Happy Tuesday! Welcome to November 13, 2018, and day that won’t be quite as windy, unless you’re in the Columbia Gorge where that’s a way of life, and people basically live at a 45-degree angle. We’ll all enjoy the weirdly sunny November skies, with highs of 55. Looks like rain tonight and tomorrow, but then back to the rare dry weather at least through the weekend. Maybe we’ll be playing touch football after Thanksgiving dinner like the Kennedys. Sunrise 7:07 AM Sunset 4:42 PM The 315th day of 2018, with 48 to go.
Fire crews from Oregon and all over are fighting hard on the California fire lines, where the deadliest and most destructive blazes in that state’s history continue to spread across the land. The total number of lives lost has reached 44, with the discovery of more victims in the Sierra foothills town of Paradise, and 200 remain unaccounted for.
The midterm election was a week ago, but one major race was just decided and several others are at a high boil. In Arizona, Democrat Kyrsten Sinema has been declared the winner of a close Senate battle after she flipped Maricopa County, home of Sheriff Joe Arpaio. And counting goes on in Florida and Georgia, amid cries of “fraud” when momentum begins to tilt.
Portland Commissioner-elect Jo Ann Hardesty has apologized for what she calls her election night “flub” when she referred to Ted Wheeler as “Mayor What’s-his-name.” She called it a “senior moment,” didn’t have her notes ready, and was about to say “Mayor Hales.” Mayor What’s-his-name took it gracefully, and says “Mayor” is good enough.
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Followup to the story about the guys who stretched string across the trail along I-205, and a woman riding home on her bike was caught by it, gashing her nose and chin…a reporter at KOIN tweets the following. “NOT A JOKE: Police tell me they think these 3 guys tied up the string across the path because one of them was wearing a kangaroo onesie and had leftover string in his pouch.” Definitely not a joke. A few inches lower and she would have been garroted by these fools.
Remember Reo’s Ribs? with the succulent roadside smoker in Hollywood, and formerly Johns Landing and Aloha, that’s run by Snoop Dogg’s uncle? (speaking of smoke), that burned down a while back? I hear it’s open again at 4211 NE Sandy. Reviews, anyone?
Let’s give a tip of the meteorological cap to KPTV weather dude Mark Nelsen, who’s been flailing away at incoming weather systems in front of a green screen on Portland television for 25 years now. He was so young when he started. Videotapes from the innocent ’90s show someone barely old enough to be slinging fries at Mickey D’s, explaining pressure gradients and dewpoints. Yet he was so damn good, even then, and to this day he ranks with the best, including those who have gone on to huge markets and networks. He writes quite candidly about his career on his blog, so, why not, I’ve linked to it on the K103 page next to the TMSG stories, linked below. It’s a blog that I check frequently when writing the Daily Drip during times of severe weather. It’s pretty geeky, but a lot of us are pretty geeky.
Does the crew at The Oregonian/OregonLive read the Daily Drip? This headline was posted on their site seven hours after the Drip was sent out yesterday: “Tonya Harding and the legend of the exploding whale were both born on this day in Oregon.” Cool! This was something I tripped over while doing the weekend prep that I do for this thing. Actually, anyone could have discovered it, but when I told Paul Linnman about the coincidence, he was delighted. Never heard it. There’ve been a million stories I’ve picked up from OregonLive, so I’m happy if they found one here. And if they didn’t, well, that just adds to the coincidences.
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Something horrible happened in Portland 30 years ago tonight that revealed the ugly existence of murderous white supremacists in our supposedly tolerant city. Three members of the “skinhead” group Eastside White Pride, a part of the national White Aryan Resistance–including a recently-crowned homecoming king at Grant High School–attacked and beat to death a 28-year college student named Mulugeta Seraw, right there in the street, at SE 31st and Pine, two blocks west of Laurelhurst Park. Goaded by their girlfriends, these three used a baseball bat and steel-toed boots to take life from the bespectacled young man: Because he was black, and because he was an immigrant. From Ethiopia. All three went to prison. The Southern Poverty Law Center sued the founder of White Aryan Resistance, Tom Metzger, and won a settlement that bankrupted the hate group and took the owner’s home–the SPLC sold it to a nice Hispanic family–and the SPLC lawyer in the case adopted Seraw’s young son, who has grown up to be an airline pilot. As for Metzger? I think he’s still around. Podcasting. And so is his WAR..which describes itself, hang on, let me paste from their site…”White Aryan Resistance is an educational repository on the benefits of racial separation.”
Repository. Close.
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About the California fires…I can’t stop thinking about the two dozen mainly retired people who lost their lives trying to escape when flames consumed practically every building in the town of Paradise. And I think about Don Henley’s closing line in the haunting “Last Resort,” the final track of the “Hotel California” album. The lyrics go:
And you can see them there
On Sunday morning
Stand up and sing about
What it’s like up there
They call it paradise
I don’t know why
You call someplace paradise
Kiss it goodbye
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And now let’s throw a few links on the blog to brighten up this day!
–“Man who’s legally blind sees his football team play for first time thanks to special glasses”
–“Police Officer Goes Grocery Shopping For Elderly Woman Who Can’t Leave Her Home”
–“You Can Now Eavesdrop on Orcas on Your Computer”
–“Houston Astros star leaves waitress a $500 tip after her car was burglarized”
–“Hero Dog Wakes Up Family in the Middle of the Night, Saves Them from Devastating House Fire”
Details on the link page, first up in the comments.
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Quick note–I’ve been smitten by a toddler cold. Wouldn’t trade my time with precious little ones for anything, but their little viruses can take hold of my senses and sensibilities for a few days. Bet you know the feeling!
Well, friends, that’s my report for today, Thanks for helping me out yesterday by flagging the troll who wanted to enlighten us all about whatever political stinkbug he or she adopted. I’ll be juggling puppies again this morning on 1190KEX and K103. Which, by the way, did indeed flip to Christmas music at 8:30 yesterday morning, like equivalent stations all over. Opinions are strong and believe me, I’ve heard them all. Love it or not love it, what I’d sincerely ask is that we not make that a topic here. K103 has a Facebook page, which the bosses who make the decisions actually read. Thank you so much…and Merry…Tuesday!
Portland's Daily Drip 