Weed Dinner Blazes Portland; Oregonian Axes Beer Writer

WWEED -- Many have threatened, but Willamette Week will be the first to host a "gourmet" marijuana dinner with tickets available to the public. According to the Facebook event page, a $59 ticket to Puff Puff Pizza gets you a cannabis sampling with Eco Firma Farms; three courses provided by chef Nicholas Ford and mixologist Brandon Gomez of Pream; and desert by She Don't Know. Navigating complex marijuana laws has kept other dinners underground (or from happening at all), but Willamette Week seems to have found a solution. The only rule for the September 28 dinner appears to be that attendees must be 21 or older.

JOHN FOYSTON -- Citing "lapses in journalistic standards," The Oregonian announced  that it had severed ties with well-known beer writer, John Foyston, who was once a staff writer at the Oregonian and who, for the past fives years, freelanced regularly for the publication. The lengthy article offers examples from Foyston's articles to prove its point, which is:

In several instances over the past month, Foyston lifted passages from press releases, industry Facebook pages or brewery websites and submitted them under his byline. We also found one example where he copied verbatim an old beer review posted by a contributor to a craft beer site.

On his Twitter page, Foyston says that he will continue to write on beer for other publications.

DISJECTA CULINARIA -- Now in its third season, Disjecta Culinaria brings together dinners with Portland chefs and visual and performance artworks. On September 28, Bollywood Theater's Troy MacLarty and Boke Bowl's Patrick Fleming will create a multicourse dinner (tickets cost $125) based on The Book of Scores, an artwork that provides instructions for musical and performative interpretation. Whether or not the chefs will add dancing, singing, or musical accompaniment to their repertoire has yet to be seen.