HOW TO MAKE A CREDIBLE EXCUSE; or, ON EQUIVOCATION

work. would you believe it? you probably wouldn't believe another excuse about the tailor. i'll distract you, then: siete suerte has authentic tijuana bacon wrapped hot dogs! it's one of those super hip mobile food carts. i walked by it earlier while it was parked in the empty lot on nw 4th and burnside that used to be an adult bookstore but was razed -- if you believe the sign staked in the southeast corner of the lot -- under pressure from randy leonard's HIT squad. (that's the commissioner's housing interdiction team, for the out-of-towners.) hope springs eternal, it would seem. those hot dogs symbolize the carrying on of a proud chinatown tradition. if those don't do it for you, the paris theater is just across the street and down a block.

from there you can see the j.a. atwood corp/atwood investments buidling, which stands on a triangular island between sw 3rd ave and ash and ankeny sts. it's always surrounded by half a dozen cars, and there's more space for parking than there looks to be inside the building. really, it's tiny. half of the entryway is done in turn of the last century stained glass, and earlier i noticed that the back wall of the front room (there might actually only be the one) was covered with framed black and whites of "old" portland. i don't know why i'd never thought to look inside before today, but today was the first time i realized how stupid i'd been to have always thought the place was a car rental business. that parking to building space ratio is a tricky illusion. i don't think i'd ever even read the signage before. the internet says it's a real estate office. ha. gangsters are so transparent. 33 sw 3rd. whatever they do, they're damn sure going to keep that address. location! an interesting existential pun.

i picked up my shirts further up 3rd ave, and so that's about half of my walk narrated, but done in reverse. other interesting sights? no. but the bike kids are wearing tights under their shorts now. after getting soaked on my ride home monday night, my winter three quarter lenghts were still wet on tuesday morning so i decided to don some leggings myself. they're warm. mine are invisible, true, but the bike kids should know that the trend died with my enthusiasm for it over the summer.

that's about half of my walk back to the desk where, wouldn't you know, the information i've been asking for for three weeks is here just in time for me to leave town. slapdash or frenzy? in either case, it means that the show is going to have to wait in the wings a little while longer. sorry. don't worry, though. it's waiting, which means you'll have to, too.

in the meantime, does anyone want to buy "the complete cartoons of the new yorker?" it comes with two cds with every cartoon ever published in the magazine. i can't find an original price or an isbn, so i don't think that powell's is going to buy it, and the bank of japan hasn't responded to any of my entreaties to devalue the yen.