100 Cities and Growing?

In New York City the average pay for fast-food workers is slightly under $9 an hour.

How in the hell does a person pay the rent in the NYC vicinity on that paltry wage? It's hard enough in Portland, where rents are considerably cheaper, but Oregon also has a state-mandated minimum wage that is a little higher than New York's.

In fact, Oregon and Washington both have higher mandates, the two most progressive in the land I believe--let's hear it for the good old Pacific Northwest! Rah! Rah!

It still ain't enough.

I wonder if  PNW Mac and Wendy workers will follow suit in this as a show of solidarity?

I buy fast food about once a year these days, but awhile back I lived very close to a Burger King and ate there too often.

I actually liked their burgers, something I can't say about most of the chain stores, though when I was a kid I was hooked on Dairy Queen.

Does DQ still exist?  Can't remember what the big burger was called, but it was substantial, and washed down with a delicious chocolate shake it was first-rate.

Or so it seemed at the time.

Anyway, the big-picture is clear.  Many fast-food workers must rely on food stamps to make ends meet, and you know what that is, right?

That is correct--corporate welfare.

Shhhhhhh....


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Blazers Win!

Portland beat another good team tonight for its sixteenth win of this young season. Oklahoma City fell by seven at the Moda Center, which used to be called the Rose Garden.

You see, Rose Garden wasn't a corporate enough sounding name--so Moda it is.  Moda is an HMO, which is good to know in case the Blazers start losing again and everybody gets sick of them.

I guess I'm a fair weather fan, rather enjoying watching the victories pile up.  But I reserve the right to jump off the bandwagon at any time.

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Grasu and Mariota to Return to Oregon

This is big news for Oregon fans, even the piss ants who hate Oregon for winning only 10 games this year.

Both players were projected as NFL draft locks.



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The Wild, Wild West

In the eastern half of the country football fans are talking about the important conference championship games coming to the B1G, ACC and SEC this Saturday, which will determine who plays in the BCS final at the Rose Bowl in January.

Out here the fans are talking about coaching, the carousel, the personalities, the ineptitude, the vainglory, the best case/worst case scenarios, etc., etc.

That's what happens when you don't have a football team in the neighborhood good enough to even sniff the BCS title game, and thus a reason to expand the playoff to eight teams ASAP.


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Ode to Billie Joe

Better version, picture.


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Honored

Hadn't seen this.  Thanks, Lucas.


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Is it Time to Watch the Blazers?

(2012 ROY, Damian Lillard played his college ball at Weber State of the Big Sky Conference)

The Blazers are kind of entertaining this year.  Made some nice deals in the off-season to provide depth.  They play Indiana tonight, and if I'm not mistaken, the Pacers have the best record in the NBA.

It's early, but the Blazers have started well (14-3), and beat the Lakers last night (sans Kobe).

Not bad for a bunch of "overgrown pituitary cases," as my old friend Rob Vukovic used to say with an air of righteous contempt.

I always thought it would be wonderful to be 7 ft. tall and able to stand up and walk.  A guy like that would have a good shot at becoming a millionaire just for showing up to work every night.

But there are a few guys my height who play in the NBA, so they must have something going on for them. One of the best point guards to ever play was just over 6 ft., John Stockton.

I saw that guy play in college for Gonzaga.  He didn't even look quick, either.  Just played a good, solid floor game, great vision, great passer.  Plus he could shoot it.

If I couldn't be 7 ft., I always thought it might be fun to be under 5 ft. and weigh in around 109, which is jockey-sized, and what could be more fun than riding a horse around an oval track at breakneck speed, again with the opportunity to make millions?

Now that college football is winding down, I'm looking for distractions, I guess. Futbol won't do it for me, that is for sure.

The Clyde Drexler-era Blazers were dynamic.  Maybe Portland is on the way to duplicating that level of play and excitement.

Nah, probably not...


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Ode to Sketch

"When Sketch Sleeps," a poem with uke accompaniment, by Charles Deemer







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Bobbie Gentry

A fine selection from B. Dooley.


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Jeannie C. Riley

Another fine selection by C. Lucas.


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Uke Tale

C. Deemer hammering out an original composition.

Now I want to hear it under a reading of one of the Sketch poems from the new book!

Or maybe I'll just steal it for a short video someday.


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Bonnie

This was shot in 1974, the same year I saw Bonnie Raitt in concert in Waterville, Maine.  She was just getting started as a prominent musical fixture.

I lived in Waterville at the time and was familiar with Bonnie because my college friend, David Mathre, had her first album, which he played relentlessly in our dorm in Eugene.  David had set out to learn every tune on it note for note, which he succeeded in doing.

This is her cover of the great John Prine song, and she certainly does it justice.

During the Waterville show, which I watched through binoculars in a venue much like this one, Bonnie would occasionally grab her guitar player's ass after a particularly blistering solo, which led me to believe he was her lover or she just really liked how he played--or both.


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Bad Coaching

This day has been filled with nothing but bad coaching across the football world, and after yesterday's display of bad coaching by both Mike Riley and Mark Helfrich  here in Oregon I am ready to give up on American football and coaching in general.

(But not futbol, that exquisitely boring world game.)

All the bad coaching is making me sick, along with the bad analyses by the football pundits.

Witness what happened today in Auburn, now wasn't that a sickening display!

All I can say is Nick Saban needs to go because he lost a game he should not have lost, which makes him what--a loser!


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Bad Coaching

If the interim head coach of USC doesn't win this so-called game with UCLA he ought to be fired before he is actually hired.

By the same token, if UCLA's coach doesn't pull this one out he needs to be fired ASAP!

I have learned recently how the coaching business works this year, if nothing else.

The battle for L.A. is fun, but one or both of these coaches must go!


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Bad Coaching

Jesus H. Christ!  What is going on?  Alabama just missed a field goal.

Nick Saban must go!

Alabama loses:  I was kidding before, but Nick Saban really should be fired after that stunt.




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