Three Crazy Incidents In America's Third Most Desirable City

It's interesting that today the Pew Research Center released a study ranking Seattle as third among cities where Americans say they would like to live, placing behind Denver and San Diego. I know Denver and lived in San Diego for 10 years, so I can attest to the wondrousness of those cities, especially when it comes to having better weather (ie, actual sunshine) than Seattle (cloudiest big city in America, but not the wettest).

I'm not sure how crazy things get in Denver when it comes to absurd crimes, but I know San Diego has its share of bizarre happenings. Meanwhile, here in Rain City, there have been three bizarre incidents in recent days. In one, a man tried to make a human sacrifice of his girlfriend, who apparently hadn't realized how off-the-peg her beau was before. The guy was reportedly still chanting in a strange language when cops arrested him on assault charges. Hate crime charges were just filed against a man who tried to stab a lesbian in the eyes on a street in my neighborhood not too far from my soon-to-be-former apartment. Sometimes, I just don't understand my fellow primates.

Sadly, on Sunday night, a 22-year-old Microsoft employee fell to his death off a building in Bellevue (OK, not Seattle but right across Lake Washington). His death has been ruled a suicide and is not related to recently announced layoffs at the software giant, since the guy's job was not affected. Suicide at any age is tragic, but at 22, what can you say?

Seattle may be a place people desire to live, but it sure as hell can get strange around here.