ugly kludge to honor default selection in dropdown...

script.js

@@ -117,18 +117,9 @@ const topicSelect = document.querySelector('#topic-select');
 const topicChanged = function () {
     console.log('topic changed');
     topic = topicSelect.selectedOptions[0].id;
-
     redrawTable();
 }
 
-topicSelect.addEventListener("change", topicChanged); 
-
-for (let x in topics) {
-    let option = document.createElement('option');
-    option.id = x;
-    option.text = topics[x].title;
-    topicSelect.add(option);
-}
 
 /**
  * Reads the seed from URL Parameter or generates new seed
@@ -146,6 +137,20 @@ if (urlParams.has('topic')) {
     topic = 'tinder';
 }
 
+let index = 0;
+for (let x in topics) {
+    let option = document.createElement('option');
+    option.id = x;
+    option.text = topics[x].title;
+    topicSelect.add(option);
+    if (x === topic) {
+      topicSelect.selectedIndex = index;
+    };
+    index++;
+}
+
+topicSelect.addEventListener("change", topicChanged); 
+
 /**
  * Set fields, headline and center image based on topic
  */