Blogroll

June 3 – A couple of my readers gave me some grief about the column item praising train travel.

They found it a bit too rah-rah for their taste.  Fair enough. But let me just state, for the record:

I realize Amtrak’s service record isn’t perfect. I am aware that the railroads have caused some environmental problems. (Name a transportation industry that hasn’t.) And, yes, I’m glad Riverfront Park is no longer a tangle of tracks.

But.

I don’t see how you can live in Spokane and not feel a connection to rail travel. Perhaps it would be overreaching to make the claim now. But this was a Train Town. And in some hearts, it always will be.

June 2 – Copper River salmon are making their annual splash in restaurants around the region, bringing in staggering prices of $30 a pound in West Side markets.

Experts I’ve contacted say it’s basically a successful marketing strategy.

“A Copper River chinook salmon is not different than a Columbia River spring chinook salmon,” said Tony Floor, a retired Washington Fish and Wildlife Department salmon program manager who works for the Northwest Marine Trade Association.

What the marketing seems to have done is assure that only the best quality spring chinook – bright and properly iced and transported – get the Copper River label. The gill-netted fish that sit in a plastic garbage can down by The Dalles wouldn’t make the grade.

June 1 – A young man showed up on the blog’s doorstep last week, mumbling something about “home security systems” and wanting to put a sign in the front yard. He was asked to leave and did so without much argument. Yet it turns out the door-to-door effort wasn’t limited to the South Perry neighborhood – it’s been all over the South Hill. Readers and Facebook friends have experienced a variety of high-pressure sales tactics over the past week. And here’s the kicker: Judging from some paperwork left behind at one person’s residence, the sales people say they are associated with one company, but they actually come from Utah-based Pinnacle Security, which has an F rating with the Better Business Bureau. Be careful who you hire – and look out for vulnerable neighbors.