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Portland Mercury

News. Entertainment. Trouble.

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Demystifying Sex Work with Elle Stanger

Portland Mercury ·

2025/01/30

The Portland sex educator schools us on the definition of sex work as well as its misconceptions. by Courtney Vaughn [Read all of the articles in our Love/Sex issue HERE! Looking for a print copy? Look at this handy-dandy map!—eds.] Elle Stanger is a certified sex educator, stripper, writer, podcaster, and sex worker. She’s spent the last 20 years in the adult entertainment industry and is now certified through the

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STREET VIEW: Love and Bicycles

Portland Mercury ·

2025/01/30

How Portland’s bike scene facilitates romance in the age of dating apps and loneliness. by Taylor Griggs [Read all of the articles in our Love/Sex issue HERE! Looking for a print copy? Look at this handy-dandy map!—eds.] When Carey Booth and Jack Coleman met in the spring of 2023, neither of them had any inkling of their future together. Both were in their mid-60s, retired, and single, but they were in

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A Cozy Season (S)lowdown

Portland Mercury ·

2025/01/30

Self-care tips for wintering (beyond switching on your SAD lamp). by Janey Wong [Read all of the articles in our Love/Sex issue HERE! Looking for a print copy? Look at this handy-dandy map!—eds.] It’s winter in the Pacific Northwest, which, let’s face it, is a rough time for many of us. The glitz of the holidays has faded into the annals of yesteryear. This time of year, many of us wallow in the depths of seasonal

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Reading the Waves Fucks

Portland Mercury ·

2025/01/30

Lidia Yuknavitch’s newest nonfiction celebrates the body, in all its slippery, squishy glory. by Emma Pattee [Read all of the articles in our Love/Sex issue HERE! Looking for a print copy? Look at this handy-dandy map!—eds.] The writer Garth Greenwell once wrote about attending a lecture at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and hearing a writer say that an ideal sex scene would be a single sentence “they sat down

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Food: Horny vs Not Horny

Portland Mercury ·

2025/01/30

The ultimate list of horny and un-horny things to eat—and where to find them locally! by Andrea Damewood [Read all of the articles in our Love/Sex issue HERE! Looking for a print copy? Look at this handy-dandy map!—eds.] Horniness (horny) is like Newton’s Third Law of Motion (not horny): For every thing that’s horny, there’s an equal and opposite thing that isn’t. Food is not my kink—particularly after my

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Submit a FREE Mercury Reader's Valentine for Your...

Portland Mercury ·

2025/01/30

Or friend, or sex pal, or pet... that's up to you! by Wm. Steven Humphrey Are you in love? In lust? In a complicated situationship that started because of a drunken and convenient New Year's Eve kiss, but now you're ready to take things to the next level by publicly declaring your adoration in the permanency of newsprint? Good news, the Mercury's reader Valentines are back, and they're going to be in print and

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Regardez vers le bas

Portland Mercury ·

2025/01/30

by Anonymous My friends, we have failed. We did not fail all at once. It happened in steps, in excuses, in the quiet turning away. When they came for the thinkers and the artists, we said, “That is not my fight.” When corruption spread through our institutions, we told ourselves, “That is how the world works.” When the press became a mouthpiece for the powerful, when enemies were named and hunted—not for their crimes, but for their

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Hong Kong Action Star Donnie Yen Seeks Justice (and a...

Portland Mercury ·

2025/01/29

Cop-lawyers, brutal brawls, can't lose. by Dom Sinacola With an almost mathematical precision to its pulpiness, The Prosecutor, the latest action-thriller from Hong Kong superstar Donnie Yen, doles out a brutal fight scene every 25 to 30 minutes. Across two brisk hours, violence shifts proportionately between bouts of athletic knuckling, street brawls, shoot-outs, car chases, foot chases, impalings, and

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Portland Steakhouses, What's the Secret?

Portland Mercury ·

2025/01/29

In the chaos of Portland's restaurant scene, where foodies chase the hottest dining trends, the long-standing steakhouses endure. by Andrea Damewood Settling into a plush booth at Sayler’s Old Country Kitchen, I was snacking on the little veggie spread, of carrots and mini corn, that has come with every dinner there since time immemorial, when I couldn’t help overhearing the conversation at the next table over. It

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The Barker in Charge

Portland Mercury ·

2025/01/29

by Anonymous When I was a kid, my dad took me to a carnival, replete with acrobats, “wild” animals, games with silly prizes, and tented sideshows. The latter were the most intriguing to me, but not because of what was supposedly inside the tents. No, it was the guy who stood outside, enticing all passersby to cough up their money to see the oddities and freaks housed within. Donald J. Trump never utters an honest word. He lies about

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Good Morning, News: New, Bad Trump Orders (and...

Portland Mercury ·

2025/01/29

by Taylor Griggs The Mercury provides news and fun every single day—but your help is essential. If you believe Portland benefits from smart, local journalism and arts coverage, please consider making a small monthly contribution, because without you, there is no us. Thanks for your support! GOOD MORNING, PORTLAND! Guess what?? It's going to rain tomorrow and over the weekend. And it might even snow next week. (Heavy emphasis on might.)

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Profile Theatre's Samsara Is a Comedy About...

Portland Mercury ·

2025/01/28

Celebrated playwright Lauren Yee uses cycles of infertility and surrogacy to touch on something powerful and eternal. by John Rudoff If you’ve known someone caught in the degrading grind of infertility—whether in adoption, in vitro fertilization (IVF), or surrogacy—you’ll immediately recognize the steaming locomotive of baby fever that propels the characters in Samsara forward. For its 2024-25 season, Profile

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SAVAGE LOVE: The Counterfeit

Portland Mercury ·

2025/01/28

"I've been faking orgasms... for months. How do I break this cycle?" by Dan Savage I am a 30-year-old cishet woman from the Pacific Northwest. I am reaching out today about faking orgasms. I have been dating this guy for about six months and he is perfect. I love everything about him and part of that is I feel like we have great sex. The caveat is that I have never had an orgasm during sex with him and consistently

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Good Morning, News: What Your Cell Phone Data Says...

Portland Mercury ·

2025/01/28

by Courtney Vaughn The Mercury provides news and fun every single day—but your help is essential. If you believe Portland benefits from smart, local journalism and arts coverage, please consider making a small monthly contribution, because without you, there is no us. Thanks for your support! Good Morning, Portland! It is, in fact, still January. Sorry. On the bright side, we’ll get another sunny day today, with a high of 50 degrees

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Mayor Wilson's Shelter Plans Are Both Ambitious and...

Portland Mercury ·

2025/01/28

Staring down a ballooning homeless population and growing death toll, Portland mayor eyes 1,500 new shelter beds. Some councilors question the logistics and strategy. by Courtney Vaughn Correction: This story initially included a financial figure for city spending given during a public meeting. It has been updated to more accurately reflect city expenditures on campsite removals. Portland Mayor Keith Wilson made

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The Top 28 Events in Portland This Week: Jan 27–Feb...

Portland Mercury ·

2025/01/27

Wiener Week, Ani DiFranco, and More Top Picks by EverOut Staff This week, pump up your schedule with top events from Ani DiFranco to L'Impératrice and from Portland Mercury's 2025 Wiener Week to Rogue x Korean Mama Fundraiser for LA Wildfire Relief. Plus, check out our Lunar New Year guide for ways to celebrate the holiday. MONDAY FILM Drafts, Crafts, & Cinema NightThe Garden Tavern bids "knitters, scrapbookers,

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THE TRASH REPORT: VP Vance? More Like GP Vance, as in...

Portland Mercury ·

2025/01/27

Dig deep into this week's can of garbage-y gosssip! by Elinor Jones Hi everybody, and welcome to another roundup of news and gossip and, most importantly, TRASH. Have you checked the weather forecast lately? Trash shows no sign of letting up for the foreseeable future. In fact if I wrote a song about the trash forecast, it would be called "Lightning Trashes." If I were to be in a '90s soft-alt band about it, we

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Good Morning, News: Clackamas County's Right-Wing...

Portland Mercury ·

2025/01/27

by Wm. Steven Humphrey If you’re reading this, you probably know the value of the Mercury’s news reporting, arts and culture coverage, event calendar, and the bevy of events we host throughout the year. The work we do helps our city shine, but we can’t do it without your support. If you believe Portland benefits from smart, local journalism and arts coverage, please consider making a small monthly contribution, because without you, there

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What's Wrong With the Democratic Party

Portland Mercury ·

2025/01/27

by Anonymous There are so many things wrong with the Democratic Party that the 300-word limit for this posting will not allow me to cover them. So, I will confine my opinion to just one, which happens to be my pet peeve. The leadership of the Democratic Party is too old, too white, too wealthy, and too conservative. Their primary focus is maintaining control of the party. They simply refuse to loosen the reins of control. They will not

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YOUR SUNDAY READING LIST: New Council Settles In,...

Portland Mercury ·

2025/01/26

by Wm. Steven Humphrey GOOD MORNING, SUNDAY! It's the perfect time to catch up on some of the great reporting and stories the Mercury churned out this week! (PRO TIP: If you despise being "the last to know," then be one of the first to know by signing up for Mercury newsletters! All the latest stories shipped directly to your email's in-box... and then... YOUR HEAD.) • Zenith Permit Decision Raises Questions, Conflicts About City

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