Tuesday, October 25, 2005

On the DL

Viewing the title of this entry, many people who know me would wonder whether I might be injured.  You see, most of the time I’d use the letters DL in their baseball context, signifying the Disabled List.

Not this time, however. 

If it’s Tuesday in Seattle, DL means DrinkingLiberally.  A group gathers every week—sometimes large, sometimes small—at the Montlake Ale House (2307 24th Ave E) to talk politics, laugh about the latest wingnut idiocy, eat snacks, and drink good beer.  Once a month, we invite a local politician or left-celebrity to imbibe with us and shoot the breeze.  Among the invited guests recently are several 2005 candidates:  King County Executive Ron Sims, Seattle City Council candidate (position 8) Dwight Pelz, and Seattle mayoral candidate Al Runte.  We must be a convivial group—Dwight and Al have even dropped by on regular non-guest evenings, without waiting for an invitation!

We’ve also had visits from politicos who expect to run for office a year from now, such as Ed Murray, who represents the Montlake Ale House and the rest of the 43rd Legislative District in Washington’s House of Representatives, both of the announced candidates for Washington’s 8th Congressional District (Randy Gordon and Darcy Burner), and of course our very own 7th CD representative Jim McDermott.

There’s no invited guest tonight, though I bet at least one candidate for office (or maybe just a campaign manager or two) will pop in for a brew.  C’mon down to Montlake ... the fun starts at 8pm or so, and it’s Fitzmas Eve!