You learn something new (almost) every day

• Tuesday: California is the most Starbucked state, with 500 stores; home base Washington has a mere 280.

• Wednesday: The clay-based dust blown in by a Persian Gulf storm can turn into a kind of concrete when it gets wet.

• Thursday: Southwest and JetBlue as the nation's two largest airlines? It could happen, an expert says.

• Friday: There are something like 570 licensed drinking establishments in Seattle -- and two guys visited them all in one year.

Words to live by (my favorite verbiage of the week)

"Putting a bike trail through an industrial area is like chocolate on a hot dog."

-- Andy Pishue, sounding off on the ongoing debate over extending the Burke-Gilman Trail through the Shilshole waterfront industrial area

"It's been like a military zone, a war zone out there."

-- K.L. Shannon, leader of People's Coalition for Justice, complaining about how Seattle police handled recent anti-war demonstrations

Ikon was a tug-of-war nut who loved to swim and was so enthusiastic about tracking down criminals that fellow police officers called him "psycho dog."

-- reporter Jennifer Langston, writing about an Everett police dog who died in the line of duty