Perhaps because the demolishment of a building that large is friggin' awesome? I think you miss the "sweet" factor of a lot of things that go on around Portland.

Like the tram. Busses on wires? Going up to OHSU? SIgn me up for the grand opening. Because it's frggin' awesome. I see this all the time with my friends parents and my parents as well.

Many people are prepared to dismiss anything out of hand without considering the personal cool factor. Not how cool other people think it is, but how cool it is to watch things blow up.

Or, you know, slide through the air with the greatest of ease.

This isn't MySpace, child. Wait 'til you grow up and have real responsibilities.

I've been watching Portland implode for years. It's not very "cool".

Thus goes everyone to the world but I
and I am sunburntl
I may sit in a corner and call
'hey-ho' for a husband!
(Or hey-ho for a fabulously decommissioned nuclear power plant...)

I must confess I thought about watching the Trojan tower blow up, but not to the point of getting up at 6 a.m. I also am leery of whatever dust cloud it creates. I don't think Oregon appreciates getting this thing shut down enough. To do that you have to follow nuclear reactors in other parts of the country. For example, Vermont Yankee, a reactor scheduled to shut down in 2012 was recently granted a 20-year extension. It has also been allowed to raise its power output to 120%. You think I'm joking but search your news site for Vermont Yankee. That could have been us.

I thought OPB had a great segment on nuclear power in Oregon yesterday. It's definitely worth checking out. Seems there have been some tremendous advances in the last 30 years. I'm all for letting the Europeans be guinea pigs with the new technology, but if it works and they can get more energy out of the fuel (cutting its toxic lifespan from tens of thousands of years down to less than 200 in the process), then I think we've got to take a serious look at it.

Is this the bitter old farts blog? How can every single thing that happens in and around Portland annoy and/or bore you Jack?

If you don't like the smell of bitter old farts, why are sniffing around here? Go upwind, for pete's sake.

Touche! Sort of...

Benkay and Scott are sniffing around here because Bojack's blog is... frggin awesome.

Trojan aside, expect to see nuclear (or as it is now pronounced, nookoolar) coming to a grid near you soon. Better multiple Chernobyls than the global warming now headed our way.

There's no doubt -- nukes are coming back. But I do doubt that they'll cut the half-life of the waste products.

Don't have a myspace, Jack. I'm a neo-luddite, rejecting the commodification of humanity.

Well, hope you enjoyed the Trojan fun. Don't mind the spent fuel rods!

I agree with Benkay that the tram would probably be fun to ride. However, I don't think anyone--supporters or opponents of the tram--thinks that "fun to ride" alone is a sufficient reason to build one.