Most of my blog posts have to do with local idiosyncrasies and fun stuff like city council decisions. I like to read the rags and see what they think is going on. Basically I am super skeptical of “news” as written in a newspaper or spoken on radio or pie charted on the TeeVees. This is because my youth was spent falling for innumerable hoaxes and half truths. I’m not cured of naiveté and I still fall for stuff because I basically think people try to be honest. Not news people, though.
The problem is when I was a semi youth I witnessed a national news crew manufacture “news” in order to get a dramatic film clip in hopes it would get before the American public at dinner time (1967). That burned me. “News clips” are now forever suspect.
If news film is fake how in the world can we trust what reporters tell us? So I shy away from national news because I know in order to get a job in that strata you need to be a real slick operator. Thus it’s not for me.
Sure, I watch the “news” and digest the gist of what they say is going on. I can listen to speeches and take in a debate or two but I still don’t really care to believe it’s more than half real. It all depends on how the result influences my life. And, I want to say that less than one percent interest on my savings is a tremendous influence and I don’t like it one bit.
The point is you rarely see anything in the Lake Boren Rapid Transit Report about national level news. We know the feds (American taxpayers) are helping to pay for a lot of transportation public works projects. Just look at the number of people standing around watching one guy work. Pretty clear.
In my previous post I invited readers to let me know what they want to read about. Sometimes I just write stuff because it gives me a fun way to remind everyone that I’m retired and don’t actually have to work on anything. If only I could use that as the guiding principal of my life. Some nights I feel more worn out than when I used to work. Tetris can be very difficult.
What does this have to do with anything? Well let me think…. Nothing. Oh wait, I know; one of my primary and most enjoyable hobbies is to go around and look at what’s going on locally (to wherever I happen to be at the time) in the way of municipal and transportation projects.
Roads, transit, and vermin control are among my top interests. Particularly if it involves rails.
Which is why this is called the Lake Boren Rapid Transit Report: what the heck has Lake Boren to do with rapid transit??? Well it’s important.
Lake Boren is one of only two in the entire world with that name. The other one is in Sweden and it’s actually a wide part of a waterway canal. Thus people around here had a stroke of genius naming this little piss hole something unique.
Carson Boren was a bearded grouchy looking SOB who was one of the original settlers of Seattle. http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?displaypage=output.cfm&file_id=1936 He was a member of the Denny party in 1851. Carson Boren was born in 1824 and died in 1912. He would not have approved of the new sign at Lake Boren Park.
In 1852 Carson (not Johnny) Boren and a guy named William Bell paddled across Elliott Bay to the present site of Seattle. Arthur Denny rode along but didn’t paddle because he was using a horseshoe and string for depth sounding. That’s why the Seattle founders are called the “Denny Party” – Denny was the one who didn’t work therefore he must be in charge…
Carson Boren became King County’s first sheriff. He was followed by a long line of distinguished sheriffy like folks including a Congress person named Dave Reichert or something. He looked better in a uniform.
We don’t know how King County got its original name but we know it’s now named after Martin Luther King Jr. The county name came about long before MLK was born. Want extra credit? Tell me how this happened.
Carson Boren died in 1912 in Woodinville. Really. But it wasn’t called Woodinville at that time. They must have named it because of the dead people or something. I don’t know. Don’t quote me on that.
Anyway, Carson was a known recluse and didn’t really like other members of his species. That’s probably why he wandered around so much. He had a wife or two and some kids so his dislike of people had limits.
I have not yet found out why they named a pond after him or why they insist on calling it a lake. But I do know it’s pretty and Glen, the Lake Boren Carp, enjoys living in it. Although lately he’s been seen more often in Elliott Bay chasing ferry boats. Maybe you’ve seen the reports on the national Teevee news. He’s checking for leaks.
Carson Boren was born in Nashville, Tennessee which is a town I’ve never been to. I don’t have a real desire to go there since I understand you can hear the ghost of Jonny Cash. I always disliked that guy. Now I’ve transferred that to Joaquin Phoenix because he played Cash in that awful movie. I’m so fickle.
If anyone has any idea why they named Lake Boren please let me know. I won’t believe you but it’s worth a try. Also, can you explain what Joaquin Phoenix as trying to do on Letterman? What a chump.
Well, you probably thought I knew nothing historical or, if you’ve been reading this blog you probably wondered if any of it was connected. Now you know. Seattle was founded by a few intrepid explorers who landed at Alki Beach and forgot how to get back to civilization.
These explorers provided a plethora of names for local landmarks, streets, and so on, yet we still often see stuff named Westlake, Eastlake, Westlake Center, South Center, North Gate, Overlake and so on. Newcastle even uses a name that was already used here twice before and lots of times elsewhere.
Come on people, we have hundreds of pioneers and even some in between people with good names to call stuff. For example I know of a real nice spot east of Chinook Pass that would benefit greatly from the name “Showalter Falls.” It’s fickle like me and quits in August.
Al
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