Author: Willem

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Thursday/ 🇺🇸 USA 2, Türkiye 3 🇹🇷

INGLEWOOD, Calif. — Turkey stunned the United States with a 98th-minute winner and beat the Americans, 3-2, in a World Cup group-stage finale that meant nothing but nonetheless entertained 70,000 fans here at SoFi Stadium.

Although the game technically had no stakes — the U.S. had already clinched the top spot in Group D, while Turkey was already eliminated — both teams played with passion and intensity.
– Paul Tenorio, Henry Bushnell, Tom Bogert and Asli Pelit writing for The Athletic in the New York Times

P.S. The government of Turkey is pushing for their country to be referred to as Türkiye (say ‘Tour-key-ye’) henceforth, and especially in international contexts. They don’t like to be called the same name as the Thanksgiving bird.  It’s just that we don’t really have an u with umlaut (ü) in English for writing it.
The commentators on the game tonight complied but it sounded to me that they all said ‘Turkey-yay’ which I believe is not quite the right pronunciation.

Headline from Seattle Times with photo by Marcio J. Sanchez/ Associated Press
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Wed/ 🇿🇦 South Africa 1, South Korea 0 🇰🇷

Go Bafana Bafana!
Congratulations on the big win.

MONTERREY, Mexico – South Africa reached the knockout stage of the World Cup for the first time in their history after rescuing their campaign with an exhilarating 1-0 victory over South Korea at Estadio Monterrey.
The win seals the first fully known matchup of the knockout stage: South Africa against Canada.
Having entered the night at the foot of Group A, Bafana Bafana surged into second place in Group A thanks to Thapelo Maseko’s 63rd-minute winner.
– Tomás Hill López-Menchero reporting for The Athletic in the New York Times

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Wednesday/ warm weather 🌤️

Today was the last of the three warm days for now.
We had 88 °F (31 °C) here in the city— very warm for early summer, but nowhere near the extreme heat that scorches Europe right now.

Paris experienced a high of 106° F (41° C) today with a low of 77° F (25° C) during a record-breaking early summer heat event.

Early afternoon, there were pale blues and billowing clouds in the lookout towards the Olympic Mountains from East Thomas St and 13th Ave East here on Capitol Hill.
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Tuesday/ failing, flailing 🟦

The Fourth of July is looming, and it looks like the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool is not going to be fixed by then. It is about to be drained, again.

Maxine Joselow and David A. Fahrenthold report for the New York Times:
President Trump says the peeling blue coating and algae blooms that mar his $16.4 million renovation of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool are the fault of vandals working with “knives” in the “dark of night.”

But government documents obtained by The New York Times show that while National Park Service workers found two cuts in sections of foam between the pool’s expansion joints, those were not directly related to the “American flag blue” coating that is now peeling, or to the algae that has turned the pool a bright shade of green.

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Monday/ hello summer 🌞

Summer solstice is here (the exact time was early Sunday morning at 1:24 am)— as is another wave of warm temperatures.

The high today in Seattle was 85 °F (29.5 °C).

These lovely white and pink trumpet flowers from Seattle’s Capitol Hill are petunias.
They thrive in full sun but will need regular watering.
(The small lilac flowers at the top are African daisies).
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Sunday/ Father’s Day 👨

Wishing all the dads a belated happy Father’s Day.

South Africa — Family Day
Issued Apr. 5, 2000
Perf. 13¼ | Design: Chenette Swart | Photolithography | No watermark
1154 A373 Standard Postage (R1.30) Multicolored | Family of three
[Sources 2021 Scott Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue Vol. 4A]
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Saturday/ a very expensive EV 🤑

This Mustique Blue Rolls-Royce Spectre was parked across from Bar Cantinetta restaurant here on Capitol Hill tonight.

It is fully electric and styled with an illuminated-style, upright Rolls-Royce grille, a very long hood and fastback two-door coupe profile, slim split headlights with vertical daytime running lights and aerodynamic, partially covered wheels.
[Information from Chat GPT]

They start at a base MSRP of $397,750, but since Rolls-Royces are heavily commissioned and usually feature bespoke colors, veneers, and interior upgrades, you could easily end up paying between $450,000 and $550,000.

The Rolls-Royce Spectre is manufactured at the brand’s global headquarters and manufacturing facility in Goodwood, West Sussex, England.

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Friday/ 🇺🇸 USA 2, Australia 0 🇦🇺

Happy Friday.
It was already weekend early this morning, since it is the Juneteenth holiday here in the United States.

Team USA secured a place in the round of 32 with today’s win.

I went down to the The Press Box sports bar at 10.30 am to watch the USA-Australia game with my amigos. There were lots and lots more people out and about by Pioneer Square and around the Stadium compared to the Belgium-Egypt game of Monday.

Andy Yamashita writes for the Seattle Times, about the game:
The Americans, propelled by a sold-out crowd that rattled Seattle Stadium’s press box with every shot, launched themselves into Friday’s game with intensity, deploying their high press almost immediately.
The Australians, in comparison, struggled to get out of first gear.

Australian fans pose for a picture on a ferry, with the Seattle skyline as backdrop. I assume that is a stuffed kangaroo and not a real one!
[Photo from the Seattle Times]
U.S. soccer fans march through Seattle to the match with Australia.
[Photo by Ruth Fremson/The New York Times]

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Thursday/ 🇿🇦 South Africa 1, Czechia 1 🇨🇿

It was an uninspiring and ugly match, but South Africa managed a draw against the Czech Republic (Czechia) today.

Tomorrow is the much anticipated USA-Australia match, right here in Seattle.
There was no flag hoisted on the Space Needle by late afternoon.
Hopefully there will be one tomorrow, to celebrate the USA team and cheer them on.

Mexico has qualified for the next round with their 1-0 win against South Korea today. South Africa and the Czech Republic still has a slim chance to make it out of Group A into the next round.
[Table from The Athletic in the New York Times]
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Wednesday/ Los Cafeteros on top ☕

🇨🇴 Colombia 3,  Uzbekistan 1 🇺🇿

Max Mathews writes for The Athletic in the New York Times:
I was at a bar watchalong in a faux English pub with no other English representation than The Athletic.
When the third goal went in, the place — dominated by Colombian fans — went wild. Bar bell ringing, Latino music on, chants of “Viva Colombia!”
Los Cafeteros* are vociferously supported here in diverse, Hispanic-influenced LA and will be a tough nut to crack for any side facing them at the tournament.

*Los Cafeteros (Spanish for “the coffee growers” or “the coffee makers”) is the famous nickname for the Colombia national football team. It is also used informally to refer to the Colombian people, reflecting the nation’s rich heritage and its status as one of the world’s top coffee producers.
[Google AI Overview]

Daniel Muñoz from Colombia displayed an exquisite touch to direct this ball into the goal. It came flying in high from midfield and he redirected it with his right foot.
[Still from video clip on foxsports.com]
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Tuesday/ flying high 🪽

From today’s Wall Street Journal, reported by Hannah Erin Lang:
SpaceX shares have surged nearly 50% in their first days of trading and left a trail of remorseful traders in their wake: those who sold too early.
After climbing an additional 4.8% in Tuesday’s session to $201.80, SpaceX ended the day as the world’s fifth-largest public company by market cap, surpassing Amazon.
The gains came as SpaceX announced a deal to buy AI-coding startup Cursor for $60 billion.

What do you mean the market is overheated? .. the sun as the almighty dollar, and ‘feathers’ of SpaceX share certificates, $100 bills.
The hippo’s side comment: Feathers don’t make the bird, but without the feathers he is no bird. (From Aesop’s Fables: Fine feathers don’t make fine birds). 
The cartoon probably refers the famous Greek myth and cautionary tale of Icarus and the sun. Icarus’s father, Daedalus, made wings of feathers and wax for Icarus to escape imprisonment. Disregarding his father’s warnings to avoid flying too high, Icarus soared too close to the sun, melting the wax and sending Icarus plummeting into the ocean.
[Cartoon by Dr. Jack (full name Dr. Jack Swanepoel) from South African newspaper Die Burger]
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Monday/ fútbol fever ⚽

I had a little FOMO (fear of missing out) at home this morning, and took the train down to Pioneer Square and Seattle Stadium* nearby just to feel the excitement, and take a few pictures.

*Lumen Field’s name for the next few weeks, capacity for 69,391 spectators.

The Belgium vs. Egypt game had already started at noon by the time I got to Pioneer Square. Everyone with tickets was packed inside Seattle Stadium, of course. There was a screen and outdoor watch party in Pioneer Square, and insides ones at all the bars nearby.

From a vantage point outside the stadium, one could see the large jumbotron screen inside, as well as some of the cheering fans.

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Sunday/ toasty ☀️

It was warm outside today, with a high of 88°F (31°C) here in the city.

I went down to Myrtle Edwards Park on Elliott Bay for a few sunset photos.
The park has refreshed landscapes with new lawns, meadows, and trees that flourish in coastal conditions.
It also offers improved access to two beach coves and enhanced pedestrian and bike trails.

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Saturday/ Caturday 😸

The stamp albums from Japan that the proxy buyer Buyee.jp had bought for me, arrived on my doorstep a few days ago.

I will post a few pages from the albums in due course.

2003 Japan: Letter Writing Day (ふみの日  Fumi No Hi )
Issued Jul. 23, 2003
Perf. 13 x 13¼ | Stamp 28 x 37 mm | Printing: Photogravure | No watermark
C1898 50 ¥ | Multicolored | Cat holding letter and camera
[Sources: 2027 Sakura Catalog Of Japanese Stamps, colnect.com]
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Friday/ fear of missing out? 🚀

Happy Friday.
The coverage of SpaceX’s gigantic IPO (initial public offering) on CNBC this morning was wall-to-wall, with hyperbole reaching the moon.
Could orbital data centers running on solar power one day beam information back to Earth using lasers?
Time will tell.

Here is Ron Lieber, writing for the New York Times about missing out on SpaceX’s IPO:

Elon Musk may be about to become a trillionaire.
Many of the people who work for him at SpaceX are about to hit seven-figure jackpots — or more — via the company’s initial public offering.
And individual investors are lining up for a chance to buy shares for the $135 opening price. There are so many of them that some brokerage firms are, in effect, running a lottery for $135 tickets.
Do you have fear of missing out? That’s natural, maybe inevitable. But this is a fine time to remind yourself that you can in fact win if you don’t play this week. JOMO, the joy of missing out, is a reasonable alternative to FOMO.

Lieber goes on to suggest that we revisit our medium- and long-term goals.
You might be surprised to find how many of them you have reached.
He mentions members of his immediate family that had survived cancer, that investing his savings in index funds over many years have paid off, that he has never bought shares in an IPO, and that he still works without boredom or fear of termination.

Illustration for Ron Lieber’s ‘Your Money’ column in the New York Times.
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Thursday/ 🇲🇽 Mexico 2, South Africa 0 🇿🇦

Two amigos and I went down to the Seattle waterfront at noon to check out the watch party for the first World Cup match— Mexico vs. South Africa.

Bafana Bafana* was up against it, playing in the home stadium of the Mexican team, and lost by two goals to nil.

*The South African team’s nickname, meaning ‘the boys, the boys’, from South Africa’s Nguni languages (Zulu and Xhosa).

A summary of the game by Luke Brown from The Athletic in the New York Times.
xG stands for Expected Goals. PPDA stands for Passes Per Defensive Action. It is a modern soccer analytics metric used to measure a team’s pressing intensity and aggressiveness.
The view from the steps next to Seattle Aquarium.
The screens could have been larger, we thought— but maybe the space on Pier 62 did not allow that. To the right of Pier 62 is a barge for more people ,with another screen.
Ferries and sailboats on the water in Elliott Bay.
Washington State’s ferry system celebrates its 75th anniversary this month. The ferry system began operation on June 1, 1951, after the state government acquired routes, vessels, and terminals from the Puget Sound Navigation Company, a private company that had a virtual monopoly on ferries in the region.
A view of the barge by Pier 62 that allowed for another screen and watch party viewing area.
The Cunard Line’s luxury cruise ship, Queen Elizabeth, is at Pier 66 today before setting sail for Ketchikan, Alaska. Launched in 2010 and refreshed in 2025, the ship accommodates up to 2,081 passengers and features a formal ambiance with elegant, Art Deco-inspired decor.
A closer look.
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Wednesday/ inflation: now at 4.2% 💸

Inflation accelerated for a third straight month in May amid a stalemate in negotiations to end a war with Iran that has pushed up energy prices, adding to the burden on already strained consumers.

The Consumer Price Index rose 4.2 percent in May from a year earlier, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on Wednesday, a sharp rise from the 2.4 percent annual increase before the conflict started in February and the fastest pace since April 2023. Over the course of the month, overall prices jumped 0.5 percent.

-Lydia DePillis reporting for the New York Times

Officially at 4.2%, inflation is A LOT HIGHER for you if you fill up your car’s tank frequently  (+40% for all types of gasoline), buy lots of meat at the grocery store (+7.6%), or fruits & vegetables (+6.1%), travel by air (+27%) or use a lot of electricity (+5.9%).
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Tuesday/ the ‘ceasefire’ 🔥

It is Day 102 of the war with Iran (the war that is not a war, right?).
More than two months have passed since Trump’s announcement of a  ceasefire.

We’ve been hearing every few days that the two sides are close to a deal .. but besides the Strait of Hormuz, there is the issue of Iran’s nuclear program and the spillover skirmishes and strikes elsewhere in the Middle East.

We’ve also been hearing that the price of oil may hit $150 per barrel ‘soon’, but instead it has stuck to a price ranging from $80 to $100.

Economists talk of ‘demand destruction’: if the world learns how to get by with 15 million fewer barrels of oil per day, the price of oil may not go up by much more.  (The world consumes about 103 million barrels of petroleum and liquid fuels every day). 

Reporting from the New York Times about the sea drones that rescued the two pilots from the helicopter that was shot down.  The sea drones are officially ‘Task Force 59 unmanned surface vessels’. 
The U.S. Army AH-64 Apache helicopter was struck and brought down by an Iranian Shahed one-way attack drone while patrolling international waters off the coast of Oman, near the Strait of Hormuz.
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Monday/ the aliens among us 👽

The San Antonio Spurs earned their first win of the NBA Finals, claiming a 115-111 victory over the New York Knicks in Game 3 at Madison Square Garden.
So far, the road team has won all three games in the series.
New York still leads the series 2-1 with Game 4 scheduled for Wednesday.
Victor Wembanyama led the Spurs with 32 points, while Stephon Castle had 23.
Jalen Brunson paced the Knicks with 32 points, and OG Anunoby had 28.
– Daniel Shirley, reporting for The Athletic in the New York Times

The San Antonio Spurs star player Victor Wembanyama (22 yo) stands 7’4″ tall and wears size 20.5 (55) shoes.

He grew up in the western suburbs of Paris, France, and honed his skills in the French basketball system, playing for teams like Nanterre 92 and Metropolitans 92, before being selected first overall in the 2023 NBA Draft.

His nicknames are ‘Wemby’ and ‘The Alien’.

These screen shots are from ABC Network’s broadcast of tonight’s game.

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Sunday/ let’s play ⚽

LET’S PLAY SEA ’26 is the campaign developed by Visit Seattle, to market and celebrate the FIFA World Cup 26™ games that will be played in Seattle.

Seattle Center (by the Space Needle) will be one of the anchor locations for Seattle’s fan celebrations.  There will be music, art, culture, and opportunities for fans to gather and engage around the tournament.

Closer to Seattle Stadium*, the street blocks in Pioneer Square will be transformed into a free pedestrian-only fan zone for the World Cup matches, with large screens, stages and beer gardens.

Here are a few pictures I took today around the Amazon spheres in downtown.