Well, look! It’s the Daily Drip, back with a fresh batch. Today is Wednesday, January 17, 2018, and though it’ll be unseasonably warm for one last day–a high approaching 60–beginning later today it’s going to rain. For five straight days. The National Weather Service is warning mariners and beachgoers that westerly swells will carry in some long and towering waves surging over jetties and climbing high on the beaches. It’s a recipe for deadly sneaker waves. Sunrise 7:45 AM, sunset 4:56 PM.
Today a crane will pluck up the semi that crashed on the rocky shore of the Columbia River in the Gorge with its cab resting in the icy water. The Canadian woman behind the wheel told police she was checking her side mirror to make a lane change when she drifted out of her lane on I-84 westbound and hit an SUV that had run out of gas. Two Portland couples returning from a hike were following the semi, saw the crash, and teamed up to help the driver out of the rig and up the bank, where they kept her warm until help arrived.
How do you feel about lowering the speed limit from 25 to 20 on all of Portland’s neighborhood streets? You can tell it to the City Council in a hearing at 9:45 this morning. My take? Do it. But enforce it. Don’t make yet another feel-good law that has no teeth.
The Oregon Food Bank is bowing out of the Waterfront Blues Festival business. They’ll still be the beneficiary, but after thirty great years, they won’t be the owner and operator.
Detroit Lake would be drained for two years under a complicated Army Corps of Engineers plan to improve salmon and steelhead survival. A public hearing at the fire hall in Gates will explain it, and take comment.
Heartfelt condolences to the family of Washington State University quarterback Tyler Hilinski, who took his own life at 21.
There’s a severe drought in South Africa, where Capetown could because the first major city in the world to literally run out of water.
A meteor lit up the skies of Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio last evening. A NASA satellite detected it not far from Ann Arbor.
Two Arizona Republican senators are laying into President Trump today for his hostility toward the news media, with John McCain writing that by using the phrase “fake news” to describe unfavorable coverage is providing an excuse for foreign dictators to muzzle a pillar of democracy; today Jeff Flakes delivers a speech ripping Trump for terming the press “the enemy of the people”–a phrase that Flake says came from former Soviet dictator Josef Stalin.
President Trump’s physical exam results were revealed for all to see, and they’re quite good BP is fine, all systems are A-OK. including mental acuity. Cholesterol is a little high, the doctor says he needs to knock off the Big Macs and hit the gym, and when his weight was announced as 239, some people turned their head and coughed. In fact, some are outright denying it. They’re calling it the “girther movement.”
(Doc seemed credible to me).
Michelle Obama is 54 today. Quote: “People who are truly strong lift others up. People who are truly powerful bring others together.”
Betty White is 96. Quote: “You can always tell about somebody by the way they put their hands on an animal.”
It’s the 24th anniversary of California’s Northridge earthquake, at magnitude 6.7. Buildings caved in…freeways collapsed…fires roared from broken gas lines…dozens killed, thousands injured.
Hey hey! Another filmed-in-Oregon show makes its Netflix debut next month. Its title? “Everything Sucks!”
Portland’s annual World Naked Bike Ride is set this year for June 23. Location TBA, meaning To Be Announced, not Thousands of, oh never mind.
TMSG!
–“Rembrandt painting found under ping pong table in New Jersey basement auctions for $1M”
–“Calendar of burly mermaid men raises $300,000 for mental health”
–“Garbage collectors open library with abandoned books”
–“Whale saved from entanglement after 285 feet of rope removed from mouth”
–“‘Mate, I’ve got $1000’: Aussie man hires a chopper in frantic search to find son–and finds him.”
A quick note about yesterday’s Daily Drip…I intentionally included a completely erroneous reference to a 60’s song, just to see if anyone called me on it. Nobody did. The first person who does…gets free admission to the next Dripstock!
OK! Back to work after a little break to shake a bug. It’ll be good to be back inside a nice comfy radio, where my friends Bruce and Janine and I will keep Portland company on the drive to work. Thank you for the good wishes. You helped!
Portland's Daily Drip 