If you'd rather bypass my ridiculous attempts to amuse you with really ridiculous witty San Francisco and BlogHer related haiku, then may I recommend heading straight for the good stuff full Flickr set. (Run! RUN FOR YOUR LIFE.) (Seeing as I took my characteristic fifty gazillion pictures over the course of the trip, I will be traipsing through them day-by-day, and will be uploading more...

In Portland, we are entering the time for planting for fall harvest...Although, I feel really weird about it. I mean, it is 65 and cloudy, and has been unseasonably cool all summer. It almost feels like one long season...fawinsprimer (fall, winter, spring, summer, for those of you who didn't get that... And that has affected our crops???right now; my carrots are finally looking...

The College is sincerely grateful to Dr. Jim Paul (PhD '71) and Dr. Kala Paul (M '72 Microbiology) for hosting our second Breakthroughs in Science: Solutions for a Changing World dinner event in New York on June 18. Our New York event was held at Triomphe Restaurant (Named by the New York Times as one of the best restaurants in the city) in Midtown Manhattan. New York Beavers made the night a...

OK, I promised early on to never go into politics or conspiracy theories on this blog. But, you know what? This is my place and I can do as I please. Today, I am dealing with both politics and conspiracy theory. I was looking over a nifty little google map application and happened to look at New Orleans and what will happen to it if global warming really takes off. You will notice that on...

2 lanes, built in 1939 and spans Crabtree Creek. This is the last of the bridges in use in this area.

Catching up some more...can one blogger ever go on vacation?! Here's a neat piece from the Oregon Supreme Court on Bill Sizemore, racketeer. It's a court opinion, so a lot of it is in legalese. But there are sections worth lifting from Justice Balmer's opinion for the unanimous court: "A jury found that defendants-a political action...

Propeller.com, Aol's 2nd try at social media, after netscape.com was thrown into the dupster, relaunched today with a new look and feel. Miserably Failure isn't only being used to describe the old-school "google bomb" any more. Here's the home page of Propeller.com right now: <img class="size-full wp-image-401" title="untitled" src="http://www.scottfish. com/wp-content/uploads/200...

This is a reminder that, effective July 24, 2008, the federal minimum wage will increase from $5.85 to $6.55 per hour. This is the second of three increases scheduled under the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007. The next increase to $7.25 per hour will go into effect on July 24, 2009. The increases will have little effect on Oregon employers, who must comply with Oregon's higher minimum wage,...

In a little furniture shop aptly named Sophistocat on the King's Road, London, there once lived a lion named Christian. No joke ... I'm not making this up. His story has been told in both a movie and a book - the originals of which are not easy to track down - but a snippet recently hit YouTube video and has been in wide circulation. Wow. Seriously. Wow. Want to read more? I won't crowd...

Hello Everyone, It’s been awhile since we have written for the blog. Our close friend Bill has been nice enough to keep things going over the past two months. We realized today just how long it’s been and thought a note to you all was in order. James was released from his second hospital stay on Thursday, July 10th, in time to go to our friends’ wedding the next day. He was in...

Professor What If reviews the book That's Revolting: Queer Strategies for Resisting Assimilation: That’s Revolting, in thirty-two essays, covers the breadth and depth of queer activism. It is not a queer theory anthology, but a primer in, as the subtitle suggests, “queer strategies for resisting assimilation.” The broad coverage of the book is both a strength and a weakness. On the...

I haven't ever participated in Works For Me Wednesday before, but I there's a first time for everything. Plus, I had my newest obsession on the brain--photo postcards--and this was the perfect way to share the love. Now, of course, I've been smitten with photo cards ever since I sent postcards and photostamps of Jules shortly after she was born. But using a professional company to create photo...

Hear ye, hear ye. The Lane County Extension Family Food Education/Master Food Preserver volunteers are testing pressure canner gauges on two more dates at the Eugene office, 950 West 13th Avenue, next to the Fairgrounds. Bring in your canner lid (it's ok to remove the little weight) between 10:45 and 12 noon on August 12...

Over the past decades, we have spent our summers sharing the “ranch life” with people from around the world. Families spent a week or two of their summer vacation with us, horseback riding, relaxing, and sharing meals together. This summer we are doing the same, but with a huge difference. This summer will be our last, as we have entered into an agreement to sell the ranch. We will be...

A few days ago I had another DVD review appear on PopMatters. This one is of The Meridian Collection edition of The Red Violin (1998). PopMatters home. The review....

There are sales gurus who tell you to have a scripted 30-second sales pitch ready to leave on a voice mail. There are consultants who recommend leaving vague and, sometimes, deceptive messages to pique a prospect's curiosity. And there are those who say you should never leave a message. This afternoon, someone left a phone number on my voice mail. No name or other identifying information. Just...

Nike's newest "hyperdunk" ad, created by local Portland ad agency Weiden and Kennedy, has come under some recent fire for its possible homophobia. And while I saw this picture yesterday, wherein a basketball players crotch ends up in the...

Add L.A. to your list of big cities doing good things; the L.A. City Council voted Tuesday to ban plastic bags in stores beginning July 1, 2010. Starting that date, shoppers will have to shop with their own bags or pay 25 cents for a paper or biodegradable bag. L.A. will be joining the ranks of San Francisco who was the first city in the nation to put a city-wide ban on plastic bags late last...

Yes, I could have gone with a photo from the conference. But Why? When will you ever see a picture like this again? Only if you visit the Castro in San Francisco. And that wasn't the only weird thing LeLo and I saw in San Francisco, and I'm not talking about the queers. We saw people dressed like bunnies and plastic butt sex toys, Bears wearing Tiaras and that was nothing compared to the...

No it's not a new sex maneuver or a forgotten psychedelic band from the 60's. This article serendipitously ties together Crustodio's Feist post, our recent conversation about Lames Taylor and my frightening resemblance to Mike Mills. Ole!...

Foreclosures slow down in Denver. It may be due to new rules lengthening time for seller to repay. This article claims declining values are the main reason for foreclosures now, not subprime loans. New laws have slown down foreclosures. Hawaii is comparatively low in foreclosures....

I'm not sure what Mr. Noodle was suggesting by sending this along in my RSS feed today. Unlike its depiction in popular media, it's not a generic spray can that men haphazardly shoot towards their crotch. In reality, it works like a miniature car wash, employing a penis chamber lined with jets that distribute liquid latex. The entire process takes 10 seconds, with another 20 to 25 required for...

Yesterday (just to mix things up and keep it exciting for the four people who might be reading this), instead of taking the number 6 to the Max from the Multnomah Building on Hawthorne and Grand, I walked up 7th/Sandy to 11th and the Max. The beauty of this walk for me was getting to stroll by the Franz Bakery blocks. As most of my friends and co-workers know, I'm tragically gluten intolerant,...

There is nothing, nothing I have loved discovering more than the seasonal menu at Burgerville. I know, there are all kinds of fancy pants places to eat all over Portland. But to me, Burgerville is it. I eat there once every two months as a little treat. When it's Walla Walla onion ring season, all bets are off. Every time I've walked by the Burgerville on my way to work I think, "I better...

Makes a lot of sense. Look in our own backyard - Trimet keeps breaking records.... The trend is obvious, its just great to see. Perhaps America will think more like Europeans with their wonderful rail system. In the end its win-win, for the environment, for the spare time you get to get stuff done, money to improve our rail systems. This is great. It is things like this which make me...

DoveLewis lost one of its best this month—Naomi, you're in our thoughts.pupkisses.

The news keeps on percolating. Most of these items are certainly of their very own post - but since I'm busy, busy I'll just let you all bat them around in the comments... Bloggers around the country are taking note of a letter to Speaker Pelosi that urges her to include transportation changes in an upcoming climate change bill. One asked, "Does your representative get the link between...

Swimming with Strangers By Kirsten Sundberg Lunstrum I admit that the cover is what drew me to the book. A woman stands waist deep in a large body of water as a storm rages overhead; she’s soaking wet despite the bright red umbrella she clings to. Then the title popped out: Swimming with Strangers. Those three simple words symbolized so much next to this image of a solitary woman. When I...

A reader of the blog pointed this listing out to me: $80,000 price drop!! Amazing deal at this price for a one-of-a-kind home with tons of potential in a fantastic neighborhood. Entire top floor is huge master suite with deck and view. Daylight basement with own entrance and 1/2 bath would be perfect work space/studio/convert back to garage/etc. One year home warranty. Near Hillsdale shops, Mult....

Overheard in the car this morning: Me: "Science plus optimism equals... what?" Aodán: "Huh?" Me: "That MAX car over there has 'Science Plus Optimism' but you can't see the rest because of the station awning. So I am thinking delusion, right?" Aodán: "Yeah, it could cloud your objectivity. The microbe attacks the cell, no, that's too dark, let's just say the microbe and...

One of my favorite classic Sesame Street moments (and I'm not too mature to admit that I have them) is the episode when Ernie and Bert are fishing. Bert, as usual, is frustrated. He's been fishing for an hour to no avail. So he complains that there must not be any fish. Ernie, as usual, is chipper and optimistic. There are fish, he insists, and he can catch them just by calling to them. This...

Yo, I need this: hot dog! There are just so many wrong and funny connotations with a hot dog necklace. It'd be fitting for me to have one.

Three candidates have come and gone from Stumptown in pursuit of Portland Institute for Contemporary Arts' treasured Artistic Director crown, and the organization says it's close to making a public announcement about their next creative CEO, possibly as early as next week, according to PICA spokesman Brian Costello. In the meantime, a second name has emerged as one of the three finalist...

[posted by risa] Several have asked. Thought you never would! ;-) We started gardening together about 1977. I grew up gardening in rows, an influence which can be spotted in this photo from 1985, when we had moved to the city for awhile and did what gardening we could, on the available time, on less than a fifth of an acre: We were known around the neighborhood as the "boot people" because...

Last week, I attended several concerts at Portland Piano International's Piano Festival and wrote an article for Crosscut. You can read it here.

To be clear about the whole McCain Sucks series of posts -- I understand that the grand majority of folks who read this blog are not voting for McCain. Some may be undecided, but most are anti. So, it would seem to be preaching to the choir to make these posts. However, I want folks to have specifics to mention should anyone challenge their stance regarding McSame. That way we can be educated...

"It's totally a slacker city.".

I'm officially dropped from the McKenzie River Trail Run 50K in September. My foot, while feeling a bit better (but it is so hard to tell when progress, good or bad, is so gradual), has not made the sort of miracle recovery that would allow me to step up my training to the point where I'd be accomplishing anything good, or even fun, by running it. Also, I'll probably not be fully recovered then...

it's who the press protects! John McSame/McBush III is so pissed that the press loves Obama he is pouting about this on his site and to the world via any media he can get t o listen. But what can we say about the alleged "news" when they edit a McSame/McBush III gaffe and call it "news." Can we ask for the firing of Couric? This is certainly more critical than Rather's news about the...

It appears that new Beavers head coach Craig Robinson is trying to make a splash with the basketball program early on by courting one of the most promising up-and-coming Oregon prep basketball recruits. That prospect is sophomore to be Kyle...

Just buy yourself a Barrett .416 instead! You get comparable muzzle energy and better downrage performance, with less drop and windage due to the increased ballistic coefficient and muzzle velocity. And, it isn't a .50 BMG, or even a 50 caliber round, so all those stupid gun bans the grabbers drafted targeting large-bore rifles have no impact. Heh. (For Sakaki... see comments on previous post)...

Last Sunday I visited First Presbyterian Church in downtown Portland. I arrived a few minutes late. Located in the park blocks at 13th and Alder, the church building is a historic edifice of brick, stained glass windows and a conical steeple. Not knowing my way around the propert I entered the building at the incorrect door and found myself facing the office secretary. She politely...