And here's this week's round-up of local news stories and other assorted randomness:
Portland was hit by a snow storm this week and, as always when semi-severe winter weather passes through, the city ground to a halt. Meanwhile, the OHSU tram, because it may very well run on pixie dust, kept running. At least nine local sledders wound up in emergency rooms around town and a man stabbed a teenager near SE Woodstock after his car was hit by a stray snowball. But the top story of the storm had to be the video linked below, which made national news and drudged up tens of thousands of hits on You Tube. Betsey over at Metroblogging Portland is tired of seeing it posted everywhere (sorry) and the Oregonian ran twostories this week on what really happened. Where was I during all of this? On the slopes of Gabriel Park conducting a series of speed trials on a rickety sled.
Another bit on the OHSU tram: its two cars finally have names. From now on they'll be known as "Jean" and "Walt," named for Oregon's first engineering graduate and for the first African American to graduate from OHSU.
Looking for spoilers on the next Pirates of the Caribbean movie? Then check out this concept art before it gets yanked down by Disney's lawyers. The island made out of crashed ships looks super-duper neat.
Louis Klein has sat in the studio audience for 528 episodes of Saturday Night Live, which means he's seen nearly every unfunny minute of the impossible-to-kill network stalwart. I wouldn't include the four minutes that comprise "Laser Cats 2" into that batch though. I love me some felines that can shoot laser beams.
In another move that marks KISN AM's slow march towards oblivion, its parent company, Entercom, has canned the station's last two DJs. KISN will now be operated by computers, rendering it less of a radio station than an iPod hooked up to a transmitter. I caught part of DJ John Williams' last broadcast on Saturday afternoon and he pulled out all the stops. In between rarities like a song about the Lone Ranger penned by a young Paul Simon, he rolled ancient station bumper ads and screamed like Wolfman Jack. A great era in local radio has essentially come to an end. Bleah.
Yes, this proposed Ghostbusters video game should be made for the Xbox 360. While you guys are at it, what are the chances of getting a new one made for The Road Warrior?
Colbert on The O'Reilly Factor? Zzzzzzz. O'Reilly on The Colbert Report. Pure, fried comedy gold. Click here to watch.
Finally, this calendar is the creepiest one I've seen for 2007, even creepier than the cartoon "Bunny Suicides" one I spotted down at Powell's a few weeks ago. Apparently, current Chinese propaganda includes a lot of drawings of super-strong toddlers marching around with flags, some of them in space helmets. Eeep. If you're interested, the Kinokuniya Bookstore at the Beaverton Uwajimaya still had plenty up for grabs when I was over there on Sunday.
