Papa just needed to take the edge off, 'sall.

​Who cares if Seattle Weekly staff writer Rick Anderson is technically not just a reader? The man was inking columns in the P-I before some of us were a twinkle in our father's you know the rest. Here's Rick, responding to On the eP-I's Birthday, One Question Lingers: Where's Robert Jamieson?

"As an expert in the field, I've found that beer is good for columnists.

Columns were more readable when their writers were in their cups. Me included.

You tend to go places you otherwise wouldn't venture, stumbling across stories you'd never have conceived. In bars, often. Alas, it's frowned on now. That's why columnists aren't so much fun to read today.

Have a beer, sell some papers."

The site celebrates tonight at the Croc.

​It was hard to imagine a year ago that the Seattle Post-Intelligencer could ditch nearly all its employees and still produce a useful, credible news site. But the fact is, they have.

Staff for the online-only venture may be skeletal by daily-newspaper standards, but there's meat on the bones. They've got a handful of high producers who hit hard on the basics--sports, politics, crime, and general hot-button street news, such as today's feature by Vanessa Ho on the undeveloped holes blighting neighborhoods all over town. Just as the P-I always felt more like a city paper than the suburban-conservative Seattle Times, so too its site feels more city-focused than its larger competitor.

But to say that seattlepi.com is valuable to Seattle isn't to say that it provides any kind of model for how to make daily newspapers work in a post-print world. Because it sure as hell doesn't.

The P-I is trumpeting the fact that its readership has remained steady, at about 4 million visitors a month--comparable to what it was back when the print paper was still around. On the one hand, this is an accomplishment of sorts: There's less content on the site than there used to be, and yet the same number of readers are showing up. On the other hand, if Seattle Weekly were to suddenly stop distributing all 90,000 copies of the paper to coffee shops and news boxes all over the city, I'd be pretty alarmed if that didn't cause a serious jump in visitors to our Web site. That would be a lot of readers to just see disappear.

Disgraced investor Michael Mastro, as some claim he appears in Dino Rossi's closet.

​Today's blogs think it's naive to believe any candidate doesn't have skeletons in their closet.

- Goldy at HorsesAss says that state Republicans "holding their breath in anticipation of two-time gubernatorial loser Dino Rossi jumping into the breach [against Sen. Patty Murray] are likely to have their faces turn blue long before Washington turns red." Why? Two words: Michael Mastro.

- One year after the print P-I was put to pasture, Big Blog's Monica Guzman profiles the new media ventures blossoming in Seattle.

- Crosscut's Skip Berger enters the debate over a proposed Dale Chihuly museum in Seattle Center through a side door: in a city that strives to be carbon-neutral, what are we to make of an art form (glass-blowing) that is anything but?

Fortunately, the camera angle here obstructs the real "Colbert bump."

​The jingoistic, proudly naive, bear-phobic character Stephen Colbert plays on his nightly news show has a way of helping find and fund lost causes. Known as "the Colbert Bump," a little attention from the Comedy Central star can go a long way.

A writer appearing on "The Colbert Report" can expect an average of 10-times more book sales after his or her interview airs. And at this year's Winter Olympics, Colbert showed that the sproinginess of his bump isn't limited to literature, after helping raise $300,000 to fund the U.S. men's speed skating team.

But can the Colbert Bump improve the health of an entire neighborhood? Wallingford

PubliCola

Catchy middle name ya got there.

​

Kudos to PubliCola for unearthing what has to be the strangest name change application King County has ever gotten. Mr. Drug War's reason for the switch?

(Assumption Alert: I'm assuming no member of the fairer, and smarter, sex would dub herself "Fuck Censorship.")

"We're in two wars, at least, that I strongly oppose, but cannot currently stop."

How Will The End Of Print Journalism Affect Old Loons Who Hoard Newspapers?

It's been a little more than 12 months since Rick Anderson wrote about how P-I staffers were living with the inevitability of a print shutdown. A little less than 12 months since that shutdown actually took place. Seattle-area loons have been in mourning ever since.

Invisible James Cameron choke.

​Reader Rob M. responds to Mars Hill Church Founder Mark Driscoll: "Avatar" Is the Most Satanic Film of All-Time.

"All I have to say is that I see where Driscoll is coming from. The movie, be it fictitious, illustrates mother nature as the god of this people. It pits the aliens as good respecting their god over the evil army. The problem is the subtlety of this. It is very 'new age' from a religious aspect. It points away from Christian views which, according to the bible, is of Satan. Jesus refers to Satan as a wolf in sheep's clothing, waiting for his chance to devour. It may not appear as satanic as exorcist, but at least exorcist provides the argument that there must be a God to have demons. One thing the bible makes clear: you can't ride the fence. You're either on one side or the other."

If you think the video above, of two lily-white teens romping their way through Seattle's 1962 World's Fair, is ripe for parody, then you, my friend, are a fantastic judge of easily-mockable propaganda films.

After the jump, see Mystery Science Theater 3000's interpretation of this golden nugget unearthed by BoingBoing and originally from the Prelinger Archives on Archive.org.

Most people consider this guy's loss to be their gain.

​If you're going to ask readers to care about your story, it helps to have a sympathetic character at the center. Which is not exactly the way you'd describe a guy who scalps tickets for a living.

Coming weeks after their front-page expose about high ticket prices at Vancouver's Winter Olympics (takeaway: the IOC is a royally corrupt organization that fleeces its fans, something you already knew), The Seattle Times is now selling the story of Gene Hammet, a professional scalper out of Georgia facing bankruptcy because his complicated scheme to flip tickets and make a million dollars fell through.

Now this isn't a knock on the Times. Shining a light on a murky subculture like scalping is exactly what big dailies ought to do.

The problem lies with Hammet. And thinking readers might care that he's dead broke.

Godless blue heathens.

​Mark Driscoll is the founder of Mars Hill Church, one of the fastest-growing congregations in the country. He's also a homophobic, misogynistic, bigoted douchebag who gets a pass from some Christians because he's hip enough to play in a band, wear skinny jeans and curse. (Fuck yeah, Jesus!)

In other words, anything Driscoll says you should do? You should probably do the opposite.

Case in point: Driscoll hates "Avatar." Why?