The Snow Falls Like A Static Fury

As the weather continues to make itself felt in the greater Seattle area, I'm finding plenty of time to let my mind (and internet searches) wander. So here's the starting point.

http://fora.tv/2008/12/12/MythBusters_Co-Host_Adam_Savage_on_Obsession

This was a great little clip that was referred to me by my friend Derek. Beyond the greatness that is Adam Savage, it got me to open up an extra tab and start a web search that I'm still pursuing. The impetus was a reference to people being either a Hammett or Chandler person. My search went in the direction of Hammett. It hadn't occurred to me before, but I thought I'd be interested in picking up some Hammett and giving that a go as some fun reading (and also, now, some Chandler to compare and determine if the statement regarding preference is in fact true).

As a quick aside, Hammett apparently wrote The Thin Man, which is one of my favorite old movies.

So my search started with the assumption that I'd hit eBay or Amazon and track down a used copy of something or other. But my first search hit a Wikipedia article. I've recently become a sucker for the quick biographies that Wikipedia provides. So there I started. And right off the bat I get a (slight) Hemingway connection. Both Hammett and Hemingway served in ambulance corps during World War I. Hammett however got sick and spent the war in Cushman Hospital in Tacoma, WA.

Which sent me on another tangent. I've never heard of Cushman Hospital, so I got another search going in that direction and found this. The article is only a stub, but the broad details are there. The Cushman Hospital was located on the Puyallup Indian reservation and was torn down around 2003 to make way for the casino. Apparently it was also a location of note in the American Indian rights movement. In 1976, the hospital was taken over by armed members of the Puyallup tribe.

It's strange some of the details that you miss while living in a place. I've been in Tacoma for nine years now (coming out from New Hampshire in the fall of '99) but never was aware of that particular change in the landscape. I wonder if I ever actually saw the hospital building.