Happy Friday.
It’s the last weekend of summer here in the northern latitudes.
Sunset is now at 7.15 pm.
Thursday/ from Japan 🇯🇵
The charming postcard and first day cover (envelope) from Japan that I had bought online, arrived in the mail today.
The wealth of information for each was generated by my AI helper Claude, just from examining the images. Very impressive.
The Stamp
The orange 2-yen stamp in the upper left is a postwar definitive stamp reading “日本郵便” (Nihon Yūbin/Japan Post), showing a temple gate design. Two-yen stamps in this style date to the late 1940s, a period of rapid currency inflation in occupied Japan, which pushed postal rates up quickly from their prewar sen-denominated values.
The Postmark (the real story here)
The circular cancellation in the lower left is a special commemorative postmark, not an everyday one.
It reads:
市制六十周年 (60th anniversary of city status)
復興五年記念 (5th anniversary of reconstruction)
岩瀬 (Iwase) — the post office/place name
24. 8. 1 — Shōwa 24, meaning August 1, 1949
A small ship and mountain range are worked into the design, along with text referencing 越中富山 (Ecchū Toyama) and 反魂丹 (Hangontan)
This tells us the postcard was mailed from Iwase, a district of Toyama City on the Sea of Japan coast. Iwase developed as a port town in the early Edo period, and by the late Edo period, wealthy shipping merchant families there grew rich handling kitamae-bune (northern-bound ship) trade in rice, kelp, and local medicines — which is exactly why a ship appears in the cancellation, and why “Hangontan” (a famous Toyama folk medicine, historically peddled nationwide by traveling Toyama medicine merchants) is referenced. The mountains in the design are almost certainly the Tateyama range, Toyama’s iconic backdrop. The “60th anniversary of city status / 5th anniversary of reconstruction” combination fits 1949, four years after WWII bombing damage to Toyama City, whose 60th anniversary of municipal incorporation also fell around that time.
Kyoto-art
The Poem and Artwork
The calligraphy is a classical waka poem attributed to Ōtomo no Yakamochi (大伴家持), one of the great poets of the Man’yōshū (Japan’s oldest poetry anthology). It’s poem 4249 from Book 19: 石瀬野に秋萩しのぎ馬並めて初鷹猟だにせずや別れむ — roughly, “At Iwase-no, brushing past the autumn bush-clover, shall we line up our horses and part without even a first hawking-hunt?”
Art Tags
This is the key connection: “Iwase-no” (石瀬野) in the poem is the very place the postcard was mailed from — Yakamochi served as governor of Ecchū province (roughly modern Toyama) from 746–751 CE and wrote many poems about the local landscape, including this one about a hunting trip near Iwase. The postcard’s illustrator paired this 8th-century poem with a Shōwa-era illustration of pines, sea, and mountains, and captioned the scene 古志の松原 (“the pine grove of Koshi,” Koshi being the old name for the Hokuriku region).
Putting It Together (Summary)
This appears to be a locally produced commemorative postcard, likely sold or distributed around the 1949 Iwase anniversary events, using a beloved local Man’yōshū poem tied to place-name pride — pairing Yakamochi’s ancient verse about “Iwase-no” with modern-day Iwase, Toyama, and postmarking it with a special celebratory cancel on the actual day.
The Stamps
Four stamps commemorating Nikkō National Park, issued September 1, 1962 (Shōwa 37) as part of Japan’s “Second National Park Series” — a long-running program (1962–1974, 52 stamps total) that succeeded the prewar “First National Park Series.” The stamps were issued in denominations of 5 yen and 10 yen, with 9 million printed.
Going by the imagery:
Purple/violet 10-yen — a lake with a mountain behind it, almost certainly Lake Chūzenji (中禅寺湖) with Mt. Nantai (男体山) rising behind it — the park’s signature view.
Olive/gold 10-yen — a wooded gorge or stream, likely one of the park’s famous waterfalls or river valleys (Kirifuri or Ryūzu falls area).
Blue 5-yen — a wetland with a mountain reflected in still water — this looks like Senjōgahara (戦場ヶ原), the marshland plateau below Mt. Nantai.
Brown/red 5-yen — steam or mist rising off a hillside — likely one of the volcanic hot-spring areas near Yumoto Onsen (湯元温泉), within the park.
The Postmarks
There are two different special first-day pictorial cancels (特印), both dated 37. 9. 1 (September 1, 1962), each from a different post office — a common FDC practice in Japan where multiple offices tied to a stamp’s subject each get their own commemorative design:
Left: 日光 NIKKO — shows a bridge (likely the sacred red Shinkyō Bridge at the entrance to Nikkō’s shrines), mountain peaks, and a jet plane, suggesting the Nikkō post office cancel.
Right: 群馬 片品 (Gunma, Katashina) — shows a marsh/lake outline and flowering plants, almost certainly referencing Oze (尾瀬), the famous highland marsh known for its skunk cabbage (mizubasho) blooms. Katashina Village in Gunma Prefecture is the main gateway to Oze, which is part of Nikkō National Park even though it’s a fair distance from Nikkō itself — the park spans four prefectures (Tochigi, Gunma, Fukushima, Niigata).
So this cover was specially prepared by a collector or dealer to catch two different first-day cancellations from two different prefectures, both tied to different corners of the same national park — a nice touch, since it visually ties together the mountain/lake scenery around Nikkō itself with the separate Oze wetland area the park also protects.
The Cachet
The painted mountain-and-lake scene across the bottom is a cachet — decorative artwork added to the envelope specifically for the first-day-of-issue release, standard practice for FDCs worldwide. It appears to depict Mt. Nantai over Lake Chūzenji again, reinforcing the stamp series’ theme, with the English title block up top confirming the series name and date for English-speaking collectors — suggesting this was likely produced with export/foreign collectors in mind, which was fairly common for Japanese FDCs of this era.
Wednesday/ interest rates are going up👆
The Federal Reserve raised its benchmark interest rate by a quarter-percentage point (25 basis points) to a target range of 3.75% to 4% today.
The decision of the FOMC was unanimous and at least we know now that Fed Chair Kevin Warsh is not going to do Trump’s bidding. (Trump blasted the decision afterwards and opined on Truth Social that rates should be at 1%.)
The federal funds rate had never been at zero before the Great Recession.
After the Covid-19 pandemic and recession, it went to zero again.
We can now say (with the benefit of hindsight) that the Federal Reserve should have started to raise rates in mid-to-late 2021, when consumer demand was surging and vaccines were widely distributed. Keeping the rate at zero for too long (until Mar. 2022) helped to cause massive inflation and then the rate had to be ratcheted up rapidly to above 5%.
Tuesday/ now the Bab al-Mandeb Strait 🚢
London — A narrow waterway located at the mouth of the Red Sea between Yemen and Djibouti has provided an escape hatch for a sizeable chunk of the Middle East’s oil. That lifeline is now looking increasingly shaky.
For weeks, Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels have threatened shipping in the Bab al-Mandeb strait, attempting to open a new front in the war between Tehran and Washington, now in its seventh month.
In the past 48 hours, the Houthis have dramatically tightened their grip on the shipping route, capturing both the port city of Mocha and – according to Yemeni government sources – the strategic Perim Island in the middle of the maritime chokepoint.
– Reporting by Anna Cooban on cnn.com
Traders and speculators on Kalshi put the odds at:
71% for prices to surpass $4.60 a gallon,
57% that prices will top $4.80 a gallon and
40% that prices will actually cross the $5.00 national average.
Monday/ feels like fall ☁️
The city of Seattle had half an inch of rain on Sunday, and the days are cooler now: a high 67°F (19 °C) today.
The first of the leaves have started to fall from the trees, but asters and daisies are still out— splotches of lavender, lilac and pinks.
Sunday/ Ocean Photographer of the Year 🌊
The Ocean Photographer of the Year
JULIEN ANTON
MO’OREA, FRENCH POLYNESIA 17°33’32.3″S
149°51’02.8″W
An adult seahorse pictured with newly born juveniles in the shallow seaweed-filled waters of Moorea, French Polynesia. Although they are unlikely to be related, their arrangement creates the impression of a farewell, as if the tiny seahorses are gathering around a father after he has released them into the world. Seahorses are now rare in French Polynesia so this image was the result of long hours of searching among the seaweed.
PHOTO TAKEN WHILE ON A REBREATHER DIVE LUMIX GH7 & SEAFROGS HOUSING
BIGBLUELIGHTS 2X 36000 LUMENS & X1
12000 LUMENS
1/320, F/5.6, ISO 400
Saturday/ Bokke on top in Baltimore 🏉
There was a test* rugby match in Baltimore today: the fourth and final match in The Greatest Rivalry Series between the South African Springboks and the New Zealand All Blacks.
*An official international game played between two senior national teams (or recognized elite representative sides)
Congrats to South Africa for defeating New Zealand 43-28 to secure a 3-1 series victory!
The Springboks have played in the United States three times before: against the USA Eagles in 1981 and in 2001, and against Wales in 2018.
Announced attendance at M&T Bank Stadium (home of the Baltimore Ravens): 68,173.
It’s officially the largest crowd for a single rugby match in North American history. Baltimore showed out for the Springboks and All Blacks.
Friday/ 25 years 🖤
It’s a somber Friday here in the United States with the 25th anniversary of 9/11.
Presidents Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Joe Biden attended the ceremony in New York City.
Semipostal
Issue Date: June 7, 2002
City: New York, New York
Quantity: 204,000,000
Printed By: Ashton Potter (USA) LTD.
Printing Method: Lithograph
Perforations: 11 ¼
Color: Multicolored
Heroes Of 2001 Semi-Postal
On June 7, 2002, the USPS issued the Heroes of 2001 Semi-Postal stamp.
Following the September 11 terrorist attacks, many people wanted to help the families of those emergency workers who were killed or critically injured responding to the attacks. On November 12, 2001, Congress passed the 9/11 Heroes Stamp Act of 2001. The act permitted the USPS to produce a semi-postal stamp to raise money for these families.
The stamp artwork was based on a photo taken by photographer Thomas Franklin of three weary firefighters raising a flag over the rubble that had been the World Trade Center. The stamp covered the 34¢ first-class postage rate and included an 11¢ surcharge that would be deposited into a fund for the families.
The stamp went on sale on June 7, 2002. The First Day of Issue ceremony was held on the Lawn at Battery Park in New York City. The ceremony included a presentation of colors as well as speeches by the governor of New York, the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, and several senators.
The stamp remained on sale through December 2004, with a total of 133 million being sold. During the two-plus years it was on sale, the stamp raised $10,565,073. The money raised was given to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which would then distribute the funds to the families of emergency responders killed or disabled during the 9/11 attacks on New York, the Pentagon, and Shanksville, Pennsylvania. About 1,000 people or families were eligible to receive aid, and each received about $10,000.
[Source: mysticstamp.com]
Thursday/ the bond market revolts 😱
Jeffrey Sonnenfeld and Steven Tian write for Fortune magazine:
In February 1993, weeks into Bill Clinton’s presidency, James Carville famously quipped: “I used to think if there was reincarnation, I wanted to come back as the president or the pope or a .400 baseball hitter. But now I want to come back as the bond market. You can intimidate everybody.”
What Carville was referring to is the fact that the U.S. government runs massive deficits every year, which requires the U.S. government to issue bonds to fund those deficits. In turn, other people, i.e. the bond market, have to be willing to buy those bonds we issue. That is the difference between a healthy country vs. a country like Russia, where nobody wants to buy their debt and they have to resort to cannibalization to fund spending.
When the bond market stops buying the debt we issue, bond yields rise, increasing debt servicing costs; and quickly rising bond yields amounts to a flashing red light to stop spending and to stop issuing new debt.
Just as Clinton had to collapse his new spending plans when faced with a bond market revolt, President Donald Trump is now learning the same lesson as bond markets are in active revolt over what the market clearly perceives to be excessive spending plans, with 30-year bond yields reaching heights unseen since before the 2008 Great Financial Crisis.
But instead of picking up the hint, Trump only continues to throw fresh fuel on the fire, sending bond yields ever higher at the risk of sparking a self-inflicted economic crisis.
Indeed, on Wednesday night in Dallas, at the RNC “Midterm Convention,” Trump promised that if Republicans hold Congress in November, he will “issue a dividend to every adult citizen in the United States of America for $5,000, very much like a successful company will do a cash distribution to its shareholders.”
That comparison conveniently omits the fact that companies pay dividends out of profits and generally suspend dividends when they need to pay down debt, which is the situation Washington finds itself in, running a deficit of nearly $1.8 trillion last year on top of over $40 trillion in debt.
But far more importantly, bond markets have sold off even more dramatically in the aftermath of Trump’s $5,000 announcement, with 30-year bond yields reaching a fresh 30-year high of 5.35%, up 6 basis points today alone, and 10-year bond yields up 9 basis points to 4.92% this morning.
Bond markets surely realize what Trump does not, which is that sending $5,000 to every adult citizen will likely end up costing the U.S. taxpayers far more than $5,000 per person, given the U.S. government will have to fund these payments by issuing new debt at currently elevated interest rates. Consider the back of the envelope math.
If there are roughly 245 million adult citizens, each of whom will receive $5,000 – then the U.S. government will have to issue $1.2 trillion of debt to fund those payments. If the government issues 10-year bonds at the current interest rate of 4.92%, then over 10 years, the interest plus principal will come out to approximately $8,000 – far more than $5,000 a person. Thus, not only does the “Trump Dividend” substantively amount to a payday loan in which the taxpayer is both borrower and lender; but the U.S. is plainly getting a raw deal.
And that is far from all, as the bond market has not been revolting against merely a single pledge. It is revolting against a pattern of spending promises by Trump which the market sees as excessive and reckless. Last November, it was $2,000 tariff-dividend checks, whose odds experts now put at “effectively zero.” In December it was $1,776 “warrior dividend” checks to 1.45 million service members.
Then came the war with Iran, which had cost $37.5 billion by July, for which the Pentagon floated a $200 billion request in March and came back for $67 billion more this summer, while the conflict pushed Brent crude past $100 and reignited inflation. Layer on interest on the debt that reached $1.25 trillion last year, more than the entire defense budget, and you have the reality that the bond market is behaving like a disgruntled lender that has stopped extending credit on faith.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s answer has been to try to throw money at the problem, bragging that “I am the house now,” which is flailing in plain sight. Bessent has initiated Treasury buybacks, which amount to issuing new bonds at higher interest rates to buy back older bonds issued years ago, at a lower interest rate – which is a bit paradoxical as this creates an effectively higher cash interest rate the U.S. government has to pay.
Furthermore, Bessent has accelerated a pattern he previously attacked the Biden Administration for doing, of retiring longer-term notes by issuing more short-term bills – which amounts to switching fixed low rates for floating high rates, making the U.S. government even more vulnerable to every tiny move in short-term interest rates. In short, Treasury is buying bonds with money it raises by selling more bills. Evercore’s Krishna Guha called it “a weak form Operation Twist.” It is almost akin to bailing water while the captain drills holes in the hull.
Markets have seen through the emptiness of Bessent’s remedy, as ‘bond vigilantes’ have driven bond yields even higher despite Bessent’s band-aids. That hasn’t stopped Bessent from continuing to throw more money at the problem.
In August, he doubled Treasury’s buybacks of long-dated bonds to $4 billion per operation, declaring “we have a big toolkit” and insisting that yields “don’t reflect the underlying fundamentals.” On Wednesday, the same day Trump promised $1.3 trillion, Treasury went to $6 billion. Yields rose anyway, counteracting Bessent’s move entirely. Despite Bessent’s braggadocio that “I am the house now”, the house is evidently undercapitalized, as bond traders mint fortunes calling out the fact that the emperor has no clothes.
Yes, this is a global storm. British 30-year gilts sit at 5.88%, the highest since 1998. Japan’s 10-year is near 3%, a three-decade high. German bunds are at levels unseen since 2011. But those governments are being disciplined into restraint; in London, the gilt market is effectively writing the next budget. Only Trump is responding to the highest borrowing costs in a generation by promising to borrow $1.3 trillion more to mail out checks before an election, with no signs of stopping his spending binge anytime soon.
Carville’s point was that the bond market is the ultimate failsafe, the one constituency a president cannot spin. Clinton grasped that within a week, but Trump is still refusing to learn the lesson, at the soaring cost of debt, still fast rising by the day, sparking heightened risk of a self-inflicted economic and financial crisis.
The Republican Illinois Senator Everett Dirkson, Senate Minority Leader through the 1960s, is commonly attributed with saying, “A billion dollars here, a billion dollars there, pretty soon you’re talking real money.” (This ad lib quip was drawn from unwritten remarks before a Senate-House Republican leadership press conference on March 8, 1962.)
Dirksen’s admonition is worth keeping in mind amidst Trump’s casual dismissal of the rapidly escalating costs of his far-fetched spending pledges. Presciently – Dirksen’s $1 billion in 1962 is worth $1.1 trillion in 2026 dollars the nominal cost of Trump’s program and the debt financing cost of this doubles the total cost to $2.3 trillion.
Paying $8K to $10K per person to receive $5K per person may help explain why President Trump as a business leader went bankrupt six times.
(The opinions expressed in Fortune.com commentary pieces are solely the views of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of Fortune.)
Wednesday/ another all-nighter 🌃
The US Tennis Association did it again.
They went ahead with the Shelton-Alcaraz match even though it was already after 11 pm. The match was completed at 3.33 am this morning.
Blah-blah-blah goes the explanation:
the schedule was set;
commitments had been made to advertisers and sponsors;
the preceding matches ran long.
In the end, the only thing that mattered for the USTA was money. 🤑
The spectators that had paid dearly for their tickets, and had no trains to go back home with, did not matter.
The officials and the ball boys and ball girls that were cheated out of a night’s sleep, did not matter.
And the players were paid handsomely, right? So who cares if they had their whole circadian rhythms upended along with everyone else.
Did I get all of that right, USTA?
[Post on X by The Wall Street Journal @WSJ]
Tuesday/ 10,000 bots 🤖
Open AI announced today that their AI technology had solved one of the seven Millennium Problems in mathematics: the Navier-Stokes problem.
(The work of the AI bots leaned heavily on breakthroughs highly related to the Navier-Stokes problem, done by New York University mathematician Tristan Buckmaster and Anthropic mathematician Levent Alpöge. So it did not start with a clean slate.)
Google AI Mode explains in broad terms how it was done:
The computational proof demonstrating a finite-time breakdown in fluid motion was achieved through the coordination of 10,000 autonomous AI agents operating continuously for 88 hours.
This swarm engineered an inward-spiraling vortex where competing physical forces precisely neutralized each other, resulting in a self-driven singularity whose logical steps were formally verified using the Lean programming language.
Below is the answer to my request to Google AI state to state the Navier Stokes millennium problem in simple terms.
Monday/ Labor Day ⛏️
Happy Labor Day.
We should just assume we’re not going to see $3 gas for a very long time.
And since it is Labor Day: Yes, the US jobs numbers for August look decent on the face of it (+162k jobs, unemployment 4.1%) but wage growth continues to lose to inflation.
Fed Chair Warsh will have to raise interest rates at some point.
There are many more misdeeds, such as the trade war with Canada and the tariffs on Canadian imports that are seriously harming the US auto industry, and raising prices for cars old and new.
[Posted by Aaron Rupar @atrupar on X]
Sunday/ Star Trek at 60 🌌
The Star Trek franchise is 60 years old this month.
I found this infographic in the South African newspaper ‘Die Burger’ and enlisted the help of AI chatbot Claude from Anthropic to translate the Afrikaans bits into English.
(For the record: I can read and translate the Afrikaans in the picture as well— but not in 11 seconds flat).
Star Trek movies and television episodes frequently feature robots, androids, and advanced artificial intelligence. Lieutenant Commander Data is a fictional, self-aware android in the Star Trek franchise, best known as the chief operations officer and second officer on the USS Enterprise-D in Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Saturday/ radical? 🙄
From the Washington Post:
The United States was the only country to vote against the United Nations resolution which encourages the use of an “Equal Earth” map. (The vote was 164-1.)
Yaryna Ferencevych, the U.S. deputy representative to the U.N. Economic and Social Council, described the initiative as part of a broader “radical ideological project” being pursued by the U.N. when it should be focused on “genuine problems of international peace, prosperity, or good relations.”
Ah yes.
Rich comments— from a representative of an United States administration that alienates its allies, wages a war that is upending the world’s economies, and propagates policies that destroy the environment.
Friday/ a late bloomer 🪴
Happy Friday.
It is Labor Day Weekend here in the United States: the unofficial end of summer.
There was a little rain on Tuesday and Wednesday here in the city (0.2 in) and mild temperatures all week (high 60s, about 19 °C).
The hardy plumbago (leadwort) on my back porch has bloomed, the way it does every year, late summer and into fall.
Thursday/ fashion at the US Open 🎾
‘The tournament has become a sweat-stained fashion week for players, spectators and celebrities.’
– The Styles Desk from the New York Times
(My comment: Well, all right. It is high time! Dressing fashionably has been in vogue at Wimbledon and at the French Open since time immemorial).
The Styles Desk again:
The U.S. Open has become something akin to a fashion week: for celebrities, who stepped onto a blue carpet on the opening night; for fans, who have come to love the green and cream hats of Aimé Leon Dore and the look of a Ralph Lauren sweater draped over their shoulders; and for players, who are contractually obligated to wear much of what you see them wear.
On the courts, Carlos Alcaraz has stood out for his insouciant, almost slinky tank top. Naomi Osaka, as usual, could not be ignored as she pulled out an array of dramatic looks: a hooded newspaper gown with a skirt of white tulle; a shiny coated black skirt with a perforated underlayer; and a Dolce & Gabbana dress and Sophia Webster heels she wore to explore the stadium on the eve of the Open.
Then there is Adrian Mannarino’s anti-fashion fashion: a loose, unflashy white T-shirt and baggy pink shorts.
As these athletes’ personalities burst into view in sometimes grueling matches, celebrities like Queen Latifah and Travis Scott drew our eyes to the crowd, too.
Carlos’s locks of hair is the longest I have ever seen it, and is held in place by a hairband.
Wednesday/ a low blow 😁
Here is a meme published in Thursday’s South African newspaper Die Burger (‘The Citizen’).
The kiwi is a small, nocturnal, flightless bird with hair-like feathers that serves as a national symbol for New Zealand.
The blue crane is the national bird of South Africa.
Blue Crane: Not as low as you!
[From Die Burger newspaper, Sept. 3]
Tuesday/ an extremely low fly-over 😱
Some 56,000 spectators are ensconced inside the stadium.
The airplanes skimming over the stadium’s roof with some 45 feet to spare for the lowest one, are two Embraer E190/ E195 regional passenger jets.
They belong to a domestic airline called Airlink.
The observers/ photographers on the rooftop had permission to be there.
The ‘pyrotechnic’ effects are made by very fine powder and didn’t pose a danger to the aircraft (or so we are told).
Here is Matthew Klint writing on the website liveandletsfly.com:
Airlink says the South African Civil Aviation Authority approved the altitude and speed and that the aircraft remained within those parameters, so this was not some rogue pair of pilots deciding to buzz a stadium.
That makes me ask: why was such a small margin approved in the first place?
South African regulations ordinarily prohibit aircraft from flying less than 1,000 feet above the highest obstacle when over a congested area or open-air gathering, though regulators can authorize special operations.
Clearly, some sort of authorization existed here. But approval does not make a maneuver prudent.
Airlink has said it will have the event independently reviewed, which seems entirely appropriate.
I hope that review asks not only whether everyone followed the approved plan, but whether the plan itself created an unnecessary risk.
A flyover could have certainly occurred without going so low … but on the other hand, I’m not pronouncing final judgment at this time.
Let’s see if a transparent investigation occurs.
Monday/ August is a wrap 👏
There goes August, as we make our relentless way to the back end of 2026.
This is the month in which America’s national debt crossed $40 trillion.
That is about $117,000 for every person living in the United States.
The debt-to-GDP ratio in now 125% of the country’s total economic output. 😱
The S&P 500 fell about 8% from late Feb. through March at the start of the Iran war. The Nasdaq dropped into correction territory earlier in the year with a decline of over 10% from its high.
[Graphic from the New York Times]
Sunday/ a trip to the library 📚
I opted for the Seattle Public Library (instead of the bookstore) for my book fix today.
Notes for the pictures:
Black Tesla Model Y photobombs my picture of the William Kenzo Nakamura United States Courthouse on 6th Avenue.
The Courthouse is a federal courthouse and primarily used by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. It was completed in 1940.
I am not sure why the 13-star flag (for the original 13 colonies, used 1777-1795) is on the courthouse— possibly to celebrate America’s 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. (Any past official national flag can be legally flown or exhibited for historical and patriotic displays.)
Flags are flying at half-staff to honor the life and memory of country music legend and philanthropist Dolly Parton, who passed away Tuesday at the age of 80.
The yellow Lamborghini is a Lamborghini Huracán Spyder (the convertible Huracán, which is Spanish for hurricane).
Near the Hotel Sorrento off Madison Street is where I caught the G-line bus on the way back. The Hotel Sorrento was completed in 1909 and is Seattle’s longest-operating boutique hotel.
Gas prices are still high. The war with Iran is now 6 months old. The Strait of Hormuz is still closed, despite the insistence of the White House that it is ‘open’.
