NEWS Last week my pen found itself showering praise upon The Stranger's news staff. This week the error has been corrected, as JOSH FEIT'S gaggle of insufferable wonkery returns to its usual skull-deadening form. FIRST UP: THOMAS FRANCIS, with a follow-up of sorts to his stellar work of last week. THEN: ERICA C. BARNETT branches out to cover the viaduct, a story that would be lacking in attention if not for the acreage already felled to print her previous logorrhea on the subject. FINALLY: ELI SANDERS signals nap time with a story on state politics. PLUS: In Other News, CounterIntel, In the Hall, Police Beat.

FEATURE Bleak House Putting any and all rumors of The Stranger being a gay publication to rest, CHRISTOPHER FRIZZELLE is given some 7,000 words to scribble about... a homosexual bathhouse. One suspects if the subject had been, say, the merits of team sports, "editor" Dan Savage wouldn't have been as free with the word count. At any rate, I'm looking forward to skipping next week's 10,000-word opus on feather boas and/or the criminally neglected genius of Paul Lynde. Who knew Seattle Gay News would turn out to be the butch paper in town?