Baby it's cold outside

It's cold outside, but that didn't stop a bunch of us from taking out WaveGuide to tag along with the Argosy Christmas ships. Fortunately, the heater aboard WaveGuide works just fine. Going out with the Christmas ships is a good way of getting into the holiday spirit and a good excuse to drink some hot toddies and hang out with good friends. Here's a shot of me at the helm with my first mate Megan and our able seaman Hal.







As we returned to our slip last night, it was snowing a bit, but nothing was sticking. By the time this morning rolled around, Seattle was a winter wonderland. And contrary to the usual weather patterns, it stayed cold enough that the snow actually stuck around all day. The cold snap is supposed to continue for the next few days. At least the streets are clear and dry, so the city isn't paralyzed like it would be if the streets were icy.






I went and saw Milk tonight with Caroline. What a great movie, and what a fabulous performance by Sean Penn! Penn plays Harvey Milk, an activist in San Fransisco in the 70's who became the first openly gay person to hold major elective office in the US. He and the mayor of San Fransisco were assassinated in 1978 by a disgruntled city council member. (Though not part of the movie, the murderer used what became known as the "Twinky Defence" saying that he was unstable because of all the junk food he ate. He ended up serving only 5 years for the double murder.) This was the time of Anita Bryant's gay-bashing and the rise of the religious right. The themes sounded by the right haven't changed much over the years. They are still using the same arguments today against gay marriage that they were using 30 years ago when they were trying to pass laws to fire gay teachers. But it wasn't the theme of the movie that attracted me so much as the way the movie was put together. It had touches of documentary with lots of archival footage; it was a story of political passion; it was a love story of sorts; and it was all held together by a totally believable Sean Penn. A few years ago after seeing Mystic River, I correctly predicted that Penn would get an academy award for his performance. He deserves another one for Milk.