There's stuff for sandwiches

It's the middle of Thanksgiving weekend, a time of abundance at our place. There are still plenty of fine leftovers to be had... I don't care what the radicals who hijacked the Oregon Food Bank say, Thanksgiving is the great American holiday. I hope that yours has been sweet... And if you're into spatchcocking, I hope it wasn't too traumatic...

I wonder where old Ron Wyden gummed down his turkey dinner... New York City? Washington, D.C.? Martha's Vineyard? The Hamptons?... One thing's for sure, it wasn't at his "home" in Eastmoreland...

Meanwhile, Mrs. Wyden has reportedly filed her countersuit in the dispute with the estate of her late household servant, who was allegedly bullied with homophobic slurs by the power couple's apparently troubled teenage son... The senatorial spouse reportedly claims that the assistant stole $650,000 worth of money and property from her before she noticed... That's a lot of stuff to lose track of, even when you're banking millions on Nvidia stock... This latest episode of "Honey, I Maced the Kids" would be amusing, except for the fact that the ex-employee died, reportedly by suicide... It's remarkable how often "things happen" to people who cross the rich and powerful...

In other mortuary news, we said farewell last week to Dick Cheney, and to the political career of Marjorie Taylor Greene. I tried to muster some grief for either of them, but I gotta tell ya, my Kleenex box remains full... As the saying used to go, if you want sympathy, look in the dictionary betweem sex and syphilis...

Still on the subject of departures, I see that the head of the Portland city housing bureau quit or was fired last week... I don't know what the parting of the ways was all about, but of course, she gets a year's worth of pay, some $240,000, along with her pink slip... And that's just what they're telling us about... It's really true that around City Hall, nothing succeeds like failure...

Meanwhile, the juggernaut known as "Albina Vision" keeps rolling on... Now they're going to knock down those decrepit grain silos along the river by the Coliseum and put up God knows what, probably more soulless apartment bunkers... And it's all somehow vaguely connected with the fact that once upon a time, Black people used to live around there. They sure didn't live where the grain silos are... You gotta hand it to the developer and construction types. This time they've outdone themselves with the sales pitch for their usual high-rise schlock: "Blackwash," as it were... If the project somehow diversified the inner eastside, I'd be all for it, but to me it seems that it's just homogenizing it further. And at substantial taxpayer expense, of course...

Across the street, the young Trail Blazers, who started out the season pretty hot, have since gone pretty cold... They're now sporting an 8-11 record, which would get them into a play-in game at the conclusion of the regular season... It would be great if they continued to make some noise and didn't tank away the end of the schedule for a change... But man, the way the men's pro game is played these days, I can't imagine being too interested. A bunch of guys standing around jocking up three-point jump shots, with the occasional one-on-one street ball move thrown in. A thing of teamwork and athleticism it ain't... I tried watching the Lakers and the Clippers the other night, and I had to change the channel...

Though we are now officially on Santa time, so far I've avoided the cloying sound of Christmas music. I'm wondering how long I can hold it off. Some years I get well into December before it catches up to me... Probably the right approach is to mix it in gradually, an additional 4% each day or something like that... It used to be we had four or five Christmas albums to rotate through, and that was it. Nowadays, the "celestial jukebox" gives access to seemingly every Yuletide ditty ever recorded... All that variety makes it harder to keep the traditions going. Although it may preserve one's sanity... Think I can make it to St. Stephen's Day without hearing Burl Ives doing "Holly Jolly Christmas"? Sadly, it is not possible...

That said, the new year promises some better music, of the live variety, here in town. Among shows recently announced are Cecile McLoren Salvant at the Alberta Rose, and Pat Metheny at the Newmark... Pretty good prospects both...

If you're going to be a gossip columnist, you've got to acknowledge celebrity birthdays, right? Having no little black book with such information, I asked the all-knowing internet robots to find me some upcoming Oregon birthdays. Here's what they're telling me... Today, the Portland stunt performer Danger Ehren of Jackass fame turns 49... Tomorrow is state Rep. John Lively's 79th, Portland Black activitist Demetria Hester's 51st, and author Roland Smith's 74th... On Monday hoopster Gary Payton II will reach the Big 3-3... Tuesday's children are actor Dan Gauthier (62), Jona Bechtolt of Urban Honking (40), and quarterback Aaron Rodgers (42) – hey, he spent his little league days in Beaverton... Willamette University prez Stephen Thorsett hits 61 on Wednesday, when former state Sen. Ginny Burdick celebrates a 78th... OSU ecologist Jane Lubchenco is just one day younger than Burdick, and out-there musician Daniel Menche also has a birthday, his 56th, on Thursday... Ex-Duck basketball star Sabrina Ionescu's 28th is a week from today...

The smoke detectors may be going off from all the birthday candles burning in the Oregon section of the U.S. Capitol next week. Congressperson Maxine "Sinister" Dexter turns 53 on Friday, and the next day her House colleague Andrea "Somewhere Near" Salinas turns 56... Back closer to the field office, federal Judge Michael Simon, married to Congressperson Suzanne Bonamici, will be 69 on Monday... Now, who am I leaving out?

Jeff Knight is the former dining and entertainment columnist of the Jersey Journal. Send news tips to Jeff at jeffknightpdx@gmail.com.