Well, here we are, taking our first waking breaths on this Thursday, August 16, 2018. Will the heavens try to choke us? Will our hearts attack us? Let’s check the DEQ… OK. It’s still unhealthful in much of the area, at 0330, but the loop shows the red is diminishing and the yellow is moving in, so that indicates improvement. Hopefully the green is not far behind. The air quality alert expires at noon, and then it’ll be sunny with a high of 80 to 85, but still hazy, the trailing output of fires turning forests black to the south of us. Sunrise 6:12 AM, sunset 8:16 PM.
He survived by eating bees. Bees?? and berries. That’s what a hugely relieved Mom and Dad were told by their son, a 40-year old Ohio nurse, who borrowed his buddy’s Outback, drove up to Mt. St. Helens, went for a walk and got lost. Six days and nights later, despite wearing only shorts and flipflops, he was found alive and in relatively good shape. This morning he’s in satisfactory condition, and his story has gone national. (I read that bees are indeed edible, wasps too, which he more likely encountered. And the larvae taste like fatty honey).
The white supremacist accused in last year’s MAX killings is now charged with assaulting an African-American inmate behind bars at the Multnomah County Jail.
Portland’s next MAX line will run right down Barbur Boulevard, under a final key committee recommendation. So, not I-5. The Metro Council will OK it in the fall, with trains expected to roll between Portland and Bridgeport Village in about 9 years.
Oregon’s Department of Aviation wants to extend the runway at the Aurora airport by a thousand feet, to 6000′. The city of Wilsonville’s fighting it, saying longer runways mean bigger planes. Which is the point, says the Aviation Department. Corporate jets mean economic development.
Ring of Fire update…a 6.5 earthquake hit the Aleutians just before 3 pm yesterday. No tsunami.
Freshly and punitively stripped of his security clearance, former CIA chief John Brennon showed he is nevertheless unsilenced, penning an Op-Ed in this morning’s NYT with the headline, “President Trump’s Claims of No Collusion Are Hogwash.”
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Landmarks…Elvis Presley died this day in 1977…the faithful have pilgrimaged to Memphis…
Madonna turns 60 today, which she’s been owning in a big way on social media for weeks (“C O U N T D W N …………..Getting Ready For My Spankings!”) I guess she can be a handful, and there’s a newspaper photo of her pointedly ignoring my fearless 9-year old daughter after an event at the Benson, but she’s an extraordinary artist, a cultural powerhouse, and a living refutation of the notion that mature people don’t matter.
Happy 10th anniversary to Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi.
And Scott Brosius was born this day in 1966. He’s the Rex Putnam grad who played third base for the A’s and the Yankees, coached the great D3 college team at Linfield, and now coaches third for the Mariners. He’s enshrined at the Putnam ballfield with a sign and the words “A dream come true” that was put up after he hit a game-saving home run in the bottom of the 9th in the World Series. (In high school my son belted a home run out of that same Putnam ballpark that went so far it scattered the outfielders in the softball game next field over. Do Dads ever stop being proud of their kids?)
The LO softball team lost the consolation game but still finished 4th in the Little League World Series at Alpenrose, so congratulations to them!
The Portland Timbers went down 4-1 to DC United last night.
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Headlines from the bright side…
–“Rival gang members work together to build a playground in troubled territory”
–“Boy catches foul ball at Tigers game, gifts it to another boy in heartwarming moment”
–“Restaurant puts together wedding meal in 90 minutes after caterer doesn’t show”
–“Florida cancer patient thrown surprise street parade after last chemo session”
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Finally, the DD QOTD comes from an editorial in The Atlantic, one of three hundred news outlets that are speaking up today in defense of America’s most basic freedom, the freedom to state what you truly believe. Here’s what the editors write:
“The freedom of the press is an individual liberty. It is your right as an American to read what you will, to write what you think, and to publish what you believe. The press is neither the enemy of the people nor its ally, but rather its possession.”
Amendment #1. I truly believe that if we lose that right, we lose them all.
Have a great great Thursday!
Portland's Daily Drip 