Sound Effect

Seattle writer Paulette Perhach likes to spend her food money at a typical boutique grocery store in Seattle. You know, the kind with hardwood floors, shelves that are curated with an ethical conscience — and really good cheese. Perhach is 36 years old. She’s a freelance writer who fully admits to liking fancier things she can’t afford. One of her favorite things to buy in this store is feelings. “Just hippy, happy feelings," Perhach said. "It's the kind of business that I want to stay in...

This week on Sound Effect , we share stories about how numbers can be the difference between winning and losing, spending and saving, or even life and death. We meet Seattle drag queen Sylvia O’Stayformore, who hosts Rainbow Bingo at the Ballard Northwest Senior Center. A Seattle doctoral student explains how she uses music to help people make sense of complicated climate data. An auctioneer reflects on winning the Chicago Marathon at 15 years old. We tag along with two women and learn the...

For almost five years, Seattle drag queen Sylvia O'Stayformore has been hosting Rainbow Bingo at Ballard Northwest Senior Center. There are colorful decorations, themed prizes, and a bar for beer and wine. And, of course, O'Stayformore performs a number or two. Carlye Teel, director of the center, says they first heard about Rainbow Bingo through one of their groups at the center, A.B.L.E. (Aging Ballard Lesbian Exchange) and immediately thought, "yes, that's for us." Teel says the event fit...

When most of us see scientific data presented on graphs and spreadsheets, the meaning behind the numbers can get lost pretty fast — even when they are explained by an expert. One woman whose personal mission is to make this kind of information more accessible is Judy Twedt , a doctoral student at the University of Washington . She is so enthusiastic about communicating scientific information in an understandable way that she wears it for everyone to see. When she visited the KNKX studios,...

This show originally aired on April 28, 2018. This week, stories of breaking points, realizations, and bitter ends. We meet one man who is taking out his disappointment with the departure of Seattle's basketball team in an unusual way. We hear from a homeowner whose Wallingford backyard abuts a homeless encampment , as well as from the campers who are sick of being moved around. A local writer remembers the moment he could no longer stand being "the fat kid" in class. We get a story about...

This story originally aired on April 28, 2018. Actor Ben Weber has been in movies like Kissing Jessica Stein and television shows like Sex and the City. Most recently he was in a television mini-series called Manhunt: Unabomber. But he also got some attention a few years ago for a video he did starring Ben Weber as Angry Ben Weber. Weber grew up in Seattle and was a Seattle Supersonics fan from day one. After moving to New York, and eventually to Los Angeles, the Sonics remained his team, up...

This story originally aired on April 28, 2018. Living in illegal homeless encampments can be dangerous and chaotic. This is what hundreds of people experience every day in Seattle. This minimal type of shelter can also involve a lot of moving. Sound Effect’s Jennifer Wing recently visited the removal of an encampment under the Viaduct, across the street from the Washington State Ferry Terminal in downtown Seattle. The cleanup was being carried out by the city’s Navigation Team, the entity in...

This story originally aired on April 28, 2018. When Seattle writer, Tim Haywood was growing up in Auburn, he was the fat kid in elementary school. Most of the time, this wasn’t a problem, except for when it came to gym class. "I got teased a lot, you know all of the names, fatty two-by-four. I managed to compensate a little bit. I developed a sense of humor," Tim recalls. Tim dreaded gym. He was humiliated on "weighing and measuring day," when his weight was shared publicly in front of his...

This story originally aired on April 28, 2018. If you close your eyes and picture Sasquatch, there’s a good chance you’ll conjure up a very specific image: a big, hairy humanoid, mid-stride, arms swinging, head turned to glance back over its right shoulder. In that iconic picture, the thing Bigfoot was turning back to look at was Bob Gimlin. Gimlin, along with Roger Patterson, gathered their famous film footage in northern California in 1967. Fifty years later people still pore over it,...

This story originally aired on April 28, 2018. Mary, who has asked that her last name not be used to protect her grandchildren, has been married to her husband for over 50 years. He has a habit of collecting what she calls "old junker cars," which sit in her yard, her driveway, the street -- she has no idea how many cars he owns. And they aren't just cars -- they're storage units, piled high with stuff. To Mary, this has clearly crossed the line from collecting to hoarding. But her husband...

This story originally aired on April 28, 2018. Former Seattleite Carl Badgley has some experience with emergencies, having been an army medic and a 9-1-1 operator. But, in search of a simpler, slightly less intense lifestyle, he had moved to be near the beautiful tropical waters off of Kona, Hawaii. “The thing about being on the water is [it's] where my happy place is. I get to drive boats and am a scuba instructor and I get to do that and get paid for it. [It’s] where I go pretty much every...

This show originally aired on April 21, 2018. This week on Sound Effect, we pull up a stool and chat with some barflies. We meet up with Mike Lewis at the Streamline Tavern, and hear about how he physically moved the old bar to its current location. Then we talk to Clint Lanier about why no one seemed to notice the closing of what may be the oldest gay bar in America. Hanna Brooks Olsen shares an essay on what she learned growing up in bars. Brie Ripley introduces us to a “rude” juice bar ....

This story originally aired on April 21, 2018. When the print edition of the Seattle Post Intelligencer came to an end in 2009, the reporters who worked for the paper scattered off to other careers. Some picked up other gigs covering news, others went into public relations. Veteran reporter Mike Lewis bought a bar. Specifically, he bought his bar, a dive called The Streamline Tavern, where he and other reporters used to adjourn to after quitting time at the paper. “I took my severance and...

This story originally aired on April 21, 2018. One of the realities about bars, like many other businesses, is that at some point, they will probably close their doors for good. This was the case in December of 2015, when a Pioneer Square bar called the Double Header called “last call” for the last time. This is significant, because the Double Header was one of the oldest, if not the oldest, gay bar in America. Clint Lanier is the co-author of the book “Bucket List Bars: Historic Saloons,...

This story originally aired on April 21, 2018. An essay: I always joke that dark, divey bars are where I'm most at home because that's where I first learned how to talk to people. I mean, we learn speech at a young age, on the mats at preschool, or at home, mimicking our parents. But forming phonemes is different than talking to people. Most of my life, I've supported myself through talking: talking my way into AP classes, and talking myself out of a trespassing charge when I pretended to be...

This story originally aired on April 21, 2018. The most intimidating bar to walk into in Greater Seattle may not be a seedy dive downtown. It might just be a juice bar in an obscure strip mall in Shoreline. What makes Alive Juice Bar so daunting is its owner, Andrew Ho, who’s just as likely to curse out and humiliate his customers as he is to soothe their ailments with foamy fruit & veggie concoctions. Ho opened the shop eight years ago with his ex-fiance. In the beginning, it was tough. It...

This story originally aired on April 21, 2018. All of Erica’s heroes liked to drink. Hunter S. Thompson, Molly Ivins … to be an edgy journalist, it seemed like alcohol was part of the job description. For Erica C. Barnett , alcohol did soon become a thread weaving through her work for magazines and alternative weeklies. “I loved being able to meet with people over drinks,” she said. “That is a wonderful way to get to know a source, over a couple, five, ten drinks. And it just made sense to...

This story originally aired on April 21, 2018. Years ago, not long after Mike Lewis lost his father, he made a pilgrimage to his dad's favorite bar--a place called The Ranch in Modesto, CA. When he got there, he found something he didn't expect: a stool that had been roped off. Mike asked about it, and was told it was in honor of Jack Lewis, "a guy who hung out in here who was really well liked." When Mike identified himself as Jack Lewis' son, he heard an outpouring of stories about the...

First, two KNKX moms share their experiences in the neonatal intensive care unit after the birth of their children. Then, a trip to a NICU, where we learn how to write lullabies . Also, we head to a business that bills itself as "everyone's barbershop." Next, a story of a young attorney who wanted to represent Cuban detainees in 1980 , only to realize she may have been out of her element. We learn about a locally made film featuring a retired police officer from Tamil Nadu, who vacations in...

When David Slack thinks about why he became a hospice and palliative care doctor, he thinks back to his grandmother's death when he was about 12. "Rather than it being a terrifying or frightening thing for me, my family, my mother in particular, made it really safe," he said. He remembers his mother taking him by the hand, leading him to his grandmother's bedside, and telling him to say goodbye. Slack, a doctor for Kaiser Permanente in Washington, now cares for patients in the final months...