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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 16, 2015)
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2015 COMMUNITY 1B MAYBE YES, MAYBE NO ALT FOR NORGE IS THAT YOU JESSE, REDUX H A story appeared in the Oct. 5 Kitsap Sun about Astoria’s old Tourist No. 2 ferry (pictured, courtesy of Argosy Cruises) and its current owner, Christian Lee Lint (http://tinyurl.com/ tourist2). He bought the vessel in 2012, after it was damaged in a ¿re in 2010. The ferry sat in a boatyard in Everett, Washington, for a while, then resurfaced in 2014 for sale in Bremerton, Wash- ington (http://tinyurl.com/T2forSale), where it still is. Lint said he wanted to sail the ferry to Astoria before winter, but a be- low-the-waterline Coast Guard inspection is needed to see what repairs have to be done, ¿rst. He was waiting for a spot at a Seattle shipyard to do just that. “Things changed,” Melissa Lynch told the Kitsap Sun. She handles marketing and schedules events for the Tourist No. 2 and Lint’s other historic boat, the 1893 yacht El Primero, “It did not get to the dry dock. That step did not happen due to a lot of different factors. That put the whole thing on hold for a moment.” By the way, El Primero, which is also in Bremerton, is for sale, too (http://tinyurl.com/elprim), and the Tacoma (Washing- ton) Historical Society is fundraising to bring it home to Taco- ma (http://tinyurl.com/lintprimero). So what is the word on Tourist No. 2 sailing to Astoria? Lynch responded that’s still the goal, “but it won’t transpire be- fore spring, and there’s no guarantee it’ll happen at all.” “Hopefully it will happen, but it may not,” she added. “It may take another six months or a year to get it done.” CORMORANT VS. SALMON L ast week, there was a story in this column about Wash- ington resident Sandra Mills, who owns a tintype (pic- tured) she believes is of the outlaw Jesse James (right) and the man who eventually murdered him, Robert Ford. Mills had no paperwork to go with the photo, so she could not authenticate it. In desperation, she sent a scan of the tintype to famed Houston forensic artist Lois Gibson, who analyzed it and declared she was “positive” it was, indeed, Jesse James. Details of how she reached her con- clusions are on Gibson’s Facebook page (www.facebook. com/lois.gibson.319) in a Sept. 29 post. Here’s where things get tricky. The Ear received an email from Eric James (pictured inset) of the Frank and Jesse James family (www.ericjames.org). He insists Mills’ photo is a “hoax” and “fake image,” and was upset about the Ear story: “... I understand how journalists are often taken in by con artists ... (but) until something is done to rectify this situation, I must regretfully list you and The Daily Astorian in our published rogues gallery as an en- abler of fake Jesse James imagery and history.” While the Ear is positively tickled to be thought of as a rogue in her advanced years, fair is fair. You can read the James family arguments against the tintype being real at http://tinyurl.com/notJesse So far, the publications that originally carried the story have not issued retractions, but History.com did chime in with Eric James’ view on the matter (http://tinyurl.com/ isitJesse). As the James family blog says, “No matter how long it takes, history always gets to the truth.” Now, at least, you have both sides of the argument. JOSEPHINE COMES HOME T he federally sanctioned slaughter of thousands of cormo- rants on Sand Island in the Columbia River is being fea- tured on Oregon Public Broadcasting’s Oregon Field Guide, Mary Tanguay Webb told the Ear. The episode includes con- troversial daylight footage of the shootings, featured on KATU recently (http://tinyurl.com/killcorm). If you missed last night’s broadcast of “Cormorant vs. Salmon ...” it will be aired again at 6:30 p.m. Sunday, and available online after that at http://tinyurl.com/opb¿eld2703. A screen shot from the show is shown, courtesy of OPB. T GOOD NEWS, BAD NEWS he good news is that last Sunday the Ear, who proba- bly needs a minder, left an expen- sive Canon camera hanging by its strap on a hook in a restroom around noon at the South Jetty. At Cape Disappointment, the Ear was plenty disappointed when she realized where she’d left the camera. A rush back to Fort Stevens State Park produced the ex- pected — and dreaded — empty hook in the rest room. A heavy-hearted trip to the ranger station was next, followed by a joyful reunion. Oregon visitor Karla Pillote had turned the camera in, and there it was. “I like to take pictures, too,” she told a very grateful Ear later. “I was hoping you two would reconnect.” Just goes to show you there really are some truly good people out there, after all. And she’s one of them. The bad news is Brad Hawk’s camera experience that same Sunday morning in Astoria. The Tri-Cities, Washington, resident parked on Duane Street east of the Blue Scorcher. He took a short walk, then went back to his rig. He was a little out of breath (he has congestive heart failure) so he put his black Lo-Pro sling-type backpack/camera case down on the sidewalk for a minute to regroup. When he got into the truck to leave around 11 a.m., he forgot to pick up the backpack — which is full of expensive camera equipment, and has white lens case attached to the outside. When he realized his mistake and came back for it, the backpack was gone. There’s a signi¿cant reward for its return, no questions asked. Either contact Brad at 509-302-0052 or the Ear at 503-325-3211, ext. 257. “I’m in despair and distraught,” he told the Ear. Can you help? I n June, Josephine, an 8-year-old Newfoundland (pic- tured) who needs medication, either got out of, or was taken out of, a truck in the parking lot at Costco in Warren- ton. A woman who found the dog drove away with her af- ter talking to Costco employees, saying she would call the Clatsop County Animal Shelter. But she never did, and Jo- sephine simply vanished, much to the worry and dismay of her owners, Monte Ramvick and Maryann Champagne. Flyers about Josephine’s disappearance were all over Clatsop County Facebook pages for at least a month. Af- ter four months of no response, Monte said he had pretty much given up on ever seeing Josephine again. The Josephine posts ¿nally made their way south to Tillamook County Facebook users, and at last someone recognized her. Animal Control Of¿cer Julie Steinbach told the Ear that the Warrenton Police Department called this week; they had received a tip with a possible location for the missing dog — in Tillamook. Julie went to the location given, and sure enough, there was Josephine. Julie informed the woman who had Jo- sephine that she had to seize the dog, and promptly did. Josephine went to the Tillamook Animal Shelter for the night, until Monte could pick her up the next day, which was almost four months to the day since she was taken from Costco. “The people who had her loved her and took good care of her,” Dan Dixon, manager of the animal shelter told the Ear. Perhaps so, but Josephine is now ¿nally home, where she belongs. “The girls are just tickled to get her back,” Monte chuckled. Josephine is probably pretty tickled to be back, too. ave a drop or two of Norwegian blood, and want a trip to the motherland to meet other family members? Audition for Season 7 of “The Great Norway Adventure” (aka “Alt for Norge”), Norway’s Emmy award-winning show. Among the restrictions: You can’t ever have been to Norway before, and you must also be available for two to 10 weeks to par- ticipate in the show, which is being shot from late April to early July next year. Those chosen “compete in good-natured, exciting and extreme cultural challenges,” the press release says. To audition, apply at http://tinyurl.com/norge7. Tips on making your video submission can be found at http://oconnor- casting.tv/norway. The casting call asks a tantalizing question: “Wouldn’t you like to Ày to Norway, have an exciting adventure, have a chance to meet relatives you don’t even know exist and win a cash prize of $50,000?” Well, wouldn’t you? BYCATCH IS THE CATCH A few years ago, the Ear wrote about former Dutch student and entrepreneur Boyan Slat, pictured inset, who has been con- sistently shaking up ocean scientists with his plan to clean up the Great Paci¿c Garbage Patch with his Ocean Cleanup Array (www.theoceancleanup.com). The device (pictured) involves “deploying an array of Àoating barriers anchored to the sea Àoor, which would extend in a 9-shape 30 miles in both directions to use the ocean current to drive the debris to the center,” SFGate.com reports (http://tinyurl.com/sla- tarray). In August, Slat’s team arrived in San Francisco after com- pleting the ¿rst Mega Expedition, using 30 vessels to study the size of the garbage patch. In the process, they collected several tons of plastic debris, “from tiny colored shards to toothbrushes and toy plastic army solders up in size to discarded buoys and even huge abandoned µghost’ ¿shing nets,” SFGate.com reports. “If we don’t clean it up soon, then we will give the big plastic the time to break down into smaller and smaller pieces,” Slat said at a news conference. “Based on what we’ve seen out there, the only way to describe the Great Paci¿c Garbage Patch is a ticking time bomb.” Unfortunately, Slat’s idea does not take into account the en- vironmental impact of his booms, notably the bycatch deaths of tens of millions of “passive Àoating organisms that do not swim,” according to EcoWatch.com, which is a rather serious drawback (http://tinyurl.com/ecocatch). Time will tell if Slat’s array concept is feasible and environmen- tally sound. He plans to test the array in waters off Japan next year, and a large-scale cleanup of the garbage patch is slated for 2020. FROM SEAWEED TO SHINING SEA M eanwhile, Rebecca Herren sent in an ingenious idea to help keep plastic from getting into the oceans in the ¿rst place: “Ooho! is a new kind of packaging made from seaweed that proposes an alternative to plastic bottles,” the company’s website says (www.oohowater.com). “Our spherical water con- tainer is easy and cheap to make, strong, hygienic, biodegrad- able, and can even be eaten ... The aim of Ooho is to provide the convenience of plastic bottles while limiting the environmental impact.” Want to be a beta tester? Sign up at the website. The Ear can’t help but wonder what they taste like.
