Posted inCurrent affairs

I’m not an economist, but isn’t unemployment worse than inflation?

Usually my response to bad economic news is to ignore it as much as possible. After all, what goes up must come down, and what goes down must come up. So freaking out over short-term worries about inflation, unemployment, the stock market, gas prices, or whatever generally isn't justified. Typically, when things look to be the darkest, the economic sun is about to turn brighter. Thus even though I find it difficult to look at my iPhone's stock market app first thing in the morning, because I don't want to get depressed before I've had breakfast (might as well wait…
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Posted inFilm Sustainability

Elemental is a film with wildfire lessons for Oregon

It was purely coincidence, but there was still something wonderfully strange to have Ralph Bloemers, the Executive Producer of Elemental, a gripping documentary about wildfires, talking last Friday night in our living room with my wife and I about the film while we and other neighbors were worried about the Vitae Springs wildfire in south Salem that started that day and had led to a Level 2 (Get Set) evacuation order that extended almost to our neighborhood adjacent to the Ankeny Wildlife Refuge. Bloemers parked his camper van at our house Friday night since he had to be both at…
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Posted inEntertainment Humor

Taylor Tomlinson’s stand-up comedy heals my frazzled psyche

My big problem with life is... (drumroll please)... LIFE.  Meaning, insofar as I know what I mean, but now that I just wrote this blog's topic sentence, I'm stuck with explaining it, no matter how many problems get fixed in my life, new ones pop up like a perpetual motion machine designed by a sadist. I suspect most people feel this way. So what are we to do?  Sex, drugs, and rock-and-roll only can take us so far, especially if we're (OK, me) so old, sex is starting to  look like the car that zipped by in the other lane…
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Posted inSalem

Russ & Delana Beaton’s 61st anniversary celebration

Tonight Russ and Delana Beaton celebrated 61 years of marriage at the Willamette Heritage Center's Dye House. Their children, Lynn, Alan, and Brenda, organized the event in a masterful fashion. Laurel, my wife, and I have known the Beatons for a long time, over 25 years. If there's one word that describes them, its nice. If you want two words, nice and caring. Going for three, nice and caring and competent.  After a moving slide show of their married life narrated in a poetic rhyming fashion by their children, other people spoke about Russ and Delana. When a microphone was…
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Posted inBooks

My unusual joy in reading a big thick novel, The Magus

A few days ago I felt the satisfaction of climbing a large mountain. Exhausted. Exhilarated. Satisfied. Except my mountain was a big thick book, The Magus by John Fowles. It isn't that I'm unacquainted with big thick books. They're just usually non-fiction. It'd been a long time since I'd tackled a literary novel like this one. I'm not sure how The Magus ended up on a shelf where my unread books resided. I recall hearing that it was a classic thriller of sorts. This is the Amazon description. Widely considered John Fowles's masterpiece, The Magus is "a dynamo of suspense…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

Remember Ukraine. American support can’t waver.

It's been about six months since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022. In those dark early days of the war, it seemed highly unlikely that Ukraine would still be an independent nation half a year later. Yet here we are, with the brave Ukrainians basically fighting Russia to a standstill. So let's remember Ukraine -- today, tomorrow, every day.  If Ukraine continues to get strong support from the United States and our allies, there's a very good chance that before too long Putin and his Kremlin cronies will realize that the price of waging their unprovoked war against Ukraine…
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Posted inLiving with a catheter

Decaf coffee irritates the bladder because of acidity, as well as some caffeine

Since for a bit more than five years I've had to use a urinary catheter to pee, aside from the small amount I can release on my own, coffee has been a continuing concern for me. For decades prior to having my bladder go on strike -- technical term, becoming atonic -- I was a coffee addict. I'd drink 4-5 cups a day, at just about any time. After starting intermittent catheterization five times a day, and knowing that the caffeine in coffee stimulates the production of urine in many people, including me, at first I split the difference and…
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Posted inSalem

Failing Statesman Journal fires two experienced journalists

As the Statesman Journal sinks further into a journalistic abyss of mediocrity, sadly its cruel corporate overlords are dragging down highly competent staff in another round of firings. The Statesman Journal staff directory hasn't been updated yet, so via these screenshots let's have faces and titles to go with the names. Currie was one of the four members of the Newsroom Leadership. Since Salem is the Oregon capital, and Radnovich was the reporter for state government/legislature, naturally the non-geniuses at the Gannett Corporation picked him to be fired -- a dumb move if the Statesman Journal wants to be a…
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Posted inHome life

Our curved railings by Outdoor Fence Co. turned out well

Our home in rural south Salem has quite a few quirks, most of them desirable. For example, we have tons (literally) of granite rock in our landscaping, courtesy of the Garden Poet redesign not long after we moved here in 1990. My wife and I love the natural look of large rocks and flat stepping stones. But when we contacted Salem's Outdoor Fence Co. for a bid on installing a metal railing along the walkway from our driveway to front door, and another railing along the stepping stones from our carport to the walkway, those rocks became a bit of…
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Posted inEntertainment

RRR is a terrific action movie about India under British domination

I just finished watching RRR -- "Rise Roar Revolt" -- a movie from India on Netflix that's a mind-blowing three-hour combination of action, thriller, romance, dance, superhero, and probably other genres that I could recall if my mind wasn't in such a blown state. (It's got English captioning, and quite a bit of the dialogue is in English.) I loved RRR. India fascinates me. I've visited the country twice and was a devotee of an Indian guru for 35 years, which led to me spending a lot of time around people from India. So when I read about the movie…
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Posted inScience

If you frequently think about sex, you’re likely to be a man

Seemingly the title of this blog post is a good candidate for top honors in the "Well, duh, that's obvious" pantheon of trite statements. But, hey, I learned about this unsurprising finding in the June 2022 issue of Scientific American, so it's decidedly science'y.  The article is called "Men Aren't from Mars, nor are Women from Venus." This, of course, is a mirror image of John Gray's 1992 book, "Men Are from Mars, Women are from Venus." It's based on a study of studies involving the personality traits of more than 15,000 people. Cisgender people. Which means people whose gender…
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Posted inSalem

Salem Art Fair should move to Riverfront Park

Having been unimpressed with the new Salem Art Fair location in Bush Park -- as described in "Salem Art Fair better for trees in new location, but not as pleasant now" -- when I saw Wes Bouche's Facebook post, I thought Great idea! ( I assume last two words were meant to be "same time.") This makes a lot of sense. The World Beat Festival has lots of booths, just as the Art Fair does, and it fits nicely at Riverfront Park. The old amphitheater could be used for daytime entertainment, with the new Rotary Club amphitheater used for the evening…
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Posted inSalem

Salem Art Fair better for trees in new location, but not as pleasant now

After a Covid-caused hiatus, the Salem Art Fair is back in Bush Park this weekend. But not in its usual location under trees, because that was causing damage to the white oaks from soil compaction. So it moved to the large open grassy area adjacent to High Street.  Laurel and I went to the fair this afternoon for our usual Friday visit. It was enjoyable. However, not nearly as enjoyable as in the previous location. Paying for admission was the first shock. Recalling that the previous entrance fee was $5, I handed over a $20 bill for the two of…
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Posted inSalem

My photos and commentary on Salem 2022 Tour of Homes

This year it was easy for Laurel, my wife, and I to visit most of the newly-built Salem houses in the 2022 Tour of Homes, because there were only three. Seven of the eleven homes in the Tour were in Dallas and one was in Monmouth. Here's photos, and my commentary on them, for the two houses in south Salem that we visited. We passed on a house in NE Salem. The Tour of Homes runs from Saturday, July 9 through Sunday, July 17. Hours are noon-6 pm on weekends, 6 pm-9 pm on weeknights. Free admission. This is a…
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Posted inLiving with a catheter

I offer advice to someone new to using a urinary catheter

Today I heard from a woman whose 56 year old husband had his bladder go atonic, dysfunctional, two months ago. Understandably, he's suffering both physically and psychologically given this abrupt change in his life. She had read the essay I wrote for 180 Medical, which supplies my catheters, that had the not-very-cheery title, "My urinary catheter-related depression and anxiety." I was asked if I had any resources, advice, or support I could suggest. Well, here's the thoughts that come immediately to mind. I'll use this blog post as a reply to the woman, copying it into my email reply. I'll…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

I can’t celebrate Independence Day when freedom is under attack

I resonate with this image I saw on Facebook, though it doesn't go far enough. Yes, the horrendous Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade took away the freedom of women in about half the states to choose an abortion. Thankfully, Oregon isn't one of them. But there's plenty of other threats to the values our country was founded on. We're in grave danger of losing them. Democracy. The January 6 committee is doing a great job of revealing the details of how close Trump and his enablers came to overturning the 2020 presidential election won by Joe Biden. What's…
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Posted inLiving with a catheter

Diet could play a role when having a problem inserting a urinary catheter

I've been doing the intermittent urinary catheterization thing five times a day since my bladder became atonic in May 2017, a bit over five years ago.  Or as I like to say, my bladder went on strike back then and hasn't returned to work since. At least, not very well. I can pee some on my own, but not enough to stop using a catheter to empty my bladder. At times I've suffered from some pretty severe anxiety and depression, which I described in an essay 180 Medical asked me to write. I've also wondered whether anyone cares about my…
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Posted inBicycling Salem

A gloriously-written ode to bicycles in The New Yorker

The May 30, 2022 issue of The New Yorker has a terrific book review by Jill Lepore that is a whole lot more than a typical review, since Lepore describes her love affair with bicycles in the course of describing Jody Rosen's "Two Wheels Good: The History and Mystery of the Bicycle." I encourage you to read the entire piece. But if that link doesn't work for you (I'm a subscriber), here's excerpts from what was called Easy Rider in the print edition, and the title below online. The New Yorker has some of the best writers anywhere. Lepore is…
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Posted inHome life Web/Tech

My email nightmare shows how hooked I am on Gmail

I've got quite a few problems in my life, as do we all. But what sets off a special fear in me is when I get a message from Apple Mail on my MacBook Pro laptop saying something like, "Unable to connect to Gmail. Username or password not recognized." Sometimes the problem is easily fixed by restarting my computer. But a few days ago it was a waking nightmare. Nothing had changed with my Gmail account. I'd simply shut the lid on my laptop, as I do every night before I go to bed, then flipped it open in the…
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Posted inWeb/Tech

Don’t fall for the “copyright violation” Facebook scam

I'm embarrassed to admit this, but for a while today I was taken in by this (now) obvious Facebook scam. My excuse is that I did indeed purchase a Facebook ad/promotion last weekend to support a petition asking the Salem City Council to include in an upcoming $300 million bond measure the Salem Bike Vision proposal for spending $10 million to build a network of protected bike lanes. (Sign the petition! If you're reading this before August 2022.) So my eye was caught by "your ad has been reported," since some commenters on my Facebook post are crazily anti-bicycle, and…
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