HOOTS AND HOLLERS for the Corvallis Indoor Winter Market. Not so much for doing anything particular, but for being there, at the Fairgrounds, providing fresh veggies and such. The continued sense of “normal” is a happy, remarkable, lucky, spectacular thing to have these days. Thanks for being there every Saturday!
CHEERS for Interim Fire Chief Ben Janes being named Permanent Fire Chief… well, technically his name will still be Ben Janes, but you get the drift here, right? Janes was born-and-raised in Corvallis, and has been with the Corvallis Fire Department for 20 years. [BTW his wife works as an ICU nurse, meaning this is really a family that gives back to the community!] Congrats, Chief Janes!
APPROPRIATE OOO’S AND AHHH’S over the rare Sierra Nevada Red Fox [aka SNRF… pronounced “snurf”]. Recently spotted in Central Oregon’s Cascades, this cute little ash-gray guy [or gal] with a white spot at the tail is “the rarest and most endangered red fox subspecies in North America,” and ODFW biologist, Jaime Bowles, was one happy camper to see her [or him] on a video. Hunted almost to extinction in the 1800’s, snurfs have been so endangered their population was thought to be less than 50. But bit by bit they are showing up in Oregon, allowing Bowles and her team to trap, collar, and track them [17 so far] as a means of collecting enough data to make a guess at current population levels. [and we always thought a snurf was some strange yoga position we’d never tried…]
RESPECTFUL APPLAUSE for the Oregon Supreme Court ruling concerning Nick Kristof. They came to the conclusion that, no, a person who actually resides in New York cannot run for Governor of Oregon. In other words, yes, Sec. of State Shemia Fagan was right on this one. [Can we get a “you go gurl” from the crowd? Woot woot!]
JEERS for Travis Boersma of Dutch Bro’s and his plan for the Flying Lark Resort in Grants Pass. [no no no, stay with us, we know this isn’t Grants Pass but keep reading…] Boersma wants to add “225 historic racing machines” to the resort. This step towards basically starting his very own casino has led Indigenous People throughout Oregon to boycott the coffeemaker’s products… you know, seeing as how only Indigenous people are allowed to own casinos in Oregon… you know, after we stole all of everything else from them in the first darned place…
CHEERS for the Oregon Legislative branch standing up for election results. Remember how we used to be able to throw raw eggs at people coming to the door to vamp for their candidate in an upcoming election? Or how we could deface someone’s home for doing their job as a County Clerk certifying an election? Neither do we. Now, it seems that the supporters of some unhappy losers of elections [*cough cough* Trump *cough*] have taken it upon themselves to threaten the lives of election officials… even when their candidate won a county [like, say, Jackson County]. Therefore, Oregon politicos are looking at a bill that would outlaw the harassment of election officials. [Harassment of Census Takers is still up for grabs.]
Going spacey for a moment here…
CHEERS for the moon. That big rock of a thing that inspires us to land on it, and that lights our nights with reflected sunlight. And right now, the moon is especially beautiful for Oregonians to look up and see that phase we call The Snow Moon, The Storm Moon, The Hunger Moon, and… the Suckfish Moon? [yes, that last one was a surprise to us too] Plus, if you noticed bright stars nearby it, those would be Jupiter [which people go to to get more stupider] and Regulus… which no one goes to.
Going international for a moment here…
PUZZLED EXPRESSIONS for the Nobel Committee for allowing a Peace Prize nomination for one… wait for it… Jared Kushner [yes, that Jared Kushner who is married to the favored child of the Trump fam]. Turns out The Kush was a big part of the Abraham Accords [named for the father of religions Abraham… you know, from the Bible] which brought the latest peace to Israel and the United Arab Emirates. It’s not as big a deal as you’d think since a slew of people are allowed to nominate their favorite sycophant for the award, but it is surprising [to say the very littlest of leasts].
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