Author: Owen R. Smith

In honor of the New Year, the Vanguard has peered into the future and discovered nine headlines that we absolutely, positively guarantee will appear in our paper next year. Or not.

If you’re the kind of person that needs a little help getting into the “holiday spirit,” a nice winter warmer served up from a local brewery is just the thing you need. Holiday ales are usually very dark with lots of hoppy, malty flavor and high alcohol content. Some have traces of holiday spices such as nutmeg or cinnamon, while others are just plain tasty.

As catchy hook-laden Japanese pop music gave way to thunderous Taiko drums, Japan Night was well underway Monday night in a packed-to-capacity Smith Memorial Student Union Ballroom.

Jeff Merkley and Steve Novick will be at Portland State Thursday at noon as Merkley’s campaign for the U.S. Senate heads into the final stretch.

He started the Roots Festival at Portland State, served on the Student Fee Committee and won the highly contentious 2007 election for student body president. Three weeks ago, as the students he once represented were preparing to return to classes, Rudy Soto packed his bags and left for Fort Stills, Okla. After completing his one-year term as student body president this past June, Soto surprised his friends and family by announcing the next step in his life wouldn’t be pursuing an internship in Washington, D.C., or even just taking a year to finish up the 43 credits he has until graduation.

Portland State will host its annual PSU Weekend celebration starting with a party Friday evening to kick off the festivities and continuing with events throughout Saturday. The event is sponsored by the PSU Alumni Association and will feature a keynote luncheon with Paul Theroux on Saturday. Theroux, who specializes in travel writing, is the author of more than 40 works of fiction and nonfiction, including the novel Waldo and several nonfiction books including, The Mosquito Coast and Kowloon Tong.

Stories are what legends are hewn from, and the list of stories about Teri Mariani is nearly endless. There was the time Teri got lost while driving through San Diego with longtime Vikings booster Jerry Nudelman. Or the time Teri hired head football coach Jerry Glanville. Or the time Teri’s softball team came in third at nationals. After 38 years as a Portland State student-athlete, coach and administrator, Mariani has done just about everything and has seen the athletic department’s transition from a tiny Division II program to a Division I mid-major on the rise. Today is her last day on the job.

Portland State’s athletic program is used to being the butt of a lot of bad jokes. The painful thing is that much of the time, there’s a grain of truth to those one-liners.