As I walked through my NOPO neighborhood today toward the MAX, I noticed the Thai restaurant that used to be on Denver is no longer there. A Japanese restaurant called Ukiyoe has replaced it. The new place looks really nice. It’s definitely a step up from what was there.

I never actually ate at the Thai restaurant when it was there. In fact I don’t even remember the name of the place. It always looked a little seedy and I never felt adventurous enough to walk through the door. I will however, still miss the place. It always gave me a little smile when I walked by.

In the window of the old Thai place was a sign, posted just below their hours of operation. The sign read, “In case of emergency call” and then a phone number. I always giggled a little bit when I read that and every once and a while I would find myself wondering, what exactly, constitutes a Thai food emergency? Pregnant woman with late night cravings? Dens of iniquity needing to please their powerful clientele? Or were you supposed to call that number when 911 was busy? Hmm…

“Hello, Thai food restaurant. How can I help you?”

“My house is on fire and I can’t get through to 911!”

“OK! We’ll be right over with some spicy noodles and hoses!”

Well, maybe not. In any case, I guess I will never know what a Thai food emergency is.

the westside outage/conflagration is affecting eastbound and airport max also. downtown they are announcing that red line (airport) is not running and to take the blue line to gateway.

also, no heat in the yellow front car at this time.
sent from space while monitoring your personal phone calls

Check out this opening sentence from the Biz Journal’s latest story about the Repubs holding their convention here:

One reason why Portland may not be suited to host the 2008 Republican National Convention: The Rose Garden might be booked for the NBA playoffs.

If POVA’s fishing for reasons not to respond to the RFP, I can think of fifty-zillion slightly more plausible reasons at this point – can’t you?

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originally uploaded by russ.

What’s the matter, MAX, can’t stand a little wind?

At the time I am making this post, tangled and possibly damaged wires from today’s winds have interrupted MAX service all the way in from Beaverton Transit Center to Pioneer Square.

Listen, I know weather, and I know trains. Both have been passions since boyhood. I used to get weather maps in the mail before I was 12, and I have driven speeders in Georgia and overhead-wire trolleys on hillside curves north of Yakima, Wash. And as the son of a railroad conductor who worked on trains powered by overhead wires,I understand these things.

Even so,it does seem like the MAX infrastructure skews a bit to the brittle side. Up until facing naughty by nature days when the elements are a bit challenging, the trains run like clockwork. We get two inches of snow and the thermometer goes down to 30 and half the line is shut down due to freezing.

And now, this. I mean it is pretty darn windy, but not *that* windy.

Maybe the problem here is the MAX physical plant- I mean the whole system from Gresham to Hillsboro and up to Expo Center and PDX- needs to be hardened?

Gee, if they can’t get this right, I sure wouldn’t want to be ridin’ no Aerial Tram on a day like today…

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originally uploaded by russ.

If you don’t know the name Phil Anschutz, well maybe you know of his accomplishments more than you realize.

Anschutz founded the company that is now Qwest. His idea was to build fiber cmmunications lines in the area next to the tracks on the Southern Pacific railroad,which he controlled in the 1980s before selling it to the Union Pacific.

Qwest took off and under Anschutz’ initiative, eventually purchased US West. He’s no longer on the board,but remains Qwest’s largest shareholder. So a little bit of that last phone call you made goes into his pocket.

A few years ago, Anschutz started acquiring and starting newspapers. He bought the near-moribund San Francisco Examiner from Hearst, and last year started the Washington (D.C). Examiner. His new Baltimore Examiner revs up in May. All three papers are free and ad-supported.

Lesser known is that in late 2004, Anschutz acquired domain name rights for dozens of other city name-Examiner combinations.

I just checked Network Solutions’ WHOIS database. Lo and behold, he owns the domain PortlandExaminer.com. That’s a screen grab at the top of this post.

Anschutz’ representatives deny active plans to start any more newspapers, and describe this domain name purchase more in terms of a pre-emptive action.

But as someone who has been in and around the journalism business since the 1970s, and has written for national and local newspapers from USAToday to the Portland Tribune, I can tell you that although I don’t see a “Portland Examiner” in the near-term, nothing that happens in the newspaper world surprises me any more.

I facetiously did a shout-out to Ben Westlund when I talked about turning into a single-issue voter a week or so ago:

So – even though the field may be narrowing, Governor Ted better not be counting on this ‘almost always votes progressive’ voter. Not if another candidate (are you listening, Ben Westlund?) steps up to the plate instead…

Well, Ben’s stepped up – and he’s already got plenty of party faithfuls on both sides of the aisle pooh-poohing his chances. But he’s also
got a few local lefty bloggers interested in hearing more. Including this one.

Sure, he’s probably got a snowball’s chance of hell of landing in Mahonia Hall. But he’s certainly going to make things interesting between now and November – and he might just light a fire or two under everyone else in the race while he’s at it.

But wa-a-a-i-i-i-t a minute…what’s that new state marketing campaign of ours again? “Oregon – We Love Dreamers”? Might turn out to be more than just an advertising slogan come November…

Count me among the voters ready to take a pass on the primary. Looks like I have a petition to sign…!

I would like to thank Sebastian Telfair for getting in a little off court trouble. The character of the Blazer team has been so good lately all we had to talk about was the way the team is playing. I really do hope it was just a mistake like Telfair claims. Although, when you discover you accidentally have a gun with you why not tell someone right away instead of leaving it loaded and hiding it in a pillowcase? I guess he made a “wrong choice” and maybe that sums up the character of the team better than anything.

I really do want to be a Blazer fan. I just wish they wouldn’t make it so hard.

our Metblog family keeps growing with the addition of Dublin and Denver.

Welcome to the fold!

Bob Mould in Portland

Originally uploaded by dieselboi.

a famous line from one of my favorite songs by this amazing singer- Bob Mould. for valentines day, we headed down to the doug fir for a show i’ve been waiting for since 1991. back then, as a young college student, i went to the melody ballroom to see Bob Mould tour supporting Black Sheet’s of Rain. that was a rockin album and when he walked out with a chair and a guitar, we were surprised. he informed us he had fired his band three days earlier, but didn’t want to cancel the show. since then, i have been the biggest Bob Mould fan.
on tuesday night, i got to talk with my idol and tell him thanks for the many years of wonderful music. he then got on stage and put on an amazing show, performing tunes from his huge catalog – Husker Du from the 80’s, his solo work from the early 90’s, items from Sugar and his most recent solo album, Body of Song. needless to say, i was in the front row, singing along with almost every song. he even took a request of mine for Sunspots, the first Bob Mould song i had ever heard back in Ryan’s dorm room at Linfield.
thanks Bob for such an amazing show and experience.

The sun! It’s just like liquid rain, as we say in my household.

Also, it’s great for photos.