Coming Clean: When a losing streak isn't enough to kill a gambling addiction

Posted inNews

Coming Clean: When a losing streak isn't enough to kill a gambling addiction

Source Weekly

Oregonians have their own way of looking at things. There is a spirit of fun and adventure that runs through pretty much everything we do here. And when Oregon was struggling to rebound from a severe recession in the 1980s, Oregonians looked for a way to respond that did more than just make money.
The people of Oregon knew it would take some cash to jump-start the economy, but they weren't about to settle for business as usual. They also wanted to offer Oregonians a chance to have some fun! So, on November 6, 1984, Oregonians voted to create a state lottery by a margin of two to one…
– It Does Good Things, a webpage created by the Oregon State Lottery

I'm a hardcore slot machine junkie. There are no other words to describe my compulsion for my favorite drug. I've been clean for nearly a year. I wouldn't predict a longer run of sobriety for me except for what I can manage today. That's the nature of true addiction.
For about 10 years of my 14-year gambling stretch, I gambled in binges – every one to three weeks. Toward the end I became a furious and resentful woman. I hated my beloved town that had become a playground for the rich and fatuous; the once-wild Southwest that was pocked with gated developments and huge fifth wheel RVs – and my friends, for seeming to no longer want to spend much time with me. But more than anything, I hated my species for gobbling up the planet that was my purest medicine. And every one to three weeks, I burned gasoline driving an hour or more to casinos in which I could forget the fact that I was in a casino whose existence was gobbling the planet even faster. Only when I was hunkered down at my favorite slot machine did I feel relaxed and normal. That's the nature of this addiction.

Posted inOpinion

John Day 1, Nazis 0

Source Weekly

John Day is a pretty little Eastern Oregon town that up until last month was known mostly for the good fishing in the John Day River and good fossil-hunting in the nearby John Day Fossil Beds.
But in mid-February, a group that embraces fossilized political and racial ideas cast an unwelcome spotlight on John Day. Paul R. Mullet, who calls himself the national director of the neo-Nazi Aryan Nations group, breezed into town in a swastika-bedecked shirt and let it be known that he was looking at some real estate. The group is planning to relocate from northern Idaho, he said, and John Day looks like the perfect place to establish its new headquarters.
Aryan Nations is a virulently racist white supremacist organization founded in the 1970s and originally headquartered in northern Idaho. It's anti-black, anti-Semitic and anti-Hispanic, and dreams of creating a “Fourth Reich,” a whites-only “Aryan” nation within the United States.

Posted inOpinion

This week's number: $16 Million

Source Weekly

The amount of money that the City of Bend is seeking in earmarks from the federal government. Chided in the past for not seeking government handouts, the city is asking Oregon's congressional delegation to help the city fund federally mandated upgrades to its drinking water system and its sidewalks, many of which have been found to be inadequate under the American's with Disabilities.

Posted inOpinion

Crazy For You: The politics of education, unpaid dental bills and the problem with atheists

Source Weekly

The author has been sent on the road to discover a lost country formerly known as America. He is reporting from a failed Socialist state headed by an illegal alien (or maybe listening to too much AM radio) on assignment for Or-Bust.com and The Source Weekly.
The Crazies
There's something in the water. Or it's an election year… Senator Jim Bunning (R-KY – the state, not the sexy lubricant) is going out in style, retiring after two terms, and using an arcane Senate procedure to block a funding bill for extended jobless and health care benefits, infrastructure projects and other liberal Socialist programs. Immediately laying off 2,000 workers, cutting COBRA health coverage, and ensuring that 400,000 unemployed Americans starve, Bunning is doing so out of concern that the Dem majority hasn't shown a way to offset the $10 billion cost, offering, “I hope the American people understand my serious objections.” Of course, by the time you read this, Bunning's feat will be forgotten (much like when he pitched a perfect game in 1964 for the Phillies); much like Senator Richard Shelby's (R-AL) blanket blocking of Obama's 70-plus presidential appointments, all because he wants more earmarks for Alabama. One Republican wants to control spending and another wants more money, you gotta love the Grand Ole Party. What's next?

Posted inOpinion

No Trivial Matter

Source Weekly

I am writing this letter to concur with The Source's letter complaining about the Trivia Bee competition held February 20th and its procedural, factual and typographical faults. In my opinion, it was actually worse than that. I have played in various trivia competitions for 35 years, and I left the Trivia Bee that night more frustrated and angered than I have ever been at similar games. Not only do I take exception with the poor question writing, but in my heart-of-hearts feel that with all the missteps I have seen at the last two Trivia Bees the event seems [untrustworthy].

Posted inOpinion

A Magnet For Problems

Source Weekly

There is a problem with traffic around Kenwood/Highland school every weekday mornings and afternoon. It is dangerous for the kids and dangerous for the neighborhood. The school district and the city have been working on a possible solution for a number of years. They currently are considering back-in angled parking on Harmon from Newport Avenue to Nashville, to accommodate approximately 13 to 15 parking spaces for parents dropping their kids off at school. This project is going to cost the school district and the city around $150,000.
The problem solely exists because Kenwood/Highland is a magnet school. There is no bussing for magnet schools. Many of the students live far away from the schools and are driven to school by their parents. When Kenwood was a regular neighborhood school, the problem didn't exist. I know because I've lived on the corner of Harmon and Nashville for over 30 years. The kids walked, rode their bikes, or came via bus.

Posted inOpinion

Is Wilderness Good Business?

Source Weekly

I was on site when President John F. Kennedy declared the North Fork of the John Day a wilderness. The way we used the new wilderness changed. There were no more mountain bikes, no more game carts or retrieving game with a Jeep. That is all part of life and we have made adjustments and enjoy the wilderness experience. However, over the years the wilderness has become more crowded and, yes, it has been good for business. The more people that have access to and enjoy wilderness areas definitely create a draw and economic stimulus.
I have followed the process by which the newly proposed Cathedral Rock and Horse Heaven wilderness areas have been fast tracked and I am concerned. First there is a land exchange to consolidate private and public lands. This is a good concept. As a river drifter I have had access to the river through Cathedral Rock area as long as the river has adequate water – four to five months a year. It has been stated that this wilderness will protect endangered plant species and that it will open access to more public land. This is where the burr under my saddle begins to rub.

Posted inCulture

Our Picks for 3/3 – 3/11: Eric Tollefson, Art Fusion, Steve Kimock and more

Source Weekly

Eric Tollefson and The World's Greatest Lovers
wednesday 3
Go to the Sound section for a profile of this local singer/songwriter and his band of Lovers. Tollefson will open the show with an acoustic set, followed by a full rocking gig later on. Free, all ages. 7pm. McMenamins Old St. Francis School, 700 NW Bond St.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
thursday-saturday 4-6
After enjoying an incredibly successful run, the local production of Ken Kesey's legendary story is sticking around for an encore weekend for three more performances. Take advantage of the borrowed time and make sure you check this out. $20/adult, $15/senior, $12/student. 7:30pm each night. Greenwood Playhouse, 148 NW Greenwood Ave.

Posted inCulture

Cards, Booze, Working Girls and Spittoons: The High Desert Museum brings the wildness of the West to life with Sin in the Sagebrush

Mike Bookey

The peculiar and markedly simple card game of faro might actually be spelled “pharaoh,” but there's no point in debating the spelling because hardly anyone has played the game in the last century. But down at the High Desert Museum, faro is being played, the antiquated cards dealt onto a century-old table by a young man dressed in a vest, dress shirt and a bowler hat.
He's dressed like it's 1900, which is exactly the time period the High Desert Museum is trying to create with its Sin in the Sagebrush exhibit, a meticulously crafted, time-period-accurate look into the gambling, drinking, whoring, fighting, dancing, shooting and other displays of general debauchery that accompanied life in the often harsh Western frontier. The exhibit, running through September before hitting the road to other museums around the country, has been some three years in the making, as curator Bob Boyd and his team gathered genuine articles from this era like, for example, an array of gamblers' cheating devices, including a strap that allowed card players to literally keep an ace up their sleeves.

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