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END PRODUCT IS WHAT PEOPLE CARE ABOUT, NOT PRACTICE

‘End Product’ is another way of saying, “What have you done lately?” We pay to go to concerts, games, and races. We don’t pay to go to practice rooms, weight rooms, or interval track training, the stuff done before the end product. Buy a ticket for an event and you expect a competent performance? Sounds […]

HISTORICAL ACCURACY? IMPORTANT, OR NOT

I’m a fan of historical accuracy, of a story that stands up to scrutiny not opinion, My feeling is that the people involved in historical events deserve the decency of applied history. How to apply history? It’s all about the sources.

MAKING THE CANCER CALL 2026

Ten years ago I got the cancer call. Me: Hello. Doc: Are you sitting down? Me: Yes. (I was in the bathroom.) Doc: The tests came back. You have cancer. Me: That’s not good.

OPENING NIGHT AT THE ROSE GARDEN

I watched the Rose Garden, home to your Portland Trail Blazers, rise up on the Northeast bank of the mighty Willamette River. From opening night until now it’s been . . . thirty-one years? As long as the Memorial Coliseum stands, the Rose Garden will always be the new kid on the block. And now […]

RETIREMENT WARNINGS FOR BOOMERS IN THE FAST LANE

You’re in the fast lane and know it when you pull up on a Waymo car.   Waymo has named the Rose City as one of the next locations welcoming its own fleet of self-driving vehicles. As part of the announcement, the company revealed it will start manually operating the cars on Tuesday to “help […]

MAKING PROGRESS WITH GRAND DECKS

Making progress on a deck doesn’t look like this, but the ending does. Inspector dog agrees. Three picture framed sections? Check. Boards fastened without anything showing? Check. Railing is sturdy? Check. But what did it look like before?

FENDER TELECASTER, MORE THAN A FEELING

Playing notes and chords on a Fender Telecaster is an act of history. Even more if it’s a butterscotch Tele. Why? Because it has a legacy. It’s an historical artifact, a throwback, brought up to date every year. Playing one puts you in the legacy no matter how long, whether from 1950 to yesterday. But […]

BOOK BUYBACK AT POWELL’S BEAVERTON

A book buyback trip to Powell’s Beaverton store usually hurts my brain. This time was no exception. Ouch, my head. Out of four bankers boxes full of books this is the shot of what they bought back. Am I buying the wrong books?

LIFETIME MEMORIES FOR THE WHITE KNIGHT

The man in white has made more than a few lifetime memories for me. But why the white knight? Because he came to the rescue a few times.

THE JOHN ROSSI PODCAST FROM MT. ANGEL

I drove down to Mt. Angel for the John Rossi Podcast yesterday. It began in Lou’s Kitchen. After watching video John posts on facebook from Lou’s, along with shots of food, I got excited to go. The reuben sandwich was especially enticing, so that’s what I got.