|
Hood River News Editorial
November 18, 2006
Weather permitting.
What was once cliché is now a phrase firm in our frame of mind after
the November flood that knocked out Highway 35.
Fortunately, there is progress on that storm-battered front, as
RaeLynn Ricarte reports in
State leaders seek flood relief.
Permit a bit of rain-soaked humor, meanwhile, courtesy of an Oregon
symbol, Hugh Wetshoe.
The perennially-parka-ed cartoon creation of James Cloutier endures
all that Mother Nature sends him in the series of “Orygone” cartoon
books Cloutier, of Eugene, published in the early 1970s via his Image
West Press.
Hugh still has the power to make us laugh:
n “Buying a house in Oregon is easy, especially in the winter … that’s
when anyone can float a loan.”
n “During yesterday’s thunderstorm, all the windows were left open in
Portland’s big downtown hotel … and now it’s the largest waterbed
warehouse in Oregon.”
n “People in Oregon don’t really jog … they just wade, wallow or
slosh.”
Well, with all respect to Mr. Cloutier, he got the wade and slosh
parts right — but no one is wallowing in anything. Oregonians,
including Hood River County businesses affected by the storm damage,
are doing their best to perservere.
Hugh Wetshoe is a welcome reminder of the damp-but-not-out spirit of
Oregonians. Cloutier observed this week that, “At times like these,
the truth in those lines of humor rings loud and strong.”
Fittingly, for this champion of rain-based Oregon satire, one of
Cloutier’s recent projects is all about shelter. As reported in the
Eugene Weekly newspaper, he created a mural in the outdoor play area
at St.Vincent de Paul’s First Place Family Shelter.
The humor is dry, and so are some needy families. |
