page contents Google

MIDDLE EASTERN EASTER MOMENTS IN OREGON

How you see your middle eastern Easter moments reveal your true self. Do you like it? If you’ve been to a big box store, you know the drill. Get a huge cart, fill it up, pack it into your car and go home. This was one of those trips to Costco. Nothing unusual. At first. […]

PORTLAND BORN, PORTLAND WED, PORTLAND WORLD pt 2

Every marriage has a beginning. This is one of them. Portland Born, Portland Wed. I met my wife in early 80’s NW Portland. She was a new professional starting her first practice next to my apartment building. I should say my studio apartment, a sort of mini-pad that’s all the rage with the kids these […]

BABY BOOMER WEDDING HISTORY

Like most history, baby boomer wedding history has at least two sides. Just the words baby boomer wedding history pops up the 1960’s classic image of the Woodstock couple standing in the mud. Or the times I best manned my brothers’ weddings in the 70’s and they co-best manned mine in the 80’s. Three decades […]

CDC SAYS OPIOIDS SHOULDN’T BE FIRST CHOICE? THAT HURTS.

Pain relief moves from legal heroin to physical therapy, exercise, and over the counter pills? Who knew? I wrote a post about an author’s reading called BLACK TAR HEROIN, SAM QUINONES, AND DREAMLAND. Sam Quinones showed up in Powell’s City of Books and talked about pill mills supplying zombie customers with their opioid prescriptions; about […]

MUSEUM ARTIFACTS DON’T BELONG IN TOILETS

If you have something worthy of a museum artifacts collection, keep it safe. A museum joke that bears repeating: This is George Washington’s hatchet he used to chop down the cherry tree. The handle’s been replaced six time, the head four, but it represents the same space. Funny stuff. I think it came from Saturday […]

PORTLAND SUPER BOWL PRIMER WITH CHINESE NEW YEAR

Oregon Historical Society celebrates Chinese New Year before Portland Super Bowl. The Super Bowl date has been set for years. The only mystery is who will play the game. Unless you live in Portland, Oregon. Then you have more to do besides grill some cow and chug beers. In Portland you need something special before […]

STREET FIGHTING MAN, OR PUSH OVER

Breaking up a street fight doesn’t take a street fighting man. My reward for breaking up a street fight was a punch in the face. Street fighting is a personal thing, apparently one you shouldn’t interfere with. Except when it’s in your neighborhood. And it’s a man beating a woman. Then it gets personal. City […]

MALHEUR BLUES

Malheur Blues (inspired by Bad Moon Rising)   Out on the Malheur Reservation Some men are getting set to die Surrounded by national attention Who now are asking questions why   Don’t drive after dark Leave your truck in park Don’t make yourself an easy mark   Pull out your pocket Constitution Demand that you […]

YOU KNOW YOU MADE A WRONG TURN WHEN…

How often do we get warnings when we make the wrong turn? The #oregonstandoff took a wrong turn or two in the past month, but they’re not alone. How to respond when you learn a wrong turn could be a life saver? A wrong turn happens on foot, in cars, relationships. When things go wrong, […]

FIRE ON THE HIGHWAY

(Inspired by Marshall Tucker’s Fire on the Mountain)   Left my family on my Arizona land Drove to Oregon with a loosely laid plan Winter’s cold there and life is hard Sometimes I wish I was in my sweet desert yard   Now there’s fire on the highway One man laying dead We tried to […]