Culture Features

We totally would have got that one right.Did you know that Oregon's state slogan was: "Oregon. We love
dreamers?" No, you probably didn't, and neither did the Source's
three-member team at the 2009 Trivia benefiting the Education
Foundation for the Bend-La Pine Schools on Saturday night.

And
did you know the name of the dude that Michael Phelps beat out by the
length of a fingernail to win one of his eight gold medals? Yeah, we
didn't get that one either. The correct answer was Milorad Cavic of
Serbia, which you probably didn't know. Or maybe you did, because
unlike our team, you actually remember Olympic swimmers not named
Michael Phelps. Maybe if Cavic had been recently photographed holding a
bong we would have got it. Who knows?

Winter beards, and beards in general, have become increasingly acceptable in the past couple years. Gone are assumptions that the bearded man is homeless, a logger, a homeless logger, a 19th century sailor, an iconic Christmas figure, a sexual predator, or, God forbid, a hippie. It's come to the point that a man can have a beard and a job. In fact, some 71 percent of the Source's male staffers and contributors are currently bearded.

Upfront columnist Mick McMenaminuses sports a trimmed black number that features largely clean cheeks, resident beer specialist Ric E. James is currently sporting a "rebirth beard" (a beard that is grown immediately following the shaving of the previous facial hair installment), while I myself have an increasingly unruly face full of hair that currently smells like Cheetos. Yes, I had Cheetos with my lunch today.

And The Winner Is…The factory outlet stores may offer a nice view of the Cascades, but the blank storefront between the Paper Factory and Rocky Mountain Chocolate hosts no resemblance to Borneo, or any of the other exotic locations of one of TV's most spun-off game shows. Survivor begat the likes of Big Brother, the Bachelor/ette, and the most classy VH1 set (Charm School, Flavor of Love, you know, the really irresistibly trashy ones). So when local Bend radio station 104.1FM decided to apply the Survivor convention to the wedding season, Bend found itself in reality heaven. While in this economy I can rationalize $10,000 in prizes, I can't quite rationalize a week posing as a store mannequin with sorority-hazing inspired personal hygiene, while competing in "tough" games like Hollywood Celebrity Matchup, or Name that Peak Tune. Aren't brides supposed to be poised, graceful and glowing, not strategizing and competitive and self-deprecating? When did Anna Nicole Smith replace Audrey Hepburn?

The video, to put it mildly, is incredible, and when belatedly posted on YouTube in December of 2008 it became an overnight sensation. In it a dog in Santiago, Chile, is hit by a car on the freeway at rush hour and another dog comes to its rescue, weaving between speeding cars, looking left and right with uncanny awareness, and dragging - with its paws - its fallen friend to safety. Road workers arrive shortly and the injured dog, unfortunately, dies, while "Hero Dog" as he or she quickly becomes known, disappears into the city, and has yet to be found. The video is a grainy black and white from a surveillance camera, and a link is listed below. The link between Santiago, "The Hero Dog" and Bend, however, is happily more clear, and can be found in the handsome visage of Vanessa Schulz.

Adam Sather shreds it up under the lights.Nightlife in the winter can sometimes seem one-dimensional. The music
scene grows a bit stagnant; the bar crawl can bring on fits of déj vu.
Most of winter's allure derives from the prospect of hitting the
slopes, and it's an activity that many of us partake in regularly.But even with as much skiing as we do, night skiing is a pastime mostly unfamiliar
to us Bendites. Mt. Bachelor being so close, most of us would probably
rather hit the hill early the next day than make the trip to Hoodoo,
Ski Bowl or Mt. Hood Meadows.
Like most great ideas, my decision to
drive to Hoodoo was made on a whim. A particularly nasty
day-after-Christmas storm and low visibility sent us home early from
Mt. Bachelor still hungry for a few more turns. With the snow still
falling, we loaded up the car, popped in our clear lenses and took off
to Hoodoo's opening night. About an hour later we pulled into the
parking lot, quickly threw on our gear and rushed off to meet our
friends who were already enjoying the heavy and steady extra-light
snowfall.