Tuesday, January 15, 2019

Morning, campers! It’s Tuesday, January 15, 2019. This will be our last lovely blue winter sky for awhile, with rain developing tonight and continuing, lightly, at least through the weekend. For now, it’s cold and windy, the chimes on my deck are keeping the goats next door awake, but we’ll reach 50 or so. Sunrise 7:47 AM, sunset 4:53 PM. We’re up to over nine hours of daylight…almost a twenty minute gain since the Winter Solstice.

Kate Brown vows to spend taxpayer money the way her Mom raised her to use toothpaste—-squeezing every bit from the tube before asking for another. But her hope for additional revenue is evident in her final inaugural address as Governor of Oregon. She’d inject $600 million into health care, which she states is a fundamental right; $1.9 billion for education, which she describes as an old house that hasn’t been maintained. She says we can’t keep having droughts and wildfires and communities enveloped in smoke for months at a time, so she’ll propose a cap and trade system to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Mandatory paid family leave. Pre-paid vote-by-mail envelopes. Lots more; tell you what: I’ll link to the text in the Coffee Cup. I copy and paste, you decide. There was a trademark turn of phrase in the Governor’s depiction of hardball politics, there. She advised incoming lawmakers to “put on your metal underpants.”

It’s moving week for Mother’s Bistro and Bar, from the cramped and seismically unfit old building it’s occupied for two decades at SW 2nd and Harvey Milk, to a spacious new site at Embassy Suites, 121 SW 3rd. There’ll be a moving parade on Wednesday, and Mother’s will be dishing up the slow-cooked pot roast and homemade pie on Monday in their new home-with 1/3 greater capacity, and waiting room, finally–on Monday. Owner Lisa Schroeder describes the new spot as “Mother’s on steroids.”

Lloyd Center may get a bowling alley, as it seeks to rebrand itself as a place to go for fun as well as shopping.

The principal of Lake Oswego Junior High confesses, in a letter to parents, that he was arrested for DUI last weekend in West Linn. He vows to learn and grow from the mistake, and his letter ends, “I love being a part of this community and look forward to continuing to support your kids.” But some are demanding his ouster to show those kids the seriousness of the consequences of such a decision.

Here comes a prequel to Oregon’s famous “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.” It’ll be on Netflix, called “Ratched,” and acting the formidable nurse by that name is Sarah Paulson, who played Marcia Clark in “The People vs. O.J. Simpson.” Sharon Stone and Cynthia Nixon are in it too. It’s produced by Ryan Murphy, who did “Glee” and “American Horror Story,” and Ken Kesey, wherever he is, would probably hate it, as he did the original.

***

Extending the record for futility in government, today is Day 25 of the shutdown. Home loan applications are clogged up, Airport security lines are getting longer as TSA agents call in sick, so they can work somewhere for pay.

President Trump says that because of the government shutdown, he paid from his own pocket for the food served to the college football champion Clemson Tigers when they visited the White House. The noted enthusiast of fast food brought in generous orders from McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Burger King and Domino’s.

Bill Barr, Trump’s nominee to be attorney general, will pledge to allow special counsel Robert Mueller to “complete his work,” and that the results will be shared with Congress and the public.

Iowa Congressman Steve King has been stripped of his committee assignments by the House Republican leadership, appalled at his comments in the New York Times, to wit: “White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization — how did that language become offensive?” Over in the Senate, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said that if King “doesn’t understand why ‘white supremacy’ is offensive, he should find another line of work.”

Britain’s Parliament votes today on Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit deal, which most members can’t stomach, and which she says is the best that can be done.

Iran tried to launch a satellite, but it failed.

*******

Some landmarks in the today-in-history department:

Martin Luther King, Jr. would have turned 90 years old today. The nation celebrates his birthday this coming Monday.

Ten years ago today, we were held breathless by the sight of US Airways flight 1549 gliding to a safe emergency landing in New York’s Hudson River. The skill of the humble Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger has been justifiably sung ever since, but the event changed the lives of everyone on board, with some, having been granted a second chance, “living out loud”–and others experiencing PTSD. The plane was heading from New York to Charlotte, and a local news station there does an interesting compilation of stories that I’ve linked in today’s TMSG section.

Today is the 100th anniversary of the Boston Molasses Disaster, when a massive storage tank burst open, sending a 40-foot wave of goo rushing through the streets at 35 MPH, buckling elevated railroad tracks, crushing buildings, and drowning 21 people. They say you can still smell the molasses on hot days.

And NFL QB Drew Brees is 40 today. People are marveling at his skill and dexterity at such an advanced age. He’s taking his New Orleans Saints to the NFC championship game on Sunday.

The Blazers lost to Sacramento last night.

*************

OK! Some interesting stories today from the Department of Good News:

–“‘Brace for impact:’ Remembering the Miracle on the Hudson on Today’s Tenth Anniversary”

–“New hope against pancreatic cancer?”

–“Gillette focuses razor ad on ridding culture of ‘toxic masculinity'”

–“Genetic engineering could create spicy tomatoes (for those who are OK with GMOs)”

–“Whales Remix Each Other’s Songs, Nearly 3,000 Miles Apart”

Details in the Coffee Cup, in the comments below.

****

Running late. Whoops. HAGD…see you on FM 103.3…