While sorting through my old books I ran across Home Town by Naia McClelland, a book of poems about the Olympia area published in 1969. One poem in particular caught my eye since it mentions the Fetid Lake of Doom (or, if you insist, "Capitol Lake") and makes references to that body of water in the past. Also, note the mention of Deschutes Parkway. It didn't exist when that area was an estuary. I've seen that road rebuilt twice after having been thoroughly mangled in the quakes of 1965 and 2001. Anyway, the poem:

Capitol Lake (to D.J.N.)

I find pure pleasure when I take
A scenic drive around the Lake;
Past Poplars standing sentry tall--
Leaf green in Spring, bright gold in Fall.
(And now, to keep them company, There has appeared the Cherry tree--
Pink floral tree-- a foreign loan
Our Capitol now calls its own ...)
The House of Government looks down
Onto the Harbor and the Town
And mirrors in the Lake's smooth face
A lingering, enrapt embrace.

I can recall the far-back day
This was not Lake-- it was but Bay.
There was no road-- the railroad track
Took log-filled cars to mill and back.
(The tracks still do their work, it's true
But they command a grander view!)
As I think back, we used to like
To walk that way. Our Sunday hike
Would take us on a cindered pass
Grown tall with weeds and knee-high grass.
Quite different, now, the way we take--
Paved smooth and wide past man-made lake ...

An interesting post from the comments of The Olympian:

 "I never worried about homosexuality one way or the other until recent years when it is constantly being pushed in my face. The homosexual activists
caused this uproar by going after our children and trying to make people accept this deviant behaviouur as normal.

When I was a child homosexuality was not even mentioned. I am not sure I even knew what it was.

Now they are teaching about homosexuality to children in grade school.
SpiceM | 08.11.07 - 7:00 am"

Now, I'm betting that this person just told a fib.  I'm 56 years old and can remember homosexuality being discussed in our family by my father who was 36 years older than me.  Unless the person of the above quote is either (1) over 100 years old or (2) incredibly naive as a child, he just told a whopper.

"pushed in my face"???   I don't think I want to ask.

"homosexual activists"???  Is that the opposite of anti-homosexual activists?

"teaching about homosexuality to children in school"???  Well, considering it's part of life, I certainly hope so.  We wouldn't want someone to become an adult and be surprised that people of the same sex love each other.

I wonder what Spice thought it was when he experienced an attraction to a same sex friend as a child (which, according to my high school Bionomics course is common in over 90% of males).

“...Bush doesn’t have the luxury of choosing his friends. There are not very many out there.”

Mr. Bush...was careful not to portray himself as too much of a Francophile.

“No I can’t,” the president said, asked by a journalist if he could say something in French. “I can barely speak English.”

My friends left for a camp-out with their Yoga class!

I was so bummed to be left behind--

any interest in a camp-in?

OlyBloggers could meet at a pre-designated spot and have a camp in-- would that be fun or lame? maybe a camp in around FLOD? >yeah right<

OK, I would expect to find evidence of a fight with raccoons if they were eating cats in my neighborhood, but so far none of that has been found.

..our raccoons are really nice and just roll through, mostly just stopping for a drink of water at our house.

AND we(the oly community) are still losing pets at an alarming rate (1-4) per week...

Ever since Maddy (we still miss you!) disappeared in a very un-characteristic manner last year, I have been paying more attention to the pet scene in my 'hood...that and walking around handing out ENA newsletters also helps to keep up on what is going on in out part of town--

I'm just curious, does anyone have any input?

I did ID one lady in a subaru who traps cats in a live animal trap at the end of our alley...she says she just gets strays, but I'm wondering if there is more to the story (told me she has over 25v cats at here "farm")

So, if the City of Olympia didn't have a police dept, would the sheriff patrol here?

What is the total cost to the community for the OPD?

I'm just concerned that because of fear & doubt the Oly community has become to law enforcement-centric

Idea: have a three city force, that is really an off-shoot of the County, and share costs between cities in the south sound. The OPD is just not a good idea

what is the process? can a citizenry "vote" to change this kind of governance?

Hola eveyone!

I hope that all is going well for folks--

I'd like to hear about what you-all think about this idea:

I think art is cool, and art really gets me going, even street art that may be associated with "gangs" >whatever<

so, has anyone thought of rounding up a list of owners & sites that WANT art on the walls, like in an alley or side of a building--

Make a map and give it to the city and say "these are designated art zones" 

kinda like a City Repair project, but without an interection or a bench (just paint) 

oh, and PS: where is the bad part of town in oly? the barrio as it were? 

Well, it appears as if we're lucky enough to have a very good stencil artist here in Oly. I'll upload photos later today when I can, but in the meantime, I once again recommend folks walk by the Free Wall located behind the Olympia Film Society's Capitol Theater. If there's any guarantee, it's that it'll disappear before too long.

Edit: Sorry about the wait, we had a power outage last night.

What's cookin'? I'm heading down to the market this morning. What are y'all up to this fine day?