Posted inEntertainment

Ricky Gervais’ Humanity show is wonderful dark humor

If you're looking for something to take your mind off of the West Coast wildfires, COVID-19 crisis, systemic racism, global warming, Trump vs. Biden, and other serious things that leave you less than smiley-faced, my wife and I have a suggestion. Fire up Netflix and watch Ricky Gervais' Humanity show, a 78-minute stand-up routine that dates from 2017. Now, if you watch it and blame us for recommending this piece of tasteless trash, keep in mind that Laurel and I enjoy dark humor. And Gervais is so dark in Humanity he easily beats out a black cat in a completely…
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Posted inNeighborhood

Troy and Lori Anderson land use applications to Marion County

Because neighbors here in rural south Salem, Oregon are interested in the plans by Troy and Lori Anderson to build a farm dwelling on 80 acres of their 217 acre property just north of our Spring Lake Estates neighborhood, here are the documents related to their land use application to Marion County. (1) Below is a PDF file of the application submitted to Marion County by Lori Anderson in March 2020 for a primary farm dwelling on 80 acres north of Spring Lake Estates. Download Application (2) Below is a PDF file of the April 2020 Marion County decision on the…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

Wild is what we’re wishing will end

For most of us, wild has generally positive connotations. We like to be out of civilization and trekking into a wilderness. Being called a "wild thing" made for a popular song. We're more excited to see an animal in the wild than in captivity.  But while a bit of wild is a good thing, too much leaves us exhausted, scared, anxious, uncertain. That's where the West Coast of the United States is at the moment. Sure, other parts of the country also are suffering from an excess of wild. Oregon (where I live), Washington, and California just have wild to an…
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Posted inUncategorized

Troy & Lori Anderson applications to Marion County

(1) Below is a PDF file of the application submitted to Marion County by Lori Anderson in March 2020 for a primary farm dwelling on 80 acres north of Spring Lake Estates. Download Application (2) Below is a PDF file of the April 2020 Marion County decision on the application. It was denied because the applicant didn't prove that the required farm income came from the 80 acre property. Download AR20-009 Decision (3) Below is a PDF file of the March 2020 Marion County request for comments on the application. Download RFC-1 (4) Below is a a PDF file of the…
Posted inHome life Neighborhood

Evacuation checklist a good way to relieve wildfire anxiety

Right now Oregon is suffering though a wildfire perfect storm of longstanding drought, high winds, and many fires burning across our state.  My wife and I lost electricity in the early evening yesterday, along with about thirty of our neighbors. Apparently the windy conditions caused a utility pole to catch fire, with electrical lines lying in the road.  I fired up our generator, so we had a fairly normal night -- aside from the fact that because of the smoke from wildfires in the area we didn't want to open any windows, and our air conditioning wasn't working because of…
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Posted inFamily

Current photos of my childhood home in Three Rivers stir memories

Aside from college and my baby years, I've lived in six houses during my lifetime. They all have meaning for me, but the house in Three Rivers, California that was my home from about age eight to eighteen holds the most intense memories. I think it's because those ten years marked my transition from a child to an adult. Everything was fresh and new. Changes -- physical, mental, social -- were happening rapidly. So it was a delight to get an email from the couple who had recently purchased the Three Rivers, California house where I grew up. Finding me…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

Our caring about societal issues has a disturbing trajectory

It's a familiar happening. Some event stimulates an outpouring of concern about a societal issue. Like mass shootings, global warming, police killings of Blacks, Postal Service slowdowns, Trump's outrageous actions. Protesters march in the streets. Facebook and Twitter erupt. Legislators are contacted. Passionate views are expressed. Vows of "we've got to do something about this" are plentiful. And then... the familiar trajectory of the bell-shaped curve is evident. What goes up, comes down. A peak level of societal concern is reached, then declines to about the same level it was at before. Maybe a bit higher, but nowhere near as…
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Posted inTango/Dance

Why I think “Our Last Tango” is such a great dance movie

Thanks to Netflix, recently my wife and I enjoyed watching "Our Last Tango," a documentary of sorts about the passionate relationship between two highly talented Tango dancers, Maria Nieves Rego and Juan Carlos Copes. I say of sorts, because the film bounces back and forth between footage of Maria and Juan in the present day (the movie was released in 2016) when they were 80 and 83, respectively, videos of them performing when younger, and reenactments of memorable moments in their relationship by four skilled Tango dancers -- two for their early years together, and two for their later years.…
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Posted inHome life

What I like and don’t like about my 2020 Subaru Crosstrek Limited

When I meet someone who has just moved here from California, I give them advice on how to disguise where they came from. Which includes, ditch the California license plates ASAP. Then put them on a Subaru. I've lived in Oregon for 47 years. Seems like I should have a Subaru. Six months ago I bought another Subaru after owning a Legacy way back when. Here's my Adobe Spark web page review of what I like about my 2020 Crosstrek Limited (lots of things) and what I don't like (a few things). Click below to be led to the web…
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Posted inNeighborhood

Dumb stuff our HOA is trying to do

From what I can tell, Homeowners Associations (HOAs) are about as beloved as the IRS -- a necessary evil that people want to have as little to do with as possible. Which means I must be an aberration, since for about 25 years I was the secretary for our HOA, Spring Lake Estates Recreation Property, Inc. here in rural south Salem, Oregon.  That meant I not only had to attend almost every meeting of our HOA board for a quarter century, I also had to stay awake enough to take notes and write minutes that were close enough to what…
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Posted inEntertainment Web/Tech

In one day, I’ve become a 71 year-old TikTok addict

This isn't a cry for help, even though I'm addicted. To TikTok, the video-sharing service that has aroused Trump's ire -- which led me to download the iPhone app this morning, in part because my default position is that whatever our Idiot-in-Chief is against, I'm for, since Trump is almost always wrong. Last Thursday Trump signed an executive order aimed at TikTok.  In the order, which takes effect in 45 days, any transactions between TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, and U.S. citizens will be outlawed for national security reasons. In practice, experts told NPR the order likely will mean the viral…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

“A Letter on Justice and Open Debate” needs to be read by all extremists

Last Friday Bill Maher's Real Time show on HBO featured a discussion between Maher and two people who signed a letter calling for more tolerance of opposing views and the free exchange of information and ideas -- Thomas Chatterton Williams and Bari Weiss. (There's a video of their Real Time segment on a Daily Beast story. It's well worth watching.) Williams spearheaded the letter, which I've copied in below from a Harper's web page. To see who has signed it so far, click on the preceding link. It includes some familiar names: J.K. Rowling, Salman Rushdie, Fareed Zakaria, Malcolm Gladwell,…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

Wall of Moms founder hits wall of political correctness

As a progressive, it deeply bothers me when progressives turn on each other rather than on the real current enemy, Donald Trump and his Republican enablers. All too often progressive groups fall prey to extreme political correctness, where the slightest deviation from left-wing political purity is met with extreme vilification.  This has befallen the founder of the Wall of Moms movement, Bev Barnum. Barnum is a Mexican-American mother who wanted to do something to protect Black Lives Matter protesters in Portland from the aggressive tactics of federal agents sent by Trump to supposedly guard the federal courthouse, while the real…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

Violence should never be part of a Black Lives Matter protest

I doubt they read blogs like mine, but if some of the jerks who have been aiming fireworks at the federal courthouse in Portland every night, trying to dismantle the temporary fence that surrounds the building, and otherwise provoking a violent end to the otherwise peaceful Black Lives Matter protests do come across this post, let's have a debate. My position is: Violence should never be part of a Black Lives Matter protest. Not ever. Repeat, never.  Now, let me give reasons for why I think I'm correct about this. The first reason is much less important than the second,…
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Posted inHome life

Read these bad Peppermint Berri reviews before buying from them

I have nothing good to say about Peppermint Berri, an online store based in Singapore. Below I've copied in 35 reviews from Trustpilot, one of which is mine, which are equally critical of this company. It sure seems like they are scammers. On May 14 I ordered a standup weed removal tool from Peppermint Berri that I'd seen advertised on Facebook. At $89.98 it seemed unduly expensive, but I figured that if it didn't work I could return it. What I didn't know is that nine weeks later, not only haven't I gotten the weed remover, there's no sign it…
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Posted inCoronavirus

Three high-quality COVID protective masks I’ve ordered

A few months ago, when the COVID virus was really taking off in the United States, like a lot of people I spent quite a bit of time searching for N95-quality masks. My wife, Laurel, and I are 71. Laurel has asthma. So we're in a high-risk category when it comes to COVID. The more we can lower our risk by physical distancing, hand washing, and wearing a mask, the better. Back in 2011, when some Fukushima nuclear plant radiation was making its way across the Pacific, my wife and I had gotten a box of medical N95 masks. We…
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Posted inEntertainment Home life

What two old people say while watching Hamilton on Disney+

It took my wife, Laurel, and I three nights to finish watching Hamilton on Disney+. One reason is that the show is long. Another is that when two 71-year-old people watch Hamilton at home, there's a lot of pressing the stop/start button. Thankfully, we weren't watching on Broadway. If we talked through a live performance like we did through the streaming version, we would have been thrown out of the theatre pretty damn quickly.  Here's some of what you would have heard if you could have been a fly on the wall of our TV watching area. Laurel: Stop the…
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Posted inCoronavirus

Trump wants schools to reopen physically. Is this wise?

When I was young, I was really eager to have school start in September. I wanted to see my classmates. I was bored with summer vacation. I looked forward to being in a class one year farther along. Even though I'm far past my school days, I do have a granddaughter about to start eighth grade. Evelyn, like most students, had to do her learning online in the spring after the Covid crisis hit the United States.  That must have been difficult. So even though I disagree with Trump on almost everything, his call for elementary and high schools to…
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Posted inCoronavirus

To gather or not to gather, that is the Covid question

I don't want to die. I do want to see friends in person, not just on a Zoom screen. That's my basic dilemma, finding the right balance between safety and socializing. Being 71, rather than 17, makes the question of To gather or not to gather more consequential, since I'm in a high risk Covid group because of my age.  And my wife is in the same situation, with the added complication of having asthma. Still, both of us have been edging into the To gather side of the question. After honing our Covid prevention skills by going to grocery stores and…
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Posted inSalem

Salem Reporter editor wants ideas about how to end divisiveness. Here’s mine.

I give Les Zaitz, the editor of Salem's online-only news outlet, the Salem Reporter, a lot of credit for raising good questions in a commentary today, "Salem has to find a way to restore civility, to turn aside the meanness." After talking about some of the issues that foment divisiveness in our city -- Black Lives Matter protests, student activism with the Salem-Keizer school board, COVID pandemic -- Zaitz asks for ideas. Nothing in my decades of journalism has prepared me to manage so many crosscurrents at once. I feel like I’m in a row boat trying to cross the…
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