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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Spin Control

Osama T-shirt logs controversy

Controversial T-shirt for the Hoquiam Loggers Playdays festival. (AP photo)
Controversial T-shirt for the Hoquiam Loggers Playdays festival. (AP photo)

AP photo

Hoquiam's annual city festival, Loggers Playday, is generating more than usual interest this year because of a T-shirt that's being sold as a fundraiser.

The shirt, Osama Bin Loggin, features a drawing of an extremely muscular logger, American flag tattoo on his right shoulder, holding a log with the Al Qaeda leader tied to it. It may not be the cleverest play on words in the 10 years since 9/11, but it's not the worst, either.

The design has prompted some fiery back and forth on its appropriateness on the festival's Facebook page, with some people calling it racist and way for others to conclude that Hoquiam is a "hick town", while others suggest the critics have sticks in body parts not designed for sticks, and that people who don't like the shirt, should just not buy it.

The festival is Sept. 10, so some reference to what happened 9 years and 364 days earlier may have been inevitable.

So what do you think: A good design or way out of line? Click comment and weigh in.



Jim Camden
Jim Camden joined The Spokesman-Review in 1981 and retired in 2021. He is currently the political and state government correspondent covering Washington state.

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