Back Pocket

Published 12:01 am Friday, May 27, 2011

Back pocket

Internet giant Google hopes shoppers will embrace its new electronic payment system, in which smartphones replace wallets.

The payments work without a hitch. The big challenge for Google will be designing a smartphone that’s comfortable enough to sit on all day.

Brush with greatness: One of the 5,397 movies you can see at the Seattle International Film Festival is an Irish picture about a real-life Dublin rocker who tried and failed to find success in the late 1970s and early ’80s, while some schoolmates of his were having better luck in their band, which they called U2.

The hero does find redemption in the final reel, when he realizes he’s not nearly as insufferable as Bono.

RIP: Except for some sun breaks Sunday, the Memorial Day weekend weather forecast looks dismal — or, as local TV icon Ray Ramsey used to say, “drismal.” Ramsey, who did the weather on Channel 4 from 1965 until 1985, died Sunday at the age of 87.

If you happen to see, clouds permitting, an odd moire pattern in the sky this weekend, that’ll be Ray Ramsey, clad in one of his signature plaid jackets, doing the 6 p.m. weather report.

— Mark Carlson., Herald staff