My hellebores (genus Helleborus) thinks it is spring already.
Even though they are sometimes called winter rose, Christmas rose or Lenten rose, hellebores are really not related to the rose (family Rosaceae).
Tuesday/ the State of the Union 🇺🇸
[Picture by Haiyun Jiang/The New York Times]
Further reporting from the New York Times:
President Biden delivered a plea to Republicans on Tuesday for unity in his second State of the Union address, but vowed not to back off his economic agenda and offered no far-reaching, new ideas in a speech filled with a familiar litany of exhortations from more than four decades in political life.
Reading rapidly through his prepared remarks and occasionally sparring with his congressional adversaries in real time, Mr. Biden — at 80 the oldest president in history — used the biggest platform of his office to frame his argument for an expected re-election bid by portraying Republican policy proposals as out of step with most Americans even as he offered to work across the aisle.
Monday/ blazingly fast 🚀
The Quantum Fiber technician hooked up my line and modem for my new fiber internet connection today. It is blazingly fast.
What is the difference between fiber internet and cable internet?
In a nutshell: Fiber is faster, more reliable, and generally more expensive .. but it turned out that my fiber connection cost per month will actually be lower than my cable connection’s cost.
Sunday/ I want my eggs 🥚
Eggs are eggs. And people want eggs.
– Amy Smith, agriculture business expert
I had to go back to the Safeway (grocery store) around the corner for eggs today. They were completely out of their good eggs three days ago. Avian flu is partly to blame for the limited egg supply, but it also seems everyone now wants eggs from free-range chickens.
Observers say prices will still have to go up substantially before they will make a dent in the demand for eggs.
Americans consumed an average 286 eggs per capita in 2020, which means many people eat an egg every day.
Saturday/ 💥poof! goes the big balloon
[Picture by Randall Hill/Reuters]
As reported by David Ignatius for the Washington Post:
The Pentagon official said it weighed as much as two or three buses and could have caused considerable damage if it had hit land. If it had fallen over Montana, 2,000 people could have been in danger from scattered debris.
As a military operation, the shoot-down was relatively simple. An F-22 Raptor fired an AIM-9 missile at the balloon, and television cameras showed what happened. The Pentagon official said the key targeting priority was to avoid shooting clear through the balloon, which might have left it largely intact and able to travel another 500 to 600 miles east, perhaps out of range of U.S. retrieval.
The Pentagon weighed whether it might be possible to partially deflate the balloon and capture the intelligence pod at lower altitude. But the official said no technology exists that would allow such a “butterfly net” capture operation.
Friday/ a soft landing? 🎛
A surprisingly strong jobs report for January came out today.
Maybe the US economy will have a soft landing after all —a short and shallow recession this year. (Or none? There is going to be a recession at some point in the future, we know that. That’s just the way the economy works).
From the Wall Street Journal:
January’s seasonally adjusted payroll gains were the largest since July 2022 and snapped a string of five straight months of slowing employment growth, the Labor Department said Friday. December job growth was also stronger than previously estimated, pushing the average job gains for the last three months to 356,000, well above the 2019 prepandemic average of 163,000.
Payrolls grew most strongly at services businesses, the Labor Department said. Leisure and hospitality industries added 128,000 workers in January, up from 64,000 in December.
Thursday/ Happy Groundhog Day ❄️
The groundhog from Pennsylvania says there will be 6 more weeks of winter. (Of course there will be, looking at the weather map).
The 51 °F (11 °C ) and calm weather we had here in the city today felt almost balmy, though. I walked back to Capitol Hill from downtown, after taking the No 10 bus to get there.
Wednesday/ a little pickle 🥒 ball
It was warm enough (48 °F / 9 °C) for the amigos to play a little pickleball this afternoon.
Tuesday/ the last of the 747s ✈️
[Jennifer Buchanan / The Seattle Times]
Somebody told her that there was a place like heaven
Across the water on a 747
Yeah we’re living in
In a modern world
And pretty soon she’s really got the notion
Of flying out across the big blue ocean
Yeah we’re living in
In a modern world
– From the song ‘Calling America’ (1986) by Electric Light Orchestra (ELO)
Across the water on a 747
Yeah we’re living in
In a modern world
And pretty soon she’s really got the notion
Of flying out across the big blue ocean
Yeah we’re living in
In a modern world
– From the song ‘Calling America’ (1986) by Electric Light Orchestra (ELO)
The last assembled Boeing 747 had left the Boeing’s widebody factory in Everett, Washington, on December 6, 2022.
It was delivered to Atlas Air today: a 747-8F (Freighter) with plane number #1,574 and registered as N863GT.
Pan-American Airways was the launch customer for the first 747 passenger jet created, the 747-100. The airline ordered 25 of the exciting new ‘jumbo’ jets, and the first one was delivered in January 1970, and christened by First Lady Pat Nixon.
Monday/ the dog bus 🐶
Back row, from left: Yarrow and Otis. Front row, from left: Gumbo and Slade.
[Still from video by Mo Mountain Mutts]
Mo Mountain Mutts is Skagway, Alaska, dog walking and training business, run by husband-and-wife duo, Mo and Lee Thompson.
A recent TikTok video of several dogs confidently boarding the bus on their own with big wagging tails was viewed more than 50 million times.
It documents the Thompsons’ regular pickup routine. At one point, the minibus stops in front of Amaru’s home, where he is seated in the front yard — clearly expecting them. From inside the bus, the Thompsons open the doors for the pup, and he happily leaps in.
Once entering the bus, the dogs typically sniff around and greet the other canine passengers, before climbing onto their assigned seat — which the Thompsons have trained them to do. Then, their harness gets secured, and the same process is repeated as the rest of the pack, about 12 dogs, is picked up.
The seats are carefully selected based on factors such as a pup’s personality, age and manners. Most dogs head directly to their designated seat without being guided.
Sunday/ sunny and cold 🌬
The high today was all of 38 °F (3 °C), but no matter— the pickleballers were out in full force at the Miller Park courts on 19th Avenue.
In fact, I notice now that one of the sixteen intrepid competitors was in shorts and a t-shirt 🥶.
Caturday
Can you spot the big cat in this picture?
Click on the picture to enlarge it.
Friday/ inside the Summit 🏬
The amigos toured the new $2 billion Seattle Convention Center extension today. (Construction had started in August 2018).
The existing Convention Center is now named Arch, and this extension is called Summit.
There is a large below-ground space, and five sprawling floors stacked on top of it, with a ballroom the size of a football field at the top. (The height of the Center is the equivalent of 14 regular floors).
The planks of wood suspended from the ceiling in the ballroom, and used for paneling at the ballroom entrance doors are called ‘wormwood’.
The wood comes from salvaged, decommissioned log-booms (floating barriers in waterways to collect logs that had been cut nearby).
After some time in the water, larvae of marine clams (sp. Bankia setacea) attach themselves to the logs, and start drilling into the log’s interior, creating a network of tunnels.
‘Seattle faces a moment of truth to save downtown’ wrote the Seattle Times today, pointing a report from Downtown Seattle Association that had estimated in October 2021 that 500 street-level businesses had closed since 2019. Only 300 new street-level businesses had opened. The hope is that the Convention Center extension can serve as a catalyst to bring people back and fill the empty spaces of commercial real estate.
Thursday/ the leaves have left 🪵
Here’s a dead-of-winter photo of 19th Avenue’s bare trees.
I am looking south, with Stevens Elementary School on my right.
Wednesday/ about the Abrams tanks ⚙️
President Biden announced today that the U.S. will send 31 Abrams tanks to push back against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
From the New York Times:
But by promising Abrams tanks — which John F. Kirby, the National Security Council spokesman, said would take “many months” to be built by General Dynamics — Mr. Biden was able to give Mr. Scholz political cover to send Leopard tanks by early spring. And Germany’s decision opened the way for Spain, Poland and Finland to do the same, with Norway likely next to announce a similar contribution.
The Abrams tank is named after WWII tank commander Creighton Williams Abrams, Jr. (1914-1974). It has a massive 500 gallon fuel tank for its 1,500-horsepower gas turbine engine that runs on jet fuel, gasoline or diesel. The engine is very reliable, but the high fuel consumption could present a serious logistic problem in places such as Ukraine.
Tuesday/ mail from Malaga, Spain 📨
Very nice: the stamps I had purchased just 11 days ago from my seller in Spain, landed in my mailbox tonight. The mailman should be commended for still doing the rounds at 8 at night.
This time the mailing envelope has the dreaded computer-processed postage label on. (Some philatelists don’t mind: they collect even these machine-generated labels).
SWA on the stamps: South West Africa, Namibia’s name until independence in 1990.
RSA on the stamps: Republic of South Africa, South Africa’s official name since 1961 (before 1961 the country went by the Union of South Africa, and like Canada, Australia and New Zealand, it was a self-governing dominion of the British Empire).
Monday/ at the library 📖
I checked into the central library in downtown for the first time since the start of the pandemic today, and did very well. 😁
I bought two books for $1 each (so: free) at the little store at the entrance, and
checked out two Der Spiegel magazines and The Case of The Shoplifter’s Shoe. (A Perry Mason detective mystery. He is a lawyer and his secretary’s name is Della, and his private detective is Paul Drake. It’s easy reading and for old times’ sake. I had read them all a long time ago).
Sunday/ Happy Lunar New Year
The hare is the fourth in the twelve-year periodic sequence of animals that appear in the Chinese zodiac related to the Chinese calendar.
Saturday/ a Great Britain stamp enigma
A little side benefit from buying stamps from sellers all over the world is that the senders sometimes paste whole sheets of stamps onto the envelope, instead of using a dreaded computer-generated black-and-white ‘stamp’ .
Why would the seller use these stamps from 30, 40 years ago, though?
He had an oversupply of stock?
1992 (28 Jan.) Two phosphor bands
1592 (1st) multicoloured Flower Spray
1593 (1st) multicoloured Double Locket
1592 (1st) multicoloured Key
1592 (1st) multicoloured Model Car and Cigarette Cards
1592 (1st) multicoloured Compass and Map
1592 (1st) multicoloured Pocket Watch
1592 (1st) multicoloured 1854 1d. Red Stamp and Pen
1592 (1st) multicoloured Pearl Necklace
1592 (1st) multicoloured Marbles
1592 (1st) multicoloured Bucket, Spade and Starfish
Greetings Stamps. ‘Smiles’ Set of 10
1991 (26 Mar.) Two phosphor bands. Perf 15×14
1550-1559 (1st) multicoloured
British Anniversaries.
1971 (25 Aug.) Two phosphor bands
891 5p multicoloured Faraday Building, Southampton University
British Trees (2nd Issue)
1974 (27 Feb.) ‘All-over’ phosphor
949 10p multicoloured Horse Chestnut
‘Occasions’ Greetings Stamps
2003 (4 Feb.) Two phosphor bands, Perf 14½x14
2337 (1st) lemon and new blue ‘Gold star, See me, Playtime’
2338 (1st) red and deep ultramarine ‘I♥U, XXXX, S.W.A.L.K.*’
*XXXX is a beer and Sealed With A Loving Kiss, a World-War II postal acronym
2339 (1st) purple and bright yellow-green ‘Angel, Poppet, Little terror’
2340 (1st) bright yellow-green and red ‘Yes, No, Maybe’
2341 (1st) deep ultramarine and lemon ‘Oops! Sorry, Will try harder’
2342 (1st) new blue and purple ‘I did it! You did it! We did it!’
[From the 2011 ‘Collect British Stamps’ Stanley Gibbons Stamp Catalogue]
Lucky Friday the 13th? ☘️
The largest lottery winnings ever is the Powerball payout of US$2.04 billion recorded just last year on Nov. 7, 2022.
As of today, and for tonight’s drawing, the Mega Millions prize is up to $1.35 billion.
From thelotter.com:
The biggest jackpots in the world, both starting and awarded, belong to US Powerball and Mega Millions.
Both of the lotteries jackpot prizes reset to an estimated US$20 million each time they’re won.
This is larger than many lotteries’ biggest payouts!
The second-biggest starting prize belongs to Europe’s transnational star: The EuroMillions.
The top prize starts at €17 million and can grow with each rollover until it reaches the prize cap.
Update Sat. 1/14: The second largest jackpot in Mega Millions history was sold in Lebanon, Maine (pop. 6,000) at the Hometown Gas & Grill. The winner hasn’t come forward yet.
