A Walk in the Park

Posted inOpinion

A Walk in the Park

Eric Flowers

This week's letter of the week comes from Thomas Ware who contemplates the fate of a recently felled tree. We're not sure if this falls into the philosophy or poetry category, but we liked it. Thanks for the letter Thomas. You can pick up your winner's spoils, a freshly ground bag of Strictly Organic coffee, at our office, 704 NW Georgia.
We live in a unique place, and we who live here are a unique bunch of people; hell, even our homeless, so prevalent in today's news, are well-groomed avid bicyclists. Ain't no mall walkers around here, and not because we don't have "malls." We used to, now they're parking lots, because nobody walked in them anyway (which is why they're now parking lots!).

Posted inOpinion

American Mythology

Eric Flowers

The letdown after Christmas is a natural time to think about some questionable American customs and thought processes, and perhaps to see the fallacies therein. The following comparison list might be helpful in sorting things out.
Myth: Santa Claus lives at the North Pole and has flying reindeer. Reality: Santa is a fantasy so he owns no flying reindeer.
Myth: Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year. Reality: Christmas is a most stressful season and often a very disappointing time of year.

Posted inOpinion

Do The Math

Eric Flowers

I thank Ken Czepelka (Jan. 29 issue) for responding to my Jan. 22 letter, "The Solution." I don't personally argue with Ken on what he presented, but it's in conflict with Robert Bryce's 2008 book, "Gusher of Lies: The Dangerous Delusions of Energy Independence." Bryce deals extensively with the "solar" issue. In Chapter 16, "Solar, the 1 percent solution," he provides an analysis by Raymond James and Associates that solar power in residential applications costs $0.37 per Kilowatt-hour, nearly four times conventional sources! Simmons and Company International estimated that even a growth rate of 25 percent a year of solar power capacity would only provide about 1 percent of global electricity demand by year 2020 at a cost of $0.22-$0.84 per Kilowatt-hour. By 2030, the Energy Information Administration estimates that solar power will provide about five billion Kilowatt-hours of electricity to American consumers per year, a mere fraction (0.0015) of the 3,351 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity the agency expects from coal. It's true that the Sun is an unlimited source of power, but cloud cover is also unlimited and is a "killer drawback" according to Bryce, along with a lack of "high-density electrical storage." "Solar power can never be relied upon to provide large quantities of base load power."

Posted inOpinion

Stocking Stuffer

Eric Flowers

I have in my possession a document that ensured this Pittsburgh Steelers' victory in Super Bowl XLIII as of Christmas Day 2008. (As you are aware this was before the play-offs).
The story is: As a Christmas tradition, our family always put little anonymous gifts in each others' stockings, these we call ''gifts from Santa.''
This year (like most people) we had very little money, and my wife commented to me that our sons were upset that they had nothing to put in my (I'm the dad) stocking. So as not to disappoint them, Christmas morning when we all emptied out our stockings, in Dad's stocking was a document from none other than Santa Claus himself! This document stated that ''Dad's Christmas wish will come true. The Pittsburgh Steelers will be Super Champs for the 2008/2009 season!''

Posted inOutside

Mid-Winter Stoke: A Postcard from Disney World

Pam Stevenson

Dear Readers,

Greetings from sunny Orlando, Florida!
Driving away from the airport through a dead flat sea of urban sprawl on a jam-packed highway tossing quarters into tollbooth baskets, I thought about how much I missed Bend already. I'm here with Meg and Dave Chun to spend four days at Surf Expo, the biggest trade show for the surf industry, selling Kialoa stand-up paddles. Working in the surf biz is a pretty good gig, but even so, you sometimes have to pay your dues. Here, in the land of amusement parks, it's all about escaping reality. My love of surfing is all about connecting to the ocean, oneness with the water, the sun and the moon (what else would you expect from a Pisces?). Ironically, we couldn't be farther from that inside the cavernous, windowless Orange County Convention Center surrounded by thumping music, aisles of stickers and wax flotsam, and a flotilla of surfboards. But, some mid-winter stoke is a very good thing and I thought I'd send some along to the surfers in the crowd.

Posted inOpinion

Stalemates and Check Mate A city council showdown, Daschle dashed, and more!

Mike Bookey

The City Standoff

Heads or tails. Upfront has been entertained by the new Bend city council's standoff start to the new year. As of Monday councilors remained evenly divided over whom to tap for the seat recently vacated by Chris Telfer, who departed in early January for the state legislature. By law councilors have until Feb. 7 to select Telfer's replacement. That person will serve out the two years remaining on Telfer's term. But several councilors who spoke with Upfront about the stand-off said they didn't foresee any compromise before the deadline, which would force the city to settle the question with a special election (estimated cost $13,000) or with the flip of a coin - a relatively rare but well established political tie-breaker. One councilor who spoke with Upfront on Monday said he thought the council would go with the later method to avoid a costly and politically divisive special election.

Posted inOpinion

Governor K’s Timely Flip-Flop

Mike Bookey

Back in the spring of 2007, alarmed at the prospect of two destination resorts being built near the Metolius River, then-state Sen. Ben Westlund and other lawmakers sponsored legislation to protect one of the state's great scenic and recreational resources.

Their bill died when Gov. Ted Kulongoski told them to back off, saying he wanted state agencies to study the best way to protect the Metolius and other special natural resources.
Now the studying is done, and the state Land Conservation and Development Commission has come up with a Metolius protection plan that's even tighter - and better - than the original. It would ban resorts inside the Metolius Basin and restrict them within 10 miles of it.

Posted inCulture

Taken to the Cleaners: Subpar revenge flick will have you begging for mercy

Mike Bookey

It says it's from Justin Timberlake. Taken completely lives up to its title. You will feel taken for every penny you spent and every second you wasted sitting through this movie. It definitely will make my top ten worst movie list for 2009. Taken will stretch your patience like a balloon to the popping point. Not to mention the paranoid message it sends to anyone considering a vacation in Europe.

Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson) is a retired moody guy with a secret past. It's never clear as to where he retired from. Mercenaries? CIA Black Ops? Secret agent school? He refers to himself as "a preventer," so you be the judge. He wants to become closer to his daughter Kim (Maggie Grace), and then overprotects her, much to the dismay of his ex-wife (Famke Janssen) and her new husband (Xander Berkeley). The first 20 minutes setup of sad divorce woes and cute eye glances between Mills and Kim were way too cute and excruciatingly long. The 50-minute wedding scene in Deer Hunter suddenly didn't seem so bad. A subplot has Mills moonlighting as a bodyguard to Kim's favorite chick rock star, an attempt to bring them all together. But then Kim goes and gets kidnapped on a European trip and Mills has to go all Rambo using his special "skills" to save her from a white slave trade syndicate (of course). So with spy-gizmos, big fists and guns a blazin', Mills heads off to Paris.

Posted inCulture

Scared Skinny: South Korean thriller retread is good for token frights

Mike Bookey

Rub a dub dub. By the time young Emily Browning - the Australian waif who stars in The
Uninvited - sees her 8th or 9th scary, decaying corpse come to life I
begin to wonder if anyone ever considered late-stage anorexia as a
cause for these hallucinations. Between last month's The Unborn
(featuring the sharp-hipped Odette Yustman) and this movie, I am now
certain that a steady diet of pizza and pancakes can ward off ghosts.

Unfortunately
the requisite beanpole heroine isn't the only well-beaten path that
this film walks. Like other post-holiday horror releases we're treated
to basic thriller formulas, teen drinking, PG-13 half-nudity - along
with more scared-stiff and seemingly starving protagonists who should
probably stop at a deli on the way to the police station.

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