Smear has pictures of an side advertisement gone awry on the red line MAX.  I’ve seen this particular advertisement and never really noticed that peculiarity about it before.

Hey!  In my “birds & the bees” talks I had with my Mem Mem & Pep Pep when growing up, they never taught me about anything called a “jacking point”! 

Good observation!

Hey, you didn’t know?  MAX operators need to go to the bathroom too!  But when they’re transporting us from Gresham to Beaverton or Beaverton to Gresham (or anywhere in between), when are they able to go to the bathroom?

Well, a TriMet light rail operator has an interesting story about her most recent journey of having to hold it in.  And I gotta say, it’s a pretty funny story.  And honestly, not something I really thought of before… at work, I have the luxury to go ‘relieve’ when I feel the need to.  When you’re commandeering a light rail train… that’s a different story.

Anyway, too funny and definitely a blog I’ll be keeping an eye out on.  She has a nice writing narrative and, judging by how much I enjoyed a story about her putting her bladder “to the ultimate test”, I’ll probably enjoy more of her stories.

TriMetiquette reader ckuskie asks:

“It was interesting reading recent posts about having bags on seats. What is the recommended etiquette for traveling to the airport on the Red line with luggage?”

Very good question, ckuskie!  In the case of having bags on the seat, I think it’s a whole different story when it comes to luggage items.  And I apologize for not being clear in previous posts about this issue… but I think if you have a piece of luggage that could possibly affect any rider’s ability to go about moving about the train if placed on the floor is perfectly acceptable being on the seat next to you.  Before, I was specifically talking about things like backpacks students have with them or perhaps some office ’sling’ bags that professionals use.

So yep, I think when it comes to luggage, and when you’re taking the red line to the PDX airport, bringing your luggage and placing it on a seat near you is 100% acceptable.

Anyone care to share thoughts and opinions about this?

Stacy over at Hello… This is Me recently wrote a post with six mentions of the word “MAX.” With six mentions, the post has to be good… right? Well, turns out that is indeed a positive post about using the MAX to get around that beautiful Saturday we had last weekend.

The post goes over some nice destinations individuals can use the MAX for. Stacy and a friend happened to use the MAX to hop on over to the Saturday Market as well as hit the Lloyd Center up for some shopping. Then they hit that little MAX disturbance over the weekend when they were planning on going to the local IKEA near the Portland International Airport. Three worthwhile destinations that MAX can take you - the Saturday Market, Lloyd Center & IKEA.

That’s a full day’s worth of shopping right there!