Awful local news… one of the many construction cranes in downtown Bellevue collapsed on Thursday evening. It fell into an apartment building killing one resident. At least three buildings were severely damaged and have been “red tagged” as unsafe for occupancy. The crane was at the Tower 333 project and there have been rumors of Google’s interest in occupying most of the 20 story building.

The Seattle Times looks forward to the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver with a rundown on construction plans at the popular Whistler Blackcomb ski resort. The $240 million of construction doesn’t affect current visitors much (the article uses a “Visitor Hassle Factor” rating system which never goes above “minimal”). The organizers of the Vancouver games plan to have all the sporting venues ready by 2008, giving Canadian athletes a head start “home field” training advantage. And of course the general public can try out the existing Whistler ski runs. Bring your own cowbell-ringing contingent.

“About 40 of the 90 farmers that sell at Seattle’s Pike Place Market suffered losses in the recent floods. To help them, the Pike Place Market Foundation is collecting donations to its Farmer Relief Fund.”

Those truly obsessed with Broadway musicals will want to take a peek at the NY Social Diary photos from the 10th Anniversary benefit performance of “Chicago.” You’ve never seen so many different short black dresses in one lineup. And in sort of related news, Sacha Baron Cohen (yes, that Borat guy) has signed on to appear in Tim Burton’s “Sweeney Todd” film as rival barber Pirelli.

The former Esprit building in San Francisco is being gutted but its massive Douglas fir timbers are being preserved for resale. These beams and joists were cut about 100 years ago; the Esprit building is actually their second home as they were salvaged previously in the 1970s. Old wood like this isn’t available anymore and one piece of the lumber could go for as much as $6,400. TerraMai is buying most of it. The wood reclamation company recently purchased the ties from Thailand’s railroad tracks, which are being replaced with concrete. They’re taking that rainforest wood and making flooring, selling it for upwards of $15.50 a square foot.

Surprisingly, I’ve never written a weblog entry about bookplates. I ran across Confessions of a Bookplate Junkie, a weblog about bookplates, which led to a small treasure trove of bookplate sites. The American Society of Bookplate Collectors & Designers features the first known bookplate on their home page. The Bookplate Society boasts a direct lineage from the world’s first bookplate collector group, the Ex Libris Society. Yale’s Arts of the Book Collection has one of the largest bookplate collections in the world, including that of Irene Dwen Andrews Pace which numbers 250,000 items. Stanford has their own library bookplates scanned in for online viewing. Not surprisingly many public collections are housed in universities. There are of course websites where you can order your own custom bookplates. And Wikipedia reveals that before bookplates were used, book owners would write a short poem or rhyme inside a book to discourage theft. I suppose just writing your name inside wasn’t enough.

With cute tulle tutus and little pink slippers the girls in Miss Tilly’s ballet classes twirl and plie as thousands of girls have before them. Miss Tilly has been teaching ballet to the preschool and kindergarten girls (and a few boys too) of San Francisco for forty years. She doesn’t need to advertise, the school is a city institution passed along by word of mouth. Her classes are age appropriate, starting off with a pencil puppet show. And every year she books the Herbst Theatre for her students to show off what they’ve learned.

With “Get Smart: The Complete Collection” now available on DVD, the opportunity arises to ask Barbara Feldon (Agent 99) Very Important questions such as: “In the 1965 pilot, Max’s shoe phone goes off in a theater. How did you people know?!” and “You’re quite tall and he (Don Adams) was not. How did that work?” and whether the Cones of Silence could be employed in the war on terror (her answer to that is quite good).

I always thought ladybugs were such wonderful insects but now I find out that they infest homes and can cause allergies. In fact, research with skin prick tests has shown ladybug allergies to be as common as cat allergies. The imported Asian ladybugs are the main source of the problem as their population is rising and replacing native species.

Williams-Sonoma has a bunch of kid friendly cooking items but my favorite, no surprise, is the little pink silicone rolling pin and mat. Very cute. My son would want something baked in the Railway Cake Pan. (thx not martha!)