Good morning! Hope you parked your fuzzy slippers by the bedside, because your footums are hitting a chilly floor on this Monday, September 30, 2019. It’s in the high 30s to low 40s at 0400, but expected to drop before dawn. Portland’s weather will be bright and brisk, with temps rising to 58, but there might be a frosty crunch to the early morning grass in outlying precincts. The sun pokes up alongside Mt. Hood at 7:07 AM and sinks into the sea at 6:53 PM, and we’re subtracting three minutes of daylight every day. Five weeks from now will be our first Monday of Standard Time. Timberline already has 11 inches of snow!
It was quite an “agreeable” weekend around here, as two major impending strikes were tentatively settled at the bargaining table without a single picket line going up. Good. I’ve never crossed a picket line and never will. Thousands of SEIU university employees around Oregon and even more UFCW grocery workers appeared bound for strike duty, and we’re delighted that instead, they’ll be doing the jobs where they’re truly needed. The weekend settlements followed the news late last week that Kaiser employees up and down the West Coast had also reached an agreement, dodging a health care strike that would have affected thousands of patients. And because of the Daily Drip readers who tipped me off to the settlements, I’m pretty sure we were way out front of most other media on all of these. Cool!
With the downstream locks at Bonneville Dam fixed, and a 23-day shutdown of the West’s most important river finally over, we’ll now see a floating parade of Tidewater and Shaver barges hauling high-quality soft white Oregon wheat to the Port of Portland’s Terminal 5, and from there, to markets around the world. Thankfully it was only a temporary breakdown in a well-oiled supply chain; one barge is equal to 120 truckloads, and growers say that’s by far the most fuel-efficient way to transport wheat.
Well, dagnabbit! Henry’s Tavern has shut down! That’s been a watering hole packed with thirsty downtowners for 15 years; Bruce Murdock and I shared a sasparilla there before the Starlight Parade just last June (and I left my debit card there; they returned it safely). But the roots of its 12th and West Burnside location go back to pre-Civil War days, when St. Henry Weinhard himself (well, he should be sainted!) brewed the suds that fueled the dreams and labors of the bewhiskered town fathers of Stumptown, whose names live on in streets, parks, and Simpsons episodes.
And now Dish has dropped Fox! Viewers hate it when satellite providers deprive them of viewing choices. One more reason to cut the cable.
“Cheers” premiered on NBC on this night in 1982. I think of this space as Cheers-like. I’ll be Sam; which one are you?
Happy 53rd birthday to Oregon House Speaker Tina Kotek (1966), and to Portland City Commissioner Nick Fish (and my fellow finalist, along with Jerome Kersey, in the Schoolhouse Supplies Celebrity Spelling Bee in 2015) who turns 61. Stomach cancer, with which he was diagnosed two years ago, has a formidable foe in Nick Fish. Did you know that his father was New York Congressman Hamilton Fish, a Republican member of the House Judiciary Committee who voted for articles of impeachment against Richard Nixon in 1974? Nick has Chairman Peter Rodino’s gavel from the impeachment hearing on his office wall at Portland City Hall.
Capitol Hill Democrats are set to fast-track the impeachment inquiry into President Trump, with the first subpoenas issued today, maybe, and hearings expected this week.
Not a great day for the Portland Thorns, who fell 2-0 to Reign FC in Tacoma, denying our local favorites a home playoff game for the first time since 2015. Worse, star midfielder Lindsey Horan left the field on a stretcher after a collision with another player. And the match between the Portland Timbers and Sporting KC ended in a 2-2 draw, so they still haven’t clinched a playoff spot.
The Seahawks are back to their winning ways, and their next game is Thursday night, so the weekend begins early!
MLB playoff brackets are set; October Madness begins with the NL Wild Card game tomorrow, Brewers at Nationals, after the Cardinals won their division on the last day of the season.
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Let’s begin the week with these interesting and uplifting stories from the Daily Drip Coffee Cup.
–“Kids Give Mom Sweet Surprise When She Finishes Her Dissertation”
–“How Two Oz-Obsessed Midwesterners Made Judy Garland’s Birthplace a Museum”
–“Half of people are now surviving “untreatable” cancers thanks to immunotherapy”
–“HIKER STRANDED FOR TWO DAYS WITH BROKEN LEG SAYS DOG HELPED GET HER RESCUED” (Their caps are stuck, not mine)
–“Dog Provides Quality Entertainment For Passenger On Flight”
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Marking the start of the Jewish New Year, the celebration of Rosh Hashanah began at sunset last night, and ends at sunset on Tuesday. Shanah Tovah u’metuka! Which means, “Have a Good and Sweet Year!” Or at least a tolerable Monday!
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