Cool stuff that’s too small for a big article
Just like it says, Popcorn Shorts is about the kind of things we think are really interesting, but don’t really need a large article to explain them. From the sublime to the ridiculous, check in here for crunchy bits of info you’ll love to munch. By the way, much (but not necessarily all) of our delicious Popcorn comes from articles we’ve posted on our Facebook page. If you’re on Facebook, please stop by and “Like” us and we’ll keep a fairly-constant-but-not-frequent-enough-to-be-annoying stream of these coming to your virtual door!
Our Popcorn Shorts for December, 2019
Pee Wee’s Big Adventure begins in Portland
Bicycle theft. Those two words strike terror into us all, but in 1985 an oddball comedian decided to fight back. When the big man-child bully of the neighborhood (in retrospect, a quite Trumpian villian) takes a beloved bicycle, it launches Pee Wee Herman on a nonsensical and hilarious quest to get it back. Now, 35 years after the quest ended, Paul Reubens is bringing Pee Wee back for the anniversary and he’s launching his tour in (where else?) Portland, Oregon. Paul and Pee Wee will take over the Newmark Theatre on Feb 14, 2020, but if you want to be part of the fun you’d better hurry… and be rich. Tickets sold out within an hour, and are now online for $206-$424.
New Seasons Market sells to South Korea
New Season Market was born in Portland in 1999 and had grown to 15 stores and 3000 employees by 2013. Also in 2013, New Seasons became the first grocery store in the world to be certified as a ‘B Corp’ for-profit company meeting social sustainability, environmental performance, accountability, and transparency standards. The Sellwood store, just a few blocks from our shop, was only New Season’s second store! All that changed in December, when New Seasons was bought by South Korea’s Good Food Holdings for an undisclosed sum. They say that New Seasons will be free to continue operations as they have, but read what else they’re saying in this Willamette Week article…
Keeping the peace at your Holiday feast
Don’t know about you, but we made it through Thanksgiving without losing any friends or family over politics. Barely. Given the prominence and importance of today’s political events there’s almost no way to avoid political talk and possible discomfort at the Holiday table, yet there are few better places to have the national conversations we need about our country. If you find yourself in a political discussion and you know… you just KNOW… your partner is wrong, here is some advice from the folks at PolitiFact on how to fact-check your family at the Holiday table. They have some good basic tips on how to now just say something but how to be heard.
What’s the best US state!from US News & World Report- The Best States ranking of U.S. states draws on thousands of data points to measure how well states are performing for their citizens. In addition to health care and education, the metrics take into account a state’s economy, its roads, bridges, internet and other infrastructure, its public safety, the fiscal stability of state government, and the opportunity it affords its residents. More weight was accorded to some state measures than others, based on a survey of what matters most to people. Health care and education were weighted most heavily. Then came state economies, infrastructure, and the opportunity states offer their citizens. Fiscal stability followed closely in weighting, followed by measures of crime & corrections and a state’s natural environment.
…and all the rest of our 2019 Popcorn!
