Weird and Unusual Portland Trivia Quiz

Answer: Elvis

Every square inch of the 24 Hour Church of Elvis, located for most of its history on Ankeny St., was covered with odd things. Vending machines, some of which spoke to you, might disgorge a trinket. For a price, you could get married... to yourself, someone else, your dog, the Universe... no discrimination here!

Alas, the Church closed in 2002 due to rising rent costs.

If you missed the original, you can get some taste of the weirdness at http://www.24hourchurchofelvis.com.

I was lucky- I got married at the Church of Elvis :>)

Answer: Support local businesses

Don MacLeod, owner of "Music Millennium", one of the oldest record stores in the Northwest, founded "Keep Portland Weird" to help keep one of the main sources of PDX weirdness- its unique local businesses- alive.

Answer: Powell's Books

Powell's has several sites in the Portland area, as well as an online presence. Its flagship store on Burnside is a bibliophile's dream, covering an entire city block and three stories high, with over 68,000 SF of book-selling space offering both new and used books. Its owner, Michael Powell, has championed liberal causes from gay rights to anti-censorship campaigns.

The drive for unionization began in earnest in 1998, after a failed attempt in 1991. Powell's employees already had good benefits and profit-sharing, but a drop in store profits led to a corporate decision to cut pay raises. This, along with worker dissatisfaction in a company that was becoming more corporate and less personal, led to the drive to unionize.

Many months of turmoil and drama followed, with endless meetings, rallies, work stoppages and other activities. In the end, in August of 2000, Powell's became the first unionized bookstore in the US.

As an aside, during several college summers spent in Portland, Powell's was the first landmark that I actually learned to find!

Answer: Portlandia

Located in front of the Michael Graves building in downtown Portland, Portlandia, resembling a female Neptune, but in reality modeled after the city seal, holds a trident in her left hand and holds her right out, index finger extended. Thus, "Pull My Finger."

Answer: It has the oldest continuously-operating roller coaster on the West Coast

Oaks Amusement Park, though small, is full of history. It was built in 1905 as a trolley park, and has operated continuously since then. It has a modest selection of rides, a huge dance pavilion, and a skating rink complete with live music.

As the park is located on the Willamette River, it sometimes floods. The skating rink floor is built on pontoons so it can be detached, float above the water, and be reattached after the flood subsides.

Oaks also sometimes hosts outdoor concerts on the grass- I have fond memories of seeing my first-ever Indigo Girls concert there!

Answer: Three Groins in a Fountain

This bizarre installation depicts....something. Something vaguely human and multiply anatomically correct. You can view some pictures of it at http://pdxartwork.blogspot.com/search?q=quest.

Answer: The Vacuum Cleaner Museum

This museum, located (naturally) in Stark's Vacuum Cleaner's store at 107 NE Grand Ave., houses over 300 vacuums. Some are made of wood, some required two people to operate, all, according to store shop manager Ted Burke, are far sturdier than the throwaway plastic vacuums of today.

Please, just don't walk in and tell them that their museum sucks...

Answer: Go swimming

As Walt Lockley described the Ira Keller fountain at http://www.waltlockley.com/irakellerfountain/irakellerfountain.htm (go there for some gorgeous pictures!) "Like the Apollo program, the Ira Keller fountain in downtown Portland Oregon is an accomplishment from the 70's that we as a society could now barely manage. It's a loud and playfully interactive physical expression of civic values that today seem too liberal and humane to be true, and, in that wonderful sneaky ability of environments to set our social expectations, it perpetuates those values."

People often don't realize that summer days in Portland can sometimes soar to over 100 degrees. The downtown fountains provide relief for scores of kids and adults alike.

Answer: Pump their own gas

No law exists in Portland to ban the enjoyment of a crackling winter fire. However, Oregonians may not pump their own gas, for reasons lost in the dawn of the automobile age; and today, a noisy lobby of gas pumpers works to make sure the law is not changed.

One of the surest signs of a "newbie" Oregonian is to get out of your car at the gas station and try to pump your own gas! It will brand you as a tourist every time.

By the way, the only other state that prohibits the common citizen from pumping gas is refinery-rich New Jersey.

Answer: Courteous driving

The survey, by AutoVantage, found that Portland drivers were the most polite, while those in Miami, FL were the rudest.

I have a theory. Drivers aren't really all that polite in Portland; they are just too busy paying attention to where they are going to devote any time to road rage. It may be easier to get lost in Portland than in any other large city in the US. One-way streets are the norm, left-turn lanes are a foreign abomination, and one street may be split into a zillion fragments by Portland's numerous hills.