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Monday/ papers & watermarks 🫗

I already had this 1969 stamp from South Africa, but these control blocks were for sale for just a few dollars, and I bought them.
The two control blocks were printed on different types of postage stamp paper.
(Are these two distinctly different postage stamps— and should the philatelist put one of each in his or her album? I say yes: if you have both types, put both in your album.)

When the stamps are held up against a light, it’s easy to see the watermark clearly, in the white margins of the block.
These are some of the last South African stamps issued with watermarks.
In the United States, stamps with watermarks were issued only for a short time— from 1895 to 1916.

Stagecoach of 1869 on Harrison Paper
Issued Oct 6, 1969
Perf. 13½x14 | Photogravure printing on Harrison paper | Watermark RSA in triangle
357 A140 2½c Ocher, Prussian blue & yellow
Harrison paper has a grey or fluorescent back.
Stagecoach of 1869 on Swiss Paper
Issued Oct 6, 1969
Perf. 13½x14 | Photogravure printing on Swiss paper | Watermark RSA in triangle
357 A140 2½c Ocher, Prussian blue & yellow
Swiss paper has a dull pink non-fluorescent back.
It’s hard to tell from these scanned images, but comparing the physical paper with the Harrison paper, the Swiss paper seems to look just a touch whiter.
Watermark is a tiled pattern of tête-bêche* rounded triangles with R inside at the top and SA at the bottom. RSA for Republic of South Africa.
*Upright and upside down next to each other
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Saturday/ rain 🌧️

There was rain today: a nice little late afternoon downpour.
It was only 58°F  (14 °C) when I went out for a walk afterwards.

Spring is coming to a rough ending weatherwise, elsewhere in the country.
Places in southern Florida had been drenched with 24 in. of rain or more over the last few days, and it was 111 °F (44 °C) in Phoenix, Arizona today.

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Friday/ playing indoors 🥒

Although the weather was perfect for pickleball today, we had a reservation for the Sandman’s Courts in Columbia City.
We liked the clean surface and well-marked lines a lot.
The selection of background music was excellent and played at just the right volume 🤗.

The amigos played at Sandman’s Courts in Columbia City today.
The facility has two pickleball courts. This one has clean lines, and the other pickleball court has equally clear pickleball lines but also basketball courts lines painted on it.
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Thursday/ about that $45 billion 🤑

DETROIT (AP) — Tesla shareholders voted Thursday to restore CEO Elon Musk’s record $44.9 billion pay package that was thrown out by a Delaware judge earlier this year, sending a strong vote of confidence in his leadership of the electric vehicle maker.
The favorable vote doesn’t necessarily mean that Musk will get the all-stock compensation anytime soon. The package is likely to remain tied up in the Delaware Chancery Court and Supreme Court for months as Tesla tries to overturn the Delaware judge’s rejection.
– Reported by Associated Press

How Much MoneyHow It Can Be Spent
$45A decent meal and a beer at a restaurant
$450Cheap air fare (USA to Europe)
$4,500Business class air fare (USA to Europe)
$45,000A brand spanking new Tesla Model 3 EV
$450,000The very exotic 2018 Lamborghini Aventador
$4,500,000“You can’t do anything with five, Greg. Five’s a nightmare. Can’t retire, not worth it to work.” - from a scene in Succession
$45,000,000The most expensive house for sale in Seattle (in 2019)
$450,000,000A very expensive superyacht just like Jeff Bezo's OR two Dreamliner 797-8 jets
$4,500,000,000Provide Medicaid (healthcare) for 1.4 million Americans for a year
$45,000,000,000The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Paraguay
Also $45,000,000,000Elon Musk's pay package (in 2024 dollars)
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Wednesday/ pickleball— now also inside 🥒

The amigos played a little pickleball today.
The courts at Mt Baker playground were full today, and we went to Beacon Hill playground instead.

The courts at Beacon Hill playground have beautiful new surfaces and lines.
These courts are just a little more exposed to windy conditions than the ones at Mt Baker playground.
There was a sign up on the fence at Beacon Hill courts, advertising this indoor space in Columbia City, and we went to take a look at it afterwards.
This facility is called Sandman’s Courts— a converted warehouse that now has two beach volleyball (sand) courts, on the far end, and these two pickleball courts.
Yay! Now we can play in rain or shine, rough or fine weather.
These are not free the way the courts at the public parks are— $30 an hour in the daytime for these indoor courts.
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Tuesday/ a flea market 🕸

I believe this is a flea, and not an alien! (sticker on the window). ‘Flea market’ is a literal translation of the French “marché aux puces” (an outdoor bazaar in Paris, France), named after those pesky little parasites of the order Siphonaptera that like to infest the upholstery of old furniture and rugs brought out for sale.

 

The long-abandoned grocery store building on 15th Ave East here in Capitol Hill will host a flea market the weekend after next.

This building will be demolished in another year or two, three— to make way for a proposed 6-story, 172-unit apartment building with retail stores.

The little parking lot is now open daily, but the flea market will only be open on one Saturday and one Sunday, and I guess that’s it.
Maybe the market will be held here again later this summer.
‘Quality Flea’ says the storefront wall and canopy.
A poster in the window.

 

 

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Monday/ mail from Poland 🇵🇱

My stamps from a seller in Poland arrived today.
There were no Polish stamps on the outside (international registered mail is franked by machine), but the seller put some Polish stamps inside for me.

Polish Paintings
Issued 1969, Sept 4.
One of a set of 8, with a label inscribed with the painter’s name
Perf.11×11½ |Photogravure printing |No Watermark
1676 585 |40 grosz |Gold & multi-colored |”Hamlet” by Jacek Malczewski
[Source: Scott 2003 Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue: Countries of the World, P-SI]

[From Wikipedia] “Polish Hamlet” was painted in 1903, and is one of the most famous works of Malczewski. It presents the grandson of Aleksander Wielopolski – Polish politician, a member of the Polish Kingdom government in the early 1860s, who tried to maneuver between the interests of the invaders and the Polish population – in the act of considering his grandfather’s legacy. The painting is symbolic and patriotic, it can be read in several ways. The women placed on both sides of the picture are an allegory of two different visions of the fate of their homeland. Located to the right is an elderly woman with white hair, dressed in dark robes, her hands cuffed by shackles, and her face takes on an expression of sadness, despair and awareness of their situation. She embodies Poland enslaved, experienced by fate, remaining under the yoke of others, and who can not be liberated. On the left side there is a young girl, half-naked, shown at the time of breaking the shackles. She is full of energy, and her face is very expressive. It symbolizes the “young Poland” – capable of action and being able to release from the long-term captivity.

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Sunday/ cricket on Long Island 🏏

They roared at every big play, shouting and waving signs and flags. They ate South Asian food sold at the concession stands, jumped, chanted, high-fived with fellow supporters and — after a bit of rain — soaked up the sunshine on a historic day at the usually quiet park.

“It was electric,” said Chandu Talla, an India fan and entrepreneur from Tampa, Fla., who came to the match with his son Aryan, a high school junior. “We paid $2,500 per ticket and no regrets,” he added. “It was a dream come true to see India here.”
– David Waldstein reporting for the New York Times, from a temporary stadium for 34,000 set up in the grassy southeastern corner of Eisenhower Park in Long Island.

The temporary stadium was built in 3 months for the biannual T20 Cricket World Cup match between perennial archrivals India and Pakistan. India started slow but came back strong to win, 119-113. [Picture from the online edition of New York Times].
The stadium in East Meadow, N.Y., was built in 100 days and will be taken apart after the tournament. There are three more matches scheduled in New York, with the final one on Wednesday between India and the United States. The stadium will then be dismantled and the pieces sent out to other sporting events around the country.
[Photo by Yuvraj Khanna for The New York Times]

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Saturday/ summer weather ☀️

Happy Saturday.
It felt like summer today here in Seattle (78 °F/ 26 °C) and the sunny weather will continue for several more days.

I found these California poppies by the pickleball courts at Beacon Hill Playfield on Thursday.
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Friday/ a new rivalry 🎾

There is a new rivalry in men’s tennis: between Jannik Sinner (🇮🇹, 22) and Carlos Alcaraz (🇪🇸, 21).

The rivals met today in the men’s semi-final of the 2024 French Open.
It was a see-saw match that had Alcaraz emerge the victor after trailing two sets to one: Alcaraz 2-6, 6-3, 3-6, 6-4, 6-3.
Alcaraz leads Sinner by 5 wins to 4 in their head-to-head matches so far.

On Sunday, Alcaraz will play against Alexander (Sacha) Zverev ( 🇩🇪, 27) in the final.
It will be the first French Open men’s final without Rafael Nadal or Novak Djokovic since 2009.
It’s the first without Nadal, Djokovic or Roger Federer since 2004.

Update Sun 6/9: Alcaraz outlasted Zverev to won his first French title: Alcaraz 6-3, 2-6, 5-7, 6-2, 6-2.

The shadows are starting to creep over the red clay inside the Philippe Chatrier Stadium at the Roland Garros grounds.
It’s the fifth and final set, almost 4 hours into the match.
Sinner is rapidly running out of time to catch up after losing his serve early in the set. (Alcaraz is about to go up 4-1.)
Here, Alcaraz had just served hard into the far corner, drawing Sinner out sideways for the return.
The return was short.
Alcaraz lifted up his racquet as if to hit, but then cut under the ball for a surprise dropshot that kissed the top of the net, wrong-footing Sinner, and out of reach.
[Still frame from Tennis Channel streaming video feed].
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Thursday/ D-Day, 80 years later 🏅

Initially set for June 5, D-Day was delayed due to poor weather.
With a small window of opportunity in the weather, Eisenhower decided to go—D-Day would be June 6, 1944.
Paratroopers began landing after midnight, followed by a massive naval and aerial bombardment at 6:30 a.m. American forces faced severe resistance at Omaha and Utah Beaches.
Despite challenges, including mistaken landings and fierce opposition, Allied forces established a critical beachhead in Normandy.
– Text from the National WWII Museum’s website

There are 9,388 graves in the American Cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer high above the beaches of Normandy.
Most are marked by white Latin crosses, with a handful of them Stars of David commemorating Jewish American service members.

Sergeant Mullins, who now lives in Garberville, California, took a moment this week to kneel at his buddy’s grave in the American Cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer.
In 1944, a few days into the fighting that had started on D-day, Mullins looked up from his foxhole and, two foxholes away, saw Pfc. William H. Lemaster, peeking over the edge. It proved to be the last act of this young man from West Virginia. A German sniper’s bullet killed him instantly.
[Photo by Laetitia Vancon and text from reporting by Roger Cohen, for the New York Times]
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Wednesday/ stamps from the UK 🇬🇧

These UK stamps arrived on the outside envelope of my latest order of South African stamps from a seller in Great Britain.

150th Anniversary of Metropolitan Police
Issued 1979, Sept.26 Perf.15×14 Phosphorised paper
1108 585 |15p |Grey-black, magenta, brown, slate-blue, deep brown & Greenish black |River Patrol Boat
[Source: Stanley Gibbons Stamp Catalogue Part I British Commonwealth Volume 1]
Christmas 1979
Issued 1979, Nov.21 Perf.15×14 Phosphorised paper
1108 585 |15p |Orange-vermilion, steel blue, drab, grey-black, deep blue-green & gold |The Annunciation
[Source: Stanley Gibbons Stamp Catalogue Part I British Commonwealth Volume 1]
Christmas 1989— 800th Anniversary of Ely Cathedral.
Issued 1989, Nov.14 Perf.15×14 One phosphor band
1462 924 |15p |Gold, silver and blue |14th-century Peasants from Stained-glass Window
[Source: Stanley Gibbons Stamp Catalogue Part I British Commonwealth Volume 1]
Queen Elizabeth II Definitives
Issued 2002, Feb.6 
Re-issue of 1952-54 definitive series stamps of Dorothy Wilding portrait of QE II
Booklet sheets w. new values & syncopated perforation (elliptical holes)
522 T157 33p Brown |George Knipe design
525 T158 37p Magenta |Mary Adshead design
530 T160 1st Class |Green |E. Dulac design
[Source: Stanley Gibbons Great Britain Concise Stamp Catalogue 2009]

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Tuesday/ the rain is gone

I can see clearly now the rain is gone
I can see all obstacles in my way
Gone are the dark clouds that had me blind
It’s gonna be a bright (bright)
Bright (bright) sunshiny day
It’s gonna be a bright (bright)
Bright (bright) sunshiny day

From the song  I Can See Clearly Now (1972) by American singer-songwriter Johnny Nash.

The rain is gone, and there is a number of sunny days ahead in the forecast.
I believe an inch or so of rain was recorded in the city since Sunday.

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Monday/ green phone or blue phone? ☎️

The election result in South Africa is now official.
The ANC party claimed only 159 out of the 400 seats in parliament, down 71 seats from 2019.
Under the constitution, the newly elected parliament must convene within two weeks of the results being declared, and one of its first acts must be to choose the nation’s next president.
Coalition talks are underway behind closed doors.
Hopefully a deal can be struck between the ANC and the DA: a pivot to the center.
Few analysts expect an ANC-MK tie-up, given the bitter acrimony between them.

That would be President Cyril Ramaphosa in the middle, advised-admonished by ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula.
The MK on the green phone stands for Mkhonto weSizwe, the corrupt ex-president Zuma’s new party. The DA on the blue phone stands for Democratic Alliance, the party governing Western Cape Province, that came in second in the elections.
[Cartoon by Niel van Vuuren in South Africa’s Beeld newspaper]
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A soggy Sunday ☔

It rained all day.
It looks like we will be getting all of June’s normal rainfall (1.45 in) here in the greater Seattle area over the next three days.
Two back-to-back atmospheric rivers are bringing in the precipitation.

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Saturday/ happy Pride month 🩷

Happy Saturday.
It’s June and it’s Pride month.
Seattle will celebrate its 50th annual pride parade on Sunday, June 30.
I like this message that Chasten Buttigieg had posted on X, a lot.

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Friday/ this party is— over 😵

Welp.
With 96% of the votes counted in South Africa’s national election of Wednesday, it is clear that the predictions (of the demise of the African National Congress majority) had become true, and then some.
The party that had once commanded 70% of the electorate’s support (in 2004), and still got 57% of the national vote in 2019, will now scrape in with barely 40% of the vote.
Yes, they still have the biggest share, but for the first time since South Africa became a full democracy in 1994, there will be a coalition government.

The African National Congress (ANC) still has widespread support, but not in the Western Cape province (DA 53%, ANC 21%), and not in KwaZulu-Natal province (M.K. 46%, ANC 18%).
M.K. is uMkhonto weSizwe, ex-president’s Jacob Zuma’s political party.
A coalition between the ANC and the Democratic Alliance (DA) may be the best for the country, but will the ANC be willing to make concessions, such as letting the DA be in charge of key national departments such as National Treasury, Health and and Home Affairs?
[Graphic from IEC dashboard at https://results.elections.org.za/dashboards/npe/]
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Thursday/ guilty on all counts 👨‍⚖️

A jury in Manhattan convicted Mr. Trump of 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree, a crime that under New York State law carries a possible sentence that ranges from probation to four years in prison.
-Reported by William K. Rashbaum for the New York Times, May 30, 2024

Artist John Cuneo’s “A Man of Conviction”, artwork that will appear on the cover of an upcoming The New Yorker magazine.

So Trump is now a convicted felon.
His sentencing hearing is scheduled for Jul. 11, four days before the start of the Republican convention.
(Will the Republican Party nominate a convict for President?)
Even if Trump is given jail time (possible* but not likely), his lawyers will keep him out of jail by starting a lengthy appeals process, and posting bail money.

*His Secret Service detail will go to jail with him, basically. They are required by law to protect him 24/7.

Graphic by the Washington Post showing the dates and types of business records that Trump used to defraud the American people in the 2016 election.
As for calling it a ‘hush money trial’ : it was actually an ‘election fraud conspiracy trial’, which is why the falsification of these business records were charged as felonies.
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Wednesday/ South Africans vote ❎

It was election day in South Africa, and the vote counting is under way. Out of a population of 62 million, a record 27.8 million voters have been registered.

The main party leaders are (from bbc.com/news):
African National Congress/ANC: Cyril Ramaphosa – union leader, mine boss, president;
Democratic Alliance/ DA: John Steenhuisen – the man vowing to ‘rescue’ South Africa;
Economic Freedom Front/ EFF: Julius Malema – the radical agenda-setter;
uMkhonto weSizwe/ MK: Jacob Zuma – ex-president, spent time in jail, the political wildcard.

Citizens vote for political parties, though— and then the national assembly of 400 representatives, based on the outcome of the national election, will vote for a president. A simple majority of 201 suffices.

The Big Question for 2024: will national support for President Cyril Ramaphosa’s ANC party fall below 50% for the first time since 1994?

We will soon know. (The final results should be available by Sunday, or earlier).  If that is the case, the ANC will have to form a coalition with other parties to choose a president and form a governing majority. I cannot see that even in this scenario, anyone other than Ramaphosa will become president. But hopefully the ANC’s majority power (that they had abused ever after Mandela had left office in 1999), will be reined in.

Whoah. Every voter gets three ballots: National, Provincial and Regional.
It is a minor accomplishment just to find your party on each of the ballots.
South Africa’s election management body, the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), had cleared 14,889 candidates, including 70 political parties and 11 independents, to contest 887 seats in the May 29 vote.
[Picture posted by Rene Vollgraaff@vollgraaffR on X]