The Final Return of No Quarter As It Goes to XI!

Well, this took forever to get around to. Usually these articles show up in March, but we've all had other things on our minds. So let's wrap this. 

Here we stand, at the end of the No Quarter series (again). We started this with the Fifty States series in 2006 and started again with the America the Beautiful series, which gave commemorative quarters to a national park/forest/seashore/monument/farmer's market in each of the states and/or territories.

And these last few are the most esoteric and frankly beautiful of the lot. They are quirky, and part of that makes sense, since the treasury released these in order that the park/whatever was founded. So the big wilderness parks with mountains and hooved herbivores tended to come first, and now we are at the last bits, which can be a little quirky. But that quirkiness has been embraced to produce some stunners this time. I'm including the sole representative of 2021 for consideration as well, rather than leave that an outlier.

As always, I grade these, based on my own personal tastes. Your own mileage may vary, and readers are encouraged to get their own blogs to talk about them.

Way Cool =A
Not Bad = B
Kinda Lame (also known as Meh) = C
Very Lame = D
The Trump Administration Would Blame Obama = E

Let's dig in, one last time:

National Park of American Samoa - American Samoa

Bats are getting a bad press these days, but I really like this one. It amazes me in that "why didn't we think of this before?" way. Putting cute animals on coins! It's worked so well for Internet memes, why not here?

I mean, we are talking about American Samoa, here, which most Americans cannot locate on the map (OK, NPR reporters could, but nobody else). Well, we probably know it is somewhere in the South Pacific, with bonus points if you can put it to the east of West Samoa (which wants to be know as original-flavor, unleaded Samoa these days), and you get to go to the championship round if you put it at the northernmost part of the Tonga trench. Surprisingly, it is not something we took from the Japanese occupiers after WWII, but rather from the German occupiers in 1899, where it was used as a coaling station.

However, the cool thing about American Samoa is on the coin - it is the home of two varieties of fruit bat, and the Treasury shows Mother and Child fruit bats. The carving itself of one image, is superior to the mixed bag you see in some earlier quarters, and is really well-done.

It will be a surprise to people who suddenly find it in their change. And particular cool for the gothy culture.

Rating = A (Way Cool)

Weir Farm National Historic Site - Connecticut

OK, making this the subject of a coin is a bit of stretch, but then again, we are talking about Connecticut. Not a lot of places for National Parks. It got a really nice coin the first time around with a tree, and I half-expected to see a scenic lighthouse here. We get an image of someone painting an image. But the artist is confronting a blank canvas. Very meta. Much wow.

The coin celebrates Julian Aiden Weir, the founder of the American Impressionist movement. I know what you're saying. When we're talking about American Impressionists, we usually mean Rich Little and David Frye. This was a bonafied movement in the US,and consisted of "The Ten" - a group of impressionists that rejected the conservatism of previous groups and formed their own group (Process of Art History - Some people form a movement to rebel against the conservatism of their elders. Wait fifteen years, and then a NEW group will form to rebel against the original rebels).

The coin itself is interesting. It is very busy, and I wonder how it will press out in the final. The artist and easel in particular may see some wear. It does drive home the entire question of "what it is about" by engraving deeply a meme (A National Park For Art) where other coins would have just left the area as creative white space. So both laying the motto in the grass AND the catch-phrase provides some interesting balance along the right-hand side to balance the left.

Rating = B (Not Bad) 

Salt River Bay National Historical Park and Ecological Preserve - US Virgin Islands

Interesting, Iconic, and something I would not normally connect with the US Virgin Islands. The VIs themselves are a chain in the Atlantic that most people would guess as "somewhere near the Bahamas, wherever those are (actually, it is east of Puerto Rico, and south of the British Virgin Islands). Bought from the Danes (the Danes? Yes, the Danes) in 1916 to keep them out of German hands during WWI (negotiations were concluded 6 days before the US officially declared war, for the cool price of 25 million and recognizing Danish claims in Greenland (Greenland? Danes? Yep.).

The coin looks like an ent wading through the flooded Isengard, but is really a mangrove, which is not something I connected with the VIs (OK, OK, there was nothing I connect with the VIs except for sophomoric jokes). But it is appropriate, and like the Connecticut state quarter (also with the tree) it should feel pretty good in the hand. Yeah, it works.

Rating = A (Way Cool)

Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park - Vermont

OK, Like Connecticut, Vermont has the challenge of being a smaller eastern state - I mean, their state quarter celebrated collecting maple sap. And I am conflicted on this coin. On one hand, the site is important from the conservation movement with its attention to land stewardship - that ownership implies responsibility. On the other hand, the original Marsh was a successful Whig politician, Billings, who owned the land next was a founder of the Northern Pacific Railroad, and the Rockefellers were the son and daughter-in-law of THAT Rockefeller. So this park exists because people with a lot of money willed it to exist. 

The coin itself it OK - nothing to get excited about, sort of a Public Service Announcement of a coin. Planting a new tree way too close to the roots of an order one isn't exactly sound horticulture, but it works with the coin design. The balance it nice, with the sapling centermost, and a human element of someone carefully putting it in place is cool. But this is the only part of the National Park System in Vermont, except for a chunk of the Appalachian Trail, and at least they didn't decide to celebrate land sterwardship with a picture of the farmhouse.

Rating = B Not bad.

Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve  - Kansas

The Tallgrass Prairie is a relic - once most of the space between the Mississippi and The Rockies was rolling grassland like that found within its confines, but now has been tamed/cultivated/settled.  And indeed, a lot of the land is still grazed by cattle, replacing the bison that once dominated the ecosystem. They could have gone with buffalo, since they reintroduced a herd about ten years back, but instead went with a quiet moment for the coin.

I like this one. It is relatively simple presentation for a site that specifically doesn't have purple mountains majesty, but rather celebrates a non-fruited plain. The grasses are native, and so is the butterfly (a Regal Fritillery, for those keeping score). Yeah, I could make a Mothra joke, but this is a nice moment of peace captured on a coin. Good work

Rating = A (Way Cool)

Tuskegee Airman National Historic Site - Alabama

The final quarter of the series celebrates the African-American pilots of the Second World War. Breaking the color barrier of allowing black pilots to train for combat, the airmen fought both fascism in Europe and racism on the home front - the two wars noted on the coin. They were not just first, they were good - needing to prove themselves continually to a skeptical, often hostile, command structure.  

The coin itself is balanced for everything that it carries - Pilot in front, two P-51 Mustangs in flight overhead, the control tower of Morton Field, where they trained, in the background. A lot of elements in this coin, but unlike a few others, it pulls together into a cohesive image. It is a fitting wrap-up, both for subject and design, for the series.

Rating = A (Way Cool)

And that's the lot. Ten years of quarters. I haven't heard anything about a new series, though they will be doing a General Washington Crossing the Delaware quarter in 2021. And they did a Presidential Gold(ish) Dollar program that sort of petered out from public use, AND a First Spouse $10 series that was always a collectable. But should they decide to put us through this again, I will be here to celebrate it and mock it. Maybe.

More later, 

Season's Greetings

 Wishing you a safe and secure Holiday Season from Grubb Street

More later,

Life in the Time of the Virus - The Gathering Dark

 

Room For Tourists by Edward Hopper, 1945

Month Nine? Yes, I believe it is month nine.And things grow still more serious as we press on into winter.

As I write this, we are at over 280,000 deaths in the this county, by official count. Hospital beds are approaching critical state, and there is nowhere to send people. We are hitting 9/11 levels of death, every day. There are some bright spots on the horizon for vaccines, but the current administration, soon to be former, has pretty much revealed they have no real plan for distribution, and no plan to make a plan. There are tough times ahead.

Add to this the seasonal challenge in this part of the world. Seattle is tucked in the upper lefthand corner of the Continental US, so far north that the bulk of Canada's population is actually further south than we are. This means that summers are unnaturally long, but then again, so are winter nights. We lose the sun about four in the afternoon, and do not see dawn until after seven in the morning. In the days when I had a commute, I was used to arriving at work in darkness. Now I do the same, but at least I don't have to wear shoes. 

Our household Thanksgivings have been sprawling affairs, with friends from our various lives filling one (and occasionally two) long tables, with everyone bringing something to contribute. This year we rolled with the punches. I still brined and slow-roasted a turkey, the Lovely Bride made rolls, gravy, and cranberry sauce, and friends provided wine and a plethora of sides. Then we loaded everything up in the bajillion take-out containers accumulated over the previous eight months and we engaged in an epic delivery schedule, then gathered together on a Zoom call as we shared a meal. It was a major challenge, and the team rose to it.

Oh, there was an election, as well, also noted in these pages. Republicans were roundly voted down in this state, so as is typical for the GOP, they have cried foul and refused to admit it. No one cares. The top Republican in Washington State is our Secretary of State, and the nuttier Republicans are mad at her for standing up for the voters. So we have a chance of surviving as well, from their side. Pity that the current federal administration that has done so much to enable this crisis now is dragging its feet to help the next guy accomplish anything.

Our communications with the outside world are few and far between. Grocery shopping (the local Safeway is awash with masks, though we never quite caught on to the idea of one-way aisles). Once a week for new comics (fewer now than usual). Waving at passersby while raking leaves. We had an exterminator in that found mice within the foundation wall. Communications with our work is mostly video calls and slack channels. The cats have adapted well, and take for granted that we are around all the time.

And the local newspaper has shrunk, literally. Last week I noticed that the front page is about a half-inch smaller than the earlier issues that were to be recycled. There was a disruption for a couple days when they said they had a printing problem. Apparently the solution is a printing press that is slightly smaller. I did not find the local paper mentioning this to anyone in their pages. The magazines have been bearing up as well, the New Yorker talking about people bearing up under COVID, the Bon Appetite talking about restaurants that, hopefully, will open once this particular grim reaper passes on. One of the good things I have discovered is the Canadian version of the Great British Baking show, which captures a lot of fun and supportive innocence of the early editions of the show in England.

We have been fortunate, if one can call it that. We have remained healthy, even though friends of friends and colleagues working in other states have suffered illness and loss from this. We are careful, but even avoiding super-spreader events does not provide immunity. We look for this passing, but not today, not tomorrow, and not next month. But it will pass.

We are at the end of the beginning, I think, and I have hope for that which comes next. Because I fear if we let things get worse.

 More later,

Plague Books: Time Travel, By the Rules

The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers, Ace Books, 1983

Provenance: I only read this about 10 years ago. I didn't read it when it came out in part because it released in one of those sections of my life where I didn't read a lot of new fiction. I had graduated, got a "real job" as civil engineer, was laid off from that "new job" and had found another job in Wisconsin, moved, got married, and eventually was hip-deep in Dragonlance and Marvel Super Heroes. So I was, like, BUSY at the time. So lay off, OK?

Anyway, I missed the boat and the book, though friends recommended it strongly over the years. And I finally came across a copy in 2009. I know this because I have the receipt as a book mark, from the Barnes & Nobles Booksellers at the University Village (now no longer there). Also in the book was a take-out menu from the Delfino's (really good Chicago Deep Dish), and a flyer for a Butoh performance at the Richard Hugo House that I never attended. So I have a good idea of the time and place for this one.

Review: I'm sorry I missed it the first time around, but happy I caught up with it later. I've gone on about playing fair with the reader, and Powers does this in spades. But first, let me give you the back story:

A group of Egyptian cultists back at the start of the 1800s try to summon their god to drive the English out of Egypt. They don't succeed, but do manage to punch a number of discrete holes in the timestream. In the present day, a dying millionaire discovers those holes and sees them as a way of time travel. He hires Brendan Doyle, English professor and expert on an obscure author named Ashbless to lead a group back in time to a lecture by Samuel Coleridge. Of course the millionaire has a secret agenda, as almost every does - well, everyone except Doyle.

Things go casters up  in the past, and Doyle is kidnapped and stuck there, with multiple factions all with different aims hunting for him. Now, the book does two things I like - one is how Powers handles the man from the future in the past, and the other is writing a book in which time travel is inelastic while still maintaining suspense.

For the first part, there is a classic bit of SF from L Sprague DeCamp called Lest Darkness Fall, about a modern archaeologist who finds himself trapped in Late-Roman Empire Times. Using his 20th Century knowledge of the past, he proceeds to turn things around, rally the Ostrogoths, and stave off the Dark Ages. DeCamp's protagonist is the capable, competent, professional that inhabits such stories. 

Doyle? Not so much. His knowledge of the future doesn't help, and his ineptness with his current present results in him being reduced to starvation and begging almost immediately. Far from being the competent nigh-omniscient, Doyle is overwhelmed by his new situation. Things he knows from the future turn out to be untrue, and things get worse as the other factions move in.

The other thing I liked about the plot is that it works off the fact that time travel is inelastic - you can't change the past. No bumping off the Emperor, because your history will not allow it. Now, writing a book with the protagonist having agency in a deterministic universe is a bit of a challenge, but Powers pulls it off neatly, because a lot of specific knowledge gets lost over time, and the escapes lay in the details. Doyle knows his "death date", which cannot be changed, but if and how he avoids it is part of the charm of the book.

Yeah, I can see how this hit a lot of people hard when its first came out. It is tightly written, and plays by the rules while opening the doors to some truly strange occurrences (which we don't know about tucked away safely uptime). We have werewolves, we have ancient gods, we have wizards so evil that they cannot walk on the earth (one has stilts). We have body swapping and simulacra. We have history and secret history.

There feels to be long standing effects on gaming Shadowfist/Feng Shui (card game and RPG set in the same universe) uses the idea of multiple fixed time portals. World of Darkness embraces the entire secret history (though there are other volumes of this ilk). And the entire vibe of Egyptian Cult and 19th centruy England has a very Masks of Nyarlathetop feel to it. And while it does not make the list of various Appendix N's, it feels like a D&D adventure in many ways. So I'm going to hazard a guess that this has book, combining fantasy with strict adherence to history, had a definite impact on gaming.

It is worth digging out all these years later, so go take a look.

More later,

 

Plague Books: Baker Street Blues

The Baker Street Jurors by Michael Robertson

Provenance: Here's a secret - Amazon has a free bookstore available in one of its buildings.

OK, it isn't much of a secret, since it was mentioned in an article in the Seattle Times a few years back. And I don't know if it is still there, particularly in these Pandemic times. And what it is is a room with a lot of publishers copies that have been sent in for review for, like the Amazon Book Review that no one else claimed. So it is more of a "free giveway table" situated on one floor of a building that I will not divulge. And it is for Amazon employees, since you have to use your keycard to get in. Many of the books available are bound galleries (Here's the text, but we don't have a final cover or front matter") or Uncorrected Proof ("Here's the text and what we THINK is the cover, but we need to go through it one more time"), so they may not be the finished production you see at the B&N. 

But, hey, free books.

I hit the library few times and, to be honest, found it pretty picked over. I don't know if they restocked every Monday or what, but is had a scattering of SF, a lot of memoirs, some popular fiction, and a good selection of mysteries. Mysteries were well represented, and on a whim I picked up a copy of The Baker Street Jurors there.

And, spoilers, I didn't care much for it at all.

Review: I've nattered on about genre more than a few times to different degrees in this blog. How it is ultimately a marketing term - "If you liked X, you'll like THIS!", How it accumulates its own ancestors (Verne, Wells, or Shelly may have "invented" SF, but none of it was WRITING it when they composed their well-known works). How it changes over time ("Horror becomes Paranormal Romance", or most recently, we've see the mitosis of Fantasy and Science Fiction into two separate sections of the book store.). I don't HATE genre - I'm a big practitioner of it myself - but I do recognize it for what it it.

Well here's another rule about genre - when a genre gets big enough, it starts spawning off sub-genres. Mysteries is a great example. There are cat mysteries, dog mysteries, medieval monk mysteries, feminist mysteries, food mysteries, cozies, police procedurals, ancient Egyptian mysteries, dark Scandinavian mysteries, urban mysteries, and supernatural mysteries. Each of these subgenres may attract general "mysteries" crowd, but they are spot-targeted on appealing to a particular sort of buyer looking for a particular kind of story.

So. Sherlock Holmes mysteries. It it is a successful subgenre in its own right. stepping outside of books, look at the amount of TV shows and movies that have spawned off Holmes over the years, but that's a subject for a different rant. Heck, we have secret Holmes stories, young Holmes stories, lost Holmes stories (like the year he spent after Reichenbach) and even here in this blog, retired Holmes stories.

Baker Street Jurors, and the other books of the series (and yes, it is a series, another hallmark of genre), has an initially tangential connection to the Holmes oeuvre. Its protagonists are lawyers whose offices are at 221B Baker Street. And that's the initial connection. Within this fictional universe, like ours, Holmes is a created character, but that doesn't stop them from getting into Holmes-related mysteries.

In this case, one of the lawyers is summoned to jury duty (Yes, it is a conceit. Would YOU want a lawyer in a jury you were presenting to? But, this is Britain). He ALSO gets a jury summons for Sherlock Holmes at the same address. He bins the second one as a joke, but then, a long, hawk-nosed lanky violinist shows up for the jury duty, looking very Basil Rathbonish. And they are both assigned to the same case, which is a high-profile murder of a famous cricket-player's wife by a famous cricket-player with his famous cricket-playing bat. The game is afoot!

OK, there are conceits in this game. But then, in the midst of the proceedings, they decamp the jurors to the quote-scene-of-the-crime-end-quote. And then jurors start, um, dropping off, in shades of Agatha Christie and her Ten Little Indians (which would be Twelve in this case, plus spares).

Not great, but not criminal, in a writing sense. And the protagonist, Nigel Health (Brother Rory is off on a honeymoon) is fairly likable and a positive character. No, what irritated me about this book, and so irritated me that I kept it on my desk until I could properly dispose of it, was this: Robertson is not playing fair by the reader. If, in a mystery, you say something like "It couldn't possibly be an evil twin", then no matter who says it, you are reassuring the reader that the solution does not involve an evil twin. If the resolution of the crime then proceeds to be, "Ahah! It was an evil twin!" well, yeah, people are going to come after you with cricket bats.

And that's what happens in BSJ. No, not evil twins, but something similar, which left me a little put out. I can put up with the matters of coincidence (like how the guy that looks and acts like Sherlock Holmes ended up on the jury), but this is an outright fib to reader. And that's pretty much a violation of a core concept of mysteries. 

*Deep Breath*, and I've had this volume tucked away behind my monitor for several years waiting for me to get around to dunning it. And now that I have done so, I can safely put it into a box and inflict it on someone at a library sale. 

And feel, somehow, liberated.

More later, 

Life In the Time of the Virus - The Abyss Yawns

Automat by Edward Hopper 1927

Month Eight. 

Things are getting worse in the outside world. You knew it was coming, those of you were that were paying attention to how these things work. As we move from summer into fall, people move indoors, so spreading the virus is easier among groups. As a result, we are spiking, both here in King County and across the nation. A spike happened during the winter months in the Great Influenza a century ago and is happening here.

We are better prepared, the disease is more survivable, and vaccines and treatments, while still unproven, are promising. But hospital beds are filling up again and patients are being airlifted into Seattle from overloaded states like Utah and Idaho. The Federal Response remains abysmal, and the states are once more left to shift for themselves. It is the sort of thing that everyone was aware was in the works, but nothing much was done, so we confront another potential seasons of lockdowns, self-quarantines and shifting away from voluntary semi-isolation to a more hard-edged version once more.

[And over the course of writing this, news comes that we are shutting down further. No small gatherings. No meals in restaurants. No museums. Not a complete lock-down, but still extremely severe and stronger than any time since March. If I knew of a better way forward, I would definitely suggest it, but I don't.]

Of course, in the midst of this there was an election. Look elsewhere on this page for all the commentary therein. On election day, I turned down the media, social and otherwise, and retreated into a book. Unfortunately, the book was a Mary Beard volume on Rome, detailing its slide from sort-of-a-Republic into full-fledged authoritarianism, so probably it was not the most relaxing choice. I shifted over to a collection of Nero Wolfe stories about halfway through the evening.

I think that the sense of quarantine and isolation may be more pronounced as we move to the winter months, which in the Puget Sound means grey, rain, cold, the rare snowstorm and the occasional high winds. We had been eating out (or sending out) for food more of late, and that may get cut back if the restaurants have to reduce again. 

All work in on-line and with video chat, and while that keeps me going, the lack of in-person relationship and general haranguing is felt. Meetings in conference calls are usually for a purpose, and less for just messing about - talking about the latest professional sports game, the latest computer game everyone is playing, the latest movie. We do an on-line happy hour once a week, which is very good, but still does not match the sudden digressions into medieval trade practices that once marked the middle of my work day.

Pro sports teams are playing to empty stadiums with piped-in crowd noises. The newspaper is a slender thing, lacking a lot of its advertising. Catalogs, however, have made a comeback, and the Post Office has been loading the mailbox with the pre-holiday crush. And I am getting spam robocalls (Currently Kate from the Warranty department wants to get in touch with me. A lot.), so they have returned to their natural habitat, at least.

But I miss live theatre. I miss museums. I miss bookstores. I miss going to new restaurants. I miss sudden decisions to go shopping. I miss sushi. As it grows chiller, I miss sitting on the beneath the new deck, watching the daylight linger..I miss sunlight late into the evening, and soft rains that clear by morning. Now comes the winter of our discontent, lacking a glorious summer in the immediate future.

More later,

Plague Books: A Pirate's Life For Me

Fast Ships, Black Sails, Edited by Ann & Jeff VanderMeer, Night Shade Books, 2008

Provenance: NorthWestCon. Gotta be NorthWestCon. Night Shade had a table in the Dealer's Room that year, one of the few publishers that did. It has been a source of trade-paperback-sized volumes in my library over the years.

Review: I have a soft spot for the Age of Fighting Sail. It shows in Spelljammer. It shows in the world I pitched that never was. And It shows in a short story I wrote for Oceans of Magic. I've read/listened to the Aubrey/Maturin books by Patrick O'Brian, but never really got any traction with Hornblower or the Bolitho series. So Pirates? An easy sale for me. 

And this collection of pirates definitely scratches the itch. I have space pirates. I have fantasy pirates. I have alt-world pirates. I have cyber-pirates. I have poetic pirates. I have a surprising amount of cannibals. And most of them are pretty darn good.

One of the challenges in a pirate story, or any story in the Age of Fighting Sail, is that the sailing ship is the most complex machine of its age. Naval architecture was precise and unforgiving, and the the operating system consisted of the living crew who had to operate in co-ordination to keep things from going hull-sided up. Even operating a ship was a challenge and a craft, much less fighting to the death with another of these complex battle-wagons.

And there is the romance of the sea, of foreign lands, and of the promise of treasure and riches for those who who can bear up, and are fortunate. The 18 stories here range from pure fantasy to alternate histories to horror in tone, and most of them are pretty good. The best from my opinion was "Araminta, Or, The Wreck of the Amphidrake" by Naomi Novik, but a lot of the tales take on a distaff view of the historically (though not exclusively) male-dominated profession of piracy. A couple of the tales, did feel like the background music was "Brandi, you're a fine girl". Kate Sparrow's "Pirate Solutions" features hackers with historical and mystical piratical connections, with nods to Anne Bonny and Mary Read. Howard Waldrop and Michael Moorcock are here with name recognition, though Waldrop's is a mashup of Gilbert and Sullivan with Peter Pan, while Moorcock's contribution is a vignette, at best. Elizabeth Bear/Sarah Monette roll out a Cthuloid space tale with "Boojum", and Paul Batteiger does a nifty bit of worldbuilding with an ice-bound world in "Cold Day in Hell" which smacks of a Patrick O'Brien tale (on skates). 

The only story that left me cold was Steve Aylett's "Voyage of the Iguana", which seeks to take the terminology and jargon of the old salts and make it completely impregnable. I think it was humor, but the shot was wide and failed to take down any rigging. Rhys Hughes drops a shaggy dog story in "Castor on Troubled Waters", but that was forgivable. All in all, a good collection, nicely paced and well-put-together.

And it has just a hint of spray of sea salt on it.

More later, 

The Political Desk: Last Call

 So, how did things turn out?

Not horribly at all. Not everything went the way I recommended, but that's the nature of having an election - they let all sorts of people have their say. There have been a number of interesting wrinkles, including the fact that the late ballots in the State of Washington have been more Republican, when normally the last-minute surge has been urban and Democrat. Other notes as we will go through.  

Referendum Measure No. 90 - Approved  by healthy amount.

     Right before the election I got a robo-call against the measure that was positively frothing at the mouth about how it was a horrible things because it would do all sorts of thing that the measure specifically said it was not going to do.

Advisory Vote No 32 - All REJECTED by healthy amounts. 

    Which goes to show you that 1) They still don't matter, 2) Their wording is pure scare-tactics, but 3) We really hate taxes, even if it does not affect us directly. But those of you who were running a multi-billion dollar aircraft assembly plant in your basement as a side gig, the voters of Washington State have your back.

Engrossed Senate Joint Resolution No. 8212  - Rejected    

  This one is a surprise. I thought this one, to help fund elder care, was a no brainer. THIS ONE, I believe, has teeth to it, so as a future old person, I'm interested in seeing what happens next. 

harter Amendment No 1 - Inquests - Yes

Charter Amendment No 2 - Disposition of Real Property for Affordable Housing- Yes

Charter Amendment No.3 - References to Citizens - Yes

Charter Amendment No. 4 - Office of Law Enforcement Oversight - Subpoena Authority - Yes

Charter Amendment No. 5 - Making the King County Sheriff an Appointed Position - Yes

Charter Amendment No. 6 - Structure and Duties of the Department of Public Safety - Yes

Charter Amendment No. 7 - Prohibiting Discrimination on the Basis of Family Caregiver, Military, or Veteran Status - Yes

Proposition No. 1

Harborview Medical Center Health and Safety Improvement Bonds - Approved. 

President and Vice President of the United States: Joseph R. Biden and Kamala D. Harris.

    At 9 AM, our neighbor sounded an airhorn, which usually he uses for Seahawk touchdowns. That was the point that the AP declared that PA flipped and declared Mr. Biden the winner (it doesn't work EXACTLY like that, but its the way it has been done all the way along). My Facebook page is filled with co-workers and former colleagues dancing in the streets. Looking at the big picture, it doesn't look as much like a refutation of the GOP as a refutation of the horrible man who has squatted in the White House for the past four years. But that's enough, right now.

.

United States Representative Congressional District No. 9 - Adam Smith.

    I did get a couple robo-calls on this one, encouraging I vote for someone who stood for people, not party (which this year means being a Republican but not wanting to admit it). Problem was that it was for the 8th District, not the 9th (The Democrat won there as well). Way to spend your campaign bucks, folks. 

Governor: Jay Inslee

Lt. Governor: Danny Heck 

    This was a no-lose situation with two Democrats in the running, and the winner had the best yard sign of the season "Give Olympia HECK!". But what is interesting is that there was a 20% write-in, most of it for Joshua Freed, GOP, who ran for Governor in the Primary (and lost), and who is in trouble for funny-money business in his funding (so, you know, GOP). But it is phenomenally tough to run a write-in campaign, even when it is all mail-in. So that's worth noting.

Secretary of State: Kim Wyman. 

    Here's one I can't say I'm sad to be wrong about, even though Ms. Wyman is a Republican. She has done a very good job in a position that a lot of her party hates. The GOP tends to hide behind her pant-suit cuffs when they need to point to an "honest Republican", but she has proved herself capable and competent repeatedly over the years. 

State Treasurer: Mike Pellicciotti

State Auditor: Pat (Patrice) McCarthy

Attourney General : Bob Ferguson

Commissioner of Public Lands: Hilary Franz

Superintendent of Public Instruction: Chris Reykdal

Insurance Commissioner: Mike Kreidler

Legislative District No. 11 State Senator: Bob Hasegawa

Legislative District No. 11 Representative Position No. 1: David Hackney

Legislative District No. 11 Representative Position No. 2: Steve Berquist

State Supreme Court Justice Position No. 3 - Raquel Montoya-Lewis

State Supreme Court Justice Position No. 6 - G. Helen Whitener

Superior Court Judge Position No. 12 - Andrea Robertson

Superior Court Judge Position No. 30 - Doug North

And with that, we slap the Political Desk back into its cryogenic chamber and let it rest until the next set of ballots come out.

More later,

Meanwhile, in America ...

Go Vote.

Plague Books: Stark Sixties

Richard Stark's Parker:The Hunter, Adapted and Illustrated by Darwyn Cooke, IDW Publishing, 2009

Richard Stark's Parker: The Outfit, Adapted and Illustrated by Darwyn Cooke, IDW Publishing, 2010

Richard Stark's Parker: The Score, Adapted and Illustrated by Darwyn Cooke, IDW Publishing, 2012

Richard Stark's Parker: Slayground, Adapted and Illustrated by Darwyn Cooke, IDW Publishing, 2013

Provenance: Loaned from Stan! Brown.

Review: Real good. Lemme give you the backstory.

Author Donald Westlake wrote under a wide variety of pen names to match his various styles and markets, and one of the most successful was Richard Stark, who penned a long-running series about Parker (no other name given, may not even be his real name), a successful career criminal. Parker specializes in large scale heists, then lives well off the proceeds for a few months, until the bank account drops and he goes back for another score. He ties not to kill innocents (there is a lot of knocking people on the head and tying them up), but needless to say, he ends up killing a lot of not-so-innocents. The books have been wildly popular and turned into various movies over the years.

Artist Darwyn Cooke, who passed on in 2016, has a distinctive and unique style. I always connect him with New Frontier, a DC series from 2004 but set in DC's "Silver Age" of the early 60's. In both instances he has a clean, open style and an incredibly dynamic handle on action. When Stan! lent me the books, I did not expect to see how much he translated the novels into wordless action sequences where every beat landed and carried the reader from one panel to the next.

Back to Parker of the moment. He's the guy you're rooting for, in part because the people he is up against are so much worse. He's ice-cold and callous on the job so he can relax later. In his stories, Parker is on the job, and then gets betrayed, and then gets revenge. That's the basic plot of  both The Hunter (the first of the books by Stark) and The Outfit. When I read The Hunter, it tickled a memory of an old movie with Lee Marvin and Angie Dickenson.. Point Blank. And yep, it is based on the novel. 

 In many ways, Parker is kinfolk to the Continental Op, who lives on the other side of the lawful divide. Parker lives in that twilight world of crime, where everyone is a little bit crooked, and a lot of the crooks don't even think of what they do is criminal. Maybe they drop off a briefcase. Maybe they make a call. Maybe they wait by the track for someone to make a call. They are cogs in the greater machine. They don't do well, but they get by.

And then someone gets greedy, or stupid, or crazy and it all goes to hell. In The Hunter, one of Parker's confederates betrays the rest of the crew and leaves Parker for dead - he gets revenge. In The Outfit, someone sells Parker out to help himself, and Parker brings down the entire organization on the other side. In The Score, Parker puts together a crew of people on a chancy job against a mining operation in a box canyon. In Slayground, an armored car job goes casters up and Parker is trapped in an shut-down amusement park as gunmen hunt him. Slayground also has a short backup story - The 7th, which collapses an entire novel down into a double-handful of pages without losing much of the plot. 

And Cooke is brilliant in the art. His command of the medium is perfect as wordless panels show as opposed to tell. He works with the black and white medium with its long shadows and silhouettes and makes it sing. And he gets down into the weeds of the procedure of the crimes and counter-crimes and he explains it all, summarizing the challenges and opportunities, laying out how things are supposed to go and how Parker crashes the party. His character's best weapons are knowledge and understanding of the human condition - he can kill without remorse but also knows how to calm down his targets.

Cooke also situates the work squarely in the 60s, with Esso stations and road maps and cars with big fins, Tiki decor and night clubs and risque matchbook covers. Angular clothing for the men and soft tight-fitting curves for the women. This is lightyears away from New Frontier in its darkness and brutality, but has that same openness of line and sense of hope that the Kennedy era spawned. 

Cooke passed on in 2016, so there will only be these four volumes, but that will be enough. It is strong enough to make me look for the old Stark novels themselves when I can get into the used book stores again. Or even dig up a Lee Marvin movie.

More later, 

Plague Book: Baker Street Boys

 The Final Solution, A Story of Detection by Michael Chabon. HarperCollins 2004

Provenance: From the collection of John (Sacnoth) Rateliff. John notes within the book when and where he purchased the book, and when he read it. IN this case, it was purchased from Borders' Books on February 5 on 2005 and finished the next day, when it was raining..

Review: Short novel, but for me it proved to be a long read.

I think this slender book can be entered as evidence into the argument of the difference between Literary Fiction and Popular Fiction. Chabon has set up his shop in this borderland, with tales that sound like Genre Fiction. The Yiddish Policeman's Union is Alt-World SF, Gentlemen of the Road is Historical Fantasy, Yet I won't dare to say he elevates the genre so much as applies Literary Fiction techniques to what might otherwise be popular fare.

Here the story is a Sherlock Holmes story. Holmes is never identified as anything other than the old man or the detective, retired and tending to his bees. It is in the heart of WWII and the ancient detective comes up on a young boy, a mute refugee from Europe, who has a grey parrot. The parrot recites numbers in German. No one knows what the numbers mean, but it could be important, which in turn kicks off a number of other things, including the theft of said parrot and a murder. 

Chabon's style is ... ornate, bordering on baroque in places - thickly layered and crossing back on itself, so I am often reading a single paragraph as second or third time to figure out what I missed. His pacing, as in Gentlemen of the Road, is a stone skipped across a lake surface - each chapter involves a direct change of scene, time, and often narrator, and it takes a while for the mental gears to catch and the reader to understand what it going on. 

From the genre side, the author plays fair with the reader - the clues are presented in a fashion that when the reveal is made, it does note require knowledge the characters might know but was denied to the reader. From the literary side, the tale is much more about in interior lives of the characters - the detective, the police, the inhabitants of the house where the young mute boy resides, even the parrot itself Even the curiosity of the the parrot is not revealed to the characters inhabiting the book, but the reader is rewarded with a hint of what is truly going on. Holmes does not solve that particular mystery, but it is not one he is charged with solving.

The illustrations, by Jay Ryan, are good, weaving the text itself into the art. I've noticed this with a number of short books - is interior art a value-added for such short volumes, to make up for the lake of tonnage in the page count itself?

It does occur to me that I have been more successful listening to Chabon's books on audio than actually reading them. The text does flow if read by someone who knows what is going on, though I still need to back up occaisionally in case my mind wanders and I miss something.

More later, 

The Political Desk: The Jeff Recommends

So, this has been a marathon. How did we do? 

Well, the pledge of "No Republicans" was pretty easy to adhere to, in that some of the Republican candidates were SO BADSOME that such a choice would be easy even in normal years. But the fact that the state and managed some really choppy times of late and come out mostly whole has shown that the folk in charge at least have a clue. And it would be a good thing that expand that out to the rest of the nation. Here's the summary:

Referendum Measure No/ 90 - Approved

Advisory Vote No 32 - Approved
Advisory Vote No 33 - Approved

Advisory Vote No 34 - Approved

Advisory Vote No 35 - Approved

Engrossed Senate Joint Resolution No. 8212  - Approved 

harter Amendment No 1 - Inquests - Yes

Charter Amendment No 2 - Disposition of Real Property for Affordable Housing- Yes

Charter Amendment No.3 - References to Citizens - Yes

Charter Amendment No. 4 - Office of Law Enforcement Oversight - Subpoena Authority - Yes

Charter Amendment No. 5 - Making the King County Sheriff an Appointed Position - No

Charter Amendment No. 6 - Structure and Duties of the Department of Public Safety - Yes

Charter Amendment No. 7 - Prohibiting Discrimination on the Basis of Family Caregiver, Military, or Veteran Status - Yes

Proposition No. 1

Harborview Medical Center Health and Safety Improvement Bonds - Approved. 

President and Vice President of the United States: Joseph R. Biden and Kamala D. Harris

United States Representative Congressional District No. 9 - Adam Smith

Governor: Jay Inslee

Lt. Governor: Markos Liias

Secretary of State: Gael Tarleton

State Treasurer: Mike Pellicciotti

State Auditor: Pat (Patrice) McCarthy

Attourney General : Bob Ferguson

Commissioner of Public Lands: Hilary Franz

Superintendent of Public Instruction: Chris Reykdal

Insurance Commissioner: Mike Kreidler

Legislative District No. 11 State Senator: Bob Hasegawa

Legislative District No. 11 Representative Postion No. 1: Zack Hudgins

Legislative District No. 11 Representative Postion No. 2: Steve Berquist

State Supreme Court Justice Position No. 3 - Raquel Montoya-Lewis

State Supreme Court Justice Position No. 6 - G. Helen Whitener

Superior Court Judge Position No. 12 - Andrea Robertson

Superior Court Judge Position No. 30 - Doug North

So, if you haven't voted, go vote now. Vote like it matters, because it does. See you after the 3rd.

More later

The Political Desk: Judges

In Washington State, we elect our Judges. I'm good with that, and it is part of the direct democacy that works for us. And I say this fully admitting that a LOT of positions don'r even have two candidates in them. I will only cover those that have compeititve races here.

When I recommend Judges, I keep a tab open to VotingForJudges.org, which does a nifty job aggregating the important endorsements for the various positions. Unless the candidate in question has other black marks against them, I tend to listen to it. It has served me well, and should work for your locality.

State Supreme Court Justice Position No. 3 - Raquel Montoya-Lewis

State Supreme Court Justice Position No. 6 - G. Helen Whitener

Superior Court Judge Position No. 12 -  Andrea Robertson

Superior Court Judge Position No. 30 - Doug North, though his opponent, Carolyn Ladd, also gets extremely high marks. This is a toss-up, but I give it to Judge North based on his experience. 

Finally, we sum up.

More later, 

The Political Desk: State Legislature

Ah, now we are down in the weeds. These are the folks we are sending to Olympia for part of the year to sort things out. Even if you are voting in Washington, you might not know these folks. They are pretty good, and gives me hope for politicians. 

Legislative District No. 11 State Senator: Bob Hasegawa

Legislative District No. 11 Representative Postion No. 1: Zack Hudgins

Legislative District No. 11 Representative Postion No. 2: Steve Berquist

Bob Hasegawa has no opposition this time. Congratulations, Bob Hasegawa!

Zack Hudgins versus newcomer David Hackney. I'll be honest, both are good, and this is one of those races where we will get fine service regardless. I go back and forth on this, but ultimately  I will go with Zack Hudgins - he's been sending out newsletters.

Steve Berquist is a teacher who went to Olympia because they were slack on teachers in the State House. And he's done a good job. Let's keep him.

That's it for our State Legislators, at least the ones I can elect. 

More later, 

The Political Desk: State Level Offices

So the entire state executive branch goes up for re-election every four years. A lot of this we've covered back in the primaries, so this is more of an update.

Governor: Jay Inslee

Lt. Governor: Markos Liias

Secretary of State: Gael Tarleton

State Treasurer: Mike Pellicciotti

State Auditor: Pat (Patrice) McCarthy

Attourney General : Bob Ferguson

Commissioner of Public Lands: Hilary Franz

Superintendent of Public Instruction: Chris Reykdal

Insurance Commissioner: Mike Kreidler

Governor: If we put responsibility of the reacting to the current national crisis upon the President, it only makes sense to put state challenges on the Governor. And Inslee has been up to the task. At the start of the year, we were the epicenter of the pandemic, with minimal help from the Federal Level (there were exceptions, like the Army Corps of Engineers). Inslee went with the science, and we now are not even in the top half of states measuring by per capita. So, good job, there (though the numbers are creeping up again). His opponent is a short-term small town sheriff who doesn't believe in enforcing laws he doesn't like, and has Fox News as a podium for it. Yeah, let's go with the grown-up - Jay Inslee.

Lieutenant Governor is between two Democrats, both with experience and capability. Markos Liias is more activist as opposed to conciliatory, and I'm in for that. A former GOP candidate for Governor is running as a write-in, hope the Dems split the vote neatly enough for him to squeeze in. It is a tough sell, particularly since this Republican is already in trouble for lending personal money for his own campaign, then taking it back after he lost. 

Secretary of State is the one office that I regret my "No Republicans" stance. The incumbent is capable, competent, and no fan of the current administrations' War on Democracy. Her opponent, Gael Tarleton, is actually pretty good as well, writing bills on cyber-security and election protection, so she is a reasonable choice. This is one of those situations where you really have a choice between two good candidates, we will be well served with either. But go with Gael Tarleton.

Fun Trivia Fact: The State GOP gripes about not having a Republican Governor since 1985, but we have not had a Democratic SoS since 1964.

State Treasurer: We currently have a Republican State Treasurer because of a split primary ballot resulting in two GOPs running against each other in the general election four years ago. This time there is a choice. The incumbent Republican has been relatively inert, despite federal threats to deny the state funding because the White House doesn't like our politics. Let's get a little more progressive - Vote for Mike Pellicciotti 

State Auditor: So we DID have a big scandal this year, with crooks ripping off the State Unemployment Bureau in the opening act of the Pandemic. Who spearheaded tracking the money down and getting a good chunk of it back? Incumbent Pat (Patrice) McCarthy. So yeah, let's keep her.

Attorney General: We have a superstar in Bob Ferguson, who has been an activist in resisting the utter stupidity of the Federal Executive Branch of the Federal Government. He's been on his toes working as "the people's lawyer" for everything from Eyeman's poltical scams to credit card fraud to Facebook to being 22-0 (so far) against Trump. Yeah, Let's keep him as well.

Commissioner of Public Lands: Are we still on fire? Not so  much? Let's keep Hilary Franz. She has a strong balance between commercial forestry needs and the environment, and has worked hard to reduce the impact of wildfires. She's done a good job.

Superintendent of Public Instruction: The incumbent is Chris Reykdal. He has had his hands full recently (pandemic, online teaching, you know, the usual), but has been up to the task. And he's carrying the responsibility (and brunt) of Ref 90 to make sure your kids aren't getting all their sexual health education off the Internet. So let's keep him as well.

Insurance Commissioner: I always feel bad about this, because I get down to this level and just say that Mike Kreidler has done a good job for twenty years and you should vote for him. Because he has and you should.

That's the State of the State - More later, 

The Political Desk: The Feds

 So, at the Federal Level : Joseph R. Biden for President and Kamala D. Harris for Veep. Because D'uh.

Let's see if I can frame this without referring to the occupant currently squatting in the White House. Joe Biden would make a good president. Period. Now, usually comes the caveats about how he would not be my first choice, or that some of stands have been incorrect, well-intentioned,but wrong, or about how he's a little bit boring. But actually, I think he would a good job, and that's what I'm looking for. 

Biden is an experienced legislator with a long track record. He plays well with others, and is willing to reach across the aisle to those who disagree with him (some see this as a weakness, but I say it is a requirement). He not only believes in what he says, he is willing to listen and sometimes change his mind. I don't agree with all his positions, but I do trust opposing views will at least get a fair hearing. 

He has also been in the White House before, knows how it operates, and where Obama hid the keys for the liquor cabinet. He was an engaged, active Vice President who worked with his administration to get things done. So he's done the tutorial.

In the period of the campaign season itself, he has navigated the pitfalls of the campaign amazingly well. His former Democratic opponents endorse him, and endorse him heartily. He has pulled together the various wings and factions of the Democrats into a generally consistent whole. The Democratic showcase of the convention was a showcase of unity. At the best of times, the Democratic Big Tent resembles a rugby scrum more than a processional, but has he has provided leadership to pull it all together. 

His choice of Veep has been inspired as well. Kamala Harris is Shroedinger's Vice President - Both the top cop of California as Attorney General and to the left of Bernie Sanders in her voting record in the Senate, she has confounded detractors on both sides. She's been strong and resolute and capable, unlike a couple of the spare tires on the GOP side over the past few elections. 

In the debates and town halls, Biden has been resolute, calm, and almost incredibly patient in the face of national meltdowns. He has weathered all sorts of personal attacks and came out of it. Pseudo-scandals have brewed up and evaporated time and again. There may be something he has done out there somewhere, but compared to the present admin, he's practically a paladin.

Endorsements? A bunch. Most of them are the usual suspects, but there are a lot of former members of the current administration who think he'd be the better choice. A lot of folk who are now retired and no longer have to kneel before their political masters. And people who don't normally endorse, like Scientific America, or USA Today. The other side? Rosanne Barr, the Klan, and the Taliban (though to be fair, they rejected the Taliban's endorsement).

And Biden  has plans. Plans he has actually shared with people. He actually has a platform, which it sounds like he has read. He's let other people read those plans. And they have said "Yep, These are plans". Surprisingly good plans. 

Lastly, and this is a person thing - he comes across as nice. One of the Trump flunkies compared him to Mr. Rogers in a negative way, inadvertently kissing off any chance for the GOP to take the Pittsburgh area. I don't buy that, no more than the Onion portrayal of the man as wearing denim shorts while hand-washing his Trans-Am behind the White House. But even I have to admit he comes across as a caring, reasonable human being.

Let's end the chaos. We need someone who can lead us out of this mess. I think we need Joe Fixit. He's going to have a huge to-do list should he win, and I think he and his vice president are up for it.

More la... Oh, hang on, there is another Federal Level to look at.

Congressional District Number 9 - Adam Smith is the incumbent, the head of the House Armed Services Committee, and has been doing the job for a while. He deserves to go back. His opponent is a conservative talk show host who lost to him several times already. Not a lot to say here, so let's go with Adam Smith.

NOW we say, More later.

The Political Desk: King County Measures

Not content with just giving us advisory votes, the ballot has seven Charter Amendments (changes to the King County Charter, our operating system) and a Bond Proposition. These are the nuts and bolts of local government, and while I mock the Advisory Votes, these have real weight. Five of the Amendments are pretty tame (And don't even have people arguing against them in the Voter's Guide), but two are doozies.

Charter Amendment No 1 - Inquests - Yes

Charter Amendment No 2 - Disposition of Real Property for Affordable Housing- Yes

Charter Amendment No.3 - References to Citizens - Yes

Charter Amendment No. 4 - Office of Law Enforcement Oversight - Subpoena Authority - Yes

Charter Amendment No. 5 - Making the King County Sheriff an Appointed Position - No

Charter Amendment No. 6 - Structure and Duties of the Department of Public Safety - Yes

Charter Amendment No. 7 - Prohibiting Descrimination on the Basis of Family Caregiver, Military, or Veteran Status - Yes

Proposition No. 1

Harborview Medical Center Health and Safety Improvement Bonds - Approved. 

Charter Amendment No. 1 - We have to have a inquest if the police are involved in someone's death. We have to make sure the deceased's family has adequate representation. What, we don't have that already? - Yes

Charter Amendment No. 2 - Remove restrictions on letting the county sell real estate for less than fair market value IF the property will be used for affordable housing. - I can see how this might be gamed, and needs proper oversight, but Yes.

Charter Amendment No 3 - Change to replace the word Citizen" in the preamble with "public", "member of the public", or "resident". - OK, that makes sense. Yes.

Charter Amendment No. 4 - Lets the Office of Law Enforcement Oversight (OLEO) Subpoena people in investigations - Sure.

Charter Amendment No. 5 - Making the King County Sheriff an Appointed Position - No. Here's where I break with the other amendments. I don't think we are well-served by going back to an appointed position, as an elected position tends to make the position a) local and b) more responsive to the citizens./public/residents than one whose primary task it keep the Council happy. King County has bounced back and forth on this a couple times - Elected until 1968, then appointed until 1996, and now elected again. Both have strengths and weaknesses. One weakness of the current system is when the current Sheriff retires/leaves mid-term, their replacement then runs as an incumbent, which sort of defeats the entire idea of fresh elections (and happens a LOT). But I don't think the appointed position has done us any great favors in the past, so this may not be the solution people are looking for.

Charter Amendment No. 6 - Changes to the Structure and Duties of the Department of Public Safety. On the other hand, I am good with the County Council setting up the structure of the Department of Public Safety. I am not a fan of defunding the police - if anything, they need more training and applicable resources, but a good solid re-org would be to everyone's advantage - sending non-police matters to other agencies, for example, as opposed to piling it on other police responsibilities - So, Yes. 

Charter Amendment No,. 7 Prohibiting Discrimination on the Basis of Family Caregiver, Military or Veteran status. The county can't discriminate against people who are in the above categories, even they were discharged from the military for being gay. Again, we don't have this already? Yeah.

And finally - 

Proposition No. 1 - Harborview Medical Center Health and Safety Improvement Bonds. Yep, we're in a pandemic. Approved.

More later,

The Political Desk: State Measures

This year, is a bit odd (I know, it's 2020 - EVERYTHING is odd). But this year is PARTICULARLY odd in that a lot of people who read this blog (both of you), have already voted. The turnout for early voting nationally has been incredible, despite blatant attempts at vote suppression. Washington State, with its complete mail-in ballots, has usually had the jump on the rest of the nation with its habits, but it is in the middle of the pack. And, among the people I pay attention to on Facebook, people are spinning their ballots around fast. I just got mine, and they have a message on the envvelope recommending mailing your ballot in the Friday before election day (because the Feds are messing with the Post Office).

So I'm going through the ballot in order, and summarizing as opposed to going into excruciating detail here, just to get through everything. And we are starting out with the boring part, as listed on my ballot - State Measures. Here's the head's up: Approve all this stuff.

Referendum Measure No/ 90 - Approved

Advisory Vote No 32 - Maintained
Advisory Vote No 33 - Maintained

Advisory Vote No 34 - Maintained

Advisory Vote No 35 - Maintained

Engrossed Senate Joint Resolution No. 8212  - Approved

Intrigued? Let me go into detail.

Ref 90 is the probably the flashiest measure on the ballot this year, because it about sex. Education. Sex education. I would require districts to adopt a uniform, age appropriate sexual health education. Like 28 other states have already. Like parts of Washington have already. Should be a no-brainer (and yeah, the State Government is charged with the education of its citizens), but it has the fundie undies in a twist. Apparently, they feel that informing kids will result in perverted twister in the classrooms and the pop-up kama sutra in their book bags. They are incensed that the state government passed this law, and are using the Referendum system to try to overturn it (which is their right, even though they are wrong).

I am surprisingly in favor of not having stupid kids, and with giving them a better view of sex than what they get on the Internet. So yeah, Approved.

The Advisory Votes 32-35 are just filler.They are literally votes that don't matter. They exist because of a measure passed by initiative maven/gadfly Tim Eyeman that was not entirely thrown out of court. As a result, the state is obligated to ask your approval whenever approval of a new tax (with very broad definitions of what a new tax is). However, they are under no obligation to DO anything about it. It is sort of like a poll - You still hate taxes? That's nice. Anyway:

Advisory Vote 32 (Engrossed Substitute Senate Bill 5323 adds a small tax on carryout plastic bags. Yes, this is how down in the weeds you can get.  Maintained

Advisory Vote 33 (Substitute Senate Bill 5628) is a tax on heavy equipment rentals - Maintained

Advisory Vote 34 (Engrossed Substitute Senate Bill 6492) increased B&O taxes on certain businesses while reducing surcharges. What certain businesses? Big computer companies (I had to dig for this - increases the B&O tax a tiny bit on businesses making over $100 billion a year). - Maintained!

Advisory Vote 35 (Engrossed Senate Bill 6690) raised B&O taxes on manufacturers of commercial airplanes. Which is to say, Boeing,This one is interesting in that Boeing SUPPORTS this tax, because it offsets other bennies the state gives it that WTO thinks are illegal - Maintained.

Proposed Constitutional Amendments - Are changes to the state constitution. They DO have weight as opposed to the Advisory votes.

Engrossed Senate Joint Resolution No 8212 - Raising funds for long-term care for the elderly. Since I am planning, some time in the far future, to be elderly, I think this is a good thing. - Approved.

So that's it for the boring order of business, now on to ... what's that? We still have to do the COUNTY Amendments and propositions.

Fine. More later,

The Political Desk Opens: All The Marbles

Every election I do this - go through the ballot and make recommendations. Have done so for years, for an audience that is fives if not tens of people. But it helps me sort a few things out and do some research. Other people's recommendations are at the bottom of this entry. 

But spoilers: No Republicans.

Sorry folks, I’m just about done with the Republican Party. Every year I find worthy, experienced candidates from the GOP side, and common-sense initiatives supported by conservative causes. Not so much in recent years and not so much this time.

 

Starting at the top, if you still support the infected, immoral, incompetent, impeached, incumbent you have just not been paying much attention for the past four years, or you just don't care. There has been just so much wrong with executive branch - the lack of planning as the pandemic has hit us, the corruption, the indictments, the graft, the sexual assaults, the raw, ever-growing, angry insanity. There’s much, much more and much, much worse, but I’m keeping it to one paragraph. Four years ago I something to the effect that I would not let him work the grill at a fast food joint. Now I wouldn’t let him in the building.

And it rolls all the way downhill. The Republican-held Senate has its own cast of miscreants, and has been completely inert on any legislation that doesn’t put money into the pockets of rich people and corporations. The latest is denying Covid relief while pushing through the latest underqualified Supreme Court justice. 300-some bipartisan bills from the House have not even had a hearing, let alone a vote. Enough.

So yeah, no Republicans.Clear 'em out and get some people who want to do the job in there.

I’d like to say that things are better for the GOP here in blue Washington, but the nutters are in control of the party here as well. We have a GOP candidate for Governor is a small town sherriff who aches to be a conservative media star, a former GOP gubernatorial candidate now running a write-in for Lt. Governor, and the conservatives rallying around the idea of keeping kids stupid.

And those in the party that are not outright crazy are enablers to this horrorshow. They may not be racists, or fascists, or criminals, but they decided those things aren’t deal-breakers. And I understand. I still consider myself a fan of the Pittsburgh Pirates, but I haven’t seen a game since Willie Stargell retired. I check them in the standing about once a week (yep, they still suck), but that's about it. Habit is something comprehensible, but take a good hard look at what you’re supporting.

So, from me, I’m just done with Republicans.

I’m not alone. A lot of Republicans are done with Republicans. I have never seen so many groups have that traditionally been supportive of the GOP backing away cautiously. Military folk. Wall Street, Retirees. People who work for Republicans. Even traditional Republicans have had it. The most vocal gang - The Lincoln Project, is a bunch of old-time GOP backers who have been tearing into the present administration with abandon for destroying their party. The conservatives have always been better at slinging mud at their opponents, and this group, the mean girls table of the GOP, has been nastily effective in ways that the lefties and progressives have not.

But what about the other guys making recommendations?. The Stranger's recommendations can be trusted to be progressive (in fact, they are bashing a lot of candidates they are supporting for being less-than-left to their tastes), but even the stolid, stodgy Seattle Times has skewed solidly blue this time, I always point folk to VotingForJudges for a good read on the few competitive judge races. The Progressive are here. The Muni League looks like it folded up its tents back in 2017. And my friend and youtuber Sig Trent walks through his ballot for Pierce County. As others show up I will pass them along here as well.

So Let’s hit this thing and make it happen.

But remember, No Republicans.

More later,

Life in the Time of Virus - Changes

Office in a Small City, 1953

The world is frozen. The world is always in motion.

Month Seven has passed and change is in the offing. Still working from home, but I have changed positions. Crucible has been “sunset” (cancelled) and now I am working on a new project for Amazon, of which I cannot speak.

However, this has resulted in several changes. For the past 6 months I have been camped out in the basement library with two laptops and my personal monitor. My desk has been an old oak table purchased from Milt’s Woodshed in Walworth (Milt’s a character, yaknow), and my chair has been a straight-backed dining room chair. The table is littered with piles of games and vinyl record albums, and my monitor has been perched on a couple boxes of the Dominion game. And that’s OK, because I thought this was a temporary measure and we would be back in the office soon.

But there may no longer be an office for a cancelled project, and when my new team heard about the strength of my computers, the feeling was that I needed some real firepower. So I have a new desk chair, desk, laptop and tower, along with sundry additional things. I took down the drafting table I had in the corner of my personal office (I try to keep church and state separate as much as possible), and installed myself there, which will be warmer during the coming winter months. But it has been a weird feeling, sort of a permanent shift for me.

Oh. Also, got a haircut, finally.

We have recovered from the smoky days of previous month, and slipped effortlessly into fall, which in Seattle terms means rain, windstorms, and the occasional clap of thunder. The birds disappeared during the worst of the smoke, but seem to have returned, though I don’t know if they are the originals or migratory versions that are passing through. In any event, the hummingbirds are now at the feeder, and chickadees battle over the fountain.

The outer world continues. The Lovely Bride is wrapping up tax extensions from last year, already extended by the government once. Spot shortages continue – the latest is caffeine-free diet soda and shower cleaner. Also rubbing alcohol, which people are turning into hand sanitizer and shower cleaner. The Lovely B has gone to vodka for her mix. Which is OK, since I haven’t picked up any ginger beer lately.

I actually got sick the other week. It was probably a reaction to a shingles vaccine (I had gotten a flu shot at the same time - why not go for two?), and it left me achy and congested for a few days. The Lovely Bride had some back spasms and is now doing physical therapy. But I have been stunned to discover that there is more out there than just the virus. But at the same time, this has been the longest time without some cold, flu, or other physical illness. 

Not so for everyone in the outside. And we humans like stories, and stories of hubris are particularly appealing. The guy who swears there in no monster getting eaten by the monster - that's a story that resonates. And those who oppose masks, social distancing, and other measures while trying to live a life from before the coronovirus, who then come down with it in droves is that sort of story. And you know, despite the nature of such stories, I feel empathy for these folk, even though they will likely survive it (through the very actions they despised before) but learn nothing from the experience. Perhaps.

And so we row on.It is grey and cool and fall is starting roll in. But at least the birds are back.

More later. 

Plague Books: Operative

The Big Knockover by Dashiell Hammett, Selected Stories and Short Novels, edited and with an introduction by Lillian Hellman, Vintage Books, 1989, originally published by Random House, 1966

Provenance: The volume, shown right, is from the collection of John Rateliff, known to the 'net as Sacnoth. John has been cleaning out his library, and a lot of his mystery novels have found a space at Grubb Street. So while his shelves start to sort themselves out, mine groan with Hammett, Stout, Allingham, Sayers, and Peters. The copy I have is more grey than green, but that may just be from age.

Review: Our protagonist for all but one of these stories is only known as the Continental Op - an agent of the Continental Detective Agency. We don't know a lot about him. He's middle-aged, shorter than most and little wider, but we only know him by his actions - he will lie for a good cause, he will make deals with criminals if he must, he'll feel bad shooting a woman but will do so if he needs to. No one calls him by name that he records. He narrates in first person. He is a bit of a cipher, one of the first of the hard-boiled, noir detectives. 

The bulk of the stories in the volume are from the 20's, when Hammett dominated Black Mask magazine, and given my preference for that era, I enjoyed the tales a great deal. Due to the movies like The Maltese Falcon and The Thin Man (also Hammett), I tend to mentally put Hammett's work in the Depression and the War Years as opposed to the Roaring Twenties, but it fits just as well here. 

One of the things that strikes me, going through stories, is the neatness of his language and the broadness of his scope. Hammett does not use five words where three will do. And when I don't quite get what the Op is up to, I just have to wait a few paragraphs before all becomes clear. By broadness of scope, we see a medley of situations and places - not just San Francisco in the second quarter of the century. The Op goes to a pocket kingdom in Europe. The Op goes to Arizona and hangs with cowpokes. The Op goes to Chinatown and Beacon Hill as well, but he carries his noir with him, and fits in equally well.

One story is from a later period, his unfinished book, "Tulip," exhumed and presented here. And it is a unfinished first draft and tough read. A former Army buddy looks up a friend and they tell stories. A lot of the stories sound like things Hammett experienced. Here the sparceness of his prose works against it, and the lack of the formula for a detective story leaves it without a central spine. Good words, though.

This volume takes its name from the final story, which is two stories, one story carrying that name, then a second tale added almost as a coda. A mastermind puts together an ultimate heist - calls in criminal talent from all over the country, and they hit two banks in the same morning, sealing off the streets and making a clear getaway. Then all the participants get bumped off by the lieutenants in the robbery, who are then bumped off by their higher ups. A very corporate chain of command. And all the wise guys and grifters have names like Bluepoint Vance and Red O'Leary and Happy Jack Hacker. Just the plot itself makes for a great Gangbusters adventure, or with a little more eldritch horror, a Call of Cthulhu evening. With Hammett's hands on the typewriter keys, it shines. I am surprised that this hasn't become a film over the years. Amazon Prime, take heed. 

Turns out I have a later edition of the book on my shelf, tucked between The Dain Curse and Red Harvest. The Big Knockover makes me want to revisit them and reminds me that this is the stuff that set American detective fiction up as a country in its own right, and made San Francisco its capital.

More later,