Join me next Wednesday night at the Downtown Library to talk about The Maltese Falcon as part of Tacoma Reads

I'm going to be moderating a panel on Dashiell Hammett's "The Maltese Falcon" as part of Tacoma Reads on Wednesday, April 28, at 7:00 at the downtown library. Panelists include County Prosecutor Mark Lindquist, Architect and Tacoma Councilmember David Boe, and Hans Ostrom, Professor of English at UPS. If you haven't read the book, you can get it at Kings Books. It's a great noir read (and a quick one too). Join us!

The benefits of joining a group …

If the relationship between money and well-being is complicated, the correspondence between personal relationships and happiness is not. The daily activities most associated with happiness are sex, socializing after work and having dinner with others. The daily activity most injurious to happiness is commuting. According to one study, joining a group that meets even just once a month produces the same happiness gain as doubling your income. According to another, being married produces a psychic gain equivalent to more than $100,000 a year. via nytimes.com So … join City Club and it feels like your income goes up 100%. That’s Read more…

Community Gardens Summit tomorrow

Since I started at MetroParks, the two most common things I've heard from people is: more dog parks, more community gardens. For those who want the gardens, consider the Community Gardener Summit tomorrow, sponsored by the Cascade Land Conservancy.

TSA and Airport Security at City Club

This Wednesday’s lunch sounds really interesting to me. The local director of the TSA Jim Spiden will talk about airport security and screening procedures. This has been a big topic since the Christmas Day attempted attack and I’m very interested in what Mr. Spiden has to say. To me, airport security touches on the heart of all the big issues. Are full body scanners an invasion of privacy? Can we take screening procedures so far that we don’t even feel like a free society? If you want to come the lunch is at TAM at noon on Wednesday. Mention that Read more…

Long walk to Proctor

We had a wonderfully long walk to Proctor this morning. The weather was unbeatable. Yesterday was beautiful too, but I was in an all day retreat and couldn't enjoy it like I could today. Hoping for a repeat tomorrow!