Why hasn't Matthew Stadler finished the novelâabout money, or the Olympic Peninsula, or money on the Olympic Peninsula, or something else altogetherâthat he moved to Portland roughly 500 years ago to write?
Who is going to win this year's Nobel Prize for Literature (which may or may not have been announced by the time you're reading this)? Will it be an American (it hasn't been an American since Toni Morrison in 1993)? Will it (finally and deservedly) be Philip Roth?
Why does Elliott Bay Cafe, which makes pretty good sandwiches, quit making sandwiches at 5:00 p.m. even though the cafe stays open until 8:00 p.m. (and the bookstore stays open until 10:00 p.m.) thereby leaving anyone who wants to have a sandwich before an evening reading shit out of luck? Why not offer sandwiches for another two hours so that people who show up for the bookstore's nightly readings at the hour at which it is customary to desire dinner have something they can eat other than doughnuts, brownies, dented hardboiled eggs, the occasional piece of fruit, or their own arms? On what planet is there a huge rush for sandwiches at 4:30 p.m.?
Is the local journal Swivel, the "nexus of women and wit," funnier if you're a woman?
Whatever happened to that rumor about the desire of someone within the ranks at Seattle Arts & Lectures to start new programs (maybe even a separate lecture series) to appeal to a younger crowd (you know, people who appreciate hiphop, the Believer, independent films, and approximately one third of the fiction published in the New Yorker)âwas that just hope?
Wasn't that short story by Miranda July in the New Yorker a couple of weeks ago awesome?
Why hasn't Bailey/Coy Books finally gone ahead and shelved their used books in among their new books, like Powell's does in Portland, which would arguably make the store look better and definitely make finding the book you want easier?
Why can't Cranky take a joke?
Isn't it great that Hugo House, under new leadership, has finally put together a weekend of events (Charles D'Ambrosio reading from a novel in progress called Worthless, plus Greil Marcus, David Rakoff, and others, on October 13 and 14) that's genuinely exciting?
Which will be the rowdier scene: Barack Obama discussing and autographing his book The Audacity of Hope at Benaroya Hall on Thursday, October 26, or, on the same night, Lemony Snicket reading and signing the last book in his Unfortunate series (along with musical performances by the Gothic Archies, which includes Magnetic Fields frontman/sourpuss/genius Stephin Merritt and Lemony Snicket look-alike Daniel Handler) at Town Hall Seattle?
Has there ever been a better blurb for a book than the blurb by John Hodgman on the back of Grégoire Bouillier's memoir The Mystery Guest (go find it at a bookstore and just try to resist buying the thing)?
Why aren't there any good bars for reading in Seattle, anywhere, whatsoever? 
