Morning, friends! We’re cracking open an entire week of trying to keep cool on this Monday, July 23, 2018. The outdoor furnace is back on steady, with maxes of 93 yesterday, 97 today, 96 the next two, and then, alas, the promised easing back to the eighties by Thursday has now been overwritten by an updated forecast of 90-plus the entire week, and into next week. But highs at the coast stay in the 70’s the whole time. Sunrise 5:44 AM, sunset 8:49 PM, with a moon that’s growing fuller by the night.
Our high of 90 yesterday was the 12th time this year we’ve hit that fevered mark. And it just so happens that 12 is the average number of 90 degree days we experience in a Portland summer. Watch us double that this summer. Most of us hate this. All these 9’s get on our neufs.
###pdxtraffic note! ODOT has reopened the ramp from I-5 southbound to I-84. The next big closure starts on Wednesday night, when the ramp from westbound 84 to northbound I-5 closes for eleven straight days.
We’re so glad to see the Substation Fire has been whipped into near-containment by hundreds of firefighters, state and local. Congratulations for great teamwork by all those men and women. I infer from a Wasco County Sheriff news release, seeking witnesses, that someone may have thrown something burning out of a car on Highway 197 at about 3:30 PM last Tuesday–and the high desert winds supersized it to almost 80,000 acres of valuable wheat land and open country. The fire did great damage to twenty miles of waterfront land along the lower Deschutes River, scorching the banks along both sides all the way down to the waterline, according to The Oregonian’s Bill Monroe.
The president of Iran finds himself the recipient of an all-caps Twitter fusillade, after warning in a speech that any conflict with Iran would be the “mother of all wars.” Trump responded as follows: To Iranian President Rouhani: NEVER, EVER THREATEN THE UNITED STATES AGAIN OR YOU WILL SUFFER CONSEQUENCES THE LIKES OF WHICH FEW THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE EVER SUFFERED BEFORE. (This is about the US pullout from the nuclear deal, and resulting sanctions).
It’s trial time for Paul Manafort, the ex-Trump campaign manager who is first to be prosecuted by special counsel Robert Mueller. He’s accused of multiple charges of money laundering, bank fraud, illegal lobbying, and attempting to tamper with witnesses. They won’t begin selecting a jury until mid-week; today the judge is hearing motions, including whether or not the prosecution can bring up the campaign, and thus, colusion. Collussion. Col…never mind. Networks will be a-chatter, POTUS be a-Twitter, and everyone will be looking for clues to what Mueller has on the guy in the Oval.
It’s Monica Lewinsky’s birthday. She’s 45. She graduated from Portland’s Lewis and Clark College with a psychology degree in 1995 and immediately began the White House internship culminating in the scandal that bears her name. For a long time she kept a low profile while earning a Master of Science degree in London, but today she is an outspoken activist against cyberbullying.
Tony Joe White is 75 years old today. He wrote two of my favorite songs…”Polk Salad Annie”…and “Rainy Night in Georgia.” (Polk Salad is a misnomer. Poke sallet–an old English term for boiled leaves–is what he’s singing about. Pokeweed leaves are edible, but only if you boil the bejeebers out of them and change the water twice, and the berries are poisonous to people).
Who saw Jackson Browne last night? He did 27 songs, I read….and finished his second encore with “The Load-out/Stay.” Love to hear reviews!
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TMSG
–“Why ‘getting lost in a book’ is so good for you, according to science.” (They say it sharpens social skills, improves cognition, may even help you live longer).
‘It’s surreal’: Seattle’s Pike Place Fish Market sold to fish-throwing employees
Police say a teenager who attached uplifting messages to a bridge to help people facing a mental health crisis has helped save six lives.
80-year-old woman drives from South Africa to Buckingham Palace to have tea with the Queen
8-year-old girl throws 1st pitch at Arizona Diamondbacks game with 3D-printed hand
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Ernest Hemingway’s birthday was this weekend, and I thought I’d look up a few quotes from Papa to see what rings true today.
“There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.”
“The world breaks everyone, and afterward, some are strong at the broken places.”
“There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.”
“The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them.”
*****
Well OK then! Off we go into a hot dry Monday. Time to change up some routines, and put ourselves outside before the broiler is on.
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