CHEERS to the City of Corvallis Finance Department for getting the Quarterly Operating Report out. It’s comforting to know that the General Fund still has $25,993,718 in it, while the Capital Improvement Fund has $466,295. We’re glad to know that the numbers are exacting and transparent, and that we seem to be paying our bills. Go Team!
CHEERS to the Corvallis School District for their extra levels of planning. They have gone through each school in the district and laid out how they are going to try to keep our kids safe as in-person learning resumes. We Advocateers are feeling all warm and fuzzy inside over this one.
DOUBLEPLUS CHEERS for Heartland Humane Society and their cat adoption event. We are pet lovers at this paper, and aside from those freaks who say they prefer dogs, we’re all very excited about this adopt-a-palooza. It happens Sunday between 11:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. and you don’t need an appointment. So drive, walk, bicycle, Uber your way over to 398 SW Twin Oaks Circle in Corvallis and find the newest love of your life… unless you’re a dog person, and, well, they probably also have dogs… jussayin’ [Copy editor here, reminding certain other Advocateers, there’s no such thing as a Seeing Eye Cat]
JEERS to The G-T for an entry in their own Cheers & Jeers-esque column – Roses & Raspberries. Perhaps no one at the paper understands the English language well enough to know that once you put a “but” into a sentence, you’ve just told the reader to disregard everything you said before. This happened to the G-T when they “raspberried” the new guidelines for Oregon students to graduate. And let’s face it, we agree with their “but” in this one – it is important that our up-and-coming adults know how to read, write, and complete basic mathematics in order to be welcomed into the world at large as functional adults. We’re very happy that the folks over at The G-T think this way as well… maybe our JEER should really be a CHEER? [Maybe our resident English-er should stop reading other papers?]
CHEERS for Creswell, Oregon mayors? Creswell Mayor Amy Knudsen was doxxed and harassed after a “Fourth of July” parade in that town which featured a “float” consisting of a pickup with a Proud Boys flag proudly held in the bed and the Proud Boys proudly holding it offering up hand signs generally thought to be something no one should be proud of since around 1940. Following her home address being shared publicly, Knudsen has chosen to resign. She’s had a short tenure as Mayor, having taken over the helm when Richard Zettervall quit in September 2020 with a letter in which the first three sentences all contained the phrase-parcel “Equity and Inclusion” [we proudly detest repetition of that kind] and in which he compared himself favorably to both Irish statesman Edmund Burke and JFK.
CHEERS for Chuck Sams – longtime tribal leader, former administrator of Umatilla Indian Reservations, and Oregonian. He is President Biden’s nominee to head up the National Parks Service. He could be the first Indigenous Person to serve in this roll if confirmed – he could also be the first Director of National Parks Service since Obama had run of the Oval Office, as Trump was never able to get a Director confirmed. [Everyone send positive energy eastward as Sams is sitting in front of committees, okay? We probably really need the position filled one of these days… right?]
JEERS to passengers on planes causing a commotion over COVID mandates. Federal Aviation Administration officials have already fined people up to $1 million in civil penalties this year – 70% of the reports concerned mask wearing, which is something required to keep everybody on the plane safe. Fines for misconduct range from $7,500 to $45,000 which means there were [let’s do the math real quick here] A LOT of fines.
CHEERS to The Advocate’s Rebekah Harcrow for giving our readers the view from the other side in her story about working as a flight attendant.
CONFUSION about a headline over at Senator Ron Wyden’s piece of internet heaven. It seems he, Sen. Jeff Merkley, and a couple other not-from-Oregon senators are “Unveiling Bills to Protect Americans from Increasingly Frequent Extreme Heat Events” which has us pondering what level of god-like power do these folks think they’re wielding? Yes, humans might have the ability to change the damage we’ve done to our planet over time, but four people with the word Senator before their names and a lot of bluster at their backs can’t do it alone. BUT if we work with them, we could change the world, couldn’t we!
Do you have a story for The Advocate? Email editor@corvallisadvocate.com