Portland has found itself at the top of another list, but not the kind you can brag about. A staggering jump in calls to a crisis intervention hotline, high rates of depression and divorce have landed Portland atop BusinessWeek's list of unhappiest American cities. The magazine looked at a range of factors - crime, unemployment, and cloudy days (an average of 222 a year in case you're wondering) - and concluded that the Rose City is one miserable place.
(Something to ponder while I'm home dealing with another visit from the (&^%$#@ Migraine Fairy....)
I've never been one for overly broad, poorly-sourced lists like this (after all, I've ranted on a couple occasions about Houston being selected as the fattest city in the country- three years running). The methodology used to arrive at this sort of conclusion generally, to my way of thinking, renders the results virtually meaningless. Still, even I have to admit to the humor in Portland being selected as the unhappiest place in America. After all, being just south of Seattle, the epicenter of the angst-filled grunge scene, and being famous for our grey, dreary weather, things do get a bit weird and depressing at times. No, it doesn't rain here all the time. I can't tell you how tired I am of hearing that from people who don't live here. Portland actually gets far LESS rain in terms of inches per year than place like, say, Houston. What we do have are extended periods of grey, dreary dampness that can be a drag on anyone's normally sunny disposition.
Kinda hard to believe that a place blessed with such surpassing physical beauty can be home to so many (&^%$#@ miserable people, eh? Yes, while all y'all in other parts of the realm are basking in the sheer, unbridled joy of not living in Portland, those of us here are apparently dodging I-5 traffic on foot, plotting to jump from one of our many bridges, or planning to drink ourselves to death. Yeah...sure sucks to be us, don't it?
