Hello, friends at home or away! Thanks for dropping by the Daily Drip for a quick reality update on Monday, September 24, 2018. It’s a cold and moony autumn morning, with temps in the 40s across the Portland area, but the entire week looks wonderful: a full moon, with full sun, and highs of 74, today, and into the 80s tomorrow and Wednesday. Sunrise 7:00 AM, sunset 7:04 PM.
Tonight should be a fantastic night for a moon-watching party, with a gentle 63 degrees and clear skies as the full Harvest Moon pushes up from due east, popping out of Mt. Hood around 8 PM.
A gentleman living in the hills east of Silverton elected to dispatch a nest of yellowjackets by setting them aflame with lighter fluid. The resulting wildfire would have burnt down his and his neighbors’ homes and timber had it not been for the efforts of firefighters from six departments. He was left with minor burns and potentially a major bill for the fire response, along with a citation from the Oregon Department of Forestry. He’s the second one on his road to cause a fire by attacking yellowjackets with charcoal fluid. The road’s named Stormy Drive.
There’s a second allegation against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, this time from his freshman year at Yale, where a female student at the time has told The New Yorker’s #metoo correspondent Ronan Farrow that Kavanaugh behaved in a lewd manner that I’ll spare you during a college dorm room party. And there might be a third; Stormy Daniels’ attorney Michael Avenatti says he has another client ready to speak up. Kavanaugh denies it all, and the White House calls the stories a desperate smear attempt by Democrats to stop the nomination.
Bill Cosby’s sentencing hearing begins today.
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It’s the biggest day of the year in postsecondary education in Oregon: the first day of Fall Term for the majority of the state’s college students. Classes begin at the University of Oregon…Portland State University…Portland, Mount Hood, and Clackamas Community Colleges…..Western Oregon in Monmouth…Southern Oregon in Ashland…Oregon Tech in K-Falls, who am I missing?
In other Oregon happenings, a 19-year old kid is charged with going on a paintball-shooting spree in the Bend area, popping off pink and yellow paintballs at 10 people or more, including an Uber driver, a man riding his bike with his daughter in back, another man walking home from Wal-Mart.
A 42-year old wedding crasher from Eugene will be sentenced today after pleading guilty to slipping into five, count ’em, weddings and swiping over 13,000 bucks in cash and other gifts. He was caught because the mother of one bride took a photo of him lurking at the reception, drinking a Red Bull, and the bride posted it on FB, asking “Anybody know this guy?”
This is the week Vancouver’s inviting new Waterfront Park is opening, including a cool 90-foot pier that juts out over the Columbia River. They cut the ribbon on Saturday.
Sixty Minutes made its debut fifty years ago today. Best intro in the world: “Tsk, tsk, tsk.”
Love to hear from anyone who saw Rene Fleming at the Schnitz last night.
Paul Simon brought his mitt and played catch with the crowd, invited his wife Edie Brickell on stage to whistle the solo in “Me and Julio,” and finished with “The Sound of Silence” as he concluded his Farewell Tour on home territory, Flushing Meadows Corona Park in Queens, NY.
Actor Will Smith celebrates his 50th birthday tomorrow by bungee jumping from a helicopter into a Colorado River gorge on Navaho land adjacent to the Grand Canyon.
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A tip of the lid to the Portland Thorns for providing the best home crowd in soccer with a season of thrills right up to the final match, which they lost to North Carolina on Saturday. Despite a slow start to the season and key injuries, they finish the year with a record of 12-6-6 with 40 goals and second place in the National Women’s Soccer League.
The Seattle Seahawks, having the benefit of twelve, rolled over the Dallas Cowpersons 24-13 at home for their first win of the year. First of many!
The Detroit Lions beat the New England Patriots. Heh.
The crowd roared and Tiger Woods wept, as he won the PGA season-ending Tour Championship, his first tournament in five years.
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Now, some good news. Let’s call it “Five for Smiling!” or something.
–“North Carolina’s Famous Wild Horses Emerge from Hurricane Florence Unscathed”
–“California nonprofit turns discarded restaurant crayons into new ones for children’s hospitals”
–“Blazer boss gives $30 mil to house homeless and low-income families.”
–“Bullied autistic student gets asked to Prom By local pageant winner.”
–“Good dog patiently holds a hot dog in its mouth while its owner takes a picture”
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Time to test our shake-it-off skills! All of Oregon’s major teams whiffed on the weekend: the Ducks collapsed in epic fashion in their prime-time debut, the Thorns were pruned in their own garden, the Beavers got rolled, the Vikings sank, the Timbers fell, the Winterhawks played twice and lost both…but hey: we expect our teams to show their character and come back strong, right? We can’t expect any less from ourselves! In the case of the Ducks, I predict that we will come to love them. They will earn it. These Ducks were by far the better team on Saturday night, and hopefully they now have the wisdom that only failure can teach. (Despite the late-game crumble, Oregon gained ground in the polls. The Ducks are #19).
OK! Monday! Fresh start, beautiful week, can’t lose!
Portland's Daily Drip 