More truthful than Chuck Adams.

[September 6th, 2006] Here's one from the "what not to do on the new job" school of work etiquette: The Oregon Zoo's new elephant barn supervisor showed up to his first day of work Aug. 21 sporting a bumper sticker on his car that called the white race "Earth's most endangered species. " Joe Sebastiani removed the sticker from the neo-Nazi group National Alliance the next day after learning it offended some workers, says Karen Kane, a spokeswoman for Metro, which runs the zoo. Sebastiani, who earns $47,000 a year, declined comment to Murmurs. Kane says Sebastiani told officials that his former co-workers had put the sticker on his car as a joke, and apologized to several shop stewards and co-workers at the zoo. But the zoo's employees' union wants a broader apology.

If revenge is a dish best served cold, then the waiters and union forces who were fuming last year at local restaurateur Lisa Schroeder must be eating hearty. Schroeder, of Mother's and Mamma Mia's fame, enraged servers last year by testifying against a minimum-wage increase in a legislative hearing. Last week, an email sent by the Democratic Party of Oregon alerted recipients to a lunch next week at Mamma Mia's to help rally women voters. That email triggered an avalanche of blogosphere angst, culminating in a lengthy apology from Schroeder on Blue Oregon (blueoregon.com). As of now, the lunch is still on at Mamma Mia's.

In terms of conventional wisdom, it's a sort of ye olde man-bites-dog story: Two of Salem's best-connected lobbyists, Mark Nelson and Gary Conkling, are leading the fight against Measure 45, which would slap term limits on the Legislature. The duo's cause is counterintuitive, because common belief is that term limits (which were in effect in Oregon from 1992 to 2002) place clueless newbie lawmakers squarely in the hands of rapacious lobbyists. Not so, avers Conkling, who will handle the messaging while Nelson raises the money. "It's not a good thing to let rookies run state government," he says. Term-limits proponent Paul Farago, a Portland acupuncturist, says, "Lobbyists and their clients just want to preserve the status quo."

Must be hard to find a squeaky-clean investment pro these days. Gov. Ted Kulongoski named local stock brokerage firm owner Tim Phillips to a vacant seat on the Oregon Growth Account, a state-run fund that invests lottery dollars in Northwest companies for the Educational Stability Fund. Two years ago, when Phillips ran unsuccessfully in the Republican primary for Congress in Oregon's First District, The Oregonian reported that state and federal securities regulators had disciplined his firm numerous times.

There's no real clever way to put this, but here goes: Why is there a tiny "Jesus fish" in the bottom right-hand corner of some copies of the Aug. 29 Oregonian Metro section? The well-known Christian emblem appears in ghostly gray at the edge of a story headlined "Clark County affidavit describes suspect truck." As they say, the Lord works in mysterious ways.

The founding executive director of JOIN, the Southeast Portland nonprofit that helps homeless people find stable housing, is leaving after nearly 15 years to work for a private developer. Founder Rob Justus is leaving JOIN this week to team up with John Carson, the owner of Kavik Inc., to create affordable housing projects, primarily in Southeast Portland. "It's kind of the other side of the coin," says Justus. Instead of moving needy folks to homes, Justus says he'll actually be creating those new homes. Justus' replacement is Marc Jolin, formerly an associate at the law firm Perkins Coie.

^WEB_ONLY MURMUR!

It appears the Portland City Council's new rule limiting those who wish to offer public comments at its weekly meetings to once per month is something of a mixed blessing. At the two meetings following the Aug. 16 decision, speakers have signed up for every slot. But along with first-time speakers from what you might call the reality-based community came a CIA conspiracy theorist and personal tales of accidents and injuries reminiscent of the gobbledygook that prompted the controversial policy switch in the first place. Plus ça change....