I found this pansy flower in the Thomas Street Gardens today.
In South Africa they are called gesiggies in Afrikaans (‘little faces’).
[Source: Wikipedia]
Thursday/ hello, little face 😘
[Source: Wikipedia]
[Source: Wikipedia]
Wednesday/ cheers! 🍻
Three of the amigos had beers at the Elysian Capitol Hill Brewery.
On the way there, on 14th Avenue, I saw this vintage poster in a shop window.
Tuesday/ the jungle is tamed 🤗
The mowing is done.
The mower was moi.
Monday/ it’s a jungle out there 🐛
My lawn is the shaggiest it has been— maybe ever (gasp)— since I have moved into my house.
Our street block’s lawn services guy was off to a late start this spring, and he was scheduled to swing by last Friday, but it rained all day on Friday. He then left word with my neighbor that he would come by today, but it turned out his mower was in need of a quick repair and that he hopes to come out on Tuesday.
I think it’s time for me to dust off the electric mower in my garage and get out there tomorrow.
Sunday/ a few new words 🤔
Ready to learn a few new words in the English language?
Take a quick look at the Scrabble board and see if you know all the words!
ULU all-purpose knife traditionally used by Inuit, Iñupiat, Yupik, and Aleut women.
NIXY a misaddressed or illegibly addressed piece of mail, therefore undeliverable.
FLINT hard, dark quartz that produces a spark when struck by steel
TALAR an ankle-length robe
ZERO the arithmetical symbol 0, nil
KEEF (Arabic) a state of dreamy intoxication, induced by cannabis for example
KI alternate spelling for qi: the vital energy that is held to animate the body internally and is of central importance in some Eastern systems of medical treatment (such as acupuncture) and of exercise or self-defense (such as tai chi)
EX one that formerly held a specified position or place, especially : a former spouse or former partner in an intimate relationship
MADAME a title equivalent to Mrs. for a married woman not of English-speaking nationality
QUINT one of five offspring produced in the same pregnancy
QUEY (British) cow, heifer
GALAGO a small primate (a bush baby)
LIPAS a monetary subunit of the Croatian kuna (plural)
RID to make free of
BREECH (verb) to dress in short pants (covering the hips and thighs and fitting snugly at the lower edges at or just below the knee)
BI short form of bisexual
PATERNITY the quality or state of being a father
YINCE (Scottish) once
LAM sudden or hurried flight especially from the law, as in ‘on the lam’
RETS to soak (something, such as flax or hemp) to loosen the fiber from the woody tissue
OTIOSE producing no useful result, futile
JINKED make a quick, evasive turn (past tense)
VISIVE (archaic) of, relating to, or serving for visionand
OBOE a double-reed woodwind instrument having a conical tube
HO interjection, used especially to attract attention to something specified
DONATORS donor, one that gives, donates, or presents something (plural)
OPA grandfather
AR the letter R
GAPER one that gapes, also: any of several large sluggish burrowing clams
ODAH (Turkish) a room in a harem
DAW (Scottish) dawn
Saturday/ long live the King 👑
“I’m not particularly bothered. I’m not out here raging, angry about it, protesting. But I’m not the biggest fan.”
– Nicholas Sowemimo, 36, who spent part of his Saturday afternoon at The Hawley Arms, a well-known pub in North London, but he did not watch the coronation (reported by Derrick Bryson Taylor in the NYT).
(1st on the stamp means First Class Mail. And why the ‘Royal Mail’? The postal service was created in 1516 when Henry VIII knighted the first Master of the Posts, Sir Brian Tuke.
At first, the postal system was exclusively for use by the king and the royal court. Ordinary people were only allowed to use it more than a century later).
LONDON — Britain’s Charles III was crowned king on Saturday, during an eighth-century ritual in a 21st-century metropolis with a handful of concessions to the modern age but the unabashed pageantry of a fairy tale, unseen since the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, his mother, in 1953.
“I come not to be served, but to serve,” Charles said in his first remarks of the ceremony, setting the theme for the intimate yet grand proceedings. The king, 74, was anointed with holy oil, symbolizing the sacred nature of his rule. He was vested with an imperial mantle, and the archbishop of Canterbury placed the ancient crown of St. Edward onto his head.
– As reported by Mark Landler in the New York Times
Friday/ rain ☔
Happy Friday, the first one in May.
It was a very wet day for May, but maybe Mother Nature is just getting us caught up with the rain.
Sea-Tac Airport had recorded slightly less than 12 in. of rain in the first four months of 2023, which is about 5 inches below average.
Thursday/ be afraid, be very afraid 😵💫
If you’re not afraid yet, you should be.
-Catherine Rampell, writing in the Washington Post about the latest debt-ceiling increase showdown in Washington (Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen raised the alarm earlier this week, saying the U.S. government could be out of options to pay its bills by June 1)
Apparently it was not enough that the Republican Party had pushed t**** and his now-convicted seditionist supporters on us for four years.
Now the House Republicans and Speaker Kevin McCarthy want military veterans, social security recipients— and really every American in some way— to pay for the previous Republican administration’s tax cuts.
Here are some scenarios that that will likely play out if the United States indeed defaults on its debt (as reported by Catherine Rampell in the Washington Post):
1. U.S. Treasurys get downgraded — as does virtually every other asset on earth.
2. Interest rates rise further for U.S. consumers, businesses and the government.
3. Global investors likely would sell U.S. dollar-denominated assets as confidence in them evaporates; the dollar might lose value in foreign-exchange markets.
4. Stock markets plummet.
5. Companies holding Treasurys suffer hits to both revenue and balance sheets.
6. There might be a scramble to close out trades that people would otherwise hold.
7. Some of the infrastructure underpinning large parts of the financial system (called “central counterparty clearinghouses”) could essentially get overwhelmed and go down.
Wednesday/ fed-funds now 5.0-5.25% 💸
“We feel like we’re getting closer or maybe even there.”
-Federal Reserve Bank Chairman Jerome Powell today, on whether more federal-fund rate increases are in the offing
The Federal Reserve Bank increased the federal-funds rate by another 0.25% today.
(So another message to the consumer to stop borrowing money, and to stop buying stuff that is not really needed.
The average credit card interest rate is now 24.25%, according to Forbes Advisor’s weekly credit card rates report. Inflation here in the States is now at about 5%.)
From the Wall Street Journal:
With the latest increase, the Fed has raised its benchmark federal-funds rate by a cumulative 5 percentage points from near zero in March 2022, the most rapid series of increases since the 1980s. The rate influences other rates throughout the economy, such as on mortgages, credit cards and business loans.
Tuesday/ Tucker Carlson’s text 🤮
The New York Times published the text message that got Tucker Carlson fired.
According to the New York Times:
The text alarmed the Fox board, which saw the message a day before Fox was set to defend itself against Dominion Voting Systems before a jury. The board grew concerned that the message could become public at trial when Mr. Carlson was on the stand, creating a sensational and damaging moment that would raise broader questions about the company.
Monday/ the snail 🐌 mail is here
Some days there is no mail, some days only junk mail,
and then on other days everything I had waited for seems to arrive at once.
None of today’s mail had any stamps on.
1. Envelope with a cardboard in, protecting the stamps I had bought from a seller in Poland, sent on Apr. 18;
2. A street parking permit for my guests, from the City of Seattle, sent on Apr. 28;
3. A letter from a financial institution in South Africa confirming that they had moved my funds as requested. The letter inside is dated Jan. 4, 2023 (so the cool ‘By Airmail Priority sticker means nothing, but hey, at least the letter arrived, right?);
4. Airmail from the UK (more stamps inside- yes!), sent on Apr. 17.