It’s Seafair Weekend here in Seattle, part of a month-long series of events that include parades, airshows over Lake Washington, and a hydroplane boat race on it as well. Dare I say, this display of airplanes tearing through the air with ear-splitting noise, and the boat races, are going against Seattle and the region’s ‘pacific’ and environmental sensibilities. Just this Thursday Greenpeace protesters dangling from a bridge in Portland tried to prevent Shell Oil Company’s icebreaker from leaving its repair dock on the Willamette River. Thirteen of them had spent the better part of 40 hours in climbers slings and on portable platforms!).