"In case you haven't heard, Marcellus Turner, the city librarian for the Seattle Public Library, wants to spend almost $2 million to give the brand a facelift. Many of you have written e-mails to the library board that express your wish for that money to be spent on more urgent needs such as keeping the doors open longer, programing, staff pay, etc.

Those e-mails are great. They pile up and they make your voice heard. But there's no substitute for the power of putting your body in a room and saying, "Hey! Uh... Don't do this! Thanks!"

Why not make a little evening of it? Again, next Wednesday: Take off work 30 minutes early, rip a shot to the dome at the Metropolitan Grill (they have a reasonable happy hour, I'm told) and trundle up to the library by 5 pm.

Here's a copy of the meeting's agenda. The meeting will take place in the Washington Mutual Foundation Meeting Room 1 on the 4th floor. See you there." RICH SMITH