Well, look, it’s Thursday, November 14, 2019! Two weeks until Thanksgiving! Good morning and welcome to the Drip on a day with merely 9-and-a-half hours of sunlight, but that will be gently filtered through clouds and buffed up by a Gorge wind and it’ll be just fine, especially compared to the iceberg that the rest of the continent seems to be. Portland’s high will be 55, and that’s 10 degrees warmer than Galveston and Chattanooga, and 25 more than Skokie, Minnetonka, and Morristown. Sunrise 7:08 AM, sunset 4:41 PM.
A school bus driver who cops say was high on something drove his bus into a ditch near Hagg Lake with ten children aboard yesterday morning. He was going at a pretty good clip, and video shows kids shrieking and tumbling out of their seats. But all seem OK. By nightfall, the story was on newscasts from coast to coast–including the fact that he was arrested for driving under the influence…but not of alcohol.
Portland is vowing to do a better job of keeping people from dying in the cold during the winter to come, but the city needs our help. There are 4,000 people huddling out there every night, and in our town there is no reason for anybody to be freezing to death on the street. That has happened more than once; it forever haunts first responders who’ve seen it. So the call is going out for winter gear, and for shelter volunteers. You can call 211 to find out how to help, or perhaps folks in Dripworld can suggest a group for us to really get behind.
Coupla big votes coming up today by the Multnomah County Commission: launching a study to retrofit or replace the Burnside Bridge so it doesn’t splash into the river when the biggie hits…and boosting the county’s vehicle registration fees from $19 to $56 annually starting in ’21.
Here’s a spot o’good news…PBOT has managed to open a fourth lane on the North Going Street Bridge two weeks earlier than expected! That’s been a time-sucking bottleneck for homeward bound Swan Island workers ever since a train left the rails and crunched the columns two months ago.
The busy bees of PBOT, meantime, cut the ribbon today on Portland’s newest street: SW Bond Avenue, in the South Waterfront district. The new street connects medical facilities and creates a shortcut between the Tilikum Crossing and downtown Portland.
There’ll be something special for Portland viewers of the impeachment proceedings in DC next week, when none other than our local hotelier-turned-ambassador Gordon Sondland hops up onto the griddle at 6 AM Pacific next Wednesday. Unlike yesterday’s witnesses, he’s had repeated direct contact with POTUS on the matter at hand; he’s told both quid and non-quid versions of the Ukraine story, and next week he’ll have a chance to sort it out under oath and on live TV.
Today is the 50th anniversary of the launch of Apollo 12, the second human mission to the surface of the Moon (which sure was spectacular rising last night). Here’s something I just learned….the chief of the Physics Branch for the Apollo Space Program in Houston for that mission and six others, was Donald E. Hagge, Ph.D. Today, he launches fine pinot noirs into the vinosphere from his Vidon Vineyard on Chehalem Mountain outside Newberg. (Nice fellow. I chatted with him the other day for an interview that will air soon about the upcoming Wine Country Thanksgiving tours across the Willamette Valley. I’ll post that next week if somebody’ll remind me).
The Blazers? Oh, the Blazers…they’re 4 and 8…after falling to the Toronto Raptors 114-104.
Is it the end of “Days? “Days of Our Lives,” the popular soap opera whose daily summaries were a staple on Portland radio in the 70s (thanks to a certain Craig Walker), is taking an indefinite hiatus.
Need a sugar rush in the morning, and don’t mind the crash at coffee break time? Post Consumer Brands and Hostess announced a joint venture Wednesday to bring Twinkies Cereal to grocery shelves by late December.
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Something good for your Thursday!
–“Rod Stewart lets the world see his breathtaking completed model railway” (hat tip to Lyndon!)
–“20 drivers stop traffic to rescue dog stranded on busy highway”
–“This Tom Hanks Story Will Help You Feel Less Bad”
–“A man who was addicted to meth befriends the cop who locked him up”
–“Mother-of-three finds out she won lottery just minutes after being told she had beaten breast cancer”
Details in the Coffee Cup..
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Thanksgiving is two weeks from today! Have you ordered your turkey? Did it obey?
Portland's Daily Drip 