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About The nugget. (Sisters, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (June 13, 2018)
Wednesday, June 13, 2018 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon 21 Commentary... Bend gallery runs cat for ‘/n blood stepped in so far’ mayor as sign-code protest By Jim Cornelius By Julia Shumway The Bulletin BEND (AP) — One Bend resident set on becoming the city’s first elected mayor has an ambitious policy platform: eliminating cars, stopping all new construction and enforc- ing strong leash laws. He’s a newcomer to the political scene, but he’s well- known in some circles of town through his work with small businesses. He’s also a lifelong Bend resident who started his political career out of frustration with city policies. And one more thing. He’s a cat. Leonardo F. Bend, 5-1/2, works as a greeter at Bright Place Gallery, which has become a de facto campaign headquarters replete with buttons and other swag for his supporters. The gallery’s owners, Stuart Breidenstein and Abby Dubief, speak for him while he lounges nearby wearing a red bow tie. Of course, they know Leonardo can’t officially run for mayor. Their efforts are part political commentary, part publicity stunt, part fun- draising — they want to raise money for animal welfare organizations. Their cat, who goes by Leonard, is a quiet but impos- ing presence at 26 pounds. “It doesn’t offend him when people call him a fat cat politician,” Breidenstein said. “Politician, yes, but not fat cat.” Dubief and Breidenstein convinced Leonard to run for office because they — or was it he? — were unsatisfied with local government: In this case, the city of Bend’s sign code. Bright Place Gallery, along with many other busi- nesses, had to take down temporary signs because they violated city law. While reading about that city law, Dubief and B r e i d e n s t e i n f o u n d a loophole: Bend allows cam- paign signs up to 16 square feet in nonresidential areas. “We figured that if Leonard ran for mayor we could have a big sign for his campaign and draw people to the gallery,” Dubief said. “Leonard’s reason is that the humans have made a mock- ery of the political process.” L e o n a r d h a s b e e n employed full-time as the greeter at Bright Place Gallery, where customers regularly stop to pet him, since it opened in March of 2017. Before then, he was a mouser at the Workhouse on Scott Street and a greeter at the Old Ironworks Arts District. “His experience with small business, that will really help him out,” Dubief said. If elected, Leonard would not be the first feline mayor in the U.S. That distinction belongs to Stubbs, a yellow cat who served as mayor of the historic district of Talkeetna, Alaska, from July 1997 until his death in July. H e j o i n s A n g u s P. Woolley, a 3-year-old Vizla from Hutchinson, Kansas, as prospective nonhuman candidates in 2018. Angus attempted to run for gover- nor of Kansas, a state with requirements for filing so lax that at least six teenag- ers and the arts editor of the Eugene Weekly in Oregon filed to run for governor, but See CAT on page 22 Editor in Chief There’s a book beckoning from the shelves of Paulina Springs Books. Its cover image is classic noir, and its title will make a literary feller snap around in a double- take. Yep, that’s what it says alright: MACBETH — Jo Nesbo. The Norwegian crime nov- elist has recast the Scottish play as a crime novel, set in a rainy, Scottish industrial city in the 1970s. Here’s the publisher’s description: “Macbeth centers around a police force struggling to shed an incessant drug prob- lem. Duncan, chief of police, is idealistic and visionary, a dream to the townspeople but a nightmare for criminals. The drug trade is ruled by two drug lords, one of whom — a master of manipulation named Hecate — has con- nections with the highest in power, and plans to use them to get his way. Hecate’s plot hinges on steadily, insidi- ously manipulating Inspector Macbeth: the head of SWAT and a man already susceptible to violent and paranoid ten- dencies. What follows is an unputdownable story of love and guilt, political ambition, and greed for more, exploring the darkest corners of human nature, and the aspirations of the criminal mind.” Nesbo isn’t the first to adapt Macbeth into a crime story — which is, after all, what it is at its core. There’s a 1991 movie titled “Men of Happy Father’s Day to all the amazing dads out there! 541-549-4349 260 N. Pine St., Sisters Respect,” which sets the tale among a New York mob fam- ily, which, of course, works perfectly. The movie is over- wrought and John Turturro chews every piece of scenery on set, but it is nevertheless thoroughly enjoyable. The facility with which Shakespeare’s tale of murder and madness can be trans- lated into settings very dif- ferent from the medieval Scottish Highlands is testa- ment to the timeless power of the Bard’s mythic tale. As he did so often, Shakespeare looted history and turned it to his own ends. MacBeth was a real Scottish king, but Shakespeare’s telling is almost entirely mythic. And in a cage match between Myth and History, Shakespeare’s Macbeth outweighs and out- punches the historical king by a long shot and remains the undisputed champion. Nevertheless: a word for the historical MacBeth. M a c B e t h a d m a c Findláich (c.1005-1057) bears almost no resemblance to Shakespeare’s villainous King Hereafter. He was Mormaer of Moray (pronounced Murray), a Marcher Lord, tasked with defending a large chunk of the Highlands near Inverness from incursions by seaborne Norwegians — late-period Vikings. His lands were wild, harsh and beautiful and he fought well defending them. Lady Macbeth is one of the most deliciously crafted villianesses in literature. She, too, was given a bad rap by the Bard. Gruoch ingen Boite was a Scottish noblewoman of the bloodline of the first King of Scotland, Kenneth Macalpine, and she was, by all accounts, a strong partner of MacBeth and a patroness of the Church — noble in all senses of the word. MacBeth did not mur- der King Duncan in his bed, but rather slew him in battle when Duncan invaded Moray. He became King of Scotland by acclamation in the proper Celtic manner and ruled well for many a prosperous year, before being slain in his turn by Duncan’s son, the man who would become Malcolm III of Scotland. The death of the last Celtic King of Scotland — the last to rule from the Highlands — marked a turn- ing point in history. Malcom III married a Sassenach, an Englishwoman, and the king- dom would from then on be oriented toward the south, a feudal, Anglo-Norman con- struct. The Highland Gaels were marginalized and per- ceived ever after as a barba- rous threat from the north, until their final crushing on Culloden Moor in April 1746. The historical Mac Bethad mac Findláich lies buried in the Scottish Highlands (or perhaps in Ireland; another story). The mythic Macbeth lives on forever, in multiple incarnations — including that of a SWAT team leader in a rough industrial city c. 1970s... We’re Swimming In Fabric! Licensed Bonded / Insured CCB#87587 FREE PELVIC FLOOR WORKSHOP PRESENTED BY Dr. Ann Griffi n & Dr. Sarah Conroy, Bigfoot Wellness & Carolyn Janke, Studio Rebloom SUNDAY, JUNE 24 3:30-4:15 at Studio Rebloom, 413 W. Hood Ave. • How the pelvic fl oor affects knee, back and neck pain • How mind-body connections strengthen the pelvic fl oor 541-321-6570 541.549.6061 | 311 W. Cascade Ave.
