1. Notifications/Following (Too Much Mail!)

We’ve made significant changes to the following and notification features:

- Automatic following. You will no longer be automatically following a question unless you asked it. If you want to follow a question, just click the follow button.

- You will receive comments (automatically) if people comment on your answer or on a thread you have commented on. You will not receive other comments even if you are following the question. You can control comment notifications on your profile if you’d prefer not to get them.

- You will no longer get duplicate emails based on following a person and following a question that person asked/answered.

So you will now get fewer notifications that are more relevant and you can fine tune them using the notification settings in your profile.

2. Personalized View

Different people want the filters on lists to default to different things. Some people want to see latest answers, others want to see favorite answers etc. You can now set the defaults to your personal preferences on the home page (we will be adding this to the profile later).

To set the default you want, just choose the filter on the list (e.g. Latest or Greatest for Answers) and the hit the yellow pin to the right . You are done. Next time you come back it will look the way you want it to.

We did not reverse the question/answer lists on the home page as many of you suggested. We will continue to see how we can make the page even more personalized. In the meantime, we hope these other changes will help.

3. Use the Questionland “Logo” as a Home Button Too

You can now press “Questionland” in the picture and it will act the same as the “home” button.

4. Preview Bug

There was a bug when rich content (pictures, links, etc.) were used and then previewed before posting. That’s been fixed.

5. List of Followers Didn’t Show

On your profile we’d show how many people were following you, but when you clicked on the link to see who they were they didn’t show. That’s been fixed.

6. Site Appears “Scrambled”

Many people have experienced a scrambled looking site when they go to Questionland. This is because your local browser is caching (storing) aspects of the old site. Browsers do this to make sites load faster, but it causes problems when sites undergo a significant change. You can solve this problem fairly easily or with a little more effort, depending on the browser and how aggressively it has cached the site:

Easiest: Hit the reload button and it will probably fix itself. The reload button is the circular arrow somewhere on the browser toolbar.

Next Easiest: Hold down the SHIFT (caps) key and click the reload button (both at once). This tells the browser to clear the cache (esp. Firefox).

Harder: Go to the preferences/settings of your browser and find the section where the cache is stored and clear it. This might be within the content, history or privacy sections of the preferences. e.g. Firefox is Preferences > Privacy > Clear Recent History (link) > Cache (check the box) and OK. Chrome is Preferences > Under The Hood > Clear Browsing Data > Cache. If you use Internet Explorer… you are probably already an expert at fixing things that don’t work.

Other Things We Are Working On

1. Expanding/Scrolling

In many cases you are not taken directly to a link location. For example, when trying to see a comment sometimes the comments area is not expanded and you are not scrolled down to the exact location of the comment. This can be confusing and a pain in the neck. We’re looking at it.

2. Personalization

As I mentioned above, we will continue to explore ways to make the site more personalized for the way different people like to use the site.

Feedback

At the risk of overburdening/boring you, I’ll put up a question on the site to get feedback about the updates.

Thanks for all the suggestions. I hope you like the changes.

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Filtering Content: “Family” & Reputation.

The New Questionland Widget

Questionland Redesign Preview

Fork Out The Mushrooms!

Side note: My apologies for not responding to your comments on the earlier post. I have been struggling with comments on this blog and still can’t seem to get them fixed. I’ll address the issues brought up in the comments here.

The Major Enhancements:

1. Accessible Design & Rotating Banners

The new design has moved the gnome and the mushroom from the “front office” to the “back office”. The mushroom is still awarded for favorite answers. We think the the new design will be more accessible in terms of content and design. It has been refined since the preview with a little help from Michiko.

For some of you, it will feel a little generic after the quirkiness of the previous design. To maintain our local flavor and character, we will be rotating the top banner regularly with scenes from Seattle. They will all contain the word “Questionland Seattle” somewhere in them, ideally integrated within the picture. We’d love it if you would be interested in sending banners. If we use them you will be credited in the photo description.

The specifications for the picture are that it needs to be very wide and very short (1200+ px wide and exactly 150px tall). If you can add the text “Questionland Seattle” somewhere in a way that fits that would be great. Send your submissions to banners@questionland.com.

2. Following People, Questions and Topics

You can follow people and be notified of their contributions when they happen. You can also follow questions you are interested in and be notified as the answers and comments come in. Finally you can follow an entire category or sub-category (e.g. Food) and get notified of new questions that are posted to that category. A word of caution: excessive following could result in a fair number of emails which might be a tad annoying. Good news: every email comes with a “stop following this” link which stops that specific thread.

Some of you will find this useful, others will think we are trying to create Qwitter or QuestionBook. The reason we added it was twofold: (1) people don’t like checking back to see if there has been a new answer on a question they are interested in, and (2) there are great discussions happening that are effectively invisible to most of us and this is a way to make sure you can follow them if you want. Oh, and a bonus… some of us want to know anytime soundslikepuget says anything. And yes you can follow him on Twitter@soundslikepuget (and should) but you won’t see stuff like this or this.

3. Showcasing Content and People

We have such great people on Questionland and they provide such great insights and answers about life in Seattle. Both experts and top contributors are shown front and center – the people who answered most recently are shown first (so you won’t be seeing rev anymore). You are a top contributor if your reputation is in the top 100.

But what about great contributors who haven’t achieved those lofty heights? No problem. Now that we showcase the best (and latest) answers, you’ll see those too.

4. Voting

I asked for your opinions on this one and got a lot of them. They were extremely helpful, so thank you. We decided that the best approach would be to keep voting on answers and comments, but with some fine tuning:

• Voting helps other people easily view the value that the community attaches to an answer.
• Voting content “up” (thumbs up) means you think it is helpful. There are no restrictions on up-votes.
• Voting it “down” means you think it is factually incorrect, off-topic or not helpful (simple disagreement is not a good reason to vote something down).
• Down voting sends a powerful message to the contributor (intentionally or not). As a result, we have limited down-voting to people who have accumulated a minimal positive reputation of 30 or more. The rationale is that you ought not to be able to criticize others until you have tried it yourself.
• We have also rationed down-votes to 3 times in a 12 hour period. We hope that rationing will lead to a more judicious use of down-votes and will discourage people from going on the occasional down voting rampages.

5. Search

You can now search within a specific type of content (see pic below). So if you want find Fnarf, you can search within “people” and not get every reference to Fnarf.

6. Navigation

Since the most popular way to get around is by picking topics (previously known as categories), we’ve made that easier. You can use the pull down menu in the top navigation bar to go directly to a topic or sub-topic. You will also notice a topics “handle” that follows you down the page on the right margin. If you click that it pulls out the topic drawer and lets you pick one.

7. Announcements

We’ve added a little bar below the navigation to make announcements or notify you of special events, guests, etc. For example, the first announcement will be a link to this blog post.

Thanks

There are other minor enhancements and fixes but that covers the big ones and you probably threw in the towel half way through anyway. If you made it to here, thanks for listening, thanks for your feedback and thanks for making Questionland great for all of us.

If you have feedback on this iteration, I’ll put a question up for you to answer on Questionland.

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Questionland Redesign Preview

The All New Questionland Portland

An Update on Questionland 4Q11

Filtering Content: “Family” & Reputation.

I can tell you what we were trying to accomplish and you can tell me whether we have succeeded and, of course, offer your comments and suggestions.

The Primary Goals

1. Following People, Questions and Topics

This is a fundamental feature that has been requested for some time. Now you can follow people and be notified of their contributions when they happen. You can also follow questions you are interested in and be notified as the answers come in.

2. More Accessible Aesthetic

I know that those of you who are long time members of Questionland have generally liked our somewhat quirky (ye olde rural rustic) design aesthetic and have befriended the Mushroom and the Gnome. But we have found that it is off-putting for first-time visitors, does not convey the locale well enough, and does not do justice to the quality of your contributions. In short, it seems a bit “jokey” and so we have tried to make it a little more legitimate feeling while, we hope, still keeping it fun (see “rotating banners” below). The Mushroom will still be awarded for the best answers. As the Gnome likes to say: “We’ve been moved from the front office to the back office”.

3. Showcasing Content and People

We have such great people on Questionland and they provide such great insights and answers about life in Seattle. We didn’t do a great job of showcasing those people before so we’ve improved that.

4. Voting

You can no longer vote a question up or down, instead you can either follow it or not. There was very little voting on questions anyway and it was not a good indicator of interest in a question. Now you will be able to view questions not just by recency, but by “most followed” as well.

We are still in the midst of a discussion about whether we should get rid of voting things down. Overall it seems to rarely used by our best members and can be a very negative experience for people who are just trying to help. The one concrete thing down-votes provide is a way to filter out bad contributors. But they are so rare that normal moderation will probably suffice. Your opinion would be appreciated.

5. Rotating Banners & The Questionland Logo

Questionland is defined by its community and the city it is in. So rather than take the traditional “branding/logo” route, we decided to do something different. We thought we’d ask you (and ourselves) to take pictures from around the city and integrate “Questionland Seattle” into the picture. “Questionland Seattle” can be integrated into a bus sign, a street sign or can mimic a well known logo from around town.

The photographer/author will be credited and we’ll include a link for more details on the photo and photographer as well as a brief summary of when and where it was taken. The specifications for the picture are that it needs to be very wide and very short (1200+ px wide and 150px *exactly*tall). Send your submissions to banners@questionland.com.

If you have a great picture that you would like us to use and have a good idea of how to integrate the logo, but have no idea how to do it… ideally ask a friend, but if all else fails submit it to us and tell us your idea and we’ll see if we can do it.

Preview Gallery

Question

People

Profile

Browse Topics

Tooltips

Your Feedback

Foisting a new site design on a great community of people who make Questionland such a useful and civilized place to learn about Seattle is a mixed blessing. We like making it better and adding things you have asked for but are loathe to redecorate the place we all inhabit without the input of our co-inhabitants. Unfortunately, a significant redesign requires that much of the work be done (and re-done many times) behind the curtain and directed by us.

But now that we have something that we think makes sense we wanted to give you a preview and get your feedback to see how close we came to our objectives and whether you think those were the right objectives to begin with. So we would appreciate your comments on this post to tell us what you think or you can add your feedback here.

Thanks for making Questionland great and for being so helpful to the community.

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Questionland 4Q11

The All New Questionland Portland

Filtering Content: “Family” & Reputation.

An Update on Questionland 4Q11

c/o Oregon State Horticulture

As if potential pesticides weren’t enough, now Tracy M (and @sgnp) have raised the issue of Blackberry bugs: White wormy things in the blackberries this year?

As usual, it’s Master Gardener Andrea to the rescue. First thing to know is that those white things are probably Spotted Wing Drosophila (SWD), but there are other beasties too: Raspberry Crown Borer and Raspberry Mite – and yes, they are named after raspberries but are not exclusive in their tastes. You can find your buggy visitor here at WSU Hortense.

What To Do?

So, what to do if you see berries with SWD?  Do not compost it. Instead, destroy infested fruit by burying it 18″ deep, crushing, or bagging and discarding in the garbage. The reason MG Andrea is so extreme is that these buggers can destroy a lot of different fruit. But what if I want to pop that baby in my pie/mouth? Best to pick and dump, just use the good ones.

Of course you might want to debug them before your proceed. You could wash them in saline (note: MG Andrea is not recommending this) and when they float to the top whisk them off and dispose. It’s worth knowing that you may not get them all and that salt doesn’t kill nasty stuff. So it’s not a cure-all. Oh, and wash the fruit afterwards or it might be a tad salty.

Don’t let a bug ruin your day. Just be picky.

Contribute

If you have something to add then please do, or just make a comment on the blog. As usual, if you have any question about life in Seattle (where to get some special food, good things to do with the kids, what book to read next, you get the idea) then ask it and the community and local experts will help out.

To get daily updates, follow the Question Feed on Twitter (or The Blog on Twitter) or Like Us on Facebook and you’ll get updates in your FB feed once a day (well, weekdays anyway, most weekdays for sure).

You may also like:

Blackberries in Seattle: Pesticide Poisoned or Not?

The Drivers Guide to Seattle: Part 1 – What to Keep in Your Car

Ask A Local Garden Expert: Drip Irrigation

Eco-Carpet Cleaning (What a Bird Can Tell You About Modern Cleaning Products).

If that weren’t motivation enough, we are now increasingly a city of vegetable gardeners as well and the fall is an easier time to have a veggie garden than the summer: fewer pests, less maintenance. Finally, the most ambitious and space-rich among us keep chickens and get fresh eggs from their “garden”.

But even experienced gardeners  have questions: what’s the best native species to plant, how to deal with disease and pests (w/out chemicals), what to plant where, and where to get what you want. Rather than turning to a one-size-fits-all guide, it makes more sense to ask an actual guide and get the answer to your specific question (or read the answers other locals have asked).

Questionland has the experts to answer any and all your questions, so ask them now.

Other Resources:

• King County Master Gardener Foundation
• Seattle Tilth
• P-Patch Community Gardens
• Northwest Horticultural Society
• City People’s Garden Store

You may also like:

Ask A Local Garden Expert: Drip Irrigation

Organic Gardening: Battle of The Bugs

Urban Gardening & Earthquakes

Blackberries in Seattle: Pesticide Poisoned or Not?

As usual, Master Gardener Andrea (we love her) came up with the answer, to the extent that there is an all-encompassing answer:

This is an excellent question as August is often prime blackberry picking time.

Here is the official position of the King County Noxious Weeds Board: “Legal status in King County: Himalayan blackberry and evergreen blackberry are Class C noxious weeds (non‐native species that can be designated for control based on local priorities) according to Washington State Noxious Weed Law, RCW 17.10. The State Weed Board has not designated these species for control in King County. The King County Weed Control Board recommends control of these species where feasible, but does not require it.”

King Co goes on to clarify what they mean by control: “. . . digging, mowing, herbicide, plowing, and/or livestock grazing (especially goats). Removeal of top growth by mowng, cutting or grazing goats will eventually kill blackberry if done regularly and over several years. . . . Blackberry can be controlled with herbicides, but product labels should be followed carefully–different products need to be used at different times and may pose risks to the use and the environment.”

It is impossible to know whether the roadside bushes have not been sprayed whether to erradicate blackberry bushes or some other undesirable plant by a property owner. It’s always wise to be cautious and to carefully wash any picked berries.

I recommend contacting the King Co Noxious Weed Control Program for an update on their current position, tele. (206) 296-0290.

On a brighter note: Luckily for us, there are blackberry bushes available to plant in the Pacific Northwest that are not considered Noxious Weeds. If you have the space to plant, an excellent resource is Raintree Nursery located in Morton, Washington.

The bottom line? If you are eating them, wash them beforehand if you got them on private property. You are probably fine on public property, but better to wash them for good measure.

Other Resources

• Fresh Picked Seattle: Plant of the Day Aug 22 2011 – Himalayan Blackberry
• King County Noxious Weed Report on Blackberries
• Bremerton Blackberry Festival on Labor Day Weekend

Disambiguation: The Blackberry Bushes Stringband is a local band that is also quite sweet. Blackberry is also a phone once as addictive as the fruit, now a little past it’s sell-by-date.

Contribute

If you have something to add then please do, or just make a comment on the blog. As usual, if you have any question about life in Seattle (where to get some special food, good things to do with the kids, what book to read next, you get the idea) then ask it and the community and local experts will help out.

To get daily updates, follow the Question Feed on Twitter (or The Blog on Twitter) or Like Us on Facebook and you’ll get updates in your FB feed once a day (well, weekdays anyway, most weekdays for sure).

You may also like:

Blackberry Bugs in Seattle

The Guides to Gardening in Seattle

A Quick Guide to Foreclosures in Seattle & King County

Eco-Carpet Cleaning (What a Bird Can Tell You About Modern Cleaning Products).

So here is what the Questionland community suggested in response to infernactual‘s question: “What are the 5 things a Seattlite should have in his/her car?“. I’ve organized it around Seattlesque issues.

1. Dealing With Traffic

If you are a Seattle commuter you know that traffic can range from a bridge that is up to a highway that is a parking lot to a ferry that is full or late. Here’s the necessities to cope:

• Traffic Information:  “Radio with a preset button tuned to KOMO 1000 AM. They have the best traffic information, every 10 minutes on the 4′s. If you don’t have an AM Radio, follow @KOMOradio on twitter.“
• Football or Frisbee: “I’ve played football in the middle of Interstate 90 on top of Snoqualmie Pass with strangers when they closed it for cleanup after a spring avalanche in April. I’ve played frisbee and football at the ferry dock a million times too. You know how it is with the ferries, ‘Leaves Seattle at half past ten, gets to the other side GOD KNOWS WHEN.‘”
• Music & Entertainment: Dozens of uncased CDs; A well-stocked iPod; Yo-yo, cricket ball, and psychic paper. Tangled rat-king of mobile device and iPad chargers.
• Hi-tech insulated travel mug from REI or REI Double Shot Press Mug.
• Snacks: I keep a huge bag of Twizzlers in my glove compartment (but that’s not very Seattle, Clif bars were a suggestion that sounds more appropriate). Also a  Bottle Opener because we’re beer snobs and nothing worth drinking is twist off.

2. Dealing With the Climate

• 

  Mannequin at Eyes on Fremont

  Sun Glasses because we are blind mole people. (Quick fact: Seattleites buy more sunglasses per capita than any other U.S. city. My theory: we use them so rarely that we lose them). Sun Shade is a good idea too.

• A Spare Hoodie for those days that start out nice but just don’t stay that way
• LED Flashlight: for when it gets dark at 4pm.
• Gore-tex rain gear (breathable waders optional for north suburbs)
• Fedora and Utilikilt (very Seattle); Umbrella (not very Seattle)
• A Microfiber Cloth: to clean your glasses and smartphone when getting in from the rain

3. For Emergencies

An emergency kit (or as soundslikepuget likes to call it an “Oh Shit Kit“) is a must in any city, spot the ones that are “only in Seattle”.

• Jumper Cables (because I leave my lights on all the time)
• Anti-mildew wipes
• AAA Card or number for reliable towing service.
• Starbucks (gift) Card and/or card from your favorite coffee shop.
• Window Scraper/Squeegee because you will be glad you have it on that one day you actually need it every year or two.
• A pair of shoes you can actually walk in: Whether it’s breakdown or a road-shattering earthquake, there may come a time when you’ll care less about looking fashionable and more about just getting somewhere.
• Tire Chains: if you find yourself crossing the cascade curtain regularly or maybe live at the top of Queen Anne.
• A pair of work/utility gloves: your fingers will thank you when you change a flat tire in the cold rain.
• Fire extinguisher, First-Aid Kit, Reflective sign, Glass breaker (in case you drive into one of our many bodies of water).

4. Things You Kick Yourself for Not Having on Hand

• Reusable shopping bags in the PASSENGER SEAT where you will not forget them AGAIN, goddammit.
• An outdoor blanket: surprisingly useful to keep around for the spur of the moment day/eve in the park.
• A Twenty Dollar Bill: stash it somewhere and only use it in emergencies. Replace it after you use it. I keep mine in the owners manual (don’t tell anyone).

5. Mom (and Dad, this is Seattle!) Essentials

• Wet wipes (also useful for adults)
• Spare clothing (surprisingly useful for adults too)
• Granola bars or dried fruit for an emergency snack
• An extra baby carrier and a stroller.
• Folding chair to watch the obligatory soccer games.

6. Avoiding Tickets

• A ton of change because half the meters don’t like the cards they say they are gonna accept.
• Paperwork: Proof of insurance and signed registration form.
• Garbage bag So you are not tempted to litter, not that you would be (did you know legally you are required to have one in the car? I didn’t.)

7. Undesirable Things (that most of us always have on hand)

• Mound of old newspapers
• Food wrappers filling back seat
• Empty plastic bottles that we intend to recycle
• Child food and toy debris
• Mold

You’ll have to pick the five that are most important to you, or to paraphrase Roy Scheider: “you’re going to need a bigger car”.

Acknowledgements

The Questionland Community as usual compiled this list and I added a little thing of my own here and there. So thanks to: soundslikepuget, sublevelthree, marymc, Fnarf, Sacrelicious, protosaurus, Black Beetles in Amber, agness, The Doctor.

Contribute

If you think we missed something and have something to add then please do, or just make a comment on the blog. As usual, if you have any question about life in Seattle (where to get some special food, good things to do with the kids, what book to read next, you get the idea) then ask it and the community and local experts will help out.

To get daily updates, follow the Question Feed on Twitter (or The Blog on Twitter) or Like Us on Facebook and you’ll get updates in your FB feed once a day.

You may also like:

Blackberry Bugs in Seattle

The Tasty Guide to Doughnuts in Seattle

Blackberries in Seattle: Pesticide Poisoned or Not?

I Bet You Don’t Know Queen Anne

Old Fashioned at Top Pot

Who doesn’t love a a donut? Even in these health conscious times it’s hard to resist the call of this quintessential American snack. American? Yes, because I’m not referring to Frechified (yet also delicious) beignet.

Everyone has their own idea of what makes the perfect doughnut. For example, some people rave about Maple Bars and to me that ain’t no donut. But everyone can agree that there is little that compares with a donut that is hot off the presses. Krispy Kreme would be the size of a gas station if it weren’t for making them hot – that one “ingredient” turned them into a donutuopoly (with Dunkin’s of course). But we’re talking local, quality donuts here, not the manufactured kind. So here we go…

The Finalists

The top three doughnut places in Seattle are:

1. The Daily Dozen Donut Co.

If you want a dozen of these you’ll have to go to THE Market because, unlike the others on this list, they aren’t a franchise. Their key to success is that they are warm/hot. They have 4 kinds and serve them in a paper bag. Basic and arguably exactly what a donut should be.

• Pike Place Market: 93 Pike St # 7, Seattle, WA 98101 (206) 467-7769 ‎

2. Top Pot Hand-Forged Donuts

The Seattle Institution. You can get them at multiple franchises and many cafes, including Starbucks which means you can get them anywhere in the country now.

• Capitol Hill: 609 Summit Ave E (206) 323-7841
• Downtown: 2124 5th Ave (206) 728-1966
• Wedgwood: 6855 35th Ave NE 206-525-1966
• see all

3. Mighty-O Donut

Mighty-O has quite a few things going for them. They are truly the Seattle version of a donut: they are organic and they are vegan. Incredible in the world of doughnuts. They are also widely available in cafes throughout the city. And if that weren’t enough, they have a donut carousel on their web site that is a must-see.

• Wallingford: 2110 N 55th St  (206) 547-0335

The Must Try

1. Street Donuts

•  Downtown: Donut Truck on Pike between 2nd and 3rd.
  

  Street Donuts

Adding to our ever growing street food scene is a relatively new donut truck that seems to be getting it all right. If you want to be salivating (and I’m not kidding) then read Andie Mitchell’s review on Can You Stay for Dinner. They are served hot and they have the classic cinnamon as well as some Seattlesque versions like cardamom and ginger.

2. Dahlia Lounge & Dahlia Bakery

Here’s another served hot in a bag version of the mini donut but with that Tom Douglas flair. Unlike many of the hyped chef’s in Seattle this guy delivers. The donuts here have been an ongoing favorite and well worth a try.

• Belltown: 2001 4th Avenue (206) 682-4142

The Other Options

Ly Donut Co. 4336 Roosevelt Way NE  (Roosevelt and 45th) in the U district. In addition to having delicious donuts, Ly’s is great because it’s open 24 hours a day.

Family Donut, on Northgate Way just west of the freeway. They do twists and crullers along with the standards, and are much lighter and less greasy than Top Pot’s.

White Center: Golden House 9823 15th Ave SW (206) 767-7358

Michou (in the Market near the original starbucks) makes a really really great tunisian bomboloni. Crispy on the outside, dense and chewy on the inside, sprinkled with sugar. It’s a thinkin’ man’s doughnut for when a man wants to think happy thoughts.

Bellingham: Lafeens Family Pride Donuts

The Place Not To Go

I am doing the bidding of the community by saying that Krispy Kreme was roundly down-voted and rejected (only one person liked them). Personally, I’m not that fussy (anyone who knows me now has a WTF-look on their face) ABOUT donuts. If they are sugary and warm, I’m in.

Acknowledgements

The Questionland Community as usual compiled this list and I added a little thing of my own here and there. So thanks to: Lilting Missive, bigadventures, Kiki Minx, alight, datajunkie, Jessica Baxter, Sphinx, Maddy Toft, Thomas Marshall, Andrew Beck, Rev.Enant, gnarly, Care Bear.

Contribute

If you think we missed one and have something to add then please do, or just make a comment on the blog. As usual, if you have any question about life in Seattle (where to get some special food, good things to do with the kids, what book to read next, you get the idea) then ask it and the community and local experts will help out.

To get daily updates, follow the Question Feed on Twitter (or The Blog on Twitter) or Like Us on Facebook and you’ll get updates in your FB feed once a day.

You may also like:

Blackberry Bugs in Seattle

The Drivers Guide to Seattle: Part 1 – What to Keep in Your Car

Questionland’s New Partners

Blackberries in Seattle: Pesticide Poisoned or Not?

I asked the Questionland community to help us out with some of the local vernacular because it’s good to bond with with indigenous people:

City & Neighborhood Names

Let’s start with Seattle itself, locally referred to as: Jet City, The Queen City, SeaTown, The Emerald City, The Grey Lady, Rain City and (historically) The Gateway to Alaska.

But as any Seattleite will tell you, Seattle is a city of neighborhoods each with its own character and characters. Neighborhood nicknames most often are derisive of that character.

Snoose Junction is a common name for Ballard. HoneyBadger helped us out with an a great story explaining its origin: “Well, according to my Mom, Snoose is “Scandahoovian” for snuf (pinching/sniffing tobacco). Back in the day when Ballard was populated with crabbers and fishermen who did not have reality TV gigs the neighborhood was a little rougher. This is back at least to the 50′s when there were daily brawls at the Lock Spot (often started by my Grandfather). Snoose Junction was the name of the bluest collar area of Ballard. Mom always said that when she married my Dad she was given a can of “snoose” on a string to wear around her neck – as a passport to get in and out of Ballard.”

The area between Ballard and Fremont is Frelard. Fremont has many names: The Republic of Fremont (liberal and the statue of Lenin), Center of The Universe (they like to say), Little Thailand (because of all the Thai Restaurants). The area at the bottom of the northern slope of Queen Anne is Queemont.

The Gayborhood is of course Capitol Hill (once known as The Swish Alps) and the Cal Anderson area is Hipster Hill while the I-5 Shores is the newer name for melrose-through-harvard section of west Capitol Hill. Neighboring First Hill is of course Pill Hill.

The Seedy is the Central District and The Old Blue Note is the area around 23rd and Jackson. The area around MLK and Cherry is called Little Ethiopia (lots of Ethiopian Restaurants). Crown Hill is Crown Royal Hill. The Denny Regrade seems to be disappearing. Another oldie is the area between south Lake Union and downtown which used to be called Old Cascade. Interbay is The Dump. Beacon hill was known as Bear Hill (very old one). Rogitator refers Maple Leaf as Little Canada and Northgate as the The Ninth Gate

Union Bay - Seattle Municipal Archives.

Soundslikepuget told the story of “Union Bay, near Husky Stadium, on Lake Washington is Garbage Bay to sailors and fishermen. Years ago, it was Seattle’s garbage dump. Metro cleaned up Lake Washington a long time ago, but the name is still alive among the nautically inclined. In case you didn’t know, Metro was created to clean up toxic Lake Washington, they succeeded, and expanded into transit and other areas. (More on that here. But boaters still call it “Garbage Bay”.

Moving further afield, people who are from or live on or near Highway 99 are known as Ninety-niners. Bothell is unkindly referred to as Bot-Hell or Brothel. Although the most derision is save for Bellevue which has accumulated a bevy of slurs: Blahvue, Bellvoid, New Jersey, Billville (after Bill Gates) among them. To the east, the Crossroads neighborhood of Bellevue is sometimes called Immigration Station due to the vast ethnic diversity in the middle of a lily-white town. Then there is Spokane which is the bigoted refer to as Spokanistan or Spocompton or Spokaloo.

To the south, that awful smell in Tacoma is the Aroma of Tacoma and Tacoma is often Tacomaroma as a result. Skiing at Snoqualmie Pass is Snow-Crumby because the snow there is terrible. And Alpental is Alpen-Small, for obvious reasons.

Also from soundslikepuget: Anacortes is an ancient Native American word that means “Waiting for the Ferry.” Yakima is Yaki-vegas. Ellensburg is Eburg. Bellingham is Bham and Bellingham residents are “Hamsters” (Short for Bellinghhamsters). Pullman is Pullmanastan. Port Angeles is PA. Olympia is OlyWA. Wenatchee is Wet-Snatchee and Walla Walla is often written “Walla²“.

Chez Richard: Commonly known as Dick’s. Pronounced here with a French accent (mais bien sure) as in Reesharde. This will be widely adopted thanks to Christina L. Also known as Richards on Broadway by Tracy M‘s dad who used to treat them to a luxurious meal at this Seattle icon. Another twist: White Dick’s (Wallingford), Black Dick’s (Capitol Hill).

Starbucks unfortunately may be referred to as Charbucks due to having forgotten about coffee to focus on snacks (since returned to their roots). Group Health Cooperative is “Group Death”. Boeing is The Lazy B. There used to be a bar on Pike called “The Brass Connection” which I heard someone refer to as “The Ass Infection“. The Seattle Times is “Brand X.” So-called by Seattle writer Emmett Watson when he moved to the P-I and wanted to take a jab at his former paper. We used to call SeaTac airport “Se

aCrap” but It’s come a long way, baby. It’s now actually a nice airport, so file that one away in the history section. Puget Consumer’s Co-op (PCC) is “The Hippy Dip”.

The box the space needle came in is old Seafirst tower. The building the beaver gnawed which is what we called the Rainier Bank Tower. The SHOE – the old washington shoe bldg and the lofts that used to be there, as in ‘I got a rathole of a studio in The SHOE’! The Weedle is the little critter that sits atop the space needle blinking his red nose.

Schools

Soundslikepuget: provides a list of school nicknames:

Rainier Beach High School is “Beach.”
Holy Names Academy is “Holy Dames” (all girls)
O’Dea is “Oh, Gay” (all boys)
Seattle Pacific University is “Spew”

The People

Ave Rats are the punk kids in u-district. Homely Dames sorry, catholic girls. Alkies are drunk people on west seattle beaches. Girls from Bremerton are called Bremelos. Freikja calls anyone from Fremont a Fremonster.

The Stuff

Latte - Although not invented in Seattle, the Latte (which means a glass of milk in Italy) was popularized by the coffee explosion and Starbucks in particular in the 1980′s in Seattle.

Clam Gun – a curved trench shovel.

Rusting – tanning.

Tips to Avoid the n00b Linguistic Faux Pas

The downtown market is Pike Place Market or THE Market but not Pike’s Market.

That freeway that runs through town? It’s “I-5.” Pronounced “Eye Five.” It is most assuredly NOT “The Five” nor is it “The I-5.” Just “I-5″ thank you. (soundslikepuget).

Acknowledgements

Thanks to all the great contributors for compiling this list: soundslikepuget, lilmonster206, Sacrelicious, michiko swiggs, Emily Steed, Christina L, Tracy M, Tom, freikja, HoneyBadger, sublevelthree, RacerX, Geni, Marty Unger, rogitator, pattypaxton.

Seattle Resources:

For more on Seattle Lexicon you should check out http://callihan.com/seattle/

For great old pictures try The Seattle Municipal Archive and Vintage Seattle.

Adding to The Lexicon

We are always looking for more, so please add your Seattle vernacular on Questionland or in the comments.

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This novel has had many lives. It was issued first in 1968 in serialized form in The Saturday Evening Post. In 1969 John Wayne won an Academy Award for Best Actor in the movie version. In 2010 the Coen Brothers re-made the movie with Jeff Bridges playing Rooster Cogburn and it was nominated for 10 Academy Awards. In 2010 the book was republished and reached the New York Times Bestseller list in 2011.

As with most novels that started life as serialized in a magazine, this is a gripping read that you will tear through. There are still copies at The Seattle Public Library and it will be on sale (20% off!) at Elliot Bay. So get yours, get reading and join us online and in-person (time and place TBA) for a True Grit Q&A.

As always, if you are looking for a book recommendation, try BookMatch on Questionland. You tell the experts/community what you feel like reading, what kind of books you like, even what you are NOT in the mood for and they tell you what to read next.

Hope you’ll be joining us for the discussion.

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