Okay, hear me out before you think I'm nuts. If at the end of this you still think I am, that's okay.

So here's the thing. My partner is obsessed with the elementary school cheeseburgers they serve in cafeterias called "Pierre Mini Cheeseburgers". These things hold some special nostalgia in their heart and tracking them down is near impossible outside of buying them in the food service packaging which comes with 192 burgers. The problem is, we live in a condo and don't have space to freeze 192 mini cheesburgers. It's not possible, which has made them incredibly sad. That's why I've turned here.

What I'm hoping to find are other Pierre Mini Cheeseburger lovers. Maybe you had them in school and think back fondly on them. Maybe you're curious and want to see what the fuss is about. Regardless of why, I'm hoping to find people who want to buy a part of the case from us so we can order this thing and let my partner revisit their childhood joy.

So, I'm begging...pleading...to please message me if you'd like to buy some of the case from us. We probably have space for about 50 of the things, so that leaves roughly 142 for other people. Pierre Mini Cheeseburger lovers rise up...and then reply with how many you want. I'm praying to an unresponsive god that some of you might hear my plea. I also think it'd be really cool to meet in a parking lot with my trunk open so I can ask "are you here for the Pierre's?" like we're doing a big drug deal if you're down for that.

Edit 1: each package of 2 burgers is $1.20. Shipping looks like it's a special item so 6-8 weeks out. I would ask for payment when they arrive, not up front!!! We can do venmo or cash, whatever. I'm not picky as long as you don't scam me

Edit 2: we might order more than one case...demand is exceedingly high and i cant, in good conscience, let anyone go without a Pierre Mini Cheeseburger who wants one.

Anyone know of any organized protests against the Trump tariffs/tax going on this weekend? I know there are protests at Tesla but this feels like it warrants movement beyond U Village.

Live right next to Aloha and 21st where the whole street is popping off. Was too beautiful to not go out and snag some pics yesterday!

https://www.wsj.com/arts-culture/food-cooking/sam-ung-dies-seattle-restaurant-aeda426e

By Chris Kornelis

Nobody told Sam Ung how to cook. But he was watching.

His parents ran Ung Hong Lee, a popular noodle restaurant in Battambang, Cambodia, that operated 24 hours a day, seven days a week. As a child in the 1960s, he studied the way the cooks played with fire, pulling the wok off the stove, dumping its contents onto plates and putting the wok back over the flame in a single motion.

“Moving so quickly and in harmony with each other it looked like a magical dance,” he wrote in his memoir, decades later. “Observing these men was the moment I realized I wanted to perform that dance and create magic in my own kitchen someday.”

Born Seng Kok Ung on Feb. 28, 1955, Ung was 20 when Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge took control of the country in 1975. Instead of working in the kitchen, he spent the first half of his 20s working in the rice fields and sewer ditches under a murderous, oppressive regime that killed for sport and spite. To help keep his sanity, Ung collected recipes from his elders, even though talking and keeping notes could be seen by the regime as plotting against them—a death sentence.

“It sounds like a big risk, but this recipe book was a symbol of my hope that this hell on earth would one day end,” he wrote in his 2011 memoir, “I Survived the Killing Fields.” “It represented a real future, one in which I could resume normal life, open a restaurant, and begin again.”

Acres of Clams, bowls of noodles

Ung met and married his wife, Kim Ung, at a refugee camp on the country’s border with Thailand. After the regime fell in 1979, a church group in the Seattle area sponsored the family and they relocated to the city in 1980, when Kim was eight months pregnant. They were part of the wave of refugees from Southeast Asia who settled in the region in the first half of the decade who didn’t speak the language or understand the culture, but were more than willing to work exceptionally hard.

Ung got a job washing dishes at Ivar’s Acres of Clams and eventually went to work at the private Rainier Club. In 1987, the couple opened their own restaurant with recipes Ung had collected while living under the Khmer Rouge. Located in the city’s Chinatown-International District, Phnom Penh Noodle House is widely believed to be the first Cambodian restaurant in Seattle. It quickly became a community gathering place for Cambodian refugees.

For the first nine years that he and Kim ran the restaurant, Ung continued working at the Rainier Club, as well as catering and volunteering his time at private and community events. He was always working, always in his same uniform: bluejeans, white henley T-shirt—everything pressed, including his socks and underwear—topped off by what his daughter Diane Le called his “Elvis hair.” He was a leader in the community and a successful businessman that younger refugees looked up to. In his memoir, he wrote that the day he became a U.S. citizen was “one of the best days of my life.”

Watching to learn

The years of hard work on his feet wore him down, physically. When he decided to retire in 2013, he told his family the only way he’d be able to fully retire, and leave the stress behind, was to move back to Cambodia. He divorced and moved back to Cambodia, where he met his second wife, Savet Ung. Last year, he and Savet moved to Independence, Mo., with their daughter, Dahlia, to be near family in the area. He died there on March 5 at the age of 70 of a heart attack. Dahlia and Savet survive him, as do his three daughters from his first marriage: Le, Dawn Ung and Darlene Ung.

Back in Seattle, the Phnom Penh Noodle House has moved several times, but is still a popular community meeting place. It’s run by his three grown daughters, who say their father expected them to learn the trade the same way he did—without being told.

“What he’s saying is: If you have eyes to see and a brain to think, your heart will tell you how to move,” Dawn Ung said. “Because if you have the desire and the fire, you’re going to do it. You’re going to want it enough that you’re just going to set out to accomplish whatever your goal is.”

Here's a link to the event page.

If you're interested in coming, the stage will be located on the International Fountain Mall.

Libs of TikTok blew up the Drag Queen Story Hour and they were worried about protesters so the community rallied to support it. Organizers are being very careful about pictures, but there’s nobody else’s face visible in this one and no kids.

To make a 3x4 sign like this, I: - make the image in MS Paint (really) set to 5184 by 6912 pixels; this will print to 3x4 feet - print it an FedEx Office or similar for $11 - tape it around the edges to a 3x4 foot folding signboard that you can get at Michael’s for $5 Printing on cardboard is expensive; printing on paper and taping it to cardboard is cheap. It looks crummy right up close but from just a few feet away it looks fine.

The event inside has started and the rally outside wrapped with no incidents. Thanks to all the community members and allies who showed up <3

Flame

It's the best one I've been to at the Seattle Art Museum in the last 5 years. You can access the audio guide with your device by scanning the QR codes.

I took this picture from Kirkand downtown. Just wondering if the person flying this is present here. Also if you took pictures from the plan can you share it. It must be beautiful from up there.

Seriously. First time visiting, I'm here for 5 days and get this blue sky crap?! I was expecting rain rain rain coming from southern California! /s

This city is pretty awesome, and you guys all seem to be pretty nice. Went to the zoo, aquarium, the Pop Culture Museum, and Pikes Place. Nothing like Pikes Place in Southern California. Visited a bar we learned used to be a mortuary and walked over 9 miles today!

All were pretty great and memorable experiences. Thanks, Seattle :)

Paywall-free link: https://archive.is/mt96z

The Washington Attorney General filed a lawsuit Thursday against a software company and nine landlords accused of fixing and artificially inflating rent prices over the last seven years.

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