Hi there and happy Tuesday! It’s December 5, 2017. Sunrise 7:35 AM. Sunset 4:27 PM. It’ll be sunny with a high of 45, but first, we have areas of fog, freezing fog, and frost, and a high wind advisory near the Gorge tonight. Today we reach the earliest sunset of the year; it’ll stay at 4:27 for the next week and a half before starting its gradual creep the other way.
Oh…I noticed, at 0300, that Eugene was reporting snow flurries and 34 degrees. Overnight lows at or below freezing are predicted for the next several nights. A couple of warm-clothing drives are underway now…Living Room Realty is collecting coats…Good Feet Store is collecting footwear…meantime a Portland hardware store told KGW it’s sold 60 sets of cleats and dozens of snow shovels in the last few days. No snow is forecast, but it’s a good time to disconnect the garden hoses and put the covers on the faucets.
Powerful winds have pushed a wildfire directly into the city of Ventura, California, destroying at least one major apartment complex and threatening many more homes.
The Oregon football program is in a state of suspense at the moment, as head coach Willie Taggart negotiates for the same job with Florida State University. Duck Nation is a bit annoyed with him because this dance has been going on for days, and he’s given evasive answers to direct questions about his intentions. Taggart turned the Oregon program around in just one year and we hate to see him go. But Florida is home, his family is there, FSU is a dream gig, and any one of us would take that job if he were in his Nikes.
A woman doing time at Coffee Creek for assaulting a man last summer opened a door and escaped from a van on the way to a work assignment in Salem before dawn yesterday. 42-year old Laurie Hocker hasn’t been seen. She was supposed to get out of jail in July.
Look what an Alabama woman found in her attic while fetching the Christmas decorations: her old high school yearbook, which includes her handwritten notes about dates she’d gone on with a man in his 30’s named Roy Moore. Plus, there’s a handwritten card reading, “Happy graduation Debbie, I wanted to give you this card myself. I know that you’ll be a success in anything you do. Roy.” She’s one of the women who’ve come forward to say that they, too, had been involved with the Alabama Senate candidate, although he claims to have never heard of any of them.
Calling it the largest elimination of protected land in American History, the Center for Biodiversity and allied groups have filed suit against the Trump administration for drastically reducing the size of the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments in Utah.
My nominee for the naughty list: campers who go to Mt. St. Helens National Volcanic Monument, and leave behind their trash for rangers to clean up. KOIN has footage showing it’s a worse problem than ever. Not sure I’d tempt the volcano gods to enact a cleanup program of their own.
Time Magazine’s ten finalists for Person of the Year include President Trump, as he’d advertised…but also Robert Mueller who’s investigating him…Colin Kaepernick who’s provoking him…Kim Jong Un who’s threatening to bomb him, the Dreamers who fear that he’ll kick them out of their homes… and the #MeToo Movement, which has arisen to teach us that women are the equals of men in every way.
Hillary Clinton is at the Schnitz a week from tonight.
Born on this day in 1901: a shy and insecure lifetime cigarette smoker named Walt Disney.
On Black Friday this year, the FBI received 200,000 requests for background checks on gun purchasers.
So let’s rinse our eyes out with some Headlines for a Happy Heart. Here are the actual heads…the details are in your mind.
–“Hiker Rescues Rooster on Appalachian Trail, Carries Him 42 Miles to Safety”
–“Taiwan Rainbow Lasts Record-Breaking Nine Hours”
–Mariah Gets Tree & Hunky Guy Decorates For Her” (hat tip to Stacey Lynn)
–“Rapper Meets 80yr Old ‘Words with Friends’ Player After 300+ Games Together”
–“At Age 111, America’s Oldest Veteran is Still Smoking Cigars, Drinking Whiskey and Loving Life”
–“Homeless Man Rescues Toddlers From Apartment Blaze”
–“Tonka Responds to Md. Woman’s Request for Trucks for Brother with Cerebral Palsy”
–“Neighbors Go Home to Home Setting Up Christmas Lights for Those in Need”
–“Local FM Radio Dweeb Does News Simultaneously on Two Stations. Says it’s Like Juggling Live Frogs. The Frogs Like It and So Does He”
Umm..that last one…I’m not sure about….but here I go…see you on the radio!
Portland's Daily Drip 