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Run Away From Home, Family, Life. But To Where?

If you were lucky growing up you couldn’t run away. Well you could, but would you end up someplace better?   My hometown is North Bend, Oregon. I attended the same grade school, junior high, and high school all in the same school district. So did most of my graduating class.   We didn’t hear […]

Wellness Luxury: Feeling Good For Doing Good Again

To do good you don’t have to feel good. If you do it’s a wellness luxury, an expression I just made up. Google wellness luxury. This isn’t that sort of post.   Take mental health for example. Nothing makes any difference to you? No one cares about you? Feeling earful about the future? Feeling sad […]

Jenny Forrester Widens The River, Brightens The Sky

  On a night of ash falling across Portland, Willamette Writers gathered inside the Old Church. Wildfires be damned, they came and listened to Jenny Forrester talk about her burning memoir, Narrow River, Wide Sky.   I’ve never been more prepared to hear an author talk it out. First because my exchange student came with […]

Leadership Luxury Between Laws And Lies

    Leadership luxury on boomerpdx say if you testify in court you do it after being sworn in with the same words as anyone else who ever testified in court. I know this from watching TV, since I’ve never testified. Which I believe is a credit to the people and places I know and […]

Blog Relaunch Shoots Blanks, Misses Writing Target

    Thinking of starting a blog, relaunching a blog? Good.   If you’re a writer, then I’m talking to you. Whether you dabble with words, put a few things on paper, or carve out time to organize the book you’ve been writing the past few years, it’s you.   The world of bloggers, columnists, […]

Portland Hearts Beat On Broadway, The Rest Of The City Keeps Time

  Portland hearts come in all shapes and sizes, all conditions and configurations. Like Portland, one size doesn’t fit all. Some arrive overwhelmed by the bigness of the big city. Buildings so tall and shiny dwarf pedestrians used to their own town. Try explaining Portland size in relation to the big big cities. Drop it […]

Portland Italian Festival, Portland Haute Couture

    Not Little Italy, but Big Italy, Portland’s Italian Festival swinging in the biggest living room in Oregon, Pioneer Square.   Food, beer, and music mix to show the city in the best light possible, like an Italian chandelier.   Is it fun? Educational? Mesmerizing? All of that along with beautiful Italian women in […]

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 […]

TURNING PORTLAND INTO A STOP ON THE WAY TO SEATTLE

Turning Portland skyline The First Interstate Tower and Big Pink set a future that didn’t happen. Concerned citizens got a break before turning Portland into mini-Seattle One tall building was enough, or so the thought went, but two is better? Because they’re bookends instead of standing side by side, the space between them look as […]

ABIQUA FALLS DREAMSCAPE, OREGON TREASURE

  Who knew of the Abiqua Falls dreamscape? The last thing a know-it-all wants is something new, something they don’t know. It’s a problem for some, a challenge for others. A short walk to a river and waterfall? That’s what the listings say, but not if you like your car. Then it’s a longer walk, […]