Hello, group! It’s Thursday, April 19, 2018, and here comes the Daily Drip, just filled with goodness from the world of news. First I’ll put on my Saleski wig and wave my arms in front of a green screen and tell you how nice the weather is. It’s Nice! Sunny, we’re thinking 65 today, and close to 70 tomorrow. Sunrise 6:18 AM sunset 8:02 PM. We gain exactly three minutes of daylight today.
Before anything else…let’s give a thought to our fellow Americans in Puerto Rico, which now is coping with an island-wide power failure. Their grid had been almost fully restored after the hurricane, and then an excavator dinged a line, and that was enough to black out the whole US territory. There was a major league baseball game there last night, Twins against Indians, played under lights powered by generators.
The FAA has ordered inspections on engine fan blades like the one that snapped off a Southwest Airlines plane, leading to the death of a woman who was partially sucked out the window. This comes one year after the manufacturer recommended the inspections, and a month after they were ordered in Europe. No rush, right?
I love being able to use this word in a news story: there was a “peaceful” end to a four-hour standoff between Portland police and a man wanted for several felonies. Schools were locked down, parents and neighbors were worried, but this is how we want these things to turn out. Way to go, cops, and guy.
Following up on the UP tennis player who stunned an end-of-year awards ceremony with a Hefner-esque travelogue of his college years: Goutharam Sundaram penned an apology in yesterday’s UP Beacon, part of which read: “When I wrote the script for the Wally’s, I hoped to use self-deprecation and irony as a tool for sharing a few stories about my immigrant and diaspora experience. I realize now that it does not matter what was written in jest or what was said in sarcasm; the crux of the content was grossly inappropriate, and I am unquestionably in the wrong for that.” Unquestionably. But the speech–which the university’s president witnessed from the front row, and did nothing–is gaining national notoriety; a piece in today’s USA Today is headlined: “University of Portland failed in response to misogynistic speech by tennis player.”
Portland’s Trail Blazers are up against a tall wall in New Orleans tonight, where the Pelicans are strutting with an unexpected 2-0 lead in a playoff series, with all of the wins in Our Gym, dammit. The New York Times, fascinated with all things Portland, has taken an interest in the Blazers’ imminent demise, and says the problem is they don’t pass the ball; no team had fewer assists during the regular season than the Blazers, and NBA defenses are really intense in the postseason. When the ball is moving, and everybody is involved, defenses have to work much harder. Nine of the last 10 NBA champions ranked in the top half of the league in assists. Portland ranks third from the bottom. Sounds like a matter of coaching style. If the Blazers make another early playoff exit, bet there’s a change.
The people behind the push for baseball in Portland say they have more than just the two potential stadium sites that have been made public, and that whatever they build will be “not only iconic, but first class.” And it will definitely have a retractable roof. Said spokesman Mike Barret, “Portland has one of the lowest rainfall totals of any major league city during the season. But you do have April and you do have October. So yeah, we’ve come to the conclusion that that’s the way it’s going to have to be. It’s going to have to be retractable. What we’ve come up is unlike anything you’ve seen before.” He also gave no indication of whether the team would be an expansion franchise, or relocated from another city, say Oakland. But count me as an Athletics supporter.
Say goodnight to another favorite Portland restaurant: Meriwether’s is going away after Mother’s Day. Not for forever, though; the owners say they’ll build a 5-story office building–with a new incarnation of Meriwether’s on the top.
Willamette Week says a panic has set in among Oregon’s cannabis industry, as growers are producing three times as much weed as consumers can inhale, or whatever they do these days. The pot glut has sent wholesale prices into a free-fall, though some customers say they’re not seeing it at the retail counter.
There’s an outbreak of breakins of work vans in outer southeast Portland. Craftspersons are bringing their tools in at night.
The Washington DOT is apologizing for an electronic reader board message on I-5 that said “U suck.” They blame it on a training error. Washdot does not think U suck.
The American Revolutionary War began on this date in 1775, with the battles of Lexington and Concord.
This was the date in 1995 of the Oklahoma City bomb, an act of domestic terrorism.
President Trump opened a news conference with Japan’s PM Abe by paying tribute to Barbara Bush, saying “we send prayers to her husband of 73 years,” then ad-libbed, “I’ll never beat that record.” Bet not!
Headlines to take our minds off the headlines…
–“At 3, he lost his dad in a drive-by shooting. At 19, he’s mulling Juilliard for opera.”
–“Tennis champ Sloane Stephens is rebuilding tennis courts in Compton and encouraging kids to live healthy lifestyles”
–“Determined cancer survivor completes Boston Marathon after midnight”
–“Defiant Canadian teen printed her bully’s hateful message on a t-shirt because ‘those words don’t define you’”
OK! Sorry if these seems jumbled up and jerky…my Macbook “updated” itself overnight, and now the formatting is all messed up. Fabuloso. Time to scramble out the door. Enjoy this lovely Thursday!
V-7
Portland's Daily Drip 