What were you all searching for in 2006?

One word: babes.

Several of the big search engines track the year’s most popular searches. Google has a peculiar methodology: It ranks searches by trends, not overall numbers. So it picks up on rising attractions like Bebo and MySpace (Nos. 1 and 2 for the year).

Yahoo and Microsoft go for quantity. Topping Yahoo’s list: Britney Spears. No. 2: Shakira (pictured). No. 4: Jessica Simpson. No. 5: Paris Hilton.

Microsoft’s No. 1 is Brazilian soccer superstar Ronaldinho. But Shakira, Paris

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Coming Sunday in the Insight section is our first (annual, we hope) Reader’s Guide to the editorial and op-ed pages. It’s an outgrowth of the questions we field day in and day out about why we do what we do and how we do it. Our work is not particularly mysterious to us, but every time one of us speaks to a community group, it is a reminder that we often fail to adequately explain ourselves to readers.

The Reader’s Guide is a chance to answer some of the more fundamental questions about the editorial and op-ed pages

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I highly recommend fish flings. Tossing salmon carcassses, fresh or frozen, into local rivers and streams adds nutrients to the water as the fish decay. Good for our local salmon amd other wildlife.

I flung fish this morning in the

deepest wilds of North Tacoma, in the Puget Creek gulch where Scott Hanson has made it his life’s work to restore

a salmon run. Scott heads up the Puget Creek Restoration Society, and he sent out an email appeal for volunteers to help dump 100 or so

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Here’s what to expect over the long holiday weekend:

Saturday: Good riddance to Saddam Hussein, who as of this writing was expected to be executed by 7 p.m. Friday.

Sunday: No editorials Sunday. Editorial and op-ed pages will be devoted to special "explainer" feature introducing the ed board and explaining how the opinion pages come together.

Monday: For New Year’s Day, a mostly tongue-in-cheek list of headlines we’d like to see in 2007.

Tuesday: The governor’s gambling deal with the Spokane and Colville tribes only ratchets up the expansion of gambling in the state.

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Did you know that Pierce County’s state Sen. Jim Kastama and South King County’s state Rep. Mark Milosica favor public financing for all statewide and legislative races?

Neither did I, until I spotted an item in the wet side’s best political blog, the one David Postman does for the Seattle Times. Postman reports that Kastama, D-Puyallup, and Miloscia, D-Federal Way, will join a Jan. 5 panel at Seattle’s Town Hall sponsored by a group called Washington Public Campaigns. According to Postman,

Miloscia has said he will introduce legislation next year for public financing of

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With Congress in Democratic control and the handwriting on the wall, President Bush has now come out in favor of increasing the federal minimum wage, which is long overdue. But he still wants to attach some breaks for businesses that might cause heartburn for congressional Dems. Bush and Congress should just pass a clean bill to get the job done.

Editorial notebook by Seago. Reverse-published blog item about the difference between bloggers who work for newspapers and bloggers who don’t.

About our editorials:

If you have comments or questions about these topics, please email them to

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South Sound lawmakers are going to bat for Narrows bridge commuters to get state money to temporarily discount the tolls drivers will pay when the new bridge span opens in July. (We supported the effort in today’s editorial).

Without a subsidy, the price for a trip across the Narrows and back will probably run close to $3. That will quickly add up for people who live in Gig Harbor and work in Tacoma or vice versa. Still, it’s not as much as people paid to cross the existing Narrows bridge when it opened in 1950. Back then, a

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I received this fun quiz via e-mail from Lakewood City Councilman Ron Cronk. He graciously agreed to let me post it here for local history trivia buffs who might not be on his e-mail list.

As I was driving around Lakewood recently looking at the storm damage,
I was reminded what a diverse and interesting city we live in. Then I
remembered a quiz about Lakewood locations I sent out last year. Why
not give it a try? It may show us just how little we really know about
our community. Maybe it will be good for a Christmas smile.

Also attached (photo above) is a picture I took this summer of a Lakewood “mystery
lake.” Who knows the name of this lake, located in our beautiful city?
No, it is not Waughop Lake.

All locations are taken from a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers map first
surveyed in 1912 and last updated in 1940. Don’t look at the answers until you answer the following questions. These are all
valid historical Lakewood communities and features.

Where, in present-day Lakewood, are the following places?

1. Pumpkin Center (don’t you love that name?)
2. Kippers Korner
3. Mud Lake
4. Gold Camp Woods
5. 7 Mile House
6. The Oaks
7. State Hospital for the Insane (an easy one for you)
8. Crandall Woods
9. Clinton Park
10. Crawford Marsh

Score: Each correct answer is worth 10 points.

Here are the answers.

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