That's Denny's.

The local press and bloggers have glommed onto the story about the Ballard Denny's possibly being nominated on Feb. 6 as a local landmark by Seattle's Landmark Preservation Board; saving the site from transformation to a large mixed use development.

For those who don't know or have recently moved here, drive down to Occupied Ballard and follow Market Street. When you see a cream-colored gawd-awful monstrosity that looks like a rundown IHOP gone to seed then you've found the Ballard Denny's.

Anyone who is a native of Seattle will shake their head at this. The building has always been a joke and a white elephant that was foisted upon poor sleepy Ballard.

Personally I blame the Californians and other out-of-staters for this. They move up here and latch onto the city's seedier side because they think panhandlers and boarded up shacks make a town "gritty" and they can pretend they're tough while navigating the mean streets of the Emerald City...

Supposedly the reason why the Denny's is significant is because of its "googie" inspired design built in 1964 by an architect from San Francisco that no one has ever heard of; Clarence Mayhew. The guy isn't even local. He's a Californian from Berkley. Of note, "googie" is a make believe grab-all term used by people who feel they have artistic taste to describe just about any building built after World War II.

As another example of artistic snobbery one must read a quote in the Seattle PI by Alan Michelson, head of the UW Architecture library who wrote about the Denny's.

"It remains an important artifact of the automobile era in the U.S., and its vibrant, space-age forms crystallized the era's enthusiasm and faith in commerce and technology."

How quaint. Just think, long ago American families would get into "automobiles" in order to drive to places where they desired to exchange their earnings for goods and services. I wonder what it was like when our ancestors parked at morning diners in order to drink coffee and order a $3.99 Grand Slam breakfast with your choice of bacon or sausage links. Those must have been magical times indeed.

First off I have little sympathy for the owner and developers of the site. In order to do an end-around on any future landmark status they actually nominated the building themselves. If the owners' petition was turned down a five-year moratorium would have been placed on any outside party making a later bid.

If anyone thinks betting good money on any governmental entity in the City of Seattle making a rationale decision deserves to have their building taken away and turned into a No Mo Shun Clubhouse and Museum.

The reason why naming the Ballard Denny's is such a lousy idea is that it gives a bad name to historic preservation. What next? Do you start saving car dealerships, strip malls and mini marts? How about mobile home parks? Or Rick's Nightclub?

If you make landmarks out of demonstrably horrible eyesores it makes a laughing stock out of the entire process; a process which should be reserved for structures that have played historically meaningful roles in the community.

Sometimes the lowliest shed or workshop has greater historic value than the most lavishly crafted pleasure palace.

Consider the Pike Place Market. Architecturally it is about as significant as a collection of discarded Chinese take-out boxes. It's a poorly-planned warren of stalls, ramps nooks and blind alleys. Yet it is a vibrant and integral part of the framework of Seattle. Which is why a ballot measure was floated in 1973 to raise taxes to purchase the market and create a PDA to operate the complex.

If you want to start preserving "landmark" buildings and structures in Seattle there are scores of far more worthy candidates. Why not start with the Oddfellows Hall on Capitol Hill. It's the home of the Century Ballroom which attracts hundreds of dancers each week as well as a large artist community.

The building has some great constructive elements which have survived a century of use. There's a unique charm to its creaky floors, steam heaters, poorly hung doors and bare electrical wires. In other words it's a rundown dump.

A developer has purchased the hall and is on the threshold of remodeling the building which will price out the "artists" as well as creating uncertainty about the future of the ballroom. Shouldn't the city "save" the IOOF and keep it a sanctuary for starving actors and professional dancers?

As far as saving monstrously ugly buildings, how about tagging the "Sinking Ship" parking garage in Pioneer Square? Like the Ballard Denny's the structure was also purchased by the Seattle Monorail Project and was slated for demolition to make way for the defunct Green Line.

Farfetched? Not really. Not when you consider the fact that the Sinking Ship is the most significant building in town for the movement of local historical preservation. When the Seattle Hotel, on infamous Skid Row, was torn down in 1961 in the name of urban renewal to make way for the garage it forced the hand of city leaders to create the Pioneer Square Historic District.

All of those quaint brick and masonry buildings still standing on Doc Maynard's old homestead plot are with us because of the Sinking Ship.

So you have the hots for preserving greasy spoons which serve as community watering holes? Screw corporate Denny's. Try Beth's Café off of Aurora Ave. in Green Lake. This is the place to be after a hard night of drinking and partying. Or staying up late studying for classes at UW (read drinking and partying).

Beth's serves the best six and twelve egg omelets in town; the best omelets served at 3:30 a.m. in the morning at any rate. And they've been doing it since 1954.

I'm a third and fourth generation Washingtonian. My great-great-grandfather was a pastor at Seattle's First United Methodist Church (a building richly deserving landmark status). Through the decades Seattle has been cursed by "architects" and "artists" who come here, drop their drawers and leave examples of their creative genius steaming on the city landscape which longtime residents are forced to endure decades later.

Tear down the Ballard Denny's. And while you've got the bulldozers and wrecking balls rented knock down the Experience Music Project, Downtown Seattle Library and toss everything in the Olympic Sculpture Park into Puget Sound to create salmon habitat.

Finally, if you don't like non-descript mixed-used multi-story condos with not enough parking stalls going in everywhere then maybe Seattle residents need to rethink their support of the Growth Management Act... and the politicians they keep in power year after year.