Here’s a picture of a person in a frog costume, looking at Hoover Dam, thanks to Getty Images’ fascinating new stock photo licensing scheme. More on that from Nieman Labs. This is an experiment to test how it works and looks

Government interests in perpetuating traditions, shielding state matters from federal interference, and favoring one model of parenting over others must yield to this country’s cherished protections that ensure the exercise of the private choices of the individual citizen regarding love and family. Ultimately, this is consistent with our nation’s traditions of freedom. “[T]he history of our Constitution … is …

Continue reading ‘Some fine lawyer language in the Virginia marriage ruling’ »

I love the old steel girder bridges. They really feel like they’re getting you somewhere, like you’re not taking the crossing for granted.

So yeah, Seattle won the big pointyball game, and lots of people came out for a parade to celebrate. But are we surprised to learn that parade organizers overestimated the crowd size? “There is civic pride that goes into estimating these numbers. They tend to be overstated wildly,” says Steve Doig, the Knight Chair in …

Continue reading ‘Parade crowd size watch: Seattle 12th person edition’ »

This great old bridge over the Little Colorado River is gone: Built in 1928, it’s been replaced a wider and much more boring bridge. Its story, from the Historic American Engineering Record: In 1914 the El Paso Bridge and Iron Company erected a two-span steel truss to replace the existing timber structure over the Little …

Continue reading ‘Bridging the Little Colorado’ »

A detail of the new public art, a sculpture named “Guardians” by Nora Naranjo Morse, in the park around the corner from our house: