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PostscriptsWe catch up on the famous and the anonymous, the woodsy past and the urban future"On Portland's Edge," Nov. 20, 2005 Chuck Palahniuk, most famous for "Fight Club" and the stir it caused, has another book due in the spring. It's called "Rant" and it uses faux oral histories to tell the story of Buster "Rant" Casey, who Palahniuk calls a "reinvented Huckleberry Finn character." Palahniuk, who lives in Skamania County, has long dipped into his reality to concoct outrageous, surreal and cultish prose. There are a number of connections with "Rant." Casey was a small-town kid (Palahniuk grew up in eastern Washington's Burbank) who heads to the city (Palahniuk left Burbank for Portland). Casey becomes a leader of an urban demolition-derby phenomenon called "Party Crashing," in which participants dress their cars in certain ways that give players the OK to fender-bender into them. (Palahniuk has done this and says "it's a lot of fun"). Brad Pitt's production company has expressed interest in "Rant." Pitt played the Palahniuk character, Tyler Durden, in the film version of "Fight Club." Two other Palahniuk books, "Lullaby" and "Choke," are rumored to begin production in the spring, too. And his next book? Just think porno movies. — Richard Seven "A New Field Work," Jan. 8, 2006 The Yakima Valley pesticide research of Fred Hutchinson researcher Gloria Coronado continues to accelerate amid news that the Environmental Protection Agency plans to phase out the most commonly used pesticide in this state, Azinphos-methyl, by 2010. Coronado and mentor Beti Thompson received another $40,000 from donors last summer to continue tracing pesticide pathways into farmworker homes and have spun off additional cancer and domestic-violence research projects in the valley.
Meanwhile, Coronado's work as a board member of Planned Parenthood — she visited Cameroon in late 2005 — got a boost when the Western Washington chapter got a $1 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to continue its international work. She was also one of five environmental educators featured in a Butch Blum catalog this fall. — William Dietrich "Lost, But Not Forgotten," Jan. 29 Howard Coad disappeared in 1992 when he left Harborview Medical Center after being treated for an enlarged prostate. He was estranged from his family, making his presence known only every few years, so his son, Russell, didn't try to file a missing-persons report until several years later. Russell said he ended up not filing a report at all, because when he finally inquired about it, an officer told him the trail was too cold. The mystery thawed with dramatic synchronicity last January, days after Russell read "Lost, but Not Forgotten," which described how missing-persons cases and human remains are handled. Russell Coad immediately e-mailed Seattle police Detective Tina Drain, asking about his father. One day later, Dr. Kathy Taylor, the King County medical examiner's forensic anthropologist, contacted Drain saying Howard Coad's remains had been found in a Capitol Hill park. His name, written in ink, was still legible on a hospital bracelet. After all those years, it came together in about three days. Russell was able to bury his dad, make connections with cousins he had never before met at the funeral and put a gnawing mystery to rest. — Richard Seven "The Romance of Dance," Feb. 12 The number of Seattle-area dances listed by "Dancin' DJ" Ron Bolin has nearly doubled the past year to 118 a week, and subscribers to his e-mail (forafundj@aol.com) have passed 5,000. "Dancing is definitely more popular than ever," he reports. This year has seen a surge of interest in waltz, with 260 people turning out for the first annual "An Evening in Vienna" waltz at the University of Washington's HUB ballroom. There is also growing interest in Argentine tango, with 16 weekly dances in this area. And swing, to rock and top-40 music, remains highly popular. "Dancing With the Stars" remains a TV hit, but Bolin said its emphasis on competition and beauty is an example of how "reality TV is not so real." What is real is the growing number of Seattleites getting off the couch to try a form of entertainment that improves fitness, poise and couple communication. — William Dietrich "Going Green," Architecture 2006, April 9 As anyone who has ever built a house knows, it can be a loooong process. Thor Skov and Jennifer Sanscrainte were expecting to deconstruct their yellow-green "vinyl-over-God-knows-what," 81-year-old North Seattle bungalow last spring. The young urban professionals wanted room for children and a healthy house with clean lines and open space. Contemporary, comfortable, upscale. But the old house is still up, and they are still living in it. "I'm getting worn down, but we're almost there," says Skov, his own general contractor. "We're still lining up people to do the work." But they are more committed to building a green house than ever. Sanscrainte is pregnant. Their family will grow by one-third in January. "Since our forced-air heating system kicked on we've just been dying from congestion. It's so noticeable once dust starts blowing around the house," Skov says. "One of the big hangups has been the heating system," Sanscrainte says. "Then there was the concrete strike that slowed down our contractors by about a month. "But we'll definitely get it done before this child starts school," she says with a determined sense of humor. "The baby makes it even more urgent," Skov says. — Rebecca Teagarden "Camp Orkila," June 11 Less than two weeks after this story about the YMCA camp's 100th anniversary, nearly 400 alumni met at McCaw Hall to hear that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation had pledged to match 50 cents for every dollar raised for Orkila's endowment fund. The goal is to raise $3.75 million, enough to provide financial assistance for 1,300 campers. The Y is well past the $500,000 mark. One of the reunion attendees was Stuart Todd, 90, who thought he recognized himself among the boys in the cover picture. — William Dietrich "Not Done Yet," Sept. 3 The city of Seattle's jobs program for workers over age 55 is growing. The number who have entered its data base has exceeded 5,000, and those actively seeking work number about 700. The city also anticipates placing about 700 in jobs in 2006, which is a new record, said Alana McIalwain, director of the Age 55+ Employment Program in the Mayor's Office for Senior Citizens. "The tidal wave of (post-age-60) boomers is just beginning," she said. They will "create a brand new way to retire, and a new way of thinking about retirement. I think we will redefine working, and we will redefine aging. History will very likely repeat itself in the rise of another boomer 'movement.' " — William Dietrich Portraits, Sept. 3 Bennie Mae Collins is still playing the Key. The 81-year-old remains at her post looking out for Seattle's professional basketball teams. Collins is the only person to guard the home-team locker room since KeyArena opened 11 years ago. And, after raising seven kids and three of her 13 grandkids, she is known as "Mom" to the players, too. "The players were so happy to see everybody," she says of the Sonics' return to the court this past fall. "They were giving me big hugs; Chris Wilcox, Damien Wilkins, all of 'em. They said, 'I'm so happy to see you.' I told them I was blessed to be able to come back." Collins' health is fair and her spirits are great as the Sonics play what could be their final season in Seattle: "I'm able to get up and go down there, so I must be doing pretty good," she says. Thoughts of retirement danced in the head of the delicate-yet-strong woman who has worked her whole life. She, like many fans, worried about a Sonics/Storm move to Oklahoma City. But that doesn't matter so much to her now. "I will stay at least one more year after this year. I want to try to make it to 83 before I retire." — Rebecca Teagarden "Slim Chances," Sept. 10 After a very public year of courtship and weight loss as a star on the reality-TV show "The Biggest Loser," Suzy Preston had a very private resort wedding in Jamaica this past fall. No TV crews. No celebrity photographers. Just immediate family and her new husband, Matt Hoover, whom she'd met on the show. Preston wore an ivory gown with spaghetti straps, perfect for a beach wedding. "It was really comfortable," she says. "I didn't have to be all holstered up in there." The honeymoon was fantastic, she says, even though she did put on some weight at the all-inclusive resort. "Not a good place for people who struggle with eating!" Now she's working on getting back into an exercise routine. Though she and Hoover sometimes run together, Preston says she lost momentum during the long recovery that followed major surgery to remove excess skin folds. These days, dawn workouts are sometimes skipped because "it's just so hard to get out of a warm bed!" After a year in her new body, Preston says she's not having as many internal battles. "Freedom from that would be the biggest thing for anybody who struggled with their weight," she says. "I'm just learning to accept myself for now, and, like I said, it helps that I have someone who constantly tells me how beautiful I am and how much he loves being married to me!" — Paula Bock "The Power of the Pedal," Oct. 22 Bicycle Alliance Pedal politics inspired truckloads, er, make that panniers full, of mail. Readers wrote passionately about reckless cyclists, rude drivers, near misses, global warming, fuel dependency, urban planning, cycling in Europe, Asia and Portland, cheap beer, helmets, traffic laws and so on. Plowing through your letters, it became clear that people are confused about what's legal and not. So here goes. (For a look at the Revised Code of Washington State, go to www.bicyclealliance.org, click on "Bicycle Laws.") • It is legal for a cyclist to "take the whole lane" when it enhances safety. • It is not legal for cyclists to run red lights or stop signs or to ride against traffic on one-way streets. • It is legal to cycle on sidewalks except when expressly prohibited. Cyclists must travel at pedestrian speeds and yield to pedestrians. • It is not legal to drink from a beer can while cycling. Open-container laws pertain to cyclists just as they do to everyone else. • Laws regarding blood-alcohol levels and the operation of motor vehicles do not apply to cyclists. However, cyclists, even if intoxicated, must obey traffic rules and other laws. • Cyclists are legally required to wear bike helmets in King County; scofflaws can be fined $30. For information about free and reduced-price helmets, go to www.metrokc.gov/health/injury/helmets.htm. — Paula Bock
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