Thank you for your editorial about State Senator Ben Westlund, Democratic Candidate for State Treasurer. I want to commend you for providing a balance to The Bulletin's tired and, as usual, biased coverage.
Ignore Westlund Bashing
Posted inOpinion
Love Thy Biker
So far in my experience, I have concluded that the Universe runs on Love. Who knows how many people would say that they have had that same experience? However, I feel that many people would say that the thought of the Universe running on Love makes them feel good.
Posted inNews
The Fine Art of Pooh-Poohing the Polls
Politics 101: When your guy is ahead in a poll, trumpet the news. When your guy is behind in a poll, either (a) question the value of the poll or (b) say the other guy should be FURTHER ahead or (c) both.
Posted inNews
Well-Upholstered Politicians
Those Gordon Smith ads chiding Jeff Merkley because the Oregon Legislature spent millions on redecoration during his tenure as House speaker prompted a snarky editorial from The Oregonian yesterday.
Posted inNews
Real Estate’s Dead, But Weeds Look Healthy
Is it just our imagination, or is Bend looking weedier (and seedier) than usual this summer?
Posted inNews
The High Costs of Low Taxes
Ballot Measure 59, an initiative pushed by professional anti-tax crusader Bill Sizemore, would cost Oregon more than a billion dollars in revenue over two years and benefit only the most affluent 25% of the state's nearly two million taxpayers.
Posted inOpinion
Tune Out China
Letter of the Week
With all the talk of a coming out party at the Beijing Games, China has a miserable record on human rights and the IOC has done little to pressure China into meaningful reforms. The week's LOW asks that the viewers make a statement by choosing to tune out the Beijing Games.
Posted inCulture
Hit the Ground
Thirty years ago, Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami owned a jazz club in Tokyo. It was a tiny place. During the day, he served coffee; at night, the club became a bar. Murakami closed up himself, arriving home as the yolk-y sun was rising in the sky. It had never occurred to him to do anything else, let alone write fiction. And then, it did.
This charming, sober little book tells the story of how, shortly after Murakami embarked on a career as a novelist, he was blindsided by an even unlikelier idea: to go for a run. One can understand his surprise. At the time, he was smoking 60 cigarettes a day. He had never been an athlete. But he was a solitary person, and before long, he was hooked.
Runners will find a kindred soul on these pages. Here is everyman, hitting the pavement, falling into that peculiar mental void that opens up on a long jog. He endures the indignities of the sport, too. Completing his first marathon in Greece in midsummer, his sweat dries so fast, it leaves behind smears of salt. "When I lick my lips," he writes, "they taste like anchovy paste."
Posted inCulture
Ladies Night: Menopause The Musical heats things up in Bend
Bra busters at 2nd street. How would you like to see a hilarious musical that ends with wily middle-aged women from the audience gathering on the stage for a Rockettes-inspired kick line? What about the live seduction of one of the male audience members or a full-on Tina Turner performance? How about a bunch of songs about having hot flashes, cellulite and going through menopause?
All right, I know you're skeptical. A musical about menopause? How weird and potentially gross, right? This was pretty much what was going through my head as I hauled my 24-year-old self over to 2nd Street Theatre to see Menopause The Musical. Having never personally experienced "The Change," I had some serious doubts. In a theater filled with the stereotypical Menopause crowd - almost all women (there were exactly seven men, 11 if you count the employees) nearly twice my age, I definitely felt a little out of place, that is until the play started.
Director Maralyn Thoma guides Lyryn Cate, Rachel Deegan, Anne Du Fresne and Jackie Johnson in a musical comedy that makes hot flashes, memory loss, overactive bladders, vision problems, mood swings and wacky libidos seem horrifically funny and fabulous.
Posted inOutside
Get to Know Your Fisher Birds: There’s more than one way to catch a fish
World TravelerIf you're a bird, there are several ways to catch fish. You can snatch them off the surface as bald eagles do, you can dabble for them, or dive straight into the water.
White pelicans, those gorgeous soaring birds of our inland lakes, are dabblers. They usually travel in pods of 10 to 20, watching their favorite fishing holes for the opportunity to gobble up a meal in a hurry. What's that old rhyme? "The pelican is a remarkable bird, its bill can hold more than its belly can."
If you go to Crane Prairie Reservoir, Summer Lake, and the Klamath lakes before summer is out, you can watch white pelicans in action. They find a school of fish feeding near the surface and slowly surround them, herding them into shallow water where they are more or less trapped.
One of the pelicans gives the signal and suddenly they rear back their huge bills and begin jabbing at the water with gaping mouths. The enormous sack beneath their long bill fills with fish and water, and as they raise their heads, they expel the water and swallow the fish. This cooperative effort works slicker than frog hair, and in a few moments the pelicans bills are no longer holding what their belly can.