The heat is on (flames are burning higher)
The heat is on (baby can’t you feel it)
Ear-worming, here, the great tune from the late Glen Frey…
(Tell me can you feel it)
(Tell me can you feel it)
(Tell me can you feel it)
It’s Wednesday, June 12, 2019, and boy howdy were the weather honks right when they said we’d smash some records! Like (or maybe don’t like) 97 in Portland…Troutdale 94…McMinnville 95….and today tastes just about the same. Maybe a noodge more. The NWS tweeted yesterday that “Nature is overachieving.” But bundle up tomorrow: it’ll only be 85. How’d you sleep last night? Lows hovered around 70 in some areas, not exactly what folks in hot climes call “good sleeping weather.” Sunrise is at 5:21 AM for the third straight day, so the early birds are chirping for their breakfast worm smoothies when it’s 4-something in the AM. Birds at this hour seem confused; I’ve been dodging them, and bats, and joggers, on the way in to the radio station at 0515, my new start time. And sunset’s 8:59 PM, ready to hit the bizarrely late 9:00 tomorrow. Such is Solstice life at the upper latitudes.
As the song goes, “See you..in September…” It’s the last day of school in Portland! Whoops…in Portland, we’ll see you on August 28. And other places finish today, too…OC…Salem-Keizer K-5….tell me others….but Vancouver is in for another week. Thanks a lot, February snow days!
OK, this is rich…the Washington County Sheriffs Office reports that somebody was ticketed yesterday—for driving on studded tires. That’ll be a very cool $165.
Just in time for summer, folks in the Lloyd neighborhood are coming together today to keep Holladay Park a safe place to everyone. There’ve been problems of a violent nature there, and a community gathering today–involving groups ranging from police to schools to churches and SOLV, which I suspect is organizing an ongoing spiffup– will launch an effort to “bring a constant presence of prosocial activities and resources to the park in order to engage all citizens, especially our youth.” There’s a noon meeting at the DoubleTree by Hilton, and then afterward everyone’s invited across the street to a BBQ in the park.
Portland’s Cathedral Park is a bit of a mess following the “Take the Bridge” run the other night. Organizers sent up flurries of what they say was biodegradable confetti to set the mood, but they used too much, and it apparently contained plastic as well. Neighbors have been coming over to clean up, amid a flurry of blowback on social media.
Never in the history of FIFA has there been a beatdown like the one the USA Women delivered as they opened the defense of their 2015 World Cup title in Reims, France. There were Portland shoeprints on this 13-nil tromping of Thailand as goals were scored by Portland Thorn Lindsey Horan and University of Portland legend Megan Rapinoe. These women achieved more goals in one game than the USA Men have in their last two World Cups combined. The issue of pay equity is suggesting itself this morning across the internet.
The Portland Timbers are on the road tonight to play the Seattle Sounders.
For several nights, spooky electric blue clouds have glimmered in the high skies during the twilight before dawn and after sundown all up and down the Pacific Northwest. Some of you may have taken photographs. These are rare noctilucent (night shining) clouds that are believed to be ice crystals forming on particles of dust 50 miles high.
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A new 2020 head-to-head national Quinnipiac poll is just out:
Biden 53%, Trump 40%
Sanders 51%, Trump 42%
Harris 49%, Trump 41%
Warren 49%, Trump 42%
Buttigieg 47%, Trump 42%
Booker 47%, Trump 42%
Caveat: Remember 2016.
A lividly eloquent Jon Stewart testified before a half-absent House Judiciary Committee on behalf on the September 11 Victim Compensation Fund, saying “Accountability doesn’t appear to be something that occurs in this chamber…I’m sorry if I sound angry and undiplomatic, but I am angry, and you should be too.” (There are no Oregonians on that committee and one from Washington, and I don’t know if he was present). (And jeers to NPR and other networks who called him “Comedian Jon Stewart”).
A European oak that was presented to President Trump by the president of France and planted in the South Lawn of the White House as a symbol of the longstanding French-American alliance has died. President Emmanuel Macron hastens to disclaim any metaphor, saying, “One shouldn’t see symbols where there are none.
Today would have been President George H.W. Bush’s 95th birthday…and a “Forever” postage stamp will be unveiled in his honor.
This was the day in 1987 when President Reagan stood outside the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin alongside the ugly East-West barrier and demanded of the Soviet leader, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” I asked our tour guide in Berlin to point out the exact spot where Reagan stood, and he couldn’t–it’s now a busy boulevard–but he did want to talk about “Portlandia.”
”Progressive radio talk show host Thom Hartmann–who sometimes nosed his Prius with Maine plates into a spot next to my Subaru when he did his program from Portland—comes back to town tonight to promote his latest book, “The Hidden History of Guns and the Second Amendment” at Powell’s City of Books at 7:30 p.m.
Tuneful 20-year-old Canadian phenom Shawn Mendes fills up the Moda Center tonight with songs you might not know because the kids had them pumping into their earbuds when they were doing their homework. But they’re really listenable! (High-altitude seats still available).
It was 25 years ago today that OJ Simpson allegedly committed the murders of which he was acquitted.
Diarist and witness-to-the-worst Ann Frank began her 15 years of life 90 years ago today.
A judge in Argentina has ordered a man to pay his ex-wife $179,000 after she gave up her business career so she could clean house and raise kids.
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TMSG. Details in the Coffee Cup.
–“Come on up, Puppy!”
–“First female chief in Malawi annulled 850 child marriages, sends girls to school”
–“This disabled boy always wanted to go on a bike ride, but couldn’t – then a kind neighbour made it happen”
–“Photographer Builds Adorable Tiny Log Cabins in His Backyard to Keep Mouse Families Safe From Cats”
–“‘Absolutely amazing’: Airline brings in empty plane to fly students stranded in OKC airport”
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Who’s got a hot-weather story from yesterday to share?
Portland's Daily Drip 