We appeared on Jeopardy! The question was, “Accessible only by ferry, Vashon Island is in this body of water, between Seattle and Tacoma. And they even pronounced Vashon correctly with the right syllable stress. We are seen! We are loved! We are famous!
The answer they were going for, and which won the gentleman in the picture $2000, was Puget Sound. But of course we had some other ideas. Some suggested Colvos Passage and Quartermaster Harbor, though those don’t encompass the entire island. Some others said “the Whulge,” which comes from the Lushootseed name x̌ʷə́lč, which means sea, salt water, ocean, or sound.
Others said the Salish Sea, which consists of the Strait of Juan de Fuca, the Strait of Georgia, and Puget Sound. These various bodies of water got the unifying name Salish Sea in 1989.
We also took issue with the phrasing of the question (or answer?) calling Vashon accessible by ferry. That is a stretch. It is, at best, mostly accessible, though others suggested “sometimes accessible” and “randomly accessible.”
Also, what is a sound? According to the great and unerring source of all knowledge, Wikipedia, a sound is an ocean inlet that is deeper than a bight and wider than a fjord. I had to look up bight, which means a bay or bend in a coastline.
Now that we are armed with all this nautical knowledge, we can head to Trivia Night, which is starting up again at the Vashon Brewing Community Pub. They’ll likely ask harder questions than “Where is Vashon?”
People want to know where to go to see fireworks on the Fourth of July. The answer is: anywhere. There’s no community show this year, but the personal fireworks ban doesn’t come into effect until 2022, so people will be shooting them off all night on the 4th. And also the third and the fifth and most of July, and maybe a couple times in August. Also the end of June. Someone recommended getting CBD for your pets in preparation.
An islander wants to know what cheap beer to use for slug bait. There were a few recommendations, as well as a recipe for making your own organic slug bait with dry yeast. Or you could get ducks.
Many people heard a late night scream in Burton. It was likely the resident racoon, well-fed from stolen eggs and cherries, boldly preying on a pet cat. Remember, keep your pest in at night. And feed them CBD.
An islander searching for a truck camper started a post with, “Manifesting to the universe.” And it worked. He’s got a truck camper now.
I think I’ll try it: Manifesting to the universe $2000 because I know where Puget Sound is.
A fallen tree has been advertised as free wood that you cut and haul. This is a good deal now that lumber is so expensive.
We often talk about speed limits here, and many believe that going fast is a god-given right, and anyone who wants to go slow or ride a bike or walk should pull over or ride their bike on the non-existent sidewalk or build a jetpack. However, we’ve finally found the case where we want drivers to slow down – when illegally passing up a school bus.
The three-boat-schedule is back! Finally! We can live up to our Jeopardy reputation and be accessible once again.
Author: Anna Shomsky
I'm a former teacher and a data engineer living on Vashon Island. My writing has appeared in Five on the Fifth, Women on Writing and on the Post-Culture Podcast. I wrote and produced the radio show Whispers of Vashon for 101.9 KVSH. I’ve had short stories published in the anthologies Island Stories and Chicken Scratchings, as well as through the Open Space Literary Project.
