The mailman delivered our latest gizmo gadget (a state of the art Ultra Flip HD Camera) a few weeks back and we thought “what the flip should we do with this ding-dang newfangled thingamabob?”

Out of the red, white and blue, it occurred to us that our third President, one Thomas Jefferson, who loved new gadgets and devices and inventions and discoveries, would have gotten a kick out of this powerful little digital camera, the size of a deck of cards, not much smaller than a hand-held booklet-sized copy of what is known as the Declaration of Independence.

It was 234 years ago right now, that our Founders were “cutting and pasting” their final draft of what became known as that treasured and precious document, the Declaration of Independence, whose primary author was the then 33 year-old future President Jefferson.

So someone said:

“Let’s take our camera around White Center and Burien (and Normandy Park and Des Moines) and ask our fellow neighbors and friends and passersby to read aloud the Declaration into our new little camera, piece the quotes together into one colorful video, and release it to the nation and world on our various neighborhood news blogs.”

And so we did – well actually Mark Neuman did, then Scott Schaefer edited it – see if you can find yourself, or a friend or two:

(…at the end of the video, look for some amusing outtakes as well as terrific “Happy Birthday USA!” salutations)

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY WHITE CENTER!

Our friends at White Center for the Arts are holding a very unique “Python-A-Thon” fundraiser this Sunday, March 7th, from Noon – 8pm at Big Al Brewing, where episodes of the classic “Monty Python’s Flying Circus” TV show will be shown non-stop.

Participants are encouraged to bring potluck food items, dress in costume (lumberjack anyone?), bring penguins to put on the telly, and walk like you’re in the Ministry of Silly Walks, all while donating to your neighborhood arts association.

Here are the details:

WHAT: “Python-A-Thon” viewing party of classic Monty Python TV episodes to help raise funds for White Center for the Arts.

WHEN: Sunday, March 7th from Noon – 8pm.

WHERE: Big Al Brewing, located at 9832 14th Ave SW; (206) 453-4487 (website here)

INFO: From a poster:

Big Al Brewing Presents Monty Python Video Festival

“Continuing Education”

Earn your letters in Pythonology

Finding it hard to get promoted even though you have a MM- Master of Monty?

Get your Doctor of Pythonology (DP), and silly walk your way to the top!

DP courses in:

• The Arts
  • -Why lumberjacks sing
• Optical Sciences
  • -How not to be seen
• Aeronautics
  • -What makes sheep fly
• Military History
  • -German humor and the demise of the Wehrmacht
• Veterinary Sciences
  • – Learn to determine the difference between “Dead” and “Resting”

And much much more!

If you’re silly enough, you too could become a fully accredited Doctor of Pythonology, capable of answering such puzzling questions as…

• “Why is there a penguin on the telly”?
• “If she’s a go’er why is she with him”?
• And, “Did the Vikings invent spam”?

Classes begin on Sunday, March 7th

First class of the day starts at 12 noon

Location: Go to www.bigalbrewing.com for directions

Extra credit will be given for bringing pot luck and coming to class as your favorite Monty Python character.

To get you in the mood, here’s the classic “Ministry of Silly Walks” sketch:

On Thursday (Feb. 25), former South Seattle Community College teacher and King County webmaster Sabra Schneider threw her hat into the 2010 election ring, announcing that she’ll be seeking the 34th District House Seat (Pos. #2) being vacated by current Rep. Sharon Nelson.

So far, Schneider will be facing Geoffrey “Mac” McElroy, owner of the Triangle Pub in White Center. The filing deadline is June 11th, and the primary is Aug. 17th.

Schneider has most recently worked as Webmaster for kingcounty.gov, and according to an interview with The Seattle P-I, where she was named “Geek of the Week“:

…my job involves everything to do with the front end. I write, design, edit, lightly code, manage projects, give advice (sometimes good) and coordinate social media. It’s a surprisingly awesome job, bringing government information to citizens using technology. I’ve always been passionate about intersection of public work and technology and feel lucky to work in a place that encourages innovation.

I also teach communications at South Seattle Community College and have been faculty there for more than 10 years.

Here’s Schneider’s press release in all its glory:

SABRA SCHNEIDER TO SEEK 34th DISTRICT HOUSE SEAT

Today, former South Seattle Community College teacher Sabra Schneider announced her intention to seek the 34th District House Seat being vacated by current Representative Sharon Nelson. Schneider, a resident of Arbor Heights in West Seattle, currently manages online communications for King County.

“Now more than ever, we need legislators who will make education and family wage jobs  a priority in Olympia” said Sabra, 36. “My background in government communications coupled with a decade of teaching the work force of the future makes me uniquely qualified to take on the challenges facing citizens across the 34th District and across our state.”

Sabra Schneider has been a leader in King County’s efforts to increase efficiency and transparency through the innovative use of technology and community partnerships. Sabra has been instrumental in emergency communications, working closely with other local governments to ensure citizens have the most up-to-date information, during the most critical times. A strong proponent of transparency and accountability in government, Sabra is currently helping to organize the Open Government Northwest conference at the end of March.

Prior to serving in King County government, Sabra worked for 10 years as a teacher at South Seattle Community College (SSCC) in West Seattle where she developed a two year degree program in computing technologies. The program has helped graduates go on to family-wage jobs in technology careers. While at SSCC, Sabra also worked with the Seattle Jobs Initiative to build and deliver a fast-track technology program for low-income job seekers.

As a 15-year union member, fighting on behalf of working class families in the 34th District will be a top priority for Sabra in the legislature. Sabra helped bargain the current contract enjoyed by members of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE) Local 17. While working at South Seattle Community College, Sabra was a member of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) Local 1789.

White Center Blog Sales Guy/Host Bart Bryan needs a Date for the Rotary Club of Burien/White Center’s Rockin’ Valentines Dinner and Dance, which will be held Saturday, Feb. 13th at South Seattle Community College.

Bart’s lucky date will enjoy cocktails, dinner, a live auction, raffle prizes and dancing to two different bands – all on the house!

To add to the romance, there will also be corsages, boutinnieres, and chocolates available for Bart to buy you (just make sure Bart gets a receipt so he can be reimbursed by the WCB!).

Here’s the dinner menu:

• Greek Salad
• Grilled All Natural Chicken with Sundried Tomato Tapenad
• Mashed Red Potatoes with Garlic and Pesto
• Fresh Vegetable Medley

And if having a nice dinner out isn’t enough enticement to have a date with Bart, how’s about dancing to The West Coast Swing (crooning sounds of Frank Sinatra and fellow Rat-Packers) followed by local Jazz/Rock band Uncle Ernies?

Our single friend Bart is 50-years young, blue-eyed, still has most of his hair, with a sparkling personality and great sense of humor. He’s also pretty fit (fit enough to do a polar bear plunge – see the video below!). Bart confesses that he can also still “bust a move” on the dance floor, and is “looking for a fun date for a great romantic dinner dance for a great cause!”

If you’re interested in winning a free date night with this Bart-o-licious man at the Rotary’s Rockin’ Valentines Dinner and Dance, and you’re over 21 and not old enough to be Bart’s mother, email us with a recent picture, a short bio and why you want to be Bart’s date by 5pm Wed. Feb. 10th.

Our Readers will choose the winner via an online poll, so make sure your entry is good, and that you include an interesting photo and a fun, short bio.

In addition to a night of dining and dancing with Bart, the winner will receive another night out at at The Mark Restaurant courtesy of the Mark’s Debra George.

The entry deadline is Wed., Feb. 10th at 5pm, and the winner will be voted on and announced Friday, Feb. 12th at Noon right here on The B-Town Blog, so ladies…email your entries in ASAP!

Also, if you’re interested in attending this great, fun fundraiser event yourself (either to watch Bart’s date or have one of your own), you can still purchase tickets online by clicking here.

And now ladies, if you’ve ever fantasized about what Bart looks like with his shirt off whilst immersed in chilly 46-degree Puget Sound water, here’s a video of him doing the annual Polar Bear Plunge at Three Tree Point on Jan. 1st:

And if that wasn’t enough, here’s what Bart looks like without his pants. In public. On the Link light rail:

The Dub-C is known for its latino culture, and this Thursday night you can experience some of the same about three miles to the south at Burien’s Cafe Mundi (located at 447 SW 152nd) as they host their free Open Mic night, with lots of poetry, music and comedy.

Here are the details:

WHAT: Open Mic Night at Cafe Mundi

WHEN: Thurs., April 23rd (every 2nd and 4th Thursday), with sign-ups starting at 6pm and open mic at 6:30pm

WHERE: 447 SW 152nd, just over 3 miles south in downtown Burien (map below)

COST: No cover charge!

INFO: 16 and over please, under 16 with Guardian.

Café Mundi opened in January and serves espresso drinks, tropical shakes, Latin American fast food such as empanadas, arepas and Spanish tortillas.

We also have desserts.

Everything is made locally, using organic ingredients whenever possible.

Café Mundi also offers Internet access and will soon offer free Wi-Fi. Currently we have computers that people can use (1/2 hour free with purchase of a coffee drink) or they can bring in laptops and be connected via ethernet.

View Larger Map

White Center Blog gives a huge shout-out to Reader “Ms. Anon E. Mouse,” who sent us this photo, which she claims was done as a prank just for the White Center Blog (which, BTW, was the very first blog-style website launched specifically for the Dub-C):

by Scott Schaefer

Last week we posted the first excerpt from longtime area resident, architect, artist and now author Alexander Sasonoff’s recently-published autobiography called “Growing Up in Rat City and Beyond.”

(Serendipitous side note o’trivia: the office we currently occupy was actually designed by Mr. Sasonoff!)

Here’s part two of “Growing Up in Rat City and Beyond” which can be purchased online for just $13.04 by clicking here.

Part II: A Trip To White Center

White Center straddles the county line with the business district being both in Seattle and King County. It is a composite of various commercial establishments, surrounded by single-family housing occupied by blue-collar families. It received its name in 1918 with a coin toss between a Mr. White and a Mr. Green. Had the coin flipped over one more time, I might have grown up in Green Center.

At the age of six, eye level is about three feet six inches from the ground. This gives one a different perspective of the world. Walking about in White Center, I could easily peer under the swinging tavern doors of which there were many. The raucous laughter and other sounds that emanated from within aroused my boyish curiosity. It seemed that every other store front was a tavern. The heavy smell of beer wafted out through those doors and filled the air. Whenever I smell beer today, memories of early White Center flood my mind’s eye.

Many years later, while serving in the Army, I met a guy named Fred who had been in the merchant marine. We were both stationed at Fort Monmouth in New Jersey and while having a friendly conversation he asked where I was from. When I told him I hailed from White Center, he then surprised me with the following story: His ship had pulled into Seattle and he had asked his mates where was a fun place to go in the city. They told him to head for White Center. He hailed a cab and asked the cabbie where would be the best spot to have a drink. He was dropped off at the Glendale Tavern, an old well-established watering hole frequented by locals who often got into fights and did not cotton to strangers. One of them was an off-duty policeman that patrolled the area and tried to keep things somewhat orderly. The cop was about six feet six inches tall and his real name was Tommy Tucker. Of course it wasn’t long before he was nicknamed Tiny. The owner of The Glendale was a very large, buxom woman named Ma Ritchie. (She tended bar there and many years later was to come into my life as a personal friend.) But, back to the story with Fred. He walks through the swinging doors and as soon as he is inside, someone punches him in the face. He is sent flying backwards and out into the street. He struggles to his feet and starts for the door again when, BAM! he is hit again and lands in the street again. At this point, Fred decided that he’d had enough, called for another cab and went back to the ship. That was what he remembered about White Center. I had no idea that I lived in such a famous place. In those days dislikes and disagreements were settled by your fists, not with guns as is the case all too often today.

Roxbury Street was the designated county line that separated White Center from the City of Seattle. The north half is in Seattle and the south half in King County. Roxbury runs east-west and was a graveled road from 16th Avenue to Olson Place, which leads me to the following story: Billy Campbell’s dad had an old 1934 Studebaker which was a flat charcoal color. It was built like a tank. Billy’s dad would let him use the car on occasion. A lot of us neighborhood kids would pile into it and go for joyrides. At this particular intersection, Billy took the corner too fast. The car slid sideways on the gravel and took out a row of mailboxes and just missed a power pole. The right front fender and the headlight were damaged. It was the last time Billy’s dad let him use the car. It was fortunate that there were no injuries.

Many years ago, prize fighting in Seattle was severely limited by permits, licenses and other legalities, hence a boxing ring was constructed on the county side of Roxbury Street. Prizefights were held there attracting a rough and rowdy drinking and betting crowd. The ring was built by Hiram Green and later converted to a roller-skating rink still in operation today. There were many prizefighters from this working-class area. One of them, Al Hostak, held the middleweight championship of the world. After his retirement, Al tended bar for many years at the Epicure restaurant up the street from the Glendale Tavern. This establishment was there for many years and was well attended by locals. I remember fundraisers held there for Washington’s Governor Rossellini.

Harry "Kid" Matthews

Another fighter, Harry Kid Mathews, lived on the city side of White Center. The Kid went on from White Center to fight the famous Bostonian Heavy Weight Champion of the World, Rocky Marciano. Unfortunately, he was knocked out in the second round. Still Mathews career as a boxer was significant. He knocked out 43 opponents in 49 fights, fighting in three different weight divisions, including heavyweight. My former wife’s family was well acquainted with Kid Matthews and we used to party at the Angle Lake Plunge. The Plunge was a place not far from White Center where one could bring his own liquor, pay a cover charge and dance to live band music. Mixers for drinks were purchased for a nominal fee.

Another one of my neighbors was a fighter named Jackie Moore. Jackie fought in the lightweight division and gained notoriety there. His dad was a retired prizefighter and used to teach neighborhood kids the fundamentals of boxing. Jackie’s dad worked at the Frye packing plant in Seattle. He wielded a sledgehammer to put down beef cattle. It wasn’t pleasant listening to stories about his work. It was the Frye packing plant that was damaged when one of the early B29 bombers crashed into it.

Next week: part three of our continuing exclusive excerpts of “Growing Up in Rat City and Beyond”!

by Scott Schaefer

Alexander Sasonoff is a longtime area resident whose acronym could easily be “AAA” – Architect, Artist and now…Author.

Just don’t call him if your car breaks down (although he could probably fix that too…).

Sasonoff, an accomplished local architect, grew up in White Center, and has just released an autobiographical book called “Growing Up in Rat City and Beyond” which he has generously allowed us to post exclusive excerpts from right here on the White Center Blog.

Sasonoff’s book takes readers on a gritty, often humorous journey from his earliest days in “Rat City,” starting when his Russian immigrant family moved here in 1936, through his childhood growing up in a tough neighborhood, playing in swamps, hanging out with boxers, getting fresh milk for 10-cents a jug from “Frenchie’s Farm” and much more.

Here’s part one of “Growing Up in Rat City and Beyond” which can be purchased online for just $13.04 by clicking here.

Part I • The Move to Rat City

The Move

As I sat in the front seat of the moving van clutching my cat, Reezhik, I had mixed feelings about moving to the house my parents had purchased near White Center. I was leaving all of my friends at F.A. McDonald Grade School as well as the other kids in my neighborhood. It was 1936 and the Boeing Aircraft Company was hiring workers. My Dad landed a job there.

The drums of war were starting their death rattle in Europe and the U.S. government ordered the construction of thirteen B17 bombers. These same thirteen bombers were flying into Hawaii when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. It was a typical gray overcast day in Seattle. We were moving during a mid-school term so I would have to start all over again with new friends. Many good memories were being left behind. We lived across the street from lower Woodland Park. There were many picnics in the park and on the shores of Greenlake. Visits to the zoo will always be with me.

The driver of the moving van hated cats and threatened, if the cat got loose, he was going to throw him out the window. I tightened my grip on Reezhik. He made me sit as far from him as possible so I was squeezed up against the door panel with my brother, my Dad sat in the middle. I could not convey the threat to my cat but the cat must have sensed the hatred and did not move. Our dog, Spot, had already been safely transported to his new home.

It took about two hours in the lumbering moving van to get from Green Lake to our destination. We arrived without incident. The house was located on a double lot so there was plenty of space to play. Fruit trees abounded, there were apple, cherry, pear, plum and peach throughout the yard.

The oldest portion of the house used to be an office for a logging company that had cut all the timber in the area years before. It rested on a log foundation with the rest of the house added later. The newer portion had a very strange concrete foundation. I believe the basement was dug out after the house was constructed. The concrete was stepped and appeared to be about two feet thick. There were no sewers in the area and all of the streets were gravel. The sewage system was a simple cesspool that we all were warned to stay away from for fear of the wood planks collapsing.

Years later this area was sewered and after that came paved streets and sidewalks. My brother, Leon and I shared one bedroom while my two sisters, Vera and Ireda shared another. Later, we refurbished the attic creating two more bedrooms, so eventually each of us had our own room.

The house had only one bathroom. The water was heated by a coil of pipes in the wood burning furnace and kitchen stove. In the summertime there was never enough hot water generated by the kitchen stove. It was too warm to fire up the big furnace. Kettles of water were heated atop the kitchen stove to supplant the weekend baths. To save hot water, my brother and I used the same bath water.

This became a greater problem when our cousin moved in with us after being freed from a Japanese prison camp after the war. My Dad used to call me into the bathroom to wash his back. He sat in the tub while shaving. On one such occasion I asked him why he did not have any gray hair. I had noticed everyone getting on in years had gray hair. He answered me in Russian, “Ya vsegda moyu golavoo s holodnoi.” Translated, “I always wash my head with cold water.”

As the years passed and when I was in my twenties, washing my hair with cold water, I burst out laughing at the realization that he was telling me to keep a cool head. In that old house we finally had an electric hot water tank installed and there was much rejoicing.

Next week: part two of our continuing exclusive excerpts of “Growing Up in Rat City and Beyond”!

Photographed on 16th Ave SW near SW 112th is this scene of a White Center yard festooned for Halloween:

Driving through the Dub-C this morning, we found this fascinating scene of nature vs man: a blackberry bush is growing through a traffic cone on the corner of SW 107th and 21st SW (possibly cultivated that way by a nearby resident):

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Everyone’s favorite, locally-named roller derby clan, the Rat City Roller Girls, have emerged victorious (by default) in a lawsuit over their logo filed by Starbucks.

According to the lawsuit, Starbucks believed that the RCRG logo was “too similar” to their logo.

This means that this ding-dang great logo:

Apparently does not infringe on this one:

Yeah Roller Girls – way to kick some corporate a**!

Found this impressive “speed video” of a local White Center artist named Wes doing his rendition of a “FOB”:

(for reference of what a “FOB” is, click here)

Found a hilarious “Ode to White Center” blog entry recently by a Dub-C resident named Kirsten Geyer, and here’s an excerpt:

Dear White Center,

When we first looked into moving here we were thrilled with the inexpensive homes, accessibility to downtown, and diverse culture.

We didn’t necessarily realize that we would also be subjecting ourselves to the neighborly meth dealer/prostitute, creepy dudes in wife beaters, and parents who think it’s totally acceptable to send their 6 year old to the park along with their two-year old…alone…although this might possibly be preferable to the parent who drives them to the park but then sits in the car the whole time and drinks a 40 while the children play…

To read the entire, somewhat cheeky blog post, click here.