Thousands of people have lined up daily to get a look at the stunning new Central Library since it opened two weeks ago. The only problem is, once you get in, you can't get out. Two long escalators whisk visitors to the top of the "Books Spiral," on the 10th floor. Once there, the options for getting back down are as follows: Wait in line for one of the library's two heavily trafficked elevators, the only direct route down; walk down the spiral, a long series of narrow switchbacks that meander downward, stopping one floor short of the fifth-floor escalators; take the stairs, formerly an emergency exit, to the escalators on the fifth floor.

Or, as dozens of chartreuse signs hastily taped up last weekend to address the confusion awkwardly instructed, "You have reached the bottom of the book spiral. To continue down take the stairs behind you to level 5 and to escalator to 5th and 4th Avenue exits or take the elevator located behind you to the right." One befuddled patron who was lost at the bottom of the spiral walked past the sign, doubled back, read it, and muttered: "The stairs don't go all the way down? Hmm. That's not very intuitive." ERICA C. BARNETT

You Booze, You Lose

On Tuesday, June 1, the city council approved new Alcohol Impact Areas, expanding on the zone in Pioneer Square where stores are currently restricted on what types of alcohol they can sell (read: no fortified malt liquor or high-octane beer) and what hours they can sell it, in an effort to deter chronic public inebriation. Under the new rules, shops in central Seattle--including downtown, Capitol Hill, and Queen Anne--plus part of the University District, two areas that have seen increased public drinking since the Pioneer Square rules took effect, will undergo a six-month "voluntary" compliance period later this year. If the voluntary program doesn't curb public drinking, the city can ask the state's liquor control board for mandatory restrictions. AMY JENNIGES

Weak

Seattle Weekly's music festival, held on a Sunday afternoon last month in Pioneer Square, may have been the breaking point for former Weekly senior account manager Lysa Hansen, the veteran ad rep who quit last month to take a position at the Evergreen Monthly. (Hansen handled the Weekly's national advertising.) The blink-and-you-missed-it music fest, which was confined to nine Pioneer Square venues, reportedly netted less than $2,000 for the struggling downtown paper, and was so poorly attended that one observer described a showcase at the Fenix Underground as "10 people standing around staring at the Vells."

A glaring marketing snafu reportedly compounded the festival's low, low turnout. The signs the Weekly designed for the event, which were supposed to be draped on the faÿades of the nine venues, reportedly included an ad for festival co-sponsor American Spirit cigarettes. Federal law prohibited outdoor cigarette ads in, oh, 1999. The banners were reportedly moved inside the clubs. (Weekly publisher Terry Coe said he was "not aware of" any relocated |banners and had no further comment about the festival.)

Hansen wasn't the first Weekly employee to make a hasty exit right after the flailing music awards. Former music editor Bob Mehr was canned last June after clashing with Coe over how the festival should be produced. Hansen did not return a call and an e-mail seeking comment. NANCY DREW

Gregoire Gas Gamble

On the campaign trail, gubernatorial candidate (and current attorney general) Christine Gregoire has been privately distancing herself from Governor Gary Locke, whose centrism has alienated many traditional Democratic constituencies, by making liberal noises as she cozies up to labor. But on the zeitgeist issue of rising gas prices, Gregoire has staked out a position to the right of Locke.

Recently, Locke joined with 10 other governors and seven state AGs by signing a letter calling on the Bush administration to investigate whether oil-industry collusion is driving up gas prices, a request echoed by Ron Sims, Gregoire's rival.

Gregoire's name, however, was notably absent from the list of state AGs that accompanied the Locke letter. Moreover, her office just issued a report that blames the price rise on "a tight supply/demand imbalance" and asserts that "there does not appear to be an indication of aberrant behavior." SANDEEP KAUSHIK