The plane hijacker's motives are unclear. Seems like he was really into sight-seeing, though. Credit: manop1984 / Getty Images
The plane hijackers motives remain unclear.
The plane hijacker’s motives remain unclear. manop1984 / Getty Images

The Sea-Tac airplane hijacking, aka the only thing anyone cares about this morning: Richard Russell was 29. He was married. He seemed normal. He worked for Horizon Air as a ground-crew member. His background check said he was normal. He stole an empty turboprop plane and had a 75-minute joyride. Investigators are gobsmacked. Russell had no experience flying planes and pulled off “some impressive maneuvers” before he crashed, and presumably died, on Ketron Island.

You don’t need keys to start a plane: Richard Russell had access to the area where the plane he would eventually steal was located. Apparently it’s not so hard to steal a plane if you sort of know how. The plane doors remain unlocked because that could be a safety hazard in the event of an emergency. It only takes a series of switches and levers to unlock the controls. Russell, somehow, figured that out. After his joyride and his death, airport and federal officials are considering altering procedures at airports across the country, especially as they concern airport employees.

Give that air traffic controller the Medal of Honor: Have you listened to the audio from Russell’s joyride? It’s wild. But the most insane part is how calm the air traffic controller was while handling Russell. The unidentified controller was desperately trying to steer Russell away from other planes trying to land at Sea-Tac. Russell was erratic during the flight, sometimes sounding downright jovial. At one point, he remarked that he wanted to go see the orca and its baby—“I wanna go see that guy!” he shouted. “Rich, let’s just focus on flying the airplane,” the air traffic controller responded coolly. This situation was apparently “one in a million.”

It was time: The orca mother finally let go of her dead calf. She was carting the carcass around for more than two weeks—17 days to be exact. She carried it for 1,000 miles. I’m all for grieving, but we can all agree it was time to move on. I’m talking about the general public here. The orca mother can hopefully recover and rebound, but I don’t know about the people who couldn’t sleep because they were so sad about the dead calf or who made songs and dances about it. Would’ve been nice if those people had those reactions about the actual human children who were are (still) separated from their parents. Or, maybe I’m out of line saying that.

King County (human) mothers are sparing themselves the trauma: For a little longer. Older motherhood is trending up in the United States. In the Seattle region, most women are having their first child in their 30s or 40s. That’s unique. In the US, the average age women had children was 26.7 in 2016, reports the Seattle Times. There are 20 other counties experiencing trends similar to Seattle. Shockingly, they’re all in major metropolitan areas. The most significant is San Francisco, where 76 percent of first-time mothers are in their 30s or older.

Please use caution when merging:

City employees treated differently based on race and gender: Mayor Jenny Durkan is conducting a new survey of Seattle city workers. The preliminary findings show that people of color are underrepresented across top bosses, while women are underrepresented at all levels, finds the Seattle Times. About 32 percent of black employees say they have been treated differently because of race. What’s interesting about this survey—besides the fact that Seattle is woefully white and male—is that former mayor Ed Murray didn’t find similar results when he conducted his survey in 2015. “His study found no indications of systemic gender, race, or ethnic discrimination by the city and said the [wage] gap did not exist among men and women with similar jobs.”

UW ready to expand, but will it be allowed? If the university’s master plan is passed by the Seattle City Council, it will add six million square feet of new space for classrooms, research spaces, faculty spaces, and housing. I bet none of that space will be used for the humanities, but whatever, I’m not bitter. Before that happens, UW must prove it’s doing enough for the community. It has to assure it will mitigate traffic increases, accommodate enough housing—especially permanent affordable housing, and more. Apparently, UW has a history of butting heads with authority. Most notably, UW refused to raise the minimum wage along with Seattle until a supreme court case told the university it had to. Go dawgs!

Your three-day forecast: The National Weather Service just clocked me with this caption.

Aretha Franklin is sick: Franklin is 76. An anonymous source close to her said she is “seriously ill.”

Omarosa Manigault Newman leaks tape of her firing: John Kelly, White House chief of staff, fired Omarosa Manigault Newman in December in the highly secure Situation Room. Manigault Newman snuck in a personal recording device and taped the conversation. In it, Kelly tells Manigault Newman that if she leaves quietly, she won’t have any trouble. The recording has been released on the heels of Manigault Newman’s new tell-all book, Unhinged. I guess working at the White House pretty much guarantees you a book deal these days.

Stephen Miller’s uncle hates him and his bullshit politics: Stephen Miller, Donald Trump’s senior adviser, is well known for his far-right politics. His mother’s brother is fed up with him. Miller’s uncle penned an op-ed calling out Miller for his hypocrisy. Miller, his uncle writes, is a product of chain-migration just like Trump, just like Melania’s parents, and just like the people who Miller and Trump have tried to ban from entry into the United States. Thanksgiving is going to be stressful this year at the Miller household.

One second, you need to see this: Please watch with audio if you can.

Chris Hardwick returns to AMC’s Talking Dead: Chris Hardwick, a man famous for literally just liking shit that everyone else likes, was suspended from his place on AMC’s The Walking Dead after-show program—Talking Dead—after his former girlfriend accused him of being emotionally and physically abusive. That was in June. Now, months later, after an investigation, Hardwick is back. How do we feel? I have some thoughts on the matter, but they mostly center on how unremarkable men are able to excel in our society for being unremarkable no matter what blemishes they have on their reputation.

Racists run out of the capital: Unite the Right II (The Second One) was the sequel to Charlottesville that no one wanted. White Nationalists planned it in Washington, DC. Only about two dozen of their brethren showed up. They were drowned out and surrounded by nearly a thousand counter protesters. They fled their own event quietly before it even started.

Donald Trump ate a document to destroy sensitive information: According to Omarosa Manigault Newman, Trump took a line out of the It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia gang’s book and ate a document so sensitive that the only way he could think to destroy it was by gobbling it up. She alleges she walked into the room and saw Trump chowing down on a secret note. Other staffers say it isn’t true. Trump is wishing he had the jaw strength to chew through all of special counsel Robert Mueller’s documents.

Tonight’s best Seattle entertainment options include: Your last chance to see Basquiat: Untitled, chef Josh Nebe’s imaginative-comfort-food pop-up OKO, and a concert with Jack White.

Nathalie Graham covers anything she finds fun, weird, or interesting. You can find a lot of that in her column, Play Date. Her work has also appeared around town in The Seattle Times, GeekWire, and the...