Reader Charlie Mas wrote in to obits@thestranger.com on November 8 (after the Seattle School Board declined to fire Superintendent Joseph Olchefske over the alleged mishandling of a $33 million budget deficit): "Today we can report the death of the education reform movement called 'Accountability.' This movement, once popular in Seattle, died suddenly from a lack of consequences to the leadership of Seattle Public Schools following the discovery of financial bungling by the Superintendent, the senior staff, and the Board (except Director [Mary] Bass). Accountability will not be mourned, as it was generally used as a club to beat students, teachers, administrators, and schools for failures which were often outside their control or built into the system. Accountability is based on consequences. The District leadership failed miserably, but suffered none. Since an organization's culture is set at the top, the culture of accountability in Seattle Public Schools is officially dead."
The Denny's restaurant on University Way closed on November 10. The chain's newest Seattle outlet opened in 1999 (in what had been the Pizza Haven chain's first location), outfitted in the company's current retro-diner look. It ostensibly fell to the Ave's ongoing construction closure, but it follows the demise of the struggling circuit's Northgate, Lake City, Aurora, and Mercer branches. Grand Slam Breakfasts and other Denny's fare can still be had at its last surviving Seattle fooderies, in Ballard and on Fourth Avenue South.