I live downtown now!?

SEATTLE, Washington - Downtown West Seattle? Oh really. I've talked at times about moving downtown, I guess the downtown has moved to me.

Getting a bit big for our britches here. Downtown Ravenna thinks this is presumptuous.

Remember, West Seattle - most of the rest of the city thinks West Seattle is somewhere in Kitsap County.

Did N.W.A. lift lyrics from Vladimir Nabokov?

SEATTLE, Washington -

From Nabokov's Bend Sinister, 1947:

She sat with parted lips, slightly moving her tightly crossed thighs, producing a tiny sound, soft, labiate, with an alternate crepitation as if she were rubbing the palms of her hands which, however, lay idle.

'Chirruping like a poor lone cricket,' she said.

Portion of "Parental Discretion Iz Advised", from N.W.A's Straight Outta Compton, 1988:

Fuck the regular, yo as I get better the
bitches wanna trick and go stupid up on the dick
So I get 'em hot, thinkin' they're gonna get it
As they sit, rubbin' their legs like a cricket

Even Par - the only noble score in golf

SEATTLE, Washington - When I'm watching professional golf on television, and a player's score is shown as he's walking off the 18th green, the world only seems quite right if the player has shot even par.

If a player is a few strokes over par, then it seems the player did not have his A-game. If he's a few shots under, then you begin to think that perhaps the course was playing too easy.

But even par: a battle to a dead standstill between one of the very best players in the world and an incredibly challenging golf course. There's a certain elegance to the scene, a kind of nobility.

Congrats, Harrison Ford and Calista Flockhart!

SEATTLE, Washington - Harrison Ford, 66, and Calista Flockhart, 44, have gotten engaged after seven years of romance.

But, Mr Ford, don't think this eliminates the doubts about your sexual orientation - I can tell from all the Google searches bringing people to my posts on the topic that there is still significant speculation on the issue.

Unsolicited financial advice from New York burger joint

SEATTLE, Washington - I was at Island Burgers & Shakes in Hell's Kitchen last week. If I am not mistaken, they did not used to take credit cards. In a menu insert, they noted that they were now accepting credit card payments, albeit with a transaction fee added to the bill (a perfectly reasonable thing to do).

However, the insert then goes on to tell you that you should not pay with a credit card, even if you don't mind the transaction fee, because "financial experts" advise you not to do so, and better not to add to the "fortunes" of the credit card companies.

I'll make my own decisions on these things, thanks. And Stand has better milkshakes, but I do appreciate the burger variety at Island Burgers & Shakes.

"The World Loves Obama" Watch

SEATTLE, Washington - For anyone who's had their head sufficiently far up their ass to think that all the enmity directed at the USA from other countries was because of the previous occupant of the White House, and that all will be roses because of the current occupant of the White House - some reality checks are coming in.

Venezuela's Chavez calls Obama "ignoramus"

"He goes and accuses me of exporting terrorism: the least I can say is that he's a poor ignoramus; he should read and study a little to understand reality," said Chavez, who heads a group of left-wing Latin American leaders opposed to the U.S. influence in the region.

Report: Iran Dismisses U.S. Outreach as a 'Slogan'

President Obama intends to press ahead with efforts to open a dialogue with Iran despite an apparent setback yesterday when Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the country’s supreme religious leader, dismissed U.S. overtures as a “slogan” offering no real change
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He added: “If you are right that change has come, where is that change? Make it clear for us what has changed.”