Alaska Airlines must be asking: What the Hec!

You just can't buy publicity like this.

It was just a few weeks ago that Alaska Airlines plunked down $700,000 in cash and goods to have its corporate logo painted onto the hardwood at Hec Edmundson Arena, where it was on proud display for Thursday night's televised U-Dub / UCLA game.

Must have been so rewarding for Alaska brass to see the Huskies race across that logo for a win as an ESPN2 announcer gushed:

"Cheers are ringing around the American Airlines Arena!"

More close-enough proclamations:

Putting A Fine (Harbour) Pointe On It: A group of NIMBY activists in the (pardon the expression) Greater Mukilteo area are claiming that limited passenger flights at Paine Field will throttle productivity at Boeing. It will come as news to the Lazy B, which two years ago said flights at five times the 8,300 a year being proposed by Horizon and Allegiant Airlines would pose no problems.

Seriously, People: When you moved into that overpriced suburban house with that obnoxious, pillared entryway a few years back, what did you think that long strip of pavement next door, with 747s parked on one end, was for? Power walking? Skeet shooting? Parade-float test flights?

Move Over, Egypt: A proposal by a downtown Bellingham coffee shop to install a sidewalk sculpture of an inverted paper coffee cup spilling a trail of simulated coffee onto the ground was withdrawn after another downtown business owner launched a "Hell, no!" Facebook page to oppose it. Biggest complaint: the artwork "glorified" the use of disposable cups.

And There You Have It: Social networking once again triumphs over tyranny.

Blimp Hangar, Meet Steve Jobs' Ego: The Apple guru apparently has ascended to the status of oracle for all mankind, saying Apple's (infinitely superior) approach to technology now has transcended technology itself: "It's tech married with the liberal arts and the humanities." Apple's other marriage partner: the nation's landfills, near-term future home for most of its ingeniously non-upgradeable mind zappers.

Ink Blot, 101: Iran has officially objected to the official logo for the 2012 London Olympics, saying the stylistic design is racist because it resembles the word "Zion." Iranian officials later conceded, off the record, that it only resembles the word if the logo is turned upside down and viewed in a fun-house mirror by a fanatical religious lunatic who conjures up personal affronts in everything from playground sand to toaster strudel. But still ...

Ink Blot, Part Deux: Iran also reiterated that it "abides by commitment to the values and principles" of the Olympics, and was prepared to protest by keeping home its competitors in the modern pentathlon, which in Iran combines the sports of tear-gassing, systemic misogyny, general tyranny, nuclear proliferation and Holocaust denial.

And Finally: Silas W. Potter Jr., the key figure in the Seattle schools finance scandal, told The Times he had been "thrown under the bus" by Seattle Public Schools. A district spokesman was backing a large yellow vehicle back and forth over Potter's body and not immediately available for comment.

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