A physical-media discovery, the best running shoes, and the best fan for the PNW summer.
By Erica C. Barnett
It’s Actually Hot here in Seattle—a rare and treasured delight for heat-seekers like myself—so I’m making this one quick so I can head back to my Adirondack chair and crack open an icy-cold Mineragua. Hope you’re enjoying, or at least finding ways to beat, the weather wherever you are.
1. The translators’ notes to The Three-Body Problem
Like a surprising number of people I know, I listened to the audiobooks of Cixin Liu’s profound Remembrance of Earth’s Past series instead of buying or borrowing physical copies of the hefty trilogy. After the Netflix series “3 Body” let me down (sorry Netflix, but “street-smart, tempestuous Latina” is not a victory for representation), I decided to revisit the the books themselves, this time in physical form.
What a pleasant surprise to discover that translator Ken Liu provided footnotes (not included in the audio version) to explain many of the references that are obscure to Western readers (like me) not deeply versed in Chinese culture and history. Some of the notes are straightforward descriptions of historical figures (“King Zhou of Shang reigned from 1075 BC to 1046 BC. The last king of the Shang dynasty, he was a notorious tyrant in Chinese history”), while others describe linguistic wordplay that doesn’t translate in the English version (“The Chinese term for ‘sunspot’ literally means ‘solar black spots.’ Black, of course, was the color of counter-revolutionaries.”) And although the section on solar mirrors will forever elude me, Liu does explain a few of the more arcane scientific concepts, including the three-body problem itself, even offering references for further reading.
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2. Brooks running shoes
I’m a fair-weather outdoor runner, which means that for the majority of the year I do my running at the gym, on a cushy treadmill that’s about 100 times less bone-shuddering than the concrete sidewalks and asphalt pathways that make up my regular running routes. I know big, foam-padded Hokas are popular (I own a pair of these indescribably ugly shoes myself, for walking, and they make my feet look two sizes bigger) but my daily runners are from the local Seattle brand Brooks, and they’ve never let me down. Buying a new pair is an annual ritual, and that first run always feels like I have wings on my feet. I’m a real believer in finding the thing that works and just buying it over and over again, and for me, that’s the Ghost line, but the good news is that if you live in Seattle, you can just go to the flagship store in Fremont and figure out which one works best for you.
3. My Vornado fan
If my trusty Vornado fan ever dies, I will buy another, and if that one dies… well, actually, I don’t foresee that happening. I’ve had this specific fan for about 10 years now, and it is a small but mighty lifesaver during our Pacific Northwest summers, which rarely get super hot but are increasingly daunting without A/C. Don’t listen to those fancy product testers Wirecutter; listen to me, a person with no financial incentive at stake, to tell you that this is just a great, compact fan that produces a surprising blast of air for its size, and does so reliably year after year.
I have an almost 40 year old Patton Air Circulator (not a mere fan) that came with me from a much hotter more humid environment…I don’t think they are still made to the same level of quality but it’s all metal and by god, it moves some air. But yeah, fans are pretty much all you need in a dry climate. Nights are still cooler than you’re expensive A/C will get down to so just bring that air indoors and you’re good.