Year: 2004

Mt. St. Helens

After a car screeched past and clipped a parked motorcycle, a representative of the street fair strolled out into the street. He assessed the scene and waved off the onlookers. No one is hurt. Nothing to see. He stood on the median and talked on a cell phone. A police car pulled up, lights flashing. He got off the phone and talked to the police, nodding his head confidently. The entire time that he was performing these duties, he wore a two-foot tall crown of balloons.

I once saw a crowd clear a path because a man wearing a beanie with an umbrella sticking out of the top said they should.

We cede authority to anybody wearing a t-shirt that says “Staff” across the back and give up claim to any ground that’s been marked off with sacred orange cones.

Portland Sunday Market

The Human Statue takes a short break

By the way, my favorite joke (probably stolen from some obvious movie or book) goes like this:

“What’s a non sequitur?”

“It’s a random word or phrase. Something dropped in somewhere with no context.”

“You mean like ‘fish’?”

Update: In the comments, Justin and Jake both seperately identify the source of the joke as a Too Much Coffee Man comic.

There are two cowboys that I always see around town. They wear all the gear – simple cowboy hat, flannel shirt, leather vest, boots, and big belt buckle. They’re beards are frizzy and untrimmed, and they walk a bit bow-legged – like they would if they were wearing chaps. They’re always walking at a steady clip, side-by-side, making quiet comments between them. I’m constantly surprised that they know their way around the city.

They walked by just now, and one of them was pushing a wheel chair with a little husky pup riding in the chair.

Thank you to everyone who went down to the Elephant and Castle yesterday for the low key surprise party. That was really fantastic.

Now we’re off to Mt. St. Helens, I think.

Seattle Art Museum

Harbor Steps

An older man side-steps up to a middle-aged man and starts up a conversation. They’re both browsing the Religion shelf in the book area of a big charity thrift store.

“You know, of course, that Yahweh is the one true god.” His tone isn’t evangelical. He says this the way someone might say, “Tide is good for grass stains.”

The younger man nods his head once, indicating his agreement – Yes, Yahweh is the one true god. He’s a bit distracted. He has a stack of books and is holding his place in one of them with a finger pressed in between two pages. For the moment though, he’s giving this conversation his full attention.

“Well. What do you think of the trinity?” The older man doesn’t reveal his own stand on the trinity – pro or con. But he’s clearly testing the younger man.

The younger man responds with the same distracted nod. “Yes, the trinity.”

The older man raises his eyebrows, tilts his head, and the younger man clarifies, “But only one god. He’s three-in-one.”

waterfront trolley tracks

Bracelets are going to be big this spring.

(It’s what I did.)

---

A slide shown before the movie at one of the bad superplexes: “Recycling one Coke can saves enough energy to power your TV for three hours.”

While I’m here, I’ll stop to appreciate the fragment of poetry that appears beneath the theater chain’s name – “Loew’s Theaters” – in the over-produced jingle that comes right before the movie. Grammatically efficient, yet somehow unbalanced: “An ONEX Company”.