TWELVE DAYS AND COUNTING

Work has been as exhausting as I'd expected and more, but I did get up to Tenleytown way up in Northwest this afternoon to look into a desk chair I'm probably going to buy. Weather has taken a turn for the cool and overcast in the past few days, and for a moment on there as I walked up Wisconsin I could have sworn I was on the Oregon coast. Low clouds and a misting rain. A sharp charcoal aroma I always associate with campfires. Cutesy, upscale shops and strange weather equipment on the next hill over. And then as I walked into the department store, it was over.

I also found time this evening to purchase my first six-pack of hard cider in more than a few years. It's that time of year. I also finally got around to carving my first jack-o-lantern in a few more years than that. It's scowling at me from the darkened kitchen area right now, but later tonight or tomorrow evening I'll put it out on the balcony where others can see it. Or throw rocks at it. You never can tell with those damned kids these days.

Now I'm enjoying a pretty decent bottle of Hardcore (get it?) and watching baseball -- which I haven't done enough of lately. I've mentioned been keeping tabs on the Redskins and the Packers (both won last weekend for the first time in weeks; the Packers more convincingly) and the presidential election, but the MLB playoffs could be something else altogether: If the Astros win tonight, it'll be the first time in U.S. history that baseball teams from the home states of each party nominee faced off in the World Series. How about that?

Update -- Oh well.

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posted by WWB at 8:54 PM |

 
GO TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN

Sho Ikeda, once my right-hand picture taker and desperately-needed-last-minute-story contributor back at The Company and now my first-and-last-stop-for-web-related-questions answerer, has got himself published in an actual paper newspaper. Congrats! It's a brief and breezy tour through the media encampment near Mt. St. Helens, its effect on the local economy (good) and reports of Geraldo Rivera sightings. A sample:

With Vulcan silent for the moment, the Fox team is more worried about its jousts with rival journalists. Engineer David Flanigan set up a camera on a prime shooting spot and returned to the van for more equipment. When he came back, he found a CNN crew had evicted his equipment and claimed the prized territory as their own.

"I was ready to cut some cables," Flanigan says. He adds that Northwest TV crews usually get along, leaving the spats to the national teams.

"If this was happening on the East Coast, though, you'd see fists flying," Flanigan says.

Indeed -- or possibly even cars hitting people.

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posted by WWB at 5:11 PM |

 
PREDICTION PREDILICTION

Six weeks into the season, we know this: the Redskins and Packers both suck. Both have lost 4 straight. Indeed, both are 1-4. Both are last in their division. In no game this year have the Redskins scored more than 18 points, but neither have they given up more than 21. The Packers have been more productive on offense, but less consistent, and gave up 48 to the 2-3 Titans (who hadn't previously scored more than 17 this season). But Brett "Fav-ruh" Farve is still playing pretty well even if he has no one to throw to, whereas Washington's starting QB, Mark Brunell isn't working out so far.

So what does this mean for George W. Bush and John F. Kerry, as per the popular superstition? It would be only fitting if their October 31 match-up resulted in -- if the rules still allow -- a tie.

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posted by WWB at 8:09 PM |

 
THREE WEEKS

You may have noticed that until yesterday I went nearly two weeks without updating this page. Where have I been? Working. Campaign season has technically been in full swing since Labor Day, but only with the advent of the presidential debates has life outside of the office cease to exist almost entirely. I've managed to keep updating OSF and AP, but it's a bit more difficult to write about the trivialities of District life when said life consists primarily of wall-to-wall election-watching. And if you've noticed the overheated and even hysterical rhetoric coming from both sides of the spectrum, it's nearly impossible to think in trivialities.

So, consider this the warning that I should have filed a fortnight ago: not much is going to happen here in the next three weeks. Or -- barring a repeat of Florida, perhaps this time in Ohio, Pennsylvania or even Florida once again -- longer.

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posted by WWB at 6:03 PM |

 
COVERING COVENTRY

Earlier this summer I promised a lengthy recap of my weeklong sojourn to northern Vermont (specifically, the middle of nowhere) for the last Phish show ever (until Trey's solo career stumbles in a few years and they get back together). Well, I never got around to it, and it seems a bit late to dig up my notes and report on it as if it's in the realm of timely. Maybe I'll do it for a Blog-like "feature" after the election. Maybe.

But why bother? My younger brother has posted a substantial photo essay at the website for his house in Eugene, BustaKappa.com. It's well worth checking out, even if I do appear in a number of pictures.

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posted by WWB at 5:40 PM |

 
WELL, PAINT ME GREEN AND CALL ME GUMBY

The BBC reports that suicides are up in Japan. In other news, children prefer ice cream to broccoli.

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posted by WWB at 6:47 PM |

 
BLOWIN' IT!

So once said a great, if unreliable, man when someone, well, blew it. And probably so he says still, where ever that is. My best guess is the state of Washington, and I bet he's been saying it all day -- because Mt. St. Helens just totally blew it for the first time in decades. I was less than a year old when it went off the first time (in human memory) and dropped a thin, snow-like layer of ash on the city of Portland. I missed all the fun then, and it looks like I'll miss it again this time.

The inimitable Blog, on the other hand, appears to be blogging it right now. Less than 24 hours after liveblogging the presidential debate stream-of-consciously, he's at it again. Give that man some pageviews.

P.S. Why oh why is the Department of Forestry's St. Helens webcam down now? Well, perhaps for a good reason. But isn't this what I'm paying my taxes for?

P.P.S.I was going to blog about the government's big, white spy balloon that was hovering over downtown Washington this week, but that can't compete with an active volcano.

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posted by WWB at 5:47 PM |