The Market Celebrates A Dear Friend

The Pike Place Public Market, for all its petty quarrels, is a real people place. In many ways, it's like a large family.

That solidarity will be evident today at the market's ninth "Taste of Washington Farms." The 9 a.m.-4 p.m. event is designed to give the public a chance to meet farmers from across the state and sample such fresh fruits and vegetables as peppers, tomatoes and purple carrots.

The most touching aspect of this year's "taste" will be a memorial booth dedicated to the late Sue Verdi, member of a family that has been farming and bringing produce to the market for three generations. Verdi braved many years of treatment before succumbing to breast cancer June 21.

The Sue Verdi memorial booth will feature a memory book where people can write a few lines and a bouquet to which passers-by can add flowers. Said one observer, "By day's end, the stall is sure to be a blaze of blooms."

Starting out: Hot off the press is a book that picks Seattle as one of "30 Great Cities to Start Out In." The Macmillan USA publication ($17.95) is subtitled: "The Best Places to Live in Your 20s and 30s."

Author Sandra Gurvis describes the Emerald City as "a great place for artists and computer whizzes," but warns about Latteland's 200 overcast days and "the gloom (that) can make you a little loopy."

One postscript: Although the ink is barely dry on the book, a number of its highly touted destinations, alas, are already history. Among them: Italia, Tucci Benucch, Casa U Betcha, Cockpit and the late and much lamented Moe's Mo'Roc'N Cafe.

Pet project: The Jell-O Mold Building on Western Avenue is no more. The aging two-story structure, decorated by resident artists and writers with copper molds, recently was demolished to make way for a Harbor Properties project.

But the building's spirit lives on. North Seattle resident Bonnie Walker was so inspired by the funky decor that she began buying Jell-O molds at garage sales. It took her three years, but she finally had a sizable collection.

This summer - "just in the nick of time," she says - she nailed the molds to a doghouse in her backyard.

Walker reports, "The Jell-O mold doghouse is enjoyed by various neighborhood cats, dogs and other critters."

More Malones: The wedding took place in February in New York City, but pictures of the bride and groom are in the September Town & Country magazine. The couple: Seattle music-company executive Mike Malone and Barbara Anne Corvino, former PR director for Tiffany's.

Malone and Corvino met at a Christmas party Malone threw for friends in Manhattan. Afterward, he walked her home and, as he tells it, talked up a storm until 4:30 a.m.

The new Mrs. Malone has been adjusting to life here, doing volunteer work and preparing for the birth of the couple's first child next February. She'll also help launch Tiffany's first Seattle store, which opens next year.

Call of the wild: Spotted recently on Interstate 5, heading south, was a white Miata with this not-so-cryptic license: MEOWTA.

Jean Godden's column appears Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday in the Local News section of The Times. Her phone message number is 206-464-8300. Her e-mail address is: jgod-new@seatimes.com