Quick Takes

It's become part of the routine for me to start or end a month of posts with a few Quick Takes. So, five days into the new month, here goes:

-- Vindication for Clackamas. In my last post, I perhaps went over the top in describing Clackamas County's often-sullied image. Today's front page story in The Oregonian spoke to the accomplishments of Clackamas High School, which became the largest high school in Oregon to reach every performance target during the seven years under the federal No Child Left Behind law. Read more in Betsy Hammond's story here.

-- Vindication for George. Readers of this blog know of my impatience with overly polite drivers in Portland -- the ones who insist on yielding the right of way, the ones who stop for pedestrians nowhere near a crosswalk or traffic light, even it means surprising the driver behind them. Krista, an occasional reader, wrote me yesterday to commiserate:

The issue is one of my biggest frustrations with living here! I'm known in my family for my reactions to this alarming trend. When other vehicles at an intersection "politely" motion for me to go ahead, even though they have the right of way, I stoically wait, often refusing to make eye contact, until they move. That said, I've also laid on the horn, New York style, when drivers waffle on an on-ramp, creating a dangerous situation for all. Some family members think I'm rude. My grandpa, who was raised in New York state, simply nods his approval at my actions.

I rest my case.

-- A bad week for listening to the GPS. From This Week magazine comes news of two Swedish tourists headed for the Italian resort of Capri. They misspelled the name in their GPS device and ended up in the industrial town of Carpi, 400 miles away, where they were very puzzled by the absence of a beach. “It’s hard to understand how they managed it,’’ said a Carpi official. “I mean, Capri is an island.’’

D'oh! Whatever happened to reading a map? Or am I the only one who still does that?