My Ballard

We’ve been captivated by the follow-up stories on the sinking of the Seattle-based Alaska Ranger, which took the lives of five people. There’s the story that the ship’s officers didn’t board the life rafts and perished. Another on the sheer magnitude of the rescue — dozens of people scattered over a mile in the middle of the night. And now there’s this exclusive report from ABC News that quotes a survivor as saying the crew had nicknamed the ship the “Ranger Danger” because their employer had delayed making repairs. Jeremy Freitag said the ship leaked all over the place, and pumps to clear out the water didn’t work. I’m sure we’ll be hearing more about this in the next few days.

A Coast Guard photo of one of the rafts.

The calendar may say “spring,” but Mother Nature has her own ideas about our weather. On the way home from work this evening, we found a mix of rain and snow on the top of Phinney Ridge, but nothing is sticking. Forecasters have been saying that we could see low snow in the coming days.

Archie McPhee’s warns that if Governor Christine Gregoire signs a new toy testing bill, the store will have to close its doors. The bill would require that toys contain only 90 parts per million of lead — well below the federal standard of 600 parts per million. “The new testing requirements would cost Archie McPhee’s, which stocks over 10,000 different types of toys and knick-knacks, an estimated $5,000,000 a year,” reports Seattlest. “The cost of the tests alone would force McPhee’s out of business.” We have an email into Archie McPhee’s to find out more. In the meantime, this WSJ story (free) provides some great background on the bill and its possible impact.

Update: The Seattle PI reports Governor Gregoire is troubled by the lack of an exemption for lead in electronic chips, which she fears would restrict educational games. Asked if she’ll sign the bill, she said: “I don’t know yet.”

Update: We just interviewed David Wahl at Archie McPhee’s right here.

Updated: The SeattlePI’s Big Blog got us momentarily excited with the rumor that Tom Cruise’s yacht, named Suri, was parked at Fishermen’s Terminal. The blog post vanished half-hour after it appeared, deepening the mystery. But now the Big Blog has posted an update with word that the yacht is not owned by Tom Cruise but a “very wealthy private American owner.” If you want to see it, too late, as it pulled out this morning, on its way to New Zealand.

Disturbing news for parents with kids at Ballard’s Small Faces Child Development Center. Prosecutors have charged a daycare worker with two counts of molesting a 9-year-old girl. Curtis Allen Rapp, 50, pled not guilty in court today. According to Small Faces’ site, Rapp has been the “lead teacher in the challenge program since 2000,” and charging papers say he supervised kids ranging from 5 to 12 years old. Police say they’re concerned that there could be other victims. Rapp is being held in jail with $200,000 bail.

The folks at Archie McPhee’s (the store) are celebrating the birthday of Archie McPhee (the man) today. Did you know he started a jazz band back in the 1920s and played all over Asia? Anyway, the store is celebrating with balloons and handing out treats and gifts for anyone who spends $5 or more today.

A vintage photo of Archie McPhee in some kind of action stance.

With the feather ban in place, pillow fighters reappeared at Cal Anderson Park over the weekend and slapped each other with chunks of foam. The Big Blog has some photos here. We didn’t attend, but it certainly didn’t look like as much fun as the now infamous pillow fight at Ballard’s Bergen Place. Sigh.

The Moisture Festival’s Comedy-Variete show is returning to Hale’s Palladium(also known as Hale’s keg warehouse) March 27-April 13. Get your tickets now, this thing sells out fast. If you haven’t been, it’s a vaudeville-esque romp of highly entertaining - and sometimes bizarre - performances. Each artist gets 3-15 minutes on the stage and is accompanied by a house band. Audience interaction is expected.

There’s plenty of fresh Hale’s on tap, as well as wine.

Expect wickedly talented musicians, aerialists, slapstick artists, dancers, and more. There’s 25 shows at Hale’s and many people go to more than one show as they have a large rotation of different acts.

For those of you wanting a more “mature” show, check out the burlesque shows April 3-6 at ACT - A Contemporary Theatre.

The burlesque shows used take the late evening time slots at Hale’s, but I’ve been told by several people, that Hale’s owner, wasn’t so thrilled with the titillating nature of that adults-only show. The MT site makes an oblique reference to that in the guise of a history lesson: “There was a time when vaudeville and burlesque shared the same stage, but when vaudeville houses decided to become ‘respectable,’ they banished the more bawdy acts to other venues,” hence the move to ACT.

Earlier this month we told you about the new J.P. Patches statue, “Late for the Interurban” that is slated to go up near the popular “Waiting for the Interurban” statue. Blue Moon Burgers in Fremont is helping to raise money for the project. Today only, from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., they will donate a share of all burger purchases to the project. For information call 206-547-1907.

The scene at the memorial at Fishermen’s Terminal this morning.

The Alaska Ranger tragedy over the weekend claimed four lives with one crewmember still missing. The deceased are Eric Peter Jacobsen, Daniel Cook, David Silveira and Byron Carrillo. “He was the most awesome person I’ve ever known in my life,” Jennifer Jacobsen said. “It just doesn’t feel like it’s real. I see all the pictures and it’s hard to take.” A fifth man remains missing.

If you live near 7028 9th Ave., you may be interesting in attending Thursday’s public meeting to talk about the city’s purchase of the 39,000 square foot lot for a new park (earlier story). You can find details here.

Updated: A couple weeks ago, we attended the annual blessing of the fleet at Fishermen’s Terminal, which is a good reminder of the risks of open sea fishing. Now there’s the first major incident of the halibut fishing season: the Alaska Ranger, owned by the Seattle-based Fishing Company of Alaska, has sunk in the Bering Sea. At first, it looked like everyone might make it out alive. But now there’s word that four crew members are dead and one person is missing. 42 people have been rescued by the Coast Guard and surrounding fishing boats.

(Photo from the Coast Guard.) The vessel started taking on water shortly before 3 a.m. after losing control of its rudder 120 miles west of Dutch Harbor. The crew abandoned ship, but as you can imagine, the water is ice cold. “I figure there’s quite a bit of hypothermia going on,” said a Coast Guard official. Another terrible fishing tragedy.

Ballard Gossip Girl has a good wrap-up of where you can go in the neighborhood to watch the NCAA March Madness tournament. We’ll add one more to the list: the Barking Dog Alehouse on 70th just off 8th, which is one of our favorite hangouts. By the way, half of the Geeky Swedes is rooting for the Washington State Cougars (the other is a Husky.)

Earlier this month, the restaurant Lunchbox Laboratory opened in the old Ballard Brothers Burgers space at 7302 15th Ave. So this weekend, we decided to give it a try. To our surprise, it was jam packed already. The tiny, retro-contemporary spot specializes in comfort food like its Simpson tuna casserole, sweet chile fried fish, My Reuben sandwich and various other experiments (even “TV dinners.”) But its speciality is burgers — every conceivable kind of burger with sides like mac & cheese and beenie weenies. Tasty stuff, but be warned: bring your appetite, as each serving is massive.

The only drawback is the restaurant’s very small size. Get ready to know your neighbor up close and personal, unless it’s sunny and warm — there’s plenty of seating outside. The decor is retro cool, including vintage lunchboxes.

The new restaurant is the brainchild of chef Scott Simpson, who created the Blue Onion Bistro and Fork. But as this Seattle PI profile explains, he ate his way to 469 pounds and had to take some time off. Now he’s down to 200 pounds and back in business with Lunchbox Laboratory. And it looks like he has another hit on this hands. (Closed Tuesdays).