We were impressed by this morning's Times article about the need to increase bicycle safety on the city's streets. Writer Mike Lindblom stays away from polarizing histrionics. Instead he makes bicyclists seem like sane, good people who just want to make it to work alive:At each end of the Fremont Bridge, road signs tell car drivers to yield to bikes -- southbound motorists turning right toward Seattle Pacific University will wait for the bicyclists pedaling......

In a story that's being emailed around the city, mostly with the subject line "Dude, did your dad start jogging?", cops want to find the short, brown-haired jogger who flashed a lady while running yesterday. Writes Levi Pulkkinen of the P-I:The woman told officers the man pulled up his white T-shirt and dropped his black running tights as he ran past her near the intersection of Wallingford Avenue North and North 54th Street. She also......

It seems time for the yearly Seattlest commentary on Paseo Caribbean Restaurant. But since they’re on their annual winter leave, this Seattlester traveled nearly 3,000 miles in search of a comparable Cuban sandwich. The destination: Miami’s El Palacio de los Jugos. The dish: a Medianoche. So how does Seattle’s sandwich stack up to a real Midnight Cuban? At El Palacio, it’s simple, straightforward, and ready in seconds. Sliced pork, ham (usually Serrano), Swiss cheese, and......

We were rushing between shows on Capitol Hill and Fremont last night when we pulled up to the Fremont Bridge and saw the big detour and BRIDGE CLOSED signs and our heart sank. The detour route meant driving across the Ballard Bridge, and if we'd known that, we'd have taken Eastlake to the University Bridge, instead of Westlake. Had we but known! Anyway, here's the schedule for the closings, so that you know:Tuesday, November 13......

Once upon a time Seattlest considered North Aurora to be a shithole, to be avoided at all costs. But, eventually, we had to go to Home Depot and a used car lot, and that car rack store, and (doh) the unemployment office, and the movie theater, and IHOP and the European deli and Computer Stop and Chubby & Tubby (so far not Stupid Prices, though) and Kmart, Burgermaster, the cemetery and a hundred other tiny......

Back in February, a group of volunteer tutors from 826 Seattle walked into John Marshall Alternative School and asked students to write about change. After six weeks of intensive one-on-one tutoring, they left with a book’s worth. And it was with much celebration that students, tutors, friends and family filled Marshall’s auditorium Tuesday night to launch "Burning the Past," the latest collection of essays from this incredible collaboration. Festivities were brief but appropriate. 826......

National dining correspondent Kyle Anderson has the scoop on a great place to stuff yourself this afternoon While Seattlest long ago gave up hope that the Sonics will stick around, who doesn’t want to see Detlef Schrempf serve up some pizza?! Sport Restaurant and Bar had the marketing savvy to combine everyone’s favorite holiday, National Pizza Day (evidently the brainchild of Papa John, the Godfather, and Little Caesar) with a “Save Our Sonics and Storm”......

We've heard that people commit suicide by jumping off of bridges instead of going a less spectacular route like pills or closed garages precisely because it does create a spectacle. Going out with a bang, so to speak, after failing to make an impact in life. Well, the person who jumped from the Aurora bridge late this morning succeeded in the spectacle-making department above and beyond the usual depression in the Adobe parking lot. The......

We went a different direction the other day and ended up at perhaps the newest Asian (plus more) grocery store in town: HT Oaktree Market (10008 Aurora Avenue North). When we walked through the front door and saw roasted ducks, chickens, and – can you believe it – even a whole pig hanging from a bar, we knew this was going to be something special. Occupying the old Larry’s Market next to the movie theater,......

If you got caught in traffic today because Aurora was closed for five hours, you've got your friendly Seattle cops to thank:Just after 1:30 a.m. Monday, officers were called to an apartment building in the 1500 block of Aurora Avenue North following a report that a man there had thrown a knife at his girlfriend and threatened two other people in the apartment with a rifle... Police closed northbound lanes of Aurora Avenue and a......

STORIES: Matt "Defective Yeti" Baldwin, one of the 12 funniest people on the Internet, appears with Sean O'Connor at a special A Guide to Visitors event. It's being filmed for the Seattle Channel, it's free, and the organizers point out that the Skylark serves "Tater Tots and mozzarella sticks." 7pm // Skylark Cafe at 3803 Delridge Way SW in West Seattle // free QUEUE: SIFF wants a dry run of crowd-control measures at their new......

TRIVIA: By popular demand, there's Seattlest trivia tonight, just one day after we all celebrated the birth of the Lord. 8pm / Old Pequliar Tavern [1722 NW Market St, Ballard] / $5 per team BASKETBALL: Seattlest Seth and David will be watching their alma mater dear in the only high-school basketball game of the night. Garfield goes to Shorewood. Garfield's led by super soph Aaron Dotson, here's what Scout.com says about him:He is an explosive......

MOVIES: The Grand Illusion is not only showing "It's a Wonderful LIfe" tonight, but it's also providing an opportunity to crash the Illusion's holiday party for the staff and friends. "Food, drink, merriment and presents," will be on hand and the 8pm screening is free. 8pm // Grand Illusion [1403 NE 50th St.] // free MUSIC: El Vez is an Hispanic Elvis performer. We've never seen El Vez perform, but since he's doing a Mexican......

Seattle conversations showed up on Overheard in the Office three times last month. Oct. 9:Old man: Excuse me. CD store employee: Yes. Old man: Where do you keep your Negro music? CD store employee: What? Old man: Your Negro music! Grandson: He means rap music. CD store employee: Oh, over there. 1st Avenue North Oct. 23:Guy: Why can't you just have the party at your place? Girl: 'Cuz I lost my damage deposit after that......

Tonight is the monthly meetup organized by entrepreneurial site nPost, whose networking meetings are becoming a bit of a regular occurrence for Seattlest since for the most part, they don't suck. The last meeting we attended took a bit of an odd turn however, as power networkers from BEANonline congregated for their own gathering at the tail end of the NPost event, leveraging social opportunities for minimization of Seattlest amusement potential. Seriously, they represented......

Last month we wrote our thoughts on the last nPost networking event (short recap: it didn't suck, and was actually fun). Well, they're having another tonight, with this night's event being followed by another networking event (yes, a two-for-one), the second by BEANonline. We hope this new group doesn't mess with what was a very enjoyable formula. Here are the details: nPost.com is hosting a networking event in Seattle on Tuesday, July 18th. These events......

Monday, loafiing around at home, we noticed a Seattle submission on Overheard in the Office:He Prefers to Be Called RichardGuy: I am full.Girl: Full of what?Guy: Full of Dick's. 539 Queen Anne Avenue North Ha ha! Dick's jokes never get old! Leastways, not in New York. Regardless, we realized that we just don't see Seattle crop up often enough on Overheard in the Office. We searched the site for Seattle to see what came......

Tomorrow night, online radiobox Pandora drops into Seattle. Tim Westergren has been zipping about the country doing research on local music for the Music Genome Project. Coincidentally, we heard about Pandora for the first time last week when a friend of ours made us come over and look at the incredibly intricate musical descriptions they use to determine "other music you might like." So far, Westergren's road trip has looked over Portland's indie scene, Austin's......

Thanks to local bean fiend tonx, Seattlest was alerted to the "soft" opening of Espresso Vivace's new espresso palace, across the street from REI on Yale Avenue North. From the new Vivace cafe, you can peer into the verdant foliage in front of REI. Camping gear mecca, meet espresso mecca. The Grand Opening is April 18. Owner David Schomer isn't messing with his winning formula of "una bella tazza di caffe." Anyone who's been......

-People are still pretty pissed about Mooie, the puppy that was found with acid burns all over it recently, and they should be pissed. There's a reward for information leading to the culprits and King County Animal Control is getting a lot of crap for how they handled the case. -UW medical professor, former chief of medicine at Harborview and all around selfless guy Dr. Richard K. Root capped a run of shit luck on......

ConWorks has been bringing some interesting acts into their renovated lobby/stage space. The diversity in the inaugural lineup is nothing short of impressive, ranging from jazz to electronic music, from those with followings to the more obscure. The primary issue thus far has seemed to stem from a strong lack of promotion. Perhaps the art crowd is in the know, but knowledge of this set of events has yet to really percolate into the public.......

Monday Nov. 28 5:30: Jane Midgley, Elliott Bay Book Co. Women and the U.S. Budget: Where the Money Goes and What You Can Do About It 6:00: Anne Rice, Third Place Books -- Lake Forest Park Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt (signing only) 7:00: Peter Blecha, University Bookstore (University District) Rock 'n' Roll Archaeologist: How I Chased Down Kurt's Stratocaster, the "Layla" Guitar, and Janis's Boa 7:30: Richard Bach, EBBC Curious Lives: Adventures from......

"Un bel di"! That's from Madame Butterfly. Seattlest knows from culture, see. Now we will pour ourselves some Moet while we fill you in. You'd think this would be a regular thing, but no! Just in time for Halloween, Saturday marks the first Seattle Opera Costume Shop sale in twenty years. More than 18 racks of costumes and accessories go on sale to the public this Saturday, from 10am to 6pm. Prices start at......

826 Seattle, the nonprofit writing and tutoring center affiliated with McSweeney's founder Dave Eggers, will open this fall at 8414 Greenwood Avenue North. The organization chose Greenwood, one of the few North Seattle neighborhoods where you will see the occassional non-white person, because it's got foot traffic and is easily accessible by bus. It's also near three high schools (Ballard, Ingraham and Blanchet) and more than a dozen elementary and middle schools. Each national 826......