Edgewater Room Offers `Northern Exposure'

Around town, they're saying that the character Maggie shares a bed with Dr. Joel on the May 4 "Northern Exposure" episode, filmed at the Edgewater Inn in Seattle.

Are the scurrilous rumors true?

A Deep Throat source who has seen the script says, "you better believe it." According to the source, Maggie flies Dr. Joel to Juneau for a medical convention. When they arrive, they check into the "Edgewater Inn" in Juneau. (It's actually Seattle's Edgewater Inn.)

But, although they've made reservations, it turns out that there's no room for Maggie. She faces the choice of spending the night on the streets or in Dr. Joel's room.

Beginning to sound like the plot of an old Doris Day movie? Not to worry. There's a "gotcha" twist that involves Maggie drinking too much.

If you're into on-location realism, stop by the Edgewater Monday night for the premiere party, open to the public. The show will air at 10 p.m. in Ernie's Bar.

TREE HUGGERS: Posting rock-concert posters on phone poles is one thing. But stapling them to live trees is quite another. Trattoria Mitchelli's Danny Mitchell was spotted earlier this week removing posters for a local dance hall from two street trees in Pioneer Square.

READING LESSON: KOMO-TV reporter Keith Eldridge is puzzled by a safety packet card he discovered aboard a United flight earlier this week. It read: "If you are sitting in an exit row and you cannot read this card or cannot see well enough to follow these instructions, please tell a crew member."

SAFETY TIP: Where's the safest place in an earthquake? Ask four Puget Sounders who were touring the California wine country last Saturday. Tacoma architect Dusty Trail explains, "We were in the underground wine cellar at the Fetzer winery (in Hopland), sampling cabernets. We didn't feel a thing."

VANITY FARE: On Wednesday, I printed a plate (JSD40FS) that stumped many readers. I figured it stood for "Just the four of us."

But readers had other ideas. One insisted, "It stands for `Jesus Died for Our Fathers' Sins.' " Then Sue Tupper, who is at work on the Mike Lowry campaign, called to say, "I've got it. The JSD has to stand for a law degree, right? So the owner is a lawyer, 40, female and single."

Finally a call came from commercial real-estate broker Rick Libsack. He said, "That's my plate. It does stand for `Just the Four of Us.' It's a takeoff on the Grover Washington Jr. song, `Just the Two of Us.' My wife Jeannie and I loved the song, but now we have two kids."

If it makes the mystified feel better, Libsack had to explain the plate to the clerk at the license bureau.

WEATHER OR NOT: The temperatures for the day were flashing past, one by one, early the other morning on ABC-TV's "World News Now," co-hosted by former KIRO-TV anchor Aaron Brown.

The network earns points for singling out cities not usually pinpointed. But where is "Twin Peaks, Washington" other than in the imagination of New Yorkers?

Jean Godden's column appears Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday in the Northwest section of The Times. Her phone is 464-8300.