🔝 Toplessness can continue

Record-Breaking Hot Weather Hits Seattle

Temperatures hit 81 at SEA over the weekend, the highest for early May in 1992, when temperatures hit 77. And this unseasonably warm heat sets the scene for some of the stories we've been tracking.

• 🥶 Be careful in cold water: Just because it’s hot out doesn’t mean the water is warm. In fact, lots of water in Washington doesn’t get warmer than 60 degrees Fahrenheit all year, a temperature cold enough to trigger ‘panic, rapid breathing, and drowning, especially without a life jacket.’ King County has some good reminders around water safety, including a link to get a loaner lifejacket. [King County]
• 🏞️ You can stay topless at Denny Park: A King County Superior Court judge ruled Friday that toplessness is allowed at Denny Blaine Park, and that includes the “clothing required” section. There is no city law prohibiting people from being topless. We previously reported on this story in January. [🎧 City Cast Seattle]
• ⛑️ Hiker rescued after 50-foot fall: In what sounds like a scene from a movie, Seattle firefighters cleared deep brush and negotiated steep terrain to help a 19-year-old hiker who had fallen 40 feet off an embankment in Discovery Park. Thankfully, the person only had minor injuries. Thank goodness for rescue crews! [Seattle.gov]
• 🚗 Car in water: Is it so warm that cars are jumping into Lake Washington? Seattle police are trying to find the owner of a car that was found in the water Sunday morning at the 2400 block of Lake Washington, near a park and jogging trail. So far, authorities have no idea how it got in there. [KING5]

⚱️🌮 RIP Taco Bell: Over the weekend, Seattle said goodbye to a friend: a Taco Bell in West Seattle. Yes, it had been closed for 3 decades, but performance artist Sunday Nobody felt it important to remember it with a plaque, bagpipes, and a strictly formal grieving dress code. To quote one mourner on Reddit, ‘Baja Be Thy Blast.’ [Reddit]

🧶 Yarn shop tour: From May 13 - 17, the 20th anniversary Puget Sound Local Yarn Shop tour is happening all over the region. There will be discounts and patterns to try out, as well as a passport to be stamped for prizes. The South Seattle Emerald has a beautiful story about the personal history of some of the shop owners and why knitting matters so much in their lives. [South Seattle Emerald]

🎦 Local commercials: Seattle’s Commercial Film Production Initiative is trying to get more commercials made in town and staffed by local filmmakers. How? By creating a marketing plan aimed at companies that usually work out of New York/LA, to convince them that Seattle can handle larger campaigns. By 2030, Seattle hopes to be one of the most robust commercial production markets in the U.S. [Seattle Times]