So yeah, Seattle won the big pointyball game, and lots of people came out for a parade to celebrate. But are we surprised to learn that parade organizers overestimated the crowd size? “There is civic pride that goes into estimating these numbers. They tend to be overstated wildly,” says Steve Doig, the Knight Chair in …
Continue reading ‘Parade crowd size watch: Seattle 12th person edition’ »
Doesn’t actually come from a glacier. Filtered tap water. Also, no penguins apparently involved.
The question of how tumbleweeds got to America keeps coming up in conversation, but I can never quite remember the details, so I’m typing this up here so I can Google it later as needed. Here’s the version from Tim Egan’s terrific book The Worst Hard Time, a gripping narrative history of the Dust Bowl. …
This great old bridge over the Little Colorado River is gone: Built in 1928, it’s been replaced a wider and much more boring bridge. Its story, from the Historic American Engineering Record: In 1914 the El Paso Bridge and Iron Company erected a two-span steel truss to replace the existing timber structure over the Little …
A detail of the new public art, a sculpture named “Guardians” by Nora Naranjo Morse, in the park around the corner from our house:
I think this was taken right before all that bad stuff started happening to Dorothy, the witches etc.
Found this behind an old bookshelf. Not sure what it is.
Some months ago, I found myself at a speaking engagement at a posh resort in the hills outside San Diego, the sort with beautiful eucalyptus trees, and golf carts. I’d brought some business attire for my panel discussion (in our family we refer to them as “grownup clothes”), but realized I’d forgotten to pack socks. …
Continue reading ‘The rich are different from you and me. They have nicer socks.’ »
It is said that Chinle, a Navajo community in northeastern Arizona, has one of the largest high school basketball gyms in the country. Basketball is very popular in Indian Country.