Dr. Paul Knoll set out to be a physicist. After three years at the University of Washington, he felt a strong tug in another direction.
(Continued from last week.)
A common mistake made by beginning or less-than-experienced gardeners is forgetting to take into consideration the amount of sunlight a plant will receive. Plants that need sun will not flower or prosper in shade, and plants that need shade will wither and scorch in sun. Most plants that are available in nurseries do well in sun, so it is the shaded garden that is the most difficult to master.
This summer, don’t miss Bicycle Saturdays and Sundays just off Mercer Island in Seattle, a time when Lake Washington Boulevard is car-free between Mt. Baker Beach and Seward Park. On June 14 and 29, July 12 and 20, Aug. 9 and 17, and Sept. 13 and 21 (the two May dates have already passed), between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m., grab your bicycle and head over to the Group Health Cooperative and Cascade Bicycle Club-sponsored ride.
With hot weather ahead, residents should think twice before dipping into the dangerously cold waters in this area.
Sometimes, the best getaways are the easiest. And the most overlooked.
Savanna Reid is one lucky 13-year-old. In two months, the Islander Middle School seventh-grader will be exploring the turquoise waters of the Great Barrier Reef, the prehistoric Daintree Rainforest and the exotic jungles of Tasmania. She will be accompanied by a group of National Geographic Society team members and more than 30 adventurous youth like herself. And she is still getting used to the idea.
This is the final in a series of four “Mercer Island Old & New” columns written by Virginia Ogden Elliott (1908-1981) and first published in the Reporter on March 22, 1961. “Nin” tells of the Island’s boats of the 1920s and 1930s, particularly the legendary steamer, Dawn.
It starts with a question. Who will make decisions for you when you cannot? Then, will decisions made on your behalf be what you want? These are issues that often do not have easy answers.
Bigger isn’t always better when it comes to gift giving, especially as graduation season approaches. According to the National Retail Federation’s 2008 Graduation Consumer Intentions and Actions survey, conducted by BIGresearch, small-in-size items such as gift cards (35.6 percent) and cash (56.8 percent) will remain the most popular graduation gifts, while traditional favorites such as apparel (10.8 percent) and electronics (11.6 percent) will be given by fewer. In addition to gifts, many consumers also plan to give a greeting card (35.6 percent) to graduates.
I caught a thief in my house the other day. Sneaky, silent, tricky as can be, this miscreant was so smooth, so slick that I hadn’t even noticed its relentless and remorseless ways, even though the culprit was right in front of me the whole time.
“There’s no place like home.” It offers comfort, belonging and safety. Yet sometimes our intrinsic tie to the place where we have lived for 40, 50 and 60 years can become a completely unsafe situation. When we age, so does our home.
In March 1985, Quinn Phillips was looking forward to graduation. The tall, good-looking Mercer Island High School senior couldn’t help but anticipate walking in cap and gown to Pomp and Circumstance in June. He was excited for what the future held. Although Quinn assumed that it would be filled with opportunities and challenges, he had no way of imagining what would play out exactly 20 years later — challenges and opportunities of a kind that most will never face.
