Editorial | Reflections for the new year | Dennis Box

The new year has started and there are a few items I would like to write about in this first column as 2012 engines rev up. None are worthy of a column on its own, so I will just string some notes together about issues I am interested in or would like to figure out.

Council Elections

The first council meetings of the year can be quite intriguing depending on the city. The obligatory swearing in of candidates freshly elected is a nice picture, but the more interesting story can be the choosing of council presidents for strong-mayor systems or mayors for council-manager forms of government.

In the council-manager form the mayor is chosen by the council.

Maple Valley is a council-manager system as is Covington. Black Diamond, Kent and Tukwila are strong-mayor systems and the council will choose a council president, mayor pro tempore or deputy mayor. It is basically the same position with a different name.

Maple Valley is usually the most fun to follow because there are plenty of back-room gymnastics going on prior to a mayor being selected. The choice tells us a great deal about the group dynamics of the council.

This season in Maple Valley, Councilman Bill Allison won by a 5-2 vote replacing former Mayor Noel Gerken. The deputy mayor position went to Victoria Laise Jonas on a 4-3 split decision.

My bet is Covington will again choose Margaret Harto as the mayor for a third two-year term. I am pretty sure God couldn’t beat her for the job.

Black Diamond’s City Council is the very interesting with three new members swept into office on what appears to be a wave of voters voicing their opposition to the YarrowBay developments. In my years of reporting I have often seen that voters presumptions about a candidate and the reality of governing hit head on very quickly once the chair is filled.

On Tuesday Kent elected Councilman Dennis Higgins unanimously to the council president position. I am sure there was some backyard croquet before the decision was made, but nothing nearly as entertaining as Maple Valley.

I guess there can only be one Maple Valley.

A Brainy Business Idea

Here is a quirky business venture I heard about just before Christmas. It is currently my top business idea for 2012.

Initially it made absolutely no sense to me. After thinking about it and observing certain behavior around the office I decided this may be the real salami.

A couple of weeks ago our newest reporter, Sarah Kehoe, told me about this ShoeDazzle thing. It’s like a book-of-the-month for shoes.

Now when I was a kid I lived for the Book-of-the-Month club. My grandma got me started on it and I still have some of the books, which explains why I had mainly imaginary friends.

Apparently, through ShoeDazzle, a woman can get three or four pairs of shoes to try each month and if they keep them it costs a certain amount or they send them back.

Seriously, is this brainy or what.

I mentioned this to my daughter and you would think Moses came down from the mountain all full of light, carrying tablets and shoe boxes.

I asked Sarah if men were doing this and I got the look. (Men know exactly what I mean.)

Apparently only women understand the need to have 700 pairs of shoes.

I admit that I hate buying shoes, I hate spending money on them, I even hate looking down and thinking about shoes.

But this business idea is a stroke of twisted genius and I wish I had thought of it.

I hear God looks down occasionally and asks Peter, “Are those things really shoes? How come no one ever tells me about these things?”

ShoeDazzle – I bet it will make a million bucks for someone.

To Iron or Not to Iron

Here is something I cannot figure out, and I need help. You know all that permanent press stuff sold in stores – shirts and pants and whatever.

I take that particular advertising claim at its word. Permanent press means forget the ironing.

I know this woman who thinks you still have to iron permanent press things. In fact, she had a closet built just for her ironing board.

When she started talking about the ironing board I tried to make an intelligent comment and I suddenly got this silence.

I quickly gathered myself and began lying. I said I  had an ironing board… oh yeah and an iron.

I tried to explain to her that wrinkles on permanent press will fall out after you wear them for a while. Or if they don’t fall out, after an hour or so the new wrinkles cover up the old ones and it doesn’t matter anymore. It’s a mathematical cancellation equation, like a positive and a negative.

I heard something about me being nuts and a pig.

I am male so I didn’t know what else to say. I ran out of lies so I began whining.

I would like to understand this ironing phenomena in the new year. Are we supposed to iron things that say permanent press or not? This seems a lot harder and more relevant than property taxes and council elections.

To iron or not to iron… that is the question.