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Comments Posted By PAgent
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Actually, I did call the Portland Police non-emergency line, and was told that unless I could call *when it was happening*, and an officer could observe the situation, there was nothing they could do. They didn’t even want the vehicle ID.
But really, I didn’t post this as a substitute for involving the police. I know it’s a long shot, but I honestly hoped that someone would recognize the vehicle and apply some personal pressure to the driver. Maybe the driver would recognize themselves, and reevaluate the way they drive. I know that’s a slim and forlorn hope, but it’s better than doing nothing.
» Posted By PAgent On January 11, 2010 @ 7:46 pm
Food Carts Portland on NBC Nightly News
That’s great! Was it just my own bias, or did the PDX footage look *infinitely* more appetizing than the NYC footage?
» Posted By pagent On November 10, 2009 @ 10:28 am
Someone Tried to Burn Down My House
Six?!? They were six? How does a six-year-old decide to set fire to someone’s house?
As a parent of a genuine troublemaker, I’ve sometimes been astonished at what my child has done, or at least thought she could get away with.
But ARSON??
#getoffmylawn indeed….
» Posted By PAgent On October 3, 2009 @ 11:42 am
I think the gentleman in picture E might have something to say about your assertion. And I would be fascinated to hear your theories regarding my true motivation in writing this, since apparently dealing with a petty frustration day in and day out for the last 8 years isn’t sufficient in and of itself.
» Posted By pagent On September 23, 2009 @ 4:29 pm
I truly wish I had the Zen-like ability to smile and walk on. Unfortunately, I’m deeply conflict averse. Just seeing one of these folks on the sidewalk makes my gut clench in anticipation of the inevitable conflict. Whatever happens, I’m left fuming as I walk away.
And a polite response might work for some people, but all too often I get a response designed to guilt trip me into talking to them. “Don’t you want to help children?” “Don’t you care about the environment?” or my personal favorite, “Hey, I’m just trying to help YOU.” The gut clenches further, and now I have a sour taste in my mouth.
But really, it doesn’t matter what they say. If I were to go outside and make a point of stepping into someone’s path and forcing them interact with me, for ANY reason, I would expect a negative response. It’s just rude. It’s the kind of behavior that bullies use on playgrounds to get a rise out of their target. And it shouldn’t be tolerated.
» Posted By pagent On September 23, 2009 @ 9:05 am
PDX with Less “International”; Lufthansa Service Ends
I’m going to miss the Lufthansa flights for reasons that have nothing whatsoever to do with air travel. I was often walking past the Hilton Executive Tower while Lufthansa flight crews were either checking in or checking out. They always looked like they just stepped off the set of Hollywood movie: the women were beautiful, the men were handsome, their uniforms were spotless, and even their luggage was color-coordinated. In combination with their friendly chatter auf deutsch, they made Portland feel like a truly international city. PDX is a little less cosmopolitan with Lufthansa’s departure.
» Posted By PAgent On September 13, 2009 @ 10:08 pm
Fixed! Sorry about that…
» Posted By PAgent On August 6, 2009 @ 4:00 pm
Bravo, both of you. Nicely done.
» Posted By PAgent On June 23, 2009 @ 2:42 pm
Remember the Ski Jump in Civic Stadium?
Let me add my thanks to Dieselboi’s. Your comment really makes the post come alive, and it is most appreciated.
» Posted By PAgent On June 15, 2009 @ 9:14 pm
Portland Mercury Copyright Infringement
I think it’s directly on point, actually. If you want to call yourself professional, and be treated professionally, things like spelling and grammar matter.
Now that we’ve hashed over the first five words of my comment, do you care to address the rest?
» Posted By PAgent On May 31, 2009 @ 1:14 pm
“When you folks who supported and authored this blog site article are as tightly wound up about maintaining your own journalistic standards in your own publication as you are about the Merc’s, you’ll have room to talk… but, oh, wait…. you *never* will because your not a news press outlet … your a blog…. you aren’t held to the same journalistic standards or same legal and financial obligations and standards as a journalistic business…and you won’t be able to claim those unless you are one…. and indeed, *that* is what it actually looks like when you put a librarian in a red dress…. just sayin’”
First, it’s “you’re”, not “your”.
Second, I think you’ve inadvertently hit the nail on the head on at least one point. The prevailing attitude toward any website that isn’t associated with a “real” news outlet, is that it is somehow unprofessional, amateurish, and irrelevant.
Ostensibly, the Merc performs to some higher standard than us mere bloggers, and yet respect for copyright is taken fairly seriously at OurPDX, and is a frequent topic of discussion “behind the scenes” here.
I’m not going to claim that we’re journalists, at least I’m not going to claim that *I* am. I nevertheless think it’s perfectly valid to point out a double standard where it exists, particularly when it involves the copyrights of *our* authors, and there are multiple occurrences.
» Posted By PAgent On May 31, 2009 @ 9:03 am
PAgent’s Favorite PDX Food Carts
Oh Sweet Mother of Mercy, it looks like Cart DeFrisco still operates in Eugene. That’s where I first found one, outside the UofO bookstore. Aaaargh. Man, do I miss those sandwiches!
» Posted By PAgent On May 8, 2009 @ 4:05 pm
B, I fear you may be confused. These are not MY opinions — they are the results of plugging the phrase “Portland needs” into Google, and copying sentences from the results. It’s a harmless meme, and not intended to be particularly meaningful.
For extra fun, try it with your own name, to find out what YOU need.
» Posted By PAgent On May 4, 2009 @ 4:03 pm
natronics – Sadly, it appears that you are correct. I found another image of the courthouse dated 1875 at the Oregon Historical Society. Although the photo was taken from the other side of the building, the absence of trees around the building would definitely place it earlier than the photo in question. I’ve gone ahead and swapped the photo out for the earlier one.
» Posted By PAgent On April 9, 2009 @ 2:44 pm
“in my opinion, this is a mischaracterization.”
You are, of course, welcome to your opinion regarding what I wrote and why I wrote it. It’s entirely possible that you simply a better, stronger bicyclist than I have been.
I used to ride a fat tire bike on the wonderful bike paths of Eugene, pulling a Burley trailercycle. My children, bless them, were always 99+ percentile for height and weight, and starting from a dead stop was ALWAYS a concern for me, and there were many, many times when a child leaned abruptly one way or the other before I was up to speed and I very nearly went over. I found this very frightening. Enough so that, for this and other reasons, I chose to NEVER ride with my children in traffic.
My experience with recumbents has been owning, and commuting on, a long wheelbase Koosah, also from Burley. With your experience, you surely know how much harder it is to balance on a recumbent, particularly at very low speeds. You aren’t able to use your body weight effectively to maintain balance, and ‘bent riders are forced to swerve right and left at low speed to stay upright. This comes into play both when starting out at intersections, and when climbing hills. It’s one of the primary reasons I QUIT bicycle commuting, because the damage to my knees prevents me from applying enough power to the crankset to maintain a minimum stable speed when climbing.
Jeremy, I congratulate you on your ability to rise above these petty distractions, and appreciate that you have attained the Zen-like clarity to “learn and appreciate the behaviors inherent in operating the bicycle on city streets, guided by the laws of the road”. But I’m not about to pretend it isn’t challenging (and sometimes ‘terrifying’ and ‘daunting’) for you or anyone else. That’s a disservice in itself, and would NOT be an accurate reflection of MY OWN cycling experiences.
» Posted By PAgent On March 20, 2009 @ 10:47 am
And it looks like hysterical media coverage may well have killed the bill:
http://bikeportland.org/2009/03/19/bta-negative-media-has-put-idaho-stop-effort-in-jeapordy/
» Posted By PAgent On March 19, 2009 @ 4:58 pm
There is a safety issue, although I think it is secondary (or tertiary) to the desire to make cycling faster, more convenient, and more accessible.
In many ways, a cyclist is most vulnerable when coming to a stop, or starting out from one. There is a discrete span of time when you are in motion, but not moving fast enough for the bike to be stable. For most athletic upright cyclists, this is a negligible time frame, and they probably don’t even worry about it. But for recumbent bikes, bikes with trailers, and bikes with loads (Xtracycles, bikes with infant seats) it can be a terrifyingly long span of time. The idea of going through that panic every single block is a daunting one. In addition, your ability to control a bike before it is up to stable speeds is severely compromised.
So I think there IS a safety component, but not one that is recognized by non-riders.
» Posted By pagent On March 19, 2009 @ 8:15 am
BrunchBox – food cart breakfast
Oooh. That’s further than I like to walk in the morning, but I’d love to try some new breakfast fare.
» Posted By PAgent On March 16, 2009 @ 8:25 pm
Welcome back transit mall benches
You know those shiny new stainless steel garbage can holders? The one outside my building is already covered with black crap because the smokers stub out their ciggies on the top.
» Posted By PAgent On February 20, 2009 @ 9:34 am
That is an almost stunningly stupid idea, unless the intent was to kill off Oregon’s small-scale brewers.
» Posted By PAgent On February 19, 2009 @ 9:58 am
A day I will never forget – Jan 20, 2009
Man, that is so cool. I’m glad you got the opportunity to be there. What an experience.
» Posted By PAgent On January 22, 2009 @ 11:11 am
Dude, that is really cool.
» Posted By PAgent On December 19, 2008 @ 9:52 pm
This is all well and good, but when is PDX going to get some Outdoor Urinals?
» Posted By PAgent On December 8, 2008 @ 5:59 pm
So drinking and/or pest control are incompatible with knowledge, maturity, compassion, and warmth? Wow.
For someone who is so intent on compassion, you’re tarring with a mighty wide brush.
Perhaps it would be best if you sought out that blessed little sliver of the community that thinks exactly as you do, so you all can hold hands and sing songs while you pass judgment on all the rest of us.
» Posted By PAgent On December 3, 2008 @ 2:46 pm
Just try the meatballs.
Resistance is futile.
You will be assimilated.
Here’s your tiny little allen wrench.
» Posted By PAgent On December 1, 2008 @ 10:24 am
Do You Have a Favorite Liquor Store in PDX?
The nice thing about the one at Lamb’s Thriftway in Garden Home, is that it is located INSIDE the grocery store. You can actually go shopping and pick up a bottle of booze at the same time.
My understanding is that it’s part of a pilot program by OLCC to see if selling liquor in a grocery store will cause the earth to open and swallow us all up.
» Posted By PAgent On November 17, 2008 @ 2:16 pm
Crap. I really liked Green Dragon, they had a lot of respect for the beer there. And although I don’t say it too loudly around here, I’ve never like Rogue beers. I know lots of people who love them, but there’s some common component in the flavor profile of all the Rogue beers I’ve tried that really turns me off.
» Posted By PAgent On November 13, 2008 @ 3:02 pm
Going home the other night in a heavy rain, I was making a left turn from SW Taylor onto Broadway when I just happened to notice the bicyclist coming up to pass me ON MY LEFT. She smiled when I stopped, and that’s great, but there isn’t a jury in the world that would have found me liable if I’d crushed her flat.
C’mon cyclists, you’ve got to ride predictably, especially in the wet dark winters. Passing on the left? Are you insane?
» Posted By PAgent On November 4, 2008 @ 1:37 pm
“FYI, TriMet, is like you, and just like “ALL” the other people in our Community, State & World… a bunch of Hippocrates!”
I swear, I had NO IDEA there were that many doctors in the world…
» Posted By PAgent On February 16, 2009 @ 9:37 am
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» Posted By PAgent On April 11, 2009 @ 7:20 pm
