Where are they now? Roseburg's Great Goat Roundup

Southern Oregonians still speak fondly of the time when they used mountain goats to predict the day's weather. Disc jockeys at the Roseburg radio station, KRSB-FM, would peer out the window of the Umpqua Hotel before the weather report and figure out where the goats were grazing.

If the day's weather was good, locals reasoned, the goats would munch higher up the slopes; if it was bad, they'd be further down. But the goats' glory days came to an end when they started hampering I-5 traffic and eating a hospital lawn for dinner.

One resident suggested a barbecue, but instead authorities moved the goats in the late '80s to a ranch, and listeners went back to the National Weather Service.

Not another byte....

Pining for those days of wine and cheesecake? Check out this Portland man's allegedly low-calorie cheesecake recipes at http://www.northwest.com durango/chzrec12.html. Or this Seattleite's sassy take on Northwest wines http://www.speakeasy.orgwinepagewine.html

Remember, virtual food is calorie-free.

No-minutes managers?

"The minutes of the previous meeting were not discussed because no one admitted to having read them . . ." From a corporate team meeting in Seattle

Ode to the 'Hood: Haiku Neighborhood Review

Your movie-savvy friends could come up with a Planet Northwest Haiku Movie Review in a flash. But you, scarred by the gum you found

underneath your seat, saw no movies last month and couldn't pen anything.

This month you have a chance to redeem yourself: haiku in the 'hood. This is an ode to what you experience every day: a park bench, a corner cafe, your neighbor's annoying hedge.

Send me haiku on these Seattle sites or, better yet, strut your stuff and show me what we haven't seen about your neighborhood. First line: first impression of the joint. Second line: what happens there. Third comes the punch line. Remember the syllable count is 5-7-5.

Space Needle

So much for the view

George Jetson paid less for his

Instant vertigo

Floating Bridge

Float like autumn leaves

Drive home between blue waters

One slip and we're sunk

I-90

Clouds deepen above

Behind the 17th wreck

All is stillness

Elizabeth (Betsy) Aoki is a staff writer for the Seattle Times. E-mail story ideas, tips or comments to pacific@seatimes.com, snail mail The Seattle Times P.O. Box 70, Seattle 98111, or call our friendly machine at 464-3337.

Published Correction Date: 11/21/95 - Due To An Editing Error, The World Wide Web Addresses In This Column Were Incorrect. The Correct Addresses Are: Cheesecake Recipe http://www.northwest.com/ ~durango/chzrec12.html Wine Pages http://www.speakeasy.org/~winepage/ wine.html