library Branch, 9010 35th Ave SW
Time: 6:15pm - 7:45 pm Meeting Type: Public Meeting

Delridge Meeting: Youngstown Cultural Arts Center; 3rd Wednesday of the Month; 7:00 pm
Southwest Meeting: West Seattle Senior Center; 1st Wednesday of the Month; 6:30p
City Neighborhood Council: City Hall - Rm 370, last Monday of the month; 6:30pm

6:15-6:20: Introductions & Community News: Night out tomorrow August 2nd!

6:25-6:35: Committee & Neighborhood Council Updates

Metro Committee: Amanda Kay Helmick
Infrastructure Committee: Chris Stripinis
Bog Committee: Rory or David
Roxhill Park Committee: Amanda Kay Helmick
DNDC/CNC/SWDC: Amanda and Eric

6:35-6:45: Find It, Fix It Community Action Team: Lemmis Stephens here to talk about the grants for the Find It, Fix It Walk.

By Peggy Sturdivant

“I’m going back to work next Monday,” Evelyn Gardner told me, “It’s going to seem so good.” Not just any Monday back to work as she’s been home for several weeks after a fall. The 93 year-old can’t wait to return to her friends at Ballard Food Bank. However an important fellow volunteer won’t be there on her return. The other 93 year-old volunteer John Booth died on June 28th, having left his shift a bit early the day before.

Evelyn Gardner and the late John Booth are just a few of the volunteers, including Thelma Anderson and Lou Mushta who have worked there 1-3 days per week for over 20 years. “I’ve been there twenty-four,” Gardner clarified. “Volunteering is fun, because you don’t have to do it.”

As Ballard Food Bank staff and volunteers learned about John Booth’s death their reminiscences shed light on the camaraderie that exists among people who have been working together by choice for decades, often starting after retirement in their 70’s.

Seattle Police arrested a 37-year-old man after he led officers on a several-mile chase on a stolen bicycle July 18.

Two bicycle patrol officers, Henry Feldmann and Tabitha Sexton, were patrolling the area near 24th Avenue N.W. and N.W. Market Street, and they witnessed the suspect ride past them around 6 p.m. The officers had knowledge that the suspect was wanted in relation to a felony fraud case. They followed him.
They called out for him to stop. The suspect heard them and took off toward the industrial area of Ballard. Officers pursued him for three miles. According to police, a bystander attempted to stop the suspect by throwing his own bicycle in front of the suspect. This action knocked the suspect off his bike. He was momentarily slowed down but remounted and took off.

Officers finally took the man into custody near the intersection of N.W. 43rd Street and Eighth Avenue N.W. The suspect was carrying a small amount of methamphetamine. He was also riding a stolen bicycle. Police booked the suspect in King County Jail.

To the editor:

What’s with this Age of Consumption, where the customer is always right, where we, the people, deduct monetary amounts from internet accounts with little plastic cards, where the IPAs ubiquitously flow from man-made springs built into walls, where oysters, sushi, fois gras, naan bread, samosas, pho, cheese steaks, and poke bowls have become common place. Fat in the bogs of surplus the world and our necessities in it have become unclear.

We assume that when we buy something we deserve perfection, that perfection has a price tag on it and if we can afford it then it is ours to have. A pernicious little nugget when people become those objects. We’ve propagated, diffused the master-servant dichotomy because we like to be in the driver seat. And when we enter a restaurant, unlike those other moments of toil, tribulation, and adherence, we are in charge.

Or so we think.

By Katy G. Wilkens

According to the dialysis patients I work with at Northwest Kidney Centers, the high-salt food they miss the most on their medically restricted diet is bacon. The smoky-sweet salty flavor improves the taste of lots of foods, and the crispy texture can be a nice contrast in everything from a BLT sandwich to a green pea salad.

Can you go salt free and still experience the joys of bacon? I can think of two ways to do that – a grocery store method and a do-it-yourself method.

At the supermarket, you can find commercially packaged low sodium bacon. But most is only 20 percent to 30 percent lower in sodium than regular varieties — and bacon is so salty to begin with that even reduced-sodium types are high in sodium. Besides, the World Health Organization recently listed preserved meats as carcinogens. That’s yet another reason to find an alternative.

By Tim Clinton
SPORTS EDITOR

BREMERTON--PacWest found itself fighting like a fish upstream at the Big League West Regional all-star baseball tournament, but still managed to reach the semifinals before bowing out.

Southern California proved to be the biggest obstacle, beating the team by a 10-0 score in a Friday semifinal on its way to a Saturday morning championship date with Hawaii.

But PacWest survived pool play previously with a No. 5 seed despite having a 1-3 record -- with all of the losses coming against the top three pool finishers.

That put the team of 14-15 year olds playing in an age 16-18 tournament up against No. 4 seeded Arizona to open the single elimination portion of the tournament Friday morning, and PacWest prevailed in that game, 2-1.

That sent PacWest on to the semifinal meeting with Southern California.

PacWest had a rocky beginning to the tournament played entirely at the Kitsap County Fairgrounds in Bremerton.

In between a hectic schedule of loitering and lollygagging, I found time to turn on TV the other day. The remote landed on a nightly cable news program---one of those where the host talks faster than an auctioneer, and the guests are lucky to squeeze in a couple of gerunds or a dangling participle before they are interrupted.

You might have noticed that some of those shows ever have reasonably non-confrontational names these days like On the Record and Your World. (The show titles Polite Conversation and Reasoned Discourse are not currently being used.)

Hardball is just about the most contentious name going right now since Crossfire went away some time ago. But after the dust settles following this election cycle, look for grittier show titles: The Ruckus Factor, Hostility & Stones and Cockfight Tonight.

By Amanda Knox

The paparazzi like to describe their relationship with celebrities as symbiotic, and when you look at the Kardashians, that seems like a reasonable way to frame it. But just because a few socialites have learned to exploit their own exploitation, as doctors have discovered medical uses for the leech, does not make the celebrity-paparazzi relationship mutually beneficial.

Do most celebrities sign up for their entire lives to be fodder for entertainment? Perhaps some do. And yes, famous actors and musicians benefit from being recognizable for their work. But the current media culture isn’t satisfied with covering just the art they make. The paparazzi interfere in their personal lives, humiliate, glamorize, defame and dehumanize them. Why? Because we want them to.

information from SWSHS

Reviewing the years of her childhood, education, teaching and counseling, work as "Rosie, the Riveter" for Boeing, political activity with the National Organization of Women, community organizing, performing musical and comedic entertainment, Georgie Kunkel will talk about her book Color Me Feminist at "Words, Writers & West Seattle's" monthly book-talk series.

The Southwest Seattle Historical Society sponsors this free book-talk series on the 'First Friday' of each month. This presentation of Color Me Feminist, the 35th installment of the series, will take place at 5 p.m., Friday, August 5th, 2016, at Barnes & Noble/Westwood Village.

After Kunkel earned her Bachelor's degree from Western Washington University and her Masters from the University of Washington, Kunkel discovered she could not get a teaching contract if she was married. Later, she was fired four times while teaching for being pregnant so it took her longer to be able to retire after teaching school for 15 years and working as an elementary school counselor another 15 years.