From the Los Angeles Times:

SEALED away tightly in its shell, an Olympia oyster isn't much to look at. It's small — ranging from roughly the size of a quarter to a 50-cent piece — and it's flat. If you came across it on one of the rocky beaches around here, you'd probably be more likely to try to skip it across the bay than eat it.

But pop the oyster open and slip it in your mouth. Despite its delicate size, an Olympia packs a wallop. The first thing that hits you is brine, like taking a sip of the ocean on a cold winter day. Then there is that distinctive cucumber/melon rind middle. When you bite down, the sea-slippery texture yields a surprising crunch. And then the flavor finishes with a bright, coppery aftertaste that lingers in your mouth for minutes.

There are several review sites on the web, Apartment Ratings looks to be one of the more active.

Especially fun to figure out when a review was actually written by apartment management, rather than residents.

WASHINGTON - Most Americans and a majority of people in Britain, France and South Korea say torturing terrorism suspects is justified at least in rare instances, according to AP-Ipsos polling.

The polling, in the United States and eight of its closest allies, found that in Canada, Mexico and Germany people are divided on whether torture is ever justified. Most people opposed torture under any circumstances in Spain and Italy.

Article continued: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10345320/

Keep an eye on the caption for the caiman photo here at OlyBlog. Notice that the caimans keep changing what they are uniting against? Or more accurately, they keep changing what they say they are against.

Who really speaks for the caimans? If a caiman growls in Olympia, does anyone ever really hear?

Next time someone invites you to join them for a smoke in a dark alley, think twice.

This message brought to you by C.A.R.T. (Caiman Awareness Response Team).

Wikitravel (a project to create a free, complete, up-to-date, and reliable world-wide travel guide) has an Olympia entry that needs attention and contributions, we are all encouraged to join in.

Do these models work for OlyBlog participants? Are they relevant for our wider Olympia and world discussions?

In American culture there are two opposed and idealized models of the family, the Nurturant Parent model and the Strict Father model. The metaphor of the Nation as a Family maps the values and relationships from those family models onto our politics, creating "liberal" and "conservative" political positions that we understand through our models of family structure.

The progressive worldview represents, metaphorically, the Nurturant Parent family model, and the conservative worldview represents the Strict Father model. The two models come with distinct moral systems that are founded on different assumptions about the world, interpret shared values such as responsibility or fairness differently, and center around different moral priorities.

The Olympian weighs in with Passport rule will harm tourism.

They do a great job detailing the process of getting a passport here in Oly now:

First of all, there are only three outlets: the Olympia Post Office, the county clerk’s office and the juvenile and family law center. The post office processes applications from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m. Monday through Friday. The family law center takes applications from 10 a.m. until noon Monday through Thursday, with the clerk’s office open from noon until 2 p.m. Monday through Thursday.

Passports are relatively costly, too: $67 plus a $30 processing fee. Applicants must have passport photographs, a certified copy of a birth certificate and picture ID. It takes six weeks after an application is filed for the passport to be issued.

Maybe because I've not yet had enough coffee, all I can think about is that our postmark will be taken away, but we will have to get passports to travel to Canada. I am so confused.

From Doctor Jeep:

As many (all?) of you know, I'm a motorcycle rider. Every year in Olympia, there's a massive parade of motorcycles, the first Saturday in December. Everyone brings either money or a toy/gift/clothing for a child. The parade starts in Lacey and goes about 3 miles to downtown Olympia, around the Capitol campus and back down to Marathon Park next to Capital Lake. The toys and money are donated there to the Salvation Army.

The post includes pictures of the run.