Topic

current affairs

A collection of 105 issues

On Christmas cards, #MeToo, and feminism.

I am sitting at my kitchen bar with a lemon Perrier bottle next to my laptop on faux marble counters. Scattered around are Christmas cards I just opened since it is Christmas Eve and I really should open them before tomorrow. I gave up sending my own Christmas cards years

An apiary, a city, and beautiful cinematography.

Made by Hand / No 3 The Beekeeper. Via Made by Hand on Vimeo. First I wanted chickens. Now I want bees. I don’t have either yet, but…maybe this summer. Will and I have been learning about wonderful things in our research on sustainable agriculture. Things about biodynamic farming,

When you're in love with a black baby.

She got on the Number 13 at 2nd and Galer. A white woman and a little black boy. You don’t see that combination very often in Seattle, let alone on top of Queen Anne. His cherubic, brown cheeks. Bright yellow jacket. Baby hoodie with khakis and little black Nikes.

How I came to meet Howard Schultz and why he's good for America.

Dead homeless people in the alley. Pot smoking in the bathrooms. Unsolicited crushes from the mentally ill who roamed the streets near the University of Washington. This is what life was like when I worked for Starbucks on the Ave (“the Ave” being University Way in Seattle’s U-District). I

White sugar. White backlash.

I think Ferguson could use a little Nina Simone right now. Less backlash, more sugar. Simone was born Eunice Kathleen Waymon in Tryon, North Carolina. The sixth of eight children in a poor family, she began playing piano at age three; the first song she learned was “God Be With

An open letter to NPR about the pay gap, inspired by Jill Abramson.

I have been holding this post inside my head (and heart) for years, and in my WordPress queue for months. But with today’s news about Jill Abramson and the role her legal inquiry about pay inequality at the New York Times may have factored into her sudden dismissal, I

Nice.

A death threat at Seattle Central where I teach: May 30, 2007 As we first reported on Friday, May 25, a message with a threat to commit mass violence on campus was discovered in the men’s restroom in the Science and Mathematics Building. It was written on a toilet

Vote. Yes, we can.

On being a genius.

Last year, Matthew Carter. This year, Shwetak Patel, a fellow Husky and computer science and engineering professor. Makes me so proud of my University of Washington pedigree. But anyway, have you ever thought about what it’s like to be crowned a genius? Jim Collins, a bioengineer and 2003 MacArthur

I want to design t-shirts.

originally uploaded by kevin meredith. I came across this in this week’s NY Times Magazine. I’ve been wanting to create some well-designed political t-shirts and sell them at Left Bank Books and small boutiques around town. Now seems as good a time as any…. I’m listening to