I’m old enough to remember when the national media loved Portland, or at least found us adorable, worthy of fawning pieces about food carts and a zeitgeisty-but-mid sketch comedy series. I’m also old enough to remember when the national media started hating us, because that was just a few years ago. But the hits keep coming.
The latest person to inform a national audience that things in Portland may be getting out of hand is David Sedaris, the humorist known for frequent contributions to NPR’s This American Life and books like Holidays On Ice, a delightful collection of holiday-themed essays. The first of those essays, about holding down a crappy retail job while nursing delusions of grandeur that one’s big break is just around the corner, will always hold a piece of my heart. The humorist was last in town Nov. 17 for an evening at the Schnitz of readings, recollections, and a book signing for his latest tome, Happy-Go-Lucky. Shortly thereafter, the writer published an essay in the decidedly left-leaning New Yorker about getting bitten by a dog on the streets of downtown Portland.
While the essay posted on Dec. 8, it’s gotten traction on social media in more recent days, though, presumably because it touches a nerve with Portlanders, who are a little bit sensitive about our city lately, what with all the war-zone talk from the reality TV star who now runs the country. Also, the dog who bit him apparently belonged to some people who were smoking fentanyl on the streets of downtown Portland…