Ned Luce

Coming up this weekend local singer/songwriter/showman Paul Rogers is presenting his annual Holiday Hi-Jinx show. The show is Saturday, Dec 21 from 6 to 9 p.m. at Finnriver in Chimacum, and Sunday, Dec 22 from 4 to 7 p.m. at the American Legion in downtown Port Townsend.

The hilarious Holiday Hi-Jinx show has become a Port Townsend tradition featuring Rogers’ original tunes and a cast of topnotch local talent. This year Rogers is importing SF Bay Area musicians Tim Eschliman (Commander Cody, Etta James) and Austin de Lone (Elvis Costello, Nick Lowe, Fabulous Thunderbirds) from the legendary SF Bay Area Christmas Jug Band to round out the ensemble. The show raises funds for the Jefferson County Winter Shelter. A suggested donation is $20 for tickets from Brown Paper Tickets or call 360-531-0276 for more information.

Last Sunday’s offering from the Port Ludlow Performing Arts was “BuzzBrass.” They entertained a couple hundred folks with Christmas music and corny antics. There were a couple of trumpets, a couple of trombones and a French Horn providing different arrangements of favorite seasonal tunes. Monday we headed to Seattle to see the 11-year-old grandson perform his customized version of “Santa Claus is Coming to Town.” He was one of 18 youngsters aged 6 to 16 at the annual recital by the students of his piano teacher. He was no Elton John, but he is on his way.

We went to the Alchemy Bistro in Port Townsend with some friends to celebrate a birthday last week. As expected, the food and service was great. Even better for us, the place was almost empty, keeping the complaints about our noisy table to a minimum and facilitating the great service by our waitress. We all agreed she was a double for Maggie Gyllenhaal and even though her real name is Julie Read she seemed to enjoy us calling her Maggie!

News from last week’s Leader: I wrote about Dorothy Plut who came to Port Ludlow in the early 1930s. She was a nurse and her husband was a doctor. When relating this story to my friend Chuck Boggs he confessed Dorothy’s husband, Doctor Plut, delivered him as a baby! I should have expected it. Did you see the nice article in last week’s Leader about the monthly potluck dinners in Port Ludlow’s “North Bay” area? Yeah, the headline said “Port Hadlock”, not Port Ludlow. Oh well, don’t throw stones if you live in a glass house.

Today marks the 10th anniversary of these musings I provide each week for The Leader. How about that? I don’t think I have ever done the same thing for 10 years! Except maybe BJ. My first column was 862 words! Publisher Scott Wilson, who hired me, put a stop to that much baloney by the second column. Bless those of you who have been hanging in there for that long. I learned early on to laugh at myself because if I didn’t there were plenty of other folks willing to take on the task.

Love a curmudgeon and have a great Christmas week.

(Ned Luce is a retired IBM executive and student of Port Ludlology whose 500-word dispatches shame those of us who do drone on.)