a weblog of whereabouts & interests, since 2010
The Seattle metro area is coming out of the summer’s first heat wave.
A record high for June 8 was recorded at the airport on Sunday (90°F / 32°C).
It was still hot today, with a high of 87°F (31°C).
The amigos went out to the Mt Baker tennis courts for pickleball at 9.30 am before it got too toasty.
“Difficult to accept now because I had lots of chances, but this is the good part of the sport ..
Also today it got me the sad part, no? But, you know, if you watch only the sad part, you’re never going to come back.”
– Jannik Sinner after his heart-breaking defeat against Alcaraz
Congratulations to Carlos Alcaraz for defending his 2024 French Open title successfully.
It was an epic match, that saw Alcaraz face down three match points in the fourth set: trailing 3-5 and 0-40 (on his serve).
But no, Alcaraz won three points in a row, won the game, went on to win the fourth set tie-breaker.
Fifth set goes to a 10 point tie-breaker, and Alcaraz plays flawlessly to run up a 7-0 lead. 7-2, 8-2, 9-2, 10-2. The championship is his.
The Rolex clock showed 5 hours 29 minutes when it was finally over.
Congratulations to Coco Gauff for winning the French Open.
It had been a decade since an American had won this title (Serena Williams, in 2015).
The stamps to complete my 1931 set of South West Africa’s* first definitive stamps arrived in my mailbox today, and I promptly added them into my album.
*Namibia, since 1990. Namibia’s history spans from the arrival of hunter-gatherers like the San and the Bantu-speaking peoples to European colonialism and finally, independence.
Key periods include it as a German colony (1884-1915), a South African mandate (1915-1990), and the struggle for independence during that time, culminating in the nation’s independence on March 21, 1990.
[Source: Google Search Labs | AI Overview]
Happy Friday.
It’s the 81st D-Day Anniversary today.
The wars in Ukraine and Gaza are dragging on.
And we are left with the smoldering wreckage of the Trump-Musk bromance.
‘I HATE MY X!‘ ‘says’ Trump of Musk on the cover of today’s New York Post .. and ‘Big, beautiful break-up—Trump-Elon bromance explodes into insults, threats*.
*X is formerly Twitter, now owned by Musk, from where he flung insults and allegations. (Trump fired back on his social media platform, called Truth Social). The big, beautiful is a reference to the The ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’, the massive and garbage federal bill proposed by Trump and his Republicans that includes tax cuts for the rich, debt ceiling increases, and changes to social programs. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates that by Fiscal Year (FY) 2034 the bill would increase America’s debt by nearly $3 trillion.
Four amigos met at the Seattle waterfront this morning.
We rode our e-bikes along the bike trail to Elliott Bay marina where we met up with a fifth amigo for lunch.
I’m stopping for a moment to admire Buster Simpson’s public artwork called “Anthropomorphic Dolos*”.
Dolosse* is a South African invention, first deployed in 1964 on the breakwater of East London, a South African port city.
* A dolos (plural: dolosse) is a wave-dissipating concrete block used in great numbers as a form of coastal management. It is a type of tetrapod. Weighing up to 8 tonnes (8.8 short tons), dolosse are used to build revetments for protection against the erosive force of waves from a body of water. [From Wikipedia]
[Sources: Seattle Department of Transportation, Elliott Bay Connections, Seattle Office of the Waterfront and Civic Projects. Esri, Google, Chris Kaeser / The Seattle Times]
My new Google Nest Learning Thermostat is installed, and it looks very stylish. I set it to display the temperatures in Celsius, for now.
South Korea is in a vastly better place now that former President Yoon Suk Yeol has been replaced— the president that declared martial law during a televised address on 3 December 2024.
Here is Choe Sang-Hun reporting from Seoul for the New York Times:
If there is one characteristic that defines Lee Jae-myung, South Korea’s new president, it’s that he is a survivor.
He has survived criminal charges, a near-fatal stabbing attack and the martial law enacted by his fiercest enemy, former President Yoon Suk Yeol. Now he is taking on what may be his toughest test yet. He must lead a deeply divided nation through daunting challenges, both at home and abroad.
Mr. Lee, who won South Korea’s presidential election after his opponent conceded early Wednesday, takes office as one of the most powerful presidents that South Korea has elected in recent decades. Much of South Korea’s political power is concentrated in the presidency, and Mr. Lee will also wield considerable control over the National Assembly, where his Democratic Party holds a large majority of seats.
But long is the list of problems that Mr. Lee faces.
The political turmoil set off by Mr. Yoon’s short-lived declaration of martial law and his subsequent impeachment and removal has exposed a country deeply fractured between the left and right, between generations and between genders. South Korea is facing mounting pressure from its sole military ally, the United States, even as the nuclear threat from North Korea grows. President Trump has not only slapped South Korea’s export-driven economy with heavy tariffs but also demanded that it pay more to keep American troops on its soil.
I found this set of envelopes on Ebay, and I “had” to buy it.
It has South African stamps with OFFICIAL overprints on that I was still missing in my collection.
I guess I will put the envelopes as is in my album.
My policy is not to remove stamps from an envelope with significant labels, postmarks, and markings.
Here’s June, and the 9.00 pm sunsets of 2025 have arrived here in Seattle.
So even if one is quite late making supper or dinner, there is still plenty of time for an after-dinner stroll.
Here’s a cartoon from today’s Seattle Times.
And what do sardines eat, actually?
Sardines are primarily planktivores, meaning they feed on small organisms in the water column.
Their diet includes—
Phytoplankton:
Microscopic plant-like organisms, such as diatoms and dinoflagellates;
Zooplankton:
Small animal-like organisms, such as copepods, crustacean larvae, and small fish eggs;
Dead organic matter: They may also consume debris and waste products found in the water.
Sardines are filter feeders, using their gills to strain food from the water.
Happy Friday.
There was a single letter in my mailbox from the Netherlands today, with four South African stamps inside (An Ebay purchase).
Here’s the stamp from the envelope.
Three amigos had beers and burgers at Elysian Capitol Hill Brewery tonight.
The rose is from the little rose bush in my front garden.
From Google Search Labs | AI Overview:
Roses have a long history, with the earliest evidence suggesting their existence dating back 35 million years. Fossil evidence indicates roses were present in North America as early as the Late Eocene period (38 to 33.9 million years ago).
However, their cultivation in gardens, particularly in China, began roughly 5,000 years ago. Confucius, the Chinese philosopher, wrote about roses being grown in imperial gardens about 2,525 years ago.
The year’s toughest tennis tournament* is underway: the last of the clay court season, the French Open at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris.
There is a sensational new youngster on the men’s tennis scene (no, not Carlos Alcaraz)—João Fonseca from Brazil, all of 18 years old.
*It’s a Grand Slam tournament, so the 128-person draw requires the champion to win 7 times. The matches are best of 5 sets (best of 3 in non-Slam tournaments), and the clay makes the ball slower and bounce higher, so the rallies are longer.
The match was put on Court No 7, a side court. (Why?) So there was standing room only for the rabid fans, plus a line that snaked around the corner for those that still hoped to get in before the end of the match, to share in the excitement. After the match had ended, people started leaving, but others still made their way in, just to take a look.
[Still from TNT cable TV channel broadcast]
It’s the last Monday of May, and Memorial Day in the United States— the day for honoring and mourning the U.S. military personnel who died while serving in the United States Armed Forces.
I like Gabriel Campanario’s artwork, published in today’s Seattle Times.
There is a lot of activity— and all kinds of people— on the Overlook Walk that links downtown Seattle, the Pike Place Market, and the newly revitalized Waterfront Park.
Five amigos had beers and pizza at the Olympia Pizza & Spaghetti House III here on Capitol Hill tonight.
My beer is a Radeberger pilsner— served in a branded imperial pint glass (568 ml).
Happy Friday.
It’s the start of Memorial Day weekend here in the US, the unofficial start of summer.
The weather here in Seattle will be pleasant (72°F /22°C on Saturday), and the ferries plying Puget Sound will be packed.
Here’s a cartoon from Friday’s South African daily newspaper Die Burger (‘The Citizen’).
AGOA stands for the African Growth and Opportunity Act agreement, signed in 2000, which allowed tariff-free exports to the United States for 32 African countries.
On April 2, Trump had slapped a 31 % reciprocal tariff on South Africa (now on the 90-day pause). The USA’s universal 10 % tariff on overseas goods remains in place, also for South Africa.
From aljazeera.com:
While the two countries did not confirm a trade agreement at Wednesday’s meeting, Ramaphosa told reporters afterwards that the discussion was “a great success”. He added that he presented a framework for a trade deal to Trump, and the two agreed to continue having discussions to figure out the specifics of this deal.