Food & Drink
Author Maria Semple Names Seattle Spots in Her Latest Book
Location, location, location
By Linda Morgan October 7, 2016
This article originally appeared in the October 2016 issue of Seattle magazine.
In Seattle-based writer Maria Semple’s latest book, Today Will Be Different (Little, Brown and Company, $27) desperate housewife and former animator Eleanor Flood races around Seattle one day (see map) trying to make sense of everything that seems to matter in her life.
Much like her last book, Where’d You Go, Bernadette, Semple incorporates city highlights into her sometimes zany—but consistently funny—plot. (We can tell from the name-dropping that Semple, an L.A. transplant, is feeling more at home.) Given Seattle’s traffic, could Eleanor make it to all these spots in the day the plot spans? Now that’s good fiction.
1. Galer Street School on Queen Anne: The fictitious red brick school overlooking Puget Sound that her son attends
2. Key Arena: Eleanor searches for her husband here
3. Space Needle: It’s always hovering
4. Lola: The Tom Douglas eatery where she meets her poetry teacher every Thursday morning
5. Mamnoon: She stops here with her son for lunch
6. Starbucks on Melrose and Pine (i.e. the Roastery): It’s where her husband, Joe, likes to write
7. Jazz Alley: Joe loves it and gets season tickets; she’s not a fan
8. Olympic Sculpture Park: A lot happens here amid the eclectic art pieces, and she trips right by the red Calder
9. Tavolata: She plans on having rigatoni there that night but doesn’t make it
10. The Clink: Century Link Field, where her husband works as team doc for the Seahawks.
Follow Us
Grand Illusion is Moving — But It’s Not Going Far
Help Seattle’s volunteer-run cinema find a new home
After more than 50 years of screenings in the U District, the Grand Illusion Cinema is losing its lease. The historic arthouse, which has been a staple of Seattle’s film scene since 1970, will have to move from its 1403 N.E. 50th St. location by February 2025 — but it’s not the end of the
Seattle & Iceland Enjoy Deep Roots
Hot springs are nice, but Iceland’s new creative class is among the top reasons to visit Reykjavík, Seattle’s longtime sister city
One unusually warm afternoon this past April, I found myself in a long line outside a building in downtown Reykjavík, Iceland. Ostensibly, I was waiting for pizza...
Cleopatra’s Story Told Through Traditional Indian Dance
The newest production from Mohini Dance School looks at the trials of the Egyptian queen
In 2013, several of Smitha Krishnan’s friends reached out, asking if she was available to teach Mohiniyattam — a form of classical Indian dance originating from the southern state of Kerala — to them and their children. A dancer since childhood, Krishnan, the artistic director of Mohini Dance School, started training in Indian classical dance