Wednesday, July 25, 2018

Softly, deftly, music shall caress you…Hey! Good morning! It’s Wednesday, July 25, 2018…hear it, feel it, secretly possess you…Oh, sorry, I’m just needing something to distract me from the oppressiveness of another heat-blistered day. Yes, we’ll hit 95 again, way beyond the old normal for Portland, but well within the new one. And just as our ancestors crawled from the swamp and adapted to dirt, we’ll learn to live with this arid climate. Just close the shades by day, and listen to the music of the night.

Portland has awesome fountains for kids like us to play in on days like today! Salmon Street Springs…Jamison Park…Keller Fountain…which I’ve always loved. It’s our Trevi.

The Phantom of the Opera opens at the Keller tonight.

Sunrise 5:46 AM, sunset 8:46 PM. We are losing over two minutes of sun every day.

First…strange? Beautiful? A woman in Ashland has posted photographs of a large female cougar taking a nap on her couch–and relates how she used telepathy and “feline-speak eye blinking” to encourage the animal to leave. Laurel Taylor said she “consciously elevated the energy field and entrained her to a theta state,” sent “telepathic pictures of the routes out of the house,” and finally employed “native ancestral drumming” while the cat calmly walked out the door. She adds that she has “extensive experience working with energy and animals and I’m not suggesting anyone seek out interactions with mountain lions.”

Seismographs have been jumping the last 24 hours (though I haven’t seen anything since around midnight) with a cluster of earthquakes on the Juan de Fuca tectonic plate, about 100 miles west of the California-Oregon border. The largest was magnitude 5.6. This is likely just the routine groaning of the planet’s conflicting inner structures, or better yet, it’s releasing tension, but just for drill, look around and know where you’d dive. And if you’re at the coast, keep an eye on the water. If it recedes sharply, then git.

Take a long last look at the lovely Banfield Freeway for awhile….tonight’s the night ODOT will barricade off the vital ramp from I-84 westbound to I-5 northbound. That’s the end of the Oregon Trail for many who, like me and maybe you, loaded up their car in the midwest, checked the map, and faithfully followed 84 from the point in the Utah mountains where it broke off from 1-80. I’m sure our new pioneers will be glad to hear they should have taken MAX. And while ODOT is at it, they’ll close the center lane at the Lloyd exit. Traffic is going to be backed up into next Tuesday. Or, more literally, into Monday, August 6, when that ramp reopens by 5 AM.

Mayor Ted Wheeler’s midnight deadline came and went, but a few #OccupyIcePDX holdouts remain. The right-wing group “Patriot Prayer” rode in to jaw back and forth with the demonstrators but left after a while.

Jury selection is underway in the Portland trial of an FBI agent accused of firing two shots on the confusing day when #OccupyMalheur spokesman LaVoy Finnicum was killed by OSP troopers…and then, for some reason, lying about it.

A new survey–which relies on robocalls–shows Kate Brown and Knute Buehler locked up at 45% in the Oregon Governor’s race.

An audiotape of Donald Trump purportedly discussing hush money payments to a Playboy model was released to media by Michael Cohen, his ex-fixer and lawyer. It’s hard to tell exactly what the tape says, but the larger meaning is that Cohen has fully turned on his former client.

Ivanka Trump has shut down her clothing line; it’d been dropped by Nordstrom and others.

CBS reports that a waiter at an Odessa, Texas steakhouse admits that he made up the story about a customer leaving him a racist note that said: “we don’t tip terrorists.” He says he wrote it himself, has no explanation or excuse, and that he has returned money that was donated to him.

An audit says a California DMV worker slept at her desk for three hours every day for four years without any problem from supervisors.

The KGW School Supply Drive is underway. We’re not a co-sponsor, that I know of, but Schoolhouse Supplies is the worthiest of causes, and we should all help.

A WalletHub survey says Portland is the 7th best big city to live in. Seattle is first. Yes! Move there!

Singer Demi Lovato is in stable condition after an apparent overdose. As revealed in a haunting song named “Sober” (search on YouTube for the video), she had recently relapsed after six years of sobriety. At our studio complex, we have a framed poster of her performing at the iHeart Radio Music Festival, and my K103 colleague @Stacey Lynn tweeted, “This makes me smile every day as I walk past on my way into the studio @ddlovato you are a shining star- and human. Know you’re loved and accepted. Hang on girl. You did it before you can do it again.”

Happy 40th birthday to the first person born through in vitro fertilization–who was then called a “test tube baby.” Louise Brown is living in the UK, and has had two kids the old school way.

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Christmas was seven months ago. Or five months away, depending on which way you point.

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“For most of history, Anonymous was a woman.” — Virginia Woolf

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On an impulse, on the Monday after last Thanksgiving, I added the “Headlines for a Happy Heart/TMSG”– and it’s become the most popular thing on the DD. Such are the times in which we live. Today’s offerings:

–“Academic writes 270 Wikipedia pages in a year to get female scientists noticed”

–“Police officer helps homeless man shave in parking lot before job interview, man gets job offer”

–“Seattle man turns 100, goes skydiving”

–“Dogs rush to help when their people cry, study suggests” (They’re very attuned to us)

–“Man jumps off bridge to rescue dog struggling in water” (Guess it works both ways)

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So it goes, as we begin the last seven days of July. Oh..just checked mail! I have a jury summons for Wednesday, August 22. That’s my birthday! I love it!