Hello friends, and hello Friday! It’s March 8, 2019, and if winter was the Oscars, the band would be playing it off the stage right now…once again we have snow showers likely in the morning, even down to the valley floor, then rain and snow showers likely in the afternoon. Snow accumulation up to 1 inch, primarily above 500 feet, and highs of 40 to 45. But check this out: weather folks are saying this may be our last shot at snow this winter, and KPTV’s Mark Nelsen even blogs that he took his snow tires off. And the weekend looks pretty good, partly sunny with highs of 45 to 50. Sunrise 6:36 AM, sunset 6:07 PM.
We change to Daylight Time at 2 AM Sunday. We’re all good with that, right? Right?
Vancouver police have been involved in their third fatal shooting in three weeks, this time in Hazel Dell when a drug suspect with a gun failed to obey police orders; it’s not clear whether he actually fired.
Best wishes from all of us to State Rep. Alissa Keny-Guyer, who’s been diagnosed with thyroid cancer and will have surgery in a few weeks. Prognosis is good.
Traffic update! Forget about the Hawthorne Bridge this weekend…it’ll be closed to motor vehicles from 10 tonight until 5 AM, or earlier, on Monday. They’re doing a concrete pour.
And: PGE, working on upgrades to the electrical grid, is planning temporary power outages in downtown Portland at 4 am on this Sunday and two weeks from Sunday. Both are expected to last one hour but in the event of unforeseen problems, they could last up to five hours.
Iconic Portland TV salesman Tom Peterson passed away three years ago, and now, at age 89, we’ve lost Gloria, too.
They aren’t the Sonics anymore, but the rivalry was as intense as ever as the Oklahoma City Thunder came to the Trail Blazer’s home court–and left with a four-game season sweep over Portland, winning what coach Terry Stotts called “a hell of a game” 129-121 in a nationally televised overtime. Damian Lillard scored 51–just the 12th time in team history that a Blazer topped 50–while Jusuf Nurkic was ejected, and the Thunder’s Russell Westbrook shushed and taunted the sellout crowd to the point where he was booed every time he’d get near the ball. “I’d boo me too, if I were on the other team,” said Westbrook. The Blazers would love to meet these guys again in the playoffs.
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North Korea seems to have rebuilt a rocket site that was initially used to launch satellites but is reconfigurable to fire long-range missiles toward, ulp, the US West Coast. The State Department says it’s monitoring the activity, and that “The intent of the North Koreans in this matter is known only to them … They need to keep their commitments to the president of the United States.”
It could have been five times more, but former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort will spend less than 4 years in prison for tax and bank fraud. The only other chair of a presidential campaign to be sent to prison was Richard Nixon’s John Mitchell, and Nixon was out of office by then.
K.c. Cowan, did you really get stuck in an elevator for 45 minutes?
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“The Simpsons” cartoon series has dropped from rerun rotation the episode in which Michael Jackson makes a guest appearance.
The Oregon Shakespeare Festival 2019 season begins Saturday night in Ashland with a preview performance of the musical “Hairspray.”
Happy 60th birthday tomorrow to the Barbie doll! The first commercial aired on the Mickey Mouse Club, a lilting melody that finished with the lyrics, “Barbie, the beautiful Barbie..I’ll make believe that I am you!” Maybe a little creepy in restrospect? You decide; I’ve linked to that spot in the Coffee Cup. Barbie herself had a bit of a past–she was modeled on the German Lilli doll, based on kind of an R-rated comic, and sold in smoke shops. Mattel bought the rights for 21 thousand bucks. Have to admit Barbie’s never been my type. Too plastic.
Joltin’ Joe DiMaggio left and went away 20 years ago today.
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Here’s today’s Smile File!
–“Check out the very first Barbie Doll commercial”
–“60-year-old single dad on raising 7 adopted kids: ‘Love happens’”
–“High school seniors shovel neighbor’s driveway at 4:30 a.m. so she could make it to her dialysis”
–“For Sale: The English Farmhouse That May Have Inspired ‘Wuthering Heights’”
–“Tuba player finds harmony after overcoming homelessness”
After a daylong outage, I can finally access the Coffee Cup. Just scroll to the number one slot in Comments. If you don’t see it, just click “View More Comments” and it should be at the top. Sorry about the elusive nature of these links..I’ve been experimenting with ways to make them more easily findable..and managed to anger the Facebook gods!
So that’s the week. Love to hear what you’re up to!
Portland's Daily Drip 