Comments

1

"Snohomish County [Mukilteo] admits landslide danger exists, but says it's minimal."
Wow, SnoHo County takes their talking points from the oval office now! The old "it exists but it doesn't really exist" trick! Who couldn't trust those encouraging words???

2

You've never heard of McNeil Island?

3

@2:

Yeah, another newb; we have to teach these kids everything.

VOA has probably kept a fairly low profile since the fall of the USSR, but because it's primarily focused towards foreign audiences, I suppose many U.S. citizens below a certain age aren't aware of its existence.

And that's either a weasel or a stoat, but probably a weasel.

4

I hadn't heard of McNeil either. Like our own creepy Alcatraz.

5

It looks like a weasel. Remember the little guy that was always trying to drag Foghorn Leghorn back to his den to eat him?

6

@2 @3 I, a "kid," have often noticed McNeil Island on the map and wondered if it would make a fun day trip during a visit to my parents in Pierce County (apparently it's not publicly accessible). I did not know, however, that in addition to being a wildlife preserve, it is also a violent sex offender preserve.
The Wikipedia page for it is an interesting read: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McNeil_Island

"It was the last remaining island prison in the country to be accessible only by air and sea."

7

Fans of Pramila Jayapal may be interested to note that she has an essay on immigration published in this weeks edition of The New York Review of Books-
https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2018/12/03/a-new-moral-imagination-on-immigration/
Publication has had its own metoo controversy in the past year but remains influential amongst US public intellectuals. This puts her on the map in an important way.
Finally a NW politician with some gravitas and a sense of purpose.

8

You’d never heard of McNeal Island, really? Even though Google shows a Sydney Brownstone post about it from January of this year?

9

I was surprised that so many people didn't know about McNeil Island, because I remembered reading a great in-depth piece about it right here in the Stranger. Then a Google search showed me that I was remembering an article published here nearly two decades ago. Now I just feel old.

10

@5:

Alternately, the zoot-suit clad goons in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit".

11

The little creature's looking for the PistenBully or TiddTech that just laid down that cord . . . it must've sounded and felt like the possible end of things from his cozy lair beneath.

12

I'll l miss the trip into Seattle from the South on the viaduct. It is my favorite way to pick people up from the airport to introduce them to the city for the first time. I'll also miss looking down on it from the park at the North end of Pike Place Market. But I won't miss the anxiety of "will it happen now", and I certainly won't miss the noise and visual pollution to the waterfront. I just hope that the street level design does not reintroduce those problems.

13

"Ever heard of McNeil Island?"- the ignorance of your geographic surroundings is astounding.

14

@13:

Now, now. I'll wager even most WA natives couldn't pin-point McNeil Island on a map.

15

@13 I once worked with a guy that grew up on Queen Anne, had lived in other central Seattle neighborhoods, and didn't know about Volunteer Park. There's always more astounding levels of ignorance.

16

Don't call it "utter chaos," Michael. It's known as the "surface option."

18

Regarding the viaduct: for those who are so inclined, there's an 8k run/walk this February to bid farewell to the viaduct and hello to the tunnel. The course travels along (atop? through?) both. https://tunneltoviaductrun.com

19

MUKILTEO: Go Neighbors! Direct action gets the goods. "Consent of the governed" my ass. You gotta make the State listen to what you don't consent to.
VIADUCT: Agreed @12, it was the best first exposure drive for visitors. I had a co-worker literally driving up the on-ramp to the Viaduct when the 2001 Nisqually quake hit. Cars stopped, then he leaned out his window & made everyone behind him put it in reverse & back down the on-ramp... I won't miss the Viaduct too much, nope.
McNEIL ISL: Good to know your surrounding area. Bad idea to make an emergency kayak landing there Speaking of which, does everyone know where all the nuclear missiles are stored in Puget Sound?
SCOOTERS: Make Lime pay for rider insurance. That'll stop a stupid idea right quick.
VOA: Still on shortwave! You kids know what "shortwave" is, ..right?
ANIMAL: I will answer the question with a short poem by Mr. M. Groening:
"
Love is a snowmobile racing across the tundra
then suddenly it flips over, pinning you underneath.
At night, the ice weasels come.
"

20

Hey Michael Bell!

You never heard of McNeil Island!

You never heard of Voice of America!

You never heard of a grandma who makes donuts!

Perhaps reporting the news is not really the best career choice for you. At the very least you could pretend that you didn't spend the last ten years of your life squirreled away with Kimmie Schmidt!

22

Are we still trying to remind people to be a little more respectful in their use of the term "spirit animal," or did the sugar-rush internet win that battle?

23

@22:

So, the nukes are actually stored at Indian Island and not at Bangor?

24

Is the numbering in the comment threads funky? Like maybe, ordered differently depending on the platform you're reading/commenting from or something? I feel like several times a day anymore I'll see a comment like 23's there, that definitely seems like it should have been directed to 21, though he references 22. Anyone else feel like you're seeing an inordinate number of these lately?

25

Did not know about McNeil Island
Did not know about VOA
Did not know a winter-phase weasel/stoat is called an ermine

Michael seems intelligent, just ignorant. That's all in one post. At least he admits it, publicly, at that.

26

Micheal (et al), there's Hope:
Ignorance can be Cured!

27

19

Seems like they'd need to be nestled securely (to avoid prying eyes) in their little submarine pens at Bangor to load/off-load nukes ... does Indian Island have some sub pens?

They tell me munitions are off-loaded / stored on Indian Island (right across the bay from Port Townsend!) so's not to endanger the huge Puget Sound populace, should a Navy warshipship full of ammo go up ... losing a nuke way over at Bangor'd be bad for the locals but Seattle'd be somewhat "protected" from the blast ... except, of course for the typically easterly-prevailing winds....

28

Well I'll be! I learned a thing! Yeah Bangor has all the nukey subs with their Trident missles... but it certainly looks like Indian Island is a topless-secret munitions facility. There sure are a whole lot of semi-tractor trailers on Indian Island, for being so far out of the way of anything. And all those grassy bunkers with a short drive-in entrance... so interesting! Thanks!

Fun Detail: Did you know the Hood Canal Bridge has a giant Anti-Submarine Wall hanging off it? To prevent enemy subs from sneaking in, of course. They can roll it to the side to let our boys in and out of Hood Canal whenever they need to. You can't see it if you drive over the bridge, but you can if you walk or bicycle and then look over the side. It's on the SW side (the eastbound side).


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