CHEERS & JEERS: Locals Make Good, Oregon Stays Weird

CHEERS for us – The Corvallis Advocate. This week marks our tenth anniversary. Yay team! Moving on… 

JEERS for us – The Corvallis Advocate. Yesterday, while attempting to be supportive of the accomplishments of two women in our community, we accidently inserted the wrong photo of one of them. It’s fixed now, but we like to own up to our errors. Don’t all news organizations? 

CHEERS for books! The Corvallis-Benton County Library is having a book sale today, tomorrow, and Sunday from 9:00 a.m. through 4:00 p.m. Go on over to the Benton County Fairgrounds to find your next favorite book. Buy books as collector’s items! Give books as gifts! Hand out books to people on the street! Hoard as many books as your home will allow then buy extra storage for more – you guessed it – books! [There is no such thing as too many books] 

CHEERS for marathons! [okay, not gonna lie, most of us have never competed in a marathon, but we hear good things] This year the Rotary Club of Corvallis is sponsoring a full marathon [13.1 ever-lovin’ miles of H-E-double-toothpicks], and two “mini” marathons [5k and 1k each and both of which sound far more doable than the full]. So, get your running shoes ready, because The Mara Trio begins April 9 at 11:30 a.m. 

CHEERS AND A PAT ON THE BACK for Benton County “Commish” Nancy Wyse and Philomath “Counce” Catherine Biscoe. These ladies have caught the eye of the “Gov” and been appointed to an advisory board. Happy days are upon us as Benton “Count” shows that we have kickass representation around here. [Give me a “you go, gurls!” woot woot] 

CHEERS AND JUBILATIONS as Alsea Superintendent Marc Thielman resigns. It happened at an emergency school board meeting Tuesday night, and he was [of course] unmasked in a room of others [also unmasked]. He claims to have a “win-win” reputation which has inspired others throughout the pandemic, in spite of being attacked. He blamed social media and “the press” for conspiring to “amplify these attacks using slander and liable.” [although it wasn’t social media or the press that filed formal complaints against him for a hostile work environment. Jussayin’] He went on to say he “welcomes scrutiny – always have – because truth prevails.” He vowed to continue to fight “not in the weeds with the snakes” but as the next governor… [and dang, we now have to worry he’ll become governor… sigh.] 

And once more with feeling… 

CHEERS AND A HANDSHAKE for Representative Peter DeFazio as he continues through his farewell year of representing us. This time we’re cheering his historic turn as Chair of the House Transportation Infrastructure Committee during the Boeing 737-Max kerfuffle. Someone made a movie about it! [well, a documentary, but we live in Corvallis so that counts as a movie]  

HEAD SCRATCHES over the fight to have [or have not] self-serve gasoline in Oregon. We’ve all seen the discussion over the years – generally presented through “little old ladies” being pounded upon by the rain [or snow] as umbrellas turn in the hurricane-like wind while the nozzle just won’t go into the fuel receptacle. [Is it just us, or does everyone else want to see the lady be blown down the street?] Well, this time they want to leave service station attendants in the equation for those ladies [whether little or old or none-of-the-above], leaving the rest of us to hurry the process if we so desire.  

CONCERNED FROWNS for the new Cue System. Dropped during the Super Bowl [Go Rams], this is a new system for testing for Covid-19 at home. The idea – we love! It’s wonderful there might be a way to test ourselves and our loves ones without all the waste of cardboard, plastics, yadda, yadda, and yadda. But the price tag for this little device is more than any of us pay for our cell phone each month [and yes, it does have a monthly subscription fee]. Does this all read as elitist? You tell us. 

HUZZAH for Oregon being continuously peculiar… okay, most say weird, and we’re getting there… This week, on Tuesday [Twosday?], we saw a once in a century date consisting of only twos. We are, of course, talking about Feb. 22, 2022 – also known as 2/22/22 – and people got into the spirit by wearing tutus [twotwos?] in support of us all being… wait for it… weird. [told you we’d get there]