Behind the Ironic Column

Who cares if it is 37 degrees and windier than I expected.  I’m waiting for the streetcar at 6:45 AM and trying to remember why I agreed to meet for coffee this early.  Of course, I didn’t know then that I’d not get to bed till 3:00 AM, but that’s ...

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No, not the movie.  I’m leaving behind my movie obsession for the moment and moving on to birds and flying.  Today’s Oregonian had a story about the possibility that three of the birds raised in the Oregon Zoo’s condor program could fly free later this month near the Grand Canyon.  Our ...

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In theory, I *should* be practicing my gull identification skills.  They're walking around in the Park blocks and making themselves about as available as it's possible to be.  I like to watch them as they're out for a stroll -- checking on whatever leftovers the lunchtime folks have left, and ...

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Sometimes we think humans are the only ones that binge.  But other animals do it too, especially when it's related to food and survival.  That's likely the original reason behind the human tendency to eat every chip in a bag of Doritos.  The food is there and you should take ...

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It’s been a long, gray, rainy, January Monday.  You can deduce from that string of adjectives that it’s not my favorite kind of day.  I’m not sure if being Monday makes it worse, or if the fact that the sun actually appeared yesterday makes today’s dreariness more pronounced. For whatever reason, ...

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I like most birds – being a sometime ‘birder’ and always a ‘bird-watcher’ seems to involve some empathy if not always understanding of what they’re doing and what they’re trying to accomplish.  In this  sequence, familiarity leads to admiration and support rather than the contempt of the more familiar slogan.   In ...

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This time of year in Portland I often make the mistake of looking out the window, seeing bright spring leaves and flowering trees, and assuming that the temperatures are somehow as mild as the view.  It’s even more deceptive if the sun happens to be shining (as it does all ...

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After a string of pleasant, sometimes cloudy but not rainy, days, today started out with rain.  Not too auspicious for the Peregrines & Bridges program a friend and I  signed up for through Portland Audubon.  This is one of a series of programs they do as part of their ...

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