F/r/i/d/a/y/ Saturday Links (I no longer live in Seattle edition)

We had great parking karma at the new place. I took this pic from our kitchen window shortly after the guys started unloading.

I kept trying to block out some time earlier in the week to work on at least a short Friday Links post that I could queue up and, well it didn’t happen because moving and packing eats all of your time, energy, and brain power.

Wednesday night we came home from our last run of things to the new place to find No Parking signs in front of our building and the little house next door. We knew the people over there had sold their house recently. Turns out they had movers coming Thursday, too and they had paid for the permits to shut down parking to make a place for the truck to park. When our former landlady moved out in February, the moving company she hired (and she had raved about how good a job they did so much that we hired the same company) had simply parked their truck in the long driveway that runs along side our old building to the mini parking lot in back. So that’s what we’d planned to do. I had chatted with the property manager and he had assured me that the construction crew (who had come in Monday, just hours after our last neighbors had officially moved out, and in the first day yanked out all of the applicances, sinks, et cetera and removed an entire interior wall) would not park in the driveway so our truck could. So, guess how many vehicles pulled into the driveway the next morning? If you guessed a number less than three, you’re too low…

The next door truck crew shows up and is parked in front of the next door house and debating the pros and cons of having to carry everything between the two cherry trees when our crew shows up in a much bigger truck. There is a lot of chat between the crews, and then the next door two-man crew moves their truck into the empty driveway of the house they are emptying, and our crew parks in the spots that the next door house owners paid to have clear. We walked our guys through stuff and they got busy then a third moving truck from yet another moving company gingerly makes its way through our narrow crowded street and winds up parking around the corner where they start moving someone out of the duplex down at the corner. And then, wait for it! and then a fourth big truck comes through and winds up parking blocking three driveways across the street because they’re delivering new refrigerators, stoves, washers, and driers for the two downstairs units that the new owner started trying to remodel themselves in February before hiring one guy for much of April, and finally turning to professionals this week. So they’re trying to unload and move a bunch of appliances, and three different moving crews are working at three buildings side-by-side… and then a utility truck pulls up and it turns out the new owners also hired someone to come in that day and haul away some of the debris of the renovation.

Our guys handled our stuff quickly, we all drove away from the old place together sooner than I thought (the other two crews were still packing). We got to Shoreline and by a miracle a big chunk of the street parking right in front of our house was open. The guys unloaded and helped us set up the furniture. We settled up our bill (Michael first running around and handing each person a tip because, as he said, when he first moved to Washington back in the early nineties, he worked as a day laborer for moving companies for several months). We all waved cheerfully good-bye. Michael and I started carrying up the bed linens and other things we’d packed in our car before the truck arrived and we were partway through that when Michael noticed that they’d left the sling for carrying mattresses and the like. So I called the company, and they were able to get the crew back to us before they’d gotten on the highway. So we got so see them one more time.

Thursday night we both slept like logs. Michael went into work, his first time riding the new bus route instead of biking, and I spent the day unpacking. If I have counted right, I’ve unpacked 43 boxes of books, a couple of suitcases worth of clothes, and three boxes of kitchen things. Michael has set up the network, his computer, assembled a piece of furniture or two. There is still so much to do!

Anyway, here are the links I found interesting this week, sorted into categories.

Culture war news:

Last Saturday I posted a Weekend Update that included a news story that referenced some less-than-loving comments by a Wyoming state legislator to the effect that when queers are harassed or beaten that they bring it on themselves. There are some updates: Republican senator apologizes for saying ‘a guy who wears a tutu’ in public ‘kind of asks for it’.

He apologized, in part, because a Fox News contributor quoted his comments, and specifically added a reference to a notorious murder of a young gay man in Wyoming: FOX News Contributor Agrees: LGBT People Who Dress Outside the Norm are ‘Asking for’ Physical Violence.

…but he also apologized because of actions by his fellow Wyoming citizens such as this: Tutu Protests And Parties Break Out In Wyoming Over Senator’s Remark.

All of this underscores a deeper phenomenon that I had hoped to find time to write about, but someone at Slate has already done it, so: .

Why Some Conservatives Think LGBTQ People Deserve to Get Beaten Up.