OPINION
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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2015
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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
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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
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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
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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
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detective. Perhaps he’ll be a passionate
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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
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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.
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