Portland, OR

Welcome to Portland … want to know if you’re really here? Check this out. I italicized the ones I know I feel!

1. You throw an aluminum can in the trash and feel guilty.
2. You never go camping without water-proof matches and ponchos.
3. You stand on a deserted street corner in the rain waiting for the light to change.
4. You’ve ever ordered a half caff/decaf, nonfat mocha grande with sugar-free cranberry whip.
5. The bride and groom registered at REI.
6. Know at least eight people who work for Intel or used to work for Tektronix.
7. You make $30,000 a year, yet still can’t find a place to live.
8. You can list more than five reasons why Starbuck’s is evil.
9. Every July 1st, it takes half a day to find your sunglasses and sunscreen.
10. You blame anything that is not right on ex-Californians.
11. You remember the date, severity, time of day, where you were, and how long you were out of power for every winter weather event for the last five years.
12. You know what and when the Columbus Day storm was. Bonus for having been there.
13. You go to a coffee bar and see two guys get into a fight over who makes the best IPA.
14. Own more than 10 articles of clothing that have microbreweries/brewpubs printed on them. Bonus for embroidered stuff.
15. You know that Boring is a place, not an adjective to describe your job.
16. You can point in the direction of two or more volcanoes even though you can’t see them due to clouds.
17. You have a bookstore, coffee bar, and brewpub within walking distance of your house.
18. You can give a 30-minute monologue on infill and the Urban Growth Boundry.
19. You think downtown is “scary” because you were panhandled there once.
20. When you drive out of town, every other guy in a pickup truck looks like the governor.
21. When you drive out of town, even the Hondas have gun racks.
22. You can name more than 10 kinds of berries and where to get them.
23. You can name more than 10 beer styles and their hop profiles.
24. When the weather gets above 50 degrees, you put on your shorts, but you still wear your hiking boots and parka.
25. When the weather gets above 60 degrees, you replace your hiking boots with sandals.
26. You think people who use umbrellas are wimps. - today, I was a wimp
27. You can recount more than five anecdotes why the east side is a crime-infested jungle. *OR* You can list more than five reasons why the west side is a boring, snobby, white-bread suburb.
28. You know what is between the east side and the west side, and how to pronounce it.
29. You know that Couch Street is not pronounced like what you sit on.
30. You are sitting at a red light surrounded by Subaru Legacy Outbacks.
31. “Today’s forecast, showers, followed by rain. Tomorrow: rain, followed by showers” doesn’t faze you.
32. You can’t wait for a day with “showers and sunbreaks”.
33. You can go skiing after work.
34. A tree or mudslide has ever damaged your house or car.
35. You live equidistant to a symphony hall, a winery, and a volcano.

About Portland OR, Portland OR, Portland, you know you’re from Portland when, silly list

I love the bridges in Portland. Moving on to number seven I thought I’d talk a bit about the bridges in Portland. My favorite is the Fremont Bridge and especially driving over it at nighttime back into NW Portland. B-E-A utiful!

With a little help from some fellow DamnPortlanders, I made sure I had the entire list of “major” Portland Bridges. Ten of ‘em and a few lines about or a picture of each!

Fremont Bridge - my favorite, newest to Portland (1973), gorgeous at nighttime! (The picture at the top of this entry is my Fremont Bridge.)

Burnside Bridge - marks the absolute center of Portland, done in 1926 and is the dividing line between North & South Portland

(more…)

Hey, this is pretty exciting, we’ve got our first winner for the Trivia Tuesdays questions!

Congratulations to Margie for answering all five questions correctly. Although the judges have told me that there is a more correct answer for the fifth question. (Not really, we don’t have any judges, just a box of trivia cards from 1985!)

However, here’s an explanation of the fifth question’s official answer: I’m going to consider that you are correct on the fifth question as well, although history shows that several failed attempts to sustain a professional baseball league in 1887, 1890, 1891, 1892, 1896, and 1891, finally and disastrously ending on June 15th of 1891. The next revival o1f the Pacific Northwest League was in 1901, when the National Association was organized and the league became a Class B member.

So although Margie is correct, there was a league started in Portland in 1887, the league fell apart and failed before the end of the season, making it a “less-than-official” beginning. By 1901, the league was revived, and baseball had officially begun.

Alright - here’s the June 5th questions for the week - all five of them. Go ahead, take a stab! When someone answers them correctly, I’ll post the winner!

1. Name the large Portland shopping center built on the site of a once-popular amusement park.

2. How many national forests are located in Oregon?

3. What is the city of Portland’s highest point?

4. About 88 percent of Oregon’s rainfall falls between what months?

5. What was the first year when the city of Portland had a professional baseball club?

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Another morning of Trivia for Tuesdays, from the little box of ‘Oregon Trivia’ questions from 1985 and before! Don’t forget, after you answer this week’s questions, you can check out the questions from last Tuesday for more trivia fun! You can answer the questions in the ‘comments’ area, and I’ll post when it has been answered correctly.

• What Portland park is the largest wilderness forest area within the limits of a U.S. city?
• What Oregon brewery is famous for its private reserve beer?
• The Portland Rosebuds hockey team operated from the year 1914 until what year?

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Here’s a few questions to get your mind ticking early this morning. These trivia questions come from the 1985 trivia game ‘Oregon Trivia’, which supplements Trivial Pursuit type games. It was a funky thrift store $1.00 find. It’s got some pretty interesting questions, nonetheless. So here are today’s questions, you can type your answers in the ‘comments’ section. I’ll post when someone answers correctly!

• What park in Oregon is the world’s smallest, at 452 square inches? (Here’s a hint, we’ve gone over this one already.)
• What famous building used to be where Pioneer Courthouse Square is now located?
• What is the name of the large copper statue mounted on the Portland Building?

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