(Hang on a second while I take off the earbuds…listening to “Free Bird”)
There! OK! Good morning and welcome to the Daily Drip for a full-moon-Wednesday, December 11, 2019. Rainy and windy, is how it’ll be, with a steady downpour swinging inland around midday, and a sure-fire soaker tonight. It’s been dry for a while, so we’re probably safe from any river flooding, but your sump pump may be thumping by morning. And there’s a strong potential for sneaker waves on the coast. Sunrise 7:40 AM, sunset at 4:27 PM.
The last full moon of the year is at 9:12 tonight. Almanacs say it’s the called Cold Moon, also the Longest Night Moon and the Moon before Yule.
Healing wishes from all of us are on their way to Portland City Commissioner Nick Fish, a great guy whose two-year combat with abdominal cancer has become more complicated, as he explained on Twitter, and he’s taking what’s left of December off.
We lost Portland’s three-term mayor Vera Katz two years ago today.
Dozens of folks turned out in the rainy dusk to rally against ODOT’s Rose Quarter Freeway project moving ahead without a real examination of its environmental impact on the neighborhood.
Surprising news in the Portland grocery world as New Seasons, the favorite of many friends here, has been sold to a South Korean company. That niche is being squeezed by Amazon’s takeover of Whole Foods.
In-N-Out, the California burger favorite that has a cult-like following–some say because it’s nostalgia food for Californians–opens its Keizer Station location tomorrow. They’ll be slammed. Is it worth the hype? When I have time–and I’ll soon have time–I promise to do some in-depth reporting!
There’s a good chance that New Zealand’s White Island volcano could erupt again today.
Today is the 31st anniversary of the day the House Judiciary Committee approved articles of impeachment against President Bill Clinton. Members of that same committee have put together similar articles against Donald Trump, and they’ll be voted on soon. Looks like a Senate trial in January.
Six people, including a police detective, were killed in a shootout at a New Jersey kosher grocery store. Investigators are trying to determine if the attack was motivated by hate.
One year ago today, people reacted with sadness and shock to the news that a survivor of the Holocaust, who made his home in the Portland area and spoke hundreds of times at schools across the region, lost his life when he was hit by a car in Hillsboro. Alter Wiener, 92, was struck while crossing Century Boulevard at Brighton Street. Wiener was 15 when German troops overran his hometown in Poland. He was 18 when he was freed from a labor camp in May 1945. He lost over 100 family members in the Holocaust, and saw horrible things, and spent the last sixteen years speaking publicly on behalf of the Oregon Holocaust Resource Center. He summed up his message this way: “All the problems that we have in the world today come from the same root of prejudice. It’s senseless. Prejudice and stereotyping are absurd. We are all God’s children.”
************************
Good news in the Daily Drip Coffee Cup!
–“Company surprises its 198 employees with $10 million holiday bonus”
–“This former bank robber was just sworn in as a lawyer — by the same judge who once sent him to prison”
–“Elon Musk revives his plan to power the United States entirely on solar: “All you need is a 100 by 100 mile patch in a deserted corner of Arizona, Texas or Utah (or anywhere) to more than power the entire USA.”
–“Doughnut shopkeep’s viral Yelp response is sweet news”
–“Cyclist Spends 9 Hours Pedaling Around London To Create An Image Of A Reindeer On A Fitness App”
*****
To all who have written and commented…thank you so very much! If I haven’t responded personally yet, I’m trying to. Lotsa to say in the next week and a half. Let’s make this a good time!
Portland's Daily Drip 