Another Batdorf and Bronson, that's for sure.  We really don't need businesses that pretend to be hip to attract the cream of the customers.  Sure the likes of LHD are fine when they are creating their "hipness", but this apparently was just eye wash.  It really seems that B&B wants to cater to the likes of the state workers and they are happy to abandon the customers that created their "hipness"  Don't need B&B, not if they forget where they came from.  I'll be happier to frequent "FourBucks", at least they have tables outside.

As I was going from downtown toward the West side this evening. I noticed a very high tide. It was higher than I remember seeing it; ever. This was around 5:30 p.m. Tide was scheduled to peak at 6:38 p.m. (according to salt water tides.com). The height in feet of the predicted tide was 15.5 feet. But the water was at a level higher than when the tide has been predicted at over 17 feet.

The high water was above where it was last winter, when the rains and floods elevated the water in Budd Inlet.

Any thoughts? Global warming came to mind. Is it possible that we could be seeing the effects of ice melt? What other factors (besides run-off, which was virtually non-existent today) could contribute to such high water?

[September 9 addition:]

High High Tide on September 9th.

What do teens say about Plan B? Just ask

The feds made a lot of assumptions -- based on zero science or sociology -- about teens and young women gone wild if given unfettered access to the Plan B morning-after pill.

Finally, under pressure, they listened to reason, approving over-the-counter sales.

Next, rationality trumped ideology at the Washington State Pharmacy Board when, just over a week ago, the white coats compromised on a previous ruling that would have held the pills hostage to any given pharmacist's personal objections.

Now the pills won't exactly be "over the counter" but more like behind the counter until a customer proves she is 18 or over. But at least it's a stride toward sanity.

Still, in three years of bloviation over the needs and behaviors of "kids," did anyone bother asking the "kids" themselves?

"The idea of access to Plan B causing promiscuous sex is total b.s.," says recent Seattle high school grad Meryl Roepke, 18, who already has racked up miles on the road to dispelling myths by working with Teens for Choice and by lobbying in Olympia.

Initially she was "ecstatic" about the decisions mentioned above -- that is, until the part about "over the age of 18" hit her with a thud.

Like a lot of reasonable people, Roepke figures that it's people under the age of 18 who are least able to handle unplanned pregnancies, abortions, the physical toll of birth, or the responsibility of raising children. So they're the ones we ought to be helping most with emergency contraception. It seems to her a contradiction to say that we want to lower the teen pregnancy rate but we're not going to give them access to prevention.

She also thinks that Plan A ought to be a healthy dose of practical sex education to keep young people from needing Plan B in the first place.