No need to mention any names.
But can you think of a local business whose product or service simply does not impress you but about which you have mixed feelings because you like at least some of the people working there?
Well, OK. Not really.
But the SR columnist and author recently set up a web site to deal with the literary side of his multi-faceted life.
Apparently, though, it cannot be accessed from SR computers, which seem to regard it as suspicious.
Now I have not seen the site. For all I know, Shawn has pictures of naked ninth grade girls on it. Though I doubt it.
I suspect it is some sort of technical glitch. Maybe our computer system has something against people who have lived in both Idaho and Montana, as Shawn has.
But I have a question. It's about a word often used incorrectly.
Does the situation with Shawn's author/publishing site being out of reach to those at his workplace constitute irony?
I'm a Christopher Guest fan. And I'm not giving up on “Family Tree” just yet.
But boy, I don't know. Maybe his humor is not suited to half-hour segments.

The Richmond Flying Squirrels.

They used to be the…

Does any reference to flying squirrels make you want to say, “Hey Rock, watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat”?
OK, please say Rocky's line.
The people who carry plastic bags but don't really pick up after their dogs are the same ones who drive around in vehicles adorned with kayak carriers or bike racks but never actually engage in outdoor recreation.
One of my colleagues confided that she had a thing about Jim Morrison when she was young.
This had come up in a conversation prompted by the passing of his Doors bandmate Ray Manzarek.
Alas, she never got together with the charismatic singer. She was left to ponder what might have been.
What kept them apart?
1. Geography. (My colleague grew up in the East, while California was Morrison's base of operations.)
2. Other people. (Morrison was involved with a variety of other women.)
3. Substance abuse. (Morrison had a drug problem.)
4. Age. (My colleague was significantly younger than the often shirtless singer.)
5. Timing. (Morrison died when my colleague was 3.)
6. Cruel fate. (Sometimes you can stare and stare at an album cover — a certain Carly SImon record comes to mind — and, no matter how hard you wish, your fantasies fail to come true. Darn it all.)
7. Justice. (My colleague would never say this, but she's too good for the Lizard King.)

A cookbook inspired by the way your family actually eats would be called what?
If you know only the Michael Bolton version, I'll just assume you are young and fell in with some bad company.

www.45cat.com
Warm-up question: Why is it that people who have traveled the least tend to have the loudest know-it-all opinions about other parts of the country?
So I'm walking back to the paper from Auntie's.
Up ahead, maybe a block away, I see a woman fall to the sidewalk. She is right in front of what used to be the Washington Mutual building on the south side of Main. What is it now, the Chase building?
Before I can even begin to speculate, a man who had been walking nearby scurries to check on her.
By the time I get closer, a few facts become apparent. The woman looks to be in her 40s or 50s. She had been trying to maneuver several cases of water bottles stacked on a two-wheeler. And she seems to be OK.
After making sure she was all right and helping her up, the man who checked on her starts heading my way.
“Well done,” I say as we pass.
He thanks me and smiles.
As often happens to me, I know his face but can't place him.
“Forget about it,” I imagine someone saying, “Chinatown” style. “It's Spokane.”