Liberal Seattle wasn’t an American flag-displaying kind of city — until now. “With newfound patriotism, Seattleites want to wave the flag, hang it from their homes and stick it on their cars.” It’s everyone’s flag again.

Coming soon to the U.S. Iron Chef Wine. It’s all about the branding y’know.

Next year, King County Superior Court will file all legal paperwork electronically. The already dwindling bike courier profession is likely to shrink even further. When the federal courts eliminated paper documents, courier services were not longer used. However as a specialization, the few remaining bike courier companies may be able to charge more for this special service.

A miscellaneous list of links for Election Day diversions. All inappropriately long to keep you from what you really want to be paying attention to:

• The history of balloons. From animal bladders to foil and everything in between (and inside).
• The Atlantic’s Corby Kummer on saving the American Chestnut (The American Chestnut Foundation)
• Whiff a short piece by John McPhee from Nov 2003: “William Shawn, this magazine’s editor absolute for a great many years, used to tell his nonfiction writers that the world’s worst subject was the future. Hard to tie down, the future could too easily come loose and take off on unexpected vectors.”
• America’s First Transcontinental Highway: “The Lincoln Highway began in Times Square, Broadway and 42nd, New York City, and ended in Lincoln Park, San Francisco, spanning the continental United States in 3,389 miles.” (more about the Lincoln Highway)
• Aaron Sorkin’s Sports Night is out on DVD again in a special 10th anniversary addition. I mention this mostly to say (shhhhhhhh) every episode of the show is on YouTube right now… just search (shhhhh!!! do NOT pass this on and remember, once you find them, you may be stranded there for hours).

And please, if you can, vote.

As liquidation sales entice bargain hunters into “all sales final” deals, the S.F. Chronicle clues shoppers into what is really going on behind the scenes. Don’t forget, liquidators are there to get as much money as they can for the creditors. Sometimes liquidators even bring in merchandise that wasn’t even sold at the store, presumably to make the inventory look better. Prices aren’t all that amazing at the beginning of the liquidation and, of course, the selection gets worse as they go down to true bargain territory. Shop around and don’t make quick decisions, especially considering the inability to make returns.

Berkeley Breathed has sent Opus off to a warm and loving nap spot. Clement Hurd, the illustrator of Goodnight Moon, owed his career in children’s books to Margaret Wise Brown, the author of that same bedtime classic. Brown wrote a book, Bumble Bugs and Elephants, in 1938 specifically to showcase Hurd’s talents. Their subsequent collaborations on The Runaway Bunny and Goodnight Moon anchored their place of honor in childrens’ libraries. Years after his death in 1988, Clement Hurd made news again in 2005 when HarperCollins decided to remove the cigarette from his photo on Goodnight Moon. His estate agreed to the alteration (Hurd quit smoking in the 1950s) but some purists were not amused.