Wednesday, June 27, 2018

Good morning! As the Human in the Moon seems to be saying, Whoooaaa! It’s Wednesday, June 27, 2018, the 178th day of the year with 187 remaining. A weak little wandering troupe of clouds was pushing in for a visit, bearing a small gift of light rain, but it has fallen apart and today looks dry and lovely with highs around 70. Sunrise 5:23 AM, sunset 9:03 PM…and…

A full moon comes up at 8:42 tonight. The Strawberry Moon! More about that, along with a Dripster assignment, at the end of the Daily D!

Breaking news….Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy retires.

The Supreme Court dealt a serious setback to public sector unions by knocking down an Illinois law that required non-union workers to pay fees that go to collective bargaining. Then the court adjourned until fall.

A poignant moment in a Portland courtroom as 46-year old Rachel Macy was sentenced to a year in prison for robbing a gas station with a BB gun in 2016. Six months after the robbery, while free on bail, she witnessed the white supremacist murder on a MAX train, and compassionately comforted Taliesin Myrddin Namkai-Meche as he lay dying, That heroic young man’s mother, Asha Deliverance, unexpectedly showed up in the courtroom and made a passionate plea for leniency, and promised to care for Macy’s children while she’s in prison.

Lots of reax to the SCOTUS decision upholding the Trump travel ban. There’s some good analysis out there..but what sticks with me is the tweet from Sen. Mitch McConnell: a photo of his smiling self shaking hands with Justice Neil Gorsuch. No words needed.

A 28-year old Bernie-Sanders-supporting political newbie named Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez destroyed 19-year Democratic Congressman Joe Crowley in the New York primary. By way of conceding, Crowley pulled out a guitar and played Springsteen’s “Born to Run”–dedicating it to his Millennial conqueror. And remember how Mitt Romney eviscerated Donald Trump in 2016? Romney won the Utah Senate primary, and they’ve patched things up. The president tweeting, “Big and conclusive win by Mitt Romney. Congratulations! I look forward to working together – there is so much good to do. A great and loving family will be coming to D.C.”

Headline from NBC last night: “Is the ‘breaking news’ of late breaking you? One therapist has coined fatigue from the 24/7 news cycle ‘headline stress disorder.’

Oh! College World Series Finals, Game One didn’t go the Beavers’ way. A couple of Mister Magoo-quality calls by umps cost Oregon State two runs. But this is a team that fought its way out of the losers’ bracket into the finals. They’re 4-0 in elimination games, and they have one today at 4 Pacific on ESPN and AM 620, for those caught in traffic.

(A month from now we’re talking about football).

In the first home action in almost a month, the Portland Thorns host Sky Blue FC at Providence Park tonight.

The State Games of Oregon were scrubbed, but the Special Olympics torch burns bright, as law enforcement officers escort it to the 2018 Special Olympics USA Games in Seattle starting on Sunday. Today, the torch comes through Vancouver for a 10:30 AM welcome at the Vancouver National Historic Reserve.

The animal rights person who was arrested for clutching one of the chickens involved in Monday’s calamity in Clark County is free on bond. Her PETA colleagues, who carried out a vigil, say they had a sanctuary home and a bright future all lined up for the bird, but now it’s in the capable hands of Foster Farms, which promises that it “prioritizes the safety and welfare of its flocks.” This is a Portlandia episode, right?

Ha! My favorite item from the Forest Grove Police blog. Quote: “A caller reported seeing a driver who bore a striking resemblance to Willie Nelson driving a dune buggy and spinning tires along Maple Street. Police were unable to locate the vehicle, but did consider it may be on the road again.”

Hey Jimmy Mak’s is coming back! Willamette Week says the jazz club will reopen in 2019 under new ownership –and, get this—at Oba’s former spot in the Pearl. (Which died because parking sucks. I could’ve gotten into a fight with a guy over a spot).

And now here comes that handful of headlines that just might brighten up your morning, if you can stop and imagine being the characters involved in each one of them:

–“The Interpreter Brigade springs into action to help Central American ICE detainees who speak only Mayan languages known as K’iche’ and Mam.”

–“Passerby discovers a woman stranded for 45 minutes because her wheelchair battery ran out of power and decides to push her all the way home–a 30 minute journey.”

–“Lost school ring reunited with Glens Falls owner 44 years later, weeks before 50th school reunion.

–“Baby Cow Escapes Slaughterhouse and Is Raised by Deer Family in Snowy Forest.” (Wait, that’s got to be a pitch for a Disney movie, right?)

–“Raccoon released into wild after successful skyscraper climb.”

About that big glowing nighttime orb up there: this is the Strawberry Moon. John Fogerty didn’t know what he’s talking about. There’s no such thing as a bad moon rising. The moon has no opinion. As T.S. Eliot wrote, the moon has lost her memory. She only reflects what she sees, as she does the light of the sun, as she has since long before our hominoid simian species crawled down from the trees and started making war upon itself (and have we ever evolved since then). So to celebrate this Strawberry Moon, please Dripsters, let’s post pics, and tell where we are, and say something, and take comfort in the fact that we’re all together under the same moonlight that guided the nights of Adam and Eve and Jesus and Muhammad and Beethoven and Marie Antoinette and Helen Keller, who was born on this day in 1880 and never saw the Moon. But it saw her, and it sees you.

So please post moon pix! And remember we do a Daily Drip Minute on K103 at 103.3 FM at 6:20 every morning. I grab Dripster comments whatever’s interesting. It’s seat-of-the-pants, and hyper-local. Have a wonderful Wednesday!