Jolly Jogging Jumpers!

Raid your closets for Oregon’s Ugliest Sweater Run

An ugly holiday sweater is like eggnog and Macaulay Culkin — once a year they reappear and are enjoyed. “Tis the season, Marge! We only get 30 sweet noggy days. Then the government takes it away again,” Homer Simpson once pined, and few can match Homer’s lust for the holiday spirit(s). Except perhaps for one Derek Zinser, the man behind the inaugural Oregon’s Ugliest Sweater Run 5K on Dec. 15. Continue reading 

Comedy Goes to the Dogs

Popular Vegas pet performers come to the Hult Center

Gregory Popovich

As any owner of a house cat knows, it’s difficult to get cats to do anything — much less perform for an audience. But award-winning performer Gregory Popovich of The Popovich Comedy Pet Theater thinks he knows the secret: “You cannot push a cat to do something,” says Popovich, whose act has been voted Las Vegas’ Best New Family Show.  “As a trainer I have to see what [the cats] like to do and then create tricks” based on the natural habits of the animal. Continue reading 

Cuckoo for Cocoa

It’s cold, it’s rainy, so give me a cuppa

Vero’s cocoa uses My Chai syrup. Photo Athena Delene.

A few years ago some friends and I were driving around on a cold wintry day and stopped by a popular place for hot cocoa, just for fun. The waiter, with great aplomb, opened a pack of Swiss Miss into a paper cup! We were astonished, and not just because of the flair with which he tore the paper packet, but because my friend spoke at length on the drive about how great the cocoa at this particular place was. How could she have been so wrong?  Continue reading