Ahoy, mateys! September 19 be Talk Like a Pirate Day every coming of the year.
Okay, okay – we can’t do it.
But, we can certainly investigate the origins of International Talk Like a Pirate Day (yes, it’s international, how cosmopolitan of it) and explain why Portlanders seem to adore the holiday each year when September 19 rears on its haunches.
Why is Portland called Rip City?
Those of us who love Portland also tend to love our city’s many nicknames – Rose City, Stumptown, Slabtown, and so many more. Often the origins of the nicknames are shrouded in mythology and mystery when, in reality, simple logic explains how the names came into existence.
We theorized Rip City could have stemmed from alternative Portlanders sporting torn jeans in the 1980s and 1990s. Nope. Maybe it’s a shipping or nautical term of some kind referring to Portland’s immense and successful Port? No luck.
The origin of “Rip City” begins and ends with our professional basketball team – the Trail Blazers – however its origin is so random it will never be fully explained. The myth remains intact.
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Portland’s NBA team, the Trail Blazers, started existence back in 1971. During a game against the Los Angeles Lakers, Jim Barnett, a point guard on the team, took a long shot, both literally and metaphorically. Mid-game, Barnett quickly threw out a deep field goal attempt and made it!
The chances of the shot making it into the net were so slim that Bill Schonely, the game’s play-by-play announcer and considered by many fans to be “The Voice of the Blazers,” became overwhelmed by his own excitement and blurted out “Rip City! Alright!” Here’s the kicker – Schonely himself admits that even he doesn’t know why he shouted “Rip City.”
He was simply inspired to yell it at that exact moment. And the name stuck. Barnett, the player who scored the shot and went on to become a game broadcaster himself, told the Oregonian in a 2009 interview, “Schonely made the call – I just made the shot, but I do take pride in that; it’s a little bit of history.” Sometimes, nicknames are rooted in reality. For us, we love them just as much (maybe more) when the truth is so much stranger than fiction.
Do you want to know the origins of other Portland oddities? Leave your inquiries in the comments!
Susan G. Komen’s Race for the Cure in Portland is an institution, an annual race where the participants primp out in pink to show their support of research for the cure to breast cancer.
In 2017, the race could get a little bitchy – but in a good way – as our canine friends have been invited to join the cause!
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It’s a sneak-er attack! Under Armour and Adidas are bringing the shoe battle to Nike’s home turf – Portland (well, Beaverton) with UA opening an “innovation hub” and Adidas kicking off their “Lace Up” reality show on YouTube Red featuring eight designers competing to have their shoe made for real!
It’s time for Nike to “Attack Everything!”
When a city drops ranks on a national list – Best Beer Cities in the U.S., Best Food Cities in America – it’s usually a sign for the city’s citizens and leadership to band together and make a plan for improvement. When we saw Portland drop to third most popular city to move to in the results of the Summer Movers Study, we threw a freakin’ party!
Only Portlanders would be this happy to drop in popularity…