Slog - Comments on Day 2: Gardening http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/08/day_2_gardening Yesterday I received my second assignment: Go pull weeds out of someone's parking strip. I drove over to Will's house near Gasworks Park around 2 PM and he gave me a tour of his herb garden. At first, it was difficult to understand what he wanted me to yank. Beige flowering bush? "If you have time." Brown, wilting bush? "Please don't touch, Steven." The only thing Will really wanted me to get rid of was the fennel. It was everywhere. For anyone who has never experienced the smell of fennel, imagine breathing in a jar full of licorice. For a... Copyright 2008 Fri, 17 Aug 2007 17:12:29 -0800 Mon, 20 Aug 2007 21:46:17 -0800 http://www.movabletype.org/?v=3.34 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Comment by Joh kickin sneaks brah

]]> Joh http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/08/day_2_gardening#c785710 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/08/day_2_gardening#c785710 Fri, 17 Aug 2007 17:45:09 -0800 Comment by Mr. Poe @1

Agreed.

]]> Mr. Poe http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/08/day_2_gardening#c785719 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/08/day_2_gardening#c785719 Fri, 17 Aug 2007 18:06:00 -0800 Comment by anon That prickly mo-fo is probably a thistle. Good on ya for stomping on it.

]]> anon http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/08/day_2_gardening#c785722 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/08/day_2_gardening#c785722 Fri, 17 Aug 2007 18:18:52 -0800 Comment by the other John Fennel is lovely at the back of a border - but I don't envy you that smelly task of destroying the progeny. At least you're lookin' cute while doing it.

]]> the other John http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/08/day_2_gardening#c785735 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/08/day_2_gardening#c785735 Fri, 17 Aug 2007 18:53:58 -0800 Comment by -B- cute

]]> -B- http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/08/day_2_gardening#c785740 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/08/day_2_gardening#c785740 Fri, 17 Aug 2007 19:12:50 -0800 Comment by Michigan Matt Fennel is the Devil's plant. It took us 2 seasons to get rid of the seedlings from one plant in our garden. Curse you, fennel! Curse you!

]]> Michigan Matt http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/08/day_2_gardening#c785751 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/08/day_2_gardening#c785751 Fri, 17 Aug 2007 19:56:33 -0800 Comment by Is he your slave or something? It's wonderful that the Stranger puts so much importance on journalism that it sends its intern to pull weeds. And then brag about it. Most interns do things like write news stories and edit. They don't usually have to open up themselves to public humiliation either. Ideally, they're sent away with a little something to look good on the ol' resume.


Remember that next time you're trying to be taken seriously.

]]> Is he your slave or something? http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/08/day_2_gardening#c785756 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/08/day_2_gardening#c785756 Fri, 17 Aug 2007 20:11:37 -0800 Comment by Mr. Poe @7

How is cleaning a public bus or pulling Will's weeds embarrassing? Don't get me wrong, making jokes about this is amusing (but be careful, Dan is very sensitive about this), but you're taking this seriously with an attitude that makes no sense. At all.

Keep up the good work, Mr. Blum. Since I'm being somewhat positive here, I will finish with something a little more Poe-like.

Pull your own damn weeds, Will. You fucking faggot.

Oof! Just kidding. Lovz for everyonez! Yes. I'm drunk. Word.

]]> Mr. Poe http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/08/day_2_gardening#c785762 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/08/day_2_gardening#c785762 Fri, 17 Aug 2007 20:28:19 -0800 Comment by Katelyn He's the public INTERN, @7, we get to make him do the tasks we don't want to do ourselves. Such as pulling weeds.

Steven, way to be. You're learning valuable life lessons! Such as: "never plant fennel."

]]> Katelyn http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/08/day_2_gardening#c785782 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/08/day_2_gardening#c785782 Fri, 17 Aug 2007 22:04:44 -0800 Comment by Miss Stereo Gloves for plants but not for drippy Metro stew splash scrub? Oh well, I suppose the stains on Metro are just dried soda and coffee and not watery oozing bodily spew.

]]> Miss Stereo http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/08/day_2_gardening#c785783 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/08/day_2_gardening#c785783 Fri, 17 Aug 2007 22:16:11 -0800 Comment by Phelix OK, props for the shirt and shoes... stop being cute Steven, I'm not supposed to lust after the intern... or am I?

Anyhoo... I don't envy you at all... I loathe weeding. I don't suppose I could borrow you and send you up to Everett to weed my mother's garden? :D

]]> Phelix http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/08/day_2_gardening#c785786 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/08/day_2_gardening#c785786 Fri, 17 Aug 2007 22:48:16 -0800 Comment by Hey Hey, that's my friend Will's house! Woo! Will is awesome, works extremely hard, and I can't think of anyone more who deserves to have some hot intern weed his yard. Rock on! Thank you for helping my friend, Public Intern!

]]> Hey http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/08/day_2_gardening#c785795 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/08/day_2_gardening#c785795 Sat, 18 Aug 2007 00:07:55 -0800 Comment by reverend dr dj riz i didn't think of it til now..( and no i'm not high..yet).. but if you're still scroungin for something for the public intern to do, he can come over to my apartment and organize my records and cd's ( they're stacked up backed up all over the living room..could take hours.. ) i'll tell him which genres go where and he can alphabetize them. and then i'll fry us up some yardbird and make some mashers. we'll have a tasty fresh beverage to wash it down and i'll send him on his way. at my house, everybody wins

]]> reverend dr dj riz http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/08/day_2_gardening#c785810 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/08/day_2_gardening#c785810 Sat, 18 Aug 2007 03:15:43 -0800 Comment by Kristin Bell Good job Public Intern. Don't listen to #7. I think you deserve a reward. I just won a month's worth of ice cream things called Dibs from Dreyer's ice cream, so if I can get it approved at my work they are going to put a freezer in for a month and stock us up with tasty treats. Since you deserve a reward, I think The Stranger should send you on a train or bus ride down to Portland to have some FREE ice cream with me. Okay? I work in the Women's Resource Center at Portland State and we are all a bunch of cool feministas. We could probably buy you some lunch too and if you had to do some work, you could hand out some flyers about the women's resource center in the park blocks! I am serious!

]]> Kristin Bell http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/08/day_2_gardening#c785853 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/08/day_2_gardening#c785853 Sat, 18 Aug 2007 07:40:11 -0800 Comment by Gem @ everyone who said intern is adorable:

Agreed!

]]> Gem http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/08/day_2_gardening#c785874 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/08/day_2_gardening#c785874 Sat, 18 Aug 2007 08:56:07 -0800 Comment by KENTUCKY KERNEL OF TRUTH New intern's not a clone of Hugh Foskett or am I wishfully thinking?

]]> KENTUCKY KERNEL OF TRUTH http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/08/day_2_gardening#c785940 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/08/day_2_gardening#c785940 Sat, 18 Aug 2007 14:38:00 -0800 Comment by Will in 98103 Steven arrived, freshly showered and eager, just after 1pm on Friday.
He seemed like a genuinely nice guy. He said he only had 45 minutes in
which to do my bidding. And he said he'd never been into gardening at
all. I pointed out the worst weeds to him, but I wasn't convinced that
he knew which plants were weeds and which were, you know, not weeds.

So imagine my surprise when I came home and found my planting strips
with nary a weed visible! The fennel and thistle and dandelions were
nowhere to be seen. I could see my Cotinus "Grace" again! I'm sure
Steven didn't have the time or adequate tools to get the buggers out
by their roots, but he did a fine job. Just goes to show you what a
person can accomplish in 45 minutes, if they have gumption and a kind
heart.

]]> Will in 98103 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/08/day_2_gardening#c785980 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/08/day_2_gardening#c785980 Sat, 18 Aug 2007 18:31:56 -0800 Comment by Will in 98103 Please to excuse bad
formatting.

]]> Will in 98103 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/08/day_2_gardening#c785984 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/08/day_2_gardening#c785984 Sat, 18 Aug 2007 18:57:53 -0800 Comment by Matt Goolsby Hard to tell conclusively from the photo, but the plant under your shoe looks to me to be star thistle, an entirely obnoxious invasive weed that MUST BE STOPPED!

]]> Matt Goolsby http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/08/day_2_gardening#c786226 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/08/day_2_gardening#c786226 Sun, 19 Aug 2007 19:55:05 -0800 Comment by tabletop_joe Public Intern Steven: You are awesome!

All of you nay-sayers can suck it. He's getting field experience accomplishing akward-at-best projects AND a venue to write columns of his own. He's not ghost writing the obits or fetching James Wallace's coffee, as he would undoubtedly be doing at other papers.

]]> tabletop_joe http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/08/day_2_gardening#c786515 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/08/day_2_gardening#c786515 Mon, 20 Aug 2007 12:39:00 -0800 Comment by Hel-Belle I hardly ever read slog, but now have to trawl through all the other crap just so i can read about the public intern. I think it's awesome. I think having all these articles (and a growing fan base) would be a great resume thing, much much much more than just doing grunt work (getting coffees etc and doing research/filing) than so many other interns suffer through.

Besides, I'm sure noone's forcing him to do it.

]]> Hel-Belle http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/08/day_2_gardening#c786869 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/08/day_2_gardening#c786869 Mon, 20 Aug 2007 21:46:17 -0800