Whoops, make that mom/grandmother's. I skimmed... sorry.

I once bought a mattress set at Ikea when I was living in Greenwood. We strapped it to the hood and decided to avoid the freeways. I took 167, which becomes Rainier, all the way to NE 45th Street in the fashion you describe to get it home. (Went to Aurora Ave from there.)

Absolutely. This hostess sounds like she wants everyone else to do the cooking.

Thank you, too, Charles.

Fuck whoever thumbed down Mahtli69's response. That was absolutely correct. (Probably Randi - this answer is the least deserving of a mushroom. Sorry Fnarf, but you got this one way wrong.)

Didn't mean to neglect mentioning Mahtli69... good answer there, too.

No good. I used to work in the department at Wamu that did that reporting, and we had computer reports showing that stuff. If you try to avoid the $10,000 report, we filed something called a "Suspicious Activity Report" and sent that along. I guarantee those people received more scrutiny from the feds.

The stuff from Argentina is called "Wicked Good Charcoal - Weekend Warrior Blend."

I was a patron of the crumpet shop, too. Hope it's still good...

And I second Salumi. Try to go around 2:00 pm, when the crowds have finally thinned out.

Don't give the tea party too much credit for the no tax thing; the anti-tax rebellion has been going on since the late 70s, and George H. W. Bush was in part thrown out of the White House because he went back on his "read my lips" pledge.

The tea party is, in some significant ways, the mirror image of OWS - it's comprised largely of those who are furthest from the center, but not over the line into full fledged kook-ville. (Although kooks have turned up in both camps.)

I wouldn't look too much at WTO for comparisons, either. That was a movement without much appeal to the mainstream, or even many liberals. In 1999, times were good, world trade seemed to be a big success, and most of the protesters were concerned about the kinds of things most others ignore or aren't concerned about. (And it turns out that the WTO wasn't quite as big and scary as it was made out to be, either.) The success of the WTO disruption was largely due to the severe lack of contingency planning by local government and police, but the rioting and destruction probably killed the movement more effectively than anything that followed.

OWS, on the other hand, is coming at a time when most Americans, and not just the most progressive, are getting fed up with Washington's permanent genuflection to Wall Street. Ordinary Americans can relate to what OWS is saying. And it helps that the economy is in the crapper - NEVER underestimate the power of the economy to shape popular feeling and opinion.

I believe OWS needs to focus on its message now, in order to get mainstream Americans behind what they're saying. Without that, they won't have any pressure to apply to the politicians. Without that, nothing will change.