There are two key types of people when it comes to Seattle's summer days. There are those who think 60 degrees (with some clouds, some rain, and lots of breezes) is perfect, and there are those who are only happy when the city is 70 degrees. The ones who love 80-degree Seattle are just freaks of nature, but, unlike those who love 70-degree Seattle, they are at least for real. They are the sun-worshippers found in the pages of Georges Bataille's The Accursed Share. Seventy degrees, however, means nothing. It's an empty point on the 206 thermometer. Sixty degrees reveals the person (autumn, winter, the lower the sun the better), and so does 80 (skin, more skin, and even more skin in the sun). But 70 tells you zero. 

September 19 to 25 is now, says Governor Jay Inslee, "the Week Without Driving [2022]." What's this about, you might ask?

You can get around however you want, but you can’t drive yourself in any car. This applies to all your activities — not just your work commute. And if you normally transport other family members or friends, it applies to those trips too. You can ask someone else to drive you, but make a note of how much you 'owe' this person in their time, and if you felt obligated to support them in other ways (ie, doing all the dishes). You can use ride-hail or taxis, but note how much it costs you. 

Fine, fine, fine. But what about Pike Place Market? Why are cars still permitted to enter this obvious pedestrian street? 

On Monday, Seattle received a tort claim from the family of Antonio Mays Jr., a black teenager shot and killed in the autonomous zone that emerged from the Black Lives Matters protests of June 2020. The lawsuit states that May might be alive today if the City provided the zone, called Capitol Hill Occupied Protest (CHOP), with emergency services. According to KIRO 7, the tort claim "does not specify a financial claim."

King County Elections tapped the sheriff to "investigate [the] placing of 'surveillance' signs near dropboxes by GOP activists as possible voter intimidation," according to a press release. If you are not up on things, read this. But basically: Some local GOP nutters are trying import Trumpisms into the heart of our city. The Trumpisms in question treat our election system as corrupted and our dropboxes for votes as bins of corruption. If anything, this gives us a preview of this year's elections and of 2024.

Forty-seven House Republicans voted with Democrats to pass a bill that "would codify same-sex marriage into federal law." The bill became a thing when Justice Clarence Thomas made it clear that gay rights was on the same chopping block that ended universal abortion rights in the United States. Gas prices are falling, inflation looks like it might cool by the midterms in November, and, judging by June's job report, it's way too late for a recession to arrive just in time. It is possible that the last thing Republicans wanted was another major issue that didn't obviously improve their chances in races that have tightened since the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision. 

In the words of Soul II Soul, "back to life":

And:

London is now literally burning. The record-breaking heat is responsible for the flames consuming a number of homes and the thick smoke rising into the city's sun-blasted sky. London's Fire Brigade is tired of putting out one fire after another. Their resources, according to CNN, "have been stretched to the limits." And so, this is how it all looks like. The world does not end with a whimper, but with a bang.

Brazil's Trump, Jair Bolsonaro, is not playing. He really is Brazil's Trump. I do not think the same can be said about UK's Boris Johnson.

Today in Cixin Liu's masterpiece Three-Body Problem: “Do not answer! Do not answer! Do not answer!” 

I could not help myself, but Europe looks like this tune from the 1980s: