remained for so long that locals whitewashed them to make them more visible. They also used them to cross the street without sinking into the mud. Captain John C. Ainsworth commented that there were "more stumps than trees" in Portland in the early 1850s. Rip City The nickname Rip City is usually used in the context of the city's NBA team, the Portland Trail Blazers. The term was coined by the team's play-by-play announcer Bill Schonely during a game against the Los Angeles Lakers on February 18, 1971, the Blazers' first season. In the days prior to the three-point field goal, Blazers guard Jim Barnett took an ill-advised long-distance shot that nonetheless went in, giving the new team hope for a victory against the powerful Lakers. Excited, Schonely exclaimed "Rip City Baby!" Schonely admits that he has no idea how he came up with the expression, but it became synonymous with the team and the city of Portland. Columbus of the Pacific Northwest Portland shares many similarities to the Midwest city of Columbus Ohio which is coincidentally called “Portland of the Upper Midwest”. Beervana This nickname reflects the wide variety of craft beers brewed in Portland and throughout the state of Oregon. PDX The city of Portland is nicknamed PDX after the International Air Transport Association airport code for the Portland International Airport which is within the city limits. For example, the domain name for Portland State University of pdx.edu was chosen in 1987, since psu.edu had already been given to Pennsylvania State University in the previous year. As well, many Portland businesses include pdx in their web sites' domain names to denote their Portland location. Although licensed in adjacent Vancouver, WA, KPDX-TV's call letter reflect this nickname. Ordinary or obscure nicknames City of Churches Portland was once compared with Brooklyn, New York, whose official nickname was "city of churches", by the Sunday Oregonian as seen on the front page of its November 12, 1899 issue of which a reproduction can be seen on the outside of the Oregonian's building. It reads, "On the Pacific coast, Portland occupies the same relative position as that of Brooklyn on the Atlantic seaboard and might well be called "a city of churches"...Wherever the stranger wanders here he will see steeples pointing heavenward, in the very midst of one of the most pleasing landscapes in all the world, embracing, as it does the comprehensive