Wednesday, February 21, 2018

Hi there! It’s Wednesday, February 21, 2018, and it’s time to pop out of our hidey holes and see what awaits. The snowfall is over, it’s starry and still and 32 degrees now. skies will be partly cloudy, and Portland expects a high of 40–but with a possible inch of new snow tonight. Sunrise 7:02 AM Sunset 5:46 PM.

Snow Day!

Let me trompf out onto the deck and stick a ruler in that fluffy white blanket. (Pause for quick field trip). (Back!) Two wet inches, exactly. PDX officially had 3.5, which is exceptionally rare for this late in the winter. Downtown got 3.1..Vancouver 3…Beaverton 2….How about you?

The worst of it held off until after 6 PM, and people smartly scrambled early to avoid an encore of last year’s 10-hour nightmare, but the Sunset was a hellish mess last night, essentially closed between the tunnel and the zoo with spinouts and stalls. Other getaway routes were a mess, too. An ODOT worker was hit on 26, but I haven’t heard of anyone being seriously hurt.

Let’s dip into the school announcement network, and see what’s making the kiddos cheer, or not…OK! Snow day for thousands! Portland…Vancouver…Beaverton…also closed. Centennial..David Douglas,,, Evergreen…Oregon City…Oregon Trail…West Linn/Wilsonville…all closed. Some are on a two hour delay, and many will check in once the Super gets a chance to cruise the hills and see for her/himself whassup. Students all know where to find the info; they’ll have it before they come downstairs for breakfast.

If you left your car downtown and made your getaway by Uber or bus, take heart…PBOT will allow cars to remain parked at meters without penalty until noon today.

So, as Gary Owen used to cup his hand over his ear and say in that mellifluous radio voice of his, “Moving right along…”

You’ve heard maybe that a TriMet bus driver was arrested for DUI behind the wheel of a #20 bus near the end of the line in Gresham? Friends are coming to his defense, saying he’d never drink and drive, and that he has diabetes, which could have led to an episode that resulted in his being pulled over. That would be a safety concern too, of course, but it’s not like he had a bottle of Jack under the seat. Innocent until, etc.

Lindsey Vonn “left it all on the mountain”…and wound up with the Bronze. U.S. Women won their tirst cross-country Gold. Ever.

All righty…since all of the local journalistas whose work I survey for the Daily Drip are stuck reporting live from the Sylvan Overpass, let’s see what other peaches I can shake from the Tree of News.

Bad news for people who like laughing at drunk philandering Vikings looting and pillaging…The Oregonian is dropping “Hagar the Horrible” from the comics next month, and replacing it with “Breaking Cat News.”

Switzerland is making it illegal to boil a live lobster. The concept of animal dignity is enshrined in the Swiss Constitution. Laws there require that cats have a daily visual contact with other cats, and hamsters and guinea pigs must be kept in pairs.

Fun fact: Utah eats candy at twice the national average, perhaps since Oregon’s preferred delicacies like coffee, wine, and various combustibles are on the naughty list. The latest candy crazy in Utah is chocolate-covered cinnamon bears. The student bookstore at BYU can’t keep them in stock.

Cue Chaka Khan!

–“Drinking alcohol (moderately) more important than exercise for living past 90, study says” (You could do both….)

–“More than one million trees have been pledged for Trump Forest, a bid by environmentalists to offset the US president’s curtailing of Obama-era clean energy initiatives by planting 10 billion trees around the globe.” (Long way to go).

–“Doctors Said Immunotherapy Would Not Cure Her Cancer. They Were Wrong.” (Copy and paste that headline in a search window for details in NY Times)

–“Singapore to pay bonus to all citizens after surplus budget”

–“MIT’s thermal resonator generates electricity from the air’s daily temperature cycle.”

–“Texas jail guard thanks inmates who aided him during heart attack”

–“Gray whale safely returned to ocean after 3 days beached in Mexico” (which sounds AOK to me at this point.)

My drive into the radio station this morning should be an exciting venture , as I subarize the snowy roads between OC and Tigard. It’s always fun to be a guy on the radio on a snow day. We no longer read off the roster of school closures, but rather skim the highlights, and get new ones on the air right quick. And we share stories, keep you company, play lots of music, and do Tell Me Something Good twice (5:30 and 8:00). Join us, if you like. Stay safe…have a fun snow day…stick some in a baggie and freeze it for when it’s 100 in August!