CITY LIGHTS
By Al Hooper

Its not easy being right all the time. People tend to tune you out. How many times has Yr Obedt Servt urged newcomers to journalism, Love your work. Its the only way youll ever become a pro.

Which earns you a round of eye rolling from the Next Generation who, because theyre 21, already know all there is to know.

Now comes tangible evidence that liking what you do brings fringe benefits. We need look no further than Spokane, where the Dry Fly Distilling Co. bottles and packages its vodka and gin products with volunteers.

The pay scale?
Not one dime.
All the hired help gets at the end of shift is free shots of the products.

Were turning applicants away, says the night foreman. Nobody is ever late for work.

You have to wonder if such creative thinking might find a parallel here in Edmonds By The Sea. No, we dont have any distilleries in city limits at least none that are registered but we have other institutions that could use some outside-the-box thinking.

Next year our South County Senior Center must strive to survive without its usual $60,000 grant from the City of Edmonds. No cash in the city till. But that 60 grand is vital to senior center operations. Any ideas?

And the only reason Yost Pool will open this summer is that private citizens dipped into their jeans for the money needed to keep the ever-popular park in business. Will such rescue missions become an annual necessity? Should they have to?

City Council has been pilloried a lot lately for devoting its time to banning plastic bags in local retail stores while crucial decisions are dangling Nero fiddles while we squirm, one critic carps.

Creative thinking may be the answer. It comes in all flavors, but imminent crisis seems to be the common denominator.

EXAMPLE: When a small Cessna took off from Puyallup airport recently, it soon ran into trouble. How much trouble? The engine died.
The 67-year-old pilot peered at the ground below. It looked awfully hard, even from here.

Then he spotted a storage field of Honey Bucket portable restrooms and headed straight for it. He landed the plane flush on top of the Honey Buckets.

Which cushioned the crash.
Which allowed him to tell the story.

MORAL: Sometimes the solution to a problem might not smell too good, but it can be a real lifesaver.
Outside the box, chillun! O-u-t-side the box!

Were in the Big Time!

Everyone talks about the operational challenges facing Edmonds, but they neglect to say how wonderful we are.
Let us take a moment to etch this sentiment on our collective brow:
Edmonds rocks!

Heres the proof:
On a recent Saturday the entire downtown swung to the inimitable strains of the Edmonds Jazz Connection, brought to you for the past nine years by the Rotary Club of Edmonds Daybreakers.

And that same evening the Edmonds Center For the Arts sat rapt as songstress Ann Hampton Callaway (this years Diana Krall) dazzled us with a voice hitherto showcased by such shrines as the Kennedy Center and Carnegie Hall and Teatre Fortuny in Spain.

What a splendid juxtaposition it was the Edmonds Arts Center and the Edmonds Jazz Connection! How did we get so lucky?

Some good people made it happen. Real people. Your friends and neighbors and a few selected officials.
The Jazz Connection has evolved into a regional treasure because of the unflagging commitment of the Rotary Daybreakers.

And the performance hall we so proudly hail as the arts center was exhumed from among grave markers bearing names like Edmonds High School and the Puget Sound Christian College.

Wed like to mention everyone who contributed to the resurrection of this noble edifice, but we might miss someone important. In which case wed be banned from the premises the next time an artist of the stature of Ann Hampton Callaway comes to town.

In which case, why go on?