Eugene Weekly

08/19/2025

From the deep south of Hat Yai, Thailand, to Eugene’s Van Buren Street, the tree-shaded food cart immediately began growing in the community after opening in 2019. The Kai Asian Street Food cart delights new audiences with its powerful flavor.
Owners Keith Kitchakan and Nathan Pongtuch focus on curating flavors with dishes traditional to their hometown. The goal for customers is to “experience the flavor of Thailand without having to travel across the world,” Pongtuch says, with flavors stemming from the vibrant streets of Hat Yai. Each dish is filled with a tasting experience intended to lead you to where the flavors originated.
Read more in Eugene Weekly.

Keith Kitchakan and Nathan Pongtuch’s Kai Asian Street Food. Photo by Corin Antonio. Vibrant Thai Street Food Spices It Up Innovating and authentic, paired with impeccable service, Kai Asian Street Food fills the city with its style Chow by Corin AntonioPosted on 08/14/2025Click to share on Facebo...

08/19/2025

We’re a couple years past Netflix and chill and the days of COVID shutdowns (and hoping to stay that way), but some of us are still figuring out how to get out more. They say it’s harder to make friends as you get older. A poll by the Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation said that “in 2023, one in three adults age 50–80 (34 percent) reported feeling isolated from others.” And a Pew Research Center poll said that “about half of adults 65 and older (49 percent) say they have five or more close friends.”
So how do we get out and hang out more? Read about Rotary, Kiwanis and more in Eugene Weekly’s Older and Bolder issue.

City Club of Eugene ‘In da Clerb, We all Fam’ Need to get out more? There’s a club for that! EW-ExtraHealth by Camilla MortensenPosted on 08/14/2025Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Click to share on Bluesky (Opens in new window)Click to share on Mastodon (Opens in new window)Cli...

08/18/2025

Best of Eugene nominations are open! Your favorites, your call.

vote.eugeneweekly.com

08/18/2025

Retirement is often considered the end, but what if it’s really just the beginning?
A Gettysburg College study found the average person spends 90,000 hours — or one third of their lifetime — at work. For some, retirement is an opportunity for reinvention and trying something different.
Robin Hostick, now 54, had worked in city government for a decade but is best known these days for his large sublime landscape paintings. “I’ve been an artist my whole life,” he says. “I was one of those kids that always won the poster contest in school.”
Read about Third Acts in Eugene Weekly’s Older and Bolder issue.

Robin Hostick. Photo by Eve Weston ‘Third Acts’ Old age isn’t just about retirement and golf. Some people enjoy the freedom to try their hand at new careers. Health by Corin AntonioPosted on 08/14/2025Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Click to share on Bluesky (Opens in new windo...

08/18/2025

Why did no one tell us that as you start getting older, you start having trouble sleeping? Some of us have trouble falling asleep, some of us wake up in the middle of the night — or even worse an hour before the alarm goes off — and are dull and tired the rest of the day.
We asked readers and Eugene Weekly staffers how they deal with their bouts of insomnia. Read on and get some rest!

Photo by SHVETS production Sleep Remedies Falling asleep, falling back to sleep — suggestions for rest and relaxation Health by EW StaffPosted on 08/14/2025Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Click to share on Bluesky (Opens in new window)Click to share on Mastodon (Opens in new window...

08/17/2025

Losing a loved one is an emotionally challenging experience, and when the situation is compounded by the absence of a will, it can create additional complexities. In such circumstances, family members and heirs are often left grappling with the question of what to do next.

Read about grave decisions in a local and vocal Eugene Weekly viewpoint.

08/17/2025

This month, Cynthia Lafferty, owner of Doak Creek Native Plant Nursery, emphasizes the importance of native pollinators in our gardens. They need our help. Over the 17 years we have lived in Eugene, I have switched from the big, old and beautiful of plants to the easy-keeping, beneficial native ones. They are still beautiful, but more diverse and can do better in a changing climate. Plus, they attract native pollinators and many bird species.

Read more from the Garden Palette in Eugene Weekly.

Most of the bees that you see on lavender are non-native honey bees or common yellow-faced bumble bees. To truly support Oregon’s wild and native bee communities, look beyond lavender. Photo courtesy Garden Ecology Lab, Oregon State University. Blooming Bees Cultivate native pollinators in your ga...

08/17/2025

Noriko Seiner was one of the 12,000 runners lined up at Hayward Field at 7 am April 27. She had run several half marathons and 10k races in the past few years, but the last time she ran a marathon was 30 years ago. She crossed the finish line with a time of four hours and 55 minutes, beating her goal of under five hours.
Seiner was also the oldest female runner who finished the full marathon this year at the age of 64.

Seiner had another goal besides running a marathon — climbing up to the top of Japan. On July 31, Seiner hiked up Gotemba Trail on Mount Fuji, 7,776-feet elevation gain to the summit, 12,389 feet, a “steep climb and descent on scree and volcanic rocks,” she writes. “I try not to think about my age as much,” she says, “my knees are still good.”

Read more about masters athletes in Eugene Weekly.

Noriko Seiner hikes Mount Fuji. Photo by Michael Konkel. An Active Life Starts Anytime With a goal, sports can sustain and bring growth for a lifetime Health by Seira KitagawaPosted on 08/14/2025Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Click to share on Bluesky (Opens in new window)Click to s...

08/17/2025

Classical music lovers leaped up to defend KWAX this week in Eugene Weekly’s letter to the editor.

KWAX, Art and Protests in Letters to the Editor Letters by Letters EditorPosted on 08/14/2025Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Click to share on Bluesky (Opens in new window)Click to share on Mastodon (Opens in new window)Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)Click to....

08/17/2025

The birds are chirping, the wind is blowing and the sun is sliming. That can only mean one thing: The newest SLUG queen has been given her mossy crown.
On August 8, after a rigorously sluggish beauty pageant, Eugene comedian and local celebrity Jen Jay — aka, Hilaria Gastrognome, but her friends call her Larry — was crowned as the latest monarch of the Society for the Legitimization of Ubiquitous Gastropods. Absolutely dripping pink head-to-toe, her first message as Queen is: “Ooze the change you want to see in the world. And take gnome mercy!”
Read more in Eugene Weekly.

2025 SLUG Queen Hilaria Gastrognome (Jen Jay) celebrates her victory. Photo by Eve Weston. God SLUG the Queen 2025 SLUG Queen Hilaria Gastrognome was crowned at the annual coronation August 8 News by Savannah BrownPosted on 08/14/2025Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Click to share on....

08/16/2025

’90s icons and Saturday Night Live alumni Kevin Nealon and Janeane Garofalo perform standup comedy in two separate runs of shows at Olsen Run Comedy Club & Lounge in Eugene. Garafolo performs August 18 and 19, and Nealon does a three-night stand August 21 through 23. Garafolo is an actress, author, comedian and podcaster, perhaps best known for roles in movies like ‘Reality Bites’ (1994) and ‘Mystery Men’ (1999). In the early 2000s, she co-hosted ‘The Majority Report’ with Sam Seder, a liberal-leaning radio talk show on Air America. Garafolo’s since kept a lower profile, but lately, her standup comedy is just as biting. Nealon, meanwhile, is more closely associated with SNL, hosting ‘Weekend Update’ for nine seasons in the mid-1980s to early-1990s. Since then, he’s had roles in ‘Weeds,’ which premiered in 2005 and ran for eight seasons, and in movies like ‘Happy Gilmore’ (1996), and this year, ‘Happy Gilmore 2.’ He now hosts a YouTube talk show called ‘Hiking with Kevin,’ where Nealon and celebrity guests hike a trail and have a conversation as best they can while out of breath — the kind of discomfort Nealon likes to maximize in his comedy.

Read the rest in Eugene Weekly.

Photo courtesy Kevin Nealon Great Gen X-Pectations Laugh like MTV still plays music videos with Kevin Nealon and Janeane Garafolo in Eugene Comedy by William KennedyPosted on 08/14/2025Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Click to share on Bluesky (Opens in new window)Click to share on Ma...

08/16/2025

A word that’s used within a culture, and that’s created by that culture,” is how Jeremiah Campbell, member of Gen-Z and barista at 5th Street Market, defines slang. He says that this definition can be perplexing because it’s hard to distinguish what slang is these days. Campbell says that in his time working with coffee, a word he frequently hears is “slay.” He says, “I was originally like, ‘That’s so funny.’ And then, eventually, I caught myself saying it.”
Slang has become a part of everyday life in ways that makes it seem like its own language to the older generations who may not be following social media trends. While it may seem hard, it’s well within reach — with some patience and understanding — for people of all ages to get on the same colloquial page.
Read all about contemporary slang — complete with a vocab list — in Eugene Weekly’s Older and Bolder issue.

https://eugeneweekly.com/2025/08/14/slang-from-all-angles/