In my somewhat long hiatus from blogging (I even took two weeks off from FDL…), I have been anything but idle. Three weeks ago yesterday, I set upon this condo, ripping out the shag carpets, knocking out the wall and closet between the kitchen and living room, getting rid of the dozen-odd louvered doors, removing [...]
The main reason I have been so distracted from blogging, aside from the imminent move to CHNN’s new World headquarters, is that I was busy painting the 1905 bungalow equivalent of a stripped 1972 Chevrolet Impala. I often attempt to recreate in my mind how a house came into being, and this time, I [...]
Prostitution in the old Massachusetts Bay Colony (1628-92), which then ran north into southern Maine and included the seaside town of Kennebunk (“So Close, Yet Worlds Away”), was a hanging offense. Times have changed however. And so on Friday a state judge in Portland accepted a plea deal from alleged Zumba dance madam Alexis Wright [...]
Shortly after I got home yesterday, I received a message from the city of Portland that, until further notice, I and some 135,00o other westside Portlanders and suburbanites ought to boil our water before using it. This being only the second time such an order has been issued here in our admittedly short history, I [...]
As most readers of this blog know, I have been a car-free, dedicated transit user for over a decade, something that to the outside observer ought to be easy and natural in Portland, America’s supposed sustainability Mecca. The truth, unfortunately, is a little more complicated in this new era of austerity. Like all public amenities, [...]
Back during the housing bubble, several houses with especially nice basements I’d recently finished went up for sale, and I got quite a few calls from complete strangers who had seen them and wanted something similar, which is rather unusual for me. (The strangers that is, not the me-too types…) Of course, with the bubble [...]
I ran across a story at Huffpo today that pointed out the travesty that the already absurdly low minimum wage doesn’t apply to “tipped” employees; in most states it’s still $2.13 (!) per hour, where it has been stuck for twenty years due to (surprise!) restaurant industry lobbying. Needless to say, it is the worst [...]
When I first moved to CHNN World headquarters ten years ago, I knew I wouldn’t have space for most of my garden, so with a heavy heart, I gave away my Mexican Fan Palms (Washingtonia Robusta), my Windmill palm (Trachycarpus Fortunei), my Pygmy Date Palms, (Phoenix Roebelenii), several yuccas, and two cycads. I kept only [...]
I thought about li’l Bobby Jindal, potential VP pick, this morning when I realized that it was 32 years ago today that I personally benefited from “something called volcano monitoring.” For a year or more, Mt. St. Helens, our other mountain, had been bloated and gassy, lately alarmingly so. Armies of those big gummint whatchamacallits [...]
I went back to my old high school last night, for the first time in thirty years, to see my nephews in “Hairspray,” the Grant High School spring musical this year. Having only ever seen, of the John Waters’ repertoire, “Pink Flamingos,” I was understandably surprised at the choice. Wasn’t Divine in that? Back in [...]