• Eugene has lost an icon. Chez Ray Sewell, former chef to the Grateful Dead and the Merry Pranksters, proprietor of a number of restaurants around Eugene, owner of Chez Ray's Headliners' Organic Coffees, longtime Country Fair Family, and all around beloved character, died over the Thanksgiving weekend.
• While Our Children's Trust climate case that we know so well in Eugene sits on the desks of 9th Circuit Court of Appeals judges, a possible blockbuster climate case was filed Nov. 14 in the California Superior Court in San Francisco. As reported in Foreign Policy, commercial fishermen in California and Oregon sued 30 oil, gas and coal companies, seeking compensation for their losses because the Dungeness crab market in the Pacific Ocean has been damaged by rising temperatures caused by burning fossil fuels. And, of course, the oil, gas and coal companies knew they were sending temperatures up. It seems likely that the "Black Friday" dire climate report directed by Congress and issued, ironically, by the Trump administration will help all these important climate cases.
• Will the networks or the University of Oregon Athletic Department or the official deciders hurry up and put Duck women's basketball games on television? Their early games have been only live-streamed while the men's games have been broadcast and some, like the Texas Southern disaster, should have been hidden from view. The women, ranked behind only UConn and Notre Dame, featuring All-American Sabrina Ionescu, should light up our screens when conference games begin.
• What we're reading: 21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari. This is Harari's third book in which he shines light on terrorism, inequality, religion, ecological collapse and the current state of national and global politics. Nationalism is a theme that Harari continues to circle back to while addressing reasons liberal democracy is in crisis. 21 Lessons takes some broad sweeps on big topics like technology, the education of our youth and the beliefs we hold on to in order to create meaning in our lives.
• "Riot control agents, such as tear gas, are considered chemical weapons if used as a method of warfare," says the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, whose mission is to implement the Chemical Weapons Convention. The U.S. is a signatory of the Chemical Weapons Convention, which also says its members can use riot control agents for "domestic law enforcement purposes." The U.S. recently used tear gas against refugees, including women and children in diapers, at the U.S.-Mexico border, and Donald Trump defended its use. The U.S. used a weapon against babies that is banned in war. Let that sink in.
• If you're following EW's online coverage, you know reporter Henry Houston was all over the Civil War game (and if you are like some of EW's writing staff, who don't follow the Ducks — yeah, they won). Go to eugeneweekly.com/category/blog to get online updates on Lane County issues from sports to the plight of the unhoused. Or pick us up in print Thursdays for the free crossword and sudoku. We know what you like.