I’ve had a number of people alert me that the Wallyhood Forums, and open area where you can post messages for your neighbors, hasn’t been functioning for some time.

A month or two ago, a Chinese spambot got a hold of the forum and began posting literally thousands of messages an hour advertising colleges, presumably for SEO reasons. I added a captcha (a simple math problem) to prevent automated posting, but the task of clearing out the spam that had been posted in the meantime proved daunting.

Well, I finally decided to just purge all the old content and start …

Pejo McHutt* posted a link to this map, circa 1901, to the Facebook Seattle Vintage group recently, and it left me wide-eyed.

The original map appears on David Rumsey’s Map Collection which notes a publication date of 1901. This has me a little puzzled, because from the best that I can tell, street names were changed from their original names (above) to those we know today as part of Seattle’s Ordinance 4044, passed in 1895 following the Great Seattle Fire of 1889.

Still, so much to wonder about! First off, note that this is before the Fremont Canal …

Kate writes:

Lincoln High School is looking for girls to join the LYNX ULTIMATE FRISBEE TEAM!

If your high school doesn’t yet offer this awesome sport, join us! Anyone living in the Wallingford, GreenLake, Phinney & Fremont area is eligible to play.

Calling all GIRLS who want to play ultimate frisbee this spring! Join the new Lincoln HS Girls Ultimate team. No previous experience needed – learn the sport while making new friends.

Practices start February 24, and league play begins in March.

In honor of their 66th anniversary, Dick’s Drive-In will be serving up hamburgers and cheeseburgers at their 1954 prices today, Tuesday, January 28th.

“We were thrilled at the number of customers who came out to celebrate with us last year,” said Jasmine Donovan, President of Dick’s Drive-Ins and granddaughter of the namesake Dick Spady. “To ensure we are 100% ready to serve every customer who celebrates with us this year with great service, we’re splitting up the 19¢ days.”

So that means it’s 19¢ burgers at the Wallingford and Broadway locations today, Wednesday for the Lake City, Holman Road and …

The Octopus, dislodged from its original home sandwiched between the now shuttered Guild Theaters, had hoped to re-open tonight in their new home on the corner of 45th and Bagley to mark their sixth anniversary. Unfortunately (and predictably), construction delays have pushed the re-opening out, according to co-owners Liza Danger and Trevor Marsh.

“We had to double the power to the building,” Trevor told me, “but when our electrician submitted the plans to the city, the reviewer had some issues with the designs. We escalated it to a senior reviewer, and the plans were ultimately approved, but the back-and-forth process …

Late last year, a group of neighborhood volunteers announced the formation of the Friends of Meridian Park (FOMP), an officially sanctioned “Friends of” of the Seattle Parks and Recreation Department. They’ve been meeting and pulling together a set of recommendations and are hoping to get some public input on priorities. Would you mind taking this short, five question survey for them?

Take the Survey

From what I can tell, the big challenge with Meridian Park is the same one facing open spaces around Seattle: a growing homeless population, many of whom have mental and substance abuse problems, with nowhere …

Add to the list of local businesses going out of business (Sunday’s New Business Roundup mentioned Alphabet Soup, Paper Delights, Crackerjack Contemporary Crafts and The Grizzled Wizard), The Red Door in Fremont has announced today they’ll be locking up for good soon, too:

Friends,
It is with great sadness that we share that we will be closing the Red Door at the end of our current lease, and our last day of business will be Sunday, March 8th.

We take our stewardship of this historic building and business seriously, but we just aren’t able to make it work financially. We …