Court House Continuum

You can add to my list of favorite Washington courthouses (no, I haven't spent time in them fighting infractions!), the Jefferson County Courthouse. I can't believe I forgot that one! I was in Port Townsend this past weekend giving a talk at the Jefferson County Historical Museum and had the opportunity to walk around town a bit later. (Also the opp to view a special comic book collection-thanks, Bill!) I forgot how beautiful PT's courthouse is.

And you can add Port Townsend to my favorite towns for doing a book talk at. PT has surpassed Bellingham in the number of attendees I have gotten at an event. I had over 80 fellow hikers crammed in the city council chambers to hear me talk about hiking in the Olympics. Sold a considerable amount of books too. Thanks PT!

And if I wasn't a guidebook writer maybe I would go in business printing left-wing bumper stickers. I'd make a fortunate selling them in PT. What is it with far lefties anyways with their constant need to be a walking billboard to shove their views in your face? You rarely ever see a far-right winger with more than two bumper stickers on his/her vehicle. But lefties-their entire VW van is plastered in them-maybe its holding those junkie carbon-belchers together! Bumper stickers are like cats-if you have more than two you definitely have some personality disorder! And don't even get me going on tattoos and piercings. At times when I was walking around PT I felt like I was back in the 1890s at a circus sideshow! Oh, Romano you just don't understand free expression- the hell I don't I'm using it right now!

Seriously, PT is a beautiful town and a great place to hang out and there are definitely some characters there. But there are characters everywhere-conservative, liberal, apolitical, apocalyptic-they just are more noticeable in PT. Or to paraphrase New York Comedian Eddie Diaz when he commented on meeting me in Seattle years ago. "Romano-uh? back in my hometown Romano is like dog crap in the city-there's one on every corner!" And in PT there's one shall we say confromed non-conformist (I swear they all read the same handbook on how to dress, dance, and what to eat and say) on every corner as well. Ain't America grand?!