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I'm not sure how many of you out there still read the Funny Pages, but did you know that Adam@Home creator/cartoonist Brian Basset lives in Queen Anne?

He's quite the Cafe Fiore fan and honored his favorite corner coffee shop staff in Sunday's comic strip. (Click to enlarge.)



Guess who the redhead in the bottom left square is...

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Today I broke two of the Golden Rules of grocery shopping.

  1. I shopped while I was hungry, thus buying way more than I needed.
  2. After grocery shopping I went out to dinner (with The Wives), which defeated the purpose of shopping in the first place.

I wish my grocery shopping experiences were more like this:

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Full disclosure: I really don't like Christine Gregoire. I didn't vote for her in the last election and I won't in this election -- hence the above propaganda, er, "parody."

For one reason, she's increased state spending by $8 billion in four years. That's little more than a 30 percent increase. Compare that to past governors (via The Seattle Times). Can you say, "irresponsible spending?"

My disdain was reinforced today by a Seattle P-I article about how state Democrats have rejected a request by Republicans for inquiry into Gregoire's gambling pacts.

According to the article, "Republicans said they had concerns with 'the appearance of a conflict between the governor's role as both chief negotiator and campaign benefactor.' They asked Democrats to 'immediately convene a bipartisan task force to conduct a fact-finding investigation and answer questions that have been raised.'"

Unlike Washington, at least 20 other states have revenue sharing agreements for tribal gambling, which generate hundreds of millions of dollars for government programs. Gregoire has reversed her position on revenue sharing, which she now opposes, and Washington State remains the only state not to benefit from revenue sharing, according to the article.

Where's the conflict, you ask?

Since 2004, the tribes have contributed more than $650,000 to the state Democratic Party and Gregoire, and, according to a David Postman editorial in The Seattle Times last month, "The Democrats’ filings with the Public Disclosure Commission show $276,000 raised in April. Of that, $250,000 came from the Tulalip Tribes and the Swinomish Tribal Community."

That's significant.

The race for her reelection remains tight, fundraising is ever-important and certainly the timing of Republicans' request is strategic. The latest SurveyUSA poll conducted exclusively for KING-TV in Seattle and KATU-TV in Portland shows Gregoire leading GOP challenger Dino Rossi 49 percent to 46 percent, which is slim considering the survey's 3.9 percentage point margin of sampling error.

My take on the inquiry is that if Gregoire has nothing to hide, it shouldn't be a problem. In fact, an unproductive, enforced inquiry would only embarrass Republicans if Gregoire has acted so responsibly. The request for investigation to an alleged conflict of interest is reasonable.

However, something reeks of inaccountability here. Maybe it's the $8 billion in increased spending. Maybe it's the zero revenue sharing pact and generous donations by benefiting tribes.

Likely both.

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Coming as no surprise, one of the hottest topics on the Seattle P-I right now is sex in public. An article by freelancer Diane Mapes titled "Single Shot: Why do people have sex in public places?"answers the Why, When and Where.

The story cites a 2006 online survey of nearly 80,000 men and women, most of whom were involved in monogamous relationships, that found "22 percent had had sex in some kind of public venue." Really? I thought the number would be higher. Maybe that's just because I went to a four-year university. Hello Wilson Library!

Mapes interviews many who have made naughty in public for the article and anecdotes range from sex in church, public bathrooms, on the beach, at the Space Needle, in limos, at the office, in stairwells, on trains, on cars, at school playgrounds, at Qwest Field, on a plane, etc.

Her bottom line: "Just because the situation is sexualized doesn't mean it can't also be civilized. In other words, lock the bathroom door."

I'm not looking for personal stories here, but, on the flip side, how would you react if you caught a couple in the act? Call the authorities? Give them a thumbs up?