We're sorry to hear our neighbors up on 47th and Wallingford suffered a fire today. Mary Jo sent in this report: My husband and I were walking home from dinner when we saw gray smoke pouring into the sky over Wallingford Ave. We walked over to find 4710 Wallingford Ave having what looked like a huge fire in their backyard and the back of the house. There was not a single emergency vehicle in sight, however, there were about 50 neighbors.…
When we were growing up back east, every year there was a "bulk trash day", where you could put out as much crap as you wanted, including stoves, couches and the like, and the city would pick it up. Of course, in the days leading up to it, we kids would roam the neighborhood scouring through what others considered "trash" looking for treasures. We were rarely disappointed. Wallyhood tipster Annie T alerts us that there's an effort afoot to nationalize this…
Just came across this story on the Seattle P-I's 911 blog (Dangerous gamble works for robbery victim): A dangerous gamble paid off for a Wallingford man robbed at gunpoint Tuesday night. About 9:41 a man returned home to his home on First Avenue Northeast after a trip out of state. He told police that when he got out of his vehicle, two men demanded money. One had a gun. The man gave them $6,000 in cash from his pockets, according to…
Get yourself ready for the University District Street Fair this weekend, whether that means dusting off your old india print sarong or just arranging your weekend so it involves no attempt to travel east of I-5: The U District StreetFair is the kick-off event for the festival season in the Seattle region. It is also the longest running street festival in the nation! Self-described as "country fair meets urban retail corridor", the StreetFair attracts more than 50,000 people and over 300…
We've been chatting in e-mail with Peter G., aka "Dayspring", about geocaching, a sort of big game of hide-and-seek: people hide "caches" (typically a small waterproof container with a log-book and maybe some fun trinkets for taking) all over the world, then publish the GPS coordinates on a web site (www.geocaching.com). The best geocaches involve some sort of puzzle or twist (such as an elaborate means of extracting the cache). Dayspring's, for example, are "puzzles, some point out often overlooked artwork,…
Lots of bike stuff coming up: the biggest is the nation-wide Bike to Work Day tomorrow, Friday (which is today by the time you read this, probably). Get the petromonkey off your back, break that glass and steel cage and ride! There's an after-party over in Ballard if you're game, where, of course, you can continue on to the already promoted Kidical Mass. And hey, if you didn't like Kidical Mass' name, we definitely don't recommend you check out the Urban…
Who is Caspar Babypants? WHO IS CASPAR BABYPANTS? Not a character from the Nickelodeon version of The Usual Suspects, as we at first believed, but the nom d'enfant of Chris Bellew, lead singer of indie rock band and home town heros The Presidents of the United States of America. Looks like he's sidelined indie rock and is taking a turn at producing kids music. Wallyhood Tipster Jenny T. clued us in that he'll be at the children's book store Alphabet Soup…