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D AILY A STORIAN
Founded in 1873
STEPHEN A. FORRESTER, Editor & Publisher
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SAMANTHA MCLAREN, Circulation Manager
Water
under
the bridge
Compiled by Bob Duke
From the pages of Astoria’s daily newspapers
10 years ago this week — 2005
The Wickiup Restaurant and Lounge on Old Highway 30 at the Svensen
Junction burned to the ground this morning.
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visible and heavy smoke was coming from the entire building, Fire Chief
Paul Olheiser said.
“We tried to do an offensive attack, but we lost water,” Olheiser said.
A National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration data
buoy was recovered by the U.S. Coast Guard Saturday 300 miles
west of Astoria after it broke free from its mooring.
The Astoria bypass concept is back on the drawing board.
The on-again, off-again issue of a new highway to stop large trucks from
causing congestion through downtown Astoria has been one of the lon-
gest-running sagas in the community in the last three decades.
U.S. Rep. David Wu, D-Ore., announced that $250,000 is being targeted
for a new study.
“This project would study the feasibility of a bypass from Youngs Bay
Bridge, off U.S. Highway 101, up and over state forest land to join up with
U.S. Highway 30 near the John Day Bridge,” Wu said.
50 years ago — 1965
Both construction methods and inspection procedures were
criticized in three reports dealing with the collapse of the John
Day 5iver highway bridge during Christmas week Àoods.
Gov. 0ark +at¿eld released the reports late 7uesday.
None was as blunt as Highway Commission Chairman Glenn
Jackson, who told a special legislative hearing in January “we
made an error in judgment.”
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committee hearing at Olympia, urging construction of the Grays River-Pe
Ell road.
Those testifying were Carlton Appelo, Wahkiakum Pomona grange mas-
ter, County Commissioner Howard Madden, Robert Torppa and William
Canham.
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putting its products near to processing plants in Lewis County. Madden em-
phasized that it would open up new recreational areas. Torppa noted that the
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The road would shorten the distance between Astoria and Puget Sound
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7he ¿rst train in more than a month may roll over the S3S
line into Astoria and Seaside tonight.
7here has been no train west of :estport since January 30, a
month ago Sunday, as a result of a slide that wiped out more than
a mile of track between :auna and Bradwood.
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trol, a problem which has plagued the community for a long time but has
not been solved.
The fundamental trouble is that the public wants dogs controlled, appar-
ently, but doesn’t want to have to pay for it.
75 years ago — 1940
Max Lehmann, for 20 years a successful packing executive
and son of a pioneer European vegetable canner, will open the
1940 era of Astoria’s industrial growth, having signed a lease for
use, and perhaps ultimate purchase, of the Astoria port cannery
at the port docks.
Lehmann’s proposed program with peas and other vegetables
may take its place in 1940 along with the tuna industry, which
sprang into the spotlight in 1939 as a development of prime im-
portance to this lower Columbia community.
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Rocky mountains and the distinction thereby given Astoria’s mail-distribut-
ing point for the entire northwest. Descendants remember particularly the
mistreatment he received at the hands of his fellow townsmen, for John M.
Shively literally was run out of Astoria, the town he planned and laid out.
Such is the revelation produced by personal, well-documented papers in
Shively’s longhand just made public by Mrs. Charles Meyer, granddaughter,
living at 2034 Southeast Grant Street.
Shively’s comeback to Astoria was marked by his commission as a post-
master, and his experience as an adviser to congress on a feasible boundary
line between Great Britain’s Canada and the United States in the Oregon
country.
7he year 1939 will always be a red-letter ¿gure in the history
of Astoria as well as the whole state of Oregon, for it was in that
year that a long, long struggle to get the Columbia River on the
navy’s defense map was completed.
7he year saw congress at last authorize the establishment of a
naval air station at 7ongue 3oint, where a naval board had ¿rst
recommended some kind of a defense establishment in 1900; also
saw the appropriation of $1,500,000 to be spent on construction
of the station over a two-year period and ¿nally saw the actual
beginning of construction, with more than half a million in con-
tracts already allotted at the year’s end.
John Jacob Astor, the New York fur trader for whom this city
is named, and who founded it, was ¿rst to see the strategic impor-
tance of the mouth of the Columbia River more than a century
and a quarter ago. He it was who selected the mouth of the Co-
lumbia for his combination fort and trading post in 1811, which
was to control the trade of the entire northwest region and which
was the ¿rst white man’s settlement in all this part of the world.
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, MARCH 4, 2015
7
HERE IS NO MORE
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music than Richard Wagner.
I’ve ceased to be amazed
at musically literate persons
who deliberately won’t listen to
Wagner.
My wife and I traveled to Chi-
cago last weekend to see a pro-
duction of Wagner’s Tannhauser,
a work about the tension between
sensuality and spirituality. We
were joined by one of my oldest
friends, Alice Porter of Seattle.
The best description I’ve read
of Wagner’s music is that it is
“densely harmonic.” It is also
monumental. This opera lasted
only three hours. In the Wagner
canon, that is brief.
‘The time has come,’ the Walrus said,
‘To talk of many things;
Of shoes — and ships — and sealing wax —
Of cabbages —and kings —’
Through the Looking-glass
of Cabbages and Kings
źźź
THERE IS NO BETTER
setting for opera than the Lyric
Opera of Chicago. The auditorium
is gold, coral and blue. Shafts
of wheat are iconic elements in
lighting elements and wall decor.
Tannhauser is seldom per-
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the array of great voices he calls
for. We learned that on Monday
night when the great South Afri-
can tenor Johan Botha was ill. His
replacement, Richard Decker, had
a very bad night. Fortunately, Am-
ber Wagner, who has sung in Asto-
ria, and others made up for it.
In this opera there is enough
talk of atonement, redemption and
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services. The Pilgrims Chorus,
with which the opera closes, is a
profound, inspirational piece of
music.
źźź
AT THE TIME OF THE
American Civil War, Wagner
Richard Wagner
In Chicago we
learned why
Tannhauser is so
seldom performed.
book about Jews in music adds to
the emotion that repels some who
have never heard his music.
For decades following World
War II, Israel prohibited the
playing of Wagner’s music in
that country. That ban has been
breached by three conductors in-
cluding Zubin Mehta, a Holocaust
survivor named Mendi Rodan and
Daniel Barenboim, an Argentine
Jew.
,Q KLV ERRN Wagner,
Michael Tanner writes: “What
is it about Richard Wagner that
makes him, 112 years after his
death, still so violently contro-
versial? The easy answer would
be ‘Everything,’ but it would not
be quite right. For no one — no
serious musician — any longer
doubts that his place among the
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now secure.”
— S.A.F.
was changing the world of
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century. And one man who was
especially moved by his music
was Adolf Hitler. In the opening
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Riefenstahl’s Triumph of the Will,
one of Wagner’s overtures is the
soundtrack as Hitler’s small plane
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Nuremberg.
Like many artists, Wagner pres-
ents a problem as a person. His
How :arren Buffett does it
and unnecessary fees ... and the use
of borrowed money can destroy
the decent returns that a life-long
owner of equities would otherwise
ifty years ago, a young
enjoy.”
investor named Warren
Another thing about Buffett is
Buffett took control of a failing
that he has never gotten caught up
textile company, Berkshire
in fads. He only buys businesses
that he understands and can predict
Hathaway. “I found myself ...
where the business will be in a de-
invested in a terrible business
cade. He teaches this point in the
about which
current letter with a discussion of
the conglomerates that sprung up
I knew very
LQ WKH V DQG EHFDPH WKH KRW
little,” Buffett
stocks of the moment. Jimmy Ling,
relates
in
who ran one such company, LTV,
his
annual
used to say that he looked for ac-
quisitions where “2 plus 2 equals
letter
to
AP Photo/Nati Harnik, File
5.”
shareholders,
Billionaire investor Warren Buffett
LTV, as conceived by Ling, of
which was
speaks in Omaha, Neb., at an event course, ceased to exist decades
released over
to raise money for the Girls Inc., ago (though the company would
charity organization in November go through several transforma-
Joe
the weekend.
2011. Warren Buffett’s annual letter tions and bankruptcy court before
Nocera
“I
became
to Berkshire Hathaway sharehold- shuttering its last vestige in 2002).
the dog who
ers is always one of the best-read “Never forget that 2 + 2 will al-
business documents of the year. ways equal 4,” writes Buffett.
caught the car.”
Buffett describes his approach in The 2015 letter, due to be released “And when someone tells you how
those days as “cigar butt” investing; on Saturday Feb. 28, marks the old-fashioned that math is — zip
50th year of Buffett’s leadership.
up your wallet, take a vacation and
buying shares of troubled companies
come back in a few years to buy
with underpriced stocks was “like
How successful has the Buf- stocks at cheap prices.”
picking up a discarded cigar butt fett-Munger approach been? In the
If it’s really this simple, why
that had one puff remaining in it,” 50 years since Buffett took over don’t more people try to invest like
he writes. “Though the stub might Berkshire, its stock has appreciat- Buffett? One reason, I think, is that
be ugly and soggy, the puff would ed by 1,826,163 percent. That is an sound investing — buying when
others are selling, holding for the
astounding number.
be free.” He continues: “Most of
You would think, given Buf- long term, avoiding the hot stocks
my gains in those early years ... fett’s success, that more people — requires a stronger stomach than
came from investments in mediocre would try to emulate his approach most people have. When a stock
companies that traded at bargain to investing. It is not as if he hasn’t is plummeting, it takes a certain
tried to explain how he does it. strength to buy even more instead
prices.”
Every year, you can find a Buffett of selling in a panic. Most of us
But that approach had limits. tutorial in his annual letter that the lack the temperament required for
It took Charlie Munger, the Los rest of us would do well to absorb smart investing. The fundamental
equanimity required to be a great
Angeles lawyer who has been his — and practice.
investor is a rare thing.
longtime sidekick, to
The second reason is
show him that there
was another way to The fundamental equanimity required that investing the War-
Buffett way is a lot
win at the investing
to be a great investor is a rare thing. ren
more complicated than
game: “Forget what you
he makes it sound. Can
know about buying fair
businesses at wonderful prices,”
In the current letter, for in- you predict where a business will
Munger told him. “Instead, buy stance, he makes the case — which be in 10 years? Of course not. But
wonderful businesses at fair pric- has been made many times before he can — and does.
In a few months, the faithful
es.” Which is what Buffett’s been — that a diversified portfolio of
doing ever since.
stocks “that are bought over time will flock to Omaha, Neb., to at-
He has done it in two ways. First and that are owned in a manner tend Berkshire’s annual meeting —
— and this is what he is renowned invoking only token fees and com- “Woodstock for capitalists,” Buf-
for — he has bought stock in some missions” are less risky over the fett likes to call it. For six hours,
of the great American companies long term than other investment Buffett and Munger will be on
of our time, stock that he has held vehicles that are tied to the dollar. stage, before some 40,000 people,
not just for years, but for decades. Clearly, that’s been his approach. cracking wise, while making their
Second, he has turned Berkshire He then goes on to bemoan the fact investment decisions sound like
Hathaway into a true conglomer- that too many investors — both simplicity itself.
But, in coming to pay their an-
ate, which owns not just stocks but little guys and investment profes-
entire companies. Although Berk- sionals — do things that add risk: nual homage, the throngs will not
shire’s front office employs only “Active trading, attempts to ‘time’ be acknowledging the simplicity of
25 people, its companies have, in market movements, inadequate di- Buffett’s approach, but the genius
total, some 340,500 employees.
versification, the payment of high behind it.
By JOE NOCERA
New York Times News Service
F