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[...]With Senator Lincoln's agreement resulting in the magic number of sixty, the Senate's version of the health care reform bill will proceed to debate—a key step.
This version, like the House bill that passed earlier, contains a public option. The senate's bill allows states to opt-out of the public [...]

We have several poetry readings, several boat-type readings, and a book about looking at Puget Sound like an artist today. Then there are the book events we are actually going to hear about. To wit:
Friends of the Library is hosting a Mini-Book Sale today at Magnuson [...]
The Battle Continues: The Senate votes on whether to begin debate on health care reform today. Democrats were close to reaching the 60 vote threshhold last night. Every fucking Republican still pledged to vote against it.
Shooting on Capitol Hill: A man was shot in the chest last night, [...]
Visit our film page for all your wide release needs, including Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire, The Blind Side, Planet 51, and more.
Plus, Charles Mudede explores the New Italian Cinema Festival at SIFF Cinema, and I review the [...]
On NPR's On the Media. (The Stranger's story about the project is here.)
Paul Mullin accompanies this announcement with his usual broadside.
There’s a stereotype about Seattle, and especially its artists, and even more especially its theatre aritists, that we have an inferiority complex. We have trouble believing that [...]

JoanJeffryThe foundation isn't yet listing this year's winners on its site, but our 2009 Stranger Genius is now a 2009 Joan Mitchell winner, too. He gets $25,000. Here are last year's winners.
A man was just sentenced to 11 years in prison for beating his wife—with her consent.
Timothy Thompson, a former news reporter for Portland radio station KXL, will have 11 years and 6 months in prison to think about the severity of what he did to his wife Susan and [...]
Maybe this is really dumb question, but... would it be possible to save a piece of the Viaduct as a park/outdoor concert and performance venue? Kind of like the High Line in NYC? It could start at Seneca—walk out of the Seattle Art Museum and take a stroll to [...]

For Strangercrombie, we asked six local artists to donate one-of-a-kind piñatas—but we had no idea they would do it up like this. The piñatas are starting to come into the office today, and they are Seriously. Freaking. Amazing.
Here's a sneak peek at one of them, [...]
The Corner of Sweet and Bitter at Open SatelliteThis morning the video artist Meiro Koizumi got on a plane with his wife Yuka and went back home to Japan after having spent two months [...]
At last night's Post-Election Analysis forum sponsored by Senator Jeanne Kohl-Welles, Governor Chris Gregoire announced that, unlike last year, she expects there to be at least some new revenue to soften the expected cuts to balance the $2.6 budget deficit. Political operative Nigel Herbig tweeted this from the event:
At [...]
After only a few weeks in Alaska, I'm convinced of one fact: If Sarah Palin is a racist, it wasn't from her childhood in Wasilla. (What am I doing in Alaska? This.) By most measures, the Anchorage area is more ethnically diverse and integrated than most places I've' [...]
This is pretty delicious...
I guess the Noblesville, Indiana Going Rogue book signing didn’t go very well yesterday because 300* or so of the 1000 people with wristbands were asked not to tread on Sarah Palin and then she tried to make a getaway with Baby Trig and several duffel [...]
Is this the future of the internet?
The British government has brought down its long-awaited Digital Economy Bill, and it's perfectly useless and terrible. It consists almost entirely of penalties for people who do things that upset the entertainment industry (including the "three-strikes" rule that allows your entire family [...]
Sure they do. But why do they hang low? And why don't they hang lower? Why isn't your scrotum bright red? Why doesn't your scrotum have feathers? Science has the answer.
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' [...]I met a guy about two months ago through weird and serendipitous circumstances on my last visit back home to Tucson and he's great in so many ways. We get along really well, have a lot of common interests, his friends and family that I've met so far I like' [...]
Is the subject of a profile in the NYT... travel section? The article doesn't say much about Seattle theater except that it exists, it includes/ed people like Bart Sher, Kurt Beattie, et al.
Also: "Offbeat delights abound."
In the "offbeat" category:
Teatro ZinZanni, for instance, offers a five-course meal and a European-style' [...]
Move over risky-business-underwear-girls. Little Channing's about to out-viral your asses...
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[...]"I AM A FISH AND I LUV BOOBZ"Hello, dudes and dude-enthusiasts. The dudes of Broken Lizard are in town for a live show at the Moore tonight, and while they're at it they're doing a little promotion for [...]

JeanineAnderson / Stranger FlickrThanks, Fish Fry!
It's back, tonight and every third Friday of the month forever and ever!
Free fries and $2 Fat Tire pints: Happy hour is especially happy this evening from 5 to 7 p.m. at Pike Street Fish Fry and [...]
All the people who rail against Republicans in general and Sarah Palin specifically for ignoring the facts (about abstinence-only education, about global warming and industrial pollution) should take a deep breath and actually read the science about breast-cancer screening.
The articles from the United States Preventive Services Task Force, published in [...]
On the eve of a big senate vote to open debate on health insurance reform, Washington Senator Patty Murray explains the stakes:
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[...]What in tarnation motivated Seattle Police to descend on Ballard last night with dozens of officers, hostage negotiators armed with bullhorns, and a SWAT team? “This was a high-risk search warrant,” says SPD Sergeant Sean Whitcomb. “A person had barricaded themselves in and that requires a lot of personnel [...]
Film
'Stingray Sam'The American Astronaut is the world's best space-Western movie musical. A black-and-white masterpiece, the movie is like Jules Verne with a rock 'n' roll soundtrack, where space is filled with roughnecks and kooks, and men and women are segregated to their own planets. Cory [...]

Learn how to make your turkey look just like this one!For the past couple of days some fantastic local culinary experts (including Tamara Murphy of Brasa/Elliott Bay Cafe, Quill Teal-Sullivan of Oddfellows, and Jamie Boudreau of [...]
The latest installment of The Daily Show's Gaywatch. You will cheer.
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' [...]
There are maritime-based readings, there are self-help readings, there are landscape painting-type readings, and there are celebrity chef readings, too. And then there are three readings I'm going to tell you about.
Barbara Kingsolver is at Third Place Books tonight. The Lacuna is her first novel in a' [...]
Spoiler alert: Here's a photo of the postmodern driving-range experience. Yes!
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[...]I'm with flat top here. Colby pretty much sucks as far as robots go. He doesn't even know what games are, and all he does is make up songs about scripture. Boooring! Flat top says: "Who ever heard of have a computer for a friend?" Agreed, especially if it's Colby.
[...]
Listening to KUOW's Weekday just now, on which Governor Christine Gregoire is talking about the dramatic cuts that are going to be needed to deal with the state's $2.6 billion budget shortfall. Among the programs she says are on chopping block: Basic Health.
Host Steve Scher asked Gregoire [...]
Today is the International Transgender Day of Remembrance. Here's a heartbreaking video list of 2009's Trans deaths around the world.
Here are the International Transgender Day of Remembrance Day events planned today in Seattle, at the University of Washington:
“Die-In” rally (12:00-12:30) Red Square meet at noon by the obelisk [...]
The newly male Chaz Bono makes his debut on Good Morning America...
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[...]At least a hundred people have forwarded me a link to this story, suggesting it for Slog since it has so many hilarious details. A morbidly obese man in South Carolina who couldn't get out of the recliner in his living room, his wife of two years who cleaned' [...]
BBC reports:
Riot police in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, pushed back a violent demonstration near the Algerian embassy in the early hours of Friday.
Egyptian protesters reportedly hurled firebombs at police protecting the embassy and overturned a police van.
Egypt's Interior Ministry said 35 people were injured.
The clashes stem from [...]
16 Killed, 23 Injured: A suicide bomber hit a busy city square in western Afghanistan.
No More Oprah: Oprah Winfrey will end her talk show after 25 years.
And Sadder Still: A man has been charged with raping and killing the five-year-old North Carolina girl. Her mother's still being [...]
Dominic Holden reports at 7:39 pm by phone:
Dozens of police officers have shut down Leary Way between Ballard and Fremont and have surrounded a business that two witnesses say may be a "chop shop" where stolen cars are converted or modified so they are not identifiable. There [...]
"Good morning," the Prayer Warrior began today at the Microsoft annual shareholders' meeting. "We have been here many times together..."
Yes, we have.
This time the Prayer Warrior—aka Ken Hutcherson—had shown up to demand more transparency about the company's charitable donations, and to warn the leaders of Microsoft that supporting gay [...]
I wish I had a video of Anne Mathern doing Deep Purple's Highway Star last night because it was sublime. But almost as sublime was her version, during Eric Fredericksen's karaoke lecture Speak and Sing at On the Boards, of Nirvana's In Bloom.
Other humans who amazed: Ross Lambert channelingbeing Mick [...]
Remember: American men don't do art unless it involves naked ladies, unless the men have thin shoulders. I hate you, Garrison Keillor.
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' [...]
The final season of Lost begins February 2 with a recap show then a two-hour season premiere.
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[...]Oprah Winfrey is expected to announce September 9th, 2011 as the final air date for her long-time running talk show, "The Oprah Winfrey Show." It's unclear what reasons are prompting Oprah to end production of her show, or if the show will move to the newly-formed Oprah Winfrey Network [...]

The mountain is in the distance, the museum is on the left in the [...]
SEATTLE - A window washer plunged eight stories down the side of a building Thursday in downtown Seattle, but was stopped by a safety rope just inches before hitting the ground, officials and witnesses said.
Seattle Fire Department spokeswoman Dana Vander Houwen said the rope saved the man's life by catching [...]
Unbelievable...
Sarah Palin is rolling her "Going Rogue" book tour into Fort Hood, the site of the Nov. 5 shooting that left 13 dead and dozens wounded.
"I'm especially looking forward to meeting our brave men and women in uniform at Fort Hood," Palin, 45, wrote on her Facebook page.
[...]
Remember how anti-Mormon, anti-Christian hate crimes totally skyrocketed in California after Prop 8 because gays and lesbians are so angry and violent and hateful and intolerant? LA Times:
Los Angeles County saw an overall 4% drop in hate crimes last year, while crimes against gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered people [...]
From Hanna Arendt's Introduction to Politics: "...Thaumadzein [is] the wonder at that which is as it is.. As far as philosophy is concerned, if it is true it begins with wonder, with thaumadzein." With that in mind, and it should never leave the mind, watch this YouTube video, which' [...]
"I think your response to No Figuring Women this week was dead on," writes Slog tipper Jim. "But some recent research by Melissa Burkley of Oklahoma State University in Stillwater may suggest something else is at play."
A new study provides evidence for what many have long suspected: [...]

In honor of Rev. Ken Hutcherson's speech at this morning's Microsoft stockholders meeting, here's a column The Stranger published on the occasion of Hutch's previous Microsoft speechifying.
(Bigger print version here.)
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[...]
Confrontation at the BridgeThere's a room full of bodies on the third floor of Seattle Art Museum. It's a party in honor of Jacob Lawrence. The show is called Freeing the Figure, and it looks at three of his paintings in the context [...]
So Rita (Marcalo, a British modern dancer) is going to stop taking her meds and try to have a seizure onstage.
The project is called "Involuntary Dances" and some British epilepsy-advocacy groups are pissed, saying the stunt/dance/whatever trivializes the condition.
I'm only surprised choreographers haven't stepped up to argue that [...]
Since Ticket/Ticket closed, Seattle's been without a half-price ticket distributor for theater, opera, ballet, etc. But a California-based company called Goldstar will set up shop here in a couple of weeks and bring back the half-priced ticket.
How it works: Venues allocate a number of tickets for Goldstar (since shows [...]
Thursday, 19 November 2009
Dear Prayer Warrior,
This morning I spoke at the Microsoft stockholders meeting. Chris Liddell, CFO; Bill Gates, Chairman; Steve Ballmer, CEO; and Brad Smith, General Council were there. I talked about their Charitable Giving in support of gay marriage and the intolerance that [...]
That's Washington state's projected budget deficit for next year. It's going to get ugly in Olympia this winter. And no one could've predicted that the state GOP would take this position:
Republicans warn that going to the tax well now is a bad idea, with the economic recovery still fragile.
When' [...]
Kent Mackenzie's remarkable 1961 film The Exiles was released on DVD this Tuesday (you can buy it from Amazon, but, you know, try not to). The two-disc set includes a whole bunch of Mackenzie's short work, documentation of his process, and an interview between [...]

...or at least as healthy as anyone who regularly eats Frosted Flakes for breakfast can be. Here's a lovely print ad running in Brazil, where Frosted Flakes are Sucrilhos. (Meanwhile in Mexico, they're Zucaritas.)
Thank you, Copyranter.
Attention teenagers: Facebook is not always your friend. Take it away, NBC Connecticut:
Beer cans, beer bottles, and lots of cups could be seen in several photos that Glastonbury high school students posted on Facebook. "In the pictures you can clearly see what looked like teenage kids" [...]
I don't know much of anything about this band Valley Lodge. But their new NSFW video for song "All My Loving" is really kinda somethin'. I need that lamp at the 2:01 mark. Seriously.
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[...]And they're not talking about labor unions.
The letter defines marriage as "a natural institution established by God the Creator" and called it "a permanent, faithful, fruitful partnership between one man and one woman" that has two purposes: "the good of the spouses" and "the procreation and education of children."' [...]
Well there are a few videos on Line Out, to give you an idea.
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[...]
This cocktail represents the forces of good and evil.Hello! Are you a thirteen-year-old girl and yet somehow also of drinking age? Do you love morose and sparkly he-vampires? Are you totally psyched about not humping before marriage, and [...]
The SPD reports that a man was assaulted and robbed downtown this morning at 2:30 a.m. as he was returning to his hotel room:
The victim stated that he walked through a parking lot somewhere in the area of 1st & Pike when he was attacked by 3 males. The [...]
It's getting hard to keep track of all the different ways humanity is trying to drive itself to extinction:
Chemicals in plastics alter the brains of baby boys, making them "more feminine," say US researchers. Males exposed to high doses in the womb went on to be less likely to [...]
This weekend is your last chance to experience Cafe Nordo—the five-course tragicomedy about the life and death of a chicken from egg to bloody mess on your plate, presented by former members of Circus Contraption. Each course is a little bit of theatrics and a [...]
I'm sorry, black truck, but days like this require drugs.
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' [...]
Playing tomorrow night ONLY at Northwest Film Forum. Worth it, says Paul Constant:
If you're a fan of Cory McAbee's sci-fi rock musical American Astronaut (and if you're not a fan of American Astronaut, you probably haven't seen American Astronaut), you probably have a good idea of' [...]
Music
JabonSeattle sound engineer Scott Colburn has gained notoriety for his studio sorcery with Animal Collective, Mudhoney, and others, but his most interesting work occurs under his Jabon guise. Dressed in a "dark wizard robe and weird harlequin mask" and manipulating a stack of analog keyboards, [...]
Hello. I'm 16, almost 17, and I'm a gay boy. I'm cool with it, though I'm sort of in the closet right now. I don't think I "look" gay, people don't ask, and I don't go telling. My mom knows, sort of, hope that counts as being out even if' [...]

We have an open mic, three nautical-themed readings at the Pacific Marine Expo, and many more events tonight.
Amy Foster reads at Third Place Books today. When Autumn Leaves "is the story of coming to terms with the magical things we take for granted every day," like [...]

mraaronmorris / Stranger FlickrCalming.
At least according to a husband-and-wife team of assistant professors of marketing at the University of Utah's David Eccles School of Business.
The researchers approached study participants between 7 p.m. and 11 p.m. on a Thanksgiving holiday and asked them to fill out [...]
In this week's story about a possible challenge next year to House Speaker Frank Chopp, I wrote:
Progressives have tried to knock off a moderate-leaning incumbent from Seattle before. In 2004, labor unions targeted pro-choice Democrat Helen Sommers in the primary because she failed to halt corporate tax breaks and [...]
They told Fences to go to rehab; he said yes, yes, yes.
If Fences' Chris Mansfield doesn't have a record deal by the time you recycle this newspaper—or refresh this page or whatever—then something is seriously wrong with the music business (I know, news flash). The [...]
Afghanistan Gets a New President: Hamid Karzai was sworn in on Thursday, "after a fraud-marred election left his image in ruins."
You're Winning (Sort Of): A New York court rejected a Christian legal group's challenge to government benefits provided to same-sex couples legally married and now living in New' [...]
The Seattle Times reports:
About 450 people are expected Saturday at the Rainier Valley Food Bank to get food for Thanksgiving meals. But when staff arrived Wednesday at 6 a.m., they found the lock on the storage container had been cut and nearly everything inside had been stolen.
Burglars took [...]
The GOP base lines up to meet Sarah Palin in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
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[...]
It begins:
When you've fought every day for 10 years to turn a map you and a friend drew at a kitchen table into a $2 billion transit agency, and volunteered and done strategy for two winning underdog city council campaigns, and then run for city council yourself' [...]
A Seattle hardcore band has stirred up some controversy by putting an image of Christopher Monfort, the man who allegedly shot and killed Officer Brenton, on one of their new t-shirts. On the back of the shirt is a the Public Enemy lyric: "Most of my heroes don't appear'" [...]
And it costs less than $900 billion. (Which, while politically helpful, is not necessarily reason to celebrate, reminds Ezra Klein.)
Now if Harry Reid can only get these three Democratic Senators to allow debate on the measure.
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The Danes are at it again. Check out Hit the Bitch, a domestic violence education site, but be warned that it will make you a terrible person. As far as I can tell, it isn't a viral site trying to sell wireless pancakes or whatever, but a serious attempt' [...]
I'm a pretty regular reader of your column, and this week I was looking through the archives for things I'd missed. Two columns prompted me to write and thank you for helping me navigate a difficult situation. The first was a letter from a sex-deprived man essentially begging you [...]
A few months ago, while I was preparing to win the 2009 ID Spring Roll Eating Competition, I talked with a soft-spoken young man named Erik "The Red" Denmark, who is Seattle's most preeminent competitive eater. Here's a recap of his titles:
Erik "The Red" Denmark is the world-record holder [...]
The Danes are at it again. Check out Hit the Bitch, a domestic violence education site, but be warned that it will make you a terrible person. As far as I can tell, it isn't a viral site trying to sell wireless pancakes or whatever, but a serious attempt' [...]
Mark Fuller—chef/owner of awesome West Seattle restaurant Spring Hill—posts the menu of Avila to Twitter. (Prices aren't visible, unfortunately, but entrees range from $16 to $26; ingredients are local, etc.) In the kitchen there: his protegee Alex Pitts. (Fuller, in turn, came from the land of Tom Douglas.)
The' [...]