BAR RAG REPORT: HIGHER EDUCATION AND MORE

This Bar Rag Report is brought to you from the the last bar stool on the left.

It’s the best perch to see and hear about the events of the day.

And then some.

“My kid wants to go to college out of state to the tune of $65,000 a year.”

“Ivy League?”

“No, a state school, just not this state. She wants to live in a luxury apartment in a resort location.”

“Does’t sound like college to me. What about finding the cheapest apartment you’ll ever live in and just go to class?”

“That’s what I did.”

“Where did you go to school?”

“Portland State.”

“Go Vikings. Me too. My kids are older now, but the old bar rag said if you want to get a degree you could live at home, go to PCC, transfer to Portland State, and come out with the same degree you’d get anywhere else.”

“I got a bachelor’s in business.”

“And look at you today, running three businesses. To show your kid you’re all about higher education make a request. Ask her to get a double degree in business and Econ with a certificate in international business and a minor in Spanish. See what she says to that load.”

“She could handle it.”

“Living in a luxury apartment and going to a resort school might be tough.”

“Maybe too tough. It would be for me.”

“Same. And watch out of academic counselors who say, “We encourage our students to take an extra year to be certain of their major choices.””

“They say that?”

“That’s what they said at Oregon.”

“We’re looking at Oregon.”

“Tell her she can go to a resort college for her MBA when the job she’ll get pays for it.”

Bar Rag Guitar Talk

“I heard you got a new guitar.”

“It’s a Breedlove? Do you know anything about guitars?”

“I played a Breedlove at Guitar Center once. It was made in China. I thought they were all American made.”

“The higher end are American made.”

“My kid’s got a Breedlove. Do you know why?”

“I know why, but tell me anyway.”

“Instead of finding the sound he wanted in an expensive guitar and trying to match it and ending up with a roomful of guitars, we saved birthdays and Christmas presents for a few years and he got the one guitar above all others.”

“A Breedlove?”

“As it turned out, yes, instead of a Gibson, a Taylor, or a Martin. How many guitars do you have?”

“Too many, a roomful, a wall full, and I just added a new one.”

“A Breedlove.”

“Made out of Myrtlewood.”

“Myrtlewood? The same wood found in southwest Oregon?

“The same.”

“Like salad bowl and cribbage board myrtlewood? How does it play?”

“Like a dream.”

Bar Rag Asks The Weed Question

“When will Oregon allow cannabis in a tap room?”

“It’s up to the OLCC, the Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission.”

“Don’t you mean the Oregon Liquor Control Commission?”

“What I mean is Oregon will not go full Amsterdam until the OLCC says so.”

“Even with weed stores spreading like Starbucks.”

“Right? Drive through weed stores.”

“Some states have drive through liquor stores.”

“Not here. They want to see you walk in and handle your business before they sell you booze.”

“People can walk out to the weed store, score a lid, then come back. Wouldn’t it be easier with one stop shopping?”

“No one is scoring a lid. What decade do you come from? Anyway, it makes sense to give people what they want.”

“Would you go to a combo tap house and weed shop?”

“Weed shop or smoke house.”

“Both.”

“Probably not. No one needs to drive off after a few beers and bowls. And it’s too far to walk.”

“But if you lived nearby?”

“Look around the room and tell me these people could handle their cross fade.”

“Those rowdy women are taking a walk around the corner and doing just fine.”

“They’ve got their driver figured out. Look at that guy. I think he’s upped his game the wrong way and doesn’t need anything more.”

“He never looks right. Got a little too much twitch going on.”

“Yeah, something’s going on. And this is where weed gets a bad rap. First it’s a Schedule One drug. Let me read you something:

Under the federal Controlled Substances Act, marijuana is currently categorized as a Schedule 1 drug – that is, a drug with high potential for abuse with no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the U.S. Despite the growing number of states that legalize marijuana for medicinal purposes or recreational use, it remains a federal offense to cultivate, manufacture, distribute, sell, purchase, possess, or use marijuana.”

“Sobering.”

“Isn’t it? Then a guy gets busted for doing something stupid and they find meth, cocaine, LSD, and weed in their system. Which one doesn’t fit?”

“I’ll tell you what does fit. A myrtlewood guitar.”

“Would you call it a myrtlewood guitar or a $2000 guitar?”

“Same thing. And deciding whether or not to buy one is why we go to college.”

“Improves judgement?”

“Establishes priorities.”

“Sets an agenda.”

“Like another beer kind of agenda?”

“Just like that. Let me check my list first. Yes, another beer is on it. Last one.”

“I thought you were staying until your wife called, and I haven’t heard your phone.”

“We don’t need phones to talk.”

“Okay then. Cheers.”