February 21, 2013
Chuck Palahniuk is an American novelist and freelance journalist, who describes his work as transgressional fiction. He is best known as the author of the award-winning novel Fight Club (1996), which was made into a feature film. Beginning with Lullaby (2003), the style of his novels has shifted to satirical horror. Palahniuk has had 13 novels and two nonfiction books published, the most recent being Invisible Monsters Remix (2012), a restructured and updated version of his 1999 novel. He maintains homes in the states of Oregon and Washington. Palahniuk was born on this day in 1962.
February 15, 2013
Matt Groening is an American cartoonist, screenwriter, producer, animator and voice actor. He is the creator of the comic strip Life in Hell (1977-2012) as well as two successful television series, The Simpsons (1989-present) and Futurama (1999-2003, 2008-present). Groening has won 12 Primetime Emmy Awards, 10 for The Simpsons and two for Futurama. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on February 14, 2012. Groening was born in Portland, Oregon on this day in 1954.
P.S. Given his Oregon roots, it is widely believed that Groening named the setting of The Simpsons after Springfield, Oregon (which is next to Eugene, home of the Oregon Ducks), despite his comments to the contrary.
January 30, 2013
Scottie Pippen is a retired American professional basketball player who played 17 seasons in the NBA. He is most remembered for his 12 seasons with the Chicago Bulls, with whom he was instrumental in six NBA titles and their record 1995-96 season of 72 wins. Pippen, along with Michael Jordan, played an important role in transforming the Bulls team into a vehicle for popularizing the NBA around the world during the 1990s. Pippen is also the only person to have won an NBA title and Olympic gold medal in the same year twice (1992, 1996).
September 27, 2012
Troy Polamalu is a strong safety in the National Football League (NFL). He has won two Super Bowls (2005 and 2008) with the Pittsburgh Steelers and has been selected for the Pro Bowl seven times. Polamalu’s hair is his most distinguishing characteristic, allowing him to be easily spotted on the field. He is of American Samoan descent, went to high school in Oregon and has a million-dollar insurance policy for his hair.
July 25, 2012
Bigfoot, also known as sasquatch, is the name given to an ape-like creature that cryptozoologists believe inhabits forests, mainly in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. Bigfoot is usually described as a large, hairy, bipedal humanoid. Scientists discount the existence of Bigfoot and consider it a combination of folklore, misidentification and hoax.
March 4, 2012
The leader of the Wal-lam-wat-kain (Wallowa) band of Nez Perce (or Niimíipu) during General Oliver O. Howard’s attempt to forcibly remove “non-treaty” Nez Perce from the Wallowa Valley of northeastern Oregon to a reservation in Idaho during the late 1800s. For his principled resistance to the removal, Chief Joseph became renowned as a humanitarian and peacemaker. He was born yesterday in 1840.
February 28, 2012
An American chemist, biochemist, peace activist and author. He ranks among the most important scientists of the 20th century. Pauling was one of the first scientists to work in the fields of quantum chemistry and molecular biology. A graduate of Oregon State University and winner of two Nobel Prizes, he was born on this day in 1901 in Portland, Oregon.
January 2, 2010
NCAA Division I mascot #2 of 347. Pac-10 mascot #2 of 10.
View reference images for this mascot.
January 1, 2010
The first in what I expect will be a long series of 8-bit college mascots. This is NCAA Division I mascot #1 of 347. Pac-10 mascot #1 of 10.
View reference images for this mascot.
Miranda July – No. 581
Miranda July is an American film director, screenwriter, actress and artist. Her body of work includes film, fiction, monologue, digital media presentations and live performance art (which she began while living in Portland, Oregon). July wrote, directed and starred in the films Me and You and Everyone We Know (2005) and The Future (2011). Her most recent nonfiction book, It Chooses You, was published in 2011. July was born on February 15, 1974.
Miranda July is a hero of my wife Heidi and she wishes they were best friends. On that note, Heidi would like to share some biographical information about July that you won’t find on Wikipedia: “The same extraterrestrial who impregnated my mom also impregnated Miranda July’s mom, which means she and I are alien half-sisters.” Also, Heidi and I learned everything we know about making buttons from July.