Ken Gordon lost his cool.

And, just like that, Brice Clagett lost his job at Kenny & Zuke's Delicatessen, Gordon's Southwest Portland restaurant.

Clagett, 26, was at the heart of my July 7 column, "When two jobs won't pay the rent." The story detailed Clagett's difficulty in finding an affordable apartment in Portland despite working two jobs, 40-odd hours at the deli and another dozen at Cured Green, a marijuana dispensary on Northeast Lombard.

At 4:30 p.m. Monday, Clagett called to say he'd been fired from the deli.

When he posted his dismissal on Twitter 30 minutes later, noting he'd been terminated "for reasons not yet made clear to me," Kenny & Zuke's responded with the following:

Kenny & Zuke's on Facebook

Over the course of five days, Clagett and I spoke for hours about his anxiety over the imminent loss of his St. Johns apartment. "I have no idea what's going to happen," he said. "That scares me the most. The uncertainty. Am I going to put all my stuff in a storage unit. Am I supposed to pick up a third job?"

Posted on Oregonlive on July 7, the column drew immediate reaction, more than 400 comments in the first 12 hours.

No one was more agitated than Gordon, who co-founded the delicatessen in 2007.

Almost immediately after the column appeared, he sent me an email, complaining I'd written about his employee "without at least fact checking."

"He takes home about $1500 per month with tips, plus his other job, and pays about $650 per month in rent. How his (sic) he not making it on that?" Gordon wrote.

"FWIW, he's the poster boy for disgruntled employees. Needless to say, you could have picked a better subject."

One of Clagett's final paychecks, issued before the deli gave him a 50-cent hourly raise to $12.

Clagett worked for Kenny & Zuke's for 25 months. He was totally upfront about his tips. Kim Spencer, his manager, promised to call me about Brice's employment, but never did.

When Chuck Sheketoff, executive director of the Oregon Center for Public Policy, posted the column on Facebook Saturday and tagged Gordon, Gordon's comments grew ever nastier.

He claimed "Duin got the facts wrong." He said the "article makes it appear as if we're underpaying the subject. We are not." He complained Clagett spent "a fairly hefty amount ... on cigarettes, pot and alcohol."

Gordon was quickly challenged on the thread by RuthAlice Anderson, the former president of Oregon Action:

"I don't think you have the right to post this," Anderson wrote. "The guy is not blaming you for his problems, why are you defensive?"

"In fact, he is," Gordon replied. "Come by sometimes when he's working. He does little but complain to everyone around him about not getting paid enough ... why do you think he called Steve Duin?"

Clagett didn't call me; we met at the take-out counter on June 24. I first asked Brice if we could talk about Portland comedy clubs. He later argued there was a better story in non-refundable application fees for Portland apartments.

When I called Gordon Monday, he repeatedly said Clagett gave me "misinformation" about his take-home pay, including tips, and exaggerated details about his living situation. "He's not sleeping on a couch," Gordon said.

"I've been to his apartment," I told Gordon. "I've seen the couch. Have you?"

"No," Gordon conceded.

Nor, Gordon said, did it matter that most of the comments on the column were as unsympathetic to Clagett as he is. Some were critical of Kenny & Zuke's, and he took it personally.

That's the real problem here, RuthAlice Anderson agrees.

"I couldn't understand why he was angry," she said in a Monday night phone conversation. "The story doesn't have anything negative about his job, other than that he doesn't get health care.

"Somebody lost his cool. Wealthy liberals sometimes do. His restaurant has Portland liberal credibility. Kenny & Zuke's does the Pride thing. People whose business reputation in the community is tied up with being supportive of human rights don't do well when challenged on economic justice issues."

There you have it. Someone lost his cool.

Brice Clagett lost his job, a job that barely pays the rent.

And Kenny & Zuke's just lost my business.

-- Steve Duin

stephen.b.duin@gmail.com