TheAgitator.com
Another introduction from Michigan
Wednesday, August 13th, 2008
Like Ed, I’m also in Michigan and honored to be blogging for Radley while he’s vacationing in Alaska. I met Radley when I first came to DC as Cato Institute intern back in 2003 and immediately became a fan of his writing. He was an encouraging voice then and the first major blogger to link to my own fledgling site, so I’m more than happy to be a guest here on the blog that helped get me started.
After a couple of internships I realized that I wasn’t ready for the office life of wearing neckties, commuting through rush hour, and using Microsoft Outlook, so I landed what I thought would be a short-term job at Murky Coffee, the DC area’s leading quality shop. This turned into an enduring love of coffee: the nuances of flavor, the differences among origins, the obsessive craft of extracting the perfect shot of espresso. That’s since carried me into bartending as well, which offers an endless range of tastes and doesn’t require setting an alarm for 4:40 in the morning. In other words, I’m good with liquids, but solid food is still a challenge (as anyone who’s peered into my kitchen cabinets can attest).
Having just finished one last attempt at a “real job,” I’ve thrown most of my stuff into storage and escaped the DC policy lifestyle. I’m driving west, most likely to Portland, OR’s booming coffee, mixology, and distillery scene. I’m currently staying with family in an island cottage just off the Upper Peninsula writing my manifesto several articles and playing with all the local dogs (Cedarville, MI doesn’t have a SWAT team yet, so the population is thriving). Within the next couple of months I hope to be settled into a new home and a new job that allows more time for culinary and political writing than I had in DC. In the meantime I’ll be posting here about alcohol, tobacco, delicious food and drink, and the many senseless restrictions on our right to enjoy them.
– Jacob Grier
I was raised in Escanaba. That picture of the Mackinac brought some good memories (as well as ones of being stranded on either side of the bridge due to snowstorms while driving to/from MSU).
From a fellow Michigander and Yooper, welcome :)
Portland is a wonderful place. I moved here about a year ago, from Austin, TX. Clean environment, nice people (even the hippies!), biggest bookstore in the country, brewpubs all over the place, beautiful scenery, nice weather (with a big rain caveat). Downtown Portland is the only big-city downtown I’ve every actually liked. We’re within day-trip distance of ocean, mountains, forests, volcanoes, and multiple great rivers.
I wouldn’t want to run a business here because of the usual blue-state regulations and taxes, but it’s a great place to live.
Jacob, if you want to know anything about Portland and the state, let me know how to contact you directly. I grew up in NE Portland, moved out of state for 8 years, and moved back to OR 3 years ago.
Portland is, indeed, a wonderful place. Although I am a dedicated and perpetual Seattleite, Portland is my primary destination when when I require more of the same, only different. Why, just last month, the girls and I headed down there for a long weekend full of the Max, smoking in bars and Union Jack’s (LOVE that place). I doubt I’ll ever get used to not being allowed to pump my own gas, but, hey – quirks like that make PDX all the more exotic.
I just called Portland exotic. I need to get out more.
Anyhoo, I check in with the blog daily, multiple times, and greatly appreciate the efforts of anyone willing to keep me informed in Mr. Balko’s absence.
Greetings from the Northwoods of Wisconsin.
I went through Portland briefly on my way back from Canada/Alaska in ’06. Really liked it there, esp. Powell’s Books. Also an excellent rib joint (can’t remember name–will look through notes–hope it’s still open) on or near MLK Drive. And one of my favorite writers on psychology–Al Siebert, the father of resiliency psychology–lives there.
Another Portland lover here. I live in the Northeast and visit grandchildren in Portland and Seattle. Have visited almost very state and Portland is my favorite city. Good Luck to you.
Thanks for the warm welcome, everybody. Lee, thanks for the offer. If you want to get in touch my email address is jacob@jacobgrier.com
Athena, get your smoking soon! The statewide ban goes into effect at the start of 2009.
“Cedarville, MI doesn’t have a SWAT team yet, so the population is thriving”? What are they a bunch of cave dwellers? This is the 21st century, and there is no place in this world for the let live sentiment types. This century is for the threatening, protectiveness enforcement agents.
Just by you mentioning that fact, I feel you are right where you should be. Now find us some juicy anti-SWAT rhetoric, so we can get this place jumping.
Just saw this on CNN, and have to get it out so others can see.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/08/13/la.taser.death/index.html
Thanks MacK, just posted it above.
Thanks for the heads up, Mr. Grier. I’ve got some friends down there who, despite being non-smokers, were bemoaning that particular piece of legislation. I’ll be down there at least once before then, I’m sure. After that, it’ll still be more of the same, only a little less different. So long as they don’t strip me of Union Jack’s (lol), I’ll continue to find time for PDX.