Today it’s Won’t You Wear A Sweater day as part of Pittsburgh’s Won’t You Be My Neighbor 250th birthday celebration.

Today would have been Fred Rodgers’ 80th birthday. For those of you who may not know of Mr. Rogers, he was a gentle soul who hosted the children’s TV show Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood that was filmed in Pittsburgh. Off screen he was a tireless advocate for children. He also testified during the Betamax hearings that let do the Supreme Court ruling that VCRs did not violate copyright.

Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood began airing in 1968 and ceased production at the end of 2001. At the beginning of every single episode, Mr. Rogers would take off his jacket and put on a sweater. He had a whole closet full of zippered cardigans knit by his mother.

So won’t you wear a sweater?

I think you can.

[ed. 03/22/08 1:32 -- I obviously suck for getting the city wrong. Huge apologies to Pittsburgh. And since the correct city is entirely obvious in the video I have no excuse. I can only plead major brain fart. Please forgive me.]

When the Teton dam broke in 1976, I was already living full-time in Portland. My brother was home for the summer in Idaho Falls and helped to sandbag the Broadway bridge. The flood never came anywhere near mama’s house.

I came home for a visit a month or so later and drove with mama to look at some of the damage. The town of Rexburg was about 80% destroyed. Sugar City, a tiny little town that boasted a cheese factory we had visited when I was small (I remember so well the man at the factory offering me a sample of curds, using a snow shovel for a scoop) was gone. Not damaged. Gone. Farmhouses and barns, those that were still recognizable, had been moved off their foundations and deposited in the midst of ruined fields surrounded by downed trees and mounds miscellaneous, unidentifiable “stuff.” Nothing was as I remembered it. The landscape I’d grown up in and knew like the back of my hand had been transformed into something unfamiliar, and I couldn’t get my bearings in it. I drove through this alienscape with tears running down my face. Even though much of it was rebuilt (although not, I think, the Sugar City cheese factory), it never seemed quite “right” to me afterward.

Eleven people died when the Teton dam collapsed. The monetary loss was said to be around $1 billion.

I cannot begin to comprehend the loss and damaged caused by Katrina’s little hissy fit in the Gulf. Nor can I begin to comprehend what the inhabitants of that area must be going through, what they will continue to go through for many months. My heart goes out to them.

This is about the 20th time I have tried to write about Katrina. Other, better writers have covered all aspects of the subject far more eloquently than I ever could. I find myself speechless.

After 30 years of beaming others up, Scotty has finally left the engine room and beamed to parts unknown. James Doohan has lost his battle with Alzheimer’s Disease, passing away early this morning at his house in Redmond with his wife Wende at his side. He was 85.

Last year I blogged about just missing Doohan’s last public appearance as he received his star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame. I’m still kicking myself for that lost opportunity.

The universe seems a smaller and sadder place today.

I know some of our Portland streets can be narrow and rather steep… but really, driving a car down stairs just doesn’t work as well in real life as in the movies.

This is a short-cut that probably should not have been attempted.

Didn’t your mother warn you if you don’t stop that you’ll go blind?

Anyone else find this amusing?