Posted inHumor Salem

Comic says “Money doesn’t influence anyone.” Funny!

I love Pearls Before Swine's often caustic and cynical humor. Yesterday the comic strip featured Stephen Pastis' take on the Supreme Court's absurd contention that... "Spending large sums of money in connection with elections... does not give rise to quid pro quo corruption." Yeah, right.  In seven panels Pastis destroyed this argument. (click to enlarge) Of course, this crap also is going on right here in semi-sleepy Salem, Oregon. Wasn't long ago that I blogged about "Salem Chamber of Commerce tries to buy City Council seats." 
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Posted inSalem Strange Up Salem

At Salem’s French Press, a tale of two free papers

Waiting for a to-go order to be prepared at Cafe Yumm (my wife and I love this fairly new Salem restaurant), I headed across the parking lot to caffeinate myself at French Press. Where my 16 ounce non-fat vanilla latte had a marvelously artistic look to it. I have no idea how baristas do this. Actually, I don't want to know. I like living with the mystery of "Wow!" Whether by chance or design, the guy who made my latte achieved a blossom within a heart within primordial ripples of the big bang. Or something like that.  Needing some reading…
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Posted inHome life Salem

After 37 years, my last Betsy Thelan haircut

Since 1977 I've had a marvelous relationship with a Salem woman. She was with me through the end of my first marriage after 18 years. She's stood by my side through the 24 years of my second marriage.  Heck, she I have spent more continuous time together than almost anybody else in my life. So it was bittersweet for us to hug and say our goodbyes today. The occasion deserved a parting selfie. Betsy Thelan has been cutting my hair since I moved to Salem 37 years ago. Now she and her husband are moving to central Oregon to live…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Marijuana

Oregon anti-drug summit cancelled. Oregon Marijuana Education Tour should be also.

Good news for advocates of ethical political campaigns. Willamette Week is reporting that a planned Oregon Marijuana, Alcohol, and Other Drug Summit in Madras on October 1-2 has been cancelled. (See the blog post I wrote yesterday about the summit and associated tour.) The sponsor of a government-funded anti-drug summit has cancelled the event after WW first reported it had been set timed to coincide with the fight over Measure 91, the marijuana legalization measure. BestCare Treatment Services said late Thursday it was withdrawing from the summit, which was scheduled to include anti-drug activist Kevin Sabet. WW's story raised questions about the timing of a tour that would include…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

Taxpayer-funded “Reefer Madness” tour coming to Oregon

So for self-interested reasons, who would you expect would be against Measure 91, an Oregon initiative that would legalize recreational marijuana? Why, (1) law enforcement officials, because as long as marijuana is illegal, they have more lawbreakers in this state to justify their budgets; and (2) drug treatment staff, because so long as marijuana is (wrongfully) viewed as a dangerous drug, they have a larger pool of supposed drug abusers to justify their programs. Currently polling is showing that Measure 91 likely will pass in the upcoming November election. Backers of the initiative recently announced a $2.3 million advertising campaign.…
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Posted inRecreation

Photos of our 2014 Canyon Creek Meadows hike

Back in 2007 I shared photos of how the Canyon Creek Meadows trail looked four years after the 2003 B and B Complex fire roared through this part of the Jefferson Wilderness in central Oregon.  Here's an update, seven years later.  Yeah, just a little ways from the trailhead we're told this is wilderness. As in wild. As in Thoreau's famous saying, "In Wildness is the preservation of the world." It sure helps us feel better about the world to be away-from-it-all for a while.  Early on in the hike it is evident that regrowth is happening 11 years after…
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Posted inSalem

Bend (gasp!) shows Salem how to do urban design

There's a lot to like about Bend. But I've never thought of this central Oregon city as being on the cutting edge of mixed-use urban development. Well, I've never thought of my home town, Salem, as being cutting-edge in that way either. In fact, in any way. There's also a lot to like about Salem. However, there's a reason Oregon's capital city is often referred to as So-Lame. Still, I've figured that since Salem is in the mostly progressive Willamette Valley we had an edge over Bend in urban design, given that Bend is more conservative politically (in-migration of Californians…
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Posted inSalem

Salem’s newspaper gets new publisher. We really need a new newspaper.

The Salem Statesman Journal has a new publisher, Terry Horne, nine days after the Gannett Corporation announced it was spinning off its newspaper operations, leaving them to an uncertain economic fate.Download Terry Horne to join Statesman Journal as new publisher Gannett announced that previous publisher Steve Silberman was "moving on to a new job" on the same day the restructuring was revealed. Supposedly the search for his replacement would take place far and wide. Download Statesman Journal publisher moving to new job in Gannett John Zidich, president of Gannett's U.S. Community Publishing Divisions' West Group, said the company would consider internal…
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Posted inSalem

How to solve downtown Salem’s parking problem

Last night I attended a meeting of a group that has been discussing parking problems in downtown Salem, Oregon. I don't know if it has an official name, so I'll call it the Parking Group. From what I could tell it is made up of small business owners. A few outside observers, such as me, also were in attendance. The Parking Group's goal is to come up with some recommendations to improve the downtown parking experience, then send them on to the Salem City Council. Some background:  Last year a City Parking Task Force was well on its way to…
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Posted inHome life Salem

Our baby boomer quandary: keep living in large house, or downsize?

Like I've blogged about before, my wife and I -- both 65 years old --  are having trouble figuring out what we want to do when we grow up. More precisely, where we want to live. Do we keep on living in our beautiful, large, non-easy care, early 1970's house on ten acres in rural south Salem, or do we join the downsizing crowd and move to a smaller home in the city? Recently we invited a realtor to join us in our this or that, here or there perplexed ponderings. Rich Ford of Windermere Real Estate was recommended to…
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Posted inSalem

More Salem Historic District street trees may be removed

When I heard that plans are afoot (love that phrase) to remove more large, beautiful trees in Salem's downtown historic district, my interest was aroused.  After all, I followed the 2013 U.S. Bank tree removal debacle extremely closely. Eventually I wrote a tell-all report, "Outrage: Salem's U.S. Bank tree killings," about how the bank president and City of Salem Public Works director cut down five large, beautiful trees for no good reason, then misled the public about why they did it. I also was instrumental in saving some large, beautiful trees on downtown's High Street. In this case a property owner…
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Posted inSalem

How will Gannett restructuring affect Salem Statesman Journal?

Likely executives at our one and only community newspaper, the Salem (Oregon) Statesman Journal, will try to put a positive spin on today's announcement that Gannett is spinning off its newspaper holdings and USA Today -- separating them from its more lucrative assets: television and digital operations.Download Gannett to spin off publishing business But this is one more sign that newpapers are struggling in an increasingly online age. And Gannett isn't fighting in a heroic fashion, having a goal of preserving high journalistic standards even if it means going out of business one day. Rather, as a Forbes piece puts it, "Gannett Spin-Off Makes…
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Posted inSalem

I may not sound compassionate, but I’d say I am

"You don't sound as compassionate as the other people." That was my wife's reaction when she read yesterday's Salem Statesman Journal Rapid Response piece, which featured short responses from newspaper subscribers who have signed up to answer editorial queries. Download Rapid Response: Short takes on two big questions This week featured two questions. Here are my answers to each. Q. As Americans, what should our response be to the global suffering? A. Let's be honest: We have no idea what the suffering of people half way around the world, or even next door, is like. Our compassion is conceptual. We try…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

Oregonians, please legalize marijuana to honor… ME!

Hey, so maybe the title of this blog post sounds self-centered to you. What do you expect, dude? The author, moi, is a 65 year-old baby boomer. I'm proudly part of the Me Generation.  So naturally I see everything as revolving around the Flower Child center of the universe that we baby boomers brought into being back in the 60's.  Me especially, since I was in college at San Jose State University from 1966 to 1971. You know, the Bay Area not-Stanford and not-UC Berkeley. The ugly duckling to the south. Which for me and my friends was just a…
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Posted inSalem

A justified snarl at City of Salem’s August “Dog Days” event

Mayor Peterson, City Manager Norris, and other City of Salem officials just can't seem to please anybody these days. When they tried to take over part of public Riverfront Park for a private access road, they were slammed by park lovers. When they tried to foist parking meters on the Historic District without asking citizens how they felt about this, 9,000 Salemians signed a "No Way!" petition that halted this plan. When they had a notion of turning the library into a police facility and relocating it to a parking garage, library lovers showered them with "Are you crazy?" messages…
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Posted inSalem

Salem City Council gets it wrong on Howard Hall

Tonight I watched another shameful performance by the Mayor and City Council of Salem (Oregon), who voted unanimously to approve the destruction of Howard Hall, a building that the Historic Landmarks Commission voted unanimously to preserve. Interesting, to say the least.  A citizen commission made up of experts on historic preservation and the ordinance governing historic buildings such as Howard Hall considers all of the evidence, along with the law, and concludes that Salem Hospital hasn't met three of the four criteria required to destroy the building. A political body with strong ties to the Chamber of Commerce and Salem's…
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Posted inSalem

Fight to preserve Howard Hall is about more than a building

Next Monday, July 28, the Salem City Council will continue with a public hearing about Howard Hall, a historic landmark that is the last building remaining from the now-closed School for the Blind.  The Historic Landmarks Commission voted unanimously to preserve the building, denying Salem Hospital's request to tear it down so the hospital could have a parking lot with 87 more spaces than is required by code. Members of the blind community aren't at all persuaded by Salem Hospital's offer to put a playground for physically challenged children where Howard Hall is now. They know this is just a…
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Posted inSalem

Is Statesman Journal buying Facebook “likes”?

Today the Salem Statesman Journal has a story about how a candidate for the state legislature, Chuck Lee, seems to be buying Facebook likes.  Download Did House candidate Chuck Lee buy Facebook likes? Naturally that got me curious about where the Statesman Journal's Facebook "likes" come from.  After a bit of Googling I found an informative story, "Facebook's new geographic data exposes tons of phony likes." That led me to SocialBakers.com, where I was able to get some free statistics on the location of the Statesman Journal's "likers." Turns out that 18% of the 20,066 likes are from Facebook users…
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Posted inSalem

Parking time limits or meters coming to downtown Salem?

According to Salem city councilor Chuck Bennett, who represents the downtown area, City officials are looking at replacing the current free unlimited parking policy with "time-limited" parking. This could mean several things. Going back to a two-hour limit. Or installing parking meters, the City's goal before 9,000 signatures on a citizen initiative petition to ban meters and time limits dashed that dream. Bennett emailed me a response after he'd gotten my message asking if a report was true that he'd talked at a neighborhood association meeting about the council moving forward with parking meters again. No, I said the city…
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Posted inHome life Retirement community

Musings on the problem of deciding where to live after retiring

My wife, Laurel, and I are 65. We reside on 10 non-easy-care acres in rural south Salem, Oregon. We're trying to decide where and how we want to live if, or when, we decide to move from the home we've happily lived in for 24 years. It's a tough decision, as related here, here, and here. Recently we visited our first retirement community. We've browsed online and requested brochures before. But we'd never toured a retirement community. Touchmark Bend is of the "continuing care" variety. It offers options from detached cottages to home care for those with varying health care…
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