Bumbershoot

During the weekends, I like to listen to the news on the radio in the morning - specifically, Morning Edition Sunday. On Sundays, the local radio programming invites an English and linguistics professor from the University of Michigan to talk about words. I like this bit, because I always learn little fun facts about language. This morning, however, they were talking about a word that I was very familiar with, "bumbershoot." Apparently, they took an informal poll (of course, of Michiganders) and no one knew what this word was. Most folks in the NW do know what this word is, and that is in part due to the music festival in Seattle named after it.

The Bumbershoot Music Festival is a large event that takes place every Labor Day weekend. When I first moved to Seattle, I couldn't wait to attend. And I went almost every year for 5 years - until I moved away, and then when I moved back I just couldn't take the crowds anymore. It's a great event, though. I saw some really great musical acts, art work, short films, you name it. Let me take you back to 1997, and here are some of the acts I saw: Beck, Sonic Youth, Kristin Hersh, Pond (my favorite Portland band), Sleater-Kinney, Sky Cries Mary, Cake (apparently they are still going the distance and are at the 2015 festival), Zap Mama, and many more. I went to see some writers too: Michael Ondaatje, Robert Pinsky, and John Haines.