The Minimal Manual

The daily detritus of my life, spilt out onto a keyboard and left to ponder like a Rorschach test.

Tuesday, August 09, 2005




Seattle, WA

Being from Tennessee, I understand people who are defensive about national stereotypes regarding their hometowns (although Tennessee is certainly living up to some stereotypes). Seattlites are no different than anyone else in this regard and are very adamant about . . . rainfall. For years, apparently, Americans have been tricked by movies like Singles and Sleepless in Seattle into thinking that Seattle is a perpetual haze of rain and fog. Nonetheless, every person I've talked to from Seattle assures me that the city is in fact not rainy at all, that I'm laboring under the spell of an urban myth, and that it "never" rains for months at a time during the summer. To back up this theory my girlfriend points to the fact it hasn't rained once in the entire week I've been in Washington. I'm still skeptical. But being a skeptic an erstwhile empiricist, I took a look at the data, and surprisingly the Washingtonians are correct and the "conventional wisdom," as is often the case, is not. Seattle experiences middling annual rainfalls (37.19 inches) and is outpaced by cities such as New York (42.12), St. Louis, MO (37.51) , and Nashville (47.30). I certainly would never call Seattle rainy next to Yakutat, AK's 151.25 annual inches of rainfall. It just goes to show show you that you can't believe everything you hear.
A quick note on the pictures (from top to bottom): (1) Me standing outside the famous Pike's Place Market. Directly behind me is the fishmonger's stand where surly fishmongers (that is actually what they are called) hurl 20 lb. salmon at each other from across the room. (2) Rashmi standing in front of one of the more colorful booths along Pike Ave. Right down the street from this booth is Randy Webster's Olive Oil store, Sotto Voce (i.e., soft voice). I put a link to Randy's store on this page and encourage everyone to check it out. (3) Seattle's skyline from the Queen Anne district. In the distance, you can barely make out Mount Ranier.

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