Wednesday, October 25, 2017

Hello, there, you! It’s Wednesday, October 25, 2017, and here’s what’s up in Portland and beyond. We did 70 degrees yesterday at the airport, not quite a record, but what a superlative day! These leaves have more color than I remember in a long while. Deeper and richer. If you’ve taken a pic that you love, kindly post it! Today cools just a little, to 62 or so, with the faint chance of a shower later on. But the overall sparkling and warm pattern will be right back. Sunrise 7:41 AM Sunset 6:07 PM.

The weather was perfect, but yesterday’s search for missing hiker Nate Mitchell came up empty. They’ll be out there again today.

A second female state senator has accused Sen. Jeff Kruse of inappropriately touching her. She has asked not to be named, but this has triggered a probe in which every female state senator will be questioned about Kruse’s conduct. Kruse has been stripped of his committee assignments, and the door to his Senate office will be removed this week–because he has insisted on smoking cigarettes in the smoke-free Capitol.

An accused predator wanted for abusing children in the Portland area has been caught–hiding out in Shanghai, China. He’s jailed in Washington County on two and a half million dollars bail.

Arizona GOP Senator Jeff Flake, announcing that he’s not running for re-election next year, let fly with a speech on the Senate floor attacking President Trump and those who still support him. One sound bite: “Reckless, outrageous, and undignified behavior has been excused as telling it like it is, when it is actually just reckless, outrageous, and undignified.” I’ll bet Flake, and Bob Corker, and perhaps others, are giving a serious look at something that used to be unthinkable: challenging a sitting President of their own party in the next election.

The Washington Post reports that the DNC and the Hillary Clinton campaign paid for some of the research that wound up in the infamous dossier on Trump’s Russian connections.

The Portland Trailblazers extended their home-opener winning streak to 17–an NBA record–with a 103-93 win over the New Orleans Pelicans. The last time they lost a home debut was during Bill Clinton’s last term. The Dodgers won Game One of the World Series 3-1 over the Astros; Game Two is tonight.

A couple from Montana, who’ve operated the Montana Gem Company since 1978, came to Hillsboro last weekend to sell their wares at the Portland Regional Gem and Mineral Show–and had up to half a million bucks worth of sapphires stolen from their car when they dropped into McDonald’s for a bite.

Two women, one with an orange spray-on tan, used counterfeit money to buy a French bulldog in Clark County, and made their getaway in a dented-up Chrysler LeBaron.

Fun is being poked at FEMA’s food boxes being distributed in Puerto Rico: apparently there’s a lot of Skittles, chips, and beef jerky. FEMA says it’s a balancing act. There’s plenty of boringly nutritious food, but people need a sense of normalcy as well.

A law goes into effect in Honolulu today slapping a $99 fine on pedestrians caught crossing a street while looking at a phone.

A runaway garbage truck smashed into a knick-knack shop in New York named “A Beautiful Mess.”

Mega Millions is raising the cost of a ticket from one buck to two. Jackpots are going up as well. The stock market’s a better gamble..the Dow is opening today at a record 23,341.

Describing himself as both terrified and elated, a man strapped himself into a chair tied to 100 heliums balloons, ascended to 8000 feets and flew 15 miles over the South African terrain.

Helen Reddy was born this day in 1941. She told an interviewer that she wrote “I Am Woman” to push back against the superficiality and disempowerment expressed in two specific songs: “I Feel Pretty” from West Side Story, and Sandy Posey’s 1966 “Born a Woman,” which opines that women are “born to be stepped on, lied to, cheated on, and treated like dirt….but when my man finally comes home, he makes me glad it happened that way.”

This was the night in 1986 when the New York Mets won Game 6 of the World Series when a Mookie Wilson ground ball rolled right through the legs of Red Sox first baseman Bill Buckner. He was derided as a goat and the very manifestation of the Curse of the Bambino, but decades later, when the Red Sox unfurled their 2007 World Series banner for the Fenway faithful, Buckner was invited to throw out the first ball–and he was given a four-minute standing ovation.

Couple of quick personal notes!

I don’t mark it as an anniversary–saving that for December–but this was the day in 1985 when I inked the agreement to join a startup FM in Beaverton. I never wanted to change cities or jobs again for the rest of my life, and I haven’t.

Second: I need to burn about 15 unused vacation days by the end of the year. So I’ll be AWOL for a Friday here and a week there, and during that time, I’ll probably skip the Drip. Unless things get weird. Er. Maybe I’ll experiment with alternative delivery methods, which I’ll share with you soon.

Two months until Christmas Day. If you see something giftworthy on sale…grab it! Before you know it, your shopping is done!

That’s what’s up so far….

What’s your story today?