BUSH'S WIN ADDS TO SEATTLE'S GLOOM

Washington Post via Mercury News ^ | 11/7

[ambrose]

Posted on Sun, Nov. 07, 2004

BUSH'S WIN ADDS TO SEATTLE'S GLOOM

MOOD-CRUSHING WINTERTIME ARRIVES, AND JOLT OF COFFEE MAY NOT HELP

By Blaine Harden

Washington Post

SEATTLE - It has been a SAD week in Seattle, city of rain, darkness, caffeine, secularism and an 82 percent majority that voted in vain to fire President Bush.

SAD, as just about everybody here knows, is an acronym for seasonal affective disorder, the mood-crushing curse of wintertime existence in the northernmost major U.S. city in the Lower 48. An estimated 20 to 30 percent of residents experience some degree of the disorder, which researchers believe is triggered by the body's reaction to reduced natural light. Symptoms include sadness, irritability, gluttony, weight gain, menstrual difficulties and interpersonal strain.

As expected, suffering began last Sunday, with the end of daylight-saving time. Like a guillotine blade, darkness fell at 5 in the afternoon. It was the pitiless annual reminder that by midwinter, there would barely be eight hours of daylight, almost all of it sponged up by thick blankets of concrete-colored clouds that, on average, squat over Seattle 226 days a year.

The next day, election eve, it rained hard. The wind blew, roofs leaked, basements flooded and Seattle seemed to slip irretrievably into the dank funk that has given birth to the SAD resistance movement, otherwise known as excessive caffeine consumption. That movement gave birth to Starbucks and scores of other, lesser-known local purveyors of overpriced coffee.

-snip-

As election returns sank in, the city's seasonal slough of despond seemed to deepen. A local public radio talk show kicked off a lugubrious afternoon of post-election whining with a saxophone solo of ``Am I Blue?'' Several callers said they would be moving to nearby British Columbia.

[SandRat]

I understand that there's a big need for psycho-babble therapists in Seattle and Tacoma. Wonder if they're checking credentials? Might be able make money of this, hmmmmm......? Relieving an oh so saddened and deeply depressed DEMOC of as much of their money, hmmm......?

Nah! I wouldn't do that, but it sure is a pretty image to think about

[Tax Government]

I'm probably not going to participate in an extended chain of posts on this subject right now, but...

The difference in sunlight levels between So.Cal. and Seattle IS significant enough, for a lot of people, to affect mood for a couple of years. Obviously, it's an individual thing. Also, if a person has asthma, then Seattle's cold and higher levels of air-borne fungus can cause a problem. In sidewalk cracks of Seattle and surrounding areas you'll notice black stuff -- that is fungus, the same thing that tries to grow in your bathroom tub. It gets in the air and can trigger bronchitis or asthma. I've met a number of people who've experienced problems, and attributed them to the fungus.

Moving to So.Cal. from Seattle, one may spend a few months getting the eyes acclimated to higher outdoor sunlight levels.

These reactions are mine and I believe reasonably typical; your mileage may vary.

[ElkGroveDan]

I refer to days in Seattle when the sunlight is not obstructed by clouds. "Bright" days are much easier on the eyes. Much less squinting. I've been both places -- Seattle and So. Cal. -- long enough to know the difference. What part of any of this sounds silly?

I would say the part about bright days being easier on the eyes. I have actually LIVED in So Cal.(22 years), I am now living farther north than that (10 years). I have LIVED at a similar latitude parallel to Seattle (4 years), and I have even lived in the Northeast, farther north than Seattle. I have visited nearly every major city and state in the US.

I have never experienced this effect that you describe, nor have I ever heard anyone else describe such an effect, nor have I read anywhere of this effect.

I understand your reasoning, but the effect just isn't there at a perceptible level.

[kabar]

Clueless in Seattle.

[The Loan Arranger]

"Symptoms include sadness, irritability, gluttony, weight gain, menstrual difficulties and interpersonal strain."

And that's just the metrosexuals aka men.

[Seattle Conservative]

You're right about the unfriendly biz environment here - and we have only the Dem stronghold on the Govenor's office for about 20 years and the state legislature to blame (the Seattle City Council and King County Council haven't helped).

Based on figures I've pulled from the WA Sect'y of State's Web site, there are 6,686 precincts in the state of WA and 2,616 of them are in King County (the Seattle Metro area)(which is a little over 39% of the precincts in the State).

If we further look at the counties & precincts that have a negative Bush/Kerry number it breaks down to 12 counties (out of 38 for the state) and 4,581 precincts (out of 6,686) - -996864 votes for K and 700408 for Bush (out of 1,305,868 for K and 1,130,537 for B statewide).

[Tax Government]

Seattle area's weather is unique. Seattle is located under a persistent weather pattern that causes higher rainfall and cloudiness. A name has been given to this area and/or its pattern but it escapes me. It is an area where persistent ocean winds from the S.W., carrying a lot of moisture, collide with another airmass and generate rain. Eighty+ miles north, south or especially east of Seattle, cloudiness and rainfall drop off and, probably, weather-related "SAD" reports are less.

[asgardshill]

Liberals in general and Seattleites in particular seem to operate under the ongoing suspicion that somebody somewhere is doing something that they do not approve of. And they have made it their life's mission to find that "misbehavior" and use whatever governmental power they can bring to bear to punish it.

I hope right down to my feet that the fine sunny weather and moderate temperature here is burning a new duodenal ulcer in the innards of some liberal wastoid in Seattle as we speak.

[DestroytheDemocrats]

"almost all of it sponged up by thick blankets of concrete-colored clouds that, on average, squat over Seattle 226 days a year."

I would like this kind of weather. I get Seasonal Affective Disorder in the summertime from too much light and heat. I hate Daylight Savings Time with a passion. But it's worth it to live in the Sun Belt if it means not being surrounded by libs.

[Constantine XIII]

What a bunch of pansies!

I feel great, and I'm in freakin Norway. :P

[Libertina]

Oh good grief, the whining! CyberCowboy, pings please. Massive "interventions" to be performed here! LOL

[DestroytheDemocrats]

"Living in DFW area of Texas, I cherish my gloomy days and sometimes wish there were more. "

So true. In late summer the sun is burning hot and blinding. It drains all your energy. I LOVE cloudy days.

[Constantine XIII]

So why did the geniuses build a city there? Trade routes? :P

[Scott from the Left Coast]

I live 30 miles south of there -- in another liberal city (not quite as liberal, but pretty close). They are bummed out in areas here because of environmental and gay issues. And, yeah, they're depressed as all get out. It's an absolute hoot.

They can't accept that the country won't sign onto the Kyoto protocols for another 4 years and that all their gay friends (everyone seems to have gay friends, but no one themselves admit to it!) we be second-class citizens. They were especially bummed out that the 11 marriage defense initiatives passed so soundly.

It is really funny listening to them go on and on. I love it when the majority here is depressed!

[Hildy]

Man, it's just the opposite over here. This has been the best month for a long time! Starting with the Red Sox win, The Bush win, and Arafat dying a slow painful death! (Plus I won $4,000 on an internet gambling site!). Fallujah next and the streak will continue!

[goldstategop]

Soviet Seattle should make an application to join Canada.

[chilepepper]

Symptoms include sadness, irritability, gluttony, weight gain, menstrual difficulties and interpersonal strain.

and that's just the girlie men in Seattle!

[Scott from the Left Coast]

So why did the geniuses build a city there?

There's never been a genius in Seattle.

[hinckley buzzard]

Symptoms include sadness, irritability, gluttony, weight gain, menstrual difficulties and interpersonal strain.
The next four years are going to be a difficult period indeed.

Maybe we could ship carloads of Midol and Prozac to Maureen Dowd and Susan Estrich. This is too much for mere caffeine.

[KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle]

David Horsey, the acidic Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, drew a cartoon with Vice President Dick Cheney looking demonic and Bush looking like Alfred E. Neuman.

Ahhhhh... how distressingly little talent or effort is required to score a Pulitzer nowadays, eh...? :)