The Obsessive Reader Goes Cold Turkey . . . Sort Of

As I have done for many years, I submitted my reading list for the past year and an essay to Oregonian columnist Steve Duin’s annual reading contest. Without any further preamble, here’s the essay I submitted in early January:

The last thing I ever expected to announce in a reading contest essay was that I’m giving up pleasure reading for the coming year. If you’re anything like the reader I’ve been, the prospect is terrifying.

Books have been my friends forever. My parents read aloud to me when I was small. My grandmother, folks, and family friends gave me many books as gifts over the years. I also lived three blocks from the public library in my hometown, so from age 7 onward, I walked there almost every day.

In high school I was notorious as the kid with the stack of books. In college, I usually did all the required reading for courses before lecture, and still took time to read dozens of other books for pleasure.

Get Your Butts Out of Our Public Parks, NOW!

This Wednesday, Feb. 11, at 3:15 p.m., Portland City Parks Commissioner Amanda Fritz will introduce an ordinance to impose a smoking ban and tobacco-free policy in all city parks, recreation areas, and any other places where the Portland Parks & Recreation Bureau has jurisdiction. I plan to be there to observe and, I hope, testify in support.

The ban has been brewing for a while. The proposal surfaced last May, and the Oregonian editorial page came out in opposition. I sent a lengthy letter to the editor in response, which the paper put on its website and in the print edition as a “guest commentary” with a rebuttal from the editor. This is a rare occurrence, so as I observed on this blog, I must have hit the guy where he lives.

In preparation for this month’s formal proposal by Fritz, her office invited public comment in January. Here the letter I emailed to her assistant:

I am voicing my strong support for the proposed smoking ban in Portland parks.