Friday, March 29, 2019

Good morning, friends and neighbors, the Daily Drip is on the air! It’s Friday, March 29, 2019, the weather is partly sunny, highs will be 60, and the weekend will bring good weather for, say, building a swing set for the kids on Saturday, before a chance of showers on Sunday. It’s the last weekend of March! This month has sped by twice as fast as February, it seems. Sunrise 6:56 AM, sunset 7:34 PM.

First: midnight struck for the Cinderella team, and the Oregon Ducks men’s basketball team comes home from the dance following a cold-shooting 53-49 loss to Virginia. And now It’s game day for the two outstanding women’s teams from our state in the Sweet Sixteen, as the Oregon State Beavers battle Louisville at 6:30 PM.followed by the Oregon Ducks and San Diego State at 8:00 on ESPN.

We’ll do our family-carpool listeners the courtesy of bleeping it on the radio, but President Trump last night told a campaign rally in Michigan last night, “The Democrats have to now decide whether they will continue defrauding the public with ridiculous bullshit, partisan investigations, or whether they will apologize to the American people” in reference to what he called “the Russia hoax,” although the still-unreleased Mueller report confirmed Russian interference in the election, according to the Barr summary of it. The full report, by the way, runs 300 pages, and the Justice Department says it will take weeks to finish redactions and vetting before the public is allowed to see it.

The White House has reversed the call to eliminate funding for Special Olympics, with Trump saying that he had “overridden” Education Secretary DeVos’ plans, though she herself said she was not involved in the decision to zero out the budget for the popular organization.

The last American troops left South Vietnam on this day in 1973. Therefore it’s Vietnam War Veterans Day, proclaimed by President Obama in 2012 and renewed by President Trump in 2017, and if those two agree, we can all agree that it’s worth supporting the men and women who were there. Celebrations are scheduled today at the Portland and Vancouver VA facilities, and today’s a good day to hoist the American flag whether it’s the red or the blue that you salute.

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Traffic alerts! The Burnside Bridge shuts down at 11 tonight and stays that way all weekend. And when it opens in time for the Monday morning commute, it’ll have just one westbound lane heading into downtown, and that’s how it will stay until December. Sounds like a good time to break the Burnside Bridge habit. And: the Arch Bridge between Oregon City and West Linn closes at 7 AM Saturday for electrical work, but it’ll open in plenty of time for lunch at Mi Famiglia.

City Hall has caught OHSU digging a tunnel between buildings…without a permit. They’ve been busily burrowing a pedestrian tunnel connecting clinics and labs on the South Waterfront campus, but work has stopped until permits are dealt with.

At least one and maybe two projects are filming in Portland right now, says The Oregonian’s Kristi Turnquist. For sure there’s a pilot for an ABC show titled “Stumptown,” about a private detective played by Cobie Smulders. And there might be a “Fast and Furious” spinoff shooting here, but they haven’t contacted Oregon Film about available incentives.

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The Dow closed above 10,000 for the first time in history only twenty years ago today. This morning it opens at 25,717.46.

Looks who’s playing casino gigs in Oregon this weekend!

–Grand Funk Railroad–with two original members including Don Brewer, who wrote “We’re an American Band” will play tonight and tomorrow at Chinook Winds. Kinda doubt they’ll run afoul of the hotel detective, but who knows?

–By contrast…Johnny Mathis is at Spirit Mountain tomorrow night.

And we have an interesting concert announcement at 7 AM on K103. I am sworn to secrecy.

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Hey, good news, everybody!

–“Family heirloom turns out to be the world’s largest pearl”

–“Soccer team creates a field of dreams for refugee kids”

–“Inspiring 3-year-old twins with Down syndrome have become social media stars”

–“International Space Station beams special message to kids in hospital.”

–“Cat Helps Struggling Puppy Get Through The Gate”

Links will be in the DD Coffee Cup at the top of the comments, I have faith.

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So a couple of days ago I sprinkled a little La Croix sparkling water onto my MacBook’s trackpad, and the whole computer lost its mind. The next day I brought it to a repair shop in Milwaukie, which has done work for me before, and I was fully braced to lay down a hundred just to have it looked at. Not needed, said the guy. Give it a couple of days and it’ll dry out on its own. Maybe shine a hair dryer on it. So I did…and I’m writing this on that computer right now. They could have charged me money for work I didn’t need…and they didn’t, knowing that I’ll come back next time I have a problem. They are due some love via word-of-mouth. Done. The shop is Nerds-to-Go Computer Service in Milwaukie.

Today I’m navigating to the bucolic college town of Monmouth to act as moderator (and pronunciation murderer) at the Oregon Geography Bee, wherein the 100 best middle school geography students in the state find their way to Western Oregon University, and the top 10 of those face daunting scripted questions from me, and from the likes of me in the 49 other states, about corners of the globe some of us barely know exist. But these students do, and the best one of them will represent Oregon in the National Geographic Bee in May. I’ve been doing this since the 90s, and to this day I am amazed and heartened by the work ethic and intelligence of these young folks.

Have a great weekend..chat soon…