The only trouble with the fringe is, it does tend to unravel.
Now Portland is the home of Tonya Harding and Bob Packwood. To FBI experts who profile serial killers, the Pacific Northwest is "America's Killing Fields," because the people are so friendly and trusting. The wilderness is always nearby. It rains, and things rot fast.
What follows are sort-of snapshots of Portland. A sort-of photo album of the moment. From ax murders to penguins with a shoe fetish. From underground opium dens to riding fire engines to live sex shows. These are the stories you won't find in any official Portland history book. From rampaging Santa Clauses to the Self-Cleaning House. Here s just the tip of the Portland, Oregon, iceberg. Myths. Rumors. Ghost stories. Recipes. What follows is a little history, a little legend, and a lot of friendly, sincere, fascinating people who maybe should've kept their mouths shut.
In between the people to meet and places to go, you'll find postcards. These aren't from places so much as from specific Portland moments.
My first apartment, for example, there on Barbur Boulevard. Within a month, one roommate got his third drunk driving arrest and fled to Seattle to avoid doing jail time. The other roommate fell in love with a Swedish woman who gave him a gold coke spoon with a ruby chip in the handle, and they went off to get married.
My three lives were messenger-dishwasher-stoner until the night two men robbed Jonah's seafood restaurant. They have pillowcases over their heads and sawed-off shotguns and make me press my face into the parking lot until my forehead is one big purple bruise. The restaurant owner wants me to double the amount stolen when I tell the police so he can turn a big profit on insurance fraud. For once I tell the truth, and I get fired.
I give up the apartment and move into a rented room.
Still, somewhere on that steep hillside of maple trees and blackberry stickers, my tonsils are where I threw them. The wish I made was to someday be a writer.
Talk the Talk:
A Portland Vocabulary Lesson
You say,"Or-GAWN." I say, "OR-a-gen." Nothing-short of a California license plate—marks you as an outsider faster than how you mispronounce local words. Here's a quick guide to local slang and how to say words such as Willamette, Multnomah, and Couch.
Alimony Flats/Empty-Nest Flats: See the Pearl District.
Ban Roll-on Building: The nickname for the building at 1000 SW Broadway. With the Broadway Metroplex Theaters in its basement, the building's nickname comes from what looks like a short, pale dome on the roof.
Benson Bubblers: The nickname for the elaborate four-armed public drinking fountains on downtown streets, originally donated by lumber tycoon Simon Benson.
Big Pink: The tallest building in Portland, the forty-three-story U.S. Bancorp Tower at W Burnside Street and SW Fifth Avenue.
The Black Box: The international-style 200 SW Market Street building.
Blue Jean: The nickname for Eugene, the home of the liberal arts University of Oregon.
The Bore-egonian: A nickname for the daily Oregonian newspaper.
Choirboys Peeing: A nickname for the fountain consisting of five arcs of spurting pipe at the corner of W Burnside Street and SW Fifth Avenue. It's also known as "the Carwash."
Corn Valley: The nickname for Corvallis, the home of Oregon State University, the state agricultural school.
Couch: Pronounced "Kooch," it's a street that runs through Northwest and Northeast Portland, named for Oregonian pioneer Captain John H. Couch.
Cruising the Gut: Teenagers cruising in a loop through downtown, going south on SW Broadway and north on SW Fourth Avenue.
The Devil's Triangle: The triangle formed by W Burnside Street and SW Stark and Eleventh. Occupied for years by the Silverado bar and the Club Portland men's bathhouse.
Enema 21: What employees call the Cinema 21 theater, on NW Twenty-first Avenue.
Estée Lauder's: A nickname for the gay bar C. C. Slaughters.
Felony Flats: The neighborhood of Southeast Portland bounded by SE Foster Road, the 205 freeway, and Johnson Creek Boulevard, known for having Portland s highest density of drug labs and ex-convict residents.
The Flesh Grotto: A nickname for the Fish Grotto restaurant, from when it was a popular singles' meat market, where Katherine Dunn (author of Geek Love) worked as a cocktail waitress.
Garlic Gulch: The neighborhood formerly dominated by Italian businesses along the south side of SE Belmont Street near Eleventh Avenue.
The Ghetto: The interconnected bars and dance clubs that surround the Fish Grotto restaurant at SW Eleventh Avenue and Stark Street.
Glisan: Originally pronounced "GLISS-en," currently pronounced "GLEE-sin," a street running through Northwest and Northeast Portland, named for pioneer Dr. Rodney Glisan.
Hotel Rajneesh: The redbrick building at SW Eleventh Avenue and Main Street, formerly the Martha Washington Hotel for Women, currently a Multnomah County jail. It was owned by the cult followers of the Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh in the 1980s.
The Jail Blazers: The local NBA team, the Portland Trailblazers. A nickname that stuck after several players were arrested for a variety of crimes.
Lake No-Negro/Fake Lost Ego/Fake Oswego: Nicknames for Lake Oswego, an affluent bedroom community south of Portland.
"Louie Louie" Building: The building at 409 SW Thirteenth Avenue where the Kingsmen originally recorded the song "Louie Louie." A local production company, Food Chain Films, occupies the preserved recording studio on the second floor. The brass plaque marking the building has been stolen.
Menopause Manor: The lone Plaza apartment building near Portland State University, especially since 1985.
Multnomah: Pronounced "Mult-NO-mah," from the native word Nematlnomacqu, the name of a tribe the Lewis and Clark Expedition found camped on what is now Sauvie Island. The name of the county that comprises most of Portland.
Murphy & Finnegan: An old nickname for the Meier & Frank department store, downtown at SW Fifth Avenue and Alder Street.
Nob Hilclass="underline" The affluent neighborhood from W Burnside Street to NW Pettygrove Street, west of NW Seventeenth Avenue.
NoPo: North Portland.
Nordie's: The Nordstrom department store.
Old Town: The area of downtown north of W Burnside Street and east of NW Broadway. Formerly known as "the North End," "Satan's City," "the Bad Lands," and "the Big Eddy," it was the city's district for prostitution, drugs, and gambling.
The Pearclass="underline" The urban district just north of W Burnside Street and west of NW Broadway. A mixed area of expensive condominium lofts and apartments for low-income people. It has the largest concentration of art galleries in the city, as well as restaurants, nightclubs, and small shops. Aka Alimony Flats and Empty-Nest Flats.