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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (March 3, 2016)
GRAB BAG book shelf • glimpse • wildlife • pop culture • words • q&a • food • fun NW word nerd By RYAN HUME Dungeness >GԥnMԥnܭs@ noun 1. a headland and rocky stretch of beach in Kent, England, on the south coast, where there are two nuclear power plants and an auto- mated lighthouse that bear the same name 2. Dungeness Spit: the longest natural sand spit in the United States, which juts 5.5 miles out into the Strait of Juan de Fuca from the top of the Olympic Peninsula in Washington state. The bay enclosed by the spit and a river on the peninsula share the same name 3. Dungeness, Washing- ton: an unincorporated community that sits atop of the Olympic Peninsula near the spit on the bay of the same name. Now called Old Town Dungeness, the area is separated from Canada by the Strait of Juan de Fuca 4. Dungeness crab: meta- Anyo ne fro m a ny sta te , a g e 21 a nd o ve r, c a n purc ha se pro d uc ts a t M r. D o o be e s. Mr Doobees DAILY 10 - 7 AM PM carcinus magister, a large, delicious, edible crab that lives in the eelgrass beds of the West Coast of the United States between the Gulf of Alaska and central California. Dungeness is the only crab commercially harvested from the waters of Washington and Ore- gon’s coastline. In 2009, the Dungeness crab was desig- nated the state crustacean of Oregon Origin: The word originally comes from the Old Norse, meaning “headland,” and was applied to the coastal area in Southern England. The crustacean, which is also known as a market crab, takes its name from the fi shing village in Washington State, where it was fi rst commercially harvested throughout the late 19th century. The fi rst known use of the word as applied to the shellfi sh was recorded in 1925. “After getting the all-clear from state health departments, Oregon and Washington’s commercial Dungeness crab i shermen i nally hit the water Monday after being delayed for weeks due to elevated levels of the marine toxin domoic acid.” —Katie Wilson, “Crab kicks into gear with healthy start,” The Daily Astorian, Jan. 6, 2016 “When Dungeness crabs tested positive for domoic acid in the early 1990s, 2003 and 2004, the crab indus- try kept on harvesting. Razor clams and mussels keep the poison in their meat, so they were unsafe to eat, but crab i shers simply killed the crabs, ditched the butter and sold the meat. “This year was diff erent because of Asia’s newfound appetite for the crabs. For the past eight years, Chinese crab buyers have paid high-dollar prices for live crabs to export to Asia. According to Corbin, about 40 percent of Oregon’s crabs have been sent to China alive in the last few years.” —The Associated Press, “Crabs safe after toxin scare, but prices plummet,” The Daily Astorian, Jan. 19, 2016 “Five pairs of legs keep the Dunge- ness moving swiftly through the eel- grass beds and sandy ocean bottoms that are its home, and it can be found from the shallows of the inter-tidal zone all the way to depths of about 800 feet.” —Lynette Rae McAdams, “Wilde Side: The Dungeness crab,” Coast Weekend, April 23, 2015 This pro d uc t ha s into xic a ting e ffe c ts a nd m a y be ha bit fo rm ing . M a rijua na c a n im pa ir c o nc e ntra tio n, c o o rd ina tio n a nd jud g m e nt. D o no t o pe ra te a ve hic le o r m a c hine ry und e r the influe nc e o f this d rug . The re m a y be he a lt h risk s a sso c ia te d w ith c o nsum ptio n o f this pro d uc t. F o r use o nly by a d ults tw e nty-o ne a nd o ld e r. K e e p o ut o f re a c h o f c hild re n. “Green Lab Mints” take the savage out of my day 360-875-8016 m rd o o b ees@ g m a i l.co m He's been to Mr Doobees BOOKSHELF By RYAN HUME Just finished: “We the Animals: a Novel” by Justin Torres Houghton Mil in Harcourt, 2011 Plot Notes: Three feral, mixed-race brothers grow up in a rural part of up- state New York. Equally torn between caring for their exhausted and underap- preciated mother and acquiring admira- tion from their strong-willed and macho father, this slim novel is a struggle for the brothers’ identity both collectively and alone through a number of tense, funny and fresh vignettes that can range anywhere from exploring their neighborhood and getting into trouble to accompanying their dad to his job as a night watchman. Ultimately, the novel becomes less about the brothers and more about the narrator’s struggle with his sexual identity. Take Away: In Torres’ hands the most familiar of emotions and even the most inane of events can feel as it has been rendered anew and jolted full of electricity. In one of my personal fa- vorites, called “Never-Never Time,” i rst published in Tin House, the simple act of three kids smashing fruits and veg- etables in their kitchen a la Gallagher becomes a lesson in birth, rebirth and regret. Torres’ voice is funny, quirky and full of wild life. As the boys age and be- gin to gather their own identities, some readers may be put off as the rest of the family falls by the wayside and the nar- rator begins to explore his sexuality, but even this seemed to be a fundamental truth that Torres had tapped into: When we are young we are saturated and sur- rounded by our families, but as we age we may only remain in each other’s or- bits. We can grow to become things that even our parents and brothers do not understand. Recommended For: Fans of Dor- othy Allison’s “Bastard Out of Carolina,” fans of contemporary literature and minimalism, like Denis Johnson, Aimee Bender, and others. Also, a good all- around introduction to contemporary literature for young adults, perhaps especially those interested in LBGT com- ing-of-age stories. Other books: O n Hw y 101 betw een Raym ond & South Bend M ile M aker 56 “Landfall” by Ellen Urbani Forest Avenue Press, 2015 2870 O cean Ave Raym o n d W A 98577 Visit u s at m rdo o bees.co m fo r Edu catio n - Sales - D isco u n ts 22 | March 3, 2016 | coastweekend.com “A Man Called Ove” by Fredrik Backman, translated by Henning Koch Washington Square Press, 2015 The Sativas from Typhoon Yolonda are fantastic Visit u s in RAY M O N D, W A. Plot Notes: This visceral, historical tale follows two mothers and their teen- aged daughters — one black family, one white — through the devastation of New Orleans in Hurricane Katrina. Why You Should Read: Urba- ni, who now lives in Portland, was a recent guest for Lunch in the Loft at Beach Books, where she read from her acclaimed debut novel, which Emmer- ling described as one of her favorites of 2015. Emmerling says that Urbani really captures the chaos of the horrible tragedy of Hurricane Katrina and brings it to life. Recommended By: Karen Emmer- ling of Beach Books in Seaside. Recommended By: Karla Nelson of Time Enough Books in Ilwaco, Wash- ington. A Bestseller: Nelson has watched this charming, irreverent tale by i rst-time Swedish author and blogger Backman steadily climb the New York Times Best- seller List ever since she was hand-selling it at Time Enough last summer. Plot Notes: Ove is an old grump set into conl ict with a young family when, on the i rst day they move into the house next door, they accidentally l atten his mailbox. What “A Man Called Ove” reminds us of is there might be more going on under the crusty exterior of an old curmudgeon than we initially realize.