What planet was this from? Surely not the one we live on........

an urban research, development, and education district

Excuse me while I throw up my lunch...

Overblown and pretentious, yes, but this New York Times article yesterday about amazing new treatments building on Druker's target the bad T-cells approach (as opposed to using chemo to kill everything and hope you kill more good than bad) makes me feel like giving Druker some fancy toys and bridges is not the stupidest thing a government ever did.

The streetcar and tram are going to deliver Nobel Prizes to OHSU and Portland? Yeah, right.

I especially like the two "soarings" in the same sentence. Maybe a Pulitzer to go with the Nobel.

....makes me feel like giving Druker some fancy toys and bridges is not the stupidest thing a government ever did

I'd guess that if you asked the average OHSU researcher if they would rather have spent the $70M on funding more research as opposed to the aerial tram, they would opt for more research.

Will that educational district still educate writers about meaningless, self-flatulating run-on sentences?

Again, diagram that sentence in the form of subject, verb, object.

Gragg me with a spoon.

"But fertile connections don’t stop with OHSU." That sentence ranks pretty high up there on the giggle scale.

Well, they just spent $40 million to recruit, relocate and fund two researchers in the new $295 million Life Sciences Building. Is the tram silly and over-priced? Sure. Is it necessary for their work? Of course not. But I'm not sure they get those people or build that building without it.

Do those researchers use the Tram? I'm pretty sure they get to use the few reserved parking spaces up on the hill...

Well, Randy apparently figures that his gig at the Monthly isn't long for this world, because I haven't seen an editorial so sycophantic of local government, this side of D magazine, in years. Either Randy is trying to snag a position with city government once advertisers realize that advertising in the Monthly is a sucker's game, or he's been freebasing Preparation H again.

Wow, I shouldn't have read that article while eating lunch. Ugh.

What is so "new" about this Randy? Have you ever heard of Cambridge, Massachusetts?

When I am pondering my pulitzer-prize-winning notions, I always opt to "soar" on Boon and Doggle - the tram twins to nowhere.

And "tyke?" Who in the world calls kids "tykes" anymore? Trading ideas with Mom? More likely he's asking when they'll get there, if there will be dinosaurs and where is the bathroom because he needs to go NOW.

A Pullet surprise for Randy...rotten eggs.

The stench even Stenchy would avoid. Unfortunately, it wafts from the pages to the reader's nose.

I'm not sure they get those people or build that building without it [the tram]

So you're arguing that the iconic aerial tram is what is causing further real estate investment and attracting researchers to OHSU? As opposed to siphoning off funds? I don't think the facts are in your favor on that argument; all you have to do is look back in this blog to see how much the tram's cost overruns caused other budgets to suffer significantly at OHSU.

"The streetcar and tram are going to deliver Nobel Prizes to OHSU and Portland?"

Only if it has a leg that reaches Florida.

"Portland is verging on something more original"

WTH? Can someone decode that statement for me?

It's a flippin' piece of wedding cake on the waterfront that we are going to sink every available dollar that isn't going to the CC hotel.

Allow me to assist,Steve.

I'm kinda a fan of word etymology.

At the risk of being banned by Jack, allow me to present, "verging":

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/verging?s=t
--------------------
"Word Origin & History"
verge
"edge, rim," 1459, from M.Fr. verge "rod or wand of office," hence "scope, territory dominated," from L. virga "shoot, rod stick," of unknown origin. Earliest attested sense in Eng. is now-obsolete meaning "male member, penis" (c.1400). Modern sense is from the notion of within the verge (1509, also
as Anglo-Fr. dedeinz la verge)
-------------------
I hope that helps.

Not so sure this idiot was inhaling while typing. This style of writing seems to be the product of mushrooms rather than weed.

Regardless of the drug, the author is a clueless fool.

What is really funny is that Gragg seems to think that having people interact with each other is original. Umm, well Gragg, people have been doing that for about 100,000 years now. Your typical caveman family spent a lot of time interacting with each other. They didn't need a tram or a streetcar either. They used the old campfire as a way to bond and to share ideas. What a moron.

What a meaningless word. Put it on the list with "vibrant." People are "interacting" in Syria and Afganistan, too.

My father tells this joke (censored): What the difference between this and a sack of crap?

The sack.

Just tell all those bioengineering types to leave their cars where they're at before coming to Portland. They won't need them here.

....riiiiight.

Gragg seems to think that having people interact with each other is original

There's a lot more interaction going on inside the TriMet 8 Jackson Park bus on its 15 minute trip from downtown to OHSU, than in the two minutes the tram goes up the hill.