Keeping Portland . . . well, you know

There's a popular bumper sticker around town: Keep Portland Weird.

As the locals know, it kind of fits.

One of the downtown landmarks is the huge statue of Portlandia, who looks down over the entrance to the Portland Building.

For such a big honking statue, she's fairly well hidden among the downtown buildings. A lot of locals would like to move her down to Waterfront Park where you can at least have a sporting chance of finding her. My own theory is that she was just trying to be a little careful, given the spirit of the times, lest John Ashcroft throw a drape over her--showing, as she is, a little bit of thigh.

Here she is, first arriving in Portland. She's so big she had to be brought down the Willamette River on a barge, and I'm pretty sure they had to raise the drawbridges downtown to get her under them, although I couldn't find any images of her going under a bridge.

(And, as long as we're going through her scrapbook, here's a picture of her with some typical Portlanders going about their normal day-to-day business.)

This week, to celebrate the kick off of several weeks of bike-related events in and around Portland--specifically this, but we might as well throw in a plug for this, and this--she got some new headgear. She was originally going to be wearing it on her head, but in consultation with the artist who designed her they decided that was a bad idea, so now she's just holding it, but it's hard to miss the way it dangles provocatively from the fingers of her right hand.

Portland--yeah, it's kind of weird, but you gotta love it.


(Photo credit for Portlandia and her helmet to Bruce Ely at the Oregonian--wouldn't it be easier if you guys included pictures at www.oregonlive.com?)