Let me tell you, it is a pleasure to be back. The office is dusty and ill-cared for after this month and a half (has it been that long?) away. There are Intern droppings on the floor, and my good scotch seems to be missing from my desk drawer—and I do not care. It is so very good to be back.

You are wondering, I imagine, where I have been.

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For you, it’s a headline—for me it was Saturday, outside the Times‘s office:  thousands march against immigration crackdown.

In the spirit of the theme, I’ve asked the interns to whip up something folky.  Not quite a protest song per se—we attempt something of an even editorial keel around here—but in the aesthetic neighborhood, perhaps.

Here at The Aural Times, our focus is national and international news, but we are, all else aside, a Portland publication.  And while HR 4437 is making waves nationwide—bishops in Colorado—pollsters in El Paso—the issue feels particularly local when thousands of folks march by one’s window, with placards and mottos, chanting and singing, flanked by cops and counter-protesters.

And, in truth, Portland loves a good protest.  We’re even fond of the mediocre ones; a Friday anti-war demonstration has run more or less weekly for some years now, down at Pioneer Courthouse Square, though at this point it is largely a demonstration of stubbornness on the part of the few remaining stragglers.  In that light, this weekend’s march was refreshing in its size and vigor.  And besides, as a card-carrying member of the American Union of Militant Pedestrians (may God help you if you nose your Volvo into my crosswalk) I approve of anything that disrupts traffic.

So forgive, if you will, this bit of local flavor.  We’ll return Wednesday to our usual wider focus.

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