That phrase, "a picture is worth 1,000 words," rings true every time. So before exalting in it being Friday, I recount how I woke up this morning, stumbled up to the door with my eyes half open, picked up the newspaper, and saw this:
The goal for that was to make the image as large as it possibly could be, so you could understand the magnitude of what we're talking about. In this age, everything is sensationalized. The result of that is that nothing is really ever, "major". I read a story about John Edwards this morning and thought, "oh yeah, remember that guy?" The story lasted a month or so during the campaign and his mistress keeps popping up half-dressed in magazines (now on Oprah), but it's no big deal. Everything is seemingly that way, because everything is blown up so much.

Which is why I am underlining this, because you need to understand: this is a big deal. Sorry Joe Biden, profanity excluded.

This oil spill, which is the result of a state-of-the-art oil rig blowing up and sinking into the Gulf of Mexico, is more than a week old. In that time, the estimates of the amount of oil flowing into the Gulf have gone from 1,000 barrels a day to 5,000. That is roughly 210,000 gallons of oil sinking into the ocean every day. As a means for comparison, through every activity an American does that consumes water (including how products they use are made), each person uses a little over 700,000 gallons in a year. Twice that much oil has already leaked into the Gulf. I don't even want to get into how many times you'd have to fill up your car to get to this much oil.

However, that is not the truly scary part about this "spill". This is: it isn't a spill. As a story in a New Orleans paper pointed out, this isn't some tanker or pipeline with a finite amount of oil that will eventually dry up or be shut off. In fact, despite mammoth ocean floor efforts (at 5,000 feet) they haven't been able to close the state-of-the-art hydraulic valve designed specifically fail-safe to prevent blowouts like the one that caused this whole debacle in the first place. And the resource isn't finite, not be a long shot. That story called this a "river of oil." Oil will continue pouring into the Gulf until we find a way to stop it, which we haven't, and every plan we have right now will take considerable time.

Time we don't have. This morning the oil reportedly reached the Gulf coast.

The worst oil spill in the history of the US was obviously the March, 1989 crash of the Exxon Valdez, when more than 11 million gallons of crude oil spilled into Prince William Sound. (Interesting side note: the Exxon Valdez and I share the same birthday, as the ship went into service December 11, 1986). Obviously, being from the west coast, the story of the Exxon Valdez is well known. When I moved to Washington, I walked past a gas station every single day, multiple times, when going to and from home. It took me about four months to realize that it was an Exxon station. Those don't exist in Seattle. After that spill, people drove by Exxon stations.

At a rate of 210,000 gallons each day (and already nine days in), it would take about 41 more days to hit 11 million gallons. Your first though is obviously, "we'll have it stopped by then, no problem." Problem. Outside of shutting off the value, unsuccessful so far, every other solution is predicted to take weeks. BP is commencing drilling of relief wells to somehow block the leaking well. It should be noted that those will most likely end up as for profit wells down the road. And all of the oil that is vacuumed from the surface will also be refined and sold at some point down the road, to BP's profit. The timetable for drilling these well is three months. Do the math.

The next question inevitably is: it's just the environment, what's the big deal? Where were you on August 29, 2005? For me, it was the day after I started my job working for the University of Washington athletic department. It was also the day a hurricane slammed into the Louisiana coast, leaving nothing but destruction in its wake. The region has yet to, and may never, recover from that. The environmental damage done by a spill of this magnitude would be nothing short of catastrophic. That said, the real issue is an economic one. As the region continues rebuilding its economy, few things are as important as the shrimping industry. The state of Louisiana had considered opening a special season, so owners could get their boats out and get whatever they could before the oil came.

Now it is too late. Lawsuits have already been filed on behalf of shrimpers, fishermen and the many injured workers from the rig. Every had oil-coated shrimp in your gumbo? If you need a good primer on how lucrative (and supportive of the local economy) shrimping is, I would suggest Forrest Gump. Bubba Gump Shrimp is a real company (although based on California).

Anyway, the point of all that, rambling is it may have seemed, is to stress how big of a deal this is. The ramifications or completely unknown at this point, other than that the cleanup will cost both BP and the federal government hundreds of millions if not billions. The front page of the New York Times Business section has a story talking about how bad this could be for BP. It will most certainly ripple into climate legislation negotiations and the president's new offshore drilling plan. In short: it's a big mess.

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What a happy way to start the day, huh? How about some other highlights.

- After weeks of speculation and, "come on just get it over with," moments, Florida Governor Charlie Crist, the one-time frontrunner for the Republican nomination in his state's senate race, is turning in his "Republican" moniker for "Independent." That is what happens when a Tea Party-backed, 39-year old, ultra conservation state legislator is whooping you up and down the state. The big winner here? Quite possibly Democrat Kendrick Meek. Some are calling Crist's move a "Hail Mary."

Thing about Charlie Crist is, he is a gay, clean energy-supporting, teacher-protecting conservative. And they love him in Florida. Just saying. Pretty much everyone is predicting that this could be one of the nastiest races we have seen in a long time.

- Jay Leno is playing the White House Correspondents Dinner, for like the 20th time. You would think they might like actual funny people at these things. Last year it was Wanda Sykes. Couldn't we go the Chris Rock route this year?

- Opening Day in Seattle is tomorrow, and if you haven't been paying attention (which I bet you haven't), there is some history in town. As always, the Windermere Cup attracts a marquee program from somewhere in the world for the big event. This year it is one of rowing most historic: Oxford. In a shocking development, it is supposed to rain all day. What else for the opening day of boating season? (In case you were wondering: it's 81 and perfectly clear in Washington).

What that also means is the beginning of an experiment at UW. The football program hosts Friday Night Lights tonight, the annual spring game, but with the twist of being a week later and on Friday. Check it out. Apparently there are a lot of fun things planned.

- New abortion bills are sweeping across the nation, from Arizona to Oklahoma, and now shutting down government in Florida.

- The last Catholic hospital in New York City, St. Vincent's, closed at 7 am this morning.

- In sports new, Seahawks Pro Bowl left tackle (the position so famously profiled in The Blind Side) Walter Jones announced his retirement.

Happy Friday!