Yo ho ho! I mean, Ho Ho Ho! We’re downgrading ourselves from the Daily Deluge back to the Daily Drip, on this Wednesday, December 19, 2018. Portland’s weather is cloudy with an isolated shower and highs of 50. Daily Data: Sunrise 7:46 AM, sunset 4:29 PM. Day 353 of 2018, with 12 to go.
Today we get a break after that mischievous storm, a brief affair in Oregon that dropped a tree onto the car of a guy in Sherwood who’s Ubering while between jobs. Damage like that. Gates lifted off hinges, flooding on streets that are plagued with high water whenever it rains big, and where neighbors are fighting with the county to fix the drainage. It was worse in Washington, where the networks this morning are all over a tornado that pounced on Port Orchard, on the Kitsap Peninsula. Correspondent Bruce Murdock, who has family in the Puget Sound area, texted as follows:
“Had a tornado touch down over in Port Orchard. De-roofed some houses and messed up a WalMart. Hundreds of trees down on one little nabe. (Neighborhood). NWS won’t call it till they inspect, but looks like F2 damage. Missed that WalMart by about 250 feet.” FYI Bruce is a first-rate news guy. Story for another time. Same with Bob Calkins, who was part of my team at KING in Seattle, and reports in as follows:
“If you drip about Port Orchard it was amazing. The dog and I were in one house where the roof had caved in and it honestly looked like a bomb had gone off. But along one wall was an antique glass hutch, full of ceramic Knick-knacks, untouched. The items on the shelves weren’t even knocked over. Tornadoes are such weird beasts.”
We didn’t have anything like that in Oregon, but I was mighty impressed by the big blue flash that blossomed above Lake Grove at 4:30 AM yesterday. By the time I got to Kruse Way, the lights were out. But utility crews did their usual superb job of reilluminating all the 17,000 or so customers across Oregon who were in the dark, and everybody gets to rest up for the next one. Minor one on Thursday maybe.
Today’s the last day of school before Christmas in the Oregon City School District, but it’s not vacation time. It’s because the schools don’t have enough funding to provide a full school year. Tomorrow and Friday are furlough days. Nobody gets paid. It’s how they balance the budget.
A man who owned two Thai restaurants here has been sentenced to three years in prison for using phony visas to bring cooks from Thailand and then forcing them to work long hours for terrible pay. His wife will be sentenced for the same today. Human trafficking is a real thing.
Those two giant turtles that were swept by the current from their California habitat to the cold stormy Oregon beaches…didn’t make it.
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We’re remembering with great fondness the work of Penny Marshall, who left us yesterday at age 75. “Laverne & Shirley” was a hoot, for sure, but the movies she directed–“Big” and “A League of Their Own”–are enduringly great. My radio partner Janine Wolf knew her in California–Janine operated a landscaping business, was seen on HGTV, and Penny was a client–and I hope we’ll get her to share her memories this morning on K103.
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This is decision day on an interest rate hike by the Fed. Meantime CNBC reports that 71% of economists and fund managers believe that tariffs are causing the current market sell-off, which has taken the oomph out of a lot of 401k’s this year.
The Trump Foundation is kaput, on orders of the New York Attorney General, with assets to be distributed among actual charities while the investigation continues.
Twenty years ago today the House impeached President Bill Clinton on grounds of perjury and obstruction of justice. His trial in the Senate resulted in his acquittal on both counts.
Undeniable genius journalist Ronan Farrow, Pulitzer winner at 30 for helping turn the spotlight on #metoo, turns 31 today.
A Missouri man who poached hundreds of deer has been sentenced to a year in jail–during which he’s been ordered to watch “Bambi” once a month.
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John Legend’s Legendary Christmas Tour alights upon the Schnitz tonight. I know people who are salivating over this, so I won’t preview his setlist. But I can’t help reposting a couple of clips from reviews a few nights ago.
–“Legend updated old classics in still-timeless fashion, doing Stevie Wonder and Bing Crosby proud, and adding much-needed snap to the old Peanuts dirge Christmas Time is Here.”
–“Legend’s walked a fine line between heartfelt and corny several times across his catalog, but his original “By Christmas Eve” is a true groaner.”
–“He brings up ladies to dance with him on stage. He has people making out in the aisles.”
–“Legend tossed out some ridiculously hammy low notes during his rendition Wednesday that made a few fans near my seat giggle.”
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Here’s where your flawed Dripmeister confesses to a screwup…I totally whiffed on the birthday of one of my favorite people on our current planet. Lew Frederick has been a friend since we were kids drinking Henry’s at The Leaky Roof, and we’re close to this day, as we trade texts and comments and a little snark, and his birthday was Monday. But in my haze, did I send him a card? Post him a smilie? Hail him in the Daily Drip? Noooo! Anyway, this State Senator is one of our state’s treasures, and everybody who knows him knows that’s true…although I’m not sure it’s widely realized that he’s spent quality time in every corner and every county in this state, in his capacity as a television journalist and his role as an elected leader…and has an understanding driven by his curiosity of an Oregon that goes far beyond the district that he represents in the legislature. I’m pretty sure, last time I saw him at the Capitol this year, that he was wearing some really fine cowboy boots. Anyway, happy birthday to Lew Frederick, from his late buddy John !
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Over in the Daily Drip Coffee Cup, we link to the strange story of a girl whose inoperable brain tumor has suddenly vanished, and while her doctors try to figure out why, local folks have their own theories….there’s the story of a woman down in Central Point who had everything go wrong, when suddenly one thing went right, and she credits her departed Mom for doing her a favor….there’s a now-viral Facebook lecture from a cop who pulled over a kid for doing 100 MPH…the story of a family that’s moving away from California, but leaving all their household belongings behind for firefighters who lost their homes…and finally, a BBC story for those of us who spend lots of time with babies (like me, a daily joy), on how touching them in a certain pattern seems to have almost magical results. (I find that singing “Mele Kalikimaka” to our family’s 6-week-old puts her right to sleep!).
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That’s all…see you on the FM!
Portland's Daily Drip 