Apr 15, 2011

Today is “National Don’t Buy Gas Day”. The premise of the day is obvious. In order to show your outrage over high gasoline prices, the organizers of the event urge you not to buy gasoline today. While I vaguely support this endeavor, the problem with such a “protest” is obvious. Since most fuel companies account monthly or quarterly, it is of no...

Apr 12, 2011

As a former bicycle messenger, these stories are near and dear to my heart: Seattle Police are looking for the driver of a red minivan that slammed into a bicyclist in Belltown then drove off, leaving the biker critically injured. The crash happened around 7:00p.m. Monday on First Avenue between Bell and Blanchard streets. The bicyclist, a 30-year old man, was...

Apr 7, 2011

Speak of the devil. “Neighbors in Lake City are fighting back against the mayor’s plan to add bike lanes to a big North Seattle hill, eliminating two lanes for cars. This week, yellow-and-black signs questioning the change to Northeast 125th Street appeared on the hill with the main number for Mayor Mike McGinn’s office. The Seattle Department of...

Apr 6, 2011

When the King County Prosecutor refused to prosecute Ian Birk, I was pretty angry at Mayor Mike McGinn for not doing something tangible to make things right. I felt that his speeches after the fateful decision were long on words and short on substance. I thought then, and still do, that he should have fired the Seattle Police Chief. I also wretched several...

Jan 25, 2011

It’s kind of like Disney on Ice, except with more Hipster Douchemonkeys and less ice. For several years, mostly during the mid-late 80′s and very early 90′s, I was a bicycle messenger. A real, working bicycle messenger in DC and NYC who supported myself (and a few bands) by avoiding buses, cops, cabs, and women drivers from New Jersey for 10...