Married Life Calls Again To Mccaw

A wedding that took place in San Francisco 10 days ago is the talk - or rather the whisper - of Seattle. Groom was cellular-phone tycoon Craig McCaw of the notoriously publicity-shy McCaw family.

McCaw, 48, has been involved in a lengthy divorce, a legal battle so empire-rattling that it received front-page play in the Wall Street Journal.

The divorce concluded recently with distribution of mansions, airplanes and yachts. And now, in the blink of a pre-nup, there's a second Mrs. Craig McCaw. The wedding took place in San Francisco. It was a grand affair with entertainment by Johnny Mathis and Kenny G.

McCaw's bride is Susan Leigh Rasinski, 35, a Bay Area investment banker originally from Southern California. A Stanford grad who earned her MBA at Harvard, she was formerly an executive with a San Francisco-based soil-and-ground-water-cleanup company. Rasinski has a student pilot license, certainly a plus for McCaw, who flies his own helicopter.

It's likely the couple will spend time in the Bay Area. McCaw just purchased two adjoining properties in Atherton, Calif., for $20.25 million. The 5-acre property was purchased to preserve the privacy of a 1.3-acre parcel with a 10,200-square-foot house, pool and tennis court.

McCaw's spokesman told the Wall Street Journal that the combined properties will be used "as just a part-time residence."

Real cards: In yesterday's issue, The Stranger introduces Seattle City Council trading cards. Stranger columnist Dan Savage says the idea is "to help citizens keep track of the city's at-large council members."

Readers can clip all nine wickedly irreverent cards, with graphics by freelancer Tim Silbaugh. The Stranger had 20 slick sets printed for council aides and City Hall reporters. The only complete set went to Mayor Paul Schell.

I received three Saint Peters (The Stranger's nickname for Councilman Peter Steinbrueck). Other reporters were sent multiples of Martha Monorail, Nick the Stick, Officer Pod'ski, Donaldson Duck, Dick McMumbles, Richard the Green-Hearted, Margie the Mangler and Drive-Up Drago.

How are the council members reacting? Council President Sue Donaldson grumped, "I first heard that Donald Duck joke when I was in second grade."

But Councilwoman Martha Choe asked for extras.

New career: Bruce Brooks, deputy mayor under former Mayor Norm Rice, has joined MWW/Savitt, a public-affairs agency, as senior vice president. Brooks, an attorney with Perkins Coie before he was deputy mayor, says he's "most excited" about his latest career.

Brooks says, "We have mainly high-tech clients like Edmark." He adds that the city's ethics code will bar him from representing clients before the city for a year, but he can lobby on the county and state level.

Time flub: The program for Time magazine's 75th anniversary blast in New York City refers to one of the speakers, Microsoft's Bill Gates, as "William A. Gates."

Tsk. Time prides itself on its many fact checkers. Out here the Microsoft chairman is known as William H. Gates. (The H is for Henry.)

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