a Seattle Mariners prognosis

Compliments of Keith Law:

The Mariners probably won't make the playoffs as currently constructed -- they're a .500 team that's played over its head. But the seeds for a winning second half are definitely there. If the Angels come back to earth or if the Mariners improve their head-to-head record against Los Angeles (the Angels have won seven of nine meetings), the M's will be in a prime position to sneak away with the division or the wild card.

Law hits a lot of the low points--our inability to get extra-base hits, our trouble drawing walks, our tottering starters. But somehow we're still managing to squeeze out wins. That's what counts.

the ugliest shoe

Meghan O'Rourke explains the mysterious allure of Crocs.

As fans will tell you, Crocs aren't just footwear; they're the closest thing to religion that the foot has experienced. The company's stock has skyrocketed in value over the past year, and Crocs is now poised to launch a new product line this fall. Yet Crocs are heinous in appearance. A Croc is not a shoe; it is a Tinkertoy on steroids. How did this peculiar shoe-manqué achieve ubiquity—and can it possibly stick around?

Short answers: fluoridated water, and no, thank God.

strange moments from our Yellowstone trip

When we stopped at the Clarkston Taco Time, we figured its interior would be just like any other--bland, inoffensive, with all the zest saved for the food. Oh, no. It's dressed up with stucco walls and pipes and colorful tile and old-timey decorabilia.


How'd you like to play lead guitar for the band that exclusively toured Montana's state correctional institutions?


Speaking of prison life, one of the more famous inmates at the Montana State Prison was Harry Edward Evans, a kooky fellow who considered himself "King of kings and Lord of lords." The staff played along, since it seemed to help him stay out of trouble. That's his royal getup, which he mostly kept in storage.


Look closely, and you'll see that what appears to be a framed print is actually a framed puzzle adorning the wall of a room in a two-bit hotel in a two-bit Montana town.


A carnival truck that had the courtesy to pull aside on the road west of White Pass.

of accidental judgments

Just as I finished reading Hamlet (again), Gamecast Putz struck out Gamecast Ordóñez to close out the Mariners' 4th win in a row. Putz is a perfect 25-for-25 this season, never mind the All-Star hiccup.

It was helped along mightily by a blown call from a veteran ump, but them's the breaks.

now that's spiritual warfare

Gird up your loins and get ready to shout down the Hindu leading the day's prayer in the Senate. (Ed Brayton includes the video.)

How to Cheat at Everything

How to Cheat at Everything is a guide to cheating at cards, dice, and any other game of chance. It's also a guide to carnival cons, street cons, hustles, flim-flams, bunco games, and the like. It's not as exhaustive as (the hard-to-find) Encyclopedia of Hoaxes and Scams, but it's got enough to keep you "with it."

In the Amazon comments, one reader notes,

This book was a gift to a cheating expert...Never opened it myself, since I am an honest dude....

But that entirely misses the point. The real cons already know the score. You should read the book so you don't fall prey, whether through gullibility or greed.

One wishes the book had a better editor--possessives don't get their requisite apostrophes, and spelling errors abound. But the book's greatest value is informational. At very least, it'll make you never, ever want to gamble again.

8 random facts about Jim Anderson

This Jim Anderson, that is, and not some other one. (We are many.)

1. While in college, I wrote and directed a reworked fifth act of Romeo and Juliet. Thankfully, this occurred in the days before YouTube. I learned precisely how amateur actors can screw up a work of genius.

2. I can't swim. I don't want to learn, either.

3. In high school, I wrote a short story in the style of Stephen Crane. A slacker girl stole it from me and tried to pass it off as her own. Her English teacher was not fooled.

4. If you ask really nicely, I'll do the "Stitch" voice or the "Gollum" voice. They're almost identical. ("Really nicely" involves at least a five spot.)

5. A couple years ago, my dad and I were competing in a drawing exercise for (the greatest board game ever) Cranium. The word: division. With our eyes closed and absolutely no communication, we both drew halves of a circle, pointing to the gap between them. Coincidence or genetics?

6. I have never had a pet of any kind.

7. I once suffered through a horrible stretch where I couldn't smell--and consequently, taste--for about six weeks. When those senses returned, I tried to celebrate by downing my favorite beverage, Pepsi. It tasted awful. It took me years to enjoy Pepsi again. It was one of the profoundest existential crises of my life.

8. I have a bad whistling habit. When my older sister is around, sometimes we whistle in harmony.



Thanks to Mark Olson and Håkan Rosén for tagging me. I refuse to tag others, per principle. If you wish to, obligate yourself.

Want more random Jim Anderson facts? Go here. I swear, memes make up half the known blogosphere.

Animal Skulls: A Guide to North American Species

Not my typical summer reading fare, but interesting enough to this biology enthusiast to warrant plucking from the library's new books shelf. In Animal Skulls, author Mark Elbroch passionately shares everything he knows about finding, identifying, cleaning, preserving, and gleaning insight from animal skulls--and just how important their study has been to evolutionary biology.

Along the way, Elroch gives a short history of bone collecting, noting its decline in the early days of DNA analysis, and its resurgence as bones were recognized as a treasure house of genetic material. Sadly, many museum collections are either in disrepair or lack qualified oversight because of a dearth of funding and of qualified osteologists.

Whether you're a budding naturalist itching to collect skulls in the wild, or just need to identify the skull your uncle sent you as a gag gift, you'll appreciate Elbroch's thorough treatment and the book's top-notch illustrations.

I must point out that I am not the Jim Anderson mentioned on pages 98-99, a professional skull collector and world record holder. I wish I were.

Adam Morrison and J.J. Redick Watch: summer league, 2007

In the NBA's summer action, Morrison's been fine offensively, but, just like last year, has defensive shortcomings. Mike Schmidt writes,

With the added space of Sam Vincent’s offense, it will be much easier for Morrison to create scoring chances this season.

Defensively, Morrison pressured his man well on the perimeter, but struggled with the quicker Thabo Sefolosha off the dribble. [Defense] will probably never be a strength for the former Gonzaga stand-out, but you would like to see a better effort from him in this area.

Redick is tearing it up, reports John Denton:

A day after torching New Jersey's summer league team for 30 points, Redick showed more of his all-around skills Tuesday in the Magic's 88-65 whipping of Indiana. He scored another 17 points, but more impressively worked his way to the free-throw line seven times, corralled five rebounds and set up his teammates with six drive-and-kick assists....

His season high with the Magic this past season was 16 points, but he had more than that (18) by halftime Monday. Magic GM Otis Smith and new coach Stan Van Gundy are well aware that Redick can score from almost any spot on the floor, but they are watching this week to see whether he can defend well enough to contend for the starting job at shooting guard next season.

summertime, but no blues

Yes, it's summer, so things have slowed down a bit here at 5/17. Where the action is:

1. Washington Teachers, a group blog by... teachers. In Washington state.

2. decorabilia, my personal blog. Lots of vacation photos.

3. Not in schools across America. Juliet Lapidos explains why.

take this WASL prep course and get a free iPod

Whatever works, right?

Attention Seattle high-school students: Want an iPod? Did you fail reading or math on the 10th-grade Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL)?

If you answered yes to both questions, Seattle has an iPod shuffle for you. The catch? You must spend five weeks in one of two WASL-prep summer programs.

The programs are free. But only about 80 students have signed up so far, with room for 270 more.

The city hopes the programs, a joint project with Seattle Public Schools and Seattle Community Colleges, will help students want to learn for learning's sake.

If that last line doesn't make you spit up your coffee, nothing will.

high fructose corn syrup: not the root of all evil

A little over a year ago, I noted efforts to demonize high fructose corn syrup, and critiqued policy recommendations based on inconclusive research. (It was historical rather than experimental, and based on animal studies.)

Now, new research on humans supports the claim that, in sugary soda at least, high fructose corn syrup is no worse than glorious cane sugar.

It's a small study — 37 subjects — but its authors say it appears to undermine a recently popular theory that high-fructose corn syrup contributes to weight gain by making people feel less full than other sweeteners do.

The study showed that "people don't seem to react differently to the different kinds of sugar," said Pablo Monsivais, nutritional-sciences research fellow at the UW and the lead author of the report, which appears in this month's American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Monsivais cautioned that the findings were limited to high-fructose corn syrup in beverages only, and the results may not apply to the solid form of the sweetener used in cereal, peanut butter and thousands of other food products.

Read the article for the details, as well as tangential finding that, unsurprisingly, drinking plain water with a meal is better for your waistline.

blogging Yellowstone and beyond: part III

Photos first, captions later. If you're on the main page, click the timestamp or the post title to see all of them.

Saturday, July 7


On Saturday we set out for Deer Lodge, our final stopping point. Our first tangent led to Quake Lake, home of the infamous 1959 temblor. The boulder pictured slid from the side of one mountain to another. It now marks a memorial to the 26 vacationers who died, either in the slide or the flooding that came after as a new lake was born.


Another memorial, this to vigilante justice at Virginia City's Boot Hill.



I actually prefer nearby Nevada City; its delightful Music Hall is a national treasure. (Click here to experience a taste of its oddities.)


Deer Lodge, Montana. Worth a stop, as long as you stay the night elsewhere. The must-see former Montana State Prison is a treat, not just because it provides access to a rich and colorful history, but it also comes attached to a world-class collection of classic cars. Just $9 gets you both, plus a couple other museums we didn't have time to see.


1959 was a bad year for Montana. The disgracefully decrepit prison was home to a horrific riot (described in a book I really want to track down now; more details here). The bazooka above took a chunk out of one of the red brick towers.


Mmm, dentistry.


One of the hundreds of cozy cells.


Theater on the outside.


Theater of the Absurd on the inside.

you cannot escape the ugly car

No matter where you go. In this case, Virginia City, Montana.

(Enjoy ugly cars? Click the label to see more.)

animals you'll meet in the Illustrated Encyclopedia of Animals of America

By reading The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Animals of America, you'll learn to tell a marmot from a marmoset, a coypu from a capybara. Helpful factoids, beautiful illustrations, perfect for children and adults alike.

Some things I did not know:

Ajolotes (pictured)

Despite their appearance, ajolotes are not snakes or lizards, but members of a small group of reptiles called amphisbaenians, or "worm lizards." These reptiles spend their whole lives burrowing through soft soil, feeding on subterranean prey.

Matamatas

Matamatas have also been observed walking along river beds, herding fish into shallow water where they can be sucked up more easily.

Green basilisks

[T]heir hind feet have scaly fringes that spread their bodyweight, enabling them to spring over the water's surface... [earning] them (along with other related species) the nickname of "Jesus Christ lizards".

Sonoran spotted whiptails

[T]here are no males of the species. Female Sonoran spotted whiptails reproduce by parthenogenesis.

Schneider's dwarf caimans (For the Olybloggers.)

[Their] nests are often built next to termite mounds, so that the heat from the mound helps to incubate the eggs.

Spectacled bears

The spectacled bear is the only species of bear in South America.... The cubs stay with their mother for at least two years before being chased away by adult males seeking to mate with their mother.

Mountain beavers

Their diet consists of very tough plant food, and they have to digest it twice in order to get all the nutrients out of it. This involves eating pellets of faeces.

Ah, Nature. Thou hast so many lessons for us.

a taste of Montana's Nevada City Music Hall

Ever since I was a kid, the absolute high point of our various Montana vacations through the Virginia City / Bannock area was Nevada City's Music Hall. For anywhere from a penny to four quarters you can listen as Scott Joplin's ghost haunts a player piano, watch a peep show on a nickelodeon, find out if you're a cold fish or a raging flirt, or hear some of the worst renditions of old-timey music ever programmed into a band organ.

Tangent: programming these sorts of monstrosities has been a passion of nerds ever since ancient times.

blogging Yellowstone and beyond: part II

Photos posted first. Captions will be added soon finished. If you're on the main page, click the timestamp or the post title to see all of 'em.

Thursday, July 5


Thursday's jaunt to the Tetons began with a brief side trip through Firehole Canyon, home of some lovely falls and querulous elk.


Once we arrived, we stopped at nearly every pullout for a photo op. In order: sister Cathy, bro-in-law Jon, wife Melissa, and yours truly. Don't ask me to name the peaks.




Our major destination: Jenny Lake, perhaps the park's most popular. We, lazy, took the ten-minute boat ride across the lake to the Hidden Falls / Inspiration Point trailhead. We would have stopped at the latter were it not for rumors of moose down the trail in Cascade Canyon. Verily, there were moose, three in number, largely just lazing about in the bushes, mugging for the Discovery Channel. As we gawked, an older couple noted that they had hiked the canyon several times, including in 1971, the year the mountain shed a mass of boulders. I don't know why, but I always think of rock slides as something that happened in the distant past--I'd certainly never imagine seeing one in action.


Lunch was spent at a picnic ground near the highway, where every centimeter of shade was contested. We washed off dusty feet in the adjoining creek, witnessing as someone's kid was nearly swept away by a deceptively strong current. ("He'll be smarter after that," one of his aunts remarked. There are no guarantees.)

As you can see, my parents are strange.





Our return trip to West Yellowstone led us to the Midway Geyser Basin, home to some of the most colorful pools, terraces, and rivulets in the park. It is the closest thing we have to an alien landscape--it may as well be the surface of Mars. I took many more photos than the few featured here; I wish we could have stayed for sunset. Next time.


We also detoured once more down Firehole Lake Drive, hoping to catch a glimpse of the White Dome Geyser. We waited twelve minutes and were rewarded with its small, but lively, presentation.

And thus ended the day's touring.

Friday, July 6


North this time, first to the Fossil Forest. Along the way, the Calcite Springs overlook gives a great view of the narrowest stretch of Yellowstone's Grand Canyon.



Give me a moment to describe the Fossil Forest trail. It is strenuous. That's what the guide books say, and they're right. Not because it's unusually steep--though it is steep in points--but because it's largely devoid of shade, especially in the steeper points. Some of the guide books say to start at an unmarked pullout, but they're wrong, as a kindly ranger explained. The old trail is going to seed, and on purpose. Instead, begin at the beginning, the marked trail just south of the Lamar Bridge.


If it's summer, bring plenty of water and resolve. The sun will not relent, and neither should you. Stay on the switchbacks--all of them--and eventually you'll reach the postcard stumps.


If you're too bushed just thinking about the ascent, be like the tourists we saw: stay to watch a bison wallowing among the wildflowers, take your photos, and then leave before the heat gets to you.



We were going to be ambitious and try two trails in one day, but oppressive heat kept us sane. Our second major destination was Mammoth Hot Springs, which has changed greatly over the decades, and, at least from a shoot-the-calendar-photo standpoint, for the worse.

A couple scattered shots:


Yellowstone's Golden Gate.


A bison lurks.

while I was out

I was tromping around northwestern Wyoming, but my blog neighbors were busy at their keyboards. A sampling of their activities:

The TRP finally has a job, and on the exact day, July 2, that he got his very first. "From now on, July 2nd shall be celebrated as TRP Gets A Job Day."

My brother has posted 8 random facts about himself.

Instead of gum, my friend and I ended up with a black, cinnamon-flavored plug that strangely resembled chewing tobacco when we inserted it in our lip. Really, there are few things more pathetic than 10-year-olds pretending to chew tobacco.

That should really read, "my friend and my brother and I," since yours truly co-conspired in creating the bitter, cinnamony chaw. (I've also been tagged by that meme--in due time, gentle readers.)

Peter Wall is starting to think like a lawyer all the time.

You can’t go into this field unless you can figure out a way to deal with feeling stupid and embarrassed and worried at nearly every turn. And if you never feel stupid or embarrassed or worried, then maybe you are not doing your job as well as you should be. On the other hand, knowing the law generally puts one in a position of power, or at least control. Plus, the flip side of feeling stupid when you don’t know something is that you can always go look it up. It might take you a few hours of research, but you can find an answer to anything. Even more exciting, if you can’t find an answer, you can devise an answer and then try to convince a judge that your answer is the right one.

PZ Myers was in Seattle, and I missed him. "It was a great evening, and the only blemish is that there are now about 50 more people who know that I'm not ten feet tall and that I don't breathe fire."

Mark Olson has posted 8 facts, too. "I’ve only been to about two or three rock concerts in my life."

home again

After waking at 2:30 to the sounds of a drunken wedding party in a one-star, two-bit motel in Deer Lodge, driving most of the distance back to Olympia via Highway 12, searching for an AM signal carrying the Mariners, winning Roadkill Bingo (by spotting a deceased porcupine west of Randle), and, very nearly last, dining at Burgerville, I am, as it must be obvious, counting the commas, tuckered out.

I have a huge mess of photos, observations, and witticisms to share. Starting tomorrow.

Update: Part I is finished.

blogging Yellowstone and beyond: part I

Update 7/9: At last, all the photos in this part are posted. If you're reading this on the main page, click the timestamp or the post title to see them all.

Here's the first batch of photos of our trip to Yellowstone. I'll add more when I get time. It's dinner time.

Monday, we drove from Olympia to Yellowstone in one day, stopping only for gas, lunch, gas, and dinner at the world's smallest Taco Time in Belgrade, Montana.


This is a rustic summer camp-style cabin at Wagonwheel RV Campground, where affable host and concierge Ken greets every visitor with a raft of recommendations and coupons. The guy knows every corner of West Yellowstone, especially the pancake houses. He is also extremely proud of the cleanliness of the bathrooms--and justifiably so, as they sparkle like Lake Yellowstone at sunset.

After a brief night's rest, it was up to face the promise and peril of America's greatest treasure and largest active volcano, Yellowstone National Park. Promise around every geothermic corner. Peril in the form of bears, mosquitoes, and, of course, active geysers.

Our first stop: the Norris Geyser Basin, where the perils are spelled out in five languages and one disturbing illustration. (Note the difference in parenting styles: Mom shows active concern, while Dad abandons Junior to the fates.)


According to the literature, the boiling turquoise pools are the warmest. Some extremophiles like it hot.


The Norris basin is colorful because of its resident bacteria and algae, living together in perfect harmony.


While no major eruptions graced our visit, the basin as a whole was a hotbed of burbling and bubbling, altogether worth the hour's diversion. Go early in the day; there's little shelter and a lot of tourists.


After a brief trip to the Artist Paint Pots (not pictured), we lunched in the shadow of Tuff Cliff.


The afternoon entertainment came in the form of Old Faithful, which recently has been blowing its stack roughly every 90 minutes. It performed on schedule for an audience of thousands, but not before the Beehive Geyser behind it put on its own show, which apparently occurs every other day. As for Old Faithful, it may be slow, but it's as steady as ever, and a perfect prelude to ice cream. Sweet tradition.


On the return drive we took a lucky detour on Firehole Lake Drive, lucky enough to see the Great Fountain Geyser erupt, as is its twice-daily habit. The show lasts sometimes for upwards of thirty minutes; we caught the last five.


From there, on to another batch of paint pots, the last geothermal activity of the day.

For the 4th, we celebrated our nation's birthday with a hike up to the lookout atop Mount Washburn.



Early on, wildflowers dazzle and wide-ranging vistas delight the eyes, including the omnipresent remains of 1988's year of conflagration. The trail climbs steadily but never too quickly, although it's best tackled early or late in the day, since all shade vanishes as the sun crosses the sky.


Three miles to the summit, where mountain goats Bighorn sheep guard access to the fire lookout, itself a respite from sun or storm.



The view is spectacular, especially on a clear day when even the faraway Tetons are visible.


Lunch in a bug-infested picnic area, and then a jaunt down to Yellowstone Canyon.


At Inspiration Point I was treated to this conversation:

Dad: See that cave across the canyon?
Kid: No. Oh, wait, yeah, there it is.
Dad: Buffalo used to live in there.
Kid: Really?
Random Tourist Eavesdropper: Yes. Back when they had wings. Buffalo wings.

Only in America.


A couple wildlife moments: a bison grazes near a rest area, and a confused elk crashes into the parking lot at the Canyon visitor center.



That's it for the trip so far. More later, promise.