Topic: size medium

As I mentioned last week, I'm in a new office space. I decided I don't like the sound my mouse makes on the desk, so I wanted a mousepad, and the only one I found around here is the standard, boring blue. That just won't work for me, so I started searching for something a little more artistic, but didn't find anything I liked. Then ... Zazzle.com appeared on the screen. It was the...

"Pauling's thinking was never cramped by traditional disciplinary boundaries. His investigations can be likened, not to a line drawn on a page, but to a drop of ink suffusing outward on the currents of curiosity and the tides of creativity." - Lee Sherman. "Like Looking Over His Shoulder," Terra Magazine. June 2008. We are pleased to announce that the Ava Helen and Linus Pauling...

Of course now blue Mazda 3 Hatchbacks will pop up everywhere but for two months there were none around Portland for a reasonable price. She gave a local dealer a chance but he was $4000 higher and seemed to barely hold in a laugh when she said what she would pay. Allison wanted this color and since she kept her previous car for 10 years it made sense to wait and buy what she wanted. She...

Do you ride? With gas prices at an all-time high, many people are beginning to use their bikes for transportation and not just recreation. I'm considering doing it myself. I own an SUV with terrible gas mileage. With a large community of riders here in the Portland area, one new business has found a niche among commuters with busy schedules and lives. Which is all of us, right? Do...

Leave it to that potently professional combination of Pixar and Disney to tell, in wonderful, enjoyable fashion the tale of a cute little, lonely solar-powered futuristic robot, to make tons of points about today's society, the dangers we face (rampant consumerism, trashing our planet, etc.) and to do so with many references to the classic movies of the past, from Poseidon Adventure to...

Because we live frugally, my family has some wiggle room in our finances. Thankfully, we no longer have to count each and every penny. This means we get to make a few fun choices with our money. (Of course, what's fun to me, The Non-Consumer Advocate, might be different from your idea of fun — I am a bit of a freak of nature). We make 13 mortgage payments per year. We simply add an...

Dearest Beloved Tap Water, We've known one another since I was but a mere babe, sippy cup in hand. No more can I keep our love quiet. One. Minute. Longer. I love you, Tap Water! If only I could write it across the skies, yell it from the tallest mountain, whisper it in your ear. With each caress of my lips, you quench my desire and soothe my parched soul. Yet others spurn your...

I first heard about Don't Go To The Cosmetics Counter Without Me a number of years ago. A couple of women at work were raving about it, and I remember enjoying an inner smugness about my own makeup-free beauty. I rarely wear cosmetics, and pretty much consider it a waste of money, time and synaptic activity. (We can send a man to the moon, so why are we spending time engineering new lip...

Have you seen the Coen Brothers mid 90's classic The Hudsucker Proxy? If not, I'll quickly fill you in. The plot line involves a simpleminded (is "slow" a better euphemism?) young man played by Tim Robbins hired as a stooge for a big money stock scandal. Instead he ends up inventing one of the biggest consumer crazes of the century: the hula hoop (not based on a true story, btw)....

What better way to ring in the summer than to hit up one of Portland's many farmers markets. One of my new favorites is the Interstate Farmers Market, which happens every Wednesday from 3-7 pm until September 24th. The market is located next to Overlook Park on the Max Yellow Line and offers fresh local produce, meat and fish, baked goods, flowers and live music. The Interstate Farmers...