The Emerald City

What up world,

I received an email from my older sister yesterday, criticizing my last post. She lives in Seattle, and objected to my use of the phrase, "miserable Seattle". I did not mean for the adjective "miserable" to be used in describing the city itself, but rather the season that the Mariners are having. They have the worst record in the American League and trail the Angels by 27 games in their division. 27 games? Awful. Yet they were still able to take two from my Twins this week in a series of gross defensive games.
There are so many other words that I would use to describe Seattle other than miserable. Beautiful, rainy, cold, unique, caffeinated, etc. I have actually been to Seattle several times throughout my life and have always enjoyed my experience there. But, in an effort to make it up to my sister and the city, I decided to learn a little bit more about the Jewel of the Northwest.

Seattle has been inhabited for over 4,000 years. The first European settlers, the Denny Party, arrived in 1851 at Alki point and the city has been partying ever since. The Denny Party is also commonly credited for starting the Denny's restaurant chain on the west coast in the 1950's. Denny's restaurants are known for always being open and for their Grand Slam breakfasts. Raul Ibanez of the Mariners dined at a Denny's at 4 am on Monday morning, which led to a grand slam of his own Monday night as part of his ridiculous 6 RBI 7th inning. Damn you Denny Party.

Seattle's nickname is "The Emerald City". This moniker was given to the city through a contest in the mid 1980's. Prior to that, Seattle was known as "The Queen City", describing the large number of drag queens that reside there. There are several informal nicknames that are used for Seattle as well. These include "Gateway to Alaska", "Rain City", "Coffee Town", and "Jet City". The latter of these refers to the migration of a gang (The Jets) from west-side New York City to Seattle after feuding with a rival gang got out of control in the late 1950's.

Seattle is responsible for the "grunge" rock movement of the 1990's. The city gave us wonderful music from Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, Mudhoney, Temple of the Dog, The Melvins among others. This caused my personal transformation from side-part, heavy hair-spraying, silk-shirt, and tight-roll jeans to butt cut, long hair, flannels, and ripped jeans. F the system man! The popularity of the music led to serious over-exposure and eventual grunge fallout in the late 1990's and early 2000's. So while grunge gave us wonderful music for a while, it also led to 3 Doors Down, Creed, and Nickleback. Ughhhhhh, disgusting.

The city is home to many brands the are recognized worldwide, including Starbucks and Microsoft. According to a US Census Bureau study in 2004, Seattle is the most educated city in America, with 48.8 percent of people 25 years and older having a bachelor degree. It was the most literate city in the US for 2005 and 2006. However, things started looking a bit worse in 2007 when it placed second. The most literate city of that year? Minneapolis biatches. Suck it Seattle.

-Sota