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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 13, 2015)
OPINION 4A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2015 $VWRULDLVULSHIRUD¿FWLRQDOGHWHFWLYH F ull disclosure. I am incapable of writing fiction. My ensuing proposal is not an advertisement for myself. For more than a decade, I have LVVXHG D SOHD WKDW $VWRULD ZRXOG ¿QG its Faulkner. The age of the town, its mix of ethnicities and its extensive family histories make it ripe for a multigenerational historical novel. Over decades, the names are in Astoria’s phone books. M asterpiece Mystery’s new priest- detective, the Rev. Sidney Chambers, on the series Grantchester reinforces another idea I’ve nurtured for years. As an Episcopal priest, Chambers stumbles across murder in his small parish. He shares his insights with a hard-boiled police constable — Geordie Keating — and they catch criminals. Steve Chambers is the Forrester most recent in a line RI ¿FWLRQDO SODFHEDVHG GHWHFWLYHV Having the priest and the constable play off each other’s perceptions of the world makes excellent theater. Stephen Dobyns offers an example of how to turn a historic town into a detective’s workplace. An English professor at Syracuse University, Dobyns has set 10 mysteries in Saratoga Springs in upstate New York. Dobyns’ detective is Charlie Bradshaw. All of his cases touch on or are embroiled in the colorful and sometimes sordid world of horse racing. The bars, restaurants and track hangouts where Bradshaw meets clients are real places in Saratoga. What Dobyns shows is that you don’t need a canvas as large as Los Angeles or New York to establish the props for a quirky detective. M att Winters, publisher of our sister newspaper the Chinook Observer, is quite smitten with Grantchester. Matt says that if there were an Episcopal priest like Sidney Chambers, played by James Norton, he would be drawn to the church. Norton’s flawed character is battle- scarred from World War II, he drinks a lot and loves jazz. Chambers keeps stumbling across murders in the village of Grantchester, a place that you will find on the map of England, next to Cambridge. Matt notes that the real Grantchester holds a record for its number of Nobel laureates in residence. JOSHUA BESSEX — The Daily Astorian The Voodoo Room would be a great place for a detective to meet clients. Our detective could live in the Commodore Hotel and meet clients in the Voodoo Room. Norwegians, Chinese and even Sikhs offers another element. Some 20 years ago Ellen Madsen was proprietor of Little Denmark, upscale, he could live at the Hotel Elliott. a bakery where Cafe Rio now resides. One $QRI¿FHRQWKHVHFRQGÀRRURIWKH RIRXUUHSRUWHUV0DU\(OOHQ6FR¿HOGKDG Liberty Theater would open up the been an exchange student in Denmark. She occasionally visited Little Denmark and ghosts angle. The Voodoo Room would be fertile spoke Danish with Ellen Madsen. Mary Ellen discovered that Madsen’s Danish was habitat for meeting with clients. antique, untouched by modern idioms. storia’s history abounds with ictional detectives often have eccentrics who could be brought a friend who is an unwitting or forward in time as walk-on characters. Among the living, there is the hotelier purposeful collaborator. Dr. Watson Robert Jacob. In the not distant past is the most renowned of this species. there was Kermit Gimre, who could have Our architectural historian John been cast in one of Agatha Christie’s Goodenberger would make an excellent Miss Marple mysteries. Much further foil, as a guide through Astoria’s back there was the shanghaier Bridget archaeology of homes, intermarriage Grant and the madam Anna Bay. And, among families and the deep well of the town’s eccentrics. of course, the Flavels. Astoria’ ethnic mix of Finns, Swedes, — S.A.F. Submitted The stars of “Grantchester,” Sidney Chambers (James Norton), right, and Detective Inspector Geordie Keating (Robson Green) pose in the town of Grantchester. M uriel Jensen is the closest we’ve come to an Astoria mystery writer. Muriel has, in fact, placed one of her some 95 romance novels in a town modeled on Astoria. Years ago, Muriel told a Columbia Forum audience that she once tried writing a mystery. But, she said, her Catholic roots caused her “to confess by the third chapter.” Nonetheless, Astoria’s places and SHRSOHPDNHLWDULFKWHUUDLQIRUD¿FWLRQDO detective. Perhaps he’ll be a passionate ¿VKHUPDQ VSHQGLQJ WLPH RQ D JLOOQHW boat sorting out evidence — separating red herrings from solid clues. Our detective could live at the Commodore Hotel and drop down to Street 14 Coffee to beat his hangover. If the author wanted to make our detective more A F $SSRLQWPHQWVFRXOGDOWHU¿VKDQGZLOGOLIHPDQDJHPHQW 1,262 full-time employees range conditions for live- concern that the pendulum may are charged with manag- stock. He recounts how the swing too far the other direction — ing our state’s precious governor, who appointed not due to catering too much to the a disproportionate number livestock industry, but rather due s the Oregon Fish and fish and wildlife, but only seven individuals not em- of commissioners from the to overprotection of predators and Wildlife Commission ployed by the agency are livestock industry, flew a move away from managing for introduced its three finalists responsible for hiring its over Zumwalt Prairie and optimum big game populations. for the vacant Oregon director and adopting its declared there were too Coggins observes that hunters Duane administrative rules. In many elk there, and so the and anglers are the agency’s cus- Department of Fish and Dungannon the past, some of those commission began issu- tomers and the primary-but-de- Wildlife director position in rules were made to be broken. ing tags for what amounted to a clining source of revenue for the early February, the state’s One current commissioner, Bob wholesale slaughter of Wallowa department. Deer and elk herds sportsmen were reminded Webber, is a founding member of County’s elk herds. have declined since Measure 18 the Oregon Hunters banned the use of again how important the Association and a dogs to control cou- chemistry of this commission former chairman of The commission began issuing tags for gars in 1994, and so is to Oregon hunters and the OHA State Board license and tag what amounted to a wholesale slaughter have of Directors. When sales. The sales of wildlife. cougar tags and tax- 7KH JRYHUQRU ZLOO ¿OO WZR Webber attended the of Wallowa County’s elk herds. first OHA organiza- es on bird seed will vacancies on the commission this tional meeting in the never fund an agency spring, and the selections, to be Rogue Valley 32 years ago, Or- In response, OHA arose from with a new headquarters in Salem, FRQ¿UPHG E\ WKH 2UHJRQ 6HQDWH egon elk herds suffered in some the embers of an elk hunting 25 district and field offices, 33 could radically alter the direction parts of the state, and the commis- campfire. hatchery facilities, 15 fish-rear- sion was more a part of the prob- Coggins notes that the situation ing facilities, 16 wildlife areas of Oregon’s wildlife management lem than any solution. improved over the next decade, and 1,262 full-time equivalent — for better or worse. Vic Coggins, a retired ODFW largely the result of more respon- employees. To fix ODFW’s recur- This unpaid seven-member district biologist who found him- sible management from the com- ring budget woes, the commission body is presently tasked with se- self at ground zero in northeast mission, which listens to ODFW’s must cater to its customers by con- lecting the director who will guide Oregon’s “elk wars” of the 1980s, local field biologists who have trolling predation and improving the agency that manages our fish recalls that agricultural interests their boots on the ground. the quality of deer and elk hunt- and wildlife resources. A total of wanted elk removed to improve But there could be cause for ing. By DUANE DUNGANNON For The Daily Astorian A T HE D AILY A STORIAN Founded in 1873 Removing wolves from the state ESA now that wolves have reached the threshold for delisting outlined in Oregon’s Wolf Plan would be a big step in the right direction for the commission. OHA is poised to petition the commission to delist wolves this year so that wolves can be managed with the rest of Ore- gon’s wildlife in a comprehensive management plan, rather than con- tinuing as an apex predator with diplomatic immunity. Let’s all hope that the two commission vacancies are filled with knowledgeable, responsible individuals who understand the importance of hunting and fish- ing, not only to the department’s customers, but to the state’s econ- omy, as well. From there, it’s up to those seven individuals to make the right decisions for the benefit of ODFW’s mission: “to protect and enhance Oregon’s fish and wildlife and their habitats for use and enjoyment by present and fu- ture generations.” Duane Dungannon is the state coordinator for the 10,000-mem- ber nonprofit Oregon Hunters As- sociation. STEPHEN A. FORRESTER, Editor & Publisher • LAURA SELLERS, Managing Editor BETTY SMITH, Advertising Manager • CARL EARL, Systems Manager JOHN D. BRUIJN, Production Manager • DEBRA BLOOM, Business Manager SAMANTHA MCLAREN, Circulation Manager