Notes From All Over -- The Early Evening Portland Edition -- May 24, 2021

This is not a contrarian opinion. I'm seeing variations of this across social media:

It was also noted that Europeans are still not flying; driving instead. Distances much shorter in Europe than in US. France wants to shut down flights of short duration.  

If crude oil surges and gasoline trends toward $5/gallon in California it will have nothing to do with President Biden killing Keystone XL but there will be no shortage of folks like me trying to make the connection. LOL. 

I agree with Peter Sutherland's assessment above. I probably did not have to point that out. 

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Cabot - Cimarex

The merger was probably a one-off but it does suggest that US drillers are getting increasingly acquisitive.

In the Bakken, my hunch is Whiting is still in play after all these years. Market cap of $1.7 billion. 

EOG, market cap: $46.77 billion. 

Enerplus, market cap: $1. 58 billion. 

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LNG Export Terminals

Sabine Pass train 6 and Calcasieu ahead of schedule.

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Word of the Day: Scud

It's interesting how folks just accept some words without questioning the etymology. I'm very, very guilty of that. 

For me, "scud" is one of those words. Most Americans probably first heard the word during "the Gulf War." I'm sure that was true for me, also. I heard the term often but I never thought about the origin of the word.

While on the flight yesterday from DFW to Portland, Oregon, while reading Sailing Around The World, Joshua Slocum, the illustrated edition, c. 2016, with the original printing in 1890, I came across the word. 

From page 17:

I had read somewhere of a fishing-schooner hooking her anchor into a whale, and being towed a long way and at great speed. This was exactly what happened to the Spray -- in my dream! 

I could not shake it off entirely when I woke and found that it was a the wind blowing and the heavy sea now running that had disturbed my short rest. 

A scud was flying across the moon. A storm was brewing; indeed, it was already stormy.  I reefed the sails, then hauled in my sea-anchor, and setting what canvas the sloop could carry, headed her away for Monhegan light, which she made before daylight on morning of the 8th. 

It turns out, we've all seen scuds, often. I certainly have. From "finedictionary, "Scud - definitions, definition #4:

• scud: loose, vapory clouds driven swiftly by the wind;
• "Borne on the scud of the sea."
• "The scud was flying fast above us, throwing a veil over the moon.

When used by a sailor, it probably foreshadows a squall. From nauticed.org, "a name given by sailors to the lowest clouds, which are mostly observed in squally weather." Sort of when a dog hears "yada, yada, yada, walk, yada, yada, yada" when a sailor hears the captain saying "yada, yada, yada, scud, yada, yada, yada" his heart skips a beat.

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Too Cool For School

Last week of school.