Remember when The Crocodile Cafe closed unexpectedly in December? Remember how up in arms everyone got, yelling about how likely it was that yet more new condos would be the result? Well the future of The Crocodile Cafe wasn't known then and still isn't known now, according to the PI: Groupee Inc., a privately held Seattle-based Internet software company, has withdrawn its application for a restaurant and lounge license at the site, said Susan Reams,......

Tonight is the fifth in the Do-or-Die/Must-Win primary series that will hopefully be over by the Olympics. Texas and Ohio are the only states to care about, mainly because Vermont and Rhode Island haven't carried any clout since they both went for John Adams. So if you're not heading down to the Old Pequilar for Quiz Night, or over to Neumos for British Sea Power, why not turn on the TV and watch as......

Wally Szczerbiak, who is on "our list" for single handily knocking UDub out of the 1999 NCAA Tournament and daring to jaw with Gary Payton, is heading out of town. So ladies, get one last look at what you let slip away. He’ll be heading to Cleveland along with Delonte West. In exchange the Sonics get cap room and some spare parts. It’s a smart trade with an eye towards the future-- so feel good......

We walked into our caucus location -- a hot, overcrowded elementary school with signs that said "Welcome to the First Grade" -- as an undecided voter, and two and a half hours later walked out as an undecided voter, but with a deeper appreciation of democracy. Not that it made much difference in real-world terms. Our precinct (189 people turned out) went heavily Obama, which we understand is how the wind blew in Seattle......

Back in the early '00s, Seattlest spent some time freelancing at Macy's Northwest's corporate offices, coming up with exciting new ways to talk about 30% off flatware and learning more than we ever cared to about thread count. The corporate offices are downtown on the top floor in the former Bon building. It's a windowless floor -- a cave in the sky -- and, atmosphere-wise, one of the most depressing places we ever worked.......

A couple of Sunday nights ago we wandered up Aurora towards The Pub at Pipers Creek, located just north of the intersection at 105th and Greenwood Ave. Going to bars we've never been to before is always exciting, especially those that have a great tap list. We had heard that the Baron Rauchbier was on tap here, and that was the primary reason for visiting. At 6pm on this Sunday evening, the bar itself......

In a press conference that's going on right now, Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren announced that 2008 will be his final year as head coach of the Seahawks. Holmgren is not retiring. He did not rule out returning to coaching in the future, but did say he would "take a break." He said he would leave the issue of who would succeed him as coach up to the Seahawks front office, saying "it wouldn't be appropriate"......

This marks the start of a new weekly "Beer of the Week" post that we intend to do for 2008. Tune in every Friday to see what we've been drinking. When Deschutes releases their 2nd batch of The Abyss at a bottle shop near you on this upcoming Monday, January 14th (estimated; ask your bottle shop for sure), they won't need our help to sell out this beer in record time. The Abyss was......

The fallout from State Auditor Brian Sonntag's review of past Port of Seattle business practices continues. The P-I reports this morning that:Sen. Karen Keiser, D-Des Moines, announced she plans to introduce legislation to repeal the Port of Seattle's property tax authority.We appreciate our legislators noticing that there's a Port of Seattle at long last, and that oversight has been lacking. But cutting off the property tax? Here's what's at issue, again summarized by the P-I:That......

While the city goes about with itself, Seattlest spends countless hours in an ivory tower somewhere between Pike Place Market and the Lusty Lady. We pace the floor with a hunched back, wringing our hands, wrinkling our nose and whispering, "what, what, what... is the meaning of this?" Location: 2nd and Pine. Old purpose: parking lot next to Macy's Garage. New purpose: Huge gaping hole. For at least six months now, we've walked past this......

It turns out, it wasn't our booze-addled brains: The Seattle Center fireworks display on Monday night was messed up due to a computer program glitch (Y2K strikes 8 years late!). According to the Times: About a minute before midnight, technicians with California-based Pyro Spectaculars realized that the computer program that controlled the display was not going to work, said Mary Bacarella, a spokeswoman for the Space Needle. They rebooted twice, then decided to do......

According to the Seattle Transit Blog, the University link of our not-sure-we-wanted-it-but-now-we-got-it--might-as-well-expand-it light rail system is getting the Federal funding it was looking for. It's headed to the President's desk with Seattle receiving the highest possible recommendation for funding from the Federal Transit Administration arm of the U.S. DOT. Screw you, Prop 1! Love you Patty Murray! Here's the Sound Transit release: The project connects the three largest urban centers in the region: downtown......

If you're the Port of Seattle, you spend it on all kinds of stuff! Woo hoo! It's a mad-money third runway! A state audit by buzzkill Brian Sonntag indicates that the "Port has wasted $97.2 million in taxpayer money during construction projects and contracts active from January 2004 to March 2007...(P-I)" and helpfully makes "51 recommendations that he said could help the Port avoid waste in the future... (Times)." The Seattle P-I and Seattle Times......

When traveling the country and trying to avoid the Cheesecake Factories, Cracker Barrels and Claim Jumpers that clog the arteries, we get excited whenever we see a Martin Luther King street exit. The same can be said for exit 157 off I-5 in Seattle, where, just to the north, you’ll find a diversity of delicious restaurants. But things are changing there before our eyes. We headed down recently for some bahn beo chen at Huong......

We've been locking our keyboard in a drawer to keep ourselves from putting up any "this is the weekend the green line would have begun service" posts, both because it's been done and because it's history. Yes, it would have been great to have, but we decided against it. If there's anything like a blog to mark the day in the distant future when we'd have it paid off we'll be impressed. But a reader......

Last night there were tons of Ron Paul's people outside the Showbox Sodo. Before, during, and after Barack Obama's fundraising event/rally, the Paul supporters waved their signs and interacted with anyone who would give them the time of day. Too bad they couldn't afford tickets to the event due to the current tax structure--if only someone would abolish the IRS and the Federal Reserve.... Meanwhile, inside the venue was a crowd of teens, twenty-somethings,......

Running text ads on your blog never really struck us as the Get-Richest-Quickest path; we used to have Amazon ads on a book review blog and after a year or two and no checks, we decided we could better use the real estate and quit the program. A few months later we got our first and final check for...$6ish? But Seattle's Furious Seasons blog has just discovered firsthand the pain of algorithmic rejection. The email......

The historic Moore Theatre turns 100 this year. December 28th is their big centennial celebration. We got to thinking about this major milestone the last time we were there. It was last Monday night, the Iron and Wine show. We were sitting in our seats, waiting for razor-shy Sam Beam to take the stage and we got to looking around. As always we were impressed by the high ceiling, grand arches, intricate moldings... Then we......

So Danny Westneat is musing on the future of email, on the occasion of the announcement that spam volume has doubled this year, to 120 billion emails per day. Remember the Spam King, he asks? Remember the drop in spam we were promised? Well, it's been more of spike. At our work email, our spam folders fill up solely with ED medication and upscale watch pitches. The narrow range of products is puzzling, but the......

It was four years ago that we'd started falling in love with the woman who would one day be our wife. It was about that same time that she'd lent us an album called Night Songs by a band called Stars. And if memory serves us with any amount of clarity, our devoted attention to that album became one of the many things which cemented our infatuation with this woman. Night Songs (Stars' first LP)......

All of Seattlest will be struggling to remember that Sunday is the day we turn our clocks back one hour. We hope you remember too. Kim is so much of a puppy-lover, that she’s donating her Saturday to the folks at Pasado Safe Haven. She’ll spend Saturday night helping her mandolin player and his girlfriend celebrate their new wood floors. Sunday is dedicated solely to NaNoWriMo. The Cinerama is showing the super-extra-ultra-final cut of Blade......

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......

We gotta admit to being kind of a sci-fi nerd. We own all the Star Wars movies in most of their various formats and edits, have read The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy and its sequels numerous times (including the atrocious Mostly Harmless), and actively seek out any books and films that depict any kind of a dystopic view of our future. So when we heard that yet another cut of Blade Runner was playing......

The Halloween crowd was bleeding out of orifices, jack-booted and silk gowned, and they roared at the songs about compulsive masturbation; the sheep fucked and sheared and shot; school kids on heroin and cocaine; the schizophrenic dead under an overpass; the anti-hymn with the chorus "banging in the nails." The Tiger Lillies stood on the Moore's stage beneath red and blue lights that left livid bruises on the smoky air and profaned life in an......

Stand at the corner of First and Pike, and you almost hear the thunder of Seattle's hotel wars, the howitzers of the future as they battle for attention in the trades, the travel mags, the lifestyle glossies. First into battle: a new Four Seasons, across the street from the downtown Art Museum: 21 stories, 149 hotel rooms, 36 residential condos, opening 2008. If your memory goes back more than two years, you'll recall that Four......

Along with the million other words being written on this topic, we at Seattlest thought it was a good time to share some of our thinking on the Roads and Transit bill we're going to have the chance to vote on this November. The crux is this: Voters in the greater Puget Sound region are being asked to approve almost $11 billion for a 50-mile expansion of light rail and $7 billion on highways around......

The past two days, contributors Jeremy "The Seattle Samurai" Barker and Katie "The Kalama Quickdraw" Tiehen debated the age-old question of whether Seattle or Portland is better. Both Jeremy and Katie raised some excellent points, but that's what rebuttals are for. Katie rebuts Jeremy: [ED: Jeremy, writing for Seattle, alleged that Portland's ascension to Green-ness and "hipster paradise"-dom was not without social and economic cost--most notably, higher housing prices in the urban core, which pushed......

Seattle. Portland. Which one's better? You may say: "How can you choose? Each has their good points. It's like asking which religion is better." Guess what, asshole, that Negative Nellie attitude is the reason nobody ever asks for your fucking opinion. Jerk. To the debate! First up, it's a pro-Seattle opinion. Seattle is better than Portland, by Jeremy "The Seatown Samurai" Barker When I tell people that I think Portland's gone down the wrong road......

We're living in the town that Microsoft Office built, and all in all it's not too shabby. Every once in a while we're struck by something and think, "wow, someone paid upwards of $300 for a graphical representation of a talking paper clip and we used the money to build this..." But generally it's been a pretty good deal for Seattle. Time marches on, though, and what was once the raison d'etre for personal computers......

Substitute restaurant reviewer Leslie Kelly has reached the end of her stint at the Post-Intelligencer and Managine Editor David McCumber (among many, many others) is breathing a huge sigh of relief. How'd this kid from Spokane end up in a big-city newsroom, anyway? Hsaio-Ching Chou, who signed off on the deal for Kelly to cover Rebeka Denn's "family leave," ain't around to answer, having gone off to PR-land. But Kelly's six-month tenure leaves a......