Bigger is always better, right?

News • Sports

Mariners Donate $3 Million to Renters After Taking $135 Million From Affordable Housing

by Lester Black • Friday at 3:43 pm

Altruism doesnt live in this house.
Altruism doesn't live in this house. OTTO GREULE JR / GETTY

The corporation that owns the Seattle Mariners is pledging to spend $3 million on helping people in King County avoid eviction, according to a press release from the Transit Riders Union. Isn't it great when private companies altruistically donate their money for the public good?

Oh wait, there's actually nothing selfless about this donation.

This measly $3 million comes after the billion-dollar corporation received $185 million in corporate welfare from King County Executive Dow Constantine and the King County Council. That $185 million could have been spent on affordable housing and the same program that the Mariners are now shelling a fraction of the money towards.

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Science

By Far the Strangest Scientific Discovery of 2018: Your Memories Are a Viral Infection

by Charles Mudede • Friday at 3:00 pm

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Artem_Egorov/gettyimages.com

According to two papers published in Cell on January 11, 2018, the making of memories and the processes of learning resemble, of all things, a viral infection. It works like this: The shells that transport information between neurons are assembled by a gene called Arc. Experiments revealed that the Arc protein that forms a shell functions much like a Gag, a gene that transports a virus's genetic material between cells during an infection. For example, the retrovirus HIV uses a Gag in exactly this manner.

Scientific American:
Viruses are tiny infectious agents that invade cells, bringing foreign genetic material with them. Arc works in a similar way... Arc packages the raw genetic material [and] then visits the other side of the synapse in person. Effectively, Arc ‘infects’ other neurons with the raw materials of memory.

It's hard to fully express how incredible this discovery is. Indeed, the history of the biological science has shown that the stranger, the weirder, the more wonderful a finding is, the more likely is to be true. Recalling a loved dead one is like an infection.

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Food & Drink • Things To Do • Food News

The Return of Sunset Fried Chicken and More Seattle Food News You Can Use: Dec 14, 2018 Edition

by Stranger Things To Do Staff • Friday at 2:45 pm

Formerly a walk-up window inside Rachels Ginger Beer, Monica Dimass Sunset Fried Chicken arrives in its new home in Queer/Bar today, along with an expanded menu and sit-down service.
Formerly a walk-up window inside Rachel's Ginger Beer, Monica Dimas's Sunset Fried Chicken arrives in its new home in Queer/Bar today, along with an expanded menu and sit-down service. Sunset Fried Chicken via Facebook

This week, Monica Dimas's Sunset Fried Chicken finds a new home in Capitol Hill at Queer/Bar, a new restaurant brings "drink and eats" to the former space of Radici in Pioneer Square, and Adana chef Shota Nakajima reveals plans for his upcoming Japanese street food spot Taku (hint: they involve deep-fried skewered meats and tempura ice cream). Read on for all the food news you need to know now. For more inspiration, check out our food and drink calendar and our list of food and drink specials to try in December.

OPENINGS
Caffe Limoncello
This new cafe, which opened recently in lower Queen Anne and had its first Yelp review on November 14, serves espresso, Italian pastries, and panini.
Queen Anne

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News

Suspected White Supremacist Arrested in King County

by Katie Herzog • Friday at 2:30 pm

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coldsnowstorm/Getty

Dakota Reed, a suspected white supremacist, was arrested last week at his mother's home in Lake Forest Park in King County.

Reed is accused of threatening to carry out a mass killing in Washington state, a violation of state hate crime statues, as the Daily Herald first reported. After Reed was arrested, the Snohomish County Sheriff's Department and the FBI seized 12 guns and ammo from Dakota Reed's home in Monroe.

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News • Music • City • Arts

Bumbershoot's Attendance Dropped to Its Lowest Level in Years

by Lester Black • Friday at 2:03 pm

Bumbershoot 2018
Bumbershoot 2018 Travis Trautt

Music festivals around the country have seen their attendance drop in recent years. Unfortunately, this year’s Bumbershoot was not spared from that trend. Attendance at the Seattle Center music festival was down this year to 48,024 people for the weekend, bringing in about 16,000 people a day, according to figures AEG shared with The Stranger.

That’s less than the 80,000 people who bought tickets in 2015, according to a Seattle Times story at the time. Or the 74,000 who were in attendance in 2017, also according to the Times. Over 100,000 people went to the festival in 2013, according to KIRO 7.

Saturday was the busiest day at this year's festival with 17,488 in attendance, according to AEG's scanned attendance figures which have not been previously reported. Friday and Sunday had 15,351 in attendance and 15,185, respectively.

Michael Spadoni, a marketing manager for AEG, said the company was happy with 2018’s turnout given the overall decline in festival attendance across the country.

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News

Sandy Hook Elementary Evacuated After Bomb Threat on 6th Anniversary of Massacre

by Nathalie Graham • Friday at 1:15 pm

26 people were killed six years ago.
26 people were killed here six years ago. HANDOUT / GETTY IMAGES NEWS

It's the sixth anniversary of the Sandy Hook massacre. Many of the victims—26 total, most of them first graders—have now been dead as long as they were alive.

This morning, some scumbag called in a bomb threat to the school, the site of the massacre six years ago.

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Things To Do

Last-Minute Plans: 106 Free, Cheap & Easy Things To Do In Seattle This Weekend: Dec 14-16, 2018

by Stranger Things To Do Staff • Friday at 1:00 pm

Bundle up as Argosys Official Christmas Ship, the Spirit of Seattle, brings twinkling lights and Christmas carols to local waters at the Christmas Ship Festival. Watch from the Fremont Cut on Friday and Madison Park Beach on Sunday.
Bundle up as Argosy's "Official Christmas Ship," the Spirit of Seattle, brings twinkling lights and Christmas carols to local waters at the Christmas Ship Festival. On Friday, catch the Christmas Ship Parade of Boats from a free Fremont Cut viewing party, or stop by a Madison Park Beach party on Sunday.

Panicking because you haven't yet made plans for the weekend and you're short on cash? Don't worry—below, find all of your options for last-minute entertainment that won't cost more than $10, ranging from PhinneyWood Phestivus to the grand opening of Seattle Opera's new Civic Home, and from a Fremont Ugly Sweater Bar Party to Snow Day in Denny Park. For even more options, check out our complete Things To Do calendar.

Stay in the know! Get all this and more on the free Stranger Things To Do mobile app (available for iOS and Android), or delivered to your inbox.

FRIDAY

COMEDY
1. NW Peaks Comedy Night
Past winner of the Seattle International Comedy Competition and current New York comedian Hans Kim will headline at this showcase hosted by Adam Luckey.
(Hillman City, $10)

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Savage Love

Am I Being a Selfish Bitch?

by Dan Savage • Friday at 12:44 pm

Originally published on July 2, 2009.
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I'm a 25-year-old straight female. I've been dating my boyfriend for a few months, but we fell in love fast and I want to make this last. However, he doesn't turn me on. It has nothing to do with looks—he's GORGEOUS—but rather with the fact that I am submissive and like things rough (rape fantasies, being tied up, etc.). He is GGG and tries, but he is just too timid. The last guy I dated used to toss me around like a rag doll, and I miss being dominated. I talked to my wonderful GGG boyfriend, and he agreed right away to have a threesome with my previous guy. I haven't talked to the previous guy yet, but I'm sure he'd be into it. My ex would love this scenario, I would get the abuse I need, and my boyfriend would get a "lesson" in sub/dom sex. But...

1. Am I being a selfish bitch?

2. Is it a bad sign that he's not satisfying me sexually at three months?

3. Thank you!

Needs Some Abuse

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Drugs

Instead of Building the Wall, Trump Should Decriminalize Drugs

by Katie Herzog • Friday at 12:03 pm

Whos gonna pay for it?! We are!
Who's gonna pay for it?! We are! ElFlacodelNorte/Getty

To the great embarrassment of most of the nation, Donald Trump will not shut the fuck up about the wall. Unlike most of Donald's promises, he actually seems determined to build the dumb thing, and during a disastrous on-camera meeting with Democrats on Tuesday, said he is willing to shut down the federal government if Congress (which his party currently controls) refuses to fund it. Congress is about as likely to fund the wall as Mexico is, and so, as Nancy Pelosi pointedly told Donald as he screamed and threw feces against the walls of the Oval Office, if the shutdown happens, it will be forever known as the Trump Shutdown™. Much like Trump University, Trump Steaks, Trump Magazine, Trump Airlines, Trump Mortgage, and the entire Trump presidency, we should expect the Trump Shutdown, and the Trump Wall, to result in disaster.

While there is no good reason to build this wall, there are a whole lot of good reasons not to. It would, for one, be an ecological disaster, which we know because the 600 miles of the wall that already exist on the border have been an ecological disaster. Walls require building roads through wilderness areas, which increases flooding and erosion. Walls bisect migratory routes and isolate animal populations. And walls aren't just opposed by tree huggers and jaguars; plenty of people who own the land the wall is supposed to cross are opposed to it as well, and they've already gone to court to stop it. Trump says that the wall is necessary to stop the flow of illegal drugs into the US, but the reality is, this wall won't make the slightest dent.

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Music

Seattle DJ CCL Appears in Resident Advisor's Top Mixes of 2018 List

by Dave Segal • Friday at 11:41 am

CCL takes a giant (dub)step beyond.
CCL takes a giant (dub)step beyond. Cecilia Corsano-Leopizzi

International electronic-music authority Resident Advisor placed a mix by Seattle DJ/TUF member CCL (aka Cecilia Corsano-Leopizzi) on its year-end list of best mixes. CCL's in stellar company with such major figures as Ricardo Villalobos, Beatrice Dillon, Avalon Emerson, Kyle Hall & Jay Daniel, Donato Dozzy, Yaeji, and Objekt.

The mix itself, HNYPOT 291: CCL's Ode to Queer Steppas, is a deep survey of dubstep's off-the-beaten-path peregrinations, its tracks by genre exemplars and outliers such as Shackleton, T++, Urban Tribe, Pinch, Peverelist, Sub Dub, Laurel Halo, Digital Mystikz, and others. This mix is somehow at once chill and ominous, dank and vibrant. Inject it into your veins.

Film/TV

A Very Short Review of the Very Bad Mortal Engines

by Suzette Smith • Friday at 11:20 am

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Based on the 2001 steampunk book series by Philip Reeve about “predator cities” on wheels that roam the wastelands of a postapocalyptic Europe, Mortal Engines is the sort of movie that you watch when you get home from a rave at 3 a.m. and you’re still too high or amped up to go to sleep.

It does not belong in a theater. At best, with all its giant motors gyrating and people jumping around while dressed up like bikers at a Renaissance faire, Mortal Engines deserved a straight-to-video release.

But the script was written by Peter Jackson (along with his frequent collaborators Philippa Boyens and Fran Walsh), so I’m as confused as anyone. What happened? The best I can hypothesize is that this thing was rotten at its seed—like most steampunk stuff, Mortal Engines is a pile of shit with some antique-looking cogs stuck on.

Books

Zadie Smith Declines to Comment

by Katie Herzog • Friday at 10:59 am

A recent short story of hers takes place in a world that resembles “woke Twitter” come to life.
A recent short story of hers takes place in a world that resembles “woke Twitter” come to life. DOMINIQUE NABOKOV

Zadie Smith, the famous novelist and essayist, politely (and wisely) declined to be interviewed for this article.

Who could blame her? When I e-mailed her requesting an interview, I made the terrible mistake of being honest. What I should have said was that I was interested in talking about her work in advance of her appearance in Seattle (Wednesday, February 27, at Benaroya Hall). Instead, I wrote that I was interested in talking with her about call-out culture and the purity politics of the American left.

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Things To Do • 2018

87 Extravagant, Indulgent, and Otherwise Major New Year's Eve 2018 Events in Seattle to Buy Tickets for Now

by Stranger Things To Do Staff • Friday at 10:25 am

Explore MoPOPs exhibits after dark and dance to live bands and DJs before watching the Space Needles fireworks show at Indulgence.
Explore MoPOP's exhibits after dark and dance to live bands and DJs before watching the Space Needle's fireworks show at Indulgence. Alabastro Photography

Spending an intimate New Year's Eve at home with a bottle of Cook's doesn't sound bad, but it's been a tough year, so why not treat yourself to some well-deserved glitz and glamour? Below, we've rounded up all the major, extravagant events you should get tickets for ahead of time to avoid the risk of them selling out, all of which are over $20, ranging from decadent dinners at Canon and the Walrus and the Carpenter to major music shows like the Resolution Festival and Thunderpussy to blowout parties like Chihuly's New Year’s Eve pARTy and Canlis' MIDNIGHT: Hawaii to performances like the Moisture Festival New Year's Eve Extravaganza and Wonderland New Year's Eve. See them all below, and find even more options on our complete New Year's Eve calendar.

Stay in the know! Get all this and more on the free Stranger Things To Do mobile app (available for iOS and Android), or delivered to your inbox.

PARTIES
2018 T-Mobile New Year's at the Needle
You can't get a better view of the Space Needle's annual fireworks show than inside the Space Needle itself, on its rotating glass floor. Before the spectacle, T-Mobile's New Year’s Eve party at Seattle's flying saucer-shaped structure will also bring a "musically choreographed light show," lots of drinks and bites, live music from the Kate Voss Trio, and champagne toasting.
Space Needle, $275

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Comics

Time for Myself

by Rachel Scheer • Friday at 10:11 am

Based on a real-life story we heard at the recent Seattle/King County free health clinic at KeyArena.

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I Attempted to Bake 106 Different Kinds of Martha Stewart Holiday Cookies in Two Months. People Laughed and Said I Was Crazy. Well, I Was Crazy.

by Megan Seling • Friday at 9:28 am

Originally published on Nov. 22, 2007.

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PAUL HOPPE

I had been staring at a wall of frozen pizzas for 15 minutes. Freschetta, DiGiorno, Red Baron, Tombstone. I didn't even want pizza. I looked pathetic, in slippers and an oversized Dance Hall Crashers hoodie that I almost never wear in public because, as a rock writer, I don't like to flaunt my undying love for uncool mid-'90s ska bands. But I didn't care. It was almost 1:00 a.m., and I had been at the Ballard Safeway for 45 minutes and only had three oranges in my basket to show for it. And I knew I wasn't going to eat those oranges, so I had no idea why I was carrying them around except maybe to make it look like I did eventually plan on buying something.

This was two years ago, the first week of November, and a familiar depression had sunk in. I was doing just enough to get by every day without setting off any alarms among friends and coworkers. I was already suffering from a broken heart and a bruised sense of self-worth, and it all became magnified by the same cloud of uncontrollable sadness that had been making regular visits in my life since I was about 13. I was familiar enough with my history to recognize what was happening, but like always, I was unable to stop it.

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