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BASIC APPRECIATION OF COMMON THINGS

A basic appreciation is important for context.
Things are usually more complicated than they seem.
A brick is a brick, just some fired up mud, until you see them working together.
In the hands of a skilled craftsman, a brick is a jewel.
What else deserves a second look? A towel rack.
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TALKING DOWN TO SOMEONE? WHY

How can you tell when someone is talking down to you?
It might be the clarification questions you ask that gets them annoyed to the point of explaining everything a few times, very slowly.
Or it might their regular way of communicating.
Which leads to more questions, like, “Why be a jerk?
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FALLING LEAVES OF AUTUMN

Falling leaves are the rule of the season.
The only place without a carpet of leaves is a parking garage.
But that’s Oregon, famous for trees.
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toughen up

HAVE A HEART MONTH

BOOMERPDX REVIEWS THE CELEBRITY PUMP FIXER-UPPER In everyday life people tell of their heart problems in two ways. 1. “I had a procedure. No big deal.” Or, 2. “My heart problem changed my life.” Both are viable, though one is a wake up call. Grandpa died of a heart attack in the early 60’s. Dad […]

HAES AND THE NATUROPATHIC DOCTOR

What is HAES? So glad you asked. Health at Every Size might sound like a New Age phenomena, but it’s not. It started in the baby boomer days of the 1960’s. If you missed it between Save The Trees and Save The Earth, others didn’t. People have always come in all sizes, however shaming is […]

CIGARETTE SMOKE ‘EM IF YOU GOT ‘EM? DON’T DO IT

    Tobacco and cigarette smoke, the stuff of dreams and nightmares.   The dream part comes first. Light a stick and enjoy. All you’ve got to do is breath in, breath out, and watch the cigarette smoke curl into shapes. Later comes the nightmare part, the regret, the tubes, the hospital smell, the faces […]

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boomer years

HOW BABY BOOMERS PUSHED WOMEN’S HEALTH

Even in 2016 women’s health is a hot button topic? 1973, the year of de-criminalized marijuana and Roe v Wade. What could go wrong? The counter culture had been rolling for years with people moving to Haight Ashbury, joining communes, going to music festivals. More than one family saw their little girl hop into a […]

INTERPRETING AARP’S TOP TEN BABY BOOMER ALBUMS

A Top Ten list never includes everyone’s picks, but who doesn’t trust AARP? They’ve got their finger on the public pulse, especially the public with silver threads running through their hair paint like mine. It’s a nice list with a few omissions which I’ll add toward the end of this Portland baby boomer take. For younger readers I’ll list […]

BABY BOOMERS ENJOY HOT YEARS HOLDING ONTO THINGS

First we Hold Onto Things to stand up, then Hold Onto Things to stay up. Hot sounds good. A hot dinner. A hot rod. A hot shot. Hot is a difference maker. Hot is cool, until it’s not. Growing up baby boomer was cool when the Sixties were hot, but how cool could you be […]

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buckle up

WOODEN BOATS, EARTH DAY, DEPOE BAY, OREGON CRAB. AND BEER

What do you call fooling around with wooden boats? Fun. That’s what Ratty says: “There is nothing — absolutely nothing — half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats. In or out of ’em, it doesn’t matter. Nothing seems really to matter, that’s the charm of it. Whether you get away, or […]

NW Boomer Travel, pt.1

The Oregon Alps If you look back at Portland from LaGrande, the miles pile up. But you’re not done. You can’t drive to the Swiss Alps on Interstate 84, but the Oregon Alps are a tank of gasoline away. Look for highway 82 and read the signs to Joseph.

BROADWAY ROSE MAMMA MIA: I WENT AGAIN AND LIKED IT MORE IF THAT’S POSSIBLE

    The first time I saw Mamma Mia: The Play, Kevin Pritchard still worked for the Portland Trail Blazer. It was about six years back when Portland had a guy who built the Blazers by ‘Pritch Slapping’ the NBA before he got fired for too much ‘Pritch Slapping.’   Mamma Mia: Touring Broadway Show […]

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