Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Monday, January 25, 2010
Local Portland History: Rossmere
The book includes the original 1907 title transfer from when the house was built, which is the same year they changed the names of the N-S streets to numbered avenues. We live on 37th, which was called Vinewood Avenue before that. Going down the list, 38th used to be Hydah, 39th used to be Thaxter, etc.
I'm pretty sure up around 44th and Thompson you can still see "Beverly Avenue" stamped into the old concrete curb.
The book of title transfers includes a history of the property from 1850 to 1910. The original chunk of land was originally a claim by John Quinn, but eventually became the property of Philip A. Marquam.
Marquam was a big shot at the end of the 19th century and first part of the 20th century, at least in Portland. The I-5 bridge over the Willamette River is named for him (and let's not forget Marquam Hill, the Marquam Trail, Marquam Gulch, etc.).
By the time the house was built, this part of that land (we're on the western edge of it, near the northern edge) had been cut to 80 acres and split into lots. And named Rossmere.
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Friday, January 22, 2010
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Melissa Tells You Off
Ha! Everybody knows that in order to actually be smart, you need to know 87/100ths of what there is to know about Shakespeare and Elizabethan writing (as a genre, not as works by individuals).
Monday, January 18, 2010
Thanks for Posing, Dudes!
I don't know these guys. They were walking right by this sign that I've seen before many times, and since I think the sign is knuckleheady, I asked these guys if they'd pose for me in front of it. They happily obliged.
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Friday, January 15, 2010
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Skateboard (now stolen) Detail
UPDATE: Officer Wilson came by with some youngish guy he'd picked up. "Is this the guy?" he asked me. "Nope, that's not him," I said. I saw some regular-looking guy with a little beard, carrying a sleeping bag.
"Okay, well, he said he wasn't, but he kind of fit your description." No, he didn't, except that he was carrying a bundled sleeping bag.
As I was closing the door I heard Officer Wilson ask the guy, "okay, where do you want to go?" The guy said, "well, I was just walking over to a friend's house to spend the night...." Poor guy!
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Friday, January 8, 2010
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
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I was in the basement, Iris was on the couch in the living room and Amy was upstairs in our bedroom. I heard a noise and looked at my TV monitor to see what was on the front porch. There was some guy there!
I ran upstairs and opened the door and said, "Hey, what the hell are you doing? Get off my porch!"
He turned around to face me. He was carrying a big plastic tarp (army green), and I noticed a white blanket on the porch. He said, "Ah, man... we're just lookin' for someplace to lie down."
That's when I noticed there was another guy already lying down, in the corner to my left. The guy with the tarp was kind of big, with black hair and a black beard and a baseball cap. He was barely coherent, but he was argumentative. The other guy skedaddled when I said I'd have to call the cops if they didn't leave.
They showed no signs of leaving, so I said I'd call the cops, and I shut the door. I grabbed the phone, then yelled upstairs to Amy to call the police. I kept an eye on the guys on the porch while she called. This dude just wouldn't shut up, and he woudn't leave. He said things like "a real person would say hello" and "just open the door so we can talk," and he mocked me with "I'm calling the cops, I'm calling the cops."
Once it was clear to him that we HAD called the cops, he hobbled off the porch in a hurry and ran up the street. We quickly enough noticed that he'd taken Iris's skateboard with him, the bastard.
Officer Tony Wilson of the Portland Police Bureau showed up about ten minutes later, too my information, apologized for being so late in coming, and told me he'd look around the park.
I was pretty dumbfounded at the idea that these fellers thought they could just camp out on our front porch.
That bastard took the skateboard out of pure meanness.