New West Network

My Page: Joseph Friedrichs

Ernesto's, Free Pizza No More

The first time I was told Ernesto’s Italian Restaurant in Bend dished out free pizza during Happy Hour so long as one ordered a cocktail that costs more than $3 my response was this: Can I order two?

My friend and informant of the free pizza nodded that indeed, you could.

“Hell,” he said, “you can order as many drinks as you want. So long as you don’t pass out or blackout and start smashing things.”

Well, dear reader, the free pizza is no more. Ernesto’s officially closed for business this week. [more]

Fire Sparkes Near Bend

Despite hundreds of inches of precipitation dropping in the Cascades already this year, fire season has officially arrived in Oregon.

More than a thousand lightening strikes since the weekend have bolted Oregon’s fire season into reality, sparking several blazes near Bend.

The Tumalo Creek Fire, burning just north of Bend, has already charred more than twenty acres and forced several evacuations. The fire was 60 percent contained as of Monday.
[more]

Jeopaaaardy!

There are only three people in the world, who if they appeared as contestants on Jeopardy!, would I wish for them to fail miserably. That list, in no particular order, would include the following: Jared the Subway mascot; James Dobson the evangelist guru; and Oregon’s own John Baur, the inventor of Talk Like A Pirate Day.

A sanction of my Jeopardy! contestant loserdom was fulfilled Thursday night when Baur appeared on the greatest game show ever created. And although Baur was neither crushed nor maimed on the program, Baur did lose, providing me with a great sense of comfort. In fact, I slept better last night than I have in a month.

I first reported on the dreaded Talk Like A Pirate Day last September when the annual “holiday” came around. In case you were wondering how I felt about the holiday, allow me to sum it up real brief like: It’s the stupidest thing ever conjured by a human brain. [more]

Notes From The Summer Tour

My thoughts haven’t been clear these past few days. It’s not the exposure to an excess of sunlight, or the lingering flavors of barley and hops each morning that are clouding my brain cells. What are swimming through my thoughts are the following lyrics from the Tom Waits song “Lucinda”:

"I thought I'd broke loose of Lucinda
The rain returned and so did the wind
I was standing outside the Whitehorse
Oh but I was afraid to go in"

After following Tom Waits on the first three nights of his current “Glitter and Doom” tour, I have found it a staggering impossibility to shake those strange lyrics from my thought process. [more]

Donation Will Go To Oregon State University

The wife of the late Steve Irwin - more popularly known as the “Crocodile Hunter” – is scheduled to visit Oregon this week to announce a donation to Oregon State University for whale research.

Irwin’s widow, Terri, is expected to arrive to Oregon within the next several days to make the donation announcement. Terri is a native of Eugene.

Several members of the Irwin family are expected to sign an agreement with Oregon State's Marine Mammal Institute on Wednesday to fund the humpback whale research projects that will gather information on the threatened marine mammal species. [more]

Life Without Good Music Is No Life At All

Despite the feelings of oppression that come from filling the gas tank this summer, there’s one constant inside the vehicle that makes road trips worthwhile: music.

With the average price for a gallon of gas in the West soaring above $4, choice music becomes a necessary while perusing the open road. And because we all know how unreliable radio stations are these days, please make sure to acquire the following five albums to accompany your summer travels.

And feel free to thank us later. We know you will.

1. Paul Simon - Graceland

There you are, blasting down some all-but-deserted highway. High peaks dominate both side of the valley you’re roaming. [more]

Blowin' In The Wind

Portland, wind-farm developers want you to look a lot more like the Bay Area.

Because wind farms having been an established figure in the eastern areas of the Columbia River Gorge for many years, developers continue to eye locations near more populated areas in the Pacific Northwest, particularly Oregon’s largest city. What that means for people living in Portland suburbs is that their surroundings will start resembling areas such as Dublin near San Francisco, an area where wind farms cover hills along crowded highways like red dots on a child with chickenpox.

At least two wind-farm developers recently announced interest in building near heavily populated areas in northeast Oregon and across the Columbia in Washington. The push toward urban boundaries comes as a result of the best rural sites, those located in eastern Oregon and Washington, already containing wind farms. [more]

The Depths Of Depravity

As if the weather, insects, crop diseases and actual, real-life troubles weren’t enough for farmers in the West to worry about, thieves have started stealing irrigation wire from watering machines so that it can be sold for large profits.

The agriculture community in states from Colorado to Oregon is swarmed with waves of fear and paranoia as scavengers stalk their fields at night hoping to score copper from expensive irrigation machines.

Thieves are stealing the wire so it can be sold to scarp metal dealers for up to $3 a pound. Law enforcement officials are reporting that the swine committing theses crimes can cut and haul as much as 90 pounds of wire at a time.
[more]

Turn off the Television

With the weather forecast finally offering something reasonable, now is the time to get outdoors and take advantage of the variety of recreation opportunities Central Oregon has to offer. The following is the NewWest.Net/Bend guide to getting out of the house and exploring the earth. No excuses. Step outside and do something. Please enjoy.

Hiking

Because it's still early in the summer that feels more like early spring, start with an easy stroll to loosen the legs. We suggest traveling a few miles outside of town to Shevlin Park. Here there are more than 650 acres of hiking trails to explore. Most of the trails follow Tumalo Creek and are spread across fairly-level ground. A mixture of Aspen and Ponderosa trees are host to numerous wildlife species, including deer and bear.
[more]

House Denial

A bill that would have continued to give money to Western schools, roads and public safety for the next four years was denied today by the House because Republicans sided with "already profit-rich oil and gas companies," according to one Oregon senator.

The bill's sponsor, Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., was vividly distraught when the timber program he diligently supported was denied by the House.

As a result of the bill’s shut down, many counties in southwest Oregon and other areas in the West are about to lay off employees by the hundreds, DeFazio said. [more]