Pot Luck

Siochan leat... (4.00 / 3)

An Irish blessing for my friend Jimmy, who passed away yesterday.

Siochan leat, Go n-eiri an bothar leat.

Peace be with you, have a good journey.

Got a call from my closest friend back in New Jersey last night, he broke the news.

Jimmy was 32.

"The greenest building is the one already built" - Carl Elefante

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by: JayinPortland @ Thu Jul 15, 2010 at 05:26:36 AM CDT

Hugs nt (4.00 / 3)

"I can understand someone from Iowa promoting corn and soy, but we are not feeding the world, we are feeding animals and soft drink companies." - Jim Goodman

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by: Jill Richardson @ Thu Jul 15, 2010 at 12:37:48 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

so young to die... (4.00 / 3)

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by: LeeN @ Thu Jul 15, 2010 at 08:35:24 AM CDT

Yes, he was... (4.00 / 2)

And so were three of our other close friends -

Glenn, who died at 20; Mikey, who died at 22 and Alex who died at 26.

Chris (my aforementioned friend) and I are still hanging on, though...

"The greenest building is the one already built" - Carl Elefante

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by: JayinPortland @ Thu Jul 15, 2010 at 09:10:17 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

nice shout to Jill (4.00 / 4)

http://downwithtyranny.blogspo...

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by: LeeN @ Thu Jul 15, 2010 at 08:36:12 AM CDT

You must have a google alert on my name (4.00 / 3)

or else you just read a whole lot of blogs.

"I can understand someone from Iowa promoting corn and soy, but we are not feeding the world, we are feeding animals and soft drink companies." - Jim Goodman

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by: Jill Richardson @ Thu Jul 15, 2010 at 12:38:14 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

no google alert (4.00 / 4)

but I DO read Howie/DWT and DKOS regularly.  

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by: LeeN @ Thu Jul 15, 2010 at 14:03:15 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Still don't know... (4.00 / 2)

...what exactly a Google alert is, or how one goes about setting up such a thing.  And I gave up trying to figure out Twitter and all the other stuff long ago.

And I was on the Social Media panel at the National Farm-to-Cafeteria here last year.  Heh.  Fake it 'til you make it, I guess. ;)

"The greenest building is the one already built" - Carl Elefante

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by: JayinPortland @ Thu Jul 15, 2010 at 19:23:19 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

you set up alerts through Google (4.00 / 3)

such as a name of a person. Every time Google crawls and finds that name, it sends you an alert. It works really well if the name is unique. I have started a branding/social media biz and I have alerts set up for the people I work with.  

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by: LeeN @ Fri Jul 16, 2010 at 05:40:06 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Portland to ban plastic bags... (4.00 / 2)

Ahead of a possible statewide ban on plastic bags (applicable to grocers and most retail establishments, which is sponsored by 2 Democrats, 2 Republicans and is supported by the grocery store business lobby) to be considered during the 2011 session of the Oregon State Legislature, Portland Mayor Sam Adams will release details tomorrow on a citywide ban on plastic bags in Portland -

Minutes before he addressed the crowd, five "bag monsters" -- people dressed up in plastic bag costumes -- had been dancing with a furry sasquatch and an upright fish. They cheered the mayor's anti-bag stance.

"We're nearing the end of the beginning," Adams said. "Onward!"

Environmental advocates would like a ban now from Oregon's largest and greenest city. A dozen U.S. cities have outlawed plastic, and California is considering a statewide ban.

"The greenest building is the one already built" - Carl Elefante

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by: JayinPortland @ Thu Jul 15, 2010 at 21:06:06 PM CDT

Bike ride around Saratoga Springs, NY... (4.00 / 3)

Photo diary from Jim Kunstler's site.

"The greenest building is the one already built" - Carl Elefante

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by: JayinPortland @ Fri Jul 16, 2010 at 00:47:00 AM CDT

It's so lush in the East (4.00 / 2)

But they have to suffer humidity. How about those weird McMansions?

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by: Crider @ Fri Jul 16, 2010 at 13:31:26 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Humidity... (4.00 / 1)

Yeah, tell me about it.  I had to basically relearn temperatures all over again when I moved here from New Jersey.

80 in New Jersey is a sticky, wet, brutal mess more often than not.  80 in Portland is something you want to bottle and sell as a slice of paradise.

;)

"The greenest building is the one already built" - Carl Elefante

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by: JayinPortland @ Fri Jul 16, 2010 at 13:57:23 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Taibbi on Steinbrenner, and ourselves... (4.00 / 2)

Ouch (and agreed) -

The mania for elegiac slobbering is one of the most disgusting things about this country, but you'll never see a clearer example of America's unique capacity for this sort of activity than this Steinbrenner business. When Bruce Springsteen dies, it won't be appropriate to make jokes about millions of Americans fawning over a dead Boss. But in George "The Boss" Steinbrenner's case, it fits perfectly, because Steinbrenner was in every conceivable way the prototypical office tyrant and the fact that he's being uninterruptedly worshipped after his death by a nation of cubicle slaves tells you almost everything you need to know about the modern American psyche.

In no other country do people genuinely love their bosses the way Americans do. They'll go home after 12 hard hours of capricious superiors peeing in their faces, and the very first thing they'll do is call up some talk radio show and denounce the graduated income tax that gives them a break at their bosses' expense. In other countries bosses need to constantly fend off revolts and strikes; in America people tune in by the millions to cheer on an impetuous, bloated asshole like Donald Trump as he ritualistically fires a succession of sheepish sacrificial stand-ins who are clearly chosen for their resemblance to the target demographic. And The Apprentice was just one of many reality shows where people literally jack off to their own job insecurity!

They've got peoples' heads so turned around in this country that this ring-around-the-collar self-flagellating terror at being thought of as poor and subordinate has people reflexively worshipping their bosses, to the point where George Steinbrenner -- a workplace Caligula so stupid and self-centered that he could not be convinced George Constanza wasn't named after him -- is somehow thought of as cute and lovable. George Steinbrenner was not cute; he was the biggest fuckhead of his generation. Steinbrenner was the kind of guy who wouldn't accept that two plus two equaled four if a parade of MIT professors proved it to him on a fifty-foot blackboard. And if you tried to point that out to him, he fired you in the middle of the night, which he thought was funny, except that you were feeding your kids with that money.

"The greenest building is the one already built" - Carl Elefante

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by: JayinPortland @ Fri Jul 16, 2010 at 01:21:08 AM CDT

I just have to say (4.00 / 3)

I seriously wish Patrick left a bunch of beer in the fridge when he left for vacation. If he did, I'd drink it.

"I can understand someone from Iowa promoting corn and soy, but we are not feeding the world, we are feeding animals and soft drink companies." - Jim Goodman

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by: Jill Richardson @ Fri Jul 16, 2010 at 01:57:37 AM CDT

Stone... (4.00 / 3)

Arrogant Bastard Ale.

Yum.

;)

"The greenest building is the one already built" - Carl Elefante

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by: JayinPortland @ Fri Jul 16, 2010 at 02:58:06 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Stone Pale for me (4.00 / 3)

But I don't have a beer budget. I have more of a tap water or maybe hot tea from shit I grew myself budget.

"I can understand someone from Iowa promoting corn and soy, but we are not feeding the world, we are feeding animals and soft drink companies." - Jim Goodman

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by: Jill Richardson @ Fri Jul 16, 2010 at 03:19:38 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Grow your own beer! (4.00 / 3)

That'll almost certainly be the next logical step / trend in the craft brewing / locavore movement soon, anyways...

;)

A bunch of Oregon (and a few Northeast) brewers are already growing their own hops!

"The greenest building is the one already built" - Carl Elefante

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by: JayinPortland @ Fri Jul 16, 2010 at 03:37:30 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Believe me (4.00 / 3)

I have thought about it! Right now I'm sticking with stuff that is highly perishable and expensive to buy at the store as much as possible (i.e. heirloom tomatoes) or stuff that isn't sold at all at the store (i.e. the rainbow popcorn I'm growing, non-hybrid sweetcorn that you need to eat fresh picked, the mystery squash I grew that I'm saving seeds from, etc)

"I can understand someone from Iowa promoting corn and soy, but we are not feeding the world, we are feeding animals and soft drink companies." - Jim Goodman

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by: Jill Richardson @ Fri Jul 16, 2010 at 05:09:34 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Oregon gov. race - Debate Theater Opportunity! (4.00 / 2)

Since the cowardly Republican gubernatorial nominee Chris Dudley skipped out on today's debate in Salem, which is the traditional beginning of each Oregon gubernatorial campaign (was he afraid that free throws would be a part of the event?), why doesn't Democratic nominee John Kitzhaber bring a Chris Dudley cardboard cutout and debate it?  That's what I'd do.  Besides, a cardboard cutout would have more to say, and would be more intellectually substantial than Dudley, anyways.

These are, after all, tough times in Oregon, and the next governor faces some of the most difficult decisions any chief executive in the state has ever had to make. A state grappling with a moribund economy and a deep budget shortfall that threatens all of its essential public services, including schools, needs to hear early and often what the competing candidates for governor plan to do about Oregon's problems.

The two campaigns still are trying to hash out a debate schedule for the fall. The Oregonian's Jeff Mapes reported that the Dudley campaign first proposed only two debates in October; the Kitzhaber campaign countered with seven debates throughout the state. Our own view is that there should be no fewer than five, with joint appearances in the population centers of Portland, Salem, Eugene, Medford and Bend.

I mean, really.  The guy wants to be our governor, but yet he only wants to campaign on bumper stickers and soundbites.  Of course we all know why that is.  Chris Dudley has no ideas or plans for Oregon, or at least not any good ones.

"The greenest building is the one already built" - Carl Elefante

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by: JayinPortland @ Fri Jul 16, 2010 at 15:17:26 PM CDT

It is better to keep your mouth closed... (4.00 / 2)

"It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt."

Chris Dudley's gubernatorial campaign is brought to you by Mark Twain.  And the letter "B", for brick.  Which describes both his skull density, and his free throw shooting ability.

"The greenest building is the one already built" - Carl Elefante

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by: JayinPortland @ Fri Jul 16, 2010 at 15:26:13 PM CDT

[ Parent ]