Here are some things I like about this year thus far:
1. I live in Seattle. (Very soon, my husband will live in Seattle with me.)
2. I have taken vitamins every day of this year.
3. Family members are traveling internationally.
4. There is a dog in my life.
5. I enjoy going to work everyday.
6. I have tickets to see Picasso this week.
7. I have spent more time on public transportation than in my own car thus far.
A short list but very important nonetheless. (Oh, and this is pretty neat too.)
little black dog and me.
I’m sure most people saw a headline along the lines of “One in seven Americans living in poverty” today— but did anybody else catch how that was defined? $22050 a year for a family of four. In the 98122 zip code in Seattle (“From Broadway to Lake Washington, Denny to Yesler”), the median rent for a two bedroom apartment is $1343 a month according to some random rent calculating website. That leaves $5934 a year— $494 a month— for, what, groceries, utilities, medical care— never mind insurance, education, etc etc. I find thinking about that a lot more useful than an abstracted “one in seven.”
0 0 x 0 0 0 0
It’s also crushing to think about how many are just above the cut— there but for the grace of a statistic wonk’s technical definition go they. Crushing more so to think of all this happening during a time when some have so obscenely much.
I saw this on a car in the Southern County the other day:
Big ups for that one— easily my favorite since “ABOLISH CORPORATE PERSONHOOD.”
All apologies to Secretary Wayne Clough— “a geotechnical engineer who reads and writes poetry,” a quote Michelle Obama gets laughs with in a pretty good speech— but I’m pretty sure this public exchange at the end of his introduction was the part more of the United States public was interested in:
In other design news, the Stranger put up (giant file size) versions of the draft environmental impact statements for the Deep Bore Tunnel. Crowdsourcing in the hope of somebody finding a chink in the armor, I think. Nothing I’ve seen so far strikes me as nearly so meaty a target as the fact that the WSDOT geotechnical report totally bungles our tectonic setting— no megathrust mention, attributing Nisqually to a shallow thrust “associated” fault, slickensides in boreholes downtown…
Sam and I are hitting in the streets to patronize a local establishment but, man, were we happy to read this story before leaving the house—
(Sheriff Joe) Arpaio has launched — either on his own or in conjunction with the county attorney — high-profile criminal investigations against a who’s who of Maricopa County politicians and officials. The list includes the mayor of Phoenix, a former police chief, two members of the board of supervisors, Superior Court judges, and even a former state attorney general.
The charges have included public corruption, misuse of taxpayers’ dollars, bribery, rape and even child molestation. What all these investigations hold in common is that they were launched with great public fanfare, but rarely resulted in convictions. Among the investigations recounted in this report, the only conviction has been on the misdemeanor charge against Dowling.
Nail him to the wall, federal grand jury! What an asshole.
(Phoenix Mayor Phil) Gordon came under Arpaio’s scrutiny, he says, after speaking out against the sheriff’s neighborhood sweeps to round up illegal immigrants.
The mayor says he received a torrent of records requests from sheriff’s investigators, and he was later told that he was under investigation on possible child molestation charges. Gordon says the sheriff “bragged that he was watching my office from his office with a telescope.”
Meanwhile— have you ever seen a cross-section of what the Seattle deep-bore tunnel would look like? What a beast!
The picture’s from the WSDOT geotechnical report. Thanks to Dominic for the link!
Seeing comments on it like this gem from “60sCynic”
Well, I’m off to free parking and spending money in Bellevue & Issaquah. And no swerving to avoid Critical Masss Terrorists.
really helps validate my decision to internally ridicule today’s anti-McGinn editorial in the Seattle Times. Also, do you think the “mayoral dust storm” reference in the opening paragraph is meant to be a Pigpen reference?
Sam and Devin dot com 