"Jump Off 15th," courtesy of Seattlest Flickr user JeanineAnderson Seattlest, as you know, has long been an advocate of playing hooky on Friday. Today, if you're looking for an excuse to cut out early, just tell your boss you can't bear to sit in the office any longer on the Happiest Day of the Year. How did "they" figure out that today is the happiest? A simple math formula, of course: "According to the......

Brooklyn trio A Place to Bury Strangers bills themselves as "the loudest band in New York," but that's not exactly true. A band's loudness is of course the product of several factors, the volume and intensity assuredly a function of the sound system every night they play, or the sound guy, or the venue itself. So perhaps it's more accurate to describe APtBS as "the effects-pedaliest band in New York" or "the My Bloody......

Welsh five-piece Super Furry Animals are known for crafting catchy orchestral psychedelic pop-rock -- hence the terribly "trippy" cover art for their latest album Hey Venus. The band's been together since '94, and while most UK groups of that time period have split up or gone on permanent hiatus, SFA are still going strong. For that, you can credit the drugs. Seriously though, the Furries make songs with sunny melodies and melancholy, nearly doo-wop......

Since this week's storm didn’t claim any lives in Seattle, most of us tend to think of the damage in terms of washed out images of I-5 and that Subaru in Golden Gardens. The cost of reconstruction and flood repair will surely be depressing but not as depressing as the quotes from some of the farmers that had to watch hundreds of their own animals die. "I saved as many as I could," Osborn said.......

Ah, football. We love it. It’s easily our favorite sport to watch as it gets our usual docile selves all fired up and yelling at the television every week. Basketball, even with its fast pace and high scoring, is a bore. And baseball? Baseball is almost as fun to watch as golf or the Lifetime channel. But for all of football’s glory, there remains its biggest upset. Which is that it’s one of those high-testosterone......

Walking down 15th the other afternoon, we were a little Hitchcocked out by the sight of a crowd of crows (or ravens, the comments section is of two minds about which) assembled on a neighbor's house and lawn. Naturally, we immediately suspected said neighbors of being witches. (Not that there's anything wrong with that. Live and let magick, we say.) A woman got out of her car while we were taking the picture and,......

Yeah, yeah, yeah… we’ve bawled a bunch about the blahness of Queen Anne cuisine, from the "exotic" Chinoise at the top of the hill to the "exotic" Racha at the bottom of the hill. So we lowered our expectations a bit to try some good ol' American food at Floyd's Place, which reviewers consistently Yelped as, well, "decent." "Decent" is a decent enough descriptor of the BBQ pork loin sandwich, served with sides of slaw......

Foul weather holds off until Sunday afternoon, leaving plenty of time under cool gray skies for Seattlest & friends to launch a Flexcar and sail out to the farm. Once we get past Redmond, the familiar trappings fall off: shopping malls, housing developments, the last Whole Foods, the last gas station & mini-mart. We ford the Tolt River at Carnation and sail into a vast theme park called Remlinger Farms. Indoors, a country market......

Eaten: An onion burger and brick of fries. Do you see that whiteboard to the right there? That’s the straw poll that the Republican booth in an exhibition hall at the Puyallup Fair has been conducting during the event. Fred Thompson by a landslide. He has more than twice the votes of Rudy G., his closest challenger, and three times the votes of Romney who just won a Michigan straw poll, yet we barely know......

PORTLAND, Ore. - Portland snake enthusiast, Matt Williamson was rushed to the hospital after a recent assault by an unnamed rattlesnake. "She kept whipping her tongue at me, like, you know, she wanted it," Williamson said. "Plus my girlfriend was being kind of a bitch and I wanted to make her jealous." But Williamson's lust-filled plan backfired. "I walked over, made small talk with her. She wouldn't tell me her name, but the way she......

The eternal feud between evolutionary rivals bears and crows finally came to a dramatic conclusion recently at the Woodland Park Zoo, as the persecuted bears claimed a decisive victory over their winged foe, the goddamned crows. Jim Woodring was on the scene and documented the victory on his blog (click through the drawing below for a larger more readable version): This victory is a long time coming and benefits not only bears, but also other......

Kakuta Hamisi, a member of the Maasai tribe of Kenya, is working over the summer at the Woodland Park Zoo, talking to zoo visitors about Maasai culture and conservation. Hamisi, an Evergreen State grad, evidently likes his job--he recruited several members of his tribe to work with him. But Catherine Claiborne, a grad student at UW's Evans School, has a message for Hamisi: You are being exploited. She tells the Times that the exhibit could......

We attended an advance, VIP screening of The Simpsons movie at Cinerama on Friday night (or at least that's what the guy who sold us the ticket for the special price of $45 told us). It's hilarious, and if you don't like it you're probably a Nazi-loving pervert. One of our favorite parts of the experience came through a bit of audience participation. Early in the film the bag guy is telling the Simpson's characters......

Taking a break from trying to surf the flaccid waters at Westport on Saturday, a team of Seattlest agents mingled around the parking lot where they met a man from Bellevue who was the victim of a random dog attack last week. The veteran surfer peeled back his bandage to show the teeth marks from the doberman yellow lab who chomped on his arm. Apparently our victim was minding his own business riding his bike......

In the wake of Hansa the Elephant's death from herpes, many Seattleites are understandably concerned about whether they, too, could contract this fatal disease. Board-certified veterinarian Dr. Ophelia Roberson-Sykes, DVM, graciously agreed to answer a few of our questions. Seattlest: So how likely is it that I could have elephant herpes? Dr. Roberson-Sykes: Not likely. Herpes can only be transmitted through direct contact, like through kissing an infected elephant. Seattlest: Well I was dating this......

We're not sure what we can possibly add to this bizarre news that's so very ripe for incredibly childish jokes.......

German squirrels are roaming Berlin on a murderous rampage. Bears in New Jersey are breaking into people's homes for crack money. And some mysterious large-footed monster went and vandalized every. single. school bus. in the Renton school district.......

Oh yes, Seattlest fans, it's that time of year again. When, after weeks of teasing, the sun finally decides to stick around. When all able-bodied gay men head to Madison Beach in their tight little shorts with their cute little dogs, and all the able-bodied lesbians head to some outdoor location with their picnic blankets and their mullets for an Indigo Girls concert. Ever since the children of Fremont decided they hate the rest......

A new musical genre: not heavy metal, but fiberglass. First, Seattle Opera got in on the frenzy of Pigs on Parade, whipping up an Opera Pig named Rusty. Then the scenic studios manager, Michael Moore, composed a 20-second "aria" for the pig to sing, and persuaded baritone John Boehr to lend it his voice. A bit of electronic wizardry in Rusty's snout senses when people come snooping around the plaza in front of McCaw......

Apparently its that time of year again, since at least one Seattlest contributor witnessed a few crow attacks on civilians in the past week, including an attack on his own feeble, defenseless person by a pair of crows on the north side of Freeway Park earlier this week. They swooped down from behind at his head, squawking, and followed him halfway through the park. Upon exiting the south side on Seneca he observed a different......

Too disturbing for the Market? Lemme tell ya, we think this whole Pigs on Parade thing has gotten out of hand. You know the concept: local artists create fiberglass scultpures based on Ur-piggy Rachel, eventually sold to raise money for the Pike Place Market Foundation. One such sculptor is Colin Reedy, an Oregon furniture designer whose previous contributions include a couple of ride-em "Pork Choppers." This particular creation, titled "Prosciutto and Melon Pig," ought......

Seattlest has a talk with the photographer from last week's "Segway Mom" and then experiences some dissension in the ranks over the question of wine vs. beer. It's not West Side Story, but about as close as they'll get. They're also still waiting on some inbox relief after a spammer is arrested. As Chicagoist counts down the days to its third anniversary party, they found all-organic pizza to be underwhelming amidst the hoopla, tried......

When we first bought our house the "backyard" was a complete eyesore, replete with a tar-roofed carport next to a plot of head-high blackberry bushes held back by a sagging chain-link fence. We joked about renting goats to clear the whole thing, but in the end resorted to a backhoe. (And this past weekend, a mere 3 1/2 years after we moved in, we finally have a backyard, huzzah!). Apparently, we're not the only one......

Mother Noella Marcellino, who visited Seattle this weekend for the Cheese Festival, knows the secret of life; she's seen it through a microscope. The Cheese Nun, as she's known, started milking cows 30 years ago at a cloistered Benedictine order in Connecticut. A Fulbright Fellowship took her to France to see, touch, smell and taste cheesemaking techniques. Today, having earned a PhD in microbiology, she's considered one of the foremost authorities on the precise details......

Down on phony farms, up for the real thing. Disturbing news in the New York Times: a middle-class family raising chickens in Manhattan. Disturbing news in the Wall Street Journal: developing suburban housing tracts as pseudo-farms. Whatever happened to real farms? Well, close to home, one of Washington's foremost producers of goat cheese, Quillisascut Farms is offering farm-stays to beginning chefs. What a great way for to start out: seeing the food grow, getting close......

City officials say we don't need to fret about Key Arena's solvency after the Sonics and Storm leave, taking 60 guaranteed events a year with them. After all, there are plenty of other events that Seattle Center can book. Well if that is so, how the hell did city officials completely shit the bed and miss a chance to book My Little Pony Live. It is inexcusable, and heads must roll. If our city can't......

WAMU Zoo Tunes recently announced their upcoming concert lineup. Personally, we say Meh -- but we're not every day listeners of The Mountain, so to be honest, we don't even recognize half the names on this list. Herbie Hancock would probably be great. The guy's a jazz legend after all. Meanwhile, Seattlest is still trying to figure out why we love Brandi Carlile but the Indigo Girls make us want to rip our teeth out......

So we're not exactly clear on the methodology behind the Humane Society of America's animal compassion index, but we kinda thought that hosting the nation's most notorious bestiality den would prevent our fair city from attaining a high ranking. Not so! Whether it's because the Humane Society doesn't factor animal rape into its rankings, or because they celebrate man/animal love, Seattle managed #2 in their "Humane Index," which you can access from this very inhumane......

If this video of Woodland Park's new tiger cub wantonly slaughtering stuffed animals, blankets and leaves isn't enough for you she's now on display at the zoo from 11am to 2pm daily. And she's got a name now and everything: Hadiah, which we hadiah-ate. Why do tigers have to always have fake African-sounding names? Next time something's born at Woodland Park they should hire Hodgman to name it.......

The Ides of March is nearly upon us and we just realized that we've made no progress on one of our new year resolutions. We had promised ourselves and the universe that we would compensate for our disappointed idealism and deep-rooted complaintive nature by volunteering some time each month for a good cause. Sitting for an hour at an Obama for President rally doesn't quite fulfill the requirement. The local affiliate of the Hands On......