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Walking into a toy store can be overwhelming, even if you know exactly what you’re looking for. But say you’re a grandparent buying for a child in another state whose actual interests are a mystery, or for a teenager who lives in the other room but is equally mysterious. In such cases, the staff at toy stores should become your friends. Continue reading
Purchasing a cut-down Christmas tree can be a sad ritual for the sustainability-minded celebrator, or for those who find their post-holiday disappointment embodied by the malnourished or petroleum-derived tree in the living room. However, Willamette Valley residents have the option of doing something a little different — renting a potted, living tree from Portland-based The Original Potted Christmas Tree Company (TOPCTC) to be picked up later and planted by conservation groups in local parks and watersheds. Continue reading
For The Urban Homesteader OSU Extension Service 996 Jefferson St., 541-344-5859 Continue reading
What a difference a weekend makes in the fickle, fanatical world of college football, where the panic and pandemonium of winning and losing wreck havoc with all cool reckonings. It’s all so hard to grasp, much less parse and parlay. A single game can overthrow the whole shebang, sending the number-crunchers scrambling for a new paradigm. Not all that far back, for instance, the wily bookmakers in Vegas suddenly scooted the Oregon Ducks to odds-on favorites for a national title, deeming UO’s chances at 9-2 (22 percent), just above Alabama’s 5-1 (20 percent). Continue reading
Whether it’s tamales, suet pudding or even lutefisk, many Eugene families keep memories alive by preparing their favorite holiday foods. “We eat mushroom soup every Christmas Eve, in keeping with the Polish tradition of my husband’s family,” says Leigh Christiansen, who co-owns Eugene-based Calypso Fly Fishing Guide Service with her husband, Barrett Christiansen. “We gather chanterelles in the fall, and dry sauté and freeze them for our soup. This ritual is very dear to us.” Continue reading
“That’s what she said.” When students walk into Denise Velasco’s sex education classroom at Network Charter School, they see this phrase on a poster. This appeal to juvenile humor is not what it seems: Look closer and you’ll see two women kissing beneath a word in bold letters — “Yes.” As corny as the poster is, it sends a clear message about sex. Continue reading
"I would do it again — as soon as I get this bag of chips open." "What's queefing?" Grandmas, weed and Cards Against Humanity "I don't feel as high as they look to me." Continue reading
With International Transgender Day of Remembrance coming up Thursday, Nov. 20, several local orgs and businesses (ASUO Women's Center, LCC Gender and Sexuality Alliance, Eugene Office of Equity and Human Rights, UO LGBTESSP, The Redoux Parlour, Community Alliance of Lane County, and Lane Independent Living Alliance) have teamed up to celebrate with Gender Diversity Awareness Week. Continue reading
Some things come standard with a McMenamins dining experience — craft brews, tater tots, exposed wood beams — but Dan McMenamin, a second generation co-owner of the business, says individualism is key to the success of his family’s empire. “We try to let each location have its own story, its own identity,” McMenamin says. The 50-plus restaurants themselves, he says, “can lead you down the path to what they want to be.” Evidently, what McMenamins North Bank wants to be is something exotic and a bit tongue-in-cheek: a tiki bar. Continue reading
London’s many squares, parks and gardens are planted with a good deal of ingenuity and flair, always with an eye to ease of maintenance and year-round visual value. I have spent quite a bit of time there in recent years, mostly in the colder months, so I have had a chance to observe how much use is made of woody plants that are especially striking in winter. They include winter flowering viburnums and trees and shrubs with distinctive or colorful bark and, of course, evergreens such as Garrya elliptica (an Oregon native) with its long, silvery winter catkins. Continue reading