The Vacation Day I Should Have Told You About Last Week: Seattle

My best advice is plan an extra day or two at the end of a vacation, especially a physically active vacation like our Alaska cruise, to relax and get ready to reenter society. That’s advice we didn’t take!

Our ship pulled into Seattle early Saturday morning. We were bushed. We also had plans… oh did we have plans.

Seattle_HDR2

As Helaine and I cruised the Alaskan Panhandle a few weeks ago I diligently posted to my blog every day. By the time we got back to Seattle… well, I was just too beat. That’s a shame, because Seattle was just as much a fun surprise as the rest of the trip!

Here goes.

My best advice is plan an extra day or two at the end of a vacation, especially a physically active vacation like our Alaska cruise, to relax and get ready to reenter society. That’s advice we didn’t take!

Our ship pulled into Seattle early Saturday morning. We were bushed. We also had plans… oh did we have plans.

We got our bags, found a stevedor, hailed a cab and headed to the Sheraton. This day was destined to be a tip-o-rama. Oy!

Our room wasn’t going to be available until mid-afternoon so we gave the bellman our bags (and some cash) and headed out to explore the city. As was the case a week earlier when we’d boarded the ship, Seattle was sunny and welcoming.

We’d spent the previous week walking and today would be no different! I asked the concierge for directions to the Pike Place Market. We set out downhill.

Pike Place Market is probably more known for its iconic sign than what’s inside! Shame. It’s a really cool collection of small stands selling produce, flowers and fish with a some professional crafters thrown in for good measure. The market overflows onto the adjacent sidewalks. Everything is grown, caught or created locally.

Helaine was immediately impressed by the beautifully large bouquets of flowers $10-$15 bought! Other items… well you’re paying for the experience I guess. Everything looked fresh, wholesome and inviting. We bought some jam to take home and a t-shirt for me so I could change out of my long sleeve shirt!

There are a lot of street musicians in Seattle. Near Pike Place most of them were playing jazz. It fits perfectly.

We noticed a long line outside a Starbucks across the street from the market. Seattle is a coffee drinking city, but this queue was more than you’d expect. The non-standard sign was the giveaway. It’s the original Starbucks!

I should have. I didn’t. So shoot me Howard Schultz.

A phone call from the hotel brought us back uphill to get our bags (same bellman, second tip) and settle in. That didn’t last long. There was more to see and do!

Helaine had purchased a half price Groupon deal for the Columbia Center Observation Deck. At 73 floors up it’s the best view of the city… better than the Space Needle!

Unfortunately the observation deck is tough to find! In fact even getting in the building was tough to do! Once inside we were pointed to an elevator which needed a key card to head to the 40th floor transfer station. We had to find someone to do that.

Someone on Yelp summed it up this way:

Finding the elevators, and figuring out where to go really is confusing. It’s like a secret club, and a maze all mixed up into one.

I wish there was a way to take photos without glass between me and outside. There is not.

In the elevator down we ran into two high school friends. We had tickets to see the Mariners and asked if Safeco Field was walkable. They acted as our tour guides tagging along through Pioneer Square.

This is a good time to hit pause and talk a little about Seattle itself. It is a big city and by all outward appearances prosperous. We were in the business district and it seemed stores were moving in, not out. The city is clean and full of people.

There are also more homeless people than I have ever seen in an American city. Is it the affluence that’s their draw? I don’t know, but they’re there.

We were never approached or bothered in any way, but we felt uneasy going through Pioneer Square on the way to and from Safeco Field.

Helaine purchased our tickets on Stubhub before we left Connecticut. We sat on the field level 20 rows behind home plate and paid under $100 for the two tickets. A losing season for the Mariners is probably the reason why.

The roof was over the field when we arrived. Around 20 minutes before game time it slowly and silently slid open exposing us all to this spectacular Seattle weather! Nice touch. It was better this way than if it had been open from the get-go.

The game itself was pretty good too… unexpectedly good. Seattle’s “King” Felix Hernandex struck out 10 while Texas starter Yu Darvish got lit up early. The Mariners won 7-0 and they passed out free Ichiro shirts!

Helaine needed to wake-up at 2:30 AM to get ready for our flights back to Connecticut, so we left after the 7th inning stretch and walked back to the hotel. Damn Seattle is hilly! My post trip calculation was a little less than five hilly miles of walking as we ended our vacation.

I’d very much like to go back and see more of the Pacific Northwest.

Suffering Puppy Withdrawal

You know you’re suffering dog withdrawal when you start friending strangers who have one! That goes for the four dogs pictured below, even the two in a car! We collared each of their owners so we could get in a quick pat and scratch and attempt to ameliorate our jones.

I’m writing from Seat 4F onboard Southwest 315, nonstop Seattle to Chicago Midway. We’re on our way home from our Alaskan adventure.

I’m tired… beyond tired. I got about an hour of airline sleep which like airline pretzels comes in too small a quantity to be satisfying!

There’s a blog entry coming about our day in Seattle. This was a first time visit under full sunshine. I know that’s not a realistic condition to judge Seattle, but I really liked what I saw! It’s a clean city full of fit and happy people that seems not to be participating in our nation’s economic downturn.

Liked or just jealous, does it matter?

For now, let’s talk dogs. We both miss Doppler. She was boarded for a few days, then spent the rest of the week with her brother/father (we don’t know) Bentley at Cheryl and Steve’s&#185.

You know you’re suffering dog withdrawal when you start friending strangers who have one! That goes for the four dogs pictured below, even the two in a car! We collared each of their owners so we could get in a quick pat and scratch and attempt to ameliorate our jones.

&#185 – We can’t begin to say how grateful we are to Steve and Cheryl. When Doppler’s with them she’s well taken care of, but more importantly she’s loved as if she was home.

At The Pier In Seattle

I am sitting on our balcony still docked at Pier 91, Seattle. Our ship is the Golden Princess. At 4:00 PM PDT she is scheduled to back out of the slip and head to the Pacific via the Straits of Juan de Fuca.

I have a spectacular view of Seattle all the way from the Space Needle past Safeco and Century Link Fields and the working docks. From time-to-time large car carrying ferries head to suburban neighborhoods on nearby islands.

Dominating the background is Mt. Rainer. The upper half is still covered in snow. Think giant scoop of vanilla ice cream.

I am sitting on our balcony still docked at Pier 91, Seattle. Our ship is the Golden Princess. At 4:00 PM PDT she is scheduled to back out of the slip and head to the Pacific via the Straits of Juan de Fuca.

I have a spectacular view of Seattle all the way from the Space Needle past Safeco and Century Link Fields and the working docks. From time-to-time large car carrying ferries head to suburban neighborhoods on nearby islands.

Dominating the background is Mt. Rainer. The upper half is still covered in snow and a small trailing lenticular cloud. It looks like a giant scoop of vanilla ice cream.

In Seattle, a city known for its rain, we are looking at cloud free skies!

If you’ve been cruising you recognize ships like the Golden Princess. We’ve been on enough to see the similarities. It’s very pretty and very well kept.

Our cabin is on Deck 12, toward the stern, starboard side. We’ve never been in a cabin with as much closet space!

We Went To See Julie And Julia

Movies are among the last of our experiences with exacting attention to detail. Movies are meant to be examined through a magnifying glass. The good ones hold up.

julie-and-julia.gifHelaine and I went to the movies yesterday to see Julie and Julia. This is the movie about Julia Child and separately Julie Powell who decides to spend a year preparing and blogging about every recipe in Child’s seminal “Mastering the Art of French Cooking.”

365 days. 536 recipes. One girl and a crappy outer borough kitchen.

How far will it go? We can only wait. And wait. And wait…..

The Julie/Julia Project. Coming soon to a computer terminal near you. – from the opening entry in Jule/Julia Project blog

On a sunny afternoon on the Labor Day weekend you might expect the movie theater to be empty and you’d be right. The sparse crowd was decidedly older. “All the handicapped spots are filled,” I noted as we walked in.

The presentation began with the most inappropriately chosen trailers ever matched to a movie! First up Tyler Perry’s upcoming “I Can Do Bad All by Myself.” It went downhill from there. There were scary movies and guy movies, but as far as I remember no other chick flicks were promoted to this lily white assemblage of mainly senior citizens.

I loved the movie. Truly.

Meryl Streep is effortless as Julia Child, ex-pat wife of a Paris based diplomat (Stanley Tucci–who is the 3-in-1 Oil in Julia’s life ). She is drawn to a cooking school out of boredom with her life. Streep is probably our finest living actress and there’s nothing in this performance to show otherwise.

JJ_wallpaper_07_800x600.jpgAmy Adams was sweet as the Child obsessed chef/blogger. I’ll call her effortless too, though for most of the movie her character kept her emotions out in full view.

An admission. When Helaine kicks me out (sooner or later she will) I intend on moving in with Amy Adams. Amy doesn’t know that yet. Don’t tell. I don’t want to spook her prematurely. She fills the role formerly held by Marianne of Gilligan’s Island.

Set primarily in 1950s Paris and modern day New York City the movie is a character study… or studies. Julia and Julie’s lives are interconnected though they never meet&#185.

As the film was playing I thought about what makes movies so special (and so expensive). Movies are among the last of our experiences with exacting attention to detail. Look at the sets and costumes. Movies are meant to be examined through a magnifying glass. The good ones hold up. This was a good one.

Call me a heretic, but we left the movie and had dinner at IHOP. Julia Child is rolling over in her grave.

&#185 – Nora Ephron is also responsible for “Sleepless in Seattle” in which the primary characters didn’t meet until the very end.

From Your Christmas Doofus

The weather here is awful. We’ve been warming for 15 or 16 hours, it’s raining and there’s slushy snow everywhere. Rain de-fluffs snow!

santa-hat.jpgI follow “PhotoJeff” on Twitter. Jeff, whom I don’t know, is with Microsoft. He just wrote:

“PhotoJeff: …here’s a holiday fashion tip for men. Stop wearing the Santa hats! They look cute on girls and women, but make you look like a doofus…”

Great–like I’m not already guilt ridden. I’m wearing the hat on TV today anyway. Jeff lives in Seattle. He won’t see it.

I used to wince “tracking Santa” with the NORAD animations. Who knows why, but a few years ago it started seeming like more fun and I’ve embraced it. So tonight, in my doofus hat, I’ll be tracking Santa.

I’ve had parents tell me how their kids enjoy the Santa tracking, but the happiest of all are our producers who are working with a skeleton staff and happy to get a full serving of “Newscast Helper!”

The weather here is awful. We’ve been warming for 15 or 16 hours, it’s raining and there’s slushy snow everywhere. Rain de-fluffs snow!

On top of that, last night’s performance from Darlene Love was a disappointment. It wasn’t Darlene as much as it was HDTV! What always seemed like a huge and glittery production on Letterman looked more like a high school pageant on the wider and more highly resolved LCD screen. The studio looked old and worn. Then the show ran long, meaning my recordings (yeah–two) were snipped at the very end.

I’m sure my mood will brighten later. The folks who work Christmas are always in a good mood. Honest. I’m not sure how that works, but they are.

Merry Christmas. Happy Chanukah.

The Numbers Are In

Nielen ratings are in for last night’s debate

The Nielsen ratings are in for last night’s debate. I’m confused by the list of stations aggregated which doesn’t include Fox News and MSNBC, both of which would add significantly to the final total.

If these overnight numbers stand, the ratings are well below other recent debates.

OK–I’m a little surprised. I thought for sure there would be a lot more interest considering all the buzz.



DMA Rank Market RTG Rank RTG SHR (000) 21 St. Louis 1 52.1 82.0 649 48 Memphis 2 49.5 67.0 330 26 Baltimore 3 47.1 66.0 515 9 Washington, DC (Hagrstwn) 4 44.6 68.0 1030 29 Nashville 5 44.0 66.0 424 46 Greensboro-H.Point-W.Salem 6 42.2 61.0 285 32 Columbus, OH 7 41.5 63.0 377 43 Norfolk-Portsmth-Newpt Nws 8 41.4 59.0 298 58 Richmond-Petersburg 9 40.3 55.0 211 18 Denver 10 39.7 65.0 586 24 Charlotte 11 39.3 54.0 426 7 Boston (Manchester) 12 39.3 58.0 944 22 Portland, OR 13 39.0 74.0 450 31 Kansas City 14 37.7 61.0 350 16 Miami-Ft. Lauderdale 15 37.2 52.0 573 38 West Palm Beach-Ft. Pierce 16 36.4 55.0 282 27 Raleigh-Durham (Fayetvlle) 17 36.2 54.0 377 51 Buffalo 18 36.1 54.0 230 25 Indianapolis 19 35.3 59.0 379 53 New Orleans 20 34.8 48 209 11 Detroit 21 34.3 55.0 661 59 Knoxville 22 34.3 51.0 185 61 Tulsa 23 34.1 55.0 178 45 Oklahoma City 24 34.0 55.0 231 40 Birmingham (Ann and Tusc) 25 33.5 48.0 245 52 Providence-New Bedford 26 33.5 50.0 211 15 Minneapolis-St. Paul 27 33.4 59.0 569 19 Orlando-Daytona Bch-Melbrn 28 33.4 52.0 479 62 Ft. Myers-Naples 29 33.3 51.0 164 28 San Diego 30 33.0 59.0 349 50 Louisville 31 33.0 48.0 218 17 Cleveland-Akron (Canton) 32 32.9 55.0 505 37 San Antonio 33 32.9 48.0 261 20 Sacramnto-Stkton-Modesto 34 32.7 55.0 454 4 Philadelphia 35 32.1 51.0 941 44 Albuquerque-Santa Fe 36 32.1 50.0 218 23 Pittsburgh 37 32.1 51.0 371 6 San Francisco-Oak-San Jose 38 32.0 62.0 779 13 Tampa-St. Pete (Sarasota) 39 31.7 49.0 569 49 Austin 40 31.6 52.0 201 36 Greenvll-Spart-Ashevll-And 41 31.5 46.0 265 64 Dayton 42 31.4 50.0 161 1 New York 43 31.3 48.0 2317 8 Atlanta 44 30.9 52.0 714 3 Chicago 45 30.7 51.0 1067 14 Seattle-Tacoma 46 30.3 58.0 541 30 Hartford & New Haven 47 30.2 45.0 306 47 Jacksonville 48 30.0 47.0 196 33 Salt Lake City 49 29.9 63.0 261 35 Milwaukee 50 29.2 49.0 262 34 Cincinnati 51 28.3 49.0 256 42 Las Vegas 52 27.9 46.0 196 5 Dallas-Ft. Worth 53 27.7 46.0 671 2 Los Angeles 54 26.4 50.0 1484 12 Phoenix (Prescott) 55 24.8 47.0 448 10 Houston* 56 0.0 0.0 0 Weighted Avg. of 55 markets* 33.2

What Is Journalism?

It’s probably a good time to delve into this because there are two interesting journalism stories.

Who is a journalist? What is journalism? It’s probably a good time to delve into this because there are two interesting journalism stories unfolding today.

Who broke the John Edwards affair? The National Enquirer. Ouch, mainstream media. How’d you let that one slip away? And the Enquirer has been all over this story for a while. They also broke the Monica Lewinsky story. This is not your father’s, “Elvis Spotted At K-Mart” Enquirer.

I heard Steve Plamann, senior executive editor of the National Enquirer interviewed on NPR’s “Talk of the Nation” today. He gladly admitted the paper’s sensationalist bent. They are after all, by his admission, a supermarket tabloid. But, does that disqualify them from being taken seriously or breaking stories?

Should the NY Times follow the Enquirer as they certainly do the Wall Street Journal or Washington Post? Do you disregard them at your own risk? I’ll answer my own question. They disregarded the Edwards story and it doesn’t reflect well on them.

Is the National Enquirer journalism? I think they are, but who makes this judgement?

The second journalistic fork in the road has to do with CNN’s decision to rely on more “one-man-bands” populating single person bureaus. Here’s how TVNewser reported it:

“Yesterday CNN announced it was expanding its domestic presence by opening bureaus in 10 U.S. cities. The press release called it a doubling of U.S. newsgathering. But when a 28-year-old company expands you can bet there will be changes to existing personnel too. And that is the case with CNN.

TVNewser has learned that after the announcement of the new bureaus and soon to be added “all-platform journalists,” nine CNN staffers were told their jobs were going to be redefined. We’re told the staffers are not being laid off, but being offered positions in the new structure.

The staffers work in cities including Chicago, San Francisco and Miami. As NPR’s David Folkenflik reported this morning, “let’s be clear [CNN/U.S. president Jon Klein] is only really talking about adding a handful of new staffers. Others will be redeployed in less-covered places like Columbus, Ohio, Orlando and Seattle.””

Is it less journalistcally pure when a single person covers a story instead of a crew? Is there something lost when a reporter also has to concentrate of his/her equipment during the time they used to be concentrating on the person speaking?

Video gear has become smaller, cheaper and easier to operate. I certainly could report and produce a news story on my own, but would that story suffer? I have colleagues who will argue the story will suffer and other friends, like Mike Sechrist, who truly believes we’re foolish to not take advantage of this technology.

There are a lot of constituencies involved here beyond the public who consumes this journalistic product. I am curious to see how this will shake out. This is a time when journalistic traditions might change rapidly.

Fun In The Snow

I am watching the end of the Seattle – Green Bay game from Lambeau Field. Helaine wanted Seattle to win. Sorry.

The game is being played in a major snowstorm. I’m glad I’m not there. On the other hand, it’s so much fun to watch.

Weather as a factor is one reason football is such an amazing game. Why would they ever allow it to be played inside?

Journalist By Luck… Bad Luck

Recently, I’ve been reading more and more about the idea of citizen journalist. These would be folks from the community who, by virtue of circumstance or desire, report on local news.

This blog, and others like it, are not examples of citizen journalist. Sorry Geoff.

In the past 24 hours there has been a shining example of citizen journalism, courtesy of a blogger who was on the Alaska Airlines flight that depressurized between Seattle and Burbank.

Not only did Jeremy Hermanns write about his experience, he took photos! There were others on board taking video on their cellphones. I’ve seen some of that footage on CNN and our air here in Connecticut.

Read the story from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and then Jeremy’s blog entry. In many ways they are complementary, as the PI story brings nuts, bolts and overview, while Jeremy’s blog entry lives the emotion.

It is likely we’ll be seeing more and more of this, as we did with the London subway bombings and the Boxing Day Tsunami.

One of my surprises are the comments below the entry (which Jeremy says he won’t edit). It is startling to read the vitriol from so many small and vindictive people. It also seems some of the negatives might be coming from Alaska Air!

Rain, Go Away… Please

Helaine asked if this is what Seattle is like? I can’t imagine it is. This is too depressing for anyone, especially heavy coffee drinkers.

We are now on day 8 of our rain storm, and it will continue into day 9 before ending.

A few things are mind boggling. First are the numbers. Parts of Western Connecticut have gotten over a foot and a half of rain!

Maybe more boggling is how little trouble this much rain has produced. Sure there has been flooding along the major rivers, but by and large there is less than I would have anticipated if I would have known how much rain was coming.

Are we lucky? Are we really better prepared because of better building techniques? I’ve got to find out.

In the meantime, seeing the light at the end of the tunnel is enough.

Baseball For Math Geeks

I am in a fantasy baseball league with some others from work. There are ten teams and though I started slowly, The Meat Thermometers, my team is now making a move.

I don’t know anything about baseball.

OK – maybe that’s an oversimplification. I do understand baseball, but I don’t know much about today’s players. Too many teams. Too little time. I can’t get excited when Kansas City plays Seattle.

The reason I like these fantasy leagues is it allows me to break baseball down to stats. I’ve taken that to the extreme.

When I told one of the other managers my team had gone 6 for 10 early last night, and then rattled off how many of the hits were double or homers, he said I was a little obsessed. Though the league is free to play, I spent $9.95 to buy a stat package, allowing me to follow each player pitch-for-pitch in near real time.

In the past Helaine has said this is sports betting and I fought her on that. But, it really does have little to do with the actual games these players are in. I’m rooting for stats and situations and individual achievement – not real team wins and losses.

I don’t know anything about my players that isn’t necessary. I avoid talking with the other fantasy managers about specifics, lest I show that I don’t know first names or past history or how any of my guys fits into their reality baseball team’s framework.

I have learned how often players sit out, for no apparent reason (to me at least) and how fluky injuries are.

May 26 Durham missed Sunday’s game against the A’s with a sprained middle finger on his left hand, but returned to the Giants’ lineup for Tuesday’s action. However, he was back on the bench on Wednesday, this time due to an ingrown nail on his right big toe. The veteran second baseman, who currently claims a 13-game hitting streak, has been listed as day-to-day.

Advice: Durham will be a game-time decision on Thursday. If he cannot go, Brian Dallimore likely will get the nod in his absence. During his current streak, Durham is batting .396 with eight doubles, two RBI and eight runs scored.

Ingrown toenail injury! I hope he doesn’t get put on the 15 day DL.

Everyday it’s a grid of numbers. How hot are they? How many singles, doubles, triples, homers? Does he have speed? Can he steal? I weigh all the factors. But, I have no idea who is leading the AL West, nor do I care.

This is sports for those who can’t play. It is perfectly suited for me. Go Meat Thermometers.

My Trashy Story

Every week, on Friday, our trash goes to the curb. Every other week it’s supposed to be accompanied by recycling. It doesn’t work that way in our household.

Whether it’s our distance from the curb or the amount of recycled newspapers we have (we subscribe to both the New Haven Register or New York Times) or maybe all the boxes we get because of online shopping, going to the curb bi-weekly doesn’t work. So all of this recyclable material piles up in the garage. A few times a year we stuff it into the SUV and I drive it to the transfer station.

Transfer station, what a lovely phrase. It’s so much more genteel than town dump.

I drove up to the transfer station this morning only to find the new policy – no newspapers. I had an SUV full of recyclables, and of course, the supermarket bags of newspapers were on top!

I unloaded the 20 or so bags of newspapers to get to the cardboard and other material underneath. At this point the transfer station folks took pity on me and found a place… a transfer station loophole if you will… that allowed me to drop the papers off. From now on it’s newspapers to the street, I suppose.

I want to be a good citizen, but it is increasingly difficult to follow the rules. In fact, it would be much easier to hide the newspapers and cardboard and bottles with our weekly trash. I’m sure a lot of people do just that. It also always strikes me as a little ironic that the two most talked about recycled products are made from sand (glass) or grow on trees (paper).

I know this is supposed to be good for the environment, and I’m for that. But, is it really? Is this just a feel good exercise with no payoff… or negative payoff?

From “Recycling Is Garbage” – New York Times Magazine, June 30, 1996:

Every time a sanitation department crew picks up a load of bottles and cans from the curb, New York City loses money. The recycling program consumes resources. It requires extra administrators and a continual public relations campaign explaining what to do with dozens of different products — recycle milk jugs but not milk cartons, index cards but not construction paper. (Most New Yorkers still don’t know the rules.) It requires enforcement agents to inspect garbage and issue tickets. Most of all, it requires extra collection crews and trucks. Collecting a ton of recyclable items is three times more expensive than collecting a ton of garbage because the crews pick up less material at each stop. For every ton of glass, plastic and metal that the truck delivers to a private recycler, the city currently spends $200 more than it would spend to bury the material in a landfill.

I don’t know what to think. I want to do what’s right, but I am really not sure. Until I know otherwise, I will follow the rules.

In the meantime, part of our recycling life at home will have to change. Newspapers to the curb. I can hardly wait for the first really big rain on a Thursday night.

Continue reading “My Trashy Story”