Lots of Talk This Week: About Bellingham Public Schools, home of “The Bellingham Promise,” and alleged failures to live up to same at local high schools. Hammer’s early take: Very interesting. 

Three Words to Student Protestors: Salute; stay heard.

More’s the Pit-y: Sezhere via CDN’s Ralph Schwartz that The Pit, the unofficial below-grade parking lot at ground zero Fairhaven, might become a local unicorn in that its pending redevelopment could include some — sit down for this if you're standing in line at Costco — public parking. 

By the Way: Big bonus points to the developer if the word “Pit” is incorporated into the official development name. Send your suggestions this way.

Hate to Even Ask This, But: Has the Omnipotent Bike Board signed off on this?

Speaking of Traffic: We suspect that the city thinks front-page treatment of traffic woes on Samish Way is a first-world-problem kind of piece. That's OK. We’ll get back to them on that in about 45 minutes while we crawl southbound from Boomer's to Walgreens.

Celebrity Guest Pop-Ins Department: Showing their face here last week was none other than Ferndale Communications and Broken Promises Director Riley Sweeney. Turns out that Sweeney, who famously failed to drink his own city’s effluent water that he had previously deemed clean enough to drink, had won a prize in a CDN promotional contest, and was in the building to pick it up. Nice to see Riley, and it proves that, if nothing else, we are painfully fair around here.

Pretty Sure We Predicted This: Due to the confluence of various pulmonary diseases, the local Health Department has issued a directive urging you to search through your junk drawer for those face masks you hoped you’d never need again, for occasions when you find yourselves trapped indoors in crowds. Just do it.

This Just In: The "Avatar" movie sequel comes out this week. If you missed the first one, you still have three life hours in the bank many of us already surrendered. If you didn’t: Double down at your own risk.

God Speed, Queen of the Skies: Sad to see the final 747 roll off the line at Boeing’s Everett plant this week. The Hammer, whose dad was a lifer at Boeing, formerly of Seattle, saw the first one take flight as a tyke in 1968, still feels an occasional chill seeing one drift overhead, and got a little verklempt watching the footage.

Worth Remembering: What a lifetime ride for a craft that was designed and built entirely by hand by multiple generations of Seattle-area engineers and machinists. The plane revolutionized air travel and shrunk the world. Getting on one of the big birds overseas always felt like stepping back into home before ever leaving the ground. It was arguably our state’s biggest mark on the world during many of our lifespans. 

At Least If: One doesn’t count Microsoft, Starbucks and that big online retailer holed up down in South Lake Union. Which few reasonable people would.

And Finally: Just a reminder: Friday is your deadline for submitting nominations for the Hammer’s year-end Dubious Achievement Awards, for local people, places and things displaying a distinguished Lack of Valor. Send nominations to the Hammer’s recording secretary and attending nurse, ronjudd@cascadiadaily.com.

The Hammer is swung on Wednesdays or as otherwise required by state law.