#summer camp portland

[zombardzomramble]

it's december

trying to remind myself of what I have ACHIEVED this year rather than dwell on the fact certain things havent changed

[fatehbaz]

Some updates from the past twelve-ish months:

-- Late 2022: Portland and its mayor (Wheeler) started a major push to ban "street camping". Headlines in major media outlets also described "Portland's first sanctioned mass homeless camp" and how "Portland moves forward with $27 million plan to build mass shelters". In December 2022, Portland-area authorities used the so-called "aggressive landscaping" tactic, installing hundreds of hostile architecture boulders to prevent sitting/sleeping. Also in December, homeless advocates and Disability Rights Washington advocates attempted to halt Spokane's (Washington) clearing of a major camp for hundreds of people, and a federal judge sided with advocates to put a temporary restraining order on the sweep.

-- January 2023: Even in the immediate aftermath of historic cold as far south as Miami and Monterrey, sub-freezing temperatures across the Deep South, and sub-zero-Fahrenheit blizzards sweeping North America for a week or longer around Solstice/Christmas 2022, convenience stores "in Texas, California, New York use classical music to shoo homeless".

-- By March 2023: "Portland Mayor Wheeler unveils first location for city-run homeless camp".

-- April 2023: San Francisco and Mayor Brand announce a major "five-year plan" costing over 600 million dollars "to cut the number of unsheltered homeless in half". (Not a plan to put people in homes or find stable housing, but just to technically put them under the roof of shelter, keeping them out of sight, therefore qualifying them for the strange designation of "the sheltered homeless".) At the same time, San Francisco opened a "long-term homeless shelter on Treasure Island", pushing homeless people onto an isolated island mostly composed of concrete and asphalt.

-- Summer 2023: In May, the city of Phoenix (Arizona) began its project to clear and eliminate its largest homeless camp, known as the Zone, a refuge for hundreds of people. During the record-breaking heat of the summer of 2023, Phoenix cleared the camp systematically, block by block. At the beginning of September 2023, as "Phoenix breaks heat record as city hits 110F [110 degrees Fahrenheit] for the 54th consecutive day", the city cleared the block of the camp where most seniors and the elderly lived.

-- January 2024: About one week ahead of winter holidays (Solstice/Christmas), the City of Edmonton pursued plans to sweep 130 homeless encampments as part of what has been described as a "shocking" eviction plan. In January, the city was clearing camps amidst sustained deadly severe weather, during a polar vortex event with temperatures of negative 50 degrees Fahrenheit and daytime highs of negative 25F. When a court case presented by Coalition for Justice and Human Rights tried to slow the sweeps, a judge sided with them and shut down the evictions.

-- March 2024: Florida's governor signs a new law. NPR describes: "law that seeks to move unhoused people off public property altogether and into government-run encampments".

-- April 2024: The U.S. Supreme Court begins hearing a case from Grants Pass (Oregon) with major implications and potential to incite nationwide "banishment race" and "homelessness crackdown". Lower courts have previously said that city policies (like Grants Pass, Boise, and others) were "cruel and unusual" for fining and/or jailing people for sleeping on public land if no adequate accessible shelter is available. But now?

[g1rld1ary]

masterlist 🦢🎀 𓍢ִ໋🌷͙֒ 🎀🦢

anthony lockwood ✩

➻ sharing's caring

you meet lockwood at arif's and bond over your love of scones

➻ come home with me

your bus breaks down in the middle of the night and lockwood might just be your knight in shining armour

➻ bloody genius

after a long night of researching cases with lockwood, you do something you don't quite mean to

➻ jealousy jealousy (part two)

you and lockwood bond when you're his favourite waitress at arif's. maybe all that's needed to prompt a confession is good old-fashioned jealousy

➻ secret admirer

you've got a secret admirer ahead of valentine's day who seems intent on spoiling you

➻ to build a home

you're the only employee at lockwood & co who doesn't live at portland row, but you're beginning to think you should

➻ just blurry

lockwood rambles a lot when he's drunk and you fall victim to it

➻ what once was

you and lockwood hate each other -- you have since you were young. but when your teams have to work together, deeper feelings come to light

➻ ode to my family

(relicman!reader) lockwood tries to stop you from stealing sources for your family's business, he's quite persuasive

➻ opening doors

you're lockwood's secret girlfriend, but when he hasn't called you after a case, you have to go find him and reveal your private relationship

➻ miscommunications

you think lockwood likes lucy, he thinks you like george. neither of those facts are true.

➻ nice towel

the deleted scene if it was you and you were dating lockwood

➻ reaching out

l+co encounter a case a little too close to home for lockwood. luckily you're always there for him

➻ comforting him after a panic attack

remus lupin ✩

➻ kiss me on the dance floor

you and remus keep meeting in the bathroom at parties whilst holding your friend's hair back

➻ the way i see you

you're an artist and you wish your best friend could see himself the way you see him, but you endeavour to try

sirius black ✩

➻ tell me when you're sober

sirius calls you drunk at a house party and confesses something he probably shouldn't

➻ red carpets

both actors in different projects, you see sirius on the red carpet of an awards show and think he's gorgeous

james potter ✩

➻ 5 people james potter didn't mean to kiss (and one he did)

title says it all -- james potter is a very affectionate person

➻ lifeguard!james 2 3 4 5

➻ a little man power

neighbour!james meets you as you're moving into the building

➻ overheard that she was nineteen

you're sad on your 19th birthday but james is there to make you feel better

➻ summer friends 2

you and james both get made head counselors at your summer camp but bump heads a few times in the process

➻ our names in the paper

luke castellan ✩

➻ you never disappointed me

two three four five

10 things i hate about you!AU, luke gets paid to take you out so beckendorf can have his chance with silena

➻ unlucky

when clarisse can't drive you to your exam anymore, luke steps in as a favour and happens to be able to help your anxiety

percy jackson ✩

➻ pumpkin head

you and percy try the pumpkin head trend

luke patterson ✩

➻ new release

you find out luke is your neighbour only after blasting his new album all day, but he doesn't seem to mind

➻ sick days

you're not feeling well, but luke is here to look after you

spencer reid ✩

➻ sex on the beach

chilli margaritas

you're a bartender at the bar the bau frequent and you can tell spencer doesn't like his beer.

elle greenaway ✩

➻ do i make you nervous?

the woman taking your witness statement is stunning and it makes you nervous

monty the crow ✩

➻ boys r dumb

you find monty after edwin rejects him (platonic)

trevor spengler ✩

➻ lamest place in the world

you meet trevor and have a fun night together in an otherwise boring small town

neil perry ✩

➻ love's light wings

you meet neil at a party and accidentally recreate romeo and juliet's balcony scene

[arty-tardigrade]

A couple Max doodles from my sketchbook to shamelessly plug my fic!

"Max always knew everything about what he was supposed to be. He was Max, the cynical rebel, the one-man hell-raiser, the bad kid who deserved every bad thing that came his way. Or well, that's what he thought until one summer at the world's worst summer camp with the world's nicest camp counselor took that idea and flipped it right on its head.

Now, he's learning that he might just deserve better than what he's got, which is how he finds himself on a bus ride from Los Angeles to Portland in search for help from a camp counselor, and maybe even a real home."

Go check it out if you like Dadvid content!

[towards-toramunda]

Ashton Greymoore is from Crown Heights and works in a neighborhood deli and he makes the best chopped cheese New York City has ever seen and gets paid $18 an hour so you better fucking tip

Orym is from a small town in northern Vermont that voted 97% Bernie Sanders and he is rarely seen without the green thick flannel that he got from his stepdad before he passed. He helps run a martial training summer camp, but works at a grocery store most of the time.

Laudna is big in the Portland goth scene because she works at a taxidermy shop where people bring her their beloved dearly departed pets and she brings them back to life as statues.

Imogen lives in Tennessee and works at a horse ranch that rents out for kids birthday parties. She has a therapist that she goes to twice a week and she takes at least five different medications for her mental health.

Chetney is from northern Wisconsin where he lives in a cabin by himself and crafts the most gorgeous wooden furniture and statues. He thinks its funny when people complain about deep snow during the winter. He goes ice fishing and wears T-shirts with wolves howling at the moon.

FCG is from Huntsville Alabama where they used to work at the Space and Rocket center, but he recently discovered Christ and he’s really into it. They’ve never touched a bible but really likes the concept of being Christian so he figures its good.

Fearne was born and raised in Los Angeles to a wealthy and famous celebrity couple who left her with their housekeeper most of the time. She likes to garden and has a weird fascination with fire. She’s a nepo baby so shes never worked a day in her life and doesn’t know what “clopening” means.

[ottawacharge]

Jessie Fleming interview: Adapting to the Thorns, her Chelsea exit and pushing for environmental change

Jessy Parker Humphreys, Wednesday, July 24th

Ask Jessie Fleming what topics interest her about the environment and she will start reeling them off.

“Urban planning, the power of funghi, regenerative agriculture, Dan Barber…”

Barber is an American chef who advocates for farm-to-table cooking, in case you are not as looped into the environmental ethics of food as Fleming.

“I started taking courses on environmental science for fun at university and I got down this rabbit hole,” she explains. Fleming ended up minoring in the subject at university in Los Angeles and has been committed to raising awareness about issues with our environment ever since.

This latest pledge comes off the back of her choice to donate the carbon cost of her long-haul flight to the 2023 Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand as part of a 47-player initiative through Common Goal, a charitable movement launched by Spain international Juan Mata six years ago.

Fleming left Women’s Super League (WSL) champions Chelsea in January, going from a league in England where players travel to games by train or coach to one where they can fly thousands of miles across the country every weekend, such is the geographical spread of the 14 teams.

“It’s something I think about a lot,” she says. “As players, we have a responsibility to draw attention to those problems and suggest ways leagues and governing bodies can adjust the format of tournaments or the schedule of leagues to help reduce those footprints.

“We’re all hypocritical in a way, so we need to at least do something.”

There was a feeling around Fleming’s mid-season departure from Chelsea that she had never quite lived up to her potential. Arriving in summer 2020 fresh out of the U.S. college game at UCLA, her stock was very high, having originally made her senior debut for Canada aged only 15.

Yet she never nailed down a starting spot, despite featuring 111 times across four seasons and being trusted by manager Emma Hayes to start crucial matches such as the 2022-23 Champions League semi-final second leg against Barcelona at Camp Nou.

“I loved my time at Chelsea, loved the league, loved England. I just wanted to be in a place where I was consistently playing in the same position and playing more consistent minutes.”

Fleming has certainly got that with Portland, where she has started 13 of their 15 matches so far this season, but the return to the U.S. has been an adjustment. Portland had their worst start to an NWSL season, failing to win any of their first four games and consequently sacking manager Mike Norris. A six-game winning run followed, but with only one victory in the past four league fixtures, it is clear they are still finding their feet as a team.

Those ups and downs are a unique experience for Fleming, who lost only one more league match in three-and-a-half years with Chelsea than she has in six months in Portland.

“It’s definitely a different challenge,” she says. “Physically, it’s more intense (in the NWSL). More transitional, lots of athletic players. But you’re starting to see the effect of European coaches in the league. There are more teams trying to play possession-based, thoughtful football. I’ve never seen anything like how competitive the NWSL is, especially when you look at the teams at the top of the table who had poor seasons last year. That’s not something you would ever see in the WSL.

“The start of the season was especially difficult for us, because we had so many new players. We spent so little time together before the first game — that was a challenge I’d never experienced before. I think we’re feeling the effects of the ebb and flow of the season right now. You have to be so tuned-in mentally for every game, every week. If you do go through a low spell, you have to find ways to turn it around quickly, because getting a few wins will push you up the table.”

The NWSL season is about to be paused for the Olympics, which begin in France at the end of this month, where Fleming will be hoping to help Canada’s women retain the title they won at the previous Games in Japan three years ago. Paris 2024 will be her third Olympics and Canada have won medals at her previous two, taking bronze in Brazil in 2016, but a disappointing World Cup campaign, where they exited at the group stage after one win and two goals (one of them an own-goal) in the three games, has put a dampener on expectations.

“I struggled with penalties a bit at university, so it’s definitely not something I’ve always felt able to do,” she says. “I feel like for that coolness, I have to turn to my team-mates and our environment. I feel very supported and backed up with the national team and that helped me massively during that tournament.”

This time out, she’ll be in a new role as captain. Anyone who has watched Fleming play will know she is not the most vocal on the pitch, but she feels she can bring something different to the role.

“I’m definitely on the quieter side, but I’m learning there are so many different ways to lead,” Fleming says. “I don’t love speaking in front of a loud group of people and I feel like I thrive a bit more when I’m one-on-one with players. I would say I’m a bit of a football brain. I love watching the game, I love talking about tactics, and I’m always interested in how to improve, both as an individual and as a team.

“For me, it’s about letting my passion for football shine through and trying to bring others with me in that.”

[petoskeystones]

Happy (late) birthday Rickie!! Coincidentally I've been listening to your 19 and 91 playlists all day (I know nothing about hockey but they're really good) (and compelling...) (If you ever want to tell someone all about 19 and 91 I'm here 👀) <3

thank you for the birthday wishes bird!! you have no idea what you've just unleashed upon the dash, though. 19 and 91... everyone sit down for the abridged, but still way too long, version of the story of steve yzerman and sergei fedorov.

in 1983 the detroit red wings, formerly the greatest american hockey team of all time and the pride of the city, were very bad. they were called the dead wings. they had no money and no prospects and they were frightened. they had just been purchased, however, by a fellow named mike ilitch, who you may know as the founder and ceo of little caesars pizza, and he had hired a new general manager named jim devellano, and they wanted to turn things around. in that summer of 1983, with the fourth overall pick in the nhl draft, ilitch and devellano wanted to take pat lafontaine, a hometown boy and one of the best prospects of the year. but lafontaine went third, to the new york islanders, and they settled for a kid named steve yzerman instead.

in 1983, steve yzerman made the roster out of training camp. he scored 39 goals. he was the youngest nhl all-star ever. he finished second in voting for best rookie of the year. within two years, 20-year-old steve yzerman was the youngest captain in the history of the detroit red wings, with his coach stating that he practically had "the red wings crest tattooed on his chest". by the end of his career he would be one of the most beloved athletes in the history of detroit sports.

his legacy is for later though. in the 1980s we were still losing. so that wasn't great. by 1989, we hadn't seen the playoffs in over a decade, and jim devellano was in the hot seat, and so he decided to do something insane, which was use up one of his 1989 draft picks on a russian named sergei fedorov.

to try to put this into some context: in 1989 there was one single russian player in all of the nhl, alexander moligny, who had defected from the soviet union that year in order to play. soviet hockey was inextricably linked with the military during the cold war, with players for thee cska moscow team being considered army officers. they spent 11 months of the year playing hockey away from their families. they absolutely demolished the united states and canada at their own sport. jim devellano used his fourth-round draft pick on a soviet military asset that he would likely never get to see play in detroit.

why the hell did he do that? well, he had talked to steve yzerman beforehand, because steve had played against the soviet team in the hockey world championship.

and so they drafted sergei fedorov, and in the same draft, vladimir konstantinov, and everyone thought jim devellano was crazy for it. it took until june of 1990 for sergei fedorov to defect from the soviet union and fly, from the goodwill games in portland, to detroit, where they set him up in the wings' vice president jim lites' house in the suburbs and went about the business of teaching him english. why did he defect? well, other than the fact that he badly wanted to play nhl hockey, they gave him several things: a corvette, and $10,000, and an apartment on the river, and the same contract as steve yzerman. it was the last thing that eventually got sergei on the plane.

and so they had the second russian in the national hockey league, wearing number 91, chosen for being the inverse of steve's 19.

from 1990-1997 we acquired four more russian players (konstantinov, kozlov, larionov and fetisov), and the russian five unit revolutionized the hockey world. this not hyperbole, they are five of the most important players in hockey history, and sergei was arguably the most well-known of them. while steve was generally a quiet leader and not a particularly flashy player, sergei was a media darling and one of the most exciting players in the league. he's particularly well-known for his trademark white nike skates and all-star fastest skater record, but i also think about his love of sports cars, his fashion sense, the commercials, and his genuine love for being a detroit red wing, to start.

sergei became steve's alternate captain, although assistant captain might be more apt. when steve began to have knee problems, he would be put on a unit with sergei, who he would trust to carry the puck from end to end for him.

sergei, meanwhile, understood his job in detroit as making steve's job easier. “i could tell stevie was worried about a lot of things. i wasn’t sure what exactly i had to do. But i knew i had to help him as much as i can on the ice.”

the detroit red wings made the playoffs from 1990-2015, 13 of those years with steve and sergei. they won the stanley cup three times together, in 1997, 1998, and 2002. to call them the best hockey team of the 90s-00s is correct.

but good times come to an end. in 2003, sergei's contract with the red wings was up. he had previously had contract issues in 1998, forcing the ilitches to match a $38 million deal with the carolina hurricanes; in 2003, he signed a contract with the anaheim ducks that was worth $10 million less than what detroit was offering him. did he owe detroit, for everything they had done for him? the ilitches and devellano think so. detroit thought so, and booed him when he returned to play against his former team. he went back to russia in 2009, three years after steve retired as the longest-serving captain of any north american sports team in history— a very apt 19-season record that has never been broken. steve briefly worked for the tampa bay lightning; around that time, sergei's marriage ended, and he only asked for their florida beach house in the divorce.

anyways, it's 2024 now. the red wings have gone eight years without seeing the playoffs. steve yzerman's number was retired in 2007, and since 2019, he has served as the team's general manager. it has been a decade since sergei fedorov was in detroit, for his hockey hall of fame induction ceremony; the ilitch family and jim devellano will not retire sergei's jersey with steve's, but nobody has worn 91 since he left, and several players have actually changed their jersey numbers from 91 upon coming to play here. when asked his thoughts about retiring number 91, it took steve eleven seconds to come up with a response.

the red wings are the second-worst team in our conference right now. we need a new coach. there has never been a russian coach in the nhl. sergei is, as of this summer, retired from coaching in russia where he won two championships with his former team; he still spends summers in detroit.

sergei is over it. steve is over it. the only people who still think about 2003 are jim devellano and mike ilitch's widow marian. retire 91 and let him come home!

[epersonae]

Because you foolishly agreed to more than one of these: Director's Cut of "BIGFOOT STOLE MY HUSBAND!", please.

anyway.

before I even start on this, let me just say that I love that you've picked out my three OFMD fics that imho get the best comments in very different ways. for the benefit of all the broken hearts gets the in-depth analysis and plot-based screaming; I spit on your grave is full of I NEEDED THIS CATHARSIS; and BIGFOOT STOLE MY HUSBAND is about 80% "would it be weird if I wanted to kiss bigfoot/o no you've awakened something in me", which me too bud (actually this comment is one of my favorite comments on anything ever).

Sometimes you write something you're not into entirely out of spite, well, 80% spite and 20% as a gift to your friends lol.

Which is to say that someone posted a link to a pretty bad (and also at the time the only) Ed/Stede/Bigfoot fic in a server I'm in (come ON, "it was all a dream"?!?!?! COWARD) and we got chatting about what a good fic would be like, and then dammit now I have an actual idea.

I said in my previous director's commentary post that I often need a hook to get into a story, and the camping narration that it starts with was the hook.

My ex-husband (first spouse, the bad marriage, the divorce) was very outdoorsy in that Pacific Northwest way; in college he'd worked for a summer as a guide on Mt Rainier and then the following winter was the caretaker for a lodge. He was not as gung-ho about it as some of his friends, but he did always want for us to go on a "real" backpacking trip, and we did a lot of car camping. And like, we had some real awful arguments and terrible experiences, but also there was a lot I enjoyed about it, and I hadn't (still haven't) done that since before I got divorce. (iirc we didn't go out at all that last summer we were together, which feels like part of the "everything coming to a head" of that year.)

So apparently I had a whole bunch of pent-up feelings about camping, both the actual physical experience of being in the woods/mountains and the experience of doing something that your partner is into WAY more than you are. (Which, yes, is both about the camping and Bigfoot.)

One of the other things about that fic is the whole scent experience, obviously, and that is the 20% gift for a friend aspect of that story, because one of the people who I was more or less writing it for is someone who I thought would appreciate that particular aspect. My beta also pushed me to be more specific and detailed about the actual fragrance notes, so I did two things. One, I looked up perfume sites and stuff for the kind of language people use for that, and two, what ended up being the most notorious (?) details: I opened up my spice drawer and literally smelled all of my spices to find something that might be a little unusual but also felt right. And that is where the cumin thing comes from.

(I think the commenter experience of "would it be weird if I were into this" comes both from my commitment to sensory detail and to Ed's inner narration of "would it be weird if I were into this")

Finally, I knew it needed to end not with Bigfoot, but with them affirming their connection to each other, and I did seriously laugh out loud when I realized I could use "he's got nice hair". It's so stupid and so perfect.

(also the detail of the two of them having a selfie with a roadside attraction fake taxidermy Bigfoot is stolen from my experience going to the Portland Maine cryptozoology museum and doing exactly that with Ryn, who loved all things Bigfoot.) (I've had relationships with at least four people who are/were really into cryptids, I have no idea what that's about.)

[ask me for the director's commentary on a fic!]

[deadpresidents]

Exactly 100 years ago, President Warren Gamaliel Harding escaped the sweltering summer weather and increasingly dark political climate of Washington, D.C. to embark upon a lengthy cross-country trip through parts of the American West still relatively unaccustomed to frequent visits by the nation’s Chief Executive. Billed as a “Voyage of Understanding”, Harding’s trip was seen as a prelude to his potential campaign for re-election the following year, and an opportunity to put some literal and figurative distance between the President and the rumors of rampant corruption swirling around some of Harding’s friends and closest aides from Ohio, as well as several Cabinet members — rumors eventually proven to be true, resulting in indictments, convictions, prison sentences, and even suicides. As President Harding prepared for his Western tour, he could feel the heat as the scandals plaguing his Administration began to reach a boiling point. Speaking privately to the famous journalist and editor William Allen White, Harding said of the Presidency, “My God, this is a hell of a job! I have no trouble with my enemies…But my damn friends, they’re the ones that keep me walking the floor nights.”

Harding’s planned 15,000-mile Voyage of Understanding began on June 20, 1923. Traveling aboard the private Pullman railroad car Superb, the 57-year-old President left Washington, D.C. accompanied by First Lady Florence Harding, Speaker of the House of Representatives Frederick H. Gillett, new Interior Secretary Hubert Work, and a large retinue of aides, friends and their families, doctors, Secret Service agents, and members of the press. Work had become Secretary of the Interior a few months earlier when the previous Secretary, Albert B. Fall, became the “fall guy” for the Teapot Dome scandal. For his role in the scandal, Fall was later convicted of accepting bribes — the first former Cabinet member in American history to serve time in prison for crimes committed while in office. At later points along the journey, Harding’s party was also joined by Secretary of Agriculture Henry C. Wallace (father of future Vice President Henry A. Wallace) and Secretary of Commerce (and future President) Herbert Hoover.

The last week of June 1923 was spent traveling through the Mountain West — Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Idaho, Montana, and Yellowstone National Park. The beginning of July saw the Presidential party in the Northwest and celebrating Independence Day in Portland, Oregon before boarding the USS Henderson in Tacoma, Washington on July 5, 1923 to sail to Alaska. One of the expected highlights of the Voyage of Understanding was the northernmost  leg of the trip, as Harding became the first incumbent President of the United States to visit Alaska and Canada. The Territory of Alaska had been purchased for the United States by Secretary of State William Seward in 1867 when Warren G. Harding was two years old, and at the time of Harding’s visit, Alaska was still 35 years from being admitted to the Union as the 49th state. But the President spent nearly the entire month of July traveling through the state, mixing public appearances with private recreation and sightseeing. On July 15, 1923, Harding hammered a golden spike in Nenana, Alaska to officially complete the Alaska Railroad. And ten days later, the President crossed into Canada, fishing on the Campbell River in British Columbia on July 25th and then making an official visit the following day in Vancouver, where he was greeted by one of the largest crowds of his voyage — estimated at over 40,000 people — and where he also squeezed in a round of golf at the exclusive Shaughnessy Golf Club.

The President returned to American soil on July 27th, arriving in Seattle and making several speeches in a busy six-hour period — first to Camp Fire Girls at Volunteer Park, then to nearly 30,000 Boy Scouts at Woodland Park, and finishing the day addressing over 30,000 people at what is now Husky Stadium at the University of Washington where he predicted statehood for Alaska, where he had spent most of the month. After making a brief appearance that evening at the Seattle Press Club, Harding boarded his train that night to travel to Portland, Oregon.

But something was not right. The President seemed to be exhausted, perhaps from the grueling trip through geography much wilder than Harding’s native Ohio or swampy Washington, D.C. Despite his exciting journey through Alaska and the energetic welcome provided by the Canadian people, Harding was clearly wiped out by the time he reached British Columbia. The President did head to the country club while in Vancouver, but he was so tired that after six holes of golf his foursome skipped directly to the eighteenth hole, seemingly completing the round without tipping off the press that Harding couldn’t play the entire course.

From the White House, nine days before embarking upon his Voyage of Understanding, Harding wrote a quick note to Solicitor General James M. Beck who had wished the President a safe journey on his upcoming trip. Thanking Beck, Harding wrote, “I shall try to remember not to overdo (it) in crossing the continent.” And, on June 14, 1923, six days before leaving, President Harding wrote a short letter to a young girl from Hartford, Connecticut named Vivian Little, who had recently sent the President a four-leaf clover as a good luck charm. “Thank you so much for the four-leaf clover which you were so good as to press and send to me,” the President wrote. “I hope it will bring me good luck and that it will bring you still more of the same.”

However, any luck that President Warren G. Harding still had seemed to be running out. Ill and exhausted after leaving Vancouver, Harding tried to rest aboard the USS Henderson as it sailed to Seattle in the early morning hours of July 27. At some point around 3 AM, Harding and the other passengers aboard the Henderson were jolted awake as the ship crashed into the USS Zeilin, an American destroyer accompanying the Presidential party while they traveled through the foggy Puget Sound. This was not the first mishap of the Voyage of Understanding. While traveling through Colorado early in the trip, three people from the President’s party had been killed in a car accident. And now, after a few weeks in Alaska where Harding was able to at least temporarily forget about his Administration’s many troubles, the President was not only sick and tired but two of his Navy’s ships had just smashed into each other almost as soon as he had returned to the continental United States. While the USS Zeilin was badly damaged in the collision, the USS Henderson was not and there were apparently no major injuries on either vessel. But when the President’s valet, Major Arthur Brooks, came to Harding’s stateroom aboard the Henderson to inform him that the captain was calling for all hands on deck, he found the depressed President lying on his bed with his face buried in his hands. “I hope the boat sinks,” President Harding quietly muttered.

It was just hours later that Harding made his whirlwind tour through Seattle, putting on a brave face at his public appearances, but clearly not feeling well. While he was never considered a brilliant orator like Abraham Lincoln, Benjamin Harrison, or his immediate predecessor, Woodrow Wilson, Harding was a strong speaker and excellent communicator who had a unique ability to connect with audiences, but he was obviously — and unusually — halting and confused while speaking in Seattle on July 27th. As he boarded his train at Seattle’s King Street Station that night, Harding was examined by his doctor and by Interior Secretary Hubert Work, who had once been a physician, and they decided to cancel the next several days of planned activities. Instead of stopping in Portland and then visiting Yosemite National Park, the Presidential party was ordered to proceed directly to San Francisco where Harding could rest before giving a speech on the radio planned for July 31st which was expected to be heard by over 5 million people.

Despite the four-leaf clover that had been sent to him by Vivian Little before his Voyage of Understanding, Warren Gamaliel Harding’s luck seemed to be running out. And, as his train sped through Oregon en route to San Francisco’s Palace Hotel on July 28, 1923, President Harding was also running out of time.  

[jackawful]

I cannot help but see the throughlines. I am told HRT will cause irreversible damage, just like what I was told about birth control by the pamphlets I was given at the crisis pregnancy center. They refused to give me condoms because if I were to become pregnant, they wanted me to carry to term, to face the irreversible damage from my choice to fuck but not allow me sovreignty over my own body. I am forever tiptoeing around my identity when I work with children. I could not be out as a woman-lover at a summer camp in missouri, just as I couldn't be out as a trans man working shelters in the portland suburbs, because what would the parents think of me irreversibly damaging their children with the mere knowledge of my existance? My transfem friends and family are repeatedly framed as abusive men by white cis women, and Nex isn't taken to the hospital, and I find myself weeping once more over Emmett Till and Matthew Shepard, thinking of how much irreversible damage those with privilege can do while crying wolf.

[nicegaai]

im drawing lesbian nordic 5s again ahhgjghnfjfjdjdndjdjfjfn... nothing good enough to share yet but the lesbian womyns land au is startibg to be less of a joke (started as a plot device to have a bunch of adult wlw from all walks of life hanging out w no men around)... heres some of the things on my mind

sweden is a long flowy skirts+dresses farmers market type. half her head is shaved and she has a sleeve of tattoos. used to be a serious businesswoman in stockholm (or portland but dont think about the setting too hard) but now she just wants to live in the woods (she fell for the cottagecore pintrest aesthetic and blew up her life to have it). shes the pov main character in my imagination bc shes relatively new to the land

finland is a SHORT FAT BUTCH !!!!!!!!!!!! she is ADORABLE and SOOOO NICE and HELPFUL TO EVERYONE!!!!! shes got practical skills for running life off the grid and is an excellent handywoman and ms sweden is head over heels for her on sight. finland might b a permanent resident / own the land. running this low tech summer camp for wayward lesbians is her lifelong dream and SHES LIVIN IT BABY

Denmark is obv a basketball shorts + growing out a buzzcut messy type. loud, rubs people the wrong way easily but is well intentioned. brings practical skills to the land too (shes a tradeswoman). literally just canon denmark but with more lesbian swag. shes here bc she loves women but started coming to support her ex-wife/current gf eternal situationship ->

norway is a dianic mother goddess earth worshipper type and the land's high priestess. (everyone else buys into the lesbian religion stuff at different levels ex. fin thinks its important, den doesnt quite get it). other than that shes a millennial skinny jeans sidepart collects way too many plushies type. still says heccin doggo and such. super skinny very pretty not very expressive (she is possibly tripping at any given time. its a religious practice ok she Needs more weed shrooms lsd Right Now). her brain is a little fried but maybe she was always like this. outside this she struggles to keep employment or not maybe shes doing something or has a witchcraft etsy shop i dont know tbh. she can do whatever she wants bc shes a trust fund baby.

iceland is 16 and the result of norways teen pregnancy. shes been coming to the land as long as she can remember, may or may not even be gay, and is going through a Euphoric Atheist phase both genuinely and because it pisses mom off (ice is one of the few who can even tell when nor is pissed off). shes in online high school and her only friends her age are also online. den is her stepmom kind of and the only one who Gets Her... ugh... flips hair

other notes: everyone looks way more like normal hetalia chrs than they do the nyo counterparts. and the other priestesses are england and romania

[fatehbaz]

County and city governments in Washington, Oregon, California, Arizona, etc.:

"Yea, totally, we're compassionate and humane. We're the enlightened 'Left Coast' after all, right? So we acknowledge that our homelessness and housing prices are so obscene that even people across the planet, in other nations, are aware of and horrified by the reputation of cities like San Francisco and Seattle, whose names have become notorious. Anyway. In the past two or three years, the situation has significantly worsened, because these cities have aggressively increased legal attacks and intimidation against homeless people, by increasing crackdowns on and criminal sentences for 'loitering' and for sleeping outside. Portland, for example, has aggressively cleared long-standing camps and unofficial traditional places of refuge while outlawing 'camping'. Our cities have been dramatically increasing the frequency of camp sweeps, trashing peoples' only belongings. This year in 2023, for the third consecutive summer in a row, temperatures will again be reaching above 105 degrees Fahrenheit for multiple days, in these cities, like Seattle, where even 70% of rented households have no air conditioning due to the typically mild marine climate of the coast. The past year has been "the hottest on record" for the planet. Meanwhile, already earlier in July 2023, temperatures in Phoenix were above 110 degrees for 19 straight days. In the past year, the state of New Mexico saw a 48% increase in homelessness. The LA Times and LA Homeless Services Authority reported in June 2023 that on any given night there are over 46,000 people experiencing homelessness in the City of Los Angeles, while on any given night L.A. County hosts about 75,000 (seventy-five thousand) people experiencing homelessness. That's a lot of people who will be subject to persistent extreme heat. Therefore, because we are compassionate and humane, we will be declaring an official state of emergency and temporarily halting our police enforcement of camp sweeps ... for the next three days. Until Friday morning or whatever. After that, we're coming back with the bulldozers and heavily armed cops to cleanse you filth and purge our streets."

(Reading about, for example, in August 2023, Portland mayor's office being like: "We had big raids on homeless camps scheduled for this week when temperatures will be above 100 degrees, but we'll postpone them until Friday! :) You're welcome!")

[jgroffdaily]

Jonathan has recently been in Seattle after working in Vancouver, but here’s an interview from November 2013 about his favourite cities, holidays and travel memories. Including:

Q. Your “Frozen” character, Kristoff, is a mountain man. Are you an outdoorsman as well?

A. My mom’s a gym teacher and she and my dad were both athletes. So we were always an active family. Ever since we were little, we did long bike rides. I’m a runner and I hike and I love being outdoors and doing all that kind of stuff. But I’ve never been on a proper camping trip. I camped outdoors in our backyard! (Laughs) I’d love to take a week off and camp in Yellowstone. Maybe I could be a hardcore camper. But not the kind who doesn’t need an actual bathroom. So scratch the hardcore part. (Laughs)

Q. Do you like cold-weather destinations?

A. I do! Last year I went to Park City, Utah, with my family and we skied and stayed in a lodge. That was fun. I hadn’t skied in a while. My mom took me skiing when I was little. I was maybe in the fourth grade. A snowboarder hit me from behind! He was a grown man, so it hurt.

Q. What was the first trip you took as a child?

A. It was to Disney World when I was five years old. My mom did a 50-day countdown. Every day before the trip, she would videotape us and we could talk about our upcoming trip or sing a song from Disney. We were so excited. The trip lived up to our expectations 100 percent! I didn’t even mind waiting in the lines to go on the Peter Pan ride and everything. I have to say, I actually love waiting in lines at amusement parks with people who you like. It’s fun. I had a friend who came to visit me from London last year and we went to Disneyland. Anyhow, now here I am in a Disney movie.

Q. Where is the most romantic destination?

A. I’ve honestly never had a romantic vacation. I need to change that right away!

Q. What are your top five cities?

A. I lived in Chicago shooting “Boss” for three months and it was gorgeous. But if I was going to place the cities in my favorite order, it’d be New York for sure. It’s my absolute favorite! Then Lancaster, Pa., Rome, San Francisco and Chicago.

Q. What makes a memorable vacation?

A. Being able to travel by yourself and feeling at home. I went to Rome by myself and just had the most incredible experience there. I went in the summer and it was so sexy and the food was great. I love sitting outside and people-watching. The vibe in the city was amazing. And then to visit the Sistine Chapel was mind blowing. I have to say that when I was in Rome, I ate my face off!

Q. Where have you traveled to that most reminded you of home?

A. I spent some time in Portland, Ore., and the mountains there reminded me of the mountains in Pennsylvania. It was so pretty with the leaves changing.

[climatecalling]

“We are prepared to do whatever it takes,” said Adah Crandall, 17, an organiser for the Sunrise Movement based in Portland, Oregon. “The far right has waged this battle against school boards and against public education, and they put a lot of time and money into trying to do things like ban books and prevent us from learning the truth about the climate crisis,” said Crandall. “And all of these things, all of these things are happening while the climate crisis is raging outside of our windows.” ... To prepare for the fight ahead, about 150 high schoolers from across the US gathered in Illinois to attend a summer camp where they honed their activism, learning advocacy and escalation tactics. Later this week, hundreds of students will join Jamaal Bowman, a New York representative, and Ed Markey, the Massachusetts senator, in Washington DC, as the lawmakers reintroduce their Green New Deal for Public Schools Act. The legislation would provide funding to help schools expand and develop curricula, hire staff and retrofit campuses.

[rebeccathenaturalist]

Hi Rebecca! I'm a recent(ish) graduated student interested in pursuing a career (or any other form of involvement) in environmental education. I was curious how you built your writing portfolio, especially writing for other sites/organizations? What first steps would recommend someone take (particularly if they're already graduated) to get into environmental education and scicomm? Thanks so much, love all your writing!!

Hi there, @misopossum! So I am a pretty atypical case. I have a BA in English, but I mainly used it for technical writing/editing (and personal journaling) for a number of years.

Most of the scicomm folks I know are either A) scientists who also have good writing and interpretation chops, or B) are science journalists who went through a formal journalism program in college/grad school. You haven't mentioned what your area of study was, but your department may have some resources to draw on if you haven't already spoken with them. Check with related departments as well, as they may have ideas too. You're a recent grad, but that doesn't mean that you can't still make use of those connections if they exist.

If you want to go a more traditional scicomm route, good places to start are The Open Notebook and the National Association of Science Writers. ScienceBites may be a good spot for you to start pitching a short article here and there to build up your portfolio, too. And this article from CrossTalk is a pretty good summary on how to get started with science writing.

Other people get involved with environmental education programs like forest schools, summer camps, and the like; some conservation nonprofits also may run these, and you can even check with state and federal parks, National Wildlife Refuges, and other governmental entities who may be in need of volunteers (or occasionally seasonal staff) for environmental ed programs.

You didn't mention where you are, but here in the PNW US there are a lot of these, especially in the Portland and Seattle areas. Depending on what your education level is you may not find the pay to be what you expected, and a lot of these programs are primarily in summertime. But if you can at least get in as a side gig, that will get some experience started.

A lot of what I do is meant for a general audience and not just specific to one locality. I do a lot of blogging online, to include articles on my website, plus some shorter form commentary on various news articles I find online that I think are worth exploring, and I have my quarterly chapbooks that let me dive deeper into various topics. These get me a pretty broad audience, beyond just my local area.

But I really got my start as a nature writer several years ago by writing pieces for the nonprofit Friends of Willapa National Wildlife Refuge, from Facebook posts to 2-3 minute radio segments for their Willapa Nature Notes segment on our local public radio station. I've also helped with other scicomm efforts they've run, from our 4th grade environmental education program in local schools, to giving talks and tours at our annual Wings Over Willapa birding and nature festival. And later this track record helped me get in as a regular columnist with the Coast Weekend paper (and occasionally a longer piece for related publications.) These are all incredibly local to where I am in the Columbia-Pacific region, but they've been good experience and they've helped me get my footing in my local community, which has helped me to facilitate other regional efforts like my independent guided tours.

I think the best choice I made overall was teaching non-credit community education classes through various community colleges, as well as municipal parks and recreation departments and libraries. It's a great way to connect with people who aren't pursuing a degree, but just learning for the fun of it. You do need some credentials of some sort, but expertise counts if you can show that you know your stuff--for example, the people teaching art classes don't all have art degrees, but they may have X number of decades' experience in their art medium. I don't have a degree in the natural sciences because my math skills are terrible, but I am a certified Oregon Master Naturalist and I also have a lifetime of experience of exploring nature and learning how to identify the living beings around me. It doesn't pay a lot, but it's a lot of fun and I get to meet a lot of new students every semester.

Be aware that people like me who take a more unorthodox route usually end up doing like eight different things for a living, rather than having one (1) career path. If you are going to do more of a "professional potpourri" like I am, you're going to need to seek out multiple niches, and perhaps create a few yourself. You're likely going to be very busy, and there's not going to be a lot of payoff immediately (as opposed to a regular job, where you start at a particular rate immediately and hopefully gets raises as things go along.)

On the bright side, having multiple professional directions means that if one of them isn't really active, I can often put more time toward another to make up for it. For example, I'd like to expand to writing for more varied venues that aren't just based in the PNW; it's just a matter of making the time to prep some cold pitches to publications and websites. This time of year I'm really busy with the tours business, so writing tends to be emphasized more in the off season. And either way you slice it, I'm still very much in the "building" process.

Aaaaanyway. That is my very long, rambling answer to your question. Please feel free to let me know if I can clarify anything for you, or if you have further questions.

[max--phillips]

Is it ever stated where Dieter Bravo is from? If not, I vote that he should be from Florida. He exudes massive Florida Man Energy™️

For a second I thought you meant like, source material, like we were finding mystery images/gifs of this Pedro character and posting them ejfbdjfjdjfjdjdjs BUT no I don’t think so

While I agree with the sort of chaotic vibe that comes with Florida Man Energy™️, he lacks… most other aspects. He wouldn’t survive days on end of Florida heat in the summer, he’d freak out if he saw a bug in his house (and we cannot forget that Florida is the Australia of the US when it comes to wildlife), and frankly I feel like he doesn’t have the capacity for violence that one would likely expect from a Florida Man.

Based on this, his crunchy behavior (freaked out about EMF & Bluetooth in the movie lmao), yet vibe like he wouldn’t survive camping in a $100k RV, plus enthusiasm for drugs, I suggest three places: the PNW (Seattle or Portland, most likely; certainly not anywhere rural), NorCal, or Denver but he never actually left the city. Arguments could be made for him being an LA native but idk that’s where I’m thinking