Last spring, Mayor Vince Gray launched his Twitter account, and since then, his (or his staff's) laid back, responsive style has garnered him more than 6,000 followers and a Klout score of 57. His account is a mix of news (pro-mayor, of course), photographs of him at events, and the occasional response to citizens' inquiries. According to Klout, he's influential about Washington, politics, and, uh, Citibank.

But that's not why we're here! We're here to discuss the biggest transition someone on Twitter can go through: Changing their avatar. When Gray's account launched, he looked like this:

Not so bad, and certainly classic. But apparently not good enough for 2012! Yesterday we noticed a new avatar from Hizzoner. It looks like this (larger image here):

Off the bat, we notice that it's darker than the warm tones of the old avatar. But in a good way. Against a handsome black pinstripe suit, the mayor's blue tie and the red D.C. pin complement each other quite nicely. Gray is also lit better, and the photograph takes advantage of his excellent posture and height. In the sitting-at-the-desk picture used previously, he looked neckless and hunched over. Now Gray looks tall and, dare we say, dapper?

Verdict: We approve! It's nice to see some good decision making coming out of the Wilson Building.

(For reference)

Tweet On, You Crazy Diamond: Mike DeBonis confirms that former Mayor-for-Life Marion Barry is, indeed, tweeting his own tweets from a brand new Twitter account. “The social media is hot right now,” he says. “I want to keep in touch with technology. I want to stay in touch with the young people.” Sample tweet: "@KwameBrownDC WELL KWAME I LEARNED HOW TO TWEET." +10

Drive Slow, Homie: WTOP reports that a new District government study says D.C. drivers are driving more slowly on 70 percent of roads surveyed, including the Anacostia Freeway, Memorial Bridge, Canal Road and 16th Street. They credit the slow-down to more red light cameras and speed bumps. +5

Where Do Lonely Arts (Commissions) Go? The D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities will be assuming control of the troubled Lincoln Theatre in the wake of reports about its financial troubles. "DCCAH is basically mangaging the process of finding an artistic director and getting it off the ground until there's management in place to run the theater," says DCCAH spokesperson Marquis Perkins. +3

Pull Your Pennies Together: The ESPN Sports Zone auction is tomorrow, says WJLA: "Items in the online auction include a Washington Redskins football-throwing game, several air hockey tables, industrial-grade cooking platforms and kitchen utensils. Even the most minute of items, including speakers, subwoofers, lights, tables and chairs will be on the block." See the list here. +2

Friday's Needle rating: 30 Today's score: +20 Today's Needle rating: 50

Eat Your Vegetables: For years, stereotypes of D.C. dining began and ended with lobbyists sitting in steakhouses, carving up the world along with their filets. That's now well out of date—and as a new survey shows, D.C. apparently has the highest percentage in the country of diners who eat vegetarian meals when visiting restaurants. Don't tell The Palm! +2

Republicans Squatting: Beleaguered D.C. Councilmember Harry Thomas Jr. found time recently, between his official government duties and whatever worries he might have about a criminal investigation into his Team Thomas organization, to register for Twitter. When he did, he listed a website to reach him, HThomas5.org. Unfortunately for Thomas, he didn't bother registering that domain before taking the Twitter feed live—so the D.C. GOP bought it and redirected it to their own site bashing him. Just goes to show the Internet may be a rougher place than the Wilson Building. -1

Ethics R Us: As for the rest of the D.C. government, expect ethics to be in the front of everyone's mind from now on. Why? Because the city has posted signs with handy tips on whether or not to engage in unscrupulous behavior around official buildings. Among the questions employees should ask: "If you do it will you feel bad," "How would it look in the newspaper," and "Would I be proud to have my kids, parents, significant other know?" As DCist pointed out, though, apparently some folks could have used the poster around this time last year. -3

Beck to Basics: The Washington Redskins have finally remedied a glaring weakness in the team's offense—their quarterback has been, up to this week, Rex "Sexy Rexy" Grossman. The only problem with the team's announcement today of a new starting quarterback? That QB is John Beck, whose NFL career up to now has barely registered on the consciousnesses of the legions of stat geeks out there. Fans on the team-owned ExtremeSkins message board greeted the news with a long exploration of whether Beck is really, as Wikipedia reports, Glenn Beck's cousin. The rest of us mostly shrugged, and prepared for the inevitable moment Sunday when the team's promising start to the 2011-12 season slips further into distant memory. -2

Yesterday's Needle rating: 61 Today's score: -4 Today's Needle rating: 57

For Tickets, See Jack: District campaign finance law allows members of the D.C. Council to raise up to $80,000 a year for constituent service funds, outside of their tax-funded office budgets and their campaign accounts. The idea is supposed to be to use these to pay for things like electrical bills or heating costs that constituents can't afford; Ward 2's Jack Evans, however, seems to have spent about a third of the money he's raised in the last decade on sports tickets. (Evans says he gave most of the tickets away.) Maybe the theory is that without help from Evans, teams like the Wizards, the Nationals, or the Capitals wouldn't be able to pay for their own energy bills? -2

No Taxation Without 140 Characters: People who don't live in the District don't always appreciate the extent to which those of us who do live here are denied basic rights of democracy; when the rest of the nation looked on with bemused horror as the federal government threatened to shut down earlier this year, we were the only ones whose own local government was tied up in the mess. Now, at last, it's time to remedy the problem—with a virtual march. Mayor Vince Gray wants everyone to post a message to Facebook and Twitter at 8:28 a.m. tomorrow to protest our lack of representation. Considering how successful the Twitter-based attempts to show solidarity with Iranian democracy activists were, we hope to see the whole country changing their location to D.C. by 8:32 a.m.—but we're not actually expecting anything to change as a result of all this. -1

School's In: With all the paranoid coverage lately, we wouldn't be surprised if people saw hordes of kids streaming into schools this morning and thought it was another flash mob. It was, instead, the first day of school, even though Labor Day is still two weeks away. There were apparently no major glitches at any of the District's public or charter schools, several of which opened in new buildings. (Our interest was caught by one new charter school in Ward 7, the Richard Wright Public Charter School for Journalism and Media Arts, which will presumably serve middle schoolers who are eager to pursue a lifetime of low wages in a dying industry.) +2

MLK Memorial Officially Open for Making Memories: Getting a memorial to Martin Luther King Jr. on the National Mall took almost as long as getting a federal holiday to honor him did. But the statue finally officially opened today near the World War II Memorial (and, as a bonus, unlike the World War II Memorial, the King memorial doesn't look like it was designed by Albert Speer). Tomorrow is D.C. residents' day; the actual dedication will be Aug. 28. +2

John Beck, We Take It All Back: On Friday, we mocked Redskins quarterback John Beck, who started that night's preseason game, on the grounds that he hadn't taken an NFL snap in years, but was poised to take over the job mostly because his competition was Rex "Sexy Rexy" Grossman. Then Beck wandered into Indianapolis and led the team to a 16-3 win over the Colts. If they keep winning these exhibition games, adjusting to the regular season and the inevitable losses is going to be a real shock. +1

Friday's Needle rating: 66 Today's score: +3 Today's Needle rating: 69

A D.C. Office of Inspector General investigation has concluded that the cops who gave Charlie Sheen a police escort through the District didn't screw up.  It's also concluded that it doesn't trust Sheen's Twitter feed.

In a report the OIG said non-dignitary escorts "have been routine for years." In June, two officers who participated in giving Sheen a "lights and siren" ride to an April gig were transferred out of the Special Operations Division, which was in charge of the transport. Sheen's unique tour of the District earned attention when he tweeted about it, showing a speedometer that read 80 mph.

The OIG isn't ready to accept that's how fast Sheen was actually going, and seems to take a shot at the media for considering a tweet a valid source of information. "Although various media publicized tweeted images and text purporting to show the Sheen SUV traveling at approximately 80 m.p.h., the team had no means by which to independently verify the authenticity and accuracy of either the information or its source." In other words: Myopic little twits!

Metropolitan Police Department Chief Cathy Lanier said Sheen's escort wasn't approved, but the OIG "concluded that SOD's approval and performance of the Sheen escort were not extraordinary. Similarly, the OIG does not view the decisions and actions of those SOD officers involved in the Sheen escort as cavalier or contrary to established practice."

The OIG did say, however, that the protocols for doing the escorts are a mess, and MPD should get a handle on them. As long as he's alive and healthy, Sheen may be happy to know that the District office thinks MPD should be able to offer him a ride again: "The OIG believes that if administered properly, non-dignitary escorts can deliver broad benefits to the District."

Photo by Matthew Straubmuller via Flickr/Creative Commons Attribution License 2.0

The big news of the week, so far, is the imminent arrival on Twitter of Courtland Milloy, the Washington Post columnist who declared in September that Adrian Fenty-voting, bike lane-commuting, fancy restaurant-dining yuppies who use social media are "myopic little twits."

Milloy told Washington City Paper's Rend Smith that he's been taking Post-mandated social media training and was looking forward to joining: The "myopic eyeballs that have been twittered shut to the real world will be pried open so wide they'll need new facebooks."

But he also said he wants to use the Twitter handle @gigabyteme, which someone else already has. We asked for suggestions for other names Milloy could use on Twitter the other day. Commenters suggested a few:

• @PGMeddler or @CrotchetySuburbanite—Mrs. D
• @CM_Ward9—Anon and On
• @PGCtwit—Rake
• @GrouchyOldMan or @HatersgonnaHate–Keith

Which one's your favorite? Got other suggestions? Leave them in the comments, and maybe Milloy will take heed.

Photo by Darrow Montgomery

Brace yourself, D.C.: Courtland Milloy is learning Twitter.

The fiery Washington Post Metro columnist says his newspaper editors have been putting him through a "social networking tutorial," that he's almost done with it, and that his Twitter account launches in July.

The tutorials aren't just for Milloy, says the Post's deputy local editor for digital Jane Elizabeth, though he 's part of an early group. "Everybody is going to go through it sooner or later," says Elizabeth. Elizabeth says the classes have been aimed at pointing out how social media can help reporters. Afterward, the reporters "decide how best to use those tools."

Milloy is an unlikely candidate to be an early Twitter adopter. Way before the New York Times' Bill Keller declared Twitter "the enemy of contemplation," Milloy called its D.C. users "myopic little twits." In an interview for a Washington City Paper cover story ("What's Tweeting Courtland Milloy?"), I asked Milloy what he thought of the Twittersphere he'd skewered, along with other trappings of the District's newly-arrived young, white, professional class; he he assured me it just wasn't his thing. “Sounds perverted," he said mockingly. “Follow me on Twitter, and watch me tweet...”

At the time, it was obvious that Milloy's ire wasn't about the social media platform itself, but about the intersection of two phenomenons Milloy has angrily assailed: gentrification and digital vitriol.

Having seen "Chocolate City" at its zenith, Milloy is furious over gentrification. He believes black residents are on a forced march out of the city—and the age of anonymous digital relationships that give way to ubiquitous hostility disguised as conversation grates at him, as well. He's called comments on the Post website "vitriol," and has indicated to me that that they're often abusive (if sometimes profitable): “I get disturbed because the reality is a person who makes a comment and calls me a nigger, that’s still an ad man’s click.” To Milloy, despite the fact that Twitter users are disproportionately black, the platform is the way in which white newbies and digital vitriol most readily meet.

But that Milloy has put this concern away for now, and is becoming twitterized, is good news. That's not because it will bring any resolution to the Milloy v. Twitter slugfest, but because a more personal and animated conversation between Milloy, his detractors, and supporters is bound to be informative for everyone.

In an email, Milloy says the move is designed to meet twits on their own turf: The "myopic eyeballs that have been twittered shut to the real world will be pried open so wide they'll need new facebooks."

I don't agree with the racial hyperbole that sometimes shows up in Milloy's column, but as I argued in November, as the id of an older black generation in D.C., the often blow-back-baiting Milloy is a valuable District asset. Twitter is likely to only increase his worth.

Milloy says he's batting around the idea of making his Twitter handle @gigabyteme, a name he picked up from "one of those millenials." Though Elizabeth says the Post "isn't like, 'Here are our rules,'" she does think Milloy will probably need to find a different name. "I think we would probably not recommend that," she says. "We tend to be more transparent."

Photo by Darrow Montgomery

In Which the State of Maryland Gets Rich: NBC Washington reports that the state of Maryland will erect speed cameras along a stretch of the Capital Beltway. The area between University Boulevard and New Hampshire Avenue, which is slated for major construction in the coming years, will be the target. According to NBC, "The speed limit will remain 55 mph, and State Highway Administration spokeswoman Valerie Edgar says drivers would have to be going 12 or more miles over the limit to get ticketed." Though the slower speeds are ostensibly for safety measures while construction's going on, DCist points out that this will be a major revenue generator for Maryland. Given heavy traffic, it's pretty hard to get up to 55 on that stretch of the Beltway as it is, but prepared to pay $40 if you don't slow your roll. -3

"So I Can Keep Track of the Visions in My Eyes": Sulaimon Brown's hijinks are gifts that have kept on giving. First, it was the sunglasses. Now, WAMU producer Michael Martinez has remixed choice soundbites from Monday's hearing on Brown's hiring by the Gray administration over Corey Hart's original one-hit wonder. (Bonus, unrelated meme-ification of local D.C. government officials: A .gif of Mayor Vince Gray rolling his eyes, courtesy of DCist editor Aaron Morrissey.) +4

Activities for all Stripes: If you couldn't tell by the arrival en masse of rainbow-printed bunting along 17th Street NW and the rest of greater Dupont Circle, Capital Pride is this weekend. There's a lot going on, but our own Arts Desk has you covered with picks for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Be sure to look for City Paper's float in the Saturday parade, wherein some staffers will be dressed as cupcakes (a D.C. take on birthday cake—appropriate as we celebrate our 30th anniversary). Not stoked enough? Look through Darrow Montgomery's photos from last year's Pride. +2

Yesterday's Needle rating: 56 Today's score: +4 Friday Bonus Points: +2 Today's Needle rating: 62

The whole thing appears to have started with a post on Fishbowl by intern Alec Jacobs that, in turn, was about a post by TBD writer (and another former City Paper staffer) Amanda Hess. So if you're scoring at home, yes, this item you're reading is a blog post about a series of Twitter posts about a media gossip post about a post about the Oscars.

Assuming the various levels of recursive pointlessness involved here haven't scared you off, here is our dramatic reenactment of the Twitter fight:

A transcript is below the jump. (Note: We were inspired to make this movie by this Deadspin post.)

@FishbowlDC: Abeaujon: Stop picking on an intern. WTF is your problem? And you have no idea what you're talking about. We should pinch you.

@FishbowlDC: P.S. Not that @alecjacobs can't handle you, he can. He can eat you for breakfast. Or, er, pinch you. [Insert laughter here Beaujon]

@FishbowlDC: @abeaujon: And pls. You're counseling our intern on what is "playful" touching? You sound like someone I wouldn't want in my neighborhood.

@ABeaujon: @FishbowlDC Betsy, I assure you, I wouldn't want to be in your neighborhood either!

@ABeaujon: @FishbowlDC (metaphorically, of course; I'm sure where you live is very nice!)

@FishbowlDC: .@abeaujon Good then we'll never move in together. Great. In the meantime, you can talk all the stupid you want to our intern @alecjacobs.

@ABeaujon: @FishbowlDC He did do a great job of talking stupid. I look forward to more of it!

@FishbowlDC: .@abeaujon Fact is, you counseling our intern on appropriate touching just sounds plain creepy.

@FishbowlDC: .@abeaujon He did a great job with the item. Considering how ridiculous your colleague's story was. That was the point. Get it?

@ABeaujon: @FishbowlDC Now we're coming full circle. His post was about @amandahess saying a touch was creepy! Love you, love your work, don't stop.

@FishbowlDC: .@abeaujon This is your prob, Andrew. You arguments make no sense. We're not full circle to anything except that you should get pinched.

@ABeaujon: @FishbowlDC I'm pinching myself that you're talking with me! Really, it makes every day like spring.

@FishbowlDC: .@abeaujon Ahhh...too bad feeling isn't mutual. Keep pinching yourself though... a good start to getting real insight.

@ABeaujon: @FishbowlDC I think my real problem is how much smarter than me both of you are.

@FishbowlDC: .@abeaujon Well, there's no test on who is smarter, but between the two of us we could pinch the hell out of you. Think of it as a service.

@ABeaujon: @FishbowlDC Betsy, I'd fail that test against you any day. I'm sure most people who read both of us would agree. You arguments make sense.

@FishbowlDC: .@abeaujon You'd fail a pinching test? I think we might kill each other if together for too long.

@FishbowlDC: .@abeaujon And really, I don't think many people really read us both. We are very different, Andrew. Is that not clear enough yet?

@ABeaujon: @FishbowlDC It's clear.

@FishbowlDC: .@abeaujon Good.

We Don't Need No Stinkin' Brakes: Metro escalators, it turns out, have a bizarre safety feature–when there are too many people on them, they speed up and dump everyone on the floor. What they're supposed to do is stop, but the brakes on the escalators at L'Enfant Plaza station failed to do their jobs during a pile-up after Saturday's Rally to Restore Sanity, officials testified at a hearing today. Which is good; we wouldn't want the buses and subways to be the only parts of the local public transit system that pose hazards. -3

It's a Zoo Over There: Cleveland Park isn't known for being the most raucous neighborhood in the city. But even for the Ward 3 bastion of tranquility, the reaction to a recent Halloween-themed bash at the National Zoo may be going too far. Zoo officials have had to write an apology letter for disturbing their neighbors last week, prompted by furious complaints on a message board. Memo to Cleveland Park: You are still in a city. Sometimes life here is noisy. Chill. -2

Weapons of Mall Destruction: Going sightseeing in Arizona must be a more dangerous enterprise than it is here. That would, at least, explain why authorities say James M. Patock, 66, of Marana, Ariz., had two rifles and a handgun in his truck when he parked by the Mall yesterday. The vehicle attracted police attention near the Air and Space Museum; no truth to rumors Patock was planning to rob the place of all the freeze-dried ice cream. -2

Myopic Little Twits: D.C. is sometimes accused of being superficial. That will surely change with news that Twitter—home of the 140-character message—is opening an office here! Facebook and Google already have large contingents to lobby our federal masters; for any social media platform, getting to the point where you need representation in the District is probably a good sign that you're not destined to become Friendster. +1

Yesterday's Needle rating: 45 Today's score: -6 Today's Needle rating: 39

Just before midnight, Washingtonians worked their “re-tweet” magic on Twitter and the “share” button on Facebook, expressing outrage over the latest Courtland Milloy op-ed in the Washington Post, in which Milloy animatedly breaks down what was wrong with the Fenty administration. Milloy’s non-spoon fed, non-sugar coated attitude is indeed not for the naïve or timid at heart when it comes to discussing the elephant in the room in the District's politics: race and class. It's a “fuck you and good riddance” to Adrian Fenty, Peter Nickles, and Michelle Rhee.

To some, it came across as very divisive, and unhelpful to the healing effort to unite the city. But was it meant to be a divisive piece? Or was he just stating a harsh reality, a truth that hurts because the city’s would-be savior—armed with his Blackberries, personal business cards, and flanked with his partners in crime (pun not really intended)—failed us, and that's is a tough cookie to swallow?

While airing out some of Fenty’s offenses—snubbing respected figures Dr. Dorothy Height and Maya Angelou, closing shelters, and firing city employees—Milloy gets sarcastic by calling Fenty supporters the “creative class” of “myopic little twits” that occupy chic new eateries and take to social media networks to defend their guy and his sidekicks. Perhaps the real kick to the gut was Milloy mocking the “world class system” headed by Rhee that, in Milloy's telling, might only succeed by excluding low-income black families pushed out of the city by gentrification. He also suggests that Fenty’s administration had all the makings of a Fascist enterprise, with its eerie similarity to “the old antebellum system of control, which featured a chairman for public works, which is what Fenty was, in essence; a chairman with expertise in legal maneuverings, Nickles; and a chairman for education and welfare issues, Rhee."

As if to prove Milloy's point about social media, angry citizens took to Twitter to air their grievances about Milloy.

@bogrosemary: "@grayformayor: “please 'refudiate' this divisive screed.”

@kateddc: “this encourages that divisiveness instead of thoughtful discourse & solutions. I expect more from the Post.”

This morning, Councilmember Tommy Wells took to his twitter to express his thoughts on Milloy’s piece:

@TommyWells: “Courtland Milloy’s column should be read and re-read. While raw, it’s a window on DC.”

Ok, so Milloy does not offer any solutions to a problem that has been throbbing in this city for years, but what if this was not meant to heal? What if this was an “in your face” column, aimed at precisely those staunch Fenty supporters who were just as perplexed about Fenty’s loss as he was? After all, not 24 hours after the primary, tweets from Milloy’s twits were just as sarcastic and rude as before, practically proving his point.

@1br4r14n: “I guess the key to loosing an election is to lower crime, and build new parks and rec centers.”

@1chicklette: “I’m still stunned Fenty lost. #dcvote I mean, Marion Berry was able to get reelected.”

@rachel1029: "@thatgirl405 Have you seen the difference between #voteDC and #DCvote heard it was a racially segregated even on twittuh hashtags."

Whatever Milloy’s intent, the streets are talking. Even if they're using social media to do it.

Photo by Darrow Montgomery

Apparently he'll need to work his magic again today; this morning's storms brought bad news to the Kurtz household once again. A plaintive cry issued forth from the Postie on Twitter once again: "No power for 5 days, go on vacation, come back, it rains, no power again. Thanks, Pepco."

Keep checking back here throughout the day for more updates on City Desk—your number one source for all Kurtz electricity-related news!

Photo via CNN

Photo by Michael E. Grass

It hasn't for years. But the Route 29 signage along the former New Hampshire Avenue and Dupont Circle alignment has somehow endured. Along the actual route of Route 29 in the District—Georgia Avenue, 7th Street NW, Rhode Island Avenue, 11th Street NW, K Street NW, the Whitehurst Freeway and Key Bridge— isn't really signed well at all. For instance, going from the Key Bridge to Whitehurst Freeway and vice versa, there aren't signs marking the critical Route 29 turn-offs.

Why is this important? Well, it's not that important. (And I sort of like the old signs from yesteryear.) But it's something I've written about for five years, first on DCist, then on my personal blog and then again during a DCist guest editing stint back in June.

When the D.C. government was touting its post-Snowpocalypse Twitter-fueled pothole repair effort, it seemed like a good idea to test the District Department of Transportation's social media savvy by also tweeting a request to have the errant signs removed. Why not?

While there are easier ways to make such a request, such as calling 311 or making a phone call to DDOT, I decided to test the effectiveness of Twitter. And while I got a prompt reply from the agency, it did not get much of a follow-up. I pestered here and there, but it was clear that removing the Route 29 signs was not a high priority. But it was an "interesting" request for the city. You can't say much in 140 characters or less, but it was something!

My first inquiry on the matter was back in March. It's now August and the signs are still up. (One, however, was mowed down by a run-away taxicab.) In the meantime, I've tweeted requests to DDOT on other more critical matters, like fixing crosswalk signals that were facing the wrong direction. (I do care!) Those requests were promptly attended to.

On Thursday, I inquired again about the Route 29 signs and I got a new response from DDOT! They'll make arrangements for those blasted signs at Dupont Circle to come down and they'll update me when they're removed. That's some progress, yes?

City Paper colleague Jason Cherkis may be the "most passionate—and least decisive—writer" as it comes to the mayor's race, but for this undecided City Desk contributor, the first candidate to release a comprehensive Route 29 highway signage plan is more likely to get my vote!

"Giant" is an apt descriptor for the Japanese salamander.

Morning, all. It's my last Morning Roundup, I'm sad to report. (On the other hand, sleeping in an extra hour on Fridays sounds pretty nice.) We'll be rolling out some exciting new changes on City Desk. Keep your eyes peeled.

It's no secret it's been hot as Hades recently. ("Sofa king hot," as one of our followers so eloquently put it on Twitter yesterday.) This weekend, record-setting temperatures may be on tap. Hydrate, use your sunscreen–take care out there!

So that's where the extra money's going to. If you're a frequent user of the Dupont Circle Metro station, take heart: You'll see your fare increases put to use in the not-so-distant future. The 188-foot escalators, the sixth longest in the Metro system, are set to be replaced at the beginning of next year.

Maybe they're not as sexy as pandas. Nonetheless, a Japanese giant salamander's still gotta have a place to get its groove on. Thus, the National Zoo opened its new breeding center for the salamanders yesterday. The breeding center, which houses four of the lizards (the zoo's fifth is hiding under a rock in the Asia Trail exhibit), will be the first of its kind outside Japan.

Are Washingtoninans preternaturally happy? Maybe not, but at least we're among the least "miserable" in the nation. Washington has a rate of 9.35 percent on the misery index, which measures the sum of the inflation rate (1.95 percent) and the unemployment rate (7.4 percent). Only Seattle, with an index score of 5.5 percent, is less miserable. So, cheer up!

Photo: japanforum.com