Posted inBooks

Life lessons I’ve gotten from the “Gray Man” novels

Last year I wrote my first blog post about the Gray Man, "Lessons for living from a fictional assassin, the 'Gray Man.'" Now I've read two more books in the six-part series about Court Gentry, so it's time to update the life lessons I've absorbed from the astoundingly engrossing novels. What I said last July still holds: But something about the Gray Man appeals to me on a deeper philosophical level. Again, this is weird, because the fictional Court Gentry seemingly isn't much like the real person Me.  Seemingly.  This excerpt from "The Gray Man" points to the main thing…
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Posted inSalem

Images of Salem March for Science — Earth Day 2017

Check out the Adobe Spark page where I share photos and a video of today's Salem March for Science on the capitol mall -- plus some commentary on the event. My wife and I hugely enjoyed the inspiring speakers, signs, and wonderfully geeky chants. 
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Posted inSalem

City of Salem Streetscape Committee aims to vitalize downtown

Last Wednesday I managed to drag my retired body and mind to an astoundingly early 9 a.m. meeting of the Streetscape Committee at the Urban Development office in downtown Salem.  Carole Smith, an early and ongoing proponent of streetscaping downtown (see the web page I made about these initial efforts) is on the committee. After learning from her about the exciting plans being discussed by the group, I wanted to attend the committee's second meeting to see for myself what they were up to. In short: great stuff.  Streetscaping the Historic District would be wonderfully transformative for downtown -- which…
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Posted inSalem

First Wednesday photos show need to lose lanes on Liberty and Commercial

Downtown Salem would be much more attractive to out-of-town visitors and locals alike if Commercial and Liberty streets lost some lanes.  (Other streets too, but my focus here is on Commercial and Liberty.) Fortunately, there's a decent chance this could happen. Yesterday a City of Salem Streetscape Committee chaired by Urban Development Director Kristin Retherford had its first meeting. Carole Smith, a committee member, shared notes with me about what happened. Smith and other Streetscape proponents came up with some initial concepts several years ago. You can check them out on a Downtown Salem Streetscape web page I made (which…
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Posted inHumor Salem

Free tickets got me loving Capitol City Theatre comedy club (and Grant Lyons)

Thanks mucho to Los Angeles-area comedian Grant Lyon who got me off my lethargic ass and into a Salem gem that I've been meaning to check out, but hadn't until last Saturday night, the Capitol City Theatre (tagline: serious about comedy). Here's me and Grant after the show, posing in front of some important information. Salem Has a Comedy Club. A good one too. I really appreciate Grant emailing me his free ticket offer. Grant  said that he likes to offer them to local bloggers in towns that he visits. Which, after Salem, was a 7-hour drive to Sacramento.  Yeah, stand-up…
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Posted inHome life

Our dog is spreading fake news about us. Ignore her ASPCA complaint!

I have no idea how it happened. Best I can figure, our dog ZuZu somehow hooked up with a pet psychic who was able to channel her obviously outrageous thoughts about us into a letter that was sent to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. So now my wife and I are on the receiving end of a serious-sounding complaint from the ASPCA. I'm going to respond to our dog's ridiculous accusations in this blog post, but I'm worried that the damage to our animal-loving reputation is beyond repair -- thanks to our oh-so-innocent looking family pet,…
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Posted inHumor

Lewis Black’s profanely funny Elsinore show lightened my Trump-depression

Last night my wife and I saw comedian Lewis Black do his thing at Salem's Elsinore Theatre. His profanity-laced, darkly-intense, rant-filled brand of humor was strangely healing for us and the other mostly-liberal audience members. I'm a big fan of Black's appearances on The Daily Show, where it seems a miracle that the top of his head doesn't pop off from the display of steaming outrage. (Click here for a comparatively mild example.) I was wondering how Black would act during a lengthy stand-up show. Answer: pretty much the same, but more entertainingly. He's adept at handling shout-out comments from…
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Posted inRecreation

Our weirdly bad Caravan Tour experience at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park

Understand: except for one experience, my wife and I loved our recent visit to the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. But that One Experience was so irritating, I jumped at the chance to complain about it when an emailed visitor satisfaction survey arrived in my inbox today. I've done some Googling to see if anyone else who took a Safari Tour to see animals in the quasi-wild from the back of an open-sided truck had ever experienced the weird event we, and the other people on our Caravan Tour, did.  Didn't find anything.  So it may well be that our…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

Publicly defend your incompetent president, Trump voters

With every passing day, Donald Trump's astounding incompetency to serve as President becomes more obvious. His lies, blunders, and disrespect for the office he won with the aid of Russian meddling in the 2016 election make it perfectly clear that Trump is on track to be the worst president in our nation's history. His dismal approval rating, 43% as of yesterday, is an accurate reflection of the low regard most Americans have for our Idiot In Chief. By comparison, Barack Obama had an 62% approval rating by March of his first term in office.  I proudly voted for Hillary Clinton.…
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Posted inHome life

I hate it when my wife is right (also, I love it)

The roofing company guys took a look at our leaking roof while my wife, Laurel, was away. Then I took the dog for a walk. When I came home, Laurel had returned. She asked, "How did the roof inspection turn out?" I said, "I've got some disturbing news about that. Well, more accurately the news is disturbing for me. You were right." Now, I readily admit this is a common occurrence for me, as it is for all husbands. When we disagree about something, especially when it involves our home, my wife often is right. (She'd substitute usually for often,…
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Posted inSalem

Read my expose of the City of Salem’s Park Front LLC urban renewal grant

Over on my Salem Political Snark blog I've posted an in-depth critique of how City officials handled a large grant to T.J. Sullivan (an ex-city councilor and current Chamber of Commerce vice-president): "Disturbing facts revealed about $749,000 Park Front urban renewal grant." Here's how the post starts out. You can read my entire Investigative Blogging Masterpiece by clicking on the image below.-------------------------- After making a public records request to the City of Salem for documents related to approval of the $749,000 Park Front LLC grant, and reviewing what I got, I'm even more disturbed by how this grant request was…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Salem

Let’s make Salem an island of sanity in an increasingly crazy country

We're one week into four years of a Trump presidency. If the trend line of Crazy continues, it will be so far off the charts I'm worried our United States will disintegrate into a tangled mass of splintered humanity, with most people saddened, angered, and frustrated, and a minority cheering the arrival of whatever disastrous future Trump's barely-there mind envisions for our country. When I wake up in the middle of the night and start worrying about what kind of hellscape awaits our nation, the only thought that calms my frazzled psyche is this: Here in Salem, we can be…
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Posted inSalem

Downtown Salem Streetscape project would transform the Historic District

Following up on a recent post, "Big bold exciting idea: Streetscape downtown Salem!", I've made a web page with Adobe Spark that showcases the streetscape plan developed by Carole Smith, Eric Kittleson, Susan Kay Huston, and Alan Costic about five years ago. That plan, which was enthusiastically received by Salem citizens, was shelved -- as so many good ideas often are after first being introduced. Thankfully, efforts to make downtown more attractive, economically vibrant, and pedestrian/cyclist friendly through streetscaping have been revived. I used images and words provided by Smith and Huston as a foundation for this overview of the…
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Posted inHome life

WheelCheck iPhone app proved my new tires weren’t balanced correctly

I didn't really expect there would be an iPhone app that would tell me if my new set of winter tires/wheels were out of balance. But I searched anyway. And there was!  WheelCheck. It was produced by some German guys. They have a web site in English, and they responded promptly when I emailed them with some questions about my WheelCheck results. So I'm really happy that I spent a whole 99 cents to buy the app. Here's why I needed it. I bought a 2017 GTI last November, a great car that I'm super pleased with. It came with…
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Posted inSalem

Big bold exciting idea: Streetscape downtown Salem!

Imagine, dream, envision... how much more vibrant Salem's Historic District would be if the downtown area was a People Magnet. Drawn in by wide sidewalks, two lane streets, water features, abundant greenery, safe bike lanes, outdoor dining, and an overall focus on encouraging pedestrians to stay, rather than speeding traffic to somewhere else, both Salem visitors and residents would say "This is a way-cool downtown; I'm coming back soon." It can happen: a general vision for Streetscaping downtown was developed several years ago. Now this is being shared by Salem Community Vision in several recent posts. (See here and here.)…
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Posted inEntertainment Family

“La La Land” — inspiration for rebels and fools who dream

My wife and I saw "La La Land" on Christmas Eve. Great movie. I'm a sucker for films about people chasing their impossible dreams, facing down their fears and insecurities, being kicked in the butt by life then turning around to ask for more.  Watching the climactic scenes of La La Land, I was moved by how dedicated jazz musician Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) and aspiring actress Mia (Emma Stone) pursued their passions in the face of daunting obstacles.  At one point I remember thinking to myself in the darkened movie theatre, "I want to be like them!"  Then a second…
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Posted inHome life Neighborhood

Why two inches of snow can be a big deal here in western Oregon

As the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words. So in this blog post I'll be sharing photos of how my wife and I have been dealing with, and enjoying, a seemingly minor storm that dropped two inches of snow out here in rural south Salem. I italicized "seemingly" because people from cold-weather states who make fun of how us Willamette Valley Oregonians panic over snow that they'd consider a dusting don't realize that our snow here usually isn't like their snow there.  This photo was taken today on a dog walk that led the family canine and I…
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Posted inEntertainment

“Plaid Tidings” at Grand Theatre: meaningful fun escapism

Ever ready to accept free tickets, I jumped at the offer by Enlightened Theatics' Carlos Barata to see their current Plaid Tidings production gratis in exchange for a blog post review.  In case you're wondering whether what I'll say here is colored by the hue of those two $25 tickets, I reply: "Of course it is! I will add in one extra laudatory adjective beyond what I would have written otherwise, because I want to assure other entertainment enterprises in Salem that, yes, my blogging can be bought in exchange for free tickets. However, you won't get much in return,…
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Posted inStreetStrider

Buy the Streetstrider 8r I donated to The Northwest Hub

For about three years I've been riding my Streetstrider outdoor elliptical bike at Minto Brown park several times a week. I've gotten countless (more or less) smiles, thumbs-up, and positive comments: "Cool!" "Looks like fun!" "I want one!" Well, that I want one sentiment is now much more easily within grasp. I've donated my yellow 8-speed Streetstrider to The Northwest Hub, a not-for-profit community bicycle co-op here in Salem. So here's your chance to get a great deal on my 3-year-old Streetstrider AND help out The Northwest Hub, a Salem organization that enables low-income and no-income people to own a…
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