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CHEKHOV’S UNLOADED GUN ON THE WALL

After gun safety class, there’s no such thing as an unloaded gun until you check it out yourself. Check the bolt, the magazine, the barrel, and check it while it’s pointed away from anyone. And away from yourself. Chekhov’s unloaded gun is a different deal.

CARRICK FLYNN FROM VERNONIA

Carrick Flynn is getting the youth vote out. Out in the wilds of Bull Mountain you wouldn’t expect to meet the next generation stumping for their favorite congressional candidate, but there we were. Carrick Flynn is their man. After our talk next to the llamas and chickens and Frosty the horse, Carrick Flynn collected more […]

PRISON TIME DOESN’T WORK FOR EVERYONE

If you do prison time, what are you supposed to learn? Is education even part of the sentence, or is it a waiting game? People I know have been to prison. One of them twice. Three times is a bigger problem in some states. Oregon has its own sentencing guideline grid.

DAILY WALK CLEARS THE MIND? “PENNY FOR YOUR THOUGHTS? A FRANC?”

A daily walk in Paris is different than a walk in Tigard, Oregon. This man is walking toward the Invalides. The Pont Alexandre III bridge is behind him and connects the Invalides on the Left Bank to the Grand Palais and Petit Palais museums on the Right Bank. I saw him and thought, ‘This is […]

BROKEN MAN ON 1, 2, 3

Hemingway said every man is a broken man, that’s how the light gets in. His inexact quote is a little different with, “We are all broken. That’s how the light gets in,” but the same idea. I’m just not as inclusive as the big guy. ‘We’ are not all broken, not yet, at least not […]

MEATHEAD MIRANDA RIGHTS FOR MORE CLARITY

Know your rights, your Meathead Miranda rights, before offering an opinion. It may save you problems in the long run. “But I’m not a meathead,” you say? That’s good to know, but like so many things, we’re always the last to know. This might help more than you’d expect: Meathead Miranda rights:

TIGARD OREGON SAYS “GREATNESS IS HATELESS”

The Tigard Oregon Tigers faced the Newberg Tigers. Tiger vs Tiger football in Tigard has a snappy sound to it. But it was Tiger football and everything else, as it turns out. The everything else part was, and is, a local/state/regional/national/international/ global/universal story on a larger canvas. That large.

AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE UPDATE: NOW WHAT?

We all understand American Independence from a historical point of view. “Freedom from the tyranny of taxation without representation.” And other tyrannies? What about independence from other tyrannies? Can we get freedom from self-imposed tyrannies? Personal tyranny? If so, how? That’s the question, how? You could read an essay for starters. It’s an Oregon-born essay […]

GREEN WINDOWS IN EVERY WALL TO BREATH EASY

Green windows, or greenery out every window, means one thing: You’re in Oregon. Maybe you’ve heard of Oregon from someone who visited the state in the summer and raved about how green it was. Or you live here and understand what all the green is about. What’s it about? Since trees leak oxygen, it’s about […]

MEMORIAL DAY 2021, WASHINGTON PARK, PORTLAND OREGON

Memorial Day is for the kids, the enlisted guys, the drafted guys, the FNG who followed orders. It’s for the professional soldiers who learned the job and did the work. Sergeant Tennyson said it with, “Ours is not to reason why, ours is but to do or die.” Take that hill, cross that river, crawl […]