Tuesday, January 30, 2018

Good morning to you! It’s Tuesday, January 30, 2018, and here’s the quick readup of local news and comment that we call the Daily Drip. Which pretty well summarizes the Portland weather on a day that’ll be cloudy, with a quarter of an inch of showers, and a high of 48. Sunrise 7:33 AM, sunset 5:14 PM. Reminder: there will be a predawn celestial spectacle tomorrow. The forecast then is for “mostly cloudy” skies, which I take to mean “partially not cloudy,” so we have a shot at witnessing the eclipse of a Blue Supermoon tomorrow at 5:30 AM.

“I’m proud of my firefighters.” Good words from a Clark County fire chief whose crews were able to save a construction worker from a 27-foot deep pipe, where he’d been injured by some equipment that was lowered to him.

The retail and office complex on Macadam that burned Sunday night is a total loss. I count ten businesses on the sign out front: MedData, Chamber Music Northwest, Livermore Architects, Natural Pain Solutions, Picture Perfect, Robert’s of Portland, United States Postal Service/Holliday card and gift, Macadam Nail Boutique, and Cau’s Deli. What a broad variety of Portland businesses, and we sincerely hope that some important things can be salvaged. I and most everybody at iHeart Portland knew that place well, because it was right across Richardson from us before we moved to Tigard five years ago. Got my hair cut at Robert’s for years. Frequently met my daughter for bagels at Finnicky’s, which became Cau’s Deli. Picture Perfect created Craig Walker‘s 62nd birthday card–a blown-up red 62KGW sticker, which was circulated among the many alumni of that fabled place for their signatures. It’s the kind of relationship we all have with small businesses in our town, and it’s sad to see these places go down.

(By the way: Chamber Music Northwest was in that building, and the word from their website is that the show will go on. One did, in fact, last night, and there are more coming up. CMNW-dot-org for info).

A proposed oil terminal in Vancouver is fork-ready, as in, put a fork in it, now that Gov. Jay Inslee has signed off on a state energy panel’s recommendation to kill the controversial project. This massive facility on the Columbia River would receive 360,000 barrels of crude oil, the volatile stuff from North Dakota, arriving every day by rail, then transfer it to ships bound for West Coast refineries. The governor says the risks of environmental consequences large and small far outweigh the benefits. Friends of the Columbia Gorge are very relieved.

Vancouverites and Clark Countians who are loathe to pay a toll for driving on interstate highways in Oregon may be interested to know that ODOT will cross the state line for a “Community Conversation” from 4:30 to 7:30 today at the Vancouver Public Library.

We will hear, if we choose, the first State of the Union address by President Trump tonight. (Tickets originally said State of the “Uniom,” so they’re being reprinted). Congressman Earl Blumenauer is boycotting the address, as he did the inauguration. Same with a dozen others. But most Congressional critics of the regime will be in attendance; many of them, like most of Oregon’s delegation, with Dreamers as guests.

Nice to see the Cleveland Indians are finally dropping “Chief Wahoo.” The grinning caricature of a stereotyped Native American is an embarrassment.

Happy birthday to Portland’s gifted hitmaker Marv Ross! He and Rindy Ross have been making music together since their Madison High School days, from Seafood Mama through Quarterflash to the Trail Band and other wonderful projects. We’re lucky enough to have them both pop up here on the DD time to time, too. (There was a funny uprising among the 62KGW air staff when first we saw them play “Harden My Heart” at the Ft. Vancouver fireworks. We stormed the program director’s office demanding that he add the record to the playlist. He did. I think he already planned to).

This was the day in 1969 when The Beatles played their last public performance, the cold and windy rooftop gig atop the Apple headquarters at 3 Savile Row in Mayfair, central London. To this day the street is filled with tour groups.

Canadian songsmith and activist Bruce Cockburn is at the Aladdin tonight and tomorrow night.

Headlines…from the happier side…and then I have to scram…

–“The End Of Root Canals: Stem Cell Fillings Trigger Teeth To Repair Themselves, Research Study Claims”

–“Rail passenger wakes to find £100 gift from stranger who overheard phone call about financial difficulties”

–“Woman Saves Her Kitty From Tornado”

–“Tom Hanks to Play Mr. Rogers in ‘You Are My Friend’”

–“Iraqi heroine single-handedly saved hundreds of ancient artifacts from destruction”

–“Woman realised she’d forgot her credit card. So the cashier used hers.”

That’s my report, and now I’m jumping into the vehicle for an early trip in, so I can cover the morning drive news bases on 1190 KEX as well as K103. I’ll be watching the SOTU tonight; haven’t missed a one since teen years. (I have a friend who’ll be watching it with the sound down, while he plays “Dark Side of the Moon” on vinyl. I think that only works with The Wizard of Oz, but who knows?).