Judge rules program wrongly reduced aid

Caimans are not noted for their sense of humor. They especially hate puns since many of the subtleties of English are lost on them. They also don't like being made the butt of jokes.

This was a comic drawn by myself and the fabulous Brad W. Foster back around 1986. Note the goofy reptilian characters. Now I'm probably on some list!

One morning a week a very noisy garbage truck would visit the common area between the four dorm buildings and wake up the residents with that annoying high-pitched alarm indicating the vehicle was moving in reverse. At some point we noticed the truck was visiting almost every morning. Did it have to be so loud, and so early, and so frequent?

Something about this didn't sound right to the housing officials. Upon investigation they discovered that the same guys who were behind the tic-tac-toe game (mentioned in Evergroove trivia, pt. 19) had also taped the annoying high-pitched alarm and were playing it at very early hours for the enjoyment of everyone.

As one would expect, Evergreen had many talented artists, musicians, cartoonists, and writers. One of my favorite student artists was a guy named Kevin Wildermuth who attended TESC in the mid-1970s. Kevin considered himself to be a conceptual artist and thirty years later continues to follow his passion. If you know the Seattle gallery scene, I'm sure you have seen his work.

His masterpiece, as far as I am concerned, was the result of some town-gown coordination. Somehow Kevin had managed to talk a nice elderly woman in his Maple Park neighborhood into taking part in this effort. Her name was Rosie.

While Rosie sat in a chair, Kevin was behind an enormous piece of card stock paper propped on an easel. An early version of the videorecorder (probably a U-matic) was documenting this scene, and I believe he had it on a tripod so there was no third person involved. Rosie was seated in a position where she could not see what Kevin what drawing. The artwork was also hidden from the videorecorder. And finally, Kevin himself could not see what he was drawing. He was wearing a big blindfold.

After he finished drawing, the artwork was slipped into a huge envelope. If memory serves, I believe he did this twice, resulting in two envelopes containing artwork no one had seen. Not Rosie, not the camera, not even the artist himself.

The envelopes were then sealed. Rosie and Kevin went to a notary and had a statement verified that the artwork in the envelopes was indeed never seen by a human eye. Then he stamped the words "Certified Unseen" on each envelope. When the envelopes were exhibited in the Library art gallery, the notary statement was also on the wall. Maybe the videotape was there too, because I remember watching it someplace or other.

For a while, Kevin lived at the bottom of Harrison Hill, in a funny little house, now long gone, that would have been at the SW "corner" of today's roundabout. There was traffic light at the bottom of that hill, and if you visited Kevin you were treated to the constant sound of screeching tires.

It's a pretty good feature about how Wal-Mart operates and how they're able to keep prices so low. I suppose one might say, "employee wages" but that hardly seemed to be the only reason.

It is a beautiful day for a nice relaxing walk around Capital Lake. It is so warm, you might even take off your shoes and dangle them in the cool, refreshing water. But hurry! Soon it will be too late!

Shouldn't the Department of Homeland Security be involved in protecting this clinic and insuring that it can continue to function. From the Olympian:

When an arsonist torched their clinic nearly a year ago, Eastside Women’s Health Clinic owners Nancy Armstrong and Shelly Pacheco vowed not to let fear keep them from providing abortions.

But when they reopen the clinic Monday, after a year working out of a double-wide trailer in the parking lot, there will be no more abortions.

It wasn’t the arsonist who stopped them, but their insurance company.

After the Jan. 9 fire, which burned through the roof of the building and destroyed much of the interior, the clinic’s insurance company canceled its coverage. Other insurers quoted them rates more than 10 times what they had been paying.

“The insurance companies think, ‘Oh, you had an arson because you do abortions. We’re not going to insure you,’

From the Olympian:

OLYMPIA -- The Port of Olympia appears to be closer than ever to a deal to sell West Bay property to the city for a waterfront park.

The port's negotiations regarding the 7.2 acres on the uplands of West Bay have been conducted in secret since early last year. Spokesmen for the port and city have been publicly mum on the progress, with occasional expressions of frustration from port officials about the lengthy but fruitless efforts to agree on terms.

But the issue has made it onto the port's public agenda to be addressed at the commissioners' Monday meeting. A West Bay "sale authorization" has been scheduled as a potential action item by port commissioners.

Also Friday, City Manager Steve Hall said he would privately address progress in the talks with City Council on Tuesday. State law allows government agencies to negotiate and discuss land deals in private.

"We're very close (to a sale), but not close enough to have all the details worked out," Hall said Friday. "Our goal is to sign a deal by the end of this year."

City officials consider the West Bay site as key to creating a continuous walkway around Budd Inlet to Percival Landing. But delays in working out details of the sale have sparked some frustration among port commissioners.

The Olympian votes against family bed:

Thumbs Down: Bed Sharing

While the temptation might be great, parents should avoid letting their infants sleep in their beds. Infants who sleep in their parents’ bed run a greater risk of sudden infant death syndrome, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. The academy is on record advising parents to return their babies to their own crib or bassinet once they are done nursing or comforting them in bed. Bed sharing, in part to make it easier to breastfeed, has grown in popularity in recent years. But it seems the practice, albeit well intentioned, is hazardous to an infant’s health.