Straight from the PONY's mouth

Long time no blog! I have been swamped at work getting free massages and facials for an article I'm writing on "hidden gem" spas around Portland, exploring haunted sites for a Halloween-theme article and finding out all about every single awesome event coming to town in the coming months. It's pretty freakin' sweet!

Anyway, I guess it's no surprise, then, that now that I'm working at a city-focused magazine, my posts seem to be focused on the Portland media world (the editor-in-chief leaving Portland Monthly). As many misgivings that I have about that magazine, I have to admit that I appreciated a recent PONY-style piece they did called "NY State of Mind." Some of the staffers were in the Big Apple recently and asked people they came across what they knew about Portland. The responses:

Driver: "I've only heard of Oregon."
[What do you know about it?]
"Nothing."
[Just that it's west?]
"I didn't even know that."

Product developer: "Good hospitals. OBGYN researchers in Portland. It's a good market to test new products."

Hotel doorman: "Home of Nike. That's all I know."

Bartender: "The love of my life left me and moved there, so I have mixed feelings."

Woman at lunch: "Powell's Books. Beer."

Marketing exec: "It's so lush and beautiful. My husband toured with Imago Theatre there. I'd love to get back there."

Coffee cart guy: "Isn't it somewhere in the United Kingdom?"

Cabbie: "Is that a store? I'm embarrassed to say I don't even know where it is."

Some predictable, some sad....I know when I lived in New York, most east coasters didn't know much about good ole Portland - common question, "What there?" "What's it like there?" - but everyone who has since visited me has fallen in love with it (Kristin, Brooke). Well, duh!

Oh, and by the way, they illustrated the piece by showing quote bubbles coming out of an apple half. Ugh.