Stop renaming Portland streets.

Not only have they chosen one of the best Blogger themes, but the folks at cafe unknown have also put together a wonderful piece laying out much more eloquently than I would - why we should not be renaming Portland's streets, and how there are better more appropriate options.

Please Please stop renaming Portland's streets. Portland has history too. And changing the names of the streets to honor those who were not really even part of Portland's history does a disservice to all of those who have made Portland their home in the last 150 some odd years.

If you want to name new streets - fine. But keep the old ones. Please.

I predicted Oden's injury - poor Trailblazers!

Back in July (July 5th to be exact) I said that I thought it would be funny if Oden, the Trailblazers new draft pick, was hurt and could not play for this season.

Well, it has come true. He is most likely out for the entire season.

I think this is funny.

Not because I want him to be hurt, not because I enjoy anyone *actually* being hurt. Bit simply because when they drafted him everyone here in Portland went berzerk.

People would not shut up. Banners were hung all over town. People made signs. It was ridiculous. It was like he was the second coming.

What's more amazing is that my exact words were:

Oh, and I think it would be extremely funny if the Portland TrailBlazers pick - Oden - like blows his knee or something while doing something mundane, like getting out of the shower.

Well, here are Oden's exact words from his personal blog:

On my vacation earlier this summer i got up off the couch and remember my knee having a sharp pain in it.

Whoah - I sorta, well, nailed it!

But of course this won't teach all those people not to hang the banners along with the hopes of the entire team all on one person. You see Portland Trailblazer fans - it takes an entire team to win ball games.

But what would I know, I am an Oakland Raiders fan. D'Oh!

Downtown class - but still Kid friendly.

I enjoyed dinner this evening at Mama Mia in downtown Portland.

Kudos to them. The food was very good, and not too pricey. Adult meals ran from $10 to $20.

But what impressed me the most was that it was a very classy atmosphere, and yet they still were very kid friendly. They welcomed my child with crayons and a picture to color. They have good selection on their kids menu. And the staff was very friendly to my child throughout the entire process.

While I was eating, there were 5 other families that I could see in the dining room. No kids were running around or being noisy or problematic.

I really appreciate when restaurants embrace kids. Not every kid friendly place has to turn into chuck-e-cheese. Some people just like to have good meals in nice places with their children. And usually these people will have taught or be in the process of teaching their children that in a nice restaurant (or any restaurant for that matter) you should behave yourself.

I both dislike parents who find a kid friendly place and assume it means they can let their kids run wild, and restaurants who simply ignore the existence of children all together. I believe there can be a happy common ground.

And Mama Mia was a great example of that. Very nice. Great food. Excellent service. And my child enjoyed it as well. My only real complaint is their all flash based website. Arrgh! At least make a plain HTML "contact us" section or something...

Thank you Mama Mia, and of course Mothers - the sister establishment to Mama Mia - is outstanding as well.

Some vegans make me mad.

I came across this post on Green Options blog: "10 Survival Tips & Tactics for Eating Veg in a Non-Veg World"

I take issue with a few of their "tips".

to sit in a restaurant watching everyone chewing on animals is an incredibly painful experience.

Then don't do it.

I'll tell you what, I like eating meat. I like eating dead animals.

You know that there are carnivorous animals in nature? There is nothing wrong with eating animals.

(I agree we could improve the process a bit - factory farms are heinous and unnatural.)

Because nothing annoys me more than a overtly political vegan. I just want to eat. So if you want to eat vegan more power to you, but don't try and act superior to me and tell me how much better your diet is or how cruel I am. Because all that does is make me dislike vegans. (And strangely, crave more meat.)

Understand that you are a minority and always be a minority and don't get pissed off if a restaurant or family reunion only has one or two vegan things. We try our best to accommodate everyone - but you know what? Thanksgiving dinner involves lots of dead animal and lots of things made from animals and animal products. Don't come to my Thanksgiving dinner all pissed off because there is butter in the mashed potatoes and a big dead turkey on the table.

There is room for both diets but vegans tend to be way over preachy and all that accomplishes is make people like myself want to cater to your diet even less.

If you had a food allergy, you would just explain to the server and move on. Your food preferences are just as valid when based on ethical reasons.

Wrong.

A person with a food allergy can DIE if they eat certain things. In fact, some allergies can be so strong that they can DIE within minutes. Your "ethical" reasons will not kill you if you get some chicken broth. You might feel ashamed or guilty, but you will be alive to eat again another day.

The fact is your vegansism is a CHOICE - and food allergies are not. Vegansism is a valid choice, and a choice with good reasoning behind it - but people who have food allergies I am sure would choose to not have them if they could.

At one time or another, most of us ate animals and their secretions and some of us relied on silly excuses to continue eating them.

I don't have any silly excuses. I like meat. Plain and simple. All kinds of meat. I have even raised and slaughtered my own meat. I am well aware of all of the ins and outs of meat. I like their "secretions" and things made from those "secretions". In my opinion nothing beats meat and cheese...

Saying that meat eaters have to come up with "silly excuses" just pisses people off so much more.

I was going to leave all this as a comment on the blog, but I am sure that it would not be "approved".

If you want to go vegan more power to you. And if you want to save animals lives - even better. Just think about whether you save more lives by alienating and pissing off meat eaters, or by perhaps taking the high road and working to slowly encourage reduction in meat based consumption. You will save far more animals by getting 1 million people to eat less quantity and more responsibly raised meat, than you will by getting 10 people to become vegan. And that is a statistical fact.

Now I have to go, I have to figure out whether I want steak or barbecue for dinner.