The Mercury Staff Favorite Stories of 2016

We wrote a lot of stories this year. Most of them were flipping awesome, but some of them were even better than that. Here are the staff-favorite stories from the Portland Mercury in 2016.

From December:

Hilliard and Johnny Cash. PHOTO PROVIDED BY THE OREGONIAN

The Original Portland Challenger: The Life of William A. Hilliard, Portland’s Pioneering Black Newspaperman by Santi Elijah Holley

We Got High and Went to Cirque du Soleil’s Avatar Ballet by Erik Henriksen and Ned Lannamann

From November:

The Portland Mercury’s Live Updates from the 2016 Election! by Erik Henriksen and the Mercury Election Strike Force

We Can’t Go On. We’ll Go On: When You Feel Despair Coming On, Remember That You Live in Oregon by Megan Burbank

Meet Me in Stars Hollow: My Mom, Gilmore Girls, and Me by Ciara Dolan

From September:

KELSEY WROTEN

A Guide to Portland Places You Should Never Go: (While I’m There) by Erik Henriksen

“His Word Against Mine”: Stories of Sexual Assault From the Portland Music Community by Ciara Dolan and Doug Brown

From October:

PHANTASM Angus Scrimm, Phantasm’s “The Tall Man.”

Angus Scrimm: The Antithesis of a Horror Monster: Remembering the Man Behind Phantasm by Edmund Stone

From August:

LEVI HASTINGS

A Black Teen Was Run Down in Gresham: His Killer Is in a Notorious Oregon White Supremacist Prison Gang by Doug Brown

Out of Pocket: Portland’s Last Pay Phones
Coin-Operated Telephones Are Hard to Find—But They Can Still Be Necessary by Ned Lannamann

From June:

Should Portland Have a Safe Drug Injection Site?: As the Heroin Epidemic Grows Worse, People Are Finally Talking About It by Dirk VanderHart

The World’s Most Indispensable Food Accessories: If You’re Not Using These Remarkable Inventions, You’re Eating Incorrectly and Might Choke and Will Probably Die by Ned Lannamann

The Gweat Gwyneth Paltrow Wrecipe Test: Is It Really All Easy? IS ANYTHING? by Megan Burbank

The Jeff Goldblum Issue

From April:

Battle of the Super-Foods: Marvel vs. DC in a Battle of Retro Superhero Cookbooks by Erik Henriksen

Record Review: Lemonade, Beyoncé by Jeni Moore

From March:

MINH TRAN

The Portland Dive Bar Preservation Society: Thirteen of the City’s Finest Places to Drink, or Just Plain Exist by Ned Lannamann

Our coverage of Bullseye Glass by Daniel Forbes and Dirk VanderHart

The Mercury’s Guide to 2016’s Presidential Merch!: 2016’s Presidential Candidates Aren’t Just Selling Themselves. They’re Also Selling a Bunch of Tacky Crap! by Erik Henriksen

From February:

Hey Patriots! Get Your “Oregon Standoff Valentines!”