Quotes & amp;amp; Notes

by Inlander Staff


Go Ahead, Eat Off Your Desk -- Here's a stunner: A recent study found that the average office desk has 400 times more bacteria than the average toilet seat. We know, where do researchers come up with these riveting topics? A note in Group Health Northwest's fall edition of Northwest Health says that the Clorox-sponsored study found that phones harbor the most bacteria, followed by desktops and then water fountain handles. Of the 12 offices surfaces surveyed, toilet seats consistently had the lowest -- we repeat, lowest -- bacteria count. Yikes.





The Talbott Treatment -- Scribes at the Review might often wonder why all the animosity from their readers. Well, the old Golden Rule would be a good place to start. Case in point: Doug Clark's column about Mayor John Powers "lost speech" of a couple weeks back. Fabricated columns are tricky -- Maureen Dowd is about the only one who has the form mastered -- so here's a tip: At least try to make it funny. This was just plain mean -- more of a mugging than an exercise in... what do they call it? Oh yeah, "public journalism."


Then, a couple days later comes the headline about Powers getting booed at the labor rally. Sure, it's too good to pass up, but lost is the message he sent in what one attendee said was his finest speech. It's kind of reminding us of the treatment they gave John Talbott when he was mayor.


This probably isn't payback for Powers continuing to take a hard line on River Park Square, but it sure looks like it.





"Truly Amazing" -- Lewis & amp; Clark High School administrators cancelled The Laramie Project this year because of the script's vulgar language -- but also because director Bryan Jackson supposedly had not scheduled enough educational presentations and forums to help students process the play's depiction of a gay man's murder.


One student's parents were bothered by the script's profanity. But about its graphic description of Matthew Shepard's prolonged and painful death, they said nothing.


As a replacement for the Project, Jackson has scheduled a play about the Holocaust. Surely administrators have insisted on discussions to coincide with such an intense and disturbing topic? "I find this truly amazing," says Jackson, "but there has been no word about an educational piece about the Holocaust."


Will Jackson be allowed to reschedule the Project for next year? He's "not overly optimistic. I get the feeling that some people just want this whole thing to go away."


One thing that's not going away anytime soon is anti-gay violence.