Speaking of gaslighting, Will Smith initially laughed heartily at Chris Rock's gentle ribbing "GI Jane" joke, but then upon seeing Jada's wince he miscalculated that making sure everyone knows he's a hot-headed macho alpha-male "protector" might be a career boost - despite it not being a genuine emotion. There was no "being human" in that moment for Will Smith to forgive.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myjEoDypUD8

mRNA: I was watching “Good Night Oppy” last night on Prime. Sweet. Life-affirming. The viewer actually develops an emotional bond, along with their engineers and navigators, for two robots on Mars. Of course, it helps that the animated recreations show Spirit and Opportunity having human characteristics: a frustrated sigh, determination, for instance. But the men and women who built these magnificent machines made me think. A lot of people put their faith in religion, but it’s the scientists who are going to save us.

Will Smith: I imagine it requires a Herculean amount of on-going hutzpah to make it to the big time in show business. The problem with that is that sometimes you start believing your own press. For Smith to claim that the smacking incident should be forgiven because he was just being human is, in my not-so-humble opinion, the height of arrogance and self-absoption. No, Will, you weren’t being human. You were being reptilian at best. If he were a gentleman, he would have let the moment pass and then, perhaps, take it up with Rock privately off-camera. Even now, he can’t bring himself to say, “That was such a jerky thing to do. I’m sorry I diminished Oscar night.” He sticks with, “Can’t you all understand why I did this?” Such an ego. He's burnt in my book. Too bad. I’ve actually enjoyed his performance in some things. He was magnificent in “Concussion.” But from the beginning he left a little bit of sour in my mouth. I still remember the fuss he made over kissing another guy in “Six Degrees of Separation.” He refused to do it. Said he’d lose street cred if he did. Dude… are you an actor or not?

Anyway, his money and his heretofore power in Hollywood has further convinced him, beyond his metabolic level of enhanced ego, that he is undeniably in the right and that it is my perception that’s fucked.

welcome to erf!

Santa doesn't use a sleigh he uses a box boat, mostly FOC box boats.

Breandan Kiley of the Sea-Times did a really great article on this subject, you should go read it

I'll take a bight snowy day over a dark rainy day any day!

Will Smith's crocodile tears coincide with a movie release, what a surprise!

Not sure how the owner of the Willows could afford to just give away that property…

Read in the Times that they plan on opening a place on the Mexican coast north of Puerto Vallarta. I wonder what horrors they’ll unleash on the workers there? Yikes.

Unfortunately the recent popularity of "gaslighting" means that it is losing its useful and specific meaning, on its way to its new accepted usage as a spicy word for "untruthful."

@8 - Yeah, you're right. Guilty as charged.

Gaslighting is The Stranger’s specialty. Fox News of the Seattle left.

who
watches
the FOX?

@7 the 'owners' of the property were rich folks. The creeper-lying chef was a 'partner' in the 'restaurant' corporation. The big money folks probably needed a charitable deduction to help launder some gains from other ventures. They bought the Inn long ago, had a massive increase in value, and now the charitable donation at increased value. And, there's No Cap Gains on 'selling' the house etc etc. Corp real estate depreciation and tax deductions are amazing.

The Beard-winning wife-chef is Mexican, so she will help in the MX venture.

This episode does, yet again, warn against the crowning of brilliance on people too quickly. Which the Press and Society will never learn.

Skepticism in all things is a good policy.

The Bridge traffic ticket 'windfall' does not make up for the debacle of the traffic ticket refunds due to 'defund the police' fiasco with the SPD/Parking Enforcement change. Another example of the City Council wasting an amazing amount of tax dollars on photo-op clown-speak instead of good policy.

This was revenue that could actually do some good for progressive causes, instead of wasted away correcting the SCC mistakes.

https://www.seattle.gov/parking-ticket-refunds

More crap news for downtown/Pioneer Square: London Plane is closing: https://www.seattlemet.com/eat-and-drink/2022/11/seattle-london-plane-will-close-in-december-2022

@14 yikes, now where can I pay $29 for 2 eggs and bacon? It was weird that they reduced hours in the summer. They were generally not open for Mariners and Sounders games at all. M-F there was little foot-traffic to support breakfast and lunch crowds. There were no office workers in Seattle. I wish they would have - we tried to go often to have a drink to support them, but they were always closed.

I'm just here for the Rainbow Team USA 1-0 Iran win and all the pro-Iranian women who attended the game with Iranian flags but no head scarf.

Watched it in Spanish of course.

@16
GOOD for the
Iranian Women
putting their LIVES
on the Line -- Chinese
peeps too! when's our Tip-
ping Point gonna get Here?

good one Will!

"Smith said
he had to 'forgive
myself for being human.'"

yeah you woulddnt'a
gotten Laid for Ages
did the Bitchslap
work Out okay?

we're all Pullin'
for ya, Will!

It may be different now, or at least I hope it is, but Pioneer Square was always a food desert for me during my dating years. After a few attempts at finding something to eat late at night or on weekends there, I made sure my evenings out never ended in Pioneer Square. Nothing ever open or "the restaurant is closed, but the bar is open (the New Orleans)" Even Mitchelli's was hit and miss and out of the way. Embarrassing on a date or disappointing after a movie not to be able to get a meal. Don't know why. Mostly catered to the sports crowd, I suppose, or the business lunch crowd.

@14: I share your frustration with London Plane’s mysterious hours, but I had a number of magical meals at their bar overlooking the bricks of Occidental.

@18: a few restaurants of note serving dinner most nights in Pioneer Square:
Damn the Weather
Bad Bishop (primarily a bar, but great fries and smash burgers)
Good Bar
Il Terrazzo Carmine (eat in the bar)
D&E
Nirmal’s (really good Indian)
Senor Carbon (Peruvian, haven’t been yet but I hear it’s yum)
84 Yesler

Smith Tower Observatory is also a good date night. And there’s also a Taylor Shellfish, though I find them overpriced and overrated.

@7 SwampThing and @12 2CV: I'm glad The Willows closed down. In addition to pay theft, sexual harassment, and a lot of other scandalous bullshit making national news, it really was an embarrassment to Whatcom County.
I understand from newly retired Cascadia Weekly columnist, Alan Rhodes, that a meal there could cost as much as $875.00, including a bottle of wine, tax, and tip. The prepared food was supposed to have been grown, hunted or fished on the land. It often wasn't (i.e.: chickens from CostCo). Rhodes had sought to take his wife Susan out for a nice dinner for her birthday. He had considered The Willows until slapped with the sticker shock of the cost estimate of a romantic dinner there for two. Upon calculating, Mr. Rhodes decided that it was better to just treat Susan to 40 meals at the Old Town Cafe instead and call it square.
I feel sorry for locals near Puerto Vallarta, Mexico when the new place opens for business.

@18 Bauhaus I: I'm sorry that your dining experiences in Pioneer Square weren't so nice. It has been over four years since I've been to Seattle. The sports bar scene is what I best remember of Pioneer Square (i.e.: McCormick & Schick's, but that was way back before the Kingdome got demolished on March 26, 2000 for what is now T-Mobile Park).

@19 PrincessAngeline#2: Hopefully when they all go down the rest of us 99.9999999999999999999%ers get our democracy--and what's left of the planet Earth--back.

@20 schmacky: Thank you for sharing good eateries in Pioneer Square to look for.

@11 kristofarian: Not I, said the Griz. FOX TeeVee causes brain cancer.

@21 I enjoy the schadenfreude as well, but also remember when 'everyone' anointed it the bee's knees and All Hail the Beard Winner! One can argue that any 'nice' meal out is ridiculously overpriced. Despite that, luxury will always be in vogue. I indulge in it from time to time. But Sainthood should be reserved for the dead, and not common crooks and thieves. Perhaps we can remember that when the next Great Thing is foisted upon us.