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Still looking over us.
Still looking over us. Tim Brown/Getty Images

We’re still aching over RBG: All weekend long and all over the world, people have been mourning the loss of one of the few people keeping the country from falling into absolute ruin. Vigils and memorials continue, with funeral plans still coming together; she’ll likely lie in repose for two days at the Supreme Court, with a memorial service outside. She’ll be buried next to her husband at Arlington National Ceremony.

Trump will likely nominate her replacement this week: Leading speculation is that it’ll be Judge Amy Coney Barrett, who is of course terrible. She’s said that life begins at conception, marriage is for a man and a woman, and she belongs to a religious group called “People of Praise” that refers to men as “heads” and women as “handmaids.” The group believes in speaking in tongues and divine healing. You know, evidence-based stuff.

The air’s clear again, but for how long? Throw open your windows and ventilate your pants, the smoke has finally moved on to choke someone else. But we’re not out of the woods yet, and those woods may soon be in flames again. Fire season is far from over — and what’s more, now that the smoke has cleared, Portland police are back to tear gassing residents.

Oh, right, the Emmy Awards still exist: Schitt’s Creek, which I think declined in quality as the characters became nicer, did very well, winning 9 awards (and the only reason they didn’t win more is because they were up against themselves in one category). The whole ceremony was a big videoconference from homes and hotels, which gave the nominees some fun creative opportunities.

A pioneer square shooting sent one person to the hospital: No word on the cause or who the victim is. This follows a Pioneer Square stabbing in August and a shooting death in July.

Microsoft will buy Bethesda: They’re paying $7.5 billion, Jesus Christ, to own Fallout, The Elder Scrolls, Doom, Wolfenstein, Dishonored, and more. This means more AAA games will likely be XBOX/PC-only in the future, although Microsoft has to honor Bethesda’s prior commitments so the company will be releasing some PS5 exclusives, which is bananas.

Penny Arcade Expo went online this year: The nerd convention skipped the usual IRL mega-meetup and instead livestreamed panels for a week. (Including one hosted by yours truly, a game of Dungeons & Dragons played with local drag stars.) With PAX Online now wrapped and some lessons under their belts, they’re planning to incorporate more online features into future PAX events.

The BLM mural on Pine will become permanent: The city will scrape the existing paint up off the pavement so artists can properly apply it for the long term. It’s a little unclear what kind of traffic control devices will surround it — the flexy posts are fine for now, but not exactly the most attractive border. Pine is a bus route, so the street can’t be entirely opened to bikes and peds, but it sure would be nice if cars could be sent elsewhere.

We made the list!!!

Russia says Venus is theirs: The head of Russia’s space agency says Venus is “a Russian planet,” and that they ought to send a mission to check the place out. He also suggested that researching Venus could lead to breakthroughs in addressing climate change on Earth, as if that ship hasn’t sailed.

How to get away with solicitation: Just get a job as a cop, apparently. A Seattle police captain who was arrested for trying to hire a sex worker (which should be legal) got preferential treatment from his colleagues, according to a police watchdog group. So, not only are cops bad at stopping crimes, they’re also bad at committing them.

A ton of historical documents just showed up at the Seattle Public Library: They’re a gift from local historian Paul Dorpat, and they’ll take months to sort through before being available to the public. Library officials called the gift “enormously important,” and while you can’t go to the library to look at them just yet, you can spend hours getting lost in the “now & then” historical comparison photos on Paul’s website.

Lime scooters are now available. The city got 500 (that’s it???) electric scooters last week, a nice start to a program that should be at least ten times bigger, and as of this weekend I’m now seeing folks riding them all over the city. I can’t tell you how much I love these little machines and I can’t wait to see them opening up the city and freeing us from cars.

We’ve got a new trailer for Wandavision: It looks like it’s a little Twilight Zone plus a little Hi, Honey, I’m Home, with a sort of X-Files-season-2 and Fallout 4 vibe thrown in for good measure. I’m happy to see Jennifer Barkley (the evil political consultant from Parks and Rec) in there as well. The trailer suggests a show unlike anything I’ve ever seen on TV, so let’s cross some fingers that it’ll pay off on that promise.

Matt Baume covered geek culture, queer news, and city infrastructure, and would leap at the flimsiest of excuses to write about furries. A writer, podcaster, and videomaker, he resides on Capitol Hill...