Does Bend, aka "the Paradise of the Cascades," really get 300 sunny days a year? Not according to the weather experts.
How Many “Days of Sunshine”? It’s a Cloudy Issue
Posted inNews
Hard Times Hit Stumptown
Portland made the front page of the New York Times today, but Oregon's metropolis probably would just as soon have passed up the honor.
Posted inNews
Luring the Lifestyle Nomads
Bend has picked up another one of those "Best Of" honors: This time, it's being touted as "America's Top Mountain Biking Town" in Mountain Bike Action magazine.
Posted inCulture
Keep Your Left Hand Up!: A night at the Golden Gloves
The work beneath the gloves…Boxers don't walk. Boxers don't strut. Boxers glide, eyes forward,
their profiles reminiscent of Dick Tracy, strong and dashing, with a
hint of vulnerability that belies the ballet of brutality to come.
Noted
author Joyce Carol Oates refers to boxing as, "the lost religion of
masculinity," and the horde that gathered on a Friday night in the
Middle Sister Building of the Deschutes County Fairgrounds for the
preliminary bouts of the Oregon State Golden Gloves championship came
to re-christen this loss. Men dominated the throng as Ozzy Osbourne,
Rammstein and Mexican rap detonated from speakers. The overpowering
smell of nachos and popcorn blended with the bittersweet aroma of mixed
drinks. The bartender, resplendent in a jewel-toned vest and bow tie,
attempted to create a little bit of Las Vegas elegance on a
linen-draped card table positioned near a hall water fountain.
Posted inOpinion
Keep Bike Lanes Clear
I wanted to say a few words about the, you guessed it, bike lanes. We have seen many, many responses to the bike lanes here in Bend and how important it is to keep them free of vehicles and junk.
Posted inOutside
The World of Oregon’s Weird Wildlife: Introducing you to a couple new species
The work beneath the gloves…You have to be alert while driving down the highway to observe some of
Oregon's more unique forms of wildlife. Take the photo above for
example. It isn't often you see one of the Giant Oregon Rock Worms, let
alone get close enough to have it almost bite your leg off – and they
can do it!
If you don't believe that, the next time you're driving
over the Santiam Pass to Salem, slow down after you go past Suttle Lake
and look at the face of the rocks opposite the lake. You can see the
long vertical tunnels some of the smaller rock worms make in the rock.
They are vertical to the surface, as rock worms keep their tails above
the ground (to breathe) as they dig down, and their flatulence is
powerful enough to blow the tunnel in half.
With just a little
imagination you can see what their teeth must be like, gnawing through
lava rock! It's no wonder my daughter Miriam was leaping away! Further
down the highway near Detroit Reservoir, you can see where ODOT and OSU
wildlife biologists have placed wire netting on the hillside in an
effort to capture rock worms and sell them to zoos in other states.
Posted inOpinion
Keep Downtown Skater Friendly
This week's letter comes from J. Turley who fears a crackdown on downtown skateboarding will limit commuting options and unfairly target law-abiding skaters. Thanks for the letter and the reminder that skating is (still) not a crime. As a small token of our gratitude for your letter, drop by our skate-friendly office, 704 NW Georgia, and pick up a pound of Strictly Organic coffee on us.
Central Oregonians have shared several beautiful spring days in the last couple of weeks. It has been a chance to prepare and test out alternate transportation for the summer. Thousands of people leave their car at home and ride on another set of wheels. Enjoying a ride to work on a sunny day is one of the greatest parts of living here in the summer. But Bend is trying to put unfair and bias regulations upon commuters of the skateboarding kind.
Posted inOutside
Corned Beef Hash: On a hare’s trail in search of beer and fitness
The hounds take after the hare…and beer.Sometimes, I'm a little off-kilter, so to speak. Case in point: On St,
Patrick's Day, I ended up at a Mexican restaurant with a few friends. I
know McMenamins would have been the happening place to be, but the
seafood rellenos and the service (since we were the only ones there) at
Baltazar's was wonderful. But, hey, this is no restaurant review-I'll
leave that to the dining critic. The evening after St.Paddy's Day, I
partook in another off-kilter event known as a "Hash." Now that's
something you need to know about. By the way, some of what follows is
stolen from wikipedia, some from www.gthhh.com, the World Hash House
Harrier's website, and the rest I made up.
Posted inOpinion
A National Disgrace
I am a blue-collar person. I have a wife, two daughters, and all the pleasure that that brings.
Posted inOpinion
Stop Being So Snide
Can the editorial staff please do me a favor and stop using parentheses to interject their astute observations of obvious grammatical errors within readers' opinion letters? I can't tell where the readers' semi-coherent ramblings (which often include parenthetical explanatory notes) end and the editors' assertion of their own snickery grammatical superiority begins. It's like, before taking the splinter from your brother's eye, remove the beam from your own, man.