Fridays 10:00am-2:00pm (June 7th through September 27th, minus July 5th)
9th Avenue between University and Seneca streets
Weekly First Hill Farmers Market at Virginia Mason is returning to a full summer schedule on 9th Avenue this summer! The First Hill community is welcomed to enjoy farm fresh produce, flowers, and delectable prepared food together. Each Friday from June 7th through September 27th (minus July 5th) Pike Place Market PDA, will coordinate a farmers market open to the public from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm.
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Ed note: Should we rage against aging? At times of loss or illness, we might go down that path. Dylan Thomas in Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night points us in that direction. In contrast, the Beatles’ When I’m Sixty-Four raises questions about aging in a poignant humorous way. I hope you may appreciate the article below which reminds us that we might embrace aging.
As Evelyn Couch said to Ninny Threadgoode in Fannie Flagg’s “Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe”: “I’m too young to be old and too old to be young. I just don’t fit anywhere.”
I think about this line often, this feeling of being out of place, particularly in a culture that obsessively glorifies youth and teaches us to view aging as an enemy.
No one really tells us how we’re supposed to age, how much fighting against it and how much acceptance of it is the right balance. No one tells us how we’re supposed to feel when the body grows softer and the hair grayer, how we’re supposed to consider the craping of the skin or the wrinkles on the face that make our smiles feel unfortunate.
The poet Dylan Thomas told us we should “rage, rage against the dying of the light,” that “old age should burn and rave at close of day.” He died, sadly, before turning 40.
For those of us well past that mark, rage feels futile, like a misallocation of energy. There is, after all, a beauty in aging. And aging is about more than how we look and feel in our bodies. It’s also about how the world around us plows ahead and pulls us along.
I remember a call, a few years ago, from a longtime friend who said it looked as if her father was about to pass away. I remember meeting her, along with another friend, at her father’s elder care facility so she wouldn’t have to be alone, and seeing the way her tears fell on his face as she stroked his cheeks and cooed his name; the way she collapsed in the hallway on our way out, screaming, not knowing if that night would be his last.
He survived, and has survived several near-death experiences since, but I saw my friend’s struggle with her father’s health difficulties as a precursor to what might one day be my struggle with my parents’ aging and health challenges. And it was.
Soon after that harrowing night at the elder care facility, my mother, who lives alone, suffered a stroke. Luckily, one of my brothers was having breakfast with her that morning and, noticing that her speech was becoming slurred, rushed her to the emergency room.
On the flight to Louisiana, I tried in vain to remain calm, not knowing what condition she would be in when I arrived, not knowing the damage the stroke had done. When I finally laid eyes on her, it was confirmed for me how fortunate we were that my brother had been alert and acted quickly. My mother would fully recover, but the image of her in that hospital bed — diminished from the commanding, invincible image of her that had been burned into my mind — shook me and has remained with me.
In that moment, I was reminded that my mother was in the final chapter of her life, and that I was moving into a new phase of mine.
That is one of the profound, emotional parts of aging: assuming a new familial role. Recognizing that my brothers and I were graduating from being the uncles to being the elders.
And that shifting family dynamic exerts itself on both ends, from above and below. This year, my older son turned 30. There’s no way to continue to consider yourself young when you have a child that age. He isn’t a father yet, but it has dawned on me that by the time I was his age, I had three children and my marriage was coming to an end. In fact, by the time I was his age, all of my mother’s grandchildren had been born.
No matter how young you may look or feel, time refuses to rest. It forges on. I’m now right around the age my parents were when I first considered them old.
I’m not sure when the world will consider me old — maybe it already does — but I do know that I’m no longer afraid of it. I welcome it. And I understand that the best parts of many books are their final chapters.
The actress Jenifer Lewis, appearing on the nationally syndicated radio show “The Breakfast Club,” once remarked: “I’m 61. I got about 30 more summers left.” Since hearing those words, I’ve thought of my own life in that way, in terms of how many summers I might have left. How many more times will I see the leaves sprout and the flowers bloom? How many more times will I spend a day by the pool or enjoy an ice cream on a hot day?
I don’t consider these questions because I’m worried, but because I want to remind myself to relish. Relish every summer day. Stretch them. Fill them with memories. Smile and laugh more. Gather with friends and visit family. Put my feet in the water. Grow things and grill things. I make my summers count by making them beautiful.
I have no intention of raging against my aging. I intend to embrace it, to embrace the muscle aches and the crow’s feet as the price of growing in wisdom and grace; to understand that age is not my body forsaking me but my life rewarding me.
Aging, as I see it, is a gift, and I will receive it with gratitude.
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Seventy-seven years ago, on June 5, 1947, Secretary of State George C. Marshall, who had been a five-star general in World War II, gave a commencement speech at Harvard University.
Rather than stirring, the speech was bland. Its long sentences were hard to follow. It was vague. And yet, in just under eleven minutes on a sunny afternoon, Marshall laid out a plan that would shape the modern world.
“The truth of the matter is that Europe’s requirements for the next three or four years of foreign food and other essential products—principally from America—are so much greater than her present ability to pay that she must have substantial additional help or face economic, social, and political deterioration of a very grave character,” he said. “It is logical that the United States should do whatever it is able to do to assist in the return of normal economic health in the world, without which there can be no political stability and no assured peace. Our policy is directed not against any country or doctrine but against hunger, poverty, desperation and chaos. Its purpose should be the revival of a working economy in the world so as to permit the emergence of political and social conditions in which free institutions can exist.”
In his short speech, Marshall outlined the principles of what came to be known as the Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe in the wake of the devastation of World War II. The speech challenged European governments to work together to make a plan for recovery and suggested that the U.S. would provide the money. European countries did so, forming the Organization for European Economic Co-operation (OEEC) in 1948. From 1948 to 1952, the U.S. would donate about $17 billion to European countries to rebuild, promote economic cooperation, and modernize economies. By the end of the four-year program, economic output in each of the countries participating in the Marshall Plan had increased by at least 35%. (continued)
The emergency legislation will take effect immediately after being signed by the Mayor
From the Seattle City Council Blog — thanks to Ann M. who notes, “Let’s hope the old Prosch House @ 9th & Cherry will soon be demolished.”
SEATTLE – The Seattle City Council unanimously passed legislation today that would allow the Seattle Fire Department (SFD) to swiftly order the demolition or remediation of unsafe vacant buildings that pose risks to public safety. The bill was sponsored by Councilmembers Bob Kettle (District 7, Downtown to Magnolia) and Tammy J. Morales (Yesler Terrace to Rainier Beach).
“The inability to demolish these hazards has contributed to a permissive environment where government stands by as predictable accidents and crimes occur,” said Councilmember Kettle. “Today, the Council took decisive action to change that. This legislation will substantially address the issue of dangerous vacant buildings. We owe it to our brave firefighters and our neighbors to take a proactive approach, so they don’t have to endanger their lives to put out fires at vacant buildings.”
“Fires in derelict buildings have become a dangerous hazard across the City, especially in District 2. Between 2022-23 there were over 60 fires between Yesler Terrace and Rainier Beach, and someone tragically lost their life,” said Councilmember Morales. “This legislation marks a turning point. I’m heartened that we passed this bill, as it’s something that I’ve been working on for over a year in partnership with the Seattle Fire Department, Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections, and the City Attorney’s office. Thank you to Councilmember Kettle, the Mayor, and my colleagues for supporting this critical, life-saving bill.”
When thousands of athletes move into the Olympic Village on the outskirts of Paris next month, they’ll be staying in buildings that were ultimately designed for another use: to become part of a sustainable new neighborhood. It’s the opposite of what has happened in previous Olympics, when cities have tried to figure out what to do with relics of the Games as an afterthought.
“It’s not that we’re reusing things and transforming them into housing,” says architect and urban planner Anne Mie Depuydt, founder of the design firm UAPS, who served as the coordinating architect for one section of the Olympic Village. “It’s a new neighborhood, and we made sure that within the apartments and the office buildings we can adapt them to receive the athletes for the Olympics.”
Thank Uncle Sam for Cheetos, air fryers, and other modern mainstays.
BY DIANA HUBBELL(thanks to Mary M.) in Atlas Obscura
Whether invented at the U.S. Army Natick Soldier Systems Center or by subcontracted private companies, many processed foods now common in civilian life were first created by and for the military-industrial complex.
SPAM: Hormel Foods Corporation invented the world’s most famous canned meat in 1937 to offload a surplus of pork shoulder. SPAM, for “spiced ham,” took off in a big way, though, when the U.S. military purchased 150 million pounds of the stuff for troops during World War II. Since then, the processed meat has become ubiquitous around the world wherever the U.S. has a strong military presence. From the Philippines to Okinawa, Guam to South Korea, SPAM has since grown to become an integrated—and often celebrated—part of the local cuisine.
M&Ms: During the Spanish Civil War, Forrest Mars Sr. encountered soldiers eating chocolates shielded from heat by a brittle sugar shell. After obtaining a patent for candy that “melts in your mouth, not in your hands” in 1941, the Mars candy company began selling M&Ms exclusively to the U.S. military.
Air Fryers: The first forced-convection oven, better known as an air fryer, was a 35-pound, 120-volt Maxson Whirlwind Oven, invented in 1945. William Maxson, a former U.S. Navy midshipman, invented the device to heat up to six meals at a time. When the military lost interest, he turned to civilian American households and Pan Am Airways. After his unexpected death in 1947, the technology languished, appearing in various formats over the years. In 2008, air fryers finally hit the mainstream big time, thanks to Philips.
Microwave Ovens: It sounds like an urban myth, but the microwave oven really was invented by accident. During World War II, a Raytheon engineer named Percy LeBaron Spencer was fiddling with an active radar when he noticed that it had melted his candy bar. By 1945, Raytheon had filed for a patent and by 1947, it had built a working microwave oven: a refrigerator-sized behemoth called the Radarange.
Freeze-Dried Fruit: Jacques-Arsene d’Arsonval invented freeze-drying technology in France in 1906, but originally it was primarily used to preserve blood serum during war. Later Natick Labs would take the technology and run with it to create lighter, shelf-stable foods for space travel for NASA.
Cheetos: All sorts of processed cheese products have directly or indirectly come out of the U.S. military’s efforts. After dehydrated cheese powder was developed in 1943 by a USDA scientist, the military stocked up on the stuff and wound up with a giant surplus post-World War II. They sold off bunches of it to Frito-Lay in 1948, which started frying them up into the familiar knobbly snacks.
Instant Coffee: Satori Kato, a Japanese-American chemist, came up with a stable water soluble coffee powder in 1901, but the product boomed thanks to the U.S. military purchasing 37,000 pounds a day of it during wartime.
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Princess Guy, “Seattle’s Most Fabulous Vocal Quartet™,” is an independent vocal group of four guys in tiaras offering unique arrangements of pop, jazz, comedy, Broadway and classical music, including original songs and stories. Founded in 2018 for the purpose of singing myriad song styles for diverse audiences of sung song enthusiasts.
The self-directed collective includes Eric Lane Barnes (baritone), Jeffrey Erickson (tenor), Paul Rosenberg (bass) and Ritchie Wooley (tenor). Roughly 80% a cappella and 100% gay as a gaggle of geese, Princess Guy presents a vast range of music styles emphasizing compelling harmony and unexpected interpretations of pretty much anything we fancy.
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Join your First Hill neighbors for our second annual Brain Health Block Party. From 1-4 p.m. on Wednesday July 10, enjoy a walk through the neighborhood, stopping at activity stations listed below for fun brain-healthy activities such as music, puzzles, creative arts, movement and more. Healthy snacks included! A fun and free event for all ages, with a special invitation to folks age 50+.
Event maps available at each activity station. Start wherever you like, and get your event map stamped as you go. Visit at least three activity stations for a chance to be entered into a drawing for a special brain-health raffle prize! Walking between all 9 stations is about 1 mile.
Ben Hubbard reported from two towns in the occupied West Bank, the Arab-Palestinian community of Tuqu and the Jewish-Israeli settlement of Tekoa.
From the outskirts of his town in the West Bank, the mayor surveyed the rocky hills stretching toward the Dead Sea where Palestinians had long farmed and herded, and pointed out the new features of the landscape.
New guard posts manned by Israeli soldiers. New roads patrolled by Israeli settlers. And, most tellingly, a new metal gate blocking the town’s sole road to those areas, installed and locked by the Israeli army to keep Palestinians out.
“Anyone who goes to the gate, they either arrest him or kill him,” said the mayor, Moussa al-Shaer, of the town of Tuqu.
On the other side of the gate, atop a bald hill in the distance, stood one of the area’s new residents, Abeer Izraeli, a Jewish settler.
“With God’s help, we will stay here a long time,” Mr. Izraeli said.
The West Bank Settlements
The case of the two people on either side of the gate is a particularly clear example of a dynamic playing out across the Israeli-occupied West Bank. As much of the world has focused on the war in Gaza, Jewish settlers miles away in the West Bank have hastened the rate at which they are seizing land previously used by Palestinians, rights groups say.
Dror Etkes, a field researcher with Kerem Navot, an Israeli monitoring group, estimated that since the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7 that started the war in Gaza, settlers have taken more than 37,000 acres of land from Palestinians across the West Bank. More than 550 of those acres are near Tuqu, making it the largest such expansion by a single Israeli settlement.
One part of the settlement of Tekoa and, in the background, the Palestinian town of Tuqu.Since its installation in October, a gate has divided the Palestinian inhabitants of Tuqu from land seized by Israeli Jews from the settlement of Tekoa.
The gate is not much to look at — made of orange bars and similar to what one might find on a farm. But Hebrew graffiti on the concrete blocks that hold it up refer to Genesis 21:10, a verse about driving people away.
Since the gate’s installation in October, it has served as a firm divider between the Palestinian Arab inhabitants of Tuqu and the Israeli Jews in the newly expanded settlement of Tekoa.
Map locates the West Bank villages of Tuqu and Tekoa.
Both communities draw their names from where, tradition holds, the biblical prophet Amos was born. In some places, homes in one community sit 500 yards from homes in the other. When the Muslim call to prayer sounds in Tuqu, the Jews in Tekoa hear it, too.
By Anna D. Wilde – in the Harvard Crimson (thanks to Mike C.)
On the evening of Sunday, February 9, 1992, a group of about 40 Black and Jewish students gathered for a tense discussion in a gray-carpeted, well-lit room in the Freshman Union.
Just a few days before, the Harvard Black Students Association had hosted a speech by City University of New York professor Leonard Jeffries, provoking a 400-student protest spearheaded by Harvard-Radcliffe Hillel.
The Union event was the only moment of organized talk in a year marked by silence and insult. The person who made it happen was at the time just a first-year student: Freshman Black Table President Alvin L. Bragg ’95.
Some exchanges were sharp. Jews argued that Jeffries was anti-Semitic and inaccurate in some of his views. A Black student retorted, “If you feel that what Jeffries says is bullshit, then prove to me what he says is bullshit.”
But as moderator, Bragg kept the session from escalating into a verbal brawl, diffusing tension by reminding participants that they were in an open forum, not an official meeting.
“It just amazed me the poise he had, the ability to maintain a lid on a room that could have blown up,” says Michael H. Pine ’95, a Hillel official and friend of Bragg’s who was at the discussion.
The 1992 meeting was typical of Bragg, whom many students credit with a rare ability to reconcile diverse people and clashing views.
In his own term as president of the Black Students Association last year, Bragg was known as a mediator and, according to his predecessor, a “conciliator.” It is not the usual role for the president of the BSA, which through the years has found that only controversial activism forced significant change from the Harvard administration.
Representative Nicole Macri will be at Skyline on Tuesday, June 11 at 7:30 to talk about the accomplishments of the 2024 legislative session. You might want to arrange your dinner reservations on June 11 in order to be able to attend the meeting.
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Seattle is the most literary city in the nation! Get book club ready with new and gently used books at the historic Book Carts in Seneca Plaza. Book prices range from $2-4 each and proceeds go to Friend’s of the Seattle Public Library.
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Buskers
Enjoy live music and support local musicians while you visit the Park.
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Park Services Cart
June – September
Tuesdays & Thursdays: 12-2pm
Wednesdays: 4-6pm
Located in Upper Lawns (lawn space by Pigott Corridor)
Stop by and say ‘hi’ to FPA staff, find out what’s happening in the Park, and stay awhile! On Wednesday evenings we’ll have lawn games, and music to enjoy. This is a chance to get to know FPA staff and to learn more about the unique space that is Freeway Park.
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Volunteer Planting Party
Tuesday, June 25th: 12pm-1:30pm
Located in Seneca Plaza
Help out Seattle Parks and Rec as they prepare the park for Summer!
Freeway Park is over 5 acres of lush plants and trees that need round the clock love and attention. We partner with Seattle Parks & Recreation to provide ways for our community members to get involved while providing a few extra hands to keep the park clean and gorgeous.
Join us on Tuesday, June 25th, from 12pm – 1:30pm for as much time as you can spare! We will have some drinks and snacks! Tools and gloves provided, but bring your own if you can.
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Seattle Chamber Music Society: Summer Festival Concert Truck
Wednesday, June 26th: 11am-12pm
Located in Seneca Plaza
The SCMS Summer Festival returns with the Concert Truck, featuring live music. Free food & drinks will be provided!
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The NYT reported a few days ago that the “Museum Workers Walk Out, Describing Exhibit as Aligned With Zionism.” In a May 19 letter, the protesting staff said the “Confronting Hate Together” exhibition damaged community trust and aligned the museum with Zionism. The employees asked that museum leaders “acknowledge the limited perspectives presented in this exhibition. Missing perspectives include those of Palestinians, Arabs, and Muslim communities who are also experiencing an increased amount of violence, scapegoating, and demonization.”
In response there is a petition to reopen the museum as reported in change.org. ” (thanks to Mike C.)
Dear Wing Luke Museum Executive Leadership & Board of Trustees,
We respect Wing Luke Museum’s history of important exhibits, community support, and education. We are grateful for your leadership.
We want to express our admiration for the work that went into creating your exhibit, “Confronting Hate Together,” that explores the hatred that has targeted the Asian, Black, and Jewish communities of Seattle, including the redlining that affected all of these communities together.
By working with the Black Heritage Society of Washington State and the Washington State Jewish Historical Society, you created an exhibit that recognizes the importance of creating space for each of these groups to define their own terms and identities and to describe their own lived experiences.
We are saddened to see that people who are uncomfortable with the exhibit’s acknowledgment of local acts of anti-Jewish hatred have forced its closure. This sets a dangerous precedent.
We know that “Confronting Hate Together” has the power to open a discussion about the ways that we join forces to dismantle these old forms of hatred that still plague us today.
We the undersigned ask you to stay the course, and to re-open “Confronting Hate Together” with its original language intact. We recognize the courage this will require. However, a society that accepts the closure of its cultural institutions in response to discomfort poses a threat to its minorities and democracy for everyone.
We eagerly await the re-opening of “Confronting Hate Together” and the courageous conversations that will follow.
Sincerely,
Your Supporters & Citizens Concerned with Cultural Institutions
Isolation has significant effects on physical health: It increases heart disease risk by 29%, stroke risk by 32% and dementia risk by 50%, according to the Surgeon General’s office. A lack of social connection increases the risk of premature death by more than 60% — the equivalent of smoking 15 cigarettes per day.
“As somebody who sits in an office that for generations has focused on issues like tobacco and obesity, it made me realize that this issue of loneliness is a public health concern,” Murthy said.
Murthy joined Washington State Secretary of Health Umair Shah for a discussion on social connection and loneliness, part of a state health department speaker series. Here are five key points from the conversation.
1. Modern society has evolved to make us less connected to each other.
For thousands of years, humans lived as hunters and gatherers who formed small groups with people they trusted, Murthy said. They shared food, took care of children together and looked out for one another’s safety.
“We learned to live together and recognized that when we are connected with one another in trusted relationships, we actually do better. We have a much greater likelihood of survival,” he said.
Not all of those elements still exist in our current society, he said. More people feel disconnected from community or don’t feel like they’re a part of others’ lives in meaningful ways.
“We have become, in the grand scheme of human existence, quite lonely and isolated, despite the fact that we live in more densely populated parts of the world and despite the fact that we are connected through our devices and technology,” Murthy said. (continued)
Donald J. Trump, the former president and presumptive 2024 Republican nominee, was convicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in a case stemming from a payment that silenced a porn star.
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Ed note: This project honor’s Richard Ferry’s late wife, Maude. Please pass the information on to those with creative ideas about improving the care of those afflicted with dementia and those caring for them.
Do you have a groundbreaking idea to improve the lives of those living with dementia and their caregivers? Maude’s Ventures is seeking your vision! The Maude’s Ventures annual grant competition is open now, offering seed funding of up to $50,000 to turn your vision into reality.
Groundbreaking ideas make a difference
Maude’s Ventures is passionate about supporting innovative, scalable, and impactful solutions. By “innovations,” they mean a wide range of creative approaches, including new resources and programs, tech-enabled tools, novel products, and much more.
Whether your concept focuses on improving daily living, enhancing communication, or empowering caregivers, Maude’s Ventures’ inclusive review process ensures your voice is heard. They value submissions from a wide range of applicants, including:
Care providers
Technology developers
Researchers
Health care professionals
Business owners
Simple application process
Don’t let fear of a lengthy application process hold you back. Maude’s Ventures recognizes the importance of getting your idea off the ground quickly. Their application is designed for ease and clarity, requiring only:
A concise two-page proposal outlining your innovative solution
Up to two letters of support from relevant partners, current or past
Don’t miss out!
The application window for the 2024 Maude’s Ventures Grant competition is open now through Monday, August 5. Visit https://maudesventures.org/ to learn more and submit your application.
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