Saturday, September 11, 2004

Morning Coffee Notes for 9/11/04, on driving in Seattle, and US politics.  

Dan Gillmor on CBS's credibility. He says the issue about CBS is interesting, but if you asked the bigger question, did the Bush family pull strings to keep him from having to go to Vietnam, the answer is clearly yes. But everyone was doing it. The Republicans could defuse the issue, and direct the debate in a productive direction, by saying just that. Of course it would raise questions about whether young people have a right to evade military service when asked to die in a pointless war, like the one in Vietnam, like the one in Iraq.  

Just took my daily walk with Adam Curry's Daily Source Code. Today he reviews Jon Stewart's audio book about America. He picked a couple of the best parts to excerpt. Adam's radio act is really getting polished, and he's building a good network of users and developers. He'll lead a discussion on this stuff at BloggerCon, November 6, at Stanford Law School.  

Sloane Crosley is a "writer living in New York. She likes to keep her ass out of trouble as much as possible." 

Seattle kicks my ass 

I know it's the anniversary of 9-11, and Hurricane Ivan is pounding Jamaica, gearing up for Cuba, and destined for Florida; but...

Last night driving back from a dinner party in Green Lake, I got my first taste of heavy Seattle rain. It was especially demoralizing, because 8 times out of 10 when I'm driving here, I'm lost.

The other day I set out for an eastside Barnes & Noble hoping to buy a detailed map of the Seattle area so I could study it. I ended up 20 miles from my target, or so it seemed, until I turned a corner and found I was at the intersection of 522 and 405, which is where I started the search. Ouch.

No city has kicked my butt as thoroughly as Seattle has. I expected to get lost in Boston when I was a newbie, but Seattle? Come on, the streets are a grid. Hah. No they're not, it just seems that way.

Anyway, it really rained last night. I sobbed as the traffic on I-5 passed me at high speed while I was going 40 MPH, gripping the steering wheel for dear life as my car almost hydroplaned 18 times. I made it back okay, glad to be in bed as the the rain came down.

So far Seattle kicks my ass. Mostly in a good way, but on its own terms, no matter what.