Seattle's balaboosta bike advocate; Proxy Obama; Build a Fence On It

9.22.2015 20m

This is not the blog post you should be reading. You should be reading: http://nospandexrequired.blogspot.com/2015/09/rainier-ave-protected-bike-lane-on-most.html, the story of how a nice Jewish lady convinced local government to put up a one-day temporary bike lane on Seattle's most dangerous street.

The ersatz bike lane was so good, this father-and-son were biking on it.


This is not unbelievable to me, because I know that Jewish mothers are capable of everything. It's a really great story, well told. But enough about Seattle.

I started at the Bastille with my wife Karen. We rode to Oakland, had lunch at Conflict Kitchen. Their current focus is Cuba; wonderful food. They asked a lot of Cuban folks: what sort of speech do you wish President Obama would make about Cuba? They compiled the submissions and had an actor (who does a very good job playing PBO) deliver the speech.

While you wait in the queue, there's a tablet playing video of the speech. It really does look/sound a lot like PBO. It's funny, clever, and poignant. It takes a little while to realize it's not actually the President himself.

Rode down Junction Hollow. Saw an official vehicle parked near the Panther Hollow Lake, which is recently controversial because "people" have been walking across the railroad tracks to get to the lake. The railroad occasionally puts constables in place to prevent people from crossing. Why don't they build a fence? I hear a lot of politicians talk about building a big fence on our Southern Border, so they must work I guess.

Rode over to SouthSide. Stopped at Claddagh for some Guinness. I asked, do you have half-pints? and they said no, just pints. Then they said: our pints are 16 ounces. I struggled with this for a bit; first, of course a pint is 16 ounces, but apparently enough people expect a pint to be 20 ounces that they've decided to set the expectation when you're ordering.



Stopped at REI and Thick. Stopped on Liberty Ave for some shopping, then back to the Bastille. 20 miles on a beautiful day.