Arts
"We have an even bigger venue lined up next year." That's what Pierce County Toy and Geek Fest cofounder Chris Fowler told me on the eve of Geek Fest's maiden voyage last year. More than double the size of last year's space at the Washington State Fair & Events Center,
Online Newspapers
With a name like "House of Tattoo!," you know what to expect -- a museum dedicated to the diminutive assistant from Fantasy Island. Fine, it's a tattoo parlor, an amazingly awesome one. House of Tattoo! Has been inking up Tacoma residents for over 20 years now, garnering a reputation among their
Outdoors
The first-ever Pierce County Toy and Geek Festival opens this Saturday at the Washington State Fairgrounds. Sponsored by local businesses Toy Stable, Images and Events, Atomic Comics, and Old Cannery Furniture Warehouse, Geek Fest is an all-encompassing celebration of geek culture and the only South Sound convention of its kind. No
Arts
Tacoma will become a "Super Bowl City" at the Washington State History Museum when "Gridiron Glory: The Best of the Pro Football Hall of Fame" kicks off Saturday, May 27. The 6,000-square-foot multimedia exhibit is the largest, most comprehensive traveling exhibition ever created about the sport. The WSHM is the only
Features
It's usually just good common sense not to combine alcohol and zoo patronage. When was the last time you read a news story about a tipsy zoo patron deciding to test the hunting prowess of a polar bear, or go swimming in the shark tank that didn't have a predictably
Online Newspapers
The simple pleasure of a warm bath taken to its most lavish extreme, we've been enjoying hot tubs all over the world since 400 B.C. The volcanic hot springs of yore have since given way to fiberglass or acrylic shells encased in synthetic wooden frames, or sometimes embedded right into
Online Newspapers
There are plenty of good reasons for military personnel to shop for a home in the Pacific Northwest. Maybe you just transferred from active-duty to the Reserves or the National Guard and want to put down some roots. Maybe you want to open a successful string of sandwich shops. Maybe
Online Newspapers
For many of us, our first big break into the workforce was in a menial food service job. Our parents and our bosses all told us the same thing - "This is a great opportunity" - a sentence we all secretly suspected ended with, "to quit this place and find
Online Newspapers
You know the commercials: "Just one weekend a month, two weeks a year ... money for college ... an extra paycheck." The Reserve and the National Guard suffer a misconception in the public consciousness as being the diet version of the Armed Forces, reserved for everyday people who only want to
Online Newspapers
Lots of places could technically be in the running for the "best place to meet someone". Prisons, public transportation, a dark alley - these are all places where you're likely to meet someone, just not necessarily someone you'd like to meet. Even designated social hotspots like nightclubs and bars have
Online Newspapers
Christmas specials have been a holiday staple since the advent of television. In many cases, the original shows that spawned them - along with some of the cast members - have long since gone away, but the lone Christmas special remains, gracing our screens each year and serving as a
Music
Square dancing's been around since the 1600s. It's a quintessential piece of Americana. You need only turn on a Hee-Haw! rerun to learn everything you need to know, but I'll explain it anyway: A group of people ranging younger than 10 to over 90 gather together in a dance hall
Online Newspapers
Any pet owner in the South Sound knows Mud Bay. Since 1988, the Olympia-based company has provided food, toys, treats and other supplies for cats and dogs, and its annual - and currently ongoing - Tons of Love campaign provides thousands of dollars in donations and supplies to animal shelters each
Online Newspapers
The small-town holiday experience is alive and well in Sumner. With the city proper covering less than eight square miles and a population just shy of 10,000 people, the "Rhubarb Pie Capital of the World" hearkens back to the good old days when everyone knew everyone's name, and you could
Online Newspapers
Climate change is a bit of a hot topic these days. (Pun fully intended.) For all the talk this election season, the nation appears to be divided between two extremes - one side thinks it doesn't exist, while the other side thinks we'll be living in the movie Waterworld in
Online Newspapers
After 2,000-plus Christmases, the reindeer need a break, so Santa's scuttling his sleigh for the South Sound leg of his trip this holiday season in favor of something a bit more high-tech: the railroad. Passengers aboard the 47th Annual "Santa Train" at the Northwest Railway Museum in Snoqualmie will get to
Online Newspapers
How much is a good night's sleep really worth? According to one 20-year veteran in the mattress market, it's less about worth and more about our personal tastes and how much we want to spend. "A high price doesn't always correlate to a better bed. I've had customers find that a
Arts
For the be-inked among us, Flaming Dragon needs no introduction. This South Sound fixture will celebrate 20 years of tattooing Tacoma next month. Don't let the taxidermy tarantulas, oni masks or the cell phone impaled to the wall with a butcher knife scare you away; these are two of the
Music
It's hard to believe, but it really has been two whole decades since Lakewood first incorporated into a city. That means that right around the time the rest of us were nervously re-spooling our Scotch-taped Tragic Kingdom cassettes with a #2 pencil, ensuring our Jinco pants had the precise amount
Online Newspapers
If you've never attended a military funeral, you should know that like everything else in the military, the proceedings are very uniform and strictly regulated. There are some subtle differences between military branches, and also depending on the veteran's rank and how they died, but they all follow the same