People who don't read blogs don't know what they're missing. In browsing around the Oregon blogosphere upon my return from hiatus, I noticed many interesting developments that took place while I was gone. Among these are:

1. Portland City Commissioner Randy Leonard has started blogging in earnest over on BlueOregon. So far he's ranged from "The day I became a fireman" to "Why I oppose the Texas Pacific bid for PGE." Good stuff.

2. Mayoral hopeful Jim Francesconi and his son Bryan have taken to posting comments on Portland Communique. They couldn't have picked a more hostile forum, but I guess it's part of the Schnoz's new, overtly combative campaign style. Bryan apparently has also been posting comments under pseudonyms, which b!X at Communique quickly outed. LOL.

3. Tammy over at Dishpan Dribble is into posting pictures now, including a long-awaited photo of herself, which for some reason she quickly took down. (C'mon, now, put it back!) Meanwhile, Alan at Blue Hole has run a couple of sharp parodies of the Dribbler, to which she has taken exception. Since Tammy writes in great detail about her family and domestic life as well as about political issues, the fun-poking necessarily hits close to home. She's got a great blog, though, and I hope she doesn't get discouraged over it. Every knock is a boost, baby.

4. b!X keeps threatening to pull the plug on his site this fall if he can't come up with a viable way of supporting himself through blogging. That would be a great loss to the City of Portland. Scary.

5. Mellow-Drama has moved to the Hawthorne neighborhood. So far, she's loving it. I worry, though, about what will happen when her down-to-earth Midwestern sensibilities run into the aggressive panhandlers and the boys in the noisy drum circles.

6. Some clown negligently lost Pril's domain for her, but she recovered fairly quickly. That's a relief. I think she lost her archives, though, which means that if you want to hear about her bra size, you're going to have to ask her about it. 8c)

UPDATE, 8/17, 10:26 p.m.: Tammy's got her picture back up, as part of a photo album feature. It's here.