Those who would say meetings of the Clackamas County Commission are dull and boring should have attended the Thursday, Aug. 9, meeting.

That meeting was really about Dull and Boring — Dull, Scotland, and Boring, Oregon.

The commissioners formally proclaimed Dull (on the other side of The Pond) and Boring, in Oregon, a “pair for the ages.”

At the same time, the commission declared that in Clackamas County, Aug. 9 would be called “Boring and Dull Day” in perpetuity.

The county’s laid-back, rural area east of Metro’s urban growth boundary now has its own holiday.

In honor of the proclamation, a slide show was presented to the commission, with graphic illustrations and photographs of Boring — in the early-morning shadow of Mount Hood and the valley of the Sandy and Clackamas rivers — and Dull — in the foothills of the Scottish Highlands and the valley of the River Tay.

There was a lot of giggling and laughter during the staff presentation by Jim Austin, representing Clackamas County Tourism and Cultural Affairs.

Austin narrated his slide presentation, beginning with the statement: “Boring is not dull and Dull is not boring.”

He tried to emphasize the humor in the pairing as he described each slide which compared the two communities, showing their many similarities and few differences.

Photographs of the two areas showed, for example, the small cows in Dull with their long hair and long horns and Boring’s big, black and white cows.

Illustrating similarities, he noted that cycling and horsemanship are big in both communities.

It was Elizabeth Leighton of Aberfeldy, Scotland, which is near Dull, who traveled through Boring on holiday and suggested to her friends in Dull they ought to “twin” with Boring.

Austin mentioned that one of Clackamas County’s employees also is named Elizabeth Leighton, and she is of Scottish/Irish descent.

Austin described the road sign erected on the highway just outside the very rural area that the 84 residents of Dull call home.

Besides the words “Welcome to Dull — paired with Boring, Oregon, USA,” the sign tells drivers, “Drive Safely.”

Austin said the last two words are there to stop passers-by from laughing so much they’d lose control of their car on the narrow roadway.

Commissioner Jamie Damon said she was trying to get the county sign shop to produce a similar sign for Boring.

She told the commission she hopes that sign would be placed on a post in Boring in time for the annual Boring Celebration, set for Saturday, Sept. 8.

The basic motivation for this humorous exercise is to encourage a social connection between distant countries and promote tourism to each area, particularly Clackamas County as a destination.

“People already stop and look and laugh and take pictures at the (Boring) sign,” Austin said. “This (proclamation) is just raising it to another level.”

The idea of increasing tourism was reflected in one of the statements in the proclamation: “Whereas both communities draw visitors seeking beautiful scenery and historical and cultural richness . . .”

That scenario is now fact since some Boring residents are learning about Scottish culture through regular electronic communication with Dull residents.

That communication was begun when a frenzied news media around the world connected with the large worldwide BBC network, and several Dull residents and Boring residents were interviewed live on radio news shows. At least two dozen requests to several Boring and Dull residents came from continents and countries as distant as Asia, Australia, Dubai, Northern Ireland, United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.

In honor of the pairing “for the ages,” a resident of the Dull area established a Dull & Boring Facebook page, which is used regularly by residents of both communities to share their values, photos, ideas and cultural and historical sites.

One entry on the Dull & Boring Facebook page shows the sign on the road near Dull and states: “A new sign in Scotland celebrates a new friendship.”

In reality, though, there is a growing number of new friendships — people pairing themselves “for the ages.”