Maybe you don’t hang out there but hundreds of reports, more than 100 to KGW.

About 11:04 a.m. I felt a very gentle to-and-fro shaking in my condo on the cliff above NW 23rd. (Editorial note from MB admin: the earthquake actually happened 9 hours later at 8:52 pm…not quite sure what Russ was feeling earlier that day, but it wasn’t the quake he refers to…!)

Did the earth move for ya? Or even the sofa?

I’d link you but good ol’ Northwest Examiner doesn’t yet put its content online.

Nce guy, athletic, grounded, smart.

A 1984 Lincoln High grad, DeWolfe is the co-founder of MySpace, the social networking site that needs no introduction.

In 2005, DeWolfe and MySpace co-founder Tom Anderson sold to Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. for some $580 million.

Fortunately for MySpace, Rupert’s kept DeWolfe and Anderson around on contract.

A big one.

That’d be the show at Fort Vancouver National Historic Site.-said to be the largest fireworks display west of the Mississippi, or the quite impressive fireworks event held in conjunction with the Safeway Waterfront Blues Festival near RiverPlace on the Willamette.

Both of those fireworks events start at 10 p.m. And there are many other fireworks in the area, including at Oaks Park (9:55 p.m.) and Blue Lake Park (at dusk).

OK, I have a question.

Let’s just say you lived in a place where you could get a fireworks view out your back deck.

Would you sit on your back deck, pop a top, and watch the fireworks, or fight the maddening crowds to see the pyrosparkle in person?

I think you already know my answer.

But that’s not the central point of this post. I want to know your answer.

Wanting not to get into specifics, Quick refers to these players by describing their accomplishments but not revealing their names. Yet Quick provides enough info about each of these alternatives that determining the names of these players can be accomplished by just a bit of online research.

Come along as I unmask who the Blazers could have gotten if they had (unwisely) determined to deal the pick.

Quick writes:

“As he (Blazers’ gm Kevin Pritchard) drove to Eugene to watch a play with his daughter on May 23, less than 24 hours after winning the lottery, Pritchard took a call from an Eastern Conference general manager, with whom he had past dealings.

“The executive made an offer that was moderate in shock value: A five-time All-Star and this year’s lottery pick in exchange for the No. 1 pick and the Blazers’ 2008 first-round pick.

The player had to have been::

Paul Pierce, the explosive small forward of the Boston Celtics. We know this because of all the players on Eastern Conference lottery teams, Pierce is the only five-time All-Star.

Quick writes:

“A team within the Blazers division proposed a trade involving a future Hall of Famer and a standout rookie for the Blazers’ No. 1 pick.”

The player had to have been::

Kevin Garnett of the Minnesota Timberwolves. Lookiing at the rosters of the other teams in the Blazers’ division (Utah, Denver, Minnesota and Seattle)- only two Hall of Famers emerge. That would be Allen Iverson of Denver and Kevin Garnett of Minnesota. Not only has Garnett asked to be traded, but the real clue here is Jason’s “standout rookie” designation. No rookie on the Denver Nuggets was selected to the first or second-team NBA Rookie All-Star Team. Yet, shooting guard Randy Foye of the Timberwolves was selected to the NBA Rookie-First Team, receiving the third-most amount of votes.

And finally:

Jason Quick writes:

Pritchard that morning was approached by a general manager of a Western Conference power.

With bright lights illuminating the court below, Pritchard sat in a darkened corner with the general manager. The general manager wanted the Blazers’ No. 1 pick. And he was willing to offer a player that will be a first-ballot Hall of Famer.

The player had to have been:

Kobe Bryant. There are other possible “first-ballot Hall of Famers” in the Western Conference (Steve Nash, Allen Iverson, Dirk Nowitski, Tim Duncan- but none of these three has been mentioned as trade bait. Fresh off their second consecutive league title, the Spurs will not trade Duncan. Nash and Nowitski are the core and spirit of their teams and the Denver Nuggets cannot be considered a “power.” But a Western Conference “power” with an unhappy superstar who is asking to be traded even now? The Los Angeles Lakers, and Kobe.

Arena Football uses a 50-yard field, three downs (not four), is played indoors, emphasizes passing, and is known for huge scores. In fact, the end of this year’s 16-game season last Monday produced three teams that each scored more than 1,000 points. That’s more than 60 points a game. And the playoffs started last night. What a rip-roarin’ good time!!

Portland once had an Arena Football League team. The Portland Forest Dragons played from 1997 through 1999. Their games were a stompin’ hoot.

Now, eight years later, I think we are ready for the Arena Footlall League again. Portland sports has just been given a great shot in the arm with Oden. Professional soccer and lacrosse are attracting rabid constituencies. College sports is on the upswing.

Even if Arena games were consigned to the (cough) Memorial Coliseum, I have a feeling that Arena Football would be a big hit in Portland if it were brought back under resourceful (and resource-full) ownership.

Plus, the players are pretty good. A little smaller and slower than those in the NFL, but if you are an NFL draft-watcher and wonder where many of the seventh rounders go, that’s be to the Arena League.

Plus, if we had an Arena League team and this year’s likely champion the Chicago Rush came to town, I’d just have to root for this guy!

Originally uploaded by russ.

The new U.S. Census city population estimates are out today. They always track a year behind, i.e. issuing estimates on or around July 1 for the previous July 1 “on or around.”
We’re 537,081 strong. Just below Oklahoma City ahd just ahead of the place where Jo-Jo left his home (Tucson, Arizona).
Hey look at the data this way. If you live within the city of Portland, and if it was not for you, we’d be 537,080. So you are important, and a statistic.

But:

Hot. Dry.

In re: 87 degrees at 4 p.m., humidity 17 percent, wind N6 but can’t feel it.

Need air conditioning.

Really need beer. How about a Sam Adams (the beer, not the City Commissioner)

And you?

I do know that Vicki Phillips leaves here with her share of admirers, detractors and those who feel her three-year tenure here was too brief to impose final judgement.

I do not have a child in the Portland Public Schools, so my view of Vicki Philips admittedly cannot be informed by those experiences.

I will say, though, that I’ve always seen something in her eyes, her gait, her manner.

As one who has been around educators, done a bit of educating myself but most importantly as someone who has been interpreting the mannerisms of females ever since childhood with two sisters, I can tell how much Vicki cared about the schoolchildren under her watch.

We have deep educational problems in this city, and nation. Vicki could not have solved them alone. She’s human, and has made mistakes.

But the point is that she tried. And when I look at her face, I see a caring loving person who must have wept, even in her dreams, for the battles not won and the parents not convinced and the children not saved by the light of learning.

Now, far from retreating from a local battle, she has taken the essence of who she is and what she wants to do in this life, to a position where she will lead the public educational support efforts. A position for the world’s largest foundation, with the name of both another passionate educational advocate and the world’s richest man on her door.

Vicki, I can see into your heart. You know there are more battles to fight, children’s minds to be harnessed.

Vicki, there are so many young minds to educate in this demon-haunted world of superstition, illiteracy and ignorance.

So fight the good fight, Vicki.

During one harrowing three-day period, the damn pitbuill walked up to me in threatening, growling stance- i.e. “don’t walk any further or I will bite.”

I’m well-versed in the advantages of dog-as-protector but these incidents were a bit beyond that.

In these cases the dog-walker- young female perhaps late 20s or early 30s- was a couple hundred feet away. And to make matters worse, dog was *unleashed.*

Apparently, due to the distances involved, this animal seems to believe its territory is pretty much the whole complex. I expressed my belief that this dog exhibited the temperament to hurt another resident, and quite possibly another dog as well.

Then the pitbull threatened my girlfriend. It was then that I decided to complain.

Some letters went back and forth. Then, a couple of months ago, the dog and its owners- who were renting a unit from a California-based couple- moved the hell out.

Now, just this morning, I was threatened by another pit. The damn dog strategically, and aggressively, placed itself between its owner and the Noah’s Bagels door I was exiting.

“He’s OK, he’s just not used to (being around) stores,” the pit bull’s owner told me.

After arriving at my car, I began to think about how much incidents such as this have diminished by reflexive, life-long love of dogs.

Am I overreacting, and exhibiting prejudice toward a whole breed for the aggressiveness of a few pit buills and the carelessness of their owners? Or, should we allow pit bulls in Portland urban settings with an abundance of caution, if that?

Readers?

They finally dropped charges, but now comes word that Tanya’s only begun to fight.

She’s filed a lawsuit for malicious prosecution, Andersen v. Atlantic. Included as defendants, in addition to several record companies, are the RIAA itself, Safenet (which owns MediaSentry, developer of software to detect infringment), and Settlement Support Center LLC.

Link to the text of the complaint is here.

Go get ‘em, Tanya.