I just realized I’ve been at @cityclubtacoma for just over a year! Man, time flies.

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It took the first Monday of August for me to realize I've been on the job with City Club more than a year now. Last year at this time, we were two days away from an outing to the LeMay Car Museum at the old military academy on Pacific. This year, I'm just a day away from our fundraiser gala at Lakewold. There's been a lot of great things in this last year. Interesting programs, sometimes controversially so. I'm also very happy with Tacoma Art Museum as our lunch venue (pitch for TAM: you should definitely consider having an event Read more…

Quiet Weekend

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We spent a long weekend at Mason Lake, catching up on reading and perfecting the fine art of doing nothing. Mary beat me at Spite and Malice (a good card game). We watched a DVD or two. And I wrote a couple chapters in the novel I'm working on. The weather wasn't all it could have been for the last weekend of July and the first weekend of August, but even with some cloudy skies, the lake isn't a bad place to while away the time. After that we met up with my friend Deborah from The Netherlands in Seattle Read more…

Thomas Jefferson and the stain of slavery

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My opinion of Jefferson has changed dramatically since I started this reading project. I have read a lot of Jefferson's work, and read a lot about him. But one of the big questions about his character goes something like this: "How is it that the man who wrote the Declaration of Independence had slaves?" I've often encountered that question, but the Alexander Hamilton biography made me go much deeper than that. Here's why. Economic hypocrisy In order to create the US, the evil of slavery had to be overlooked. It was swept under the rug and as far as politics Read more…

Alexander Hamilton

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My Presidential reading list took a detour with the inclusion of Alexander Hamilton. After several of the biographies (Adams and Washington especially), it became clear that Hamilton and Ben Franklin were incredible forces in their own right and deserved to be included with my reading list. But the Hamilton Biography was so long. Ron Chernow wrote a 700-some-odd page book about a man whose never saw 50. It was good, quite good at times. But long. I started in April, I think, and just finished this weekend (there were, of course, plenty of other books in there as well). So. Read more…

I made “The Nose” in the TNT today …

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Last week, City Club announced a forum with two business leaders discussing their ideas for “bridging the ‘vitality gap’ between the dynamic UWT/museum district on one end, and the lively Ruston Way on the opposite end.” This week, club executive director Erik Hanberg disavowed the statement faster than a tourist hanging a U-turn after mistakenly driving to the north end of downtown. via thenewstribune.com For anyone who’s wondering, my speedy disavowal is pasted below. It was an unfortunate oversight that let that sentence into the press release and I really am wishing I’d been able to catch it ahead of Read more…

The tiger cubs debut tomorrow! And don’t forget to cast your vote for their names (though, alas, Hobbes is not a choice)

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MALE NAME OPTIONS Mani (meaning gem) Bima (meaning brave) Sigit (meaning handsome) Niran (meaning eternal) Squiggy (because his markings look like a squiggly line) FEMALE NAME OPTIONS Mali (meaning flower) Wani (meaning daring) Indah (meaning beautiful) Ndari (meaning full moon) Peace (because her markings look like a peace sign) via pdza.org

Speaking of iPhone photos …

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This photograph I took of the Hotel Del Coronado was selected by a city guide website in San Diego for use on their guide page! They asked me a few months ago if I was willing to let the photo be in their pool and I found out this morning it was selected. There's no money in it, but it's still a nice way to start the day.