Actually, they love it when you say "pouring", because it gives them a chance to correct you with the proper term. If you say "placing" they're like "oh, fuck it, he already knows, now I have nothing to live for" *.

* possibly not verbatim

Is the boring report a commentary on unfettered density or just an exercise in mocking manual labor?

"I asked, and according to Sound Transit..." Jeez. Can you imagine the poor sound transit guy in charge of fielding those calls? "Hey Murray, it's the Stranger again. They want to talk to you about the guy with the blue umbrella."

@2, the folks at Sound Transit are pretty happy to talk to people about what they're doing, in fact. They're proud of it, and they should be. Describing skilled tradesmen at work (not "manual labor") is not mocking it.

So they didn't say, "Water and welding wire do not mix . . . Einstein"? Maybe you should phrased it in the Seattle negative, "I don't that guy needs a blue umbrella????"

Just don't call it "cement". They'll correct you on that even faster.

Train stop, wet day

@2 FWIW, the "boring" report is a play on words. They are working on a deep "bore" tunnel with a big "boring" machine named Bertha. Aside from the current lull, tunneling is generally quite time consuming and takes place underground so waiting for progress could bore the average watcher.

Reminds me of grade school when one of my favorite phrases was "damn dam" combining the profane and the faux profane with syncretic hilarity.

I always thought they were "pumping" concrete. That's much more fun to say.

@8- in the photo on this post they are indeed pumping concrete. The "hot glue gun" is a boom truck. It is a pump truck with giant articulated arm (boom) that allows controlled placement of concrete. They are pumping the liqiid concrete through a tube on the boom. Boom trucks are cool shit.

Bartender, place me a beer if you please!

"So that's what they're up to this week—making sparks fly and playing with color-coordinated cherry pickers and umbrellas"

Fnarf, the mocking tone here is real. People working hard to make a thing are not "playing". The boring report is really just the jerk report. TL;DR - there are still jerks looking out the window at The Stranger.

Echo #9, construction workers in clean, shiny white hard hats say place concrete, the workers who actually build things say pour.

Not making fun of anyone. I love watching these guys work.

I can't believe I just read all that