Moments of silence for Oakland
The A’s and the Giants will play the second of their three-game cross-bay exhibition series tonight at O.co Coliseum in Oakland.
Before the 7:35 p.m. opening pitch, there will inevitably be a moment of silence for the victims of Monday’s sh...
Only-in-my-dreams Final Four
On NPR Saturday morning, Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshears was asked who he was rooting for in the Kentucky-Louisville NCAA semifinal game later in the day. Beshears dodged the question initially, saying he’s proud that a team from Kentucky will be in Monday’s national championship game. He went on to admit that he roots for Louisville...
Something to add to April quake program
We ran a story Tuesday in the Democrat-Herald about an upcoming earthquake preparedness presentation, organized by the city of Albany. It is scheduled for 2 to 4 p.m. Thursday, April 12, at Central Willamette Community Credit Union’s main office, 701 Supra Drive S.W. There will be information about what a big quake in the mid-valley...
McMillan’s magnanimous exit
Nate McMillan was fired recently by the Portland Trail Blazers, following a 42-point trouncing by the Knicks. Coaches gets fired frequently. It’s part of life in the NBA. So that was the last I expected to hear about — or from — McMillan in Portland. On Sunday, I was startled to see a full-page ad...
Week of weird weather
I’m used to cold, rainy early springs, but I can’t remember witnessing the kind of weather that was hurled at us in the past week. A recap: Friday, March 16: After a lot of rain this week, I drive in afternoon sunshine to Eugene Airport for a flight to the Bay Area to visit relatives....
Remembering Dick Harter
When I transferred to the University of Oregon in January 1973, I knew the Ducks had a great track tradition with Coach Bill Bowerman and Olympic runner Steve Prefontaine. It took me about one day to discover that UO had an exciting basketball team, too. Dick Harter, the Ducks’ second-year coach from Pennsylvania, preached defense...
The gift of music and lyrics
I’ve attended a number of United Way of Linn County Campaign Celebrations over the years. At every one of them, Jim Asleson has come up with a song for the occasion. I called the longtime executive director of the Mid-Valley Willamette Family YMCA the other day with a hunch that he was preparing yet another...
The word that made the day: Sunshine
It happened sometime around 2 Saturday afternoon. I walked out of Fred Meyer with some groceries and noticed sunshine — and warmth. All the way home, I saw people out mowing and working in their yards. That’s a good idea, I thought. About 2:30, right around the time in the second half when the Beavers...
The word that made the day: Sunshine
It happened sometime around 2 Saturday afternoon. I walked out of Fred Meyer with some groceries and noticed sunshine — and warmth. All the way home, I saw people out mowing and working in their yards. That’s a good idea, I thought. About 2:30, right around the time in the second half when the Beavers...
Almost missed the flash-mob dance
On Saturday night, I was sitting in front of Brad Townsend at Albany Civic Theater’s production of “Curtains.” (By the way, this is one funny, whacky and quite delightful play. If you like musicals, don’t miss “Curtains.”) We struck up a conversation, and I told Townsend that I was looking forward to doing a live...
Beavers, Ducks & Oscars live blog today
We’ve wanted to try a live blog from an Oregon State men’s basketball game this season at Gill Coliseum. We had scheduled one for Jan. 19, the OSU-UCLA game, but scrapped the plan Jan. 18 when it became apparent that the mid-valley flooding was going to take all of our resources. Instead of OSU-UCLA, we...
Strange Friday: A glitch, a flood and Mayan prophecy
Friday got off to a strange start, and things only got stranger as the day went on. When I arrived at the Democrat-Herald about 6:30 a.m. Friday, there were emails from Gazette-Times news editor Paul Davies and D-H sports editor Les Gehrett about problems they had posting stories to the Web on Thursday night. The...
