Weeks ago, the administration decided that the public needs cake and deserves cake, and so shall have cake.
Now, the public expects cake and would be very annoyed if its cake was taken away at this point.
– John P. Moore, a virologist at Weill Cornell Medicine
I want my cake, and eat it, too. I have had two shots of the Pfizer vaccine, and I think I want a third one! [Photo of Blackout Cake by Alex Lau, food styling by Judy Mancini]It looks like the White House had gotten out over its skis, by promising that everyone over 16 will be able to get booster shots.
Last Friday, a panel of experts recommended against booster shots for the broad public. Only people over 65, and those ‘at high risk’ qualify (compromised immune systems, workers such as hospital staff, teachers).
Did they have all the latest information, though? Here’s Sharon LaFraniere and Noah Weiland writing for the New York Times (about the discussion on Friday Sept. 17 by the panel of experts that advise the FDA): One study apparently came too late for the discussion, underscoring the rapid flurry of changing data on vaccine potency. Released by the C.D.C. hours before the committee’s vote, it found that the Pfizer vaccine’s level of protection against coronavirus hospitalizations dropped significantly four months after the second shot.
The study found that two weeks to four months after recipients got their second dose, the Pfizer vaccine was 91 percent effective in preventing hospitalization. After 120 days, though, its effectiveness fell to 77 percent. Moderna’s vaccine showed no comparable decrease in protection over the same time frame. The vaccinated patients in the study tended to be older; the Pfizer cohort had a median age of 68.
There was a break in the rain today, and I walked around the Denny Triangle (in downtown Seattle) to check on the construction projects there.
Broadway in New York City reopened this past week, and the Paramount Theater here in Seattle is, as well. ‘City and Colour’ is the alias under which the Canadian musician, singer, songwriter and record producer Dallas Green (40 yrs old), records under.The $1.2-billion expansion of the Washington State Convention Center has been three years in the making, and will be completed in summer 2022. Interstate 5 is just on the other side. The 10th-floor ballroom will provide views of Puget Sound.The Cornish College of the Arts building on Boren Ave (constructed 1915, traditional Norwegian Style, architect Sonke Englehart Sonnichsen), holding its own between the Seattle Children’s Research Institute: Building Cure at the back and The Ayer on the right, a new 45-story luxury apartment tower.The two apartment towers of 1120 Denny Way are complete, two stacks of white floors going up 41 stories. I’m trying to work up enthusiasm for the appearance of the black & copper structure in the middle – and not quite succeeding.A brand new Porsche 718 Cayman T* on Denny Way, waiting at the red light. (*I say it is a Cayman T because the double tailpipe & wheels match the picture of one on Porsche’s website). Even though the Cayman is sometimes called ‘the poor man’s Porsche’, this model starts at $70k. What a beautiful car, but it burns fossil fuels. Come on Porsche— make haste, and make it electric.Now I’m in the Cascade district north of the Denny Triangle. This is the skeleton of the old Seattle Times building where the newspapers used to be printed. Two office blocks, 16 stories, and 18 stories tall, will be built here. The three apartment towers at the back with the curvy sides are all on Denny Way.Looking west from Thomas Street and Boren Avenue North, and using my telephoto lens. Look for the golden elevator cage going up to the observation deck, in the middle of the Space Needle.The Gold Bar on 9th Avenue serves up cocktails and small plates & tacos. Kudos to them, for opening up their pandemic street space as soon as the rain had stopped. (That’s an active bike & e-scooter lane running along the pavement: something that patrons and the servers have to keep an eye on).There’s the sun, peering through the leaves in Denny Park alongside Denny Way.I took this picture (on the pavement by Denny Park) to remind me to look up/ determine how long the lever would have to be, to move Earth, in this famous statement from Archimedes. A discussion on physics.stackexchange.com provides the answer. The principle of a lever in balance is that on the one side, distance times weight, is equal to distance times weight on the other side: d1.W1 = d2.W2. Earth weighs 6×10^24 kg. Let’s make the load arm length (opposite of Archimedes’s side) 1 m long, and assume he can push down with the force needed for 60 kg of weight. Say that gravity where he stands, is equal to that of Earth’s, and that Earth’s weight is concentrated where it meets the load point on the lever. Then the lever’s force arm length (on Archimedes’s side) would have to be 10^23 m. That is a distance of some 10 million light years. (About 4 times the distance between our own galaxy, the Milky Way, and Andromeda Galaxy, the nearest one to us). If Archimedes pushed down on this intergalactical, perfectly rigid lever for 3 or 4 feet, Earth on the other end (10 million light years + 1 m away), would move by the diameter of an electron.Snapping a picture while crossing Westlake Avenue near Denny Way, and looking south towards downtown .... and the McKenzie luxury apartment tower nearby is a cylinder of blue, gray and white tiles.
We have had about 1 in. of rain here in the city, and there will likely be more by the way of showers tomorrow.
The snowcap on Mount Rainier’s peak is back, after most of it had melted away in the heat of the summer.
Stormy weather rolling in towards the city across Puget Sound this afternoon. Rain came down during Friday night, with a break on Saturday morning, and then more rain. [Picture posted by Kristy Sharkey @kristy_sharkey on Twitter]
in·sou·ci·ant
/inˈso͞osēənt,inˈso͞oSHənt/ adjective
showing a casual lack of concern; indifferent.
“an insouciant shrug”
My package from Kopenhagen, Denmark finally landed on the porch today.
Inside are the LEGO Looney Tunes figures that were still missing from my collection, plus a bunch of bricks for building trees and foliage. I will build one figure every day. Here is the first one: the famous rabbit.
Do I even need to introduce this rabbit? Per Wikipedia: ‘Bugs Bunny is an anthropo-morphic gray and white rabbit or hare who is famous for his flippant, insouciant personality’. He debuted in director Tex Avery’s Oscar-nominated cartoon film ‘A Wild Hare’ (1940). P.S. That is an enormous carrot!
Health officials here in King County are clearly worried that the pandemic will get even worse, now that summer is over.
Beginning Oct. 25, customers will have to show proof of vaccination— or a negative COVID test— at most establishments and events here in King County.
It’s not clear at this point, if any smartphone apps* will be available to help with the process, or if businesses will get any help or compensation for enforcing the rules.
*I registered months ago for the MyIR (My Immunization Record) Mobile app, but it still says the link to the State Health Department is not in place.
The Puget Sound area had less than 0.1 in of rain the last 90 days.
Rain is finally on the way.
My lavender asters with their golden buttons are in full bloom here at the end of summer.The rain will start on Friday, and continue through the weekend (1-2 inches in the city). The mountains will get the most, and above 6,000 ft there will be snow.
‘I want to focus on what we said yes to as a State. We said yes to science; we said yes to vaccines; we said yes to ending this pandemic; we said yes to peoples’ right to vote without fear of fake fraud or voter suppression; we said yes to a woman’s fundamental constitutional right to decide what she does with her body, her faith and her future; we said yes to diversity; yes to inclusion; we said yes to pluralism; we said yes to all those things we hold dear as Californians – and I would argue as Americans: economic justice, social justice, racial justice, environmental justice, our values, where as Californians had made so much progress. All those were on the ballot this evening. And so I’m humbled and grateful to the millions and millions of Californians that exercised their right to vote, and expressed themselves so overwhelmingly to rejecting the division, by rejecting the cynicism, by rejecting so much of the negativity that’s defined our politics in this country over the course of so many years’.
– California Governor Gavin Newsom at a press conference tonight
Good news from California: the recall of Governor Gavin Newsom has failed.
This was a sour-grapes, politicizing-of-COVID effort from the Republican Party of Suffering and Death to unseat Newsom; a waste of $276 million. Per California law they had needed only 50% of the vote to recall Newsom, and install the challenger with the most votes. In this recall it would have been Larry Elder, a conservative radio talk show host and Trumpist. That would have been downright awful.
Governor Newsom speaking after the projections show that he will defeat the recall. [Still from CNN broadcast]
rusknoun \ ˈrəsk \
a sweet or plain bread baked, sliced, and baked again until dry and crisp
biscottonoun bis·cot·to \ bi-ˈskät-ō \ plural biscotti\ bi-ˈskät-ē \
a crisp cookie or biscuit of Italian origin that is flavored usually with anise and filberts or almonds —usually used in plural
[Definitions from merriam-webster.com]
I sometimes buy biscotti at Whole Foods, but they don’t always have it.
The best bet for me, when I want a special treat to dunk into my morning coffee, is to go to British Pantry in Redmond. They usually have some of Ouma’s rusks, an import from South Africa.
Ouma’s* ‘three seed rusks’. This box is going to be gone in a week .. or less. :). The box depicts storage of them in a traditional glass jar. And what are the three seeds? Pumpkin, sesame, and sunflower. The rusks come in a seedless buttermilk variety as well. *Ouma is Afrikaans for grandma.
There was a little rain on the ground this morning, and still enough to hear it patter down the gutter from the roof, as I opened my back door.
Sticky blobs of rainwater, magnifying the fine stripes on the dark burgundy leaves of my ‘Black Adder’ phormium flax plant. The dry lawn grass below should start to green up now that the rain is coming back.September should bring some 2 in. of rain.
On Saturday, both President Bush and President Biden acknowledged that what has happened in the years since, has only challenged the notion that Americans prized coming together over choosing to grow hostile to one another’s differences.
– Katie Rogers reporting for the New York Times
Lower Manhattan in New York City, seen from the Staten Island Ferry. The main building of the rebuilt World Trade Center complex in Lower Manhattan is called One World Trade Center (formerly Freedom Tower). It opened on Nov. 3, 2014. [Picture by Todd Heisler/The New York Times]
I watched most of the Djokovic-Zverev men’s semifinal match tonight— just not all the way to the end.
I could not get myself to watch Djokovic triumph over Zverev. No one can deny that the man plays great tennis, but I am not a fan of him otherwise.
Watching tennis on my 4K big-screen TV, popcorn and all. Alexander (Sacha) Zverev (Germany, 24) took the 1st and 4th sets, but lost in 5 sets against Novak Djokovic (Serbia, 34), in the end. This is the streaming feed from the ESPN+ app on my TV. ESPN+ is a subscription video streaming service for sport, owned by Disney company. It offers both live feeds and on-demand recorded sports events ($7 per month, unsubscribe at any time). It has been worth it to me 20 times over already, just for watching US Open tennis.
This is not some new “dictatorial power” President Biden is assuming. This is how the government works. Wake up.
– Rachel Maddow @MaddowBlog on Twitter
Excerpts from reporting in the New York Times by By Katie Rogers and Sheryl Gay Stolberg:
President Biden announced sweeping actions today to vaccinate tens of millions of American workers against the coronavirus, including private-sector employees, health care workers and federal contractors.
Experts say Mr. Biden has the legal authority to impose vaccine requirements on the private sector, through laws that require businesses to comply with evidence-based federal health safety standards.
One thing Mr. Biden cannot do is require all Americans to be vaccinated; in the United States, vaccinations are the province of the states.
‘Our Patience is Wearing Thin’. Well —my patience is worn out. Average deaths per day in the US is now back at 1,500. The virus keeps smoldering and mutating among the 80 million unvaccinated Americans that go about their daily business, and infecting other unvaccinated people (and a few vaccinated ones). [Front page of the print edition of the New York Times for Friday Sep 10].
I found a new version of Scrabble to play. I play against Zoey.
Zoey is a program, and I select her ‘Grand Master’ level. There is no point in playing her at any other level, is my reasoning.
Still, sometimes it really feels as if she cheats.
Examples: putting down 7 letters* for words such as GAZUNDER and spelling UMIAK as OOMIAK.
*Using all 7 letters earns the player a 50 point bonus.
Here is an explanation of the unusual words on the board (unusual for me— my apologies for any insult rendered to the reader’s vocabulary): GAZUNDERverb, informal, British: (of a buyer) lower the amount of an offer made on a property and accepted by (a seller) at the time of final negotiations, as in ‘the couple have just been gazundered in one of London’s most expensive areas’ TYEEnoun, adjective: from Nootka Jargon tayi(s) < Nuu-chah-nulth tayi ‘elder’, ‘oldest son’, ‘older brother’, ‘senior’; allegedly resembles Inuktitut toyom ‘chief’ OOMIAKnoun, from Inuit umiaq, variant spelling of ‘umiak’: an open boat made of a wooden frame covered with hide used especially by indigenous peoples of arctic Alaska, Canada, Greenland, and eastern Siberia OEnoun: a small island NAVnoun: short form of navigation ODAHnoun: a room in a harem KEEVESnoun, plural: a tub or vat especially for liquids (as a bleaching kier or dolly tub) SETTSnoun, plural: the den or burrow of a badger; also: the particular pattern of stripes in a tartan
I ran out to the little second-hand LEGO store called Bricks and Wheels, in Bellevue, only to find it closed as I got there. It’s closed on Tuesdays.
That was actually a good thing.
1. There was no urgent reason to buy LEGO bricks TODAY.
2. I can use this little excuse some time soon again, to drive out there. 🙂
Here’s a still picture from my car’s dash cam video today, on the way to Bellevue on the east side of Lake Washington. I’m eastbound, on the Lacey V. Murrow Memorial Bridge towards Mercer Island. It’s a floating bridge that takes Interstate 90 across the lake. Construction started in Jan. 1939 and was completed in 1940. On the left is the Homer M. Hadley Memorial Bridge with westbound traffic (also a floating bridge). This bridge was completed in 1989, and named for Hadley in 1993.
It was Labor Day here in the United States today.
Many workers — but not all — had the day off. The American economy is in a strange place. The Washington Post reports that there are some 10 million job openings, yet more than 8.4 million unemployed are still actively looking for work.
I guess this could be a job interview in the year 2500, after Mars and other planets had been inhabited by humans. [Cartoon by Jerad Berg/ bad oranges 2015]Writes Heather Long, Alyssa Fowers and Andrew Van Dam in The Post: There is a massive reallocation underway in the economy that’s triggering a “Great Reassessment” of work in America from both the employer and employee perspectives. The reassessment is playing out in all facets of the labor market this year, as people make very different decisions about work than they did pre-pandemic. Resignations are the highest on record — up 13 percent over pre-pandemic levels. There are 4.9 million more people who aren’t working or looking for work than there were before the pandemic. There’s a surge in retirements with 3.6 million people retiring during the pandemic, or more than 2 million more than expected. And there’s been a boost in entrepreneurship that has caused the biggest jump in years in new business applications.
There was no gay pride parade in downtown this year in Seattle. (It is held on the last Sunday in June every year).
A separate organization puts up an event called Pridefest in June—on Broadway in the Capitol Hill neighborhood. They postponed their event instead of cancelling it, and it was held today.
It turned out that the pandemic is very much with us, even though it is the end of summer. I was not too keen to rub shoulders with everyone out there.
Even so, I walked down to Broadway this afternoon, put my mask on, dodged the people in the street, and took a few pictures. The street was not very crowded, and many people were wearing masks as well.
This cute inflated unicorn was at Olmstead restaurant on Broadway. The weather is still fine, and warm enough to sit outside (75 °F/ 24 °C today).The stall of T Mobile, wireless network operator, outside their storefront on Broadway. Further up is BECU, a credit union originally established to serve employees of The Boeing Company, but now open to everyone.Here’s the stall of Human Rights Campaign, the largest LGBTQ advocacy group and LGBTQ political lobbying organization in the United States. We have come a long way, but there is still a lot of work to do. LGBTQ Americans still face high levels of discrimination in public places, in school, and in the workplace.Several vendors had stalls as well, selling artwork, clothing or flags.
Let’s Go, Carlos! clap-clap-clap Let’s Go, Carlos! clap-clap-clap Let’s Go, Carlos! clap-clap-clap
– Rowdy Arthur Ashe Stadium crowd, chanting during the Alcaraz-Tsitsipas tennis match at the US Open, Friday
World No 3 Stefanos Tsitsipas (23, Greece) was up against 18-year old sensation Carlos Alcaraz (Spain) and the spectators on Friday. (The crowd may have been a little tired of Tsitsipas’ lengthy bathroom breaks between sets. Andy Murray had said on Monday he had lost his respect for Tsitsipas because of it).
The epic match went 4 hrs 11 mins and the full five sets. I watched all of it.
Alcaraz was on fire during the first set. Alcarez 6-3.
He lost the second set. Tsitsipas 6-4.
Alcaraz then trailed 2-5 in the third set. Tsitsipas had 40-15, serving, and yet, Alcarez wrested it away from him, and the next two games. Level at 5-5. The set went to a tiebreaker, which Alcarez won. Alcarez 7-6 (7-2).
Alcarez must have been drained mentally at that point, because he lost the fourth set 0-6. Tsitsipas 6-0. Never mind.
The fifth set went to a tie-breaker again, which Alcarez took 7-5. Alcarez 7-6 (7-2).
Alcarez def. Tsitsipas 6-3 4-6 77-620-6 77-65
Update Tue Sept. 7: The young Alcaraz made it all the way to the quarter-finals. Unfortunately, he had to retire today against Felix Auger-Aliassime because of a leg muscle injury. Fourth Round: Alcaraz def. Peter Gojowczyk (32, Germany) 5-7 6-1 5-7 6-2 6-0. Quarter-final: Felix Auger-Aliassime (21, Canada) def. Alcaraz 6-3 6-1 (retired).
Alcaraz about to put away a backhand volley in the first set against Tsitsipas on Friday. When I started playing tennis, my coach would say that it takes ’10 years’ to become a tennis player, and ‘another 10’ to become a champion. Well, that was 50 years ago and I guess we live in internet time now. Alcaraz at 18 has a mature game with a great serve, powerful & flawless groundstrokes, a deft drop shot touch, and great volleys. He is already a champion. He won the Croatia Open in July. He qualified for all four 2021 Grand Slam tournaments and won his first round matches in all of them. His coach is former world No 1 Juan Carlos Ferrero (41, Spain). [Video still from ESPN+ broadcast]The Alcaraz forearm shot that is a bazooka, shooting a tennis ball back at 90 mph. His backhand is double-handed. [Photo by Rhea Nall/USTA, posted on usopen.org]Match point* for Alcaraz (Alcaraz is up 6-3 in the 5th set tiebreaker; first to 7 wins). He lost this point, the first of his three match points. Score 6-4. During the next point, he hit a drop shot. With Tsitsipas up at the net, Alcaraz lobbed the ball deep. It was out by a hair. Score now 6-5. Second match point gone. The final point saw them exchange 9 shots, and then an inside-out forehand winner from Alcaraz got him the match after 4 hrs.
*Match point means one of the two players needs ONE POINT to win the game, with that win the set, and with that, win the match. In this case, leading 6-3 in the tiebreaker, Alcaraz could lose the point, but would have another match point at 6-4. He could lose that point as well, and would have yet another match point at 6-5. (Let’s get mathematical. So up at 6-3 in the tiebreaker means you have triple match point. Up 6-2 would be quadruple match point for you. Up 6-1 would be quintuple match point, and just to complete the math, being up 6-0 would be sextuple match point.) [Video still from ESPN+ broadcast]
I like the weather-beaten lettering on the Flowers Bar & Restaurant in U District.
The new U District light rail station is just around its corner. It is underground, and opens on Oct 2 .. and I will be sure to go and check it out!
Flowers Bar & Restaurant at the corner of University Way NE and NE 43rd St. The sign in the window advertises margaritas, mojitos and mint julep, each for $5. A separate sign says ‘Irish Car Bomb $8’ : a bomb shot of Irish cream and whiskey, into a glass of stout (thanks, Wikipedia). Do not order it in Ireland or in the United Kingdom, for that matter. It refers to the car bombings of Ireland’s Troubles. The name of the drink offends many Irish and British people, and some bartenders there refuse to serve it.
‘We took a break in the spring of 1982 and now we’ve decided it’s time to end it. They say it’s foolhardy to wait more than 40 years between albums, so we’ve recorded a follow-up to The Visitors.’
– ABBA, at the announcement of their first new album in 39 years
The new album is due Nov. 5. This is the image of the cover on Amazon.
The suspense is over for ABBA fans, and hey! a whole new reunion album of their music is coming. (At first it was just a new song or two that were promised.)
As far as I understand, the 80’s supergroup made themselves into avatars for a virtual world tour, so that they would not have the hassle of traveling the world over in the flesh (and in a pandemic). Who can blame them for not wanting to travel for work? I do not.
Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson in a live-stream of the ABBA Voyage announcement at Grona Lund, Stockholm. [Photo by Fredrik Persson/TT News Agency / AFP]Looking good .. Björn Ulvaeus (76), Agnetha Faltskog (71), Anni-Frid Lyngstad (75) and Benny Andersson (74). Those are the high-tech costumes that had enabled the motion-captured visuals of their younger selves. Benny joked that he should have asked Agnetha and Anni-Frid if they can still sing before tackling the project (they can), and said it was wonderful to experience the camaraderie of collaborating on an album again.
On August 22, Tropical Depression Henri dumped 1.94 inches on Central Park between 10 p.m. and 11 p.m., breaking the record for the most rain in an hour in New York City. Ida bested that record just 11 days later, dropping three inches of rain between 8:51 and 9:51 p.m. on Wednesday night. The intense downpour caused flooding throughout the city, as well as the first flash-flood emergency* ever to be issued in New York City.
– Matt Stieb writing in Intelligencer
*Emergency means the flooding poses an imminent, ongoing severe threat to life, and catastrophic damage.
Scenes from a disaster movie (only, it’s real) in the subway stations (before service on the subway system was completely suspended). The L Train coming into the Jefferson Street station in Bushwick (Brooklyn) with water just cascading onto the rails. Train stops. Passenger jumps out onto the platform, getting completely drenched (far right). [Stills from a video clip posted by Alex Etling @AlexEtling on Twitter]The platform is flooded. The doors close. The train departs. [Stills from a video clip posted by Alex Etling @AlexEtling on Twitter]The empty Louis Armstrong Stadium in Queens, New York City is soaked and the court is under water. No tennis at the US Open tonight. [Photo: dpa/picture alliance via Getty Images]
This is in Brooklyn, as well. That looks like at least 12 inches of water on the street surface. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez chiding people that order food delivery during a flash flood emergency. (Grubhub is at fault as well. Hopefully the delivery person will be given an appropriately generous tip).
