We’re starting to doubt our governor’s grown-up state of mind. For many years, Chris Gregoire has dressed up like different cartoon characters – and made her husband and dog strap on costumes, too. Lt. Gov. Brad Owen, we surmise, got out of it by faking a Halloween cold.
Lately Gregoire has been hanging out at schools. And now she shares top billing with a Muppet in a radio public service announcement. What’s next, an executive order to replace the state public affairs TVW Network with Nickelodeon?
Granted, children and talking hands covered in fur are much more fun to be around than lobbyists, legislators and those downer state economists who were yapping Thursday about a $2.6 billion budget shortfall.
The Guv lent her voice to a swine flu radio spot alongside Elmo from “Sesame Street.” We immediately questioned the casting. Miss Piggy seems the better choice, given the subject matter.
Elmo, however, must have a better agent, because he’s popping up in swine flu PSAs with governors and other honchos from nearly every state and territory – from Oregon to Vermont to the Northern Mariana Islands.
Not South Carolina, though. Gov. Mark Sanford must’ve been busy sucking up to Boeing and running off to Argentina.
In the Washington swine-flu spot, Elmo and Gregoire trade tips on how to be H1N1-derfully prepared.
“First, sneeze into the bend of your arm,” she says.
“Always wash your hands really well,” he squeaks.
For Pierce County residents, might we add: Always bring an umbrella and long underwear when you take your kids to stand in a flu vaccine line. It stretches the whole length of Sesame Street, then wraps around the corner into Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood.
One more radio spot we’d like to hear: A binge-and-purge PSA, starring the governor and Cookie Monster.
And speaking of politicians behaving like children: It’s hard to miss the hissing sounds at the County-City Building these days.
Everybody’s mad at everybody. The County Council and prosecuting attorney are ticked at Superior Court judges for pooh-poohing their backlog reduction plans. The judges begrudge the county executive for taking away their county health insurance. The exec is fuming over the council’s budget cuts. The auditor-elect hasn’t even taken office and is already taking shots at the council.
We never thought we’d say this, but thank God for that level-headed Dale Washam.
Minor league baseball makes for a boffo family night out with Mrs. Nose and the Nostrils, so we’re glad the city has inked a deal to keep the Rainiers until 2041.
Just hope the earth survives that whole Mayan prophecy thing and doesn’t end in 2012. We’d get to enjoy the new party deck for only a year.
After reading the project summary for the snazzed-up stadium, we do have a few bones to pick.
• Public toilets. For women, the stadium will provide 27 lavatories and 114 “waterclosets” (where did they find this developer, London in the late 1800s?) while for men, it’ll have 39 urinals, 21 lavatories and 21 waterclosets.
That’s almost a 2-1 bathroom edge for the ladies. Who do they think drinks most of the overpriced ballpark beer?
• Mascot/star dressing area. Ticket holders and taxpayers apparently will give Rhubarb a private place for his pregame rubdown and back wax. Plans call for a dressing room and locker area with phone/data connections, full bathroom and shower, and a 32-inch flat-panel plasma TV.
A team spokesman says the celebrity reindeer currently warms up for games in a cramped space inside the Fun Squad offices.
Who knew a sweaty Triple-A baseball mascot had more backstage needs than Mick Jagger.
The Rainiers will keep the Cheney Stadium name in exchange for a cool $5 million from the Cheney Foundation. But do they really have to give up commercial naming rights?
C’mon, people, get creative. A quick Internet search turns up Cheney brand hose clamps; Cheney Chic, a junior miss and plus-size women’s store in Eastern Washington; and at least one unauthorized biography of Dick Cheney. (Now available in paperback.)
The ballclub will have to replace all those Venture Bank V’s with something.
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