And our heroes shall be called: Justice League of Tacoma?
THE NOSE
The photo that a Tacoma City Councilman sent out on Twitter this week shows the motley-ist crew of superheroes assembled since The Avengers.
What in the name of Zeus could bring together the prodigious talents of (from left) Pierce County Sheriff’s Detective Ed “The Spokesman” Troyer, Kris “The Sonics Guy” Brannon, Rhubarb “The Mascot” Reindeer, Marilyn “The Mayor” Strickland and Mark “The Prosecutor” Lindquist?
Councilman Ryan Mello picked up on the surreal flavor when he tweeted, deadpan-style: “Just another day at City Hall.”
We’re told they were recruited to star in a video promoting Tap into T-Town – Saturday’s scavenger hunt that will dispatch teams around downtown and Sixth Avenue to eat, drink, ride public transit, drink, scavenge and drink.
The combined wattage of these personalities was so bright, Strickland had to wear sunglasses.
What a shame if their only reason for joining forces was to promote a pub crawl.
Let’s hope they later dressed up in tights and went out to pummel supervillains. Say, Clear Channel Communications, or Walmart.
What’s a five-letter word that rhymes with “itch”?: A Seattle Times writer took a day trip to Tacoma in 2007 and found herself in a bad mood, spouting bad clothing analogies.
Metro columnist Nicole Brodeur wrote: “Tacoma feels like a sweater that you just can’t wear. It looks nice, with the water views and mountains. You got it far cheaper than you would pay in Seattle. But every time you put it on, you itch so much you can’t wait to take if off.”
Sure, blame the thrift-store sweater when you might be suffering from a rash you got swimming in Green Lake.
Gritty city we can live with. But itchy?
Of course T-Town loyalists know you can only scratch the surface when you spend as little time here as Brodeur did.
Now she seems to have grasped that fact herself.
Five years later, she’s itch-free: Like Charles Mudede, another reformed Tacoma-phobic scribbler from the north, Brodeur would have us believe she’s seen the light.
She returned recently to write
a review of the Tacoma scene ahead of the LeMay museum opening.
“We thought it might be time to pack a change of clothes and head south for an overnight to take a fresh look around,” she wrote. “And as we headed north the next day, we knew: We have to do that again.”
But if you think she suddenly embraced Tacoma’s working-class, chafing-under-its-blue-collar charms, think again.
Brodeur stayed overnight at Hotel Murano and, judging by her article, didn’t venture beyond museum row.
Proving only that if you have to wear a sweater, go with cashmere.
Something’s quacking at the Place Without a University: UP Town Center will finally be put to some use Saturday. It will host a new rubber duck race fundraiser at the annual Duck Daze Celebration.
Organizers in the Place Without a River came up with a nifty trick: Fashion a 160-foot-long tributary in the gravel parking lot.
Why stop there? Three words: outdoor water park.
Mixed-use retail centers are so pre-housing collapse.
He didn’t mean to be mean: Ever have one of those lapses when you push the “send” button on an email and regret it later? A candidate running to replace U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks had such a hair-trigger moment last week, and now the Internet won’t let it die.
Stephan Brodhead of Tacoma gave TNT editorial page editors what for when they invited him in for an interview before they make an endorsement for the 6th Congressional District.
Brodhead wrote an “official response” in which he mocked the endorsement and ranted against the paper. He ripped everything from its ad prices to its despoiling of the environment to its obsolete membership in the “Obama Yellow Press.”
Then, like a peevish Englishman, he signed off with a terse “Good day!!!”
Brodhead’s “official response” caught fire on the Web and he sent a followup email to the Trib’s opinionators. It says, in part: “Please accept my sincerest apology for calling the Tacoma Editorial Board Liberal Obama leaning content-less bloggers.”
Don’t sweat it, big guy. Truth be told, Stormin’ Norman is a bit of a hothead, too. Maybe it comes with the territory.
Good day!
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