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NEW YORK, NEW YORK? COME ON NEW YORK

April 19, 2020 by

Doing the right thing in New York is the same as doing the right thing in Oregon: Stay home, keep a social distance. My social distance from NYC is 3000 miles away, but it wasn’t always that way. Frank said it best:

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HISTORY SPEAKS IN A LOUD VOICE FROM A ROOF TOP

April 4, 2020 by

History speaks in a loud voice, sometimes too loud. And if it tells something uncomfortable, the only thing louder is denial. A boompdx reader checked in to ask about the Fox Theater posts. Why all the Broadway posts. “All two of them?” I said.

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OLD PORTLAND BECAME NEW PORTLAND RIGHT AFTER I MOVED THERE

April 2, 2020 by

The term Old Portland usually applies to the city with pictures of a flood, like the flood of 1861, or the floods of 1894, 1948, 1996. By the way, it rains in Oregon, sometimes a lot. Will that ever change? No, but attitudes will change, have changed. But that’s not the Old Portland on boomerpdx.

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CORONAVIRUS SAFETY: PSA FOR THE VIGILANT

March 24, 2020 by

A boomerpdx fan asked about Coronavirus safety, and how this platform could help. “Have you written a Public Service Announcement on Coronavirus safety,” he asked. I said I had not; he said I should. I agreed. Here are a few Coronavirus safety ideas to pass around. First, for Men:

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OREGON HISTORICAL: JOB THREE OF FIVE

March 21, 2020 by

Oregon Historical is the third of a five part series inspired by a twitter post asking to list five jobs. From mill work, to army medic, a museum job was a perfect fit. The idea started from three thousand miles away.

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PORTLAND WAY ON A CLEAR SUNDAY: WHAT DID YOUR TOWN LOOK LIKE

March 10, 2020 by

The Portland way means something different to everyone who crosses the city line. But the Portland way is the same thing for everyone who lived here and left. People miss Portland more than they thought they would. Why is that? Please proceed.

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LOVE RULES ON PORTLAND PARK BLOCKS AND BLACK HEARTS

March 4, 2020 by

It was a dark and stormy night for love rules? No, not stormy, but dark, and I was in a certain space somewhere between regret and remorse. So maybe it was stormy after all, my own little shower of despair. It started with a conversation inside a Willamette Writers meeting, which is always a challenge. […]

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GRACELESS BEHAVIOR: APOLOGIZING FOR MALE PATTERN RUDENESS

February 20, 2020 by

What better example of graceless behavior than an old man stealing a seat from women? Yes, it’s a small thing, but still a symptom of a greater ill. Graceless behavior is not about equal rights.

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BEARD LIFE: WHY ADDING OREGON HISTORY TO THE STORY MATTERS

February 15, 2020 by

In the middle of every February it’s always the same: Oregon’s birthday, Valentine’s Day, and a celebration of beard life all at the same time. This year I brought some extra beard life to the chocolate and the lemon birthday cake. They both wore well.

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SYLVIA PLATH JOINS WILLAMETTE WRITERS WITH KATE GRAY

February 5, 2020 by

Kate Gray explained Sylvia Plath in the best way possible: she wants the world to know ‘the girl’ Plath was before her junior year in college. I sat in the full-house crowd at Willamette Writers monthly meeting in downtown Portland, marveling that anyone could give such a thorough breakdown of a real person; that anyone […]

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