…couple-O-daze for yr. o’b’d’n’t web-scribe. I did a marathon temp gig in exotic Renton. (It’s now ended.) I was there, methodically shoving pieces of paper through a machine, when my Evening Magazine segment aired. (They’d promised they’d tell me when it would run; damn.) You may be able to see it at this link.

Other things have happened as well.

• Wednesday started locally with P-I political writer Joel Connelly grousing that John McCain’s been getting a free ride from the mainstream media. The day ended with the NY Times regurgitating rumors that McCain allegedly had an affair, eight years ago, with a woman far younger than he, who worked as a lobbyist for telecom firms and broadcasters—including for Bud Paxson, of the “family friendly” Pax (now Ion) network. (Pax, you may recall, in 2004 was the chief TV conduit for the “Swift Boat Veterans for Truth,” the guys who were paid big bucks to tell lies about John Kerry’s Vietnam service.)Personally, I don’t care about his past affairs, just as I didn’t care about those of Bill Clinton (whose impeachment McCain supported). But I do care about the other half of the NYT allegations, that he’d bestowed legislative favors upon Paxson and other friends-of-friends whilst promoting himself as Mr. Let’s-Clean-Up-Government.
• In good, potentially great news, the Seattle Landmark Preservation Board decided to pursue saving Ballard’s beloved Manning’s/Denny’s building! And somebody’s already proposed a scheme to save the building, as a restaurant, while building complementary-looking housing on its parking lot.
• Discover U, the longstanding for-profit offerer of reasonably priced self-help classes and group events, has suddenly shut its doors. Now, where will Seattleites learn how to cleanse their colons, find love at any age, or start an eBay business?
• HD DVD, RIP.

…mighty blustery day, here’s what’s nooze:

• Obama, Clinton, and one of them Republicans: They’re all coming to town to cajole caucus goers.
• Local house prices somehow held their own.
• Boeing’s 787 flies in June—this time they’re sure.
• There’s one less indie dairy operation in Western Washington. Wilcox Farms plans to leave the biz.
• Delta and Northwest sitting in a tree…
• The all mail-in ballot? Not yet, in King County.
• Beyond every formerly-new computer, TV, and cell phone lies the wonderful world of potentially toxic e-waste.

…are being axed at the Seattle offices of the store formerly known as The Bon Marche, as the Cincinnati parent co. decides the answer to a failed consolidation strategy is even more consolidation.

(My apologies if that word-wraps weirdly in your browser.) As we await the potential end of at least one party race, knowing we’ve got our own state caucuses this Saturday, here’s some other nooze:

• Bush’s budget has good news for Sound Transit, bad news for education and health care.
• The Legislature’s working on relief for tenants of condo-converted apartments, just as that trend seems to be reversing.
• Oregon had gay marriages, then it didn’t. Now it’s got “domestic partnerships.”
• Georgetown: Potential haven for live theater groups displaced by gentrification elsewhere.
• Tully’s Coffee, which has turned a profit in exactly one of its 16 years, might be for sale.

…already got a list of five potential Microsoft/Yahoo! “enhancements:” “The new MyMicrosoft! offers features like real-time Web chat with Microsoft programmers who can explain how you’re using your computer wrong, and E-mail newsletters on how dumb the general public is. Unsubscribing costs just $9.95 per month.”

…a new month, and largely the same ol’ nooze:

• Ron Paul, in town for two quick speeches, brought forth some more of his right-fringe, anti-gov’t. talk. Then he and his aides drove off in a minivan to Spokane, presumably hoping the WSDOT crews had gotten the passes reopened.
• Microsoft offers a whoppin’ $45 billion in an unsolicited bid to take over Yahoo! (which, in turn, owns Flickr, HotJobs, GeoCities, and a bunch of other stuff).Of course, I remember when its name was a “backronym” for “Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle,” and its chief service was a categorized directory of other Web sites. For a couple of years, my daily morning routine included a quick glance through the “What’s New On Yahoo!” page, which told me everything that was new n’ exciting on that rapidly-growin’ World Wide Web. In time, as you can imagine, that became a too-cumbersome way to look for stuff online. Yahoo! expanded into other Web-based businesses—a lot of other Web-based businesses.

  Now, MS wants Y!’s search sites, and will pay big bucks to get ’em. What would happen to the rest of Yahoo!’s sprawling network of sites? MS would likely keep (and rebrand) some, fold others into its existing MSN, and close or sell the rest.

• The former Harvey’s Tavern in “Freelard” (Leary Way, between Fremont and Ballard) is yet another ex-dive bar going upscale.
• Remember when Kroger/QFC wanted to take over the Metropolitan Market site on Upper Queen Anne (nee Queen Anne Thriftway), as part of a huge condo project? Now it’ll be a smaller apartment project, and the developers have invited Metropolitan Market back when it’s done.
• Joe Isuzu calls it quits, at least in the U.S. market. No more “millions of standard features.”
• Mayor Nickels hearts Obama.
• A former Bartell Drugs pharmacy technician pleaded guilty to filing fraudulant prescriptions on his own behalf.
• New border rules bring no big delays, at least in terms getting south from There to Here.
• Freak accident of the day: A truck, being towed by a crane, gets loose, rolls downhill, and runs into two bicyclists.
• Sound Transit might suspend plans to extend its still-under-construction light rail line all the way to Tacoma. Don’t stop now! Channel your inner Little Engine That Could!

• The Philadelphia Cheese Steak stand at 23rd and Union, formerly Philly’s Best, is the best of its type in town. It’s had two owners over the years. Both are now homicide victims.
• A consultant from out-of-state refers to Seattle’s schools “a tale of two districts,” of the haves and the have-nots. Essentially, education for the downscale has floundered, while administrators have spent the bulk of their attention trying to keep upscale families from fleeing to private schools or the burbs.
• Port of Seattle officials promise to be more transparent in their operations in the future. Of course, that could mean the bribes and the kickbacks and the sweetheart deals could just become more overt.
• Developers want to stick up a high-rise hotel where the beautiful, if age-showing, 81-year-old Seattle Greyhound bus station is now. Damn! I love that place. It’s got so many stories within it of people parting, reuniting, etc. etc.
• There’s a computer store somewhere with a window sign proudly offering, “We Remove Vista.”
• Amazon buys Audible. Say that five times fast.

…Rudy Giuliani to kick around anymore. In other nooze:

• It’s a June trial date for the case of Seattle v. Sonics. That way there won’t be any distractions in the way like, say, playoffs…
• The state will stop the hideous practice of shipping inmates to out-of-state private prisons, far from families and appeal attorneys.
• When an independent entrepreneur deliberately bilks folks who pay into doomed investment schemes, he’s called a criminal. When, oh let’s say, banks and mortgage companies do it…
• “29 reforms.” Remember this number. It’s the number of changes a task force sez the city needs to make to bring more accountability to the Seattle Police.
• For now, Costco won’t get to buy beer and wine direct from their makers. A court said the chain has to still buy thru wholesalers in this state.
• Patty Murray hearts Hillary Clinton.
• Did you know Panasonic made TV sets in Vancouver USA? (Emphasis on the past tense.)

…anxiously awaits the long-threatened but still nonexistent Snowstorm ’08, here’s what else has been going on:

• That plan to restore the boarded-up, aluminum-clad windows at the King County Courthouse? Not gonna happen.
• That plan to channel state money for a Husky Stadium remodel? Not dead yet.
• Seattle’s finally getting a new strip club; sure enough, it’s situated right alongside the unofficially-named South Lake Union Trolley.
• The many human services groups based at First United Methodist Church are packin’ up and movin’ out. The last church service at the classic sanctuary: Easter, 3/23. That building’s being saved for commercial use, but the ’50s-era annex building’s going away.
• There’s good news for music lovers: Capitol Music, the city’s top vendor of orchestral instruments and sheet music for more than 90 years, has reopened in Roosevelt, a year after development consumed its last downtown location.
• Caucus or primary? Wash. state’s got both.

…And in the nooze:

• The local biz world would be a less poppin’ place if out-of-staters take over WaMu.
• Affordable-health-care advocates have picked their current local target business—not some big-box retailer but the venerable 13 Coins restaurants.
• The Wash. State Legislature— America’s second gayest.
• Metro’s got more riders than ever. Don’t worry; the Eymans and Reicherts will keep insisting on car-only transportation solutions, no matter what.
• Coyotes are so 2007. The new feral menace in Seattle: Exotic cats.

…for Evening Magazine went lovely yesterday morning. We shot at a variety of locations, including the freshly re-closed (alas) Andy’s Diner and the under-destruction Rainier Cold Storage building.

Elsewhere in recent days:

• Blood bank bias. Say that five times fast.
• The next local company to potentially get bought out: Getty Images.
• Today’s AT&T: Wannabe Internet censors.
• Washington Mutual used to call itself “The Friend of the Family.” We didn’t know “the family” meant its own top execs.
• Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren: One more year, then it’s quits.
• With all the hoopla concerning oil spills and sludge, one can forget that diesel watercraft pollute the air too.
• This is the dawning of the age of asparagus.
• More Catholic boy-abuse claims are made, this time dating back to the 1950s.
• A research study by two “nonprofit journailsm organizations” concludes: Bush lied. A lot.

• The UW wants $300 million for a Husky Stadium upgrade, half of that from pubilc sources.
• Clay Bennett’s people claim nobody would miss the Sonics.
• Mt. St. Helens: gathering a second wind or tiring out?
• Washington Mutual lost nearly $2 billion last quarter.
• Sensational media stories aside, crime in Seattle is its lowest in 39 years.
• What’s on the rise: The oceans, and therefore Puget Sound.
• What’s on the swift decline: Those silly stock prices.
• Did a Fed. Way judge try to cover up her affair with a defense attorney whose cases she was trying?
• My ol’ hometown of Marysville might get its very own UW branch campus.
• The feds’ great idea for preserving Columbia River salmon stocks: Kill the sea lions who gather at the dams for all-you-can-eat fish dinners.

…to the 27 people who attended my li’l book event at the Form/Space Atelier gallery. If I’d known I’d have had a mike and a stage and a desk, I’d have scripted something.

IN SATURDAY’S NOOZE:

• Declared too damaged to be preserved, the City’s allowed developer David Sabey to demolish the Stock House at theold Georgetown brewery complex on Airport Way, the pre-Prohibition home of Rainier Beer.
• A marriage made in heck: Wife runs a street ministry to drug addicts in Tacoma, hubby sells crack in Seattle.
• Sonic Boom Records is leaving Fremont, in another instance of the arty and funky disappearing from neighborhoods that have been sold to home buyers on the basis of their artiness and funkiness.
• BankAmericrap is bailing out Countrywide Financial, onetime big blowers of the housing bubble.
• Wash. state challenges the Bushies on draconian anti-privacy regulations.
• The ferry system doesn’t know where to put all its out-of-commission boats.
• What? You mean to tell me old pier pilings are bad for the water?
• Pat Cashman has a 30-year-old son, who won some online joke-telling contest. In other passage-of-time news, Madonna will be eligible to join AARP this year.
• And in case you haven’t heard, the Seahawks play an extremely important playoff game this afternoon.

• Some Washingtonians got beautiful, beautiful snow this morning. We don’t. Oh well.
• A small-town mayor in Oregon was caught posting underwear pix on her MySpace page. Some humorless citizens want her to resign. I say to these citizens: Don’t you believe in open government?
• Big UW donor (and ex-Everett mayor) to UW execs: If you fire the football coach, I’ll donate a hundred grand.
• The “passenger” dolls used by carpool-lane cheaters are getting quite artistic.
• A state senator wants to repeal the Port of Seattle’s taxing authority. As if that would solve anything; they’d just waste the money they get from airlines and shipping lines.
• Gov. Gregoire has a new plan for a new 520 bridge, with “road deck narrower than some earlier designs” above “smaller pontoons.” There’s no joke here; I just like typing the word “pontoons.”
• Seattle Center can go ahead and regulate street performers. Remember: When clowns are outlawed, only outlaws will throw pies.
• The state Legislature will debate whether to force school districts to buy more locally-grown lunch ingredients, presumably not including pot.
• There’s another lawsuit over alleged Catholic boy-abuse, this time involving O’Dea High School.
• Apparel chain H&M (not to be confused with K&G) will open three area stores this year.
• And Bill Richardson may quit the Presidential race, while John Kerry hearts Obama.

M. Coy Books is indeed shuttering, after 18 years on Pine Street. The last non-chain, general-topics bookstore in the downtown retail district has indeed lost its lease, and the two Michaels who run it have decided the business is too marginal to relocate. The Michaels have always supported my work, even when I was reduced to self-publishing.

THE VIRGINIA INN’S current incarnation closes Jan. 13. It will reopen in an expanded “double wide” format, including a full kitchen, in March.

AND CRANIUM, the local board-game enterprise that got big with a deal to sell games at Starbucks, is selling out to toy mega-monster Hasbro. The latter’s brands include Monopoly, Scrabble, Candy Land, and the locally-invented Magic: The Gathering.