Tag Archives: Bainbridge in the news

BI’s “boring” symphony story goes national, becomes quiz show question

News traveled fast about the woman who was tossed out of BPA for uttering “boring” during a symphony performance.

Once I put it up on this blog, the Associated Press grabbed it and put it on the wire. Fastest in the West was the Wenatchee World, which had it up first (even before the Kitsap Sun’s main site). In short order, it was reprinted in the Bellingham Herald, the Olympian, Tacoma News Tribune, Seattle Times and other papers. TV and radio stations in Seattle and Portland soon followed suit.

The magazine Seattle Met advocated for more witty heckling and the Seattle P-I expressed sympathy for the woman.

“Really, who hasn’t been bored to tears at a concert, recital, or school play?” wrote the P-I’s Vanessa Ho.

Out of state, the story popped up in San Antonio, a small paper in Indiana, Washington D.C.s Examiner and Toronto’s Globe and Mail. Even CBS News put it on their website.

KIRO radio’s Dave Ross and Luke Burbank spent quite a bit of time discussing the issue. They even tracked down the symphony’s program and played various clips to see which tune could have sparked the “boring” comment. Listen to their discussion here.

Best of all, though, was the blotter item’s appearance as a quiz show question on National Public Radio’s Wait, Wait…Don’t Tell Me.

When quizzed about why the woman had been removed, panelist Mo Rocca guessed it must have been for passing gas. Burbank (who also happened to be a panelist) showed off some of his research, surmising that the boring comment must have come after Bizet’s Carmen Suit, which he insisted is anything but boring (as Tom & Jerry can attest to).

“So the woman was both rude and not musically accurate,” Burbank said.

You can listen to the “Wait, Wait” symphony bit below. It’s at the 1:07 minute mark.

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Bainbridge distillery on KOMO News

KOMO is the latest news outlet to pickup on the organic distillery taking shape here on Bainbridge Island.

You can see their video piece above. And my story about the distillery here.

Interesting comments follow the KOMO story, which you can see on their site here.

One commenter, objecting to the reporter’s characterization of BI as “scenic” and “rustic,” has this to say:

Scenic? Rustic? When was the last time this staffer was on the island? BI is crowded, overbuilt, heavily traffic’d and half the population are rude NIMBY hippie types.

Another commenter writes:

Agreed! Entering Bainbridge Island is like entering The Twilight Zone. Something is very wrong with the general population.

It’s not just left over hippies.. It’s the now rich Hippie offspring mixed with California’s Yuppie Rejects!

There you have it. Four decades of island demography in a nutshell. The Hippies begat the Rich Hippies (who apparently gained their riches through inherited stores of patchouli and love beads). Although the Rich Hippies became quick converts to the NIMBY way, their “Not In My Back Yard” mantra apparently did not apply to the influx of California Yuppie Rejects. Intermarriage between the native Rich Hippies and the foreign-born Yuppie Rejects has produced a new generation of islander that I suggest should henceforth be called Cali NIMBY Yippies. Has a ring to it, don’t you think?