Our Renton backyard mustang gets his hoofs trimmed every two months. We don’t need to put shoes on him most of the time, because he was a wild-born horse. As a product of natural selection, he ran up to 50 miles a day in the desert without shoes the first ten years of his life.

Also, Renton’s soft wet ground is pretty easy on horses that don’t spend too much time on streets.

But Zeus seems to enjoy his trims, as you can see from this photo. And the farriers (hoof care specialists) all seem to like him.

After teasing that he was going to invite Councilman King Parker up to the microphone to sing us some tunes instead of flipping on the lights, Mayor Denis Law, joined by children, lead that crowd in the Ivars clam lights countdown last night. At the end of the countdown …after a brief pause… hundreds of thousands of lights illuminated the darkness over Coulon Park.

Within minutes, a flotilla of sparkling holiday ships from the Rainier Yacht club paraded by the docks of the park. Docks and ships were both covered with spectators.

Carolers sang in the main picnic shelter around a cozy fire, and visitors embarked on horse-drawn carriage rides. It was a perfect night at the park.

It was also a fun venue for snapping pictures of friends and lights.

Mayor Denis Law leads the countdown to turn on the lights

Why does it seem like our state always has more trouble than the other 49 in dealing with holiday displays? A year or two ago things went crazy at the airport, with the “holiday trees” doing the hokey-pokey (in, then out, then in), and this year we are being nationally ridiculed because of an atheist’s sign criticizing religion right next to the “holiday tree” (and right where we have placed a “holiday nine-branched candelabrum” in past years). Here is the story .

Isn’t there some other way to better manage all this? Maybe we should agree that the atheists (or secular humanists, or whatever the correct term is) can put their display in the capitol building on the summer solstice, and let people of Christian and Jewish faith use the display space on the end of December.

Do we need to become the nation’s laughing stock every holiday season? I’m sure we could be handling this better.

The Seattle Times published a story today about a man held on suspected child-abuse charges. The abuse incident may have occurred in Renton, Kent or Seattle, and our police are involved in investigating. Mayor Law filled us in on this yesterday.

—–Original Message—–
From: Denis Law [mailto:DLaw@ci.renton.wa.us]
Sent: Monday, December 01, 2008 3:51 PM
To: Don Persson; Greg Taylor; King Parker; Marcie Palmer; Randy Corman; Rich Zwicker; Terri Briere

Subject: Child abuse

Dear Council Members,

You may hear some item on the news involving the assault of a 2-year-old in the Renton Highlands. The youngster was first brought to Valley Medical Center by his mother and transferred to Harborview’s Pediatric Intensive Care Unit in very critical condition.

According to medical personnel, the child was suffering with severe bruising, trauma and a possible head injury in addition to other injuries. Police suspect that the victim was assaulted on multiple occasions and have the mother’s boyfriend in custody for investigation. Police are unsure where the assaults took place and are looking at locations in the Highlands, Kent and Seattle. The prognosis for the child is very poor. We’ll let you know as we learn of new details.

Denis

Thanksgiving Day marked the 30th anniversary of an almost unbelievable tragedy at San Fransisco City Hall that I remember well from growing up in the Bay Area. I was sixteen years old at the time, and was already a follower of local politics, so this tragedy shocked me while it unfolded.

For those less familiar with the case, a City Councilman (called City Supervisor in San Fransisco) resigned his seat, but then changed his mind. When the Mayor would not reappoint him to his position, he snuck into City Hall through a window, carrying a gun, and went to the Mayor’s office. There, he shot and killed the very popular Mayor Moscone, and then sought out Supervisor (Councilman) Harvey Milk. He then shot and killed Harvey Milk, the city’s first openly-gay councilman.

Later, the killer councilman used a bizarre but successful diminished capacity defense, claiming that too much sugar made him incapable of premeditation and not responsible for his own actions. This was in spite of having slipped through a window with a gun to avoid detection, and prosecutors showing other evidence of premeditation. The killer, named Dan White, got a 7 year sentence, and was paroled in five; but after his release he killed himself in the shame and guilt of it all.

I remember the council in my own suburban bay-area town of Livermore getting jumpy and calling for security in the aftermath of the San Fransisco tragedy when it became apparent that a Livermore councilman had a gun present at a council meeting. It turned out later that he had a right to carry a concealed weapon, but under the circumstances it became an issue for a while.

I also remember when San Fransisco named it’s new Convention Center in honor of the fallen Mayer Moscone. It was a fitting tribute to a popular mayor assassinated at his prime.

However, at the unveiling of an entrance statue in honor of the mayor, the public and critics were aghast that the artist included blazing guns, Twinkies, death images, and other reminders of the tragedy in the pedestal that the mayor’s bust sat upon. This pedestal was removed and replaced, and probably sits in storage somewhere.

This website has a good narative on the tragedy, along with pictures, that illustrate the drama and surface the emotions that Bay Area residents felt thirty years ago.

I was sad to read this news. Mr. Elliot had a very unique and creative style, and brightened many people’s lives with his reflector art. He died too young, from cancer. Here is a picture I took at his home (top), and a shot Gary Palmer captured of the art on our parking garage.

Richard Elliot lived in an attractive an popular house, with this funky garden art, in downtown Ellensburg

He designed and installed our tallest piece of public artwork three years ago on the parking garage

Ellensburg artist dies

Artist Richard Elliott, who created large installations that featured reflectors, died on Nov. 19 of pancreatic cancer.
ELLENSBURG, Wash. —

Artist Richard Elliott, who created large installations that featured reflectors, died on Nov. 19 of pancreatic cancer.

Elliott, 63, and his wife, artist Jane Orleman, turned their home into Dick and Jane’s Spot, a lavishly decorated piece of street art.

Elliott patented his process of making art with reflectors. He did works for New York Transit System, Minneapolis’ light-rail system, the University of Washington’s Henry Art Gallery, the Ellensburg Public Library and the SunDome in Yakima. A work for Sound Transit in Seattle was honored by Americans for the Arts as one of the outstanding public artworks for 2007.

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Information from: Daily Record, http://www.kvnews.com