From: Bill Maule
Subject: Roslyn's dead people

Hi Leslie,

I saw your note on the M100 list about all the dead wandering the non stop-lighted streets of Roslyn, and had to say "Howdy!" I had a gig, (once upon a lifetime ago) flying the helicopter camera ship for the Northern Exposure episode where the Indian/Eskimo young man bought RuthAnn a burial plot (speaking of dead people in Roslyn). Can't remember his name to save my fish-flakes, even though he expressed his single digit frustration at me when the aircraft's rotor wash blew dust n' stuff all over him during the filming. A fun time was had by all, though.

Thanks for the daydream.

Bill Maule
Western Labs Media

Aussie Philip Inspects Both Ends of Interstate 90.

Actually, there's not much to this story, except that last month Paul Izbicki (in Boston) and I (in Seattle) managed to force-feed our friend from Australia, Philip Hodgetts, as much Americana as he could take. Philip, in turn, brought the glow of his new Powerbook computer and his usual fun company.

Philip and his partner Greg have built a business in Australia providing educational products for video editing and other multimedia computer things and earlier this year they came to Las Vegas for the big broadcasting trade show so many of us attend each year. He is a font of information, but mostly, he's fun to drag places.

Our Media 100 user group took Phil (or Philbert, as we now have indiscriminately named him) under its collective wing during his latest month-long blitz of North America. For the Seattle portion of his trip, I decide on the Road to Pullman / Northern Exposure / Let's Look at the Soggy Lack of Fall Colors trip to Roslyn. We pretty much had to go to Roslyn because Phil's partner Greg is such a huge fan of Northern Exposure and we had to bring him the ultimate souvenir, a coveted refrigerator magnet known as a "Brick Dick."

I picked Phil up on a rainy afternoon and we headed to Snoqualmie Falls. The water was low and the falls less impressive than usual. "You should have seen it when it was flooding, " I said.Philip made a few phone calls from my truck as we slogged through the rain down the highway east toward Snoqualmie Pass. I underwhelmed him with the announcement that we were at a whopping 3,000 feet. "Honestly, we have higher mountains," I insisted. We continued to Roslyn and drove into town, which looks like the opening shots of the Northern Exposure theme. We stopped in the dark for pictures of the sign where the moose walks.

As unimpressive as the weather was, the Roslyn Cemetary was great. We rambled around and then drove around the town, up and down the hills with the coal-town bungalows lining the sidewalkless streets. It reminded him of Newcastle. We went to the Brick and order Tequilas, Brick bacon burgers, and more tequilas. As we leaned against the shuffleboard table and dusted the cornmeal off the chairs Philip showed me his latest computer product on his new mac laptop. People in the bar peered at the computer screen between turns at billiards. The food arrived and we admired our surroundings, speculating about the running water trough under the majestic bar. Urinal or spitoon? The age-old question. In the The Brick, they used to sell refrigerator magnets of a most suggestive design (they were referred to as "Brick Dicks") but they didn't have them any more. It looked like we might not have a present for Gregory after all.

Next day, Philip flies on east leaving the Northwest rain behind him. I mail a videotape of Road to Pullman and my favorite "Brick Dick" (a birthday present from three years ago) to Paul in Boston.

Happy ending to the story: The magnet didn't ruin the videotape, Paul gave the package to Philip (and took him on an autumn colors / Boston heritage / Funky Architecture drive north to New Hampshire), Philip gave the package to Gregory when he got home, and it made Gregory's day. Of course, one would expect nothing less from a "Brick Dick."