Congrats to the Mariners! Yesterday, the Seattle Mariners officially became the only professional baseball team to never have made it to the World Series. It used to be the M's and the Washington Nationals (something about being from a "Washington" maybe, like a cute little curse?) until the Nationals had the audacity to be good and make it to the World Series on Tuesday night.
A break in the Boeing case? Last year, a Lion Air flight in Indonesia crashed. It was the first 737 MAX 8 catastrophe. According to new reports, the aircraft may not have been as up to snuff as the airline alleged. After the crash, the airline had given investigators photos taken of the aircraft that were meant to show crucial repairs that had been made. In the photo, a computer screen in the cockpit shows the date was before the repairs had even been made. There's also some concern that the photographed plane wasn't actually the plane that crashed. Lion Air denies these allegations.
A Bremerton Van Helsing: A Bremerton man is under arrest on charges of felony assault for attacking his roommate with a metal rod. The man suspected that his roommate was a vampire and told authorities that "the roommate acknowledged being a blood-sucking creature." So like, yeah, don't try to murder innocent people but also, if you're going to kill a vampire, the first thing you should know is that a metal rod isn't going to do shit. Wooden stake, my man, wooden stake.
I would just like to apologize for misleading you about the weather: It will rain, I've been assured. It's just… taking a while to get here. I rewatched Back to the Future, Part II recently, and the most unbelievable part of that movie is they assumed that meteorologists would be able to pinpoint weather down to the second by 2015.
It's taking its sweet time, but rain is finally making a push inland! Expect a soggy commute across the area this morning (and probably this evening too) so allow yourself extra time! #wawx pic.twitter.com/TeFQ8xvPYM
— NWS Seattle (@NWSSeattle) October 16, 2019
What this means for your today, tomorrow, and whenever else: Rain, baby! It's soggy season.
It’s official: The rainy season has begun.
This morning: 🌧
This afternoon: 🌧
Tonight: 🌧
Thu, Fri, Sat, Sun, Mon, Tue: 🌧
— Seattle Weather Blog (@KSeattleWeather) October 16, 2019
British family snuck across US border: The Brits were detained after driving from Canada across a ditch into Lynden, Washington. They claimed it was an accident, but the security footage shows them pretty intentionally going into the ditch in Canada and then back up on a highway in Washington and booking it west. Two people in the car had previously been denied access to the United States. The family is being held in detention and will be sent back to the UK on Wednesday.
A tough day for LeBron: After LeBron James made his bullshit statement about how the Houston Rockets general manager "wasn't educated" on the Hong Kong situation before making his pro-protest tweet, Hong Kong protesters acted swiftly. They channeled their anger to James, trampled and burned his jersey and set some on fire. The Los Angeles Times wrote that they chanted things that were "not fit to print." USA Today called James's comments "the most disgraceful moment of his career." Do they not remember The Decision...?
Protesters interrupted the state of the union: Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam couldn't finish her annual address because opposition lawmakers were heckling her. The extradition bill, which started this months-long protest, has still not been formally withdrawn.
The (most recent) Democratic debate was last night: This one had only 12 candidates! The biggest takeaway is that Elizabeth Warren is officially the front-runner. She faced criticism from all sides (11 of them) signaling that she's "The One to Beat." Interestingly, no one seems particularly outraged that Warren fielded attacks left and right. I remember some very prominent pearl-clutching when Biden was the top dog (he spent this debate fielding questions about his son's business and Ukraine ties, not the best look).
The topics were a tad fresher: I mean, yeah, guns and health care were talked about exhaustively, but what else did you think they were going to talk about, women's health?? Don't be ridiculous. The candidates were given a shot to debase Trump in an open-ended impeachment question, and there was a lot more foreign policy since Trump is causing Syria to burn right now. They also briefly (emphasis on briefly) talked about reproductive rights, so there's that.
"People need to keep their hands off of women's bodies and let women make the decisions about their own lives."
- Sen. @KamalaHarris on health care and women's reproductive rights #DemDebate https://t.co/J1qNKe0efx pic.twitter.com/WeU8W0HJ2H
— CNN (@CNN) October 16, 2019
Uber drivers are protesting: On November 6, investors in Uber will be able to cash out for the first time. Disgruntled Uber drivers who want better pay and better benefits are going to show up outside some top investors' homes to protest.
The Trump administration backpedals: The White House is sending in the B-Team to persuade Turkey to agree to a cease-fire. Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo were supposed to meet with Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan. But he will meet only with Trump. Meanwhile, Erdogan has called for Kurdish forces to lay their weapons down.
#Turkey - Erdogan announces he will not meet US Vice President Mike Pence tomorrow to discuss ceasefire - Erdogan will only accept to speak directly with Trump #Syria #Kurds #USA
— Agathe Demarais (@AgatheDemarais) October 16, 2019
The Mormon Church is doing its best: To get the state of Utah to not ban conversion therapy for LGBTQ+ minors.
A drug-smuggling Russian cat: Two men were arrested for trying to transport hashish and amphetamines into a prison by smuggling it in a secret part of a cat's collar. The case would be open-and-shut, except the defense lost the cat. “We had permission to let the cat out of the cage because it was cold,” a zookeeper said. “But then strange dogs ran in, and [the cat] ran away.” Oh, Russia.
Big news from North Korea: Kim Jong-un rode a horse up a sacred mountain. His highly publicized ride and all the thinking he did at the top of Mount Paektu helped Kim Jong-un dream up “a great operation to strike the world with wonder." I cannot wait to hear more.
Look at how humpback whales hunt:
In a remarkable first, humpback whales were spotted using their fins to scoop up fish: https://t.co/RdMmfhdhUh pic.twitter.com/dVc49Vdnta
— News from Science (@NewsfromScience) October 16, 2019
Today's EverOut picks are: A reading with lesbian literary icon Jeanette Winterson, a preview show of The Tempest, and a show with "the best American songwriter you've maybe never heard of" (per Dave Segal), Todd Snider. See more on our EverOut Things To Do calendar.