SPECIAL The Capitol Hill Murders I have often described The Stranger's writers and editors as a gaggle of potheads hammering away on keyboards like a pack of chimpanzees. This week I find myself in the uncomfortable position of having to praise these chimpanzees. With their coverage of the slayings on Seattle's Capitol Hill, the writers and editors of the The Stranger have managed to elevate this publication from a scandal sheet devoted to the baser instincts of its readership into a publication worthy of not just your attention, but your respect. This pains me, but applause must be given to THOMAS FRANCIS, MEGAN SELING, ELI SANDERS, BRENDAN KILEY, JOSH FEIT, and—horror of horrors—DAN SAVAGE, each of whom have tackled angles of this difficult story with intelligence and, most shockingly of all, professionalism. From the paper's moment-by-moment Internet coverage of this tragedy (via The Stranger's normally abysmal and childish web log, "Slog") to the pieces now in print, The Stranger's work this past week has been uncharacteristically meritorious. It can be argued—indeed, it has been argued in a series of e-mails I received from the unnamed editors of a competing weekly publication in Seattle—that The Stranger was only able to cover this tragedy as effectively as it has due to the feverish attention it has long lavished on Seattle's wastrels, "at-risk youth", disc jockeys, binge drinkers, drug users, and other residents of the city's demimonde. It may very well be the case that what makes The Stranger so pitifully irrelevant every other week earned it the access and insight that made it so riveting and indispensable this week. Nevertheless, the pot-addled chimpanzees have done well.