Yoking the Choke – Part III

Posted on March 21, 2022 by Thebeerchaser

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

In the last two blog posts, I’ve talked about two events which took place at the Schwabe Williamson & Wyatt law firm where I worked for twenty-five years before retiring as COO in 2011.

The HBO movie (“The Last Innocent Man”) filmed, in part, at the firm in 1987 and the three-and one-half-day West Coast hearing for the Latrell Sprewell Arbitration with the NBA and the NBA Players’ Association, were both memorable.

Latrell Sprewell as a Minnesota Timberwolf in 2003 *1

* External Photo Attribution at the end of the Post

I’ve “teased” Beerchaser followers with the events leading up to the arbitration in the first post – the Choking and subsequent punching of Coach PJ Carlesemo at a Golden State Warriors practice on December 1, 1997, Sprewell’s immediate termination by the Warriors and the one-year suspension by the NBA – the longest of any non-drug related in NBA history.

In the second post, I also mentioned how Schwabe came to be approached by the NBA to host that hearing through the connection by former Blazer General Counsel, Mike Fennell, who worked as a Schwabe associate attorney after he graduated from law school. At the end of this post, there’s a deserved tribute to this late colleague, who was a wonderful person and outstanding lawyer.

So let’s take it from the phone call inquiry from Mike, where Schwabe Management determined that we would accept the invitation to serve as the site. We agreed to provide secure conference rooms; witness waiting areas; secretarial resources as required; telephone, fax and computer equipment they could use.

The assistance would also include logistical support such as transportation from lodging and catering plus coffee, refreshments, etc. during the hearing. Of course, the firm would charge both the NBA and the Players’ Association for providing these services.

The Preparation

While we were used to having hearings, legal conferences and other events at the firm, an event of this notoriety and scope was uncharted ground – it presented many questions. These resulted in negotiations based on the demands of the parties – primarily the NBA.

As I stated in a 1998 letter to Ronald Klempner, Associate Counsel for the Players’ Association, following the arbitration (after they objected to the firm’s billing…) we surprisingly did not have any contact with the Player’s Association (hereafter “PA”) until the weekend before commencement of the proceedings.

“Although we tried to get a contact name from the Players’ Association and made requests through the NBA, we had no contact from the Players’ Association until the Friday before the hearing (began the next Monday) when I talked to Bob Lanza (General Counsel).

By that time, of necessity, we had made all the arrangements including limousine service, catering, security, secretarial service, etc.”

And firm personnel did a lot of advance work – but only with the NBA who communicated with us. Our Client Relations Department worked with a caterer to plan continental breakfasts, lunches and snacks – different for each day and potential dinner menus since the hearing was supposed to continue into the evenings – the first day, it lasted eleven hours until 8:30 P.M. (The PA had to go along with the menu selected by their adversary in the proceeding!)

We reserved a secretarial station outside each Association’s conference room, with a Schwabe secretary on-call there (into the evenings) to type memos, etc. send faxes, make calls or dinner reservations, etc.

Legal Secretaries were on call

While after twenty-four years, my recollection has dimmed on some of the specifics, the following account of the interactions and incidents are my best effort to convey what were stimulating and sometimes humorous occurrences – from the negotiations to the hearing itself, to contact with the parties afterwards. I’ve also relied on conversations with Schwabe colleagues.

Our initial contact was with Rick Buchanan, the then young, Assistant General Counsel for the NBA. From the outset through the culmination, Rick was a class act and it does not surprise me that recent internet research revealed that this Harvard Law graduate is now General Counsel & Chief Compliance Officer for the Association.

A younger Rick Buchanan *2

I didn’t meet Ron Klempner, from the PA, but he is now Senior Counsel, Collective Bargaining for the PA and graduated from the Maurice A. Dean School of Law at Hofstra University.

Both Klempner and Buchanan had remarkably similar legal careers from their excellent law school educations – graduating in 1987 and 1988 respectively – and after notable judicial clerkships; worked at large, prestigious, multi-national law firms before they joined their organizations. Both began this work in 1993 and Klempner and Buchanan are still working for their respective associations.

Klempner clerked for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and was an associate for five years at Weil, Gotshal & Manges in New York City (now with fifteen offices and 1,132 lawyers with revenues of $1.7 billion and No. 17 on the The American Lawyer’s 2021 Am Law 200 rankings – Law.com.)

Buchanan clerked for U.S. Court of Appeals/D.C. Circuit and then for almost five years was an associate at Covington & Burling LLP in Washington DC. (now with thirteen offices and 1,174 lawyers with revenues of $1.3 billion and 25th on 2021 AM Law 200 Rankings – Law.com)

Becoming an associate at this type of multi-national law firm is extremely competitive and new hires are the top students from the nation’s most prestigious law schools.

Interestingly, Klempner, in 2015, “served as acting executive director of the NBPA between the firing of former seventeen-year executive director Billy Hunter for questionable hiring practices, financial decisions and other alleged misdeeds,” according to an article in Forbes.com. (Hunter is also a lawyer and played wide receiver in the NFL for the Washington Redskins and the Miami Dolphins. His story with the PA could comprise another two posts….)

eyJidWNrZXQiOiJwaWN0dXJlcy5jLXNwYW52aWRlby5vcmciLCJrZXkiOiJGaWxlc1wvNjAxXC8xMDE0NTQ2LTMwMDg4OC0xLmpwZyIsImVkaXRzIjp7InJlc2l6ZSI6eyJmaXQiOiJjb3ZlciIsImhlaWdodCI6MjAwLCJ3aWR0aCI6MjAw (1)

Billy Hunter *7

And after all these years, the parade of lawyers involved continues:

“The election of Michele A. Roberts, a former Partner at law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP & Affiliates, marked the first time a female was elected to the highest position of a major sport’s players association within the United States.”

And if you thought Buchanan and Klempner worked at large law firms, Skadden-Arps with 1,594 lawyers generated revenues of $2.6 billion in their twenty-one offices, earning a ranking of fifth on the 2021 AM Law 200.

(Michele Roberts probably took a cut in salary as the profit per partner at Skadden-Arps was a staggering $4.3 million). One wonders if Skadden still maintains their Moscow office! Both Covington and Weil have Beijing and Shanghai offices, but none in Russia.

I digress, but can’t help noting that Roberts was succeeded as Executive Director for the PA in September, 2021 by Tamika Tremaglio. (Elected for her first four-year term in January, 2022.)

You guessed it – Tremaglio is not only a lawyer, but also an accountant most recently serving as the Managing Principal for Deloitte Financial Services in their DC office and “where she has worked as an advisor and consultant to the NBPA since 2012.” (Sports Illustrated.com)

Security, Security and More Security!

From the outset the NBA was extremely concerned with security. They knew that both the East and West Coast hearings would receive intense media coverage.

On site reporting would not only be by sports media but given the initial reports of “The Choke” (hereafter “TC”) and the personalities involved such as the NBA stars and high-profile NBA Coaches and even famous attorney, Johnnie Cochran; national and even international general print and broadcast media would be there. (We started getting calls from media outlets ten days before the hearing.)

One of Sprewell’s early legal advisors * 10

The Chief NBA Security Officer flew out from New York (totally at NBA expense) as were the security personnel during the proceedings. He met with firm management and representatives from the PAC West Center – obviously Building Management was very concerned about disruption for the other tenants in the 33-story building.

To give some perspective on the importance of this position to the NBA, the current Chief, Leon Newsome, commenced his position in 2021, after serving as Deputy Director of the United States Secret Service. He is a 1992 Princeton graduate where he starred in football and in his new position will:

“…..oversee all aspects of security operations for the NBA, WNBA, NBA G League, NBA 2K League and soon-to-launch Basketball Africa League as well as the NBA’s 15 offices worldwide.”

dbbb3a77-727e-42f6-b32c-671705d44ad0.sized-1000x1000

Leon Newsome – now Chief Security Officer for the NBA * 11

The NBA Security guru, while in Portland, proceeded to visit the multiple high rises in the adjacent blocks (see photo below) where he evidently got permission from building management to go up on the roofs to see what visibility the east side of the Pacwest Center would present to photographers who attempted to film the hearing and witnesses (Really!?).

Since the hearing room had curtains, we rejected the request that we put up construction paper on the east-facing windows on the 17th – 19thfloors where there were no curtains.

The Pacwest Center is in the lower center of the picture *12

The NBA security team which traveled to our offices from New York for the hearing, appeared to be former FBI agents and had personalities befitting that background – no smiles during initial days in the Pacwest Center.

They were adamant about protecting the sanctity of the hearing and the privacy of the witnesses and the parties. (The Players’ Association never inquired about security or media issues.)

And we understood the need for these constraints. After all, NBA teammates of Sprewell including Joe Smith, Bimbo Coles and Felton Spencer, would be at the Portland hearing. And this would be the first time since The Choke, that Sprewell and Carlesimo would sit face-to-face. (New York Times 1/29/1998)

Joe Smith (pictured) Bimbo Coles and Felton Spencer – all who played for multiple NBA teams, were Sprewell’s teammates on the Warriors. *13

That said, we were operating at 125-lawyer firm, with at that time, four floors in a high-rise building with clients, attorneys representing opposing parties and vendors/consultants needing access to our people and facilities.

At that time, we had a receptionist on each floor with access to the public. (Now, with five floors, Schwabe has only one reception area at the firm’s Conference Center on the 19^th floor, where all external parties initially check in).

Schwabe 19th Floor Conference Center Reception

The NBA’s initial position was that we needed to lock down all of our floors with access only through clearance by a receptionist on one floor. We calmly responded that this was overkill since the hearing would be located on the 19^th floor large hearing room with the parties each having conference and temporary office facilities on the 17^th and 18th floors.

The Pacwest Center made additional conference rooms available for the firm’s business, if necessary. We compromised and agreed on a partial lockdown – having all firm personnel come up to the 16th floor and then using internal staircases. We could greet clients on the 16th floor. As a result, no unauthorized persons gained access during the event.

While they initially came across as “hard asses”, the NBA security guys turned out to be reasonable and interacted amicably with firm personnel. We worked cooperatively to develop practical security solutions and they were quite personable once the hearings started.

Gag Order

Their anticipation on the level of media coverage turned out to be well-founded. The hearing took place on Tuesday through mid-day Friday. The intent was to get the current NBA players and coaches in as witnesses early on Tuesday so they could make games later that week.

On Tuesday morning, the PacWest Center lobby was filled with anywhere from 25 to eventually about 50 reporters – hungry to interview the parties and witnesses or anybody who could offer any insight on what was transpiring nineteen floors above.

Pacwest Lobby – Picture this jammed with media people

This was in spite of the announcement that all involved parties agreed to a gag order prior to the hearing:

“Chris Brienza, the league’s director of media relations, has tired to discourage a media stampede. ‘I’ve been telling those guys, this will go from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. every night, the proceedings will be closed and our guys are not going to have much to say,’ said Brienza.

Still, the league is sending one media relations person out for the hearings. ‘Crowd control,’ Brienza said.” (The Sunday Oregonian , 1/25/1998.)

Surreptitious Entry!

The standard method for an external party to access Schwabe offices would be to come in through the main entrance on 6^th Avenue, or if they were driving, to enter the parking garage, to park with the valet on the first level and then take the elevator to the lobby. Once in the lobby, a second set of elevators would access the high-rise office facilities.

This would present a problem, because the media knew by sight, the players and coaches and would descend on them en-masse the minute they appeared. So we cooperatively developed an alternative.

We had arranged town-car limo service from their hotels, and the drivers were instructed to enter the parking garage on Jefferson Street. Rather than stop at the valet, they would proceed to the third level where we had reserved spaces for them.

Although not befitting a prestigious law firm, the visitors to Schwabe would then proceed through the entry to the freight elevator and take that very cumbersome and slow lift to the 17^th floor or 18th floors where they would exit and then proceed to their assigned quarters.

It was masterful and none of the correspondents or their photographers discovered this surreptitious entry until it was too late.

That said, on the third morning of the hearing, those that were still there (about half-left when they got frustrated with lack of contact) did have an exciting moment. The Manager of the firms Copy Room and related support functions was a wonderful employee named Wendell King.

Wendell was a tall, good looking, always impeccably dressed and articulate Black man who was an exemplary manager. He decided to make his first trip that week to the Starbucks located in one corner of the Lobby for a latte’.

When the elevator reached the lobby and Wendell walked out with some other people who worked in the building, the press (assuming the stereotypical NBA forward) took one look and congregated around him “battering” him with questions about how the arbitration was going, was he testifying on behalf of Sprewell, etc. It was one of the most humorous moments during the event.

(Unfortunately, Wendell passed away in 2009 and to recognize the standard he set for client service and performance, the firm created the “Wendell King Best of Schwabe Award” which is still given out each quarter to the Schwabe employee who best meets the standard Wendell set.)

Towards the end of the hearing, things got more relaxed although the press was still hanging around. Latrell asked our attractive and personable sixteenth floor receptionist, Jenny, out for dinner (she politely declined….) and some of those involved would go to Starbucks for coffee. Dave Bartz, the future President of the firm, related in a recent e-mail:

“My elevator ride was down the main elevator (from the 17th floor). There was a rush – hubbub, in the lobby. I was in the elevator. The door opened and they jumped in (Sprewell and some suits – I assumed some handlers or lawyers). I moved to the back. Spre and I exchanged a nod and a hello.” (and rode back up in the elevator!)

Mark Long – Managing Partner and Dave Bartz – President —Two outstanding leaders at Schwabe from 2001 to 2017 *15

Dave also related:

“I learned that PJ’s favorite Italian restaurant in Oregon was the West Linn (where Thebeerchaser now lives) spot, Buggatis. (Pretty high praise for a NJ boy.)”

A Tribute to Mike FennellFacebook

In the last blog post, I mentioned how Mike Fennell, General Counsel for the Portland Trailblazers, was responsible for making the connection between our law firm – Schwabe Williamson & Wyatt PC and the NBA – regarding hosting the West Coast portion of the Latrell Sprewell arbitration hearing.

Mike had a great career and rose in the ranks for the Trailblazers from handling a few matters as outside counsel to in-house General Counsel from 1992 to October 2012.

Portland Trailblazer General Counsel – an outstanding lawyer *17

He was an associate attorney with Schwabe after graduation from University of Oregon Law School in 1983. He was regarded as a very good corporate and securities lawyer and just a great colleague. Mike became a key member of the Trailblazer Executive Management Team, providing strategic direction for the company in day to day operations

“Mike loved his ‘work family’ at the Trail Blazers and was extremely grateful for his amazing colleagues.” Upon his departure, Sarah Mensah, who the was the Trailblazer’s COO stated:

“The imprint that Mike leaves as a legal strategist, counselor, negotiator and front office executive is a lasting one,” said Mensah. “It’s hard to see him go, and on behalf of the entire Trail Blazers organization, we extend our deepest gratitude to Mike for his significant contributions, and wish him continued success as he pursues a new phase of his career.”

Mike passed away far too young (61) in December 2018 after being diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s in 2014.

In Closing…

This post got way too long, but we’re not yet done with the Sprewell story. Stay tuned to Thebeerchaser! And in closing, to my amazement, parents can still purchase the item below at Amazon.

Micheal Pellowski is a children’s author who wrote a number of books including Karate Bear and Double Trouble on Vacation in the late ’80’s. The Sprewell offering is still available for $23.93 and is recommended for kids from six to twelve. The book:

“Examines the personal life, college years, and professional career of NBA basketball star, Latrell Sprewell, who now plays for the New York Knicks.”

Children reading the book might want to have adult supervision!

Pellowski is a New Jersey native who graduated from Rutgers and is now 73 years old.

Role Model for Cover of Composition Notebook? *18

Cheers!

External Photo Attribution

*1 Latrell Sprewell Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/123246144405531/photos/pb.100042176306027.-2207520000../123246191072193/?type=3)

*2 “The Harvard Journal of Sports and Entertainment Law” (https://harvardjsel.com/2016/02/interview-with-nba-general-counsel-rick-buchanan/) 26 February 2016.

*3 The Org.com (https://theorg.com/org/nba/org-chart/rick-buchanan)

*4 Linked-in.com – Ron Klempner (https://www.linkedin.com/in/ron-klempner-36aa247/)

*5 Public Domain – Wikimedia Commons – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weil,_Gotshal_%26_Manges#/media/File:Weil,_Gotshal_&_Manges_LLP_logo.svg) Author: Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP

*6 Public Domain – Wikimedia Commons – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Covington_%26_Burling#/media/File:Covington_logo.svg) Author; Covington & Burling.

*7 C-Span – Billy Hunter (https://www.c-span.org/person/?1014546/WilliamBillyHunter)

*8 “Wesleyan University Magazine” (https://magazine.blogs.wesleyan.edu/2019/05/20/a-smooth-crossover-from-the-court-room-to-defending-nba-players-rights/) 20 May 2019.

*9 (Linked in – Tamika Tremaglio (https://www.linkedin.com/in/tamikatremaglio/

*10 Wikimedia Commons (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnnie_Cochran#/media/File:Johnnie_cochran_2001_cropped_retouched.jpg) By Mark Winograd (Personal photo) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons. This file is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.

*11 The Daily Princetonian – (https://www.dailyprincetonian.com/article/2021/03/leon-newsome-princeton-university-ivy-league-secret-service) 4 March 2021.

*12 Google Earth (https://earth.google.com/web/@45.515254,-122.6794129,35.6438696a,418.81430678d,35y,102.83948888h,0t,0r)

*13 Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Joe_Smith_Cavs2.jpg) Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license. Author: Keith Allison 27 April 2008.

*14 Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Censorship.svg) Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. Author: Time3000, Tomchen1989, Mozilla. 28 March 2008.

*15 Daily Journal of Commerce.com (https://djcoregon.com/news/2012/03/16/leadership-in-law-mark-long-and-david-bartz/)

*16 Bugattis Italian Ristorante Facebook Page (https://www.facebook.com/bugattisristorante/photos/a.252041161513560/2261514310566225/)

*17 Oregon Live (https://obits.oregonlive.com/us/obituaries/oregon/name/michael-fennell-obituary?id=15737681)

*18 Amazon Prime (https://www.amazon.com/Latrell-Sprewell-Super-Sports-Star/dp/0766018113/ref=sr_1_16?crid=JXJ6XILZ5W7H&keywords=latrell+) ” “Latrell Sprewell (Super Sports Star)”. Author: Michael J. Pellowski

Yoking “The Choke” – Part II

Posted on March 2, 2022 by Thebeerchaser

In the last post on Thebeerchaser, “Yoking the Choke – Part I” – I described two interesting events not directly related to our clients at Schwabe Williamson & Wyatt PC – the law firm where I served as the COO before I retired.

The filming of some scenes of “The Last Innocent Man” – an HBO movie in 1987 and hosting the three and on-half day West Coast hearing of former NBA star, Latrell Sprewell’s arbitration in 1998, both brought some well-known Hollywood celebrities, athletes and coaches to our offices.

Sprewell choked his coach, PJ Carlesimo in December,1997, an incident which garnered not only national, but international attention. “The Choke” (hereafter referenced as “TC”) and its related events read like a bad sports novel, but before telling you about our law firm’s connection, let’s go back twenty-five years for context and recollections that might depress you.

1997 is not a year ingrained in most of our memories. Why would you want to remember “Bitch” (No. 15) and Madonna’s “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina” (No. 87) – two of the “Billboard Year-end Hot 100 Singles” that year? (Madonna didn’t even edge out No. 82 “Macarena” – inexplicably down from its No 1 ranking in 1996.)

And neither television’s Seinfeld at No. 1 (Seinfeld then announced that 1997 was the final season) or “Men in Black” on the big silver screen in 1997, are exactly cultural icons that pull us back. (Seinfeld fans will remember Art Vandelay, President of Vandelay Industries who was a Beerchaser-of-the-Month in this blog in 2014.)

Art Vandelay – President of Vandelay Industries

But if you look at a chronology of significant events occurring in December of that year from “On This Day.com” besides those below which I thought were interesting, you’ll find five references to Latrell Sprewell – shown following the vivid description of TC itself:

12/1 – “Howard Stern Radio Show” premiers on Davenport Iowa radio station KORB.

12/11 – Delegates from 150 industrial nations attending a UN climate conference in Kyoto, Japan, reach agreement to control heat-trapping greenhouse gases. (Obviously, we’ve made incredible progress….!!?? See note at the end of the post)

*6 Map of Parties to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol – Orange and Red are not parties.

12/17 – Saturday Night Live Comedian, Chris Farley, died of an overdose of a combination of cocaine and morphine, commonly known as a “speedball.”

Embed from Getty Images

12/29 – Hong Kong begins slaughtering all its chickens to prevent bird flu. (I guess this taught us a lot about containing pandemics….)

12/31 – More Swedes died than were born in 1997 – 1st time since 1809. (I couldn’t resist that one….)

The Actual Incident

But before listing the Sprewell items, let’s look at a detailed description of the incident as described in the subsequent 2001 US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decision in Spreewell v Golden State Warriors:

“Tensions between Sprewell and Carlesimo climaxed during a closed-door practice on December 1, 1997, during which Carlesimo told Sprewell to pass the ball to a teammate for a quick shot. Despite Sprewell’s contention that he passed the ball ‘admirably, as one would expect of an All-Star,’ Carlesimo rebuked Sprewell for not putting more speed on his pass.

When Carlesimo subsequently repeated his criticism, Sprewell slammed the ball down and directed several expletives at Carlesimo. Carlesimo responded with a similar showing of sophistication. Sprewell immediately either walked or lunged at Carlesimo and wrapped his hands around Carlesimo’s neck. With his arms fully extended, Sprewell moved Carlesimo backwards, saying ‘I will kill you’

Carlesimo offered no resistance. Sprewell grasped Carlesimo’s neck for approximately seven to ten seconds — the time it took for other players and coaches to restrain Sprewell. Sprewell then left the practice floor, saying ‘trade me, get me out of here, I will kill you,’ to which Carlesimo countered, ‘I am here.'”

Note: The above images are courtesy of Paul Eide, the creator and author of a great sports blog (I-80 Sports Blog). It covers all major sports and is a wonderful source of articles and opinions.

Paul is a freelance journalist since 2000 and has had his work published via AskMen, Sports Illustrated, Bleacher Report, Busted Coverage, and Autotrader. You should check it out and subscribe to his e-blast. His description of The Choke can be accessed at the link above.

As promised, the December, 1996 Sprewell Chronology from the LA Times Archives:

* Dec. 1– Sprewell attacks Carlesimo at a practice; the Golden State Warriors suspend Sprewell without pay for at least 10 games.

* Dec. 3 –The Warriors terminate Sprewell’s $32 million contract.

* Dec. 4 — The NBA suspends Sprewell for one year, with Commissioner David Stern saying, “A sports league does not have to accept or condone behavior that would not be tolerated in any other segment of society.”

* Dec. 5 — The Players’ Association files grievances against the NBA and the Warriors (on behalf of Spreewell).

* Dec. 9 — In his first public comments on the attack, Sprewell says his conduct was unacceptable. “I am a good person and I’ve never had any situation like this come up before,” he says. “I feel 10 years of hard work shouldn’t be taken away for one mistake. My career didn’t happen overnight and I don’t feel it should be taken away overnight.”

* Dec. 10 — “With six former teammates behind him and famed attorney Johnnie L. Cochran Jr. at his side, fired pro basketball star Latrell Sprewell apologized publicly Tuesday to his former coach for choking him last week.” (emphasis added) Buffalo News 1/10/1996

What’s somewhat both ironic and humorous – as are a lot of elements of this story – is Johnnie Cochran serving as a member/advisor of his legal team. That’s because Sprewell then made a comment in a January 23, 1997 interview with the New York Post stating: (LA Times Archives)

“I’m not as bad as everyone has made me out to be. It’s as if I’m another O.J. Simpson. Yes, I was wrong, but I didn’t kill anybody. I’m not a double murderer.” (Emphasis added)

The Law Firm Connection

Readers who have made it this far may be asking, “Okay Beerchaser, so what’s the link with the law firm and the Sprewell arbitration that you’ve mentioned?” In the next post, I will go into detail about the interactions and logistics of that multi-day hearing, but first, why did they select Schwabe’s Portland office as the site?

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.

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 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. and most importantly, secure facilities to prevent media and interested fans from interfering or disrupting the proceedings.

The late Mike Fennel, was a Schwabe associate attorney after he graduated from law school in 1983 and subsequently spent five years as one of the Trail Blazer’s outside counsel at another firm doing primarily basketball related work.

When the Trail Blazers decided to build the Portland Rose Garden, they wanted to have an in-house General Counsel and Mike’s experience with the basketball side made him the prime candidate.

Mike Fennell – an outstanding lawyer and gentleman *13

In 1992 he became the first in-house General Counsel for an NBA team as Senior Vice President/General Counsel for the Trail Blazers from 1992 to October 2012. During his time at the Blazers, he assisted with all of the Trail Blazers legal matters including providing support on player contract negotiations, other team-related issues and the building of the Moda Center. Additionally, he served as General Counsel for other Paul Allen affiliates that operated in Portland.

Mike contacted us at Schwabe towards the end of 1997 and asked if we would be willing to discuss hosting the hearings. We agreed to negotiate the details with the NBA and Players’ Association. Those discussions and the following negotiations on the logistics were some of the most stimulating I experienced in my twenty-five years at the firm.

In the next post, I’ll also make a tribute to Mike who passed away far too young (61) in December 2018 after being diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s in 2014.

Note in Closing on the Kyoto Protocol and Beyond…..

Climate change is a critical global issue (among many these days). As stated in a 3/1/22 article entitled ” Another Troubling Climate Report:”

“A highly anticipated report from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concluded there is a ‘brief and rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a livable and sustainable future for all.’ It warned of certain ‘tipping points’ that could increase climate risks if global temperatures exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels (it’s already increased 1.1 degrees).”

How effective was the Kyoto Protocol? According to an October, 2020 post from Earth.org.

“The U.S. was originally part of the agreement, but dropped out in 2001 due to the concern of an economic turndown. George Bush, the former US president, stated that complying with the Protocol would mean limiting the country’s growth and argued that there could be other ways to cut emissions without harming the economy.

When Canada withdrew in 2011, many thought the Protocol had failed. A year later, estimates showed a 20% drop in developed countries emissions (vis-à-vis 1990 levels). Despite global emissions rising by an overall 38% over the same period, Kyoto Protocol’s effect remains significant.

…It is more reasonable to see the Kyoto Protocol as a first step toward a greater international commitment to reversing greenhouse gas emissions and climate change.”

Fortunately, the Paris Agreement, adopted by 196 Parties and effective on 4 November 2016, is now a legally binding international treaty on climate change.

“The Paris Agreement is a landmark in the multilateral climate change process because, for the first time, a binding agreement brings all nations into a common cause to undertake ambitious efforts to combat climate change and adapt to its effects.”

On January 20, 2021 – his first day in office – President Biden signed the instrument to bring the United States back into the Paris Agreement.

* 14 The Paris Agreement – Blue = Parties, Yellow = Signatories, Black = Parties also covered by European Union ratification

Cheers

External Photo Attribution

*1 (https://www.amazon.com/Last-Innocent-Man-Ed-Harris/dp/B000CN9VS2)

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

*3 Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Madonna_Rebel_Heart_Tour_2015_-_Stockholm_(23051472299)_(cropped).jpg) Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license. Author: chrisweger 14 November 2015.

*4 Public Domain – Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Seinfeld.svg) 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.

*5 Public Domain – Wikimedia Common (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Men_In_Black_logo.png) 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. Author: Universal Orlando – 1997.

*6 Public Domain – Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kyoto_Protocol_parties.svg) I, the copyright holder of this work, release this work into the public domain. This applies worldwide. Author: User:Canuckguy, User:Danlaycock – 2 October 2014.

*7 I-80 Sports Blog (https://i80sportsblog.com/latrell-sprewell-chokes-pj-carlesimo/)

*8 Wikimedia Commons: (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:P._J._Carlesimo_2015_cropped.jpg) Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. Author: MavsFan28 – 26 September 205.

*9 Latrell Sprewell Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/123246144405531/photos/pb.100042176306027.-2207520000../123246191072193/?type=3)

*11 Public Domain – Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Basketball.png) This work has been released into the public domain by its author, Reisio. This applies worldwide. Author: Reisio 26 January 2006.

*12 Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rockefeller_Park_td_(2019-03-09)_101_-_Basketball_Courts.jpg) Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. Author: Tdorante10 9 March 2019.

*13 Oregon Live (https://obits.oregonlive.com/us/obituaries/oregon/name/michael-fennell-obituary?id=15737681)

*14 Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ParisAgreement.svg) Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. Author: L.tak 22 April 2016.

Yoking “The Choke” – Part I

Posted on February 13, 2022 by Thebeerchaser

Large urban law firms typically are housed on the upper floors of majestic skyscrapers with expansive views and have very impressive trappings – from the client reception area, to conference rooms, to the lawyers’ offices.

Schwabe Williamson & Wyatt PC, my law firm for twenty-five years – I retired in 2011 as the Chief Operating Officer – was no exception. When I left in 2011, the six floors occupied in the Pac West Center on floors 15-20 had a total footprint of just under 120,000 square feet.

They were well designed and scrupulously maintained – Schwabe took pride in the impression it presented. The Portland office was the anchor of our five other offices.

Legal economics and the pandemic have forced a dramatic change in professional service firms’ space configuration, however. For many large firms, the days of the expansive and plush partner offices are history.

For example, at Schwabe, associates and partners now have the same size and smaller offices except where the prior configuration precluded that such as in some corner offices.

Law libraries, which once housed hundreds of bound volumes, are skeletons of their prior capacity. While there are still some hard-bound volumes, case-law and written legal authority is primarily accessed from the lawyer’s office on-line. And oftentimes, word-processing and copy centers are now outsourced or located off-site in less expensive remote space.

This situation was exacerbated with COVID. Law offices locked-down and lawyers found out that working from home provided some real advantages – like working in sweats and the daily “commute” reduced to walking from the kitchen to the home office twenty-feet away – usually with coffee and pastry in hand.

What transpires, post-pandemic, in office leases is speculative, but most firms will probably reduce their space as hybrid arrangements replace the traditional fully-occupied model and the demand to reduce overhead expense continues. That said, most large firms will still have imposing reception areas and client conference areas.

Famous Visitors!

Schwabe’s location and the quality and configuration of its facilities resulted in two major external requests to use its space in 1987 and 1998. The results were interesting and memorable and I’ll relate the stories in the next few posts of Thebeerchaser. While they provided great anecdotes and some ancillary income to the firm, in retrospect, if you were in firm management, you wondered if it was worth the disruption.

The filming of some scenes of “The Last Innocent Man” movie in 1987 and hosting the three-day West Coast hearing of former NBA star, Latrell Spreewell’s arbitration in 1998, brought some well-known celebrities, athletes and coaches to our offices. The latter garnered not only national, but international attention.

Embed from Getty Images

*1 . (* external photo attribution at the end of this post)

Latrell Spreewell, who was drafted 24th in the 1994 NBA Draft by the Golden State Warriors, built a solid reputation in his first few years in the League as a shooting guard and small forward. He was selected for the Western Conference All-Star Team in 1994, 1995 and 1997 and ultimately four NBA All-Star Teams.

After the Warriors, he finished his “checkered career” in 2005 after stints on the New Work Knicks and the Minnesota Timberwolves. I state “checkered” – in part – because in 1997, this sizeable physical and athletic specimen at 6 feet, 5 inches and weighing in just under 200 pounds, proceeded to physically attack, choke and then punch his 6 foot 1 inch Warrior Coach, PJ Carlesimo at a practice session.

(Carlesimo was not only physically less imposing, but not as good a basketball player because this Fordham University guard went undrafted in the 1971 NBA draft…..)

“Sprewell was suspended for 10 games without pay. However, the next day, in the wake of a public uproar, the Warriors voided the remainder of his contract altogether, which included $23.7 million over three years, and the NBA suspended him for one year.” (Wikipedia)

Spreewell took the case to arbitration – the first step in a long line of litigation with the Warriors and the NBA. Schwabe hosted the first four days of this arbitration in our Portland office (the final four days were held in New York City) and in the next post, I will convey how we came to be the site of that hearing and some of the stories that surround it.

Lights Camera Action!

Phillip Margolin is a best-selling author of murder mysteries who until he started writing novels full-time in 1996, had a dynamic criminal law defense practice in Portland, Oregon.

He also had a solid reputation with Oregon State Bar members for his professional and civic activities including serving as President and Chairman of the Board of Chess for Success – a non-profit charity that uses chess to teach elementary and middle school children in Title I schools study skills

As stated in the biography on his website:

“…..I graduated from The American University in Washington, D.C. with a Bachelor’s Degree in Government. From 1965 to 1967, I was a Peace Corps volunteer in Liberia, West Africa. In 1970, I graduated from New York University School of Law. During my last two years in law school I went at night and worked my way through by teaching junior high school in the South Bronx in New York City.

My first job after law school was a clerkship with Herbert M. Schwab, the Chief Judge of the Oregon Court of Appeals. From 1972 until 1996, I was in private practice specializing in criminal defense at the trial and appellate levels. As an appellate attorney I have appeared before the United States Supreme Court, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, the Oregon Supreme Court and the Oregon Court of Appeals.

As a trial attorney, I handled all sorts of criminal cases in state and federal court and I have represented approximately 30 people charged with homicide, including several who have faced the death penalty. I was the first Oregon attorney to use the Battered Women’s Syndrome to defend a battered woman accused of murdering her spouse.”

I’ve read and thoroughly enjoyed all of the 27 books he’s written. The Last Innocent Man was his second novel and rated a 3.91 out of 4.00 on the Goodreads literary website. Like any major best seller, reviews vary such as the two below:

“This book was on the chronicles list of best ever thrillers… Inexplicably. It reads like it was written by a second grader and the only reason I finished it was because I was too lazy to get up off the beach.” (2010)

However, I shared the perspective of this reviewer:

“Like always, the Portland, Oregon Author does it again!!! Very fast paced and the Trial of the crime, always so Awesome!!!” (2020)

An HBO “Classic” – set in Portland *5

HBO decided to produce a movie on the novel which is based on a fictitious Portland attorney. I don’t recall exactly how – probably at the recommendation of Margolin who knows a number of Schwabe lawyers – the network approached us about using our Portland office to film several scenes.

We negotiated for the film-work to take place on nights and weekends and they used our law library and a partner’s office. Dick Templeman, our outstanding Director of Facilities and Support, remembers the location manager being “pretty demanding” but they left everything in good order, for example, repainting the library after they had transformed it into a color meeting their specifications.

When having preliminary talks with both the NBA and HBO, they advanced the assertion that having these events take place at the firm would enhance the firm’s status and reputation. One has to question, however, whether any potential clients would choose Schwabe just for the potential and unlikely opportunity to ride the elevator with co-stars Ed Harris and Roxanne Hart, both of whom continue to have good acting gigs in their early seventies.

That said, there may have been some clients and staff who would have loved to walk the halls and chat with Clarence Williams III (Linc Hayes of Mod Squad fame). In the movie, ee played D.J. Johnson and the only really memorable line uttered after he was advised he could remain silent, was: ” Fuck the right to remain in silence! Call Silverman!”

“Linc Taylor” passed away in 2021 at 81. *8

I have to admit that I never saw “The Last Innocent Man” (and will put it on my future list after “The English Patient”…), but what kind of critical acclaim did it garner? While getting six ACE (American Cinema Editors) nominations in 1988, it received no awards.

The IMDB (Internet Movie Data Base) reviewers were also not overly impressed and it chalked up 6.3 out of 10.0 Typical of the reviews was this 2002 comment captioned “Mediocre Perry Mason Stuff”:

“The Last Innocent Man” is a predictable, by-the-numbers journeyman tv flick with Harris playing a top criminal attorney. In it’s somewhat long two-hour run time, this-jack-of-all-trades-and-master-of-none flick, manages to squeeze in murder, investigation, trial, romance, sex, dirty cops, a pimp, a sting, a crazed killer, etc. without distinguishing itself in any particular way. Filler for late night cable”.

To show how culture has changed in thirty-four years, it should be noted that one rating database stated, “Warning to the faint of heart, this movie does contain a few nude/sex scenes!”

And if trying to decide whether to view it, I would not be persuaded by this somewhat ludicrous remark from a guy who had a “formidable” bias with his comment captioned, “I Was in This Movie”

“This excellent movie was filmed in Portland……A thriller to say the least with twists and turns. A must see. (I can be seen walking past Meshach Taylor (Crosby) at the motel murder scene, as I walk out of camera, I shun a reporter. I was a plain clothes detective (extra))”.

Now, I’m old enough to remember the comedy (1986-93) in which Meshach Taylor won an Emmy, but those who weren’t, will have to click on this link.

In Closing…..

Before devoting the next Beerchaser post strictly to the Spreewell arbitration, I have to add one more story about Phil Margolin. Two years ago, I read Fugitive – one of his novels taking place in Portland that I had previously skipped.

One of the primary characters is a senior deputy district attorney, named Mike Greene – the boyfriend of protagonist, Amanda Jaffe, a criminal defense lawyer. I thought I remembered this character from a few of the other Margolin mysteries.

Mike Greene is one of my favorite Portland lawyers. Now retired, he was a national authority on legal malpractice and diabetes discrimination matters. We go to the same church and based on his work with the American Diabetes Association (Chair of the National Board of Directors from 1994 to 1995 and continued involvement since 1982), I asked him to speak to the firm about the disease.

Greene formed a legal advocacy program to fight discrimination on behalf of people with diabetes. He and former Portland Trailblazer, Chris Dudley, who also is a diabetic and active in this work, gave an impressive presentation. (Dudley also created the Chris Dudley Foundation, an Oregon-based group intended to improve the lives of diabetic children.)

(Greene top and Margolin bottom *10 -11)

Now the Portland Bar is a “small community” and Mike is about the same vintage as Phillip Margolin, so I e-mailed him and told him I was reading Margolin’s book, stating:

“I know that a number of novelists name characters after friends and/or colleagues and this seemed to be more than a coincidence.”

He responded:

”Phil has been a friend for decades. I purchased at a Diabetes Auction, the privilege of Phil using my name. He liked the name and character he created to use the name. I am now in five of his books. What a purchase? A piece of immortality? It’s fun. I have been asked about this by many people over the years.”

So if you are reading any of the following Margolin novels, look for Mike Greene: Wild Justice (2000), Ties that Bind (2003), Proof Positive (2006), Fugitive (2009) and Violent Crimes (2016)!

Cheers!

External Photo Attribution

*1 (https://www.ebay.com/itm/363658716932?chn=ps&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-117182-37290)

* 2 Wikimedia Commons: (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:P._J._Carlesimo_2015_cropped.jpg) Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. Author: MavsFan28 – 26 September 205

*3 Wikimedia Commons (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phillip_Margolin#/media/File:Phillip_Margolin_cut.jpg) Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license. Author: UAwiki – 11 November 2011.

*4. Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/183404631782669/photos/pb.100050566242576.-2207520000../3564642426992189/?type=3)

*5 (https://www.amazon.com/Last-Innocent-Man-Ed-Harris/dp/B000CN9VS2)

*6 Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ed_Harris_by_Gage_Skidmore.jpg) Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. Author: Gage Skidmore – 22 July 2017.

*7 https://alchetron.com/Roxanne-Hart

*8 Public Domain – Wikimedia Commons (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarence_Williams_III#/media/File:Clarence_Williams_III_Mod_Squad_1971.JPG) Publicity photo of Clarence Williams III from the television program The Mod Squad. This work is in the public domain in the US because it was published in the US between 1927 and 1977, inclusive, without a copyright notice.

*9 Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Meshach_Taylor_in_NY2011_photo_by_lia_chang.jpg) Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. Author: Lia Chang -17 May 2011.

*10 (http://rgdpdx.com/michael-greene/)

*11 (https://www.phillipmargolin.com/about-phillip-margolin.php)

January’s Jumbled Thoughts

Posted on January 29, 2022 by Thebeerchaser

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

The events of the last two years – most notably the pandemic, have generated profound changes – in economics, culture, politics, media, communications and interpersonal relationships as well as education – to name a few. (*1 See end of post for external photo attribution)

And, in part, due to the stress and the unfortunate influence of social media (except for blogs….) there is a spate of irrational thought as the chorus in Billy Currington’s song states:

“God is great, beer is good
And people are crazy.”

One wonders about those who question the need for masks and the debate has caused a lot of strife. It made me think back to one of my favorite childhood TV shows – the Lone Ranger.

Perhaps those who oppose masks and don’t believe in the scientists’ assertions, could protest by adopting the legendary Texas Ranger’s – facial adornment as shown below rather than an N95 mask or suitable alternative. (The people in Texas might approve of this style.)

Clayton Moore and Silver – “Master of Disguise?” *2

And what struck me as somewhat humorous is that the description of the Lone Ranger’s attributes on Wikipedia listed “Expert marksman, above-average athlete, horseman, hand-to-hand combat, and master of disguise.” (emphasis added) This raises several questions I never thought about in the “50’s such as “Did he just make the University of Texas RodeoTeam, but not get into the starting roster and therefor was only considered above average?”

More importantly, “Did Clayton Moore and the Directors really think that this mask, which he always wore (even without a mask mandate), would keep most people from surmising who wore it? What about this facial covering makes him a “Master of Disguise?”

Statistics

COVID has also resulted in a need to redirect the emphasis of Thebeerchaser blog from exploring new bars and breweries – at least until the statistics trend downward. But, in pondering the pandemic, I offer a few thoughts – and questions.

Although it is vital that they are monitored, we’re all tired of hearing about trends for the virus – statistics which are always filled with nuance and disclaimers. And then, a new variant springs up. I don’t know as many statistician jokes as lawyer or bar jokes, but this one is pretty good and also works in a bar theme:

“A guy met a statistician at a bar and asked her for her phone number. She gave him an estimate.”

We made it through 2020 – a horrible year and as 2021 closed, most people thought, “We are out of the woods,” only to have Omicron start a new and more contagious surge. This prompted one guy to ask rhetorically, “Omicron is like eternity. When is it going to end?”

And one empathizes with parents, teachers and students as education has been turned inside out. One wonders if grade school kids are now going to have to learn the Greek Alphabet — and what it will look like in cursive?

There are other crazy news items including this one which most people wouldn’t comprehend. And as can be seen below, it wasn’t just because of COVID, but a repeat annual record. (Maybe I just have more time to read this type of valuable information since the lockdowns and constraints on traveling.)

“Spam sales hit a record high for the seventh year in a row, the CEO of parent Hormel said.” It appears that this is because of global sales:

“Outside the (Continental) US, Spam has a large international market, especially in the Asia-Pacific region. It has been a household name in Hawaii since it was introduced in 1937. It can be found on menus across the islands, as Spam musubi – a sushi-like dish – Spam fried rice, and the popular breakfast – Spam, eggs, and rice.

In South Korea, it was introduced by the US army during the Korean War, when food was scarce. Today, Spam is so much a part of South Korean culture, that it is the staple ingredient in one of the country’s favorite dishes: budae jjigae, or army stew.”

And if you would like to personally take in all the facts about this pork product, take a trip to Austin, Minnesota where the Spam Museum is located and admission is free!

“The museum tells the history of the Hormel company, the origin of Spam, and its place in world culture. Austin is also the location of final judging in the national Spam recipe competition.”

What Were They Thinking???

But perhaps the most bizarre event I’ve read about occurred recently in my own city – Portland, Oregon. It made papers ranging from The Oregonian to the New York Times to The Guardian. It begs the question, “What were these people (a lot of them in different roles) thinking?”

Fact Situation:

98-year old David Saunders, a World War II and Korean war veteran who lived in Louisiana with his 92-year-old wife, died from the coronavirus.
His wife donated the body to Med Ed Labs, a Las Vegas based company and is told it would be used for research with the cremated remains returned to her in an urn.
Med Ed sells the body to another company – Death Science for use in a “Cadaver Lab Class” held during the Oddities and Curiosities Expo, an annual traveling event marketed toward “lovers of the strange, unusual and bizarre.”
Death Science sells tickets for an autopsy to be held at a downtown Portland hotel with tickets ranging from $100 to $500 per person.
The hotel, originally scheduled, finds out about the plan and backs out, whereupon the Portland Downtown Marriott ends up holding the event. Seventy people watched a “certified anatomist – a former University of Montana professor – handle the remains with ‘utmost respect’ and take questions from people in the audience representing themselves as students, anthropologists, and therapists, (New York Times)

Perhaps the Manager of the Downtown Mariott took an overly broad interpretation of the corporation’s mission statement: “To enhance the lives of our customers by creating and enabling unsurpassed vacation and leisure experience.”

Understandably, there was a lot of finger-pointing by all parties involved and both law enforcement and regulatory agencies from Multnomah County and the State of Oregon are investigating. And then there’s the future law suits…….

Drinking…

And since this is a blog that usually deals with bars and breweries and the beverages consumed therein, I will end with some more statistics, recent events and an observation or two.

The pandemic has obviously affected the work environment and work habits of millions of Americans. While some workers prefer the remote environment and not having to either dress for or commute to work, it creates stress if their home workspace is small and has to be shared with family members. Conversely, in many cases, it creates a more relaxed and informal workplace.

An Oregon Live article published in April 2020, was entitled, “Almost half of Oregonians are drinking while working at home during coronavirus pandemic:”

“Beer is their drink of choice over cocktails, according to Alcohol.org, but that’s probably little consolation to corporate bigwigs….Advertising and marketing agency employees had the highest percentage of employees answering with ‘Yes’, with 49.14%,’ Fishbowl (a social network for employees) reported…..

The larger Fishbowl survey showed workers in North Carolina, Oregon and Connecticut were the biggest drinkers, each with 47% partaking on the job.”

Having worked in a law firm environment, I can see where a gin and tonic could help a lawyer’s attitude when trying to formulate a creative justification for the taking clause in an eminent domain case or construct a Daubert motion to exclude expert testimony.

However, this is a disturbing trend and it remains to be seen how companies will implement policies on working on/off site once the pandemic is over.

Philippine-stock-market-board

And one article asked, “What’s more embarrassing—a drunk text or a drunk trade? Nearly one-third of investors, and 59% of Gen Z investors, have traded while inebriated, according to a survey from consumer finance site MagnifyMoney.” *9

And so Oregonians don’t get overly concerned about the statistics above, (after all, the survey was taken during a global pandemic) consumption by those in Oregon pales in comparison to Australia and France as set forth in this fascinating piece from The Guardian – 12/3/2021 with the caption:

“Risky levels – Australia is the drunkest country in the world, survey finds — While French drank most times a week, Australians surveyed got drunk an average of 27 times a year, almost double the global average.”

It begs the question, “Were respondents sober enough to give an accurate answer to the questions?” The results are summarized below:

The international survey found Australians drank to the point of drunkenness an average of 27 times a year, almost double the global average of 15. Almost a quarter of Australians reported feeling regret for becoming intoxicated.

The Global Drug Survey (GDS) asked more than 32,000 people from 22 countries what their drug and alcohol consumption was last year….(the majority of participants tend to be young and the findings are not representative of the wider population).

On average, Australians drank alcohol in line with the global average of two nights a week, and became heavily drunk about once every two weeks. The French topped that metric, drinking around three times a week.”

What’s interesting is how time (and booze) ebb and flow. For example, in October 2020 during the first year of the pandemic, I read a headline, “Millions of kegs of beer have gone stale as venues and bars closed down across the country, Bloomberg reports.”

“While some companies have found creative ways to turn the beverage into natural gas for electricity generation or into hand sanitizer, a majority of it will ultimately be dumped—a college fraternity’s worst nightmare.” *12

800px-Kegs_in_Bristol

Fortunately, offsetting the statistics on increased alcoholic consumption as COVID raged, is a new trend addressed in an ABC News article (3/15/21) entitled, “New wave of bars creates buzz without the booze. Alcohol-free bars are opening around the world amid a growing number of people exploring sobriety”

I have often said that I could pursue my hobby and “Beerchase” while drinking Sprite or soda water, because I primarily want to discover the ambiance and history of the bar or brewery. For example, on my 2019 solo road trip through Montana where I hit 29 watering holes in six days, you better believe I did not consume a Budweiser at each stop.

The Multnomah Whiskey Library Might be Hard to Replicate with Non-acholic Cocktails….

Concepts such as Zero-Proof Therapy explained in a fascinating New Yorker article “An Ex-Drinker’s Search for a Sober Buzz” and Dry Januarys are becoming more prevalent. The same article stated:

“But an increased interest in health and wellness has allowed brands to try to own the practice of moderation. A 2019 Nielsen survey found that 66% of millennials are trying to cut back on alcohol consumption, compared with 47% of all people of drinking age in the US.” (“Marketing Brew” Newsletter – 9/27/21)

In addition, alcohol-free beers and cocktails are starting to appear. For example, Heineken started marketing its “0.0” beer in the US in 2019 and a senior marketing rep stated “…the Heineken brand is spending nearly half its US media budget in 2021 on marketing 0.0.”

Brewing a great tasting 0.0% alcohol free malt beverage, is it even possible? *13

If your preference is for ready to-drink cocktails rather than beer, check out this Thrillist article entitled “Our Favorite Non-Alcoholic Canned Cocktails.”

And before those of you who prefer a high ABV beer get too concerned with this trend, you can finish this post with some reassurance as reported by “CNN Business:”

“Samuel Adams is launching a new, limited edition beer, (‘Utopias’) and it packs such a potent punch it’s illegal in 15 states.”

Although your buzz ((28% ABV) will be expensive, since the limited edition’s suggested retail price is $240 for 25.4-ounce bottle!

Finally – you know it’s really too late for Dry January in 2022, but February only has 28 days…..

Cheers

2020- Pam draw 2

External Photo Attribution

*1 Public Domain – Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f6/AntiCoronaShield.png) This file is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication – 8 April 2020.

*2 Public Domain – Wikimedia Commons (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lone_Ranger#/media/File:Lone_ranger_silver_1965.JPG) This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published in the United States between 1927 and 1977, inclusive, without a copyright notice. Author: Pleasure Island – 2 August 2011.

*3 Public Domain – Wikimedia Commons: (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Omicron_uc_lc_2.svg) File is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication. Author: Miguel C. Ventura -15June2015.

*4 (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Spam_2.jpg) Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. Attribution: Cypher789 (Bodo Akdeniz) – 7 November 2005.

*5 (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Spam_Museum_Sign.JPG) Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. Author: Darb02 -16 March2016.

*6 Public Domain – Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Autopsy_Room_at_Indiana_Medical_History_Museum.png) The copyright holder of this work, release this work into the public domain. This applies worldwide. Author: Huw Williams 29 July 2010.

*7 Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Instrumental_para_autopsia_Jetter_%26_Sheerer,_Tuttlingen,_1940.jpg) Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. Author: Pablo de otto 18 August 2020.

*8 Public Domain – Wikimedia Commons – PacWest Center (icensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license. Author: Cacophony 18 June 2006.

*9 Wikimedia Commons (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stock_market#/media/File:Philippine-stock-market-board.jpg) By Katrina.Tuliao – Flickr, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=12262407

*10 Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Reliefmap_of_Australia.png) Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic license. Author: Hans Braxmeier – 15 January 2008.

*11 Wikimedia Commons (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/France#/media/File:France_base_map_18_regions.png By Chessrat at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=50060468.  Author: User:Chessrat, User:Rosss, User:Sting 28 December 2015.

* 12 Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kegs_in_Bristol.jpg) Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. Author: Tiia Monto 3 August, 2018.

*13 Heinekin ‘0.0’ Facebook Page (https://www.facebook.com/heineken0.0ru/photos/a.106680548076221/1066813180761440

FDW (Part IV) An “Intelligence” Friend and Go West Young Family…..

Posted on January 15, 2022 by Thebeerchaser

Late last year, I decided to honor my Dad (and Mom) as Beerchaser-of-the-Quarter. The first post told about their courtship and marriage in New York City in the 1940’s and the start of a family in Long Island.

This was followed in the second post by some details about moving to Philadelphia when I was one and subsequently to Madeira Ohio – a burb of Cincinnati on my fourth birthday. We lived there for eight years until we moved to Oregon in 1960.

As I mentioned in the third installment, I grew up as a typical skinny, middle-class kid with an older sister and two younger brothers who were blessed with great parents.

Other than getting raw sewage in our house when there was a substantial downpour and my one-time adventure in which I ill-advisedly “explored” the sanitary sewer with my wonderful best friend, Nelson “Nuthin” Kennedy in fifth grade – my life in Ohio was ideal.

As I mentioned in my last post, Nelson was a West Point grad – Class of ’70 and a key factor in my late brother, Garry, becoming a USMA grad in 1972. Nelson went on to have a great 27-year career at Procter and Gamble – first as a production manager and then in quality assurance. (If you have questions, you can ask him about Pampers, Luvs, Tide, Cheer, Bold, Era and Gain….)

And Nelson never was a person to sit idly by, so when he retired in 2002, he first started driving a school bus and then advanced to 18-wheelers for eight years until 2019. Then “as a lark” he was hired part-time in a local Kroger store in the meat department – as I expected, he loves interacting with customers.

(It also and brings back memories of his Senior Year at the Academy where he told the Plebes that they were “raw meat” – especially during Beast Barracks).

Rudy Rousseau and the Central Intelligence Agency

I digress for a bit, but I had another good friend who lived two houses away from us in Madeira – a very interesting story. Rudy was two years older than I (a classmate of my sister, Lynne) and a big kid. We used to play baseball and were in a neighborhood chess club.

We lost touch when I moved to Oregon although Nelson remembers him as a very good high school athlete – excelling in baseball and football. (“He didn’t have good eyesight and his glasses always steamed up under his helmet”….)

(* External Photo Attribution at end of Post)

I didn’t think about Rudy until over forty years later – in 2004 while working at the Schwabe Williamson law firm in Portland. Attorney, Fred Hitz, a Harvard Law grad, had managed the firm’s two-person Washington DC office. He would periodically fly to Portland – most notably for firm retreats.

Before assuming that position, he worked two stints at the Central Intelligence Agency – the second one as Deputy Chief of Operations for Europe. In between, he served with distinction in the Departments of State, Defense and Energy.

After he left the firm, he was appointed in 1990 as the first statutory Inspector General for the CIA by President Bush. He left that post in 1998 and began a teaching career at the prestigious Woodrow Wilson School of Princeton University and the University of Virginia School of Law.

In 2004, he wrote a fascinating book entitled The Great Game – The Myths and Reality of Espionage:

“In this fascinating analysis, Frederick Hitz…contrasts the writings of well-known authors of spy novels—classic and popular—with real-life espionage cases. Drawing on personal experience both as a participant in ‘the Great Game’ and as Inspector General, Hitz shows the remarkable degree to which truth is stranger than fiction.” (Amazon)

He also wrote another book in 2008 entitled Why Spy – Espionage in an Age of Uncertainty.

I had read his book and heard that Fred was coming to Portland and talked him into giving a presentation to the City Club of Portland. I was privileged to introduce him and the crowd loved his narrative.

Afterwards, we were having a beer and for some reason I can’t recall – whether it was talking about Ohio or I had heard that Rudy might be working at the CIA – I asked Fred if he knew Rudy. His response was:

“Absolutely, I worked with him at the Agency and he is now the chief CIA Liaison to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and has had a great career at the Agency since 1982.”

I got Rudy’s contact information from Fred (can you imagine calling the CIA and just asking to speak to an agent……?) I then called Rudy and we planned to get together for a beer when I went to Washington DC on a forthcoming business trip.

Over the phone, we reminisced a bit about growing up in Madeira. Unfortunately, his job took him out of town when I was there. (He would have told me where he was traveling, but then he would have had to kill me…..)

In researching this post, I found out some more about my childhood neighbor and friend. Unfortunately, it included the fact that he passed away in 2018 at the age of 71. But it’s worth noting his story. Like Nelson, Rudy had an impressive educational and career resume:

Education: Graduated from Ohio University’s Honors College (Ohio Fellow). After an internship in the Secretary of State’s office in Washington, he studied at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, spending a summer researching his master’s thesis in Ibadan, Nigeria.

He returned to Washington as a Congressional Fellow, completed his doctorate at the Fletcher School, and worked for Senator James Pearson of Kansas, drafting the Amateur Athletic Act.

Career: From 1974 to 1981 he worked for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, handling foreign economic aid and traveling extensively in Asia, Africa, and Central America. In 1982, he accepted a position at the Central Intelligence Agency.

After 9/11, he served in the Counterterrorism Center, preparing the Agency’s response to the 9/11 Commission. Retiring from CIA in 2006, he taught in Georgetown University’s International Security Studies Program.

While searching for the 9/11 Commission testimony, I was fascinated to find a video on C-SPAN from the hearing in which Rudy, with five other CIA/FBI agents/execs, are grilled by the Commission on why their agencies had not been more proactive in anticipating this terrorist attack.

(His testimony comes at 2 hour, 3.5 minutes in.) The images below are from that hearing https://www.c-span.org/person/?1010552/RudolphRousseau.

I have to admit that while the topic before the Commission was very serious and the questions grueling, I had to laugh at times remembering my youngest brother Rick’s early attempts to pronounce my buddy’s name. Rick would say, “Is Wudy Wooso coming over today?”

Rudy, like Fred Hitz and Nelson Kennedy, all served their County well and I’m proud to know these patriots.

The Road Trip of a Lifetime!

It may be more interesting to consider one of my grade school friend’s career as a “spook” so to speak, but let’s get back to the primary topic – my Dad. Both of my parents always tried to enhance our education with books

They gave us this set of the Great Books of the Western World – now in my home office (to the right of the VW Bus and clock and computer monitor in the photo below) when we were in high school. (I still plan to read all fifty-four volumes although I have to admit that I’m struggling even trying to attempt Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War which is only in volume 6…..) And I’ve already mentioned my art school debacle at the Cincinnati Art Museum, as just two examples.

And FDW was always a guy with big ideas so in the spring of 1959, he and Mom called a family meeting. They revealed plans to go on a “camping” trip that summer using a new Nimrod tent trailer pulled by our VW Bus (with the airline seat belts Dad had installed before they were standard issue in cars).

This was not going to be just a casual road trip, but one of ten + weeks, which would ultimately take two adults and four kids (and about 30 what was known then as AAA Trip-tiks and Travel Guides) from Cincinnati, Ohio to Ames, Iowa – where Dad was born – over the Continental Divide with multiple-say stops in Rocky Mountain and Yellowstone National Parks.

We then journeyed on to the Pacific Northwest where we’d visit Seattle and Portland – one of the most meaningful stops on the escapade. Then down through the Redwoods to San Francisco and the Southwest to Mesa Verde and Grand Canyon National Parks, across the Central Plains and ultimately back to Cincinnati.

And this trip lasted from mid-July until the end of September. You can imagine how long it took us to climb to the summit of the highway through the Rockies in a 36-horse power micro-bus with a six-person family and gear for the entire trip stowed in the tent trailer.

The family didn’t just roll through – we thoroughly explored the National Parks, for example a week at Rocky National Park and there were stops at virtually every “Hysterical” Marker” (as we named them midway through the trip) along the way.

We kids would go to every Park Ranger briefing or campfire and pick-up brochures on which we would be quizzed by Frannie during the long and boring stretches of highway (and there was no screen time in that era)! And FDW, who loved geology, would explain the formations and notable geological events which shaped the landscape.

Hysterical Marker – one of a countless number…*9

In the next post, I will give some more details from the trip – like living through the Great Yellowstone Earthquake (7.3 magnitude), but whether it was enduring a tour of the Willa Cather Center in Red Cloud, Nebraska, going on an all-day horseback ride on Specimen Mountain in Rocky Mountain National Park or walking through the barren volcanic ash of Craters of the Moon National Monument in Idaho where my sister, Lynne, lost her lunch in a lava tube, we shared those adventures as a family.

Note: Volcanic ash consists of fragments of rock, mineral crystals, and volcanic glass, created during volcanic eruptions and measuring less than 2 mm. One wonders if some geologist three-hundred years from now will find miniscule fragments of her crystallized taco vomit and wonder how and from what creature it emanated…… Lynne has kept her promise never to return to Craters of the Moon.

And none of us forgot riding the monorail at Disneyland, being enthralled with the grandeur of the Grand Canyon or the rich history of Mesa Verde National Park or traveling through the plains of Kansas on the way home. We did all of that on that ten-week journey.

You might ask, “If you didn’t get back until the end of September, what about school?” Well, that was the result of another family meeting which I will tell you about in the next FDW post. Needless to say, there were some negotiations with the Madeira School District.

External Photo Attribution

*1 https://www.classcreator.com/Madeira-OH-1964/class_profile.cfm?member_id=2264492

*2 C-Span (https://www.c-span.org/person/?42877/FrederickPHitz)

*3 Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:RS3J6300_(6839437296).jpg) Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license. Author: Miller Center – 13 Febuary 2007

*4 Public Domain – Wikimedia Commons: (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Seal_of_the_Central_Intelligence_Agency.svg) This image is a work of a Central Intelligence Agency employee, taken or made as part of that person’s official duties. As a Work of the United States Government, this image or media is in the public domain in the United States. Author: US Federal Government

*5 C-Span: https://www.c-span.org/person/?1010552/RudolphRousseau

*6 Crytome: http://cryptome.info/csp/spy004/spy004.htm

*7 Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kombi_(4300860191).jpg) Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license. Author: Diogo Rodrigues Gonçalves from São Bernardo do Campo, Brasil – 24 January, 2010.

*8 Wikimedia Commons – (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Family_camping_and_picnicking_at_John_Pennekamp_Coral_Reef_State_Park_(4876969528).jpg.) This work is from the Florida Memory Project hosted at the State Archive of Florida, and is released to the public domain

*9 https://history.nebraska.gov/visit/historic-sites

*10 Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cratersofthemoon2.jpg) Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. Author: Marc Heiden – 8/08.

*11 Public Domain – Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Symptoms-vomiting.jpg) This image is a work of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, part of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, taken or made as part of an employee’s official duties. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the image is in the public domain.

A Decade of Beerchasing!

Posted on January 5, 2022 by Thebeerchaser

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

I guess it is appropriate that my 300th post on Thebeerchaser blog be a celebration, of sorts – ten years of this retirement hobby – started in August 2011. My plans for a more formal gathering in the early fall were delayed by the pandemic and will be held in 2022.

Some Background

After first working in the public sector and then legal management for the the last thirty-years of my career – the final twelve as the Chief Operating Officer at the Schwabe Williamson & Wyatt law firm – a 150 attorney firm with its principal office in Portland, Oregon, I retired in early 2011.

A retirement present from the firm – note the name of the wine which was appropriate….

Since I spent many of my waking hours working, there was some concern about how I would handle retirement. But from the first day, I loved it.

There has never been a boring period whether it was from trying to remaster the oboe – I had abandoned after junior high – with lessons, traveling with my wife of thirty-one (now forty-one) years, playing with the blessings to come – four granddaughters, enjoying the Oregon coast or what became my primary hobby – a blog named Thebeerchaser.com.

The seed germinated before retirement was sown with visits to two great dive bars – The Stanley Rod and Gun Whitewater Saloon in Stanley, Idaho and Lumpy’s Landing in Dundee, Oregon. It prompted the crazy idea to personally experience and then tell the story of bars and breweries – initially just in Portland – but shortly thereafter, all through Oregon and parts of the US and even a number in Europe.

The books and bar guides shown in the picture at the start of this post, are some of the references I used in framing my posts.

So Thebeerchaser.com was brewed – starting slowly and with the help of two wonderful and talented friends who created the two logos I’ve used (Teresa Maclean and Jud Blakely), I slowly (and often painfully) learned how to use WordPress to convey the impressions on my subject.

It was not a technical commentary on my favorite beverage, but narratives on the history of the bar or brewery, interviews with the regulars and bar staffs, descriptions of the trappings and what distinguished the ambiance from other watering holes.

Early on, I also decided to relate the stories of individuals or groups (primarily those I knew personally) who may not have had any connection with bars or beers, but had an interesting story and made a notable contribution to society in my humble opinion. These soon came to be “honored” with the moniker of Beerchaser-of-the-Quarter.

This is an eclectic group and past recipients include lawyers (some worked at the Schwabe firm), authors, athletes, clerics, musicians, environmentalists, military heroes, academicians and athletes.

Also three family members – Janet, my wife, in part, for supporting and joining me on many of my Beerchasing travels, my brother, Rick, for his remarkable career in the Navy which culminated as skipper of the nuclear sub USS Spadefish (SSN 668) and most recently, my Dad (F. Duane Williams – FDW), who although he passed away at the age of 54 in 1973, left a notable legacy.

For a composite list of these remarkable individuals and groups and some additional background, check out the following Beerchaser link for the 2020 post entitled, “Beerchasers-of-the-Quarter (Who,What,Why? – thirty-five at that time.

Since I have expanded on my tribute to lawyers with multiple posts and composed several chapters to my Dad’s story in 2021, the count now is thirty-six which I hope to expand more diligently in 2022.

Some Statistics

Not once have I considered commercializing this blog – it’s strictly a hobby, so I don’t have to worry about deadlines, number of viewers, etc. That said, since I worked in a law firm for twenty-five years where statistics translated into economics i.e. compensation, I do have some interest in the metrics of my blog.

I will also freely admit that my posts are usually too long – they average 1,677 words for the ten years, but for the last five the average has increased to 2,136 and this one is over 3,000 (sorry!), which discourages most viewers from reading the entire post – even with the pictures scattered through the narrative. But this trend, probably won’t change since I’m writing primarily for my own enjoyment after framing numerous legal management memos during my career that bored even me – the author!

And while Thebeerchaser.com is a hobby, I have been delighted with the additional exposure it has gotten every year which leads to more interactions with people from all over the world.

The Slammer – A Portland bar with barbwire….

My wife says I spend more time these days on the computer than when I worked and since my 299 posts have generated 501,485 words, she’s probably right. Unfortunately, the pandemic has essentially curtailed my visits to new locations since early 2020

Up to that time I had visited (usually twice for each one counted) 366 establishments of which 119 were in the Portland metro area and the other 247 scattered through God’s country and beyond. It’s almost impossible to identify a few favorite watering holes, but the photos above show four of them. In reviewing my galleries for this selection, I note with sadness that a number I could have included are no longer in business.

I also state – with disappointment – albeit with some anticipation, that in the last two years because of lockdowns and our own caution in dealing with COVID, I’ve added only nine premises to that total – seven in Portland and two in Bellingham, Washington – a very nice town we visited on a long weekend with lots of breweries, expansive parks and a nice college. At both the Boundary Bay and Aslan Breweries, we were able to eat on decks with plenty of ventilation and mask protocols. We will return!

Diverted, but not Diminished…

Instead, my blog posts have been devoted to catching up on the narratives of the forty-nine bars and breweries we visited on an extensive Montana road trip in 2019 – six days with Don flying solo and the remainder after I picked Janet up at the Billings Airport to continue our trip through the Dakotas, Wyoming and Idaho before returning to Oregon.

A wonderful 2019 road trip filled with watering holes and National Parks and Monuments

I also offered reflections on life during a worldwide pandemic, memories from high school and working around lawyers, sarcastic comments about technical reviews on beers, and updates on some of my Beerchasers-of-the-Quarter along with miscellaneous other trivia from my files – those that my wife insisted I clean out during the pandemic.

The blog now has 411 “followers” – individuals who get an e-mail every time there’s a new post. I also realize that my metrics pale compared to some of the blogs I regularly follow and have gotten to know the authors – something I will elaborate on in a future post.

In 2021 Thebeerchaser.com garnered a total of 28,500 views from just over 20,000 “visitors” – up from the comparable figures of 6,800 and 4,800 in 2012 – the first full year of the blog. The majority are people searching the internet and land on “Thebeerchaser.”

An increase in viewership through ten years

Although just over 90% of these views are from the US as one would expect, the exact localities in the 104 other countries where views have emanated in 2021, fill me with curiosity.

This includes three from Iceland – a place I hope to eventually visit and raise a mug of their Kaldi Fresh Breeze beer at the Micro Bar on Second Street in Reykjavik after seeing the Northern Lights.

Related Benefits

Besides the opportunity to quaff hundreds of great craft beers (although I will always opt for a PBR Tallboy), the blog has presented many other ancillary benefits. One I’ve written about numerous times is becoming involved in the planning of the Benedictine Brewery on the grounds of the Mount Angel Abbey and Seminary and which opened in late 2018.

The Brewery and St. Michael Taproom has since expanded and been very successful – even during a pandemic – under the skillful management and superb brewing skills of Fr. Martin Grassel, who has become a good friend. It also led to my service on the Abbey Foundation of Oregon Board of Trustees for which I just started my second three-year term.

The Benedictine Brewery – Taste and Believe!

I’ve also had the pleasure of speaking about my Beerchasing journey to four Rotary Clubs in Oregon – West Linn and Lincoln City in person and Lake Oswego and Bend over ZOOM – a new and challenging experience in public speaking – it was hard to tell if anyone was laughing at my bar and lawyer jokes…..During the in-person presentations, I, at least, knew that they weren’t!

Learning a lot of history and geography while researching the places I’m reviewing has been rewarding; however, the most beneficial and lasting aspect of this retirement pursuit (without question) has been the diverse range of people we’ve met while Beerchasing.

I met people ranging from loggers in Wallace, Idaho at the North Idaho Mountain Brew pub; to an Alaska fisherman – a guy in his fifties named Bill – at Darwin’s Theory in Anchorage, who in the ’70’s used to transport marijuana in the fenders of his big Lincoln across the country. And there was Irish Mike, who journeys twice yearly on his Harley from San Francisco, to Lincoln City, Oregon.

Irish Mike is a burly, bearded guy and designated the “local ambassador” at one of my favorite dives – The Old Oregon Saloon on the Central Oregon Coast. As I was taking pictures, he motioned me to come over to him, reached in his wallet for some dollar bills and told me to plug the juke box adding “Don’t screw it up!”

Irish Mike at the “Old O” in Lincoln City

Then there was the regular at Eilers’ Place in Pueblo, Colorado, who coincidentally happened to be in the bar with three friends after the bartender responded to my question about the history of the bar. She took out the photo below to demonstrate that the bar has always been a family oriented place and asked:

“You see that mama in the photo holding her baby – second from the end? Well that baby is sitting in the booth right over by the door.”

I went over and introduced myself and he shook hands and he said, “I’m James Mohorcich, but you should just call me ‘Horse.’ I live across the street and I’ve been coming here for at least forty years.”

One of the great bars in Pueblo, Colorado

I’ve met some wonderful bartenders and owners from Phoebe Newcombe – who gave me a baseball cap she autographed on my first Beerchase in 2011 at the Brooklyn Park Pub, to Andre’, from Macedonia, who had an infectious smile, a warm personality and joked with us notwithstanding a very busy bar at the Little Missouri Saloon in Medora, North Dakota.

On one of our East Coast swings we visited the Marshall Wharf Brewery in quaint Belfast. This Maine town of a little less than 7,000 was founded in 1770 and like our Portland, the name (derived from the Northern Ireland city) was determined by a coin toss.

There, Kathryn, our friendly bartender, went through the list of their brews (German beer is their specialty) and talked me into trying a German Rauchbier – a smoked malt beer – Marshall’s Deep Purple Rauchbier (6.0%). Beer Advocate described it as:

“Smoke on the water! This Bamberg (Germany) inspired smoked ale is Bacon in a Glass (emphasis added). Very polarizing beer – you either like the style and taste or you never want to drink it again…..”

I loved it. Of course, what food or drink with bacon infusion wouldn’t I savor…..?

I love the bars in Montana and won’t forget one of my favorite regulars of Thebeerchaser’s Tour – Fritz – who had his own stool at the Antler Saloon in Wisdom, Montana. About fifty miles away from that great bar, I had a long chat while nursing a Miller High Life with Tom Davis, the “seasoned” owner of the Wise River Club.

He emigrated from Scotland in 1964 and told me, “In those days if you had an accent and could sing, you could make some money.” He formed a band and played lead guitar. Tom and his group fronted and toured with Sonny and Cher, the Mamas and Papas and in the Northwest with Portland’s own Paul Revere and the Raiders.

And, by chance, when I walked in one late Saturday afternoon, after reading about them in the book “Montana Watering Holes,” I had a memorable and extended conversation with Dick and Charlotte Sappa, the legendary owners since 1973 of the Blue Moon Saloon in Columbus Falls, Montana.

It’s purported to have the longest bar in Montana and is known for its legendary taxidermy including a polar bear. I was fortunate to get a tour of the “Upper Room” – filled with exotic trophies – by their son, Bill – “something we don’t usually do for strangers……”

Three “Unforgettable Characters“!

I can’t end without naming three of the most unforgettable people I’ve met strictly as a result of this hobby – again hard to narrow the candidates down – but they stand out – John Runkle, the late Brian Doyle and Matt Love.

John Runkle, who up until one month ago, was the owner of my favorite and most iconic bar I visited in the ten years – the Dirty Shame Saloon in Yaak, Montana.

I spent two days in Yaak and stayed in the Wolf Room at the Yaak River Lodge which John still owns. (His goal is to move to Texas.) John has charisma and both a personality and heart as big as the Montana sky. (He also claims to be the only sixty-year old with three kids under five (four, two and three months!)

I met the late author, Brian Doyle, in 2013 after I wrote a letter and asked him to meet me at his favorite bar (the Fulton Pub) so I could interview him for Beerchaser-of-the-Quarter honors. To my surprise, he agreed. He was a wonderful human being who left a legacy at the University of Portland, where he was on the faculty, the basketball courts of the Boston City League and most notably fans of great literature. His award-winning books and essays are mentioned in the post I dedicated to him – Brian Doyle – Beerchaser Eternal

Runkle accepting a peace offering of Benedictine Beer

Matt Love, is a fellow Oregon City High School grad who lived in Oregon City during his junior high and high school years and graduated from OCHS in 1982. He is a prolific author (nineteen books) who owns the Nestucca Spit Press – a small publishing company. His repertoire, to name a few I’ve read, includes Oregon Tavern Age – an exploration of dive bars on the Oregon Coast – something Thebeerchaser relished.

Add to this list, “The Bonnie and Clyde Files – How Two Senior Dogs Saved a Middle-aged Man.” In 2009, he won the prestigious Oregon Literary Arts’ Stewart H. Holbrook Literary Legacy Award for his contributions to Oregon history and literature.

Matt and I after communicating by e-mail for several years, finally met last fall – joined by another OCHS grad – former Beerchaser-of-the-Quarter Jim Westwood at the Falls View Tavern.

Matt’s writing style, his humor and rich descriptions are especially evident in his 102-page tome on dogs entitled Of Dogs and Meaning.- it’s absolutely captivating – and I make that assertion even though Janet and I have never had a dog during our 41 years of marriage.

Besides Matt’s own heart-warming stories from athletics, teaching and most notably, of his own dogs – Sonny, Bonnie and Clyde, and Tex, he relates canine tales ranging from those involving George Washington, James Madison, John Kennedy, Barack Obama, Winston Churchill and WC Fields. And of course, his years in dive bars yield a few good anecdotes:

“I met a dog in an Oregon Tavern who fetched cans of Hamm’s for humans from behind the bar, but only Hamm’s. Budweiser was out.”

A Wonderful Book from the Nestucca Spit Press

Matt also has a big heart and compassion and respect for others. His latest project is a newsletter entitled “The New American Diaspora.” You can (and should) subscribe by clicking on the link:

“I coined the phrase the New American Diaspora to describe the growing phenomenon of those people living in homelessness and those people checking out of the so-called American dream and taking up residence in the margins.

The focus of this newsletter is on Oregon where I live. I float around the state. I don’t necessarily hold my observations and interactions out as representative of what’s happening elsewhere around the country, but perhaps they are.”

Say Goodnight, Geoff!!

For the finale and to further explain why Montana will always be my favorite Beerchasing state, I have to leave you with a tune by an affable old guy named Geoff at the Yaak River Tavern – across the street from the Dirty Shame Saloon (but no comparison on the ambiance). He was playing guitar and singing – on a bar stool at the bar – nursing one of a number of beers he had consumed that day/night and telling stories.

I told the owner that I was buying him a beer when he came in the next day (he didn’t need any more that night…) and to credit his account. So Geoff sang us his favorite song. This is an excerpt although it essentially captures all the lyrics in 19 seconds…. (When the lyrics have “palm trees,” “banana,” “beach” and “Montana” in the same verse, you know there’s creativity!)

Geoff Rocks Out

Cheers and Happy New Year!

External Photo Attribution

*1 – 2 Facebook Page – Micro Bar – Rekjavik, Iceland (https://www.facebook.com/MicroBarIceland/photos/a.305930982827754/30593102949441

*3 Kaldi Brewery Website (https://www.bruggsmidjan.is/is/bjorinn/kaldi)

*4 Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Moon_and_Aurora.jpg) Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. Author: Wa17gs 6 April 2017.

FDW – Part III – Don’t Go with the Flow!

Posted on December 19, 2021 by Thebeerchaser

Brother Garry and FDW on Eastern Oregon Trip

In the first two segments about my Dad – F. Duane Williams (FDW), I talked about how my parents met in New York City and then about our moves – first to Philadelphia and then to Madeira – a suburb of Cincinnati, Ohio.

The last post told some stories about Ohio which will help illustrate why he was such an outstanding person and role model as a Dad. https://thebeerchaser.com/2021/11/09/fdw-beerchaser-of-the-quarter-part-ii/

These continue below….:

The Trains

One of Dad’s best friends was a guy we called Uncle Charlie, who worked at Shillito’s Department Store – housed in a massive building in the heart of downtown Cincinnati which was also one of my Dad’s carpet sales accounts. Shillito’s was Cincinnati’s first department store – founded in 1830 and at one time, had sales exceeding those of its three largest competitors:

“Shillito’s, in addition to being Cincinnati’s largest department store, was a landmark of the city, and one of the oldest in the country.” (The Department Store Museum blog) (* See end of post for external photo attribution)

Charlie was a buyer for the Toy Department and one of the items he stocked (and got great pricing on) was Lionel Trains. Both my Dad and Charlie loved these trains which were noted for their craftsmanship:

“Lionel trains have been produced since 1900, and their trains drew admiration from model railroaders around the world for the solidity of their construction and the authenticity of their detail.

During its peak years in the 1950s, the company sold $25 million worth of trains per year.^[2] In 2006, Lionel’s electric train became the first electric toy inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame.”

Like many single-family homes in Ohio, we had a large basement. That’s where the laundry, freezer and my Dad’s carpet samples were stored. It was expansive, however, and there was still a lot of additional space.

So FDW built a very large wood “train table” – the plywood top of which must have had the dimensions of ten feet by eight feet for the Lionel trains.

He also built a second table with about the same dimensions for us to construct model airplanes and to play “war” with rubber soldiers – I remember it well. We spent hours in the basement. My Mom also used that table for crafts for the Cub Scout Den when Frannie served as Den Mother.

Every Christmas we would find multiple Lionel engines, passenger and freight cars, cabooses, accessories and additional track under our tree to add to the already impressive collection. Dad got more of a kick out of “Santa’s gift” than we did and Christmas day was always hours spent running the trains through their paces with him.

We still have those trains in great condition – now stored in a storage unit with hopes of eventually putting them into use again. Two of the images below are just a small portion of the inventory made a few years ago. (This led me to check out what exactly the “Electro Nuclear Devices” shown on the second page was – not as ominous as it sounds…..)

Basement Disruption….The “Flow”

Madeira, in the mid to late 1950’s, went through a growth spurt and the infrastructure was challenged to support new development. The Madeira City Public Works and Engineering Departments did not adequately plan for it.

It resulted in the storm sewers eventually being overwhelmed during severe storms and flowing into the sewer system. (Maybe not correct from an engineering standpoint, but my recollection as an ten-year old…)

So after living in our house for about six years or so, a few times each year, our basement was inundated with raw sewage – from 3 to 10 inches deep throughout the entire space. The implications from a health, property damage and livability standpoint were obvious although after the first few episodes, I’m sure that Dad put anything that would be damaged high enough to avoid the odiferous liquid sludge – not the case with appliances……

Rapid Growth Without Supporting Infrastructure *10

It was the result of a lot of new houses being built where the drains in their driveways flowed into the storm sewers – evidently without capacity. If you read the first two blog posts, you saw that FDW was not one to sit passively by, nor were a number of our neighbors on Miami Avenue who experienced the same periodic “shit show” in which excrement in the basement was not an exciting or anticipated event.

But the Mayor and City Council at the time were not inclined to deal with it. The solution would have cost the people in the houses contributing to the problem to pay for the upgrades required for the sewer system.

Although the City was responsible for correcting the problem, this was not a popular political solution especially when it was only a relatively small group of residents adversely affected. (I also noticed that the Madeira Historical Society does not cover this in their chronology…)

Fruitless discussions with the City’s representatives after one of the worst slime sorties, saw FDW make his move – one I still remember. Our entire family including the four kids age 2 to 8 and my mom along with a number of neighbors attended the City Council meeting where my Dad had signed up to testify.

He carried a very large shopping bag with him into the Council Chamber. When it was his time to address the Council, Dad slowly walked up to the witness table with the bag and ceremoniously extricated a bucket.

He sat there in silence for about 30 seconds allowing the pungent smell to circulate. Before returning to his seat in the audience, he then said:

“I thought you should see and smell, first-hand, what we’ve had in our basement for the last three days.”

One reason I remember this meeting over sixty years later is the stench from that bucket made a memorable impact on me and everybody at the meeting! Mayor Patton stammered an apology and said that they would work for a solution. (I don’t remember who came up and got the bucket and what they did with it.)

In the end, while the City remedied the problem, my parents decided to buy a lot and build a house in Indian Hills – an adjacent community that was less developed.

“Nuthun” Kennedy

I was fortunate to have a number of friends from school and Scouts, but from first grade at Miami Hills Elementary (renamed Dupont Elementary after Principal John Dumont when I attended) until we moved after sixth grade, Nelson Kennedy was my best friend. I distinctly remember playing Home Run Derby in his back yard and riding bikes all around Madeira.

He gives me credit for introducing him to the Hardy Boy Novels in our second-grade book club and I will always be grateful to him for joining the Junior Choir at the First Presbyterian Church so I didn’t have to suffer alone.

He had great parents and we often did overnighters. His dad was was a manager for Ford Motor Co. and supervised production of automatic transmissions. His mom worked raising the four Kennedy kids, Joe, Nelson, MaryAnn and Russell.

He was called “Nurthin” – not as a nickname, but because that’s how I pronounced his name when I lost my front teeth…. Nelson (later nicknamed both “Moose” because of his physical size and then “Nellie Bellie” because the jeep on the popular Roy Rogers’ TV Show had the moniker “Nelly Belle.” – It sold for $38,400 in 2018 according to this article.).

I will tell you more about Nelson and how we reconnected in later years, but first, back to our adventures in Madeira when we were in grade school. One summer afternoon when we were in sixth grade, we (four of us – Nelson, Bob McBrearty, Gordon Williams and I) decided to take a short-cut to the High School where kids could jump on the trampoline under supervision.

After so many years, I don’t think I can pin the blame on any one of us, but we collectively decided to take a short cut when we came across a reasonably large storm sewer pipe that went in the same direction as MHS and had no grill or screen prohibiting entry.

It did not occur to us that it was about 1/2 mile away and would require navigation through the conduit for that distance without any means of illumination. There was no water and the illustration below shows about the approximate circumference going in although it was only a single outlet.

A viable short-cut to the High School gym? *13

It started off well. Nelson and I were third and fourth in line and we walked through some junctions of pipe without even having to bend over much and got light from small outlet pipes that branched from the main line. About fifteen minutes into our journey, the pipe started getting smaller, there were several branch junctions we had passed and there was a small stream of water that started flowing. We were also lost…….

It didn’t take long for us to conclude that our plan was misguided (fortunately not fatally flawed…) and we decided to take one of the smaller branch pipes out to daylight – it appeared to be about 100 feet away.

Filled with optimism we started crawling on our bellies (especially Nellie) through the approximately two and one-half foot diameter pipe to daylight. (Nelson went first because he was the biggest and he told me as I was researching this post, that he thought otherwise we would have left him behind).

Nuthin had a good sense of humor and half-way out, he deadpanned, “I’m stuck!” That would have been a real problem, but it was not the dilemma we faced when the four of us – fairly disheveled at that point – slowly and incrementally crawled out of the pipe into the backyard of a house on Miami Avenue – one in which a woman was watering her plants.

She looked with astonishment and said as she walked hastily into her house, “I’m calling the Police.” Even though I was only in sixth grade, I had the political savvy to understand the implications if the oldest son of the chief critic of Madeira’s sewer system was caught slinking through it’s pipes.

We started running and hid in my house without seeing any flashing lights or hearing sirens speeding up Miami Ave to the scene of the “discharge.” None of us had an appetite that night. FDW, when he heard the story, shook his head, told us he was glad we were not harmed and again, asked if I had learned a lesson.

West Point

I said goodbye to Nelson in 1961 and in the next post will relate through a twist of fate (and lawyers) how we were united forty-three years later in Oregon, but suffice to say that after sixth grade, Nelson and I lost contact. I found out that he was a star athlete in high school – primarily basketball – an honor student and earned a cherished appointment to the US Military Academy at West Point.

And Nelson Kennedy, besides being a wonderful best friend, was a key factor in my younger brother Garry’s decision to attend West Point in the class two years behind Nelson, after corresponding and then visiting him in my brother’s high school senior year. Both Nelson and Garry served their country well while at the Academy and during their active duty in the Army.

While at West Point, Garry was a member of the West Point Glee Club and in a five-person vocal combo called The Headliners.

The Headliners group of the United States Military Academy (West Point) Glee Club existed from 1965-84.”

The Glee Club appeared periodically on network television on such shows as the Mike Douglas Show. On one of the multiple appearances while Garry was a member of the Club, they did a simulation of the Dating Game with actress, Karen Valentine, who won on Emmy Award for her role on the comedy series Room 222.

Garry was one of three USMA cadets to attempt to be “the bachelor” selected by the actress, based on answers to her questions and he “won” the contest – although unfortunately, no actual date with Valentine…..

You might surmise that Garry was doing his best to remedy the sullied reputation of his older brother (even before he garnered the nickname “Dirt.”) The Glee Club also sang at the White House in 1972. The picture shows Garry standing just to the left of President Nixon during a performance of the Headliners.

Cadent Garry A. Williams – Class of 1972

Garry called home while he was in the White House. His conversation with my Mom went like this:

Garry – “Well, we just performed in Tricky Dick’s House.”

Frannie – “Garry, you probably shouldn’t say that. They could be recording these phone calls.”

Garry – “Oh Mom, they would never make recordings of conversations in the White House!”

It is fitting to share these memories of Garry on the date of the 32th year commemorating his passing. He left a lasting legacy for his integrity, compassion for others, sense of humor and intellect among other traits.

Stories of FDW – Beerchaser-of-the-Quarter to be continued……

External Photo Attribution

*1 Wikimedia Commons (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Shillito_Company#/media/File:Shillito’s_Department_Store_View_1.JPG) Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. Author: Joe D. Good – 28 September 2014.

*2 Public Domain – Wikimedia Commons (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Shillito_Company#/media/File:Shillitos_Logo.jpg) 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.

*3 Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lionel_Corporation_Logo.jpg) Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. Author: Zachary 578 -17 Febuary, 2015.

*4 Public Domain Wikimedia Cdommons (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lionel_Corporation#/media/File:Lionel_Trains_-_1929_advertisement.jpg) Author: Siriu_s 17 November 2016.

*5 Website (https://www.hobbylinc.com/diecast-model-airplanes) HOBBYLINC.

*6 Ebay (https://www.ebay.com/itm/264762908178)

*7 Ebay (https://www.ebay.com/itm/352772578704)

*8 – 9 (https://modeltrainmarket.com/collections/o-scale-model-collections/products/o-1-48-scale-electro-nuclear-devices-louis-marx-company-audio-engineer#6659610935395-1)

* 10 Public Domain – Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Housing_subdivision#/media/File:Caudry_-_Lotissement_r%C3%A9cent.JPG) This work has been released into the public domain by its author, JÄNNICK Jérémy. 10 October, 2010.

* 11 Creative Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:34_Bucket.jpg) Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. Author: Deklenam 14 October, 2020.

*12 Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nellybelle_in_front_of_Christies_-_panoramio.jpg) Lcensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. Author: hill10003 12 July 2010.

*13 Wikimedia Commons (sewer) (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wylot_kolektor%C3%B3w_burzowych_przy_mo%C5%9Bcie_poniatowskiego.jpg) Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. Author: Panek 31 July, 2021.

*14 City of Madeira Ohio Website (https://www.madeiracity.com/government/departments/police/index.php)

15 Public Domain – Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mike_Douglas_1966.JPG) This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published in the United States between 1926 and 1977, inclusive, without a copyright notice. Author: AFA-Ashley Famous Agency (management)

*16 Public Domain – Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Karen_Valentine#/media/File:Karen_Valentine_Lloyd_Haynes_Room_222_1970.JPG) This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published in the United States between 1926 and 1977, inclusive, without a copyright notice. Author: ABC Television.

Let’s Get Civil……..

Posted on November 23, 2021 by Thebeerchaser

History, Semantics, Sensitivity and Common Sense

On Saturday, November 27th, the Oregon State University Beaver Football Team will square off against the nationally-ranked Oregon Ducks at Autzen Stadium in Eugene, Oregon. As stated at the beginning of a wonderful book by the five-time winner of the Oregon Sportswriter of the Year Award, Kerry Eggers entitled, The Civil War Rivalry – Oregon vs Oregon State:

“Thirty-five years after Oregon reached statehood and fewer than 30 years after the end of the Great War between the Union and Confederate States, the University of Oregon and Oregon Agricultural College (OAC) met on the gridiron on a sawdust field in front of 500 curious observers….The Farmers beat the Lemon-Yellows 16 to 0…that cold, wet November day in 1894.”

It’s one of the nation’s oldest football rivalries and only three current competitions have lasted as long on the West Coast. It ranks fifth nationally with the most games played. Now, since I started this blog in 2011, I have carefully stayed away from political topics other than during the pandemic, strongly supporting vaccines and mask wearing – although I consider these to be public health issues rather than in the political realm.

That said, and at the risk of alienating and possibly losing some Beerchaser followers, I’m going to make a case for possibly an unpopular position on the nomenclature for this rivalry.

As reported by ESPN on 7/26/20 in an article “Oregon, Oregon State dropping ‘Civil War’ name for rivalry games.”

“Changing this name is overdue as it represents a connection to a war fought to perpetuate slavery,’ Oregon State president Ed Ray said in a statement. ‘While not intended as reference to the actual Civil War, OSU sports competition should not provide any misconstrued reference to this divisive episode in American history.” (emphasis added)

It should be noted, that a new name has not since been adopted and the primary suggestion to this point is “The Platypus Bowl.” (Yeah Right!). As Oregonian Columnist, John Canzano stated in his piece on 11/22/21 entitled, “Ducks-Beavers rivalry game doesn’t just need name — it needs a purpose,” “Get right on it. Because this no-name stuff is a no-win thing.”

I’m not sure that I concur with Canzano’s suggestion that the schools sell the naming rights to the clash. (* See external photo attributions at the end of the post.)

The Platypus Bowl?? Give me a break! *1

Now, I personally, would not suggest for a second that equating a football game between two State schools to the tragedy of the War Between the States would be appropriate. And other than some frothy and probably suds-induced rhetoric years ago at the start of the rivalry making the comparison, I don’t believe that analogy holds.

It’s antiquated and the controversy arose in 2020 because of divisions in the US. The discord has even caused rioters in Portland to topple an historic downtown statue of Abraham Lincoln – it hasn’t been restored to this date.

The State of Oregon has a troubled past when it comes to race, and the issues fomenting the riots (at least initially) are serious and compelling. By acquiescing, however, and renaming a “gridiron battle” as a symbolic gesture, do we exacerbate the split rather than putting this contest in perspective for what it is – a fun and exciting intrastate rivalry?

Can one really compare an annual football game between Beavers and Ducks from Corvallis and Eugene to the epic and tragic Battles of Antietam, Shiloh, Bull Run or Chancellorsville? It can also be asserted that “civil war” is a generic term referring to two or more fighting armies or competing entities from within the same country or nation.

I would suggest that putting forth this analogy is an inferential leap that if pursued further might suggest that the Apple Cup in Washington between the University of Washington and Washington State – a rivalry dating back to 1900 – be renamed because of inappropriate religious implications – The Garden of Eden and forbidden fruit:

“The (forbidden) fruit has commonly been represented as an apple due to wordplay of the Latin word for apple, malus, which can mean both ‘evil’ and ‘apple’….The term can also refer to something illegal or immoral to do.”

Tailgating in the Garden of Eden prior to the Apple Cup *4

Ironically, that Biblical inference may be appropriate this year since both Jimmy Lake, the UW Football Coach and Nick Rolovich from WSU have both been fired since the season started. They may be using their resumes in lieu of fig leaves to cover their (employment) nakedness.

Of course, the trend in purifying semantics could go further – along the lines of school mascots – as has been the case recently throughout the country. While Ducks other than their obnoxious quacks are non-controversial, Beaver are not sacrosanct as documented in a Wildlife Services Fact Sheet:

“Beaver cut down trees for food and for building materials. On large trees, beaver will feed by removing all the bark within easy reach around the tree. This prevents moisture and nutrients from moving from roots to leaves and causes the tree to die. Other trees are lost due to rising water levels behind the beaver dam.”

Questionable Analogies Continued…..

As Eggers writes in his fascinating history of the historic contest, former Oregon Coach, John “Cap” McEwan, who had been an All-American as a West Point cadet and went on to become head coach at the USMA is the source of the appellation:

“(McEwan) was the one who first labeled the Oregon – Oregon State football game as ‘the great Civil War’ in the lead up to the 1929 game in Eugene.”

And it’s understandable how athletic coaches in pre-game speeches, use battle metaphors to motivate their players – especially in football. But let’s examine the thought process to see if the connection deserves some scrutiny in the case at point – especially for those who are literalists.

Take this excerpt from a wonderful and scholarly blog (“Skulking in the Holes”) in a post entitled “That Old Sports as War Metaphor” published by Dr. Jamel Ostwald, a Professor of History at Eastern Connecticut State University. He is qualified to opine on the topic since his teaching interests include Early Modern European History, History of Religion, and War Military History. He also has several books to his credit.

Interestingly enough, although the Eastern Connecticut Warriors (hmm..) have a robust athletic program, it doesn’t include football although students can join the Football Club.

Eastern Connecticut – Football Club but no Football Team *7

Rumor has it, however, that Dr. Ostwald’s undergraduate and graduate alma mater, where he earned his M.A. and Ph.D. in Early Modern European History, does have a football program —The Ohio State University!

“The angle I’ll talk about today is one that appears again and again – the comparison of football (or sport more generally) to war. Given the physical and mental damage caused by throwing bodies around after a pigskin, it’s no surprise that football players and coaches will, in unguarded moments, refer to their contest as ‘war,’ with the linesmen ‘fighting it out in the trenches,’ with the need to ‘defend this house’ [from assault apparently], and so on.”

Taking this approach a little bit further, from the site UKEssays in an essay entitled “Similarities Between Sports and War”:

“War is phenomenon which is essentially coupled with destruction, devastation and sorrow and there exist no exception. It is often considered evil and gloomy, too. On the contrary, sport is usually perceived as something that builds character and that it keeps one healthy and is a grand source of positive energies.”

Note: The excerpt above is from a 4,678 word -19 page essay published on May 1, 2017 and seemed to add to the discussion. I can’t cite the author, however, because upon further investigating, I discovered that the site is an “essay mill” – a hot topic in England. These are sites where one can purchase college papers and even dissertations from professional writers.

This topic could be a blog post in itself, and the internet reviews and articles on the various options available to British university students were fascinating (and troubling). At least there’s a thread of connection since we are talking about colleges…….

Futhermore…..

Before abandoning the war vs sports topic and continuing to justify my position about why the comparison between the US Civil War and the Oregon vs. Oregon State game is not intellectually valid and abandoning the traditional title is misguided, I want to further my point a bit more.

After college and the Navy, my employer was Clackamas County for seven years. I worked closely with County Counsel who were my legal advisors when I worked for the Elections Department and then the County Commissioners. I was about the only OSU grad, since most of the lawyers went to the University of Oregon for undergrad or law school or both.

Each year I had a bet on the Oregon vs OSU game with the late Mike Montgomery, who was the Chief Deputy DA. The loser had to wear a tie to work and buy the winner lunch the Monday after the game and be the brunt of sarcastic comments from co-workers. I still have the tie – probably because I was the one who usually had to wear it……

For the last twenty-five years of my career, I worked in an outstanding large law firm (Schwabe Williamson & Wyatt) and two of our five offices were in Portland and Seattle. Since both UW and U of O have law schools, the Washington Husky vs Duck rivalry was almost as heated as OSU vs Oregon.

Before the rivalry games, many lawyers who had onerous production goals would temporarily abandon the billable hour to research and e-mail stupid jokes, make individual wagers and organize firm betting pools (of course, without violating any statutory prohibitions…).

Each year, one would see the same inane jokes such as the following:

Q: What do you call a Duck Fan with half a brain?

A: Talented and gifted.

Q: How do you keep Beavers from infesting your yard?

A: Put up goal posts.

Q: What is the difference between an Oregon State football player and a dollar?

A: You can get four quarters out of a dollar.

The e-mail traffic would be frenetic reaching a crescendo until some of the lawyers who went to Ivy League Schools and were above the fray, would admonish their colleagues to return to more cerebral (and profitable…) topics such as the Rule Against Perpetuities or drafting Daubert motions. (Besides, who can get pumped up about the Harvard vs Yale rivalry.) This type of revelry is typical of companies throughout the entire State of Oregon in the week preceding the game.

So viewing the above pictures of the school mascots and the vacuous dialogue in the examples, go ahead and argue that continuing the name “Civil War” has broader social implications or invites inappropriate recollections of the Monitor and the Merrimack at the Battle at Hampton Roads or is any way equivalent symbolically or otherwise to Sherman’s March to the Sea.

Since I was in legal management and responding to 150 lawyers who taught me to anticipate questions, I would also suggest that in the future when contemplating such actions, the decision-makers carefully consider the following rather than reacting more viscerally:

What problem will the proposed solution attempt to solve?
What individuals and/or groups will be affected by the proposed solution?
Will it have just a short-term impact or effectively accomplish the intended goal for the long term.
What, if any, will be the unintended consequences?

Family “Skirmishes”

In my own family, the emotions over the rivalry are present since I’m a Beav, my wife of forty-one years is a Duck and our older daughter, Lisa and her husband, Jamie, are both Huskies – they met at UW. In fact, Jamie is a third-generation Husky whose grandfather had season tickets for sixty-two years.

His dad, Jon Magnusson, the former CEO and Chair of the Magnusson Klemencic Associates firm in Seattle did the structural engineering for Husky Stadium, the resurrected Hayward Field in Eugene, Martin Stadium at WSU and will be involved with the $325 million renovation of Reser Stadium in Corvallis starting next month.

The picture below is from Beerchasing two years ago where we traded Beaver-Husky barbs while drinking cheap beer at The Caroline a great Seattle dive bar. (In the picture, I had just asked “How many Huskies does it take to change a tire?” Answer: “Two. One to hold the wine spritzers and one to call Dad.”)

Three Huskies and a Beav (Jamie, Jon, Don and Rob)

Jamie traveled from Seattle to Corvallis to watch my reaction in 2015 when the Huskies trounced the Beavs 52 to 7. He agreed that we should leave in the fourth quarter.

In Conclusion

I’m concerned about our country (and the world) and pray about topics ranging from climate change, social justice and discrimination, poverty and economic inequality, drug addiction, homelessness, access to health-care, voting rights, educational policy, the plight of refugees and other seemingly insurmountable issues we face.

But I would suggest that each of us do something tangible about the above crises by contributing our time and money, further educating ourselves about the causes and having a constructive (and civil) dialogue with others who have different opinions. These are more constructive than symbolic gestures of questionable effectiveness.

However, this Saturday – one of the few where the Duck I love will allow me to have Reser’s Chips and Creamy Ranch Dip while drinking a PBR Tallboy, I’ll be watching the civil war game (where the Beavs are bowl eligible for the first time since 2013) and celebrating the joy of intrastate athletic competition.

Cheers, Have a Wonderful and Safe Thanksgiving and Go Beavs!

External Photo Attribution

*1 (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Platypus-sketch.jpg This work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author’s life plus 100 years or fewer. Author: John Gould – 1864.

*2 Wikimedia Commons (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statue_of_Abraham_Lincoln_(Portland,_Oregon)#/media/File:Abraham_Lincoln,_South_Park_Blocks,_Portland,_Oregon_(2013).JPG) Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. Author: Another Believer – 27 September, 2013.

*3 (https://www.opb.org/article/2020/12/28/portland-oregon-statues-protest-black-lives-matter-elk/) Author: Sergio Olmos.

*4 Wikimedia Commons (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garden_of_Eden n the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author’s life plus 100 years or fewer. Author: Peter Paul Rubens – circa 1615.

*5 (https://www.pinterest.ca/pin/11962755238966344/) Fernanda Gomes saved to Christmas – http://pbs.twimg.com)

*6 Public Domain – Wikimedia Commons (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_McEwan#/media/File:John_McEwan.jpg) This media file is in the public domain in the United States. Author: Brown Brothers – Photographer – 1916.

*7 Eastern Connecticut State University Website (https://gowarriorathletics.com/index.aspx)

*8 Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:BennyBeaverPhoto.jpg) Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license. Author: Flickr user “VRC Jeremy” – 2 March 2008.

*9 Wikimedia Commons (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Oregon_Duck#/media/File:The_Oregon_Duck_in_2011.jpg) Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license. Author: Ray Terrill – 19 November 2011.

*10 Public Domain – Wikimedia Commons (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Hampton_Roads#/media/File:Battle_of_Hampton_Roads_3g01752u.jpg) Artisit: Kurz & Allison.

*11 Public Domain – Wikimedia Commons (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherman%27s_March_to_the_Sea#/media/File:F.O.C._Darley_and_Alexander_Hay_Ritchie_-_Sherman’s_March_to_the_Sea.jpg) Artist: F.O.C. [Felix Octavius Carr] Darley, (1822-1888).

FDW — Beerchaser of the Quarter – Part II

Posted on November 9, 2021 by Thebeerchaser

Besides reviews of bars and breweries, each quarter I select an individual or group as my Beerchaser-of-the-Quarter. This “honoree” may or may not have anything to do with bars or beer, but have an interesting story. Past designees have included war heroes, academicians, athletes, lawyers, musicians, media personalities and two Catholic priests. My Dad, F. Duane Williams, is my latest Beerchaser-of-the-Quarter.

For a complete list from the ten years of this blog see: https://thebeerchaser.com/2020/12/13/beerchasers-of-the-quarter-who-what-why/

In the first post about my dad, Duane Williams (FDW) and his wife Frannie, I related how they met while working for American Airlines in New York City, got married, lived in Merrick, Long Island, New York and welcomed their first two children – Lynne and Don (now known as Thebeerchaser) before moving to a suburb of Philadelphia where their third child, Garry, was born.

On my forth birthday, we moved to Madeira, Ohio – a suburb of Cincinnati – where two years later, the fourth child, Rick, was born. Thus began the ten-year Ohio chronicle of an active, middle-class family with the dad working as a salesman for Bigelow Carpets and the mom, working at home to raise four active kids.

A Strong Foundation

While we were young, our parents strived and sacrificed to both ground us and educate us to the world around us. Tommy, a beautiful collie was our first dog, who eventually went to a farm – a real one not the proverbial one in the sky – because he chased cars down Miami Ave on which we lived.

We went to church at the Madeira First Presbyterian Church – only about five blocks away where I also went to kindergarten. (The Church still sponsors a Cub Scout Pack and Boy Scout Troop). All of us attended Miami Hills Grade School. The first memory from that period is when I received a misguided accolade from my kindergarten teacher. The conversation at home went like this:

Frannie: Donald, we’re proud of you. Your teacher, Mrs. Colter, told us how polite you are because you always remove your hat before you come into the room with the other children. She said that you are the only boy that does that.

Don: Mom, I hate that dumb hat. The only reason I take it off is because I don’t want anyone else to make fun of me because of the way it looks.

Scouts

A key influence in all four kids’ lives was Scouts – Brownies for Lynne and Cub Scouts for the three boys. And my parents were active participants – most notably, Frannie, who was the epitome of a Cub Scout Den Mother, not one who just babysat while the young kids played games, but a teacher and mentor.

The two photos below from the Oregon City Enterprise Courier were not from Madeira, but after we moved to Oregon and Mom continued her Den Mother tradition – this time with Rick. It shows her taking the den on a tour of the historic McLoughlin House.

America the Beautiful

One strong memory is from one of the quarterly Pack meetings – an evening affair where all the Dens in the Pack – kids and their parents – attended about a ninety minute celebration of Scouting and current activities. At the beginning of each meeting one Den would be responsible for the opening ceremony and they were usually pretty perfunctory.

However, Frannie, going back to her American Airline days, resurrected some large photographic posters from an ad campaign highlighting the beauty of America. As “O Beautiful for Spacious Skies” was played, the Cubs from our Den walked out one-by-one in sync with the lyrics, each carrying one of the posters as a large spotlight shined on the expansive sky, the amber grain field, the purple mountains and the alabaster cities, etc.

Even as a seven-year old, I still have a vivid memory of the crowd of about seventy-five sitting in stunned silence until the end of the patriotic song —– then a spontaneous standing ovation broke out and lasted for over a minute!

The Kite Contest

Dad was a very successful sales representative and enjoyed interacting with the people he met. That said, he could have been an outstanding engineer, teacher, lawyer or newspaper reporter given his intellect, creativity and enthusiasm.

The first encounter I had with his engineering prowess was at the Annual Cub Scout Kite Contest. This traditional event was a big deal and a lot of cubs and their dads built home-made kites which were entered in a fly-off at the football field of Madeira High School.

Dad got the butcher paper, string, thin wooden dowels, balsa wood and then we cut a bunch of old sheets for the tail. We were concerned because the day of the contest, there was a pretty strong wind.

No frill – homemade design *5

A whistle started and kites went up (not all of them….) and flew for fifteen minutes to see which one could fly the highest – they marked the string at the end whistle and measured once they were back in.

Well, my kite took off like a bat from hell (even though I didn’t know what that expression meant at that age.) It quickly soared yards ahead of any of the others and a small crowd gathered around to watch. Dad stood beside me with a big smile on his face!

The fruits of my first victory in life.

In light of what they saw, the leaders decided that they did not need to measure – the winner was obvious and at the next Pack meeting I was presented with a baseball bat – the first place prize.

Thrilled with the result of the first contest, Dad decided that we would go bigger the next year and we built a “super-kite” in the garage that was at least four times bigger than the kite shown in the picture above. The wooden cross-bracings on the back of the kite were elaborate and probably stuck out two-feet from the horizonal and vertical axis of the kite.

We did not have the chance for a test flight and the kite was so big, we could not transport it in the car, so on the day of the contest, so we walked it about a mile down Miami Avenue to the football field. It caused some major gawking along the way.

A Grand Experiment in Aeronautical Engineering…*6

A majority of the spectators gathered around our end of the contestants to see if this contraption would even get off the ground. Well, it did and gained altitude very quickly. Like the Wright Brothers’ flight at Kitty Hawk, however, it was short-lived, although lasting about ten times longer than the 3.5 first flight of the Wright Flyer at Kitty Hawk. Our kite had a catastrophic end.

When it was about fifty yards up, a large wind gust blew in and the kite with a loud and sudden snap -clearly audible on the ground – folded in two (vertically) and nose dived into the end-zone of the Madeira Mustangs.

I looked over at FDW and he had the same smile as he did the year before when we won first place.

The VW Microbus

In subsequent posts, I will relate what an integral part the Volkswagen Micro-bus was to FDW’s work and recreation, but the story started in about 1953. As related in History.com:

“In the 1950s, the Volkswagen arrived in the U.S., where the initial reception was tepid, due in part to the car’s historic Nazi connection…The micro-bus, with its boxy, utilitarian shape and rear engine, went into production. .”

Dad saw how the new vehicle could accommodate his carpet samples, his four kids, save a lot of money on gas and he loved the design including the engine in the rear. It was only 36 horsepower and had no gas gauge. (You flipped a lever to access a one-gallon reserve tank). I remember discussing the VW with him years later and the conversation went like this:

FDW: VW busses are so much safer with the rear engine. If you get hit head on, you don’t have your engine pushing through into the passenger compartment.

Don: “Yeah right, Dad. If you get hit head on, it’s the other vehicle’s engine that’s going to be in your lap.”

Our red VW bus was one of the initial five in Cincinnati, Ohio and definitely the first one to have passenger seat belts. American automakers didn’t begin including seat belts in their cars until 1960 and in 1968 the federal government mandated that all new cars include seat belts at all seating positions. (https://itstillruns.com/history-seat-belts-5110697.html).

But as an example of Dad’s creativity and concern for the safety of his family, he contacted one of his former colleagues at American Airlines, purchased eight seat belts and installed the airplane restraints on our VW bus!

Activities as a Kid

Although I now realize the benefit, I sometimes would get mad about some of the efforts to expose us to culture. For example, the three oldest all went to tap dance lessons which unfortunately had an annual recital. It wouldn’t have been so bad, but they made us put on lipstick to look better in the bright lights. I revolted in third grade and my dance career ended.

Garry looks a lot happier in the photo below at this recital where they danced to “Me and My Teddy Bear.”

Party Wagon (what a dumb title!) was much better, but still very mundane. Fifth and sixth graders could sign up for this weekend class where we were taught how to dance, the waltz, fox-trot, cha-cha-cha and jitterbug. We would line up across from the girls and walk across the room and inquire “May I have this dance?”

I do have to admit that some of that stuck with me and made my two daughters a lot less embarrassed than they otherwise would have been at the traditional Father/Bride dance at their weddings.

Another example was art school at the Cincinnati Art Museum. Mom or Dad would drive us the 45-minutes into Cincinnati for this three-hour Saturday morning event. Half of it would be painting or doing elementary art work and the other half would be watching movies about famous art notables.

I hated the art part because my artistic talent is about as good as my current skill on home improvement projects. While the six months of this enlightening activity did not improve my ability to draw, it did teach me to be innovative (and possibly deceptive…).

They divided each class in half and the first group would go to the basement auditorium to see the movies while the second group undertook the creative pursuits. I would leave my group after we saw the movie and hit the restroom. As the other group walked to the auditorium I joined the tail end of that group and saw the movies again – thus avoiding watercolors and chalk.

Cincinnati Art Museum – Scene of the First Great Deception…*10

I guess I also learned a lot (and retained more than the other kids) about Rembrandt, Michelangelo and Picasso…..At the end of the six-month classes, I felt a little guilty and told Dad what I had done. I can still remember the smile on his face as he asked me if I thought that was the right thing to do.

Upon Refection….

Perhaps we don’t fully realize the time and effort our parents spent on our behalf until we have our own kids. Shuffling them to church choir practice, soccer games, scout meetings and engaging them about their experiences in these activities to see how things are going. Even with four kids, my parents were always fully engaged in this regard.

I’ll cover some of the highlights and why FDR and Frannie were such a great duo in future posts.

Cheers!

********

External Photo Attribution

*1 Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:A_view_of_plane_propeller_and_clouds_from_window.jpg). Llicensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.

*2 Public Domain – Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Grain-field.jpg) L Author: Go2anna.

**3 Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rocky_Mountains.jpg Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. Author: T Voelker – Winter 1994.

*4 Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SanFrancisco_from_TwinPeaks_dusk_MC.jpg) Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Generic license. Author: Christian Mehlführer, User:Chmehl – 27 October , 2006.

*5 Public Domain – Wikimedia Commons: (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Origami_kite_base.svg) Author: Ftiercel.

*6 Public Domain – Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fier_Drake_(1634_kite_woodcut).png

* 7 *6 Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kombi_(4300860191).jpg) Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license. Author: Diogo Rodrigues Gonçalves from São Bernardo do Campo, Brasil – 24 January, 2010.

*8 Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Airplane_seat_belt_2.jpg) Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. Author: Daniel Schwen – 2 August, 2007.

*9 Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Phenakistoscope_3g07690d.gif) Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic license. Eadweard Muybridge’s Phenakistoscope: Urheber: Eadweard Muybridge, 1830-1904

*10 Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cincinnati_Art_Museum,_Eden_Park.jpg) Llicensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. Author: Greg Hume (Greg5030) – 21 January, 2008

Facebook Page – Madeira Silverwood Church (https://www.madeirachurch.org/community)

Autumn Oscillations

Posted on November 3, 2021 by Thebeerchaser

Oscillation is defined as the repetitive variation, typically in time, of some measure about a central value or between two or more different states. Familiar examples of oscillation besides the old-fashioned fan above, include a swinging pendulum and alternating current. Wikipedia

And at least for Thebeerchaser that seems to describe events over the last ten months after we survived 2020 – a year we all want to forget. The swings in COVID statistics at one point in 2021 appeared to be more optimistic only to repeatedly regress.

Even my Oregon State Beavers and the Portland Trailblazers seem to vary from strong and compelling performances one week to lackluster and somewhat uninspired play the next. (The Beavs were on a roll after a great victory over Utah, but then shot themselves in their digitized front paws in Berkley on Saturday in a bad loss to California.)

Beavs shoot themsleves *2

My heart goes out to the small business owners – most notably in the hospitality industry, who have optimistically reopened only to be repeatedly shut down again or living with restrictions that affect profitability while they try to hire enough help to stay open and cope with diminished supply chains.

Regardless of whether its politics, the weather, educational or public health policy or my inclination to exercise on a regular basis and have a reasonable diet, it seems that issues have swung from one pole to the other.

The exception may be the stock market and my desire to Beerchase at new watering holes once again.

But at least for this blog post, I’m going to shift back and forth – oscillate if you will, from bars and breweries to corporate myopia, etc. I will start with some positives such as the suggestion by author Colson Whitehead in his novel, The Noble Hustle that we “drink hormone-free, humanely slaughtered beer. Eat micro chicken. Compare sadnesses. Things of that sort.”

The Evolution of Darwin’s…

And I was pleased to see that in spite of the pandemic, adverse weather (It’s been raining since the 4th of July…”) and other challenges, one of my favorite dive bars is back in operation and thriving. Darwin’s Theory in Anchorage Alaska that we visited in 2014 is a watering hole with tradition and class:

“(Darwin’s celebrated its 40th year of existence. It was exactly forty years since the doors opened on Thursday, September 10, 1981. Darwin (an Oregon State grad) was 37 years old at the time and has been the only male Bartender since.”

Farewell Henry…!

Contrasting the good news from Alaska, is the bad news from Oregon: “Legendary Weinhard’s Beer to be Discontinued.”

“Henry’s Private Reserve, once the pride of Northwest beer drinkers and hailed by many as Oregon’s first craft beer is being discontinued by current owner Molson Coors.”

How Molson Coors rather than the Blitz Weinhard Brewery came to be the decision maker is another sad story and trend in beer production.

Blitz Weinhard was one of our favorite college beers in the late sixties and early seventies and then the Wessinger Brothers, great-great grandsons of the founder of the Portland brewery, sold it to Pabst in 1979. It subsequently was sold to Strohs before being acquired by Molson Coors. (This paragraph provides a story in itself of a sad trend in independent brewing.)

According to one beer expert and author:

“….after production was moved elsewhere, (Henry’s) had not been what it was at one time. The quality rally deteriorated. It’s a common story when these popular brands get bought; they find a way to cut corners. We still see it when craft beers today get bought by big beer.”

Moda Health – “Be Better” – Maybe Next Year?

Earlier this year in a March blog post, I expressed my chagrin at the frothy rhetoric of Portland Trailblazers and Moda Health for their ongoing campaign called “Moda Assist”. The Blazers and the health-care corporate giant (in the case of Moda, a “non-profit” corporate giant….)” magnanimously” each contribute $10 for every assist the Trailblazers make in the regular season.

In 2019, the Blazers finished last in the NBA with this statistic and in 2020, 29th of the thirty NBA teams, averaging 20.4 and 21.4 per game respectively. For you math wizards, that means the two corporations combined shelled out about $32,000 for a regular eighty-game season (although the last 2020-1 season was shortened because of COVID).

I reminded readers that the arena naming rights for the former Portland Rose Garden, according to a 2012 Lund Report, “Moda expects to pay out $40 million for those naming rights. Moda paid the Blazers approximately $40 million over a ten-year period for the naming rights.“ The story was covered locally in Oregon LIve.

$40 Million for Naming Rights to the Blazers *6

Well, with the economy chugging away again, I was not surprised to see a recent headline entitled, “Moda Health Signals Its Financial Woes Are Behind It.” The Oregonian article states:

“Thanks, in part, to the proceeds of Moda’s $250 million US Supreme Court victory (in 2020) over the federal government, the company closed a deal to buy back the equity stake it had sold to a California dental company.”

So being naïve, I suspected with inflationary trends, Moda and the Blazers would up the ante for the 2021-2 NBA season to at least $15 or $20 each per assist. No way! Evidently Moda’s slogan of “Be Better,” doesn’t spill over to its charitable endeavors.

“Be better” – as long as it does not affect profitability….. *7

Perhaps restating some of the info from Gametime.com. a supplier which advises communities on playgrounds, may reinforce my feeling of righteous indignation about this program:

“You should budget around $1,000 per child. That makes the average cost of playground equipment between $15,000 and $50,000. If you are looking for a larger play structure with inclusive (accessible) features or a custom design, set a budget closer to $150,000.” (Emphasis provided – Mar 12, 2020).

Accolades to Oregon City Brewing

Since Oregon City was my home for almost twenty years and I still live right across the Willamette River, I was pleased to see that Oregon City Brewing Company in September ranked seventh among the nation’s top ten breweries at the 2021 US Open Beer Championship.

According to a September 6) press release: “

“Breweries from Antioquia, Columbia to Columbia, South Carolina sent more than 8000 beers representing over 140 different styles to the 2021 U.S. Open Beer Championship. Today, the U.S. Open Beer Championship announces the medal winners and Grand National Champion.”

It has been a few years since I’ve been at OC Brewing although in the last year, I’ve made four visits to a great new bar with food courts right across the street – Corner 14, which I reviewed a few months ago.

Last time I was there, OC Brewing, which opened in 2014, did not have it’s own food – it was a cooperative arrangement for a few items from Olympic Provisions, there was minimal space inside and the outside patio was not impressive. That said, we loved the Elevator IPA which was then their flagship beer.

The Elevator goes up AND down. Let it push your buttons. *12

This family-owned brewery with a great story has since made impressive strides, however, and has improved their outside seating, developed a good menu and has a very robust tap list. According to Willamette Week:

“….their new beer garden and food cart pod should begin operating in late November (2021). Earlier this year, the business began converting three 7,000-square-foot gravel parking lots surrounding the taproom.”

They now have about forty beers on tap including their five medal winners from the US Open Beer Championship – Desideratum (gold) – Beast of Burton (gold) – Very A Gris able (silver) – Coming to Fruition Marionberry (silver) and Coming to Fruition Cherry (bronze).

Creative expansion is also planned for a location in Canby – about nine miles south according to a a September 9th New School Beer post. Following the example of Steeplejack Brewing in Portland which restored an historic church, OC Brewing will

“…be officially taking over the former Canby Public Library, vacant since 2016, renaming it The Canby Beer Library, and expanding its brand with a taproom serving 40+ beers, a space for a barrel-aging program, a cidery, as well as spaces for other tenants, including restaurants, to fill the huge space.”

Now the top-ten ranking in the Beer Championship is evidently focused strictly on beer quality rather than the overall ambiance of the establishment because the Brewery still has a way to go including making some improvements in its website. That said, it’s a great sucess story to this point for its founder, Bryce Morrow and their skilled Brewmaster, David Vohden.

I will be looking forward to visiting and will report…….

Leaving on a Positive Swing of the Pendulum

Since I took a shot at two corporations above (Trailblazers and Moda Health), I will wind down with a shout out to an Oregon corporation which brings good cheer to countless travelers along Oregon Highway 18 each fall. From a blog “Unusual Places“:

“In 2011, two Hampton Lumber employees decided to create an arboreal design that would evoke joy in every person who saw it. Dennis Creel and David Hampton designed a smiley face similar to an emoji that would greet motorists as they drove through rural Oregon.

Creel and Hampton created the smiley face by planting a mixture of larch—which is a type of fir tree that turns yellow in the fall—and evergreen Douglas fir trees. Larch trees form a circular face, and Douglas fir trees form wide, happy eyes and a smiling mouth.

Raise a mug to Hampton Lumber. We love seeing the pumpkin when we drive to the beach in Lincoln City.

Cheers

External Photo Attribution

*1 Public Domain – Wikimedia Commons: (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Electric_Oscillating_Table_Fan_by_Emer) 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, 1926.

*2 Public Domain – Wikimedia Commons (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beaver#/media/File:Picture_Natural_History_-_No_40_41_42_-_Beaver_feet_and_tail.png) 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, 1926. Author: Mary E. C. Boutell 1869.

*3 (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/24/Oscillating_pendulum.gif) Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. Author: Ruryk 19 April 2011.

*4 Wikimedia Commons: (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2e/Brewing_process_chart_%28no_text%29.svg) Lhttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en. Author: Amitchell125 21 July 2019.

*5 Public Domain – Wikimedia Commons: (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Weinhard%27s_Brewery_(Clohessy_and_Strengele,_1890).jpg) This work is in the public domain in the United States because it is a work prepared by an officer or employee of the United States Government as part of that person’s official duties under the terms of Title 17. Author: Clohessy & Strengele 1890.

*6 Wikimedia Commons: (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Moda_Center_at_night.jpg) Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license. Author: Parker Knight from Portland, Oregon, USA 11 November 2016.

*7 Wikimedia Commons: (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Basketball_02.jpg) Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. Author: https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:James_Moore200 3 February 2021.

*8 Wikimedia Commons: (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Playground_Square_Albert_Thomas_-_Talence_France_-_22_August_2020.jpg) Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. Author: Such0012 22 August 2020.

*9 Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Childrens_Game_Park_01621.jpg) Lhttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en. Author: Nevit 2008.

*10 – 12 Oregon City Brewing Facebook Page (https://www.facebook.com/oregoncitybrewing/photos/4192492017466267) Oregon City Brewing Facebook Page (https://www.facebook.com/oregoncitybrewing/photos/a.721502207898616/1328526310529533)

*13 -14 Unusual Places: (https://unusualplaces.org/smiley-face-forest-oregon/)