Thursday, October 12, 2017

Let’s flip on the burner for the Daily Drip on this Thursday, October 12, 2017! Just one more day of these turbulent skies, with more thunderstorms and highs of 55, then a classic NW autumn weekend: fog fading to sun, and highs in the 60’s.

Anyone get caught in a downpour?…My puppy and I were playing ball in the meadow when the sky gave a loud, long grumble and she and I made eye contact and together made a beeline up the trail, a man and his dog, running for shelter….All across town multiple rainbows speared the ground. And three waterspouts give a swirly to the waters off the Washington coast. I bet flying in or out of PDX was a mite hairy, too.

Heading south….

A boiling river of wine..the worst air quality in San Francisco history…hellish images from the fires in the North Bay counties..200 folks missing and 23 dead now, including a 100-year old WWII veteran and his 98-year old wife, trapped in their burning home….Oregon has now mobilized ten strike teams to send to our friends in the wine country, providing their exhausted firefighters some relief. Some have worked 80 hours straight through. Jeff Cowan, fire chief in Keizer, and a valued Dripster, texts to say that fifty Oregon fire engines are heading south, and they go with our very best wishes.

Gratitude in the Gorge….where on Monday a $46,140 check will be presented to the Hood River County Sheriff’s Department Search and Rescue Division for their heroic work in helping a large group of trapped hikers escape the onset of the Eagle Creek Fire. The money was gathered in an online effort by Friends of the Columbia Gorge, with 525 people chipping in. Still, for the record, no charges against the youth who created this disaster.

No school tomorrow! That’s an in-service day in Portland and Vancouver and most everywhere else..which means a three-day weekend, and the Friday Night Lights will be blazing on a Thursday.

Ed Secretary Betsy DeVos declared herself “extremely impressed” after sitting in on some AP history and literature classes at McMinnville High School, where reporters may have outnumbered students, then touring the Evergreen Space Museum, where the high school’s aerospace and engineering pathway classes meet. She saw demonstrators, too, from both sides of the Trump divide.

Several protestors were arrested for taping themselves and blocking ICE headquarters in SW Portland. Hoods and earmuffs were placed them over them to protect their vision and hearing from the saws used to separate them.

President Trump, amping up his assault on the press, grumbled aloud about reporters being able to “write what they want,” saying “people should look into that,” and threatening to revoke the broadcast licenses of the networks, although networks don’t have licenses, individual stations do. And cable networks don’t need broadcast licenses at all. Nebraska Republican Senator Ben Sasse asked the serious question of whether this president is recanting his oath to protect the Constitution.

New York authorities are reopening their investigation of allegations against Hollywood pariah Harvey Weinstein. There is no statute of limitations for rape in New York. By the way, despite reports that he’s flown to Europe–potentially pulling a Polanski–other reports put him at a rehab facility in Arizona.

A man in the Marion County town of Gervais tells this odd story: a coyote walked up to him, sniffed him, and bit him on the leg, so he pulled out a gun and shot him, or a friend did, and anyway the dead coyote was dragged to the vet where it tested positive for rabies, which is pretty rare, and now the man has to get those awful shots.

I have no idea why, but some guy detonated a hand-held explosive when he was pulled over by a cop on NW 185th in Rock Creek. Both he and the officer were injured, but will be OK.

You’ll see an assortment of fighter jets roaring off the runways at Portland International, as the Oregon Air National Guard engage in advanced aerial combat training with F-16’s out of an Air Force base in Arizona. Most of this Top Gun stuff happens off the coast.

John Denver lost his life twenty years ago today. He was an accomplished pilot, but his plane ran out of gas, and the lever for the backup tank was so awkwardly located that he couldn’t reach it before his craft came down into Monterey Bay. As a Coloradan, it was an honor to interact with him on multiple occasions. KATU anchor Julie Emry and I together introduced him at what turned out to be his last concert in Portland. My wife Cheryl and I spent some of that evening backstage with him and his band; he couldn’t have been more gracious, more intelligent, and more serious about the causes he cared about: the earth’s environment, and the life of America’s rural people.

Big news for the Boy Scouts: girls can join Cub Scouts–and eventually become Eagle Scouts, a high achievement indeed. Steven Spielberg was an Eagle Scout. Neil Armstrong. Ross Perot. The Girl Scouts, however, are quite unhappy about this, and point out that they too offer STEM, outdoor adventures, and other valuable experiences–in a girl-friendly environment

This is the day 525 years ago Christopher Columbus “discovered” the Bahamas, though they were already inhabited. He never set foot in North America.

Today is the 55th anniversary of 1962’s Columbus Day Storm, the Category 3 extratropical remnant of Typhoon Freda that raked the Northwest, leaving a billion dollars in damage and indelible memories in a traumatized populace.

Thanksgiving is six weeks from today.

The Yankees eliminated Cleveland from the AL playoffs last night; the Cubs and the Nationals play their decisive game today.

There’s the Daily Drip for today. Sometimes I squeeze the good-news sponge and not much drips out, you know? Today’s better than yesterday, which is always the goal around here, right?