Middle finger of the day No. 21 ("the women can do it too y'all, part II).

by Mona Goldwater, Nonverbal Communications Editor


I am doing several fingers of the day right now.  I have let the reader submissions pile up, and I am about forty fingers behind. . .

Evaneline Lily

Elizabeth Hurley

---o0o---

Middle finger of the day No. 20 ("the girls can do it too y'all").

By Mona Goldwater, Handsign and Gesture Editor

More reader submissions. . .obscure and famous.   I am going to post a few Middle Finger of The Days because I have let them submissions pile up.  Thanks everyone, and keep sending 'em in. . . .

wedding day

Heidi Klum

Jessica Simpson

Kirsten Dunst

Kirstie Ailey

Lindsay Lohann

Cougs

---o0o---

And the walls came tumbling down: videos and photos of the Seattle Alaska Way Viaduct teardown

By Mona Goldwater, Seattle Metro Editor
Photos and  video by Jack Brummet

The Alaskan Way Viaduct, which was finished in 1953, is a double-decker elevated chunk of Highway 99 that runs along the Seattle waterfront.  It runs above  Alaskan Way, from S. Nevada Street in the south to the Battery Street Tunnel, north of the market in the north.  The viaduct was seriously damaged in our most recent major 'quake--the 2001 Nisqually earthquake--and is now being replaced by an  underground tunnel.  Demolition began just a few days ago.  Jack stopped by and shot this video and these photos.

click to enlarge

click to enlarge

---o00---

Poem: The Thing Itself

The Thing Itself
by Jack Brummet

I don't know which is better,
to dream it or see it,

to see it right now,
or to have seen it.

I don't know which is better,
the memory or the thing itself.

The memory can be repeated forever
but loses fidelity like an old record

and the fictions your mind confects
start filling in the gaps

until the memory becomes the framework
for what we wanted to be, or what should have been.
---o0o

No, not Mumbai...Ballard

At the old Ballard Library, asleep on the sidwalk.  This is one of the many reasons people have begun to #OccupyWallStreet.

---o0o---

a capella November at The Balefire with The Uptown 4 and 5bit

By Jack Brummet, NW Music Editor

If you're over Rocktober, it's time to plan ahead for November. 

A couple of friends of mine--Trevor and Cam Handyside recently bought the bar Balefire in Everett.  They will be hosting two local vocal groups on November 18th, from 9-11pm (no cover, 21+).   Good music, good bar.  What more do you really need, or want? 

Check out Balefire here.    The Uptown 4 here.  And, 5bit here.  I work with 4/5 of 5bit.  They are all great guys, and while I've never seen them live, I've seen YouTubes and listened to their music, both of which compel me to make this trip up I-5 to Everett.  Come out, come out, wherever you are!

 

---o0o---

Occupy No. 9: Occupy our hearts & minds #OccupyWallStreet

By Jack Brummet

click to enlarge

---o0o---

Occupy No. 7: Occupy Ballard!

by Jack Brummet

click to enlarge

---o0o---

44 years ago today, a Yakima man took the best known picture of a Sasquatch a/k/a Bigfoot a/k/a Yeti a/k/a Abominable Snowman

By Jack Brummet, Unexplained Phenomena Editor


44 years ago today, a Yakima, Wash. resident, Roger Patterson, shot a 16 mm film near Bluff Creek in California from which came the most famous image of a Bigfoot ever taken.  You see it everywhere (I remember in The Dark Knight, the photo was pinned to the wall as one of The Batman suspects).  You can find information on this famous sighting and film on Wikipedia. . .

---o0o---

Colonel Muammar Qaddafi's Amazonian Guards : a look back at the women who could not stop NATO

By Jack Brummet, Social Mores Editor

I have always thought that Muammar Qaddafi is one of the most interesting world leaders.  Not the sanest, friendliest, or most stable, but most interesting.  His choice of bodyguards is just another fascinating aspect of his strange and kaleidoscopic personality.  This is not news--it's been written about before, but with Libya in the front of the news these days (and now, in the grave), why not take another look and dig up some photos?

In some ways, this cadre of female bodyguards reminds me a little of Kill Bill. 

Gaddafi/Khaddafi/Qaddafi's "Amazonian Guard" is a 40-300 member bodyguard (depending on your sources) charged with keeping the strange dictator in one piece.  The Guard, is composed entirely of women. Most reports say that to qualify as a member of the guard, the women must be virgins.  They are each hand picked by Qaddafi.  They've done their job, including laying down their lives when he was attacked in the late 1990's. 

The guards are trained in martial arts, trained to kill, and to die for Qaddafi if it comes to that.  As I mentioned, it has come to that.  And it could come to that very soon again if things disintegrate at the pace they've been in Libya.  Some reports say that many of these women are of Cuban decent (due to Castro's friendship with Qaddafi) as well as Libyans.

---o0o---