Hello, testing! Is this thing on? Squeak!! Yes! Hi! It’s Wednesday, October 2, 2019, and here comes the Daily Drip, trying to find its way into your news feed! Facebook’s goofing with us again, but at least we’re not working at the White House, where a mouse dropped out of the ceiling and onto the lap of an NBC reporter during a briefing yesterday. Squeak! Anyway! It’s been another cool night with clear skies, and current temps are in the 40-ish range. Clouds will crowd in as the day goes along, and we’ll see a 62 degree high before light rain starts tapping on your roof in the late afternoon. Sunrise 7:10 AM, sunset 6:49 PM.
We love good news, and here’s some! The 2019 Forest Fire season has been declared officially over in Oregon, and at only 99 days, it was the shortest in the 21st century. Compared to the previous two this summer was a sweet one.
Summertime is hanging on hard in the East, with 90-plus temps today from New York to DC. In fact, 18 states will have record highs.
An enormous iceberg bigger than the combined areas of Multnomah, Clackamas, Washington, Marion, Clark, and Cowlitz Counties has broken off from the ice shelf in Antarctica, and will now be tracked as a shipping hazard.
Oregon’s oldest city is cheering the capture of a guy who admits that he’s the one who’s been driving around before dawn sprinkling roofing nails onto the streets, causing blowouts and slow leaks and lots of trips to Les Schwab. And not just in Oregon City; police say 56-year-old Bret Michael Wilson admits to having done the same throughout the Portland metropolitan area. He just hasn’t said why.
This is Homecoming Week at Franklin High, but spirits are low over the loss of a beloved and respected school counselor, 58-year old Hoang Minh Tran. As a teenager, he fled from Vietnam in 1975, and made a life for himself and his family in the Portland area. In his free time he loved to sail his boat “Kiwanda”, and over the weekend he set out from Newport, but a storm arose and he never made it back to shore. The Coast Guard out of Yaquina Bay found him yesterday morning.
Our famous Portland Building opened this day in 1982. Celebrated for its postmodern (I don’t really know what that means, either) architectural design, it always reminded me of a festively wrapped sample from a box of candies. You never know what you’re going to get. This one turned out to be lemon. Overseen by Mayor Frank Ivancie, the city built it on the cheap for under $29 million, and problems soon became evident. Windows leaked. Puddles appeared. Things seemed out of plumb; pencils rolled off tables. Its seismic resistance was doubtful. So it’s now two years into a three-year (we hope) rebuild–at a cost now passing $200 million. And the new look includes an aluminum overcladding that should stop the water intrusion but will likely result in the building’ s delisting from the National Register of Historic Places. At least the newly unfurled and polished up statue of Portlandia is standing the test of the decades.
I wrote these words in the Daily Drip of October 2, 2018, one year ago today. “Let’s raise together a Trail Blazer/Seahawks/rock-and-roll cheer to Paul Allen, who tweeted the following: “Recently, I learned the non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma I battled in 2009 has returned. I’ve begun treatment & my doctors are optimistic that I will see a good result. Appreciate the support I’ve received & count on it as I fight this challenge.” Paul is just 65, and let’s hope he hangs many more championship banners, and funds many more good works.” Two weeks later, he was gone.
Today marks one year since the murder of Saudi journalist and Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, in a country, one of our allies, where a free press does not exist.
It’s an evening with Al Franken, tonight at Revolution Hall. Tickets are sold out, and the show’s still on. I hope and believe he won’t shy away from speaking of the latest report on his loutish behavior in the past. Did these guys think they swore an Oaf of Office?
Happy birthday to Portland television anchorman, and a longtime pal o’ mine, KOIN’s Jeff Gianola! And the same to former KXL news guy Gregg Hersholt, now anchoring mornings at Seattle’s KOMO. Over the weirdly long span of our careers we’ve worked at “enemy” stations–even as far back as Seattle’s rock-and-roll KING vs KJR days—but we’ve always been buds. Happy birthday, dude.
The Twilight Zone premiered 60 years ago tonight on CBS. Episode One was named…any guesses? Answer in the paragraph below TMSG.
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I particularly love the Tell Me Something Good stories in today’s Daily Drip Coffee Cup!
–“‘I kept going’: Nine-year-old enters 5km race … and accidentally wins 10km event”
–“Kroger Donates Closed Store Building To Local Competitor To Prevent A Food Desert”
–“Speedy Guide Dog Helps Owner Commute to N.Y.C. Every Day: ‘He’s My Black Lab-orghini'”
–“In Nashville, every public-school student in grades 3–12 is automatically signed up for a library card”.
–“This ex-con started her popcorn business while in prison. Now, it’s blowing up”
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“Where is Everybody?”
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