THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, APRIL 3, 2015
COMMUNITY
1B
A SLICE OF LIFE
CAN YOU HELP?
BABY BOOM
‘A
laska Fishing Adventures’ comprises the gorgeous
UHFROOHFWLRQV RI \HDUV RI JXLGLQJ ¿VKHUV DW Yes Bay
Lodge, near Ketchikan, Alaska,” David King of Astoria and
Portland wrote, reviewing James “Jim” Bernard’s new book.
The front and back covers are pictured, along with a shot of Jim
and some halibut, inset.
Warrenton residents Jim and his wife, Cherie, well known on the
1RUWK&RDVWZHUHORQJWLPHRSHUDWRUVRID¿VKLQJFKDUWHUEXVLQHVV
on the Sea Tiger out of Hammond before he started working as a
guide in Alaska.
“... Guides at Yes Bay Lodge are given nicknames,” David noted,
³DQGLQKLV¿UVWGD\JXLGLQJJXHVWV-LPHDUQHGWKHQLFNQDPH‘Slice’
E\FXWWLQJLQWRKLVLQGH[¿QJHUZKHQEDLWLQJDJXHVW¶VKRRNDIWHUQHW-
ting a nearly 40-pound king salmon. As is the character of the man,
-LPZUDSSHGKLV¿QJHULQDWRZHODQGNHSWRQ¿VKLQJ´
-LP¶V¿VKLQJSKLORVRSK\"³(DFKGD\LVEUDQGQHZDQHYHUEHHQ
lived before day. Who knows what adventure awaits us? ... Thank
you, Lord, for not letting us know.”
Want a copy of the book? You can get it at http://tinyurl.com/
MLP¿VKHV
³:KHQ,¿UVWPHW-LPDQG¿VKHG%XR\DQGWKHRSHQRFHDQ´
'DYLGUHFDOOHG³,DVNHGKLPRQHGD\µ+RZRIWHQGR\RX¿VK"¶´
³,¿VKHYHU\GD\WKDWWKH/RUGDOORZVPH´-LPGHFODUHG
MAKING A SPLASH
‘L
ocal animal victims Bonnie, Hazel and Norma Jean (pic-
tured) need assistance!” Rita Smith of River Song Founda-
tion declared (http://riversongfoundation.org).
“These kitties are all requiring long-term veterinary care and
multiple surgeries to recover from long-term neglect, abandonment
and outright abuse,” she explained. “Norma Jean had injuries con-
sistent with being thrown from a car or up against a wall. She had to
have one eye removed, and had multiple lacerations and evidence of
,1*UHSRUWVWKDW3DFL¿F:KDOH:DWFK$VVRFLDWLRQ3::$ a prior broken pelvis. Hazel has suffered unknown trauma and will
crews spotted another new calf among the endangered South- need long-term rehabilitation. Bonnie has had two surgeries so far,
ern Resident orcas of J-Pod, which makes it the fourth in three and had multiple issues.”
months (http://tinyurl.com/orcanew). A mother and calf are pictured
Rita has done so much for local abandoned pets, and she needs
in a photo courtesy of naturalist and researcher Jeanne Hyde and a hand. If you would like to help, please donate at River Song’s
Maya’s Legacy Whale Watching.
fundraiser page, http://tinyurl.com/help3kits. Or, to donate pet food,
Hyde was onboard a whale watching vessel recently observing supplies or money, or to volunteer, call 503-785-3690 or email river-
WKH-3RGVZLPPLQJRII*DOLDQR,VODQG%ULWLVK&ROXPELD$W¿UVW songfoundation@yahoo.com
she thought the calf was J50, who was born three months ago, but
“These (three kitties’) expenses are outside the scope of our
then was delighted when she realized it was a newborn, as it still had budget!” Rita confessed. “Please help us by contributing and/or by
spreading the word. Thank you!”
its fetal folds.
“J-Pod is certainly doing all it can to rebuild the ranks,” Michael
Harris, executive director of the PWWA, which represents 29 whale
watch operators in Washington and British Columbia, told KING5.
“Let’s hope this baby boom means this endangered population has
¿QDOO\WXUQHGWKHFRUQHU´
K
PURPLE SAILS
HERE COMES PETER COTTONTAIL
A
L
ove ’em or not, the Astoria sea lions in the East Mooring Basin are
making a worldwide media splash. Last week, there were stories
about them on several Oregon news outlets, the San Francisco Chroni-
cle, Las Vegas News3 (KSVN), The Seattle Times, and NBC News, just
to name a few. The shocker was an extensive and detailed story in the
United Kingdom’s Daily Mail (http://tinyurl.com/DMsealions).
Not surprisingly, all this publicity is attracting scads of tourists. The
Ear went down to the mooring basin on Saturday, and the there was a
steady stream of out-of-towners heading out to look at the sea lions ...
and probably frequenting to local businesses and restaurants, as well.
The Ear even spotted what appeared to be some enterprising soul
doing some sightseeing in a boat, approaching the various sea lion
locations for a closer look. A new local cottage industry, perhaps?
fter looking longingly at a
chocolate bunny the other
day, the Ear began wondering:
Where do Easter bunnies —
who lay eggs, mind you — come
from, anyway?
History.com has an answer
(http://tinyurl.com/whybunny):
“The exact origins of this mythical mammal are unclear, but rabbits,
NQRZQWREHSUROL¿FSURFUHDWRUVDUHDQDQFLHQWV\PERORIIHUWLOLW\
DQGQHZOLIH$FFRUGLQJWRVRPHVRXUFHVWKH(DVWHUEXQQ\¿UVWDU-
rived in America in the 1700s with German immigrants who settled
in Pennsylvania and transported their tradition of an egg-laying hare
called ‘Osterhase’ or ‘Oschter Haws.’ Their children made nests in
which this creature could lay its colored eggs.”
And, just so you know, the (probable) world’s largest Easter
egg, made in Argentina in 2012, was 27 feet high, 16 feet wide, and
consisted of 8,800 pounds of chocolate over a wooden frame (http://
tinyurl.com/egg8800). Yum, or yikes?
MINE, ALL MINE
DON’T TRY THIS AT HOME OR ANYWHERE
‘L
ooks like they’re back,” Tiffany Boothe of the Seaside
Aquarium wrote. “While walking along the beach, you
may have noticed slimy, iridescent blue discs. These discs are a
type of animal called Velella velella, commonly known as Purple
Sails or By-The-Wind Sailors. They can reach a size of 4 inches
in length and 3 inches in width.” Her photos of the critters are
shown.
“Purple Sails have a clear ‘sail’ that catches the wind and push-
es them across the ocean’s surface,” she explained. “When the
wind blows from the west, these little guys get stranded on the
beach. Once washed ashore, they either become food for a variety
of beach-dwelling creatures or turn into the translucent ‘sails’ you
see on the beach.
“Purple Sails do not sting their prey; they capture their food
ZLWKVPDOOVWLFN\WHQWDFOHV9HOHOODVIHHGRQ¿VKHJJVDQGVPDOO
planktonic copepods (tiny crustaceans). Found in most oceans,
Purple Sails are frequent visitors to the Oregon Coast.”
BBC GOES TO THE GOONDOCKS
‘T
T
his one would come under the heading of what my austere Yan-
kee grandfather would have called damnfoolery, and is enough
to make any Oregonian or Norwegian shudder. Even though the
event in question happened last year, the video started making the
media rounds fairly recently.
According to a story in the Mail Tribune (http://tinyurl.com/
tosscliff), 31-year-old Building Antenna Span Earth (BASE) jumper
Blake Burwell of Talent “arose in Norway one morning last June
bent on adding a little spice to the increasingly tedious task of jump-
ing off a 3,000-foot cliff.” Huh?
“I woke up that morning and thought, let’s try something new,”
said Burwell. “Normally, we just, you know, jump. But it just seemed
like a good idea to have some friends join in.” What he means is he
had his friends grab him by the hands and feet and toss him off a cliff
— a sheer wall called Kjerag.
He is pictured in a screen shot from his Facebook page, www.
facebook.com/BlakeBurnwell
If you want to watch his leap to Internet fame, get out the Drama-
mine and go to http://tinyurl.com/tosscliff2
“I didn’t really plan on it happening that way,” Burwell told the
Mail Tribune. “They didn’t throw me very far. So it turned out to be
SUHWW\H[FLWLQJ´&OHDUO\KHKDVDÀDLUIRUXQGHUVWDWHPHQW
he Cannon Beach History Center and Museum’s archivist
recently discovered an image of a (World War II) mine that
washed up on the shore of Cannon Beach,” Elaine Murdy-Trucke,
executive director of the museum told the Ear. “There is no date on
the photo, but the thought was early 1950s.” The photo is shown,
courtesy of the museum (www.cbhistory.org).
The photo reminded the Ear of a frightening story at Yahoo.com,
which should be of interest to World War II history buffs: The war is
VWLOOYHU\PXFKDSDUWRIHYHU\GD\OLIHRQWKH3DFL¿FLVODQGRIPeleliu
(Palau) (http://tinyurl.com/boomisle). Once a contentiously fought
over strip of land, rusting remnants of the war are everywhere, from
plane wrecks, to discarded tanks and artillery, not to mention ord-
nance. For example, 600 pieces of ordnance (land mines, hand gre-
nades and mortars) were removed from a maze of tunnels people
had been blithely wandering through, sightseeing.
A group called Cleared Ground (www.clearedground.org)start-
ed a cleanup in 2009, and so far has removed 32,000 items of live
ordnance. “They had them in the backyard, they had live grenades
in the school as part of a history project,” a group co-founder said.
“They were using them as doorstops, old ladies were using them to
hammer nuts on, not realizing they were dangerous. This one lady
had one right next to a barbecue.”
“What happened to this (Cannon Beach) mine, or the numerous
others that washed ashore along the coastline is unclear,” Elaine add-
HG³3HUKDSVWKH861DY\FRQ¿VFDWHGWKHP":HFHUWDLQO\KRSH
that no one is using this is a garden decoration somewhere.”
L
loyd Seely sent the Ear a link to a delightful BBC story by Da-
vid G. Allen, “The Goonies’ guideWRWKH863DFL¿F1RUWK-
west” for the BBC’s online travel section (http://tinyurl.com/BBC-
goon). Cannon Beach gets some love from Allen for its part in the
movie, but Astoria shines. Pictured, the Goonie House.
³ 7KH ¿OP¶V EHVW FDVWLQJ KLOO\ JUHHQ ZHW$VWRULD 2UHJRQ
The foggy coastal hamlet with colourful Victorian homes is drip-
ping with cloudy discontent but also rife with verdant possibility. It
PD\QRWORRNOLNHPXFKDW¿UVWJODQFHEXWWUHDVXUHVDZDLWLI\RX
explore.”
And from there, the writer goes on to extol Astoria’s many virtues
YLDWKH¿OP¶VVKRRWLQJORFDWLRQVDURXQGWRZQ
He interviewed Micah Dugan at the Oregon Film Museum, who
told him, “It used to be salmon and timber and now it’s Goonies.”
As if to prove it, Allen then provides a link to the 30th Anniversa-
ry Goonie Celebration. A BBC story plugging an event in Astoria?
Whoda thunk it?