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Sunday, May 1, 2016

Portland Eastside Ramble

Drove over to Portland's East side yesterday afternoon. First thing I noticed was this brand new fortress over by the airport:

FBI Portland Office
I swear it wasn't there last week. According to Google Earth, it's still not there.

First stop was IKEA, then Verizon, who directed us to Tech R Us for cell-phone repair. Smart phone glass replacement is going to take an hour, so we head over to Bearly Read Books. Okay, now we are heading into unexplored territiory. I have only been east of 205 maybe a half dozen times since we moved to Oregon. It's like a whole 'nother planet. Where downtown Portland is a tangled snarl of roads and bridges, the east side is a nice, flat, gird of asphalt streets. It was like being in foreign country.


Glendoveer Golf Course
On the way there we drive by Glendoveer Golf Course which looks like some kind of primeval fantasy land. Lush fields of green grass, which is what you expect on a golf course, but there was a also a forest of enormous trees. I've never seen anything like it.
    I did not see any golfers. Saw a few people with what looked like soccer balls. Evidently footgolf is now a thing.

Bearly Read Books
The place is totally crammed with books, almost all paperbacks. Aisles that in real stores lead to cross aisles that lead to more aisles are closed off here to provide more shelf space. The place is full of tiny little cul-de-sacs, each one devoted to a particular genre. Romance novels occupy an aisle that follows the walls and completely encircles everything else. Not surprising since they are the most read books in the world. Reminds me of the South American drug lord who was totally enamored of the Harlequin romances written by Joan Wilder in Romancing the Stone.


The high point has to be the Janet Evanovich Altar. I really like Janet's books. I've read a couple and they are great fun. I didn't realize that she had a cult following in East Portland.

I picked up half a couple of books:

I've read books by Block and Dibdin before, they're pretty great. Dostoevsky and Harvey, well, we'll just have to wait and see.





Portland Eastside Ramble
Heading home, I thought I would just follow Glisan (pronounced Gleason) Street west and see where it got me. After we had been driving for a while my wife noticed that we were driving by Providence Hospital, an East side Landmark that we visit annually. I was surprised, and then surprised that I was surprised because I knew Providence backed onto Glisan.

2 comments:

Lloyd said...

That fortress is the NEW FBI building. I took some pictures of it some time ago, got out of my car to do it. Security guard stopped me, sent me on my way. About a week later I got a visit from two FBI agents AT WORK. It was a hot summer day but they were both wearing puffy vests buttoned up. This had to be about 8 years ago, because at one point they asked if I hated the US government. I said no, but being the wise ass I am, I added, Well , if Romney is elected that might change. They took it well , but now I am sure I have a file on me at the FBI.

Chuck Pergiel said...

Makes me wonder what they did with the guy who made this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ieJt9Wr1Tgg