"More than 88 years after Amelia Earhart and her plane went down somewhere over the Pacific, Oregon archeologist Richard Pettigrew thinks he knows where it is."

Or maybe the real Amelia Earhart was the friends we made along the way 😅

Finding something that's been lost for 88 years seems like a pretty decent accomplishment in its own right

@4: The Stranger’s dedication to supporting harmful anti-social behaviors now pushes into encouraging food poisoning (and worse). The Stranger’s support of food-safely scofflaws, putting private profit over public health, reads like a parody of right-wing glibertarianism. Horseshoe Theory FTW!

"...
and
food
cooked
next to trash."

they're
Cooking
the Trash!?

"They're
EATING THE
CATS! They're
Eating the Dogs!"?

oh -- it's KOMO/Sinclair

and as "Believable"
as "LEFT Wing*
TERRORISM!"

*Dwarfed by Reich
Wing TERRORISM
about FIFTY-One.

thanks, bippie!

When you look up that Nikumaroro atoll on Google Maps, there's a "Historical Landmark" tag for a "Taraia Object". The suspicion is that's Earhart's plan wreckage. It kind of looks like a plane maybe.

Once you've spent multiple days getting onto the island, it'll probably take Pettigrew an hour to figure out if it's her plane.

Then I'd spend the rest of the time snorkeling that lagoon.

"the County would need to scrounge up another $4 billion a year to meet those goals."

and of course those funds would need to come in the form of a property tax levy. Using the recent parks levy (which was $1.4B) as a barometer the average homeowner ($850K) would be looking at adding another $500-$600 per year to their property tax. It just never ends.

@7: “Once you've spent multiple days getting onto the island, it'll probably take Pettigrew an hour to figure out if it's her plane.”

Way more competent investigators than Pettigrew have spent way more than an hour searching Nikumaroro. The plane’s not there. This guy is on a Bigfoot hunt. 😂

@8 What is your point though? This happens at regular brick and mortar restaurants all the time too and they get fined and/or shut down for it. It's not just something illegal brown people do... so don't get too fucking excited.

@6/11 is your assertion that no one should pay for a permit and that we should let this go unregulated?

@6: That projection is so pathetically convoluted and dumb.
@11. "Brick and mortar" restaurants, run by people of color as well as people of white, get cited for uncleanliness, safety violations, but typically have refrigerators and don't leave meat out to rot.

Get it straight -- if you're a conservative, food safety regulations are bad because Raw Milk. If you're a progressive, food safety regulations are bad because delicious Spoiled-Chicken Tacos.

“Illinois has an unusual number of congressional seats up for the election next year.”

Not sure what this means. Next year all 435 seats in the US House of Representatives are up for election as is the case every two years.

Let the free market decide if dangerous unlicensed food is profitable and delicious.

@6
"kristofarian,
I usually make it a
point to not read your drivel... "

yet, here we Are

"but do you seriously
dispute the fact that the Tacoma-
Pierce County Health Department cited the
unlicensed kitchen for food health preparation violations?"

not at All, bipps!

"Does the fact
that KOMO reported it
somehow magically negate the
fact that Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department
cited the unlicensed kitchen for food health preparation violations... ?"

allow us, here, to take our
Cue from The
Wormtongue:

ready willing and
Eager Beavering to discover
the Merest, barely Tangenital utterance

and BLOW IT UP
TO E P I C PRO-
PORTIONS!

Opening the Door

to an Impossible wild goose chase
cum Down the Rabbit Hatch
Evisceration of ALL the
things that may've
preceded or
Followed
that one
sole 

seemingly innocuous part.

wormmy does it like
a fucking Professional.

I'm just Here to mock the FUCK
outta the Pro-CAPITALISM*
Money is EVERYTHING!!!

crowd.

"'but but but bLoNaLd bLuMpFh!!!'"

you May wanna get 
That checked, 
bipps.

"You're even nuttier than I previously thought."
Biped on October 27, 2025 at 10:20 AM

THNX! you'll be Elated to
hear I share your
sentiment.

I do Hope you didn't read
this one, either, bipps.

it may Damage your
psyche beyond
redemption.

@18

we're
just over
Two Weeks
from that. good one

@19 -- a very Slight Correction:

"allow us, here, to take
our Cue from The
Wormtongue:

ready willing and
Eager Beavering to discover
the Merest, barely Tangenital utterance

and BLOW IT UP
TO E P I C PRO-
PORTIONS!

Opening the Door

to an Impossible wild goose chase
cum Down the Rabbit Hatch, and
then Ignoring ALL the words
and points that may've
preceded or Followed
that one sole

seemingly innocuous part."

my Apologies!
[I cannot Afford a
Decent Editor and'd

LOVE It if tS'd Provide one].

“The only person complaining in the news segment? A food truck competitor who did pay for his permits, and he’s grumpy about it.”

Oh, and don’t forget, paying taxes (B&O), paying minimum wage, adhering to all of the other pro worker regulations - I truly don’t understand TS / various progressives stance on illegal food vendors (like others have pointed out, how very libertarian of you all 🙄)

Talk about losing the thread of a strong social fabric.

Pettigrew has a ton of evidence to support his assertion that it's Earhart's plane, this video is pretty interesting.

https://heritagetac.org/programs/taraia_object_amelia_earharts_aircraft-71eb03

I'm not entirely convinced it's actually necessary or all that beneficial to anyone for him and his crew to head back down there, possibly if he's correct in his assertion that renegade relic hunters will scavenge the site otherwise, though he also doesn't say what steps can be taken to prevent this. I also don't think there's anybody gonna stop them regardless. Agree with Max the snorkeling there is likely to be freaking gorgeous, as is the site in general.

@20: You're welcome to start feasting on it for lunch today if you want.

@9 $500-600 a year to build sufficient housing for the growing population and get people off the streets? Seems like solid value to me. Maybe the visible homelessness just doesn't really bother you though.

Kudos for today's banner photo Hannah. I don't avoid Dicks but the ick applies.

@25: And what is the total of all the property taxes? Like a couple of extra mortgage or rent payments per year? Got it?

@25: Stop robbing taxpayers to get the homeless off the streets unless it's into rehabilitation. After all, you first need to sort out those who want to live outside and those who don't.

@24

Your
Great White
Hero's put US on
that Pathway, with great
Encouragement from folks
Precisely like KkKoolie's $$$.

where $hareholder Value
Plus PUNISHMENT!'s
the Only REAL
Point.

good one!

Right, let’s rob taxpayers to give homeless people free healthcare. I’m sure that will go over well in a country where half a million gainfully employed people go bankrupt every year from medical bills they can’t pay.

In high school, I worked for a real SOB who, if it were not for the health inspector, would have killed half the town, he was such a cheapskate and slob. He used to make us save all the sauces that had been in a steam table all day, which were all crusty, and put them in the walk-in so he could add water and reconstitute them in the morning. We also made all the pancake batter and omelet batter for the week on Monday evenings, added what was left over from the previous week, and stored them in huge garbage cans in the walk-in refrigerator. He taught us to mop the bathroom, kitchen, and dining room floors by dipping a mop in a "clean" toilet that we added some bleach to. Although the restaurant was fairly popular (mostly old people in the morning and drunks in the evening), He was constantly getting dinged by the Pottawattamie County Department of Health, and eventually lost his license after a bunch of people were hospitalized.

I suppose The Stranger thinks it's "edgy" to disregard health inspections, sort of how they think Our Unhoused Neighbors are "picturesque", but anyone who would eat at one of those stands is an idiot. Most of the time, food poisoning is your body rejecting the food, out of one or both orifices, and that's that (and that's more than enough) but sometimes it can kill you, or cause permanent organ damage.

I'm a fairly trusting person, but even at conventional restaurants, I won't eat at a place that has a "good" score or worse. They may have cleaned up their act from the last inspection, but I'll wait until the reinspection.

@28

claiming
IT WON'T WORK!
sans Rehab may be True

for some
but Not for
the Majority
tho I do know
how you Neocons
LOVE THE PUNISHMENT!

AND "Personal Responsibility!"

UNLESS it's a Wealthy
White person
doing the
Crime

See: J/6
and Bonespurs's
ever-lengthening cast
of Felonious Motherfuckers*

he CANNOT WAIT to Pardon.

*George Santos
for Minister
of Truth?

Stay Tuned!

Jesus Christ, I see kris is even more tedious than usual today.

I think that The Stranger should have a new weekly segment where they try street meat from the sketchiest unlicensed vendors downtown and let us know what sorts of horrible illnesses they develop from it. I think Hannah should inaugurate the column.

@30: It goes over better than creating more homeless out of former taxpayers.

34 if a few hundred dollars a year is going to put homeowners on the street they shouldn’t own a home in the first place but who do you think would be paying for the “free” healthcare, genius?

@23: "Pettigrew has a ton of evidence to support his assertion that it's Earhart's plane"

Right, but the Bigfoot people always have a "ton of evidence" too! 😁 Pettigrew is going to find a coral rock at that location, just like everyone else who has ever spotted "aircraft wreckage" in aerial imagery of the Nikumaroro reef. 😛

The year after the Earhart disappearance, the British established a colony of Micronesians on Nikumaroro. They lived on the island for the next 25 years. There is no way a colony of Micronesians spent 25 years on the island yet failed to notice a giant piece of aircraft wreckage awash in the lagoon eight meters from the high-tide line. Micronesians are fanatic spearfishermen and octopus hunters; they'd have found an airplane at that location within 25 hours, never mind 25 years 😂

Pettigrew's theory also requires the aluminum wreckage to be light enough to be washed into the lagoon just two days after the crash (so the initial search planes couldn't find it in 1937) yet heavy enough that it subsequently remained in exactly the same spot since 1938 (the first "detection" of the Taraia Object in aerial imagery, according to Pettigrew). Convenient! 😅

Pettigrew's theory also requires every other previous search team—including his own!—to have overlooked this giant piece of wreckage over decades of repeated searches, including overflights by helicopters and drones and searches by shore parties on foot. 😅

This isn't even the first time an aerial image of "aircraft wreckage" has spurred a search of the Nikumaroro reef. Coral rocks are a known failure mode for aerial image-based aircraft detection! 😂

There are credible Earhart search teams, but Pettigrew's isn't one of them. The Pettigrew search is like Bigfoot-hunting, where the real point of the "search" is the social aspect: the breathless interviews, the tight-knit team, the scrappy adventure to a far-flung corner of the world. 😄 I get it, I'm a sailor myself! I love taking friends to remote atolls! 😁 In fact, I'm overdue for a return to the South Pacific! Maybe I'll go find me a tropical Bigfoot! 😂😂😂

@33

a REAL Neocon'd
recommend they feed
their Leftovers TO the Homeless.

you'll Get There
one Day. Keep
Trying, bLnx!

Rich lib says losing few hundred a year is no big deal and thinks he's a genius.

Perhaps I missed it, but I don't see where any actual unsafe food practices (excepting the seal of the state) were involved, or where The Stranger suggested dangerous food was a public good.

It's been my reading that their advocating food trucks both as a cultural good (makes a city, a city) and as a way limit the monetary barriers of entry to the food scene. Closing trucks only on the basis of not being properly permitted is bad in this frame.

Claiming their advocating for unsafe practices that likely, but not necessarily, follow seems like putting improperly prepared words in their mouthes.

compared
to a Neocon
he IS. KkKoolie!

@39

"Claiming their advocating
for unsafe practices that likely,
but not necessarily, follow seems like
putting improperly prepared words in their mouthes."

well
That's their
"Secret Sauce."

38 well no, that’s not what i said, and i called you the genius but clearly i spoke too soon, but if you think a few hundred dollars a year is too much to fund housing, why is it acceptable to spend taxpayer money an extremely expensive healthcare treatment with a high fail rate? It’s all coming out of homeowners’ pockets either way.

42: Because it's better than building "affordable" housing for addicts who don't want to get off the streets and couldn't hold a job. Besides, we really haven't tried it. It's been all build and hardly any rehab or mental asylums for decades now.

@39
Yeah, after getting part way through today's comments I went back and reread the paragraph about the health inspector. All Hanah did was to question KING 5's editorial decision to publish such a story not that enforcing health codes is somehow pointless or bad politics. If the stranger were to take the position that not enforcing health code and permits was somehow a good thing that would undermine the interests of their food service advertisers.

39: No, everyone loves taco trucks we just want them to be safe.

43 we have tons of rehab centers but if you think people won’t be just as upset that their tax dollars are funding healthcare for homeless people as you are over housing them you’re living under a rock

46: It's your assumption that the taxation would be the same amount or that it would even come from property taxes.

Tons huh. Well, I haven't done a tally in number or in pounds but another is going to be at 1145 Broadway in the old PolyClinic building. Area libs are protesting.

@25 it won't do anything to help people who are on the streets get off the streets because we are not talking about free housing. This is affordable housing and you still need to pay some rent.

The bigger issues is it's not just a few hundred dollars. It's on top of the already numerous levy's we are committed to, for parks, for education, for housing in Seattle and on and on not to mention sound transit and other agencies that have their hands in the pie. And what do we get for this money? It is spent wisely with accountability? Anyone who says yes is either an acolyte, a fool or both. The lazy excuse around here for every problem is to sock it to the taxpayers and throw ever more money at it. The state last year passed $9B in new taxes and we still have a funding deficit. Where does it end?

@30 better than robbing taxpayers to pay for police and jails to put homeless and addicts in over and over ad nauseum.

It's only "robbing taxpayers" for you people when what's being financed might actually help the person instead of just punishing them for offending your bourgeois sensibilities.

@48 I dunno I think parks, education, housing and transit are important public goods that are worth paying for. That's kind of the whole point of civilization.

@39, @44: You can read it those ways if you like; the Stranger actually published this:

“KING 5 Can’t Handle the Spice: That’s the only reason we can think of that they spent a whole news segment on unpermitted pop-up food trucks.“

Or, perhaps because these trucks present a public health hazard? The very next sentence implies so:

“Like Micah mentioned on Friday, King County public health officials shut down 17 unpermitted food vendors selling around Lumen Field during the Seahawks game last week, and Snohomish County is juggling a wash of complaints as well.”

47, Yes tons. This country has a high demand for drug rehab facilities and there is a glut of them because they are money making machines and they are poorly regulated.

Where do you think the funding would come from if not taxes? If it’s a municipal program it would most likely come from property taxes but are you under the impression people would feel differently if it came from another public revenue source? Doesn’t seem likely to me.

I never assumed the cost would be the same. Doing the math, a typical 30 day inpatient stay would be about $15000-$20000, then people are presumably back on the streets. Just sounds like a huge waste of resources.

@39 these vendors are mostly “carts” not full fledged food trucks. But even if you’re advocating that our existing food safety permitting is overly complex, then either advocate for their abolition or embrace that they’re a necessary function of government.

But again, even if we agree on food permits “bad”, you still haven’t addressed the lost tax revenue, adherence to things like minimum wage, etc.

But I guess whatever

@52: No, not pricy Betty Ford clinics. Just places to dry out, get cleaned up, and go to AA meetings will be sufficient and cost effective.

That photo reminds me of a dive-y burger joint in Florida, where I grew up in the '70s, called Royal Castle (a White Castle knockoff, naturally). When the "C" in the sign burned out they left it that way for years, despite (or more likely, because of) the resulting nickname.

@50 you're right, those are all great things but you can only go to the well so many times before it runs dry. Our politicians default answer to everything is more taxes. It's lazy. There are numerous examples of them pissing money away or losing it to outright fraud and the fact that voters let them get away with that is incredibly sad. We deserve better.

just so we're clear this is the government entity you all want to provide with another $4B annually

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/king-county-audit-finds-unapproved-payments-possible-fraud/

@54 you think someone hooked on opiates just needs to "dry out" and go to a few meetings? You know less about this than anyone who's watched the first 15 minutes of Trainspotting. It never ceases to amaze me how people who have absolutely no idea what they're talking about nevertheless do not hesitate to express their strong opinions online.

@54: Yeah, more or less. It comes down to an addict's willingness to change after hitting bottom. That includes me (alcohol) as matter of fact. So I followed Nancy Reagan's advice and "just said no!" - that's all that was needed nearly a decade ago. I know a hell of a lot more about this subject than you think I do.

@60

well
if it worked
for You it Oughtta
Work for everyone Else

unless,
Duh, they're of
Poor Moral Character

then they
Deserve whatever-
the Fuck the good lord
Doles out to them. if only You'd
go down, there show 'em all How it's Done

@60 ya quitting alcohol and quitting opiates are exactly the same degree of difficulty, great point you clearly do know a lot about this

@62

well
thirteen12
it's just Pure
Moral Failure

and
Neocons're,
unsurprisingly,
Immune to moral
failure, having None

to Begin With,

@35: "...if a few hundred dollars a year is going to put homeowners on the street they shouldn’t own a home in the first place..."

While I'm happy and relieved to read your brilliant erudition as a financial sage means you'd never, ever, not ever, not under any circumstances, EVER find yourself in a rough patch of a year or two where you might have to hang onto what's both the roof over your head AND your largest asset with all of the virtual fingernails you have, please use just a tiny bit of your truly godlike financial perspicacity to understand that some mere mortals who bought houses when Seattle was affordable might now find themselves struggling to pay for those houses in a very expensive city.

Now, use your truly amazeballs financial abilities on the following: next month comes the 10th Anniversary of Seattle's declaration of Homelessness Crisis. Since that date, Seattle has spent over $1B in inflation-adjusted dollars on homeless services. Looking around Seattle, do you see evidence that money has been well-spent? If you do, then, again, please have some sympathy for those persons hanging onto their homes in an expensive city, who may not see that $1B (and counting) as particularly well-spent, and might actually even be loathe to spend more on that issue.

@60: Good for you, Calvin. Now just say no to AI, too. You'll sleep better.

YIKES about the eerily fitting photo, Hannah!

@65: Na, AI helps me with Kubernetes.

@64 "some mere mortals who bought houses when Seattle was affordable might now find themselves struggling to pay for those houses in a very expensive city."

Won't someone please think of the poor folks who bought an affordable asset and saw its value increase exponentially? It's such a burden owning something valued at a million dollars that you bought for tens of thousands.

@36,

"Right, but the Bigfoot people always have a "ton of evidence" too!"

No, actually they don't, certainly not anything credible.

And he contends that the reason the object hadn't previously been thoroughly explored is because of shifting sediment brought on by more recent and severe weather events and activity. Additionally, there's also a shitload of other evidence that you've not addressed. What of the various 1930's era American artifacts that were discovered on the island? Do you think those Micronesian colonists were carrying around designer cosmetic cases in hopes of achieving a better base foundation?

I've no idea if it's her plane or not, and neither do you. And the return expedition to the island just got delayed until next year, so we'll not have anything further to go on for a while. Until they make that return trip though, I'm gonna go ahead and withhold judgment, and give at least as much credibility to the team of archaeologists and researchers who're invested in the subject as I will to some anonymous, smiley face obsessed jagoff on the internet.

@69: lol, nope. The Nikumaroro expedition is a Bigfoot hunt. 😂

The Micronesian colonists weren't the only inhabitants of the island. They were merely the inhabitants who would have discovered the plane if it were inside the lagoon, in shallow water, eight meters from shore. There were plenty of other inhabitants, both before and after the Micronesians, to say nothing of countless intermittent visitors throughout the centuries. The "1930s era American artifacts" are all traceable to these other inhabitants and visitors. This is no different than the Bigfoot people freaking out over mysterious hoots in the night. 😁

@68: You and barth really need to be the point persons for selling these higher taxes to voters who now struggle to pay their mortgages. Your empathy will really win them over, you’ll just have to trust me on that.

@71 you should be the point person for explaining to people who can't afford their astronomical rent (median is now $2200/mo) that it would be really unfair to ask someone who owns a million dollar asset to pay ~$75 a month to help bring down housing costs for the whole region. I'm sure they'll appreciate your empathy for the landed gentry.

@71 to elaborate, someone who bought a median priced home in Seattle in 2015, if they refinanced in 2021 when rates were around 2.9 (and if they didn't they're dumb), would currently have a lower mortgage payment than the median rent. They have a whole house for less per month than someone in a one bedroom apartment. And that's who you believe we should feel bad for.

@73: “if they refinanced in 2021 when rates were around 2.9 (and if they didn't they're dumb) would currently have a lower mortgage payment than the median rent“

In this toy example, the real dumb ones are the renters because they should have bought back when money was free. If they didn’t they’re dumb! 🤣

you may be on to something though, because subjectively the median renter does “feel” dumber than the median owner, ime 😅

@72: "...you should be the point person for explaining to people who can't afford their astronomical rent (median is now $2200/mo)..."

Yes, I should be, because when I rented in Seattle, EVERY notice of rental increase blamed it upon rising property taxes. Every last one. So I would take those renters very seriously when they received such notices. And I would agree it was unfair to raise their rents to pay for housing programs which have not alleviated homelessness. Thank you for considering me for such a task, and I promise I will do it well if I ever get the chance.

"...to help bring down housing costs for the whole region."

Why would I make a claim which has absolutely no evidence of any kind whatsoever to support it? I'm not you.

@73: "And that's who you believe we should feel bad for."

Dialog works better when both parties understand the words. (Again, you'll just have to trust me on that.) I wasn't asking you to feel anything at all for another human being, any more than I would make such an outlandishly unreasonable request of barth. I was asking you to understand why such persons wouldn't want to pay more in property tax, to fund programs which would neither alleviate homelessness, nor measurably lower the cost of living for anyone else.

@74: Self-described fiscal geniuses who spend much of their time giving out free financial advice on the internet are the best! ;-)

@75 "when I rented in Seattle, EVERY notice of rental increase blamed it upon rising property taxes"

You probably also believed the $100 application fee was really what it cost for them to run your background check. Bless your heart.

@74 "the real dumb ones are the renters because they should have bought"

Thinking not-rich = dumb is pretty on brand for you and the other self-styled pragmatic centrists here. Or did you think down payments were "free" in 2021 also?

@77: lol its your example my dude, don’t blame me if it sounds dumb! 🤣

@78 I feel like you don't know what it means to refinance a mortgage

@79: lol you can plug in variables to make your mortgage < rent equation true, but you can also plug in variables that make it not true. It depends on the terms of the financing agreement. As a universal proposition it’s untrue, a little bit reminiscent of your “bruises mean felonies” argument the other day 😂 But if you can invent fictional financial scenarios without supplying numbers, then so can thumpus! 🤣

@76: Yes, we know: to the absolute best of your economic knowledge, renters never pay more when property taxes rise.

This is another excellent reason why you should have nominated me, not you, to explain economic reality to renters.

reading the AP article linked it is pretty clear the wolf thing has nothing to do with Ontario's ad, which makes me sad.

also I was worried the Trump admin would be adopting a genetic purity argument, so I am glad they are at least not doing that

@76: “You probably also believed the $100 application fee was really what it cost for them to run your background check.”

Please. Persons like me know most of it pays for the privilege of knowing, in advance, that we’ll never, ever face the horrors of sharing a wall with persons like you.

And it’s well worth every penny.

@84

"... we’ll never,
ever face the horrors
of sharing a wall with persons like you."

--@thumpfnsorna on October 29, 2025 at 7:13 PM

NOT sharing this wee
Planet with folks like
thumpfnsorna?

fawking
Priceless.