A tribute to eccentrics

Our garden writer shares why those who refuse to follow the herd can best teach us.

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Eat and walk your way through Northwest cities

Our Whidbey Island correspondent shares her favorite way to explore the food and atmosphere of Portland, Vancouver, and Seattle.

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All the rage

What's to blame for all the anger as cyclists, drivers, and citizens fight over their rights on the streets? Is it $4 gas? Young punks? Class warfare? Poor urban design? It's time to theorize.

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Sausage Links, transit migraine edition

Ready to pay $6.85 round-trip to drive across the 520 bridge? Me neither. That's the proposed toll that would raise money to help pay for improvements to the floating fossil. But the idea of a toll begs another question, something I've been dying to get reader input about: Do you think having a toll on local bridges like 520 will sway voters to vote for the proposed light rail measure this November? Thoughts?

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A building worthy of greenery

Vancouver's in-city oasis, VanDusen Botanical Garden, hopes to go green big-time with a $23 million visitor center that could be the region's first structure to meet the most rigid sustainability standards.

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Fill it with American regular

While Fourth of July vacationers might be excited to see fireworks tonight, they won't be as enthusiastic about Washington's skyrocketing fuel prices. The Seattle Times reported on the recent 1.5-cent increase in the state's gas tax, the last of a three-year, 9.5-cent increase. So while commuters currently pay $4.35 per gallon, 55.9 cents of each gallon goes back to Uncle Sam, or George in Olympia.

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Sausage Links, potty-humor edition

Democratic congressional candidate Darcy Burner's home was "severely damaged" by a fire this morning. Horse's Ass has the coverage, while NorthWest Cable News has the video. ...

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Sausage Links, media-bashing edition

Lefty blogger David Goldstein at Horse's Ass has been battering the local media lately. Yesterday, he unleashed on Seattle Post-Intelligencer reporter Chris McGann for his coverage of Gov. Chris Gregoire's now infamous state gambling compact. Today he asks Crosscut's Ted Van Dyk to apologize to Gregoire for his own coverage of Casino-gate. ...

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Music festival alert: Vancouver, B.C., is the place for jazz

One of the world's premier music festivals is going on to the north of us, and lovers of live music ought to sit up and take notice.

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Hurray for mass transit, but it's no silver bullet

For one thing, bus and rail ridership represents only a fraction of trips now, and that's not likely to radically change soon. A Seattle think tank believes a balanced approach is called for, accepting the fact single-occupancy vehicles will play a huge role in years to come.

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Seattle's Hollywood 'Head Hunter'

For Northwest history geeks, the most anticipated film event of the season is a rare chance to see a rare film, the just-restored 1914 silent, In the Land of the Head Hunters by Seattle's photographic master Edward S. Curtis. Known most for his monumental work photographing North American Indians, Curtis is mainly remembered and widely collected as a still photographer. Yet he also worked in film (including a stint for Cecil B. DeMille) during cinema's infancy. The "shadowcatcher" caught moving pictures, and his feature will be on screen again in June.

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Vancouver, B.C., loses some ground as a sustainability leader

In recent years, Vancouver, B.C., has provided Seattleites with eco-friendly examples of sustainable, compact communities. As recently as the 1990s, Vancouver's walkable neighborhoods accounted for 67 percent of the population, enabling broad use of bicycles and public transportation. British Columbia also has ambitious goals for addressing climate change and recognizes the painful inconvenience of rising gas prices. The cities of Vancouver and North Vancouver are listed as having the highest percentages of compact communities. However, these numbers are slipping.

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The need for cruise control

An environmentalist explains why better federal regulations are needed to police polluters among the world's fleet of cruise ships: State and local authorities can only do so much. Over six months this year, Puget Sound will see 211 big ships bearing 835,000 passengers call on Seattle.

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The Northwest's real fairy tales

When it comes to Northwest legends, we usually think big: There's Bigfoot, D.B. Cooper's Big Heist, Paul Bunyan and his Big Blue Ox — even the Big White Worm of the Palouse. This tradition goes back. When Jonathan Swift documented Gulliver's travels in the early 1700s, he placed the land of the giants, Brobdingnag, in the Pacific Northwest — somewhere between what we know today as British Columbia and Alaska. But we have our mini-myths, as well. Yes, Northwest giants are fun to think about (remember Olaf?), but take a minute to think about our munchkins.

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Annals of Northwest secession

A primer of regional separatist movements, real and imagined.

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Hey, what about an Absolut Ecotopia?

A vodka ad stirs anger and nationalism, tapping a history that links to the fight for the Pacific Northwest.

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A Canadian is shaking up the Northwest newspaper business

If printed papers are dying, publisher David Black of Victoria acts like the happy guy at the funeral.

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The Vancouver gambit for building roads and transit in Seattle

When British Columbia announced its $14 billion plans for new transit early this week, it upped the stakes for competition among West Coast cities in the transit Olympics. It also injected itself in what will be a hot debate in Washington — the use of private investment to build the next generation of transit and highways.

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2007 in review: Mossback hunts down the wildest animal stories of the year

Giant swimming rats, seducing Sasquatch, and bear-hunting at the Vancouver Olympics.

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Selling the Northwest's global genericism

One of the virtues of travel is that it gives you a chance to see how your part of the country is selling itself to the outside world. After flipping though a copy of Alaska Airlines magazine on a recent flight to San Francisco, I have to say that if Horace Greeley were shilling for regional real estate developers, he'd be saying "Go West in style, yuppie scum!" He'd take out a full-page, four-color ad to do it, too. Current real estate pitches emphasize wealth, urban amenities, and a let-them-eat cake luxury lifestyle that is the antithesis of anything remotely regional or rooted. Local color? No. Rain? What's that? Moss, mountains, a frontier spirit? Hmmm, call the valet to take out the trash.

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