August 27, 2004

The Seattle Police Department presented its annual Citizen Appreciation Awards last week. Recipients included Robert Hall, who helped the police identify and arrest suspects in a series of home invasion robberies; Cory Russell, who coordinated the weekly meeting of the "Sip & Chat," a gathering of residents to express and voice their concerns; and the managers of the Holiday Inn Express and Holiday Inn Seattle. For the past decade, these businesses have provided free rooms to relatives of fallen and injured officers.

The SPD also honored several citizens as "Heroes" for jumping into the middle of domestic disputes, robberies, burglaries and kidnapping incidents. For example, Seattle resident Brian Jackson once heard someone screaming for help. He saw a suspect holding a knife to the throat of another driver and immediately ran back to his own car to retrieve a crowbar. Jackson then returned to the crime scene and began smashing the windshield and the driver's side window of the stolen car. His actions gave the victim a chance to escape and helped authorities identify the vehicle. The police later used this information to stop and arrest the carjacker.

Writer/editor Amy Gahran pens the Contentious Weblog to share news and musings on how we communicate in the online age.
 

August 26, 2004

Anyone who has ever tried dieting knows how hard it is to alter eating habits and start exercising. The upcoming book "How to Survive Your Diet by Hundreds of Happy People Who Did" will feature the memorable stories, hard-won experiences and wisdom of dieters who lost the weight and kept it off.

Are you a dieting success story willing to share tips on how you did it? Then send me an e-mail with the subject heading "Interview Request - Diet."

Don't worry! I'm also looking for people willing to share their experiences/advice on these topics:

* Surviving Marriage
* Surviving In-Laws
* Surviving Divorce
* Surviving a Move
* Surviving Teenagers

To be interviewed, simply e-mail me, and include your preferred topic(s) in the body of the letter.

August 25, 2004

A new Jaded Writings column has been posted. This week, I offer my version of the perfect moviewatching experience.

* Michael Meanwell - 8/25/63
* Heather Froeschl - 8/25/69
* Barbara Ehrenreich - 8/26/41
* C.S. Forester - 8/27/1899
* Ira Levin - 8/27/29
* Johann Wolfgang von Goethe - 8/28/1749
* Leo Tolstoy - 8/28/1828
* Janet Frame - 8/28/24
* John Gorman - 8/28/38
* Kimberly Roberts - 8/28/68
* Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley - 8/30/1797
* Rosemary Laurey - 8/31/46

August 23, 2004

Despite the fact that it's unethical, more and more university students are willing to cheat their way through classes by purchasing essays on the Web. This increase in demand has inspired plagiarism sites to raise the price for a term paper to $250.

I don't know why honor and integrity aren't being taught in schools (or at home, for that matter), but here's hoping the price of fraud becomes too high for poor college students to afford.

Apparently, getting backstage at a concert isn't as easy as it used to be.

August 22, 2004

...on a stick.

This is actually a brilliant idea. I wish all medicine came in tasty lollipop options.

"I think the desire to have children is an orientation, like sexuality. It's sort of like religion, in that the feeling never came to me."
--Rita Leistner, war photographer

Past Afterthoughts