When I was a kid in Pendleton, Sunday picnics were a big treat.

On one particular weekend, we had a picnic on our living room floor while rain fell. I think it was my mother’s idea to spread out a blanket and open the picnic basket underneath a floor lamp. Being five or six years old, I thought this was a lot of fun.

A slight change of circumstance can be refreshing. It is amusing to discover what’s right under our nose. The Columbian Theater earns its birthright with movies like Gran Torino.My wife and I had that experience last weekend, thanks to an offering she bought at a local charitable auction. We spent Sunday night at the Akari Bungalows in Long Beach, Wash. These are a set of 1930s motor court tourist cabins that have been completely refurbished into cozy one-room accommodations. Ours contained a kitchen, tub and shower.

We took advantage of Sunday afternoon’s brilliant sunshine to stroll on Long Beach’s boardwalk. We checked out Banana Books, a delightful used book store with a great inventory just off Pacific Highway.

The Cottage Bakery opens at 4 a.m., seven days a week. The output of this pastry shop is phenomenal. One may also obtain a conventional breakfast of scrambled eggs and ham with toast. The coffee was quite good.

The Columbian Theater earns its birthright when it brings almost second-run movies such as Gran Torino, Clint Eastwood’s social drama about a Korean War veteran who has lived long enough to see a world he doesn’t understand. A retired Detroit auto worker, Eastwood (as Walt Kowalski) builds an unconventional relationship with his immigrant neighbors.

One movie buff told me Gran Torino was an interesting twist on the Clint Eastwood genre. In the context of age-obsessed Hollywood, it is remarkable that Eastwood did not cut corners in his portrayal of a man whose faculties are beginning to fail, but continues to fight. It conjures Dylan Thomas’ poetic line “Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”

Last week’s Friday Exchange contained a letter that exuded scorn for President Obama’s appearance on the Jay Leno show. Being a ground-breaking (or glass shattering) moment, the American president’s use of late-night television was bound to generate a level of alarm. But the answer to why Obama did it is pretty obvious. That’s where a certain slice of the viewers are.

The president’s television audiences have been impressive. While the Leno audience was one of that show’s four largest (at 14.6 million viewers), it was smaller than the subsequent 60 Minutes audience (17 million). That’s according to Sam Schechner of The Wall Street Journal. Larger audiences watched last week’s presidential press conference (40.3 million) and the president’s speech to the joint session of Congress (52 million).

Further breaking new ground, last Thursday the White House conducted an online discussion with Americans.

Obama is a threat to the status quo on a host of levels. There is a similarity to the response the president has evoked from Republican members of Congress and the ayatollahs of Iran. What unites those two disparate groups of politicians – on Capitol Hill and in Iran – is a need to stay in business, to win the next election. Thus both groups cater to the most extreme elements of their base constituencies. The ayatollahs have rebuffed President Obama’s invitation to communication. The congressional Republicans – not recognizing that the ground is shifting beneath their feet – want us to believe they are aghast at big deficit spending.

– S.A.F.