By Brittany D. Friesner

I was born a walking advertisement for patriotism. By the time I was two, each time I greeted a stranger, I’d recite what I’d been so carefully programmed to say, “Hi, I’m Brittany Danielle Friesner. I’m a bicentennial baby born July 4, 1976 and I weighed seven pounds, six ounces, 7 – 6, get it?” ...MORE

By Tonjia Rhen

On their website, the Float Zone touts the many benefits of being in a sensory deprivation tank, from relieving stress to a heightened sense of self. Because of the amount of chaos in our lives, the benefits of floating in a warm liquid bath are supposed to realign us and “wash” away the stress in our lives....MORE

By Robert Hanna

There’s something rotten in the refrigerator, and it definitely isn’t that leftover spaghetti. It’s actually a bacterium called Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), and it’s being put into millions of acres of corn, potatoes and cotton to ward off harmful insects from eating the delicious leafy greens of the crops. ...MORE

By Troy Tam

Mark Twain once said, “Whiskey is for drinking; water is for fighting over,” and these days there is indeed a cottage industry waging war over supplying the world with the freshest, cleanest drinking water. The life-essential fluid has become a $35 billion industry worldwide with water companies vying for consumer’s cash. ...MORE

By Jonathan Lawson

Speaking before an audience of Mercer Island High School students in May, Washington Senator Maria Cantwell recalled an experience which impressed upon her the power of independent media. In the mid-1990s, her then-employer Real Networks provided an Internet broadcast for the dissident Belgrade pirate station B92, whose independent news and pro-democracy broadcasts had been taken off the air by the Milosevic regime. ...MORE

By Deuce La Cock

Before I started having sex with other men, I assumed that all they (we) did was fuck. Being young (21) and devastatingly shy in the face of another man (boy), I assumed I would be the one to get fucked—in bed as in life. Without realizing it at the time, I assumed that my total insecurity meant my destiny was to be a total bottom. ...MORE

This month’s question: Where is the weirdest place you've peed?> ...MORE

The Seattle Drinking Directory
With Hans from The Buckaroo Tavern ...MORE

The Portland Drinking Directory
With Munro from Scandals Behind the Bar...MORE

By Miranda Pinero

It’s that time again, sugar. You thought maybe this year you’d get away with lurking in the house and office until the sun went down, venturing out to 7-11 for beer and jerky only under the cover of darkness. ...MORE

This month debuts the fashion section