Dressing the Women in Blue

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Officer Pat Johnson with her child, in Los Angeles 1971. Cal Montney/Getty Images

“On a Friday afternoon in a small suburb of western Cleveland, Sergeant Tanya Sirl was finishing her shift when she spotted a burglary suspect on the run. Wearing her standard police uniform, she pursued the suspect on foot, leaping over a chain link fence in the process. She succeeded in detaining him, but not before ripping open the seam of her pants. “My pants got caught on the fence because the crotch was so low,” said Sgt. Sirl. “It ripped them from appetite to asshole. Everyone got to see my hot pink thong.” She made her way back to the station holding her pants together with one hand, and writing up her report with the other.”

READ THE FULL ARTICLE ON RACKED 

Janet Varney on ‘Stan Against Evil’, ‘The JV Club’, and Empathy in the Age of Trump

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“In her latest adventure, Janet Varney stars as Evie Barret, the new sheriff in town on the comedy horror IFC series, Stan Against Evil. Varney is the recipient of excessive gore to the the face, spooky frights, and consistent undermining by the former sheriff played by John McGinley.”

READ THE FULL INTERVIEW ON SPLITSIDER 

Making the Perfect Seattle Rain Jacket

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Photo: Freeman

“On a quest to find the perfect Aloha shirt? Look no further than Hawaii. When you need a sturdy pair of cowboy boots, Texas is your one-stop shop. And if raindrops keep falling on your head, Seattle Freeman raincoats have got you covered.

Accustomed to a consistent drizzle, Seattle residents embrace the rain as part of what keeps the trees evergreen, the water shimmering, and the coffee-shop book-reading a preferred activity. Seattle had a record-breaking ten inches of rainfall this October, but that doesn’t mean we were any more inclined to carry umbrellas. They’re cumbersome! Raincoats though, well, that’s another story.

The tale of the perfect Seattle raincoat begins not with The Cat in the Hat, but with Brittany and Scott Freeman. The Freemans met at a party in Bellingham while attending Western Washington University. They fell in love and married, and certainly didn’t foresee that one day they would be in the raincoat-making business. Scott was a carpenter, deft at engineering cabinets and woodcarving. Brittany worked full-time in the corporate arena, sewing as a hobby on the side.”

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Christmas Otter delivers mischievous cheer

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“While Rudolph guides the sleigh and Santa slides down the chimney in other households, an unusual visitor makes mischief at the Finks’ house. 

But that wasn’t always so. 

In the past, Marian and her wife, Shane, along with their daughter, Asa, traveled to the East Coast to celebrate Christmas with extended family. Because of work obligations, they were flying into New Jersey on Christmas Eve just in time for a seven-course dinner. 

“It’s a massive feast that goes on till midnight,” says Marian. “The menu changes, but there’s always lobster, clams, shrimp and lasagna.”

Two years ago, the couple had a second daughter, Maeve. Shortly after, they decided to opt out of the hectic holiday travel that year and celebrate at home in Seattle’s South Park neighborhood. Without all the magic and hullabaloo of the caravan back East, the Finks wanted to create a special tradition just for their family of four to share at home. 

Shane had an idea. Growing up, she’d always had a special relationship with stuffed animals and — for better or worse — continued to amass a substantial collection of them into adulthood.”

READ THE FULL STORY IN SEATTLE’S CHILD

A season (and lifetime) of giving

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The Thurman Family. Photo: Joshua Huston

“Joy Thurman might just be the busiest woman in Seattle this holiday season. 

Joy is a fourth-year medical student at University of Washington, a mother of a 3½-year-old daughter and expecting a new baby any second (if she or he hasn’t already arrived). When she’s not hitting the books or working at Harborview, she volunteers at the White Center food bank with her father, her husband, and daughter Andersyn. 

“I always get the most out of the work I don’t get paid for,” says Joy. When Andersyn was old enough to stand and hold things on her own, she joined her mom at the food bank, standing up on milk crates to give out cans. 

“She loves going to the food bank, and everyone always really enjoys having her there,” says Joy. The family volunteers year-round, including the holiday season. 

Born and raised in South Seattle, she met her husband, Nic, a neonatal intensive-care unit nurse, while attending Western Washington University in Bellingham. The couple celebrates Christmas in the culinary traditions of their blended family. Thurman is half African American, half Filipino, and her husband is Vietnamese American.”

READ THE FULL STORY IN SEATTLE’S CHILD

T.J. Miller Wants to Use Comedy to Soothe the Human Condition

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“T.J. Miller cuts to the core. Whether shooting from the hip on local morning talk shows or waxing philosophical in his standup, Miller is operating from a place of gut instinct. In his latest ventures, he’s appearing opposite Jennifer Aniston in a holiday comedy, Office Christmas Party, debuting December 9th, and starring as Greg the Genie in a second series of Slim Jim ads on Funny or Die. Between shooting the new season of Silicon Valley and appearing on Ellen, he made some time to talk to me about nihilism, mortality, and Goblesnarfs.”

READ THE FULL INTERVIEW ON VULTURE

Bobby Moynihan on Some Strange Days at ‘SNL’

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“Bobby Moynihan was part of one of the most heartbreaking episodes of Saturday Night Live last week. Before Kate McKinnon took the piano as Hillary Clinton for an emotional rendition of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” to start the show, the cast was working overtime to find the humor in America’s decision to elect the most inexperienced, openly racist, xenophobic, and misogynistic President in history. It wasn’t easy to be funny, but the show must go on. I talked with Bobby Moynihan about the election fallout, David Pumpkins, and the Secret Life of Pets.” 

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How to Talk to Your Kids About Bullying

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Adam Wenzel. Photo: Joshua Huston

“We can all conjure an image of a bully, drawing from TV shows and movies like Back to the Future, Mean Girls and A Christmas Story (poor Ralphie!). But the truth is, bullying is not a normal, inevitable part of childhood. It’s a serious deviation. Gone are the days of dismissing repeated, aggressive behavior among school-aged children as merely kids being kids. 

Decades of research have taught us that children who are bullied — as well as those who inflict the bullying — often suffer anxiety, depression, poor academic performance and physical ailments, and are at a higher risk for substance abuse and a wide range of other health problems in adulthood.

Committee for Children, a Seattle nonprofit, is working to prevent bullying through a social-emotional learning program being taught to 80,000 Puget Sound-area students at 130 schools. 

‘It’s not just about making kids better, it’s about working with adults and an entire community to create a climate where bullying is not the norm, not tolerated, not OK,’ says Mia Doces, director of the New Mission Ventures program at the committee. 

No parent wants to discover that their child is getting pelted in the head every day on their morning bus ride or eating lunch in the bathroom to avoid taunting in the cafeteria. But if you don’t ask, you may never know. Many kids either don’t recognize that it’s a problem they should report, or they feel too ashamed to tell someone they trust.” 

READ THE FULL STORY IN SEATTLE’S CHILD

Roy Wood Jr.’s Full Circle: From Journalism to Comedy to ‘The Daily Show’

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“Roy Wood Jr. began his comedy career in 1998 at the age of 19 while studying journalism at Florida A&M University. He took off like a rocket, hosting a popular morning radio show in his hometown of Birmingham, Alabama, starring in the TBS sitcom Sullivan & Son, performing on Conan and David Letterman, and making the rounds at comedy clubs nationwide. Now a huge hit as a correspondent on The Daily Show, the comic’s double-decade commitment to comedy is paying off in a big way. A few days after taping his first one-hour Comedy Central special in Atlanta, Wood Jr. took some time to talk to me from his “noisy-ass corner office” at TDS about politics, prank phone calls, and puzzles.”

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How Chris Cubas Spent $30,000 In One Month

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“In a new Fusion comedy documentary, Chris Gets Money, Austin-based standup comedian Chris Cubas endeavors to make sense of income inequality in America. Cubas grew up financially insecure and has never been able to comfortably make ends meet as an adult. Why? He works hard for over forty hours per week. His family worked hard. Why do so many hardworking people still struggle to pay for basic necessities like shelter and food? Cubas reasoned that if he could live like the super rich for a little while, maybe he would develop a more nuanced understanding of their logic. The documentary explores questions like, why do those in the top 1% find it sensible to purchase seven sports cars, but unreasonable to pay their employees a livable wage and offer health benefits? How is finding tax loopholes for wealthy people a real job? Is the American Dream truly achievable? Cubas gets money — $30,000 to be exact — to spend over the course of 30 days and embarks on an anthropomorphic journey into Austin’s wealthy westside.”

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