27 April 2020: The Day In Errands

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A short summary of our commerical adventures on this, day eight million two hundred thirty-five thousand six hundred and thirty-one of the Covidinium.

I've Been Framed: The Brown-eyed Girl bought a bag of small bottles (by 'small' I

mean about the size of a finger between two knuckles). Prairie and Mark were their usual indomitable selves. The world is richer because of them.

Again, you can buy from IBF if you needs you your art supplies and need to support local. There is now a process and instructions on how you can purchase remotely and pickup curb side. Go to ivebeenframedpdx.com and follow the directions under the Curbside Pickup link.

Backstory Books and Yarn: The Girl has wanted a copy of an excellent little book by Beth Terry called Plastic Free and Amanda was able to find this for her. Also she found for us a very very very old compilation of Godey's Ladies Book, a periodical of the early 1860s. It's impossible to find out when that was published in this format, but it's an antiquarian delight, some pages hand-colored, and just the sort of thing the Girl loves. It's so old, all the old-book smell's gone out of it, which I found odd.

As with IBF, Backstory is social-distancing-enabled for your bookshop needs. BackstoryBooksAndYarn.com, follow the Browse link for full instructions and pictures of the shelves with everything available.

Dutch Bros. If there was a candidate for state drive-up coffee place in Oregon, this ought to be it. Dutch Bros. has always been excellent. We got our weekly treat at the 136th and Division place and drove into town for our two other things and and the coffee I had gotten spilled out all over the place. We proceeded to the 67th and Foster location (which was, of course, located just down the street from IBF) and when the Girl told them why we were there and the runner offered to give us the replacement for free, and the Girl said no, we were there to support business with our money, and we got to the serving window only to have them refund our money anyway and we went our of there with a free replacement coffee because that's how excellent Dutch Bros. is.

My wife refused to take no for an answer; DB refused to take yes for an answer. Win-win situation, all around.

There's commerce out there to be found, and a bit of happiness. Portland's closed, but not completely, and certainly not tight.

Backstory Books & Yarn, Opening Day or Thereabouts, Sept 2018

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In the last posting I maundered prolix about our beloved Backstory Books and Yarn and wanted to reference the posting where I and the Brown Eyed Girl had visited upon its opening, back in September of 2018. I did a search and found that this blog had no such entry.

Appalling omission. I shall rectify perforce forthwith.

We have been happy followers of the Backstory story since we stumbled upon the small shop near 60th and Southeast Foster Road about five years ago. Amanda is a dear human with a very generous spirit and personality, and the shop was amazingly well-stocked for a shop of its size. I've found more than one intriguing thing through this place, and it was Amanda who guided us to my own copy of the Codex Seraphinianus (if you read this book and understand it, you should read no other (and can, indeed, probably read no other*)). Powell's is an unadulterated gem, but the world isn't complete without Amandas and Backstorys. They are the necessary.

Anyway, back in September of 2018 a few commercial stars aligned and Amanda was able to secure the space occupied by Hawthorne Books (the proprietrix thereupon, I understand, was retiring and the space was opening up. Backstory is the sort of place that belongs on Hawthorne, in the good way, so perhaps it was fated.

Herewith, a short tour of our experience of that day, so that the balance is maintained.

The facade of 3129 Southeast Hawthorne Blvd. If you have the ability to come by here, you are luckier than most.

The Brown Eyed Girl in convo with Amanda. We love Amanda, and she works hard for her customers. We rather automatically assume that if anyone has a problem with her, it's your fault, not hers; don't even argue it with us. It is an unspoken truth that anyone who opens your path to the Codex Seraphinanus is golden, because how many people even in books would even know what the hell I was talking about when I said Codex Seraphinianus? You cherish people like this. And her taste in books is as eclectic as you want it to be.

Well, it was an unspoken truth.

Also, the POE-TRAIT will eye you. The eyes, man, they follow you everywhere, even into rooms that it isn't in. Spooky.

If there's a heavenly after-life for book-lovers, here's one of its corridors:

In the previous entry I referred to its cosiness. You know those bookstores you read about in stories that are packed with old and interesting books and are really close quarters but in the good way?

That's Backstory. There are even nautical books. A whole section.

I did mention there was yarn, and the yarn room is straight back and on the left. Absolutely loaded with it. As I am not an exponent of the fibre arts I took no photos, no disrespect intended, but believe me when I tell you that Amanda's as sincere about the yarn as she is about the books.

As a fitting end note, the adorable antique cash register. They do things electronically there like everything else, but it has the right note for the greater tune.



And, like I said in the last entry, Amanda's ready to help you get your fix in this time of Covid-19.

The address to visit is https://www.backstorybooksandyarn.com/.

Backstory Books & Yarn: A True Bookstore Experience Online During Stay-At-Home Time

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Portland is a city of bookstores.

We've spoken of one of the most charming of the smaller indies in town: Backstory Books and Yarn. We knew her when she was over by 60th and Foster and then when she moved over to Hawthorne (a place, it must be said, she's always belonged).

From the Backstory website

Small, witty, diligently curated, delightful. And then Covid-19 and the advent of stay-at-home and businesses closing because they had to. Now, as a bookstore, such a business has an advantage in as much as you can take orders over the phone or arrange an online alternative. Books aren't perishable and ship very well. But you lose the delicious bookstore browsing experience ... or do you?

Well, I guess it's not a perfect replacement, but what Backstory has done comes close. The proprietrix had taken pictures of the very shelves where the books are arranged and have posted them to Backstory's website. You can tour the shelves at your leisure in picture form and contact Backstory and buy them thusly. She's got every thing up, which is an advantage for a business of this size selling books (when things finally open up, if you ever wanted to browse a cosy bookstore in the old-school way, this place will leave you in bliss). Powell's couldn't do this. Barnes & Noble couldn't do this (does B&N still exist? Does anything anywhere exist anymore?).

This is why we need the small local indie. How much poorer would we be.

We bow, humbled to Backstory's MacGyvering in the shadow of novel coronavirus. We'll be stopping there tomorrow to get a book the Brown Eyed Girl has wanted for a very long time.

Backstory's home page is https://www.backstorybooksandyarn.com/. If you just want to get down to business, start browsing at https://www.backstorybooksandyarn.com/browse. The rest of it should be pretty easy to figure out; there are instructions on each page, and if you haven't figured out how to use that sort of stuff by now you should probably not be allowed in public unescorted (well, after stay-at-home gets lifted, that is).