February Figuring – Part I

Posted on February 6, 2026 by Thebeerchaser

I Want My Mummy(s)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

How Dare You Discriminate!

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

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

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

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

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

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

‘Ole Miss.’

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

For Better or Worse? (#8)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

NROTC Class of 1970 — Mulvey, Palmer and Williams

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cheers and Go Seahawks

External Photo Attribution

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

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

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

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

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

#6. AI Image Generator

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

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

#9. Linda Lehmann Facebook site.

Lawyers Continued: Summer Associates – Part II

Posted on June 5, 2021 by Thebeerchaser

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

In Part I of this series, I wrote about the talented Summer Associates (clerks) that my law firm (Schwabe Williamson and Wyatt) and other large law firms hire as clerks during the first and second summers they are in law school. https://thebeerchaser.com/2021/05/27/lawyers-continued-summer-associates-part-i/

StudentLounge

(*1 Attribution for the photos not taken by Don Williams is at the end of this post.)

They are smart and motivated and the competition is intense – both among the firms who compete for the best students and among those applying. They know this opportunity is a stepping stone for a good job in their chosen field after they graduate and pass the Bar Exam.

In the last post, readers saw a compendium of the languages in which three of the classes of Summer Associates (2005 and 2006-7) were proficient, as well as prior jobs and/or occupations on their resumes before they started law school. A number had interesting work histories and waited until they had some real-world experience before they began their graduate education.

I compiled these lists in addition to the categories below as part of the full-day orientation they received in June before they started their legal work. Rather than boring them with information about law firm management which they would forget, I used the data we collected from their questionnaires. I tried to convey why they should get to know their fellow clerks and why they should feel proud about being in that group.

Hobbies and Interests

While they were top students, they also were well-rounded and had eclectic pursuits when not working or studying:

Backpacking, rock band; playing the violin, cello, hand-bells, piano, harmonica, oboe (second-chair in community orchestra) drums, guitar, African drums (these were not all the same clerk!), country line dancing, karaoke, country music and Latin poetry (these were from the same person) and gardening.

Ballet (ten years), horror movies, British literature, reading non-fiction and collecting classic comic books. Gourmet cooking and eating!

Since there were some lawyer-league sports, we also asked them about their athletic talent and experience:

Golf (“Law school made my game go dormant.”), Notre Dame Football (This may have been watching rather than playing.), basketball, softball, tennis, cross country (University of Portland Cross County Team and ran in the Venice Marathon), skiing, snowboarding, yoga, weightlifting.

Juggling (balls and juggling sticks but not pins – we also found out if she could juggle legal assignments), Karate (all-Japan and All-American – five time Karate champion. He was also the bodyguard when they went to bars after work.). Surfing, skiing, rollerblading and mountain climbing. Cycling (rode from Spokane to Denver — Why??!)

Higher Education Besides Law School

As I stated above, these people were motivated and a number had graduate degrees in addition to law school:

Masters Degrees in Engineering, Sociology, Education, Business Administration, Biomedical Engineering. Graduate Study at the United Nations in Geneva. Ph D in Material Sciences and Engineering (had studied at Oxford) (See narrative below on Intellectual Property candidates)

In 2002, Schwabe merged with a small Oregon Intellectual Property Firm – Columbia IP – founded by Al AuYeung, who built and managed a thriving IP Practice Group (patent, trademark, copyright, trade secrets and IP litigation) in the Schwabe Portland and Seattle offices, until his retirement this year.

Most of the other lawyers had been liberal arts majors such as Political Science or Economics with a few Business majors, etc. But these IP lawyers not only had attended law school and passed the State Bar, but were also members of the Federal Patent Bar, which required another challenging exam

Al AuYueng

In addition, besides their undergraduate degrees, most of them also had Masters and even a few PhD’s in physics, computer science, engineering mathematics or chemistry, etc. For example, Al besides graduating from Santa Clara Law School, also had an MS in Engineering from Stanford and an MBA in Finance from U Cal Berkley.

I helped interview one young IP associate prospect who had actually worked as a rocket scientist before law school. At the end of the interview, I couldn’t help myself and asserted with a smile, “It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that you would be a good fit at this firm.” Notwithstanding this embarrassing attempt at humor, he still came to work for us.

Each year at the all-attorney retreat in the fall, the lawyers and management staff from all offices would gather at some nice resort for an entire weekend with great food and drink, continuing legal education, a firm business meeting, golf, hiking and general revelry. Did I mention – also plentiful food and drink…..

After the dinner on Friday night before a band and dancing, the new associates would make their traditional introductory appearance and sing their undergraduate school fight song and relate what their most challenging college course had been.

Now the liberal arts majors would come up with something like “The Modern Intellectual Tradition: From Descartes to Derrida,” or there was an Economics Major who impressed us at one retreat with “Understanding International Finance Through Game Theory and Evolutionary Stability.”

With the advent of IP associates, these science and math geeks rolled off such offerings as “Formulae for Calculating Motion in One and Two Dimensions“ or “Non-Equilibrium Applications of Statistical Thermodynamics.” If I remember correctly, after two years we decided to forego this tradition, because it made a lot of us feel intellectually deficient.

I might add that one might think that men and women who were so erudite and left-brained would tend to be socially awkward. For example, one of the Summer Associates headed for the IP Group had even “developed a method to manufacture micro-electric mechanical systems using stereo lithography.”

Rather than being interpersonally inept, however, the exact opposite was almost always the case. This is another plaudit for Al AuYueng, who had the wisdom to hire people who were not only cerebral, but also personable.

So, it was always enjoyable to have a beer with these lawyers who would be talking about concepts such as the radius of gyration, angular momentum or foreign trademark registration with their clients at their desks in the afternoon, but then were great conversationalists while raising a mug after work.

Volunteer and Civic Activities

These young people were getting into a profession where advocacy for others is a key part of the job and in which pro-bono work is a tradition – and they came well prepared. They had done work in the following positions or organizations:

Advocate for immigrant families, Meals on Wheels driver, domestic violence counselor, Habit for Humanity, homeless advocacy, classroom tutor, Peace Corps, Vista, AmeriCorps, Young Life, UNICEF, Legal Aid, volunteer for early childhood development, political campaign for city council candidate, pediatric medical clinic, men’s shelter, animal shelter, Boys and Girls Club, soup kitchen.

Wining and Dining Opportunities While Clerking

Part of the recruitment process was interacting with the summer associates over food or drinks at local bistros and watering holes. We had asked on the questionnaires for their food preferences and also what they wanted to avoid. The responses for preferences included breakfast food at all times of the day, anything with chocolate, anything with beef and seafood.

Conversely, one clerk emphasized that he could not eat shell fish and detested anything with beef. One was also emphatic about what everyone should avoid based on his 45-page paper for bio-ethics class entitled, “Cloned Animal Products in the Human Food Chain.”

We tried to make a good impression with these kids and it was natural for the lawyers to take them to the more elite restaurants. Besides, the firm was picking up the check (one reason that many lawyers went out to more lunches and dinners during the summer than any other time during the year….).

Now Portland has a wealth of great bistros downtown, but to our Director of Recruiting’s chagrin, I decided for a change of pace (and style) when I took the clerks out. Rather than a popular spot like Jake’s Famous Crawfish or lunch in one of the high-rise office building grilles, we’d walk two blocks to a little hole-in-the-wall (below ground) Middle Eastern restaurant named Mummy’s.

It’s owned by two fascinating Egyptian brothers, Phillip and Ghobvial Moumir who had operated for many years in the same location.

For the full review, check out my 2016 post-retirement blog post entitled “Mummy’s – a (Buried) Portland Treasure.” in which I Beerchased with two of my favorite and now retired Schwabe partners, Brian (Brain) King and Margaret Hoffmann, who shared my affinity for this eatery.

There were usually no more than a handful of patrons and the brothers always directed the students and me to the same table for some of their reasonably priced and really delicious cuisine..

And I had a smile on my face when the Recruiting exec came to my office after the first visit and said, “Don, they raved about Mummy’s and how they want to return again before they leave this summer!” Word spread and I always had requests from a number of clerks each summer to include them on the list for Mummy’s.

A Final Summer Associate Success Story

It was early in 2002 and some of the Summer Associate candidates had come to the Portland office for interviews. I walked down to our Recruiting Director’s office. She was on the phone and a male candidate (Jeff Hern from Willamette University Law School) was standing by her desk waiting for her to finish a telephone conversation.

He was holding his resume, so I asked if I could glance at it. Our conversation went like this after I had reviewed it:

Williams: I see that you graduated from Madeira High School (a suburb of Cincinnati, Ohio) and were inducted into its Athletic Hall of Fame. I lived in Madeira from the time I was four until we moved to Oregon when I was eleven. Did you know the Nelson Kennedy family?

Hern: Yes, as a matter of fact, his son was a teammate on the MHS Basketball Team.

Williams: Nelson was my best friend in grade school which was the last time I saw him. I’ve talked to him once or twice since because he was two classes ahead of my younger brother, Garry, at West Point. Nelson was one of the reasons Garry ended up at the Military Academy and they see each other quite often.

I gave him my card, wished him luck and told him to stay in touch. A few days later, I received a nice letter acknowledging our visit and stating that he was impressed with Schwabe. I then talked to our Recruiter and told her that I hoped we made an offer to him.

From that point on, I continued to lobby for him as the competition was stiff for clerk slots. (I also reminded her that besides having good grades and recommendations, our Lawyer League Basketball Team could use Jeff’s experience as a good power forward.)

When I got his letter, I talked to my wife, Janet, that night at dinner and our conversation went like this:

Williams: Remember the guy from Willamette Law School I told you about who lived in Madeira and knew the son of my best friend. Well, he sent a great letter, which I think reflects well on him.

Janet: (laughing) Yeah, he’s smart! I can see him going back to Willamette and saying to his classmates. “Have I got an inroad at Schwabe. I met this old guy who is the COO. I’m writing a letter to get him on my side. I think his generation likes that kind of thing.”

Jeff was hired in 2004 and flash forward seventeen years and he’s now an Equity Partner at Schwabe. He has a robust practice and represents manufacturing, energy, healthcare, and food and beverage companies in litigation, federal, and state court proceedings from early alternative dispute resolution through trial.

He has considerable experience defending in product liability, tort actions, commercial disputes and water rights adjudications.

The young counselor also has developed a specialty in licensing issues for food and beverage companies and was very helpful with pro-bono advice when I was assisting with the licensing of the Benedictine Brewery in Mount Angel. (I told Jeff, he owed me for lobbying on his behalf and pointed out that his athletic ability was the deciding factor in his selection.)

Jeff and his wife, Lindsay, (Janet and I went to their wedding.) now have three beautiful daughters and he didn’t disappoint us with his elbow jumper during the competition in the other court in which he showed his skill. His batting average in softball was also quite high.

I’ll end this story by adding another highlight of my friendship with Jeff. Of course, when Jeff got hired, I called Nelson (mentioned above) – who at Miami Hills Elementary, I nicknamed “Moose” because of his size.

We agreed that it was time to reunite after forty-six years and he flew out to Oregon for several days. He, Jeff and I skied at Mt. Hood and I followed up with a visit to Cincinnati five years later when I was there for a Legal Management conference.