'Portlandia' will be back in 2012
We ate last Saturday evening at the Old Wives’ Tale on East Burnside in Portland. The restaurant, known for its great Hungarian Mushroom Soup, is now in its 31st year and remains one of our favorites. I complimented one of the young waiters on the fresh red tattoo on his right arm. It seemed fitting...
Valentine's Day wishes for Egypt
I didn’t send a card or a box of those heart-shaped candies. But here are some Valentine’s wishes for the people of Egypt: * That your economy starts humming, producing much-needed jobs. * That you wind up with constitutionally guaranteed freedoms that you’re seeking. * That you get the kind of democrati cheap cialis online...
OSU students offer Valentine's advice
It was after 4 Thursday afternoon when I started asking this question on Monroe Avenue in Corvallis: “What’s the best Valentine’s Day gift?” Seven Oregon State students answered the question for a video that can viewed on democratherald.com or gazettetimes.com When I got the answers from the last two students, Stephanie Sieg and Allison Swalko,...
Nice catch! Keep those fishing photos coming
We’ve had a quick response to our request for fishing photos. Seven photos have been uploaded since Sunday, five to our gazettetimes.com photo-sharing site and two to our democratherald.com site. Now I have a second request: Please include some caption information for each photo. Who is in the photo and where are they from, when...
Super Bowl Sunday on the trail
This best part of this Super Bowl Sunday has not been the game — I fell asleep in the first half — or the Doritos, Pepsi, Bud Light or KIA commercials. No the best of Super Bowl Sunday 2011 was the early-afternoon hike I took with my favorite hiking partner, Nancy. We drove over to...
Do you have a favorite fishing photo? I want to see it
When I was 16, I went on weeklong raft trip on the Selway River in Idaho. I’ll never forget taking three casts one day as we floated the river and pulling in three whopper trout. I didn’t pose with any of them before we fried them that night. In fact, I can’t find a single...
Ominous turn for journalists in Cairo
I had a fun last night doing video highlights of the Corvallis-Crescent Valley boys basketball game. But journalists thousands of miles away in Egypt weren’t having much fun yesterday. While covering the chaos in Cairo, they had to protect themselves and their equipment from attacks by government supporters. Among those roughed up was CNN’s Anderson...
That hint of spring
Something made yesterday better than most Mondays. Maybe it was staying away from cookies and chocolate. My concentration was better. But I think what helped most was the sunlight streaming into the Democrat-Herald after the morning fog burned off. Everybody seemed a little more perked up. And when I finally got outside, it was nice...
Our videos are now on YouTube
For the past three-plus years, we and folks at other Lee Enterprises newspapers have loaded our videos to VMIX, which also pulls in AP videos. The video player you see on the homepages of the Democrat-Herald, Gazette-Times and Lebanon Express is run by VMIX. We’re still posting to VMIX, but two weeks ago we added...
Beaver Nation divided on BCS title clash
For the past two weeks, I’ve taken an informal survey. Wherever I go I ask Beaver fans who they’ll be rooting for in the Jan. 10 BCS National Championship Game. About two-thirds of the people I’ve talked with say they’ll root for the Ducks. The other third are pulling for Auburn. On Monday I carried...
Sunny farewell to 2010 with hope for the new year
After a week that had hail, rain and snow, it’s nice to see the sun on this final day of the year. It’s quiet here at the DH office. I just posted a video to democratherald.com of the 11th arson in Albany. The Albany Fire Department provided the video, which shows the Dec. 23 fire...
Farewell to Judy, Martha and Judie
When the Democrat-Herald became a morning newspaper in October, we picked the rooster as our mascot and later named it Herald. About the same time, we started “Something to Crow About!” — words of praise for good work performed by fellow employees. We have 8 1/2-by-5 1/2-inch “Something to Crow About!” forms with a sketch...