Getting ready
Portland Mayor-elect Sam the Tram Adams is reportedly putting the finishing touches on his inaugural speech, which will be delivered at a midnight ceremony tomorrow night at the Arlington Club. Adams will be sworn in by Catholic Archbishop John Vlazny, after which Randy Gragg, editor of Portland Spaced magazine, will read two of his original poems. Although City Hall observers don't anticipate many bombshell announcements as part of the new mayor's address, Adams is expected to unveil the city's plan to fit all of the its new public toilets, known as the "Portland Loos," with free wi-fi access. Adams is scheduled to be joined on the platform by Fireman Randy Leonard, who recently became the first openly goofball commissioner of a major U.S. city.
| Posted at 3:41 PM | Permalink |
|
Comments (14)
Nothing has changed, the Arlington Club [ women not allowed] is still in complete control and good ol' ** Randy is the water carrier for Sam, the scam.
I really miss using smell bad.
Posted by KISS | December 30, 2008 3:57 PM
KISS
I'm not sure if you're joking but the Arlington club not only allows women but has many women members. I know several. Not that I ever get invited there.
Posted by Dave Lister | December 30, 2008 4:12 PM
The Arlington Club may let women members in now, but when I worked there, they didn't. Women were allowed to work in the kitchen but if they had to ask someone in the dining room a question, they could only come to the kitchen door and ask one of the waiters to go get the person and bring them there.
Yup, right in progressive old Portland.
I'm not sure of the exact dates but I used to wait on Glenn Jackson before he morphed into a bridge.
Actually, it was a fun job. After the shift, the waiters would drink wine and eat the leftover specials of the day - stuffed trout, etc... Then we'd retire to the Spot Tavern for a few pitchers of beer, before heading out for a night on the town. Ahh, the Lawless Late 70s and the Shockingly Decadent Early 80s. If I could only go back for a week.
And despite the low regard Cabbie has for the biz, I found the waiters to be brilliant: Painters, poets, actors, musicians, students, and general revolutionaries. Plus a few older types right out of "Remains of the Day."
Posted by Bill McDonald | December 30, 2008 4:33 PM
A midnight ceremony conducted at the Arlington Club by His Holiness, Archbishop Vlazny? Any altar boys (apart from arch Poet Gragg) involved?
Posted by Allan L. | December 30, 2008 5:04 PM
"...Randy Leonard, who recently became the first openly goofball commissioner..."
Now if that isn't the pot calling the kettle black.
Posted by Randy Leonard | December 30, 2008 5:34 PM
I came out of that closet a long time ago...
Posted by Jack Bog | December 30, 2008 8:22 PM
Okay, so the Arlington Club has female members. It wasn't that long ago that the ultra-non-partisan City Club didn't even allow female members (sometime in the 1970s they changed the rule).
That aside, the Arlington Club welcoming an openly gay man? Uh yeah, right.
Posted by hilsy | December 30, 2008 9:14 PM
Leonard and Adams are just getting their start here in the junior league. Soon they'll be ready to enter Illinois state politics and really hone their craft....
Posted by The R | December 31, 2008 9:59 AM
I voted for Obama, but seeing Adams recently doing the equivalent of Obama's "Office of the President Elect" feels odd, and a bit arrogant.
this midnight inauguration--making sure to take power at the absolute earliest possible moment, with great fanfare--also feels strange.
Posted by ecohuman | December 31, 2008 10:07 AM
Ummm...
Strikes me as sort of homophobic that you said Randy is the first openly goof-ball commissioner of a major U.S. city.
That is a hardly even veiled reference to Sam's being the first openly gay mayor of a major city, which obviously makes you uncomfortable.
Have we any sexual insecurities, Jack?
Posted by civil | December 31, 2008 10:34 AM
That is a hardly even veiled reference to Sam's being the first openly gay mayor of a major city
no. in fact, there have been several openly gay mayors of "major" cities--Providence, Rhode Island, for example, state capitol and 36th largest city in the nation.
and Cambridge, Mass.
and a Deputy Mayor of Los Angeles.
and Berlin, Germany.
and Vallejo, California, pop. over 100,000.
and many smaller cities across the US. in fact, I count over 18. and so on.
gay mayors are old news, "civil". Portland seems to be in a reality bubble about several of its "accomplishments"--this is one of them.
Posted by ecohuman | December 31, 2008 11:06 AM
wow woulda thought the swearing[in] would be IN the tram itself , floating over P-Town
Posted by billb | December 31, 2008 1:20 PM
Will there be paddle, bones and masks involved?
My sister once told us that she and a friend walked into the lobby of the Arlington Club years ago because they were intrigued by the architecture. They were hustled out almost as quickly as a peon peering into the Negresco in Nice would have been.
"They acted like we had intentionally contaminated the place," she said.
Posted by NW Portlander | December 31, 2008 2:53 PM
KGW just showed Mr. Adams with cases of champagne at City Hall getting ready to celebrate his inaugaration. According to BHR policy, no city employee is allowed to have alcohol on the premises.
http://www.portlandonline.com/shared/cfm/image.cfm?id=36649
Posted by City Worker | December 31, 2008 11:15 PM