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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Eye On Olympia

From the mailbag: Sarah Palin as a pro wrestler, the 7 Aphorisms, and how you can be mummified…

From my e-mail in-box:

-The state penitentiary in Walla Walla is hosting “a press tour of its execution chamber” later this month. The guided tour, including security screening, apparently takes about five hours.

-Among the things the U.S. Supreme Court is slated to consider this week, the Baptist Joint Committee writes to tell me, are a case involving Summum, a Gnostic Christian sect in Utah that wishes to place a monument to its “Seven Aphorisms” beside a Ten Commandments display in a local park.

Among them: the Third Aphorism, which consists of “Nothing rests; everything moves; everything vibrates."

The group also practices “eternal memorialization through mummification,” a phrase they've apparently trademarked.

They've mummified a Doberman, and will do the same for your pet , at a price of $6,000 to $128,000. Or for you. Really.

The sect has repeatedly asked to erect monuments to its Seven Aphorisms in Utah parks. Rather than allow that, Salt Lake City removed a Ten Commandments monument. So did Ogden.

In a novel approach, Summum says, the city of Duchesne privatized a 10-foot by 10-foot section of a public park around a Ten Commandments display there.

-The professional wrestling outfit “Total Nonstop Action” is inviting Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to be an honorary member of its “elite group of TNA knockouts led by Angelina Love and Velvet Sky.”

The Nashville-based group is offering $50,000 to Palin's favorite charity -- or Wasilla's youth hockey league -- if she shows up for a Dec. 7 wrestling event in Florida.

“I know firsthand what challenges you have to face when breaking a glass ceiling in a male-dominate(d) profession,” said TNA president Dixie Carter.



Short takes and breaking news from the Washington Legislature and the state capital.