JAKE DE PAUL: COUNTING DOWN TODAY >>>

I can recall a time when I felt that hosting a fondue party would be the ultimate statement in suave sophistication. Of course, this was back when I thought it would be keen to live in a Chicago high-rise just like Bob Newhart and his sexy wife, with an airline pilot for a neighbor. So recently I decided to don the old leisure suit and visit The Melting Pot on Pacific Avenue, a restaurant specializing in fondue, and its late night happy hour.

The Melting Pot is especially popular on weekends when it seems to attract an inordinate number of couples on dates with other couples â€" Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice wannabes, perhaps.

The Pot hosts two happy hours in its lounge, seven days a week â€" 4:30-6:30 p.m. and 9-11 p.m. â€" with the second being more subdued. I prefer to wind down the weekend with a Sunday night of Wisconsin cheese and milk chocolate fondue, both reduced to $8, and watch SportsCenter on the plasma. I skip the $3 microbrews, $2.50 domestics and $4.50 mid-level liquors and nestle with the $6 wine pours, a $4 discount.

Wine, football, cheese, and chocolate next to a fireplace. I need a couch session with Bob.

[The Melting Pot, 2121 Pacific Ave., Tacoma, 253.535.3939]

LINK: Wine tastings can be found in Bite Us

MICHAEL SWAN: WE'VE GOT ISSUES >>>

In tomorrow's Weekly Volcano, you'll find:

Aggressive development in unincorporated Pierce County has overwhelmed county land regulators, leading to destruction of precious wetlands.

We give out awards to the Pierce County Executive candidates.

Steve Dunkelberger drinks Halloween beer with scary results.

Jake and Jason de Paul review Top of Tacoma Bar and Cafe.

Alec Clayton previews the re-ART show at Gallery Madera.

We have a massive music section loaded with goodies.

And, of course, the Squeak and Squawk Music Festival official program will be inserted into every Weekly Volcano.

MATT DRISCOLL: CHANGES ARE AFOOT >>>

With the Squeak and Squawk Music Festival right around the corner, all of Tacoma should be getting excited. We sure are here at Weekly Volcano World Headquarters.

But, as with most things in life, sometimes plans change. We just received word from Squeak and Squawk co-creator Sean Alexander that there have been a couple alterations to the festival’s lineup.

Here’s the scoop, as it appeared in a bulletin posted on Myspace:

Lake and Desolation Wilderness will not be playing the festival due to a scheduling miscommunication. Also, Doubledutch has canceled due to unexpected engagements. This is the shit of the business.

Good news is that Alan Boothe will be playing with the Cello Project tomorrow. Woot! Also, Shenandoah Davis will be filling in for Lake. Shenandoah is great! Lake will be back in January, possibly with Kickball.

Please come to the Your Heart Breaks show tomorrow and the Cello Project tomorrow if you have the time/interest/money. We would love to see you.

RON SWARNER: PLUS THIS WEEK'S WEEKLY VOLCANO DISH SECTION >>>

This time of year is pure murder in the restaurant industry. Summer menus have grown stale, and business is glacial when there's any at all. Then add this year’s special treat â€" poor economy.

Restauranteurs are frantically poring over their paperwork, trying to figure out how to keep the lights before the first Thanksgiving and Christmas parties go on the books. And the chefs are just hanging out: the rookies complaining about the short nights, the slow services, amusing themselves with the cooking wine and waitresses, the veterans knowing all too well that this is a time for resting, for pacing themselves and conserving energy for the push that will come as soon as the temperatures start dipping below broil.

Pour at Four wine bar in Tacoma Proctor District knows this and has announced its fall menu will hit their tables Wednesday, Oct. 22. Owners Susan and Mark Merrill will add 20 new menu items and 50 new wines.

Wow.

To lazy and poor to try all the new additions, I asked Mark what his favorites are on his new menu.

“We excited with the new fall menu,” explains Merrill. “We feel that it has a great ‘Fall Feel’ as well as fits our small plate format and wine pairings.”

Here are the highlights he mention:

“And we never put a ‘bad’ wine on the menu,” add Merrill.

Of course.

[Pour at Four, 3814 N. 26th St., Tacoma, 253.761.8015]

This week’s Weekly Volcano Dish section

Steve Dunkelberger discusses Halloween beers.

Jake and Jason de Paul review Top of Tacoma Bar and Café.

Sandee Glib can’t wait for the grocery store wine tastings.

And Tacoma Art Museum Third Thursday Happy Hour menu, wine tastings and more in Bite Us.

LINK: South Sound Restaurant Guide

MICHAEL SWAN: NEWS STORIES IN THIS WEEK’S VOLCANO >>>

The impact of development
If there’s one thing everyone involved in protecting wetlands agrees on, it’s that we’ve failed. Ask Pierce County officials in charge of protecting them and enforcing laws designed to preserve them and what you hear is likely to be alarming. Ask officials from the state Department of Ecology about efforts to replace the thousands of wetlands we’re building houses and shopping malls on and they’ll tell you we’ve failed miserably. Ask local activist Cindy Beckett what she thinks about efforts to preserve these complex, essential, natural systems in Pierce County and it begins to sound like an ecological apocalypse. Read thefull story here.

And the award goes to ...
Pierce County Executive candidates danced around some great questions Tuesday night at a candidate’s forum hosted by the Korean Women’s Association. Paul Schrag gave each of the four candidates awards for their performance. Read the full story here.

MoG money
Tuesday, Oct. 14 the Tacoma City Council voted to approve two resolutions related to our beloved Chihuly worship temple â€" better known as the Museum of Glass. Read the full story here.

Numbered Spaces
As we reported earlier this year, residents of the Country Aire Manor mobile home park on South Hill in Puyallup are facing eviction because the owner of the land where Country Aire sits sold the site to a developer with dreams of another freakin’ Home Depot. It’s part of a growing trend spelling disaster for many mobile home communities. Luckily, this week the sensitive and concerned members of the Pierce County Council’s Rules Committee passed a resolution asking the County Executive to look for land where current Country Aire Manor residents can store their mobile homes … after they’re evicted. Nice, guys. Why don’t you throw in 24 free dinners to the Olive Garden with that broom handle? Find out how this move and other happenings in Pierce County affected the meter reading here.

MICHAEL SWAN: LOVING EVERY MINUTE OF IT â€" C’MON! >>>

Here's what happened at the third â€" and final â€" presidential debate, minute by minute, reported by Think Progress via AlternNet.

SUZY STUMP: NEW TACOMA DIARIES EPISODE >>>

Tacoma Diaries somewhat proudly presents a new episode titled Hot For Sarah Palin. It will be available for viewing at their Web site tomorrow and on Comcast Cable's channel 76/29 in Pierce and south King County Saturday, Oct. 18 at 9 p.m. We’ll post it here tomorrow, too.

Happy One-Year Anniversary Top!

Previously on Spew/Weekly Volcano

LINK: Top of Tacoma review

LINK: Natasha wishes then a happy anniversary

RON SWARNER: GOOD DEALS TO BE HAD, SADLY >>>

Bob Mead is closing Art Concepts on Broadway after 25 years in business. Sad to hear. I remember when he opened up his second store on Broadway in downtown Tacoma back in, I think, 1994. He eventually closed his University Place store. 

He’s been an anchor in the Tacoma arts scene for many years. I purchased an awesome 4-foot tall glass vase at his store a couple years ago. My umbrellas look great in it.

Best of luck, Bob.

CHRISTOPHER WOOD: FALL FILM SERIES >>>

Tired of the weekly revival of Psycho and Vertigo on Turner Classic Movies? How many film critics must we listen to pay lip service to THAT shower scene (seventy camera setups! wow!), or find feminist fodder in Scotty Ferguson’s obsession with a dead woman? Sure, those movies fall among the best ever, but Hitchcock made more than 60 others. As part of its Fall Film Series, the Tacoma Public Library has smartly decided to give Big Al’s lesser-known works some screen time.

For your viewing pleasure this evening, TPL offers the 1940 wartime thriller Foreign Correspondent. Joel McCrea, regularly seen in Hollywood westerns, heads east this time as Johnny Jones, a reporter shipped off to London to, shall we say, correspond on foreign matters. But of course his assignment meets with a Hitch. The director loves watching people squirm in situations they can’t comprehend or control, so expect Johnny’s European getaway to dissolve into a fog of assassination plots, kidnappings and mistaken identity. Toss in a romantic subplot involving a peace leader’s daughter, and political intrigue just got more intriguing.

So send the kids to the soda shop tonight while you experience some (free) old-fashioned suspense as only Sir Alfred can deliver it. Next in the series are The 39 Steps Oct. 30 and Stage Fright Nov. 13.

[Tacoma Public Library Main Branch, Foreign Correspondent, Thursday, Oct. 16, 7 p.m., free, Olympic Room, 1102 Tacoma Ave. S., Tacoma, 253.591.5666]