tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-40978496300411057732024-03-14T09:48:32.927-07:00American CurrentsAll of the current events that you are talking about. Read our opinion and offer your own.David Loftushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03855438200255152255noreply@blogger.comBlogger904125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4097849630041105773.post-68862402208616149262020-07-14T12:25:00.002-07:002020-07-14T12:29:23.833-07:00The Magic Endures . . . part 1<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Mother Nature <span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">—</span> and a handful of two-legged production assistants <span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">—</span> has not stopped and self-isolated at home during the pandemic.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">As some of you know, I<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">’</span>ve gone on many long walks about the city <span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">—</span> some with purposeful destinations and goals, some just to exercise and explore <span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">—</span> and they've resulted in hundreds and hundreds of photos.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">We<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">’</span>ve not just had surges and waves of virus. There have been surges and waves of blossoms, too <span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">—</span> something that happens every year, I know, but I'm surely not the only one who has hardly noticed them in years past, for the most part.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">In May and June, I saw roses. So I thought I<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">’</span>d share some of this year<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">’</span>s <span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">“</span>crop<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">”</span> in Portland. . . . </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieN53Xh6oDYK0d9M3Ne9cohyphenhyphenKM2HXxrZR_M7bJX-dRcj2txZg2nc8DJJjkeKr2XZvDFAQRsqHOTZxv5KxmWW-hC1-GmmToH8LzfUp7-JftJS67ZcOq6x4c3MCDfXhH8EwlQDSFqXi-6w/s1600/PinkRoseBrooklyn-May4.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieN53Xh6oDYK0d9M3Ne9cohyphenhyphenKM2HXxrZR_M7bJX-dRcj2txZg2nc8DJJjkeKr2XZvDFAQRsqHOTZxv5KxmWW-hC1-GmmToH8LzfUp7-JftJS67ZcOq6x4c3MCDfXhH8EwlQDSFqXi-6w/s320/PinkRoseBrooklyn-May4.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Here<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">’</span>s a pink one from the Brooklyn neighborhood in Southeast Portland, across the river from my place, on May 4.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifOFiLr45k0EeKNp88foRMkD_Mz4iR6Z11LKSNLP8d-2Tu8F_vJf1xQjtNUBGM30uiwO5s9VRLQDS_bajEYs2WuQQqcwfROk5xRRTOdwtPFHum6bCXpl0ae4lVLAPfkoxHvjB2XN-2CA/s1600/RosesSouthMilesPl-May15.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifOFiLr45k0EeKNp88foRMkD_Mz4iR6Z11LKSNLP8d-2Tu8F_vJf1xQjtNUBGM30uiwO5s9VRLQDS_bajEYs2WuQQqcwfROk5xRRTOdwtPFHum6bCXpl0ae4lVLAPfkoxHvjB2XN-2CA/s320/RosesSouthMilesPl-May15.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">This is a spray on South Miles Place, a cul-de-sac at the very southern reaches of the Johns Landing neighborhood, south of my place, just north of the Sellwood Bridge. I photographed it on May 15.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiopm4p-ZfiSHxlrNOWyExq77FB7TGn9J3rzHUo4Y9_7I5heHuHowMTjDB90ddQxETs1-nELq1NDFvhyU7TwQ0H9TBb8gOBvDdsRgphTUXKB0vnA3-fMU4lo23OPh4XkehHbzgdYpFh1g/s1600/PinkRoseMilwaukieBlvd-May19.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiopm4p-ZfiSHxlrNOWyExq77FB7TGn9J3rzHUo4Y9_7I5heHuHowMTjDB90ddQxETs1-nELq1NDFvhyU7TwQ0H9TBb8gOBvDdsRgphTUXKB0vnA3-fMU4lo23OPh4XkehHbzgdYpFh1g/s320/PinkRoseMilwaukieBlvd-May19.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">A more delicate pink blossom, this one off Milwaukie Boulevard across the river, on May 19.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaZkHhxVQNNXpzf-HFOBx60fuUUkxAASEdpzd010bYINMSCQXOqOtcx3AtRZ3ahQrCkhs2IuiV2gQ-f9edge_FjvDY6Ggrmm4Ftb3YHEVZDADpvLyr3J7grT2nGZof6MJaJ_VXxDo-8Q/s1600/RosesSPark-June11.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaZkHhxVQNNXpzf-HFOBx60fuUUkxAASEdpzd010bYINMSCQXOqOtcx3AtRZ3ahQrCkhs2IuiV2gQ-f9edge_FjvDY6Ggrmm4Ftb3YHEVZDADpvLyr3J7grT2nGZof6MJaJ_VXxDo-8Q/s320/RosesSPark-June11.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The South Park Blocks is a block-wide green strip that<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">’</span>s a good dozen blocks in length, stretching from the heart of downtown (behind the Heathman Hotel, where I first set eyes on my future wife, Carole Barkley, more than 29 years ago) through the campus of Portland State University.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxF68-HrJDeox4xg4bsROV0Lul1iqmn4rnVjPQolGwV_FXtlClTVqHsI6t79LmGbNE4HPfVMUynEB1ex0lJLaLVN094KThFdq3Dsr2kzYdbinX70Tlr6_-nDa4FSHfktG9z3MMtszuPQ/s1600/RosesSPark2-June11.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxF68-HrJDeox4xg4bsROV0Lul1iqmn4rnVjPQolGwV_FXtlClTVqHsI6t79LmGbNE4HPfVMUynEB1ex0lJLaLVN094KThFdq3Dsr2kzYdbinX70Tlr6_-nDa4FSHfktG9z3MMtszuPQ/s320/RosesSPark2-June11.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">There are three large beds that fan out on a block between SW Main, SW Jefferson, and SW Park Avenue (which is actually two separate, parallel one-way streets on either side of the park, at that point). Across Park on the east side is the Oregon Historical Society (a major stop on my Portland Walking Tours), and on the west, the Portland Art Museum.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrffFph9j6JR1BmVQLNaqiG99nke1OY2eylj70c0EjJ8zOx2_3KNstPccXnpU5rx6vS0zkserJkca270RADcJFUEoVKcsIetjWkvP5lmQVCHDXexs3lv0kyH5e3CKKwmLNlZBn1Wtx4A/s1600/Teddy%2526Roses-June11.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1183" data-original-width="1600" height="295" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrffFph9j6JR1BmVQLNaqiG99nke1OY2eylj70c0EjJ8zOx2_3KNstPccXnpU5rx6vS0zkserJkca270RADcJFUEoVKcsIetjWkvP5lmQVCHDXexs3lv0kyH5e3CKKwmLNlZBn1Wtx4A/s400/Teddy%2526Roses-June11.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">These rose beds fan out from a statue of Theodore Roosevelt mounted on a horse. (That<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">’</span>s him in the background.) When I was a tour guide (a part-time job I held for nearly eight years before Portland Walking Tours shuttered its doors last month due to the economic downturn), I regularly walked my guests between these beds and spoke about Teddy . . . as well as the roses when they were out, which was usually the case to some extent from late March until late October, even early November.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">They never seemed so beautiful as they did this spring . . . and so underviewed and -appreciated, because partial <span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">“</span>reopening<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">”</span> to Phase One didn<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">’</span>t happen in Multnomah County until June 19, so the downtown was largely deserted. I shot all these South Park Blocks roses on June 11.</span><br />
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David Loftushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03855438200255152255noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4097849630041105773.post-76355753004263453442020-07-12T16:59:00.001-07:002020-07-12T17:58:09.460-07:00A Journal of the Plague Year . . . Week 12<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 15px;">
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Week 12 of this hiccup in world history. For the U.S., this would turn out to be a particularly momentous week in an already tumultuous year, given a national election with the prospect of an incompetent bully potentially ruling the roost for another four years, and a pandemic.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">On Monday the 25th, a resident of Minneapolis named <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/article/george-floyd-who-is.html">George Perry Floyd, Jr.</a> had <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/31/us/george-floyd-investigation.html">died under peculiar and graphic circumstances</a>. Though there’s little notice of it here, subsequent events would of course loom large across the nation, in Portland, and in this journal. . . . </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">WEDNESDAY, MAY 27</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">12:40 p.m. — On streetcar duty this morning, I rousted a loiterer from one of our platforms.</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0xxpAHJin974eDTAnFCvKHXNlfsrLStvJip4fnr9rPf1YwZCeCxMvIerZZITgfn0lKllOu-IUuefaRDAG6gxfQCfeD8kaDJT6RPEZRECcgQW7k5X_VG_gx3DfwFGfo3qwNlmqw5n9yA/s1600/Ants-May27.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="918" data-original-width="1600" height="183" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0xxpAHJin974eDTAnFCvKHXNlfsrLStvJip4fnr9rPf1YwZCeCxMvIerZZITgfn0lKllOu-IUuefaRDAG6gxfQCfeD8kaDJT6RPEZRECcgQW7k5X_VG_gx3DfwFGfo3qwNlmqw5n9yA/s320/Ants-May27.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">2:05 p.m. — Ran across this apparent rave meet-up at the corner of of SW 10th and Harvey Milk. No signs of responsible social distancing or masking whatsoever. Despicable.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">10:19 p.m. — It’s been at least three days — possibly four — since the Oregon Health Authority has recorded a covid-19 death in this state.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Here’s hoping we maintain this rate. At least 20 other states had fatalities still in the double digits today.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">10:22 p.m. — The U.S., on the other hand, officially surpassed 100,000 coronavirus deaths today:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSgj1IyEatcqbsXDCWtfqLouiQuVKZ0lLQMajJqpj0eTXetovUVYqQoCDlbBoFxuErdieQLRUP4H9_8dI-AKNEOZSNxWnZ0rA8QImxn2_xzU3rTdnx6EJwmzlbMfHUSawgoQQuuaTK5g/s1600/TotalsMay27-100000a.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1559" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSgj1IyEatcqbsXDCWtfqLouiQuVKZ0lLQMajJqpj0eTXetovUVYqQoCDlbBoFxuErdieQLRUP4H9_8dI-AKNEOZSNxWnZ0rA8QImxn2_xzU3rTdnx6EJwmzlbMfHUSawgoQQuuaTK5g/s400/TotalsMay27-100000a.png" width="388" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">THURSDAY, MAY 28</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">9:17 a.m. — When someone asserts “masks are no good,” he or she is — in effect — taking the opposite logical stance from defenders of firearms.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Many’s the time I’ve seen people declare “<a href="http://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2013/02/guns-do-not-make-us-safer-lapd-shows-us.html">guns don’t kill people; people kill people.</a>” In sum, they’re arguing that one shouldn’t blame the tool for its misuse.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And that’s the response I offer to folks (I suspect some of them are the same individuals I’ve argued with about gun control) with regard to masks.</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjufbcFX5-hO5XAVU-8eLMltJ6cDWkwZalYm8v-BrdUpSYXQPpLi32oQ3fNi7wpy-51iQiKm632hyphenhyphenmjQ8V4PbLeSaYGnkOiZFP5hQCLdWqldrleKK9rjnwkJcvPyAscuapQLHJkWWBlJw/s1600/Mask-May19.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1426" data-original-width="1600" height="285" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjufbcFX5-hO5XAVU-8eLMltJ6cDWkwZalYm8v-BrdUpSYXQPpLi32oQ3fNi7wpy-51iQiKm632hyphenhyphenmjQ8V4PbLeSaYGnkOiZFP5hQCLdWqldrleKK9rjnwkJcvPyAscuapQLHJkWWBlJw/s320/Mask-May19.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Of course these little paper thingies with the not-terribly-tight fasteners are going to be (or at least appear to be) utterly ineffective if you don’t use them right . . . and IF you don’t apply all the other safety precautions (social distancing, regular hand washing, etc.) in concert with the mask . . . and IF you assume their only purpose is to keep germs out of your body.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">These are the underlying assumptions I’ve noted in people’s arguments against <a href="https://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2020/04/the-meaning-of-mask.html">wearing a mask</a> in public places: they hew to the pinpoint details of what kind of micro-organisms CAN get through the mask, given the opportunity, and when I pin them down to specifics, their complaint often turns out to have originated in an encounter with someone who either wasn’t using the mask properly or simply exhibited bad manners and inconsiderate behavior.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">If you hope to mount a successful rational argument, you have to address the opposite side’s strongest points, not just its weakest ones. Most of us lack the patience or acuity to do that; instead, we settle for the low-hanging intellectual fruit and leave the rest of the tree untouched.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">12:03 p.m. — An informative graffito on one of our streetcar platforms, in case you were wondering.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">3:14 p.m. — Heh.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Turns out the parent company of one of my free-lance clients also owns WebMD, which I did not know until this week. I received an email from the company today that reports on a survey relating to the so-called “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/article/george-floyd-who-is.html">Quarantine 15</a>” (a slang term for the average amount of weight in pounds that one supposedly gains during self-isolation):</span></span><br />
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Among the 1,012 U.S. WebMD users questioned, about 47% of women said they gained weight “due to Covid restrictions.” Roughly 22% of the men surveyed said they gained weight. Among U.S. readers who calculated the pounds:</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">— 15% said they gained 1-3 pounds</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">— 34% said they gained 4-6 pounds</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">— 26% said they gained 7-9 pounds</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">— 21% said they gained 10-20 pounds</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">— 4% said they gained 21 pounds or more</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">WebMD users in the U.S. cited a number of reasons for the weight gain. About 72% reported a lack of exercise. About 70% said they’ve been stress eating. An overwhelming 59% said both a lack of exercise and stress eating were a problem, and 21% attributed it to “extra alcohol consumption.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">When I was in my 20s, I had a girlfriend with an eating disorder — she was bulimic — and she observed that I have an “anorexic personality.” That is, when I’m anxious or stressed, I eat LESS as a way of trying to reassert control.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And that’s what’s happened this year. It’s not that I try to consciously cut back on eating; rather my mind obsesses so much on all the other things I want to get done or feel I should address that I forget to eat regular meals (sometimes breakfast, sometimes lunch).</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Thus, as with so many other popular trends, I’m racing against the grain. I’ve lost about 6 pounds since mid March.</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisjRKEsT8J45ySzRfIAGzNDxQ65CuP-wwRKVNKvc3GiaSvNxqtoLDfweGYqa35bn9u8-Z8XSsLjf1VFBj93W-IIFeDM-pAgC4jOwg9anMaO2W2G84yQ4yZayjP92fmNlj6PGGlFuzvZw/s1600/Me%2526poster-May27.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisjRKEsT8J45ySzRfIAGzNDxQ65CuP-wwRKVNKvc3GiaSvNxqtoLDfweGYqa35bn9u8-Z8XSsLjf1VFBj93W-IIFeDM-pAgC4jOwg9anMaO2W2G84yQ4yZayjP92fmNlj6PGGlFuzvZw/s400/Me%2526poster-May27.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">6:12 p.m. — This morning I had my own personal, quiet encounter with the passive aggression of people who oppose government health and safety regulations, however temporary.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Yesterday and today, I went around the system to put up posters at every one of Portland Streetcar’s 70-odd platforms to announce rider policies in line with the governor’s reopening guidelines.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Wednesday, I postered all the stops on the west side of the Willamette River; this morning, I did all the platforms on the east side. Very little riding was involved; I walked the entire 9.6-mile alignment and then some — crossing from one line to the other wherever they separate for a block or two, and sometimes having to backtrack a little.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I must have posted a sign on the shelter at SE MLK and Morrison at about 10:15 this morning. The shelters between Taylor and Burnside have been among the most prey to vandalism and graffiti over the six years I’ve worked for streetcar; there isn’t even a map case for the system with a sponsor poster at several of those platforms because they were mangled and torn down by vandals over time.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Working my way north from the OMSI end to the Broadway Bridge, I emailed my managers a little after 11 a.m. to note that quite a few of the covid-19 posters issued by the county some weeks ago had been torn down from our shelters, and I added: “I’ll be curious to see how long the posters I just put up between SE Hawthorne and NE Multnomah stay in place.”<br />
Well, barely an hour later, I was off the clock and riding an A Loop train south along MLK to go home when I happened to glance out at the Morrison shelter and saw the poster I had put up there was already missing.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I hopped off the train and found it in the trash (see photo).</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Fortunately, I had extras on me and replaced it instantly, but I sent a note to my boss and advised him to print more of them because I suspect we’re going to need ’em.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Evidently some folks in Portland are all too ready to act on their anti-government animus . . . at least, when nobody’s looking.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">FRIDAY, MAY 29</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">7:22 p.m. — From roughly 6 to 7:30 p.m., I joined a surprise Zoom gathering to honor my friend Ron Harman’s birthday. Ron, a retired employee of <a href="https://www.oregonzoo.org/">the Oregon Zoo</a>, has been a longtime singer in <a href="https://www.portlandopera.org/">the Portland Opera</a> chorus and in musical productions; I met him in the 2011 <a href="https://www.lakewood-center.org/pages/lakewood-plays-season-2018-19">Lakewood Theatre Company</a> production of “Annie Get Your Gun” in which he played Buffalo Bill and I was Chief Sitting Bull.</span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2xoBtlHV7u44v5sB_OfqGM4S9S-roTIuNldA8MdKGdpzWLycUBSYYmYftSwlOGxmjpCysc-NCtSCNb5i6iz1vqMT8e2jbZbHxMtU8lg-HYmTl-iQ_bkDYT2JN4LUOk4Spjkqwrf45-w/s1600/HarmanParty-May28.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="931" data-original-width="1600" height="232" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2xoBtlHV7u44v5sB_OfqGM4S9S-roTIuNldA8MdKGdpzWLycUBSYYmYftSwlOGxmjpCysc-NCtSCNb5i6iz1vqMT8e2jbZbHxMtU8lg-HYmTl-iQ_bkDYT2JN4LUOk4Spjkqwrf45-w/s400/HarmanParty-May28.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">His friend Erik Montague, in the upper left corner, organized a surprise online party for Ron, since he lives alone. You can see Ron down toward the lower right corner, just above the telephone icon.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I’ve worked in stage productions with at least three other individuals in this group shot, and have a nodding acquaintance with several others, although at least one was dialing in from the East Coast. Online gatherings are a refreshing break from covid isolation. . . . </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">11:53 p.m. — As some of you are aware, I started the month of May by making targeted walks to <a href="https://littlefreelibrary.org/">Little Free Libraries</a> in Southwest and Southeast Portland, and trading in books from our home for ones I wanted to bring back to read.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Along with a portrait of each library I visited, and a selfie with the edifice, I photographed each of the books I gave up to them. Here are a couple. I believe a friend of mine across town already glommed onto one of them, because her home turned out to be just across the street from the LFL where I deposited the book.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">SATURDAY, MAY 30</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This morning I did a lot of writing on Facebook: first about Zuckerberg</span></span>’<span style="font-family: inherit;">s peculiar form of libertarianism, then about the Boston Tea Party as model for civil disobedience. I uploaded a revised and expanded version of the latter as <a href="https://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2020/07/how-george-floydblm-protests-are-like.html">my last blog post</a>, and perhaps I</span>’<span style="font-family: inherit;">ll import the latter to this venue later.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwOiCMeys3TOZSwtRnaiR97mCvZDSjKODidsSoA-Cz2LXEqEPDObEVpYTmmja1s52YusMaNYIMbXqeR6WWfcv8s-ykw0yoaRfBcPg7KmzO_eajy_qmtZN3iOAzEBkpaovHmCdSafhgxA/s1600/TrappedTree-diptych.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="1600" height="248" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwOiCMeys3TOZSwtRnaiR97mCvZDSjKODidsSoA-Cz2LXEqEPDObEVpYTmmja1s52YusMaNYIMbXqeR6WWfcv8s-ykw0yoaRfBcPg7KmzO_eajy_qmtZN3iOAzEBkpaovHmCdSafhgxA/s400/TrappedTree-diptych.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">2:13 p.m. — Another visual metaphor for our times.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This section of tree is actually hanging in the air, suspended by the hurricane fence into and through which it grew. The upper body of the tree and all its branches were sawed away . . . but so was the bottom of the trunk below.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The entire remaining section looks like this.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It’s been here for months, but I shot these photos at 12:29 p.m. on Tuesday, May 19, along Macadam Avenue between SW Gibbs and Curry (or a few dozen steps south of the OHSU aerial tram line, and a stone’s throw east of Interstate 5).</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDOvUIFrnCNJVTNR5gux6U57AcQUK5ojcRSP8VJwq7YqpDdwyizmSUlfeT637XQQtzJ8IsgAWpCdSaeeYKdrgYVOt-rgdRSFcQsdEZrJ2jZiwh0Yk_obDGWq_HmcJNkY4aaTlKXnQHzQ/s1600/TwoMile-1977.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="519" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDOvUIFrnCNJVTNR5gux6U57AcQUK5ojcRSP8VJwq7YqpDdwyizmSUlfeT637XQQtzJ8IsgAWpCdSaeeYKdrgYVOt-rgdRSFcQsdEZrJ2jZiwh0Yk_obDGWq_HmcJNkY4aaTlKXnQHzQ/s400/TwoMile-1977.jpg" width="287" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">8:50 a.m. — So this was what I was doing on this day a while back: competing in the Oregon state track meet two-mile final at the University of Oregon’s Hayward Field.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">My time would have made me state champion in most states across the nation, but I was barely a contender in District 5AAA, which included the powerhouse of South Eugene High under Harry Johnson; on that team was <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_McChesney_(athlete)">the late Bill McChesney</a>, a future Olympics qualifier in my school district.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">At this point, I’m a couple laps in, with a couple runners in front of me and most of the pack behind. I would finish fifth in the state two-mile with a 9:21-something, not quite as fast as my personal best of 9:19.5, which I had run the week before at the district meet, working hard to hold off a couple of North Eugene runners with McChesney far out in front of us.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I got to know Bill briefly when I visited him at his home 11 years later, in the summer of 1988, when he was transitioning into becoming a professional massage therapist. Tragically, he was killed in a motor vehicle collision just four years later, when we were 33.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">MONDAY, JUNE 1</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">10:48 p.m. — I watched a news briefing this morning for the first time — nearly all of it — by <a href="https://www.facebook.com/GovernorAndrewCuomo">Governor Cuomo</a>.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">His comments, both during his statement and the Q&A, were clear, cogent, informative, fair, and best of all, humane — everything that appears to be utterly beyond the President. Also unlike the president, Cuomo has a decent sense of humor.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Although he had strong words for the killers of George Floyd, tempered and nuanced remarks about the protests and looting, and stern reminders to the people of New York City and state as both locales prepare for Stage Two reopening between now and next Monday, there were a lot of other interesting details along the way.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">One somewhat tangential one that leaped out at me occurred, I think, when the governor was talking about advantageous historic moments, when the people lead by saying “This is what we want, NOW!” and the politicians say “oops, we’d better do something.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">He mentioned several past examples (the legalization of LGBTQ marriages, gun control legislation in NY after Sandy Hook), but also tasks that have been left undone or loom on the horizon. One was affordable housing. I’m a former HUD secretary [federal, under President Clinton], he said, so no one knows better than I what the federal government used to do via Section 8 and other initiatives to try to make sufficient affordable housing available. Then the feds got out of that business and left it to the market, and guess what? — you have a housing crisis!</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">One particular facet of Governor Cuomo’s presentation that especially pleased me, since I’m both a voice actor and have done occasional public speaking, is that his extempore remarks featured almost no “uh”s. That is to say, he doesn’t unconsciously try to fill gaps between his thoughts, between his sentences, between phrases <i>within</i> a sentence, with “uhhhh” . . . which an awful lot of people do; even professional actors as well as politicians, many of whom are fine reading or reciting a script but are not able to deliver their own thoughts as cleanly.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This is not an intentional thing; as I say, people do this unconsciously. You have to train yourself — develop enough experience — to avoid it. Perhaps the lucky ones simply learned from their parents how to speak without those annoying interjections. The governor is very good at this, among other things.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">[NOTE: This was the afternoon, precisely one</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">week after the death of George Floyd and the</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">nation, that the President made his infamous</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">9:10 p.m. — I was riding a MAX light-rail train east across the Steel Bridge about 7:45 p.m. when I looked out the window to the south and saw the entire Burnside Bridge covered with protesters marching west.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">At about 8:22 p.m. I was aboard a #12 Trimet bus returning west on Sandy at NE 40th when I looked up and saw the Hollywood Theatre marquee read: “Justice for George, Ahmaud, Breonna and Too Many Others.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This is a shot from live camera feed on KGW at 9:23 p.m. in Pioneer Courthouse Square, my “office” with Portland Walking Tours almost every week year-round for the past 8 years. . . . </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">TUESDAY, JUNE 2</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">2:16 p.m. — Because I am all written out — from the Boston Tea Party analogy to the president’s dictatorial and moronic photo op with a Bible yesterday — I am posting this photo of one of the bricks I used to visit with my walking tours in Pioneer Courthouse Square. (There are actually three of them that carry this name, and I know exactly where all of them are.)</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Carole ordered one to carry my name as a gift last December, but it’s not clear when it’s ever going to take its place there.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">* * * * *</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">If you haven’t seen the rest of my thoughts, observations, political commentaries, and jokes during the preceding weeks of the 2020 Coronavirus Pandemic, you can go to them via the links below:</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“<a href="https://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2020/06/a-journal-of-plague-year-week-11.html">A Journal of the Plague Year . . . Week 11</a>”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">(featuring the triumph of New Zealand, a cheap candy bourbon, the recurring illusion that “all sides come together” in a national crisis, my first three days of post-lockdown work on the job for Portland Streetcar, and my first Virtual Karaoke Party with Devo, Dire Straits, and Queen)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“<a href="https://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2020/06/a-journal-of-plague-year-week-10.html">A Journal of the Plague Year . . . Week 10</a>”<br />
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(more Russian bot attacks, the thrilling conclusion to our search for unemployment benefits and federal stimulus payment, my initial experiences with heavy use of a Kindle, a visit to River View Cemetery, more about masks and covid-19 stats, and a list of at least some of the things that terrify the President)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“<a href="https://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2020/06/a-journal-of-plague-year-week-9.html">A Journal of the Plague Year . . . Week 9</a>”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">(what it really means to “get out” during a pandemic, previous plagues in history, my ongoing effort to obtain unemployment benefits, more photos of Little Free Libraries, streets without sidewalks, tactics courtesy of the <i>Wall Street Journal</i> for keeping your glasses from fogging and the long slow death of my hair dye job)</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“<a href="https://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2020/06/a-journal-of-plague-year-week-8.html"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 238); color: #551a8b;">A Journal of the Plague Year . . . Week 8</span></a>”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">(which includes another visit to downtown on foot, an online reunion of most of the principal cast of “Grimm,” our address courtesy of the USPS, how the pandemic outed the real “snowflakes” and made “socialist Sweden” the unlikely hero of U.S. libertarians, and my first official visits to Little Free Libraries)</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“<a href="https://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2020/05/a-journal-of-plague-year-week-7.html"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 238); color: #551a8b;">A Journal of the Plague Year . . . Week 7</span></a>”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">(online video chat with family, my brother’s remote musical video collaborations, a long walk from the northern border of the city, birthday wishes to my wife, a happy quarantine coincidence, and my discovery of Little Free Libraries)</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“<a href="https://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2020/05/a-journal-of-plague-year-week-6.html"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 238); color: #551a8b;">A Journal of the Plague Year . . . Week 6</span></a>”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">(the yellow fever epidemic that almost killed Alexander Hamilton, post-lockdown pleasure reading, invasions by Russian bots, capitulation to the Kindle, more long walks about the city, the distinction between an “excuse” and a “reason,” and an outing by car to run errands and finish a video voiceover job)</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“<a href="https://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2020/05/a-journal-of-plague-year-week-5.html"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(85, 26, 139);">A Journal of the Plague Year . . . Week 5</span></a>”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">(long walks through NE and SE Portland, tactics for maneuvering through the streets in mask and gloves, the current plague of faux certainties, and visits to the Rose City Book Pub and Reed College campus)</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“<a href="https://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2020/04/a-journal-of-plague-year-week-4.html"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 238);">A Journal of the Plague Year . . . Week 4</span></a>”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">(the start of my exhausting efforts to obtain unemployment benefits, first long walks about SW and SE Portland, idiocy from the governor of Georgia, an online reading with the cast of my March play production of a new short play by the lead actor, and how this is all Obama’s fault)</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“<a href="https://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2020/04/a-journal-of-plague-year-week-3.html"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(85, 26, 139);">A Journal of the Plague Year . . . Week 3</span></a>”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">(a visit on foot to a remarkably deserted downtown Portland, my analysis of the initial patterns of coronavirus testing and spread in Oregon and major metro counties, several dismissals of the worthless Incumbent)</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“<a href="https://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2020/03/a-journal-of-plague-year-week-2.html"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(85, 26, 139);">A Journal of the Plague Year . . . Week 2</span></a>”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">(the remarkably dry and beautiful weather that has brightened our self-isolation, a library books pile-up, a visit to the Portland Farmers Market after lockdown, the Whole Foods “early elders shopping hour,” a hike up the hills to visit my best friend from grade school, and thoughts about Nevil Shute’s <i>On the Beach</i>)</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“<a href="https://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2020/03/a-journal-of-plague-year-week-1.html"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 238);">A Journal of the Plague Year . . . Week 1</span></a>”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">(the weird hand-washing behavior of men, the shutdown of Portland arts events, and the run on guns and toilet paper)</span></span></div>
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David Loftushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03855438200255152255noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4097849630041105773.post-77847563445749990642020-07-04T14:47:00.001-07:002020-07-06T20:38:31.080-07:00How the George Floyd/BLM Protests Are Like the Boston Tea Party . . . and Are Not<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 15px;">
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">As in years past, I’ve seen familiar complaints about how vandalism and destruction of property during the protests here in Portland and elsewhere across the nation “lose me” and “violate the message.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Another familiar trope has been for leftists to refer to the historic precedent of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Tea_Party">the Boston Tea Party</a>, to which members of the right reply that that event “focused its damage on the actual items [or business or people] at fault.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Curious about the truth of the matter — there’s almost always more to the story than can be captured in a sentence, or is relayed in high-school history classes and textbooks, which is what most of us know — I decided to look into the matter. I learned a lot . . . and neither of the narratives above is accurate.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This is what I found:<br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie55N0OtbYBVb2zhqQue9OglU5NQKjv5rRocOCt4_mQi9E-bytc7KGB56UB7bBrfpDSMHpNanu3-y6ZoFFGEXb4f-FuGSpRSoWFj_2axTatUMnLXolFICA1n7lfxnFEjITmvofP_UHKw/s1600/BostonTeaPartyC.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1053" data-original-width="1600" height="209" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie55N0OtbYBVb2zhqQue9OglU5NQKjv5rRocOCt4_mQi9E-bytc7KGB56UB7bBrfpDSMHpNanu3-y6ZoFFGEXb4f-FuGSpRSoWFj_2axTatUMnLXolFICA1n7lfxnFEjITmvofP_UHKw/s320/BostonTeaPartyC.png" width="320" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The (disguised) protesters who dumped 342 chests of tea of tea into Boston Harbor from the <i>Dartmouth</i>, the <i>Beaver</i>, and the <i>Eleanor</i> at Griffin Wharf on the night of Dec. 16, 1773 were expressing their displeasure with an act of Parliament, which did not own either the ship, the tea, or the wharf.</span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Most of the roughly 100 participants were under the age of 40, and sixteen were teenagers — imagine that. Thanks to their disguise as Native Americans, only one was arrested and imprisoned later.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The vandalism took three hours to accomplish, and the dumped chests contained more than 92,000 pounds (or 45 tons) of tea, so we’re not talking about a small act of destruction here. In today’s dollars the loss, <a href="https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-boston-tea-party">about $18,000 at that time</a>, has been estimated at around $1.7 million.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The tea was owned by the British East India Company, which, though incorporated by Queen Elizabeth’s royal charter 173 years before, was a joint-stock company . . . which means that wealthy merchants and aristocrats owned the shares. In other words, they were the corporate fat cats of that era — not the government that had passed the tax on tea (though it’s probably fair to say it may have done so at the behest of, if not hand in hand with, the wealthy owners of the East India Company).</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">A 2019 <i>National Geographic</i> feature referred to the East India Company as “<a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/topics/reference/british-east-india-trading-company-most-powerful-business/">the world’s most powerful business</a>”: the Google AND Apple of the 17th and 18th centuries, that was all but synonymous with the British Empire.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And it wasn’t just one night’s work. For weeks after, to keep looters from salvaging the dumped tea chests, members of the Sons of Liberty went out in boats to <a href="https://www.bostonteapartyship.com/the-aftermath">hit the tea with clubs and oars</a> to make sure it all sank beneath the waves and would be useless.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Even after American independence, participants in the Boston Tea Party <a href="https://www.history.com/news/10-things-you-may-not-know-about-the-boston-tea-party">refused to reveal their identities</a> because they feared they might still face civil and criminal charges for destruction of private property . . . in other words, they were breaking the law and they knew it (which is more than you can confidently say about the current president, I’m afraid).</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In response to this act of vandalism, the British Parliament cracked down even harder — a classic move by authorities which often proves to be utterly counterproductive — and passed the Coercive Acts (aka by the colonists as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intolerable_Acts">the Intolerable Acts</a>) in December 1773, which in turn led to the colonists organizing the First Continental Congress the following September.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">One might perceive a similarity between the Crown’s reaction and that of various police officers and agencies who, having acted with impunity for so long, have continued to <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/black-amazon-driver-arrested-after-parking-wrong-side-street-n1229911">abuse Black Americans</a>, <a href="https://www.opb.org/news/article/portland-journalists-harmed-covering-george-floyd-blm-protests/">members of the media</a>, and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2020/06/11/how-clearing-lafayette-square-made-white-house-look-bit-more-like-kremlin/">peaceful protesters</a> weeks after the unconscionable murder of George Floyd on camera.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">A <a href="http://www.boston-tea-party.org/parties-summary.html">second Boston Tea Party</a> occurred four months after the first, in March 1774, during which 60 Bostonians boarded the <i>Fortune</i> and dumped another 60 chests of tea into the bay. So I guess they hadn’t learned their lesson . . . and this round encouraged further tea dumpings in Maryland, New York, and South Carolina.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Now, the naysayers today have a respectable array of predecessors who looked askance at the protest in Boston. Although the future leader of the Revolutionary army and first president would write in June 1774 that “the cause of Boston … ever will be considered as the cause of America,” he also strongly voiced his disapproval of “<a href="https://www.history.com/topics/american-revolution/boston-tea-party">their conduct in destroying the Tea</a>.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Like other members of the colonial elite, Washington held private property to be sacrosanct and believed the perpetrators should compensate the East India Company for damages. Benjamin Franklin also insisted the company be reimbursed for the loss and even offered to pay it himself . . . but I haven’t managed to find any record that he made good on the offer. My guess is the East India Company ended up eating the loss.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I found another nuance of complexity to the story. The Boston Tea Party protesters made an explicit effort to avoid damaging anything other than the tea: the ships were American owned, and the only damage they reportedly suffered was a broken padlock.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Robert_Twelves_Hewes">George Hewes, one of the protesters</a> who dressed up as Native Americans, later reported: “One Captain O’Connor, whom I well knew, <a href="http://www.boston-tea-party.org/account-george-hewes.html">came on board [to steal some tea]</a>, and when he supposed he was not noticed, filled his pockets, and also the lining of his coat. But I had detected him and gave information to the captain of what he was doing. We were ordered to take him into custody, and just as he was stepping from the vessel, I seized him by the skirt of his coat, and in attempting to pull him back, I tore it off; but, springing forward by a rapid effort he made his escape.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">So that protest organized and executed by the Sons of Liberty ran a tight ship, ethically speaking. They could control execution, having planned ahead and being only a hundred strong. Captain O’Connor was an opportunist, more like the high-spirited vandals and thieves who have taken advantage of chaos and confusion, and are NOT to be equated with the vast majority of the protesters today.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">You might say a modern counterpart to Hewes would be Patrick Hutchinson, the Black Lives Matter protester who <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/14/blm-supporter-speaks-out-after-carrying-counter-protester-to-safety">carried a white BLM counter-protester to safety</a> in London on June 13 after the crowd started to beat him up. They had their ethical values straight, and acted on them. Closer to home, I saw a moment during the live coverage of a demonstration in Pioneer Courthouse Square in downtown Portland on June 1 when a young man with more spirit than sense started to try to cut down the American flag and was <a href="https://www.oregonlive.com/portland/2020/06/portlanders-converge-again-monday-to-protest-death-of-george-floyd-in-minneapolis-police-custody.html">booed and yelled at by the crowd</a> around him, which dissuaded him.<br />
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Also, the colonists were not protesting the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-52905408">actual killing of one of their own</a> by authorities who represented the government — unless you count the Boston Massacre more than three years before, and that’s nothing like the <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/01/george-floyd-death-police-violence-in-the-us-in-4-charts.html">long, long line of police killings of Black Americans</a> in the U.S. Frankly, if you know how little they were taxed, both prior to 1773 and as proposed by London, I think the average person would say they were acting like entitled brats . . . that the principle of the matter may have been righteous, but the practical reality was more arguable.<br />
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One of the many ironies of the United States in the 21st century, I would wager, is that most of the citizens who have adopted the label “Tea Party” would most likely have been Tories in 1776. They would have decried destruction of property and the disrespect for authority displayed by the Sons of Liberty.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I don’t seek to justify or defend this year’s violence and damage to property — or in any other year. My goal is nothing more than clarity of thought and understanding. I would never do such things myself; however, just like <a href="http://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2011/10/occupy-portland-part-3-democracy-is.html">the Occupy Portland protests I witnessed</a> almost nine years ago, the rallies the past month clearly have involved an array of mixed and even conflicting players and goals.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I’ve seen increasing reports that riots, violence, and destruction have been cheered, fomented, and even executed by agitators who roused one another via social media to cross state lines and raise hell in hopes of sparking more distrust and even hatred of the left . . . and at worst, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/06/17/trump-warns-leftist-violence-dangerous-threat-emerges-right-wing-boogaloo-movement/">an upheaval of our entire society</a>. Their numbers may be minuscule, but their reach and power is oversized — and unfortunately rouses ignorant support from frightened conservative Americans in their homes.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I’m not inclined to be a conspiracy theorist — as Edward Dahlberg was fond of saying, “Doubt was my Rock of St. Peter” — and that goes for everything, so I’ll reserve judgment on this until I see more concrete evidence.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">However, any simple and sweeping judgment is impossible . . . and best avoided. I find the darker facets of recent national turmoil unpleasant and regrettable, but understandable. We’ve been here many times before, and peaceful protests have not put an end to what was clearly wrong and broken all along.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Despite charismatic leaders who advocated nonviolent action, every great shift in social policy and history — from the Magna Carta in 1215 AD to the independence of India in the 1940s and the passage of U.S. civil rights legislation in the 1960s — has included, and possibly even required, acts of force and violence.</span></span></div>
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David Loftushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03855438200255152255noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4097849630041105773.post-17220480200473386872020-06-29T12:46:00.000-07:002020-07-06T20:38:53.659-07:00A Journal of the Plague Year . . . Week 11<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 15px;">
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Week 11 of our new reality — in which I returned to work for Portland Streetcar, among other things. . . . </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">WEDNESDAY, MAY 20</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">9:50 a.m. — Sure wish this country had <a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/kiwis-vs-coronavirus-new-zealand-covid19-restrictions-rules/?fbclid=IwAR1Bt9ej7wYOqRmNRmYV8NA7ZSkldYWG9UvpVDB7gANJHMWNjQiGvYBqLBU">a competent leader at the helm</a>. A woman would be a refreshing change, for one thing.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I love New Zealand. I got to experience a nearly lifelong dream of getting to visit that country last year, courtesy of my mother. There was so much to savor, not the least of which was the opportunity to visit three friends I hadn’t seen in decades:</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">— an international consultant in development and feminist economics, former Member of Parliament, and professor of public policy at the Auckland University of Technology</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">— the director of Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of Wellington (whom I met and interviewed in the early 90s when I was working on my book)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">— and a former AFS exchange student who lived with my family in Coos Bay in 1993-94 and graduated from my high school: our Kiwi sister, Natasha “Taz” Tawhara.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Three cheers for a great and beautiful nation!</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This selfie dates from March 3 of last year: the second morning aboard the <i>Majestic Princess</i>, which took Mom and me down the west coast of New Zealand from Auckland to Wellington and other stops to round the southern tip for a climactic visit to <a href="https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attractions-g668209-Activities-Fiordland_National_Park_Southland_Region_South_Island.html">Fiordland National Park</a>, then across the Sea to Tasmania and Sydney. Here, we’re departing the port of Tauranga.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">10:46 a.m. — <a href="https://ca.news.yahoo.com/new-polls-show-trouble-for-trump-and-republicans-in-gop-strongholds-190547796.html">This is astounding</a>. Who could have predicted it?<br />
There’s still more than five months for the fickle voters to come to their senses. . . . </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">1:31 p.m. — More than 1,500 deaths nationwide in the last 24 hours.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This puts us on track to hit six figures by Sunday.<br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">THURSDAY, MAY 21</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">5:07 p.m. — Back in the saddle again.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">About 3:30 p.m., between showers and hail on Thursday, May 21, 2020.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">7:31 p.m. — For my birthday a year ago, Carole advised guests to bring a gift of bourbon, if they were inclined to bring anything. The resulting bottles of Woodford Reserve, Elijah Craig, Know Creek, 1792, Buffalo Trace, and others lasted all year.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">When I went downtown to pick up some medications for Carole and the dog a couple weeks ago, I swung into 10th Avenue Liquor on a whim, and bought a bottle of what is probably the equivalent of cotton candy or bubble gum in terms of bourbon whiskey.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">If you haven’t tasted this, it’ll remind you of cinnamon red hots; remember those tiny red candies that sizzled on the tongue?).</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But it’s helping me get through this.<br />
(I also purchased a bottle of <a href="https://www.breakingbourbon.com/review/1792-small-batch">1792 Small Batch</a> and stowed it away for later. . . . )</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">10:39 p.m. — One of my Facebook friends today was bemoaning the rampant division in this country, and wondered how the nation “all came together” in past times of national crisis such as World War II . . . or was that more a rosy telling of history?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This was my response:<br />
It’s never the case that “all sides come together” — never.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">My paternal grandmother told me about racist violence against German immigrants in Fairbanks, Alaska Territory during the First World War when she was a teenager there. The local German-Americans closed down their community center/social hall to protect themselves against their neighbors’ animus.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Of course you’re aware that Japanese-Americans like my mother and the rest of her family were sent to prison camps during World War II without due process (AFTER her older brothers had enlisted or been drafted into the U.S. Army and would serve in the Pacific).</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">[This is a photo of Ralph Sherrieb. He owned West Side Store, just down the road from the farm owned by my mother’s parents. The day her family was shipped out of Hood River — May 13, 1942 — he came down to the train station, shed tears, and gave them an address book as a gift with entreaties to write letters from camp. But this is how he looked after they returned home in 1945.]</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">If you dig a little, you’ll find out about discrimination against African-Americans, and even race riots with fatalities, in the service during WW2. I just Googled “were there race riots in the US Army during World War II?” and an array of interesting links came up.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I think part of what drives our perception that it’s so much worse now — I take no firm position on this; there are just too many variables — are, among other things:</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">— our rosy view of the past (the survivors and victors tell the story, etc.)<br />
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— the reach of social media and the Internet today, such that not only are individuals who would have been too isolated from one another and generally ashamed to air their ignorant, racist, and just plain ill-mannered side in public can now do so from the safety of their homes. . . . </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">. . . but their content (legitimate and otherwise, generated on phones they can take with them anywhere) can race around the nation and the globe in seconds, and even sometimes drive mainstream news.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Thus, there may not necessarily be any greater ugliness and division in this country today than in the past . . . but they enjoy much higher visibility, move more swiftly, and can manage a broader reach than they used to.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">FRIDAY, MAY 22</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">10:35 a.m. — For my blog, “<a href="https://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2020/05/a-journal-of-plague-year-week-7.html">A Journal of the Plague Year . . . Week 7</a>”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">. . . including my first long-distance, post-pandemic video chat with my family . . . my brother’s online musical collaborations in self-isolation . . . a happy solution to an erroneous grocery delivery . . . a photo of my home workspace . . . a visit to the PSU Walk of the Heroines, with my Japanese grandmother’s name . . . another gratuitous photo of our 5-pound dog, Pixie . . . and my discovery of Little Free Libraries in Portland (which would lead to other, planned encounters during my long walks about the city).</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6Ea6YIONrljVrB2S4bo9Sdq1wf07m-rL8aA4z-Grup2N55C3ccYC4YvfE5KnuJ2bHrFsk2wHNCcDW6nr6w8uGqwGQ0agLlPgSbvM61ROk84qUcXzS1n4ehr5gA8hI0C5UyXhyphenhyphenfFq8Eg/s1600/KaraokeRedBaron-May22.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="874" data-original-width="1600" height="217" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6Ea6YIONrljVrB2S4bo9Sdq1wf07m-rL8aA4z-Grup2N55C3ccYC4YvfE5KnuJ2bHrFsk2wHNCcDW6nr6w8uGqwGQ0agLlPgSbvM61ROk84qUcXzS1n4ehr5gA8hI0C5UyXhyphenhyphenfFq8Eg/s400/KaraokeRedBaron-May22.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">12:19 a.m. — When I got up from dinner this evening, I certainly didn’t expect to add four more numbers to my lifetime total of karaoke songs — especially not the three I ended up doing by Devo, Dire Straits, and Queen.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But my brother Toby was hosting a Physically Distant Karaoke party online — the second he’s organized this month — and by gosh, I managed to locate some bare-bones instrumental arrangements for several songs I’ve always wanted to do, but could never find in a karaoke bar catalogue.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">One (Queen’s “Don’t Try Suicide”) consisted of nothing more than a single guitar line which I had a hard time hearing — and no karaoke-prompt lyrics, of course — so I had to read the lines off a separate sheet, but it worked all right.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Other people sang Roy Orbison, Foreigner, Tina Turner, Norah Jones, Sinatra . . . it made for a remarkably intimate and heartwarming evening.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">With Dire Straits’ “Water of Love” and Devo’s cover of “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction,” my lifetime total of karaoke songs tackled is now 244.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">SATURDAY, MAY 23</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">5:15 p.m. — Second day back on the job. I’m testing the waters with Portland Streetcar.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">We haven’t been ordered back to work, nor are we expected to work shifts; management has left it entirely up to us, and I’m not aware that any other customer service reps have clocked any hours yet.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Three days ago, at the direction of the state of Oregon Health Authority, streetcar instituted a policy of requiring masks on all riders. Signs to that effect have been posted on the doors.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">We are not in a position to enforce this, however; and it’s certainly not in my job description. Today I merely observed activity and reported back to administration. Most of the time, riders have been sparse throughout the day and the lockdown since mid March . . . especially after 7 p.m., an operator told me.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">From my observation, mask compliance on board is roughly 80 percent, depending on the part of town and time of day. Passengers are mostly steady regulars who are dependent on the trolley, especially elders and disabled citizens; plus a smattering of what I took to be thoughtless teens and twenty-somethings as well as occasional street people. The former wear masks; most of the latter two groups do not.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The majority of street people are docile, polite, even humble. Occasionally you get a prickly shouter like the man who repeatedly barked “NO!” for no apparent reason at the elder disabled man in a power wheelchair across the aisle from him, who glanced up the car at me questioningly.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I moved in closer behind the shouter to monitor . . . and a seedy kid with his arms full went toward the doors to get off at the next stop, dropped an empty plastic water container and scooted it off the train with his foot while the shouter yelled “PICK IT UP!”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">They faced off through the open doors. I wandered silently up the car to stand within the direct view of the verbal assaulter, maybe 10 feet from him; studiously pretending I hadn’t noticed him at all, never looking in his direction — just hovering.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">As I’d calculated, he shut up for the remainder of his ride.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">8:10 p.m. — Online chat with family in Ashland and New Zealand tonight, 7 to 8 p.m. Pacific time.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">MONDAY, MAY 25</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">11:22 a.m. — Last week I predicted the U.S. would top 100,000 deaths due to covid-19 by Sunday. I was wrong . . . but it’ll probably happen in another day or three.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Now that some states (and many counties here in Oregon) have opened somewhat for retail and recreational activities, we’ll see how well the average American has been paying attention, and whether everyone can behave him- or herself enough to avoid a sudden spike and resurgence of infections and mortality in June.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">These are the national totals as of noon on the East Coast.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">11:34 a.m. — My “meta” literary experience yesterday afternoon:</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Reading about the <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34427200-the-four">concept, technical design, funding, and corporate politics</a> involved in the creation and promotion of the Kindle . . . on a Kindle.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">4:51 p.m. — Third day of post-lockdown work for Portland Streetcar.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I actually helped a couple of riders today: directed several people to the proper stations and trains to get where they wanted to go . . . assured a woman she wasn’t going to get in trouble because she’d lost her pass and was trying to get to her office to secure another one, but couldn’t buy a ticket on board because all the cash machines have been disabled or removed from the trains.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I talked to an operations manager at the maintenance office to get the bigger picture. Two days ago streetcar started putting free masks on the trains (in the former map and activity brochure slots by the center doors), but they’re not sealed and cannot be replenished each day if/when they run out.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">(I saw several trains with no more masks today, and observed an elderly rider who had his own mask on take another from the train.)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Streetcar is operating on a modified Sunday schedule: a train roughly every 20 minutes on each line, but shifted earlier than normal Sunday operations . . . in other words, starting at the regular weekday morning times (at or a little before 6 a.m.), and shutting down earlier in the evening.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Final train runs at about 10:15 p.m. rather than 11:30. We’ve been shorthanded for operators. The plan is to extend the schedule in mid June.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">A train operator had told me riders pretty much disappear after 7 p.m. — nobody’s riding because nothing’s open and there’s no place to have to get to — but the operations manager also told me folks have gotten wilder after 8 p.m. There have been incidents of fights and spitting.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Tomorrow, the maintenance team is scheduled to begin cleaning/disinfecting every train roughly once every 4 hours.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I ran across this while working: a classic example of something you can walk by dozens of times without ever noticing it.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">(It’s not readily apparent, though: behind a low wall and metal fencing bars through which I had to point my camera lens for this shot….)</span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEia25oGWFLCJAuqBs0pSPkEAfyur2e9PfrG4H015JzJWei2VegDbWC2zbD5nLhZlHmuzM6jhD5ux9woR5G8iIPmi2p_aQAZXBvBG00PDEiZHKKuVVpTbmSv7SdwjRgorJxpycSRpRxNYg/s1600/NatureBats-May25.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEia25oGWFLCJAuqBs0pSPkEAfyur2e9PfrG4H015JzJWei2VegDbWC2zbD5nLhZlHmuzM6jhD5ux9woR5G8iIPmi2p_aQAZXBvBG00PDEiZHKKuVVpTbmSv7SdwjRgorJxpycSRpRxNYg/s400/NatureBats-May25.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">It faces NW 10th from the Ecotrust Building parking lot, midway between Kearney and Lovejoy in the Pearl, about 40 yards south of the streetcar platform at 10th and Johnson.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The source might be <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/25/opinion/25friedman.html">green scientist Robert K. Watson</a>, who wrote “Mother Nature is just chemistry, biology, and physics. That’s all she is. You cannot sweet-talk her. You cannot spin her. You cannot tell her that the oil companies say climate change is a hoax. No, Mother Nature is always going to do whatever chemistry, biology, and physics dictate. Mother Nature always bats last, and she always bats 1,000.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I’ve also seen the tagline attributed to biologist and <a href="https://www.gapatton.net/2014/08/220-nature-bats-last.html">population theorist Paul Ehrlich</a>, but it may well predate either of them.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Apparently, this particular iteration has been in place for years, but I’d never seen it (it’s behind a low wall and some bars along the sidewalk), but it seems especially apropos in 2020.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">[NOTE: Of relevance to future events, it was on the evening of this day</span></span> — <span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> between 8:19 p.m. and 8:28 p.m. local Central Daylight Time </span></span>— <span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">that Minneapolis Police officer Derek Chauvin held down George Floyd with his knee on the man</span></span>’<span style="font-family: inherit;">s neck, steadily, until after a full minute after an ambulance arrived; and Floyd was pronounced dead at Hennepin County Medical Center emergency room at 9:25 p.m.]</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">TUESDAY, MAY 26</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">3:34 p.m. — Total books read so far in 2020:</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">58 (about 21,020 pages)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Books read since the coronavirus shutdown circa March 12: 23</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Total e-books read on a Kindle:<br />
lifetime = 9</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">this year = 6</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Total books read so far after retrieval from a Little Free Library: 2 completed, 2 in progress</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">10:07 p.m. — This evening I was reading Paul Elie’s fascinating <b><i>Reinventing Bach</i></b> — the chapter about Pablo Casals and his 1936 recording of the cello suites in London — but the author wandered off into a detailed discussion of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ffg4mU7FNE">the cantata “Christ lag in Todesbanden,”</a> and I realized I had no idea what music he was talking about.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I’m not sure I’ve ever sung a Bach cantata. So I went to YouTube to listen to the work, which is what I’m doing now. . . . </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">* * * * *</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">If you haven’t seen my thoughts, observations, political commentaries, and jokes during the preceding weeks of the 2020 Coronavirus Pandemic, you can go to them via the links below:</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“<a href="https://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2020/06/a-journal-of-plague-year-week-10.html">A Journal of the Plague Year . . . Week 10</a>”<br />
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(more Russian bot attacks, the thrilling conclusion to our search for unemployment benefits and federal stimulus payment, my initial experiences with heavy use of a Kindle, a visit to River View Cemetery, more about masks and covid-19 stats, and a list of at least some of the things that terrify the President)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“<a href="https://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2020/06/a-journal-of-plague-year-week-9.html">A Journal of the Plague Year . . . Week 9</a>”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">(what it really means to “get out” during a pandemic, previous plagues in history, my ongoing effort to obtain unemployment benefits, more photos of Little Free Libraries, streets without sidewalks, tactics courtesy of the <i>Wall Street Journal</i> for keeping your glasses from fogging and the long slow death of my hair dye job)</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“<a href="https://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2020/06/a-journal-of-plague-year-week-8.html"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 238); color: #551a8b;">A Journal of the Plague Year . . . Week 8</span></a>”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">(which includes another visit to downtown on foot, an online reunion of most of the principal cast of “Grimm,” our address courtesy of the USPS, how the pandemic outed the real “snowflakes” and made “socialist Sweden” the unlikely hero of U.S. libertarians, and my first official visits to Little Free Libraries)</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“<a href="https://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2020/05/a-journal-of-plague-year-week-7.html"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 238); color: #551a8b;">A Journal of the Plague Year . . . Week 7</span></a>”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">(online video chat with family, my brother’s remote musical video collaborations, a long walk from the northern border of the city, birthday wishes to my wife, a happy quarantine coincidence, and my discovery of Little Free Libraries)</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“<a href="https://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2020/05/a-journal-of-plague-year-week-6.html"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 238); color: #551a8b;">A Journal of the Plague Year . . . Week 6</span></a>”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">(the yellow fever epidemic that almost killed Alexander Hamilton, post-lockdown pleasure reading, invasions by Russian bots, capitulation to the Kindle, more long walks about the city, the distinction between an “excuse” and a “reason,” and an outing by car to run errands and finish a video voiceover job)</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“<a href="https://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2020/05/a-journal-of-plague-year-week-5.html"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(85, 26, 139);">A Journal of the Plague Year . . . Week 5</span></a>”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">(long walks through NE and SE Portland, tactics for maneuvering through the streets in mask and gloves, the current plague of faux certainties, and visits to the Rose City Book Pub and Reed College campus)</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“<a href="https://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2020/04/a-journal-of-plague-year-week-4.html"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 238);">A Journal of the Plague Year . . . Week 4</span></a>”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">(the start of my exhausting efforts to obtain unemployment benefits, first long walks about SW and SE Portland, idiocy from the governor of Georgia, an online reading with the cast of my March play production of a new short play by the lead actor, and how this is all Obama’s fault)</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“<a href="https://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2020/04/a-journal-of-plague-year-week-3.html"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(85, 26, 139);">A Journal of the Plague Year . . . Week 3</span></a>”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">(a visit on foot to a remarkably deserted downtown Portland, my analysis of the initial patterns of coronavirus testing and spread in Oregon and major metro counties, several dismissals of the worthless Incumbent)</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“<a href="https://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2020/03/a-journal-of-plague-year-week-2.html"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(85, 26, 139);">A Journal of the Plague Year . . . Week 2</span></a>”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">(the remarkably dry and beautiful weather that has brightened our self-isolation, a library books pile-up, a visit to the Portland Farmers Market after lockdown, the Whole Foods “early elders shopping hour,” a hike up the hills to visit my best friend from grade school, and thoughts about Nevil Shute’s <i>On the Beach</i>)</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“<a href="https://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2020/03/a-journal-of-plague-year-week-1.html"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 238);">A Journal of the Plague Year . . . Week 1</span></a>”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">(the weird hand-washing behavior of men, the shutdown of Portland arts events, and the run on guns and toilet paper)</span></span></div>
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David Loftushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03855438200255152255noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4097849630041105773.post-24654237859560137022020-06-28T16:57:00.001-07:002020-07-06T20:39:18.581-07:00Blog Post Number 900<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 15px;">
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This is the 900th commentary to be uploaded to this blog, according to the metrics maintained by the host service. During the ten and a half years I’ve written for “American Currents,” the blog has amassed more than 77,300 views.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The facts behind those raw numbers show the reality is not as impressive as they make it sound. Due to the vagaries of online traffic, as well as the peculiar history of this blog, the figures are highly inflated.<br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I’ll sketch a truer picture for the record . . . and then we can return to more substantive content with blog post #901 — from further entries of my “Journal of the Plague Year” to more stories from Portland Walking Tours and tales of my encounters with Harlan Ellison.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“American Currents” was launched in the fall of 2009 by Jeff Weiss, an Atlantic City, New Jersey resident who wanted to host a gathering of commentators to address current events from various political perspectives.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I believe I answered a Craigslist ad to become one of the first writers in his stable — very possible THE first. He and I discussed the proposal for some weeks before he collected enough other writers and felt it was ready to go. Jeff’s concept was that he would pick a breaking news story each day, and several of us would volunteer to write a brief commentary about it from our differing points of view. Jeff would provide graphics, post our pieces together overnight or first thing the following morning, and manage the site generally, as well as contribute occasional pieces.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I came up with the title, “American Currents”: a gentle play on words to suggest various streams of thought as well as “current” in the sense of up-to-the-minute. Although the journal of the North American Native Fishes Association has gone by this name since 1972, I suspect the organization simply didn’t have a web presence back in 2009, because I’m certain I must have done a search to see whether anyone else was using the phrase online. (More recently, various country-music events appear to have adopted the name.)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Our blog launched on November 7, 2009. I’ve described the process at greater length <a href="http://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2017/09/remembering-my-faraway-friend-jeff-weiss.html">a piece that memorialized Jeff</a>, who died tragically in a motor vehicle accident in the summer of 2017.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Over the next six months I wrote 96 short, three-to-five-paragraph pieces on every topic from <a href="http://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2009/11/sarah-palin-vs-newsweek-art-hastings.html">Sarah Palin</a>, Tiger Wood’s apology for his sex scandal (<a href="http://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2010/02/tigers-apology-art-hastings.html">considered as a Winter Oympics sport</a>), and <a href="http://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2010/01/health-care-reform-bill-art-hastings_8839.html">Obama’s health-care reform bill</a> . . . to a blogger who <a href="http://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2009/12/tweeting-mom-controversy-art-hastings.html">tweeted about her son’s swimming-pool drowning</a> as it happened, a New Mexico <a href="http://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2010/01/funeral-home-horror-art-hastings.html">funeral home horror</a>, a teacher’s aide’s <a href="http://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2010/01/teachers-aide-nude-photo-controversy_08.html">nude photo controversy</a>, and a <a href="http://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2009/12/sexting-tragedy-art-hastings.html">sexting tragedy</a> (the latter two of which still pick up occasional hits to this day due to random web searches, I would suspect). </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">As it turned out, none of the other writers generated as much content as I. Jeff had particular difficulty finding and keeping writers who had a conservative viewpoint, which both he and I hoped for. The blog in its original format eventually collapsed in less than half a year. Jeff <a href="http://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2010_04_01_archive.html">formally shut it down</a> on April 30, 2010 . . . and then I decided two weeks later that I wanted to keep writing, albeit at both a slower pace and greater length than several paragraphs per essay.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Which I did. Although Jeff and a few others continued to write every once in a while, by the spring of 2011 “American Currents” was mine by default. For a while, the content was extremely peripatetic, based on whatever was happening in my life or might hit the local news in a big way.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">For example, I wrote a series of pieces about a <a href="http://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2010/09/recycling-part-5-cast-of-real.html">recycling enterprise I tackled</a> in the spring of 2010 . . . the shooting of a short fantasy film in which I played a <a href="http://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2010/08/son-of-ditch-goes-up-creek-48-hour-film.html">guy who digs a hole to China</a> . . . the disappearance of Kyron Horman, a 7-year-old boy, that <a href="http://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2010/08/crazy-kyron-horman-case-david-loftus.html">obsessed Portland</a> throughout the summer of 2010 . . . <a href="http://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2010/11/my-year-for-proust-part-2-david-loftus.html">reading all of Proust</a> . . . and an alleged attempt at a <a href="http://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2010/11/islamic-terrorism-oregon-style-david.html">terrorist bombing of Pioneer Courthouse Square</a> by a 19-year-old in downtown Portland (which, starting the following spring, would become the space I spent a lot of time in working as a <a href="http://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2017/03/my-career-as-portland-walking-tour-guide.html">Portland Walking Tour guide</a>!). The <a href="http://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2013/01/business-as-unusual.html">Somali-born suspect</a>, a naturalized resident of Beaverton and Oregon State University student, would be <a href="http://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2013/01/eluding-germs-plus-mohamud-verdict-and.html">convicted two years later</a> and sentenced to 30 years in prison.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In 2011 I wrote about my budding career as a <a href="http://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2011/09/two-years-before-cast.html">video and film actor and print model</a> (which would take a giant leap forward with a <a href="http://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2012/05/grimm-and-bare-it-getting-on-to-grimm.html">guest appearance on the hit NBC series “Grimm”</a> the following March — a story I see I left unfinished; there’s a bit <a href="https://calitreview.com/26063/clr-writer-david-loftus-recounts-his-role-as-a-reaper-on-nbcs-grimm/">more about it with photos here</a>). The 33 pieces total I wrote in 2011 were propelled mostly by the <a href="http://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2011/10/occupy-wall-street-comes-to-portland.html">Occupy Portland, which commenced</a> that fall. Carole and I <a href="http://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2011/10/occupy-portland-part-1-first.html">participated in the protests</a> to some extent, which <a href="http://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2011/10/occupy-portland-part-3-democracy-is.html">gave me plenty to write about</a>. When it was all over, we volunteered to rake the piles of leaves on the site and I meditated on <a href="http://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2011/12/raking-leaves-and-revolution.html">the meaning of Occupy Portland</a>.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">For a while in 2012, Jeff and I did an audio podcast on the subject of politics, “Pop2Politics,” and in the ensuing years, my production waxed and waned.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I generated barely a dozen pieces in each of the following two years. Carole posted a brief, <a href="http://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2013/03/urgent-help-find-david-loftus.html">frantic call for help on my blog</a> when my brother Toby and I disappeared in the snow-covered Cascade Mountains overnight on March 2, 2013. Thereafter, I uploaded:</span></span></div>
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<li style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"></span><span style="font-kerning: none;">15 in 2015 (primarily focused on the disaster that befell my wife, which I described in a series titled “<a href="http://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2015/10/two-plus-days-in-hospital-when-you.html">When You Become the Lead Story</a>”)</span></span></li>
<li style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"></span><span style="font-kerning: none;">16 in 2016</span></span></li>
<li style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"></span><span style="font-kerning: none;">18 in 2017</span></span></li>
<li style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"></span><span style="font-kerning: none;">27 in 2018</span></span></li>
<li style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"></span><span style="font-kerning: none;">and an utter nadir of just 3 essays in 2019, all of them just roundups of Facebook posts of original puns and Portland Streetcar adventures</span></span></li>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">By my count, up to today I have written a total of 321 commentaries out of the 900 on this blog over the past 11 years come this November . . . although I daresay mine consist of considerably greater content than the other 579, in terms of both sheer verbiage and intellectual substance.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">One of the repeated topics of interest for me over the years (since it’s an ongoing, deadly problem, as yet unresolved) has been firearms and gun control. Starting with an incident in which a 57-year-old <a href="http://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2009/12/bearing-arms-art-hastings.html">Oklahoma woman blasted an intruder</a> to eternity with a shotgun in December 2011, I have written about guns many times, from many angles, including . . . an Oregon legislative proposal to <a href="http://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2011/03/carrying-concealed-logic-david-loftus.html">legalize concealed carry of handguns</a> (February 2011) . . . an unfortunate shooting involving the LAPD and what it suggests about the <a href="http://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2013/02/guns-do-not-make-us-safer-lapd-shows-us.html">myth of the “good guy with a gun”</a> (February 2013) . . . an April 2018 “<a href="http://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2018/04/an-open-letter-to-second-amendment.html">Open Letter to Second Amendment Enthusiasts</a>” (which boasts a total of 910 hits as of this afternoon, which makes it my single most-visited blog page, though due to web searches for the opposite point of view, I would imagine) . . . and a followup in May titled “<a href="http://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2018/05/the-folly-of-guns-versus-government.html">The Folly of Guns Versus ‘Government Tyranny’ </a>”, in which I explored the bigger picture that I believe gun nuts neglect.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In early 2016, I realized I had been doing quite a bit of absorbing storytelling and critical commentary on Facebook, which — best I can ascertain — I joined in September 2008 when, some of you might recall, FB limited every post to just 140 characters. Each began with your name and you “finished the sentence” to notify the world of what you were up to and/or feeling. In January 2011, FB dropped the “finish the sentence that starts with you” layout, but it took another couple of years before we were allowed to write posts of any length . . . which suited me well.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">So each year I began to collect the <a href="http://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2017/03/my-career-as-portland-walking-tour-guide.html">best Portland Walking Tour stories</a>, the most <a href="http://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2017/02/another-year-of-portland-streetcar.html">memorable Portland Streetcar adventures</a>, my own <a href="http://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2016/03/and-now-for-something-completely.html">wordplay and puns</a>, and even <a href="http://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2017/09/ummm-thats-not-what-i-meant-to-say.html">amusing typos or clumsy wordings</a> collected from my proofreading and editing work — and put them on my blog.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It’s also been gratifying to excerpt stories from my book-in-progress about my paternal <a href="http://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2016/04/dorothy-roth-loftus-fairbanks-pioneer.html">grandmother who grew up in Alaska</a>, and her future husband’s “<a href="http://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2018/06/cod-fishing-summer-1920.html">cod fishing summer</a>” — when he manned a single-person dory in the Bering Sea in 1920, two years before they met.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Of course, the advent of the novel coronavirus pandemic has been fodder for much original blogging this year, starting with the shock of a nation (and <a href="https://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2020/03/faw-down-go-boom-part-1.html">the play I was acting in</a>) <a href="https://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2020/03/faw-down-go-boom-part-2.html">grinding to a halt</a> in mid March . . . to my ongoing “<a href="https://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2020/06/a-journal-of-plague-year-week-10.html">Journal of the Plague Year</a>,” in which I collect up my thoughts, observations, on-the-street experiences, and jokes that largely relate to covid-19 and stay-at-home from Facebook and organize them week by week on this site.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">A very handy essay, I’m not pleased to say, since mask wearing has become a highly contentious and politicized issue (no thanks again to the President) thereafter, is a piece I posted back on April 24 titled “<a href="https://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2020/04/the-meaning-of-mask.html">The Meaning of the Mask</a>.” Rereading it two months later, I don’t see that anything substantive that requires updating or correction.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The supposed 77,372 lifetime views are easily disposed of. My site is regularly bombarded by overseas bots — mostly from Russia and the Ukraine, but my metrics regularly show hits from such locations as Singapore, Finland, Czechia, Vietnam, United Arab Emirates, Argentina, Brazil, India, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Peru, South Korea, Germany (no, really! 145 hits on June 9!), Hong Kong, various ’stans, and the all-purpose “Unknown region.” </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Here is a representative report, which I captured on May 15. This happens every one or two months if I’ve been posting regularly, myself. Perhaps they aren’t all bots. Maybe a few are the result of actual web searches by people on the far side of the globe who are looking for gun control or nude photos, but I doubt the person on the other side of the screen actually bothered to read whatever piece of mine got dredged up.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Finally, if you’re interested in seeing more of my best material and have some time on your hands, I’d say my favorite blog pieces — apart from some of the ones mentioned and linked above — include:</span></span></div>
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<li style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"></span><span style="font-kerning: none;">my <a href="http://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2010/03/arts-take-on-avatar.html">review of “Avatar”</a> (March 9, 2010)</span></span></li>
<li style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"></span><span style="font-kerning: none;">the <a href="http://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2010/05/what-is-hero-really-david-loftus.html">true nature of a “hero”</a> (May 24, 2010)</span></span></li>
<li style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"></span><span style="font-kerning: none;">“<a href="http://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2010/06/mother-is-bleeding-david-loftus.html">Mother is Bleeding</a>” (the BP Deepwater Horizon spill, with incidental oil industry mayhem in Niger and Brazil, June 18, 2010)</span></span></li>
<li style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"></span><span style="font-kerning: none;">“<a href="http://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2014/02/the-beatles-are-forever-absolutely.html">Beatles Forever</a>,” on the 50th anniversary of their Ed Sullivan Show appearance (Feb. 9, 2014)</span></span></li>
<li style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"></span><span style="font-kerning: none;">a <a href="http://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2014/02/2014-meditation-on-reading.html">meditation on the nature of reading</a> (Feb. 12, 2014)</span></span></li>
<li style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"></span><span style="font-kerning: none;">my <a href="http://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2014/12/how-to-choose-college.html">advice on how to select a college</a> (Dec. 8, 2014)</span></span></li>
<li style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"></span><span style="font-kerning: none;"><a href="http://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2015/03/being-connected-means-disconnecting.html">“Being Connected” means disconnecting from yourself</a> (March 18, 2015) </span></span></li>
<li style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"></span><span style="font-kerning: none;">Songs that are like old friends, part 2 (<a href="http://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2015/03/songs-that-are-like-old-friends-pt-2.html">a tribute to Gentle Giant</a>, March 21, 2015)</span></span></li>
<li style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"></span><span style="font-kerning: none;">A quarter century in my beloved city (Feb. 21, 2016)</span></span></li>
<li style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"></span><span style="font-kerning: none;">The <a href="http://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2016/12/the-best-book-i-read-this-year.html">Best Book I Read This Year</a> (Alexievich’s <b><i>Secondhand Time</i></b>, Dec. 19, 2016)</span></span></li>
<li style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"></span><span style="font-kerning: none;"><a href="http://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2017/01/where-i-am-how-i-see-it.html">Where I Am, How I See It</a> (an existential statement, Jan. 13, 2017)</span></span></li>
<li style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"></span><span style="font-kerning: none;"><a href="http://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2017/09/in-praise-of-oregon-rain.html">In Praise of Oregon Rain</a> (a reprint of a nearly 30-year-old but still favorite piece, Sept. 18, 2017)</span></span></li>
<li style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"></span><span style="font-kerning: none;">It’s Raining in Oregon Again … <a href="http://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2017/09/its-raining-in-portland-again-but-its.html">but It’s Ashes This Time</a> (Sept. 7, 2017)</span></span></li>
<li style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"></span><span style="font-kerning: none;"><a href="http://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2018/03/just-dont-look-at-him.html">Just Don’t Look at Him</a> (my prescription for how to survive the worst president ever, March 8, 2018)</span></span></li>
<li style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"></span><span style="font-kerning: none;">my fond memories of <a href="http://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2018/07/and-yellow-submarine-sails-on.html">the movie, “Yellow Submarine”</a> (July 8, 2018)</span></span></li>
<li style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"></span><span style="font-kerning: none;">in the wake of George Floyd’s murder and the protests, how I came to understand <a href="https://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2020/06/my-role-past-and-future-in-our-nations.html">my place in our nation’s racist history</a> (June 16, 2020)</span></span></li>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">. . . and of course, a <a href="http://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2017/04/celebrating-my-beloved-wife-carole.html">celebration of my wife</a> after two very hard years, <a href="http://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2018/04/how-we-met.html">how we met</a>, and the tale of <a href="http://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2018/05/our-separate-honeymoons.html">our “separate honeymoons.”</a> I’d link all the pieces I’ve published <a href="https://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2020/06/harlan-ellison-at-lake-oswego-festival.html">about Harlan Ellison</a>, as well (at least five of them at this point), but most of them are so recent, my friends have likely seen them, or can easily locate them.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Finally, in honor of the friend I never got to meet in person, but without whom this blog would never have given me the opportunity to write about so many things, here is the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/jeffrey.weiss.56">Facebook page for Jeff Weiss</a>.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Now, back to our regularly scheduled hell-raising. . . . </span></span></div>
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David Loftushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03855438200255152255noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4097849630041105773.post-20768586409228585022020-06-27T12:27:00.000-07:002020-06-28T11:49:38.366-07:00Best Portland Walking Tour Stories of 2019, Part 4<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 15px;">
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Further memorable tales from my Portland Walking Tours of 2019.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">AUGUST 20</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The owner and founder was at the concierge desk when I walked in to lead this morning’s tour. He gave me a head’s up that “one of our resellers” (that is, a travel company based elsewhere that sells tickets to our tours as part of its packages) would be a guest.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">They may be checking up on us, he said. I cracked that I would have to cut all the political content and dirty jokes.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Turned out the guest was a resident of one of the major capital cities of Europe, and an agent of a firm that has offices in Zurich and Berlin. He was a cool customer; stayed behind his shades most of the time, and only cracked a gentle grin in response to some of my best witticisms.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Fortunately, the couple from Vancouver BC who were also on the tour were quite lively and laughed easily, so I think I did our operation proud.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">[If you’re wondering about the photo here, it was taken by Fritz Liedtke during the annual Portland Walking Tours business meeting and holiday party at our Old Town office in December 2016 for a later online promotion that never happened.]</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">AUGUST 21</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I had only one guest today, surprisingly, but as often happens, she was a memorable one. My guest was visiting from North Carolina, but she had been born in Namibia and grew up in South Africa. Her mother had been a refugee from Berlin to Africa shortly before the Second World War.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">My visitor was a talker and a questioner — before, during, and after the tour. By the time it was over, she had gotten the stories of how I’d met my wife, the account of Carole’s conversion to Judaism, and several outbursts on current politics out of me.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">As we walked through Lownsdale Square after I’d mentioned the <a href="http://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2011/12/raking-leaves-and-revolution.html">2011 Occupy protests</a> as well as my having marched with Carole down Third Avenue against the pending War in Iraq in 2003, she asked what good they had done, and I wrestled with the answer to that question as best I could. . . .</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">[A</span></span>t left is a photo I took of Lownsdale during the Occupy Portland encampment in late October 2011; the Spanish-American War monument at the center of the block is at the upper left.]</div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">AUGUST 27</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">One of my guests today had been living in Portland for six years after having grown up in Tucson and Flagstaff. He took the tour with his mother, who was visiting from Minnesota. After I finished the tour proper, we talked about something that’s never come up before.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">He said he plays soccer in parks all over the city and coaches the sport several times a week. “The very worst field in Portland is better than the ones we had in Arizona,” he told me. I asked him why he thought there was so much soccer activity here — why the Timbers took hold after multiple minor-league baseball teams came and went, as well — and he said there’s a lot of great fields and facilities.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Nike and Adidas are headquartered here and have poured money into the local infrastructure, which certainly helps. All of this was a facet of Portland of which I was previously unaware.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">SEPTEMBER 14</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">My guests this afternoon included a pair of friends who both work at a top restaurant in a Southern metropolis — one of whom “outed” her colleague as a nationally renowned and prizewinning pastry chef. (Later, I found a photo of her on the restaurant’s home page, along with a glowing quote from the <i>New York Times</i>.)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The weather was sunny but cool, and my seven guests were all in high spirits. A mother-daughter pair from Lexington, Kentucky said they felt really relaxed and safe in Portland, not like other cities they’ve been to. After the tour’s end I directed four of my guests to <a href="https://southparkseafood.com/">dinner at South Park</a>.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">OCTOBER 6</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Had another double-header of tours today. As we neared Waterfront Park closed to noon, we saw a lot of runners walking around wrapped in blankets after having finished a road race. I joked, “Wow, sure are a lot of homeless people wearing athletic shoes and running shorts!”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">One of my guests observed, “But they’re all holding a rose, so that’s appropriate.”</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">[This is the view of Waterfront Park near tour’s end, right after we’ve passed fabled Mill Ends Park and the original Portland Loo . . . but in an uncharacteristically deserted state on April 29 of this year — post pandemic lockdown.]</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">OCTOBER 8</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Four people were signed up for my tour last night, but by showtime this afternoon, three had canceled.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I was left with a single, petite guest who had a strong French accent. She told me she had been born in the French Alps town of Annecy (“very tourist-y”) and also had lived in Grenoble. But for the past 15 years she has been a French teacher in the San Francisco Bay area.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">She was carrying a backpack heavy with newly purchased books, so the owner of Portland Walking Tours invited her to leave it with him at the office while she did the tour with me, for which she was grateful.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This meant she had to return to <a href="https://www.planning.org/greatplaces/spaces/2008/pioneercourthousesquare.htm">Pioneer Courthouse Square</a> with me after the tour was over, so I got to chat with her some more. I asked her how she’d ended up in the U.S. and whether she and her husband felt settled in for the long haul or expected to return to France eventually.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">She said they had discussed it, but since their son is 12 and not enthused about leaving his school and friends, they likely will wait until he is 18.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Her son was also born here, which makes him a U.S. citizen, so the parents obtained dual citizenship two years ago. I promised her we would do our best to get rid of the moron in the White House next year, and she said it did seem like bad timing (to become a citizen) in 2017 — she had had doubts about going through with it — but when she went in for her naturalization ceremony, that had been really nice.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Maybe because it was California, she said, there were no pictures of him anywhere; plus, I realized it meant I would get to vote, too!</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">[This is one of the crudest map-depictions of the Pioneer Courthouse Square: one of the bronze plaques that surround <a href="https://www.quora.com/How-does-the-echo-chamber-in-Portland-ORs-Pioneer-Courthouse-Square-work">the famed Echo Chamber</a> near the northwest corner and the Starbucks — which roughly half my tours don’t get to visit, depending on how large the group is, how busy the square is, and whether the Echo Chamber itself may be blocked by other activities.]</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">OCTOBER 14</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">A couple from Boston this morning were fans of “Portlandia,” the IFC cable channel sketch comedy series that had defined our town for the rest of the country of late.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">When we got to the six-and-a-half ton copper repoussé statue by the same name perched on the Portland Building, the husband offered a quip that had never occurred to anyone before, including me.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I tell all my tours about how Raymond Kaskey, the sculptor, stipulated in his contract with the city that his Portlandia must be cold-waxed on a regular basis to protect her from the elements and prevent her from turning the green that happened to the Statue of Liberty over the decades, due to oxidation of the copper.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“The waxing has other advantages,” I add. “I’ve never been privileged to see this, but I understand any time a bird tries to land on Portlandia, it goes ‘shooop’ and slides right off.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Whereupon my Boston guest chimed in: “So you CAN’T put a bird on it!”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">[The selfie below was taken in the mezzanine of the Standard, across Fifth Avenue to the west from </span></span>“<span style="font-family: inherit;">Portlandia.</span>”<span style="font-family: inherit;"> I talk about the big bronze woman a lot from this window, especially in harsh weather. Although the mask may lead you to believe the photo dates from this year and the era of the pandemic, it’s actually nearly three years old: I shot it on September 7, 2017, during the week when smoke and ash from <a href="http://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2017/09/its-raining-in-portland-again-but-its.html">the Eagle Creek wildfire</a> was the worst in downtown Portland, and I decided to wear a mask as protection against </span><b style="font-family: inherit;"><i>that</i></b><span style="font-family: inherit;">.]</span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">OCTOBER 18</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Here are today’s never-happened-before incidents.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">An older couple from Cortland, Ohio showed up considerably early, so we got to visit a good while in the waiting area. They’d spent three days in the Richland area visiting wineries, and had sent three cases home. (They like all kinds of reds; didn’t drink whites at all, except for use in cooking.)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Then we moved onto the subject of bourbons. The man said he had a collection of 53 different bourbons and Irish whiskeys at home, and recommended an array that I dutifully noted down for sampling later: High West Bonfire, a bourbon/Scotch/whiskey mix out of Utah, Sagamore rye from Baltimore, Blanton’s, and Whispering Tear Irish whiskey.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">A young couple from out of state joined us late, after I’d pretty much finished my introduction and preliminary comments about the <a href="https://pdxccentric.wordpress.com/a1-pc2/">tour in Pioneer Courthouse Square</a>. She was a glamorous, petite blonde you’d suppose had been a cheerleader in high school, while her male companion was more than a head taller, and a lot broader across the chest and shoulders.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Normally, I’d expect his attention to wander, and hers to be more focused on my patter, especially since the registration was in her name. But that’s not what happened.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">As I took the group around the square, I noticed she was mostly not tracking me, while he appeared fairly attentive. I kept catching her staring off into the distance. WTF?, I thought. (Whenever I’m puzzling over what’s happening with a particular tour guest — usually, its someone who never meets my glance, which tends to happen with Brits and certain Canadians; as opposed to Aussies, who totally look me in the eye, constantly </span></span> — <span style="font-family: inherit;">I tend to stumble verbally because my attention is divided.)</span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">By the time I got to the milepost at the east edge of the square, I noticed her checking her pulse in her jugular with several fingers. We barely got across SW Sixth, about 25 minutes into the tour, when she came up, touched my arm, apologized, and said she wasn’t feeling well so she would be leaving. I assumed her male companion would depart with her. But he quietly explained to me that they had been partying late the previous night, and he chose to stick with us through the entire rest of the tour(!). Didn’t spend all that much time on his mobile (checking on her, presumably) along the way, and seemed to enjoy the tour. Everybody tipped well.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">OCTOBER 24 </span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Was she really that big?”<br />
I had a school tour this morning: one of four classes of second graders from Grant Watts Elementary in Scappoose that I and three other guides took through downtown.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Tours with school kids vary a lot, depending on their age, the pace we manage to set, how well the required adult chaperones keep the kids in line (some are sharp and attentive, others stare at their phones and yak among themselves), and so on.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">We try to emphasize “Art, History, and Transportation” for school children (as opposed to urban design issues that surface on our grownup tours, for example — <a href="https://www.traveller.com.au/fifty-shades-of-grey-hotel-the-heathman-hotel-portland-oregon-lets-fans-live-out-fantasy-13d06z">not to mention <i>Fifty Shades of Grey</i></a>), and I prefer to start by taking my groups up into Director Park (where my adult tours never go).</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This morning’s bunch were perky and fun, and full of questions. One blonde urchin stuck close to me and kept asking “can we go up there? can we go into there? can we get on that train?” — and I said, boy, you wanna do EVERYTHING, RIGHT NOW, don’t you?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Fortunately, the chaperones included a real drill-sergeant mom who kept the most rambunctious boys under control. I was surprised and pleased that several of the kids immediately recognized Abraham Lincoln from a distance (Teddy Roosevelt didn’t fare so well), and at least one 8-year-old named not only Sacagawea but her infant, Jean Baptiste(!).</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">An odd thing as I was showing and explaining Portlandia: Several kids asked, “Was she really that big?” (in this case, 35 feet tall in her kneeling pose, more than 50 feet if she were to stand up). Apparently they understood statuary as honoring real people, period, so I had to explain more than once that Portlandia was imaginary, like fairies and trolls and giants and unicorns.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">We got to the waterfront sooner than I expected to — well ahead of my three colleagues and their flocks, as far as I could tell — so, improvising fast (especially since my herd had managed to stay gratifyingly quiet during our toilet stop in the Gus Solomon Courthouse), I told them we were going to do something I’d never done before.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I figured 7- and 8-year-olds might get a kick out of riding the escalator up into the World Trade Center and walking the skybridge across First Avenue — IF they could be as quiet as they’d been in the courthouse . . . and that’s where we went, and they were!</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">[Below: the escalator and skybridge in the World Trade Center]</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">You can read more of my 2019 Portland Walking Tour adventures in part 1 (including <a href="https://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2020/04/portland-walking-tour-tales-2019-part-1.html">newlyweds, a “Grimm” fan, and a bird shit bombing</a>) . . . part 2 (featuring some <a href="https://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2020/05/portland-walking-tour-tales-2019-part-2.html">record-sized groups, more newlyweds, and the cooperativeness of “Portland rain”</a>), and part 3 (which witnessed post-Gay Pride Day march weirdness, some very hot July days, a liquid tip in the hospitality room of The Nines, a female <a href="https://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2020/05/portland-walking-tour-tales-2019-part-3.html">security officer from a UK embassy in the US, and a couple of hugs from brand-new Dr. Jack Ohman</a>).</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">[NOTE: The founder and owner of Portland Walking Tours, David Schargel, called me this Sunday, June 21, to inform me that due to lack of income for the foreseeable future, outstanding debts, the company was closing down permanently.]</span></span></div>
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David Loftushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03855438200255152255noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4097849630041105773.post-11091505702861698962020-06-24T23:22:00.000-07:002020-06-28T11:49:55.904-07:00Harlan Ellison at the Lake Oswego Festival of the Arts, June 2001<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 15px;">
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">If you’re just joining us, I’ve reproduced the <a href="http://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2018/07/the-harlan-ellison-non-interview-circa.html">“non-interview” I conducted with Harlan Ellison</a> in 1984 . . . described seeing him <a href="http://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2018/08/a-harlan-ellison-memory-cambridge-ma.html">live and up close in Boston</a> in 1981 . . . and explained how I got to work for him proofreading (and incidentally copy editing) <a href="https://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2020/05/going-to-work-for-harlan-ellison-1996.html">volume 3 of <b>Edgeworks</b></a> and then the 1997 <a href="https://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2020/06/working-for-harlan-ellison-in-1996-97.html">story collection <b><i>Slippage</i></b></a>. We proceed to my first dinner with Harlan.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In early June 2001 I learned that Mr. Ellison was coming to town! <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Richardson_(publisher)">Mike Richardson</a>, who had launched <a href="https://www.darkhorse.com/">Dark Horse Comics</a> 15 years before, was cosponsoring the 38th annual Lake Oswego Festival of the Arts on June 22-24, and bringing Harlan as a special guest, along with “Spirit” creator <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will_Eisner">Will Eisner</a>, “Concrete” creator <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Chadwick">Paul Chadwick</a>, and a display of historic comic book art as well as more recent work of Dark Horse artists and writers.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Thursday evening, June 21, I went to Lakewood Centre for the Arts for the festival’s opening night. Those of you from out of state must understand that Lake Oswego is one of the wealthiest cities in Oregon. A bedroom and retirement community situated roughly six miles south of downtown Portland, it’s very white-bread, save for a handful of wealthy minorities who are high-tech corporate and financial execs or players for the Portland Trail Blazers basketball team.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The lobby of the arts center was filled with pleasant, older, well-dressed Caucasian folks sipping plastic cups that contained chardonnay and pinot noir — many of them greeting one another as old friends. I spotted Harlan in the company of an older gentleman who turned out to be Eisner, both being shepherded through the crowd by a pale blonde giant (Richardson), and it was evident that most everyone else hardly knew any of the trio from Adam.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">We filed into the auditorium, endured a parade of local dignitaries thanking one another and pointing out friends in the audience who helped to make the festival happen. Richardson offered some earnest remarks about his crusade to make comic books a respected American art form, and Eisner shared some cultured comments about how comics were an “immigrant art form” that taught many recent arrivals to these shores about the American way of life and values in simple language and pictures.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Then Harlan hit the stage. Another rabid fan who had had no idea Ellison was going to be there and shown up only because his wife had dragged him, walked in just as The Man was being introduced and said: “It can’t be! It’s GOD!” (He and his spouse stood me to a couple of drinks later.)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The speaker fiddled with the mike, trying to remove it from the lectern, then gave up and walked out to the center of the floor to speak to us unassisted by electronics. An alert and helpful floor manager brought up all the stage lights, and Ellison donned an expression of mock startlement and fear, and cried: “I confess! I’m a Jew!” With the ensuing laughter, we were off to the races.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">No doubt he shocked the well-to-do, white-bread, and highly Catholic and high Episcopalian crowd a number of times. He NEARLY said the F-word twice but “managed to catch himself,” and casually stated that he’d had a baby with one of the elder but elegant female City Council members whose name he’d heard in the introductory speeches and liked. (If I recall correctly, she was the spouse of a retired four-star Air Force General — known then and after for fairly outspoken liberal views, given his background; she was apparently puzzled by Harlan’s crack but not insulted, and I later heard one of her friends remark, “I almost peed my pants when I heard that!”)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">On a more pleasant note, I sat near Harlan during dinner at a long table out on the sunny summer plaza that evening, and he mentioned that in the course of his service in the U.S. Army, he was busted from PFC to private three times and courtmartialed three times. He added that he slugged a second lieutenant on the day he was inducted, and arranged for a sergeant who was out to get him to “receive” a broken back. (Harlan also asserted shortly thereafter, on the <a href="http://harlanellison.com/heboard/unca.php">Art Deco Pavilion</a> at <a href="http://harlanellison.com/home.htm">Ellison Webderland</a> on July 25, that “I came THIS close to Leavenworth on at least five occasions. This is straight from the mule’s mouth, kiddo.”)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Some of the above was later captured in <a href="https://locusmag.com/2017/11/gary-k-wolfe-reviews-a-lit-fuse-the-provocative-life-of-harlan-el%C2%ADlison-by-nat-segaloff/">Nat Segaloff’s bio, <b><i>A Lit Fuse</i></b></a>, but not all. I wish I could remember Harlan’s story about the sergeant; I think it had something to do with a dispute about how well — or poorly, according to the NCO — Harlan had done a floor-washing job, so (if I recall correctly) the next time around, the private did it so well the sergeant slipped and fell, which broke his back.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This is one of the thousand-and-one reasons I wish Harlan had written a memoir (he occasionally joked that he had one in production, with the working title <b><i>Working Without a Net</i></b>). At one point he started the thought, “That’s the problem with writing an autobio—,” but something interrupted him and I never heard his reason.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I also asked how he’d gotten his hands on official Donny Osmond stationery. The infamous letterhead turns up both in the audio story “Did You Really Mail a Dead Gopher to an Editor?” recorded at Renssalaer Polytechnic Institute on April 1, 1982 and released as the final cut on side one of <b><i>On the Road With Ellison, volume 1</i></b>, and recorded on paper in his essay “Driving In the Spikes.” I got to walk back to Harlan’s lakeside motel with him that evening and chat further along the way.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In retrospect, I wish I had noted down everydamnthing he said that night while it was happening, but of course at the time, as with so many other wonderful events of one’s life, I was just enjoying the ride. Now, 19 years later (my god — at that point, 9/11, the elections of Obama and the Incumbent, not to mention the release of Erik Nelson’s “Dreams With Sharp Teeth,” were all still in the future . . . ), precious little comes back to me.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">On Saturday, June 23rd, I had volunteered to be a “docent” at the comic art exhibit on site in the arts center. Dark Horse had arranged for an exhibit of original comic art from Superman, Batman, and Prince Valiant comics in the late 1930s, Archie comics from the 1940s (“That poor kid has been trying to get laid for a LONG time,” Harlan cracked), and the newer classics I recognized from my own collection: <i>The Watchmen</i>, <i>Hard Boiled</i>, and <i>Dark Knight</i>.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This gave me a golden opportunity to hover near Harlan, who was seated at a small table in the gallery with one of his Olympia manuals, working on a story but entirely available to anyone who might wander past. The piece in the typewriter was for a Dark Horse project based on the idea for a painting Harlan had given the artist: depicting Ronald Colman’s character in <b><i>Lost Horizon</i></b> climbing the blizzard-beaten Himalayas in search of Shangri-La and spotting, in the distance, a pair of Golden Arches. (The eventual story was titled “Goodbye to All That.”)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Four years earlier, in the introduction to <b><i>Slippage</i></b>, Harlan talked about sharing this concept in Chicago with a table of eight or ten young people in publishing, and not a single one recognized the reference to one of his favorite movies. Sure enough, now that the painting was on display at the exhibit in Lake Oswego, a stone-faced fellow in at least his late 30s, possibly even late 40s, stared at it, listened to Harlan’s laborious explanation, and never cracked a smile. When Harlan said, “Ah, I guess you’re too young to get this,” the guy growled, “Maybe you’re too old.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">For some reason, Danielle Steel came up at one point and Harlan commented: “I once dated Danielle. She’s a nice woman, she’s a lovely woman, and <a href="https://www.glamour.com/story/danielle-steel-books-interview">she’s doing the best she can</a>. If she could write better, she would.” (I just <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danielle_Steel">looked her up on Wikipedia</a>, which revealed to me that her full name is Danielle Fernandes Dominique Schulein-Steel and that she is “the bestselling author alive and the fourth bestselling fiction author of all time, with over 800 million copies sold” — despite, in the words of a <i>Publisher’s Weekly</i> review, “a resounding lack of critical acclaim.” Though Ellison and Steel have very little in common, they do share a couple of interesting traits: five marriages apiece, at times to some <i>very</i> dubious characters, and they both wrote/have written all of their work on Olympia standard typewriters!)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I also witnessed an exchange between Harlan and a boy who happened by with his father. As those of you know who own a copy of the recording <b><i>On the Road With Ellison, volume 1</i></b>, Harlan loved engaging with kids. This one was 6 or 7 years old, by my estimate. Harlan immediately turned to the boy and asked: “Do you have a job?” The youngster answered simply, “No.” From there, the conversation proceeded as follows.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">— “No.”<br />
— “So you’re still just hanging around at your parents’? Is that your plan?”<br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">— “I like this guy!”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Turned out the kid had the great name of Spencer.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">A little more Ellison-esque incident happened while Harlan was chatting with two young male employees of Dark Horse Comics. I didn’t pay attention to much of their rambling and wide-ranging chat, but I happened to catch when they veered into the subject of pornography (a topic about which I was soon to publish a book, myself). Harlan explained that many years back, for the purposes of something he was writing, he wished to see an example of bestiality porn. Someone he knew was able to procure a sample for him to view. It had been made in Sweden, and apparently starred a simple-minded woman engaged in coition with various barnyard critters. As near as he could read the content, Harlan said, the human participant truly seemed to enjoy the activity as well as display a caring attitude toward her partners. Harlan’s reaction appeared to be one of puzzled wonder as he related the facts of the matter.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Unbeknownst to him, however, a large elderly woman had been lurking behind his shoulder, listening to all this, and having heard it, she proceeded to cause a scene, bellowing to a security guard who was on duty only to safeguard the valuable exhibits to do something about this outrage. Since she had been eavesdropping on a conversation to which she had not been invited, no one else appeared to see it her way. Eventually, she had to be escorted out of the art gallery by sheriff’s deputies . . . and wouldn’t I LOVE to hear how she related the tale to her circle thereafter!</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Just another day in the life of a gadfly. I shared the particulars of this incident to a friend who was also a Harlan Ellison fan and a biologist who worked for some years for one of the big Aquariums on the East Coast. She responded:</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Non-human animals enjoy sex (though I can’t imagine sex with a chicken; birds aren’t built like people). Dolphins are particularly fond of it. Before the Aquarium got rid of its bottlenose dolphins, there were only males left. They were horny all the time, and would do stuff like catch rings and sticks on their erections, and rub against the platform the trainers stood on. It drove some of the girls nutty with embarrassment. Also, all the trainers had to masturbate the dolphins so they didn’t get too aggressive. I guess that wasn’t too much fun for the one male trainer.<br />
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“Things got worse after the males tormented a female to death. She was fairly small and young, and male bottlenose dolphins tend to approach sex in a way that we humans would consider rough trade, if not rape. Groups of males will cut a female from her pod, and have her whether she wants to or not. One of those things we discover about creatures like Flipper and Bonzo that we would prefer not to know. In other words, smart animals, like the human animal, are not always sweetness and light. But that is what makes us all intriguing, n’est-ce pas?”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Harlan also apologized to me that Saturday for having lied two days before. He had made up a colorful story about the Donny Osmond stationery (which I don’t remember now) just to shock the bourgeois crowd with a lovely, colorful tale. So I still don’t know how he got his hands on that paper. Apparently, not even did . . . but now we know how SOME of the crazy stories about him got started.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">A week or so later, the weekly paper for the town, the <i>Lake Oswego Review</i>, had a lengthy front-page feature story about the Festival of the Arts and the comics exhibition, wherein I found the following passage:</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Legendary comic creator, Will Eisner, visiting from Florida, along with an acclaimed and zany author from Los Angeles, Frank Ellison, spoke to many festival-goers during the three-day event.” Evidently, the reporter did not attend the Thursday night reception, or either of the panel discussions, and maybe not even the exhibition itself. She certainly didn’t check her sources.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">[ <i>Still to come: indexing the Teats while recovering from my knee surgery, and pushing a dead 1947 Packard down La Brea Avenue in Los Angeles in 2007. . . .</i> ]</span></span></div>
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David Loftushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03855438200255152255noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4097849630041105773.post-63792147247681084682020-06-18T10:46:00.001-07:002020-06-28T11:49:15.266-07:00A Journal of the Plague Year . . . Week 10<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 15px;">
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Week 10 of the new reality. . . . </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">WEDNESDAY, MAY 13</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">12:45 p.m. — Today’s five-mile walk took me down the Willamette River, across the Broadway Bridge and back upstream along the East Bank Esplanade. Here's a shot of two Portland icons together: </span></span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Bancorp_Tower">“<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: inherit;">Big Pink</span>” (1st Bancorp Tower)</a><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: inherit;"> and the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Stag_sign">White Stag sign</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">8:39 p.m. — Aw, crap. The <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/media/2018/08/how-to-identify-russian-bots-twitter/">Russian bots</a> are swarming onto my blog again.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Below, the numbers on the left at 2:30 p.m. this afternoon; and on the right, six hours later, at 8:35. Turkmenistan is a new reputed country of origin I don’t recall ever seeing before. . . . <br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">THURSDAY, MAY 14</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">9:33 a.m. — Day 64, by my count, and still no sign of federal stimulus money or unemployment benefits.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">On the brighter side, a staffer at the state Employment Department called me around noon Tuesday to discuss the extensive paperwork I had placed in the mail last Friday.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">After walking through the peculiarities of my gig-economy work record (remember: two part-time jobs and two free-lance clients, all of at least six to eight years’ standing . . . at least three regular clients that offer only very occasional work — as in, twice or three times a year . . . and (in 2019) at least 15 one- or two-days-only piecework jobs), she stated she would approve my claim “today or tomorrow.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">As I understand it, because I’ve had a trickle of free-lance assignments from a remote client in Seattle that has amounted to two figures or very low three figures a week, I will probably have to start a new unemployment claim nearly every week from now on, because that’s how the system works.<br />
I live to jump through bureaucratic hoops. . . . </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">[ UPDATE: It turned out our federal stimulus checks had been paid to us by direct deposit two days before, but we hadn’t noticed because we’d been expecting them in — and checking — a different bank account . . . and five weeks of unemployment benefits flooded into my personal checking account the next day. The following week, I started to get just enough free-lance work from my Seattle client and was allowed to do a few hours of customer service for Portland Streetcar which cumulatively would earn more than the $194 a week maximum allowed by the state for unemployment, so I promptly stopped filing claims from then on. ]</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">10:32 a.m. — I have now read four books <a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/shopping/things-to-know-before-buying-kindle-e-reader/">on a Kindle</a> the past month, including one for each of my book discussion groups, and am currently more than halfway through James Ellroy’s <b><i>Perfidia</i></b>.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">For the record, the other four were Philip Kerr’s <b><i>Prussian Blue</i></b>, Ian Rankin’s <b><i>Saints of the Shadow Bible</i></b>, Toni Morrison’s <b><i>Sula</i></b>, John Carreyrou’s <b><i>Bad Blood: secrets and lies in a Silicon Valley startup</i></b>.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Up to now, I’ve had an over-my-dead-body attitude toward e-books; I had read a grand total of three over the past four or five years on Carole’s e-reader (a Kindle, though she now reads books and watches videos on an Apple iPad) when I simply couldn’t get my hands on a copy in time for one of my book group meetings.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Three years ago her sister passed along an extra Kindle and I registered it online but never used it until after the pandemic shutdown. By force of circumstance — closed libraries, a household budget far too limited to support my reading habit even at bargain-basement prices — I finally turned to it last month.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">For me, reading an e-book still qualifies as a distant second to the sensual reality of a book in hand. Perhaps you’ve seen at least some of the photos of the <a href="https://littlefreelibrary.org/">Little Free Libraries</a> I’ve visited on foot across the city starting a week ago Sunday.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The nearly dozen books I’ve procured from them have emerged from quarantine at our apartment and I’ll start in on a couple of them before long. Probably not all, though; some hold fairly weak interest at this point and/or are fairly beaten, so more likely I’ll trade them up for something else at other LFLs.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">So far, however, it’s been easy-peasey to download electronic copies of books from the Multnomah County Library . . . which diverts them off Amazon for free (so, other than heightened click traffic, the Evil Empire is getting nothing out of me for them, Mom. . . . ).</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">11:54 a.m. — My girls, chillin’ at home, May 14, 2020.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">11:26 a.m. — Tonight I started reading <b><i>Home</i></b>, the early memoir by Julie Andrews. Its quiet, sweet elegance provides a soothing break from the hundreds of pages of violence, racism, and foul language in James Ellroy’s <b><i>Perfidia</i></b>.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">FRIDAY, MAY 15</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">12:31 p.m. — Tough to calculate the total mileage of this </span></span>morning’s long walk through Southwest Portland <span style="font-family: inherit;">because I took such a meandering route, but it must have been between 6 and 7 miles.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I took a stroll through <a href="https://www.riverviewcemetery.org/">River View Cemetery</a>, a 350-acre nonprofit established in 1882 by such Portland movers and shakers as William S. Ladd, James Terwilliger, Henry Failing, Henry W. Corbett, Henry Pittock, and Simon Benson.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">. . . and the final resting place of many Oregon state governors and U.S. Senators, as well as such luminaries as Abigail Scott Duniway, Virgil Earp, Henry Weinhard, and major league pitcher Carl Mays.<br />
But I didn’t seek out any of of those. It was my first-ever visit to the place, despite it’s lying only</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">two and a half miles south of our apartment, so I mostly just took in the grounds and the natural beauty.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This is the bronze beaver, properly masked, on the Willamette Greenway between 5050 SW Landing Drive and the river.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">As I was taking this selfie, I heard a chuckle from up the trail, and when I got up, an older couple walking their dogs had the following comments:</span></span><br />
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He: “Are you guys twins?”</span></span><br />
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She: “Is that your girl?”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Below, unmasked family practicing inadequate social distancing along the Willamette Greenway trail.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">SATURDAY, MAY 16</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">10:19 a.m. — What’s the toughest challenge about doing a two- to four-hour walk around the city during a pandemic?<br />
Finding a place to pee.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This is not that difficult if you’re in the wooded areas of the West Hills (technically known as <a href="https://tualatinlife.com/history/tualatin-mountain-range/">the Tualatin Mountains</a>) above our riverfront neighborhood: You can step off into the foliage around Terwilliger and Barbur boulevard without much difficulty.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But in the city, most of the places to which you’d normally resort — Starbucks, the libraries, even some of the hotels — are closed because of the coronavirus, and you certainly aren’t going to tap on the door of someone’s residence when everyone’s practicing self-isolation. In recent weeks, I’ve slipped into a quiet hotel, the OHSU Center for Health and Healing, and — since I’m an employee of Portland Streetcar — I’ve occasionally carried a handy key to the break-room trailer near the OMSI platform.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">These opportunities are still few and far between. I’ve discovered it’s safer to do a long walk in the morning, before I’ve had coffee or anything to eat, and before my inner systems get going on processing waste materials. (The body seems to want to hold in liquids, especially, if you haven’t given it the signal you’re going to replenish them.) That way I don’t spend a quarter- or half-hour straining to control my bladder, which severely reduces the pleasure of sightseeing on foot.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Under such conditions, the sight of an unexpected portable restroom can be spectacularly gratifying. I found one at the north end of <a href="https://www.portlandoregon.gov/parks/finder/index.cfm?propertyid=666&action=viewpark">Sellwood Park</a>, and an even less anticipated one at the intersection of SE 26th and Steele, a few blocks northwest of the Reed College campus (and apparently connected with a small food-cart pod there).</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Even more fortuitous is a temporary “port-a-potty” plunked on a residential street to serve laborers on a home remodel. The one shown above startled me on May 3 in a quiet neighborhood near the crest of the West Hills south of the Veterans Administration Medical Center.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I made prompt and appreciative use of the premises. Note the selfie in a tiny interior mirror and the fact that the service record listed absolutely no entries. (When have you ever seen that?), which means I got to patronize it in pristine condition.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">5:03 p.m. — Slowly but surely, I’m writing down my memories of — and later experiences with — a hero of mine, Harlan Ellison.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2020/05/going-to-work-for-harlan-ellison-1996.html">Here’s the latest installment</a>, about when I went to work for him as a hired-gun proofreader (and incidental copy editor) on the third volume of his collected works in 1996-97.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">10:06 a.m. — I continue to see a steady parade of excuses to throw off our masks, dump social distancing, and effect a swift return to the life we knew before this March — which is impossible for any number of reasons, but I doubt people are looking hard at those, either.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Scoffers search for every conceivable rationale to throw caution to the winds in the face of so many lingering unknowns, so many variables, and — STILL — insufficient testing (in terms of both accuracy and breadth).</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">One of the popular ones is: We’re going to lose a certain “small” percentage of the population anyway, so let’s get it over with. And the urge to minimize that loss is driven partly by this argument:<br />
Officials are “overestimating” the number of deaths attributable to covid-19. Lots of these people would have died anyway from other ailments, the reasoning goes.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Maybe. But now now. And not in isolation from their loved ones.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Here’s another facet, though: Statistically, we can expect that more people will die — are dying — <a href="https://www.cfr.org/in-brief/double-pandemic-domestic-violence-age-covid-19">from domestic violence</a> and from <a href="https://giffords.org/blog/2020/03/the-importance-of-safe-gun-storage-during-the-covid-19-pandemic-blog/">accidental discharge of firearms</a>. Will these fatalities be blamed on the novel coronavirus? Probably not. But it is the proximate cause, nonetheless.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The ugly choice is between allowing the deaths of tens of thousands of fellow citizens — likely strangers to you but possibly a few friends and even loved ones on the mix, if you’re up for the gamble . . . and the certain death of “only” thousands with their blood on their loved ones’ hands. (I would expect some of those survivors <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/19/health/pandemic-coronavirus-suicide-health.html">will eventually commit suicide</a> over the guilt, as well.)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Very unpalatable options, either of these, but if you’re going to calculate the cost simply in terms of total fatalities, then of course maintaining quarantine and self-isolation is the preferable course . . . particularly since the risk of death from covid-19 can be reduced with healthcare, whereas mortal wounds due to domestic violence and children playing with guns are less likely to come to the attention of medical authorities in time to save a similar percentage of lives.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">8:17 a.m. — The Oregon Health Authority has reported no deaths from covid-19 within the state since Thursday, though positive deaths for the virus have quietly climbed at a rate of a little under 1 percent each day.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In other words, that “Total deaths, 137” figure in this screen shot from the OHA website has remained unchanged since May 14.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This is fairly encouraging compared, say, to Texas, where totals for new identified infections AND fatalities have been bouncing between 2 and 4 percent per day for the past week . . . at it explains at least partially why our governor decided to allow a modified opening of retail establishments a few days ago.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I certainly wouldn’t expect our numbers to hold where they are . . . but I’m hoping we don’t see any substantial spike in the coming weeks. Let’s see how smart and considerate our fellow citizens can be. Especially in the more rural counties, where controls have been released the most.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Here in Multnomah County, we still cannot walk into a Starbucks or return books to the library or turn in donations to a Goodwill.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Carole did give my hair a first trim last night. . . . </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">11:24 a.m. — Signs of the times, Portland Oregon; 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. this morning. . . . </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">5:04 p.m. — Today we blew past 90,000 covid-19 deaths in the U.S. so far this year.<br />
Oregon has added precisely one fatality to the total since Thursday, according to the Oregon Health Authority.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">10:12 p.m. — A supporter of the President with whom I’ve been trading comments remarked offhand that after watching The Incumbent for three years, it doesn’t appear that he’s afraid of anything.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I swiftly typed the following:</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Oh, it’s obvious to anyone with even an inkling of basic human psychology that the president is terrified of LOTS of things.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“He’s terrified of looking weak . . . he’s terrified of appearing soft . . . he’s terrified of people no longer paying attention to him . . . he’s terrified of strong women he can’t dominate . . . he’s terrified of being exposed for not knowing what he’s doing . . . he’s terrified by the possibility that he really IS the worst president in U.S. history, as so many Americans have suggested . . . he’s terrified that the media might lose interest in him, so he has to keep whipping up thrills and abuse to hold their attention . . . he’s terrified of spending any time alone with his own mind . . . he’s terrified of children and dogs because they don’t find him the least bit interesting or sympathetic. . . . </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“The only thing I’ve ever heard him admit to being terrified of are germs . . . but he’s so afraid of appearing weak or uncool that he doesn’t even do a decent job of protecting himself from those.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">TUESDAY, MAY 19</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">1:43 p.m. — Today’s long walk between 9:06 a.m. and 11:40 a.m.: south through Johns Landing to the New Sellwood Bridge and across . . . north on SE 8th and 9th and along Sellwood Boulevard to SE 18th, and across McLoughlin Boulevard via Milwaukie Avenue . . . then north on McLoughlin to the Ross Island Bridge and home.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Estimated distance, 8 miles.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Here’s a shot of Tilikum Crossing bridge and downtown Portland from the Ross Island Bridge at about 11:12 a.m. this morning.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">2:44 p.m. — A conservative friend posted an article about how the Danes managed to control the pandemic within their borders without imposing masks.<br />
They DID institute a national lockdown on March 11, however — days before our president bowed to circumstance and declared a national emergency but left the states to clean up the mess as best they could . . . and some waited many more weeks before acting, or never did impose a lockdown.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Also, compare the numbers and morbidity in Denmark (population 5.8 million) versus those in the <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/5/18/21262273/coronavirus-hong-kong-masks-deaths-new-york?fbclid=IwAR1xuCgDK_aSzDWixtMCG8Ie1AmFFh-63L3NN_hwbG_yx19BGnqoMo3sKXY">massive city of at least 7.4 million</a> in Asia. Now, I’m not going to accept the numbers automatically, or the rationale proposed in yesterday’s Vox analysis. Surely there are other variables — as there inevitably have been, throughout this fast-breaking, poorly understood pandemic . . . </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">. . . and it’s tempting to suggest the numbers simply aren’t being honestly and accurately reported out of Hong Kong because, you know, it’s China.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Except it isn’t. Hong Kong is a Special Administrative Region of the PRC, well accustomed to financial and political independence until it was handed back by the British just 23 years ago . . . still operating under separate governing and economic systems . . . with a substantial chunk of the population extremely skeptical of and even resistant to the authorities.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Remember all the peaceful protests and occasional riots last year? How well do you think government officials would be able to cover up covid-19 fatalities in Hong Kong this year, assuming they tried?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">* * * * *</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">If you haven’t seen my thoughts, observations, political commentaries, and jokes during the preceding weeks of the Great 2020 Coronavirus Pandemic, you can go to them via the links below:</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“<a href="https://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2020/06/a-journal-of-plague-year-week-9.html">A Journal of the Plague Year . . . Week 9</a>”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">(what it really means to “get out” during a pandemic, previous plagues in history, my ongoing effort to obtain unemployment benefits, more photos of Little Free Libraries, streets without sidewalks, tactics courtesy of the <i>Wall Street Journal</i> for keeping your glasses from fogging and the long slow death of my hair dye job)</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“<a href="https://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2020/06/a-journal-of-plague-year-week-8.html"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 238); color: #551a8b;">A Journal of the Plague Year . . . Week 8</span></a>”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">(which includes another visit to downtown on foot, an online reunion of most of the principal cast of “Grimm,” our address courtesy of the USPS, how the pandemic outed the real “snowflakes” and made “socialist Sweden” the unlikely hero of U.S. libertarians, and my first official visits to Little Free Libraries)</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“<a href="https://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2020/05/a-journal-of-plague-year-week-7.html"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 238); color: #551a8b;">A Journal of the Plague Year . . . Week 7</span></a>”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">(online video chat with family, my brother’s remote musical video collaborations, a long walk from the northern border of the city, birthday wishes to my wife, a happy quarantine coincidence, and my discovery of Little Free Libraries)</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“<a href="https://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2020/05/a-journal-of-plague-year-week-6.html"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 238); color: #551a8b;">A Journal of the Plague Year . . . Week 6</span></a>”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">(the yellow fever epidemic that almost killed Alexander Hamilton, post-lockdown pleasure reading, invasions by Russian bots, capitulation to the Kindle, more long walks about the city, the distinction between an “excuse” and a “reason,” and an outing by car to run errands and finish a video voiceover job)</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“<a href="https://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2020/05/a-journal-of-plague-year-week-5.html"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(85, 26, 139);">A Journal of the Plague Year . . . Week 5</span></a>”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">(long walks through NE and SE Portland, tactics for maneuvering through the streets in mask and gloves, the current plague of faux certainties, and visits to the Rose City Book Pub and Reed College campus)</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“<a href="https://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2020/04/a-journal-of-plague-year-week-4.html"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 238);">A Journal of the Plague Year . . . Week 4</span></a>”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">(the start of my exhausting efforts to obtain unemployment benefits, first long walks about SW and SE Portland, idiocy from the governor of Georgia, an online reading with the cast of my March play production of a new short play by the lead actor, and how this is all Obama’s fault)</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“<a href="https://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2020/04/a-journal-of-plague-year-week-3.html"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(85, 26, 139);">A Journal of the Plague Year . . . Week 3</span></a>”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">(a visit on foot to a remarkably deserted downtown Portland, my analysis of the initial patterns of coronavirus testing and spread in Oregon and major metro counties, several dismissals of the worthless Incumbent)</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“<a href="https://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2020/03/a-journal-of-plague-year-week-2.html"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(85, 26, 139);">A Journal of the Plague Year . . . Week 2</span></a>”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">(the remarkably dry and beautiful weather that has brightened our self-isolation, a library books pile-up, a visit to the Portland Farmers Market after lockdown, the Whole Foods “early elders shopping hour,” a hike up the hills to visit my best friend from grade school, and thoughts about Nevil Shute’s <i>On the Beach</i>)</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“<a href="https://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2020/03/a-journal-of-plague-year-week-1.html"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 238);">A Journal of the Plague Year . . . Week 1</span></a>”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">(the weird hand-washing behavior of men, the shutdown of Portland arts events, and the run on guns and toilet paper)</span></span></div>
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David Loftushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03855438200255152255noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4097849630041105773.post-41756753056123468482020-06-16T14:29:00.000-07:002020-06-28T11:50:22.147-07:00My Role, Past and Future, in Our Nation's Racist Legacy<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 12px;">
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I used to assume — not in a systematically intellectual way, but just casually — that I wasn’t personally involved in this nation’s racist history, especially its legacy of slavery.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">After all, my great-great-grandfather from Germany settled in western Pennsylvania — the Union side — in the early 1840s. My paternal ancestors from Norway arrived in Wisconsin in 1870, well after the conclusion of the Civil War. And my mother’s parents immigrated from Japan after the turn of the 20th century, in 1904 and 1911.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">So we were all well out of it, I thought, especially once my fore-parents or their descendants had settled in California, Oregon, and Alaska.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Hell, my Mom had her civil rights yanked away without due process and was ordered into a concentration camp for three years with most of the rest of her family due to racist U.S. activities less than 80 years ago.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And yet, I am fairly certain she would readily acknowledge that she too has benefited from white privilege.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">We are all enmeshed in the complex matrix of a racist society and history. We are the descendants and not-so-indirect beneficiaries of racist policies, practices, and oppression.</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFlZFfuTqr0qA5IUaDy4tbTE50fRgQlMNrTs6NZxFVnbi9epuJWLRB7HlL6ybXUxQ2Th1CcMGbafSmBsnmUhjPDtJAwf91b7OXGEV0CCIwUOp7n0zySDNX66ylkgMxxEhpH8DwEh6yuw/s1600/TheHalf.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="866" data-original-width="602" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFlZFfuTqr0qA5IUaDy4tbTE50fRgQlMNrTs6NZxFVnbi9epuJWLRB7HlL6ybXUxQ2Th1CcMGbafSmBsnmUhjPDtJAwf91b7OXGEV0CCIwUOp7n0zySDNX66ylkgMxxEhpH8DwEh6yuw/s320/TheHalf.png" width="222" /></a></div>
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">As I learned from Edward E. Baptist’s startling history, <b><i>The Half Has Never Been Told: slavery and the making of American capitalism</i></b>, the North participated avidly in the antebellum slave economy, despite the fact that most states above the Mason-Dixon line had outlawed it within their borders, and served as home to free blacks for decades.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But Northern banks funded southern plantations and expansion. They provided financial backing for the expansion of slavery into the new territories and states of Missouri, Kansas, Texas, etc. Northern financiers and companies got rich off the slave economy, which enabled them to fund our further spread west: the transcontinental railroad and homesteaders who settled the rest of the continent.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The federal government brokered these territorial deals, partly out of cowardice and partly from greed . . . just as the Founders had bowed to Southern colonial property owners in 1787 by denying citizenship to blacks, yet allowing them to be counted as 3/5 of a human being in the census, thus granting southern states exaggerated representation in Congress without allowing any of those 3/5 of a person to vote on any matter that governed their lives.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I don’t know what happened to those Southern debts after the Civil War, but it’s likely that banks and wealthy northerners snapped them up cheap, or simply confiscated the properties of exhausted and bankrupt southerners. Follow the money.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Eric Foner’s <b><i>Reconstruction: America’s unfinished revolution, 1863-1877</i></b> explained to me how, after the Civil War, the U.S. Army occupation and federal government agents arranged for proper elections in the South, and black mayors, police chiefs, governors, and U.S. Congressmen (see 1872 group portrait below) duly took office across the former Confederacy . . . </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">. . . until the feds moved out a little later — everything was fixed now, and we couldn’t afford to keep pouring money into enforcing civil rights in those states — </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">. . . and the state legislatures and cities in Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and so on promptly went to work systematically changing their laws to make it <a href="http://www.umich.edu/~lawrace/disenfranchise1.htm?promocode=LIPP101AA?promocode">more difficult for black Americans to vote</a>, to run for office, and even to serve on juries and seek justice for the wave of lynchings that would follow, well into the 20th century.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">For all practical purposes, <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/early-20th-century-us/jim-crow-laws">those states turned back the clock</a> within their borders for the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solid_South">better part of another century</a>, until the feds were compelled by Dr. King, peaceful protesters, and images of <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2020/06/01/trump-vicious-dogs-protesters-civil-rights-slavery/">violent crackdowns on both</a> (beginning to sound familiar?) in the early 1960s to restore what should have been allowed in the Carolinas and Texas and the rest of them all along.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In his massive, multivolume, still-to-be-completed biography of Lyndon Johnson and his times, Robert Caro describes precisely what it was like for an African-American woman who “wanted to be a citizen” in the nation of her birth at that time. [You’ll find it in volume 3, <b><i>Master of the Senate</i></b>, — the story that follows is intended to illustrate how momentous it was for LBJ to ram through Congress the very first civil rights bill it had passed in 82 years — but I read it recounted in a short essay of Caro’s 2019 writing memoir, <b><i>Working</i></b>.]</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In January 1957, 38-year-old Margaret Frost stood before three white members of the Barbour County Board of Registrars in the town of Eufala, Alabama, to answer a series of questions that would qualify her to vote. The board chair told her she had gotten one answer wrong — but wouldn’t tell her which one — and said, “You all go home and study a little more.”<br />
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She drilled with her husband David and returned eight months later with two other applicants. The examiners were standing behind a counter, and they didn’t offer their citizens a chair (apparently because the process wasn’t going to take that long). Margaret Frost was sure she and one of the other applicants answered every question correctly, but the third did not, and the board rejected all three with the same words: “You all go home and study a little more.” She told Caro, “You could see in her eyes they were laughing at us.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Her husband’s experience was a little different. Previous to his registration to vote, the white people in Eufala had always been friendly, and addressed David Frost as “David” or “Boy.” Once he had registered to vote, however, they called him “Nigger” . . . and when whites learned he actually intended to vote on election day, a car pulled up in front of their house and the men in it shot out the porch lights. David Frost wanted to call the police . . . but as the vehicle pulled away, he saw it was a police car.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">All of these people are dead now. But their children and children’s children may still be living all across the U.S. today. How different do you think their attitudes and experiences have been?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Meanwhile, as Isabel Wilkerson’s <b><i>The Warmth of Other Suns: the epic story of America’s Great Migration</i></b> showed me, economic recessions, racist oppression, and work opportunities elsewhere drove hundreds of thousands of African-Americans out of the South, which had converted from an openly slave economy to a wage-slave/indentured-servant economy, in which blacks found it difficult if not impossible to vote, own land or the fruits of their labor, obtain an adequate education . . . so they emigrated north and west, to Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, and elsewhere in the 1930s and 1940s, and beyond — thereby setting the stage for economic and social challenges that persist in those cities and elsewhere across the nation even today.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">You could say the South “outsourced” populations and issues it did not wish to deal with, and the rest of the nation has grappled with them ever since.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Thousands of black Americans moved to Portland in the early 1940s to take shipbuilding and other war-economy jobs (which were available to them partly because young white men had joined the service, and Japanese-Americans had been driven into prison camps). Those domestic immigrants braved the Ku Klux Klan here in my home state in the middle of the 20th century . . . and lost their homes and belongings in the Vanport Flood after the war, just 52 years ago. More than 17,000 residents were made homeless; 15 of them drowned.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">[The photos below depict Vanport in 1943, five years before the flood, and on June 15, 1948, more than two weeks after it happened</span></span> — an aerial shot of those barracks, looking west from North Denver Avenue. Both photos are credited to Portland City Photographer or work-for-hire by the Portland Housing Authority]<span style="font-family: inherit;">.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Part of the reason they lived on that cheap floodplain land — and continue largely to be sequestered to certain neighborhoods of Portland TO THIS DAY — is because banks and real estate agents and white homeowners quietly conspired not to sell or loan to them if they contemplated moving into a “white” neighborhood . . . long after racist practices such as redlining were officially illegal.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Throughout all this, the federal, state, and local governments and authorities — as well as private companies and most of the non-minority population — participated, colluded, allowed, or at best remained silent out of fear or acceptance that it wasn’t their ox being gored.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Where we live, what we can do with our leisure time, how much education we have access to, and so many other choices we are “free” to make — TODAY, IN 2020 — depend partly or substantially on events and procedures that occurred in our nation, our state, <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/07/racist-history-portland/492035/">our city, anywhere from 50 to 160 years ago</a> and even further back in time. Suppression of voting rights and access to vote clearly <a href="https://newrepublic.com/article/151858/americas-relentless-suppression-black-voters">occurred in certain states in 2016</a>, and even <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/10/politics/georgia-voting-issues-black-voters/index.html">in the Georgia primary LAST WEEK</a>.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This is how I came to understand that I am personally implicated. I didn’t choose to enjoy white privilege, any more than I sought to be born male, or blessed with good health and great genes, or to be born at all . . . but if I don’t work actively, unceasingly, against how things are, then I remain part of the ongoing problem.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">* * * * *</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">[ NOTE: I composed most of the foregoing for my Facebook page on the morning of May 31, six days after <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/31/us/george-floyd-investigation.html">the killing of George Floyd</a> in Minneapolis — as protests of historic and ongoing police brutality against African-American citizens were accelerating — and the day before <a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10157559017642532&set=a.92316427531&type=3&theater">the President’s stunt at Lafayette Park</a> and St. Johns Church in Washingon, DC. Subsequent events and online discussions have caused me repeatedly to refer back to my piece, so I decided to import it to my blog, with supporting links and graphics, where it would be more readily accessible over time. ]</span></span><br />
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David Loftushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03855438200255152255noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4097849630041105773.post-76968600944394613052020-06-15T15:21:00.002-07:002020-06-15T16:05:30.823-07:00A Journal of the Plague Year . . . Week 9<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 15px;">
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">My thoughts, commentaries, and jokes during Week 9 of our new reality. . . . </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">WEDNESDAY, MAY 6</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">10:02 a.m. — What’s rather ironic about many of our fellow citizens who are yammering to “get out” is that I suspect most of them are really talking about getting IN — to retail outlets, restaurants, bars, and supermarkets — and spending money.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I’ve getting out just fine all along — every day, for hours at a time — to enjoy the spring flowers, the nearby forest, birdsong, other folks’ lovely gardens, the many little surprises around my neighborhood that I never knew existed.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The selfie here was taken Monday on the footbridge across Interstate 5 and Macadam Avenue with the OHSU Center for Health and Healing and tower for the aerial tram to the top of the West Hills in the background.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And none of this has cost me a dime, or strained my household budget any further than if I had stayed at home.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Everyone else could do this as well, instead of chomping at the bit to get back in their cars and race around to meaningless jobs and opportunities to consume further goods they don’t need.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It’s a perfect opportunity to take a longer view; to assess oneself, one’s goals and aspirations, one’s place in the universe, the things one might possibly have overlooked or missed.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But how many people are doing that?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">10:24 a.m. — Gosh darn it.<br />
Whatever happened to “every year it rains in Portland through <a href="http://www.rosefestival.org/">Rose Festival</a> and doesn’t stop until after the Fourth of July” ?!<br />
I KNEW it was a mistake to get borned in Oregon based on its bogus reputation for wet and cool springs. . . . <br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">THURSDAY, MAY 7</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">11:37 a.m. — “The real number of deaths are higher than the Mortality Bills show,” <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Pepys">Pepys</a> told him. “The clerks are falsifying the accounts and some of the poor aren’t being counted. The bills show seven and a half thousand last week.”<br />
“And the real figure?”<br />
“Nearer ten,” Pepys replied grimly….</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It can’t just be the air, he decided. Some other agent carries the plague. But what? Dogs and cats? … God knows how many cats and dogs had been destroyed by now on the mayor’s orders. Twenty or thirty thousand, he guessed….</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">By mid-September it had become harder and harder <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Plague_of_London">to cope with the plague</a>. The living were no longer obeying the mayor’s orders. People were no longer observing the quarantine rules…. victims were being concealed; people were refusing to remain cooped up in infected houses, or trying to smuggle their children out to safety….</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">… sextons were continuing to pile the bodies into the graveyards until the top ones were covered by only a few inches of earth. In one yard, he had actually seen feet and arms sticking out of the ground. — <i>London</i>, a novel by Edward Rutherfurd (1997), pp. 575-577</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">* * * * *</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Two weeks ago, in a dual bio of Madison and Jefferson, I read about the yellow fever strike that killed thousands in Philadelphia and nearly did away with Alexander Hamilton in 1793.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This morning I read the above, then, a few pages (and six years of history) later, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Fire_of_London">the Great Fire of London</a> occurs and a gang attacks an immigrant — a French Huguenot — because they claim he started the fire:<br />
“… <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Fire_of_London#Suspicion_and_fear">the rumours had begun</a>. A fire like this could not be the work of chance. Some said it must be the Dutch. But most — perhaps half the good people of London — had a sounder suspicion by far. ‘It’s the Catholics,’ they said. ‘Who else would do such a thing?’</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose. . . . </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">1:55 p.m. — Last I reported, I finally could give up dialing the Employment Department dozens of times a day to catch a busy signal . . .</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">. . . and occasionally graduate to the triumph of connecting to hold for an hour or more, and listen to an endless rondo of two or three recorded announcements interspersed with smooth jazz featuring a lazy soprano sax à la Kenny G</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">. . . because Carole managed to dig up my more than a decade-old “customer ID number” from the LAST major recession</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">. . . so I could finally change my mailing address in the state Employment Department system from the place we lived in 15 years ago — just in case, you know, the department might want to send me some unemployment benefits (of which we have seen not a penny, as well as no sign of federal stimulus money).</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In the mean time, however, the department has officially denied at least three weeks of benefits due to “a question regarding your self employment.”</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzCrNy2jG7BZgFKU5ZOm4kiYB-Iq9ApYnsvn04NO_-KVoSKAD-gDUD3IZ1tkIBDGkgQm6Sm0CLeFQaJmsS-SOmAutognqJIhluI3ggkzTAl47efYIq-gEQja54ZL3onZf1N1UkES6-VQ/s1600/2019-income.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1299" data-original-width="1600" height="259" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzCrNy2jG7BZgFKU5ZOm4kiYB-Iq9ApYnsvn04NO_-KVoSKAD-gDUD3IZ1tkIBDGkgQm6Sm0CLeFQaJmsS-SOmAutognqJIhluI3ggkzTAl47efYIq-gEQja54ZL3onZf1N1UkES6-VQ/s320/2019-income.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">So I’ve spent most of the past day and a half constructing spread sheets of my 2019 income (see my entire rundown of individual revenue sources here), my 2020 income so far, and estimated lost income since March 22 . . . and a 2-1/2 page cover letter that attempts to explain it all.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It’s complicated because I have two part-time employers (for the past 6 and 8 years, respectively) . . . two long-term free-lance employers (both for roughly 8 years or more) . . . at least three occasional but regular piecework employers (job assignments that occur two or three times a year for a total of no more than about a dozen days) . . . residuals from my single, 90-second appearance on the NBC TV series “Grimm” back in 2012 . . . and last year, at least, more than a dozen single-job clients (a little voice work, <a href="https://vimeo.com/105627091">a little acting</a>, helping people update or created IMDb pages, and even the guy who paid me a little money to discuss books with him) . . . plus a couple of other commercial clients who paid me through my talent agency, and thus qualified as “one” collective employer.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Anyone want to take bets on how much longer it will take (if ever) for the state Employment Department to decide I really am a productive member of society who’s earned some return on all the withholding my various jobs have paid in over the years? </span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbWkdFosSe_vAvSQlz9LloJv42Lm1Q4Wbq4PGLbbBew1VvuWMDwqh24_C5ymQdwHB2baQHTVhIQf5pd6F6UyYaHzpSKAf17_lQ9pC50XjD1bryCHmpXwZ6ZIh68k2YkP18pDZFXHJiuQ/s1600/LFL8-May5.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbWkdFosSe_vAvSQlz9LloJv42Lm1Q4Wbq4PGLbbBew1VvuWMDwqh24_C5ymQdwHB2baQHTVhIQf5pd6F6UyYaHzpSKAf17_lQ9pC50XjD1bryCHmpXwZ6ZIh68k2YkP18pDZFXHJiuQ/s320/LFL8-May5.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">FRIDAY, MAY 8</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">9:47 a.m. — When I started taking long walks around the city a month ago, by chance I ran across at least two Little Free Libraries, at very different parts of town.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This gave me an idea. First, I have quite a few old used books I’ve read and can get rid of. (Normally, we would pack those off to Powell’s Books and the library for resale.)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Second, I need further exercise, and the motivation to obtain it, given that I’ve seen so much of my immediate neighborhood already.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">So I decided I would locate and visit as many Little Free Libraries as I could, and carry books with me to trade for whatever they might have to offer. That way, I’d have plenty to read during the pandemic stay-at-home period, without having to depend on the library and my Kindle (which is still a poor substitute).</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGf4j750EdlRiAIQCoaBLnfQpwlKcuIMOby1W98rdQepPACI74PeIEJPgDGmfQsTXpaNzy0EEdXyoaA2dBuStfjIR_vNWCiHr9JK18HMQX1M3S7W2aJ7begoEC0_Gi1r2snpP919koZg/s1600/LFL9-May5.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1222" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGf4j750EdlRiAIQCoaBLnfQpwlKcuIMOby1W98rdQepPACI74PeIEJPgDGmfQsTXpaNzy0EEdXyoaA2dBuStfjIR_vNWCiHr9JK18HMQX1M3S7W2aJ7begoEC0_Gi1r2snpP919koZg/s320/LFL9-May5.JPG" width="244" /></a></div>
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">My plan was to photograph each library, take a selfie for extra proof I had been there, and trade a volume for volume at each one, if possible. (As it turned out, I ended up taking at least four photos of each library: a portrait of the facility, a selfie with the facility, a closeup of the library’s Little Free Library charter plate and number — at least one was missing that; at least, I couldn’t readily locate it — and a photo of the book I surrendered to it.)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Here are the first two I saw on Tuesday. I’ll show you the others later.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">SATURDAY, MAY 9</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">10:02 a.m. — Carole just took a robo telemarketing phone call (no rest for the wicked) regarding our car’s extended warranty.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It has been 18 years since we’ve owned a motor vehicle.<br />
Guess they haven’t gotten around to updating their records.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">10:09 a.m. — I saw two lady bugs in the grass this morning when I took the dog across Macadam Avenue to the wild strip of ODOT land just below I-5, two blocks west of our apartment.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I love lady bugs.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">5:28 p.m. — Here is the third of the five Little Free Libraries I visited in Southeast Portland on foot, and with whom I exchanged books, on Tuesday. This one was especially distinguished from the rest by its eco-roof.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">8:57 p.m. — I was hoping to finish the 829-page novel [<b><i>London</i></b> by Edward Rutherfurd] I’ve been reading for the past four or five weeks so I could concentrate more on the 701-page novel [<b><i>Perfidia</i></b> by James Ellroy] I started this morning.<br />
But maybe that’s not going to be possible just yet.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">9:05 p.m. — I can’t help feeling sorry for trees and plants — especially flowering bushes like this rhododendron and more roses between various exit and entrance ramps for Interstate 5 and the west end of the Ross Island Bridge.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">They spend their entire days and years surrounded by the constant roar and exhaust of cars and trucks.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">What a noisy, smelly, oppressive life it must be for them. . . . </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">SUNDAY, MAY 10</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">8:48 a.m. — Happy Mother’s Day, Mitzi Asai Loftus. You</span></span>’re the greatest<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">(This photo is from our annual family get-together a year ago for playing card and board games, eating, and sharing stories; we had to cancel this year</span></span>’<span style="font-family: inherit;">s, which we</span>’<span style="font-family: inherit;">d scheduled for the weekend of March 27-29!)</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">12:48 p.m. — Here it is, “<a href="https://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2020/05/a-journal-of-plague-year-week-6.html">A Journal of the Plague Year, Week 6</a>,” with my thoughts, observations, and adventures under the new pandemical reality.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">There are brief political commentaries, books read, walks taken around the city, finches on the balcony, a voiceover recording session in a makeshift home basement winery, and plenty of wine. . . . </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">4:26 p.m. — I count the start of this from March 12, the morning I showed up with the rest of the cast of “The Journal of Ben Uchida” for two shows at the Winningstad Theater and no one came.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The NBA had canceled its season the night before, just as my book group was sitting down to dinner and chat about <b><i>Last Go Round</i></b> by Ken Kesey and Ken Babbs, and on the 13th the president bowed to reality and declared a national health emergency.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">So today is Day 60 of the pandemic according to my timeline, and this is how I look today. I had gotten a professional dye job on Feb. 25 — the first day of tech rehearsals — in order to portray a man 20 years younger. By March 12 we were halfway through the run, my roots were starting to show, and I was trying to decide how soon to get them re-touched.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Then everything crashed to the ground. Shortly thereafter, I saw jokes online about how soon we would learn who’d been dye-ing their hair — a notion that would have had little personal meaning for me before this year.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Over the next two weeks, in the latter half of March, my roots seemed to explode, especially on the sides where my coif had been sheered in a 1940s hairstyle. The effect reminded me of the undercoat on a Siberian Husky or a wolverine.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Since then, the process seems to have slowed. My hair is undoubtedly still growing, but for many weeks the silver-white roots appear almost to have stabilized. I remember the stylist telling me back in February that hot water would wash out the color faster, so I had scrubbed my hair sparingly under cool water during the play run . . . but having returned to my normal showering habits, I’m surprised how tenacious the color on top has remained.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">MONDAY, MAY 11</span></b></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2THIIkKTaYJDoVcViJ_2hH-TquXcoakgleIUhSyQs0t0Vdvog26zvrBfDU9IcAi0Za0LHgnkQkTmPwsSK61ed3a0_dwXo_Gmzky5J86HdZ2nZ2xZPhb8eNZm8O1zGmFBk15shb4_JXQ/s1600/I5-May11.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2THIIkKTaYJDoVcViJ_2hH-TquXcoakgleIUhSyQs0t0Vdvog26zvrBfDU9IcAi0Za0LHgnkQkTmPwsSK61ed3a0_dwXo_Gmzky5J86HdZ2nZ2xZPhb8eNZm8O1zGmFBk15shb4_JXQ/s320/I5-May11.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">11:15 a.m. — It has been six days since I’ve gone on a long walk. I did Little Free Library runs on three consecutive days last week — Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday — but those were 3-to-5-milers and fairly leisurely: lots of pauses, lots of close-up sightseeing of everything from blooming flowers and tree boles to interesting graffiti.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Then the hot weather came, and I didn’t care to go out in that, not with a mask and not to face probable high levels of cycle and foot traffic.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">So I was pleased to see cooler and potentially moister weather forecast starting today. I got up and headed out around 8 a.m. intending to power through a long walk with few pauses or stops.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It may have been around 50 degrees . . . nippy, but I wore shorts and a short-sleeved linen shirt because I knew I’d be striding hard and doing some climbing — including some fairly steep changes in elevation up to 400 feet — with my trusty Pendleton cowboy hat to keep off any dew or sprinkles.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Basically, I chose the opposite loop from the trek I did on April 6: up the hill to OHSU, south on Terwilliger across Barbur and I-5 to Taylors Ferry, and down the hill to Johns Landing and home. About 7.6 miles in just under two hours.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">This is one of the little free libraries I ran across earlier in April that gave me the idea to visit them all. It’s at the south end of Johns Landing, not far from the offices of Oregon Public Broadcasting and the Sellwood Bridge.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I first happened upon it on April 6, after I’d already seen one at SW Hamilton above Barbur, and two days before I saw a third ’way across town on N. Concord near the outer northern edge of residential Portland.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But this one’s unofficial. All the others are listed and pinned on a map at the world Little Free Library web site (more than 100,000 across the globe!), and carry a sign that cites their individual charter number, which I also photographed on all the libraries I’ve visited — save for one that appeared to be missing its ID.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This one has no identity plate. It’s not registered with the LFL site. And if you study the closeup photo, you’ll see why I won’t be visiting it again with a book for trade . . . because there’s nothing in there I’m interested in reading.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">TUESDAY, MAY 12</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">1:47 p.m. — One of the most noxious facets of car-dependent suburban culture: no sidewalks.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I can’t imagine too many people have walked the length of Taylors Ferry Road between SW Terwilliger at the top of the West Hills and Macadam/Riverside Drive along the Willamette River. I’ve done it twice: up the river on April 6, and down from the top yesterday morning. Never again, I think.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It’s a lovely, wooded green region of the city; some residential neighborhoods on the north, several cemeteries to the south . . . but as I say, most people would be foolish to attempt it on foot.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Not only are there no sidewalks on either side for almost its entire length (just short of a mile), but significant stretches offer almost no asphalt shoulder or a sufficiently flat or cleared land beyond to walk along.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It’s a shame, because there are so many desirable, walkable areas within an easy stroll of this menacing strip of roadway.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">To give you a sense of the pedestrian challenges, here is a hedge and “shoulder” on the north side of SW Taylors Ferry between SW 3rd and 4th. This is still nominally a residential neighborhood barely two blocks east of Terwilliger and a number of businesses at that intersection — for example, Chez Jose Mexican Cafe, Burlingame Veterinary Clinic, a Shell service station, and Tryon Creek Sports Bar. That’s the Boones Ferry Road cutoff turning right, next to the Beth Israel Cemetery in the center background.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Even sadder than a street with no sidewalk? Possible evidence of a former sidewalk that’s now neglected and overgrown. This is further down SW Taylors Ferry Road between Ahavai Sholom Cemetery and River View Cemetery. The Riverview Abbey Funeral Home and main entrance to River View Cemetery are only a couple hundred yards ahead . . . but accessible only by car for most people — or bicycle, if you’re especially intrepid.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Finally, below is one of the hairiest stretches of SW Taylors Ferry Road midway down the hill from Terwilliger to Macadam and the river.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">As wild as this looks, the highly stroll-able acreage of River View Cemetery is just through the trees to the right. Roughly a third of a mile ahead is a Zupan’s Market grocery store, Rovente Pizzeria, Lotus car dealership, the headquarters of Oregon Public Broadcasting, and the southern end of the Johns Landing neighborhood.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But this isn’t even a particularly safe or friendly stretch for cyclists.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">11:19 p.m. — So glad the weather turned cold and damp again this week.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The hot days last week prompted a fear that permanent global warming had set in early.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">11:34 p.m. — It was an amusing and strange sign of the times to run across a story in the <i>Wall Street Journal</i> about the many work-arounds people have devised to <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/coronavirus-facemask-foggy-glasses-fix-reopening-11588957512?fbclid=IwAR1ZHJm5j9Lwu_gEiuPZScEh1j1RUFLU5FcLLOrbWs2XAUrfL6IgmlzuKPo">reduce breath-fog on their eyeglasses</a> when they’re wearing a face mask.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">An absurd hue and cry has arisen among citizens who have taken umbrage because local retail outlets such as (I believe) New Seasons and Costco have insisted shoppers have to wear a mask.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I can understand how this would be an issue if you’re an essential worker who has to face a constant stream of customers for hours.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But shoppers? Grow up, folks. If you’re outdoors or in your car, you probably don’t need to wear it (though I choose to). If you go on a temporary errand in an interior public space, just endure it or take your glasses off.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Here’s my personal solution (I do this even late at night when there’s nobody around, but the cold air makes my glasses fog up especially fast and easily): Change the rhythm of your breathing.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Most of the time, we breathe evenly: roughly the same amount time in and out (say, two seconds in each direction), with a pause between. It’s mostly the blast of our exhale that drives damp air out the top of the mask and into our spectacles.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">So I inhale deeply and fast (maybe one second total) and immediately breathe back out — slowly and gently (three to five seconds). The slow expiration minimizes the blast of condensing air into your glasses, and the powerful inhale may even pull in enough cooler ambient air to help clear them.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">* * * * *</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">If you haven’t seen my thoughts, observations, political commentaries, and jokes during the preceding weeks of the the 2020 Coronavirus Pandemic, you can go to them via the links below:<br />
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“<a href="https://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2020/06/a-journal-of-plague-year-week-8.html">A Journal of the Plague Year . . . Week 8</a>”<br />
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(which includes another visit to downtown on foot, an online reunion of most of the principal cast of “Grimm,” our address courtesy of the USPS, how the pandemic outed the real “snowflakes” and made “socialist Sweden” the unlikely hero of U.S. libertarians, and my first official visits to Little Free Libraries)<br />
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“<a href="https://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2020/05/a-journal-of-plague-year-week-7.html">A Journal of the Plague Year . . . Week 7</a>”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">(online video chat with family, my brother’s remote musical video collaborations, a long walk from the northern border of the city, birthday wishes to my wife, a happy quarantine coincidence, and my discovery of Little Free Libraries)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“<a href="https://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2020/05/a-journal-of-plague-year-week-6.html">A Journal of the Plague Year . . . Week 6</a>”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">(the yellow fever epidemic that almost killed Alexander Hamilton, post-lockdown pleasure reading, invasions by Russian bots, capitulation to the Kindle, more long walks about the city, the distinction between an “excuse” and a “reason,” and an outing by car to run errands and finish a video voiceover job)</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“<a href="https://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2020/05/a-journal-of-plague-year-week-5.html"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 238); color: #551a8b;">A Journal of the Plague Year . . . Week 5</span></a>”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">(long walks through NE and SE Portland, tactics for maneuvering through the streets in mask and gloves, the current plague of faux certainties, and visits to the Rose City Book Pub and Reed College campus)</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“<a href="https://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2020/04/a-journal-of-plague-year-week-4.html"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 238);">A Journal of the Plague Year . . . Week 4</span></a>”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">(the start of my exhausting efforts to obtain unemployment benefits, first long walks about SW and SE Portland, idiocy from the governor of Georgia, an online reading with the cast of my March play production of a new short play by the lead actor, and how this is all Obama’s fault)</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“<a href="https://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2020/04/a-journal-of-plague-year-week-3.html"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 238); color: #551a8b;">A Journal of the Plague Year . . . Week 3</span></a>”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">(a visit on foot to a remarkably deserted downtown Portland, my analysis of the initial patterns of coronavirus testing and spread in Oregon and major metro counties, several dismissals of the worthless Incumbent)</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“<a href="https://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2020/03/a-journal-of-plague-year-week-2.html"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 238); color: #551a8b;">A Journal of the Plague Year . . . Week 2</span></a>”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">(the remarkably dry and beautiful weather that has brightened our self-isolation, a library books pile-up, a visit to the Portland Farmers Market after lockdown, the Whole Foods “early elders shopping hour,” a hike up the hills to visit my best friend from grade school, and thoughts about Nevil Shute’s <i>On the Beach</i>)</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“<a href="https://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2020/03/a-journal-of-plague-year-week-1.html"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 238);">A Journal of the Plague Year . . . Week 1</span></a>”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">(the weird hand-washing behavior of men, the shutdown of Portland arts events, and the run on guns and toilet paper)</span></span></div>
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David Loftushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03855438200255152255noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4097849630041105773.post-1939447548353161562020-06-14T10:29:00.002-07:002020-11-24T11:58:20.762-08:00Working for Harlan Ellison in 1996-97, part 2<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 15px;">
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">So far here, I’ve rerun the <a href="http://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2018/07/the-harlan-ellison-non-interview-circa.html">“non-interview” I conducted with Harlan Ellison</a> over the phone in 1984 for a very short-lived Boston magazine called <b><i>What’s New</i></b> . . . went back in time to recall the <a href="http://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2018/08/a-harlan-ellison-memory-cambridge-ma.html">first time I saw him do his thing live</a>, in 1981 — finishing a story in progress and then reading it “hot off the Olympia” in a benefit for a Boston used bookstore . . . then shifted forward to the winter of 1996-97, when <a href="https://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2020/05/going-to-work-for-harlan-ellison-1996.html">I proofread volume 3 of the <b>Edgeworks</b> collection</a> published by White Wolf.</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfONrCtC6NznvQ8rP-uO7fSkDfcECZPw8KjCHuC95MhsckNUsFIimUtO_Zquqcds7dXy6VNM2kMfsChQLFU6xkTp-2oYN6YgJdZQODifI4R6TO-XW7a4l5FVbcsXghqAd4GmA1A7JmbQ/s1600/H5.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="856" height="280" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfONrCtC6NznvQ8rP-uO7fSkDfcECZPw8KjCHuC95MhsckNUsFIimUtO_Zquqcds7dXy6VNM2kMfsChQLFU6xkTp-2oYN6YgJdZQODifI4R6TO-XW7a4l5FVbcsXghqAd4GmA1A7JmbQ/s400/H5.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Harlan had said he would try me out on the White Wolf job, since I volunteered to do it for free after the debacle of the first two typo-ridden volumes. His new story collection, <b><i>Slippage</i></b>, was just about to come out from Mark V. Ziesing Books as well, so he had them send me the galleys for that, with the understanding that he would pay me for my efforts out of his own pocke<span style="font-family: inherit;">t. [</span></span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This photograph courtesy and © Steven Barber; <span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">all rights reserved</span></span></span>]</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I have two vivid memories fro</span>m the <b><i>Slippage</i></b> job. Before online self-publication came along, a book went through many hands, not unlike a feature film. Many more are involved making a movie (actors and grips and lighting techs and set designers and wardrobe and makeup people and a DP and the director and others strive to do their part of the whole) . . . so it’s understandable that something occasionally slips through the cracks.</span></span></div>
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<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In a movie, for example, continuity may be broken; a prop that was on one side of a table shifts a foot to the left in another shot, or a character with a gun in his hand is seen a few seconds later holding it in the other. More spectacularly, the cast and crew might fail to notice something in shot that JUST SHOULDN’T BE THERE — a striking example being <a href="https://variety.com/2019/tv/news/hbo-coffee-cup-game-of-thrones-1203206397/">the paper coffee cup</a> that turned up for a few seconds in an episode of <b><i>Game of Thrones</i></b>.</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Similarly, before the 21st century, the many hands involved (author to editor to fact-checkers </span></span>— <span style="font-family: inherit;">and sometimes authoritative reviewers in the case of nonfiction works such as history and science </span>— <span style="font-family: inherit;">to typesetters to proofreader, back through the author and possibly other checkers, etc.) were intended to lead to a flawless final product . . . but sometimes, not all the i’s got dotted and t’s crossed.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><i>Slippage</i></b> contains a dedication to Harlan’s wife Susan, which includes a quote from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyril_Connolly">Cyril Connolly</a>. Somewhat uncharacteristically, Harlan felt a need to inform the reader who Mr. Connolly was; you’ll find a parenthetical identifier in the dedication: “England’s most influential and controversial literary critic.” I don’t know why Harlan didn’t simply say to himself, “people can look it up.” Maybe the publisher insisted.</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">If you were never an English lit grad student, the only place you might have heard of Connolly (if you were paying sufficiently close attention) is in the outro to the Monty Python song “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MlrsqGal64w">Eric, the Half-a-Bee</a>,” in which canny Michael Palin inserts the name of the eminent yet all-but-forgotten critic as a pun on John Cleese’s closing phrase “semi-carnally” (it’s at 1:48 in the above video clip).</span></span></div>
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<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I looked up the quote and discovered — as with <a href="https://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2020/05/going-to-work-for-harlan-ellison-1996.html">Michigan J. Frog, Pogo, and Dr. King</a> in the <b><i>Hornbook</i></b>, and nearly reproduced in <b>Edgeworks 3</b> until I caught them (or two of them, anyway) — Harlan had gotten it not quite right. If you look in your Ziesing edition, or your Houghton Mifflin clothbound or paperback copy, you’ll find the correct quotation from Connolly — “We are all serving a life-sentence in the dungeon of self” — in the actual introduction roughly eight pages later, where it had also been wrong and I corrected it . . . but not in the dedication, which still renders it “We are all serving a terminal sentence in the dungeon of life.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The sense is roughly the same (although I think a decent philosophical argument could be had over the distinctions in nuance between “self” and “life</span></span>”<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">), but in the end, what’s between the quotation marks is not what Connolly wrote. I wonder if anyone else has noticed the discrepancy in </span></span>the opening pages of <b><i>Slippage</i></b> <span style="font-family: inherit;">up to now? Twain’s line, “The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug,” seems apropros here. Not to get it right in an attribution is — I don’t know any other way to say it — disrespectful. I did my best to keep it from happening. [ * SIGH * ]</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In the spirit of full disclosure, I’ll share a contrasting story which shows me having pushed my luck. It’s kinda cool to be able to brag that I got Harlan Ellison to change a detail in one of his science-fiction stories (one of his rare compositions that honestly merits that genre classification), but looking back, I oughtn</span></span>’<span style="font-family: inherit;">t to have bothered.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Go Toward the Light” was a tale Harlan wrote to order <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Hanukkah-Lights-Stories-Festival/dp/1574534599">in 1994 for National Public Radio</a>, which had requested Hanukkah-themed stories from a number of authors. Chaim Potok and Rebecca Goldstein also delivered, but their pieces were read by Joel Grey and Lainie Kazan, respectively. Harlan read his, of course, and the result aired on November 15, 1994. Dove Audio released the three tales on a single cassette in 1995, and Harlan’s reading was re-released by Audio Literature/Fantastic Audio in 2001, and again by Blackstone Audio in 2011, as part of the contents of volume two of “Voices From the Edge: Midnight in the Sunken Cathedral.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In the first paragraph of “Go Toward the Light,” there is a passing reference to Stephen Hawking . . . <i>in the present tense</i>. Given the technology described in the story, it has to take place well into the 21st century, and even by the time the galleys for <b><i>Slippage</i></b> got to me, we were still back in the 20th century. Hawking had been wasting away from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s Disease) . . . so I suggested — gently but firmly — that maybe there ought to be some explanation for how the genius in the wheelchair known to the world via a speech-generating device could have survived so long. (Below is how it looked in the galley proof that I received; five lines from the bottom of the page is the passing remark </span></span>“<span style="font-family: inherit;">...Stephen Hawking says....</span>”<span style="font-family: inherit;">)</span><br />
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Harlan grumbled about this, but he went ahead and inserted a parenthetical remark that’s not in the original recording: “(yeah, courtesy of the over-the-counter anti-agathic drugs, still alive, and breaking a hundred on the links)….”</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">As it turned out, Harlan himself lived longer than I had expected such a hellion (not to mention an un-fastidious eater) to survive — certainly beyond any of the dates he projected in his own essay-fantasy, “The Day I Died” (installment 10 of the <b><i>Harlan Ellison Hornbook</i></b>, March 4, 1973, in which Harlan imagined himself dying in 10 different scenarios, starting less than two months later that same year and extending out as far as 2010, when he dies “from weary old age….”)</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">As I say, for a time I felt privately smug about having gotten Harlan Ellison to change something in one of his stories, but as it turned out, Hawking rolled comfortably into the 21st century, and even into the <i>second</i> <i>decade</i> of the 21st century, even WITHOUT the anti-agathic drugs (whateverthehell those are)! How could I have known? Amazingly, Hawking shouldered on with ALS for more than half a century (he had been diagnosed in 1963) and <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-43396008">predeceased Harlan by just 105 days</a>!</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">That’s all the minutiae with which I’ll torture you about <b><i>Slippage</i></b>. As with my marked-up galleys of <b>Edgeworks 3</b>, once my changes had been absorbed into the final ms. (most of them, anyway), Harlan made sure the proof copy with my red-inked comments was returned to me, with the gratifying acknowledgement and autograph you see below.</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">He instructed me to bill him directly. I figured $30 an hour was a decent rate for this kind of labor, and I’d spent about 20 hours on the task, so as I recall, I sent him an invoice for $600. He phoned me, rather taken aback, and protested that he wasn’t as wealthy as many people seem to think. On the one hand, I don’t believe my bill would have been unreasonable out in the real world of 1996-97 . . . on the other, I would gladly have done the work <i>gratis</i>, given a further chance to work for — and with — one of my heroes.</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">So I didn’t object in the slightest to the adjusted amount he proposed. I remember he referred to me as “ya greedy fuck!” during that phone conversation . . . but we were both laughing when he said it.</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">[ <i>Still to come: dining with Harlan in Oregon in 2001, indexing the Teats while recovering from knee surgery, and pushing a dead 1947 Packard down La Brea Avenue in Los Angeles in 2007. . . .</i> ]</span></span></div>
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<br />David Loftushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03855438200255152255noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4097849630041105773.post-85369891231136853432020-06-07T14:59:00.002-07:002020-06-28T11:51:21.754-07:00A Journal of the Plague Year . . . Week 8<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Week 8 of our new reality. . . . </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">WEDNESDAY, APRIL 29</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">5:56 p.m. — I didn’t do a particularly long walk today; just a perambulation to and about the south end of downtown.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">My excuse was to pick up some eye-moisturizing ointment for Pixie, since we’d just run out. But I shot many photos along my <a href="https://www.portlandwalkingtours.com/">Portland Walking Tours</a> route, and of course anything else that caught my interest.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Our Lady of Fifth Avenue (better known as </span></span>“<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: inherit;">Portlandia</span>”<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: inherit;">) is shown below at about 3:30 p.m., still looking strong, proud, and welcoming to all after more than 34 years in position on the Portland Building between Madison and Main.</span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">8:05 p.m. — One of the surprises of my walk this afternoon was to run across a billboard on SW Kelly between Macadam/Ross Island Bridge and SW Arthur that has a friend of mine on it.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Two years ago, I appeared with the smiling personage on the left in a goofy horror-spoof <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IXkyp_2foA&list=PLPHpv1WKeohtcFhJuFAR8gu4fR2PbZnrF">web series called “Stalked</a></span></span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IXkyp_2foA&list=PLPHpv1WKeohtcFhJuFAR8gu4fR2PbZnrF">,”</a></span></span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: inherit;"> written and directed by, and starring her mother, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/erin-lehn-21b5264b/">Erin Lehn</a>. I played an array of characters in that show, from an ostensibly slow-witted hick who <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvYkv2A298s&list=PLPHpv1WKeohtcFhJuFAR8gu4fR2PbZnrF&index=156">sings the “Banana Splits” theme</a> to himself, to a trick-or-treating Dad, and eventually a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFujnyokaCs&list=PLPHpv1WKeohtcFhJuFAR8gu4fR2PbZnrF&index=203">psychopathic serial killer</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVksfKRQNUo&list=PLPHpv1WKeohtcFhJuFAR8gu4fR2PbZnrF&index=163&t=0s&fbclid=IwAR0uR3j7fAFi5VMnCJ5UeEJgfU1uYkjBu2IMspc5p-zWiacMbO9RqHXtCU0">Here’s one of the episodes</a> in which we all appeared.<br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">12:01 p.m. — <a href="https://www.oregonlive.com/entertainment/2020/04/stars-of-portland-filmed-grimm-tv-show-will-reunite-for-a-virtual-experience-with-fans.html?fbclid=IwAR2XakzgbDTGn44EU6GxzUOt1jNiBHaYknT6wFIGmiyrtjkaa6UBPha7BvU">“Grimm” reunion</a> is LIVE NOW.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">12:55 p.m. — What a lovely bunch of folks!</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Here’s a screen shot from today’s “Grimm” reunion on WizardWorld Virtual Experiences at 12 noon, April 30, 2020.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Some of my favorite moments:</span></span><br />
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— Thanking the show’s creators, David Greenwalt and Jim and Lynn Kouf, Reggie Lee said, “They could have killed us at any time” . . . to which Sasha Roiz added, “God knows, they tried!”</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">— Asked about plot and character twists that surprised them, Roiz replied, “To me, I didn’t see anything coming…” and shortly thereafter Silas Weir Mitchell added, “I think that’s called making it up as you go along.”</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">— Lee flashed his prop Portland Police badge and said, “It’s like a get-out-of-jail-free card in Portland.”</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">— When the cast were asked whether they are involved in or have heard about the potential for a spinoff show or reunion feature film, Claire Coffey said wryly, “I think we talk about it every day. I’m pretty sure there’s no schedule that can’t be cleared…. You can’t say we aren’t trying, is all I’ll say.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Today, our home address officially changed, at the behest of the U.S. Postal Service.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">For 90 years, Portland has long been divided into five “quadrants”: the normal Northwest, Northeast, Southwest (which contains the downtown), Southeast, and “North Portland” — a kind of pie-slice of territory that points south from the Columbia River to the center of town (and is basically what I walked through during my long walk on April 27).</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I don’t know the history of all this, but the short explanation is that some of the street addresses in my neighborhood start with a zero — such as Lewis and Clark College, where my niece Helena has been attending school the past several years, whose official address has been 0615 SW Palatine Hill Road.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Apparently, those zeros created confusion for 9-1-1 calls and fire department response, so we are changing to South Portland, <a href="https://www.portlandoregon.gov/transportation/75814">a new pie slice that will point north</a> to downtown. Personally, the numbers of our street address won’t change, but we have to drop the “W” of “SW Bond Avenue,” which will create a heckuva hassle over one single letter.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Our neighborhood association put together a helpful checklist of all the IDs and services that might require an address change.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">12:18 a.m. — Currently reading: <b><i>Fiasco, the American military adventure in Iraq</i></b> by Thomas E Ricks, and <b><i>Prussian Blue</i></b>, the twelfth Bernie Gunther mystery by Philip Kerr.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">10:59 a.m. — Carole and I were nonplused to see our most recent credit card statement classifies an order of wine from <a href="https://www.montinore.com/">Montinore Estate</a> (sale! free delivery!) as “Entertainment.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">We regard it as “Sustenance.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">SATURDAY, MAY 2</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">11:20 a.m. — This morning we walked all the way to the Farmers Market on the Portland State University campus in the rain. Well, some of us did, anyway. . . . </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">12:35 p.m. — If I hadn’t been able to see an enlargement of the <a href="https://indianexpress.com/article/trending/trending-globally/facebooks-new-care-react-triggers-meme-fest-on-social-media-6391626/">new Facebook “caring” emoji</a>, I would have taken it for someone trying to stanch the bleeding from a bad chest wound.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">5:28 p.m. — The congregation that <a href="https://www.nydailynews.com/coronavirus/ny-coronavirus-ohio-churchgoers-claim-coronavirus-immunity-20200405-uxu5xjc535fuxlkgsoxibmnvp4-story.html">genuflects together . . . infects together</a>.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">5:52 p.m. — Aw, shoot. The marvelous novel I’m reading just had its protagonist make a reference to “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walt_Disney_anthology_television_series">Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color</a>” . . . in October 1956.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Sorry, but I don’t think that’s gonna fly.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">12:21 a.m. — One thing I’ll grant about using a Kindle:<br />
Reading while flossing and brushing my teeth (which I’ve done for decades) is a lot easier from the “holding open the book and turning the pages” standpoint.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">SUNDAY, MAY 3</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">1:04 p.m. — In recent years, conservatives and libertarians have become fond of referring to political opponents who criticize our country’s failings as “whiners,” “snowflakes,” and worse.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But since the various types of shutdowns in response to the pandemic, we’ve seen who the real “wusses” are. Conditions could have been so much worse, in spite of the hue and cry.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I’m grateful, for example, that trash pickups have proceeded largely without a hitch. I think back to the photos from the <a href="https://www.gettyimages.com/photos/garbage-strike-a?mediatype=photography&phrase=garbage%20strike%20a&sort=mostpopular">New York garbage strikes</a> of 1968, 1975, 1977, and even 2011.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Consider how much greater a challenge stay-at-home would have been for so many of us before 1990 . . . without the Internet for communication, video entertainment, instant download of dozens of books, orders of home delivery of groceries and restaurant meals (not to mention jigsaw puzzles!), and being able to see and talk with loved ones face-to-face in real time.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I don’t recall hearing about any recent, substantial shutdowns in web service comparable to regional collapses of telephone coverage or electrical power during weather disasters or geological catastrophes (even mass shootings), either.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Apart from undoubted poor delivery of medical care to certain sectors (nursing homes, minority neighborhoods, people living on the streets), I suspect most of the loud complaints online are coming from people who are just not accustomed to being alone with their own head.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">For years, I’ve contended that the obsessive attention given to mobiles, ear buds, and binge consumption of visual entertainment is a symptom of an inability to deal with one’s own unmediated thoughts, and ultimately, mortality.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">As <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blaise_Pascal">Pascal</a> wrote, more than 350 years ago, “I have often said that the sole cause of man’s unhappiness is that he doesn’t know how to sit quietly in his room.” (Other translations from the French render it as “All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.”)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">11:21 p.m. — Since I have plenty of used books I’ve read and am happy to pass on . . . and even used books I haven’t read that I might never get around to . . . and I need to keep getting exercise, fresh air, and sunlight on a regular basis . . . I’ve decided to make a project of visiting <a href="https://littlefreelibrary.org/">Little Free Libraries</a> across the city of Portland on foot, taking a photo of each (possibly even a selfie with each!), and turning in books I’m ready to get rid of in exchange for anything the a looks appealing.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Or just leaving one of mine if nothing’s appealing.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Here are the two Little Free Libraries I visited today that are closest to my home during a long walk into the West Hills above our neighborhood: via SW Kelly and Bancroft to 6th, Gaines, and Campus Drive . . . then down a nifty trail below the Casey Eye Institute to Lair Hill.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Basically, it was a long, meandering loop around the Veteran’s Administration Medical Center (which has its own Little Free Library I didn’t manage to locate, so I’ll have to go back up there eventually).</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Over time, I’ll push farther out into Southwest, Southeast, and North and Northeast Portland. It’s sort of a mission.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">4:48 p.m. — Just got back from today’s Little Free Library outing to the Brooklyn neighborhood of Southeast Portland. Two out of four of the libraries were closed and emptied because of the pandemic, so my batting average for today was .500.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Total average for books exchanged at Little Free Libraries in Portland: four out of seven, or 57 percent.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">6:57 p.m. — You know the folks who declare we ought to end stay-at-home because they believe “<a href="https://www.jhsph.edu/covid-19/articles/achieving-herd-immunity-with-covid19.html">herd immunity</a>” is an inevitable nationwide condition we shouldn’t be striving to avoid?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Why don’t they put their bodies where their mouths are and hold the hands of the sick and dying, since the families of the latter are barred from easing their final hours in person?<br />
We could even pay the loud-mouths to do this, since they’re obsessed with getting back to work and so certain big, bad covid-19 monster won’t harm them.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">They might even develop a little more empathy in the process of making themselves useful.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">TUESDAY, MAY 5</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">12:17 p.m. — It’s been hilarious to witness <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-01098-x">Sweden undergo a magical transformation</a> to become the darling of American conservatives and libertarians the past month.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Anybody remember what U.S. Republicans used to say about that nation — for years on end, until just a few weeks ago?</span></span></div>
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— “They pay outrageous taxes!”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">— “Socialized medicine is substandard; nobody there likes it!”<br />
— “They have the highest rates of suicide in the world!”<br />
— “We don’t want socialism here!”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Suddenly, the Swedes have become the model for the rest of the world because they applied “no government lockdown” to their citizens.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">You merely have to overlook all the other variables (for example, that more than 50 percent of Swedish citizens live alone — that is, in single-person households . . . Swedes are well accustomed to staying home from work at the slightest sign of a cough or headache . . . and up to a third of them can work remotely, and do) and forget the fact that they’re a buncha damn socialists . . . which might also just bear some relation to their willingness to deal sensibly with covid-19. . . . </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">1:43 p.m. — Mornings are definitely the time to do long walks now that we’re having dry and warm Oregon weather.<br />
I hit five different Little Free Libraries east of yesterday’s trio in Brooklyn. I took the #9 bus from Moody/Meade at the west end of the Tilikum Crossing bridge to SE 39th (aka Cesar Chavez Boulevard) and Powell, and walked a very meandering route home.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">There were two libraries on SE Kelly and Tibbets, north of Powell off 39th and 33rd, respectively. . . .<br />
. . . then a long trot south along 33rd to the third library beyond SE Gladstone, just short of Kenilworth Park (where I recalled reading <a href="http://harlanellison.com/home.htm">Harlan Ellison</a></span></span><a href="http://harlanellison.com/home.htm">’</a><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://harlanellison.com/home.htm">s</a> Jack-the-Ripper-in-a-city-of-the-future story, “The Prowler in the City at the Edge of the World,” to my new girlfriend in the summer of 1991 (although she says she remembers it was his post-apocalyptic story, “A Boy and His Dog,” but in any case, she married me anyway) . . . </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">. . . then over to 28th Place north of SE Francis (after stopping by to join the crowd of gawkers in front of the blossoming agave at SE 28th and Gladstone) where there are two Little Free Libraries on opposite sides of the street along the same block . . . </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">. . . and then a long trek home on the side streets just north of Powell to the Ross Island Bridge and home to South Waterfront.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Below is a lonely Portland Streetcar trolley, viewed from the Ross Island Bridge at about 11 a.m., and likely carrying no more than 4 or 5 passengers at most as it makes its way across the Tilikum Crossing bridge.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Normally, I might be working aboard this or another one of these trains in one of my part-time jobs as a customer service representative for Portland Streetcar, but the management is NOT encouraging us to do so at this point.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">* * * * *</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Had enough? If not, here’s “<a href="https://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2020/05/a-journal-of-plague-year-week-7.html">A Journal of the Plague Year . . . Week 7</a>”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">(which discussed an online video chat with my family, my brother’s remote musical video collaborations, my long walk from the northern border of the city, birthday wishes to my wife, a happy quarantine coincidence, and my discovery of Little Free Libraries)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Prior to that, I posted “<a href="https://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2020/05/a-journal-of-plague-year-week-6.html">A Journal of the Plague Year . . . Week 6</a>”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">(covering the yellow fever epidemic that almost killed Alexander Hamilton, my post-lockdown pleasure reading, invasions by Russian bots, capitulation to the Kindle, more long walks about the city, the distinction between an “excuse” and a “reason,” and an outing by car to run errands and finish a video voiceover job)</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Before that came “<a href="https://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2020/05/a-journal-of-plague-year-week-5.html"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 238); color: #551a8b;">A Journal of the Plague Year . . . Week 5</span></a>”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">(which includes long walks through NE and SE Portland, tactics for maneuvering through the streets in mask and gloves, the current plague of faux certainties, and visits to the Rose City Book Pub and Reed College campus)</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">You could also check out “<a href="https://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2020/04/a-journal-of-plague-year-week-4.html"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 238);">A Journal of the Plague Year . . . Week 4</span></a>”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">(for my exhausting attempts to obtain unemployment benefits, first long walks about SW and SE Portland and what I learned from them, idiocy from the governor of Georgia, my online reading with the cast of my March play production of a new short play by the lead actor, and how it’s all Obama’s fault)</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">See “<a href="https://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2020/04/a-journal-of-plague-year-week-3.html"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 238); color: #551a8b;">A Journal of the Plague Year . . . Week 3</span></a>”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">(a visit on foot to a remarkably deserted downtown Portland, my analysis of the initial patterns of coronavirus testing and spread in Oregon and major metro counties, several dismissals of the worthless Incumbent, </span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Go to “<a href="https://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2020/03/a-journal-of-plague-year-week-2.html"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 238); color: #551a8b;">A Journal of the Plague Year . . . Week 2</span></a>”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">(the remarkably dry and beautiful weather that has brightened our self-isolation, a library books pile-up, a visit to the Portland Farmers Market after lockdown, the Whole Foods “early elders shopping hour,” a hike up the hills to visit my best friend from grade school, and memories of Nevil Shute’s <i>On the Beach</i>)</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Read “<a href="https://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2020/03/a-journal-of-plague-year-week-1.html"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 238);">A Journal of the Plague Year . . . Week 1</span></a>”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">(the weird hand-washing behavior of men, the shutdown of Portland arts events, and the run on guns and toilet paper)</span></span></div>
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David Loftushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03855438200255152255noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4097849630041105773.post-12957790048117673992020-05-30T16:39:00.002-07:002020-06-28T11:51:54.060-07:00Portland Walking Tour Tales, 2019 . . . part 3<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 15px;">
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Further memorable tales from my Portland Walking Tours of 2019.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">MAY 30</span></b></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQZJRsin54rEwkNBMQmiSxM0Y5FTqvqVwGn0ZStfyidcNyqtg_JpDzdnaR_t6cx06wgX8ALQzXjv-gaVKkQtL8xjQI4QN-uSbGgPGk-Q5j5RfhLALe6MwUb9RtGVpWvSB30VU_XydnOw/s1600/FromtheNines-May30.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQZJRsin54rEwkNBMQmiSxM0Y5FTqvqVwGn0ZStfyidcNyqtg_JpDzdnaR_t6cx06wgX8ALQzXjv-gaVKkQtL8xjQI4QN-uSbGgPGk-Q5j5RfhLALe6MwUb9RtGVpWvSB30VU_XydnOw/s320/FromtheNines-May30.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Another double-header today. The morning group had 13, who ranged in origin from Denver to South Carolina, Texas, and Memphis; the second, a dozen, came from California, Arizona, Michigan, Minnesota, and Tel Aviv, Israel.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">For any number of reasons, these are larger groups than I prefer to have to shepherd through downtown, so I was expecting a long, exhausted trudge home afterward. But the couple from Los Feliz, California asked me if I’d like to join them for a drink at The Nines hotel where they’re staying. They took me up to the hospitality room where I enjoyed quality munchies, two beers, and a lovely two-hour chat about our family backgrounds, her art therapy work, Judaism, Harlan Ellison, acting and photography, and many other topics. (This is a view of Pioneer Courthouse Square, decorated with potted blossoms for Portland Rose Festival, from that height.)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It was a surprisingly lovely way to finish what might otherwise have been a fairly unmemorable and frazzling day.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">JUNE 16</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://www.pridenw.org/">Gay Pride Day in Portland</a> presented its special challenges this afternoon.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The parade was over, so it did not pose an obstacle to my 2 p.m. tour, but a lot of wildlife were hanging out at Waterfront Park, where the tour ends, when we got there.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">My guests were from Fort Worth, Texas; Babylon, Long Island; and a family of eight from San Jose and the Philippines . . . and I had a challenge holding their attention when there were brightly painted, nearly nude males and females wandering about us — not to mention the young woman with her skirt hiked up to her waist, straddling her boyfriend under a tree near the original Portland Loo.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">JUNE 17</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I had just finished my afternoon tour — a tidy quintet of women of varying ages from Richmond, Virginia; Wyndham, New Hampshire; and South Berwick, Maine — and was stepping out of the office in Pioneer Courthouse Square about 4:30 p.m., when who should come strolling down the brick ramp by our door by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Ohman">my old book group buddy, Jack Ohman</a>, the former editorial columnist for <i>The Oregonian</i>, who won a Pulitzer the year after our paper pushed him out after 29 years and he was <a href="https://www.sacbee.com/opinion/editorial-cartoons/jack-ohman/">swept up by <i>The Sacramento Bee</i></a>. (At left is a caricature of yours truly that Jack drew when we ran into each other on the #20 Trimet bus, way out at the eastern end of its run on July 9, 2009; it appeared in the paper three days later.)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">He was in town this week to accept an honorary doctorate from Portland State; you can call me Dr. Ohman now, he told me. And he hugged me. Twice!</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">JUNE 18</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I love when I get honeymooners on my walking tours. I’ve had more than a dozen couples as tour guests, that I know of, over the years.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This morning’s pair were from Toronto. They had flown into Seattle for a couple of days, and are in Portland for a little while before they push south to San Fran.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">When I talk about the <a href="https://heathmanhotel.com/">historic Heathman Hotel</a>, I always put a personal “button” on all the other info (from celebrity guest soloists with the Oregon Symphony to <i>Fifty Shades of Grey</i>) by adding “I’m personally fond of the Heathman ’cause I met my future wife there in the tearoom—”, whereupon the new bride joshed me by breaking in with “The one you haven’t married yet?” before I could get to “—28 years ago.”<br />
[Thereafter, I</span></span>’ve<span style="font-family: inherit;"> made sure to reorder the word order of that sentence.]</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">JUNE 21</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I had but one guest on my tour this afternoon, but oh, what a delight she was.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">A tiny blonde sprite who grew up in Yorkshire—talkative and easy to laugh—she also happened to be a veteran of the British Army currently on assignment to a UK embassy in North America.<br />
She told me she had previously been assigned for 18- and 24-month stints in places like Northern Ireland, Cypress, and Germany only a few miles from the former Bergen-Belsen death camp. She mentioned that Britain has 24 Army installations around the U.S.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I asked where her toughest assignment had been to adjust, and she said here, because everywhere else she had lived on base, but here she’s had to live in civilian housing, and handle all those arrangements herself. I meant culturally, I persisted; what’s been the hardest adjustment generally?<br />
She thought and said, again, the U.S., because when you speak the same language you kind of assume everything else is going to be much the same. You don’t expect retail checkout cashiers to ask their manager, “Do we treat them the same as aliens?”<br />
She’s currently on her way to a two-week vacation with a package tour of the national parks of southern Alaska with a boat cruise and sightseeing at glaciers, but she said it’s always her policy to pause anywhere she has to change planes, and since there were no direct flights to Anchorage, she’s spending a day in Portland on her way up, and a day in Seattle on her way back to work.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I asked her what she hoped to see in Alaska. A whale, she said.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">My guest tipped me a twenty at the end, which is higher than the usual rate I get per head on my tours.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">JUNE 23</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">One of this morning’s guests, a guy from Baltimore, got somewhat excited when he saw the plaque for “Allow Me,” <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allow_Me">the umbrella-man statue</a> that’s one of the first stops on the tour.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">My cousin was engaged to be married to the son of Seward Johnson, the artist who designed the statue, he told me, so he took photos of Umbrella Man and the plaque to send to his family. There’s a lot of his stuff in New Jersey, he went on, and I thought he was just an East Coast phenomenon.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Seward Johnson is a member of the Johnson & Johnson pharmaceuticals clan. His grandfather, Robert Wood Johnson I, founded the company and is the name on a donor foundation you’ll often hear repeated on public broadcasting shows. Actor Michael Douglas is a first cousin.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Was” engaged, I observed; the marriage didn’t happen, I take it. No, replied my Baltimore guest; she realized she’d be living in big homes with gates and security guards, the potential threat of kidnapping, etc., and she didn’t want to live that kind of life.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">JULY 6</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This morning’s tour featured a truly eclectic bunch.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">My guests included a young couple from Guadalajara, Mexico (which is cool, because that’s one of Portland’s nine sister cities, and comes up twice in almost every tour I lead: at the milepost in the Square and at <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mago_Hermano_(Brother_Wizard_or_Magician)">the bronze chair statue</a> in the performing arts center) . . . an elder couple from Chennai, a city on the Bay of Bengal almost due east of Bangalore in southern India (I gathered they were visiting family in Seattle) . . . a young couple who hailed from <a href="https://studyinrussia.ru/en/life-in-russia/discover-russia/towns/nizhny-novgorod/">Nizhny Novgorod</a>, a city at the confluence of the Oka and Volga rivers about 250 miles east of Moscow (though they’ve lived in SF Bay area for 10 years) . . . a married couple from San Fran who consisted of a Taiwanese man and an Argentine woman, with her visiting mother in tow . . . and finally a young couple who grew up in Eugene, had lived and worked in Klamath Falls, and have been based in Beaverton (he’s a nurse and she’s an elementary teacher) the past two years.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The array doesn’t often get any broader than that!</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This morning I led a private tour for <a href="https://www.facebook.com/womentravelingsolotogether/">Women Traveling Together</a>, a web-based firm that arranges package tours for its members. Their contact-guide told me the company organizes about 150 tours across the nation led by roughly 70 guides like herself.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This one would takes its 14 participants (12 turned out to accompany me today) around the perimeter of Oregon, from Portland to the Columbia Gorge waterfalls, Crater Lake, and the coast in six days. Most were women of a certain age and older, but a couple were younger than I am.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Two days ago they met here and were all strangers from California, Missouri, Florida, Washington, and even <a href="https://www.soldotna.org/">Soldatna, Alaska</a>, but had become fast friends by now.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">For private, package tours, my gratuity is included in the fee for the group, but sometimes (as happened this morning), individual guests also hand me a little extra cash at the end.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">JULY 16</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">My group of eight this afternoon included a woman from Dallas, Texas who was checking out Portland for a couple of days before she goes to Keizer to judge a barbecue cook-off.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">She’s an operating-room nurse (for 20 years) who works just Monday-through-Wednesday shifts . . . so for the past two-and-a-half years, she’s traveled on weekends to manage the judging at various events organized by the <a href="https://www.steakcookoffs.com/">Steak Cookoff Association</a>(!).</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">She had attended chef school for a hobby and taught classes at a local Sur le Table for a while, until that got to be a drag. Her current part-time hobby has taken her all over the country, once to Australia, and she’s hoping for assignments in Japan and elsewhere overseas in the future.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><u>JULY 26</u></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It was 87 degrees on the Citibank digital clock when I got back from my afternoon tour to Pioneer Courthouse Square at 4:24 p.m. I’ll bet it was a lot hotter than that at various downtown locations wherever concrete was exposed to the direct sunlight.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I had to be extra creative in choosing what to talk about and when, as well as finding suitably shady spots to pause and speak to my guests along the tour route.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">At 4:15 I stopped only a little way across the green strip of Waterfront Park, because there was still shade from trees on its west side next to Naito Parkway, but while I was talking to my six guests (a family of four from San Diego and a couple from D.C.), the sprinklers came on.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">We lucked out, though, because the nearest one was aiming its powerful jets of water directly to the north and south, so I instantly moved the group east to the riverbank by leading everyone in a line to step across the sprinkler head before the entire mechanism managed to turn and soak us all.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Here</span></span>’<span style="font-family: inherit;">s an uncharacteristically deserted shot of Waterfront Park post pandemic shutdown (April 29) right about the place where I normally cross to the river with my walking tours.</span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">* * * *</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">You can read more of my 2019 Portland Walking Tour adventures in <a href="https://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2020/05/portland-walking-tour-tales-2019-part-2.html">part 2</a> and <a href="https://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2020/04/portland-walking-tour-tales-2019-part-1.html">part 1</a>.</span></span></div>
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David Loftushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03855438200255152255noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4097849630041105773.post-66839478594591874752020-05-22T10:12:00.000-07:002020-06-28T11:52:22.108-07:00A Journal of the Plague Year . . . Week 7<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Week 7 of the new reality. . . . </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">WEDNESDAY, APRIL 22</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">4:00 p.m. — I had an online video chat with family this afternoon: my brother across the city, my brother the optometrist downstate in Ashland, where my mother also lives in her own place (but she’s mostly staying with him because she’s recuperating from neurosurgery performed on March 17, just three days before elective surgeries were barred at that southern Oregon hospital).<br />
We had a lovely catchup. Mom’s stitches came out without a hitch, Ken is seeing a few of his eye patients and getting well caught up on paperwork, Toby has been doing <a href="https://blatantcalm.home.blog/music-videos/?fbclid=IwAR0IQNnBGF17-vIAWZWFrOtbF0fvDee5YjKo36PTWBqNcXJkuw1Vxl0FotI">online musical collaborations</a>. Stay-at-home for weeks on end would have been so much more difficult before the Internet.</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: inherit;">Just before midnight, Toby uploaded his latest home isolation video: singing and playing “</span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4pI6YkzLsM&feature=emb_logo" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: inherit;">I Play Viola</a><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: inherit;">” to the tune of the 1958 Peggy Lee hit “Fever.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">THURSDAY, APRIL 23</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">11:28 a.m. — Information has been and continues to be shitty. We don’t know where the cases are centered here in Multnomah County, we don’t know how many people are hospitalized or where . . . and we certainly don’t know how or where the people who have tested positive might have been infected.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The <a href="https://govstatus.egov.com/OR-OHA-COVID-19">Oregon Health Authority web page</a> has been dutifully reporting the total number of tests, and positive and negative results — county by county — every day. Suddenly yesterday it got stuck with “pending *” entered in all the boxes for negative tests and total persons tested statewide, as well as negative results in each county.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I just checked it; no change in the last 24 hours . . . no new data.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And all along for the past six weeks, the numbers may have been far too low to reflect reality on the streets because of low, restricted testing when we should have been testing everybody — on request, at least, if not everyone, period. Otherwise, we’re administering policy at the government level, and trying to do the right thing at the individual level, in the dark.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Meanwhile, I have to go out today to get medicine for my girls. I’m trying to anticipate all the potential obstacles and challenges, and pack whatever tools I can think of or have on hand to meet them.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">8:19 p.m. — For today’s long walk, I took a MAX light-rail train all the way to its northern terminus, at the Portland Expo Center just off the Columbia River and walked back into the city. After walking five miles south through various North Portland neighborhoods (and taking a selfie with the Paul Bunyan statue at N. Interstate and Denver), I hopped a train back across the river to the west side, swung past the uncharacteristically locked and empty Powell’s Books and Multnomah County Library/Central Branch, and took a streetcar home.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Along the way I saw a Canada Goose and a cormorant on Columbia Slough, lots of tulips and apple blossoms, squirrels dashing about quiet yards, and my filmmaker colleague Sean Parker at his home.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">FRIDAY, APRIL 24</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">A very happy birthday to my dear wife, Carole Barkley. Here’s <a href="http://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2017/04/celebrating-my-beloved-wife-carole.html">a piece I posted to this blog</a> three years ago, when we had more to celebrate.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">3:40 p.m. — I might have known.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">3:53 p.m. — I posted my blog commentary, “<a href="https://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2020/04/the-meaning-of-mask.html">The Meaning of the Mask</a>”: straight talk about the reasons to wear a mask in public. (Here</span></span>’<span style="font-family: inherit;">s me visiting <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3278239/">Sean Parker</a></span>’<span style="font-family: inherit;">s home on Thursday with Sean crouching on his porch in the background.).</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">9:50 p.m. — In another week, we’re on course to have more than one million confirmed cases of of covid-19 in the U.S., and more Americans killed than in the seven-year Vietnam War.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">SATURDAY, APRIL 25</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">12:01 p.m. — Wow. On Thursday I made my first visit to commercial retail establishments in five weeks . . . and the <a href="https://www.kgw.com/article/news/health/coronavirus/coronavirus-death-portland-whole-foods-hollywood-pearl-district-covid-19-grocery-store-death/283-9c0a908b-e54f-4ab2-a1a4-60dd65dabfb9?">Whole Foods in the Pearl</a> was one of them. Shoppers were sparse and easily avoided, and I wore a mask and latex gloves which I discarded at the door.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I hope everyone else there is okay.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">SUNDAY, APRIL 26</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">2:42 p.m. — SELF-QUARANTINE SERENDIPITY</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">We had a fortuitous set of circumstances come together yesterday: A substituted grocery delivery that didn’t work for us turned out to fulfill a need for a neighbor — AND we got a refund.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">First, you have to understand that although we’re nominally a vegetarian household as far as the humans are concerned, we have purchased fresh chicken breast on an ongoing basis the past few years for our aging Toy Fox Terrier, Pixie. She has pancreatitis, which leads to alimentary flareups (diarrhea, vomiting, panic attacks) if she consumes too much fat and sugar … so she’s found herself unaccountably less successful at begging table scraps. We buy chicken breast to boil and chop for serving with vegetable matter, doggie fiber, vitamin supplements, and probiotics.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">For yesterday’s delivery, the online grocer “helpfully” substituted several packages of chicken thighs for half of our order — apparently because supplies were short. That wouldn’t do for our dog, and we weren’t going to eat them. The supplier readily refunded our money, but said they couldn’t accept return of the meat.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Carole called a neighbor whose acquaintance we made shortly after she moved into our complex last fall. We’d lent her surplus furniture and dinnerware while she awaited delivery of her belongings which had been delayed, and even an occasional power tool, for which she has repaid us with bottles of wine.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Would she like our surplus chicken? She only eats dark meat, she responded . . . which was exactly what was on offer. When I went to her apartment with the packages, through the door from inside she showed me a photo of a chicken-thigh entrée on her mobile; I was just asking friends if they knew where I could order the meat, she told me.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">2:55 p.m. — Here’s my workspace.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Since I spend even more time sitting here these days than I did in years past to do my free-lance editing, I’m even more grateful that several years ago I sprung for “The City Awakens,” a six shot composite photograph of downtown Portland at dawn, reproduced in metal print, by Tad Hetu.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I saw a copy displayed at <a href="https://www.dragonfiregallery.com/">DragonFire Gallery in Cannon Beach</a> and ordered a copy through them . . . although I was able to fetch mine from the hands of the photographer, who lives in Hillsboro, after taking a ride out there via the MAX.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I’d buy more of <a href="https://tadhetu.zenfolio.com/?fbclid=IwAR1z6Dt5cxnsJHmswYkwHzopCTj5JPLnGAo-_pdh0YQxWWXO0SxxPNGr538">his fantastic work</a> if I had the money.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">MONDAY, APRIL 27</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">10:23 a.m. — A mild surprise during my recent peripatetic explorations of my city has been the number of free libraries I’ve run across, even though I chose fairly random routes along side streets as much as I could, to avoid other pedestrian and cycle traffic.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">They consist of a little wooden cottage or box atop a post, typically chest high, with a shelf or two of books either behind glass doors or set back deeply enough to protect them from the elements, with the implied invitation to “leave one, and take one.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">They haven’t been many in number, but for me to have run across several by chance wanderings through unfamiliar neighborhoods struck me as rather wonderful. One was up the hill from our neighborhood, on SW Hamilton a block west of Barbur (that</span></span>’<span style="font-family: inherit;">s it, in the photo to the right), another ’way across town near the intersection of N. Concord and Church.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I couldn’t tell whether any were post covid-lockdown or longtime fixtures, though I suspect the latter. They struck me as uncharacteristically perfect preparation for the pandemic lockdown.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">2:20 p.m. — For today’s long walk, I made first-time use of a custom-made cloth mask gifted to me last Thursday by Harmony Sage Lawrence.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I crossed Interstate 5 via the Darlene Hooley footbridge, through Lair Hill and the campus of Portland State University to SW 18th and up into Washington Park . . . doubled back to the Vista Bridge . . . over to the Lewis & Clark monument (where I acted multiple roles in an outdoor production of Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar” nearly 12 years ago) . . . up to the Holocaust Memorial . . . then down the hill to NW 23rd and halfway north on it to Marshall, where I boarded an NS line streetcar for home.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Here</span></span>’<span style="font-family: inherit;">s that mask when I visited the <a href="https://www.pdx.edu/heroines/">Walk of the Heroines</a> at Portland State, and the name to the right of me, Matsu Ito Asai, is my grandmother, who came to the U.S. from Japan as a picture bride in August 1911.</span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">TUESDAY, APRIL 28</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">12:33 a.m. — The first couple weeks of this, I really enjoyed taking the dog out every night for her final walk ’round midnight.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I loved the unaccustomed, heightened quiet of our neighborhood. Not even an intermittent string of cars coming down Bond Avenue at the rate of at least one per minute (and not a few choosing to roll through the stop signs). No more high-octane sports cars roaring a block or two between intersections. (Yes, we have Cobras, Teslas, Ferraris, and the occasional Lamborghini here — mostly operated, I would imagine, by college students from overseas.) No more bicycles whizzing by in near silence from behind you and startling you in the darkness.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Tonight I did see one or two cars during the 15 minutes Pixie and I were out, and two other human beings on foot — one with his own tiny dog.<br />
But somehow, for once, it really felt as if all the people were gone . . . and they weren’t coming back.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">* * * * *</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Had enough? If not, here’s “<a href="https://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2020/05/a-journal-of-plague-year-week-6.html">A Journal of the Plague Year . . . Week 6</a>”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">(covers updates on pleasure reading and Russian bot attacks, birdbaths and a dry Portland April, calculating an “acceptable” loss of lives from the coronovirus pandemic, the difference between an “excuse” and a “reason,” and giving in to the Kindle)</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Before that came “<a href="https://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2020/05/a-journal-of-plague-year-week-5.html"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 238); color: #551a8b;">A Journal of the Plague Year . . . Week 5</span></a>”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">(which includes long walks through NE and SE Portland, tactics for maneuvering through the streets in mask and gloves, the current plague of faux certainties, and visits to the Rose City Book Pub and Reed College campus)</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">You could also check out “<a href="https://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2020/04/a-journal-of-plague-year-week-4.html"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 238);">A Journal of the Plague Year . . . Week 4</span></a>”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">(for my exhausting attempts to obtain unemployment benefits, first long walks about SW and SE Portland and what I learned from them, idiocy from the governor of Georgia, my online reading with the cast of my March play production of a new short play by the lead actor, and how it’s all Obama’s fault)</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">See “<a href="https://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2020/04/a-journal-of-plague-year-week-3.html"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 238); color: #551a8b;">A Journal of the Plague Year . . . Week 3</span></a>”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">(a visit on foot to a remarkably deserted downtown Portland, my analysis of the initial patterns of coronavirus testing and spread in Oregon and major metro counties, several dismissals of the worthless Incumbent, </span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Go to “<a href="https://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2020/03/a-journal-of-plague-year-week-2.html"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 238); color: #551a8b;">A Journal of the Plague Year . . . Week 2</span></a>”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">(the remarkably dry and beautiful weather that has brightened our self-isolation, a library books pile-up, a visit to the Portland Farmers Market after lockdown, the Whole Foods “early elders shopping hour,” a hike up the hills to visit my best friend from grade school, and memories of Nevil Shute’s <i>On the Beach</i>)</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">See “<a href="https://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2020/03/a-journal-of-plague-year-week-1.html"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 238);">A Journal of the Plague Year . . . Week 1</span></a>”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">(the weird hand-washing behavior of men, the shutdown of Portland arts events, and the national run on guns and toilet paper)</span></span></div>
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David Loftushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03855438200255152255noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4097849630041105773.post-7519029196783022862020-05-19T16:41:00.000-07:002020-05-30T17:22:24.908-07:00No . . . I Didn't Really Type That, Did I? (best typos of 2018)<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 15px;">
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Editing and proofreading is detail work that can be tiring. One of the compensations is the perennial potential for running across a typo that creates a hilarious image or self-contradiction <span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">— a sort of natural pun.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">After I posted the <a href="https://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2020/04/one-of-pleasures-of-doing-editing-and.html">best ones from last year</a>, I realized I had not collected up the beauties from the year before. So here they are. . . . </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Jan. 4</b>: “It</span>’s common for toddlers to be weary of strangers….”<br />
No kidding. Especially if they want to talk investment strategies or tax policy.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Jan. 25</b>: Tonight I was spot editing a website for a dentist in Florida and discovered one of the icons on her Home page that’s supposed to link to a professional ratings site directs instead to the review for an OB/GYN in the state of Washington who happens to have the same name.<br />
I notified the in-house project manager for the site and commented: “I understand different orifices are involved.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Feb. 5</b>: Online review of a business by a satisfied customer: “The entire staff treats you like famy.”<br />
Is that supposed to be “fame” or “famine”?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Feb. 14</b>: Best typo of the day: a person reports that he volunteers his time at the “<a href="https://www.bingcrosbytheater.com/">Bong Crosby Theater</a>” in Spokane.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Well, that IS the big new cash crop in the Pacific Northwest these days. . . .</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>March 6</b>: Adventures in Editing, episode 347: “As a lifelong Wisconsin native….”<br />
You mean he NEVER attempted to change his birthplace? Not once?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>March 15</b>: Apparently no typos, but I was reading Germaine Greer’s fascinating <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2007/sep/01/biography.germainegreer">speculative biography, <b><i>Shakespeare’s Wife</i></b></a>, and at one point the author talks about how often Elizabethan wives had their first child in far less than nine months after marriage. One of the examples she pulled from the archives are the marvelously named “Joan Slye, who married George Careless on 16 March [1582]….”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>May 10</b>: I ran across a new coffee-table-style book at the library titled <b><i>The Coen Brothers: the iconic filmmakers and their work, unofficial and unauthorized</i></b> by a British author, Ian Nathan, and a British publisher, Aurum Press in London.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Beautifully designed and lavishly illustrated, it turns out to consist mostly of magazine trivia and interviews: interesting, sure, but not terribly deep.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">What’s most unfortunate are the plentiful editorial goofs — assuming anyone DID edit the manuscript — for example:</span></span></div>
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<li style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"></span><span style="font-kerning: none;">The “palate” of <b><i>Miller’s Crossing</i></b> is said to be rich, antique browns, greens, and greys (p. 39)</span></span></li>
<li style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"></span><span style="font-kerning: none;">Holly Hunter plays Penny with “vice-like” singlemindedness (p. 100), which is a homonym-inspired error I see often in my web editing work, and sometimes even in published books</span></span></li>
<li style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"></span><span style="font-kerning: none;">At the height of their powers, the reports of Hollywood columnists Hedda Hopper and Louella Parsons were “poured over” by millions (p. 167), a similar common homonymic mistake</span></span></li>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>May 20</b>: I’m proofreading a website on which one of the staff members reported she likes to relax with “a good glass of presaco.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I’m cutting her off.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>May 22</b>: One of the challenges of proofreading bios on people’s business web sites is to fix typos and confusing punctuation while trying to preserve as much as the person’s “voice” as possible.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Here someone wrote, “you could say I’m a trivia wiz.” The odds are that she meant “whiz,” as in the century-old term for a clever person. People often spell words, especially slang terms, as they hear them rather than in accordance with their sense.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But perhaps she thought “wiz” is short for “wizard.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">What to do? Fix what may well be a typo to reflect what the person meant, or leave it as a potentially thought-provoking slang neologism?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>June 3</b>: “I’m a member of ‘Crochet Unto Others,’ a group that creates and donates hats, gloves, and scares” to homeless and poor people.<br />
That’s nice, but do they really need that last item? What if you foster a dependency?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>June 22</b>: I just changed a photo caption that read “Western yellowjacket on cabbage leaf, praying on insect,” because I just didn’t have time to inquire whether it was a Lutheran or Presbyterian.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>July 24</b>: The bio page for this dentist reads: “At the end of each day, I hope that my passion for dentistry was a little bite contagious and inspired my patients to be as excited about their oral health as I am.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Probably a typo that wasn’t intended as a witty sorta pun. . . .</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>June 25</b>: To reduce a snoring problem, “Have your child blow his or her noise every night before bed.”<br />
Would a kazoo be sufficient, or should I purchase a brass instrument for my kid?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>June 27</b>: “______ has three children. They are all gown up now….”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">You mean they’re all graduating today? Or they all practice surgery? </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>July 11</b>: “… They are all super friendly and knowledgeable. My kids are always greeted as soon as they walk into the door….”<br />
I hope they also receive immediate first aid!</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Aug. 1</b>: “She loves … finding treasures at flea markets she can breathe new life into.”<br />
How do the flea markets feel about it?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Aug. 24</b>: “… my family is of Caribbean decent.”<br />
Okay, but are they ALL decent?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Aug. 24</b>: “As a wind musician, she also has a unique understanding on how orthodontics can affect the embrasure….”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Huh. I never had any trouble storming the castle when I played the clarinet.<br />
[For those of you who were never in band or orchestra, the word they wanted there was “embouchure.”]</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Aug. 25</b>: We dropped into <a href="https://www.phovanfresh.com/">Phó Van Fresh</a> for a bite, and I noticed the big menu on the wall included the entrée “Eggplant (vegetarian).”<br />
I pointed this out to Carole and added, “It may even be gluten-free.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Aug. 26</b>: “She regularly participates in continuous education courses….”<br />
So when does she have time to do any work at the office?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“… and traveling internationally with her soccer team Vintage Lightening.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Does that mean they are always on a diet as well as practicing their corner kicks?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Oct. 1</b>: “He received his undergraduate Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Florida….”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Really? I’m impressed.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">From which high school and postgraduate institutions did he obtain bachelor’s degrees?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Nov. 17</b>: “… If you don’t know what your competition is planning, you could be blind sighted.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I’m afraid I’m unfamiliar with the condition . . . but it doesn’t sound good.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Nov. 27</b>: In a piece about insomnia and sleep deprivation, the writer typed the following priceless piece of advice:<br />
“From a mental perspective, you want to hit the hay with a clear conscious.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And stay that way, all night long!</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Dec. 16</b>: From a website for gardeners and landscapers to warn against spraying pesticides during a weather inversion:<br />
“Look for a lawyer of low-lying clouds or smoke….”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Geez, those guys can be a real pain in the rear, you know?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Dec. 16</b>: “For homeowners armed with a smartphone, apps — often accompanied by physical hardware….”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I’m more interested in tech hardware that’s intangible, please.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Dec. 19</b>: “I have two grown sons who bring me great joy and have been happily married to my husband for many years.”<br />
That’s a pretty interesting arrangement. Do you all get along?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Dec. 26</b>: “Latest research show that these pathogens have been linked to a number of other diseases such as cardiovascular disease, rheumatoid arthritis, low birth weight, babies, and diabetes.”<br />
Wow. And all this time, I thought it was the stork.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Dec. 28</b>: “X-rays cleaning and meeting the dentist was quick but did not feel rushed.”<br />
He let you do that to him, did he?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">If this sort of foolishness appeals to you, check out:</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2020/04/one-of-pleasures-of-doing-editing-and.html">Oh … Man … I Can’t Believe I Wrote That! . . . .</a> (best typos of 2019)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2018/07/omg-did-i-really-type-that-best-typos.html">OMG … Did I Really Type That?</a> (best typos of 2017)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2017/09/ummm-thats-not-what-i-meant-to-say.html">Ummm . . . That’s Not What I Meant to Say</a> (best typos of 2016)</span></span></div>
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David Loftushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03855438200255152255noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4097849630041105773.post-19241159395891365582020-05-16T16:51:00.004-07:002020-11-18T20:58:17.833-08:00Going to Work for Harlan Ellison . . . a 1996 memory<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I saw Harlan Ellison in a more conventional setting the following year. It was a lecture at MIT, at the other end of Cambridge. I remember he took a while to tell much of the story about the anguish of dealing with moronic movie producers while working on his <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I,_Robot#Harlan_Ellison%27s_screenplay_(1978)">screen adaptation of Asimov’s <b><i>I, Robot</i></b></a> a few years before.</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_IlgitZXGqoyAWzd9uwgsLb_gQQgfIszITEbiFcYJOf855DYcGkhkGtKseMck3WiPfUlOU6t1YOsq0l1YlkReRmTbSbKVS1m7eXFfQHWRv6KNYR0T_UCYWQU8XrXc9b6W9ild8_hMRQ/s1600/Deathbird1a.jpeg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1183" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_IlgitZXGqoyAWzd9uwgsLb_gQQgfIszITEbiFcYJOf855DYcGkhkGtKseMck3WiPfUlOU6t1YOsq0l1YlkReRmTbSbKVS1m7eXFfQHWRv6KNYR0T_UCYWQU8XrXc9b6W9ild8_hMRQ/s320/Deathbird1a.jpeg" width="236" /></a></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">During the autograph session afterward I handed him a print of the photo I’d taken of him <a href="http://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2018/08/a-harlan-ellison-memory-cambridge-ma.html">at his typewriter at the Sheraton Commander</a> the year before, and he thanked me in a personalized signing of my first cloth edition of <b><i>Deathbird Stories</i></b>.</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Around the same time, I was lucky to see the pair of artists who had done so many covers for Ellison as well as the inner illustrations for the <b><i>Dangerous Visions</i></b> series. Partners in art and life, <a href="http://leo-and-diane-dillon.blogspot.com/">Leo and Diane Dillon</a> came to Boston on tour. I bought a copy of the most recent coffee-table children’s book they’d illustrated, Jan Carew’s <b><i>Children of the Sun</i></b>, but also had them sign their names next to Harlan’s in my first edition of his most recent collection that carried their cover art, <b><i>Shatterday</i></b>.</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In the summer of 1987 I left Boston to return to my home state of Oregon. I landed a job as a reporter for the daily paper in Roseburg, and settled in to cover local news, write concert and film reviews, and compose occasional hell-raising op-ed columns for fun, practice, and the angry letters to the editor they brought in.</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg55iAopaDFjKCi1KIezBfLXMMeyY4dmYagw_QGsh6ZtNaQO3K0DyfO3JpJwHwzzkCQnqAuyg3tfzNXHrr-FS0vgzv8oEePKX0OIkUKWtAgzqI-xyzMnPSJ6o2VfmAejl9tFS5HYufIQw/s1600/Shatterday-Dillons+copy.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1279" data-original-width="1600" height="255" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg55iAopaDFjKCi1KIezBfLXMMeyY4dmYagw_QGsh6ZtNaQO3K0DyfO3JpJwHwzzkCQnqAuyg3tfzNXHrr-FS0vgzv8oEePKX0OIkUKWtAgzqI-xyzMnPSJ6o2VfmAejl9tFS5HYufIQw/s320/Shatterday-Dillons+copy.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Those were the days when I rarely encountered anyone who was acquainted with </span><a href="http://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2015/03/songs-that-are-like-old-friends-pt-2.html" style="font-family: inherit;">my favorite band, Gentle Giant</a><span style="font-family: inherit;">, or the writers I loved most, such as Peter Matthiessen, Timothy Findley, and Ellison. At some point in 1989 or 1990, I gave a lecture at the Douglas County Library to introduce listeners to Harlan’s work, and I think the librarians were inspired to order copies of several of his books for the collection.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I talked about the raw power and imagination of a writer who could occasionally be sloppy about dates, facts, and references. When the novelist and writing teacher John Gardner (the American author of <b><i>Grendel</i></b>, <b><i>The Sunlight Dialogues</i></b>, <b><i>In the Suicide Mountains</i></b>, and <b><i>Mickelsson’s Ghosts</i></b> — NOT the British John Gardner who wrote spy thrillers, including James Bond continuations and several fine Sherlock Holmes pastiches centered on Moriarty) picked on a passage from an early Ellison book as an example of bad writing in Gardner’s 1983 book <b><i>The Art of Fiction</i></b>, I was annoyed on Ellison’s behalf.</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">With the advent of the Internet in the early to mid 1990s, activity picked up again. Various Usenet discussion groups devoted to science fiction sprang up, and eventually one called alt.fan.harlan-ellison. Some of the other longtime fans I would meet in person over the years and continue to talk with on Facebook I first “met” there.</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Wolf_Publishing">White Wolf, a Georgia-based publisher</a> of role-playing and fantasy games that must have made some serious money, announced it was going to republish the entire works of several iconic writers, including Fritz Leiber, Michael Moorcock, and Ellison. The idea would be to bind a pair of his older books in each volume with all-new cover art.</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The end result was projected to fill 31 volumes. I’m sure I was not the only fan who, well aware of the author’s many past fights with publishers who had mishandled his work in the past, smirked to myself and thought: I wonder how long this will last? (As it turned out, the answer would be: just four volumes.)</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Volume I of <b>Edgeworks</b> hit the streets in May 1996, comprising (appropriately) the fairly early (1970) story collection <b><i>Over the Edge</i></b>, and essays that had initially appeared mostly in <i>L.A. Weekly</i> between 1980 and 1983 under the title “An Edge In My Voice” — first collected in book form in 1985. The White Wolf edition was beautiful: solid, weighty, with an evocative illustration by a new artist, Jill Bauman.</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">BUT . . . it was a shambles in terms of the text. Misspelled words turned up every few pages. Another regular error my proofreader’s eye caught were double spaces between words in the middle of sentences. I was appalled.</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Volume II, published in November 1996, collected <b><i>Spider Kiss</i></b> and <b><i>Stalking the Nightmare</i></b> and was no better. I noted that Steven Seagal’s name was misspelled, and fricassee was wrong, on p. xxxv. Even more obvious, in the sixth paragraph of chapter 6, “gstalt” and “teh” (instead of “the”) turn up. Even a non-proofreader would have noticed those. A few pages later, on page 47, Shelly Morgenstern says “I’ll take a look a look on the kid.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In Stephen King’s Foreword to the second half, one finds the phrase “… preserved between the boards of one of this admirable book.” Even foreign phrases you’d think a person would have to check, such as “<i>rictus sardonius</i>” (which is how it appeared in chapter 20) made it into the First White Wolf Omnibus Edition.</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Since they’d done this twice in a row, I felt the need to step up. I wrote Harlan a letter to say “you and your work deserve better.” I don’t think I kept a copy, but I’m sure I pointed out an array of egregious examples from the first two volumes and offered to proofread the next White Wolf volume for free.</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Although I’d seen him read and speak in public twice — in Cambridge 13 or 14 years before — and <a href="http://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2018/07/the-harlan-ellison-non-interview-circa.html">I’d interviewed him briefly over the phone</a> in 1984, from his point of view I was still nothing more than a fan. I doubt my name would have meant anything to him even by the late 1990s.</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Ellison called me at home (I think on the first try he got my wife Carole) and said he would “try me out” on this one, and if he liked my work, he might have me do more and pay me the next time. So in the winter of 1996/97 I went through the galley proofs for <b>Edgeworks 3</b> — which combined <b><i>The Harlan Ellison Hornbook</i></b> (a series of essays that had originally appeared mostly in the <i>Los Angeles Free Press</i> and <i>Los Angeles Weekly News</i> in 1972 and 1973) with <b><i>Harlan Ellison’s Movie</i></b>, a screenplay commissioned by Marvin Schwartz and written about 1970.</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGqBrwcHSFGPvKcGt2JMRxpn6TKV0TMuGEYp8WA_Lkukc8_V7zyjz5_fYBbhkZMU0e4NsWGvKqL6Yu1Zg5CGwrjDBqr8O6XxMiLIQOF1tubvH6aUndMT9GRh0OSJj-c9PqRbgLb0uQAw/s1600/Edgeworks3cover.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1071" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGqBrwcHSFGPvKcGt2JMRxpn6TKV0TMuGEYp8WA_Lkukc8_V7zyjz5_fYBbhkZMU0e4NsWGvKqL6Yu1Zg5CGwrjDBqr8O6XxMiLIQOF1tubvH6aUndMT9GRh0OSJj-c9PqRbgLb0uQAw/s320/Edgeworks3cover.JPG" width="214" /></a></div>
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">For pro bono labor, this was highly enjoyable work, given that the Hornbook is wildly peripatetic and veers further into personal content than the “Edge In My Voice” columns, which tended to stay closer to political and film/TV industry topics. I still have the 2-1/2-inch stack of laser-printed proof pages the publisher FedEx’d to me at Harlan’s insistence on Dec. 27, 1996 which I proceeded to mark up with a red pen . . . as well about 10 pages of notes I faxed to the White Wolf team between Jan. 16 and Feb. 6, 1997.<br />
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Looking back over them and comparing my first-edition copy, I’m reminded that White Wolf rushed to publish in May without doing everything I advised. For example, the global coordinates in the second paragraph of Harlan’s introduction, “The Lost Secrets of East Atlantis” on p. xvii, still have curly apostrophes for the latitudinal and longitudinal minutes.</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">(The proper vertical marks — ' and " — are known as a prime and double prime. Before computers came along, most manual typewriters offered only these options for apostrophes and quotation marks. Perhaps (if you</span></span>’<span style="font-family: inherit;">re older than, say, 50) you might recall that certain typewriters made you type a prime, then back-space and type a period below it to create an exclamation point. Later, dot-matrix and early computer word-processing programs did the same. Now that most computers offer all the options in their massive toolbox of fonts, everyone ought to take advantage of primes and use them to indicate geographical minutes and seconds, as well as feet and inches — as in, I am 5' 10" tall — so “smart” or “curly” apostrophes and quotation marks may retain their own identity and do their job. A lot of Internet-age babies don’t know the difference, however, so you’ll see primes all over websites even now. I’m nitpicky, which is what makes me such a good proofreader and editor.)</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In the second paragraph of Installment 10, “The Day I Died,” ’67 Camaro still has a hash mark for what SHOULD be an apostrophe . . . but at least it isn’t an open quotation mark — as in, </span></span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Times; font-size: 16px;">‘</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">67 Camaro — which is what I caught in the galley proof. These are just a couple examples of screwups that ran to the dozens.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">As I stated above, Harlan was a great raconteur — a storyteller par excellence. But he didn’t always get every detail right. That’s not such a big deal when your task is to stir and entertain an audience with a fantasy story or screenplay . . . but in nonfiction on the page — and especially when you’re quoting someone with attribution — you ought to get it right. That’s where nitpickers like me come in.</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Before <b>Edgeworks 3</b> went to press, I noticed instances where Harlan misquoted Michigan J. Frog, Pogo, and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. I assume the quotes were wrong in his original newspaper columns, but I have not seen copies of those. They were certainly wrong in the first book edition (the Penzler), and the errors were copied into the White Wolf galley proofs, where I saw them.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">You remember Michigan J. Frog, don’t you? He’s the singing, dancing amphibian in the 1955 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies cartoon directed by Chuck Jones, </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUYqgLPgIjc" style="font-family: inherit;">“One Froggy Evening,”</a><span style="font-family: inherit;"> who pops out of a box inside the 1892 cornerstone of the demolished J.C. Wilber Building, pulls up a top hat and cane, and proceeds to dance and sing . . . what?</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In Hornbook installment 23, dated April 19, 1973, Harlan renders it as “Hello, my honey, hello, my baby, hello my ragtime gal….” I sensed that wasn’t right because my Dad used to sing the phrase to himself when I was a kid in the Sixties. It was “Hello, my baby, hello, my honey, hello, my ragtime gal….”</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Sure, it’s a small thing, but when a cultural reference is that famous (and since the advent of YouTube, so readily available), it’s going to clang on a lot of readers’ ears if you switch the words around. Worse, the song’s very title — a Tin Pan Alley composition by Joseph E. Howard and Ida Emerson dating back to 1899 — is “Hello Ma Baby.” And the frog reprises it exactly the same way in the climax of that two-and-a-half-minute classic, in the year 2056.</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I’m a little surprised that the first time Harlan misquoted Pogo and Dr. King, in an essay he titled “The Song the Sixties Sang,” the venue was <i>Playboy</i> magazine, whose fact checkers should have caught them. At the climax of that piece, Harlan cites a short list of ringing phrases from the decade he wishes to honor. Smartly, he notes the perennial confusion over what Neil Armstrong really said after stepping on the moon in 1969 </span></span>— <span style="font-family: inherit;">with some well-placed brackets: “That’s one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind.”</span></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
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But here are the two final quotes in that list:<br />
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— Pogo: “We have met the enemy, and they are us.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">— Martin again, and last, and always: “Free at last! Free at last! Great God a-mighty, I’m free at last!”</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Now, the Pogo citation is grammatically correct, but it’s a misquote that fails to reproduce the dialect of Walt Kelly’s southern swamp critters. Perhaps Harlan confused the Pogo/Walt Kelly line with the historic phase they were parodying: <a href="https://www.nps.gov/articles/met-the-enemy-4.htm">Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry’s triumphant report</a> to General William Henry Harrison at the conclusion of the Battle of Lake Erie in the War of 1812, “We have met the enemy, and they are ours!”<br />
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Pogo’s version was in fact “We have met the enemy, and he is us.” Many years earlier, in 1953, Walt Kelly did write something very close to it, in the introduction to <b><i>The Pogo Papers</i></b>: </span></span></div>
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Traces of nobility, gentleness and courage persist in all people, do what we will to stamp out the trend. So, too, do those characteristics which are ugly. It is just unfortunate that in the clumsy hands of a cartoonist all traits become ridiculous, leading to a certain amount of self-conscious expostulation and the desire to join battle.<br /> There is no need to sally forth, for it remains true that those things which make us human are, curiously enough, always close at hand. Resolve then, that on this very ground, with small flags waving and tinny blast on tiny trumpets, we shall meet the enemy, and not only may he be ours, he may be us.</h3>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The classic “We have met the enemy, and he is us” first appeared on a poster Kelly <a href="https://humorinamerica.wordpress.com/2014/05/19/the-morphology-of-a-humorous-phrase/">designed for the first Earth Day in 1970</a>, and he placed it in the mouth of Pogo, the Okefenokee opossum, the following year.</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">As for the ringing final words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech at the Lincoln Memorial on August 28, 1963, he too was quoting something else: an African-American spiritual. I don’t know the song, and we can debate whether King said “a-mighty” or managed to get out “almighty” out . . . <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vP4iY1TtS3s">but clearly, he says “Thank God,”</a> not “Great God….”</span></span><br />
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">As you’ll find in your copy of <b>Edgeworks 3</b>, I managed to get the quotes by Michigan J. Frog and Pogo corrected, but not Dr. King’s. Two out of three isn’t too bad, I guess.</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">[ <i>Coming up, dining with Harlan in Oregon in 2001, indexing the Teats while recovering from knee surgery, and pushing a dead 1947 Packard down La Brea Avenue in Los Angeles. . . .</i> ]</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">If you haven’t read them yet, here’s <a href="http://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2018/07/the-harlan-ellison-non-interview-circa.html">The Harlan Ellison Non-Interview</a>, circa 1984</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">and my 1981 Cambridge, Massachusetts <a href="http://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2018/08/a-harlan-ellison-memory-cambridge-ma.html">memory of Harlan writing and reading</a></span><br />
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David Loftushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03855438200255152255noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4097849630041105773.post-56619564196997969182020-05-10T11:31:00.000-07:002020-05-30T17:23:30.270-07:00A Journal of the Plague Year . . . Week 6<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This goes back a ways, obviously. I may or may not get more caught up soon, but (on the one hand) there's so much else to write about and do </span></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12px;">— </span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I have more <a href="https://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2020/05/portland-walking-tour-tales-2019-part-2.html">Portland Walking Tour stories</a>, more <a href="https://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2020/04/one-of-pleasures-of-doing-editing-and.html">hilarious editing typos</a> to share, and ideas for potential photo essays to compile about life under pandemic lockdown </span></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12px;">— </span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">and (on the other hand) it</span></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12px;">’</span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">s not as if conditions are shifting wildly from week to week, so many of the thoughts that crossed my mind in mid April will likely be worthwhile for weeks and even months to come</span></span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: inherit;">. . . . </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">WEDNESDAY, APRIL 15</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">11:51 a.m. — I just sat down to read and ran across the following:</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“. . . an epidemic of unprecedented proportions struck the city of thirty thousand. Though fairly common in the tropics, yellow fever had not been visited upon Philadelphia for some thirty years. Nearly half the city fled to the uninfected countryside, among them the president of the United States. Government was at a standstill. By the time the contagion has passed, several thousand were dead. . . .<br />
“Death on so large a scale produced scenes of daily horror, with many more rotting corpses in sight than there were brave nurses. Approximately half of those who exhibited symptoms eventually died from the yellow fever….”<br />
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You have to be sharp enough on your U.S. history to put together the clues and recognize this had to have occurred during the brief period when Philly was the temporary capital of the United States: 1790 to 1800. I certainly didn’t expect to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1793_Philadelphia_yellow_fever_epidemic">read about a serious plague</a> when I picked up the dual biography, <b><i>Madison and Jefferson</i></b> by Andrew Burstein and Nancy Isenberg, but here it was on page 273.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">2:09 p.m. — Pleasure reading goes on.<br />
The two stacks on the left await the reopening of the library so they can be returned. Two of the volumes are interlibrary loans, from Independence, Oregon and Schaumburg, Illinois!</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The stack on the left I had pretty much finished by shutdown on March 12, but I had held onto the fattest ones in order to copy reading notes from them.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The middle stack includes books I had begun but not finished before March 12. Some (at least five) have read entirely since. Of the DVDs on top, I watched two episodes of “Chernobyl” before shutdown, the rest after.<br />
The small stack on the right are books I owned and have read since the beginning of self-isolation.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The single volume standing on end between the two stacks on the left is something Carole had out and read. She does most of her reading on Kindle.<br />
Unlike some of my Facebook friends, I haven’t found it a challenge to concentrate on reading. Still watching very little video, thought I caught the first three eps of “The People v. OJ Simpson” last week.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">4:01 p.m. — Invasions by Russian bots come in massive waves every couple of months, then they disappear again.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">On the left, note the totals recorded for my blog on April 10, just five days ago, which I believe was the most recent peak . . . versus this afternoon on the right.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I wish there were some way to eliminate them all, even retroactively, so I could have a better sense of how many people actually visit (and possibly even read) my blog.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">5:59 p.m. — Ready for this evening’s online book discussion group meeting on Zoom . . . I think. . . . </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">THURSDAY, APRIL 16</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">11:21 a.m. — People who keep coming up with excuses to stop self-isolation and social distancing sooner rather than later (“we’ll all become immune faster, people are going to die anyway so let’s get it over with, the cure is worse than the disease, etc., etc.”) don’t seem to grasp that for most of us, surviving the covid-19 pandemic one way or another is not going to be so wonderful if we <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/US/grieving-mother-pleads-protection-forgotten-front-line-workers/story?id=70041574">lose a loved one prematurely</a>, whether across town or on the other side of the globe.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Moreover, it would be awful to have to live with the knowledge we share the blame for mortally infecting strangers — you know, other people’s loved ones — who don’t make it.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Anyone ever heard of <a href="https://www.verywellmind.com/survivors-guilt-4688743">survivor</a></span></span><a href="https://www.verywellmind.com/survivors-guilt-4688743">’s</a><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://www.verywellmind.com/survivors-guilt-4688743"> guilt</a>? It’s a thing. And unlike the Holocaust or the Titanic or many other disasters in the past, this crisis is both partly survivable by choice and skill rather than mostly luck . . . AND most of us get to choose whether we’ll risk causing the deaths of others. If you infect one super-spreader — knowingly or unknowingly, symptomatic or asymptomatic — you might cut short the lives of human beings you don’t know and never will see.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It’s like a particularly nasty version of that old excuse: Oh, I managed to keep your secret all right, but the people I shared it with didn’t.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">12:32 p.m. — This morning we’ve witnessed a steady stream of brightly colored finches drink from and bathe in the little iron bird bath on our balcony.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Carole commented that the ongoing dry weather must have left the birds fewer places to slake their thirst and wash themselves apart from the Willamette River.<br />
I looked it up, and sure enough, it’s been a <a href="https://or.water.usgs.gov/non-usgs/bes/">very dry April here in Portland</a>. Median rainfall for this month runs more than two and a half inches, and we’re halfway through the month but the city has reported only 0.36 inches so far . . . none in the last five days.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">4:17 p.m. — What’s become clear after my book group meeting last night is that I’m finally going to be compelled by circumstances to charge up and learn how to use the extra Amazon Kindle my sister-in-law handed off to us three years ago. It has sat untouched in my bedroom cupboard ever since.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Over the years, I had developed an array of strategies for obtaining hard copies of the books my discussion groups have chosen to read, without having to buy them . . . but there’s no way to do that anymore. The library is closed for the duration. Even borrowing a copy from other book group members has become a much more dicey and baroque proposition.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Dang. I prefer to heft and read actual books . . . clothbound, whenever possible.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">FRIDAY, APRIL 17</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">8:55 p.m. — My net friend at the other end of the country, the excellent and eminently sensible novelist Adam-Troy Castro, observed this morning that fellow citizens (apparent Trump supporters, mostly) who declare they’re “willing to take” <a href="https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/03/gop-senator-no-more-than-3-4-of-our-population-may-die.html">one or two percent of the population dying</a> if it means the rest of us can still pick up roof shingles at Home Depot . . . evidently assume neither they nor any of the people they love will be among the two percent we sacrifice.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">They do not see themselves in the cross-hairs, Adam commented. Why would they? The arrogance that accompanies the syndrome is the certainty that this is all a movie, and they are the stars. Adam admits that although he enjoys zombie apocalypse tales, he knows he would die on day one; he doesn’t presume he’d be just fine.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I responded that if things got really bad, I’d probably prefer to die, early and quickly, rather than attempt to prevail over everyone else . . . which I’m guessing is what all my fellow citizens who stockpiling firearms are thinking.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Because what does that firepower really get you? When things get that bad, all you’d be winning is a few more days or weeks of survival until either:</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">A) you get overwhelmed by greater firepower</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">B) you undergo a much longer, slower, and more painful death (alone, if you’re lucky)</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I also wouldn’t much relish the prospect of surviving a catastrophe if it meant I’d had to slaughter a bunch of my neighbors. This is pretty much the point I offered two years ago in my blog piece, </span></span>“The Folly of Guns Versus <span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">‘</span>Government Tyranny.’ ”</div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">SATURDAY, APRIL 18</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">1:54 p.m. — As I had expected and hoped, a cooler and wetter morning drove down the levels of pedestrian and bicycle traffic, so I took a long walk into the southwest Portland hills between 9:35 a.m. and 12:38 p.m.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">My route was north on Moody, across I-5 via the Darlene Hooley footbridge to Corbett and up the hill to cross Barbur, and continue up Hamilton to Terwilliger . . . right on Terwilliger, then left on US Veterans Hospital Road past the VA Medical Center, OHSU Nursing School, and OHSU . . . then west on Gibbs to SW Marquam Hill Road, north on Fairmount Boulevard . . . continuing north on Greenway Avenue, a short stretch of Patton Road and Broadway Drive east to Davenport . . . north on 16th to go down the hillside that overlooks Highway 26 and Portland State University via Upper Hall . . . across I-405 at 12th to wend along the southwest corner of the university and then back across I-405 at SW Park . . . past Duniway Park and through Lair Hill Park to head east on Gibbs . . . but instead of going back across the footbridge, turning south along SW Hood Avenue (which splits into both exit and entrance ramps to the Ross Island Bridge as well as an entrance to Interstate 5 and SW Macadam (aka State Highway 43 to Lake Oswego . . . in order to walk beneath I-5 and return to South Waterfront the back way via Bancroft (next to the ICE holding facility) and toward the Old Spaghetti Factory but turning north again on Moody to our apartment.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Got rained on a bit, and chilled, but enjoyed good aerobic walking through quiet forest and neighborhoods, and encountered a gratifyingly meager number of pedestrians and cyclists to have to dodge.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">4:58 p.m. — I was about to say I’ve seen a dispiriting amount of every-man-for-himself behavior this month . . . except that it’s thoughtless and immature. More like every-kid-for-himself behavior on the part of individuals who are supposedly grown up.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">SUNDAY, APRIL 19</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">10:08 a.m. — Several days ago, I referred to the rationales people raise to end self-isolation and social distancing sooner rather than later as “excuses.”<br />
A friend asked why I called it that, rather than reasons, and I responded:</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I believe “reason” has more of a neutral-to-positive or solid connotation (perhaps due to its verb form and connection to “the age of reason,” etc.), whereas “excuse” is often employed more pejoratively, to connote inadequacy — I certainly meant it in that sense — but there are such things as good excuses.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In the end, it’s a matter of perspective or taste. I don’t think there’s an essential substantive difference; an excuse is a reason and a reason can be an excuse. What strikes one side as a reason (that is, an adequate basis for doing something) may strike someone else as an excuse (not acceptably adequate).</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I think the basis for my choice of “excuse” here is my suspicion that people who offer these rationales have a predetermined goal in mind. They want to go out again and move freely, they want to return to work and shopping; therefore, they weigh the issues and evidence with that end in mind, instead of studying each question on its own merits, whatever the potential outcome.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">They know where they want to go, so they bend everything in that direction. This is not a proper exercise of rational thinking.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Part of the reason I suspect this is the tendency for people to minimize or overlook both contrary evidence and — more often in the current situation — the tremendous array of variables and unknowns. There’s simply too much we don’t yet know to make it suitable for us to arrive at conclusions . . . and yet people express certainties, all too readily.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">They did it often in years past, and I see them doing it now, when it would be more intellectually honest and logically rigorous to say “I don’t know . . . we don’t have enough evidence . . . we’ll have to wait and see, although I would LIKE for this to be the case.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The absence of this is what makes their assertions come across more like excuses than the result of a process of calm and fair reasoning.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">[ By the same token, “I don’t know / we don’t have enough evidence” can be deployed as an excuse to avoid or hide the truth, and that definitely happens, as well, though not as often.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">[ This was the excuse offered for decades by the tobacco companies to avoid taking action or accept responsibility for cancer deaths, though evidence released much later showed they DID know and DID have the scientific evidence all along; <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/05/low-tar-cigarettes/481116/">they were simply lying</a> . . . and I’m afraid too many folks are resorting to variations of the “we don’t have enough evidence” excuse to resist the likelihood of human-driven climate change, as well. ]</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">1:26 p.m. — Just accepted a critical home delivery from Amazon Prime: a twelve-pack of toilet paper and several bottles of red wine.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">MONDAY, APRIL 20</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">10:48 a.m. — Why do people want to “get out”?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Just to wander around and risk getting infected and/or infecting other people? Sounds selfish and inconsiderate to me, not thoughtful and freedom-loving.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Go out to work? A <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/308264/americans-remain-risk-averse-getting-back-normal.aspx?utm_source=alert&utm_medium=email&utm_content=morelink&utm_campaign=syndication&fbclid=IwAR1-DtL-3Uu0YjTsfdSaq-9yKiEm62HslwsESDyO94cUGHWeB2UOEcGO9A8">Gallup poll taken the past week</a> found that more than 2/3 of U.S. adults polled said they would not rush out and take advantage of a relaxation of government restrictions, but would prefer to wait and see. Another 10 percent said they intended to limit contact and activities indefinitely.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">That leaves only 20 percent — 1 in 5 Americans — who say they’re willing to resume normal activities. What line of work are you in that your business or employment would survive on 20 percent of its former traffic . . . if that?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">When customers and clients don’t show up, how much will your “freedom” avail you? “Going to work” would be more like throwing further good money after bad, if the market is not going to be there for your product or service.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It’s not just what you feel like doing that matters; you have to check with your fellow citizens, and work with them.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">2:26 p.m. — My friend in Dumfries, Scotland commented today: “If Anne Frank can manage to live in a cramped space for two years, then these dips can stay home for three weeks.”</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">8:38 p.m. — This afternoon I chose to finish up a commercial job that was shot mostly last October 10. (As you can see above, the </span></span>“<span style="font-family: inherit;">studio</span>”<span style="font-family: inherit;"> was a bit makeshift: in the videographer</span>’<span style="font-family: inherit;">s basement-cum-wine cellar.) I had done on-camera hosting and voiceover narration for animations during the October video shoot, but the latter had to be reworked, and that took a lot longer than expected.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I tried to do the rewritten copy from home, but it just wasn’t adequate, so I reserved a Zipcar to drive across town to the videographer’s studio, but also so . . .</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">. . . I could swing by Lift Urban Portland’s food distribution pantry to drop off a stack of egg cartons . . . </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">. . . drop into the main post office to send a donation of books to fundraisers to benefit Lynn Fortheanimals Rescue Squad in North Carolina . . . </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">. . . and (at left) take a bag of aluminum cans to one of the recycling centers for deposit redemption (which monies Carole sometimes directs toward another favorite animal rescue charity, Lighthouse Farm Sanctuary near Scio, Oregon).</span></span><br />
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">After the voiceover recording session, the videographer, Matt Giraud, handed me a gift of his collective</span></span>’<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">s </span></span>“<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">home brew</span></span>”<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> (or whatever the official title is for wine): Les Garagistes</span></span>’<span style="font-family: inherit;"> 2016 Syrah. Score!</span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">TUESDAY, APRIL 21</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">9:39 a.m. — This morning I paged past a news video in which some “freedom-loving” protester was informing the camera that “you’re responsible for taking care of yourself—” and I thought:<br />
I’m also responsible for avoiding drunk drivers on the road . . . so we ought to get rid of laws that prohibit inebriation behind the wheel, and that dictate the installation of seat harnesses and air bags.<br />
They’re all impositions on our freedom.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>* * * * *</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Had enough? If not, </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">here</span>’<span style="font-family: inherit;">s </span>“<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2020/05/a-journal-of-plague-year-week-5.html">A Journal of the Plague Year . . . Week 5</a></span>”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">(which includes long walks through NE and SE Portland, tactics for maneuvering through the streets in mask and gloves, the current plague of faux certainties, and visits to the Rose City Book Pub and Reed College campus)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">You could also check out </span>“<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2020/04/a-journal-of-plague-year-week-4.html">A Journal of the Plague Year . . . Week 4</a></span>”</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">(for my exhausting attempts to obtain unemployment benefits, first long walks about SW and SE Portland and what I learned from them, idiocy from the governor of Georgia, my online reading with the cast of my March play production of a new short play by the lead actor, and how it</span>’<span style="font-family: inherit;">s all Obama</span>’<span style="font-family: inherit;">s fault)</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">See </span>“<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2020/04/a-journal-of-plague-year-week-3.html">A Journal of the Plague Year . . . Week 3</a></span>”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">(a visit on foot to a remarkably deserted downtown Portland, my analysis of the initial patterns of coronavirus testing and spread in Oregon and major metro counties, several dismissals of the worthless Incumbent, </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Go to </span>“<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2020/03/a-journal-of-plague-year-week-2.html">A Journal of the Plague Year . . . Week 2</a></span>”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">(the remarkably dry and beautiful weather that has brightened our self-isolation, a library books pile-up, a visit to the Portland Farmers Market after lockdown, the Whole Foods </span>“early elders shopping hour,” a hike up the hills to visit my best friend from grade school, and memories of Nevil Shute’s <b><i>On the Beach</i></b>)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">See </span>“<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2020/03/a-journal-of-plague-year-week-1.html">A Journal of the Plague Year . . . Week 1</a></span>”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">(the weird hand-washing behavior of men, the shutdown of Portland arts events, and the run on guns and toilet paper)</span><br />
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David Loftushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03855438200255152255noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4097849630041105773.post-55074326398002382212020-05-04T17:21:00.001-07:002020-05-04T17:44:06.510-07:00Portland Walking Tour Tales, 2019 . . . part 2<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Further tales from my banner year of more than one hundred walking tours in 2019.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">MARCH 25</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Partly because the weather was so gorgeous yesterday, I found myself herding an unusually large tour group of 16 guests in on a Sunday afternoon!</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Four individuals (two separate couples) were visiting from London . . . a trio from Grand Rapids was scouting the University of Portland for the daughter (who all but admitted she didn’t have any other college choices when I asked; and that getting to live in Portland was a good portion of the appeal) . . . a couple had come down from Seattle, another from Vancouver BC . . . I didn’t catch where the male half of a pair of late arrivals was from, but the woman told me she was from Somalia . . . and I had a Salem resident and a couple who relocated to Portland a couple months ago from LA.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Long ago, I fell into the habit of employing the Yiddish term “mishegoss” to refer to the uproar that resulted from the kidnapping of the bear cub from the “Animals in Pools” bronzes along SW Yamhill between Sixth and Fifth.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Nearly two hours later, after I’d formally concluded the tour, the woman from Seattle shared that she had had to translate that term for her husband who’s Norwegian, so not a “member of the tribe.” I had to inform them that I’m not a Jew either, but my Catholic-bred wife became one back in 1997, and I’ve attended synogogue services with her so many times that I know many of the Hebrew prayers . . . and refer to myself as a non-practicing atheist.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">APRIL 9</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">As often happens, there were some first-time-ever incidents on today’s tour — the biggest one was that the Pioneer Square weather beacon underwent testing at the unusual hour of 10:15, just when I was showing it to my tour group . . . so they got to hear the horn fanfare, view the spray cloud of mist, and watch the tower shuffle through the sun-face, the grey heron, AND the dark-grey dragon!</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">APRIL 13</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This afternoon I was assigned to lead a tour of brand-new admittees to Lewis and Clark Law School — some of whom intend to come, others who had not committed, so a walking tour of downtown was one way the law school hoped to entice the latter to attend.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I leaned on everything I know about the courthouses: from the Hollywood film “Men of Honor” and episodes of “Leverage” and “Grimm” shot in the all-wood courtrooms of the 1933 Gus Solomon Courthouse, to the Prohibition-era booze poured into “the grates of what they THOUGHT was the sewer system” in the courtyard of the county courthouse, and the roof garden atop of the Mark O. Hatfield US Courthouse.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Several young women were visiting from Seattle, Minnesota, and Colorado, but the most interesting guest may have been a very tall, rugged young man (I would have placed him in his early 30s, perhaps) with a cowboy hat and beard who said he was from Fields, Oregon. Where? Harney County. (Wikipedia says population 120!) Of course he nodded knowingly (as did several other guests) when I mentioned the Malheur Wildlife Preserve occupation and the Bundys.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">He also mentioned as we were walking back to the square for them to catch their bus back to Lewis and Clark that he applied to a LOT of law schools — 18, I believe — and had been accepted to 7, so he had not made up his mind where he planned to go in the fall. I’d sure love to have heard more of his story.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">APRIL 20</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">A double-header today: two tours that totaled 27 guests altogether (28, if you count the non-paying kid in the stroller).</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The afternoon group included a mother and daughter from Shizuoka (the daughter a med student in Kobe who’s doing a two-week course at OHSU), and a couple who live in work in the Netherlands, but he’s a native Macedonian who works as a data scientist for a telecom and she’s Polish and teaches philosophy at the university level.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The astonishing thing was that the Polish woman turned to the Japanese pair to greet them in their native tongue. Turns out her father had served in the diplomatic corps in Tokyo!</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">MAY 12</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I had only two guests on my tour this morning, but we had a lovely time.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">They were a young couple on a brief visit from Indiana. Since she works at a Starbucks and he at a grocery store back home, they were not the typical retirees, conventioneers, business travelers, international tourists, or parents scouting a college I typically get as guests.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">They had come by train, having boarded on Wednesday and arrived Friday (by coach! — so they hadn’t gotten much sleep on the journey), but she said she had “always” wanted to visit. Fortunately, they had upgraded to a sleeper for the return home starting tonight.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Their youth and mobility, plus the quiet, low-traffic Sunday streets, meant I was able to use my “inside voice” for much of the route, instead of having to yell repeatedly over buses, light-rail trains, delivery trucks, and other ambient noise.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The woman punctuated many of my stories with popping eyes and verbal expressions of wonder and delight. I took special pleasure in pointing out that the Kingsmen’s “Louie Louie” had been banned by the governor in their home state back in 1964. (Below is the building that prompts me to talk about </span>the Kingsmen and “Louie Louie.”)<br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Since they were young and traveling on the cheap, I half expected little or no tip, but at the end of the tour she said her mind was pretty much made up that she was going to move here someday . . . and he pulled out his billfold and handed me a twenty.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The cherry on top was that after the tour was all over, they mentioned their next stop was the Oregon Zoo, and they would probably Uber it. I told them they could get their a lot cheaper via MAX, and mentioned the zoo had just gotten in a new Red Panda. That’s his favorite animal, the young woman said of her companion.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">MAY 16</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">A theme of this afternoon’s tour was marriage.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">My guests were a lovely young couple from Sydney, Australia at the start of their four-week honeymoon in the Pacific Northwest (with Seattle, Vancouver, Banff, and Jasper coming up) . . . plus a trio of youthful female friends in town from Georgia and South Carolina for a wedding in the western burbs on Saturday.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Of course I mentioned my own wife several times; in particular, how I first laid eyes on her in the tearoom of the Heathman 28 years ago.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Professionally, the newlyweds were a project manager and an actuary, and the trio of Southerners consisted of a massage therapist, a speech therapist, and an electrician.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">At the “Allow Me” umbrella man statue early on, I gave them my usual spiel about the unusual nature of Oregon rain, and by golly, it started to sprinkle an hour and a half later, as we approached Chapman Square. The Australian woman took out and raised an umbrella, and one of the Southern gals pulled up her hood, but the three others proceeded through the trees bare-headed, and by the time we got to Mill Ends Park 15 minutes later, the misty drops had stopped.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The rain was just like you said it would be, the southern trio marveled.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">[Note: My colleague Brick told me the trio of gals from Georgia and South Carolina took his Beyond Bizarre ghost tour later that evening, and they were still raving about my Best of Portland tour: It was the best walking tour they’d ever been on, they told him; we learned more in two hours than we would have in a month of classroom study!]</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">MAY 21</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This morning I purposely took extra time to complete the walking tour — with the approval of my guest.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Yep, I had only one, but he was perfect: had nowhere to be until 4 p.m., was on a two-and-a-half month tour of the U.S. (with possible swings through Europe and Southeast Asia after), has been taking as many local tours as possible along the way, is expressly checking out potential places to move away from his native LA where he’d just sold his house, and — the topper — is a free-lance architectural and urban design consultant.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">You’d never guess any of this to look at him. He’s very youthful, smiles easily, and repeatedly murmured “sure, sure, sure” as I explained details of art, architecture, and urban design.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And though he was totally open about where he’d ultimately resettle from Larchmont Village — the neighborhood just north of Wilshire, east of La Brea, and south of Hollywood and Paramount Studios (he even checked out Klamath Falls “because it was a red dot on the way” of his Amtrak route) — he said more than once he was feeling spoiled by Portland, as if there might be no need to check out the later planned stops on his continental tour (which include Seattle, Vegas, Florida, and the Atlantic seaboard at least up to Boston).</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I mention protests early on my tours — and sure enough, we passed droves of people headed to the rally against abortion-bans in Terry Schrunk Plaza. When we spotted yet another gathering with picket signs outside Senator Merkley’s office in the World Trade Center, he said, “I feel like you arranged all this just for me to spoil me.” (Above, Electric Avenue, with ten outlets along SW Salmon, just outside Senator Merkley</span></span>’<span style="font-family: inherit;">s office.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Several other lovely coincidences piled on. One of my standard jokes at Mill Ends Park is the potential danger of the park being wiped out by a Camry — whereupon my guest remarked, “I just gave my Camry to my niece!”<br />
Minutes later, when the tour ended, he topped me a twenty. I have a feeling he may be back. . . .</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Go to <a href="https://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2020/04/portland-walking-tour-tales-2019-part-1.html">Portland Walking Tour Tales, 2019, part 1</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">See an introduction to <a href="http://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2017/03/my-career-as-portland-walking-tour-guide.html">My Work as a Portland Walking Tour Guide</a> (with some of my best stories from 2014-2016)</span><br />
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David Loftushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03855438200255152255noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4097849630041105773.post-80225916159636856532020-05-03T16:58:00.000-07:002020-05-03T18:07:54.553-07:00A Journal of the Plague Year . . . Week 5<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 15px;">
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Notes from a thoughtful self-isolator in Week 5 of our new reality. . . . </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">WEDNESDAY, APRIL 8</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">9:34 a.m. — More tactics for maneuvering about your neighborhood in mask and gloves:</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">— Step out onto the street and go around parked cars, to avoid pedestrians and cyclists on the sidewalks. Try to anticipate the need by keeping an eye open and making your move a block or more in advance, assuming the vehicle traffic will allow it.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">— If someone is unloading a truck or moving slowly with a dog, cross to the opposite side of the street if possible, or head up an entry walk or driveway and stand aside to clear the route, if you can.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">— Hold your breath in elevators, which often have poor air circulation. Inhale slowly but deeply as the car arrives and doors open, hold your breath once you’ve stepped inside, and if you can’t keep holding it, exhale slowly until the doors open and you can step out.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">— If there’s no way to put sufficient distance between yourself and a cyclist or another pedestrian (which happened to me several times on Terwilliger Boulevard), do the hold-your-breath-in-the-elevator trick: breathe in deeply as they approach, hold as you pass, and exhale slowly so they’re at least 30 or 40 feet away the next time you breathe in.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I have no idea whether the above practices raise your chances of avoiding infection, but they encourage you to stay alert while out in public, trying to get your aerobic exercise.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">7:17 p.m. — One of the great consolations of self-isolation has been the <a href="https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/animals/g28926548/cool-hummingbird-facts/">frequent visits by hummingbirds</a> to the feeder on our balcony. The hummers have also enjoyed sipping from the blossoms of a rosemary plant in a pot at one corner below.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Today I caught more than a minute of video in which one bird chased the other away from the feeder, then followed it down to the fence wires around the balcony to make sure he maintained dominance and drove the other one away (though I</span></span>’<span style="font-family: inherit;">m sure the loser sneaked back to our feeder later!).</span><br />
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I tried to upload the video here to my blog, but it didn</span></span>’<span style="font-family: inherit;">t take. It</span>’<span style="font-family: inherit;">s a 123MB file, so the size may have been too much for this site. You</span>’<span style="font-family: inherit;">ll have to settle for these screen shots of the two squabbling at the feeder (the victor is still perched at lower left as the vanquished flies off at upper right), and then the victor flying off after having drunk his fill:</span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">8:29 p.m. — For today’s long walk, I took a cue from my host at <a href="https://www.rosecitybookpub.com/">Rose City Book Pub</a>, where I read “Story Time for Grownups” once a month last year. It’s the birthday of the owner, Elise Schumock.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I trekked across Tilikum Crossing bridge . . . north on Water Avenue and Second ’til I got past the Burnside Bridge . . . then worked my way diagonally northeast across Weidler, MLK Boulevard, and Broadway to continue north on Eighth.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Then it occurred to me that I’d be passing near Dick Lewis’s home (Dick and I were co-founders of the Bridgetown Morris Men back in 1992; that logo patch you see prominently <a href="http://bridgetownmorrismen.com/morris/">displayed on the team</a></span></span><a href="http://bridgetownmorrismen.com/morris/">’</a><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://bridgetownmorrismen.com/morris/">s web page</a> was designed by my wife, Carole Barkley), so I phoned him from Eighth and Brazee to let him know I was coming, and he stepped out his door to sit in the porch swing while I chatted with him from his front yard.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">After visiting with Elise and her two other guests, I headed home. It was a good 9 miles or so.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Selfie at Rose City Book Pub taken at about 3:45 p.m. today. This is the venue where I’ve done my live literature readings, “Story Time for Grownups,” every month for the past year.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Today I did an impromptu reading of the first few pages of Marilynne Robinson’s novel Home, which was the request of the owner, Elise Schumock, whom I visited on site to wish her a happy birthday. I also read “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Love_Song_of_J._Alfred_Prufrock">The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock</a>” to Elise and two of her friends at the pub because I felt like it, and the elegiac tone of T.S. Eliot’s century-old poem felt oddly appropriate.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">THURSDAY, APRIL 9</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">9:56 a.m. — During yesterday’s nine-miler, I heard a train whistle blowing while I was on SE 12th at about Lincoln or Division. I glanced to the west and could see a slow-moving freight train headed the same direction as I was.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It was now after 5 p.m., I’d walked at least 7 miles already, and my legs were aching. I realized I might be held up at the place where I’d intended to cross the tracks at grade, and it would be a significant backtrack to find a bridge or viaduct that would take me over them.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">At the rail crossing on SE 11th, the train was stopped dead. Automobiles lined up on the street were making three- and more-point turns to find another escape route. I paused at the crossing and watched another pedestrian climb over the rail cars to get to the other side.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">As I was making up my mind to do the same, the cars rattled and lurched infinitesmally to the right, and I realized the train engines had reversed to close all the tiny gaps in the couplings and give themselves to start again in the other direction.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">By the time I got up my nerve, the train had started to move forward and east, but at far less than walking speed, so I climbed the steps, strode across the train, and hopped down the other side. Once safely across, I turned back and took a photo of my escape route.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">FRIDAY, APRIL 10</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">8:55 p.m. — Today’s long walk through Southeast Portland: north to Tilikum Crossing bridge, cross to the east side, south on Water Avenue and McLoughlin Boulevard to Sellwood, then across the New Sellwood Bridge to the west side again and north along the Willamette River.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Length was somewhere between 7 and 8 miles. I saw many beautiful and interesting sights within a mile of my home (at least as the crow flies) that none of us usually notice because we normally fly past them in a vehicle.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Everywhere I’ve walked in the city this week — southwest, northeast, southeast — it’s clearly tulip season. Here’s a patch in Sellwood, along SE Sellwood Boulevard overlooking <a href="https://oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/oaks_bottom/#.Xq9i1duZNo4">Oaks Bottom Wildlife Refuge</a> at about 9th Avenue, I saw this afternoon.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">9:23 p.m. — Carole: “You’re gonna laugh at this, David; we’re getting another Amazon delivery on Sunday.”<br />
Me: “Hope we’re home.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">SATURDAY, APRIL 11</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">9:27 a.m. — I listened to NPR’s “Morning Edition” 20 minutes. It was the first time I’d turned on the radio in months. Like cable TV, long before the pandemic hit, we’d simply gotten out of the habit . . . in favor of reading, checking news and entertainment online, walking the dog, and talking to each other and reading aloud over meals.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I recognized voices such as Scott Simon, of course, and the reporters were perky or at least matter-of-fact . . . but at the heart of most of the reports were the darker currents of our era: people with substance abuse issues are isolated, and more likely to be stressed . . . clinical trial studies that might have been the last hope for terminal patients with cancers and other deadly diseases have had to be dropped to keep clinics and hospitals available for anticipated covid-19 cases . . . <a href="https://www.opb.org/news/article/portland-shootings-increase-despite-stay-at-home-order/">shootings in Portland doubled in April</a> . . . .</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">How will we count the rising death rates among:</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">— sufferers of (proximately) non-lethal medical conditions (e.g., hypertension, diabetes, COPD) who can’t get to treatment or are refused it</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">— substance abuse addicts who can’t take it anymore</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">— stranger-on-stranger shootings</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">— <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/06/world/coronavirus-domestic-violence.html">domestic violence</a> (including more shootings with “protective” firearms in the home, no doubt)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">— suicides by whatever variety of means</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">None of the above would qualify as an unmistakably direct result of the novel coronavirus . . . and yet aren’t they?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">10:55 a.m. — Here’s another reminder of how little we really know . . . how inaccurate the daily stats (and the projections based on them) may be . . . and therefore how foolish are any predictions any of us (especially You-Know-Who in Washington) might make at this point:</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">A friend of Carole’s in Michigan — currently the third-worst state for identified cases of covid-19 and deaths; it zipped past California earlier this week — just reported that her son had gotten tested for coronavirus and had to wait 16 DAYS to get his results.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">That he tested negative might mean the general picture there might be better than it appears . . . but the incredibly long delay could also mean it’s much worse, because health authorities have fallen way behind in tracking it.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">SUNDAY, APRIL 12</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">9:01 a.m. — Part of the pleasure of walking everywhere is the surprise of looking at things you’ve always seen from the other direction . . . how different everything looks when you walk the wrong way on a one-way street for drivers. Try this downtown on Broadway, sometime: Look up at the buildings in the blocks ahead of you, instead of just the storefronts on your block.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This can be as startling as the things you see close up that you’ve missed when you were riding by at 20 to 40 miles per hour.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">12:21 p.m. — Nicholas Kristof, Yamhill Carlton High School graduate, reports on the view from the front lines <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/11/opinion/sunday/coronavirus-hospitals-bronx.html?fbclid=IwAR0XCSPLcUUkFtaxV1O1QD4zwrd-TaFgOUiBQhSWBiGVD8iHCTTnVbAhO18">in two hospitals in the Bronx</a>:<br />
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“The truth is that the doctors too are frightened and exhausted, overwhelmed by death and their own helplessness. Dr. Nicole Del Valle, 29, told me that what shattered her was treating a 30-year-old woman with Covid-19 whose 23-year-old sister had just died of it; Dr. Del Valle called her own younger sister and ordered her not to leave home.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“All day in the hospital, Dr. Del Valle maintains her reassuring manner as she intubates patients, holds their hands, fights for their lives — and then, she acknowledged, she goes home and cries….”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">3:57 p.m. — An ongoing “plague” for many years has been faux certainty: ordinary citizens taking a stand on social media that says “This is what’s going to happen” as if they’re a featured guest on “Meet the Press” or any of an array of Sunday TV talk shows or Fox channel talking heads.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The past week it’s been “Trump is gonna be reelected, Biden can never win” . . . but I’ve seen hundreds of similar flat declarations based on little more than guesswork, far from complete information, as well as the speaker’s biases and guesswork.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">People even think they’ve heard certainty — absolute and positive statements — when I’ve merely questioned theirs. Though my response has consisted of little more than “that ain’t necessarily so,” they fire back immediately as if I’ve taken the polar opposite stance from them. I’ve done nothing of the sort.<br />
The coronavirus pandemic has loosed a flood of such behavior, of course — conspiracy theories and predictions galore.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">A little more effort to identify more of the unknowns and variables, or a willingness to wait until them come in . . . just a clean, straight, “I don’t know; we’ll just have to wait and see” . . . would be so much more intellectually honest, but far too few individuals seem able to manage that.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">9:32 p.m. — Drivers . . . why are you running red lights and rolling through stop signs? Unless you’re running a Covid-19 case to a ventilator, <a href="https://katu.com/news/local/washington-county-deputies-consistently-seeing-people-speeding-during-coronavirus-pandemic">what could possibly have you in a hurry</a> these days? Aren’t you getting to your usual destinations a lot sooner than you used to, given the current traffic?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Cyclists . . . There is so little vehicular traffic on most streets and roads now, why not get off the sidewalks and use the marked bicycle lanes? Why not stay on the streets? They’re probably safer now than they’ve ever been in your lifetimes, and probably will ever be again.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">3:57 p.m. — One of the endless series of ironies I’ve encountered during this strange era:</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Here’s an ad for the theater company whose <a href="https://www.octc.org/journal-of-ben-uchida">most recent production</a> I was in — my first ever with them, and my first full stage show in seven years. Its performance run was cut short precisely halfway through its run by the collapse of society due to the pandemic.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This is the Trimet bus stop for the #35 line on SW Macadam at the Boundary Street intersection, roughly a dozen blocks south of our apartment.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">8:23 p.m. — For days on end, Carole has tried to order frozen peas online for delivery, and it’s never available.<br />
Her theory is that it’s one of the few vegetables that children will eat.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">TUESDAY, APRIL 14</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">8:04 p.m. — Today’s long walk between 2:30 and 6:00 p.m.: across the Ross Island Bridge . . . over the railroad yards via the Holgate viaduct . . . to Reed College on SE 28th and through the campus to visit three different sites where I performed in plays or concerts between 2005 and 2010 . . . back across McLoughlin Boulevard via Bybee to Tacoma and the New Sellwood Bridge . . . and home through Johns Landing.<br />
Likely more than 9 miles.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I don’t like to plan out the routes of my long walks in advance.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Possible infection bottlenecks such as bridges have to be approached tactically. I avoid busy arterials (especially for their heavier bicycle and pedestrian traffic), but other than that, I expect to head through quiet residential neighborhoods and large parking lots that parallel the boulevards.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Public parks can be a mixed bag — lots of other people head to those, especially in weather as nice as we’ve been having — so I tend not to target those as destinations.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Today I made lots of in-progress decisions. One was the choice to veer into the campus of Reed, which I hadn’t anticipated at all. Fortunately, the grounds were largely deserted, but I was surprised by how many striking memories surfaced, given that I had not attended the school as a student.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I acted in three productions of classic Greek plays (Euripides’s “Alcestis,” Aristophanes’s “Peace,” and Sophocles’s “Antigone”) in the outdoor amphitheater, and Shakespeare’s <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/portlandactorsensemble/sets/72157642264289024/">“As You Like It”</a> on the Great Lawn, between 2005 and 2008. In 2010, I did vocal narration and a little bit of singing for the world premiere of then-Oregon Symphony associate conductor <a href="https://www.wanderingeducators.com/performing-arts/music/gullivers-voyage-faremido-david-hill.html">Gregory Vajda’s “Gulliver in Faremido,”</a> with Third Angle New Music Ensemble, in Kaul Auditorium.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Read </span>“<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2020/04/a-journal-of-plague-year-week-4.html">A Journal of the Plague Year . . . Week 4</a></span>”<br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">See </span>“<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2020/04/a-journal-of-plague-year-week-3.html">A Journal of the Plague Year . . . Week 3</a></span>”<br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Go to </span>“<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2020/03/a-journal-of-plague-year-week-2.html">A Journal of the Plague Year . . . Week 2</a></span>”<br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">See </span>“<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2020/03/a-journal-of-plague-year-week-1.html">A Journal of the Plague Year . . . Week 1</a></span>”<br />
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David Loftushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03855438200255152255noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4097849630041105773.post-4854096758926076222020-04-28T14:24:00.000-07:002020-05-03T12:09:06.610-07:00Oh . . . Man . . . I Can’t Believe I Wrote That. . . . <div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 15px;">
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">One of the pleasures of doing editing and proofreading for work is getting to see other people’<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">s mistakes before you clean them up . . . and preserve them for all time. Here</span>’<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">s my crop from last year.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Jan. 3</b>: “My other interests include listening to classic tock….”<br />
You mean, tock radio . . . or do you <a href="https://www.invaluable.com/blog/tips-and-tricks-for-collecting-antique-clocks/">collect grandfather clocks</a>?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Jan. 14</b>: Adventures of the Sardonic Editor, episode #2,538 . . . </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“I am happy to work personally with every client to ensure they have a financial arrangement that is comfortable while receiving the necessary medical care that is needed.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">As opposed to necessary treatment that is not needed, I suppose.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I understand there may be a lot of that going around.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Jan. 15</b>: I ran across a piece of poor English that I can’t honestly fix, because it’s a quoted passage from an existing website used in the article I’m cleaning. So I’ll refer this one to the management.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Good lighting normally pleases buyers, but it’s not often a deciding factor in purchasing a property. Instead of spending thousands on fancy fixtures that will just lead to higher hydro bills, go for simple, <a href="https://www.energy.gov/eere/why-energy-efficiency-upgrades">energy-efficient upgrades</a> such as LED lights.”<br />
I suppose the technical incorrectness of the passage above sort of depends on what part of the country you live in. Hydro power does indeed supply most if not all our electricity in Portland, but our water bills are a separate item.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Jan. 15</b>: “Most of the time, you’ll be fine with business or business casual attire [at a trade show]. If you’re attending a travel trade show, a simple polo or T-shirt with your logo will do the trick. If you’re marketing to business professionals, wear a suit or <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crips">crips</a> shirt and tie.”<br />
What if everybody else is wearing red bandanas?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Jan. 19</b>: “…I defiantly recommend this dentist.”<br />
Why? Were you expecting an argument from me?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>March 20</b>: “Dr. ______ is a suburb dentist….”<br />Although this might in fact be true of this particular practitioner, I don’t believe that’s the word the patient intended in his testimonial, so I made an executive decision to change it to “superb.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>March 22</b>: “You might also bring home a 50-pound <a href="https://steamcommunity.com/app/380600/discussions/0/2579854400734412334/">chinook trophy</a> or nap a coho….”<br />
Wow! Sign me up!</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But . . . how do chinook carry those around with them? Under their pectoral fins?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And how do the coho keep from suffocating when you put them to sleep?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>May 10</b>: “I love working with kids and seething them excited…”<br />
I dunno. Sounds like a risky practice to me.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>May 20</b>: “That’s why we’re proud to offer a flat-fee rate that enables you to keep more of your hard-earned equity in tact.”<br />
How’s that? You mean . . . secretly?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>May 22</b>: “Other people ride [a bicycle to work] because they feel convicted to do their part in <a href="http://www.globalstewards.org/reduce-carbon-footprint.htm">reducing carbon emissions</a>….”<br />
No, really?<br />
I had no idea this was being used as punishment for certain Americans. What’s their crime? Refusal to believe in climate change?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>June 20</b>: From a blog piece I’m editing about charitable fundraising:</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Most people are hesitant to depart with their money….”<br />
Actually, I don’t think that’s true for most of the people I’ve known and observed. I’ve been known to walk out of a fundraiser without spending anything on occasion, myself.</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRza5zXCMq68yuw_-bmfYmEXp2iu1LW3aybfgM3B-QTSutLPgd1pNrsKxMEwhOk-XbON8n3Sl93q8jY3AOTp0AdUW7_MMCziHI_y_Auo12UGhOlY1al_oq98aJezju9kZB9TbHq3TTgQ/s1600/missingtooth.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRza5zXCMq68yuw_-bmfYmEXp2iu1LW3aybfgM3B-QTSutLPgd1pNrsKxMEwhOk-XbON8n3Sl93q8jY3AOTp0AdUW7_MMCziHI_y_Auo12UGhOlY1al_oq98aJezju9kZB9TbHq3TTgQ/s400/missingtooth.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>June 25</b>: “This patient was congenially missing a lower front tooth.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">A single missing letter can create a huge difference in meaning. . . .</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>July 24</b>: One of the common mistakes that people make after a car crash is “Letting the Statues of Limitation Pass.”<br />
I’m confused. How can statues limit anything? And if they’re statues, how do they manage to get around you?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Aug. 10</b>: David [reading sign at the PSU Farmers Market]: “Artisan Infused Pizza Crusts.” They insert artisans into their pizza crusts!<br />
Carole: Protein.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Sept. 4</b>: “As solar energy continues to gain steam….”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Probably not the ideal choice of metaphor in this context. . . . </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Nov. 7</b>: “With the right data <a href="https://www.pinterest.com/artmartstl/canvas-totebags-ideas/">in tote</a>….”<br />
Huh? I have to purchase a bag with a shoulder strap in order to obtain and analyze my website traffic stats?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">If you get a perverse thrill out of this sort of thing, you might enjoy similar round-ups from years past:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Go to “<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;"><a href="http://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2018/07/omg-did-i-really-type-that-best-typos.html">OMG . . . Did I Really Type That?</a></span></span>” (<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: inherit;">Best Typos and Misusage of the Language, 2017)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">See “<a href="http://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2017/09/ummm-thats-not-what-i-meant-to-say.html"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">Ummm . . . That</span>’<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">s Not What I Meant To Say</span></a><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">”</span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;"> (Best of 2016)</span></span></div>
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David Loftushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03855438200255152255noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4097849630041105773.post-82356222511489731512020-04-24T14:57:00.002-07:002020-06-28T16:06:53.237-07:00The Meaning of the Mask<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 15px;">
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Carole and I have worn one every time we’ve gone out for the past three weeks, at least. (Once or twice, when I’ve taken the dog out for her final walk ’round midnight, I’ve forgotten my mine, but we rarely encounter anyone on the streets then; the selfie at left was taken along SW Taylors Ferry Road on April 6.)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">During the day, my wife and I have observed maybe only half the pedestrians (and almost none of the cyclists) in our neighborhood wearing a mask. The ratio has been even lower in other parts of the city where I’ve walked.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In general, older people wear them, and younger ones do not. If anything, it would be preferable if the opposite were the case.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Whether simple face masks and home-made cloth ones make a significant difference in checking the spread of covid-19 is something of an open question; we know too little about transmission and symptoms, and we aren’t testing enough of the population to learn more quickly.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">However, there are three basic reasons to wear a mask. They are:<br />
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<b>1. TO PROTECT THE WEARER</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Let’s get this out of the way: If you don’t have an N95 respirator, and you’re not a medical professional, a mask isn’t going to provide very good protection against infection.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">They don’t fit well, for one thing. Also, most of us don’t use them correctly: Too often, we touch our mask repeatedly to adjust it, which in theory, contaminates our hands (or the mask <i>from</i> our hands) . . . and we probably don’t wash or disinfect it after every use, let alone dispose of it and employ a new one for every outing (probably because we don’t have enough on hand to do so). Here is my selfie at Rose City Book Pub, which I visited on April 8 to wish owner Elise Schumock a happy birthday.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But I’ve seen public comments that suggest certain people believe this is the ONLY reason to wear a mask . . . and since it’s not a very good or effective one, why bother?<br />
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Here’s why. . . . <br />
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<b>2. TO PROTECT OTHERS</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">A mask reduces the distance your breath travels, especially if you should cough. Instead of spreading clouds of everything that was in your lungs for two, three, or four feet in a cloud ahead of and around you (a sneeze can drive air <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/the-big-number-6-to-8-feet--thats-how-far-germs-can-fly-after-you-sneeze-or-cough/2019/11/15/dfb2e45a-06fa-11ea-8292-c46ee8cb3dce_story.html">up to eight feet away</a>, or more!), you mostly just leave a vapor trail behind you as your breath leaks out the sides of your mask.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Most of the vapor droplets evaporate fairly quickly, which means you’re less likely to infect others. Citizens of Asian nations such as Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea are accustomed to responding voluntarily to calls for self-isolation and masking during medical emergencies, and the rates of death from novel coronavirus around the world would suggest their behavior has been effective.<br />
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Here’s a <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/total-covid-deaths-region">graph of mortality by global region</a> that is being steadily updated on the “Our World in Data” website. Compare Asia to the rest of the world as of today:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5GMxH67J4mP7zZWRFCX7s5BDDbbygYWvNvTbzg-VDGneZv-AcsoMpdWNIq6okkx-VLOJ9aRXzYSYyR_P_LgS7eG5g-aU8LG2W72Agz6jahn4EQlkqYn-sd8K6iPonYUEUmi8Du2nuig/s1600/Worlddeaths-Apr24.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1038" data-original-width="1600" height="258" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5GMxH67J4mP7zZWRFCX7s5BDDbbygYWvNvTbzg-VDGneZv-AcsoMpdWNIq6okkx-VLOJ9aRXzYSYyR_P_LgS7eG5g-aU8LG2W72Agz6jahn4EQlkqYn-sd8K6iPonYUEUmi8Du2nuig/s400/Worlddeaths-Apr24.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The primary explanations for the fact that Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea have much lower rates of infection than the U.S. — and </span><a href="https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/" style="font-family: inherit;">far lower rates of mortality</a><span style="font-family: inherit;"> (deaths per total cases of coronavirus) </span>— <span style="font-family: inherit;">are that they’ve observed self-isolation and masking much more broadly . . . and/or they’ve tested a much greater percentage of their population.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">(Below, a selfie in the open-air amphitheater on the deserted campus of Reed College; I acted in several productions of ancient Greek plays between 2005 and 2009, and revisited the site on April 14.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But I’m not sick, you protest. I haven’t had any cough or fever or chills or loss of taste or any of the other symptoms I’ve read about.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Please remember, though, that we still know very little about the behavior of the novel coronavirus. We <i>do</i> know that:<br />
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A) Symptoms do not necessarily show up until <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/symptoms-testing/symptoms.html">anywhere from 2 to 14 days</a> after exposure to the virus — thus, there’s a chance you could be recently infected and passing the virus on to others</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">and</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">B) An unknown number of people never show <i>any</i> symptoms</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Data collected by the World Health Organization in China suggested about 25 percent of the people who were in close contact with covid-19 patients never experienced any symptoms. A study in Nanjing, China followed 24 people who tested positive for the virus and from one to three weeks later, <a href="https://www.mprnews.org/story/2020/04/13/npr-can-a-coronavirus-patient-who-isnt-showing-symptoms-infect-others">seven of them showed no symptoms</a> at all. (They tended to be young; the median age was 14.)</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiIIF-TnRlN1VzVVHXsEdKP8G5E_cRQtvP1kyYO0PK2-sjM1zfSFDp6j2Ps8615jPP3ctP5ojBs2SCipI_OInICy0yKBBWcF08nocJ42elfLQMj51t9oLmO9tYw3ZyowMjbL-lM7o5rw/s1600/Leland1-Apr20.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiIIF-TnRlN1VzVVHXsEdKP8G5E_cRQtvP1kyYO0PK2-sjM1zfSFDp6j2Ps8615jPP3ctP5ojBs2SCipI_OInICy0yKBBWcF08nocJ42elfLQMj51t9oLmO9tYw3ZyowMjbL-lM7o5rw/s400/Leland1-Apr20.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Researchers at a lab in Iceland reported in early April that <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/01/europe/iceland-testing-coronavirus-intl/index.html">50 percent of the people who tested positive</a> for coronavirus there were asymptomatic. Whether this makes them more or less likely to infect others is probably unknown. But the terms “silent spreaders” and “super spreaders” have surfaced in reference to people who — again, in theory — could be infecting others without knowing it.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">(Left: Leland I metal sculpture by Lee Kelly and Bonnie Bronson, circa 1975, in the American Towers Plaza near SW First and Lincoln, where I walked on April 20.)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The Israeli Health Ministry estimated that, among children under the age of 9, about <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/silent-spreaders-almost-a-third-of-infected-kids-under-9-are-asymptomatic/">27 percent were showing no symptoms</a>, which made them the champion “silent spreaders” — compared to a rate of 7 percent asymptomatic folks in the 20-to-29 age group, and between 4 and 7 percent among cohorts above the age of 50.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The sad part, of course, is that <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/1106372/coronavirus-death-rate-by-age-group-italy/">mortality rates in the older age ranges</a> appear to be much higher. Compare the differences within various age demographics in Italy, as of this week:</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">So why not choose to be a “good guy with a mask”? Assume you might be a carrier and collapse the respiratory cloud you generate in public.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">There is, however, one other good reason to wear a mask. . . . </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">3. TO SIGNAL SOCIAL CAUTION AND COOPERATION</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">At this point, a mask in public also serves as a badge and a sign. You’re signaling caution to others. The message is: I’m concerned about the pandemic, and I will make an effort to avoid coming too close to you. I hope you will accord me the same consideration. (Below, Urban Center at Portland State University, SW 5th and Montgomery, April 23.)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It’s also a constant reminder to yourself to exercise caution — both in approaching others and to avoid touching your nose and eyes. In a sense, the mask serves a similar purpose to that of rosaries or a prayer shawl: it both signals and compels heightened attention, because the activity demands it. Like the tools of prayer (or the repetition of a mantra), the mask is a message to yourself and anyone who might see you to BE HERE, NOW.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Your mask also serves as a badge of solidarity with the hundreds of thousands of people around the world who are suffering from covid-19, and the medical teams laboring to save them (if they’re lucky enough to be sick within reach of health facilities — probably not the case in India, the ’stans, and huge swatches of Africa).</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I don’t want others to die, you declare to everyone when you wear a mask in public, and I am both reducing the chances I will contribute to that result and supporting the folks who are striving to save the lives of others.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">So . . . protecting yourself? Not so much.<br />
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Protecting others? Very possibly.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Making a public declaration that we’re all in this together? Definitely.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">See </span></span>“<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2020/04/a-journal-of-plague-year-week-4.html">A Journal of the Plague Year, Week 4</a></span>”<br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">See </span></span>“<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2020/04/a-journal-of-plague-year-week-3.html">A Journal of the Plague Year, Week 3</a></span>”<br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">See </span></span>“<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2020/03/a-journal-of-plague-year-week-2.html">A Journal of the Plague Year, Week 2</a></span>”<br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">See </span></span>“<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2020/03/a-journal-of-plague-year-week-1.html">A Journal of the Plague Year, Week 1</a></span>”<br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">See </span></span>“<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2020/04/covid-19-stat-watching-considered-as.html">Covid-19 Stat Watching, Considered as a Fairgrounds Horse Race</a></span>”<br />
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David Loftushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03855438200255152255noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4097849630041105773.post-78177630726906841582020-04-22T13:21:00.001-07:002020-05-03T12:10:04.736-07:00Can This Marriage Be Saved?!<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It has been said that humor is one of the essential traits of a successful marriage. Carole and I have been attempting this approach for more than 26 years of wedded blitz </span></span> — er, bliss.<br />
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Below are some examples from last year. . . . </div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>Jan. 10</b>: Me [handing her the <a href="http://www.elmoreleonard.com/index.php?/weblog/">Elmore Leonard</a> novel we’ve almost finished reading aloud over dinners the past few weeks]: Let’s go back readin’ about people who are worse off and dumber than we are</span><span style="color: #1d2129; letter-spacing: -0.1px;">.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: -0.1px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Carole: I thought we weren’t going to discuss the president any more.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: -0.1px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Feb. 4</b>: [While dining out this evening. . . .]</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: -0.1px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">C: That woman [at the next table] kept up a running monologue the entire time, and her husband hardly said a thing. When he left to go to the bathroom, she immediately started texting.<br />
D: She’s so full of verbiage, she has to get it all out. Flense herself.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: -0.1px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">C: He’s probably committing suicide in the bathroom.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: -0.1px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">D: No, he’s basking in the blissful silence. Wondering how long he can draw it out.</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsqD4rSn_L3O46_saYNwaXstem3lya2KjJTk3l0FaRBElfTVFuihWzTuElZVDKV5L2O6qtbrf-004x7zyBTT6woNA-bU7T0FyNaP4CNDZHhvEpiud284nPUPdts0Heujf1JsxT2a819g/s1600/1991.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="735" data-original-width="1080" height="217" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsqD4rSn_L3O46_saYNwaXstem3lya2KjJTk3l0FaRBElfTVFuihWzTuElZVDKV5L2O6qtbrf-004x7zyBTT6woNA-bU7T0FyNaP4CNDZHhvEpiud284nPUPdts0Heujf1JsxT2a819g/s320/1991.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Feb. 10</b>: When she works out, Carole watches either cooking shows or house-buying shows on TV. One of the most successful <a href="https://www.hgtv.com/shows/fixer-upper">home-makeover reality shows</a> is set in Waco, Texas. Carole often marvels about the huge places people can buy there with money that would hardly land a one-bedroom shack in Portland.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Carole observed, “It is true that you can get a lot more house for your money if you live in a place that you don’t want to live in.”<br />
After a suitable pause, I asked, “Yeah! Why is that?”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Feb. 12</b>: ER Nurse: Can you verify your name and date of birth?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">C: Carole Barkley, April __, 19__.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">D: Who are you, and what have you done with my wife?!”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">C: David!</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Feb. 12</b>: As I was driving Carole home from the hospital, we found ourselves stopped at a light behind a car with Arkansas license plates.<br />
I pointed out the legend at the bottom — The Natural State — and asked, “What the hell does that mean? Everybody walks around with no clothes on?”<br />
“Well,” Carole replied, “it IS Arkansas.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Feb. 18</b>: [We are ordering at the coffee bar.]</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">D: I’ll have a drip coffee and [pointing] that cake.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">C: I’ll have a berry Danish.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">D: How Danish is it?<br />
C: [swiftly] BERRY!</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">D: Ba-dum bum.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I’ve trained her well.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>March 16</b>: [We’re tasting a <a href="https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1014721-shakshuka-with-feta">Mediterranean dish called Shakshuka</a> that contains potatoes, sweet peppers, onion, crushed tomatoes, chickpeas, garlic, diced jalapeño, and a Spanish spice blend of smoked paprika, cumin, coriander, Mexican oregano, cayenne, and cinnamon — from a Blue Apron kit.]</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">D: Wow, this is great! Even the chickpeas taste good!</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">C: Chickpeas have no taste.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">D: Yeah, they do. They taste like damp chalk.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>March 24</b>: C: HAH! I think my horoscope today is hilarious. “In the week ahead you may learn that a partner is a financial genius.” Is there something you’re not telling me?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">D: Is there someone you’re not telling me about?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>March 27</b>: C: You know I’ve been reading this book about how to reduce stress. Now, I’ve been doing the budget—</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">D: —you’re laying me off?</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjs1DRg2ei-dbCWDExFpb_nz7uS3JcC8BDwy4LS3TULkGr8odUAkjFMUfyKIuziMNHHfVJ3cTFQ0nZwSTz1EQHwfLuadz8OwJAR9nYHKGQMjfomxNuVPYqZVTHpyYtJGZ6Oml6ttbJPg/s1600/1999.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1078" data-original-width="1600" height="215" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjs1DRg2ei-dbCWDExFpb_nz7uS3JcC8BDwy4LS3TULkGr8odUAkjFMUfyKIuziMNHHfVJ3cTFQ0nZwSTz1EQHwfLuadz8OwJAR9nYHKGQMjfomxNuVPYqZVTHpyYtJGZ6Oml6ttbJPg/s320/1999.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Carole told me about an article she read concerning 9-1-1 calls nowadays. Most phone reports to the center regarding activity in downtown Portland don’t involve crimes at all, she read; they’re nuisance reports . . . a street person is causing a scene, or making a business or another citizen nervous and won’t move along, etc.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://www.oregonlive.com/portland/2019/09/portland-aims-to-dispatch-better-first-responders-for-homelessness-calls.html">The police should not be who responds</a> to this kind of situation, she went on, because their only solutions are to arrest or shoot. Eugene responds to these kinds of calls with a crisis team that consists of a medic and a social worker. Portland ought to do the same.<br />
C: It’s gotten to the point where we have the second-highest homeless in the U.S.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">D: We’re just not importing enough of ’em. We could BE number one!</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>May 5</b>: Barista: Want the muffin and the scone on the same plate?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">D: Sure. I’m mixed race, myself.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>May 23</b>: C: I have another author for the next Elder Law section newsletter. He’s going to write about estate planning for second marriages.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">D: Oh, that’s a big subject . . . as long as he doesn’t write about third marriages.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">[I’m Carole’s third husband.]</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>May 28</b>: C [registering the background music on the coffee-shop sound system]: I see we have another record of a moaning female. To me, they’re all interchangeable.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">D: Well, that’s good! You only have to buy one.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">C: I’m not going to buy any!</span></span></div>
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<b style="font-family: inherit;">May 29</b><span style="font-family: inherit;">: C: It’s funny . . . all these home remodeling shows on TV have them installing kitchen cabinets all the way to the ceiling where most women can’t reach.</span></div>
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D: It’s an insidious plot to get men into the kitchen.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>June 6</b>: Dinner conversation. . . . <br />
C: I read there’s a male contraceptive pill on the market now.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">D: Should I pick some up?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">C: I don’t think we need to worry about that . . . unless you’re up to something I don’t know about. We can’t afford to support any bastard children.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">D: I’ll just dump ’em as soon as they get pregnant.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">C: It’s not as easy as that these days.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>June 19</b>: C: It’s nice to know women can be as big an asshole as men.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">D: What’s nice about that?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">C: It means we’ve achieved equality.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Aug. 10</b>: Carole read a story in the Thursday’s <i>Wall Street Journal</i> that says so far this year, <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/auto-makers-advocates-wrestle-with-how-to-prevent-hot-car-deaths-11565092304">26 children have died of “pediatric vehicular heatstroke”</a> (53 total last year), with six in just the last two weeks.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">C: Most of the time it’s the father who’s taking the kid somewhere for once and forgets the child is in the car.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">D: Way to provide for the family, guy. It’s the corporate cost-cutting model: lay off extra staff to maintain solvency.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Aug. 29</b>: While we were enjoying our two-hour dinner at Papa Haydn for our anniversary Tuesday evening, a young mother with her family at a nearby table kept rising and walking with her infant daughter up and down the restaurant aisle, and sometimes out to the sidewalk out front.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Carole made some sort of wondering comment about it, and I said: “It’s the perp walk — I mean, the fashion runway.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Aug. 30</b>: C: Did you see where the President was proposing to try to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/aug/26/donald-trump-suggests-nuking-hurricanes-to-stop-them-hitting-america-report">stop the hurricane with an atomic bomb</a>?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">D: Hm-mm.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">C: My god! It would blow nuclear fallout over half the country—</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">D: —and most of his voting base.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">C: Hmmmm….</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Sept. 29</b>: Dinner table conversation.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">C: How can anyone with half a brain defend [The Incumbent]?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">D: Apparently there are people out there with half a brain.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Oct. 1</b>: Over dinner, Carole told me about an episode of “Law and Order” she watched while working out on the treadmill at the gym. It concerned a murder-rape case in which the court parties were trying to establish whether the accused was mentally disabled to the extent where he could not be held responsible for his actions.<br />
C: He confessed to the rape in such a way that they suspected he was copying a situation he’d seen in pornography. When they went to arrest him, his apartment was lined with walls of books. A psychiatrist testified that sometimes mentally underdeveloped individuals will go to great lengths to hide the fact, like carrying a book and pretending to read it in public.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">D: It’s worked for me.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Oct. 9</b>: C: Subaru has a <a href="https://www.thedrive.com/sheetmetal/17913/the-barkleys-deem-subaru-vehicles-dog-tested-dog-approved">whole family of Barkleys</a>.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">D: Any relation?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">C: They’re Golden Retrievers.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">D: Oh, then they must be Cousin Charles’s branch of the family.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Oct. 20</b>: Three workers were taking down <a href="https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/the-sukkah/">the elaborate sukkah</a> between the neo-Byzantine temple and the Sherman Education Center of Congregation Beth Israel. The structure was already flat on the ground, and one of the men was using a power drill to remove the bolts in the metal plates that attached the two-by-fours of the substantial hut to one another.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">D: Are power tools traditional?<br />
C: Yeah. Moses carried them across the desert. The power cord was the challenge.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Oct. 27</b>: C: [eyes a photo of Pence on the cover of Vision Times in a newspaper dispenser]: I don’t think he’s a real person . . . I think he’s a Disney animatronic.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Oct. 29</b>: Host at <a href="https://www.backwoodsbrewingcompany.com/">Backwoods Brewing</a> as we arrived: “Would you prefer to be seated at the bar or at a table?”<br />
I looked at Carole for confirmation as I said, “I think we prefer a table, don’t we?” Then I looked back at the host and explained: “We actually don’t mind looking at each other.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Nov. 15</b>: C: Is Rudy Giuliani traveling around the world on public money? I’d like to get a job going around the world poking my nose in other countries’ business.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">D: You have to do a powerful and constant amount of ass kissing to get that kind of job. That’s the cost.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Nov. 25</b>: C: This was a really good article about the new corporate tax [in Oregon]. Basically, we don’t have to worry about it, ’cause our sales are under a million dollars.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">D: Oh. Maybe next year.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Nov. 26</b>: C: One of the things I like about farro is it cooks faster. Only takes 20 minutes. Brown rice takes 40.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">D: It’s that easygoing Buddhist outlook of brown rice. Time has no meaning.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Dec. 14</b>: As we passed <a href="https://www.backwoodsbrewingcompany.com/">Goorin Bros. hat shop</a> on NW 23rd I looked in the window and—<br />
D: Wow, a pink hat. For guys!<br />
C: Comes with a Cadillac and a couple of floozies.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">D: I’ll take the floozies; hold the Cadillac.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Read <a href="http://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2018/04/how-we-met.html">the story of How We Met</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Read the story of <a href="http://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2018/05/our-separate-honeymoons.html">our wedding and </a></span><a href="http://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2018/05/our-separate-honeymoons.html">“separate honeymoons”</a></span><br />
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David Loftushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03855438200255152255noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4097849630041105773.post-53971900970276231282020-04-21T11:54:00.000-07:002020-05-03T12:10:31.576-07:00A Journal of the Plague Year . . . Week 4<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 15px;">
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I see I’ve gotten a little behind in gathering my thoughts and experiences related to our new reality. Here is Week 4 (I’ll upload Week 5 as well as more Portland Streetcar adventures shortly).</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">THURSDAY, APRIL 1</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">12:17 p.m. — I’m reading <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/oct/17/anna-burns-booker-prize-winner-life-changing-interview"><b><i>Milkman</i></b> by Anna Burns</a> for one of my book discussion groups.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It’s an odd coincidence that we picked this book — a Northern Ireland novel that won the 2018 Man Booker Prize, set in a vaguely authoritarian society (could be the past, could be the future; though there’s an occasional and startlingly specific reference to, say, a song by Alice Cooper that was a hit when I was in high school) . . . </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">. . . featuring religious/political enclaves and packs of roving paramilitaries . . . and we picked this book more than a month ago, well before we had any idea we would be sequestered in our homes, and planning to have our next meeting remotely by online e-conference. . . . </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">FRIDAY, APRIL 2</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">11:42 a.m. — When the <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/04/georgias-governor-apparently-just-learned-how-coronavirus-works">governor of Georgia announces</a>, on the first of April, that we “didn’t know” that the covid-19 bug could be transmitted by asymptomatic individuals “until the last 24 hours,” is he really saying:<br />
1) I was so arrogant that I paid no attention to the news, medical authorities, and scientists for the past few weeks or months?<br />
or</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">2) I didn’t pay attention to basic medicine and science in school?<br />
(I guess it’s possible that both could be true. . . .)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">12:03 p.m. — After many days of repeatedly calling both the toll-free line to the state Employment Department and the local number for the county branch office and getting nothing but a busy signal, I appear to have made it into hold-with-muzak-plus-periodic-recorded-welcomes Hell.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The last time I had to deal with the state Employment Department — following my sudden layoff in July 2009 as part of the last national recession — I remember waiting on hold for well over an hour at least once. I wager 50-50 odds it will disconnect automatically at some point. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">FRIDAY, APRIL 3</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">10:13 a.m. — Okay, here we go again.<br />
I THINK I’m in line to speak to a customer service rep at the state Employment Department because I’m hearing the same enervating muzak and recorded announcements as yesterday, before I inadvertently cut the line after an hour and 20 minutes on hold.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This time, I won’t make that mistake . . . and we’ll see how long it takes to effect a simple change of address.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">12:11 p.m. — I’ve been on hold for more than two hours now with the Portland-area Unemployment Insurance contact center.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Frankly, I can’t imagine how all the other people waiting on hold manage to keep their sanity and stay on the line instead of going batty and hanging up to let me through, given the monotonous repetition of that insipid 8 bars of smooth jazz featuring a soprano sax that sounds suspiciously like Kenny G. . . . </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">4:46 p.m. -- At 7 this evening, I will join 9 other Portland actors in a live, streaming vocal performance of “Lights Go,” a brand-new short play by Ken Yoshikawa.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It is June 2020, and Malcolm has slipped into the Winningstad Theater with the help of stage and house manager Yuri to record a special, surprise video for his boyfriend Sam, still in isolation.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But Malcolm and Yuri stumble on some ghosts in the space: the characters from “The Journal of Ben Uchida” — the last production to appear on that stage — trapped in the theater when the show was abruptly canceled by the coronavirus pandemic in mid March.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">A link will take you to the YouTube live page where, once the cast is gathered and ready, we will pop up in a live feed, and you can watch us read the script Ken composed less than five days after we lost our show in the middle of its run.<br />
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7:34 p.m. — We did it! If you missed our little livestream performance of Ken Yoshikawa’s “Lights Go” — a bit of salve for the pain for our lost show — <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yjHyfseyYY&fbclid=IwAR2wscOjIMGMWaNfv_UQ-wGtKcPvvWkm_aIawbUR_uSrkMZbJvCECw7FPX0">you can watch it here</a>.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">8:39 p.m. — I’ve lost another 3 or 4 pounds! And it’s probably ALL MUSCLE MASS!</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">SATURDAY, APRIL 4</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Feeling that my muscles had soften and my lungs steadily contracted over the preceding three weeks in solitary confinement (with spouse and dog), I took a two-hour, four- or five-mile walk and took photos of my neighborhood. So many pretty and odd sights I’d never seen before! I decided to make this a regular habit going forward.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">4:23 p.m. — Strategies for taking a walk during a viral pandemic:<br />
1. Aim for parking lots as much as possible; they have little to no traffic, and it’s easy to maintain 20 fee from just about anything and everyone.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">2. Try to travel residential side streets. Again, there’s even less traffic than the sparsely populated arterials, so you can easily cross the street — even walk down the middle of it — and veer to one side or the other to stay clear of cars, cyclists, and other pedestrians.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And if you keep your eyes open, you may be rewarded for your efforts:</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">5:30 p.m. — Idle questions for a pandemic in which a 20-foot safe space between individuals in public has been recommended. . . </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">— Should I hold my breath in elevators?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">— Should I keep an eye out for cars that have open windows, and dodge away from the street or hold my breath as they pass?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">— <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-00984-8?fbclid=IwAR0o0tv_oBr6B-aRtrCislqQbfiivEIvrzuBXs7GPtMcoGggFXL3oCxTDEU">Can dogs contract and transmit the virus</a>?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">SUNDAY, APRIL 5</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">1:46 p.m. — Other than a couple of long walks, today we took our biggest family outing in a month or more.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Over the past year, Pixie has gone blind in her left eye, which also developed an infection and glaucoma last spring that requires daily, multiple applications of medication. We cleared up the infection fairly quickly last summer, but the bulging eye has persisted — fortunately, without a concomitant rise in inner-eye pressure, according to the vet.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The canine ophthalmology specialist (one of only two in the Portland metro region, as I understand it) initially floated the eventuality of having to drain Pixie’s eye with a large needle, which would leave her overtly bereft of that eye, but we’re glad that hasn’t transpired.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Instead, our “Porta-puppy’s” left orbit bulges and waters, and sometimes looks a bit bloodshot — but appears to be holding steady under the drug treatments.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It had been three months since her last eye exam, so we decided not to cancel. Pixie LOVES to climb into her Sherpa® travel carrier, but she does NOT like the arrival at any of her vets’ offices. We try to walk her outdoors, just before going in, in an attempt to drain her excretory passages, but — catatonic with fear whenever anyone holds her but Carole or me — she often manages to poop on a vet or vet tech during her exam anyhow.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">All things considered, the 12-mile trip to Clackamas via Zipcar (thoroughly wiped down with 91-percent isopropyl alcohol before we climbed in) went about as smoothly and quickly as it could have. Someone had evidently driven the vehicle just before our reservation, but thankfully, the gas tank was full, and I drove with latex gloves on.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">MONDAY, APRIL 6</span></b></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0F0GfwgBihyphenhyphenNClUzEyHCpmI-wDwG832KK6ONFVe9SPdJKzD6Frr-HRL-bpTKIXqYp5yN4QiXkMAPeBz4wVLpvL47sWy1dgJNVBm6XWm0ELIMWel4fsHeoKl3ZHHwZC54AIpco8Ac-Ng/s1600/AmericanPlaza.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0F0GfwgBihyphenhyphenNClUzEyHCpmI-wDwG832KK6ONFVe9SPdJKzD6Frr-HRL-bpTKIXqYp5yN4QiXkMAPeBz4wVLpvL47sWy1dgJNVBm6XWm0ELIMWel4fsHeoKl3ZHHwZC54AIpco8Ac-Ng/s320/AmericanPlaza.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">12:52 a.m. — When you walk through the deserted structures of Riverplace (the Strand Condo complex and The Douglas apartments) or along SW First near the Grant and Madison Towers of the American Plaza condo (at left) . . . and you see no cars on the street, few parked at the curb, and no other pedestrians . . . </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">. . . your mind readily drifts to familiar post-apocalyptic cityscapes such as the empty downtown of New York City in “The Day After Tomorrow” (1994), the instant ghost town of Piedmont, New Mexico in “The Andromeda Strain” and vacant highways and streets of “The Omega Man” (both 1971), or another version of deserted LA in “Five” (1951) . . . </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">. . . but the weird thing is, unlike those many imagined cataclysms, you know the buildings in front of you are teeming with life.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The people haven’t died. They haven’t gone away. They weren’t swept up by aliens or evacuated en masse to the coast or an overseas continent. They’re all pretty much still there — alive and in a kind of suspended yet lively animation. Still waiting to witness and experience the catastrophe that has happened . . . and not yet happened.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Somehow, reality has managed to diverge from anything our human imagination was able to devise.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Seriously, this takes me back the late 1980s when I was a newspaper reporter for a small daily in southern Oregon, and the first time our paper ran a photo off the wire that had been altered.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It was a night shot of an Iditarod musher below a bright full moon. Beautiful image, but a note attached to the caption acknowledged that either the moon had been digitally shifted or the dog team moved closer to the center of the frame to make a better composition.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Very minor thing, but I was quietly appalled, and I said so in an in-house comment to the rest of the staff. Operating as a news outlet, I argued, we had an obligation to present content to our readers in as accurate and unmanipulated a form as possible — otherwise, how could they continue to trust us as a reliable source of information?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Even if properly captioned — even when you explain such things to readers — some percentage will be confused, or fail to read the fine print, and will circulate the content as incorrectly interpreted. Worst of all, some will start to lose trust in the source.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The same thing happened with the cover photograph of a bestselling coffee table book that was published the very month I started that job at the newspaper, October 1987. It was titled <b><i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Day-Life-America-Rick-Smolan/dp/0002553325">A Day in the Life of America</a></i></b>, the first of what would become a series of “one day” photo collections, and it the cover featured the silhouette of a cowboy on a horse, climbing a ridge with a fat crescent moon above them.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I read later that the horse and rider had been digitally shifted up the hillside to put them in closer proximity to the moon and a tree silhouetted on the left side of the frame. In other words, what the viewer sees is not exactly what was captured by the camera shutter.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">At some point in that same general era, the big newspapers such as the <i>New York Times</i> and <i>Washington Post</i> started to run front-page stories labeled “news analysis”; typically thoughtful, fair-minded, and packed with thoughts and quotations from authorities, nevertheless they were no longer just news per se. They were the beginning of a creep into full-out opinion embedded in ostensible news reports . . . which I again found objectionable.<br />
I would argue this was one of the many initial steps that led inexorably to the awful but undeniable reality of “fake news” — even if many of the stories labeled as such usually are not, while those offered in response frequently are.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">10:58 a.m. — At last, I thought. The number of page views on my blog is climbing! All the writing I’ve done the past few weeks — thoughts on the pandemic and our new reality, memories of my play, collections of original puns — is finally getting readers!<br />
But no . . . it’s the damn Russian bots showing up again.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Today was my second long walk, closer to eight miles to the southwest and back.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">10:11 p.m. — A Facebook friend passed along a page from National Public Radio that contains graphs of <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/04/07/825479416/new-yorks-coronavirus-deaths-may-level-off-soon-when-might-your-state-s-peak">projected peak date of deaths</a>, highest number of deaths, and estimated total deaths, from the pandemic in each state. The data are generated by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, and apparently will be updated on a regular basis.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It predicts Oregon will peak on April 24 (Carole’s birthday) with 5 daily deaths, and an ultimate total of 172 for our state. We’re currently at 1,132 positive covid-19 tests, and 29 fatalities.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I have a powerful skepticism toward anything resembling false hope . . . but I yearn for this to be accurate.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">TUESDAY, APRIL 7</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">12:22 a.m. — I’ve observed increasing behavior over the past few weeks that displays disdain for traffic regulations and social norms, such as<br />
— a higher ratio of drivers racing red lights and rolling through stop signs<br />
— a pool of (what I presume is) pet urine in the elevator lobby</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I do not, on the other hand, believe we have descended into utter social chaos that necessitates my purchase of a firearm — or that what I’m about to describe is a signal of its imminence.<br />
NEVERTHELESS, during the nearly five years we’ve lived here, the glass recyling bins have always stood in the same corners of the trash and recycling room, just inside the door to the left, and at the far corner to the right, and they are clearly labeled “glass only” . . . plus, the other recycling dumpsters are RIGHT NEXT TO THEM, so . . . <br />
. . . why are there pizza boxes, aluminum cans, plastic bottles, and paper milk cartons in the glass recycling bin tonight?<br />
It’s such a simple thing. Why are some of my neighbors, somehow, incapable of handling this correctly?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">8:28 a.m. — My blog’s diagnostics are getting overrun by the Russian bots. Below are the totals for the past week as of this morning.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">They’re not even looking at my recent good work. They could have targeted my commentaries on <a href="http://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2014/02/the-beatles-are-forever-absolutely.html">The Beatles</a> and <a href="http://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2018/07/and-yellow-submarine-sails-on.html">the movie “Yellow Submarine”</a> . . . or my <a href="http://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2018/07/the-harlan-ellison-non-interview-circa.html">“non-interview” of Harlan Ellison</a> or a memory of <a href="http://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2018/08/a-harlan-ellison-memory-cambridge-ma.html">seeing him finish writing and reading</a> one of his stories . . . my tale of <a href="http://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2018/04/how-we-met.html">how I met my wife</a>, and our <a href="http://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2018/05/our-separate-honeymoons.html">marriage with “separate honeymoons”</a> . . . a sentimental favorite titled </span></span>“<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2017/09/in-praise-of-oregon-rain.html">In Praise of Oregon Rain</a></span>”<span style="font-family: inherit;"> . . . or even my analytical pieces about <a href="http://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2018/09/the-ordeal-of-mark-judge.html">Mark Judge and the Kavanaugh nomination</a>, <a href="http://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2018/09/a-word-or-two-about-courage-latest-flap.html">Colin Kaepernick’s kneel</a>, how to deal with <a href="http://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2018/03/just-dont-look-at-him.html">the current President</a> . . . or my most-viewed (though maybe not most read) piece, “<a href="http://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2018/04/an-open-letter-to-second-amendment.html">An Open Letter to Second Amendment Enthusiasts</a>.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But no. Instead, the numbers appear to be climbing due to single hits on some of the oldest pages, going back to whether to shop on Black Friday (Nov. 27, 2009), whether the Miss America pageant can survive (March 8, 2010), and the advisability of a boycott of Arizona for its passage of a racial-profiling immigration bill (May 18, 2010).</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I’m NOT going to link those. The last two aren’t even my writing. This was back when a panel of commentators wrote for this blog; I pretty much took it over as sole author after 2011.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">3:12 p.m. — The weird situation we’re in — shortages of toilet paper and paper towels, then bananas, then antibacterial wash, then coffee filters, then orange juice . . . the strictly controlled admittances to supermarkets . . . limits on items-per-customer — suddenly reminds me of a comic strip I saw in the early 1970s, during “stagflation” under Nixon:</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The Wizard of Id points his wand at a pile of dirt on the floor of his lab and yells “DIRT INTO GOLD!” (zotz) and a grocery cart containing bags of food appears in its place.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In the final panel, the spirit who floats in a puff of smoke above a vat in the lab comments, “You can’t get much closer than that.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">5:56 p.m. — I managed to get into the phone waiting queue with the Employment Department a few minutes after 4:00 p.m. after calling the number dozens of times throughout the day.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I laid the phone on the kitchen counter with speakerphone activated while we chopped a fresh salad and heated soup. The ghastly 8 bars of Kenny G-style soprano sax/smooth jazz alternated with recorded messages about “a high volume of calls” and how to change your address online . . . while we sat through dinner.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Carole must have gotten sick of this, because after dinner she dove into the filing cabinets and managed to dig up a March 2012 letter from the department that actually included my 14-digit customer ID number (counting several periods and a dash), assigned more than a decade ago . . . so I was able to change my address online and hang up on more than an hour and a half of that mindless babble.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">That makes this a successful Day 27 of the Great Coronavirus Isolation Exercise.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Go to <a href="https://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2020/04/a-journal-of-plague-year-week-3.html">Journal of the Plague Year ... Week 3</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Go to <a href="https://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2020/03/a-journal-of-plague-year-week-2.html">Journal of the Plague Year ... Week 2</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Go to <a href="https://americancurrents.blogspot.com/2020/03/a-journal-of-plague-year-week-1.html">Journal of the Plague Year ... Week 1</a></span><br />
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David Loftushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03855438200255152255noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4097849630041105773.post-43400207699285407502020-04-13T16:39:00.001-07:002020-05-03T12:11:02.159-07:00Portland Walking Tour tales, 2019 . . . part 1<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 15px;">
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In 2019 I led more walking tours than in any other of the seven-plus years I’d worked for <a href="https://www.portlandwalkingtours.com/">the company</a>. By my rough count, I guided 98 tours, and probably a few more, because my records show I went downtown to lead a tour at least eight other times. I didn’t bother to distinguish between tours on which I received zero tips from guests, and scheduled tours when nobody showed up and I didn’t actually do one. (I’d estimate those divide up about 50-50.)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">For a number of years, I had settled into a once- or twice-a-week routine — most often, the 10 a.m. Tuesday tour — because I had so many other free-lance jobs to juggle; plus, starting in the summer of 2014, a second part-time job with Portland Streetcar.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But in a massive unforeseen shakeup in February and March last year, the company lost more than two-thirds of its guides. Suddenly, the rest of us had to scramble to fill the schedule. I often led four or five tours a week, occasionally seven or eight . . . and I think there was at least one week I did nine tours (including several daily doubles, obviously).<br />
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(That I had “only” 98 is due to the fact that I accepted no assignments between mid January and mid March, in order to prepare for, then go on, a vacation cruise around New Zealand, courtesy of my Mom.)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Anyway, here are some of the memorable tales from my 2019 walking tours.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">JANUARY 1</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The first day of the year was lovely.<br />
I set the alarm for 7 a.m., as I often do on Tuesday mornings before a tour, without remembering the streetcar would be on a holiday/Sunday schedule, so there wouldn’t be any trains at that hour.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I walked the 8 blocks north to Tilikum Crossing to catch a MAX train instead.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The forecast had predicted dry but cold weather, so bundled up in my new puffy jacket, a cashmere scarf, heavy gloves, my trusty brown Pendleton cowboy hat, and double socks with an outer layer of wool.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The sky was still black, but the dawn started to break while I waited at the west end of the bridge. I watched the <a href="http://www.blashfieldstudio.com/installations.html">Jim Blashfield</a> “Flooded Data Machine” morph from running water droplets to crackling flames and shifting iron workers for the 13 minutes it took for the train to arrive.</span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">My three tour guests were Californians from the Bay Area (Saratoga Springs) and LA (Whittier), and by the time we hit the bright sun at the waterfront around noon, we were all very, very lighthearted. Of course I told them Portland weather is NEVER like this, and they should tell everyone back home it rains here ALL THE TIME.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">FEBRUARY 19</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I had a quartet of guests this morning (on whom I’m glad it didn’t rain).</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The trio voiced an array of dialects from across the British Commonwealth. The older woman told me she had been born in Zimbabwe, lived for a time in Johannesburg and Capetown, and had settled in Wellington, New Zealand the past eight years “so now I’m a Kiwi!” Her daughter and son-in-law live in Vancouver BC.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Then there was a lively young woman from Argentina, easy to laugh, smile, and talk.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The man from Vancouver told me I looked like Jeff Goldblum, which I hadn’t heard before (certainly not as often as <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000657/">David Strathairn</a>, but I’ll take it).</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">MARCH 16</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I was SO HIGH through my entire tour this afternoon — one of the best ever!</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">First, I was simply in a great mood from having just completed a fabulous vacation to New Zealand: returning to shirtsleeve weather in town after Carole had reported cold, rain, even a little snow, while I was away; and getting to do my second tour back after several weeks off.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Second, I had a great array of guests: a pair of women from Vancouver BC . . . a young couple from D.C. . . . an earnest young man from India by way of Raleigh NC on temporary assignment as project engineer for a construction firm . . . a young woman from New York and (I am guessing) her mother from Thailand . . . a single professional guy from San Diego . . . and a young couple hefting an infant who have settled here the past two years because the father grew up in the Garden Home neighborhood and brought his Kentucky-bred wife back here from college.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The female half of the D.C. couple was in town for a nonprofit tech conference (she works for NPR in Washington), the guy from San Diego was escaping the spring-break crowd down there for the weekend.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">My pre-programmed mood made me loud, joyous, teasing, and devil-may-care from the start. But, as happens on many tours, first-time-ever events occurred along the way, to wit:</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">— a pair of newlyweds posing on the steps of <a href="https://www.gsa.gov/historic-buildings/gus-j-solomon-us-courthouse-portland-or">Gus Solomon Courthouse</a> in full dress as we passed (so several of my group wished them hearty congrats)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">— a drummer doing a VERY LOUD sound check on the stage set up in Waterfront Park for tomorrow’s Shamrock Run, much to my mock outrage</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">— a yellow plastic Iguanodon to accompany the rather scraggly tree in <a href="https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/mill-ends-park">Mill Ends Park</a></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The drummer made it a challenge to be heard by my group of ten as I tried to describe Mill Ends Park and the Portland Loo just downwind of him, so I yelled “MORE COWBELL!” in his general direction.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">As we rounded the fenced-off festival area, I heard somebody shouting on a PA, and — whattayaknow? — a street evangelist was haranguing afternoon pedestrians along the river. I had to serpentine my group between the two noisemakers to try to minimize their interference with my spiel.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Once I’d shepherded my guests to the railing overlooking the Willamette, I noticed the preacher strolling our direction. I paused and murmured, “keep moving, fella,” to amuse my tour group, then added, “But I’ll just keep smiling and pretending I’m doing great” — which I really was; nothing could dampen my spirits at that point, partly due to the fact that:</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: inherit;">I used to talk about “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grimm_(TV_series)">Grimm</a>” a lot during my tour when it was on the air, but depending on how I read my group, I often skip it these days. On the off chance, however, as we passed the big hole in the ground where the Lotus used to stand, I asked whether anyone was <a href="http://calitreview.com/26055/nbcs-fantasy-series-grimm-set-in-portland-oregon/">familiar with the show</a>, and one of the women from Vancouver responded YES, she was A FAN!</span></div>
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So I told her <a href="http://calitreview.com/26063/clr-writer-david-loftus-recounts-his-role-as-a-reaper-on-nbcs-grimm/">I had appeared in episode 19</a> of the first season, shot in the bar that used to be right next to the sidewalk where we were walking. And she remembered my episode before I even got to describe the climax with the box. So she was PSYCHED and had to take some dual selfies after the tour to show her son later.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">So I was even higher when it was all over. (Here</span></span>’<span style="font-family: inherit;">s a photo of the wonderful Lotus Cardroom & Lounge back in 2012, the year I shot my scenes in it, when it was 88 years old, six years </span><a href="https://www.oregonlive.com/news/erry-2018/06/053ea8a1ae4099/demolition_begins_on_downtowns.html" style="font-family: inherit;">before it was torn down</a><span style="font-family: inherit;">).</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">MARCH 19</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This morning’s tour was the opposite of Saturday’s [the one above] in many ways . . . except for the mutual pleasure throughout and the satisfaction at its conclusion.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Only two guests were registered last night, and despite the gorgeous weather today, no one else walked up before we were off. My tour group consisted of a woman and her ’tween daughter from Canada.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I quickly sensed that the daughter was extremely intelligent but shy and possibly fragile — on the near end of the autism spectrum, perhaps. Her mother was highly attentive to and solicitous of her, but not overly so.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The eighth grader had thick glasses and tended to stare casually around us instead of focusing on me and my spiel, yet she instantly snapped out the answers to some of my questions which other tour groups often require hints to get, if they do at all.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">She knew what a Möbius strip is, for example (that</span></span>’<span style="font-family: inherit;">s the <a href="https://portlandpublicart.wordpress.com/2005/12/15/hilda-morris-and-ring-of-time/">Hilda Morris</a></span><a href="https://portlandpublicart.wordpress.com/2005/12/15/hilda-morris-and-ring-of-time/"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> sculpture, </span>“<span style="font-family: inherit;">Ring of Time,</span>”</a><span style="font-family: inherit;"> in the Standard Plaza at 1100 SW 6th), and she guessed what the second most valuable commercial property is after waterfront. When I asked which subjects she liked the most in school, she said that’s a hard question, because there are so many. She likes math and science, particularly biology and brain science.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Her mother was also sharp as a whip (mentioned having attended school in Chicago), and laughed at all my jokes. Tipped well, too.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">MARCH 21</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">As I’ve often said before, most of my tours, in their infinite variety, feature a first-time-ever occurrence.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This noon, as I was leading my group toward the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Promised_Land_(sculpture)">“Promised Land” bronze</a> of a pioneer family in Chapman Square, a multicolored load of plummeting bird poop glanced off my right cheek and splattered across my branded bolo shirt, neck, and collarbone while I was talking to my guests.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Fortunately, I had a stack of Starbucks napkins in my trusty satchel, and wiped it off my face . . . then the retired gentleman from Connecticut obligingly cleaned the rest I couldn’t see on myself.</span></span></div>
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David Loftushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03855438200255152255noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4097849630041105773.post-72485381874818957642020-04-06T12:34:00.000-07:002020-05-03T12:11:24.032-07:00Covid-19 Stat Watching, Considered as a Fairgrounds Horse Race<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 12px;">
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Growing up, do you remember an amusement at the annual county or state fair that recreated a horse race in electronic form? </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Among the booths that featured a series of moving metal duck decoys you tried to shoot with a facsimile rifle . . . and the one that contained dozens of goldfish bowls you tried to toss a penny into . . . and the wall of balloons you tried to puncture with darts . . . and the tiny plastic duckies racing along a watercourse, each carrying a number on which you could place a bet to predict the winner . . . was a horse-racing game.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">You’d pay money to compete by shooting a steel ball through a miniature pinball table-box that racked up points which translated into the progress of your horse in a race.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I remember a race that progressed via images of racehorses that lit up across the face of a wall from left to right — lighted holes in a metal screen, rather than strictly digital imagery . . . but this fair-use photo shows one that had actual horse-and-jockey models that tracked along a horizontal racetrack:</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">FOLLOWING THE NUMBERS</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I am reminded of those horse arcades as I study the day-to-day stats of growing Covid-19 cases <a href="https://govstatus.egov.com/OR-OHA-COVID-19">across my state</a> (county by county) as well as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2020/apr/05/coronavirus-map-us-latest-cases-state-by-state">the United States</a> (state by state).</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Day after day for the past week and a half, I’ve inspected and copied the numbers for the 36 counties in my state . . . and the 50 states (plus the territories of Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Virgin Islands, which the source I consult has included). I watch the numbers shift upward together, and keep an eye out for shifts in ranking — when one county surpasses another, and one state leaps ahead of others — which is what reminded me of the horse race game.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Except that if you’re living in one of those states, your goal is the opposite of what it was at the fair: You want to go as slowly as you can . . . even come to a complete halt, if it were possible.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">You want to lose. You even wish the entire race would grind to a halt without reaching whatever grisly but unknown finish line it’s headed for.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">THE TEMPTATION OF SCHADENFREUDE</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">If you’re not familiar with it, the term “schadenfreude” (pronounced “SHAW-den-froyduh”) is one of those wonderfully useful words the Germans came up with to describe a complicated human emotional state. It refers to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global/2018/oct/14/the-secret-joys-of-schadenfreude-why-it-shouldnt-be-a-guilty-pleasure">the pleasure (often secret) we feel</a> when we see the misfortune of others.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Two weeks ago, many of us in the urban, blue-state regions of the country were outraged that rich <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/destinations/2020/03/19/spring-break-beaches-florida-look-packed-despite-coronavirus-spread/2873248001/">college kids were partying</a> for spring break on the beaches of Florida and streets of New Orleans, and presumably infecting one another with the virus to take home to them across the nation, at a time when we had already gone into self-isolation mode. (It didn’t take long for one of the more infamous partiers to <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/brady-sluder-florida-spring-breaker-if-i-get-corona-apology-coronavirus/">walk back his viral comments</a> and apologize.)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">We were also infuriated that southern red-state governors as well as the President refused to <a href="https://www.news4jax.com/news/local/2020/03/19/gov-brian-kemp-to-address-covid-19-in-georgia/">mandate business shutdowns</a>, or citizen self-quarantine . . . and continued to allow churches to hold mass services and treated <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-administration-gun-shops-are-essential-businesses-coronavirus-outbreak-2020-3">gun stores as essential business</a> operations. Georgia governor Brian Kemp <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/georgia-governor-brian-kemp-is-lying-or-incompetent-977425/">made himself a national laughingstock</a> Wednesday when he bowed to pressure to issue a stay-at-home order but added he was only just “finding out that this virus is now transmitting before people see signs.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But now, it’s getting admittedly hard to avoid an impending sense of schadenfreude. Those scoffers may pay a price — a big one — for what the rest of us regarded as their former resistance and denial of reality. The “horse race” is showing those (mostly red, mostly southern) states — as well as at least one big north-Midwest state that made the mistake (in our humble opinion) of tipping in favor of the despicable incumbent in the last general election — coming up fast in the Covid-19 2020 Sweepstakes.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">THE HORSE RACE IN OREGON</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In my home state, the top three counties have stayed consistently the same. Washington, Marion, and Multnomah have steadily reported the highest number of identified coronavirus cases, at least in the 12 days I’ve checked (but likely prior to that, as well). I’ve qualified this as “identified” because testing has been inconsistent, incomplete, and therefore of limited value . . . though in Oregon’s case, reality is unlikely to have diverged far from what we’ve been able to see.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">(My stats are all coming from the <a href="https://govstatus.egov.com/OR-OHA-COVID-19">Oregon Health Authority</a></span></span><a href="https://govstatus.egov.com/OR-OHA-COVID-19">’</a><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://govstatus.egov.com/OR-OHA-COVID-19">s Covid-19 page</a>, which is updated </span>“<span style="font-family: inherit;">as of ... 8 a.m.</span>”<span style="font-family: inherit;"> every day, although the actual updates have often not occurred until well into the afternoon.)</span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">What’s interesting is that by far the most densely populated of the three — <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multnomah_County,_Oregon">my own county of Multnomah</a>, which includes most of downtown Portland — has NOT led the race for most of the past month. According to 2018 estimates cited on Wikipedia, population density in Multnomah is 1,874 per square mile, while in Washington it’s only 826 per square mile; the latter has fewer than 3/4 as many residents who are spread out over nearly twice as much area.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The first cases of Covid-19 infection in the state came to light in Washington County. The <a href="https://www.opb.org/news/article/washington-county-oregon-coronavirus/">very first one, on Feb. 28</a>, was a Washington County resident who happened to be employed at a school in Lake Owego, which is in Clackamas County to the south.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_County,_Oregon">Washington County</a> is the much more suburban strip mall/big grass lawns/high tech part of the Portland metro region. Nike world headquarters, Tektronix, many Intel facilities, and similar companies are there, as well as a string of middle-class bedroom communities for Portland metro. To the south, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Oswego,_Oregon">Lake Oswego</a> is one of the whitest, wealthiest cities in the state, though <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clackamas_County,_Oregon">Clackamas County</a> also has pockets of poverty (as well as very UN-Portland conservative enclaves on its southern and eastern reaches).</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Thus, the first investigations for the spread of coronavirus (and therefore testing) in Oregon likely occurred mostly in Washington and Clackamas, so that’s where the numbers of identified cases climbed first. Washington has remained out front the whole way. (Above are the totals as of Friday; the first column of numbers is total positive cases, the second figure is total deaths in that county, and the final column is total number of tests </span>— the vast majority of them negatives, of course<span style="font-family: inherit;">.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Until recently, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marion_County,_Oregon">Marion County</a> — which is home to the state capital, Salem, as well as a number of state prisons — was in second. Multnomah, which took a little longer both to identify contagion and to gain access to substantial testing, only just moved into second place on Saturday, April 4 (compare the figures on that date, below, to the ones cited above).</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>WHAT’S HAPPENING FURTHER OUT</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In the rest the state, as of yesterday, 7 of the state’s 36 counties still reported zero positive tests — though in aggregate, they have had 432 tests. Coos County, on the south Pacific Coast where I lived in my teens and graduated from high school, has seen a lot of nervous testing relative to its ostensible clean bill of health: 232, so far . . . though the results may not be conclusive. On Thursday, the <i>Wall Street Journal</i> reported that false negatives could be running as high as one-third.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Other pockets of relatively higher numbers — crawling upward in the zone between the “big three” and most of the rest of the state, two-thirds of whose counties still report zero or single-digit totals (always keeping in mind the relative inaccessibility and paucity of testing) — are Linn County (including Albany, 11th largest city in the state, but likely home to many students and families associated with Oregon State University, less than a dozen miles west and just over the border in Benton County: 43 cases as of Sunday) . . . Deschutes County (home to Bend, Sun River, and other recently fast-growing retirement centers, especially for southern Californians, we hear: 39 cases on Sunday) . . . Jackson County (Medford, the state’s fourth largest metro area, plus Ashland, the artsy-craftsy liberal refuge where my mother and brother Ken live: 33) . . . Lane County (surprisingly lagging, given that it contains the state’s second largest city of Eugene and the University of Oregon: 27) . . . and Polk County (which has the western side of the state capital of Salem: 24).</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">You can see most of those individual totals in the final chart excerpt above.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b><i><span style="font-family: inherit;">Next: the national horse race of Covid-19 cases. . . . </span></i></b></span></div>
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David Loftushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03855438200255152255noreply@blogger.com0