Recently in Seattle Category

The good news is, this looks worse than it really is. But, what is true is that after 36 years as a beacon in Pioneer Square, Elliott Bay Book won't be calling it home anymore.

The silver lining is that the store isn't closing, merely moving to 10th Avenue on Capitol Hill: dripping ice cream cone distance from Molly Moon's, close enough to Neumo's to hear the PA, next to Cal Anderson Park and Oddfellow's. In short, you could spend a heckuva great day without moving more than one block in any direction.

Pioneer Square seemingly will never outgrow its Skid Row roots and the loss of Elliott Bay won't help the 'hood at all, but for the most literate city in the US, not losing Elliott Bay is the best news of all.

I suppose I should be flattered at the promotion; didn't know the dreaded middle management qualified as being an "executive." As was suggested to me, I should share this with my father, I'm sure he'd be proud.

But, more to the point, it was shocking and not a little bit frightening to see a "news story," or at least a short brief with a byline, about me and my recent home purchase published on BlockShopper. I've tried to formulate a reasoned opinion around the two-faced beast that the internet is and here's some more empirical evidence.

No, I'd never heard of BlockShopper either, but on their About Us page, they claim to provide "original news and data" as they are run by "experienced journalists." And the kicker: "For us, this is a journalistic exercise; we aspire to be part of the 'next generation' of local media companies, taking local news gathering to an entirely new level."

What makes this whole bit amusing is the lack of journalism involved. Shania Sampson took public record information -- my purchase of a house -- and coupled it with my LinkedIn profile. She turned bullet points into sentences, but that was extent of the journalistic exercise. She/they even copied the shitty little jpeg profile picture of me. So, do I and the photographer get a share on any ad revenue?

That the "art" of customer service left the building at least as long ago as Elvis did is not news. Oh, I know Nordstrom wrote the book on customer service, and I don't doubt that you could recite time after time when some salesperson/waiter/phone rep went above and beyond and brought you some extra peanuts on your last flight, or whatever.

But, how about a business going out of its way to pre-program a discount code into their cash register system for poor customer service? Such with Seattle's restaurant the Alibi Room where a modest meal request was ignored. Ta-da $2 off. Well, plus the $2 not charged for making a call drink "as martini." The value of cluelessness? Last night, apparently $4.