A collection of the all-time best Dori Monson stories

With the passing of Dori Monson, MyNorthwest presents a collection of some of his top stories through the years to remember all the hard work that Dori brought to Seattle-area journalism.

There’s something special about a bakery.

Is there anything better than the smell of freshly baked bread and pastries wafting over a neighborhood?

For 90 years, Borrachini’s Bakery has been a gem in Seattle’s Rainier Valley. Remo Borrachini has been working at his family’s bakery for 77 of those 90 years. He started when he was 5 years old – and today, at age 82, he still loves going to work every day. He tells me he loves being a baker because of the people – the employees and customers are all family to Remo.

Thanksgiving was a time for Dori to help cook and deliver Sheriff John Lovick’s delicious deep-fried turkeys to KIRO Newsradio listeners.

The tradition started in 2000 when Dori announced on-air that he thought a deep-fried turkey would be an awful Thanksgiving entree. John Lovick, at the time a Washington State Trooper and legislator, called in and set Dori straight.

How is this still a story? Big Bertha, the drilling machine under downtown Seattle, it was stuck a few days before I went on vacation, so we’re talking about the second week of December. I come to learn today, it hasn’t moved an inch since then. How have they not figured out in three weeks what is blocking it?

So I think if it wasn’t absolutely certain before, I think the bet I made about the downtown Seattle tunnel a few years ago, which was mocked by our state’s department of transportation director at the time, I think my job is safe.

I’ve been goofing around for the last couple of months, saying I should run for governor. Mostly, it has just been me joking around with the idea.

But I got a call on Tuesday morning that kind of changed everything. This call was from a person I trust who has an incredible track record of success in pulling off audacious things. He said that he has $15 million to $20 million lined up for my campaign if I seriously run for governor. I don’t know how much it costs to run a campaign, but it was suggested that it would be enough to get the job done.

Sweat, grit, and talent converged on the gym floor at Shorecrest High School in November 2013 for The Clash on the Court.

Dori and Governor Inslee and their all-star basketball teams went head to head for two 15-minute halves.

This is coming to you from my tent office outside, on the sidewalk at Eastlake and Howe, where my listeners have built me a street office out of tarps and wooden pallets.

As you know, Seattle has one of the worst homeless problems in the country. We are not sitting out here to make fun of the plight of the innocent homeless, but the fact is, most of the people who are out on the street are out here by choice. They want to use drugs, they do not want to go into a shelter.

With snow falling over Seattle in February 2019, KIRO Radio’s Dori Monson let out his inner fun-loving kid and went sledding behind KIRO Radio studios.

Nestled against the hills of Eastlake, the office’s location provided a perfect sledding hill.

It was an average, uneventful workday at the offices of KIRO Radio when a driverless truck coasted down a nearby hill and slammed into the side of the building.

But that wasn’t the greatest tragedy that would befall the station that day.

When the Lord blesses all of you with kids, I hope they are more sensible than I was as a kid – a kid who grew up in Ballard and spent a lot of time at Dick’s Drive-In. I’m glad to say that the burger joint has only grown since my teenage years.

Dick’s is currently taking online votes so locals can weigh in on where they would like the next location to be – the Eastside or south of Seattle. Now bear in mind, that a place like Dick’s can be more than a simple stop-and-go burger shop. For my friends and I, it was tradition. Today, it’s nostalgia that I can still drive up to.

One week ago, my dear friend Jerry Jones passed away after a long battle with leukemia. I’ve shared a little bit about Jerry, but there’s one more story I’d like you to know.

As I’ve said, Jerry probably touched the lives of more girls basketball players than anyone in our area. He founded the Western Washington Premier Basketball Association (WWPBA), but no one ever called it that. It was always known as the “Jerry Jones League.”

How and why would you say goodbye to something that has been as important a part of your life for nearly a quarter century as anything you could possibly imagine?

Twenty-two years ago, a neighborhood friend called me and said he needed an assistant basketball coach for a co-ed K/first grade YMCA basketball team. His son was a first grader. My oldest daughter was a kindergartner. I told him he was asking the wrong guy; I had never played organized basketball. I knew less than nothing about coaching.

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