Reporter's WTO notebook

A man wearing a "TRUST JESUS" hard hat carried a 6-foot painted banner on a steel pole. The banner read, "You will be screaming in terror, burning in hell if you do not repent." He drew a big crowd, including two people with WWJD signs: "We want jelly doughnuts."

Through it all, Nick, the only name he cared to give, worked the crowd, handing out signs on pink and purple construction paper that demonstrators could hang around their necks.

Nick's signs read: "Non-violent unarmed citizen exercising First Amendment rights."

The signs were a very hot property. Nick said they also served a purpose.

"It's really easy to confuse somebody like this," he said, pointing at his sign, "with someone who has a nuclear missile in their back pocket."

Expressive, from the top down

Many expressed their creativity through banners and signs.

At Westlake Center, a young woman with dyed hair and tattoos wore a sandwich board sign that read, "Parade permit. Let it be known that our lack of credit cards and shopping lists gives us no less rights."

Others read: "Go Vegan"; "Down with the market, up with the people"; and "Thanks for the memories. It was a gas. 1999."

But few expressed themselves like a group of women gathered at Seattle Central Community College on Capitol Hill.

Around 12:15 p.m., the Lesbian Avengers removed their shirts, revealing hand-written slogans that read, "Animal Suffering" and "Human death." Some put tape over their nipples.

A crowd surrounded the women, crying their approval, and a swarm of photographers snapped pictures.

One of the women, Annie Sartor, said she stripped to show how important it was to desexualize the female body.

"I came to celebrate the anniversary. It was a big party. And it was really fun."

Meanwhile, another protester yelled, "Striptease for the trees."

They were part of a crowd moving from Seattle Central Community College to Westlake, displaying a variety of signs from, "Don't shoot. I'm here to shop" to a large, red banner commemorating the 25th anniversary of the "Revolutionary Communist Party of America."

At Fifth and Pike, the crowd became less celebratory and more confrontational when it saw a line of black-clad Seattle bicycle cops in a cordon across the entrance to the Banana Republic store. "This is what democracy looks like," they chanted, some of them waving their fists at police and shouting obscenities.

Alive, with the Grateful Dead

There was a definite rhythm to the night.

As one couple focused on each other in a long kiss, others in the Westlake crowd danced to drums and cowbells -- even the sound of banging on light poles.

Young punk types with lots of buttons and piercings mixed with folks in tie-dye and others in that Northwest fashion staple, khaki. Several waved American flags; others waved the anarchist symbol of an encircled black A.

It was like a Grateful Dead show, with dancers doing a free-form, body wiggle, jumping thing.

Hammering man, that's art

The windowless, hand-painted car driving down Pine Street looked awfully suspicious.

So police stopped the car Thursday, and inside, they found a toy gun, a hammer and a power drill.

They briefly detained the driver and a passenger, but released the two, who said they were artists attending demonstrations.

One officer turned to onlookers and said, "OK, he says he's going to use the hammer for art."

To drive home his point, no doubt.

And a charity cashes in

Brooke Ralston, a gray-bearded University of Washington campus pastor, delivered on his promise Thursday to help the charity that benefits from the Westlake holiday carousel.

Ringed with yellow police tape, the ride was attracting fewer takers than usual, so Ralston, who was part of last year's WTO protests, wrote a note: "A number of us coming to protest the corporate rule that threatens the tomorrow of all our children also want to support the work of Children's Home Society."

By early last evening, Ralston had raised $310, with pledges of more.

"That's great," said carousel manager Kerry Bischoff. "(Ralston) realizes people coming down here is going to affect the riders that we get and the money that we raise for the Children's Home Society." Bischoff said the carousel would bring in about $2,000 on a normal Thursday.

"I was here last year," said Ralston. "I'm back here because this is the center of Seattle's corporate life and it's important to keep a witness that we were meant to live as free people with regard to each other and the Earth, and the ascending corporate culture hinders that. And that hasn't changed."

Signing on, signing off

Apparently oblivious of the irony, Robert Gruber of Schenectady, N.Y., engaged in a little street protest, waving a sign that said, "No more protesters."

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