:: The Wendy House ::

Apparantly US English is classed as an ethnic minority version of English. 

The Seattle Federal court building is very impressive in both size and contemporary design.  The architects NBBJ provide a project description of the building on their website.  The Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce also provides some statistics and stories about the building. 

Unlike the Reading Crown court I was:

• - allowed to take my camera into the building but had to promise not to take photographs.
• - warned about the $100 for my cell-phone ringing in a court room. 
• - required to produce a photo ID. 
• - directed to a standalone touch-sensitive display system with terminals on every floor that provided information about the court cases and the building.

I asked if the Murals and Sculptures in the huge atrium were exceptions to the no-photography rule.  Alas, they weren’t.   Like the English Crown court the Federal court deals with criminal cases.

Its difficult to estimate the ‘interestingness’ of a case from its title on the touch sensitive display system: ”The USA vs (person or corporation’s name)”.  I chose a court where I discovered the judge was accepting guilty pleas and setting pre-sentencing requirements such as psychiatric and drugs assessments.   The two cases I watched were illegal drug possession (Valium, Zoloft) by a diabetic in pain because of a kidney disorder who had just lost her job in a pharmacy.  The second case was a violation of a parole requirement to avoid alcohol by an alcoholic.

A striking design feature of this courtroom was how similar it is to the court-rooms I’ve seen in US films.  There is a central isle through the public gallery to a low gate marking the entrance to the main court area.  The barrier is purely symbolic,  anyone could step over the low-wall,  gate dividing the court from the public gallery.  The public and the lawyers enter by walking down the isle.  In the UK the door to the public gallery appears to be separate none of the court officials have to walk through the public.  Depending on their status the accused enters through the public gallery (not yet proven guilty of anything) or wearing prison gear from a door in the main court area.   Just before the judge entered the room the court clerk banged a gavel three times and called out ‘all rise’.

The Seattle federal court building has the declaration of independence decorating a low wall and is reflected (backwards) on the the floor in front of the Court building.  This struck me as curious.  A supersticious person might think that the declaration of independence written backwards was an omen of loss of freedom.  Writing the document on the floor means that any one can walk on it,  placing it on a long low wall is just too tempting for many dogs whos natural inclination might well be considered disrespectful of National treasure. 

(Warning:  anyone with aversions to bulleted lists should avert their eyes after the next sentence) 

The July 4th parade in the City formerly known as Bug is by far the most engaging, relaxed and inclusive I have ever experienced.  Inclusiveness includes:

• Buses to Baseball teams,
• Karate clubs to cheerleaders,
• Hairdressers to hospice staff, 
• Logs to dogs,
• Milk to mariachi bands,
• Moped formation riders to mexican restaurant football team,
• elected officials to racing cars,
• submarines to saxophones, and of course
• Tractors,  Tractors and more Tractors.

Some people even drive their tractors to the parade for a good view.  Everyone cheers and waves at everyone else. 

An all around love fest of everyday life. 

A ‘prince of quacks’ in Queen city.  Dr. Roy Pierce’s medical elixia appears to be an exemplar of ‘medical quackery’.  He created,  marketed and patented the ingredients of a range of ‘medical’ products.  There is a wonderful humour in the well-maintained barn-painted advertisement for this phenomena (medicine quack) of the wild-west.

twenty-first post in a Thursday series of snoops into experiences of taking tiffin with (black) tea in the NW USA.

Thursday Tiffin #21: secret garden (conkers)

recommended venue for an atmospheric, private, conversation with special friends or family over a good cup of tea and to stock up some sizable conkers.

1890’s Historically registered building.  For the US West coast that is REALLY OLD!  There are several huge old conker trees in the garden.  The ground is littered with conkers.  I rarely see conker trees in the puget sound region.  A habit left over from childhood, I placed a few big, heavy, symmetrical conkers in my pocket, just incase…  

Inside,  high quality retro décor, not kitsch or overdone.  White table-clothes and napkins.  Antique furniture that is not ‘distressed’.  The establishment blends beautifully American and English tea taking ceremonies with excellent food in a tasteful, timeless ambiance.  Let me say ‘excellent food’ once again.  Prices are neither cheap nor  exorbitant.  I had a large bowl of Coconut Chicken Lemon grass soup with a scone and a small pot of Darjeeling that came to about $10 including tax.

English

• clientele included men as well as women
• a jug of milk was offered before it was requested
• sugar-cubes in a bowl with tongs
• matching china crockery and pseudo-silver flatware
• soup served with an actual soup spoon

American

• The en-suite shop that sells quaint things, pink things and sparkly jewellery things
• A glass of iced water, regularly topped-up
• The scones (more like English rock cakes)
• wide choice of sugar substitutes in sachets on the table
• over 70 types of tea on a laminated plastic menu
• staff attentive and clearly amenable to customer requests not currently on the menu.  I overhead a customer asking for, and receiving,  iced tea.  In January. 

Those tiny imperfections that even an excellent establishment can have…they are trivial….

• small  (3 cups) stoneware (not china) pot with external tea leaf strainer, no extra pot of hot water provided.  I was offered a top-up for the existing pot with stewed leaves.  Yuck.
• multiple paintings of roses (all shades of red-pink) and FAKE flowers on tables
• 30 mins or more drive from Downtown Seattle into small-towns-ville. 
• it’s popular,  you should book in advance

wendy:  goodmorningLatino lady emptying the bin outside the hotel:  goodmorning (big smile)

later

Wendy:  I’ll take the stairs, we wont all fit in the lift

2 Latino ladies with room cleaning trolleys:  (giggles)

In Seattle when I greet or talk to the Latino people emptying the bins or cleaning the rooms at work they rarely reply, I’ve never seen them smile.  I’ve learned to treat them as if they aren’t there.  It makes me feel uncomfortable.   I don’t know any Latino people.  The only places I see them are on the streets or in support roles like gardeners or cleaners.  Here in Charlotte the Hotel staff appear more open to sharing superficial niceties.  I feel less akward being me. 

in Charlotte, NC. 

Anticipating hot balmy southern nights.  I didn’t bring mi’ mack.  Ooops.  Alberto, the first tropical storm of the season is here.  Today’s CBS report comments:

‘the heaviest rain – probably 2 to 4 inches - is likely in Georgia and the coastlines of the Carolinas, with most of Florida getting only an additional inch or so and some areas staying rain free’

Tropical storms and their bigger sibbling ‘hurricanes’ are a completely new experience for me.

I plan to get wet rather than spend my brief, valuable touristy, time mack shopping (yuck!)  

1. Airway Heights is on a flat surrounded by higher ground.. ?!
2. Fairchild Airforce Base is on part of State Route 2 near airway heights labelled as ‘Rambo Road’, aspirational imagery or some form of joke?
3. Airway Heights Corrections Center (Prison) is sign-posted from Rambo, not Papillon, road.
4. No sign of Dan’s bottom in Reardan.
5. Tautological sign posting;  a road sign announced “scenic vista“. 
6. Northwest arts and culture museum attendant said “Miss, please do not put your stuffed toy on the cars“,  what a charmer, no messing with ‘Mam’, ‘Lady’ or ‘Oi! YOU”

There was quite a lot of giggling and some wincing on the roads around Spokane

Our Barcelonean correspondent is a bit miffed. Eyan writes:

Am translating the most tedious web page ever, which makes Madrid look as exciting as a wet weekend in Middlesborough without a DVD or laptop. It’s probably written by some pijo (read posh kid or Ivy leaguer) who has connections to the Partido Popular (read Tory or Republican party), not unikely to have connections with Opus Dei and is bound to be somebody’s cousin, niece, or nephew. Meritocracy is not the word for Spanish society. Most overused words - offer ( used 27 times as a verb and noun in about 2,000 words), enjoy, importante, (which is often translated into English as significant).

My guide also describes the main gay area, Chueca, without actually saying it is a gay area. It only refers to “subcultures” ( there are also a lot of trendy places nearby, but not actually really in Chueca). Gays offend Catholic fundamentalist sensibilities, along with poor people, socialists and immigrants.

While Eyan was tackling turgid sleep-inducing web-page prose,  I was tackling crossing the vast open plains of Spokane roads…  …how wide?

Spokane Falls at nightOriginally uploaded by :: Wendy ::.

It was really this pretty, all soft spray and coloured lights a gentle roar of water. Lots of smooching couples nearby being all squishily romantic. I was too shy to photograph them…

I asked the other guests at the Stoltz House.

Edmonton couple: for a vacation

Banff couple: we’ve just bought an apartment here

The couple from Edmonton continued with the story of their son’s recent wedding in the Ukraine.

Edmonton couple:  there are no fat people in the Ukraine; everyone has wonderful figures, even the old people.

We shared a complimentary bottle of red wine supplied by Phyllis,  the outstanding landlady of Stoltz House for that last 14yrs,  Phyllis is incomparable,  a pure diamond.  I learned that Banff is lacking for cultural entertainment in the summer and is within driving distance of the happening city of Spokane.  A pleasant drive.  I learned about ‘King Ralph’,  a radio and TV personality with a drinking problem that is currently the premier of Alberta, not the film starring John Goodman.  

I managed not to giggle at multiple uses of the word ‘a boooooot’. 

It was a tough challenge after two glasses of wine.  I sat in my corner,  nodded occassionaly and laughed at the genuinely funny stories. 

After 1 beer lists are the height of my organisation prowess.  After 2 beers I can reach the heady heights of a miss-typed stream of consciousness.  Tee hee, Jack Kerouac eat your heart out.  See if you can guess where, in this stream of consciousness, I finnish my second beer…..

10 things to contemplate doing around Spokane ((structure of this post was inspired by Jen’s ‘10 things’ series.))

1. Visit the site of the former World fair,  riverfront park.  Waterfalls,  gardens, funfair rides,  and a ‘falls sky ride’  oooOOOoooooo….   …I hope Flat Eric doesn’t suffer from vertigo!
2. Try-out some wines from the local wineries.  Can I taste the mining, or nuclear, pollution?  Does this give the wines a zesty ‘kill your taste-buds’ tang?  It’s got to be done!
3. Take a look at the outside of the Kaiser Aluminum plant,  one of those places where workers were exposed to Asbestos. It’s a business that is expanding in Spokane and supplies materials to build aeroplanes. 
4. Look at the architecture downtown.  The Davenport Hotel looks like it could be a fabulous turn of the century building that I can wander into without parting with cash.
5. Visit the Northwest museum of arts and culture,  that has a special exhibition on ‘cars and costume’,  an intriguing juxtaposition.
6. Visit the ‘Crosby’ center on the Gonzaga campus,  named after the local boy ‘Bing Crosby’.  Maybe take a photograph of Flat Eric in front of the statue of Bing.
7. find out about the subduing of the indigneous Spokane, Palouse, Coeur D’Alene tribes (visit the Steptoe battlefield),  check out some ancient petroglyphs.
8. walk, roller-blade or bike along the Spokane Centenai trail.
9. visit a couple of local ‘prairies’ and look for ‘little houses’ on them.  ‘Orchard prairie’ is by a town called ‘Country Homes’ with names like these they are just calling out for a visit….  They don’t have ‘prairies’ in Britain.  For me their novelty value hasn’t worn off and I grew-up watching the Ingle’s girls….
10. Visit Manito park.  Mainly to be in a pretty place designed to make people relax and be happy,  but also to get some local information on the Olmstead Brothers influence.  I’m an Olmstead brothers groupie.  Only since they are dead there’s no sex on the cards when being a groupie.  Sigh.  I’ve admired them since I was 20 when I first studied environmental psychology as an undergraduate.  The wikipedia entry on their achievements doesn’t adequately praise their work in the light of the predominant contemporary attitudes towards nature,  especially European attitudes.  You might get treated to a bit of my gushing over these guys in a later blog entry.  IF you are lucky.  You could get lucky.  I used to get paid,  yes PAID,  to discuss their work with people.  People?  well undegraduates,  I’m not sure if they count,  they’re so busy being hip and pre-mature and having sex and stuff even though they can say some insightful things in odd moments of lucidity during seminars,  mainly they’re just cute in a grungy kind of way,  or at least they were when I taught….  

If I do only two things in that list I’ll be a happy bouncy bunny.  Did you spot where the stream of consciousness krept in?  I bet you did,  you’re clever like that 

Over-prepared-two-beer-tiddly-Wendy

Log fire

I had fun poking that!

Things that got toasted:

• Wendy’s tootsies
• Marshmallows
• Vin Chaud
• Wendy’s nose (it’s not so short…)
• Sox pressie from my favourite SwedishTeenAngel

Poking fires fulfills a basic ‘Wendy need’ and will be cited in the to-be-written Wendy ‘User Handbook’ along with the PMT requirements for

• increasing the hug-to-no-hug ratio.
• reducing the requirement for rationality.

Waves THERE

This view was less than 2 minutes walk from the cabin door. I didn’t even have to cross the road to get there! Road-crossing is not yet one of my well-developed skills.

I was able to watch the sunset then walk home in the dark without falling over or negotiating the complexities of road-crossing!

Luxury

W toasty-hot-stand-up-gal

The Oregon coast Tsunami signs are way too common for the paranoid.

DONT PANIC  

(HitchHiker’s guide to the Galaxy,  D.Adams).

Advice provided by Oregon signs:

“Entering Tsunami Hazard zone” (e.g. consider panicing if you hear or feel rumblings that can’t reasonably be attributed to the Sea, your tummy, or a Unix critical internal contingency test)

“In case of earthquake go to high ground or inland” (e.g. if you panic run, drive, uphill)

This sign is generously posted on the coastal routes. Methinks the ‘arrow’ should point at an ‘upward’ gradient because Tsunami escape involves getting to high ground.  

 Wendy the-earth-didnt-move-for-me-did-it-for-you?

Summary impression of the Oregon coast from a British perspective, think of…

• BIG Cornwall with stone cottages replaced by wooden homes.
• Virtually no cell-phone coverage. NO TEXTING
• Big trees. Approximately 3x as tall as anything in the UK as standard issue.
• BIG waves. No surfers due to killer-Trees! Literally big-tree sized logs rolling in the surf.
• Logging. Lots of articulated lorries hauling deliberately felled killer trees inland. This IS Lumberjack country. Sing with me “I’m a lumberjack and I’m OK….” 
• The normal US stuff - wide roads with poor foundations and surfaces - uneven, prone to flooding, lots of cracks, holes, repairs and those big cars they call SUVs
• The same strange bars and cafe’s with inexplicable 1970’s decor, including fake flowers, run by locals with strange hair-styles. It felt like walking into a US centric episode of ‘The League of Gentlemen’

The two photographs below were taken within 2 minutes of each other from the same position. I just turned my body and aligned the camera…

The December Oregon sky is as dramatic as the geography.

To align with one British cultural sterotype here’s a wee bit about the weather:

• Nightly heavy rain. Rain-drops, wearing classic Doc Martens, pogo-ing on the cabin roof. I had to sing REALLY loud to make myself heard.
• River floods seeped onto SR101.
• Mystically foggy mornings. Arthurian Avalon style. The fog rolled from the hills out across to the sea likea dragons breath surrounding Tintagel.
• Vibrantly sunny afternoons with clear skys.

Wendy wet-not-weally-wild

Short vacation to the very pretty Oregon coastline begins TODAY!  

Should be stormy, dramatic, beautiful.  I’m anticipating lots of bouncing, cheese-eating, some hiking,  beaucoup de ‘hat wearing,  loud singing a la auto,  wine drinking and bookworming in a cosey cabin with a real hearth & fire…  …I’m taking my sunglasses (optimism abounds*!)…  

…I’m not anticipating an internet connection or hugs…   …room for pleasant suprises… 

W too-excited-too-sleep

*(couldn’t find any good internet entries on ‘Splogenous Abounds’,  a fabulous name for a band… …don’t actually recall their music quality,  just the band name…)

We went to see Seattle Mariners vs Baltimore Orioles at the Seattle Mariner’s ‘Safeco” stadium on Saturday evening.

The massive roof rolls closed to enable the games to continue in Seattle rain. Below, you can see it open in the early evening sunlight as the field is prepared for the game. Baseball games are a fabulous American ceremony.

Preparation of the field is like a dance involving

• Mascot: Seattle Mariners use a person dressed as a ‘Moose’?! in slapstick style interactive antics.
• Autographs: team members sign autographs at the edge of the field.
• Overhead screens: play media clips of ‘bloopers’, games, and provide statistics.
• Colours: Before the game starts the colours (National, State and Utility - e.g. firemen) are marched onto the field
• Field preparation: the sand is sprayed with water, this appears like a tightly choreographed dance. The ‘lines’ are placed on the ground. Again this appears very ritualised
• National Anthem: a guest sings the National anthem while the crowd stands.
• Food: people walk up and down the isles calling-out the food types they are vending (popcorn, candy-floss, beer, lemonade). You catch their attention and purchase directly from them without leaving your seat. Alternatively you can walk to a huge walkway that surrounds the back of the stands and is completely bordered by food/drinks vendors.

This game included one minute of silence prior to the National Anthem to remember the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Essentially a shared experience, news system and re-inforcement of morale values.

W

Spent the day with friends at the Bumbershoot festival listening to music, playing in the International fountain, watching people shop and eat.

W

Kayaking on Lake Union was wonderful. Watching Seaplanes land, intricate and varied houseboat designs, awash in thick sunshine. We hired (US = rented) Kayak’s from:

http://www.aguaverde.com/

Wendy amatuer-paddler

Charlotte, NC #15

In the Andrew Jackson State park we saw this Anole Lizard. I’ve never seen one before. It was about 10 inches long from nose to tail.

Charlotte, NC #6

On Wednesday evening we went to Puckett’s Farm Equipment Co. A garage converted into a bar and venue with pool tables, music stage, and lots of NASCAR accessories.

We drove up in an Avis rented Ford Taurus. The car park was full of pick-up trucks. I was a bit scared. An old man with very few, very wonky, teeth and a substantial white beard reminiscent of ZZ-Top approached us. He asked my companion if he could ask me to dance. I tried to copy the fast-steps placed by the other girls on the dance floor. Some people had bare feet, Mr. ZZ-Top had very shiny Cuban healed cowboy boots. Everyone smiled and the girls chatted with me afterwards.

A very friendly place for a white person. I thoroughly enjoyed the evening. I’ve never seen an ‘electric washboard’ before. I was too shy to point my camera at the locals, it felt too intrusive. You’ll have to imagine this southern bar full of NASCAR, beer, and blue-grass fans..

Fast foot-shuffling Wendy

Charlotte, NC #4

Lots of places and people here are named after the Hickory. Local by President Andrew Jackson was nick-named “Old Hickory”, Churches, roads and towns have Hickory in their name.

A good local BBQ uses Hickory wood to flavour the meat. We tried some at the “Old Hickory House”. Good wholesome tasty food!

The Hickory is a deciduous tree from the Walnut family. The Latin genus is “Carya”. This includes the “Pecan”. According to Wikipedia there are 17 types. About 12 are Native to North America. The 3 main types referred to on north American web-sites are:

• Shagbark or Scaleybark (carya ovata) - prized for smoking meats, particularly pork. The nuts are also considered very good and an extract of the bark is used to make a syrup similar to Maple syrup. This tree appears to have many names including: shagbark, bigleaf shagbark, kingnut, big shellbark, bottom shellbark, thick shellbark, and western shellbark.
• Shellbark (Carya laciniosa) - dense, strong, elastic wood used for making tool handles, athletic equipment, furniture, construction timbers, firewood, and its wood chips are utilized in the smoking of meats.
• Bitternut (carya cordiformis) – as the name implies, these nuts are not favoured by humans though they do appeal to squirrels.

Tree-hugging Wendy