Recruiting out-of-state athletes to WSU is not an easy task, but it was one at which George Raveling excelled. I once asked the former Cougar hoops coach how he managed to overcome the handicaps of wintry weather and isolation when he made a recruiting raid on a city like Chicago.

Rick Steves is a former Edmonds piano teacher, an enormously successful travel writer, lecturer and tour leader but if you mention his name in a crowd of 10 or more somebody will comment: "Isn't he 'The Pot Guy?"

I don't hang around the Edmonds Municipal Court, but if I did I would probably never hear Judge Douglas Fair tell a defendant: "They didn't put me up here because I'm young and gorgeous. I'm here because I'm smart."

Spend a career in the newspaper business and you meet the rich and the poor, semi-saints and incorrigible crooks, the famous and the infamous. I was allowed to converse briefly with Eleanor Roosevelt. I was lectured endlessly by Muhammad Ali. I had a quick chat with Henry Kissinger and lengthy conversations with Ted Williams, Jesse Owens, Bear Bryant, Joe DiMaggio and Jake "Raging Bull" LaMotta.

Eric Kaminetzky is still relatively new to this area, installed and ordained as minister of Edmonds Unitarian Church less than a year ago. But he knows how to follow traffic and that's what he was doing early in the Christmas shopping season.

I swear I can smell a pot roast from two blocks away. I can also discern when there is not a pot roast cooking two blocks away. I've been sniffing the air up and down Main Street and I think I detect the essence of Irish whiskey, which is no duplicate for pot roast but could satisfactorily round out the meal.

"Some newcomers to the area like to compare Edmonds with one of the more pleasant small coastal towns in California like La Jolla, Carmel, Sausalito among them. Similarities exist there, but Edmonds thus far has been able to resist an overdose of cuteness that has plagued other popular Northwest towns and small cities whose charm is as much a problem as a blessing because it attracts so many people who want to "change" or "improve" it.

Longtime residents of Edmonds and environs will recall that when they drove to Seattle in the pre-freeway era, they almost always passed a landmark that evoked an exclamation from everybody in the car. "Hey, there are the Twin Tepees."

If you believe what you read in the daily newspapers, Husky football fans are misty eyed over the demolition of Husky Stadium. Take another look at those eyes. They're not misty, they're bloodshot.

Has it come and gone? Did I miss the election completely? Dang me. I wanted to introduce an initiative or referendum that would have shaken the foundations of our society.

We probably looked "quaint" or "quirky" or "peculiar." We would probably prefer "practical" or "parsimonious" to describe the sight of my wife and me marching down Main Street in mid-morning, pulling our roll-on overnight bags.

Remember that fellow draped in a large sheet, wearing a hockey mask. Bet he almost scared you out of your wits on Halloween night near the fountain. It could have been Bill the Butcher, a mythical figure who reportedly haunts the corner of Fourth and Main.

"While the city needs to spend more wisely it also needs to get serious about economic development to create the tax revenue needed to fund the services our citizens expect," mayoral candidate Dave Earling recently commented. "For example while Dick's Drive-In coming to Edmonds is great, a fast food restaurant on Highway 99 is not an economic development policy." I hope he's not overlooking the french fries.

It was one of the great disappointments of my early childhood. I was digging industriously in my backyard when my big sister decided I needed extra inspiration. " If you dig far enough, you'll come out in China," she revealed.

I think I'm suffering from withdrawal. There will be no Saturday market in Edmonds. I'll miss the berry displays, the Yukon gold potatoes, the cage-free eggs and the late summer greens. And I'll admit it. I will miss the dogs.

You can admire a dozen or more multi-storied houses with million-dollar views above the intersection of 162nd St. SW and 75th Place West. Below that intersection you'll spot a construction site with $3 million views. You own that or at least a part of it if you are an Edmonds taxpayer.

It might have been an offshoot of Obama's Jobs Plan. Or it might have been a mere coincidence. All I can tell you is that I was offered employment without any initiative on my part.

There are a lot of things going on in Edmonds, particularly between Fifth and Sixth on Main Street. You can take home a painting, or appreciate the brilliant murals on both sides of the street.

Political promises are easily made and soon forgotten. But the litmus test I recommend to Edmonds voters before the fall election would be significant, graphic and dramatic. The image of a heroine tied to a railroad track guaranteed box office success in the early days of silent films.

We must have sounded like barbarians at the gate, stamping their feet and blowing rams' horns. Actually we weren't at the front gate. We were at the back door, as in "Europe Through the Back Door" tours from Edmonds. It was several years ago when our guide William led us up to the Font 'D Gaume for a tour of the prehistoric wall paintings.