The Signs Of The Times In Parkrose, Part 2

3903

This sign is just a bit down the block, south, toward Prescott on NE 99th. There's no other valid comment I think than yes, the times are such that a statement, on a side street, is entirely relevant and pertinent to the way things are going in America, and in Oregon, and in the Pacific Northwest right now. 

I will say this about that (since I'm a white man I don't have to be allowed to prattle on, I just do it): back when I was a teen, I saw trends in media and society that gave me hope that (at first, I was a child) we would end various -isms, racism, sexism, by the time I was an adult. Then I modified it to allow that maybe the way we were going we wouldn't end it but we'd take it down a hell of a lot.

And it's 2021, and look at what we elected last term, and look at what his followers are still doing. 

Wasn't I a fool?

This Is How Chill We Are In The Pacific Northwest

3901

The Pacific Northwest has a reputation for being chill AF. Even our Type "A"s are more like Type "B-pluses". The only thing that really keeps us from being mistaken for Canadian provinces is it's too obvious oftimes that "Northwest Nice" is thinly-veiled passive-agression.

But we are pretty chill, overall. Prove it? How chill exactly?

Well, dig, if you will, this picture.

Not so much of the maryjane quickshop, of which there seem mysteriously to be more than there are even of people partaking and multiplying by the day. This is on NE 99th Avenue in Parkrose, and it's not so much the shop by what you can see beyond the beyond that black iron fence.

Those are grave monuments. That there's a necropolis, my frens, a city of the dead. A cemetery. And some of us PNWers just swan on over to the pot shop and buy an ounce or an eighth or a lid or a potholder or whatever they're calling 'em these days, and cast a glance at a cemetery next door and it's like no big deal.

If that isn't max chill, I don't know what is.

[or_liff] The Road To Boston Begins In Newport

3431.

This in over the transom: there is now a sign up on West Olive Street near downtown Newport, down on the Oregon Coast. And people may not know this up to now, but the longest continuous road in America begins here, and doesn't let up until it's gone through 12 states, and three thousand, three hundred and sixty-five miles.

That road is U.S. Highway 20, and after traversing all those states, strikes out across the heart of Oregon from the Idaho border at Ontario, pausing at places with names like Vale, Juntura, Burns, Hines, Brothers (a 'town' that goes on the market now and again), Bend, Sisters, Sweet Home, Lebanon, Albany, Corvallis, Blodgett, Burnt Woods, and finally Newport.

In Oregon it has enough adventure and terrain for the rest of the road, but it's awesome enough to go the rest of the way.

Today, The Oregonian posted a picture of the sign. It reads US 20 East, Boston MA, 3,365 Miles. A nifty picture and a short article are at the end of this link which can be viewed. An invitation to adventure, to tank up and go, or just to dream.

And, very soon, in downtown Boston, it's said, a sign will go up reading US 20 West, Newport OR, 3,365 Miles. 

US 20 is like the Force; it binds the Nation together.

At least the part that goes between Oregon and Massachusetts.

[liff in Cascadia] Weathering the PDX Winter Like A Native

3004.

It's just water, people.

Reed College … giving away our secrets, yo.

[liff in the PNW] Best Places Guides Series Fades Away

2978.

Today's entry in our "The Death Of Print" file comes via Ben Lukoff on Facebook, wereupon we find that a Pacific Northwest original has published its last edition.

The biannual "Best Places" guides, apparently due to changing times and perhaps mostly the proliferation of smartphones and the absolute surfeit of review websites (I feel a bit guilty here, as I love Yelping) has made the charming local guidebook rather redundant … at least amongst the constituency that would patronize a business likely to be listed in a "Best Places" guide.

The first edition came out in 1975 to much acclaim, and 17 editions subsequently. The editor of the first (and we presume several), David Brewster, writing at Crosscut.com (a great PNW-interest website he founded) cites three major factors, as he sees them: dilution of the market by non-local publishers, a sort of "Gresham's Law" view; a loss of trust in guidebooks in general, where the reading public begins to sense there's a bit of quid pro quo going on, and the proliferation of sites like Yelp, Urbanspoon and the like, which are just a smartphone away.

The entire article has some history and is plain good story telling and reasoned opinion, and can be found at http://crosscut.com/2013/12/09/books/117825/best-places-guidebook-rip/?page=single. I highly recommend Crosscut as a place to stay current on many Washington issues as well as regional ones.

[liff in OR] Marionberry Pie: They See Us Rollin', They Hatin'.

2959.Found on the Deadspin website, a list of 50 signature state dishes, rated in order of how much they loved them, from 1st and nommiest (Chicago-style Deep Dish Pizza) to 50th and atrocious-est (Cincinnati "chili").

Our wonderful Marionberry pie comes in at a respectable 10th place, the top of the 2nd decade, pretty high up, with the following bon mot:

Mmmmmmm, pie. Oh man. Nobody tell any Oregonians how high their state food is ranked, though. They can't fit any more self-congratulation into their busy schedules.

Yeah, well, oh-snap, you.

The whole list is here (http://deadspin.com/the-great-american-menu-foods-of-the-states-ranked-an-1349137024). It's worth reading at least for the snark.

But don't go dissin' us Oregonians, yo. 

[liff_in_OR] Cascadian Blessings, The Counting Thereof

2885.In New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania they're being inundated by water; fortunately, us in the Puget-Willamette Trough and environs about the Salish Sea are being inundated more by news about Sandy than we are by any actual rainfall, though there is a great deal of that.

Truly I'm blessed to have won Oregon in the birth lottery.

And I will be, until the next Cascadia Subduction Zone quake.

And so it goes.

[OR_liff] Fisher Scones, A Taste Of The Real Northwest

2785A few days back, I celebrated finding a KATU artifact and bringing it home. The KATU 2 Sign sits, overlooking the living room; when the light is on, we're either all looking at it and admiring it, or I'm down in the studio wasting time doing design or creative work.

The name of the company then, Fisher's Blend Station, Inc, as I remarked then, seemed a mite awkward name for a media conglomerate, and indeed, the company's mission has moved on. In my reading, however, the company only spun off its flouring enterprises as late as 2001. While I have no evidence, I do know that for a great deal of the early part of the 20th Century, in the Northwest, Fisher's Blend flour was the flour, at least it was Fisher's most popular product. And when the Fisher family decided to start broadcasting, with radio station KOMO, it seemed reasonable to advertised Fisher's Blend flour … on 'that Fisher's Blend station', as I also read elsewhere (and can't find the reference, sorry … you'll have to take my word on that). When a holding company was founded to nurture the burgeoning broadcast business, it must have seemed natural to call it just that.

This story at Historylink.net has a more big-picture overview of the history of Fisher.

It did not distance itself far from its flouring origins, and that chapter of the story we look at today. Anyone who's been to a state fair in the Pacific Northwest during the last several decades will surely remember a Fisher's Scone stand. There's surprisingly little to a Fisher's Scone; A hot, just-made (or very very recently-made) triangular biscuit made of Fisher's flour, butter, and raspberry or blueberry jam.

It's a hot biscuit and jam, is what it is, which makes its pervasiveness in PNW culture all the more a triumph. By marketing them at state and county fairs in Oregon and Washington, Fisher made a genius move that will forever have them linked with what is really part of the PNW frame of mind and frame of reference.

Hell, I want one right now. Those babies are magnificent.

Last year, KING-TV in Seattle celebrated the Fishers Scone (amusing that this story is from a FisherComm competitor, but you gets your gold where you finds it) with this report:

Either way you look at it, the Fisher companies have been influencing Pacific Northwest tastes, for better or for worse, for more than a century. I count this in the better column.

[or_liff] High Water In Silverton

2762.The downside to a Willamette Valley snowfall is that, more often than not, the very next thing is a warm mass of air, the freezing levels go up, and rain falls. What this means is that, after a strong snowfall which pretty much paralyzes the region, high water comes and does the same thing.

The Statesman-Journal has a bunch of pics of high water in my old home town, where they're evacuating the old Silver Gardens home on South James Street.

[pdx_liff] Portland VS Seattle 2: This Time, It's Personal

2744.What can you say about a city so generous it built a synagogue for the six Jews that live there?

Well, how about:

Three mountain ranges, four lakes and a f*cking Sound. That's a geographical feature your hometown hasn't even heard of.

Measure it up here:

http://rottenindenmark.wordpress.com/2012/01/03/my-hometown-is-better-than-yours/

I guess the battle never really is over, yes?

Portland VS Seattle: Portland Wins!

2743.In a 10-round bout, Rosaria beats New York Alka-Seltzer.

So saith the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. 


So let it be written.

They forgetted the unicorns, though.

[art] Paper Zone Stores To Close

2737.It's with a heavy heart that we mark this passage, and deem it Not A Good Christmas Gift At All:

As you may have heard, we will be closing all of our Paper Zone locations. After receiving an overwhelming outpour of concern, we felt compelled to further explain our unfortunate situation. Paper Zone is a company with 20 year roots in the Northwest. We are based in Seattle, operating eight retail locations throughout Oregon and Washington. However, due to the current economic downturn, we have experienced three years of sales declines between 6%-8% annually. As a small local retailer we were unable to sustain these losses.

The economy eats another one, and it is a local business, at least local to the PNW, to Cascadia. We've enjoyed many a nice moment at the Paper Zone, they've always had good service and good selection. And local, like the other art-based businesses we prefer: I've Been Framed and Muse Art and Design.

Now, as far as I know, IBF and Muse aren't in danger of going away, but if you want them to continue, you'll continue to patronize them. Local people spending money locally, providing great local value (there's a whole lot at Muse and IBF that wont' break your bank, trust me here).

I'm not trying to lecture you guys … I know money's incredible-tight, and like me, if you can spend some, you do. I think this should make everyone aware of what happens when local businesses don't get the support they need.

They go away.

In the meantime, thanks for the memories, Paper Zone. It's been a good run. Shame it had to end.

If you want to, you can read the entire announcement at the Paper Zone's blog here, as long as it remains up.

Viaduct? Vhy Not A Tunnel?

1910.Meanwhile, in New York Alka-Seltzer, the shouting is over, and the preferred replacement to the Alaskan Way Viaduct will be a deep-bore tunnel, saith the Seattle P-I.

Going down!

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