— “I expected your town to be much prettier,” a downcast woman from faraway Missouri recently told me at the Visitor’s Center.

I’d heard this before. The first thing tourists arriving here from the south see are a U-Haul lot and then a storage-locker facility under construction. Ugh. Some entrance.

“Then we saw a supermarket and a McDonald’s,” the disappointed traveller continued. “This town doesn’t look very special to me.”

My stock answer: Just keep going. You’ll soon see why PT gets 12 pages and rave reviews in the Triple-A guide. Still, our unprepossessing portal is misleading and should probably be upgraded, no?

Good thing the tourist didn’t notice the giant hot dog.

—Speaking of tourism...Talk about a grand entrance: Mark  Aug. 2 on your local travel calendar. Take the midday ferry up to Victoria, where we stumbled upon Summer Splash a few years ago by accident.

The Victoria Symphony will be playing on a floating platform in the Inner Harbour as the MV Coho arrives. It’s quite an amazing sight. Shades of the closing scene from The Marx Brothers’ “At The Circus” when Harpo cuts the ropes to a platform with a similarly floating orchestra. The overture from Wagner’s “Lohengrin” plays, and the orchestra drifts out to sea. It’s a Marxist shot at Hitler’s favorite composer.

—Funny Brit comic Ricky Gervais to Steven Colbert: “The best thing about being dead is you don’t know about it. It’s like being stupid. It’s only painful to others.”

And if you’ve ever seen Gervais’ original BBC version of “The Office,” the NBC version is weak tea indeed. And another Gervais-starring series, “Extras,” is a brilliant, bruising look at show-business fame. Among the guest stars on this series were David Bowie and Kate Winslet. Check out both Britshows.

—Saw my first MAGA hat locally the other day, at Sequim’s Costco. I wanted to invite the guy to please wear it over here in PT, but demurred.

Speaking of bigots presumptive, I well recall the comments of my publisher at the Oakland Tribune, the estimable Robert Maynard. He was the first African-American to own a major U.S. newspaper, and was the best publisher I ever had at a big daily. A class act. Bob had previously been on the Watergate reporting team at the Washington Post.

In a Tribune editorial, Maynard had this sage advice to African-Americans in dealing with racists: “Never let yourself be diminished by someone else’s illness.”

—Hail to the chief: my wife and I have now visited all the historical markers on the new Chetzemoka Trail, and I’ve learned a lot about local tribal history from them. One of the new markers is at Sentinel Hill atop the golf course, next to the old statue of the “Prince of York” looking out over the links near the driving range. Forgive the heresy, but every time I see that statue, I always imagine the Chief saying, “It’s 150 yards down to the green. Maybe a 7 iron?”

—Funny Lady: You may spot a familiar face from TV around town this summer. The well- known visitor is Merrill Markoe, one of the country’s top female humorists. Talented writer Markoe, who also does stand-up, was a frequent guest on David Letterman’s show back when the two were a couple. Markoe was also the creator of Stupid Pet Tricks and Stupid Human Tricks.

—More TV: Finally, the Portland Oregonian lists among the TV shows it would like to see “C.S.I. Love Lucy,” with this puckish description: “When Ricky stumbles across a bunch of autopsy photos in Lucy’s nightstand, she’s got lots of ‘splainin’ to do.”

(PT resident Bill Mann has written humor pieces for USA Today.)