Tuesday, March 6, 2018

Well, hiya! Your friendly radio daddio here, back from a most interesting family event in Louisiana, and ready to resume the Daily Drip on this Tuesday, March 6, 2018. Portland felt sweet and cool when I stepped off the plane, and today looks fair and warm, on this best place on earth, once we emerge from the freezing fog, with highs of 57. Sunrise 6:39 AM, sunset 6:04 PM.

Onlookers on the state Capitol steps cheered, including hundreds of high school students who raised the funds to bus themselves in, as Governor Kate Brown signed the first gun control law since Stoneman Douglas. It bars convicted domestic abusers and people under restraining orders from buying or owning guns and ammunition.

Suddenly one of Portland’s most storied urban hangouts is fenced off and shut down: O’Bryant Square at SW 9th and Stark is closed indefinitely, as the Smart Park garage beneath it has been for months, because of “structural issues in the parking garage.” Sounds spendy. It has a bunch of concrete damage caused by freezing and thawing, and the city is afraid it’ll cave in, especially when the park fills with lunchtime crowds–or protesters, as it occasionally does. Having them swallowed up by the ground is not a good visual.

Spring begins two weeks from today, and here’s a good ol’ Portland indicator: the very first Rose Festival Princess has been named. She is Lincoln High’s Lux Preciado-Solis, who wins a tidy $3500 college scholarship. We’ll talk with her on K103 at about 6:30 this morning, and Bruce Murdock and I will MC the crowning of our next Rose Festival Queen on June 9.

A missing 11-year old boy in Beaverton has been found safe, thanks to social media. He went for a bike ride and got lost.

Remember when dozens of iPads were stolen from Westview High School about a month ago? They were discovered in a garbage bag half a mile away. School officials were able to remotely disable the iPads–which may be why the thieves trashed them. They appear to be undamaged.

The Blazers, fresh off a Damian Lillard-fueled comeback win last night over the Lakers in LA, put their seven-game winning streak up against the NY Knicks tonight at 7 in the Moda Center.

Something’s not right about this low-level ex-Trump campaign aide Sam Nunberg, who’s been filibustering all over TV saying, without the advice of a lawyer, that he’ll defy a subpoena in the Mueller probe, then contradicting himself. A CNN anchor called him out for having alcohol on his breath, which he denied, but said he’s taking antidepressants.

The touring production of “The Sound of Music” opens tonight at the Keller, and plays the next six nights plus matinees on the weekend. That’s a hard act to follow…but “Hamilton” is literally waiting in the wings. It opens a week after The Sound of Music closes. Hamilton, by the way, will sell 40 tickets for each show for $10–chosen by lottery the day before each performance. (A friend of mine saw Hamilton in Seattle last week, and describes it as one of the best experiences of her life).

Happy birthday to Columbia Sportswear’s Chairmother of the Board Gert Boyle, born this day in 1924.

CBS Anchorman Walter “That’s the Way It Is” Cronkite signed off for the last time on this date in 1981. Imagine him chewing over the words we hear in the news today.

America’s favorite cookie, the Oreo, was introduced this day in 1912. Portland people working at the NABISCO plant on Columbia Boulevard have churned out these crunchy sweet sandwiches for years, but they’ve been losing work hours as production shifts to Mexico.

Some guy in a tux swiped Frances McDormand’s Best Actress Oscar at the Academy Awards. It’s been recovered, and Frances apparently doesn’t wish to press charges. BTW the TV ratings for this year’s Oscars hit a record low, losing 6.5 million viewers from a year ago.

A few headlines for our collective mindset:

–“‘Black Panther’ star Chadwick Boseman reveals Denzel Washington paid for him to study at Oxford”

–“California group raises thousands to send West Virginia educators on strike free pizza”

–“Oldest-known message in a bottle found on West Australia beach 132 years after being tossed overboard.”

–“From homeless to healer: Perseverance pays off for med student”

–“Australia on track to become first country to completely eliminate cervical cancer”

–“Hero surgeon treks for three hours through snow to help patient”

Our family had some unexpected travel challenges en route to our weekend in the New Orleans area, the details of which we’ll skip, which required quick thinking and last-minute rebooking. The airlines involved came through for us. So my son and I, flying together on the return leg, decided to make an experiment out of being unfailingly friendly and courteous to every single airline and airport worker we encountered. Immediately we found that on this particular day, whether we interacted with flight attendants or gate agents, being nice guys to people in stressful jobs paid off in material ways. That wasn’t the point, of course, but we kept a running total of seat-change and luggage fees that were waived and in-flight beers that were comped (really!) just as a result of acting like kind and decent people. It added up to $149!

Anyway. So nice to be back in our geographical comfort zone. We saw our share of weatherbeaten workaday airports, and then we saw PDX, where natural light pours through open-airy skylights and a guy was strumming a classical guitar while folks were spilling out of Henry’s Pub; the walkways all worked, sweeping us home. Have a super Tuesday!