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Sunday/ The Nutcracker, at large 🎄

From the ‘At Home in the Northwest’ supplement to the Seattle Times
[Photo by Jiajing Grygriel]
From the ‘At Home in the Northwest’ supplement to the Seattle Times
[Photo by Jiajing Grygriel]
Jiajing Grygriel writes for this Sunday’s ‘At Home in the Northwest’ supplement to the Seattle Times:

The mail carrier slows his van down to a crawl and gapes. “Is that you folks’ statue?” he hollers out the window. “This is amazing. I love it so much!”

A jaw drop is the typical response for people passing by this storybook home in Ballard. The 1936 house looks straight out of the pages of a fairy tale, with its steeply pitched roof, rustic stone chimney and turreted entryway.

During the holiday season, it’s decked out in Nutcracker figures designed by Maurice Sendak, of “Where the Wild Things Are” fame.

Pacific Northwest Ballet commissioned Sendak to design original art for “The Nutcracker,” which ran from 1983 to 2014.

It was Seattle’s own wild rumpus, a one-of-a-kind “Nutcracker” production.

A 15-foot-tall figurine stands at the end of the driveway. In the front yard and on the deck are three small nutcrackers and two rats – and by small, we mean 8 feet tall.

Three original Sendak ornaments hang in a nearby tree.

It’s the 11th year John Carrington and Scott McElhose have displayed the Sendak Nutcracker at their home, on the corner of Golden Garden Drive and Loyal Avenue Northwest in Ballard.

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Saturday/ three will do it? 💰

We had another interest rate cut this week, and the Fed indicated that (right now) it sees only one for all of 2026.

Of course, all of that may fly out the window if a person such as Kevin Hassett succeeds Fed chair Jerome Powell in May of next year.
(Hassett is seen as a guy who will do whatever it is to push through Trump’s agenda— and Trump wants interest rates to be closer to 1%).

The rate cut of this week was widely expected.
The Fed increased its projected change in real GDP for 2026 to 2.3%, up from 1.8% in September, but the unemployment rate to stay the same at 4.4% — and 4.2% in the longer run (out to 2028).
Inflation projected to stay contained: PCE at 2.4% and Core PCE at 2.5%.
[Screen shot from CBS News 24/7 program ‘The Takeout with Major Garrett’]
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Friday/ postage due stamps ✉️

Here’s another interesting envelope that I picked up on Ebay for a few dollars. It was dispatched in Johannesburg to Philadelphia, Pa. The franking on the stamp was done with a metering machine in 1951.
(Franking machines were first used in South Africa in 1926).

The franking of 9½ pennies fell woefully short of what was actually needed, though.
The US post office demanded 27 US cents more for delivery. The last ‘Postage Due’ stamps in the USA were issued in 1985.  They were rendered obsolete by tracking technology and the requirement of full prepayment of postage in most cases. 

Meter Stamp
Printed in South Africa for 9½ pennies, dated May 9, 1951, with Universal “Multi-Value” (MV) metering machine (first used 1933).

Postage Due Stamps
Issued by United States, 1931-1956.
Perf. 11×10½ | Engraving by American Bank Note Company | Rotary Press Printing
J81 D3 | 2c dull carmine
J83 D3 | 5c dull carmine
J84 D3 | 10c dull carmine
[Sources: Wikibooks.org, 2003 Scott Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue]

Taking a closer look at the engraving detail. The design of the stamp and the fonts resemble the design of a banknote.
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Thursday/ the waterfall roars 💦

Here are updated pictures of the Snoqualmie Falls from the Seattle Times.
The Snoqualmie river was at major flooding level for much of Wednesday and Thursday.

Visitors to Snoqualmie Falls get soaked by a steady mist kicked up from raging Snoqualmie River waters Thursday morning.
[Photo by Ken Lambert for The Seattle Times. Caption from The Seattle Times]
Snoqualmie Falls roars on Thursday.
[Photo by Nick Wagner for The Seattle Times. Caption from The Seattle Times]

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Wednesday/ ‘catastrophic’ flooding 🌊

The second wave of moisture from a strong atmospheric river filled in across western Washington last night.
All that water is flooding from the western slopes of the Cascade mountains into the streams and rivers below.

Greg Kim writes for the Seattle Times:
River flooding in parts of Western Washington is expected to be “catastrophic,” especially in the coastal lowlands near the Snohomish, Stillaguamish and Skagit rivers, according to a new assessment by the National Weather Service.
Areas facing “considerable” flooding stretch from Bellingham through south of Olympia.
Catastrophic flooding could bring significant risk to life and property, with a high risk of levees being topped and landslides expected in steep terrain, according to the National Weather Service. It could also mean record floods that destroy roads and structures and require evacuations or rescues of people and property, National Weather Service meteorologist Steve Reedy said.

The Snoqualmie River floods over its banks in Snoqualmie at Riverview Park, with water heading towards homes, Wednesday afternoon, Dec. 10, 2025.
[Photo by Ken Lambert / The Seattle Times]
Map compiled by Mark Nowlin for Seattle Times with information from ESRI and water.noaa.gov/operations/fho
The Skykomish River near Gold Bar is the purple block just east of Monroe on Highway 2 in the map above.
The river is projected to top out at its highest level ever, at 24.87 ft. Flood stage is 15 ft.
[Graphic from National Water Prediction Service at https://water.noaa.gov/]
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Tuesday/ The Twelve Days of Christmas 🎅

Two of the stamps on one of the outside envelopes for an Ebay purchase from England feature The Twelve Days of Christmas (song).

Great Britain/ Queen Elizabeth II— Christmas Stamps, 1977
Issued Nov. 23, 1977
Perf. 15×14 | One center phosphor band (7p.) | Design D. Gentleman
1046 525 7p. Slate, grey, bright yellow-green, new blue, rose-red and gold | “Eight Maids-a-milking, Seven Swans-a-swimming”
1047 526 7p. Slate, grey, bright yellow-green, new blue, rose-red and gold| “Ten pipers piping, Nine Drummers drumming”
[Source: 1997 Stanley Gibbons Stamp Catalogue, Part 1 British Commonwealth, Vol. 1]
From Wikipedia:
The lyrics given here are from Frederic Austin’s 1909 publication that established the current form of the carol.
The first three verses run, in full, as follows:
On the first day of Christmas my true love sent to me
A partridge in a pear tree

On the second day of Christmas my true love sent to me
Two turtle doves,
And a partridge in a pear tree.

On the third day of Christmas my true love sent to me
Three French hens,
Two turtle doves,
And a partridge in a pear tree.

Subsequent verses follow the same pattern.
Each verse deals with the next day of Christmastide, adding one new gift and then repeating all the earlier gifts, so that each verse is one line longer than its predecessor:

— four calling birds
— five gold rings
— six geese a-laying
— seven swans a-swimming
— eight maids a-milking
— nine ladies dancing
— ten lords a-leaping
— eleven pipers piping
— twelve drummers drumming

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Monday/ a lot of rain ☂️

Kai Uyehara and Paige Cornwell write for the Seattle Times: 

The opening salvo of a major atmospheric river hit the Pacific Northwest on Monday, drenching much of Western Washington with heavy rain that is forecast to continue at least until Thursday.
The National Weather Service warned of a high risk of widespread and significant river flooding.
South of Puget Sound, the Puyallup, Nisqually, Cowlitz and Carbon rivers were already seeing waters about to spill over their banks by 7 p.m. Monday, with serious flooding expected within hours.

Post by National Weather Service Seattle @NWSSeattle on X.
Even though we are in somewhat of a rain shadow here in the city, 2-3 inches over 3 days is still a lot of rain.

People visit Snoqualmie Falls, which is raging, on a rainy Monday, Dec. 8, 2025, in Snoqualmie. The area is under flood risk.
[Photo by Ken Lambert / The Seattle Times]
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Sunday/ a little architecture tour 🏢

I braved the cold wind outside to do a little self-directed architecture tour on First Hill today.
I wanted to take a look at the The Graystone Seattle on Columbia Avenue and the Museum House complex with its twin towers.

The Graystone at 800 Columbia St was actually built in 2021 (how time flies). It has 31 stories and 271 units. This is the view from the parking lot on 8th Avenue, looking northeast. (On the right, just a block or so away, is the Museum House complex with its twin towers).
Now I am on Columbia Street, walking up hill. I should have taken a picture without the tree! but there is a waterfall feature on the right that obscures the street view into the condo’s gym somewhat. There are several other amenities of course, such as a rooftop deck and meeting rooms and all that.
Here’s the view of the downtown skyline, looking towards the west. Interstate 5 is close by, but at a much lower level which dampens any traffic noise one might hear.
Now walking to the Museum House complex on Terry Avenue.
This apartment building opened in March, and features a north tower and a south tower, each with 32 stories. It offers 506 rental units.
Looking up at the main facade of the building. The skybridge is all the way up on Floor 31.
First Hill has several hospitals and buildings with clinics and doctors’ offices inside. This is Cabrini Center on Boren Avenue, completed in 1973 with 18 towers.
St. James Cathedral is a Catholic cathedral located at 804 Ninth Avenue. It was dedicated in 1907.
All right. The sun is going to set soon and I am heading to the waterfront.
Here’s a look at the traffic on I-5 (looking south).
Beautiful colors reflected by the windows of the Crowne Plaza hotel in downtown. The hotel was completed in 1980 and has 18 floors.
Seattle’s weird library with its faceted frames of glass and steel has 11 floors. It opened in May 2004 to the public.
Further south along 4th Avenue is the Columbia Tower, at 76 stories still the tallest structure in the state of Washington. (Getting squeezed out of view from here a little bit by the F5 Tower in front of it that opened in 2017).
Heading down to the waterfront now. It’s good that I snapped this picture of the sun behind the clouds, because it was gone for the day just a few minutes later.
Seattle has 33 fire stations and the one on the waterfront is No 5. The original Fire Station No. 5 building opened here at this location in 1902.
Here are the first cars rolling onto the Walla Walla ferry at Colman Dock (Seattle Ferry Terminal), for its departure to Bremerton.
Look at the windsock and choppy water: there is a strong breeze.
On my way back to the G-line bus stop. Here is “What Goes Up Must Come Down” — the giant paddle-ball sculpture by Catherine Mayer at 2nd Avenue and Spring St. It is about 42 feet tall and made of fiberglass and steel.
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Saturday/ blustery 🌬️

There was a break in the rainy weather today here in the city— with a powder blue sky, a little late afternoon sun, and blustery conditions.

Looking south along 19th Avenue East by Stevens Elementary School (3.10 pm with sunset coming at 4.18 pm).
The leaves are all gone now, on the trees that line the street.
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Friday/ AI embellishments 🦍

Happy Friday.
I embellished some of my pictures from last Sunday with Google’s new Gemini 3 (“Nano Banana Pro”) image editor.

It is as easy as saying “Add Bigfoot (Sasquatch) crossing the street into this picture”.
(The Cybertruck in the last picture was real, and not added).

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Thursday/ the year’s last supermoon 🌕

Tonight the last supermoon* of the year— and the third in a consecutive sequence— is out. (There will be a fourth supermoon in this same celestial series in January 2026).

We have cloud cover and lots of rain here in the city in Seattle tonight, so for now I can only look for pictures of the supermoon online.

*A supermoon is a full moon that occurs when the Moon is at or near its closest point to Earth in its elliptical orbit, a point called perigee. This proximity makes the Moon appear slightly brighter and larger than an average full moon, although the difference may be difficult to notice with the naked eye. The term can also technically apply to a new moon, but it is typically associated with the visible full moon.
[Google AI Overview]

A supermoon, the last full moon of the year, rises behind the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025, in San Francisco. This one is called the Cold Moon.
[Associated Press Photo/ Godofredo A. Vásquez]
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Wednesday/ postcard from Cape Town ✒️

Here’s another postcard that the hopeless romantic (me) had bought on Ebay for a few dollars, and that landed in my mailbox. 
(The seller is actually from Vancouver, Washington State).

The postcard features Victoria Road and the mountain range called The Twelve Apostles from outside Cape Town, South Africa, from the late 1920s. At the time, the typical method for printing colored postcards was lithography, specifically the photo-lithography process. This involved creating multiple printing plates, with one plate for each color, and running the paper through the press multiple times to build up the final image.
Victoria Road was first constructed in the late 1800s by Thomas Bain. The original purpose was to connect the city of Cape Town to the growing suburb of Camps Bay, following the coastline. Later, the road was extended to Hout Bay. -Google AI Overview.
The Twelve Apostles are part of the Table Mountain complex overlooking Camps Bay in Cape Town, South Africa. The mountain range stretches 6 km almost to Hout Bay. They actually consist of eighteen peaks. From north to south they are named Kloof, Fountain, Porcupine, Jubilee, Barrier, Valken, Kasteel, Postern, Wood, Spring, Slangolie, Corridor, Separation, Victoria, Grove, Llandudno Peak, Llandudno Corridor, and Hout Bay Corner. The average height above sea level is 2,460 ft (750 m), compared to 3,478 ft (1,060 m) for Table Mountain. – Wikipedia
The postcard was written on 28 Nov. 1929 and has a Cape Town postmark of 29 Nov. 1929. A penny and a half took it all the way to Oberburg near Bern, Switzerland. This would be by ship. Airmail was available but was almost ten times more expensive.
The stamps are from South Africa’s Second Definitive Series that were issued in 1926.
The sender’s address is from the suburb of Tamboerskloof on the slopes of Table Mountain in the city (Cape Town).

Here is a translation of the German:
Cape Town
November 28, 1929
Dear Family!
Very soon it will be the end of the year again.
Contrary to what you might think, I do not only ever remember you at this time of year. Very often, I find myself talking about you here in a faraway country, especially when we talk about our old school days.
Furthermore, I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year with only the best of health.
Your ever-grateful former student,
John Blaser.

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Tuesday/ frosty mornings 🧣

I thought it too cold to go for a walk today—44°F (6°C)— then changed my mind at the last minute before dark.

It’s 4.00 pm on the nose, and I’m on 22nd Avenue East looking out towards the east. Sunset is 19 minutes away. There’s the moon in a bare sky, not quite full. (The full moon on Thursday will be the Cold Moon.) No cloud cover means temperatures will dip down close to 0°C in the early morning.
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Monday/ the Swiss: no to a wealth tax 💰

Headlines and editorial below from the Washington Post.
[P.S. Is that Scrooge McDuck? The character was created in 1947 for The Walt Disney Company by Carl Barks. Scrooge is an extremely rich duck who lives in the fictional city of Duckburg (which is also Donald Duck and Huey, Dewey, and Louie’s home city) in the fictional U.S. state of Calisota (a blend of California and Minnesota). – From WIkipedia]
From the Washington Post Editorial Board:

More than 80 percent of Swiss voters rebuffed a referendum that would impose a 50 percent inheritance and gift tax on assets above 50 million Swiss francs, or about $62 million. The Young Socialists party that proposed the new law says the money would be used to fight climate change. Yet it was so resoundingly rejected that it may deter others on the continent from following suit.
Switzerland is a wealthy country, but most people do not have a fortune so large that would be directly affected by this referendum. Instead, the electorate made a rational decision to keep what helps make the country so wealthy: a stable and predictable business climate with relatively low taxes. The Swiss understood that taking that away would hurt even those without huge inheritances.
Switzerland has a wealth tax administered locally, but its rates are minuscule and apply to almost everyone. In 2023, the country’s tax-to-GDP ratio ranked 31st out of the 38 countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Even a sniff of a massive inheritance or wealth tax had the country’s richest residents looking for other options to take their capital, such as Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Singapore.
The top 10 percent of asset holders generate 86 percent of wealth tax revenue. The top 10 percent of salary earners contribute 53 percent of that revenue. Not all these people would leave, of course, but only a portion of them departing would devastate the country’s finances. This is why the federal government opposed the initiative.
An inheritance tax is also complicated and inefficient. How does one value exotic assets like fine art? And if someone privately owns a large company, succession planning becomes a nightmare when the government is taking a share of the firm upon death. Some taxation is necessary, but levies on property and other forms of consumption are far fairer. Taxing work is not ideal, but an income tax is easier for a government to maintain than claiming unrealized gains that are part of someone’s estate.
America’s federal inheritance tax kicks in this year at $13.99 million for individuals, and some states add a levy on top of that. This will increase to $15 million in 2026 under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and will be adjusted annually for inflation starting in 2027. Something all 2028 presidential candidates, Democratic and Republican, should be willing to answer: Do they think this tax should go up, down or stay the same? Do they, like the Swiss, want to prioritize healthy public finances, or do they want to make a political point of taxing the ultra-rich? It will be a telling indicator of which direction both parties are headed.

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Sunday/ Christmas lights 🎄

I took the No 10 bus to Westlake Center at sunset to check out the Christmas tree and its lights. (Pike Place Market is just a few blocks away).

There were not a lot of people around, probably because it was chilly (43°F/ 6°C). A few Seahawks fans were back from Lumen Field, where the Hawks took out the Minnesota Vikings 26-0 tonight.

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Saturday/ cloudy and cold ☁️

The sun wasn’t out today, and it was a cold fall day here in the city.
The low this morning was 38°F (3°C) and the high 52°F (11 °C).

Here’s looking out to the Olympic Mountains at 3.26 pm today from my usual spot on the corner of 14th Ave East and East Thomas St on Capitol Hill.
It looks like the Christmas lights (cables with lights) are up, on top of the Space Needle.
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Friday/ stock transfer tax stamps 💸

Happy Black Friday.
The stock markets in the USA were open for a short session today.

The mailman delivered a large set of stock transfer tax stamps that I had bought from a seller in Luxembourg.
I stumbled upon the stamps on Ebay and could not resist.
Below is a sample. I will post more of them when I have sorted and arranged them on pages.

Here’s what I have found out so far:
Tobey & Kirk was a prominent stockbroker firm located at 52 Wall Street, in New York’s financial district.
Pantepec Oil Company was an oil company founded by William F. Buckley Sr. in 1913, with operations primarily in Mexico and Venezuela.
This transaction show the sale of 200 Pantepec Oil shares for $8.125  for a total amount of $1,625.
The stock transfer tax stamps on the paper slip were first issued in 1936.
If I read the perfin (pin hole) cancellation on the stamps correctly, they indicate a transaction date of 1.13.37 (Jan. 13, 1937).
In 1937, the United States had a federal stock transfer tax in effect, which had been significantly increased in 1932 as part of the government’s response to the Great Depression.
The red stamps (2x 4c) are for federal stock transfer taxes. I suspect there were more federal stock transfer tax stamps on the slip that are now missing. (The federal transfer tax was typically roughly equal to the New York State transfer tax at the time. )
The green stamps (2 x $3.00) are the NY State stock transfer tax stamps.
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Wednesday/ leaving the California sun ☀

It was time to go home today, and I took a flight on Alaska Airlines from Palm Springs airport to Seattle.

Pictures:
The (somewhat unusual) courtyard inside the secure area at Palm Springs airport;
Allegiant Air getting ready to fly out to Bellingham airport in Washington State;
Stepping on board my own flight— a Boeing 737-900 (twin-jet) from Alaska Airlines;
The Flighty app replaced the airplane with a flying turkey— a nod to Thanksgiving, of course;
Arrived at Seattle, got my checked bag, walked the half-mile to the light rail station, and here comes the train (look for the Mountain that is out, through one of the glass panes);
Utility poles and power cables on the way;
Views of the stations called SODO, Pioneer Square, Symphony and Westlake.