In an interview broadcast today, singer John Mellencamp described to NPR’s Terry Gross the inspiration for the song “Longest Days” on his 2008 CD, Life Death Love and Freedom. He said his grandmother called him Buddy. She lived to 100. Late in life she often asked him to lay in bed with her as she […]
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When I was a kid in the 1960s and lived in an old rented house (old by Florida standards — 1930s), I was convinced it had hidden spaces. Off the living room was an alcove we called the library. One wall had a love seat and window looking out onto an orange grove. The other […]
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Every so often I stumble upon a story and see myself as the central character: It sounded like a bunch of centaurs were following an exercise video upstairs, right above my bed this morning. Interesting visual, but at 7 AM there ain’t a damn thing more fascinating and beautiful than the backs of my eyelids […]
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The ‘hood has changed after a week of violent crime only a short walk from my Northeast Portland house. Count them: two stabbings in two gang fights at the Lloyd Center Mall, another gang fight at the Applebee’s restaurant across the street from the mall, a bank robbery, and a gang-related shooting at an Asian […]
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To deter teenagers from congregating in certain areas at night, British groups are deploying pink lights that highlight their pimples. The lights, unlike those that attract and electrocute mosquitoes and other insects, play on the vanity and self-consciousness of young people to drive them away.
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Cracked Window needed a friend. How else to explain its diminutive new companion, More Cracked, a spartan place for random photos and asides. With Cracked Window nearing its one-year anniversary, I decided a big blog and Twitter aren’t enough for the ephemera I latch onto. Better to get it out of my head and make […]
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In the midst of economic despair, my Visa card company sends me a promotion to see a Formula I car race in Monaco (copied in full below). The cost, not including airfare, is $13,600 for two people — the required minimum. Receiving the offer must portend a pending windfall. Either that or someone believes I […]
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Posting a comment on Facebook has landed me a radio show interview tomorrow. Topic: the implications of severe cutbacks at the Oregon Historical Society Research Library, where I spent much of the last two years researching this book.
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Do two make a trend? I’ve now seen lone tricycles perpetually locked to sidewalk bike racks outside two Northeast Portland restaurants. They’re obviously in place for symbolic value, but symbolizing what? One has been parked outside Tin Shed for at least a few years. A couple nights ago, a newer trike grabbed my attention. It’s […]
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Feel like the country is overrun with greed and inefficiency? Hard not to these days. So these numbers sprang off a whiteboard at the Oregon Humane Society today: Animals adopted last year: 3,810 dogs, 5,197 cats, and 999 other (rabbits, hamsters, and similar small animals). Adoption rates, respectively: 99, 95, and 92 percent. Only medical […]
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