Editorial: "Roundabouts work, but require a learning curve"

The unnamed Courier editor gets it -- the traffic moves and you won't get T-boned by some drunken yahoo doing 90 against the light. Duh.

Talk of the Town: "Development is a natural, beneficial human trait"

Greg Sober, huh? Sort of smells like a nom de plume. Could anyone really be so naive and thoughtless beyond the third grade? That's it, isn't it: the small boy's fascination with toy trucks.

The best bit, though, is the spurious anthropology, imagining the ancient Pueblo peoples in the role of Del Webb. I'd laugh harder, but it's really kind of embarrassing to think that this person somehow managed to get through public school. Sheesh.

Is the Courier spike really so empty? Bill O'Reilly would be better. Words fail me.

Cartoon: The phones don't work

More space wasted on Paris Hilton. Gag me.

A1: "Couple watches lion kill deer in yard"

Oh, this must have been fun to write. How often does a writer get to use 'catamount,' after all? Joanna Dodder seems to relish the opportunity. Plain ol' straight news, no one hurt unless you count the deer, and the sidebar is a nice, informative touch. Here's a cookie. I love living here.

A1: "Contract non-renewal causes peaceful protest"

It's a drag that this otherwise interesting story doesn't include the other side of the conflict, although the 'call me on Tuesday' quote is arch, if uninformative. This hits an important voter-interest story, that of charter-school management and funding, and it would be easy to infer from the photo box at lower right that we may have a theme building. I'm wondering whether the Courier has considered covering the board meetings where this conflict has been apparently playing out, and if not, why not? In any case it's good to see something on these usually invisible education experiments.

I had some direct experience with Kestrel some years ago, and I have to say I met some great people there, but management problems have dogged it. I hope it gets better, because it offers a great mission.

A1: "Former deputy was once head of the Washington state Aryan Nation chapter"

Oy. I hear he's a bass player, too.