Whether rumors of lay offs at Microsoft are true or untrue (and most indications seem to point to not true, says Microsoft Blog), some Wall Street analysts seem to be encouraging Microsoft job cuts. "In a report today, Goldman Sachs' Sarah Friar says lay offs at Microsoft are "likely" and would be "good for the shares," writes Joseph Tartakoff at Microsoft Blog. Friar is quoted as saying: "Industry analysts have begun to speculate on whether or not the company is about to announce a significant reduction in force -- in the 10%-17% range. In our view, the company is likely to cut heads -- most other large IT companies are already doing so -- so a cut in 10% range seems reasonable and, in our view, good for the shares." Tartakoff also reports Oppenheimer & Co.'s Brad Reback previously said Microsoft job cuts would be "healthy" and a 10 percent reduction would equate to about 10 cents of earnings per share.

Iris Hagemann was washing a bunch of grapes she had bought from Fred Meyer when she noticed something peculiar: a seven-legged spider with a distinctive red hourglass shape crawling about. She bolted from her kitchen, screaming, but Timothy, her seven-year-old son who happens to love spiders, took a closer look. "I saw the bottom of it and thought it was a black widow," he said. Timothy's dad, Stuart Rabin, used a spoon to scoop up the spider, placed it a sealed plastic container and taped a red "Danger" label to it. The family took the arachnid to the Woodland Park Zoo, where experts confirmed their suspicions. "It's a black widow," Sue Andersen, a keeper at the zoo's Bug World. Even though it surprised the family, Anderson said finding black widows in grapes is common. The relieved family donated the spider to the zoo, where the staff will feed it flies and give it water. And it won't be alone - the zoo already has four black widows donated in recent months by other families in the area. (Via Seattle P-I)

A note to all the creative people from the folks at Experience Music Project:
Experience Music Project|Science Fiction Museum (EMP|SFM) is currently accepting creative art proposals (performance, visual, technology, film, etc.) for its new one-day artist residency program. The spring residency theme is Do It Yourself and projects should create a connection to museum content and/or be thematic in nature. The deadline for proposals is Wednesday, January 21, 2009. Click for more details on the artist residency or call (206) 770-2700.

Seattle Theater Group or STG, the nonprofit operator of the Moore and Paramount theaters, is dropping Ticketmaster and signing with Tickets.com in hopes lower fees and buying options will keep strong attendances, reports the Puget Sound Business Journal. The groups says the switch will reduce ticket surcharges by about 20 percent and give buyers options like using mobile phones as tickets and printing from home for free.

When some of their homecoming shows were cancelled last month due to winter weather, Seattle's Blue Scholars found another way to appease their fans. They filmed this new video:

Link via the Stranger's Line Out blog.

Here's a shocker. Sarah Palin is ranked #1 in Zillow's 2008 Celebrity Neighbor Survey, which asked more than 2,000 adults to name the celebrity who they'd most like to move in next door. Oprah came in #2, and Michael Phelps also scored highly. Gender played a role in Palin's win, according to Zillow blogger Jill Simmons, who says 17 percent of men cast their vote for the Alaskan governor. And the title of "worst celebrity neighbor" went to Britney Spears.

Bloggers Todd Bishop and Mary Jo Foley today are tracking what's being called a Zune "mass suicide" and a "Zune apocalypse." Early today, a large number of the 30 GB Zune music players abruptly stopped working. Users are going to online forums to vent and troubleshoot, and Bishop writes that one Zune forum has already gotten more than 1,000 posts. Says one commenter: "Problem began after midnight and it will not restart or turn off. Just glowing in the dark. May have to change use of product. Perhaps a nightlight for my 4 year old." Microsoft released a statement saying it's working on the problem. They'd better hurry. Commenters are getting impatient, like this one at Zune.net: "i better not have to buy a new one. i had to save all my babysitting money to buy this one. somebody at zune tech or zune support or whatever needs to figure out what's going on and fix it, or they need to refund us our money because it's obviously not our faults."

Update: Zune has issued this explanation: "The technical team jumped on the problem immediately and isolated the issue: a bug in the internal clock driver related to the way the device handles a leap year. The issue should be resolved over the next 24 hours as the time change moves to January 1, 2009."

Looks like a lot of Seattleites are getting their wish. At a press conference this morning, Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels said the city is going to start using salt to de-ice roads when the weather warrants. Until now the city wouldn't use salt because of environmental concerns, but that policy was widely criticized during the recent barrage of snow storms. Today Nickels backed off the no-salt policy, telling the media: "After reviewing our de-icing practices, I am ordering the Seattle Department of Transportation to start using salt in emergency situations when more than 4 inches of snow are predicted or when extreme weather is predicted to last more than three days."

Alas, New Year's is upon us - and time to get rid of the ol' Christmas tree. Between now and January 11th, Seattle residents can recycle their trees and greens for free. More details from Seattle Public Utilities:
All residents can recycle up to three trees at Seattle's Recycling and Disposal stations. The tree sections must be cut to eight feet or less in length, and the trunk must be four inches or smaller in diameter. Only trees without flocking or decoration may be disposed of free of charge.
Seattle food and yard waste subscribers can also recycle trees and greens for free. Trees should be cut into sections, six feet long or shorter, with branches trimmed to less than four feet to fit into the collection trucks. Bind with string or twine (non-plastic). Trunks should not exceed four inches in diameter. Flocked, plastic, or trees with tinsel will be collected as extra garbage at a rate of $6.00 per item.

Apparently, it's a match made in indie rock heaven: Zooey Deschanel, actress (Elf, Yes Man) and singer of She & Him, is engaged to Ben Gibbard, lead singer of the indie rock band from Bellingham, Death Cab for Cutie. According to a "source close to the couple," says Us Weekly, Deschanel, 28, and Gibbard, 32, are "so thrilled. ... Zooey was swept off her feet, and Ben is so excited." (Via MTV.com)

Ballard's most famous holdout, the late Edith Macefield, is leaving behind more than just her house as a legacy. A story on Macefield in yesterday's New York Times reveals the 86-year-old lady, who made national headlines for refusing to sell her house to developers, had written a novel under the pen name Domilini. "It is unclear whether anyone other than its author has ever read Where Yesterday Began," writes Bill Yardley. "It is set against the backdrop of post-World War I Europe...The book is 1,138 pages long, not counting the musical references, from Scottish folk songs to a 1915 work by the English composer Albert W. Ketelbey, and a 16-page glossary of the French, German and Italian phrases sprinkled throughout." ( Via The Daily Weekly)

West Seattle Blog has another reason to celebrate this holiday season. The news site celebrated its third anniversary on Christmas Eve. That's a long time to be blogging! In the past three years, the site has grown into a model for new neighborhood news - and probably inspired quite a few other aspiring bloggers. Founder Tracy Record resigned from her journalism job at KCPQ-TV in 2007 to work on the blog full time, and West Seattle has embraced her efforts. It's always impressive to see their extensive coverage of community issues - just look at their latest weather coverage.

Adds Tracy Record in comments: "Just for the record ... we don't "blog." We publish a neighborhood-news site that happens to be in blog format. So many different kinds of writers produce blog-format sites, with so many varieties of content, that I am crusading to get people to stop using "blog" as a verb ... makes no more sense these days than using "newspaper" as a verb ... Eventually, I hope, even the format won't be worthy of mention - it will simply be a matter of what you publish, or what you write for."

It seems Seattle's flat-track roller derby team will compete at KeyArena in 2009. Very cool news! It looks like the season starts in February, and tickets are already on sale. Check the league's Web site for details.

At a press conference today, Mayor Greg Nickels talked about the city's response to all this snowfall. He gave the city's efforts a "B" grade. But most people I know are fed up with the lumpy, bumpy streets - and frustrated that the city refuses to use salt to melt the ice. A newly formed group on Facebook called "Save Our Streets" sums up the feeling. They write: "Dear Seattle, Buy some SALT, and CLEAR THE STREETS! The City of Seattle's complete incompetence when it comes to dealing with snow is now a hurricane Katrina-level example of governmental neglect. The city claims to have 27 plows. Has anyone seen any?"