Protesters rallied over the weekend in Washington DC, a town that knows a thing or two about war criminals.
Protesters rallied over the weekend in Washington DC, a town that knows a thing or two about war criminals. Pete Marovich / Getty Images Stringer
Congrats to the next unionized Starbucks. Workers in Mesa, Arizona are the latest to unionize, and they surely won’t be the last. The vote was 25 to 3, and the labor-advocacy group More Perfect Union says they have audio that proves the company lied about the firing of one of the organizers in Buffalo. Meanwhile, Crossroads workers (whose union election starts today) say management threw out all their stuffed animals and birthday cards, which as villainy goes is rather on-the-nose.

When you indiscriminately retweet, you boost engagement metrics for the enemy. Here’s advice from UW’s Center for an Informed Public about how to avoid falling for misinformation about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The top tip: Check sources! When you see something interesting, think for just a moment if it’s coming from someone who really would know what they’re talking about. Here, by the way, is a peek into the incredible amount of work that it takes to verify if viral social media videos are authentic.

Bring your galoshes if you go out. Rain and snow will continue to fall for the next few days, with flooding and avalanches expected across the state. Consider this your regular reminder to never ever ever ever ever ever walk or drive in flood water unless you want some truly horrible things to happen to you, and I say this as a journalist who spent many years covering sewer infrastructure.

Smoke on your pipe and put that in. Arianna DeBose has won a SAG award for her role in West Side Story — one of many, I suspect, that she’ll be taking home for her absolutely spellbinding performance as Anita. West Side Story comes to HBO Max and Disney+ on Wednesday, and I heartily recommend it.

What’s our worst-case scenario for housing? Winding up like Phoenix. Here’s an analysis of Phoenix’s housing crisis (written, it should be noted, by a developer — not that developers are necessarily bad guys). The average rent in Phoenix was around $1,000 in 2017; it’s $1,500 now, and it is estimated to balloon to around $2,500 by 2027. Washington is on a similar path, and we could build more houses to release some of the pent-up pressure on the market. Or we could just keep doing what we’ve been doing, which has worked out great. (Sidenote: The Association of Washington Cities, one of the key opponents to building more housing, is currently seeking a new CEO.)

Pleasant festivities enjoyed by all. Neighbors came out this weekend to celebrate the move of Yonder Bar. The only downside to this lovely Healthy Street is that it has filled me with an intense burning jealousy that the same thing has not been done to the street where I live.

Mark your calendars, planning nerds. The Port of Seattle will present its Sea-Tac airport expansion plans at a Beacon Hill community meeting tomorrow. RSVP here if you’re the kind of person who can think of no better way to spend a Tuesday night.

Listen to this. The delightful Jeffrey Masters is launching a new interview series featuring stories from LGBTQ+ elders. In my own work, I’ve been fortunate enough to interview many gays of a fine vintage, and hoo-boy do they have some TALES TO TELL, especially when you get them going about how they partied in the 1970s. Looking forward to listening.

Of COURSE there’s an Elden Cockring. If you’re wondering why you haven’t heard from your gamer friends all weekend, it’s because they’ve been playing the new game Elden Ring continuously since Friday. It’s a real treat, especially when you get down to the very pretty underworld area, but my favorite thing about the game so far is how quickly someone was able to do this:

Speaking of games, Cyberpunk 2077 is good now.

Okay one more gamer thing. There’s some new starter Pokémon coming, likely this holiday. I like the gay duck almost as much as I like this conversation:

Travel safe. Here’s a handy new tool from the CDC that will tell you the COVID risk of any county along with recommended steps to protect yourself — useful if you’re heading out-of-town or out-of-state for any length of time.

Zombie drama. Against all odds, convention drama from 15 years ago has suddenly risen from its grave. Maybe you’re too young (or, more likely, too cool) to remember, but anime conventions used to have this thing, this annoying awful thing, where people would carry paddles and whack strangers with them. People were literally hospitalized by this amusing game, and now someone’s trying to bring them back with an ill-advised Kickstarter — to the deep chagrin of the paddles’ original creators.

At this point, who does Dee Snider really need to impress? The lead singer of Twisted Sister earned some goodwill by approving of Ukranians using the song “We’re not Going to Take it” as an anthem to resist the Russian invasion, while also denying its use by anti-maskers. Then things got messy in the Twitter threads, with Snider going off on Russian citizens who he sees as deserving some of the blame for the invasion. Anyway, here’s the original music video, in which the members of the band have always struck me as looking sort of like an alternate-universe cast of Sex and the City.