What we are watching: Ted Lasso. We are a little late to this Apple TV party but Ted Lasso, the heartwarming football-turned-soccer-coach comedy, is as sweet and fun as we heard it was. 

• If you want some good news, pull up the back-to-school speech, only about 10 to 12 minutes long, given by Eugene District 4J Interim Superintendent Cydney Vandercar. She lays out the good things that have happened in this district in the last year in spite of the challenges of remote learning forced by COVID. One of our favorite accomplishments is: “We built the highest graduation rate in 4J history.” Another is that school meals will be available free for all students in 4J schools for the 2021–22 school year, regardless of family income. Sign up for weekly meal boxes at bit.ly/4Jmealbox.

• The Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association announced the winners of its annual journalism contest, and we are delighted to announce that Eugene Weekly took first place in the Associate Member contest for design for its covers and third place in news writing for Taylor Perse’s piece delving into the death of Brian Babb at the hands of the Eugene Police Department and his family’s lawsuit and pursuit of justice. 

• Duck football fans tell us that Coach Mario Cristobal has the self-confidence to hire assistant coaches as smart or even smarter than he is, thus the brilliant tactical play that gave Oregon the win over Ohio State before 100,000 screaming red-shirted Buckeye fans on Sept. 11. That’s what the fourth quarter was all about. Personally, we are still feeling not-quite-ready to join thousands of people screaming, wearing yellow and possibly spreading COVID on Saturday, Sept. 18 when the Ducks take on the Stony Brook Seawolves at Autzen, so we will watch from home, possibly Googling how long Stony Brook has actually had a football team.  

• Every once in a while we get a subscription request from an inmate at an Oregon state prison, and sometimes they can afford the subscription, sometimes they can’t. We’ve given free issues in the past, but money is tight for us in the pandemic right now, so if there are any readers who want to give a prison inmate a Eugene Weekly subscription — or give a subscription to anyone who can’t just cruise on over to a red box — please go to Support.EugeneWeekly.com and sign up to give someone EW through the mail for $25 for three months or $85 for a year.

• “Flexible, Adaptable, Visible: The Future of Working from Home: The Next Normal Series” is the Sept. 17 program for the City Club of Eugene. Speakers are two international collaborators from the Workhome Project: Architect Frances Holliss from the London Metropolitan University and Professor Howard Davis from the University of Oregon. The program will air on the City Club Facebook and YouTube pages starting at noon Sept. 17, and the link will be on CityClubofEugene.org shortly after. 

• California Gov. Gavin Newsom easily overcame the Sept. 14 recall election put forth by Republicans. Although we’re happy to see California voters vote overwhelmingly in support of Newsom, it’s too bad the so-called fiscally responsible political party wasted $276 million of taxpayer money with the bogus recall election.  

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