Yesterday, at noon I attended one of OHSU's "Speaking of Women" Brown Bag discussions from their Center for Women's Health. This time is was the topic was 'Cancer Control: the Mastery and the Mystery". The speaker was Katie Hennessy, an adult oncology social worker and cancer counselor at OSHU. She admitted that she was a better listener than a speaker. The next month's topic will be arthritis. These are held at the downtown Nordstom. I think I will pass on that one. For the most part, the series is quite good. You just need to pick and choose.
Robert and I met at the Oliver Twisted Bar & Grill prior to attending the Portland Arts and Lectures Series. This is the second time we have had dinner there before the series. Robert claims their lunches are great, but we are not impressed with their dinners. We can't order from the lunch menu by the time we arrive. We shared the Wilted Spinach salad and a Vegan Pizza. It made me miss the deep dish pizza we had at Uno's in Chicago. Boy, I loved those!
This year's Portland Art & Lecture series was great, except for one dud. Calvin Trillin, Frank Rich, Frank McCourt and Suzan-Lori Park were all fabulous. Mary Gaitskill and George Saunders together were Godawful. Jonathan Lethen was okay; if I'd had read anything by him it would have been better.
Next year's schedule is full of greats judging by the oh's and ah's by the audience. If we are to buy the series, we will have lots of reading to do. I am inclined to just get tickets when the duo of
Frank Rich and Stephen Sondheim come to town, which is a add-on to the series anyway. This year we bought extra tickets for Will Shortz and David Sedaris.
