HOW FUN IT IS

SEATTLE - Officially, it's the South Lake Union Streetcar. But in the neighborhood where the new line runs, it's called the South Lake Union Trolley - or, the SLUT. At Kapow! Coffee, a shop in the old Cascade neighborhood, 100 T-shirts bearing the words "Ride the SLUT" sold out in days, and another 100 are on order. "We're welcoming the SLUT into the neighborhood," said Jerry Johnson, 29, a part-time barista. Some claim - incorrectly, according to representatives of Vulcan Inc., the company that is developing the area - that South Lake Union Trolley was the original name and that it was changed when officials belatedly realized the acronym. The $50.5 million project should be completed with streetcars running in December. Underlying the lighthearted opposition, however, is resentment over changes in the old working-class neighborhood. "There was a meeting with representatives from the city several years ago," Johnson recalled. "They asked us, 'What we could do for you?' Most people raised their hands and said, 'Affordable housing,'" he said. "Then the people from the city huddled together - 'whisper, whisper, whisper,' - and they said, 'How about a trolley?'" Since then, Cascade has been ignored in Vulcan brochures that lump the neighborhood together with Denny Park and Denny Triangle under the term South Lake Union. With the streetcar, said Don Clifton, a Cascade resident, "We learned how fun it is to change the name of things."

I kinda liked the name....

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Older Than Dirt Quiz

Count all the ones that you remember....not the ones you were told about. ~Blackjack chewing gum ~Wax Coke-shaped bottles with colored sugar water ~Candy cigarettes ~Soda pop machines that dispensed glass bottles ~Coffee shops or diners with tableside juke boxes ~Home milk delivery in glass bottles with cardboard stoppers ~Party lines ~Newsreels before the movie ~P.F. Flyers ~Butch wax ~Telephone numbers with a word prefix (OLive-6933) ~Peashooters ~Howdy Doody ~45 RPM records ~S&H Green Stamps ~Hi-Fi's ~Metal ice trays with lever ~Mimeograph paper ~Blue flashbulbs ~Packards ~Roller skate keys ~Cork popguns ~Drive-in movies ~Studebakers ~Wash tub wringers If you remembered 0-5...You're still young. If you remembered 6-10...You're getting older. If you remembered 11-15...Don't tell your age. If you remembered 16-25...You're OLDER THAN DIRT! If you find you're 'older than dirt'....you have plenty of company.

I can now say with some truthfulness that I am older than dirt. So there. How'd you do?

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Camping is nature's way of promoting the motel business."--- Dave Barry Etc.: A sign to make others believe that you know more than you actually do. Grandfather: A banker provided by nature. Politician: One who shakes your hand before elections and your confidence after.