Sprinkler makes costumes soggy

The floor was still flooded Wednesday when parents began showing up at Studio East in Kirkland. A fire sprinkler burst just before 1 p.m. in the theater school's costume room, spewing gallons of gunky water (what had been sitting in the pipes for years) and then clean water over everything.

By 2 p.m. costumes for the current production, "I Never Saw Another Butterfly" were headed for home washing machines. It's a tight turnaround; the next performance is at 9 a.m. today.

It wasn't just today's costumes and elegant hanging pieces that were drenched. Executive director Lani Brockman said water even seeped into the plastic storage bins.

For this show, costumes can be a bit bedraggled. "I Never Saw Another Butterfly" is about children living in a concentration camp during the Holocaust. The play runs through Sunday.

A shining example

The Internet keeps newspaper stories alive long beyond the publication date. Consider two e-mails this week about Bradley Mitchell, of Kirkland. I wrote a feature story about Mitchell, who collects old diving gear, last April.

To picture the gear, think Cuba Gooding Jr. in the movie "Men of Honor."

Gooding portrayed Carl Brashear, a real-life Navy master diver. Injured during a dive, Brashear lost a leg, but he continued his diving career for another decade. He died in 2006.

Monday I received an e-mail from Phillip Brashear, one of Carl's sons. He and a brother have started a Web site (www.carlbrashear.org). Phillip often gives programs about his father and, in his search for diving gear to display, he found the story about Mitchell and asked for contact information.

I received an e-mail Wednesday from another diving-gear collector in Peru. He, too, wanted to reach Mitchell. (I forward sources the e-mails and let them decide about responding. Brashear and Mitchell already have talked.)

I asked Brashear what his father thought of the movie.

"My dad gave the movie about 75 percent accuracy [rating]," Brashear said.

Super run

Kirkland native Laura Gould spent Super Bowl weekend in Huntington Beach, Calif., earning her own championship title. Gould, who now lives in Sequim, won the women's division in the Surf City USA Marathon with a course record time of 3:08:29.

Training in the Northwest's wet weather gave Gould, whose parents live in the Kingsgate area, an advantage. It was wet and windy as she ran the marathon.

Making waves

At the Elder and Adult Day Services (EADS) benefit luncheon last week, the speakers swear they didn't coordinate their themes for the nonprofit adult day centers. Yet former Bellevue City Councilwoman Nancy Rising, President Emeritus of the Seattle Foundation Anne Farrell, and Zahra Nowbar, mother of a former EADS client, and I all included similar messages: You never know where the ripple effect will go when you cast a stone for good.

Jan Nestler, EADS executive director, handed us each a thank-you token after the event.

Her gifts? Pebbles engraved with inspirational words.

Sherry Grindeland: 206-515-5633 or sgrindeland@seattletimes.com