The dark days are here

Hard to believe, Thanksgiving is almost upon us. What's the past tense of "sneak"? Snuck? Sneaked? The holiday has snuck, or sneaked, up on me, that's for sure. Maybe it was the dry, hot weather that lingered well into October. Now all of a sudden the east wind is back, blowing frigid air through the ancient siding on the house. I didn't even get a chance to play "Into the Mystic" to usher in the new season. The steering wheel is cold enough in the morning to make gloves seem like a good idea.

The short week presents golden opportunities for news dumps by politicians and other scoundrels around the country. Wednesday would be the perfect day for that pastime. I remember when I first moved to Portland, a young guy into bar-hopping. The night before Thanksgiving was far and away the hottest night of the year. Whatever was on the news broadcasts that evening stood no chance of registering with any of us. It's still pretty easy for inconvenient news to be snuck past the public at this time of year.

I see the World Cup soccer tournament has started. I'm a marginal soccer-watcher at best, and their running that thing from almost Thanksgiving to almost Christmas pretty much guarantees I won't see hardly any of it. Plus, it's in Qatar, which definitely ain't my kind of place.

But better there than in Ukraine, where it's freeze-to-death time thanks to Putie. What an S.O.B. I hope I live long enough to see him get his just deserts.

Meanwhile, in Portland, the endless torrent of murder by handgun has turned into a teeny-bopper event. A 15-year-old shot out by the Costco. A couple of kids hit after school at Jefferson High. A teenage girl shot in north Portland. All in the same week.

Near the airport, where your car isn't safe, it turns out your body isn't, either. Some guy was shot dead at the Embassy Suites out there over the weekend. The shooter or shooters are still on the loose. The reports on the killing are coming from the Port police. When people are getting murdered within the airport cops' jurisdiction, that's never a good sign. But hey, they're redoing the terminal again. Platinum-paving the runways. Priorities, people!

As bad as the shoot-'em-ups are around here, they can't hold a candle to the scene in Colorado Springs. Another miserable bastard with a machine gun. More people murdered because they're gay or trans or whatever.  But look on the bright side: Now we can forget about the murdered college students in Virginia. And in Idaho. "Oh, and nothing can be done." What an effed-up country.

Speaking of which, tomorrow marks the 59th anniversary of the President of the United States having his head blown off. By "a crazed gunman acting alone," don't you know. Sure. Sure it was.

Oh well, take a deep breath. The rules say we have just a few more days to gather up everything we are thankful for, and say so. Wish me luck as I try to get it done. I certainly will have to stop paying attention to the news for a while.