WELL SAID: “The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity.” — Dorothy Parker
WELL DONE: Bingen Theater finally has a sign, after years empty but a vibrant — yet anonymous — venue in the past five or six years.
The black-and-white sign, done in a Teutonic-style “Deutsche-old-style” font, it seems to be a return to Bingen’s 1970s-’80s Bavarian motif, the last vestiges of which disappeared from Bingen with “Der Bingen Superette” (now CJ’s Market) a few years back.
“ESTA registrado para votar?” When We All Vote campaign volunteers will be at INB Bank from 4 to 6 p.m. on Friday, and on Sunday, Sept. 30, at Streets Alive/Fiesta en la calle on the Heights from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
SEEN and HEARD: In a local gift shop, a hand-made sign, “DYI” was quickly changed to DIY when pointed out to the clerk … “I guess downtown ends here,” said one visitor to another at Fifth and Oak … family of four, with two young children, enjoying lunch at Solera, surrounded by food plates and water and beer glasses, and the ground beneath the table littered with large-scale Domino tiles … inside as an entire pub joins in “Happy Birthday” to a guest … “It blocks our view of the work in progress,” joked a May Street Elementary neighbor after a new set of walls went up on the west edge of the campus in the quickly-developing construction, previously a two-story grid of steel girders, in the new school project at 10th and May …
PLATE PARADE, finale for 2018: License plates seen this week were from Alabama, Alaska Kentucky, Missouri, and Connecticut. The visitors are still here ...
BUMPER STICKER OF THE WEEK: “Home Is Where You Hook Up” (context: plenty of other fishing-related decals on the car …).
DEPARTMENT OF Coffee Shop Etiquette: Coffee punch cards being a relatively new cultural phenomenon (and a must item for any 2018 time capsule, IMHO), has anyone else considered what is appropriate for doing the self-punch? Say there’s a line, and the barista fills your order, gives you your change and moves on; you didn’t get your punch card ready and now they’re busy with someone else. Do you forgo credit for that day’s latte ... or, heck, you’re an honest person, do you grab the hole-punch and do it yourself?
FREE: When it comes to furniture, the odd stained or torn love seat, or orphaned section of a couch is a typical curbside find. Seen recently, though, the full three-piece sectional (gone the next morning, of course).
SAVE THE DATE (and a stamp): Oct. 13 is Mail a Post Card Day at Hood River County Library sites. Free stamped postcards will be provided. Lick a stamp and then get rid of the flavor by enjoying a free slice of pie in the afternoon at the Hood River site. Okay, stamps don’t need licking anymore (anyone remember that taste, though?) but have a piece of pie anyway.
Or send some on your own. If you do, tell The Porch where your cards are headed (no names, just places!) and perhaps we can come up with an atlas of SAPD.
*
Take your seat on The Porch; feedback is welcome, along with contributions of those offbeat and under-noticed elements of life (and postcard destinations!) around here. You’ll know them when you see them: kneumannrea@hoodrivernews.com.
— Kirby Neumann-Rea
Commented