BIG HAPPY CHEERS for the soon-to-be Beavers who made the McDonald’s All-American Games. Timea Gardiner and Raegan Beers have both signed on to join Oregon State women’s basketball when they graduate. The MAAG’s [what we’re assuming they call them for short] are for high school athletes, and it’s a big honor to be invited to play. [Like totes call us when you get here, Timea and Raegan!!]
BIG HAPPY CLAPPY CHEERS for current Beaver Jade Carey. She kicked some serious boo-tay when the gymnastics team met up against UCLA and UC Davis recently. She even broke the school all-around competition record set in 1993, and led the Beavers in their first win against UCLA since 2013. [Congrats to all the gymnasts, y’all rock!]
SAD, SAD SIGHS for Corvallis’ own FireWorks Pub and Pizza. They are closing their doors after 20 years in business. If you’re looking for a last memento, then hightail it over to 1115 SE Third on Saturday and Sunday, Feb. 5 and 6, from 4:00 – 9:00 p.m. for their “Silent Auction & Garage Sale.”
ANOTHER SAD SIGH over on Ninth where we’re saying goodbye to Taylor Street Ovens, who are closing after 32 years.
SIGHING AT HOME while cooking on your gas stove? Turns out stoves that use natural gas to make that little “click-click-poof” and voila, you have fire, are not great for the environment. A study done at Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif. proves that gas stoves leak methane… even when they’re turned off. AND methane is worse than carbon dioxide for global warming. [80% of methane emissions happen from leaky couplings where your natural gas comes into the house… scary, huh?]
Leaving us here at The Advocate to ask… WHERE CAN WE EAT!? The boss is starvin’ us here! [Hi, your friendly neighborhood boss here, reminding y’all that staff feedings depend on subscription revenue; alternatively, please send pizza… but from where?]
CHEERS for the really smart people at Oregon State University who did a study about where/when/why four-day school weeks do/don’t work for students/teachers. In high schools using the shorter/four-day week, math scores decreased slightly, likely because mom/dad can’t always help when their son/daughter/gender-nonbinary-child has questions concerning higher/scary-level math such as algebra/calculus. [We personally disagree/agree with the study results, as we completely/don’t-even-a-little-bit understand all math.]
CHEERS for Lewis & Clark College. They have hired their first female and first Black president. [They didn’t hire two presidents, but one Black woman… pull yer heads outta the sand, ya walnuts.] Taking the helm in July will be Dr. Robin Holmes-Sullivan – previously vice- president for University of California student affairs, and even more previously the clinical coordinator for the counseling center of University of Oregon. Welcome back to the big OR [egon…] Dr. Holmes-Sullivan!
FURROWED BROWS for Alsea schools and their mask issues. The superintendent over to the southwest of here decided to end the mask mandate. Therefore, the state of Oregon decided to end Alsea School District getting any COVID-related funds. And thusly, the schools had to end the school week early due to… wait for it… too many cases of COVID.
BTW the same Superintendent who is choosing to leave the kids and teachers and support staff unprotected in Alsea is running for governor – although at this point, who isn’t…
Speaking of which…
RAISED BROWS over the Oregon Supreme Court selecting two retired judges to help decide if Possible-New-Yorker Nicholas Kristof should be allowed to run for governor. Turns out they are down one judge and had one recuse himself from weighing in. The judges “pro tempore” retired recently, so no worries that they’ve forgotten all the important things about law and stuff.
CONFUSED MOOS for various Oregon dairies looking to piggyback onto some clean air conundrums and possibly being kicked out by California. It began in April of 2019 when folks in Boardman began making electricity out of what my mama delightfully referred to as “cow pies”, calling it an “inherently dirty source of energy” – because, yeah, it ain’t clean. Then in Tillamook in 2019, the Animal Legal Defense Fund looked seriously into filing a class-action suit because they felt the Tillamook-of-cheese-fame was implying they were small dairies – which they really aren’t. Now, Food and Water Watch are pointing their noses back at Boardman for attempting to “bank and sell credits in California’s low-carbon fuel standard program”, saying, again, that cow poo is a dirty, methane-causing business. We wonder, if they want the electricity and they want the cheese – not to mention they want both provided from our own lovely state of Oregon – then why are they complaining about the stinky processes we use to make them?
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