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TOM McCALL WATERFRONT PARK SUNDAY

August 19, 2019 by

We’ve heard the same thing all out lives: Get outside. More than once we’ve said it to others. How often do we tell ourselves to ‘get outside?’ That’s what I told myself Sunday and outside meant Waterfront Park in downtown Portland, Oregon. I knew my audience.

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NORTHWEST TRAVEL BETTER THAN ???

July 24, 2019 by

(Any place you’ve seen before.) Start in Portland and drive any direction and I see elevation changes, more shades of green than a box of crayons, and snow capped mountains most of the year. Start in LA and drive any direction and never leave the freeway. Start in Kansas. No one wants to start in […]

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PERFECT FATHER’S DAY PORTLAND PRIDE PARADE

June 17, 2019 by

A Portland pride parade shows the city like no other parade on the schedule. Rose Festival parade, Twilight parade, I’ve seen them. Chinese New Year parade? I’ve walked with the dragons twice. I’m kind of a Portland parade guy. I like walking in the streets without having to watch for cars. The wife and I […]

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BOOK REVIEW: BLACK TAR HEROIN, SAM QUINONES, AND DREAMLAND

June 12, 2019 by

Do Millennials Hear Boomer Parents Talk About Black Tar Heroin And The Damage Done? Sam Quinones Says Not Much. The movie Traffic isn’t about black tar heroin. It’s heroin, though, and shows a group of affluent young people dealing with a friend’s drug overdose. They drop him on the sidewalk outside an Emergency Room and […]

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PORTLAND NBA DREAMS IN DUST BIN AFTER WC FINALS

May 21, 2019 by

Who loses to the World Champions in sport? Everyone. The Portland Trail Blazers were taken out in four games. In three they had a good lead in the third quarter. Fan comment runs from quitting to choking, leaving out the part where the Warriors made them quit and choked them out. One fan keeps a […]

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MOST FEARFUL GENERATION TODAY: INTERVIEW

May 17, 2019 by

And it’s not the big ones The beauty of writing a blog is the feedback from unexpected sources. Most of the reading audience for BoomerPdx is afflicted by the internet ghosts of privacy protection, bashfulness, or worst of all, they’ve forgotten how to work a keyboard, so the feedback I hear is in person, which […]

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CONFLICT RESOLUTION BASIC TRAINING

May 13, 2019 by

I’ll start with a common conflict that needs a few rounds of conflict resolution. Let’s say you have a pile of composed bark dust and six wheel barrows and six shovels and six Scouts doing community service. They signed up for three hours and know how to tell time. The early teens wanted to work, […]

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PORTLAND FUTURE: WHAT TO EXPECT

April 18, 2019 by

What I want to see happen How many times have I driven over the Willamette River and looked at the Eastside thinking of what a Portland future could be? Every time. Early morning works best, especially if you’re leaving town for a short time. When I get back I don’t expect the freeway to be […]

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WHO LIES ABOUT ABANDONING NYC

March 19, 2019 by

I spoke to a woman recently who moved to Portland Oregon from Brooklyn New York, just casual conversation in a Safeway line. We had something in common since I moved here from the same place, though she didn’t start in North Bend Oregon. She was big city all the way with no perspective on the […]

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TINY BEAUTIFUL THINGS LOVE

March 13, 2019 by

The best thing art offers us is revelation. Last night at Tiny Beautiful Things (TBT) was no exception. The worst thing art offers us is truth after the revelation. TBT showed I lack the same empathy gene as Cheryl Strayed. And I was shocked. I love the idea of reaching out in love, of putting […]

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