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HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE WITH EVELYN BANKO

Last night my wife and I, along with our friends Barry and Phyllis, attended a Holocaust remembrance in the Tigard library.

 

Please join us on the 88th anniversary of Kristallnacht for a witnessing by the local Holocaust survivor Evelyn Banko.
She will be talking about her experiences under Nazi persecution in Austria, and her family’s eventual journey to safety in the US by way of Latvia and the Soviet Union. 
Caution: strong language involving violence and death.
Program presented in partnership with the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education.

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TAKING PART IN FAMILY LIFE

Family life takes time. Ask the Baldwins with their seven kids.
Keep that in mind, you youngsters, when you decide it’s time to join in.
Join the club, the family club, sooner than later.
Why?
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THE TRUTH, GETTING A HANDLE

Getting a handle on the truth shouldn’t be a big hurdle to clear.
All it takes is a little self-awareness.
The truth is your friend if you’re not too sketchy.
Will it set you free? Well . . .
It depends on the sort of shackles your used to.
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‘DOING RESEARCH’ AND OTHER EXCUSES

What counts as doing research?
For writers it’s an easy answer: Everything is research.
And because everything is research, the trick is finding what matters more.
Is it writing about where you are, how you feel, the people you’re with?
The correct answer? All of the above.
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TWO STORIES + ONE MAN = GREAT LITERATURE? OK LEO

Where does great literature come from?
From more than two stories, but first about ‘that man.’
The great literature man.
Where does he come from?
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toughen up

PRE-EXISTING CONDITIONS, pt2: FAMILY TRAUMA

Illness defines family trauma over time and it’s exhausting. Remember the movie Ordinary People? The family dynamic wasn’t defined by illness, but death of a child. It didn’t go well for the emotional state of all. There’s was a sudden adjustment with a lifetime effect. Living with a pre-existing condition, or around others with pre-existing […]

GET STARTED, KEEP IT GOING

Two of the hardest  words to learn in the English language: Get Started. Most get started after they’re told what to do. “Stand up. Put one foot in front of the other. Repeat. Get started now.” It’s that easy and that hard to get started. With the reported obesity epidemic sweeping the nation’s youth why […]

HEALTHCARE BULLY PREYS ON THE WEAKEST

  Any coherent healthcare bully debate needs to go beyond the numbers, the insurance companies. Beyond drug company research and development that puts the BIG in Big Pharma. It’s about who the healthcare bully reaches for in the debate. The most vulnerable, of course. The population currently undergoing severe medical treatment. I’ll use cancer treatment […]

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boomer years

Prince in Portland, Prince Forever

    Laying along East Burnside, Prince looked comfortable. We were going to a show at the Doug Fir Lounge and there he was. It took me back to the Tacoma Dome after seeing Purple Rain when it first came out. Who was Prince? Only the anti-Michael Jackson, and back then it seemed a good […]

Another Moment Of All American Serendipitous Patriotism

    “If you’ve ever wondered what you’d have done had you lived during the era of slavery, the Holocaust, or the Civil Rights Movement — whether you’d have stood & spoken up; whether you’d have intervened to help someone or been complicit in harming them through your silence — you have your answer.   […]

BAD APPS RUNNING HUMAN OPERATING SYSTEM?

3 ways to tell a bad app from good on your own human operating system Consider the human operating system basics, what you demand everyday: If you’re hungry, find food. Too cold? Grab a coat. For a safe night, find a safe shelter. Those are the basics, right? Food. Clothing. Shelter. But not with a […]

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buckle up

DESERT RAIN

A poem in desert rain. Desert Rain From ice to sand the flight landed in coulds so thick the rain sounded like dirt shoveled against a window with a big shovel. All of my sun clothes stay packed until the missing weatherman crawls out of his hole and changes desert rains  to dry desert plains

HILLSDALE BLUEBERRY BREAKFAST: 41 YEARS OF THANKS

    Forty one years of the annual Hillsdale Blue Berry Pancake Breakfast speaks volumes for the community. Business owners turn out and join in the set up, the cooking, and clean up afterward.   Maybe it’s the same everywhere, but maybe not.  For a Portland neighborhood that used to be the Fulton Dairy, it’s […]

FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT DEFINES SHADOW AND LIGHT IN ARIZONA

Look to Frank Lloyd Wright when the world grows too tight. Mr. Wright didn’t plan for jet contrails to cross over his compound in Arizona, did he? If heaven makes plans, and he gets a say, it couldn’t have worked out better during an inspection tour of Taliesin West.  Why else would the white lines in […]

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