Elk Update

 

The improved elk gets new art every week or so. I'd like to think it is a barometer of the mood on the street. 

Last night Trump refused to condemn white supremacy in the debate shouting match with Vice President Joe Biden. Today there is a placard stating that white supremacy is terrorism. 

Nothing will even have a chance to get slightly better until Trump is out of office. Change can't come soon enough.

 

 

Educational Meme

 

I like being part of modern social media. However, after years of partisan argument I've grown weary of polemics. 

Today I thought I'd lend a hand to an educator who was doing an educational event about aquatic invertebrates. Maybe this is my new direction. 

Not sure if I'm helping or hurting.

Protect The Innocent

 

These are the faces of American fascism

As the weather turns colder and rainy, the notion that protests will cease and white supremists will stop showing up to commit violence fades.

Yesterday fascists had a rally in Delta Park, bragging 20,000 people would show up. Fewer than 300 made the effort, many of them from out of state. The larger event was staged by the anti-fascists in Peninsula Park, about four miles away, with three times the turnout.

I went downtown to witness any events of wrongdoing by white supremists looking for a new venue. Things were quiet for the time I was there.

Today I visited a few antifa websites to learn more about the threat of violence to our community. The sites profile prominent fascists in the hopes that the employers, customers, landlords, acquaintances of these people will not want to be linked to hate and criminality and sever the connection.

I learned that these websites take pains to protect innocent people and animals. Here are a few samples: 

The reason this photo appeared on the website is because the tattoo on the right hand is an identifying mark. 

                                                     

Kid Repurposes Dad's Schtick

 

The above meme created by the son is of Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler. The text at the bottom is my mockery of bad singles ads.

People often say, "I like good food and music" without thinking that who doesn't like those things. Obviously the devil is in the details.

The kid has taken my schtick and used it in a modern context to mock the poor leadership of our mayor. 

I'm just happy I have anything to offer the younger generation.

Recycle stoke!

Crazy Riot Town

 

A few days ago, a middle-aged couple from out of town asked me where the protests occurred. We were just twenty yards from the Justice Center. Most of the graffiti has been cleaned up and other than a few protest vehicles and tents, one would not guess the history by quick observation. That this is a simmering cauldron of violent unrest exposes such statements as cheap political fodder.  

                                              

Yet Another COVID Cut

 

The wife is getting so proficient at operating the clippers I doubt there will be any going back to the barbershop once COVID is over. 

For the record, I am hoping for a speedy end to these months of quarantine and social distancing.

                                                        

The Simple Life

 

Before

During

After

                                                        

Good Air Quality Allows Protests To Resume

 

We attended a vigil for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Later a group less than one hundred people engaged in direct action

                                                     

Evidence The Kids Were Once Younger

 

                                                    

Life In the Smoke Cloud

                                                    
 

Air Quality Merely Unhealthy Rather than Hazardous

 

The neighborhood I live in has unhealthy air quality, which is an improvement from hazardous air quality from a day ago. One day the quality number was over 500 and my head throbbed all day and sleep was surreal. This is in a house which kept all windows and doors shut with a HEPA-certified air filter on the HVAC system.

My heart goes out to the thousands in Oregon who lost their homes or are still evacuated.

Although the east wind has stopped, the west wind is slight to calm and there is almost no pressure gradient from the Pacific to inland areas. This means the smoke will be around for more days to come. 

Need to visualize clean air.

                                                        

The Source Code

 

The above is a sketch comedy album by Monty Python released in the US in 1975. I can think of no other work which was more influential in the development of my sense of humor.

To propose absurdist, silly ideas with a scholarly bent in deadpan is my shtick to this day.

During my early teenage years I gave close analysis to every utterance on this album. 

A distant second are some of the National Lampoon comedy albums from the same era.  

I became aware of this the other day when my kids began doing my worn-out shtick back at me. I realized the time was at hand that I revealed my source code.  

Both my kids have excellent, nuanced wits, which makes me proud. 

Here are the words to Background to History:

Good evening.

One of the main elements in any assessment of the medieval open-field farming system is the availability of plough teams for the winter plowing.
Professor Tofts of the University of Manchester puts it like this:
(A rocking beat starts and a 60s-style folk rock song with some heavy Caribbean influence begins.)

To plough once in the winter Sowing, and again in Lent,
Sowing with as many oxen
Sowing with as many oxen
As he shall have yoked in the plough
Oh yes
Oh yes
As he shall have yoked in the plough.
Oh yes
Oh yes

But of course there is considerable evidence of open-field villages as far back as the tenth century. Professor Moorhead:
(Dramatic metal chords, reminiscent of British punk or perhaps groups like Black Sabbath.)
Theeeeeere's ev-i-de-ence
Theeeeeere's ev-i-de-ence
There's evidence (evidence)
Evidence (evidence)
Evidence (evidence?)
There's evidence (evidence!)

Evidence of settlements with one long village street,
Farmsteads, hamlets, little towns - the framework was complete
By the tiiiiime ... (OF THE NORMAN CONQUEST!) The rural framework was complete
Rur-al
frame-work
wa-as
com-plete.

This is not to say, of course, that the system was as sophisticated as it later came to be. I asked the Professor of Medieval studies at Cambridge why this was.
[PROF. HEGERMAN:] (stuttering) Well, i-it may not have been a - a statutory obligation, but, uh, I mean, uh, a guy who was a freeman whuh - was obliged in the medieval system to...
[PROF. JONES:] To do boonwork?
[PROF. HEGERMANN:] That's right. There's an example, ah, from the village rolls, ah, in 1313.
[PROF. JONES:] And I believe you're going to do it for us.
[PROF. HEGERMAN:] That's right, yeah...
(Pop beat sets in, reminiscent of the Beatles in their later period but with some of the spastic quality of a Joe Cocker.)
Oh it's written in the village rolls
That if one plough-team wants an oxen
And that oxen is lent
Then the villeins and the ploughmen got to have the loooord's consent.
Yeah, yeah,
Then the villeins and the ploughmen got to have the lord's consent
Then the villeins and the ploughmen got to have the lord's consent
Then the villeins and the ploughmen got to have the lord's consent
Then the villeins and the ploughmen got to have the lord's consent
Then the villeins and the ploughmen got to have the lord's consent
(na na na na)
Then the villeins and the ploughmen got to have the lord's consent
(na na na na)
Then the villeins and the ploughmen got to have the lord's consent
(na na na na)
Then the villeins and the ploughmen got to have the lord's consent
Then the villeins and the ploughmen got to have the lord's consent.

That was a talk on the open-field farming system by Professor Angus Jones. Some of the main points covered in this talk are now available on a long-playing record entitled "The Ronettes Sing Medieval Agrarian History."

                               

Smoke

 

We are safe from the historic wildfires in Oregon but will be breathing hazardous air for a few days more. My throat is raw and a low-grade headache throbs but better weather is on the way in the next few days. 

Looking at the satellite footage, the east wind has blown smoke way out into the Pacific Ocean and up to the Gulf of Alaska. When the normal westerly winds prevail all that smoke will come back to us -- so it may take many days before the skies are clear.

There are no clear skies for hundreds of miles, virtually the entire state is smokey. 

 

The above photo is from Willamette Week. The fire came within a few miles of Oregon City, a significant population. A friend from Oregon City evacuated his home and went to Hood River. The below picture is of the Columbia River and Gorge. 

The initial windstorm that fueled the fires blacked us out for almost two days -- long enough to have to pitch out everything in the freezer and refrigerator. And yes the pandemic is still going on, too. Local armed militias in small towns are stopping cars to let people know they are providing "safety." Law enforcement officers have spread the false rumor that Antifa started the fires. On this point, media has pushed back hard that this is pure bullshit. On a local newscast a firefighter raged at the idiocy prompting people to spread the false rumor. 

"Save the drama for your mama," he told the camera. 

Good advice. Clear air stoke!

                                                   

The Order

 

3 Pastor tacos

3 Carnitas

2 Pulpo

2 Chorizo

2 Mushroom

1 Bistek

1 Moronga

1 Tripa

1 Pollo con Achiote

1 Barbacoa

1 fried cheese

Totopos y guacamole

                                                      

100 Nights of Protest

 

Who knows where this will all end. Call me naive, but I'm still hoping for meaningful criminal justice reform.