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Any Band > Nickelback: Detroit Lions fans (and the rest of the sensible world) would rather not have this band ruin Thanksgiving

Entire nation displeased as Nickelback grabs Thanksgiving halftime show.
Mike Bookey

For the past 20-plus years, I've been watching the Detroit Lions play one game each year. And if you're a football fan, so have you. This historically bad – until very recently – squad gets (or is forced) to play on Thanksgiving Day on an annual basis. This is weird and some people don't support it, but I do. Leaving the Lions game off the Thanksgiving Day slate would be like deciding to eradicate gravy from your Turkey Day spread – completely unethical.
This year's Thanksgiving game is already in the news, and not because the contest will see the Lions taking on their division rival, the Green Bay Packers, but rather due to the fact that someone with a high level of authority apparently decided to drink some paint thinner and choose Nickelback as the halftime entertainment. A strong contingent of Lions fans are both embarrassed and outraged at this choice, and as of this printing, they'd gathered more than 47,000 signatures on a petition, which points out that the birthplace of Motown could better represent itself to the world by choosing essentially any other band. And do you think Ndamukong Suh approves of this? Hell no. He'll probably punch Nickelback frontman Chad Kroeger in the nards.

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The Clever Ones: The truth about ravens and crows

Ravens take center stage as Christmas Bird Counting season commences.
Jim Anderson

“Tis the Season…” for the Christmas Bird Count (CBC), in addition to giving and getting gifts, of course. The CBC is more than a birding ritual, even though it's been going for over 100 years throughout the U.S.
The count period for this 112th Christmas Bird Count will begin on December 14 and you're invited. All you have to do is grab your binoculars (and/or spotting scope) and be in Drake Park at 7 a.m. on the count day (to be announced soon – watch for it on the East Cascades Audubon Society website: ecbcbirds.org).
Each of the citizen scientists who annually braves snow, wind or rain to take part in the CBC makes an enormous contribution to conservation. Audubon and other organizations use data collected in this longest-running wildlife census to assess the health of bird populations, and to help guide conservation action and look for “new” birds. With climate change affecting habitat worldwide, all forms of life, from butterflies to birds, are on the move.

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The Long Goodbye: A fitting farewell to a faithful river companion

The hardships of losing man’s best friend.
Eric Flowers

I grew up a dog-loving kid.
I cried for Maggie, the spaniel who was hit by a car before I was born. Fanny, our dutiful golden retriever pulled me through knee-deep snow in our backyard during the bitter Minnesota cold. And though she never responded to a word I said, I cried, too, for Fanny when she died.
Other dogs would come later. First there was Pepper, a mutt that we picked out from a squirming litter of $10-a-head dogs that I spotted in the newspaper classifieds while dad was off on a business trip. He was not pleased. My father finally came around, well as much as you could to Pepper, a thick-skulled and habitually wanderlust dog that had to be bailed out of the pound on more than one occasion. Later we would add another dog to the mix, Rush, a squat Springer Spaniel with so much energy that she seemed on the verge of combusting at all times. It's been years since both of my childhood dogs succumbed to old age.

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Hands on Nature: Learning about the spotted frog in LaPine with Wolftree

Wolftree brings alternative learning strategy to the kids of LaPine.
Jim Anderson

Early last Thursday morning, Bess Ballantine, field manager for Wolftree, an Oregon-based ecological education outfit and her side-kick, Rachel Manzo, met with mentor Ed Brown, a plant specialist with the USFS Chemult Ranger District.
But that's not it. Also on hand were wildlife biologist Hailee Newman from the USFS Bend office, Cassandra Hummel, from the BLM office in Prineville, Tom Walker with the USFS, and Jennifer O’Reilly with the USF&WL Service – both fishery biologists. This seemingly all-star assembly met with La Pine Elementary teacher Anna Bajorek, and her fifth-grade class.
After a holy-cow-gee-whiz get-acquainted time, Bess explained the Scientific Method of conducting research to the class, and each student was given a field journal with instructions on how and why to record accurate field notes. They then broke up into groups of five, each group with a mentor (and parent) and headed out to explore the natural history of Prairie Creek.

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Back on the Hunt: Some pointers for Kim Kardashian's next try at landing a pro athlete husband

Despite Kim Kardashian’s most recent divorce, there are still plenty of eligible jock bachelors.
Mike Bookey

There's a chance you're unable to read this. It's quite likely that your vision has been obscured by tears, your belief in love shattered and your ability to even crawl out of bed suspended by a deep depression upon learning this week that Kim Kardashian filed for divorce from her husband, NBA star Kris Humphries, to whom she was wed for a mere 72 days.
If you can make out these words, brave soul, fear not. Kim will be back in search of another professional athlete to play the role of her “boyfriend” or “husband” in the myriad of brain-cell-canceling television programs her family occupies. After all, she and Humphries, who is supposed to be a forward for the NBA's New Jersey Nets, but isn't doing much besides getting dumped these days, received a reported $18 million in cash and in-kind compensation for getting married. She'd be silly not to do this again.

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Pickin and Grinnin’: Chantrelle hunting in the Cascades

Source Weekly

It’s chanterelle season in the Pacific Northwest. You can find the apricot flavored mushrooms at every store in town. The prices range from $15.99 to $19.99 a pound. And, most of the mushrooms are from Canada. Which seems a little steep considering if you have a day and love nature you can get them local and free.
Last weekend I drove 50 miles to the Sahalie Falls area on the Santiam Pass. I spent the next few hours wandering through the forest enjoying the sounds of the McKenzie River and the smell of Douglas fir trees. When I left I had over ten pounds of the best mushroom I have ever eaten.

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Keeping Sisters Stoked: New biomass plant puts Sisters High School on the cutting edge

Sister’s biomass project gets the thumbs-up from Governor Kitzhaber.
Jim Anderson

Last Monday was an up-and-away day for the Sisters School District. Oregon’s Governor, Dr. John Kitzhaber, and first lady Cylvia Hayes were on hand to officially open a forest steward and biomass project that will pay off big for parents and students in Sisters High School: They’re going to stay warm in winter the way our pioneers did – by burning wood.
A wood-burning stove doesn’t sound like a master of efficiency, but when you get right down to the nitty-gritty of using today’s technology, it is, and in more ways than one. The correct term for wood-burning heat in this magnitude is “biomass fuel” and the benefit of using this heating method is that it saves a lot of money for the school – which then goes directly into student education. That also leads to everything about the project being local, from biomass, boiler design, employment and back out into the forest.
It all begins with the Forest Service (USFS) and “stewardship projects,” which supplies the wood to burn. Various stewardship projects throughout the Sisters District are designed to help a forest become – and remain – healthier; the healthier a forest, the more biodiversity and the less it is susceptible to wildfire. But to operate a true stewardship program in the forest, a lot of pieces of the biological, mechanical and economical puzzle have to fit together smoothly.

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I Don’t Like Tim Tebow: But every sports columnist sure does

Tim Tebow has been showered with praise, but he’s not the saint of the NFL.
Mike Bookey

No, I have never met Tim Tebow. By all accounts he seems like a perfectly pleasant young man with a perfectly American haircut and first name. But I don't like him as a football player. Not when he was charging down the field for Florida. Not when he won the damn Heisman Trophy. Not when he talked about Jesus all the time and not when he came into the NFL. And certainly not this week when damn near every sports columnist all but demanded I accept him as football royalty.
In fact, this summer when there were rumors that Tebow had fallen as far as four on the Bronco's depth chart, I felt a sort of validation. See, I told myself, I knew this guy was all hype. I knew he wouldn't last in the NFL and that Heisman was just a reward for being the quarterback of the SEC champion, which is essentially what the Heisman Trophy has become. I figured people would give up on him. Success, I thought.
But then – and maybe it was a reward for all the free PR work he did for the big guy – Tebow somehow found himself getting some snaps over the course of the past two weeks. And it wasn't because he's clearly better than Kyle Orton or Brady Quinn, but rather because he sold a lot of jerseys and those oxygen-deprived Denveranians took to moronically chanting “Tee-bow, Tee-bow” after each of Orton's incomplete passes.

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Help Me, I'm an Addict: Dealing with my obsession with cyclocross

Cyclocross isn’t a sport, it’s a disease.
Michelle Mercer

You know you're in trouble when one friend, a respectable schoolteacher, concedes quietly over dinner, “it's like crack.” Days later, another trusted friend, who, for the record, is a functional member of society, uses “heroin” to describe the unnatural pull of oneself to cyclocross racing. I'm not that good at it, I don't have a lot of extra time or money, but I'm full on hooked
And it's become not enough to race locally. With the renowned Cross Crusade races, the largest cyclocross series in the country – so eminent they have their own Wikipedia entry – within a gas tank's distance from Bend, I find myself pulling on big girl pants to go mix it up with the largest amateur women's field in the U.S.

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Primo Dirt: Ski season is just around the corner, but now is no time to hang up the bike

Michelle Mercer

If you're a dirt junkie, chances are you've been eagerly watching the skies and the weather forecast, hoping for rain. Although real rain, not the kind that seemingly disappears before it hits the ground, has fallen in the past few weeks, and the trails are being described as “money” and “tacky-licious” on Twitter, we're due for more.

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