Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

Narcissists are always shocked to discover other people have agency.

Our messy unity will be our strength.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

How any woman could possibly vote for this smug smarmy piece of misogynistic crap is beyond understanding.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

I did not have this on my fuck 2025 bingo card.

One lie, alone, tears the fabric of reality.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the gop

Oh FFS you might as well trust a 6-year-old with a flamethrower.

I am pretty sure these ‘journalists’ were not always such a bootlicking sycophants.

Washington Post Catch and Kill, not noticeably better than the Enquirer’s.

White supremacy is terrorism.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

“Loving your country does not mean lying about its history.”

Hi god, it’s us. Thanks a heap, you’re having a great week and it’s only Thursday!

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

The real work of an opposition party is to oppose.

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

Their freedom requires your slavery.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

We will not go quietly into the night; we will not vanish without a fight.

You are here: Home / Balloon Juice / Meetups / Seattle Meetup: Proof of Life

Seattle Meetup: Proof of Life

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From left to right: mr. opiejeanne, Beautifulplumage, Sarah (no nym yet, but we’re hoping you’ll comment!), Dan B, H.E.Wolf, thalarctosMaritimus, Yutsano, opiejeanne, and CaseyL.

ThalarctosMaritimus sent me photos and a nice write-up of the Seattle meetup. Sounds like they had a good time:

The Sunday-evening Balloon Juice meetup in Seattle was joyous. Yutsano suggested the Indo Café on Aurora, and from the corn fritters to the main dishes, it was every bit as good as he described it. We had our own room, and the company and the conversations were excellent.

Amir, we did have fun and we did think of you and wish you were with us. Although the food was Indonesian, rather than Malaysian, we’d have loved to hear what you thought of it, and maybe gotten a little guidance in navigating so many delicious choices!

Of course, toasts were raised to absent friends: we remembered Schlemazel, the beloved animals who left and the people who missed them, and, specifically, Tunch.

Here’s hoping we can do this again soon.

Open thread

Reader Interactions

69Comments

  2. 2.

    joel hanes

    Indonesian ?

    Did they offer a rijstaafel ?

    Rijstaafel in an Indonesian restaurant was one of the best meals I had in Amsterdam, back in the day: tasty and varied.

  3. 3.

    WaterGirl

    Great crowd. I always think that at a long table, someone should ring a bell every so often and people have to move around so everyone gets a change to talk to everyone else. Best to do that after everyone is done eating, of course.

    Yutsano, you look so young! (in a good way, of course.)

    H.E.Wolf, I thought you were male. I hate when you guys do that to me. :-)

  9. 9.

    Brachiator

    Great photo. I love Indonesian food. Hope the meals were a delight and that everyone had a great time.

    It’s really cool to connect faces with nyms.

  12. 12.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Tunch.
    Schlemazel.
    greennotGreen.
    BenCisco’s wife.
    Imm’s wife/immp’s mom (Julie).
    Alain’s beautiful mother.
    Betty’s chickens.
    General Stuck.
    So many beloved dogs and cats.

    Countless friends, partners, spouses, siblings, pets, classmates, parents, children, colleagues, casual acquaintancess, heroes, icons, and Internet nyms.

    This is a remarkable place.

  13. 13.

    Adam L Silverman

    Yutsano goes to Seattle, Howard Schultz decides to run for president as an independent. What did Yutsano know and when did he know it?!?!?!?!//

  14. 14.

    B.B.A.

    Someday I’ll go to one of these, but like Alan Moore I’m so set in my ways I rarely cross the room anymore. The other side of the room is a strange country where they do things differently.

    god I am bored and trying to start flame wars ignore me
    — Cake or Death (@Johngcole) January 30, 2019

    I’ve been there, Cole.

  20. 20.

    NotMax

    @Adam L. Silverman

    FYI, put on the Adam hat* and tossed two Li’l Abner references into the morning thread.

    *After stuffing it with newspaper to keep it from drooping down over the eyes.

  22. 22.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @joel hanes:

    Rijstaafel in an Indonesian restaurant was one of the best meals I had in Amsterdam, back in the day: tasty and varied.

    When I lived in Flint, MI (1975-1981), a bunch of us would drive regularly to Windsor, ON, where there was a robust Dutch Indonesian community. I’ve made a foolish gourmand of myself more than once at a Windsor rijstaafel. (This was when you could cross the border on your word alone — no driver’s licence required, let alone a passport.)

  28. 28.

    Amir Khalid

    Indonesian food is not that different from Malaysian food — well, not that different from the Malay part of Malaysian food — since most Indonesians are ethnically Malay. That sambal chicken rice looks really good.

  34. 34.

    H.E.Wolf

    @WaterGirl:
    @zhena gogolia:

    Yep. If I were a pageant contestant (which I so am not), I’d be Miss Direction. :)

    It was a good evening with good folks. Yutsano deserves major kudos for steering us to a place that had delicious food, nice waitstaff, and a separate room for our group.

  35. 35.

    H.E.Wolf

    ruemara, as you’re one of the most frequent out-of-state visiting jackals, we look forward to your next trip so that we can plan a meetup in your honor!

  37. 37.

    Bonnie

    Nice picture. Sorry I missed it; but, I really live in Tacoma and Seattle is just too far away for someone without a car.

  38. 38.

    Eric NNY

    Okay, I’m still waiting for my MASSIVE Oxbow, NY gathering. But in the meanwhile, any of you jackals traveling through NNY, hit me up. I have spare bedrooms and can cook some mean vittels.

  39. 39.

    poleaxedbyboatwork

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Small world. Born in Flint (same hospital as a dear friend 25 years my senior who I din’t meet till ’91, first year fishing in Alaska to pay for senior year at UuvM). Lived in Flint till our mother died, trundled north with the old man in ’81. Cannot hear the name Flint w/o becoming viscerally infuriated each and every fucking time (not your problem, mine).

    So much in life, beautiful tho it is *in spite of* not b/c of the monsters who oft rule our world, is so very resolutely unfair and goes unaddressed to say nothing of unavenged.

    Would very much like to see that trend line reverse in the coming years and will do what I can to effect that change.

  41. 41.

    MagdaInBlack

    I see clean plates and big smiles. Glad you all had a grand evening ?

    ETA: and whats that I spy on the back wall! I have several of those “puppets” as my friends call them.

  42. 42.

    Felanius Kootea

    @zhena gogolia: Love that; love Winnie Byanyima (Executive Director of Oxfam). Paraphrasing: It’s not just jobs but the dignity of work. For those who haven’t watched the video, in response to someone objecting to a discussion on the need for taxation/taxes and asking to focus on low unemployment, she talks about workers who process chickens in the US who wear diapers so they don’t have to take bathroom breaks (like the stories of Amazon warehouse workers peeing in bottles).

  43. 43.

    Tenar Arha

    You guys look good ?

    @Adam L Silverman: I’m here in Palm Beach County, and I’m thoroughly sorry for bringing the Orange back here for the Superb Owls.

    ETA anyone want to meet up Friday or Saturday evening somewhere near Delray or Boynton Beach?

  48. 48.

    CaseyL

    Thanks for the post, TaMara!

    @SiubhanDuinne: This is my on-line home. After election night 2016, this was the only place online I could bear to be – for, well, quite a long time. The friendships here are at least as real as in meatspace – maybe more, in a lot of ways.

    I’m always delighted to see my “housemates” in person. Yutsano is excellent at herding us together :)

  50. 50.

    Mike J

    Wanted to be there, but I raced on Saturday and Sunday I was achey and creaky from having spent 8 hours on the boat the day before.

    We’ve now won the first two races of the season. Our boat is Renton Sailing Center’s 1970something Ranger 24. Here’s a video with some of the boats we’re up against and maybe 3 seconds of us. Standing invite for any jackals that want to go sailing, although most people prefer spring or summer to January or February.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6z9jDp2s560

  51. 51.

    H.E.Wolf

    @MagdaInBlack:
    You have wayang kulit? Are you an art collector? a puppeteer? something else with an interesting story?

    (Will check back here tomorrow to find out….)

  53. 53.

    poleaxedbyboatwork

    @raven:

    Sorta ‘member you saying. Them salmon-rich heydeys is well n truly over, sad to say.

    Crewed on charterboats for any number of tyrannical dickhead from ’81 to ’90 to make some green for the privilege a going into a lil less debt for my ultimately (largely but not entirely!) squandered education. Despite caps likedtoa capped, was purty sweet summers of independence and discovery for a fucked-up boy othe rise adrift. Leland, Ludington, Port St. Joe, Luna Pier, Glen Arbor — last “port” mentioned was a good gig with a wonderful skipper who exemplified kindness. Learnt a lot from him, most of it hadn’t nuttin to do with fishing.

    Try’n honor what he taught me in all I do (and don’t).

  54. 54.

    Dan B

    @Bonnie: Sarah lives in Olympia so a caravan may be arranged.

    She’s a former employee of mine – great, talented, and fun to work with. It was startling to find her sitting a Balloon Juice table. Nice to know there are ex employees with excellent taste in blogs and… odd to feel a lot less anonymous! Gotta mind my p’s and q’s….

  55. 55.

    MagdaInBlack

    Thank you for supplying the name that escaped me. My interest is by way of my mid-life B.A….my living room looks like your eccentric anthropology professors office…odd pieces of “religious”art and piles of books
    Not terribly interesting, except to me, and thats all that matters ?

  57. 57.

    Dan B

    @Mike J: Thanks for the invite for sailing. I’ll check with my partner. His family has the Schooner Zodiac so knows some sailing. We don’t sail on it because certain people fell down the Fox hole or have relatives whose first name begins with K… and have at least one business in a state that begins with K.

  59. 59.

    MoxieM

    @joel hanes: Pickety-pick: Rijsttafel (rice-table) is a Dutch colonial workup of Indonesian food. Kind of like red sauce Italian is to “real” Italian, or chop suey is to authentic Chinese (of whatever cuisine.) it’s still Yummy, however.

    My ex was born in Singapore and raised in Jakarta so I got pretty good at cooking ID food, once we could regularly get the ingredients (insert funny story about my carrying cans of coconut milk back from CA through airport security… years and years ago. yeah.) In time, I could buy a durian in Boston’s Chinatown, which I did one time as a joke…gag…thing. It lived in the garage for a little while.

    I recommend the Indonesian cooking book by Sri Owen as the most comprehensive–it’s British so USians have to adapt, but she’s really great at explaining ingredients and substitutions. At least in the Boston/Lowell area there is such a large Thai/Vietnamese/Cambodian population that you can get most of the ingredients: fresh galangal, fermented fish paste etc., sriracha is basically sambal (hot sauce). You can make ketchap manis (sweet ketchup sauce) by adding molasses.

    Fried rice (nasi goreng) is easy; peanut sauce (bumbu) will go over veg & rice, or chicken, and make lots of meals. And rendang (beef/goat/whatever stew) will last for ages. It’s a great cookout food. Spicy. There are so many islands, and dialects, and cuisines. Almost uncountable. But 7 major islands, and the Javanese dominate most everything. But the fried chicken, and chicken soup (soto ayam) on Sumatra are legendary.

    But nothing in the northern US will get you to es kelapa muda, no matter how hard you try!

  62. 62.

    BeautifulPlumage

    Great to meet up with everyone, and kudos to Yutsano for the restaurant. Also, sorry we missed meeting up with Rumara last week.

  63. 63.

    Steeplejack

    @MoxieM:

    I presume you mean The Indonesian Kitchen for Sri Owen? Amazon has several listed, but that seems to be the main one.

  64. 64.

    Yutsano

    @CaseyL:

    Yutsano is excellent at herding us together :)

    One of several reasons I need to move back there.

    Another is I’m officially tired of my boss. He actually called me on Monday asking why I wasn’t at work. All he had to do before calling me trying to wrangle me was look at the group calendar where my leave was already approved or blocked off. Or ask his secretary who diligently keeps the calendar up to date. Or even ask my fucking co-worker. I’m sorry but it’s inappropriate to just call me blindly without doing basic research to see if there’s a legitimate reason why I’m not there. Instead he leaves a nastygram on my voicemail. I’m tired of putting up with his shit.

  65. 65.

    poleaxedbyboatwork

    @Mike J:

    Ho there! Yer prolly off-thread but was wondering if any of y’all flies an asym? (Light airs in vid got me curious.) Bought a asym w/a sock offa craigslist while doing rerigging/boatwork in SFBay before bringing boat north but have yet to fly it (gotta add a block on mainmast first). My boat’s kinda heavy (40 tons), so been wondering if an asym’ll get me fairly moving inna 12-15 knot sussurant kiss.

    Sailt from Coronation Is. to Forrester Is. (Decision to Dixon, essentially; drifted overnight offa Cape Bartolome b/c was by myself) this summer in early July during king opener, looking for slippery springs (commercial fishboat). NW 25 knots, wind offa starboard stern-quarter, fucking amazing (including purple phosphorescence! — humpback whales 20 miles offshore roiling the neon waters in the wine-dark sea come dusk is a unforgettable sight to be honored to stumble across).

    If you happen to catch this, wondering your opinion and estimation of utility of assymetrical spinnakers (aka drifters? think I got terminology right but happy to be corrected; lotta names for same thing but ones I mean are sails you don’t need a spinnaker pole for).

    If you got time and inclination, innerested in your thoughts.

  66. 66.

    Mike J

    @poleaxedbyboatwork: Our dinghies (RS Visions and we’re getting a second RS Quest) mostly have asyms, and the Ranger 24′ we race on has a symmetrical and a asym. We use the symmetrical when racing as it allows us to sail at deeper angles. When I take it out for fun I’ll often use the asym because it’s easy to fly it with only two people on board, and the symmetrical needs somebody up on the foredeck to handle the pole.

  69. 69.

    poleaxedbyboatwork

    @Mike J:

    Tx. for reply — viewed short vid on phone so perhaps there were a asyms flying where I only (thought) I saw standard headsails (jibs)? Tx. for reply; few more questions if willing, no worries if bizzy or elsewhere or disinclined to pursue further:

    Do your asyms come w/a sock? Do you like it? Does the sock perform as intended? How light a airs in knots do you still get Bernoulli working to scoot you along?

    In addition to hanging a halyard block somewheres atop mainmast, also gotta figger out fairleads and mount coupla winches further aft (been avoiding cuz, it’s being a fishboat, been disinclined to run sheets to cockpit cuz it’s where fishing’s done and it’s purty chaotic there w/o adding line spaghetti to mix).

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