What do you think of the word 'landlord?': Today So Far

• Seattle birders hatch new name.
• What do you think of the word "landlord?"
• Former Starbuck CEO (as of last week) Howard Schultz was in front of a Senate committee this morning.

This post originally appeared in KUOW's Today So Far newsletter for March 29, 2023.

The group formerly known as "Seattle Audubon" has hatched a new name: Birds Connect Seattle. That's the name of Seattle's birding organization after months of engaging in a process to change its title. Seattle is among a wave of cities where bird-watching groups are nixing the name "Audubon" for its association with John Audubon, a guy connected to racism, slavery, and anti-abolition. He also didn't watch birds as much as he shot them.

The naming committee sifted through hundreds of proposals after hearing from more than 1,000 people. I previously suggested "The Murie Society" as a potential new name for this organization, based on Margaret Murie who was born in Seattle and was an important figure in developing the Wilderness Act and establishing the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (she also reportedly spent her honeymoon bird watching). Birds Connect Seattle, however, had a few rules for coming up with its new name. Among them: no eponymous names, and no "society." It didn't want "society" because group members felt it wasn't inclusive enough. That pretty much meant that names like "The Murie Society" weren't gonna happen.

Which, OK fine, but that still doesn't explain why my other ideas didn't make the cut. What's wrong with "The Seattle Awesome Society," "Seattle Bird Nerds," or "Birds and Brews"?! Read more here.

Speaking of naming things, what do you think of the word "landlord?" Bill Radke's latest Words in Review episode focuses on "landlord" and questions whether the term is still relevant.

The word "landlord" comes from old, old English feudal systems (and French). This was back when there were kings and knights and nobility. Lords were appointed to oversee land, and the people living on that land were serfs or peasants doing the work. Today, that has evolved and we just say "landlord" for a property owner who rents to another person. We have a lot of words like this. While on Week in Review, I mentioned that "mortgage" originally meant "death pledge," and "tragedy" is derived from "goat song." The word "girl" used to just mean a little kid, but now we have gender associated with it. Whiskey comes from a Gaelic term meaning "water of life."

Ayda Cater rents a house in Seattle, and told KUOW's Joshua McNichols that she doesn't like the term "landlord." She adds that she doesn't feel like she's living like a "lord" (as a renter in this area, I can add that I don't feel like a lord either).

“I liken the housing market to a food market, a grocery store,” Cater said. “Would you call your grocer your 'foodlord'? I sure wouldn't."

There is an effort in Washington (and other states) to shift from saying "landlord" to "housing provider," which technically works. But then again, parents are housing providers. People know exactly what a landlord is. So if we're searching for specifics, I had a few ideas to throw out there.

• Room-meister or lease-meister: Due to strong association with funk-meister, landlords should become familiar with Parliament-Funkadelic.
• Managing director of human storage facilities: Now this is specific and hits the mark. And let's be honest, most of the new apartments around Seattle would be adequately described as "human storage."
• Accommodater: Derived from "accomodations." The problem would be getting Arnold Schwarzenegger's voice stuck in your head whenever you say it.

Former Starbuck CEO (as of last week) Howard Schultz was in front of a Senate committee this morning, answering allegations that the coffee company engaged in union busting. In short, Schultz denied any of that was happening.

Starbucks has said that it has closed some stores because of safety concerns in the areas they were in. Some of those stores were unionized. Starbucks has also offered pay raises to stores that are not unionized. Schultz has said that is because the company can immediately offer such raises to non-union employees, but has to engage in bargaining for unionized workers.

On the other side of this is Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who has previously said that Starbucks is “the most aggressive union-busting company in America.” Also on the other side of this is Washington Sen. Patty Murray, who was present at the hearing this morning. Read the full story here.

Note for TSF readers. It will be a brief week for this newsletter. In short, I've made plans to LARP through LA as Larry David (I call it LDRPing), making annoying observations, and saying things that probably shouldn't be said out loud. It should be pretty, pretty, pretty good. Just so nobody thinks we forgot to send out TSF later this week.

Since I'll be out of the office, I'm going to include my usual Friday Five today. We'll call it the "Wednesday Wrap."

• Washington skate: History on 8 wheels
• Seattle and Justice officials seek to end most oversight of city's police
• Fisher Investments pulls out of Washington in wake of capital gains tax decision
• Attack ads challenge property sales tax proposal in Washington state
• 27 indicted in prison drug ring with ties to white supremacy

AS SEEN ON KUOW

King County Sheriff Patti Cole-Tindall's mother, Marie-Josephine Norman, secures a pin onto Cole-Tindall's uniform during a graduation ceremony for 720-hour Basic Law Enforcement Academy on Tuesday, March 28, 2023, at the Washington State Criminal Justice Commission in Burien. Cole-Tindall was appointed sheriff last year, but her certification had lapsed during nearly 20 years in administrative and civilian roles. So, she had to return to the academy as a cadet. (Megan Farmer / KUOW)

DID YOU KNOW?

There's a lot of birds I would associate with Washington state, such as eagles, osprey, or all the crows that live in Bothell. The hooded merganser is probably my all-time favorite waterfowl. School children were asked to select a state bird in 1928, and they went with the meadowlark. But that bird proved controversial because seven other states picked the same one. So in 1931, the Washington Federation of Women's Clubs took a vote and selected the willow goldfinch to be Washington's state bird. For 20 years, Washington had two unofficial state birds. In 1951, lawmakers decided to have school children take a vote again, putting to rest the goldfinch vs meadowlark debate. The kids went with ... the willow goldfinch. The state Legislature made it official that same year (it also happens to be Iowa's and New Jersey's state bird, but what are you gonna do?).

The willow goldfinch is also known as the wild canary or American goldfinch. This bird likes to live in country settings with open fields, orchards, floodplains, and gardens. Sounds like Washington to me. The oldest known willow goldfinch lived to be 10 years and 5 months.

ALSO ON OUR MINDS

The FDA may soon authorize a spring round of COVID-19 boosters for some people

The FDA is planning for an annual Covid booster campaign starting in the fall — with vaccines that will have been updated to target whichever variant is expected to be circulating next winter. But the FDA may also authorize a second booster with the bivalent vaccines for at least some people, such as those who are at high risk because they have compromised immune systems or are 65 and older.

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