A Well-Told Tale
Last week, Casey Jaywork penned a touching profile of Jamie Lutton, the owner of Capitol Hill’s Twice Sold Tales. As Jaywork explains, Lutton faces death on two fronts: As a vendor of used physical books in a hyper-digitized city, her business model is under duress. Meanwhile, she is fighting kidney failure. Yet she perseveres, and from readers’ reactions, Jaywork isn’t the only person touched by her presence.
Back in the day I was Jamie’s best customer, because I was a captive market. I had to catch the 43 outside every night to get home to the U District. I had a secret crush on her too because intelligence for me is a huge turn-on, and she has it in spades.
Wizard Garber,
via seattleweekly.com
I doubt she will remember, because I imagine she does this often, but Ms. Lutton helped me acquire my cat. And this is no ordinary cat. She’s literally the Best Kitty in the World. Thank you, Jamie. And stay excellent.
Randy Bowles
, via e-mail
Wishing, hoping, praying for you Jamie, in a Wiccan way. We need book-lovers and people who also love the crows!!!
Scott Adams, via seattleweekly.com
I remember when Jamie first started selling in the Broadway Market. We’d walk by her kiosk, check out some titles, talk to her a bit, and move on. There was something oddly magnetic about her, which I think is still with her today. Best of luck, Jamie!
WaxTadpole
, via seattleweekly.com
I loved Twice Sold Tales in general and Jamie in particular—although anyone who says she can’t be difficult is either a liar or has never met her. And while I haven’t seen her since before the turn of the century, I feel certain she’d agree with me. The last time I did see Jamie, I was shooting meth and heroin and living in an RV with no power. Jamie either didn’t notice or didn’t care, and said, “Oh, I’m so glad you came in. I’ve got something here that I love and I think you’re someone who’ll get it.” I don’t remember the title, or much of the story—a grad student in math who married her much older professor—but I remember sitting in my RV reading it and being grateful that I knew someone like Jamie.
Matt_Sweeney,
via seattleweekly.com
Overeducated
In the news section, John Stang and Sophie Hayes reported on efforts in Olympia to make community college free for some students, an idea that has plenty of fans on campus. But support isn’t unanimous.
Do we need the government subsidizing these people to stay out of the workforce for another couple years? A lot of other nations just make the four years of high school enough qualification for many jobs and offer trade-school options for those four years if the student isn’t academically likely to succeed in the high-school program. Let’s make high school not useless, creating adults that can go to work. The first year of community college is typically people’s 14th year of publicly funded school, and that’s only in the shrinking districts that aren’t offering Pre-K already.
Vince Atchison
, via Facebook
To Serve and Expect
And in our comics section, Tatiana Gill gave readers an illustrated guide to helping the homeless in our community. One reader urged a more systemic solution.
All of these suggestions are nice, but what people really need to understand is that we have a crisis because the city and county allowed service providers to continue to use outdated methods that do not reduce homelessness. While the rest of the country was busy putting together new systems and programming that actually reduce homelessness, we . . . continued allowing tent cities where people remained homeless because no services were brought in to get them housed and employed. So if you want to do something about the homeless crisis, demand action by your leaders—demand that any homeless service, whether a hygiene center, a tent city, a shelter, or even the proposed community center for the homeless by Rex Holbein’s group, only come to be if there is an opportunity at these sites for the homeless to be engaged with services that move them into housing.
LaBoite,
via seattleweekly.com
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Comments have been edited for length and clarity. Kitties who take exception with Randy Bowles’ kitty being declared “literally the Best Kitty in the World” can contact our kitty editor at whosalittlekittie wittie@seattleweekly.com or thatsrightyourea littlekittiewittie@seattleweekly.com.
