Category Archives: Beerchaser Miscellany

February Figuring – Part II

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Welcome back to Thebeerchaser. If you are seeing this post through an e-mail, please visit the blog by clicking on the title at the top to see all of the photos and so the narrative is not clipped or shortened. (External photo attribution at the end of the post. #1)

As I contemplated the title of these February posts, it harkened me back to my math courses in school – from junior high through college at Oregon State University where I had math courses. I struggled with two terms of calculus in college – required as part of my NROTC curriculum – but the foundation actually laid in junior high saved me and also helped me immensely in a career which involved a lot of budgeting and finance.

At Oregon City High School, my instructors were not notable except Catherine Westwood – my Latin teacher for two years and the mom of my good friend and fellow OCHS grad, Jim Westwood – also Beerchaser-of-the-Quarter in 2013.

She taught us a lot besides Latin and I remember being in her class my sophomore year when the announcement on President Kennedy’s assassination came over the PA system and stunned us into silence.

And I never forgot “pulchra puella” although I didn’t ever use the term as a pick-up line.

Thora B. Gardiner Junior High School

But it was from 7th through 9th grade where I had the most outstanding teachers. Their skill and dedication as educators (those shown below) prepared me for the future not only in math, but science and language arts (called English class in the ’60’s). And I also had one notable Band instructor who laid the foundation for one of my retirement hobbies over fifty years later.

I want to recognize them and although all but one is now deceased, their lessons remain with me. Cheers to Earl Gipe, Don Gribble, Eli Jimenez, Noel Jordan and Erv Lesser shown from left to right below from the ninth grade yearbook:

Earl Gipe

Mr. Gipe was a tall, imposing figure who had a strong command in the classroom of eighth- grade math students, which reflected his military service and was evident from the first day. One of his favorite expressions when an arithmetic problem on the board was erroneous was “Something’s fishy in Denmark!”

We had heard an unconfirmed rumor that he was once a Navy Frogman, but that just enhanced our respect and trepidation if we didn’t complete homework or stepped out of line in class.

I hadn’t even thought of Mr. Gipe until 2022, when six-time Oregon Sportswriter of the Year and author of twelve books, Kerry Eggers, wrote a blog post in 2022 paying tribute to Frank Cutsforth – a businessman (Cutsforth Market) in Canby, Oregon.

Canby is a small city of around 20,000 in the Willamette Valley named after a Union General killed in the Civil War. Midway through his narrative, he quoted Frank talking about childhood sports. Evidently, Earl Gipe had the same impact as he did on me:

“I had a Little League coach when I was 12, Earl Gipe, who was a taskmaster. He had been a frogman in the Navy. He was a tough guy, but he made good players out of us. He made us do stuff the right way. We learned discipline. That carried over for me. You have to have discipline in your life to get where you want to go.”

Fast forward four years when I did a little more research on Earl Gipe for this blog post. I was astounded by what I found – and from the Library of Congress Archives no less. Take a look at this excerpt from The frogmen of World War II : an oral history of the U.S. Navy’s underwater demolition teams by Chet Cunningham.

And the picture below is from the Seal Museum Association. LTJG Earl Gipe (left) performing beach master duties on Morotai. The officer to the right is Lt. Bob Eiring, the Commander of a UDT (Underwater Demolition Team) (#2)

“Before the Navy SEALs, there were the Underwater Demolition Teams. Before them came the Scouts & Raiders, and before them were the Navy Combat Demolition Units. But there was another group even before the NCDUs. It was called the Naval Special Services Unit No. 1, also known as the Amphibious Scouts.

A lot of military historians know little about Special Services Unit No. 1 because it was a top-secret group in the U.S. Navy created for a special purpose.”

“There would be three hundred U.S. 6th Army Rangers involved. One hundred would land on Dinagat with Lt. Root, Dougherty, and me. One hundred would land with Lt. Gipe. The other one hundred Rangers would be in reserve. Three APDs would be used to transport the Rangers and us

Around 2100 on the night of October 19-20, 1944, we turned on Dinagat’s Desolation Point light. Sometime around midnight we could hear some of the ships in the invasion fleet as they passed by. The invasion was a complete success, partly due to the navigation lights that we installed.”

In 1998, Earl Gipe passed away at 86 in Kansas. I wish I could have thanked him for his service and for his impact on me as a student.

Don Gribble

I got an excellent math foundation with Earl Gipe. It was with some trepidation, I then started a year of Algebra with Mr. Gribble – also the assistant football coach of the junior high team. That concern dissipated because he was patient, methodical and a great communicator.

Don Gribble, an Army veteran, passed away in 2018 at 97. He taught many years at a junior high in the Oregon City School District where he graduated from OCHS.

Eli Jimenez

My morning ninth-grade Algebra class was followed by Physical Science – taught by a young teacher new to the District. Eli Jimenez got authorization to teach our class an experimental curriculum for advanced students and was he tough. We bemoaned the homework and his difficult (and frequent) tests, but again, we learned a ton.

My parents also knew Eli and his wonderful family from church and my dad (FDW) absolutely loved this guy and what he was teaching us. Dad would sometimes encounter Eli on the way home from work to the frustration of Frannie – my mom – because they would have animated chats for an hour by the side of their two cars about the environment, public policy, education, etc. and he would miss dinner!

I still remember two projects in Eli’s class which imparted major lessons for my future education. The first was a science experiment in which he allowed me to do an ammonia fountain – something typically done in high school chemistry and ammonia – a colorless gas – wasn’t something for casual classroom exercises.

While gently encouraging me to be learn to take risks, he warned me that ammonia fountains often didn’t work, but if carefully conducted the result would be impressive. To this day, I can still visualize the astonishment of my class (and me) when as the ammonia vapor rose, it created a vacuum that pulled rose colored liquid ammonia from a large beaker, creating a spectacular fountain effect. (#3)

Ignore the script – you get the idea….

We griped when he assigned us a research project including a written paper with exhibits which typically wasn’t part of a ninth-grade science program – Eli smiled at our grousing. I was interested in the desalinization of seawater and water shortages in the West and with FDW’s help, wrote to some corporations who were pioneers with the concept.

The display (FDW constructed and helped me design it) that went with the paper is shown below and I relished Mr. Jimenez’s comments for months (and still have in my files) which included, “…The oral report was well-received by the class. The bright spots in a teacher’s life are, in part, due to students like you. God Bless You.”

I hadn’t had any contact with Eli for decades after he moved away, but he returned to the area and one Sunday morning in a church service about five + years ago, I looked across the aisle and said to Janet, “That’s my ninth-grade science teacher!” He saw me and we both ended up hugging with tears in our eyes and subsequently had lunch at an Oregon City bistro.

He moved back to New Mexico, but this guy – now in his nineties – is a Renaissance Man. He plays the bass in a combo, runs miles every day, volunteers and is a wonderful grandfather. Eli’s beautiful wife, Tijla, died when she was young and he didn’t remarry.

Eli Jimenez was a wonderful teacher and is a great human being! Just as my dad did, I love this guy! (#4 – #7)

Noel Jordan

In our first seventh-grade English class, we kids were taken aback when this young enthusiastic guy who was starting his first year as a teacher, told us what he planned. We were going to learn new vocabulary words, do innovative book reports and write creatively.

And we did in what was a wonderful classroom environment. I loved the new vocabulary words we had to memorize each week and it helped me immensely over the years – for the College Boards and even writing papers in grad school. They were not seventh-grade vocabulary, but words such as “alacrity,” “belies,” “anachronistic,” “garner,” “vernacular,” etc.

In fact, one word that I used in a 1975 grad school paper, which became a running joke for years with my brother-in-law, Dave Booher, a former English teacher, who edited my term papers was “garner.” (I learned it in Noel Jordan’s class.) He stated,” Don, that’s ridiculous. Garner is so anachronistic. Don’t ever use that word again.”

That started my collection of “Garner” files which I supplemented for years and still have. Included are clippings, obituaries, sports stories, etc. Whenever I saw the word, I would send (or personally deliver) Dave a photo of the clipping or reference which over the years included press releases for Jennifer Garner and James Garner.

Also the official logos of the Town of Garner, North Carolina and the City of Garner, Iowa (The Jewel in the Crown of Iowa). (#8) I even took a picture over some dead guy’s named Garner’s grave to prove my point that “Garner – the word -is not dead.” (see below)

Noel Jordan taught in Oregon City until he retired in1993 and then tutored and was an active volunteer in many non-profit organizations. I decided to try to find him to reunite in the 1990’s. I figured he would love the garner joke and wanted to express my appreciation for his impact on my education.

We had a few lunches and great discussions. He passed away at 77 in 2012 and I sent a letter to his sister expressing my condolences along with the Opinion Piece above I wrote for the West Linn Tidings. (#9)

Ervin Lesser

Mr. Lesser, the Band Instructor, had less influence ultimately than the aforementioned teachers, but this professional trumpeter did teach me how to play the oboe from the seventh to ninth grade.

I gave it up in high school for athletics, but achieved one of my retirement bucket-list items when I “relearned” it and took lessons for six years. Mr. Lesser was a stern perfectionist and I remember the intense anxiety I had for an opening solo for three nights of his Annual Stage Show in 1963, which was for both the junior high and high school and drew a lot of people.

I didn’t mess it up and garnered compliments for the opening bars of “Polovtsian Dances” (from the opera Prince Igor – better known as the song “Stranger in Paradise).

The culmination of my “oboe career” was performances for three years (2016-19) at Portland’s Pittock Mansion where volunteer musicians play in a side room during the Christmas season while people tour the beautiful, historic dwelling. Kelly Gronli, my oboe instructor – a professional musician, Sarah Rose (flute), Faith Carter (piano) and I played for one of the two-hour sessions during those three years.

Mr. Lesser planted the seed for this in 1960 when he said he needed an oboe player for our band and it was a better challenge then the clarinet….

Thanks for bearing with me as I reminisced and tried to honor these great educators. I would recommend that you also reach out and take one of your memorable teachers to lunch (or to raise a mug.) You will be enriched by the experience and they will appreciate it.

Cheers

External Photo Attribution

#1. Public Domain – Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Arithmetic_symbols.svg) The copyright holder of this work, release this work into the public domain. This applies worldwide.  Author: This vector image was created with Inkscape by Elembis, and then manually replaced.  26 May 2007.

#2.  (2003.0018.4 – B&W photo of Amphibious Scouts team leader LTjg Earl Gipe (left) performing beach master duties on Morotai. The officer to the right is Lt. Bob Eiring, the Commander of an UDT. | UDT-SEAL Museum Association.

#3. Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Ammonia_fountain#/media/File:Fountain_of_ammonia_2.svg/2) Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license. Author: apple502j_sub – 1October 2017.  By apple502j_sub, CC BY-SA 2.0, (https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=63264629).

#4. Eli Jimenez Facebook site  (red) (https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=234235316750013&set=a.234235310083347).

#5. Eli Jimenez Facebook site (family) (https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=2938306672921514&set=t.100004906392356&type=3).

#6. Eli Jimenez Facebook site (vest) (https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10100375548070596&set=t.100004906392356&type=3).

#7.  Eli Jimenez Facebook site (coffee) (https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10100255028807166&set=t.100004906392356&type=3).

#8.  Wikipedia – Fair Use –  (GarnerNCseal – Garner, North Carolina – Wikipedia) By https://nextdoor.com/agency-detail/nc/garner/town-of-garner/, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=80935385). This logo is an official seal of a governmental entity and qualifies as fair use under the Copyright law of the United States.

#9. FindaGrave.com (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/86845380/noel-andrew-jordan).

February Figuring – Part I

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I Want My Mummy(s)

In 2016, Thebeerchaser hit the depths and regaled you with the story of one of my favorite downtown Portland haunts – that being the now gone-but not forgotten, Mummy’s Bar and Grill – only one and one-half blocks from the Schwabe law firm’s offices in the PacWest Center. https://thebeerchaser.com/2016/12/06/mummys-a-buried-portland-treasure/

I told you about the co-owners – Phillip and Ghobvial Moumir – two wonderful gentlemen who emigrated from Egypt and started the restaurant sometime around the mid-80’s in a confined, dark, idiosyncratic subterranean space across from what was then The Oregonian building – offices and printing presses.

My two law firm colleagues on one of my visits, Margaret Hoffmann and Brian (Brain) King – did not hesitate to join me for drinks even though they were both Super Lawyers and it was with somebody from firm Management.

I look back fondly on those pre-retirement days and was thus heartened by a post in a blog I follow. Writer John Chilson, a content strategist and writer for architects, developers and urbanists, also has a fascinating blog – Lost Oregon. One of John’s laudable missions is to save historic building in the State.

“‘Lost Oregon’ aims to document the history of architecture of Oregon, some buildings lost to time, others being repurposed, recast, and reused, others rising anew. Oregon has a ton of great old commercial buildings with great bones. Let’s be creative with them instead of tearing them down.”

John did a great narrative with pictures in a post entitled, “The Mummy’s Mystery.” I was flattered that he included a link to my post on Thebeerchaser, but what made it even better was a comment from another noted Northwest writer, photographer and architect – Harley Cowan. (see below)

Harley, like John, has an incredibly interesting background and we’re fortunate to have both of them in Portland

External Photo Attribution at the end of the Post (#1 – #2)

Harley Cowan
John Chilson

/

Harley’s comment on the Lost Oregon blog post was great:

“While working at Yost Grube Hall Architecture in the nearby PacWest Building, we would occasionally take an office happy hour at Mummy’s and take over the place–which wasn’t hard because it wasn’t big–because Joachim Grube enjoyed it so much. It reminded him of his time in Sudan in the 1960s. The two Egyptian guys who owned it were real characters–very friendly, talkative, and funny as hell if you were paying attention. They called Joachim ‘The Big Boss.’

My understanding was that Oregonian staff were regulars before the paper moved. We would joke that the atmosphere at Mummy’s was dead, but when it filled up, it was fun, authentic, and strange. You really felt like you weren’t in Portland anymore. The owners, always found sitting at their same places at the bar, would criticize us on entry for not coming back sooner. We need more places like this. It’s a loss for sure. A relic from another time.”

What I loved about this comment was that Yost Grube Hall was my law firm’s primary architects (we went through many remodels and expansions with them) and I knew Joachim (who passed away in 2022) and others in the firm well, although never aware of their affinity for Mummy’s.

Check into the Lost Oregon website. John is a talented writer and conveys his expertise well. https://lostoregon.org/2026/01/19/the-golden-nugget-milwaukies-almost-hidden-gem/

It’s obvious to me that although Mummy’s no longer serves great gin martinis or the best falafel sandwich in Portland in what some fondly described as a “tomb experience”, it’s legacy will never be buried.

How Dare You Discriminate!

The NCAA College Football Playoffs are now history and pigskin fans wait with anticipation for the Super Bowl on February 8. That said, a recent Substack column by my friend and former Beerchaser-of-the-Quarter – Dwight (The Godfather) Jaynes – longtime broadcaster and journalist caught my attention and brought to light a grievous situation. (#4)

“They have changed team nicknames everywhere, but there’s one that should be cancelled now!”

Take a look at this excerpt and you will see why I thought the post was excellent. (#5)

OK, I understand the new world order. I get it that we all have to look for new ways not to offend people. We must work at simply being nicer. I get it. My former high school changed its nickname from Indians to Warriors decades ago…The Redskins are gone and the MLB Indians have turned into Guardians…

I’m not fighting any of those changes. What bothers me, though, is that not all the offensive nicknames have been changed. There are some nasty ones still out there. And we’re seeing it right now in the College Football Playoffs.

There is one school out there torturing a group of people who are largely unable to defend themselves. It isn’t fair and I guess I’m going to have to step up and call attention to this terrible injustice…Mississippi and its fans are nasty. Unaware, perhaps, of what they’re doing.

‘Ole Miss.’

Come on now. One of the first rules I learned as a kid was ‘Respect your elders.’ It has to stop…This is blatant sexism, which hurts even more because of the blatant ageism…

Although I haven’t used AI for any writing, a few images for the blog have been fun to employ so I had it create the following and asked The Godfather for permission to cite his column. I thought this image nailed it! (#6)

While my high school alma mater Oregon City didn’t need to change our mascot name from “Pioneers,” there was for a time, some ill-advised clamor about “Pioneer Pete’s” appearance.

When my class graduated in 1966, our parting gift was a massive plywood rendering of Pioneer Pete (replete with musket and bowie knife) to hang at the entrance to the gym which it did for years until a new school was built in 2003. 

Fortunately, in 2001 when a few activists wanted to “emasculate” our mascot by “photo-shopping” out his musket or trashing existing images, the ill-conceived move was ultimately resisted – overcome by objections from a broad swath of alumni.

One suggestion was to replace the musket with a flagpole. (It might have been hard for pioneers to kill game with a flagpole…. #7)

I recounted this story in a 2012 Beerchaser post, because it was quite interesting as reported in this excerpt from the December 12, 2001 story in The Oregonian:

” A burly guy with a coonskin cap, Pioneer Pete stands like a sentinel throughout Oregon City High School. He stares from hallway murals, the backs of varsity jackets and walls in the gymnasium and football stadium.

A musket in his grip and a knife slung off his hip, Pioneer Pete is catching some flak these days. Some students and administrators say his weapon-toting ways break rules that apply to students. He’s even been booted off the cover of a brochure advertising the search for a new superintendent.”

For Better or Worse? (#8)

Creativity in masking

The pandemic brought global and national changes from its declaration in March 2020 to May 2023, when it was officially announced as ended by the World Health Organization. That said, many of the adjustments we made as individuals during that difficult period linger or have become permanent parts of our daily lives.

It changed our routines in working, shopping, traveling and socializing. A Pew Research study from just a year after the pandemic started revealed:

“The vast majority of Americans (89%) mentioned at least one negative change in their own lives, while a smaller share (though still a 73% majority) mentioned at least one unexpected upside. Two-thirds (67%) of Americans mentioned at least one negative and at least one positive change since the pandemic began.“

One old guy’s (not me….) response was pretty representative –“The destruction of our routines has been disorienting.”

It was very difficult for quite a while, to see our four granddaughters exclusively and then primarily by FaceTime. Trips to the gym stopped and ZOOM became an ongoing occurrence in everything from attending church, non-profit board meetings and Happy Hour and social gatherings.

I had visited and reviewed almost 400 bars and breweries from the start of Thebeerchaser.com in 2011 until the pandemic and in the next three years, the additions numbered only about twenty until I could hit new establishments with abandon again.

Since travel was largely restricted, it did, however, motivate me to reconnect with some of my former college and work associates I hadn’t seen in years by ZOOM.

Mulvey, Palmer and Williams
NROTC Class of 1970

For example, Jerry (Rodent) Mulvey, Bill Palmer and I started a quarterly ZOOM meeting which has continued and provides an opportunity to recount stories from our midshipman summer training cruises and college pranks. (Usually, they’re the same ones we related one quarter before, but forgot…)

Janet and I initiated one hobby in 2020 which has continued and we really enjoy – jigsaw puzzling. Maybe it was Deepak Chopra’s quote that started it although it was probably more due to boredom and trying to divert our minds from the news and figure out what was happening.

“There are no extra pieces in the universe. Everyone is here because he or she has a place to fill, and every piece must fit itself into the big jigsaw puzzle.” 

We started with 300-piece, graduated to 500-piece and now only do 1,000 piece. Since 2020, we have done at least 100 puzzles of all different brands and images. You can see a few of our favorites below:

And the experts have supposedly asserted that tackling these challenges is good for the brain:

“Studies have shown that doing jigsaw puzzles can improve cognition and visual-spatial reasoning. The act of putting the pieces of a puzzle together requires concentration and improves short-term memory and problem solving.” (https://blogs.bcm.edu/2020/10/29/a-perfect-match-the-health-benefits-of-jigsaw-puzzles/)

I would suggest, however, that the concussive ramifications of knocking one’s head against the wall when stumped may refute that theory. And oh, are they addictive – “I’m just going to get one more piece or make this connection before I go to bed….”

Janet and I are both grateful to my former legal management colleague, Linda Lehmann (see photo below) for her encouragement and generosity in helping us get started and continuing in this healthy activity. (#9)

And finally, after the pandemic, puzzles have been a good family activity (albeit sometimes competitive) especially on beach trips – and the granddaughters participate.

So try it – although with the focus it requires, I recommend saving your brewski until afterwards.

Cheers and Go Seahawks

External Photo Attribution

#1.  Harley Cowan website  (https://www.harleycowan.com/contact).

#2.  Linked-in site for John Chilson (https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnmchilson/In)

#3. Oregon Live obituaries (Joachim Grube Obituary (1932 – 2022) – Portland, OR – The Oregonian)

#4.  Dwight Jaynes Facebook site ((1) Facebohttps://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=753233004833086&set=t.728951893&type=3ok)

#5. Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:University_of_Mississippi_water_tower.jpg) Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. Author: Fredlyfish4 –  17 November 2018.

#6. AI Image Generator

#7. Oregon City High School website (https://www.ochspioneers.org).

#8. Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikiproject_COVID-19_-_logo.svg#/media/File:Wikiproject_COVID-19_-_logo.svg). Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. Author: Ederporto – 14 April 2020.

#9. Linda Lehmann Facebook site.

Thebeerchaser’s Year-end Stocking Stuffers

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Well, Beerchasers, I’m going to start the New Year with some unfinished business and with belated Christmas greetings and miscellaneous tidbits I’ve been saving for the year-end. (External photo attribution at the end of the post #1)

I have not succumbed to using ChatGPT or equivalent for any writing and AI conceptually scares the heck out of me, but I figured using it for images like these two was a good compromise.

My wife who had admonished me that if I got on a ladder, she’d leave me, agreed to hire somebody to put Christmas lights on our house this year and they did a great job.

I decided to supplement it with AI and loved the result. Some people even asked me if that was real. I asked Janet if we could send the image as our Christmas card…So much for that idea. (#2)

Greetings from Thebeerchaser!

Revisiting Jerry’s Tavern

In a recent blog post, I told you about a wonderful “new” Portland dive bar I discovered. Jerry’s Tavern – less than two years old, has already established itself as a premier Northwest dive. Even on its entrance, it purports to be “world famous.”

Portland Monthly Magazine asserted that Jerry’s had the best Bloody Mary in Portland.

“It’s the best Bloody Mary I’ve ever personally consumed in Portland, full stop, and an emblem of the perfected-classics ethos that guides Jerry’s Tavern.”

Since I had only consumed a Miller High Life on my first visit, I returned with my former colleague at the Schwabe Williamson law firm, Margaret Hoffmann. After we both downed a Bloody Mary, we agreed that it was pretty good, but the amount of testing to validate that premise at other bars was impractical.

Then in mid-December, Oregon Live food critic Michael Russell, in his column – “The Best Thing I Ate This Week” states emphatically:

“I thought I had a decent handle on Portland’s wing scene…In a single visit, Jerry’s Tavern upended all that.

The friendly Midwestern dive, tucked between the breweries and strip clubs of industrial Northwest Portland, serves the best wings I’ve had in Portland: big but not flabby, fried until the edges go all crispy, coated in a pitch-perfect Buffalo sauce.” (emphasis added)

Although it will be a challenge to pass up another meatloaf sandwich, Margaret and I agreed that we need a return trip – this time to try the wings.

Connections!

As I’ve stated before, I’m an Oregon State University Beaver and my wife, Janet is an Oregon Duck. The tradition of the Civil War Rivalry goes back to 1894 and has been contested 128 times through 2024. So, it’s hard for me to root for the Ducks – especially now that they’re in the Big Ten and the PAC12 is decimated.

That said, I admire former Duck and now Los Angeles Charger quarterback, Justin Herbert. He’s a true competitor and evidently a great teammate and leader. I was therefore interested to see that his current girlfriend is singer, Madison Beer. (#3 -#4)

The name Madison Beer vaguely rang a bell and then I remembered when we first ran into that moniker – the City of Boston in 2024. We had just finished a cruise from Montreal to Boston and had an extra day in Beantown, so we decided to hit Fenway Park where the Red Sox had an afternoon game with the Washington Nationals.

We didn’t want to rent a car and decided to brave mass transit. The hotel maître d’ gave us directions for using public transportation to get to Fenway. First, we had to take a bus to South Station. There are three levels to South Station and for help, we groveled and got a grumpy edict from a Transit Authority Officer:

“Take the Red Line to Park Street then the Green Line to Kenmore. Don’t screw it up or you’ll end up at Boston College.” Then he grinned (a little) and said, “Worst case is you’ll never return and your fate will be unknown….” 

Well, after a bus trip and two subway lines, we finally walked about four blocks to Fenway and joined an excited throng about two hours before game time.

When I say, “excited throng”, I have to clarify because I realized that a significant portion of the crowd – lined up for several blocks – was not in line for the baseball game – they were waiting with great anticipation for a concert at the MGM Music Hall at Fenway. 

“(It’s) a state-of-the-art, multi-purpose live performance venue that occupies roughly 91,500 square feet on four levels and accommodates 5,005 patrons.” (#5 – #6)

Boston, MA

It was somewhat chilly and I wondered why most of the adolescent girls in line were dressed in tutus – in many cases supplemented by capes and tiaras. And most were without coats. I asked a security guard, and he said they were waiting for a Madison Beer concert scheduled to start at 7:30.

I thought Madison Beer was a micro-brewery in Wisconsin. I found out, however, that she’s a twenty-five-year-old singer- songwriter with ties to Justin Bieber. Fenway was one of sixty-three concerts on her 2023-2024 “Spinnin” world tour. These hardy kids had lined up five hours (or more) early for the evening concert for which they paid an average ticket price of $143.

Janet laughed and said, “Well, that’s one event at which you’d be way out of place even though you are Thebeerchaser!”

While Madison Beer and Canadian singer.Justin Bieber, had been good friends in the past, I would suggest that she picked the correct Justin for a more meaningful relationship! The quarterback is much better at the naked bootleg than the singer. (#7)

“The rain has its beauty, but my heart longs for the clear skies beyond it.”

We Oregonians are used to a wet environment. It’s usually either cloudy or rainy from late October through March. Most Oregonians don’t carry umbrellas – we get used to walking hastily through the drizzle. This year is different, however:

“(Up to) two-thirds of an inch of rain is likely for Portland by 12/5, while the coast could see between 1½ and 3 inches and the Cascades up to 4 inches of rain. Oregonians can handle rain, usually, but wind is another story

….Add the threat of winds up to 30 to 40 miles an hour, and Santa might want to do more than keep his wind surfboard handy. Willamette Week

How rainy was it? (#8 – #10)

  1. Well, the term, “Atmospheric River” became part of the lexicon of Portland first graders.
  2. Elementary school students became more concerned with hearing about landslides than the slides on their playground? 
  3. Last week, heavy rains triggered a sewage overflow advisory for the Willamette River because Portland’s Big Pipe hit capacity.

What seems somewhat paradoxical on the meteorological front is that winter temperatures so far have been very mild. But that has been economically catastrophic for Oregon ski resorts:

“Oregon ski areas typically open for the season around Thanksgiving, but here we are in mid-December and the runs on Mounts Hood and Bachelor are still alarmingly snow free.

The multiple atmospheric rivers that swept through the Willamette Valley last week did nothing to help the mountains’ snowpack because it was too warm. It all fell as rain, just like it did down here. Willamette Week 12/15/25 (#11 – #12)

A study in contrasts
A normal winter

I’m finishing this post still on the topic of weather and relating a story about my late friend, author, Brian Doyle. He passed away from brain cancer, far too young at 60 in 2017. Acclaimed for his essays and novels, he was also Editor of the award-winning Portland Magazine published at the University of Portland.

More importantly, people loved Brian for his humor, compassion and sense of spirituality, family and nature. He also had a unique writing style that made his work captivating.

We became friends and Beerchasing buddies in early 2013 when I wrote to him after reading about the “Brian Doyle Humor Scholarship” at the University of Portland where my younger daughter attended.

 “No joke – you could earn one of five $3,333 Brian Doyle Scholarships in Gentle & Sidelong Humor for students who propose a way to bring some laughs to the (UP campus.)

…The application should include a brief but detailed idea for a humorous project, which can be anything — videos, comic books, comedy nights, websites, performances, graphic novels, you name it!”

At the Fulton Pub

My letter stated that I was intrigued and impressed with this way to enhance campus life and wanted to “honor” him by naming him my next Beerchaser-of-the-Quarter – an accolade he could put on his resume right below Notary Public.  

All it required, was for him to meet for a beer and an interview. Although a very busy guy, he agreed to meet me at the Fulton Pub. Brian drank wine, we had a wonderful conversation and a number of Beerchasing expeditions followed after that.

This talented author was also known as a gifted speaker. One reviewer wrote in 2010, “He’s an insanely intense and achingly vulnerable speaker who laughs and cries at his own stories.”

Brian spoke at a dinner of the Lang Syne Association in Portland in 2015. He gave one of his characteristic lists – things he appreciated about Oregon. Halfway through the inventory was this item: “A thorough patience and even appreciation for rain and mist and mud.” (emphasis supplied)

Brian and Dr. Sam Hollway at the St. John’s Pub

The next time we had a beer – at the St. John’s Pub on a stormy, yucky day, I chided him about paying tribute to our seemingly never-ending precipitation. Early the next day, I received a very short e-mail with only the words:

 “Heh, Heh…”, 

He attached an essay that was published in The American Scholar and included this excerpt:

“It has been raining so hard and thoroughly that the moss has moss on it. It has rained since last year, which is a remarkable sentence. Even the rain has had enough of the rain and it appears to be pale and weary when it shuffles to the lobby to punch in and out every day…….

Slugs have congregated in the basement and established a new religion complete with tithing expectations and plans for expansion into Latin American markets. Mold is now listed in the stock exchange.”   (#13)

A new religion?

My tribute to Brian written in 2017 can be found here Brian Doyle – Beerchaser Eternal. It’s gloomy in Oregon today, but just remembering Brian, brightens up this and any day.

Happy New Year

External Photo Attribution

#1.  – #2  AI Picsart

#3.  Wikimedia Commons (File:Justin Herbert presnap against the Washington Commanders.jpg – Wikimedia Commons) Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. Author: All-Pro Reels – 16 October 2025.

#4.  Wikimedia Commons (File:Madison Beer @ Grammy Museum 01 17 2024 (53835126344) (cropped).jpg – Wikimedia Commons) Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license. Author: Justin Higuchi 17 January 2024.

#5. Wikimedia Commons (File:MGM Music Hall at Fenway (54924676699).jpg – Wikimedia Commons)  Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Author: ajay_suresh – 8 November 2025.

#6.  Wikimedia Commons (File:Madison Beer @ The Wiltern 11 28 2021 (51783561891).jpg – Wikimedia Commons)  Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.  Author:  Justin Higuchi – 28 November 2001.

#7.  Justin Herbert Nation (https://www.facebook.com/groups/justinherbert/posts/1461114941857787/).

#8. Expedia.com  (ski lift)

#9. Wikimedia Commons (File:Timberline Lodge – 226 (8409305012).jpg – Wikimedia Commons) Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license. Author: Mt. Hood Territory – 5 July 2005.

#10.  Wikimedia Commons (File:February 4th Atmospheric River.png – Wikimedia Commons) This media file is in the public domain in the United States.  Author: GOES-West satellite – 4 February 2024.

#11. City of Portland Government (https://www.portland.gov/bes/about-big-pipe).

#12. Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Downpour_in_Accra.jpg) Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. Author: Fquasie – 22 March 2023.

#13. Wikimedia Commons (File:Nacktschnecke auf Steinen.jpg – Wikimedia Commons) Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.  Author: Perennis – 10 September 2019.

Revisiting the Inside Passage – Part II – Darwin’s Theory – An Outstanding Bar

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Our 2025 Visit to Darwin’s

Welcome back to Thebeerchaser. If you are seeing this post through an e-mail, please visit the blog by clicking on the title at the top to see all of the photos and so the narrative is not clipped or shortened.

On our Holland America Cruise this summer, Darwin’s Theory was only about five blocks from our hotel in Anchorage and this legendary dive bar radiates character.

I may be a bit biased since it’s owned by one Darwin Biwer – a 1966 graduate of my undergrad alma mater – Oregon State University.

It’s true that unlike fellow OSU grad, Linus Pauling, he didn’t want multiple Nobel Prizes. Similarly, unlikw fellow OSU alum Jensen Huang he’s not the founder and chief executive officer of NVIDIA, which in 2024 became the most valuable public company in the world.

That said, Darwin Biwer, owns and operates an outstanding establishment. 

(External photo attribution at the end of the post) (#1)

Prior to opening the bar, he had a storied career as a wildlife biologist for the State of Alaska. In the early eighties he decided to do something different as stated below:

“When Darwin and his buddies opened the bar at its current location on G Street, they all set out to open a bar where people could come and build community while sitting down to enjoy a cold beer.

Over its 40-plus years in business, Darwin’s Theory has become a neighborhood bar with a happy and laidback atmosphere that quickly becomes busy and boisterous when ‘the regulars” come to visit- locals, out-of-state visitors, grandchildren and great-grandchildren of some of Darwin’s first customers, airline crews, and more.” (#2)

Our first visit was eleven years ago on our 2014 cruise. That summer afternoon, Janet and I stopped at Darwin’s – which appeared to be just a hole-in-the-wall dive with a cool name in an old building. Our bartender was Barbara Jean (who I found out later was a legend like Darwin “Hisself.”).

Like many of the dive bars I’ve visited in the last fourteen years, Darwin’s was preceded by another establishment in the same quarters. In this case, a long-established bar named Ruthie’s Forty-Niner.  As stated by Darwin in the book, Last Call: (#3)

Darwin “Hisself”

“I bought Darwin’s Theory in Anchorage with two partners back in 1981. It was Ruthie’s Forty-Niner before that. Ruthie was seventy-six years old and she’d been in the bar business for thirty years, so she was ready to get out of the bar business.

But she couldn’t find anybody. I mean, all kinds of people were always wantin’ her to sell it to ’em all the time, but she was a shrewd old tomato and she wasn’t ready to sell it to just anybody.”      

But Ruthie relented when Darwin got two partners – Birdhouse Dick Delak and Bill Seltenrich from Fairbanks. The rest is history.

Now there were some other good and colorful bars in Anchorage that we checked out in 2014, such as Humpy’s Great Alaskan Ale House, McGinley’s Pub (reopened in 2023 after closing during the pandemic) and the Pioneer Bar.

I wrote about these and our first visit to Darwin’s in my 2014 blog post https://thebeerchaser.com/2014/07/08/thebeerchaser-does-alaska-anchorage-part-1/

Eleven years ago, we had an 8:00 PM dinner at the Glacier Brewhouse and we walked back to our hotel at 9:30. As might be expected in the Land of the Midnight Sun, it was still very sunny – the average summer daylight in Anchorage averages 19.5 hours.

I told Janet, “There’s no way I can get to sleep even with heavy curtains; I’m going back to Darwin’s!”  It was a good decision.

That Friday night, the watering hole was jammed. I sat at the horseshoe-shaped bar drinking a can of Budweiser next to a friendly guy named Bill – in his fifties and an oil field worker. He had also spent years fishing in the Bering Sea and some exciting times running marijuana from Mexico to the East coast in the ’70’s. “I had an old Lincoln with really big fenders….”

Barbara Jean was still serving and happily posed for a photo with Thebeerchaser logo.  She told me she’d worked at Darwin’s for twenty-nine years.

Barbara Jean

Unfortunately, Barbara Jean Ahberg passed away from cancer in 2015. Darwin’s has a pictorial memorial to her (see below) This was her description of Darwins in the aforementioned book:

“It’s a fun kind of old-fashioned bar. No tricks. What you see is what you get. You can tell people that they have to leave if they’re in a bad mood; which is right because it’s a small bar, so a bad mood or if somebody’s angry is going to impact everybody else’s mood.

So you can tell them to come back when they’re in a better mood and, generally, everybody listens to the bartender here, so we don’t have a big problem. We don’t have fights, or anything like that.”

The Darwin’s Easter Egg Decorating Contest and Stick Pony Race on Derby Day – are still annual events which she originated and hosted – ongoing tribute to her. (#4 -#7)

Barbara Jean’s description of how the Easter Egg contest “evolved.”

“Easter Sunday, my first year, there were three people here and it was so boring. Everybody was out doing lunches and church and all that. I just couldn’t have that, so the next year I had an Easter egg coloring contest.

…..There were about eight or nine people who participated the first year. This last year, thirty people participated and everybody wore Easter bonnets and I made a big turkey, a lot of food and champagne. And now it’s blossomed into a full-blown event.”

But What About Evolution?

It seems paradoxical, but one of the captivating features of Darwin’s Theory is that it has not evolved!  As stated in The Alaska Current:

“They haven’t caved to the trends of the time and installed 15 taps of various local IPAs. They are still rocking cans and bottles only. Never change Darwin’s, we love you.”

They still have the best free popcorn in Anchorage – maybe all of Alaska – also true of their juke box.  And don’t expect to use a credit card or a pay by check – “We accept no out-of-town checks and damn few local ones!”

Their signature drink still “…is sure to warm you up — cinnamon schnapps and tabasco!. According to their website, Darwin is the world’s biggest seller of cinnamon schnapps!”

That said, I didn’t verify if they still have what their website advises patrons to see:

“Be sure and visit the “Heavy Petting Zoo” in the backroom!  (#8 – #9)

This description in a Yelp review from 2013 by Eric from Nevada City still holds true:

“When you step inside, you’ll realize that this is no hipster dive bar. No sir! This has been a dive bar since inception and doesn’t appear to have changed.  Beer in the bottle, great service, and interesting patrons round out the perfect dive-bar experience.” 

And the long-time tradition of all-female bartenders still remains as evidenced when we returned this summer. One recent Roadtrippers.com review stated, “Amazing dive bar, if you’re lucky hottie Alaskan Annie will be bartending.”  Annie was indeed our bartender and proudly showed us her calendar entitled “Ladies of the North.” (#10 – #11)

And Then There’s Gene Ferguson

The 2023 Alaska Current newspaper article cited above, when listing the highlights of Darwin’s Theory, lists as the bar’s Most Valuable Person:

“The guy who tries to sell you wildlife postcards every single time you walk through the doors.”

Gene Ferguson

After about ninety minutes at the bar, our party met that MVP – 76-year-old Gene Ferguson – a Massachusetts native, who has now been in Alaska almost forty years. We had noticed him sitting at the bar near the entrance and showing people photos.

He then came over to our table and told his fascinating story, which again shows Darwin’s heart for his community. (I could devote an entire post to this incredible guy!)

Below is the first paragraph about Gene’s saga from the 5/3/2007 edition of the Alaska Frontiersman entitled: “Gene Ferguson takes on Anchorage Police over a DUI charge.”

“Thousands of people are arrested for drunken driving in Alaska every year. Some are doctors and lawyers who wear suits and live in big houses. Others are more like Gene Ferguson, who dresses in plaid flannel shirts and cargo pants, and is content to live in his van.

Ferguson beat his DUI rap, but Anchorage Police still seized his van, which left him not guilty yet homeless

Gene told us that about 2:30 AM, someone broke into his old van and stole his violin.  He tried to report it to two patrolmen. They advised him to wait until the morning and go to the police station which he did eight hours later.

Gene’s current home.

“…(two police officers) asked Ferguson if he’d been drinking. He told the officers he’d had a few drinks the night before, he said, and then tried to tell them about the stolen violin. But that’s not what (the cops) were interested in. They had Ferguson perform several field sobriety tests.”

Gene flunked, in large part because of his physical limitations, and they arrested him and impounded his van. But that’s is where the plot thickened. He blew a .0145 on the breathalyzer, which is way below (about one-fifth) of the .08 legal limit.

The charges were dropped, but a hearings officer ruled that because the officers had probable cause, Gene had to pay the $400 in impound and related fees to get his van back. A lawyer represented him pro-bono in a subsequent hearing. I don’t know if he prevailed in getting the fees refunded.

Gene was animated and philosophical as we listened intently to his story and although neither we nor our friends, the Noppers, have ever done a similar transaction in a bar, we each readily paid him $25 for two beautiful photos. The stunning mage of Mount Denali below is now framed and hangs in our house in Oregon.

Gene’s Photo

Gene Ferguson evidently has many friends who look out for him besides the crew at Darwins. On his 70th birthday, Darwins had a birthday party for him.

Purportedly, noted Alaska artist, Byron Birdsall, known for his exceptional talent in watercolor and oil paintings, “was impressed enough by (one of Gene’s) photographs to make a painting, as well as a limited-edition print of it, shown here with the photographer.”  (#12 – #13)

Birthday Boy

I don’t know when we’ll return to Alaska, but I’d love to meet Darwin in person and would suggest if you visit Anchorage, to stop, have a beer or a peppermint schnapps and say hello to Gene, who will probably convince you to buy a photo or a postcard.

The pandemic resulted in the permanent closure of many bars and breweries in Alaska – just as it did throughout the US.  But Darwin’s Theory Bar give’s credence to English philosopher, Herbert Spencer’s phrase “Survival of the Fittest” describing Charles Darwin’s Theory of Natural Selection.

Darwin Biwer has been in business for over four decades and had to close his bar several times during the pandemic, but stated in the March 9, 2021 edition of Alaska’s News Source:

“’We’ve had volcanoes, we’ve had earthquakes, we’ve had our share being downtown here, but nothing, nothing close to this,’ he said, reflecting on the pandemic that forced him to shut his doors more than once….’You probably noticed, I have a big, big smile on my face,’ he said. ‘We’re eight days short of a full year of our first closure…’

“It feels like there is hope that there’s a light at the end of the tunnel,’ he said. ‘We’ve been in a real dark tunnel for a long time.’

Charles Darwin once said, “A man’s friendships are one of the best measures of his worth.”

Darwin’s Theory is now thriving and customers, from not only throughout Alaska, but airline personnel, oil field workers, fishermen and just plain tourists from all over the world, make a beeline for Darwin’s Theory when they come to Anchorage. I would suggest it’s going to keep happening for several more decades.

Besides the free popcorn, that’s because the owner and his employees all convey Charles Darwin’s sentiment above.

Cheers and Blessings for the Season

External Photo Attribution

#1. Darwin’s Theory Facebook Page logo (https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=490204523111461&set=pb.100063657515543.-2207520000&type=3)

#2. Yelp Review (https://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/darwins-theory-anchorage?select=WNztjmz6O_HDLGRoIhcq7Q). Jeff C – 8/8/24.

#3. Darwin’s Theory Facebook Page (https://www.facebook.com/darwinstheoryalaska/photos/pb.100063657515543.-2207520000/1853568564683285/?type=3)

#4. Legacy Alaska.com (Barbara Jean Alberg Obituary).

#5. Darwin’s Theory Facebook Page – derby (https://www.facebook.com/darwinstheoryalaska/photos/pb.100063657515543.-2207520000/2177964025577069/?type=3).

#6. Darwin’s Theory Facebook Page (https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=921019780029931&set=pb.100063657515543.-2207520000&type=3).

#7. Darwin’s Theory Facebook Page (https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=923705796427996&set=pb.100063657515543.-2207520000&type=3).

#8. Darwin’s Theory Facebook Page (https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=977459521052623&set=pcb.977460011052574).

#9. Darwin’s Theory Facebook Page (https://www.facebook.com/darwinstheoryalaska/photos/pb.100063657515543.-2207520000/2103396279700511/?type=3).

#10. Darwin’s Theory Facebook Page (https://www.facebook.com/darwinstheoryalaska/photos/pb.100063657515543.-2207520000/671773299529490/?type=3).

#11. Darwin’s Theory Facebook Page (https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=634992978632614&set=pb.100063657515543.-2207520000&type=3).

#12.  Darwin’s Theory Facebook Page (https://www.facebook.com/darwinstheoryalaska/photos/pb.100063657515543.-2207520000/2124421557597983/?type=3).

#13. Alaska Life Facebook Page (https://www.facebook.com/TheAlaskaLife/posts/anchorage-alaska-in-the-dead-of-winter-photo-by-gene-ferguson/2260378640660854/) Daryl Pederson  8 January 2019.

 

Revisiting the Inside Passage – Part I

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In 2014, Janet and I took a Holland America cruise down the Inside Passage from Anchorage to Vancouver, BC with her sister, Linda Nelson and husband, Dick. The nine-day trip commenced with a train ride from Anchorage to Denali National Park.

After one and one-half days at the Park, we returned by bus to Whittier where we boarded the SS Statendam for the remaining seven and one-half days. The trip was wonderful as might be evidenced by the photos below:

When our good friends, Jeff and Susan Nopper, with whom we’ve done several previous cruises, asked us if we would repeat our Alaska trip with them (they had never been) we readily agreed. The itinerary was pretty much identical to our 2014 voyage only this time on the Nieuw Amsterdam – a slightly smaller ship, albeit still a very large vessel.

It accommodates just over 2,000 passengers and 900 crew members with a length of 936 feet and width of 106 feet.  Launched in Venice in 2009, it had all of the amenities of the larger ship.

Although it was not mentioned in the Holland America material, I was not overly concerned about the ship’s grounding incident in 2017 when strong winds blew her from her mooring and snapped her lines in Mexico and the collision with another vessel in 2019 while docking in Vancouver, BC. (Wikipedia)

I have to give Janet credit for this vacation because although I love cruising, she’s not totally enamored with the experience even though she has enjoyed the three we’d taken. Part of that may be because she is prone to seasickness. She only experienced that to a limited extent, however, on our cruise to the Panama Canal.

So, she checked with our wonderful primary-care physician who prescribed an anti-nausea skin patch for motion sickness. The physician isn’t a fan because they can have some side effects, but due to the limited duration and that Janet might not even need it, she wasn’t overly concerned.   

Janet went to fill it and the pharmacist stated, “You should not use this while drinking alcohol,” which caused my wonderful spouse of forty-five years to do a double-take and respond, “Well that may be a challenge.” 

That’s because of the somewhat ridiculous marketing ploy by Holland America. The “benefit” below was not one we requested but just added as part of the basic cost.

For each day of the nine-day cruise, each passenger on our package receives fifteen drinks. Now basic coffee and soft drinks don’t count although my daily Americano and Janet’s latte did, but we laughed and figured given the circumstances, she would just avoid the patch.

The daily drink quota seemed absurd and if one consumed even a good part of that amount, he or she might need the patch to keep from throwing up ingested alcohol rather than vomiting from seasickness. (#1)

Here’s today’s allotment Mr. Williams

Not to get overly involved in a discussion about alcohol, but I had to laugh at a blog doing a cost-benefit analysis on the issue which stated, “Unlike some cruise lines that offer truly unlimited beverage packages, Holland America line has a cap of 15 drinks per day.” (emphasis added) Really!?  Perhaps the blogger should further explain that distinction.

I might add that the beer selection was really poor, so I was more than comfortable deferring to my drink-of-choice when it’s not an IPA or Miller High Life (in a bottle) – a gin martini, up and with olives.

Janet also pointed out that notwithstanding those from the gin and given the outstanding cuisine each day, fifteen martinis with three olives (an absolute requirement) would be forty-five additional calories.

Each olive is about five to seven calories.  In addition, one health-related website advised that more than 10 to 15 olives daily presents some sodium concerns…..(#2 – #3)

Not to belabor the point, but the only other concern with the drink package was resolved with my due diligence before the cruise. Given the aforementioned collision and grounding, I wanted to make sure that the ship’s officers and the bridge crew were not also eligible for the fifteen-drink daily allotment.

For those interested in naval history, the traditional daily grog (rum) ration on ships – known as the “daily tot” was essentially ended in 1970 (at least in the British Navy) on what became known as “Black Tot Day.”) (#4)

No more daily “tot” for these guys.

It should be noted, notwithstanding my attempt at humor above, that the crew of Holland American (HA) ships are exceptional mariners. Take the captain of our ship – one Bas van Dremel.

He was born in The Netherlands and attended the prestigious Willem Barentsz Maritime Institute. van Dremel first worked for HA when he was still in school as a cadet in 1995 and then after graduation for the next twenty-eight years rising from navigator to the rank of Master (Captain) of several different HA vessels.

Those who had contact with the Captain on the ship said that he was both articulate and personable. (#5)

Personable and Articulate

Why Cruise Alaska?

There are those who scoff at cruises as a way to expand one’s travel horizons. To really see the western coast of Alaska and sights such as Glacier Bay, I would suggest it’s the most effective from a standpoint of cost and time. Some prefer booking on smaller vessels, but exploring by car presents some real challenges.

Below is the itinerary showing the three ports we visited after our two-day visit to Denali National Park. The days without a port call and just “scenic cruising” such as on Glacier Bay were my favorite.

 

While many of the passengers took part in activities such as origami folding, coloring for adults, a Sjoelen (table shuffleboard) tournament, a ladies pamper party (?) or creating designs from doodles, I just went out on our veranda with a book (and sometimes a martini -one of the fifteen…) and reveled in the panoramic surroundings.

Oregon is a beautiful state; however, Alaska is almost unbelievable for the ongoing 360-degree scenic vistas – I mean sensory overload!

Whale sighting

Before leaving for the morning train trip to Denali National Park, we had an afternoon and evening in Anchorage.  Of course, I prevailed on our party to have pre-dinner beers at one of my favorite (in the top five) bars of the 400+ I’ve reviewed since starting Thebeerchaser  in 2011.

In the next post, I’ll tell you in detail why if you are ever in Anchorage, you have to experience the dive bar ambiance and character of Darwin’s Theory. Stay tuned! (#6)

Cheers

External Photo Attribution

#1. Picsart AI Image Generator.

2. Public Domain – Wikimedia Commons (File:Green olives (pitted) – Massachusetts.jpg – Wikimedia Commons) File is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.  Author: Daderot – 27 November 2020.

#3. Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Triple_olive_Dirty_Martini_-_Evan_Swigart.jpg) Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.  Author: Even Swigart – 12 October 2010.

#4. Picsart AI Image Generator.

#5. Linked-in Bas van Dreumel.

#6. Darwin Theory’s Facebook Page (https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=490204523111461&set=pb.100063657515543.-2207520000&type=3).

 

 

 

Hoppy Thanksgiving from Thebeerchaser

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Welcome back to Thebeerchaser. If you are seeing this post through an e-mail, please visit the blog by clicking on the title at the top to see all of the photos and so the narrative is not clipped or shortened. (External photo attribution at the end of the post) (#1)

Rather than focus on a bar or brewery in this post, I’m going to end November with some miscellaneous tidbits I’ve been saving for you – trying to emphasize the positive – at least for the most part…..

Here’s to the Scouts!

My two brothers and I participated from the time we were in grade school in Ohio (where our wonderful mom, Frannie was a Cub Scout Den Mother) and during early years of high school in Oregon. We went camping, hiking, earned merit badges and did community projects and our Dad (FDW) was also an encouraging influence and helper.

My late brother, Garry, went to the Scout National Jamboree in Valley Forge and earned his  Eagle Scout. This was, in part, a pathway to his appointment to the US Military Academy, where he graduated (1972) and became commissioned.

Similarly, my youngest brother, Rick and I were able to secure four-year NROTC scholarships and commissioning in the Navy and our scouting background helped in that selection process.

(Rick was career Navy and retired as a Captain after he served as skipper of the nuclear sub USS Spadefish – SSN-668). Read about his remarkable career in this article from “Deep Dive” – the newsletter of the Deep Submergence Group Association.)

I even found the one remnant from my scouting history – a medal our troop received when we completed an eleven-mile hike along the Whitewater Canal Trail in Indiana after an overnight camping trip when I was ten.) (#2)

Two years ago, my wife and I were walking through a development near our new house on Veterans Day and noticed that almost every house in the two cul-de-sacs had an American flag in its parking strip. 

Upon inquiry, I found that this was a project of a West Linn Scout Troop. For an annual fee of $50, the scouts place a flag in your parking strip on four holidays – 4th of July, Memorial Day, Veterans Day and Labor Day. At the end of the holiday, they return to pick-up the flag and store it.

I asked them if they would expand to include our neighborhood and it is gratifying to see flags in front of houses regardless of party affiliation or political beliefs. These are people who love America and want to support the young men and women in their endeavors.

Terms of Endearment!?

While in Lincoln City along the Central Oregon Coast, I passed the following street sign outside of a Valvoline Oil Change outlet on Valentine’s Day. To Janet’s chagrin, I insisted on stopping and taking a photo for a later blog post. 

Happy Valentine’s Day, Honey – it’s full-synthetic 30-weight….

As Janet scoffed, I theorized that this begged the question as to whether on the 10th anniversary, he presented a transmission repair and on the 25th, new Michelin tires.

Speaking of Lincoln City

I like many homeowners in the Roads End district of Lincoln City are somewhat puzzled at what is purported to be the solution to speeders along a main residential street along the ocean.  While there is a need to mitigate the excess speed problem along Logan Road, the solution seems a bit convoluted.

Rather than put speed bumps across the entire intersection, they staggered them. And in what seems like a matter of common sense, 95% of the cars (including me) veer into the other lane to avoid the bump. I guess, at least if there’s going to be a head-on collision, it will be at a lower speed.

One of my sons-in-law is a traffic engineer and I’m waiting for him to explain the rationale.

No More Flack!

I was sorry to see the passing of American vocalist Roberta Flack in February at the age of 88. Not only did she have a few wonderful tunes such as “The First Time I Ever Saw Your Face,” but in a sort of peculiar and perhaps morbid way, I felt a personal connection, of sorts, based on of all things, a one-vehicle auto accident I had in 1974.

I had moved back into my mom’s house in Oregon City after my dad’s untimely passing in 1974. I was returning in my subcompact car from a date in Canby – about nine miles south of her house. It was very late and I took a bypass along a rural road to save some time. 

Having burned the midnight oil during the past week, I was pretty sleepy, but it was only a twenty-minute drive and I thought I would be fine. Well, when the road curved, I went straight because I had momentarily dozed off. Rolling across the gravel side of the road immediately woke me up.

It was surreal – like being in a slow-motion movie…Although the car didn’t role, it tipped and bumped through the ruts in a field.  A projector in the back seat went flying by my head into the front windshield. 

My vivid recollection is the song on the radio – Roberta Flack’s “Killing Me Softly” – 1974 Grammy winning Record-of-the-Year.  (#3 – #5)

In a brief moment of lucidity and insight while contemplating that if the car rolled, I might not survive, I remember thinking, “That would really be ironic in light of the song playing, but no-one would ever know!”

Fortunately, the car stopped – tipped at an angle. I reached up to turn off the headlights cutting my hand in several places on the glass fragments from the cracked windshield. I climbed out the driver’s side, walked through the field, crossed the road and knocked on the door of a rural house (at 2 AM in the morning.) 

The sleeping occupants didn’t answer and unfortunately, a decent amount of blood from the cuts in my hand stayed on their doorsill. I imagined what they’d think when they came out on their front porch the next morning – was this a re-enactment of the Children of Israel story in Exodus?

“And the blood on the doorposts will be a sign to mark the houses in which you live.  When I see the blood, I will pass over you and will not harm you when I punish the Egyptians.”

My neighbor, the stepfather of my best friend, was the Chief of Police in Oregon City and I called him to see if I could get the car towed and not have to make a police report. He told me to wait until the next morning, and it didn’t require any filing.

I thanked the Lord the next morning when I saw the tire tracks through the gravel – I had missed hitting a telephone pole head-on by about six inches.

Farewell to Rogue Brewing – We Mourn the Passing of Dead Guy

Beer drinkers in Oregon, throughout the Northwest and beyond were shocked and saddened by the abrupt closure of Rogue Ale and Spirits in mid-November. The company shut down its operations in Newport, Oregon and all of its pubs in the state.  Rogue was a respected and admired company, founded in 1988 and one of Oregon’s top ten craft beer companies.

“It is uncertain what the financial state is of the company, but breweries have been a difficult market lately. Six of the 10 biggest craft breweries in Oregon saw sales decline in 2024, according to data from the Brewers Association.” Oregon Live 10/19 (#6 – #8)

The testimony to Rogue’s legacy may be best summed up by Jeff Alworth, one of the nation’s foremost beer experts, in his Beervana Blog 11/17

“We shouldn’t lose sight of its legacy as one of the most important breweries in the early craft era, or why people once thought it was so special.

Thirty-five years ago, most of the people making and selling beer were thinking small. Not for nothing, their businesses were called ‘microbreweries.’ But Rogue thought big at a time when the industry needed to see ambition in order to grow. Its importance was much greater than its absence today.”

Non Alcoholic?

Not only the pandemic, but other factors have added to the struggle of craft brewers – one of them being the trend to avoid alcohol. And Rogue never merged with a larger brewery or produced non-alcoholic beer:

“The push into nonalcoholic beer is a reminder of how much the industry is struggling. Craft beer peaked. The hard seltzer boom fizzled. Younger adults are going out less. Legalized cannabis is replacing six packs.

Weight-loss drugs are a threat. Global beer volume has declined the past two years. Meanwhile, stocks of the world’s big brewers haven’t returned to their pre-pandemic levels.”  Bloomberg.com  7/9/25

Lest you think this just an American phenomenon, check out this excerpt from a recent New York Times article “Germans Are Going Off Beer. That’s Forcing Brewers to Adapt or Go Bust.”

“Alcohol consumption in Germany has been sliding for decades. But the sudden, accelerating drop has caught brewers and bar owners by surprise. Out of approximately 1,500 breweries in Germany, more than 50 have closed in the past year.”

Good Taste or Taste Good?

My wife and I have tried some NA beers – on weekdays if we drink – and they are fine e.g. Athletic and Best Day Brewing.  And Deschutes Fresh Haze IPA (.05ABV) is the best NA beer I’ve tried. (#9)

And Then There’s Sam Adams

Founding Father, Samuel Adams, took risks when he became a leader in the American Revolution and rebelled against the British. While his patriotic role is well known, many are unaware that Samuel Adams inherited his father’s brewery in Boston and also worked as a brewer or maltster.

The American brewery named after him has also shown audacity and is bucking the trends mentioned above with its 2025 release of its limited-edition Utopias. You can pay $240 for a bottle of this barrel-aged brew:

“Utopias has a staggering ABV of 30%. The company’s website claims it is ‘perhaps the strongest beer on Earth.’ In fact, it’s so potent, it’s illegal in Oregon and 14 other states that have caps on how high a beer’s alcohol by volume can be.”  Oregon Live 11/6

I will not soon forget one time when I did buy a Sam Adams.  I still laugh about when Portland Mayor, Sam Adams (2009 though 12/31/12) and I Beerchased at the Tugboat Brewery (RIP) in downtown Portland. (#10)

Our visit occurred soon after he left office and became the Executive Director of the City Club of Portland in spring of 2013. The big grin on Matt, the Tugboat bartender’s face when the recently departed Mayor with a straight face said, “I’ll have a Sam Adams,” was priceless.

Oh, for the Love of Beer!

Happy Thanksgiving

External Photo Attribution

#1. Bing AI Images

#2. Wikimedia Commons (White water canal trail Inc. – Trails, Hiking/Biking)  Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. Attribution: Chris Light at English Wikipedia – April 2006.

#3. Public Domain – Wikimedia Commons (File:Roberta Flack 1976.jpg – Wikimedia Commons) This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published in the United States between 1930 and 1977, inclusive, without a copyright notice. For further explanation, see Commons:Hirtle chart as well as a detailed definition of “publication” for public art. Source: Atlantic Record – 26 April 1976.

#4. Public Domain – Wikimedia Commons (File:Killing Me Softly with His Song by Roberta Flack US vinyl.png – Wikimedia Commons) This logo image consists only of simple geometric shapes or text. It does not meet the threshold of originality needed for copyright protection, and is therefore in the public domain The depicted text is ineligible for copyright and therefore in the public domain because it is not a “literary work” or other protected type in sense of the local copyright law. Source: Atlantic Records – 1973.

#5. Gemini AI Assistant Image Generator

#6.  Wikimedia Commons (File:Rogue Ales in NW Portland, Oregon in 2012.JPG – Wikimedia Commons) Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.  Author:  Another Believer – January 2012.

#7. Wikimedia Commons (File:Dead Guy Ale (5913690805).jpg – Wikimedia Commons)  Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.  Source:  Dead Guy Ale – Author: Erik Cleves Kristensen – 5 July 201.

#8. Wikimedia Commons (File:Astoria Pier 39 (Clatsop County, Oregon scenic images) (clatDA0065).jpg – Wikimedia Commons) The copyright holder of this file allows anyone to use it for any purpose, provided that the copyright holder is properly attributed. Redistribution, derivative work, commercial use, and all other use is permitted.  Attribution: Gary Halvorson, Oregon State Archives.

#9. Wikimedia Commons (File:Best Day Brewing beers – January 2024 – Sarah Stierch.jpg – Wikimedia Commons) Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.  Attribtution: Sarah Stierch (CC BY 4.0) – 27 January 2024.

#10. Wikimedia Commons  (File:BTA’s Alice Awards 1 (7172943200) (cropped).jpg – Wikimedia Commons) Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.  Author: Team Sam Adams – 10 May 2012.

Thebeerchaser Reflects and Recollects….

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Welcome back to Thebeerchaser. If you are seeing this post through an e-mail, please visit the blog by clicking on the title at the top to see all of the photos and so the narrative is not clipped or shortened. (External photo attribution at the end of the post) (#1 – #2)

I decided to start this post which will cover a variety of topics with the pictures above provided from the “trenches” – we’re supposed to be a battleground…These were taken at the Japanese Garden by my friend, retired lawyer, Doug Blomgren, and are emblematic of the Portland, Oregon that its residents know and love. (#3)

Photo courtesy of Linda Lehmann

In the photo above, you can see the edge of the Central Business District on the left. We acknowledge some real problems including homelessness, some bad actors who engaged in past unacceptable protests and a downtown which needs rejuvenation since the pandemic.

But we don’t need the National Guard as part of the solution, so let’s move on…. before the rainy season dampens our enthusiasm for seven months.

For Those Interested in People Dedicated to the Rule-of-Law  (#4)

I often tell stories or give you anecdotes from my thirty-five + years of working with lawyers – six years as the Business Manager at the Oregon State Bar and then twenty-five years at the Schwabe Williamson & Wyatt firm – first as Business Manager and the last twelve as the Chief Operating Officer.

Bob Elfers, my former boss at both the Bar and Schwabe until he retired – a wonderful mentor who was a lawyer himself – once suggested that I get counseling because I loved working around lawyers.

Schwabe, as a firm, had a wonderful organizational sense of humor. I would suggest that a droll outlook is one of the factors conducive to dealing with stress and succeeding in the legal profession.

I’ve related a number of examples in prior Beerchaser posts including:

https://thebeerchaser.com/2020/08/31/beerchasers-of-the-quarter-lawyers-part-1/   and

https://thebeerchaser.com/2023/01/02/de-files-de-files-part-ii/     

I shy away from stereotypes – lawyers are often the victims of negative portrayals – but with few exceptions, the attorneys with whom I worked and associated otherwise, were admirable professionals dedicated to the Rule of Law and advocating for their clients.

In order to earn a law degree, pass the bar and champion a position, one has to have determination and pride and I believe that these are factors in what one could label “the lawyer mentality.”  

A Great Example

One of the younger lawyers at Schwabe a number of years ago was a devoted runner and a colleague asked the origins of this avocation. According to one of his friends, this young counselor who was an excellent lawyer, was in high school when the first Presidential Fitness Test was given to all students:

“The Presidential Fitness Test was a national physical fitness testing program conducted in United States public middle and high schools from the late 1950s until 2013, when it was replaced with the Presidential Youth Fitness Program…

The test was initially introduced by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1956 and has since evolved over the decades, with recent versions typically consisting of at least five exercises.

The original test consisted of push-ups, pull-ups, sit-ups, a standing broad jump, a shuttle run, a 50-yard dash, and a softball throw for distance.” (emphasis added) (Fitness-and-health.com) (#5)

Well, our young future lawyer did the softball throw and totally messed it up – so badly that his classmates laughed at him. He was totally humiliated and went home stewing.

The next day filled with determination, he returned to school and in a track meet set a school record in the 440-yard dash. He went on to become a star cross-country athlete at Dartmouth.

Last time I heard – and it has about forty years since he left Oregon – this soft-spoken and very intelligent guy – was a very successful attorney in Portland, Maine practicing insurance, labor and employment, workers’ compensation and four other areas of law. I assume he still runs each day. (#6 – #7)

Not his strength
Go ahead and laugh

“On July 31, 2025, President Donald Trump signed an executive order reestablishing the Presidential Fitness Test, calling it ‘an important step in our mission to make America healthy again.’”  (Axios.com)

I will be very interested to see if the staff and residents of the White House set an example by installing and using a climbing rope in the new Presidential Ballroom……

And Speaking of Sports

I’ve always thought of the term “equinox” in the twice-per-year solar context. According to Merriam Webster:

“Equinox descends from aequus, the Latin word for ‘equal’ or ‘even,’ and nox, the La word for ‘night’—a fitting history for a word that describes days of the year when the daytime and nighttime are equal in length.” (#8)

Well, I was happy and surprised to discover that yesterday (October 27th) was the “Sports Equinox.” Artificial intelligence states the origin cannot be attributed to one individual.

Based on my own experience, however, I have a strong feeling that a group of regulars at the historic Antlers Saloon in Wisdom, Montana came up with this descriptive term years ago over several pitchers of Budweiser on a cold October day.

(I’d like to go back and confirm this with bartender, Bernie and the bar mascot, Fritz, who I met on my 2019 road trip through Idaho and Montana.)

Wisdom’s Finest
Bernie
Fritz

According to USA Today:

“It’s the 2025 Sports Equinox. Similar to a solar equinox, when the sun lines up perfectly with the Earth’s equator to signal the change of seasons, the sports seasons from the NFL, MLB, NBA and NHL all align. For the only time this year, all those major professional sports leagues have games scheduled on the same day.”

“(October 27th was) the 30th sports equinox. Enjoy the opportunity because there was a 16-year period from 1985-2001 where sports fans went without one.There was just one sports equinox from 1986 to 2009, taking place in 2001 after the MLB season was paused because of 9/1.”  (Professionalfootballnetwork.com)

My son-in-law, Ryan, made a compelling, but losing case that Major League Soccer should be added. I don’t know when the next Sports Equinox will take place, but why not have similar celebrations for beer, ice cream and fast food…(#9 – #11)

 

When “Choking” is Really Unacceptable

Now to finish on my sports theme, I was happy during the last NBA season to see PJ Carlesimo play a major role in the broadcasts during the season and in the finals. After his coaching career, he’s worked for TNT, Westwood One, Fox Sports, the Pac-12 Network, NBC, Comcast Sportsnet and is a lead NBA radio analyst for ESPN. (#12)

A Survivor

PJ is a survivor, and his coaching career spanned almost forty years. He’s probably been hired and fired by more teams than any other NBA coach besides Doc Rivers. We knew this amiable personality in Portland when he coached the Trailblazers for three years (1994-1997). Although he made the playoffs each one, he couldn’t escape the first round, was fired and then became head coach of the Golden State Warriors.

We greeted him in Portland again at my former law firm in January 1998 during an arbitration over the termination and suspension of NBA All-Star Latrell Sprewell over what is known as the “choking incident.” (#14)

“On December 1, 1997, Sprewell attacked head coach P. J. Carlesimo during a Warriors practice in Oakland. When Carlesimo yelled at him to make crisper passes (specifically asking him to ‘put a little mustard’ on a pass), Sprewell responded that he was not in the mood for criticism and told the coach to keep his distance.

When Carlesimo approached, Sprewell threatened to kill him and dragged him backward by his throat, choking him for 7 to 10 seconds before his teammates and assistant coaches pulled him off Carlesimo. Sprewell returned about 20 minutes later after showering and changing and again accosted Carlesimo. He landed a glancing blow at Carlesimo’s right cheek before being dragged away again by the assistant coaches.” (Wikipedia)

In the first step of legal proceedings that went on for years, Sprewell took his case to arbitration. The NBA and Players’ Association knew with the witnesses testifying, it made economic and scheduling sense to break the arbitration into West Coast and East Coast hearings. Since PJ and some Golden State coaches and players who were testifying, were in the midst of the 1997-8 season, it had to be scheduled around the NBA games.

As a result of a contact by Mike Fennel, a former Schwabe lawyer who became General Counsel for the Trailblazers, the NBA contacted the Blazers about a site for the Portland hearing – one with multiple large conference rooms, comfortable waiting areas, business equipment such as computers, faxes, etc.

Most importantly, they wanted secure facilities to prevent media and interested fans from interfering or disrupting the proceedings. For example, during the hearing, the NBA had security guys stationed on the roofs of surrounding buildings to keep photographers from shooting the proceedings!) Schwabe, located on five floors in a thirty-three floor high-rise fit the bill and was named as the site of the hearing.

19th Floor Conference Center – one of three floors used during the arbitration

Golden State had a game with the Portland Trailblazers on Tuesday, January 29th and with Seattle on Thursday the 31st (they beat the Blazers and lost to the Sonics!) so their appearances could be worked into that window. 

The Portland hearing went on for four days and we had scads of print and media reporters in our lobby trying to intercept witnesses going up to the hearing. We were clever and the NBA players and coaches surreptitiously rode up the freight elevators from the basement parking lot to the 19th floor thereby avoiding the press.

The security arrangements, negotiations over facilities and billing made it one of the most interesting experiences during my twenty-five years at the firm.

 

I devoted three blog posts to this story and the link to the third is below. And if you want the scoop on some of the fascinating human interest aspects such as PJ’s favorite restaurant – an Italian restaurant in West Linn where I lived – check them out.

https://thebeerchaser.com/2022/03/21/yoking-the-choke-part-iii/

Cheers

External Photo Attribution

#1 – #2.  Courtesy of Doug Blomgren.  October 27, 2025.

#3.  Courtesy of Linda Lehman.  October 28, 2025.

#4.  Public Domain – Wikimedia Commons (File:Balanced scale of Justice (blue).svg – Wikimedia Commons)  This file is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.  Author: User:Perhelion, color edited by User:Deu – 12 March 2015

#5.  Wikimedia Commons (File:Reáltanoda utca, Eötvös József Gimnázium. Fortepan 14630.jpg – Wikimedia Commons) Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.   Foto: Fortepan / MHSZ – 1969.

#6 – #7.  ChatGPT – (https://chatgpt.com/c/690143e3-ef40-832c-911e-2e2326cc66c6).

#8.  Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bd/Earth-lighting-equinox_af.png) Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. (no additional attribution info available.)

#9.  Wikimedia Commons (File:Brooklyn Nets vs Portland Trail Blazers.jpg – Wikimedia Commons). Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license. Author:
squirrel83 – 18 November 2013.

#10.  Wikimedia Commons (File:Washington Football Team vs Green Bay Packers, 2021.jpg – Wikimedia Commons.  Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.  Author: All-Pro Reels – 24 October 2021.

# 11.  Wikimedia Commons (File:2024-10-14 Harbin Ice Hockey Arena Shanghai Cooperation Organization Ice Hockey Match 2.png – Wikimedia Commons) Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license. Attribution: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BwtGX0PmPU) – 11 February 2025.

#12.  Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8b/P._J._Carlesimo_2015_cropped.jpg) Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. Author: MavsFan28 – 26 September 2015.

#13. Latrell Sprewell Facebook Page (https://www.facebook.com/123246144405531/photos/pb.100042176306027.-2207520000../1131335593596576/?type=3).

Autumn Aspirations and a New Beerchaser Notable

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Welcome back to Thebeerchaser. If you are seeing this post through an e-mail, please visit the blog by clicking on the title at the top to see all of the photos and so the narrative is not clipped or shortened.(External photo attribution at the end of the post) (#1)

Fall is my favorite season. The crisp air and sunny days in Oregon before we have six months of daily rainfall make it a great place to live. Tailgating at football games is a hallowed tradition and the leaves fall at the same rapid pace as Bill Belichick’s college coaching career at the University of North Carolina, althugh the leaves have better interpersonal skills.(#2 – #3)

Back to the Pros?

College football is now not one of Thebeerchaser’s favored topics – a sentiment reinforced today when the Oregon State Beavers lost to the Demon Deacons of Wake Forest and moved “forward” with a no-win and seven-loss season. Second-year Head Coach Trent Bray was fired the next day.

This cannot be pinned entirely on Coach Bray although he hasn’t done a good job solidifying his position by decisions and media interviews. The disintegration of the former PAC12, the transfer portal and NIL have essentially left OSU in a no-win position — literally.

For example, see below just a few recent headlines greeting Beaver fans in The Oregonian:

You get the gist…..

Not to belabor, but the first two paragraph of the third headlined article reads: (Oregon Live)

“What does rock bottom look like? It can’t look much worse than a cloudy October day in Reser Stadium where Oregon State fans booed, then bailed on the Beavers in a 39-14 loss to Wake Forest.

The Beavers (0-7) withered in every crucial moment and some players appeared to have given up on this OSU coaching staff under head coach Trent Bray.”

Although you might accuse me of living in the past, it’s especially painful since I was there during the Giant Killer era.  The memorable highlight was in 1967 when the Beavs beat the OJ Simpson led #1-ranked USC Trojans 3 to 0 following an earlier season win over #2 Purdue and tied then #2 rated UCLA. Coach Dee Andros celebrates the USC win with his players in the photo below. (#4)

Tough to Watch but Fodder for my Introduction

Now my wife and I laugh because she is an Oregon Duck and our older daughter graduated from the University of Washington and married a third-generation, Husky. We love our respective alma maters because of the great educations we received, but football has been a fun topic of banter for years.

I currently serve as Vice President of the Abbey Foundation of Oregon and my responsibilities included helping to organize our recent Board retreat including introducing all of the speakers during that day and one-half gathering at the beautiful Mount Angel Abbey Hilltop. (#5)

One of the speakers was the President Rector of the Seminary, which is now doing very well after downturns and hardship during the pandemic. The backgrounds of Fr. Jeff Eirvin and his predecessor, Monsignor Joseph Betschart – both OSU grads – gave me a perfect opportunity to tap into the current football season in my intro. (see the excerpt below) 

“After reflecting on the opening three weeks of the college football season, my wonderful wife of 45 years – by the way, she’s an Oregon Duck – exclaimed:

‘Don, it must be tough for you and other Beavers to watch OSU football this year.’

I responded:

‘Well Janet, while we won’t match U of O Football results in the near future – or ever – our mission at OSU is to continue to build an academic program our football team can be proud of.”

Today’s speaker is an example, and I pointed out to Janet that the last two President Rectors of the Seminary have both been Beavers. Msgr. Betschart, who served in that role for twelve years, graduated from OSU with degrees in nuclear engineering and general science and served five years in the U.S. Navy’s nuclear power program.

Fr. Jeff Eirvin received a BFA from Oregon State and worked in the field of advertising as a graphic designer prior to entering Mount Angel Seminary in 2005. After completing two years at Mount Angel, he completed his Bachelor of Sacred Theology in Rome.”  (#6 – #7)

Fr. Jeff in Rome
Monsignor Betschart

There’s Nothing Artificial About This Guy – the Newest Beerchaser Notable

Moving from football to more intellectual and weighty topics, let’s for a bit, cover artificial intelligence. Some synonyms for “artificial” include “pseudo,” “fake” and “phony” but reading just a few of the articles on this phenomenon would not incline you to use one of these labels to describe this technology.

If one uses a common search engine to inquire, “Is AI a trend?” 6,050,000 potential hits will appear. I haven’t used ChatGPT or any other AI model to help me write; however, a few of my recent blog posts have AI generated images (check the one with the football above). Long term, I’ll admit to more trepidation than optimism on this concept.

That’s why I’m glad that I know an incredibly talented young man named Kevin Frazier. We met in 2022 when he was in his third year at UC Berkley Law and edited a politically oriented on-line newsletter. He can now list on his incredible resume, the designation of “Beerchaser Notable.”

He asked me to submit a few articles recommending the perfect bar or brewery for each of the major Oregon Gubernatorial candidates to hypothetically chat with constituents to discern what was on their minds. I republished them in my blog. (#8) https://thebeerchaser.com/2022/04/29/beer-and-politics-part-1/ 

A Bright Future

Kevin graduated summa cum laude from the University of Oregon in 2015. He then earned his M.P.A. at the Harvard Kennedy School and subsequently received his JD at Berkley Law where he was Order of the Coif and passed the California Bar in 2022.

The title of this blog post is about aspirations and I had aspired to recruit Kevin to Schwabe Williamson & Wyatt, my former law firm, but after a six-month fellowship at the Miller Institute for Global Challenges and the Law, he received a prestigious one-year clerkship for the Montana Supreme Court.

Now, I received my M.P.A. at Portland State rather than Harvard, but I still had some great conversations with Kevin (he used a less erudite vocabulary) and that’s when I realized that rather than billing clients $500+ an hour, he should use his education to better serve humanity.

He is a true “policy wonk” in the most positive sense of the term. (#9 – #10)

I was therefore very pleased when he accepted a teaching position at the St. Thomas University Benjamin Crump School of Law in Miami, Florida, which welcomed him with an article entitled, “Incoming STU Law Professor Kevin Frazier Selected for Auschwitz Professional Ethics Fellowship Program.” 

Concurrently, he was working as a Senior Research Associate at the Institute for Law and AI and they persuaded him to leave teaching to join them in a full-time position. It’s an independent think tank that researches and advises on the legal challenges posed by artificial intelligence. 

I haven’t figured out (and Kevin’s partner probably hasn’t either) how he has enough time to also serve as a fellow for the Lawfare Institue:

 “(The) mission is to produce scientific content on lawfare and the analysis of emblematic cases of the phenomenon. Lawfare is the misuse and abuse of law for political and military ends. It is the injunction of the words law and warfare for it is a legal war.”

Kevin Can Enlighten You Too!

Kevin authors a Substack publication entitled Appleseed AI.  It offers essays, videos, and community chats about how to spread AI literacy and make the ingredients for AI innovation more generally available. This is a neglected topic that warrants far more attention. (#11)

An edifying publication

Subscribing to it has given me an education, of sorts, on AI – most notably the policy issues surrounding its implementation and future development. Kevin is an optimist and while I think, at times, he may be just a bit naive about society’s cooperative ability to harness and control this technology, I will leave you with why he has become a sought-after expert.

In his 9/22 article entitled “Mr. Frazier Goes to Washington,” he relates his testimony and that of three other experts before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, Artificial Intelligence, and the Internet. (#12)

I’m biased because of my high regard for him, but the full testimony is shown in a video and I think the Subcommittee directed most of the questions to him. Unlike the disgraceful appearance of Attorney General, Pam Bondi last week before a very partisan Senate Judiciary Committee, this hearing was very bipartisan and informative – in large part because of the cogent expert testimony.

I urge you to check it out and subscribe to Kevin’s publication.

And on a Final Note….

Happy Halloween and be kind to Trick-or-Treaters. In Portland, however, we will unfortunately be cautious about answering the door for a masked person — unless we have our passports handy…(#13)

External Photo Attribution

#1. Wikimedia Commons (File:Acer saccharum Equinox Mountain Vermont.jpg – Wikimedia Commons).  Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. Author: Famartin  – 17 October 2020.

#2.  Wikimedia Commons (File:Bill Belichick 2019.jpg – Wikimedia Commons).  Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.  Author:
AlexanderJonesi  – 6 October 2019.

#3.  ChatGPT (https://chatgpt.com/c/68ec46d1-bcf8-8328-b304-bf43c5b37d93).

#4.  Oregon State Athletic Dept. (https://osubeavers.com/honors/hall-of-fame/dee-andros/43).

#5. Mount Angel Abbey (https://www.mountangelabbey.org/).

#6. Facebook Fr. Jeff Eirvin (https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1876536385944106&set=a.1448964055368010).

#7. Mount Angel Abbey ((https://www.mountangelabbey.org/wp-content/uploads/MAL-Summer-2024.pdf).

#8.  The Federalist Society (https://fedsoc.org/bio/kevin-frazier).

#9. Linked in – Kevin Frazier ((5) Kevin Frazier | LinkedIn).

#10. Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/search/top?q=kevin%20frazier%20attorney).

#11. (https://appleseedai.substack.com/).

#12. Appleseed A1(https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?shva=1#search/appleseed/FMfcgzQcpnVJtwBJKfpKPgTpdprgMVbZ).

#13. (https://chatgpt.com/c/68ec46d1-bcf8-8328-b304-bf43c5b37d93)

Up – Down and Sideways — Part II

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Welcome back to Thebeerchaser. If you are seeing this post through an e-mail, please visit the blog by clicking on the title at the top to see all of the photos and so the narrative is not clipped or shortened. (External photo attribution at the end of the post) (#1 – #3)

As I stated in Part I of this eclectic post (https://thebeerchaser.com/2025/08/23/up-down-and-sideways-part-i/) I contemplated using the title “The Good,The Bad and The Ugly,” but I wanted a third category where I could describe something that was neutral or perhaps where I’m ambivalent, so I went with what you see above.

UP

It’s very easy these days to be cynical and pessimistic about the future – I won’t enumerate all the reasons as that would take several posts and be a downer in itself. Small gestures by people one encounters, however, restore faith in humanity.

Such was the case when my wife and I were on a plane fight from Portland to Anchorage on July 3rd.  Sitting immediately in front of us was a young couple with an infant. Of course, this always makes one wonder how relaxing the flight will be; however, we remember our own experiences when we flew with our young daughters and empathized.

Right before the flight started, the dad, leans over the seat and presents us (as well as all the people in the adjacent seats), the plastic bag and the note shown below:

I was going to ask him if he had any Snickers bars, but Janet elbowed me. The irony was that little Tara was an absolute angel – even when she wasn’t sleeping. Her personality was far superior to the guy sitting across the aisle from me.

And with apologies, that brought back memory of one of the jokes in my files which conveys  how bad that situation can be:

A businessman is on a cross-country flight and sitting in the row just in front of him are two parents and their three-year-old son. The dad tells his son that the plane is a Boeing jet which fascinates the kid. (#4)

As the plane lifts off, the child keeps repeating in a loud voice, “Boeing, Boeing, Boeing!”  After ten minutes, the guy behind him grows so frustrated that he leans over the seat and says in a stern voice to the kid, “Be Silent! Be Silent.”

So, for the rest of the flight, the kid in a happy voice yells, “Oeing!  Oeing! Oeing!”

And to make it worse, the kid sitting right behind him performs the world’s longest drum roll tapping his hands on the back of the guy’s seat from LA to New York.

Down

This time of year, evokes positive memories of college years – football, new academic energy, football, fraternity relationships and parties, football and dating. That said, it’s with saddened heart and anger I witness the deplorable attacks on our universities. (And in some notable cases, capitulation by the institutions.)

To retain their independence and viability, universities need to self-police change some standard practices, be economically prudent and show wisdom and common sense in their research and academic offerings. I certainly don’t want somebody from the federal government shaping curriculum.

The cost of a college degree has become prohibitive for many families – even at state schools. And many universities have gotten comfortable with the traditional model of academia, which may now not be economically viable. (#5)

I love my undergrad alma mater – Oregon State University. I learned how to live and interact with others, contribute in group settings and got an excellent liberal arts education which made me a more enlightened person. (And prepared me for graduate school…!) (#6 – #7)

Oregon State is an excellent engineering, forestry and oceanography school (as well as having an innovative Fermentation Science Program) and also provides a decent liberal arts and business curriculum.

That’s one reason a recent news story in Oregon Live entitled “Oregon State professor teaches punk, horror – and Taylor Swift.”  really irritated me. 

“‘I thrive in trying and doing,’ he said, ‘and getting feedback and trying again.’ The 41-year-old brings the same mindset to his classroom. (The professor) said he values ‘co-creation’ over traditional teaching doctrine – not teaching down to students but learning alongside them’…. (emphasis added) 

And in his other classes on punk music and Taylor Swift, he has students create ‘zines,’ scrappy anti-establishment pamphlets crafted with anything at hand, as a way to learn a do-it-yourself creative philosophy.”

Now, I assume the professor is a nice, well-intentioned guy, but I would suggest that if he wants to “learn alongside” his students, that he should pay tuition rather than being paid as a faculty member.
 
It’s this kind of stuff which gives the misguided souls who want the government to intervene in university curricula, ammunition for their mission (#8 – #9).
Max Planck
Bream

Some university research also raises questions such as the objectives of a 2025 study published in The Guardian at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior in Germany – one of eighty independent, non-profit research institutes.

They are funded by the German state and federal governments:

“Wild fish (bream) can tell people apart – at least when they are wearing different-coloured outfits – researchers have found in a study they say could shift our relationship with the creatures….The researchers carried out 30 trials for each (differently colored) outfit and used video recordings to count the number of fish following each diver. 

(Researcher Maëlan)Tomasek added that the study could prompt us to reconsider the way we treat fish, including whether to kill and eat them. ‘It’s very human to not want to care about them, but the fact that they can care about us, maybe it’s time that we can care about them, too,’ he said.”

I don’t know much about Max Planck other than he was a German theoretical physicist who won a Nobel Prize in Physics. I kind of wonder if he would approve of a study like this.

Might it also be a large inferential leap to assume that because a fish follows a guy wearing a red shirt, that it has an emotional attachment? I would also not be hesitant to eat a fish who prefers orange and black to green and yellow.

Conversely…

When I initially read the headline “Edible tape invented to stop your burrito from falling apart” – a project by students at Johns Hopkins University School of Engineering, I thought “Here we go Again!”

“Four US engineering students were brainstorming the perfect invention for their product design course, when lunch inspiration – literally – fell into their laps. ‘Erin was eating a burrito and the tortilla opened all over her,’ one of the four, Tyler Guarino tells CNN.

‘It hit her then – this is a problem that we can solve…. We tested about 50 different formulations’ before finding the winning ‘Tastee Tape’ recipe, Guarino says.” (#10 – #12)

Johns Hopkins School of Engineering

Now maybe it pays to keep cynicism about the impact of research in check, because when I checked further, I found that their counterparts at MIT had already taken it a step further as explained in a 2022 article: “Engineers develop surgical ‘duct tape’ as an alternative to sutures”

“In numerous experiments, the team has shown the patch can be quickly stuck to large tears and punctures in the colon, stomach, and intestines of various animal models.

The adhesive binds strongly to tissues within several seconds and holds for over a month. Once an injury is fully healed, the patch gradually degrades without causing inflammation or sticking to surrounding tissues.” (#13)

Great Dome – MIT

I didn’t check to see if their invention had been implemented in operating rooms – for either people or fish.

You’re Going to be Sick of Winning..???

I was going to leave it there but couldn’t resist quoting two more studies on the same concept that make me wonder how some researchers feel about the practical value of their studies to society.

In 2021, “University of Iowa research finds bronze medalists happier than those with silver.”

“To analyze the photos, the research team used software capable of reading facial expressions by the shapes and positions of mouths, eyes, eyebrows, noses and other facial features. (An assistant professor of marketing noted) ‘A spectator might be inclined to praise a silver medal performance. But for a lot of people, that might not feel like a win.” (#14)

What’s in a Smile?

Now in the AI study above reviewing photos of 413 athletes at medal ceremonies from 142 Olympic track and field events between 2000 and 2016, the conclusion was reached strictly by analyzing facial expressions.

You should be comforted that another marketing professor did her research – this study based on simulations. 

“…according to Monica Wadhwa, marketing professor at Temple University’s Fox School of Business in Philadelphia, ‘not winning is, in fact, more powerful than winning.’ She has spent nearly a decade researching this seemingly paradoxical idea, motivated by her childhood experiences.”

And unfortunately, my daughters are now adults, and I didn’t have the benefit of her advice to parents. To wit: “When kids lose – whether in sports or in school – point out to them how close they came to winning.”

Sideways

In my last post, I talked about the acceleration of change in society and trends which affect our daily lives in ever-increasing rapidity. I think these next trends are probably good; however, it may take some adjustment on my part. 

I’m talking about both the use of semicolons and spaces after a period. According to the 5/22/25 Morning Brew:

“The punctuation mark that makes you feel pretentious even when you somehow manage to use it correctly is rapidly becoming passé. The semicolon’s usage in English books has plunged by almost half in the last two decades, from 1 in every 205 words in 2000 to 1 in 390 today, the Guardian reported…

These days, it’s probably found more often in computer programming and tattoos than in text.” (emphasis added)

That brought to mind one jokester’s comment about change stating, “In fifteen years, we’re going to have to get used to seeing a lot of really old people walking around with tattoos.” (#15 – #17)

Obsolete?
Get over it!
Give me some space??

I’ve always put two spaces after the period at the end of a sentence. I was taught that in two years of high school typing – one of the most useful classes I’ve ever taken and one that I took because I wanted to date a girl who was taking the class. (I did.)

According to a recent article by MasterClass.com:

“The overwhelming majority of contemporary style guides and word processors advise using a single space between typed sentences. When in doubt, use single spacing in research papers, essays, and your creative writing. This is true regardless of whether your sentence ends in a period, a question mark, or some other form of punctuation….

The debate over the number of spaces has waned over the years, but some adherents to the two-space convention (known as ‘two-spacers’) argue the extra space signals the end of a complete thought more effectively.”

Now I’m behind the times since the 2019 American Psychological Association Style Guide reflected the change. I didn’t check to see if they did any research on the emotional impact of being a “two spacer.” I’ve made an effort to reflect the punction change in this post although I’m not going to do a detailed check.

If you don’t like that, go ahead and sue me – my transition to the conclusion of this long post with a lawyer joke – a rhetorical question and remember. I loved working with lawyers:

“If an IRS auditor and a lawyer were both floundering in the surf and you could save only one, would you go to coffee or read the newspaper?” (#18 – #19)

Cheers

#1.  Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Arrow_slim_up.svg) This file is licensed under (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/deed.en. Author: Wenflou – 20 August  2022.

#2. Wikimedia Commons (File:Arrow slim down.svg – Wikimedia Commons) This file is made available under the https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/deed.en.  Author: Wenflou – 20 August 2022.

#3. Wikimedia Commons (File:Sideways Arrow Icon.svg – Wikimedia Commons) This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. Subject to disclaimers. Attribution: Riley Huntley at the English-language Wikipedia.  29 August 2012.

#4,  Public Domain – Wikimedia Commons (File:Alaska-737-4QB-YVR.jpg – Wikimedia Commons) Author: Makaristos – 22 May 2008.

#5.  AI Image Generator (Bing Image Creator).

#6. Wikimedia Commons (File:Corvallis, Oregon State University – DPLA – 20466127df16e7e71103ee1bfd3343bb.jpg – Wikimedia Commons).  Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.  Author: Gary Halvorson, Oregon State Archives – 15 August 2015.

#7.  Wikimedia Commons (File:OSU by air.jpg – Wikimedia Commons) Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.  Author: saml123 – 26 May 2008.

#8. Wikimedia Commons (File:Max Planck.png – Wikimedia Commons) Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.  Author: Courtesy of the Clendening History of Medicine Library, University of Kansas Medical Center – 17 December 2009.

#9. Wikimedia Commons (File:South Coast Sea Bream – Fish Market – New Street – London 2025-02-14.jpg – Wikimedia Commons) Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.  Author: Haydn Blackey – 14 February 2025.

#10. Wikimedia Commons (File:Maryland Hall, Johns Hopkins University, Jan 2011.jpg – Wikimedia Commons) Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.  Author: Cvenghaus – 11 January 2012.

#11.  Artificial Intelligence (https://www.bing.com/images/create/image-of-a-taco-next-to-some-clear-adhesive-tape/1-68b28c80361f4a7dbb5eff9d322359d2?mdl=1&ar=1&FORM=GENCRE)

#12.  Wikimedia Commons (File:Chemistry Laboratory RMIT Building 7.jpg – Wikimedia Commons) Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. Author: Ozarch  – 4 April 2012.

#13. Wikimedia Commons (File:Great Dome, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Aug 2019.jpg – Wikimedia Commons) Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. Author: Mys 721tx  – 30 August 2019.

#14. Wikimedia Commons (File:Korea Kim Yuna Sochi Medal Ceremony 05.jpg – Wikimedia Commons) Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.   Attribution: Korean Culture and Information Service (Korean Olympic Committee)  – 22 February 2014.

#15.  Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4a/Semicolon_Art.jpg) Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Author: Altair Netraphim  – 15 June 2022.

#16. ChatGPT Image Generator (https://chatgpt.com/c/68b38aac-a2ec-832a-8585-472da6ae4384).

#17. Wikimedia Commons (File:Syriac sublinear full stop (Estrangelo form).svg – Wikimedia Commons). Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. Author: Unknown – 19 June 2022.

#18. Public Domain – Wikimedia Commons – (File:Person reading a newspaper (Unsplash).jpg – Wikimedia Commons) This file is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.  Author: Roman Kraft – 17 May 2017.

#19. Public Domain – Wikimedia Commons (File:Reading in Bangkok (Unsplash).jpg – Wikimedia Commons) This file is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication. Author: rawpixel.com rawpixel – January 2017.

Up – Down and Sideways — Part I

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10

Welcome back to Thebeerchaser. If you are seeing this post through an e-mail, please visit the blog by clicking on the title at the top to see all of the photos and so the narrative is not clipped or shortened. (External photo attribution at the end of the post) (#1 – #3)

I contemplated using the title “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly,” but I wanted a third category where I could describe something that was neutral or perhaps where I’m ambivalent.

In these days of turmoil, I’ll try not to overload “The Down” category – besides, my wife would claim I was reinforcing perceptions that I’m a grumpy old man….

Up

One of us is missing

For the last two years, I’ve been getting together each week with a group of four other retired guys – yes, they are also old, but not grumpy, which is good for me. They include a  lawyer, title company exec, clinical psychologist and emergency room physician – all retired.  Since we all travel, if there are at least three of us around, we’ll still get together.

We discuss a diverse group of topics and try to avoid politics.  It usually starts out with what might be labeled “the organ recital” – a litany of what isn’t working up to par in our now seventy-year + bodies. (#4 – #5)

At least this is older than we are

Earlier this summer, we were sitting around our usual small table, and three of us had our legs crossed and one of the group emphatically stated, “You guys shouldn’t cross your legs.  My cardiologist said it’s bad for your circulation!”

I initially dismissed this, but then saw an internet caption entitled, “How sitting cross-legged is slowly killing your circulation.” Since it didn’t assert that it was killing me, I decided to ask Janet’s and my wonderful primary-care physician.

Dr. Laura Byerly specializes in geriatrics and also teaches at Oregon Health & Science University. Besides being a superb doctor, she is a wonderful human being and the epitome of common sense. (#6)

Dr. Laura Byerly – OHSU

Without hesitating, Dr. Byerly responded, “Don, I’m not going to say crossing your legs is good for you, but I’d rather have you cross your legs than stress over the impact.”

And we are blessed to have the medical and pharmaceutical technology both to diagnose and treat the many conditions we face today.  The challenge is to make better efforts to ensure that those who need the care – especially children and those in poverty-stricken areas have access.

Note: Medical vocabulary is also interesting and I’m fortunate to have two registered nurse daughters to help me interpret terms when I don’t want to bother the docs. For example, after a scan, I learned (somewhat to my surprise) that I didn’t need to be concerned that my aorta, arteries and gastrointestinal tract are “Grossly Patent.” (#7)

Grossly patent and unremarkable are a good

Counterintuitively, that’s actually a good thing and means they are open, unobstructed and functioning normally and I will be able to continue Beerchasing without reservation. Another issue which seems self-contradictory to an overachiever is the fact that one should be happy to hear that a test result is “unremarkable!”

Balance Issues

Since I was having some balance and gait issues after my back surgery, I got a referral for physical therapy.  Again, I was blessed to have two wonderful PT’s – Dr. Noel Tenoso and Brionna Sims PTA at FYZICAL Therapy and Balance Center in West Linn.

 I suggested to him that for balance and stability purposes, it would help if he recommended a bar in our shower and suggested the design below. I mentioned Thebeerchaser blog and told him that this would further my quest to visit “watering”. 

(Credit for the concept goes to my friend Mitch Teemley, – writer, director and filmmaker, who also has a wonderful blog.)  (#8)

Only for stability!

In our first session, Noel and I shared that our undergraduate schools were rivals – Oregon State and the University of Oregon.  Noell is a die-hard U of O Duck – he even has an annoying small plushie duck on the reception counter. 

The twelve sessions really helped. After the initial one, Neal had a weeklong trip to Kona planned, so Brionna and the staff teamed up with me for a coming-home surprise. Knowing what a Duck fan he is, they took advantage of International Beaver Day.

They plastered pictures of the industrious rodents all over his office – including the ceiling. On his desk, was my stuffed beaver you see in the picture below (It plays the Oregon State fight song.)

I was there when he returned and the photo captures his reaction.

Down

How many times recently have you gone to a service provider and as you’re leaving, your representative earnestly says, “By the way, you’ll be getting an e-mail survey on our performance.  We have high standards here, so anything less than a ten is a problem…” (#9)

Does this take negative numbers?

We are fortunate to have a wealth of great shows and movies on cable and streaming, but I let the commercials drive me into an ad frenzy.  It’s the endless repetition, the actors and the message – particularly on insurance commercials. 

It doesn’t take a Nobel Prize in Economics , a personal audience with former Federal Reserve Chair Alan Greenspan or repeated admonitions from Progressive’s Flo, (Stephanie Courtney) for one to realize that it makes sense to “bundle” your car and home-owner’s insurance.

Further, why does Liberty Mutual’s Doug (David Hoffman) – and his ugly emu – incessantly advise, “Pay only for what you need!”  Even a kindergartener would realize it doesn’t make sense to pay premiums on a tree house he doesn’t have if he only needs collision coverage on his training wheels….(#10 – #12)

Now perhaps I should not blame the actors but lay the onus on the ad agencies and the corporations they represent, because as you will see in Part II of this post, there are some really good commercials which endear one to the players and the product.

However, the two that make the term “irritating” inadequate are Toyota’s Jan (Laurel Coppock) and Jacuzzi’s Christine Haack (El Moussa, Anstead and Hall…).  With the former, it just seems demeaning to have a smiling, effervescent woman do essentially nothing but hand people the keys to their new cars or point out models in a showroom. 

(My time in management makes me view this bubbly persona as unnecessary overhead.) (#13 – #14)

Concern about overhead

But while the aforementioned performers in the commercials are professional actors, Christina Haack is not and this is obvious by her cadence and stilted articulation – best described as “Upspeak.“

Upspeak, also known as uptalk or high rising terminal (HRT), is a way of speaking where declarative sentences end with a rising intonation, making them sound like questions.  As well-stated in an Oregon Live letter-to-the-editor:

“I hope that younger people listen to and model their tone of delivery, which projects conviction and confidence versus another prevalent stye of speaking producing a singsong, chirpy affectation, marking the speaker as tentative and approval-seeking.” (#15 – #16)

Like fingernails on a blackboard.

Sideways

Change can be both positive and negative and I’ve tried to adapt remembering the quote by John F. Kennedy (one Kennedy worth quoting…):

“Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.”

Of course, it also took me about ten years to accept the refutation of the maxim:

“Don’t go swimming for at least an hour after eating.”

Change can be glacial even when common sense and economic factors dictate it. For example, in Oregon, we were only able to pump our own gas starting in August 2023 leaving just New Jersey as a final holdout. (#17)

Slow to flow…

The final change I’ll address in this post is also neutral, but probably mostly positive. It’s another trend like the growing shift to non-alcoholic beer. (See Part II of this post.)

Names!

Not a recent change, but a major one that took place after twenty-six years was naming hurricanes with strictly female appellations. In 1979, that sexist practice changed. (“David” was the first male moniker.)

Not to digress, but for a fascinating article about hurricane naming conventions see this link from the National Hurricane Center.(#18)

Gender Neutral….

I’ve been surprised but pleased at how names have changed. One can always go to a website showing the most popular baby names.  It probably won’t surprise you that in 2025 the two most popular girl’s names are Olivia and Emma (not Alexa for obvious reasons).  For boys, Liam and Noah take the top spots.

It’s good that the most prevalent monikers in my day such as Tommy (#39) and Timmy (not in top 100) now don’t make the grade.  And Lance is also not a common name now days, but in medieval times, people were called “Lance – a – lot.” (apologies for that….)

Checking out the names of the excellent athletes our local paper highlights each week reveals some creativity and a departure from established conventions. Just take a look at some of these. On a number, you wouldn’t be able to identify the gender and it’s also fun to see surnames employed quite a bit as first names.

Jaden

Kendall

Finley

Bailee

Enzo

Ava

Hayden

Barrett

Eamon

Davis

Teagan

Rhyson

Leah

Nixon

Biz

Kat

Rylan

Brooklyn

Turner

Hudson

In my last post, I mentioned how proud I was to be named after my dad’s best friend and fraternity brother, Don Wilburn, who was a genuine WWII hero. In May 2025 he was awarded a posthumous Distinguished Flying Cross – 83 years after his heroic missions over North Africa as a pilot for the Army Air Corps. 

It should be noted that for obvious reasons, one almost never sees a baby named Donald these days. And similarly, I haven’t seen any young children named TACO – but I guess that goes without saying! (#19)

TACO – not very popular

Heavenward... (#20)

Taste and Believe!

Since this is a blog about bars and breweries (and a lot of other stuff…). I’ll end on a very positive note. I was involved from the outset of the Benedictine Brewery and St. Michael Taproom on the grounds of the Mount Angel Abbey and Seminary when it opened in 2017. 

It’s one of less than a handful in the US owned and operated by Benedictine Monks. I’ll never forget the “old-fashioned barn raising” we had on a cloudy day in November 2017, when 125 monks, priests, seminarians, members of the Mount Angel community and volunteers gathered to erect the framed structure from a concrete slab. https://thebeerchaser.com/2017/11/21/the-benedictine-brewery-beam-me-up

Fr. Martin Grassel O.S.B. the Head Brewer and Manager has developed a regional following for his excellent beers. Although some were skeptical that this enterprise could thrive in a competitive craft-brewing environment, the Brewery has exceeded all expectations celebrated its eighth birthday on August 8th. (#21 – #23)

“The August 8th milestone marks the anniversary of the brewery’s establishment, which launched its first partnership with Coleman Agriculture in 2018 to kick off the Oregon hop harvest…It also emphasized the monks’ values of stewardship and community, mirroring the sustainable farming practices of Coleman Agriculture.” https://newschoolbeer.com/home/2025/7/benedictine-brewery-8th-anniversary-collaboration-with-coleman-hops-kicks-off-hop-harvest

Cheers

External File Attribution

#1.  Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Arrow_slim_up.svg) This file is licensed under (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/deed.en. Author: Wenflou – 20 August  2022.

#2. Wikimedia Commons (File:Arrow slim down.svg – Wikimedia Commons) This file is made available under the https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/deed.en.  Author: Wenflou – 20 August 2022.

#3. Wikimedia Commons (File:Sideways Arrow Icon.svg – Wikimedia Commons) This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. Subject to disclaimers. Attribution: Riley Huntley at the English-language Wikipedia.  29 August 2012.

#4.  Public Domain – Wikimedia Commons (File:Colour-Music – Page 44.jpg – Wikimedia Commons) This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published (or registered with the U.S. Copyright Office) before January 1, 1930.  Author: Alexander Wallace Rimington1911.

#5.  Public Domain – Wikimedia Commons (File:Internal organs.svg – Wikimedia Commons)  I, the copyright holder of this work, release this work into the public domain. This applies worldwide.  Author: Mikael Haggstron – 23 June 2010.

#6.  Oregon Health Sciences Website (Laura K. Byerly MD | Health care provider | OHSU).

#7  Wikimedia Commons (File:Moderní výpočetní tomografie s přímo digitální detekcí rentgenového záření.jpg – Wikimedia Commons)  Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. Author: Tomáš Vendiš  – 14 February 2022.

#8. AI Microsoft Image Generator.

#9. Wikimedia Commons (File:Online Survey Icon or logo.svg – Wikimedia Commons) This file is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.  Author: Tungilik – 25 July 2014.

#10. Public Domain – Wikimedia Commons (File:The Nobel Prize.svg – Wikimedia Commons) This image of simple geometry is ineligible for copyright and therefore in the public domain, because it consists entirely of information that is common property and contains no original authorship. Author:  Premeditated  – 6 May 2019.

#11. Wikimedia Commons (File:Dromaius novaehollandiae – Maroparque 01.jpg – Wikimedia Commons).  Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.  Author: H. Zell – 18 March 2019.  (IMU)

#12. Public Domain – Wikimedia Commons (Greenspan, Alan (Whitehouse) – Alan Greenspan – Wikipedia) This file is a work of an employee of the Executive Office of the President of the United States, taken or made as part of that person’s official duties. As a work of the U.S. federal government, it is in the public domain.  Author:  White House photo by Shealah Craighead – 9 November 2005.

#13. Wikimedia Commons (File:Jemca Toyota, The Hyde – geograph.org.uk – 5188704.jpg – Wikimedia Commons) Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.  Attribution: Jemca Toyota, The Hyde by David Howard – 10 November 2016.

#14. AI (https://designer.microsoft.com/editor?applied).

#15. Wikimedia Commons (File:Christina El Moussa 2.png – Wikimedia Commons) Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.  Author:  Jocean4 – 23 September 2018.

#16.  AI (Untitled Project | All In One Web Editor | Picsart).

#17.  Public Domain – Wikimedia Commons (File:Pumping gas by hand.JPG – Wikimedia Commons)   This file is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication. Author: MarkBuckawicki – 22 October 2015.

#18. Public Domain – Wikimedia Commons (File:Staring Down Hurricane Florence.jpg – Wikimedia Commons)  This file is in the public domain in the United States because it was solely created by NASA. NASA copyright policy states that “NASA material is not protected by copyright unless noted.” Author: Alexander Gerst –  12 September 2018.

#19 AI Microsoft Image Generator.

#20 – #23. Benedictine Brewery Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/BenedictineBrewery).