Morning, mates! Here’s the Daily Drip on a windy, pure-sun Monday, April 23, 2018. We are seventeen weeks into this new year, and today will be the day Portland finally and officially reaches 70 degrees. Then we’ll notch our first 80 tomorrow! Sunrise 6:11 AM, sunset 8:07 PM.
If skies are dark enough despite the plumping moon you may witness the bombardment of our planet by the annual Lyrid meteor shower, which celebrates Earth Day each year by pelting it with space rocks.
Our town has the ol’ familiar Playoff Blues today after the Portland Trail Blazers went from invincibility in March to invisibility in April, suffering a sweep by the Pelicans of New Orleans. Paul Allen may borrow that broom and do some sweeping of his own. Meantime there’s bad Twitter blood between Blazer CJ McCollum and beat writer Jason Quick, who tweeted late in Saturday’s game, “Frustration foul by CJ, who has always bordered on cheap and dirty.” Quick quickly deleted it and called it a poor choice of language, but McCollum elbowed back, “A lion doesn’t concern itself with the opinion of sheep.”
Cheer up! The Portland Timbers played like lions against New York City FC, defeated the previously unblemished visitors 3-0 at Providence Park.
His ears still ringing with Portland’s best wishes, KGW departee Joe Donlon (and Daily Drip reader–Hi, Joe!) hits the air today on WGN-TV in Chicago, bringing some Portland cool to a fountainhead of the industry, He’s spent the past few weeks absorbing his new town’s pizza (which we have here, Joe!) and major league baseball (oh.) and he’s even changed his Twitter handle from PDXPeacock (an NBC reference) to the smooth ChicagoJoeWGN. His first newscast on WGN is at 5 PM Central, while his chair at The Ocho remains empty.
President Emmanuel Macron of France arrives in DC today on a state visit to the White House.
It’s a special day in London, as the royal family announced that the Duchess of Cambridge, wife of Britain’s Prince William, has given birth to a healthy baby boy. Their third child will be fifth in line for the throne.
An intense manhunt is underway in Tennessee for the man who shot up a Waffle House with an AR-15 outside Nashville, killing four and wounding three. A customer, 29-year old James Shaw, rushed out of the bathroom and, unarmed, wrestled the gun away, and the shooter dashed out the door. He has not been caught. The same guy was arrested for trespassing at the White House last year, and earlier complained that Taylor Swift was stalking him.
The local tech community is humming about the first tech IPO here in fifteen years. The Vancouver laser manufacturer nLight could hit the market as early as today, trading on the Nasdaq under the symbol LASR.
A pilot landed a 1973 Cessna 150 on SR 14 in Vancouver after the engine conked out.
Southern California had a 3.9 earthquake late yesterday afternoon.
A day-after-Earth-Day fact: the daily high-water mark in Miami has been rising almost an inch a year.
Actor Verne Troyer, famed for playing Mini-Me in those Austin Powers movies, died at just 49.
It’s thought to be Shakespeare’s birthday (1564), and also the day he died, alas, we knew him, a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy, 52 years later. His creations echo through the centuries, including everyday words like “sanctimonious” and “lackluster” and “eyeball,” and names like “Olivia” and “Jessica” (though “Titania” somehow didn’t stick). But there’s one regrettable 21st-century reality that traces directly to the Bard: in the late 1800’s, a man in New York named Eugene Schiffelin took it upon his misguided self to import to America every species of bird mentioned by Shakespeare. In Henry IV, Act 1, a character threatens:
I will find him when he lies asleep,
And in his ear I’ll holla ‘Mortimer!’
Nay,
I’ll have a starling shall be taught to speak
Nothing but ‘Mortimer,’ and give it him
To keep his anger still in motion.
And that’s why we have starlings bombing cars on the Interstate Bridge.
The Oregon Symphony takes on Camille Saint-Saëns’ mighty Organ Symphony again tonight, as it did over the weekend. That great work never fails to swell my soul.
I hear glowing words about the Broadway Rose Theater Production of “Always…Patsy Cline.” Dripster Amoris Walker describes it as “Fabulous..totally worth going to.” It’s playing through May 6.
And now for a daily restoration of faith in this world (hat tip for today’s title to Dripster Zelda Nelson. From Amoris to Zelda…Dripsters rock!):
–“An Ohio woman saved a baby she spotted dangling from a roof gutter as she was driving down the street.”
–“Missing 3 y/o found safe next morning with faithful old dog keeping her safe”
–“Florida Teacher helps end school shooting by talking to shooter until police arrive”
–“Man bit by shark on Kauai’s south shore survived a bear attack just months prior”
-Jeb Bush Shares Old Love Letter from George H.W. Bush to Barbara in Touching Speech at Funeral”
–“George H.W. Bush wears special socks in literacy campaign tribute during the funeral for his wife of 73 years”
–“Melania Trump cracks rare grin while seated beside her husband’s predecessor at Barbara Bush memorial” (which makes for some wild caption contests).
That’s my part…now the DD’s best part…you!
V-5
Portland's Daily Drip 