The Nisqually quake of 2001 registered 6.8 and caused $1 billion in damage, but no deaths. Our houses rocked back and forth, brick buildings crumpled, TVs and bookcases fell over, roads buckled and serious damage was done to Seattle bridges and the Alaskan Way Viaduct.

However, the Cascadia region sits on a fault line where plates from the Juan de Fuca and the North America collide. People, we are talking about a 9.0 quake where the shaking could last four minutes, where low-lying land (Elliott Bay) will liquefy and tsunami's that will flood coastal region and cause thousands of deaths. Read here what CREW (Cascadia Region Earthquake Workgroup) has to say, and we'll all ask whether we're prepared.

I know I pinch myself on the rare occasion that I see Melinda Gates eating breakfast at the 5-Spot on upper Queen Anne. This woman not only got Bill to comb his hair, but she has helped create one of the most amazing and unparalleled experiments in giving and world aid ever. EVER!

We are reminded about the work and promise of this still-fledgling philanthropic monolith today, because The Gates Foundation announced a new CEO: Jeff Raikes, a longtime Microsoft exec. He takes over for Patty Stonesipher, who held the post since 1997.

 The foundation is building new headquarters in lower Queen Anne, across from the Space Needle and Music Experience Project. They have hired upwards of 500 of the world's most talented and innovative professionals, cherry-picking brilliance in the fields of agriculture, health care, technology, information resources, finance and administration. The projects they fund ($16 billion so far) and the scope of the foundation's work will only continue to amaze.

Some of us were sickened to hear Hillary Clinton (in campaign death throes) hammer home the "fact" that "hard-working Americans, white Americans" are supporting her and, the converse, were running away from Barack Obama.

Is this the graceful exit people are talking about when they say the Clintons are devising a dignified way to end Hillary's candidacy?

Today, a Oregon pollster came up with yet another new twist on the category of "elitist" supporters drawn to Obama. Here is why Obama is predicted to win in Oregon:

"Portland is not Pittsburgh or Philadelphia," said Tim Hibbitts, an Oregon pollster. "In many ways, it is similar to Seattle. It is a center of the creative classes. And I expect Portland to be a real stronghold for Obama ... "

The Creative Class. Was this something offered in our Montessori kindergarten?

University of Washington alumni

Lyricists, start your stanzas.

The prize is $1,000, which should be not enough incentive for those of us amateurs songsters to have to compete with some of Seattle area's rock, jazz, folk and grunge greats. Hopefully, Brandi Carlile, Heart, Peter Buck of REM, Quincy Jones and the guys from Nirvana and Soundgarden will stay keep their Grammy-award grabbing hands away from this little ditty contest.

No offense to Lester Wilson, the UW student who penned Bow Down to Washington in 1915, but we'd like to think there's a chance someone out here in the creative confines of Seattle who could come up with something a little fresher.

And hopefully Bob Dylan won't muscle in on this contest. Here's a really nice story from the UW Daily newspaper about Seattle Times rock critic Patrick MacDonald, who interviewed Dylan in 1978, when Dylan played the UW.