Ear: Googly

Well, it looks like the Portland District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has followed in Bend’s footsteps and jumped onto the googly eye train with a Dec. 19 Facebook photo and post:

“All right this is getting out of hand … OK, so no one *actually* put giant googly eyes on any of our dams (even the one pictured here, which is conveniently named Lookout Point). But that isn’t to say they don’t still have eyes on them. Our eyes.

“We’re always keeping a close watch on our infrastructure, from round-the-clock monitoring of water levels behind and downstream of our dams, to frequent dam safety inspections and special studies for flood risk management.

“For example: The day a 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck off the Northern California coast earlier this month, triggering a tsunami warning, our teams were on site at our dams in the Rogue River Basin (Lost Creek Lake and Applegate) to conduct post-earthquake inspections and make sure everything was OK. Spoiler: It was.”

On a more serious note, “We’re always watching our dams and other projects,” the post added, “so they can continue to add value to the lives of the American public with as little risk as possible.”