The train’s pulled into the Friday station, friends, and here’s where I hop off for a little while. But first, one last Daily Drip for August 16, 2019! Portland and the valleys will see the clouds hanging around until early afternoon, with a slight chance of morning rain or drizzle, and highs of 65 to 70. Same for tomorrow. But probably no well-timed downpours. Sunrise moves to 6:12 AM, and sunset’s now at 8:16 PM, which is perfect for libations on the deck!
Quick news about our planet…
We’ve had one of our little offshore earthquakes…magnitude 3.8, around midnight, west of Coos Bay.
NOAA says July was the hottest month measured on Earth since records began in 1880.
The foreign minister of Greenland says the island is “Open for business but not for sale.” This follows the Wall Street Journal report that “President Trump has, with varying degrees of seriousness, repeatedly expressed interest in buying the ice-covered island.”
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It’s fair to say our town is on edge this weekend, with several distinct factions set on making their point–and creating what they hope will become viral video evidence to support that point. We’ve got the fringe right, starring boisterous out-of-towners, hopped up on talk radio and eager to prove the left are terrorists by provoking them. We’ve got the left, encompassing the whole local rainbow, from the staunch and antiviolent Trump resistance, all the way to the masked Antifa which can and will inflict damage and injury. And we’ve got the mayor and the police chief, with every cop on the payroll on duty, needing to show that they can, after all, do what they say is their job: protecting free speech while stopping violence in its tracks. There are wildcards a-plenty. Fox News ran a banner saying that “All Hell Will Break Loose in Portland.” Some would like that to happen. And it’s taking place under a national media microscope that includes both legitimate journalists and partisan platforms, together with the whole spectrum of opinion-based social media which will probably drive the perceptions of how it all turns out.
In a not-at-all unrelated development, the Multnomah County DA’s office has filed felony charges against Joey Gibson, the leader of Vancouver’s Patriot Prayer, for one of the violent episodes earlier this year. And a couple of guys on the other side have been picked up as well. The message, to any combatants this weekend, is that if you come to Portland and you engage in violence, be ready to experience incarceration in our fair city. It’s time to make that promise good.
For everyone else…stay clear of the government-blocks area between SW 4th and the Waterfront. Check radio or your traffic apps for street closures. Be ready for disruptions in traffic or transit….but go about your world.
This could be a defining moment for Portland.
And there’s a full moon.
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Other happenings, briefly….
There’s a forest fire in Lane County’s Mt. Pisgah, a popular recreation area. It’s closed for now.
If you get a chance to find it on their web site (since lots of us satellite subscribers no longer get Channel 6), KOIN does a nice story about how a Japanese garden has been created by inmates within the walls of the Oregon State Penitentiary–with the help of the people behind the famed Japanese Garden in Portland.
And…there’s both a book club and quilting lessons for the women prisoners at Coffee Creek.
Well, here’s a point of pride…an insurance company’s analysis of millions of traffic infractions reveals that Gresham drivers have the 13th worst driving record of any city in the country, and certainly the worst in Oregon.
NASCAR figure Dale Earnhardt Jr. and his family were in a plane that ran off a runway and caught fire alongside a highway yesterday in Tennessee. He, his wife and young daughter, along with the two pilots, are all fine.
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We lost Aretha Franklin one year ago today. And it’s the day Elvis Presley died in 1977.
Tonight was supposed to be the kickoff of ZZ Top’s 50th-anniversary tour at the Sunlight Supply Amphitheater in Ridgefield…but the show’s been scrubbed because the drummer has pneumonia.
Taj Mahal and Marc Cohn play at the Oregon Zoo tonight, and Herbie Hancock tomorrow. Big Pink Martini does concerts at Edgefield.
Earl Blumenauer, who as a boyish prodigy politician was elected to the Oregon Legislature at 25, turns 71 today. He ran for mayor against Vera Katz and lost, but now he and his bowtie collection have been in Congress for 23 years.
The Portland Thorns play the Washington Spirit tomorrow night at Providence Park, and that’s the place to be. Or…
Charlie & the Chocolate Factory is playing at the Keller. Plenty of seats remain.
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Something good, before we go on our late-summer break?
–“12-year-old Oklahoma boy breaks into hot car to save toddler locked inside”
–“50 Years After They Met at Woodstock, Couple Finally Finds a Photo of Their First Hours Together”
–“Lawn guy offers to adjust mowing schedule for neighbor who’s an officer working graveyard shift”
–“12-Year-Old Boy Guides Ambulance Over Flooded Bridge”
–“The remarkable couple who met in a care home and defied the odds to find love, a family of their own and a successful business”
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That’s that for now. We’ll crank up some Dripster threads while I’m away, and I’ll keep an eye on things this weekend and report in when needed.
So one more air shift with Bruce and Janine, and I’ll head off on vacation, not wanting to talk overmuch on this nefarious social media platform about exactly where and when. Plenty of time away, but plenty of time at home, in the Northwest, in America, still and all the place I feel overwhelmingly blessed to call home. We’ll fix it. We always do.
Au revoir pour maintenant!
Portland's Daily Drip 