The Quirky Stories and Characters That Took Our Minds Off the Mayhem in 2017
This year’s "shiny things" were a welcomed respite from the news cycle.
By Caroline Craighead December 1, 2017
This article originally appeared in the December 2017 issue of Seattle magazine.
Check out the rest of our 2017 Year in Review package.
Poses like “downward-facing goat” were routine at the various goat yoga classes in the area, incorporating goats into a playful practice for yogis of all ages.
The world’s largest rubber duck, Mama Duck, made a splash into the Thea Foss Waterway for Tacoma’s Festival of Sail in June. Owned by Minnesota-based Draw Events, the oversize tub toy stands six stories tall and had no problem posing for pictures.
Sheridan Martin, a design technologist at Amazon, used her talent to create the Amazon Sphere dress, a frock made of fabric, cardstock and wood, inspired by the geodesic architecture of the new Amazon Spheres buildings.
Livestreams from Woodland Park Zoo broadcast views of tiger, bear and bat exhibits, along with the popular Giraffe Cam, offering viewers a glimpse of mama giraffe Tufani’s new baby, Lulu.
Funko, the Everett-based retailer of Pop! and other licensed action figures and collectibles, opened its first brick-and-mortar store, which is filled with life-size statues, theme rooms and 17,000 square feet of merchandise, including figures such as Agent Dale Cooper from Twin Peaks and Clerks’ Kevin Smith, who visited on opening day and said, “You’re nobody unless you’ve been popped.”
We can’t get enough Seattle pet-stagrams, such as that for French bulldog Sir Charles Barklay (@barklaysircharles; 481,000 followers and counting), who explores the city in Seahawks gear and loves to take it easy.
Oh, and maybe you heard? Russell Wilson and Ciara had a baby, a little girl they named Sienna Princess, a fitting name for a royal Seattle couple.
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