Are You Smarter Than Sedro Woolley & Portlandia?

Apparently there are some residents of a couple Pacific Northwest towns who are slightly offput by a little attention from a couple types of media.

On Friday the Independent Film Channel (IFC) premiered a new comedy called Portlandia that sort of mocks Portland's liberated liberalness.

The YouTube video below is an intro to Portlandia.

And then, north of Portland, up in the Skagit Valley of Washington, the town of Sedro Woolley is being the butt of a Bellingham radio station's idea of a joke.

Two disc jockeys, John Reynolds and Brad Cash on 92.9 KISM, since August, have been running a segment on their morning show called "Are You Smarter Than Sedro-Woolley?"

Apparently the humor is based on the supposed stereotype that a lot of people view Sedro Woolley as a "redneck" town.

I grew up in the town just to the west of Sedro Woolley, Burlington. Somehow Woolley's reputation as a redneck town escaped my attention. I do recollect mention made of Sedro Woolley having some Tarheels in their schools, with Tarheels being people who came from the Deep South and who lived somewhere upriver from Sedro Woolley.

I don't actually understand how this radio contest works. Apparently the disc jockeys call someone living in their broadcast range, but out of Sedro Woolley, asking 2 current event type questions and one Sedro Woolley question that is, according to disc jockey, Cash, "A redneck kind of question."

I have no idea what a redneck kind of question might be. Or how answering these type questions somehow makes You Smarter Than Sedro Woolley.

Seems like a better question might be Are You Smarter Than These 2 Dumb Disc Jockeys?

Anyway, below is the aforementioned Portlandia video......

An Orca Pod is Touring the Seattle Area Off Alki Point

A small pod of Orcas, possibly members of the L-Pod, were spotted off Seattle's Alki Point yesterday.

I do not think there is a sight on the Puget Sound more amazing than seeing an Orca pod.

It seems appalling now, the fact that years ago, in the 1960s, that Orcas, then more commonly known as Killer Whales, were being hunted and trapped in Puget Sound, primarily due to the efforts of a guy named Ted Griffin.

Griffin bought a 22 foot long male Orca that was caught in a floating salmon net near Namu, British Columbia. Hence the name of the most famous Orca ever. Namu.

Namu was brought to Seattle where he quickly become a popular attraction of the Seattle Aquarium, living in his floating pen in Elliott Bay. Ted Griffin soon captured another Orca, a female, named her Shamu and shacked her up with Namu.

Namu and Shamu did not get along. Namu survived just a little of a year in Killer Whale Prison, found dead in his cell on July 9, 1966.

Shamu continued in captivity, eventually being sold to Sea World in San Diego. I believe eventually, Shamu, or another Orca bearing that famous name, was sold to the landlocked Sea World in San Antonio, Texas.

In quickly growing numbers, residents of Washington wanted an end to the inhumane treatment of their fellow mammals. Soon the state legislature put a stop to Ted Griffin's Orca Operations.

I have seen an Orca Pod pass through Deception Pass.That was an impressive thing to see.

But, my most impressive Orca Pod encounter occurred out in the San Juan Islands, off Lopez Island. I was fishing for salmon with my mom and dad. Suddenly we were surrounded by an Orca Pod, including two babies. A couple of the Orcas got very close to the boat, looking right at us, as if to say "hello." The Orcas acted very playful, sort of like Dolphins. And then just as suddenly as they'd shown up, they were gone.

This Orca Incident pre-dated digital cameras. And I had no old-fashioned camera with me. But, from that day forth I vowed, as best I could remember, to never be without a camera again.

Seattle Seahawk's 12th Man Gives Seattle An Advantage the Dallas Cowboys Lack

The Wednesday Dallas Morning News had an article written by a reporter named Tim Cowlishaw who has attended a game or two in Qwest Field in Seattle.

The theme of this article was trying figure out what caused the Dallas Cowboys to fail so miserably in their attempt to play in the first Super Bowl to be played in the new Dallas Cowboy Stadium.

The title of the article is, "What the 8 remaining playoff teams have that the Cowboys don't."

As I was reading what each of the 8 NFL Playoff teams had, that Dallas did not have, I had no idea what the Seattle Seahawks had going for them that the Dallas Cowboys lacked.

I had forgotten about Seattle's infamous 12th Man.

With that Man being the extremely loud fans. Those fans are so loud that on Saturday's game, where they beat the defending Super Bowl champs, the New Orleans Saints, at one point in the game,  where a Seahawk made a spectacular touchdown, the cacophony that that touchdown released, via the 12th Man, caused a nearby seismograph to register the cacophony as an earthquake.

Below is the blurb in the Dallas Morning News about Seattle's boisterous fans, compared with the Dallas fans watching a game in their new metal sardine can.....

SEATTLE – 12th Man

It won't help the Seahawks this week, but while every team says it appreciates the home fans, in Seattle this isn't just lip service. Having been to Qwest Field both for Romo's famous botched snap and the only NFC title game the Seahawks ever won, I will vouch for Seahawk fans. The place is crazy.

As for Cowboys Stadium, well, Jerry Jones figured out how to pack 100,000 people in there. But he also created a cavernous building in which half the fans stare at the big screen hoping to see themselves. A 2-6 home record in 2010 speaks loudly.

Like Seattle.--Tim Cowlishaw

Seattle Seahawks Fix Beer Scandal Before Saturday's New Orleans Saints Game

A seemingly inebriated pseudo scientist caused an Internet Scandal to erupt when he posted a YouTube video ostensibly showing that beer being sold at Qwest Field in Seattle during Seattle Seahawk games had a bit of a scam element.

Qwest Field was selling large beer 20 ounce beers for a $1.25 more than the small 16 ounce beers.

Trouble was, the "small" beer container and the "large" beer container held the same amount of beer.

At the end of the evidenciary video the "scientist" exhorts viewers to call the cops and report this scandalous scam.

Apparently the cops were called. Or maybe they weren't.

But, somehow the Seattle Seahawks got the news that they were running a scam which lead to the late Friday admission by the Seahawks that there was a problem with their beer cup sizes. An internal Seahawk/Qwest Field investigation revealed that the smaller cups, while labeled as being a 16 ounce size, actually held 20 ounces.

So, to make up for this outrageous bilking of the beer drinking Qwest Field Seahawk Football fans, for today's game between Seattle and the New Orleans Saints the Seahawks plans to serve all drinks in the 20 ounce cups, but will be charging fans the price of a 16 ounce cup.

Below is the YouTube video that served to right this wrong..........

Seattle's Personal Ad

This morning's Seattle P-I had an amusing blog post by Amy Rolph.

In a post titled "How Seattle ranked in 2010: Not so sexy, but gay-friendly and smart" Ms. Rolph wondered what a City of Seattle Personal Ad would be like, taking into account the various 2010 polls and ranking lists that have "lauded and lambasted the city in 2010."

Below is the City of Seattle Personal Ad...

"Even though I'm getting up there in years (I was born in 1869), I'd like to find a young companion. A college student, maybe. Don't let my age fool you; I've been told I'm pretty cool and fairly romantic. I've also been told I need to work on my personal appearance, but I'd rather read a book than pick out clothes. Our first date probably wouldn't be too extravagant, and we'd probably have to take the bus. (I'm not a good driver, and bad traffic only makes things worse.) We'd probably go for coffee, or maybe to the nation's best cocktail bar. Or maybe we'll just read a book. Did I mention I like to read? You should know I'm especially good with men and extremely gay-friendly."

Below are the article titles of the various articles that ranked, listed and polled Seattle, for various reasons, to various degrees of positive and negative....

Seattle a top city for twenty-somethings? Not so fast, says Forbes

LA Times: Seattle 11th most expensive city for travelers

Seattle shoppers will spend less during the holidays

Report: Seattle has fourth-worst rush hour

Magazine: Seattleites intelligent but not attractive or stylish

Zagat: Seattle diners tip less than the national average

Survey: Seattleites friendly, casual and environmentally conscious

GQ: Seattle's Zig Zag Café best bar for cocktails

Forbes: Seattle is America's third 'coolest city'

Magazine says Seattle is not 'a hotbed of sex'

Seattle is a top destination for college students

Report: Seattle behaves well online

Allstate report: Seattle is full of bad drivers

Seattle: A 'top city' for the next decade?

UW, Evergreen rank high on list of 'coolest schools'

Seattle: Not so great for renters after all?

PETA: Seattle fifth-friendliest city for vegetarians and vegans

Seattle ranked 'fifth gayest city in the country'

Despite breast-feeding, Washington one of 38 fattest states

Joe City: Report pegs Seattle No. 1 coffee-loving town

Seattle sizzles with brainiacs, top city list says

Seattle ranked 7th in standard of living

Boston, D.C. are happier than Seattle, says Gallup

Amazon names Seattle 13th most romantic city

Seattle named best city for men in 2010

Seattle drops in list of best cities for small business

David Letterman Points Out Sedro Woolley on a Map While Almost Pronouncing the Name Correctly

When you grow up in Washington the names of places do not seem unusual or difficult to pronounce. Often it is names based on the Native American name that are a bit difficult to pronounce.

Like Puyallup. Rather than pronounce Puyallup as Pew-el-up, I have heard many bad manglings, like Pie-a-loop.

Sometimes it can be a non-Native American name that can befuddle someone.

When my mom and dad moved to Eugene, Oregon, where I was eventually born. upon arrival they were embarrassed to find they'd been mispronouncing one of the main Oregon rivers, it being the Willamette. My mom and dad were pronouncing it Will-a-meet-ee.

Mom and dad were born and raised in the Northwest. There is no excuse for them not knowing Willamette was pronounced Will-am-met. A Frenchified version of name for a Clackamas Indian Village.

This morning Betty Jo Bouvier, she known as one of the Wild Woman of Woolley, as in Sedro Woolley, with Sedro Woolley being a town in the Skagit Valley of Washington., sent me a video in which David Letterman tries to say a couple Washington place names, like Sedro Woolley and Anacortes.

Correctly pronounced See-dro Wool-lee and Anna-Cort-s.

The best part of this video is the Osama Bin Laden commercial for Vicks Vapo-Rub that runs before Dave goes into map reading mode...

Western Washington Braces For A Strong Pineapple Express Today

You are looking at what Granite Falls looked like in November of 2006, when the Stillaguamish River and all the other rivers of Western Washington went in to flood mode brought on by several Pineapple Express Storms in a row.

Washington is scheduled to get hit with a Pineapple Express Storm this afternoon, dumping 8 inches of rain in the mountains, with 3 inches expected to fall on the lowlands.

Along with the rain the temperature will rise, with melting snow adding to the flood.

I don't remember when the term "Pineapple Express" was first heard by my ears. It seems it was during the Thanksgiving Day Storm back in the 1990s. That was the worst flooding I remember ever seeing. I'd been up well past midnight, helping sandbag downtown Mount Vernon. The flood was expected to go over the sandbags and flood downtown Mount Vernon.

That would have been a real bad thing. When the Skagit River runs high, downtown Mount Vernon is like New Orleans, well below the water level.

During that particular flood a large crowd had gathered to view the crest of the river, from elevated vantage points. But, just as the time of the predicted crest arrived, the Skagit River dropped a couple feet. The dike had broken down river, flooding Fir Island, saving downtown Mount Vernon.

Two weeks after the Thanksgiving Day Flood, which was supposedly something like a 100 year, or more event. It happened again.

I hope today's Pineapple Express is not a real bad one. But I suspect it may be. There is a lot of snow on the Cascades, ready to melt.

"A Chinook" was what warm tropical air hitting the Pacific Northwest used to be called before the "Pineapple Express" phrase became the popular term used to describe the weather phenomenon in which a strong flow of atmospheric moisture forms near the Hawaiian Islands and then extends to any location along the Canadian or American Pacific Coast.