Jean's New Beau Is One Smart Fellow

Everyone's asking about Bruce Carter, the international businessman who is engaged to KING-TV news anchor Jean Enersen. Who is this fellow who's marrying the city's best-known TV personality?

Turns out Carter, 53, who holds dual American and British citizenship, is a Renaissance man. He earned a doctorate in microbiology from the University of London. His scientific background includes work on the genetics of cell division in yeast.

He came here in 1986 as vice president and director of research for Seattle-based ZymoGenetics Inc. At present, he is serving as executive vice president for Copenhagen-based Novo Nordisk, the parent company of ZymoGenetics.

Among his spare-time activities are sculling, golf, soccer and European history. He represented Great Britain in rowing at the 1968 Olympic Games. He's the divorced father of two.

Enersen, who has two daughters from a previous marriage to developer Paul Skinner, said mutual friends introduced them. The new power couple plan to wed on St. Valentine's Day and make their home here.

Mud fest: King County Democratic Party Chairman George Zander says the competition between King County Councilmen Ron Sims and Greg Nickels to replace County Executive Gary Locke has been free of mudslinging.

Or at least it was until a Sunday night party at the home of former state Rep. John O'Brien.

Zander explains what happened: "The yard next to O'Brien's house, where guests were parking, turned into a quagmire, and Greg Nickels' car got stuck in the mud. We had to push him out. Poor Bill Dubay fell face-first in the mud, but all of us were splattered."

Pine away: Last year, Seattle's downtown merchants backed a ballot measure to reopen Pine Street between Fourth and Fifth avenues to vehicles. Rationale was that the one-block closure, in effect since 1990, had adverse impacts on retail sales.

Voters passed the plan to reopen the street. And now redesign work is complete. But the street still remains closed and will remain so until Jan. 6. The delay is, surprisingly, at the request of downtown merchants.

Why not open it to ease holiday traffic? City Council President Jan Drago says, "My interpretation is that it's the heaviest shopping time of the year and they were concerned about safety."

Clinical terms: Speaking at the Seattle Arts & Lectures series Monday night, Mary Karr, author of "The Liar's Club," a memoir of her childhood hardships, offered her definition of a dysfunctional family.

She said, "A family is dysfunctional when it has more than one member . . ."

Keep it clean: A recent edition of "The Hill," a Washington, D.C., publication, highlights a quote from Rep. Linda Smith, R-Wash. Commenting on Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell's prediction that the Senate will kill campaign-finance reform, Smith responded: "He's one belligerent person who likes the laundering of political money."

Rumor control: There's no truth to a story that's been circulating on the Internet. McDonald's is not planning to buy the KeyArena and is not - definitely NOT - making plans to change the stadium's name to the MacArena.

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