Morning, Monday people! It’s February 4, 2019, the midpoint of winter, and here comes a little taste, maybe. It’s complicated, because several weather systems are interacting, so in a second I’ll post the very latest wording from the oracles at the National Weather Service. Sunrise 7:28 AM, sunset 5:21 PM We’ll gain 11 minutes of daylight between now and Friday…compared to only 10 last week. Here goes:
WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY IN EFFECT UNTIL NOON PST TODAY… TODAY…Snow showers likely, mixed with rain at low elevations. Snow accumulation up to one inch. High 35 to 40.
Further amplification from the NWS discussion page: “Overall, earlier snowfall expectations still look on track, with lowest elevations (generally under 500 ft) likely to see accumulations limited to an inch or less due to warm ground temperatures and marginal surface temperatures. Several inches of snow can be expected at higher elevations. ”
We do know that it’s snowing prettily in the Coast Range, and it’ll be a borderline day for school closures. Bet we get lots of delays in districts with higher hills.
So it’s going to be a day when we peer at the sky and wonder, or gaze at the TV reporters up on Sylvan as they wonder, and we’ll know whether or not it snows when it snows. Or not. There are wide variations between locales, so if things start happening, I hope you’ll be your neighborhood’s correspondent and file reports for the Daily Drip Storm Team. Be sure to tell us where you are, since folks who drop by this little breakfast nook are spread hither and yon.
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Bless the Super Bowl! It has given us a chance to gabble and buzz about topics other than things that bring us down. Doesn’t matter that it was not the most riveting game or that the usual team won; people will be talking about it in the break room at work today–and not at all tomorrow. So let’s see what we all can contribute to the discussion. Love to hear some original comments.
An Oregon State Beaver sets an all-time record in the Super Bowl! Johnny Hekker kicked a ball that bounced and rolled 65 yards to become the longest punt in the LIII year history for America’s big game. He had a great game. Otherwise…
The Super Bowl left me flat, like the barely-touched third IPA that’s still on the coffee table. You expect to have your socks rocked off. We still have our socks. The New York Times calls it “a Super Bowl only a Patriots fan could love.” The halftime show was symbolic. We’ve seen the biggest talents in the world on the biggest stage in the world–Michael Jackson, the Stones, McCartney, U2–delivering performances that we talked about for days. My notes on the halftime show last night are sparse because not much of an impression was made, at least here. Some people really liked it, and I see that! (They preemptively bleeped other performers whose rhymes were indiscernible anyway, then a gyrating Adam Levine tiptoed up to a lyric that everybody knows is going to be bleeped and he goes “I don’t give a shhhhhh” and looks teasingly into the camera and doesn’t get bleeped, and I’m thinking…so what?).
Other people watched Puppy Bowl XV and say that it was great. Seven days to Spring Training.
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A rent control bill gets its first hearing in the Oregon Legislature today.
Despite bipartisan pressure, Virginia Governor Ralph Northam has not yet resigned over racist yearbook photos that he apologized for, then denied being part of.
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So many driplets from the DD history file to remark on, this February 4!
–Twenty years ago today, the Panamanian-flagged freighter New Carissa dropped anchor to ride out a wicked storm off the Oregon Coast—but the chain was too short, the anchor dragged along the ocean bottom, and the ship hit the sand near Coos Bay. The resulting oil spill killed thousands of seabirds and tarballs fouled the breaches, as the ship broke in two in the powerful surf, and for the next few weeks, the hulk stubbornly resisted efforts to clear it. While the bow section was being towed out to sea for disposal, the line broke in a storm and the New Carissa was adrift–only to be pounded aground for a second time, 80 miles to the north, at Waldport. This time, the Navy brought in the big guns and hauled the bow into deep water where a destroyer and a submarine–the USS Bremerton–slammed the Carissa with explosives and torpedoes and put it on the bottom. The stern stayed on the beach–where it moldered for nearly a decade. News crews printed up T-shirts that said, “I Survived the New Carissa.”
Portland officially killed the Mt. Hood Freeway on this date in 1974, legally diverting the federal transportation grant money to a new project that became MAX light rail.
It’s the 15th anniversary of Facebook’s launching by Mark Zuckerberg. Facebook is snoopy and intrusive and was clearly a tool of nefarious forces in the 2016 election and beyond. Yet here we are.
Rosa Parks was born this day in 1913, and it’s Rosa Parks day in a couple of states–although Oregon observes it on December 1–the day she was arrested.
Patty Hearst was kidnapped on this day in 1974. Seems to have spent some of her time on the lam hiding out here in Portland.
Happy birthday to Portland blues legend Curtis Salgado! (1954)
Fleetwood Mac released their tortured masterpiece of shattered relationships, “Rumours,” on this day in 1977. Karen Carpenter died in 1983.
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We lost John Mahoney, the Dad on “Frasier,” one year ago today. A couple of quotes from character Martin Crane:
–[Looking at a beer can loviingly] “Well, hello there. Will you be my Ballantine?”
–Frasier: “Didn’t you ever give Mom something unexpected? “ Martin: “Yeah, you!”
–“Haters will see you walk on water and say it’s because you can’t swim.”
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Let’s pour a little sweetness on this Monday! It is my belief and desire that I’ve slain the IT dragon and correctly posted the links in the fabled Daily Drip Coffee Cup. Check it please, and let me know?
–“Japan leaves dressing room spotless in dignified response to Asian Cup final disappointment”
–“Meet the woman who rented hotel rooms for homeless in Chicago during polar vortex”
–“Bus Driver is Hailed a Hero After Saving 16 Children From a Burning School Bus”
–“Woman Learns Blood Donor Who Saved Her Life Years Ago Is Her Husband”
–“The World’s Loneliest Frog Has a Potential Mate, Raising Hopes that Species Won’t Croak”
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Commercials? A few grabbed me. The sudden silence with a woman whispering about beer caught my attention, but only a few really stick out for me..the Bud Light corn syrup delivery that seemed almost like a Gamet of Thrones episode…and then a Bud Light spot that literally turned into a Game of Thrones promo….that was cool. And I want to watch again the spot with elevator carrying people down to all of the levels of bad experiences……middle seat on a plane…’The talk”…root canal…all the way to car shopping. It was funny; not quite sure what was selling. And of course The Washington Post, Democracy Dies in Darkness. Knowing Keeps Us Free commercial was a highlight…in a game that needed more highlights!
That’s DD for this first Monday in the shortest month of the year. Let’s share what’s happening out there; check back here and tune in 103.3 and see what’s up!
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