NEWS
Attentive readers will recall my reasonable proclamation last week that The Stranger's favorite civic blunder, the monorail, was dead. Evidently, though not surprisingly, this message failed to reach the paper's news department, as ERICA C. BARNETT bores us yet again with more unnecessary words on the subject. Horse, thou are dead—now Barnett shall kick you. ALSO: AMY JENNIGES on trouble at some place called Wallingford Center. PLUS: CounterIntel and In the Hall.

SHORT FEATURE #1 The Mayor's Boy
In the sort of yellow preemptive smearing not seen since that bastard Willie Hearst was running the country, JOSH FEIT spends 1,400 words tearing down Seattle City Council candidate Casey Corr.

SHORT FEATURE #2 Marching to the Left
ELI SANDERS jetted off to Washington, D.C., this past weekend to cover the major peace march on the Mall. Here is his predictable America-bashing tripe.

FEATURE School Spirit
AMY JENNIGES files an interesting, if not terribly evenhanded, story on Lake Washington High School's unnerving closeness with a local church.

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS
It should come as no surprise that The Stranger has come down in favor of Zadie Smith's new book, since The Stranger is producing an event with Smith—who is flying in from London—in a liquor establishment next week. That The Stranger's books section has revealed itself to be less about books and more about drinking should also come as a shock to no one.