THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, AUGUST 21, 2015
COMMUNITY
1B
ANOTHER MIRACLE NEEDED
COME SAIL AWAY
FAIR WEATHER IN ASTORIA
S
ince 2012, with the community’s help, Marcus Bolles (pictured)
has waged a valiant ¿ght against desmoplastic small round cell
tumor (www.DSRCT.com), an aggressive childhood cancer of the
abdomen.
“Marcus was due for his 90-day scans (recently),” his mother,
Melanie Bolles wrote, “however our insurance company has decid-
ed it is not medically necessary and have denied the procedure. The
experts in this disease all agree that 90-day scans are imperative as
this cancer has a 85 percent chance of returning. The only way to
know if there is a recurrence is through these scans, and not having
them could very well be the difference between life and death.
“While I am appealing their decision, time is of the utmost im-
portance. It could take up to six weeks for this appeal, and there is
no guarantee ... We can’t wait, and they can deny us every 90 days,
putting Marcus’s health in jeopardy. The $4,285 previously collected
has been utilized getting Marcus back and forth to New York twice
for surgery and radiation. We are asking for another blessing, another
miracle.”
You can help make that miracle happen by donating at http://ti-
nyurl.com/marcusbo, or mail a check to Melanie Bolles at P.O. Box
1313, Astoria, OR 97103.
GO HOME, GOONIES
‘M
D
id you have your celebrity-spotting glasses on during the Asto-
ria Regatta? If not, then you probably missed ABC’s “Good
Morning America” (and former Portland) meteorologist Rob Mar-
ciano during the festivities.
GoLocalPDX.com reports he was “with his buddies from his
fantasy football league, including his Astoria friends who own and
operate Baked Alaska, a restaurant located on Astoria’s waterfront”
(http://tinyurl.com/robmarc).
The Ear checked with Chris Holen, chef/owner of Baked Alas-
ka, and sure enough, GoLocalPDX had it right. “(Rob’s been) on my
fantasy football league for years,” he said. Pictured, Chris (left) and
Rob, the day of the Regatta, in a photo Chris provided.
“Our group of friends get together at least once a year for our
draft,” the chef explained. “We’ve been to Denver, Honolulu, Lin-
coln, Vegas. I hosted this year. Rob is hosting in Manhattan next year.
All my buddies loved Astoria.”
y two daughters, Rebecca and Laura Nielsen, who both at-
tended Knappa +igh School, recently had a ¿ve day sail on a
Norwegian Training Sailing ship the ‘Statsraad Lehmkuhl’ (pictured
inset) of Bergen, Norway, that participates in the Tall Ships Races 2015
(http://tinyurl.com/nortall) from Kristianstad, Norway, to Aalborg,
Denmark,” Brownsmead resident Alice Nielsen wrote to the Ear.
“This is a ‘working ship’ and participants do all the chores of a
sailing ship,” Alice explained. “The thing of interest is that it is the
same sailing ship their father, Kaare Nielsen, sailed on in 1939 as
a cadet.” Her daughters are pictured (Rebecca, left, Laura, right) in
a photo by Søren Stidsholt Nielsen, holding the woolen sailor jacket
their father wore on the ship.
As a side note, their father is now 92 years old and lives in Bea-
verton. For many years he played the accordion with the Midnight
Suns at the Astoria Midsummer Scandinavian Festival.
So how was the trip? “They said it was a great experience,” Alice
said, “but quite exhausting.”
THERE WILL BE CHEERS
GOOD MOJO
‘S
I
t wasn’t surprising that it made the local news when a beleaguered
Sandi Preston, owner of the fan mecca, the Goonies house,
threw in the towel after claiming that over a thousand visitors a day
were invading her privacy, and she covered the place in blue tarps
to hide it from view. The city chimed in, too, and put up a “Access
closed to the Goonies house” sign.
The owner’s dramatic meltdown made statewide news, too, but
holy cow, on Wednesday it made the national news. NBC’s “To-
day” show featured a 36-second “Pop Start” piece about the tempest
in a tarp (http://tinyurl.com/todaygoon). A screen shot of the story is
shown, courtesy of NBC and the Today show.
The hosts were utterly amazed that fanatical fans of a 30-year-old
movie, who are known as Goonies, themselves, could be causing
such a kerfufÀe.
“I see a road trip coming,” one host said. Maybe she even meant
it.
L
orinne Mondeaux came into the of¿ce a few days ago to show
the Ear a little black pouch, which is shown. She found it in the
sand on the approach to Sunset Beach in Warrenton, and has been
keeping it safe since.
The string has broken, which is probably how it got lost, and the
pouch contains some items that would be valuable to the owner. If
this is yours, or you know whose it is, please contact the Ear at 503-
325-3211, ext. 257, or ewilson@dailyastorian.com
“Someone is frantically sad they lost that,” Lorinne told the Ear.
“I would be. It’s their good mojo.”
IS THAT YOU, MIGALOO?
‘HOTEL HELL’ IS BACK
tudents going back to school at the John Jacob Astor Elemen-
tary School will have a surprise: A new mural in their cafeteria,”
Zetty Nemlowill wrote. “The Astor Parents Club wanted to spruce
up the drab space so they hired local artist, Roger McKay (my dad) to
paint a mural, which he recently completed.” A photo of Roger work-
ing in the cafeteria is shown. Zetty noted that Kate Gohr, the school
principal, was also instrumental in making the mural happen.
“This was actually a cool project,” Allie Evans, the Astor Parents
Club president said. “We got a grant from a partnership between the
National Football League and the Oregon Dairy Council.” The grant
comes from a fund to “get kids healthy and moving,” and was used
for a variety of projects, including the cafeteria, basketball hoops for
recess and an artist in residence.
Part of the grant was used for the mural, and the rest was paid for
by fundraising. “The grant providers said anything that makes kids ex-
cited to sit down and eat, and have a good ambiance,” Allie explained.
“The cool thing was, people were really excited to source local art for
the project.”
Before the mural, the cafeteria, which is in the basement of the
school, was a plain mustard yellow, and there were no posters — but
there were a lot of ugly pipes. “A very uninspiring atmosphere for
kids,” Allie noted.
Right after he was shown the blah wall, Roger made a sketch for
the mural. “He has a phenomenal brain,” she observed, admiring the
way he incorporated the pipes with a colorful farmland scene, apples,
and apple cider — all things local to Oregon.
“When we showed the kids new cafeteria trays, there were cheers
of excitement,” Allie added. “Can’t wait to see the look on their faces
when they see the mural!”
F
A
ccording to a press release, FOX’s “Hotel Hell” is searching
all over Oregon for “hotels, motels or inns that include food
service, and that need to make some serious changes.”
“If you’re struggling due to bad reviews, bad management, bad
customers, the bad economy or bad employees or just can’t ¿gure
out how to keep up, Gordon Ramsay (pictured) and his team of ex-
perts will come to the rescue and attempt to turn around the fortunes
of dedicated and determined hospitality industry owners
“ ... If you are an owner, an employee or if you know of an estab-
lishment that needs help (even if they don’t realize it) please apply
now at: www.hotelhellcasting.com. Inquiries can also be made by
phone to 323-580-6324.”
By the way, last year the show tried hard to revive the Monticel-
lo Hotel in Longview, Wash. In case you’re wondering — nope, it
didn’t work.
F
or marine biology fans: CBC News reports that a rare white hump-
back whale was spotted recently off the Australian coast, and many
wondered if it was a well-known whale named Migaloo, which means
“white fella” in the local vernacular (http://tinyurl.com/albwhale).
The leviathan is pictured (with close-up inset) in still shots from a
video courtesy of Channel Nine and Mashable (http://tinyurl.com/alb-
whale2).
So is it Migaloo? “Trevor Long, marine sciences director at the Sea
World Research and Rescue Foundation ... (said) that he believes the
whale is another albino humpback, ¿rst spotted in 2011, known as Son
of Migaloo,” CBC News reports, as this whale is “too small and too
white” to be Migaloo.
First spotted in 1991, when he was a youngster, Migaloo has been a
“swimming celebrity in Australia for decades,” and until “Son of” ap-
peared in 2011, was believed to be the only white whale in a population
of around 23,000 whales that migrate north from Antarctica each year.
A GRAND BICYCLE RIDE
ew probably noted the arrival
of Laurie Chipps in Astoria on
Aug. 10, where she is pictured in a
photo by Ellen Knutson, but it was
quite an accomplishment.
DNAinfo.com reports that back
in May, she quit her job as a librar-
ian at the Art Institute of Chicago
to tackle the 4,477 cross-country
bike ride, starting from Yorktown,
Va., along the TransAmerica Trail,
and stopping at several spots along the way (http://tinyurl.com/
chippshere). In fact, she’s now moving to one of those spots, Mis-
soula, Mont.
“Life is so short, and there are just so many places to see and go
and experiences to have,” she told DNAinfo. “Traveling is the best
way to get yourself out of your comfort zone, and it doesn’t have to
be a grand bicycle ride across the country.”
“But,” she added, “the biggest thing for anyone who might want to
do any sort of adventure who thinks they can’t, or aren’t in shape, or
are too afraid — if you set out to do something, you’ll surprise yourself
with what you’re capable of doing physically and mentally.”