(Whisper from your phone)…Hi! Are you awake? It’s OK, you don’t have to get up yet…take a few minutes and read the Daily Drip, it’s Friday! Ahh I always love saying those words. Lemme look outside at the weather. Well, it looks like showers that could be heavy, and the high’ll be 45. They’ve dropped the flood warnings on the coast but the waves are still pretty outrageous, and we’ll have more on that in a second. Sunrise 7:44 AM, the sunset is at 4:59 PM, and tomorrow it’s at 5 straight up, and then we won’t have another pre-5 PM sunset until….hang on, I’m checking…whoa. Way next November!
They weren’t fooling when forecasters said the coast was a place of extreme danger yesterday. Giant waves sixty feet high smashed into lighthouses. A man in his 40’s who climbed over a seawall to get a better view was grabbed by a monster wave north of Depoe Bay, and the search was called off last night. Several women were hit by waves, and one was clobbered by a log, near Chinook Winds. She’s in the hospital. High waves hammered Kyllo’s Restaurant in Lincoln City, severing a natural gas line and causing an evacuation. Similar damage up and down. The Coast Guard closed every port entrance from the California border to Tillamook Bay. Today we have a high surf advisory until 3 pm, as things begin to calm down.
Your weather app may show snow in Portland next Thursday or Friday. Your app is a bot, automatically relaying a computer model, so checked with the people at NWS. They don’t believe it’ll be low enough to affect Portland or the valley floor. But that’s a week out, and we’ve seen this movie. Sometimes it has unexpected endings.
The date today is January 19, 2018, so now we’ve had a year of you-know-who, and are we OK? Some are, you bet. And some are not. I feel like we’ve changed, and since my Dad taught me to be an optimist, I’ll say this. We’re clearer in what we think, and the divide between right and wrong has never been more obvious or more important. The free press is making sure that we, if we have eyes to read, can be better informed than ever. People are unhesitant to stand up and fight for what’s right. We see wrong and we give it a name and a hashtag and we call it out. Scoundrels and swine who once lurked and preyed are now dragged squealing into the daylight. We know who our friends are. There’s evidence that apathy is at an all-time low.
From the latest TIME magazine cover story, titled, The Avengers: “There is an unprecedented surge of first-time female candidates, overwhelmingly Democratic, running for offices big and small, from the U.S. Senate and state legislatures to local school boards.”
There will be multiple demonstrations tomorrow in and around Portland, including an Impeachment March at 12:30 at Schrunk Plaza, a #MeToo rally at 2 at Pioneer Courthouse Square, and please add others if you wish. Just like there’s no business like show business, there’s no Amendment like the First Amendment.
The possibility of a partial government shutdown looms large. House Republicans passed a patch, but Senate Democrats are digging in, demanding action on immigration, and the deadline is midnight tonight. Nine, Pacific.
One thing for sure is that our level of civic discourse has certainly adapted to the times. Yesterday Nancy Pelosi compared the House bill to “a bowl of doggy doo, putting a cherry on top and calling it a chocolate sundae.”
The Rose City Classic dog show is underway at the Expo Center.
Tomorrow is the 10th anniversary of “Breaking Bad.”
A wild winter storm is pounding Europe.
Vladimir Putin waded shirtless into freezing water to mark the feast of the Epiphany.
Headline on the BBC this morning: “Adolescence now lasts from 10 to 24, scientists say.”
Here’s something we didn’t about this year’s flu: it’s transmissible by air. It’s in coughs, as well as on surfaces. Every state except one has it, and that’s Hawaii.
Hey, tell me something good, radio daddio!
–“Two teenage boys were rescued by a brand new lifesaving drone in Australia while lifeguards were still training to use it.”
–“Panicked Boyfriend Finds His Stolen Heirloom Engagement Ring in Incredible Twist of Fate” (He took a random detour and saw a “Found Ring” sign on a post)”
–“Student With Down Syndrome Nails Backwards Half-Court Shot”
–“Dog Missing For 5 Days In Maine Is Found Alive In Snowbank”
–“Woman Performs Surgery On Injured Monarch Butterfly’s Wing And Saves Its Life” (A little back story…before the woman’s mother passed, she said, “Don’t worry. Whenever you see butterflies, just know it’s me checking in on you to let you know I’m OK, and that I love you.”
OK!
Lately I’ve been trying out improvements to the Daily Drip, and one of them is the addition of quotes from people on the birthday list. So. Dolly Parton is 72 today. Quote: “The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain.” So appropriate, in so many ways.
(Dolly’s a saucy one, she is. She also famously said, “I’m not offended by all the dumb blonde jokes because I know I’m not dumb… and I also know that I’m not blonde!”)
Me neither. See you on the radio, and here. And happy weekend!
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