(Too Late to) Rally Fries

It's baseball season and my team is so far out of competition that it no longer matters. In those cases, you just have to sit back and enjoy the benefits of an evening at the park. In my case, I go for the garlic fries.

What! We're on Lord Stanley's Cup?

Thanks to my roommate, I've become something of a NY Rangers fan. Granted, I'm not the worlds biggest hockey fan, but I'm growing to love it more and more. Most of my hockey experiences growing up were watching the Seattle Thunderbirds, who oddly enough seemed to be perpetually playing the Kelowna Rockets. Western Hockey League games can be a little underwhelming.
Mike and I have often wondered about Seattle's lack of an NHL team. It seems to make more sense than, say, Carolina, Tampa Bay or Phoenix. But for whatever reason Seattle has never had a professional hockey team.

Or at least that's what I thought.

Today as I was reading several articles about how Clay Bennett is a big douche (I hate to use that word, but it really is the only one that accurately describes the man), I came across this one and learned something that I'd never learned in an entire childhood of Seattle sports fandom: Seattle had a "pro" hockey team. That's right, from 1914 to 1924 the Seattle Metropolitans represented my fair home town in the Pacific Coast Hockey Association. Now, if you haven't heard of this league, well, you're not the only one. But as it turns out, the PCHA was good enough to begin competing in 1915 with the National Hockey Association (the precursor to the NHL) for the Stanley Cup. And to make a long story short (yeah, probably too late for that), in 1917, the Seattle Metropolitans became the first American team to win the Stanley Cup. Bet you didn't know that! Eventually, in 1924 the team folded, and a year later so did the PCHA.

So why is it that I've never heard this before? Why is it that all during my growing up years I never once heard anything but "Seattle's only won 1 major league sports title"? Clearly, we've won two. 8 if you want to count the 6 championships that the Seattle Rainiers won before the NL expanded to California in 1958 and essentially put an end to the PCL.

What's that you say? We have a WNBA championship too? News to me.

Northwest Junk

A recent post has me thinking about this:and this:
Aside from my family, these are probably the two things I miss most about Seattle - Thomas Kemper sodas and Tim's Cascade chips. When I moved to Utah for college, you couldn't get either of these locally. In fact, my Mom used to ship me Tim's, which I would treat like fine wine. Typically, I'd get two or three bags. One was strictly mine, the others were shared generously with other Seattleites and those found worthy of the experience. Ha! I was a bit of a nut. But with flavors like Coney Island (hot dogs and mustard) and steak and onions, so were they. Most of their weird flavors are gone, but I'm still convinced that some of these Seattle-based food companies (Jones Soda is another notable example) make their flavor choices during cannabis-induced cases of the munchies.
Luckily, product planners over at Thomas Kemper have generally avoided that trend, sticking to the classics: Ginger Ale, Cream Soda, Orange Cream Soda, Grape, Black Cherry, and of course, Root Beer. Mmm... their root beer. I wish I could buy you all a glass so you could try it. I've been drinking the stuff since the late 90's and my Mother makes a point of having a cold one in the fridge whenever I visit. Their ginger ale is more of a ginger beer, and really burns going down. It's taken me awhile, but I really like the stuff. Also, their black cherry is the best I've ever tried.
Thankfully, after I returned from Mexico, both of these were available at the Orem Costco (another great Seattle-based company), which makes me wonder if they can be had at one of the local Costcos. Either would certainly be worth the trip.