Eric Scigliano wrote:

Just when the civic psyche could use a boost, along comes another national magazine and names our town Number One for something. This time it’s Fast Company, the biz-whiz monthly, which names Seattle City of Year. In the accompanying essay, local novelist Garth Stein hits the high notes: Microsoft, Boeing, bookstores, Bartlett Sher and Chihuly, our “medical brain trust,” and of course “the Mountain” (Rainier, not radio). Hequotes one software engineer: Eight months of crappy weather and four of sun make this the “perfect place” to binge-work and then kick back. And he salutes “the canny passion of Paul Allen.” Canny? The man who bought Charter Communications and built the EMP?

Don’t pop the champagne just yet. Stein trumpets Seattle’s January jobless rate, "more than a percentage point better than the national average.” Since then it’s nearly up with the national rate. That’s a lot of unemployed brain trust kicking back.{% display:image for:post image:1 align:right height:170 %}

MEANWHILE, A VERY DIFFERENT LIST sponsored by Ritz Crackers and tallied by Portland "Best Places to Live" guru Bruce Sperling dubs Seattle America’s most fun city for the usual reasons—lakes, mountains, sports (who needs the Sonics?)—plus block parties and dog parks.

Consider the source. Ritz invented the Mock Apple Pie, which, believe me, sounds more fun than it tastes. Its funstakes rated Minneapolis Number Two this year and Number One previously, while New Orleans came in dead last, even before Katrina. Anyone who can’t have fun in New Orleans might as well stay in Minneapolis. Or come to Seattle to practice.

{% display:image for:post image:2 align:left height:170 %}*NOT EVERYONE LOVES US.* Last month, yet another cracker, Combos (“the Official Cheese Filled Snack of Nascar”), released yet another Sperling list, of America’s Manliest Cities. Surely it’s coincidental that Nascar tracks and consumption of “salty snacks” like Combos were among the “manly indicators” measured. Cities also got testosterone points for hunting, hardware stores, and monster truck rallies. They lost them for “emasculating characteristics like the abundance of home furnishing stores, high minivan sales and subscription rates to beauty magazines.” Seattle comes in 40th out of 50, ahead of Portland and New York but way behind Number One Nashville. That’s what we get for blowing up the Kingdome and sending the monster trucks to Tacoma.

Then again, another Sperling study rated Tacoma Most Stressful City in America. If we were more macho, we’d be right up there with Cincinnati, Oklahoma City, and Toledo. Fun used to get you prosecuted in Cincinnati, and any fun being had in Toledo is a well-kept secret.

One city rates high for fun and manliness: You guessed it, Minneapolis, maybe because you have to like ice fishing to have fun there. Otherwise, the most manly cities are the least fun, and vice versa. We’ll settle for fun, and let the monster trucks stress out Tacoma.