Month: September 2018

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Monday/ 10 years after 2008 (it is still the end of the world as we knew it)

The filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection by financial services firm Lehman Brothers – ten years ago this week (Sept. 15, 2008) – remains the largest bankruptcy filing in U.S. history. Lehman held over US$600 billion in assets. The fall-out from the 2008 crisis reverberates to this day through global politics. It gave us Donald Trump, Brexit, extreme nationalism, the blaming of immigrants for economic misfortunes.

Here is Philip Stephens in a column in the Financial Times newspaper (headquartered in London):
‘Historians will look back on the crisis of 2008 as the moment the world’s most powerful nations surrendered international leadership, and globalisation went into reverse. The rest of the world has understandably concluded it has little to learn from the West. Many thought at the time that the collapse of communism would presage the hegemony of open, liberal democracies. Instead, what really will puzzle the historians is why the ancien régime was so lazily complacent – complicit, rather – in its own demise’.

 

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Sunday/ we’re getting a Shake Shack

I only learned of the East Coast’s cult burger chain ‘Shake Shack’ when it was reported that Special Investigator Mueller’s team had a lunch bag from Shake Shack during Paul Manafort’s trial. (The lawyers would not say what they had for lunch; they had strict orders not to talk to the press).

Anyway: Seattle is getting a Shake Shack, close to Amazon’s headquarters.

Here’s the fancy Shake Shack storefront coming in to view (it’s still surrounded by construction fencing). The burgers are high-end: ‘100% all-natural Angus beef, served on a non-GMO Martin’s Potato Roll’, says the website.  Behind it, off Westlake Avenue, is the newest Amazon tower starting to get its walls and windows installed.
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Saturday/ a bad ending at the US Open Tennis

Oh man! What an unfortunate ending unfolded at the 2018 US Open Women’s Final today. Down by one set, in the second set, Serena’s coach gestured to her to ‘move up’ (not allowed). Chair umpire Carlos Ramos gave Serena a warning, which she took very badly – as an insult, and ‘unfair’ – saying that in men’s tennis they get away with coaching all the time, and much more. (She’s right about that, but this was not the time, nor the place, to argue that). She would not stop berating the chair umpire, and at the next change of sides, called him a thief, and demanded an apology. Then she also broke a racquet on the court. When she again launched into a tirade, it was the third violation, and she was given a penalty of a whole game.

As ESPN notes, at least everyone can agree that the winner, Naomi Osaka (20) from Japan, was cheated out of an uncontroversial win.

The final point of the match. Osaka (serving from the far side) would close it out 6-2, 6-4 right here. Osaka played great tennis throughout, and displayed remarkable composure through Serena’s meltdown and the drama with the chair umpire.
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Friday/ Sasquatch on Smith Tower

I made my way to the Seattle Central Library again today, as I do several times a week. I used to walk down to a smaller branch seven blocks from my house to get my book and newspaper fix for the day, but the Central Library has so much more material. I feel like Alice in Wonderland there.

Old and new all in one picture, seen as I left the library. From left to right: 901 Fifth Avenue (constr. 1973, 42 floors), the F5 Tower (2017, 44 floors), Rainier Clubhouse (1904, Tudor Revival style, 4 floors), Columbia Center (1985, 76 floors, still the tallest building in the city).
This just for fun, from an old 70s Seattle magazine: Sasquatch* on Smith Tower, fending off the pestering airplanes (a play on King Kong on the Empire State Building in New York, of course).  *Sasquatch, also called Bigfoot, (from Salish se’sxac: “wild men”) a large, hairy, humanlike creature believed by some people to exist in the Pacific Northwest and western Canada.
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Thursday/ beers at Fadó Irish Pub

The entrance to Fado has great Art Deco framing. The pub has been there since 2000; I suspect the Art Deco much longer.

We had beers and a bite at Fadó (say f’doe*) Irish Pub tonight. It is located in the historic Colman Building on 1st Avenue.  Since it is First Thursday of the month, we could also stop in and admire art at a few of the galleries nearby, afterwards.

*An Irish term meaning ‘long ago’. It is used in Ireland to start a story -the equivalent of ‘once upon a time’.

I love this circa 1909 picture of the Colman Building. Check out the horse-drawn buggies lined up in front of it. Automobiles were only just starting to make it onto the streets. [Picture obtained from http://www.historylink.org/File/8708].
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Wednesday/ uncharted waters

Fear: which one?- Trump’s fear of the Special Investigator? Fear of what Trump might do? The angst of the White House staff? Of the white people that got Trump elected in the first place?

Some say the constitutional crisis for the United States has been here for awhile, already. (Cannot get rid of a manifestly unfit-for-office President, because his party protects him). Others say it is still in the making.

But something must be seriously, seriously screwed up when senior administration officials write alarming, anonymous op-eds in the New York Times.

And when, almost every week, a book comes out that describe utter dysfunction & mayhem in the White House.  The latest book is by none other than investigative journalist Bob Woodward, famous for his work on Watergate, and with The Washington Post since 1971. There is no denying his reporting.

Democracy as we know it, teetering on the edge? Picture from the Op-Ed in the New York Times. Treason! tweeted Trump. And: the NYT must reveal to him who the source is. (Ha ha. Yes, I’m sure they will, King Trump).
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Tuesday/ Vienna is tops (says The Economist)

Hmm .. I see The Economist has given Vienna the nod as the world’s ‘best city’ to live in. (Melbourne had been at the top of the list for seven straight years). No American city made the top 10 .. but of course: Seattleites scoff at the notion that Vancouver is better than Seattle. That number 6 pointer on the map should move south to just below the Canadian border!

[Graphic from Die Burger newspaper] ‘Everyone wants to live in Vienna’. The grading of the cities were determined by Stability (25%), Education (10%), Health (20%), Infrastructure (20%), Culture and Environment (25%).
Ah, Vienna: the City of Music. Here’s a picture I took in December 2008, of the majestic Vienna Rathaus (City Hall), all decorated for the Christmas market. (My colleagues and I were working in on a project Bratislava, Slovakia – just across the Danube river – at the time). We milled around with the crowds, and had some great glühwein!
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Monday/ a little walk in the woods

We did another little walk in the woods today – just through a woodsy area near Paul’s house here in the Hansville area.

The trail is dry this time of year, but can get squishy and muddy in some places, in the rainy season. So the planks covered with chicken wire are a nice addition.
This is a parasitic bracket fungus. It grows on fir tree bark. The genus is probably Fomitopsis (I found similar pictures online). Ötzi the Iceman (5,000 yr-old mummy found in the Alps in 1991), had similar kinds of fungi with him. The fungus could be used for food, but also as tinder (to start a fire with).
I don’t know what kind of spider this is, but I love the geometry of its web, and the rainbow tints that some strands get as the sunlight strikes it.
Here is a belted kingfisher (Megaceryle alcyonis) with its jaunty head feathers. I was not quite close enough to the little bird for a sharp picture, but the camera’s 135 mm zoom helped a lot.
I had better luck with an osprey (Pandion haliaetus), sitting closer to me in a tree on the high bank. I had to wait for it to take off to get a clear shot at it, though.
Here’s the Agate Pass Bridge (constructed 1950) on our way back to the Bainbridge Island ferry terminal.
And here comes Seattle downtown, as we approach it from Bainbridge Island. That’s the Celebrity Infinity cruise ship on the left, in from Vancouver, and setting sail on Tuesday morning for Astoria, Oregon (final destination San Diego). The ship was launched in 2001, and can accommodate 2,500 passengers.
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Sunday/ the Point No Point lighthouse

We went for a little hike along the beach to the lighthouse at Point No Point today.

Here’s the little lighthouse at Point No Point. First operated in 1879 with a kerosene lamp, it got its classic Fresnel lens in 1898 (the black cylinder), but when the bulb inside went out many years ago, a smaller rotating light with an electric motor was installed (the little device to the right of the glass windows in the lighthouse tower.
Here’s a nuclear submarine from nearby Naval Base Kitsap and its escorts going out to sea. There are three sailors on the deck of the sub. The Olympic Mountains in the background are still shrouded in a little smokey air.
This ‘brown squirrel’ – a Douglas squirrel (Tamiasciurus douglasii) – checked us out along the path to the beach at Point No Point.
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Saturday/ ferry to Kitsap peninsula

A few of us went out to Paul’s on the Kitsap Peninsula on Saturday night, to stay over for a quick visit.

Here’s the ever-changing Seattle skyline, as we are waiting at the ferry terminal to head out to Bainbridge Island. The time is 8.10 pm, just as the sun is setting. It’s not long now, a few months, until the start of the demolition of the brown double-decker Alaskan Way viaduct running all along the waterfront. (Its replacement tunnel is complete and undergoing final testing).