Summer is here bringing the season of food festivals, outdoor movie screenings and farmer’s markets into full swing.  So here’s to a happy Friday, cheers to good weather (fingers crossed) and enjoy!

Jason Frummett: I like that for the first time since April, the oil leak in the Gulf has been successfully capped.

Robert Coats: 8-bit Cities. City maps for old school gamers.

Gary Graf: For lyrical virtuosity, and a darn good time, catch bare naked ladies. The band. I’m talking about the Canadian band. Who were you thinking of?

Lea Loya: OK Go’s marching band version of ‘This Too Shall Pass.’ Props again to these viral video darlings. Read lead singer’s brilliant NYT Op-ed piece from last February on the utilization and creativity of viral videos in the current stifling recording industry environment.

Jamie Bakun: Old Spice’s video tweet responses. This is quickly becoming my favorite ad campaign! Sadly, the video below is the last video tweet. To see the whole engagement go to http://twitter.com/oldspice. Be sure to read this article as well as watch the videos.

Willem Buys: A full-CGI animated piece by Alex Roman that illustrates architecture art across a photographic point of view where main subjects are already-built spaces.

Sharan Ochsner: Transformer owl!

Last night, in a live televised media event, NBA superstar LeBron James announced his decision to leave his hometown team and city of Cleveland and head south to Miami. While this was major news in the sports world, another related story has had just as much play in the blogosphere and twitterverse:  a bitter, scathing letter blasting James written by Cleveland owner Dan Gilbert, and posted on the team website.

The amusing part? The letter was set in Comic Sans, a common Microsoft font usually reserved for birthday party announcements or “free puppies” posters.  Instead of taking the letter seriously, people everywhere are mocking Gilbert for his choice of font. Not since James Cameron’s use of the font Papyrus for his blockbuster movie Avatar, has a font received so much notoriety.

Hatred of Comic Sans is not new. In fact there are entire websites (bancomicsans.com, flickr.com/groups/comicsans/) dedicated towards the eradication of the typeface. The font itself was conceived at Microsoft in 1994 for use in a software program aimed at children, and featuring a cartoon dog. A year later, it was included as one of the few standard typefaces in the Windows operating system, and has been a fixture ever since. Comic Sans can now be seen in everything from warning signs to official documents.

Here are some examples of questionable uses of the font:

It’s time for you to weigh in. Tell us what you think about the font, the letter and the drama around the trade of King James.

To say Hodgson/Meyers’ account manager Gina Auffant is a quick study is just the half of it. Or to be more accurate, just the halfathon of it.

Sure, Gina got quickly up to speed on the Fluke clamp meter, calibration and network accounts, not to mention Douglass Interior Products and Webasto truck parts. But she also fast tracked the Seattle Rock and Roll Halfathon, helping to benefit the American Cancer Society in the process.

Competing against more than 17,500 other runners, Gina clocked a rapid 1:32:32 over the 13.1-mile course, good enough for 44th place among all women finishers, and 192nd overall.

Gina first found her stride playing soccer at Lewis & Clark High School (Spokane, WA) as an outside midfielder. Seeing her speed down the sidelines, the school’s track coach recruited her for his girl’s team. Smart move. By the time Gina was a senior she regularly qualified for the state track meet in the 400 meters. And more than 10 years later, still holds a number of the school’s top marks in the 400 and 4×100, 4×200 and 4×400 relays.

“I just love to run,” says the trim 5’6” Auffant. “My competitive juices get going and I just can’t help trying to pass the runners ahead of me one by one.”

After passing thousands of runners in Seattle, Gina was so encouraged by the experience that she’s planning to run the Girlfriends’ Half in Vancouver WA later this year to support breast caner awareness. Seems not only is Ms. Auffant a quick study, she’s quick to support worthy causes, too.

Welcome to our special edition of Spike Likes Friday. We will be out tomorrow and Monday celebrating the 4th of July so enjoy this Thursday edition.

Gary Meyers: United Airlines 1K status

Jason Frummet: The eternal optimism of Seattlites about their weather. One good day among 30 grey days is enough to lift the spirits and make people thankful for the Summer that will eventually arrive.

Robert Coats: Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness

Lea Loya: The NPR story of the man who inspired Monet, Eugene Boudin, takes you right to Normandy, France.

Jamie Bakun: What the Font? Can’t figure out what typeface something is? Here’s the solution:  http://new.myfonts.com/WhatTheFont/

Gina Auffaunt: A drop in by Lenny Kravitz. My friend’s cousin is the guitar player up front. It was “one of the best experiences of his life.”