Portland, OR

Sometimes, I really need to remember that not everyone is interested in “what we do in Portland…”

Not only am I a proud Portlandian, but I tend to talk about it too much when I visit people in my home state of Michigan. I need to learn to just shut up, but it’s not like I am bragging per se, but instead, I see many things that Portland does as neat and cool and that most of the people I know would really like Portland. But, most people I know in Michigan are stuck there, for lack of a better term. I just happen to be one of those people that has no qualms about moving across a continent, but most people like living close to home and family and friends — or at least that is what they say. Not that I think that anyone is envious of my nomadic lifestyle, but I remember when I was stuck in Michigan and how eager I was to get the heck out.

Welcome to Detroit, Michigan

However, not everyone is impressed with what we Communists and Hippies are doing out West. Most people are polite about it, and simply look bored when I bring up Portland’s propensity for gardening, our city’s incoming gay mayor, our many farmers markets and how everything is organic and local, how I can go to the store in my pyjamas and slippers and no one even bats an eyelash, how I can ride my bike almost everywhere, and how polite everyone is on our bio-diesel buses and our electric streetcars…

Yeah, I’d probably get annoyed with me, too. And since I am in Brighton, Michigan (outside of Detroit), I stand the risk of getting a ticket for annoying people with my incessant “in Portland” sentences.

I try to keep my fondness for Portland in check, but it is hard because I am and have been a little eco-nazi for years, and with Portland being such a green city (in more ways that one), I usually point out that Portland is a good place for someone like me, and then I try to work in an environmental lecture into my conversation. I would find that annoying, so I really need to find other ways to answer the question, “How’s Portland?”

From now on, I will politely say, “Come see for yourself.”

Portland, Oregon, Michigan, Brighton, Detroit, farmers markets, organic, biodiesel, environmentalists, communists, hippies

Again, another rather misleading title, but then again I never said I didn’t take liberties with this site. It’s not like Portland has a monopoly on DIY stuff or that no one else in the country is into DIY, but bear with me as I try to give you a cross-section of Portland, Oregon here, people.

credit: i5prof

First a little something about DIY, for newbies. It’s Do-It-Yourself, obviously, and that kind of mentality is alive and well in Portland, Oregon. From creating your own fashions to building your own bike, if you talk to ten people in Portland, I’ll bet that at least six of them are DIY’ers in some sense. Personally, I am into DIY skincare right now. I grow things in my garden and stick them in a food processor and then slather them on my face…

Anyhoo, arts and crafts are becoming popular in the midst of our economic downturn and depressed consumer spending. As someone who teaches after-school classes in which I build science-y projects with little kids, I can attest to the fact that I have just as much fun making stuff as the kids do. As an extra bonus of being a “crafty” chick, my house is full of pipe cleaners and popsicle sticks which my cats love to bat around. I think it is great that people are more interested in making their own xmas and holiday gifts, regardless of why.

And if money is an issue, kids love making stuff, so why not put them to work in your very own cottage industry/sweatshop in your kitchen or family room.

Ok, ok, I kid. Child labor is not funny. But seriously, whether you have children or not, making your own stuff is a wonderful outlet for all that creativity inside of you that you may not realize is there.

Here are some PDX resources to find you inner Martha Stewart…

Portland, Oregon, DIY, crafts, children, child labor, arts, holiday, gifts

So, I am in Michigan, visiting family for the holidays, and never in a million years did I anticipate having to postpone my return to Portland due to too much snow.

gajproductions.com

No, Portland does not salt the roads. And as another installment of lulu’s love of trivial facts…

A Short History of Road Salt

New Hampshire was the first state to employ the use of (a measly 5000 tons of) salt to melt ice and snow on its roads back in 1940-1941. Before salt, everyone used sand or cinders to create an abrasive surface on ice and snow in order to allow car tires to grip the surface and not slip and slide all over the place. However, salt took off in popularity after World war II and the building of the nation’s interstate system, and by the end of the 1960’s, 10 million tons of salt were used throughout the US.

Much like adding salt to a pot of water before boiling it to lower the boiling temperature, salt also lowers the temperature at which water freezes. Road salt can effectively lower water’s freezing temperature to around 10 degrees Fahrenheit. Any colder than that, and salting is pointless.

So why doesn’t Portland salt the roads?

Ever heard the term, salting the Earth? Supposedly, after the Punic Wars, Rome salted the farmlands around Carthage as punishment and as a way to prevent Carthage from rebuilding. Salt kills vegetation, and prevents anything from growing on that soil for years to come.

Well, road salt acts in the same way. Of course, the salt is diluted with all that snow and ice, but over the years, that salt accumulates, and detrimental effects come to the surface.

Not to mention the damage that salt, a corrosive, causes to vehicles, roads, bridges, etc.

Portland, snow, winter, storm, roads, ice, sand, salt, de-icing, transportation, New Hampshire

Believe it or not, most writers supplement their incomes working in restaurants. It’s easy and quick cash, and allows us plenty of time to write. And writers don’t make that much writing, and somehow we must make money to buy our laptops and internet service, right?

I have bartended and waited tables on and off for years, through college and beyond. It is a somewhat addictive lifestyle that some of us actually enjoy. I fell into that category…that is, until I moved to Portland.

For anyone out there that is thinking about either a) getting a part-time restaurant gig in PDX or b) moving to Portland and getting a restaurant job as their main source of income — BEWARE.

I have worked in five restaurants in the last fifteen months. I “opened” three of those restaurants, meaning that I was hired before the restaurant opened its doors and was part of the opening staff. At least, two of those restaurants are now closed. I write “at least” because a third may have closed. I haven’t checked on it since I left it after two weeks of being open with absolutely no business. A fourth restaurant was struggling to stay open, so truthfully, it may have also closed its doors.

Now granted, the current economy has not helped, but I am going to piss some people off by saying that the Portland restaurant scene is like amateur hour.

I know, I know, you want to say how great our restaurants are, and I won’t argue with you. We have some good chefs and great local product. Dining here is rather unpretentious, and at times very affordable. Portland has a good restaurant scene if you are a diner.

However, if you are a restaurant professional, and I use that term loosely, you can never be too sure about your next paycheck or night’s tip.

For example, I opened a very high-end place this last May/June. It supposedly had a lot of money behind it, enough that it could operate at a loss for quite some time, as the restaurant waited until it generated enough sales to cover its seemingly astronomical operating expenses. The place just announced last week it was shutting its doors and closed down three days later. As I am no longer with that company (thank goodness for many other reasons in addition to its abrupt end), I have no idea what will happen to its 60+ employees, and I feel very sorry for the staff. They put in an inordinate amount of work for six long, underpaid months, only to be told two weeks before Xmas that they would no longer have a job. I hope that the corporate overlords gave them all a nice severance package, but as it is the restaurant biz, I highly doubt it.

Another restaurant I opened last winter shut down after two months. At the time, I had to take a leave of absence for a family matter, and I was not dependent on that income, thankfully, but again, a large staff was told with very little warning that they were out of work. The saddest part was that this restaurant was part of the Hayden empire, and a few other restaurants were shut down by the financing company (or so I heard) at the same time. More hard-working restaurant people out of work.

I don’t quite get it. Does Portland give people delusions of grandeur in thinking that if they build it, people will eat there? Restaurants are notoriously bad businesses if you want to make a lot of money. The profit margins are small. Unless it is your true and absolute passion, don’t open a restaurant. It’s a money-sucking bitch goddess that will leave you and your bank account dry.

Sadly, waiter and waitresses get sucked into what becomes a mass delusion. They are told about how much money they will make, and how well the business is going to be, only to realize soon enough that they have been suckered into taking a minimum wage job with no future past a few months. And then the vicious cycle will start again with the next job.

It does however seem like a (fool’s) paradise for restaurant consultants. When a restaurant is failing, a consultant is inevitably called in, to little or no avail. But they still get paid, and move onto the next failing business to not help.

But to all my restaurant-employed or potentially-employed brethren, I urge you to watch out when hired at a place in this town. Very few restauranteurs seem to know what they are doing in this town (more so than many other places I have lived and worked). Luckily, I found a pretty good place right now for a night or two a week. The owners are saavy, and besides that I like them. Unfortunately, the economy is soooo bad, that tips are harder to come by through no fault of the establishment. Time for a dreaded day job…or grad school.

Portland, restaurants, dining, jobs, business, restauranteur, consultant, corporate, bartending, waiting tables, waiters, waitresses

I always seem to miss Portland’s coldest weather. Not to say I am sorry about that, but as I am in Michigan, where it is always a snow day or should be considered one, it’s not like I am missing out on the cold and snow. I just really wanted to experience a Portland Snow Day.

First, this is a classic video of another snow day from 2007. It is just too funny.

For all those bundled up indoors, here’s some random weather facts courtesy Oregonphotos.com. Mostly.

The absolute coldest temperature recorded in Oregon was 54 degrees below zero (and yes, that’s Fahrenheit). And get this, that temp was recorded not once, but twice in two different places (Ukiah and Seneca), though the dates were consecutive days, February 9th and 10th back in 1933.

That’s about as cold as Antarctica’s coastal areas get in the winter. Granted, the elevations of Ukiah and Seneca are much, much higher than Portland, so I doubt that kind of cold could come to Stumptown.

However, the lowest temperature on record for Portland is 19 below zero, which occurred on February 2, 1950. That’s more like an Antarctic summer…

And for those of you lamenting the snowfall Portland received yesterday and coming later this week, just be glad it’s not 1892. That winter, Portland received more than 60 inches of snow.

According to the National Weather Service, the heaviest snowfall that Portland received in one day was 8 inches. Gee, that’s not so bad, but it was during the winter of 1950, and in that January, Portland had 22 inches during that blustery blizzard. The NWS has it that Portland had 15 inches as the greatest snow depth that month. My question is what happened to the other 7 inches (ha, that’s what she said — wow, cannot believe I wrote that).

Anyway, Portland, enjoy the snow. At least you are not in Minnesota…for more reasons than just the snow, right. Sorry, Minnesota.

Portland, weather, snow, snowfall, winter, temperature, cold, snow day, Oregon, Antarctica, Ukiah, Seneca, National Weather Service, Minnesota

If so, Portland should have the lowest rate of Alzheimer’s patients in the country, right?

I ran across this at Alternet.org, but that site pulled it off of Miller-McCune.com. And all I can say is that I hope, hope, hope it is true.

At a November meeting of the Society of Neuroscience in Washington, D.C., researchers from Ohio State University reported that THC, the main psychoactive substance in the cannabis plant, may reduce inflammation in the brain and even stimulate the formation of new brain cells.

Meanwhile, in the Nov. 21 issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry, neurologist David Teplow of the University of California, Los Angeles reported that polyphenols — naturally occurring components of red wine — block the formation of proteins that build the toxic plaques thought to destroy brain cells. In addition, these substances can reduce the toxicity of existing plaques, thus reducing cognitive deterioration.

Together, the studies suggest scientists are gaining a clearer understanding of the mechanics of memory deterioration and discovering some promising approaches to prevention.

So, in a polyphenol-rich nutshell, the polyphenols in nutshells (and some berries) and grapes that make red wine won’t allow the Alzheimer’s-related proteins to bind together, and if they are not binding, they are not creating the plaque that shuts down the brain, robbing a person of their memories and personality, as in the case of those who suffer from this terrible disease.

In the case of marijuana helping combat Alzheimer’s, the link is not exclusive to Alzheimer’s treatment, and perhaps can be used in treating anyone suffering from memory damage or loss. The study shows that pot or weed or grass or whatever it is your particular generation calls it can reduce inflammation in the short-term memory area of the brain, known as the hippocampus, and stimulate cell growth in the brain. The study used older lab rats and put them through some memory tests. Rats given synthetic THC did better at the tests.

This “breakthrough” would be a boon to the medical marijuana movement, and perhaps would finally get pot decriminalized…yeah, right. This would simply be a new market for pharmaceutical companies to sell synthetic THC. But if Americans take a drug in pill form, it’s alright. Grown in your backyard and smoked, not alright.

Still, as an avid red wine consumer, this news couldn’t be better. Add to that a family history of Alzheimer’s and I am literally opening a bottle of wine as I typ-mj//[zsik00uuj-e.

Alzheimers, Portland, Alzheimer’s , red wine, marijuana, pot, drugs, disease, treatment, study, research, polyphenols, THC

Never have I lived in a city where thrift store/secondhand store/used goods store shopping is so big. In most cities, if I am in a Goodwill, I have my run of the store. But here in Portland, these stores are crowded. And it’s not just the crappy economy…

I mean, vintage, sure, that’s always hot in certain sub-populations all over the place, and sure, you will see a large percentage of those populations (hipsters, goths, etc.) at your local Goodwill or Salvation Army store. But in P-town, you will see all ilks of society, picking through the books, or browsing the kitchen stuff, looking for treasure.

That said, I checked out the newest Goodwill store in the Woodstock Neighborhood. It’s just south of the intersection of SE Woodstock and SE 52nd Avenue. It’s that awful yellowy-beige, manilla-folder color, and it’s shaped like a big box, but the facade has some windows and the blue tile design that Goodwill stores always have. You certainly don’t shop at Goodwill for the architectural charm.

Anyhoo, I had to find a laptop bag, and rather than plunking down a lot of money for a new, dandy laptop bag, I thought that it would be a good excuse to stop by the new Goodwill. I really didn’t expect to find anything, but as soon as I walked in the door, I had this competitive urge to find a proper bag.

To the left was the big wall of purses. I headed there as a starting point. Ah ha, I saw that past the purses there were shelves for backpacks, duffels, briefcases. But wait, a woman was in front of the area. My arrival made her aware of her position, and she slid closer to the purses. But then, out of nowhere, this old skinny Alan Alda-type guy is right next to me. Hi, personal space, please. He starts grabbing for bags, like right in front of me. Hold on there, buddy, I was here first.

He didn’t care. So, I didn’t care. I paid him no attention as I reached out for the prospects on the shelf. Of course, thinking laptop bag, I am looking at the black bags with straps. No padding though. And Alda starts looking at briefcases, so I could relax. We are going after different things.

I found a crazy blue bag, that was brand-new. The little bag for your power cord inside the bag was still wrapped in plastic. Score. But then, a little kid has trapped me against the shelves, with this old guy to the left of me, and the kid’s mom, complete with stroller, to my right.

If I haven’t mentioned it before, I am not a good shopper. I get freaked out when I feel boxed in by people. I started coughing, the old guy backed away, and I ducked out of the trap. Ahh.

It was such a harrowing experience that I didn’t look for anything else. And then, of course, when I was waiting in line to pay, the person in front of me was the old guy. How did he get there so fast? And he had a store credit voucher (the place has only been open 4 days, mind you — perhaps it’s from another store, or he just shows up everyday to invade other shoppers’ personal spaces and then sprints to the check-out to further drive that same shopper absolutely crazy!!), and some manager had to be called to help the cashier check him out. Three and half minutes later, and I’m free with a laptop case and a package of Sweettarts for $3.68. Not bad.

Upon rereading those last few paragraphs, it may not have sounded like such a pleasant shopping experience, but I guess for me the ends justifies the means.

Goodwill, Woodstock, Salvation Army, Portland, thrift, secondhand, used, shopping, vintage, clothing, books, treasure, economy

My standard response to the inevitable “How’s Portland” question from my non-Oregon-dwelling friends is “It’s clean.” I stand by that remark, for the most part, as this city is pretty clean when it comes to litter. However, my mind got to thinking and I pulled up the scorecard website. And really, Portland is not all that clean…

If you are not down with Scorecard.org, it could be one of your favorite sites or a rather nightmarish experience. It depends on whether you are the sort of person that wants to know things, or believes that ignorance is bliss.

Scorecard tracks environmental pollution. All businesses are required to file a Toxic Release Inventory to the Environmental Protection Agency, and TRI’s are an important source for Scorecard among other sources.

Anyhoo, I plugged in my zipcode of 97202.

Portland, Oregon ranks among the top 20% of dirtiest/worst counties. In total environmental releases, cancer risk score, non-cancer risk score, and in air releases of recognized carcinogens, Portland (I plugged in six or seven different zip codes, and they all came back the same ranking) ranks in the 80-89th percentiles among all US counties. Multnomah County ranks in the 90th to 100th percentiles among counties in number of air releases of recognized reproductive toxicants. Some good news is that Multnomah only ranks in the 70’s for air releases of recognized developmental toxicants.

See, I told you this could be nightmarish.

However, if I choose the Clackamas County portion of 97202, then the numbers are very different.

So, some good news there, I guess.

For fun, I plugged in some other zip codes from other major metropolitan areas of the country.

I chose 90037, which is in the middle of the Los Angeles Sprawl. Dirtier than Portland.

How about somewhere in the middle of Houston, Texas? That is a notoriously dirty city. Across the board in the 90-99th percentile. Dirtier than Portland.

Hm, let’s try a similarly sized city, and a West Coast city. Bakersfield, California is a bit bigger than Portland. Bakersfield’s score is a mixed bag, slightly worse in total releases and cancer and non-cancer risk, but better in recognized toxicants released into the air.

I know, I will pick my old zip code in Chicago, 60622. Just like Houston. Glad I moved.

And get this, I tried NYC, because I always have problems with my asthma as soon as I arrive there. It’s got to be dirty, right?

I chose 10016, Lower East Side of Manhattan. Quite clean. But then I tried Queens county, and it is still pretty clean. What is up? Newark has to be bad, right? Nope.

Huh, guess I will stop telling everyone how clean it is here.

pollution, Portland, Oregon, clean, toxicants, air releases, cancer, risk, toxic release inventory, EPA, scorecard, Multnomah, Clackamas, Los Angeles, Houston, New York City, NYC, Newark, Bakersfield, Chicago, Queens

And what do those two have together? Phytoplankton.

I watched NOVA on OPB last night, an episode called “Ocean Animal Emergency”. It was a very good episode — inspiring if not disheartening — and something that came up in the show was a little something called domoic acid. It is a toxin that is killing sea lions. Naturally, I wondered if domoic acid affects Oregon?

Yes, it has, and could at any time. And domoic acid doesn’t just kill sea lions. You see, domoic acid comes from phytoplankton called Pseudo-nitzschia, and this is what Pseudo-nitzschia looks like (right).

Pseudo-nitzschia is the genus and there are only some species within that genus that produce the toxin. Clam and mussels are filters, if you will, when they eat. The bivalves strain water for phytoplankton, and some of that phytoplankton is Pseudo-nitzschia. Pseudo-nitzschia exists in most coastal areas, and when an algae bloom happens, Pseudo-nitzschia will almost always be involved, but hopefully not dominant, and if it is, hopefully not the toxic variety. The trick is to identify it as toxic or not before humans start eating clams and mussels.

In a quick google search, I found out that the entire Oregon coast was closed to all shellfish harvesting due to high levels of domoic acid as recently as 2005. Currently, the Oregon mussel harvest has been closed due to the toxin.

The problem is that you cannot “close” the harvest for marine mammals that fed on clams, mussels, and other shellfish.

Now, you may be asking, what causes phytoplankton or algae “blooms”? Usually, blooms occur when nutrient-rich waters from the deeper parts of the ocean rise up to the surface. Blooms feed many marine creatures and provide the backbone to the food chain, but there is always the downside…

“Harmful algal blooms are the negative side of coastal upwelling,” [Peter] Strutton [an assistant professor in OSU's College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences] said. “There is growing evidence that these blooms have been increasing over the last 20 years and not only are becoming more frequent, but more intense and with longer duration. We also are starting to record toxic events in places that haven’t had them, so there is a concern that they may be spreading.

“The spreading could be caused by the transport of phytoplankton in the ballast water of ships,” he added.

Strutton said global climate change leading to warmer ocean waters is one theory behind the increasing incidents of harmful algal blooms. Human activity, including the release of nutrients into the oceans from agriculture fertilizers that leech into river systems, may also be a cause. –OSU’s Ocean Air

Hypoxia, or low oxygen levels in the water, occur after big, gigantic blooms. When all that algae dies, it consumes oxygen in the decomposition process. And if the area is hit every year, or several times a year, it can turn into a “dead zone.” Dead zones are present in the Gulf of Mexico, off the Southern California Coast, off the East Coast, and across the world as you can see in the map below.

If you will notice, most dead zones are at the delta of many rivers that flow through agricultural land, picking up nitrogen, phosphorus and other fertilizers. Oh, they are fertilizing something, just not crops. One more reason to go organic…

Related link for Nerds: Coast Watch

OPB, Nova, marine, mammal, toxin, domoic acid, fertilizer, phytoplankton, dead zones, ocean, sea, water, sea lions, seals, Pseudo-nitzschia, Oregon, organism, species, genus, bivalves, algae bloom, clams, mussels, harvest, food chain, hypoxia, oxygen

A friend of mine and I were talking the other night, and she asked me about recycling plastic bags. We started talking recycling and all that greenness that comes with it, and I noted that I felt that Portland was a bubble when it came to people being green or environmentally-conscious and responsible.

I get lots of email updates from the gazillion environmental action groups of which I am a member or subscriber of newsletters and action updates. And I am also on the mailing lists of many a governmental agency, including my love-hate relationship, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Today, the EPA sent out an press release regarding shopping for new cars. There are two reasons I am bringing this up: Portland is way ahead of the curve (we think) and the advice to shop for a car is timely and mixed.

We all like to think that Portland, Oregon is, like, the “greenest city” in America, and you know, it most probably is. But I still see huge trucks and SUVs on our roads, so it’s not like everyone is a member of the Church of Hybrid. But as a girl who moves around more than the average re-locator (what can I say, I get bored easily), and having lived or spent considerable time in rather diverse areas of this great nation of ours, I can safely say that Portland is by far the most environmentally-aware and -conscious city I know of. Does that mean that everyone recycles and has switched to CFL’s? No, of course not, some people don’t bother and then some people may disagree with some actions (CFL’s have mercury in them, as an example), but if you drive around on a neighborhood’s trash pick-up day, you may be amazed how many big blue recycling bins are right alongside glass bins and the green compost bins. In my neighborhood (Reed), I rarely even see the straight-up trash bins some weeks. My neighbor and I were complaining about the only bi-weekly compost curbside pick-up. Heck, most cities don’t offer curbside yard/kitchen waste pickup at all.

And secondly, the EPA’s press release…

Celebrating the Environment: Trading up your Sleigh this Holiday Season?

‘Tis the season for giving, and if you’re in the process of shopping for a car or light truck this year, EPA can help. Environmentally friendly vehicles come in all shapes and sizes, and there are some simple ways to find the best one for your family. There are also easy ways to improve your fuel economy, regardless of what model sleigh you drive.

* When shopping for a car, go to EPA’s Green Vehicle Guide to look for vehicles that earned EPA’s SmartWay designation, meaning that they are among the cleanest, most fuel-efficient available; and
* As you do your holiday shopping, be sure to maximize your vehicle’s fuel efficiency by combining trips, driving gently, and keeping your car well-maintained.

For sh*ts and giggles, I checked out the EPA’s green vehicle guide, and out of the cars with average MPG’s above the current (and finally raised) CAFE standards –which is 27.5 mpg by the way– nearly all of them are Japanese or German. There are 17 vehicles listed that have an average city mpg of 28 or more, 13 of those vehicles are not American. When we look at the 15 vehicles that are just shy of CAFE, at 27 mpg, the America cars make a better showing at 8 out of 15. When I looked at the list from the lowest mpg, starting at the bottom I had to scroll more than 2/5 of the way up the screen before I hit a Japanese make. The only exception was Mercedes, and the rest where almost GM models. And of nearly all the models listed, they are all designated to burn gasoline/ethanol blends, and ethanol is bringing about it’s own “blend” of problems.

And the Big Three are asking for a bailout? I wonder why. And the EPA is not helping at this point, telling car shoppers to choose models with good gas mileage, which probably means you will not be purchasing a GM or a Ford.

*disclaimer: As a Michigan native, a bailout is probably necessary, as everyone and their brother in Michigan depends on the auto industry, be it directly or indirectly. And I have a brother that works for a company that writes the diagnostic manuals for vehicle, so I also know how much paid time off the Union dictates for its employees and in turn, if the auto workers are off, so is everyone else.

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It is true that I am a nerd that enjoys the study of nature and all of its creatures, and part and parcel of living in Portland, Oregon is enjoying nature. So today, I will bring you the fruit of my research and study. I like bad things, dangerous things, and poisonous things, so today I bring you…

Giant Hogweed — Friend to Neither Skin Nor Eyes

The Giant Hogweed is hard to miss. It can grow taller than you and I. Here’s a picture from the King County, Washington website.

It kinda looks like a Queen Anne’s lace that grew outside a nuclear power plant, doesn’t it?

Giant Hogweed is a member of the carrot and parsley family, believe it or not. I have to wonder how deep the root grows, if it is more like carrots than parsley, but it looks more like parsley, so maybe it doesn’t have a large taproot. According to Wikipedia (which I hate using but come on, its so easy sometimes to write stuff without proper documentation — but this is a plant we are talking about, so the information is probably just fine), giant hogweed has tuberous roots, like a potato, so maybe it is more like a carrot after all.

Oregon counties where giant hogweed has been found.

Like some invasive species, giant hogweed was brought to Europe by the British and their fondness for flora. The giant hogweed soon escaped, because if you will notice the flowerheads, the plant gives itself an advantage to multiply by producing anywhere from 50,000 to 100,000 seeds. And those seeds can survive for up to 15 years, so even if you think you have destroyed the mother plant, new babies can give you headaches for years to come.

Now, what is really all that bad about giant hogweed, you may be asking youself, it’s kind of pretty, and definitely interesting. Well, yes, it is kind of pretty and interesting, but it is also poisonous. Not that you’d eat giant hogweed, but the plant manufactures this toxic sap, that can irritate your skin. But the best part is that if sunlight hits the sap-kissed skin, the irritation will turn into painful, burning blisters that can leave purple scars that can last for years. Neat.

Oh, and if the sap gets in your eyes, you can go blind. Yeah, super. Not so pretty now, huh?

noxious weed, invasive species, poisonous, giant hogweed, carrot, parsley, Portland, Oregon, British, Europe, toxic, toxicity, plants, weeds, sap, skin irritation, blisters, blindness

So, I finally broke it to my family today, that I will not be returning home for the holidays this December. There are many reasons for this but number one is…I don’t want to deal with a Midwest winter, even for a week.

Other reasons…

1. I don’t like flying around the holidays. Way too many kids. Too much carry-on stuff to fight.

2. Flights are more expensive, and more likely to be delayed or canceled due to inclement weather. Not to mention, I really hate hanging out in an airport for more than thirty minutes, after an eight-hour delay from Midway (possibly the lamest of all airports — wait, Grand Rapids is the absolute worst, so I am not taking into consideration minor markets, so Midway is the lamest of the big market airports) to La Guardia.

3. I actually don’t enjoy Xmas or any of the holidays, except Fourth of July. What can I say, I like to light things on fire and then they go boom.

Not to mention, this is a busy time of the year for me and my video game addiction. It’s hard to explain to loved ones that sorry, I’d love to talk about that one time when I was little, but I am so close to finishing another level of Ninja Gaiden.

By the way, has anyone else noticed that commercials for video games have gotten pretty badass lately? Of course, you don’t watch television.

And again, my number one reason for not returning to the cold, continental winter season of the middle of the country is the cold, continental winter of the middle of the country. I hate to sound so callous and perhaps shallow, but seriously, winter can suck in those areas without mountains or something cool to ski down.

I remember everyone asking me, “How was your first Portland winter? Did it just rain the whole time?”

Myths dispelled…

1. It does not rain all of the time. Just most of the time, and even then it is a softer, constant rain, rather than hard, driving rain coupled with a windchill below freezing.

2. It is quite temperate here. For instance, last winter, I had calendula blooming throughout. It is November 17th, and I have zucchini coming in. It doesn’t freeze here, that often or for long.

3. If you dress appropriately, winter in Portland can be a lovely experience. The smaller streams are running high, and the light quality is reminiscent of Rivendell from the LOTR movies.

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Portland is surrounded by rivers. Sure most people just think of the Willamette and the Columbia, but you’d be missing out on the extensive river systems of our part of the Pacific Northwest.

There’s the Sandy, the Clackamas, the Deschutes…and in addition to the Columbia and the Willamette, these rivers are dammed and generating electricity for the residents of Portland. Portland General Electric operates eight dams on the aforementioned rivers except for the Columbia. However, PGE does buy power from the Bonneville Power Administration, so the Bonneville Dam is one of the many dams in the Bonneville Power Administration vast collection of dams that also powers Portland.

The Bonneville Dam, or if you prefer its full name, the Bonneville Lock and Dam, was named for Captain Benjamin Bonneville, who did a lot of exploring of the American West during the early 1830’s that paved the way for the Oregon Trail migration. The Bonneville Dam is the closest major dam to Portland, situated about 40 east of the city. Beyond the Bonneville Dam is The Dalles Dam and then the John Day Dam. They are all a part of the Bonneville Power Administration, so Portland gets power from all three dams (as well as many other, see map below).

The Bonneville Dam was built in two stages. During the Great Depression, the Army Corps of Engineers was responsible for building the first dam and lock. Meanwhile, it provided a lot of jobs to people in the area, as well as producing cheap, clean electricity. This cheap electricity attracted industry, and the Pacific Northwest grew. At the time of the Lock’s completion, it was the largest single lock in the world. The second powerhouse was built in the late 1970’s and completed in 1981. Both powerhouses can generate 1,000 MW of electricity.

Of course, as we all know now, a hydroelectric dam does have its downsides. Salmon and other native fish are inevitably disturbed when a river changes its habits. Today, less than 30% of fish habitat is accessible due to the extensive damming of the Columbia.

The true cost of electric power…

Portland, power, electricity, electric generation, power plant, Bonneville Dam, Lock, Dam, Columbia, Willamette, Sandy, Deschutes, Clackamas, rivers, river system, salmon, fish, habitat, The Dalles, John Day

Supreme Court Justices…

With the disappointing decision today to overturn two court orders that had tried to restrict the use of sonar around whales and other marine mammals by the Navy while conducting “war games” in the Pacific, I was again reminded how lucky we are to have a liberal/moderate going into the White House.

Naval sonar has been found to cause whales to beach themselves.

The average age of the United States Supreme Court is 68.5 years. The median age is 70.5 years. And we were bitching about John McCain being too old. Justice John Paul Stevens is 88, for goodness sake. He is the oldest, fo’ sho’, but 5 out of 9 Justices are older than 70. Chances are that President Obama will need to appoint a new Justice or two.

Other than Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer, all other Justices were appointed by Republican Presidents. Not that Republicans always appoint in “conservative” Justices, as George H.W. Bush and Gerald Ford found out once they appointed David Souter and Stevens, respectively — Souter and Stevens fall into the “liberal” wing of the Supreme Court, along with Ginsburg and Breyer.

In fact, the way the voting went in the Navy-Sonar case shows you the liberal versus conservative wings of the Supreme Court.

From Reuters via Planet Ark:

Liberal Justices John Paul Stevens and Stephen Breyer dissented in part and agreed in part with the ruling, while Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and David Souter disagreed with the entire decision.

Now, I could go on about who voted what, and why, but instead I prefer to think pro-actively. I know (and don’t understand) that many people in this country feel that liberals are going to take things away from them. It’s the real trick behind the Republican/Conservative sleight-of-hand. If you look down the list of most Republican/Conservative issues, they tend to think in terms of taking certain rights away (think abortion, capital punishment, privacy) or at least curtailing them to the extent that those of us who are not conservatives must play their game with their rules.

Even if you disagree with liberalism or progressive politics, you can at least rest assured that no matter what, you will not be shoved into a corner. I mean, liberals think everything is ok, as long as you are not hurting anyone.

Which is why it is important to have balance on the United States Supreme Court. Obama is not the liberal that all those Joe’s out there are afraid of, but instead quite moderate (at least I think he will end up a moderate President when all is said and done). He is also perhaps uniquely qualified to appoint new Justices. He taught Constitutional law at the University of Chicago, one of the absolute best law schools in the country, if not the world.

That teaching gig is one of the reasons I was in favor of Obama winning the Presidency (among many, many reasons). After eight years of Bush bashing the Constitution and blacking out the parts he and his puppet masters didn’t find agreeable, this nation needs to revisit our foundation and founding principles.

If you would like to read more about today’s Supreme Court decision to overturn restrictions on Naval sonar exercises in the Pacific, you can follow this link to a pretty good article outlining the issue and the outcome. It came down to the decision that the Navy and national security are way more important than 37 species of marine mammals and the effects they will suffer despite the fact that the restrictions were not all that onerous and simply wanted the Navy to shut down the sonar when whales were within view.

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Did you know that Portland’s drinking water is supplied by rain rather than snow melt?

You’d think living so closely to Mount Hood would mean that Portland’s water supply would come from the melting snows and glaciers of Mount Hood, but no, Portland’s water comes from our annual rains. And as there is a ridge between Mount Hood and the Bull Run Watershed, snows directly from Mt Hood cannot enter the system. Actually, a little bit of groundwater enters the system, but not much, maybe 5% of the total water.

Portland’s source for water is called the Bull Run Watershed. Portland first tapped this valuable source for clean water in 1895, and it has been providing the city with some high quality drinking water ever since that time. So high quality, in fact, that the city does not filter the water. The water may, however, take on a tint by late summer, as the reservoirs are at their lowest and running into the sediments of smaller creeks, according to the Portland Water Bureau.

The pale tint this year results from the first flush of organic material from vegetation that has been washed from the forest floor and stream channels into the reservoirs in the Bull Run watershed. Each summer the reservoirs levels diminish as the metropolitan area uses drinking water from this stored supply in the Mt. Hood National Forest. In the fall, rains return and refill the reservoirs. The Water Bureau anticipates that these rains will in turn flush the colored water from the reservoirs.

Typically, when the fall refill occurs, the reservoir levels are at their lowest. Streams flowing into the reservoirs travel farther along the creek beds to reach the reservoirs, running through sediments that are not exposed in other seasons. This can also add color to water.

And that is from a press release from 2005, so it is not clear whether this tinting happens every year. I’d suspect so. Especially now that water levels are down in general, you know, global warming and all. Then again, warmer air means more precipitation, so it could mean more water in the reservoirs at the beginning of the summer.

Now, what makes this particular watershed so clear as to not need filtration? A couple of things. First, the geology of the area is volcanic basalt that is 10 to 20 million years old and that basalt is not prone to erosion like other rock. The Bull Run River flows over this basalt from Bull Run Lake, a natural reservoir, to the City’s reservoirs. Basalt’s stability means less sediment in the water. Additionally, the area has not been over-logged. Old growth forest accounts for more than half the total area. Old growth and forestation in general hold down the soil on the hillsides, which means… less sediment in the water.

We are very lucky in Portland to have such quality in our drinking water. I can tell you, living in Chicago, after the clean waters of Michigan, Portland’s water is mighty nice. However, there are impending issues for Portland’s drinking water supply. The biggest issue for Portland, and most of the world, is of course growth.

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