Saturday/ the winner takes it all 🥇
Carlos Alcaraz (19, Spain) has played three phenomenal five-set matches this week to reach the US Open Men’s Final.
He beat Marin Čilić (33, Croatia), the 2014 U.S. Open champion, at 2:23 a.m. on Tuesday;
he beat Jannik Sinner (21, Italy) at 2:50 a.m. on Thursday after surviving a matchpoint, and
he beat Frances Tiafoe (23, USA) shortly before midnight on Friday. (There was American royalty in the stands, watching this match: Michele Obama).
(Yes, New York City never sleeps— but what a ridiculous state of affairs, with the evening matches obviously starting wa-a-ay too late).
Alcaraz is playing against Casper Ruud (23, Norway). For the first time ever since the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) ranking list was established in 1973, will the outcome of a major final will also determine who of the two players will become world No 1.
Friday/ haze
The skies around Puget Sound have been clear for most of summer this year.
There was some smoke haze in the air today, though— with a warm weekend in the forecast:
Saturday 89 °F/ 32 °C
Sunday 83°F / 28 °C
Queen Elizabeth II (1926-2022)
Buckingham Palace said the queen, who was 96, died peacefully Thursday afternoon at Balmoral Castle, her estate in the Scottish Highlands.
Her son became Britain’s new monarch, King Charles III.
– From the New York Times
[Photo by Chris Jackson/Chris Jackson Collection, via Getty Images]
Wednesday/ pickleball before beers 🍻
It was a beautiful and mild blue-sky day (73 °F/ 23 °C) here in the city.
The amigos played a little pickleball before going for a beer and a bite.
The pine needles and grit had been swept or blown from the courts, which was great. We also had standard pickleball nets with sturdy frames provided by the Seattle Metro Pickleball Association.
Tuesday/ ‘Hello Liz’ 🤝
Here’s tomorrow’s The Sun newspaper, having some fun with Elizabeth the Prime Minister meeting Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.
The Queen may have said ‘Hello, Liz’ but the Prime Minister definitely did not.
Monday/ Britain’s new PM
So it’s goodbye to Boris Johnson, and Britons have their fourth prime minister in six years, in Liz Truss. She is Britain’s third female leader, after Margaret Thatcher and Theresa May.
The new PM will have to deal with inflation, Ukraine, energy security with winter approaching, the NHS, the contrails of Brexit and a general election that isn’t too far away.
[Still from BBC video clip]
Sunday/ a seaplane crash
It was a gray Sunday— no sun— and terrible news broke later in the day, of a seaplane crash in Puget Sound.
The plane was a De Havilland DHC-3 Otter with 10 people onboard, nine adults and one child. The US Coast Guard said the plane was traveling from Friday Harbor to Renton Municipal Airport when it crashed into the waters of Mutiny Bay.
The crash was reported at 3:11 p.m. One body had been recovered and nine people were still missing as of around 9 p.m. The cause of the crash is still unknown.
Update Mon 9/5:
The Coast Guard recovered several large pieces of aluminum and smaller pieces of debris smelling of fuel, but “very little” of the actual plane had been found as of midday Monday, said Scott Giard, search and rescue program director for the Coast Guard in the Pacific Northwest region.
Both the Coast Guard and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife sent divers to the island, and the Coast Guard will use an underwater drone to try to find the wreckage and come up with a plan to retrieve any remains from the fuselage.
Officials believe the wreckage is on the seafloor, which is between 150 and 200 feet deep in that area. – from the Seattle Times
Update Thu 9/29:
The wreckage of the floatplane was found on 9/12, on the seafloor. Today, some 80% of the wreckage was recovered off Whidbey Island, as well as an undisclosed number of bodies of the 10 victims. Crews began recovering pieces of the wreckage on Tuesday, and recovery is expected to last several more days.
[Diagram from Skytamer.com]
[Photo by John Shupek copyright © 2003 Skytamer Images]
Saturday 🕸
There was a little rain on the ground this morning.
It’s Labor Day weekend, which means that summer is over— unofficially.
Hopefully there are still enough bugs buzzing about for Mr. Spider to catch in his web.
Friday/ the end of a storied career
Serena Williams (40) bowed out of the US Open tonight, losing in the third round against Ajla Tomljanovic (29) of Australia. She had indicated before the start of the tournament that this would be her last.
It was at the 1999 US Open where Serena won the first of her 23 Grand Slam titles*— at only 17 years old. She defeated in succession Grand Slam champions Kim Clijsters, Conchita Martínez, Monica Seles, and defending champion Lindsay Davenport, to reach the 1999 US Open final. In the final, she then defeated world No. 1, Martina Hingis, to become the second African-American woman, after Althea Gibson in 1958, to win a Grand Slam singles tournament.
*The most by any player in the Open Era, and the second-most of all time (behind Margaret Court’s 24).
Williams was a power player: an aggressive baseliner, whose game was centered around her powerful serve and forceful groundstrokes.
[AP Photo/Frank Franklin II]
Thursday/ a paddle for pickleball 🥒
My top-of-the-line paddle for pickleball has arrived.
The CRBN ¹ Elongated Paddle is slightly longer than others (but also approved by USA Pickleball).
It has a carbon fiber face with a honeycomb polypropylene core.
Wednesday/ at the Twilight Exit
dive bar
noun
a small, unglamorous, eclectic, old-style bar with inexpensive drinks, which may feature dim lighting, shabby or dated decor, neon beer signs, packaged beer sales, cash-only service, and a local clientele (from Wikipedia)
The amigos went to Twilight Exit tonight, off Cherry Street in Central District. It was toasty outside today (88 °F / 32 °C) but there was a welcome breeze outside on the patio.
That’s Jimi Hendrix (b.1942- d.1970) on the artwork by the entrance— Seattle native and guitarist, singer, and songwriter. His mainstream career spanned only four years, but he is widely regarded as one of the most influential electric guitarists in the history of popular music.
Tuesday/ creatures of the night 🌒
My uncle sent me these images of nocturnal animals.
They were captured by a LtlAcorn® camera trap he had set up in 2009 at the Shalimpo camp in Botswana.
Monday/ the Republic’s first stamps
Here’s the first definitive series of stamps issued for the Republic of South Africa.
This is the original set that was issued in 1961.
Slightly updated versions of the stamps with redrawn images and fonts for the lettering were subsequently issued and printed until 1973, when the set was retired.
½c Natal Kingfisher, 1c Coral Tree flowers, 1½c Afrikaner bull
2c Pouring gold, 2½c Groot Constantia, 3c Crimson-breasted Shrike
5c Boabab Tree, 7½c Maize, 10c Entrance to Castle, Cape Town
12½c Protea, 20c Secretary Bird
50c Harbour, Cape Town, R1 Bird of Paradise Flower
Sunday
At 7 tonight, I walked to Madison Street, along 17th Avenue.
A woman driving an ‘electric blue’ Tesla Roadster (the 2011 model) turned into the Trader Joe’s parking garage just then.
At the Shell gas station across the street, the sign says $5.39/ gallon, some 50c down from July.
Hopefully, gas prices will become irrelevant in a few more decades.
Washington State is going to follow California’s lead and ban sales of ICE (internal combustion engine) cars starting in 2035.
Saturday/ the last days of summer
It felt like fall this morning (high for the day only 71 °F /22 °C), with a spritz of rain on the ground.
This year’s summer brought stretches of hot weather, but no smoky skies from wild fires.
Friday/ the Fed spooks the markets 👻
We will keep at it until we are confident the job is done.
– Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, at the end of his speech in Jackson Hole, WY today.
It had to happen, of course: Fed Chair Powell reminding investors that there are several interest rate rises and probably some pain ahead, before the Federal Reserve Bank will be sure that inflation is under control.
Hopefully the selling today was mostly done by fund managers— not individual investors. The best advice on down days like today: do nothing.
[Graph from the Wall Street Journal]
Thursday/ stamps from 1954 💌
I bought this beautiful set of 1954 Union of South Africa stamps on Ebay because I have very fond memories of them.
My mom had a stack of letters with the rhinoceros on— correspondence between her and my dad from before they got married.
I had the half-penny, one-penny and two-penny in my collection at the time. The higher denomination stamps were spectacularly out of reach for a young collector: very expensive to buy. The 10-shilling stamp depicts postage 240 times that of the half-penny stamp with the warthog. (Twelve pennies to the shilling).
In 1961, South Africa became a Republic, switched to a decimal currency (the South African Rand), and a new set of stamps was issued. I have that set as well, and will post it soon.
The stamps below depict a warthog, a black wildebeest, a leopard, a zebra, a white rhinoceros, an African elephant, a hippopotamus, a lion, a kudu, a springbok, a gemsbok, a njala, a giraffe and a roan antelope.
It was the first set of stamps depicting South Africa’s wild life heritage, and many, many more stamps depicting wild life would follow.
Wednesday/ the last of the heat? 🔥
We had 87 °F (31 °C) today and it may get to 90 °F (32 °C) tomorrow .. but the days are getting shorter and the weather will start turning soon.
P.S. ‘Heat’ is a relative term, of course. I read on Twitter of the Chinese city of Chongqing that recently had 113 °F (45 °C) for two days, with the night temperature at 93 °F (34 °C).
Tuesday/ Jupiter’s auroras
Now that she’s back in the atmosphere
With drops of Jupiter in her hair
She acts like summer and walks like rain
Reminds me that there’s a time to change, hey
Since the return of her stay on the moon
She listens like spring and she talks like June, hey
Hey, hey-yeah
[Chorus]
But tell me, did you sail across the sun?
Did you make it to the Milky Way
To see the lights all faded
And that heaven is overrated?
And tell me, did you fall from a shooting star?
One without a permanent scar
And did you miss me while you were
Looking for yourself out there?
-Lyrics from ‘Drops of Jupiter'(2001) by Train
I am trying out the new James Webb telescope of Jupiter and its auroras as wallpaper for my phone.
[Photo Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, Jupiter ERS Team; image processing by Ricardo Hueso (UPV/EHU) and Judy Schmidt].