THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, AUGUST 5, 2016
FRIDAY EXCHANGE
LOL worthy
5A
ort Columbia Theater is
small, but in “Once Upon
a Mattress,” the production,
singing, and acting are huge. I
lost count of the times that I
really did LOL.
The story lows so smoothly
and the characters are immedi-
ately endearing. My highlight
reel includes Hope Bellinger’s
Jester “Soft Shoe” (I want to
dance like that), Jane Schuss-
mann’s Minstrel, and her won-
derful duet with the Jester,
Grace Scarborough’s Nightin-
gale (I could not stop laugh-
ing), and, especially, Brooke
Brown’s amazing voice and
perfect schmaltz as Princess
Winifred singing “Shy.”
For all of those, I wanted to
hit stop—rewind—play to see
it again. Of course I couldn’t,
but I can go again for two more
weekends only. Come LOL,
too.
COLLEEN TUELL
Long Beach, Washington
Judge J.A. Buchanan
(1863-1935) is buried in
Ocean View Cemetery in War-
renton; his wife, Madge Bond
Buchanan, lies next to him. A
lat stone identiies each. Judge
Buchanan has not received the
recognition due him as the lyr-
icist of Oregon’s state song,
nor for his accomplishments
serving the citizens of Oregon
— from Monmouth to Rose-
burg to Astoria.
Help honor Judge Buchan-
an’s numerous contributions to
the people of Oregon, particu-
larly for our oficial state song.
To fund a two-sided granite
memorial stone to be placed
at his gravesite, donations in
the name of the “J A Buchanan
Memorial Fund” may be made
by check or credit card to the
Clatsop County Historical
Society, P.O. Box 88, Astoria,
OR 97103-0088, or by calling
503-325-2203.
CAROL C. LAMBERT
Hammond
It’s OK
Bad choices
’ve found, after many years
of living, that in most cases
our greatest critic is ourselves.
We often show great com-
passion for others, but not for
ourselves.
We feel bored, and then
we blame ourselves for being
bored and become more
depressed. We forget where
we put something, or we may
think bad thoughts, and the
self-criticism continues to
spiral.
It seems to me that in order
to break the cycle, we need
to start showing a little more
compassion for ourselves. We
are, after all, human beings.
We need to start cutting our-
selves a little more slack, and
not expect to always be per-
fect, or always feeling on the
top of the world.
It’s all part of being a
human being. So next time
you don’t measure up to your
expectations of how you feel,
or your actions, treat yourself
to a little compassion. Some-
times it can be tough, but isn’t
it great that we’re not perfect?
We are just the way our creator
made us human beings.
P.S. But don’t let your
human-ness keep you from
living a heavenly life.
JIM BERNARD
Warrenton
T
F
I
Is there space?
W
hen The Daily Asto-
rian reported on the city
council and housing on July
19 (“Council still cautious on
affordable housing”), some
member of the council sug-
gested the Yacht Club. They
felt it would be a suitable loca-
tion to build housing if Parks
and Recreation moved to the
Aquatic Center.
My question is, what would
become of the spin class, core
class, boot camp and various
other classes, including chil-
dren’s care and classes? How
will we all it into the Aquatic
Center? Also, what about the
location of the ish net pens
and commercial ish boats and
launch, parking and city work
shops?
DIANE FINUCANE
Astoria
See it now
he Peninsula Association
of Performing Artists’ pro-
duction of “Once Upon a Mat-
tress” greets its viewers with
friendly familiar faces and
delightful new talents. The
low of the show is well put
together and fun for the audi-
ence, cast and crew. If you
haven’t seen the show yet,
don’t put it off any longer as
there’s only one more week-
end of performances.
TERESA GOODWIN
Ocean Park, Washington
T
Great show
was only in town for a few
days to visit family, but I
was glad I took the time to
attend “Once Upon a Mat-
tress,” put on by the Peninsula
Association of Performing
Artists while I was here.
I was utterly surprised by
the professional quality of the
performance — and by a com-
munity theater in a small town
nonetheless. The show itself
is humorous and encouraging,
a breath of fresh air from cur-
rent national and global affairs.
The set is beautifully created
and joins seamlessly with the
structure of the theater, paying
I
Letters Welcome
Letters should be exclusive to The Daily
Astorian. We do not publish open letters or
third-party letters.
Letters should be fewer than 350 words
and must include the writer’s name, address
and phone numbers. You will be contacted to
conirm authorship.
All letters are subject to editing for
space, grammar and, on occasion, factual
accuracy and verbal veriication of author-
ship. Only two letters per writer are printed
each month.
Letters written in response to other letter
writers should address the issue at hand and,
rather than mentioning the writer by name,
should refer to the headline and date the let-
ter was published. Discourse should be civil
and people should be referred to in a respect-
ful manner. Letters referring to news stories
homage to the historic fort and
bringing it new life.
Still, it’s the cast that makes
the performance as success-
ful as it is. Every character
brought different energy to
the stage and came together to
create this beautiful mosaic of
experience and passion. It was
apparent that they loved being
there.
I also sincerely appreciated
the refreshments provided. It’s
not all too often that you are
treated to a great show and
community. I would encour-
age any visitors and hesitant
locals to attend and get a true
taste of the peninsula’s talent.
Bravo!
RACHEL GADZIK
Mesa, Arizona
Presidential lunatic
W
ith regard to the phe-
nomenon of Donald
Trump as the presidential nom-
inee of the Republican party, I
invoke the wisdom of rock and
roll: “You may be right, he
may be crazy, but it just might
be a lunatic they’re looking
for.” With apologies to Billy
Joel for the pronoun changes,
and hopes that the U.S. voters
will elect a sane president in
November.
ELAINE B. GREEN
Astoria
Forest facts
O
nce again I feel com-
pelled to respond to the
latest obligatory anti-logging
and forestry letter (“Clearcut
question,” The Daily Asto-
rian, July 29). This one is illed
with opinions based on emo-
tion, and has numerous factual
errors.
Forests are not being
“killed.” It is the law in Ore-
gon that landowners must
replant after harvest. The
amount of forestland in Ore-
gon has remained mostly
steady for more than 60 years,
all while providing more lum-
ber than any other state in the
U.S., as well as jobs the writer
thinks have disappeared.
“Big timber companies”
don’t own 70 percent of Ore-
gon’s forest land. The largest
timberland owner is the fed-
eral government at 60 per-
cent. The remainder is owned
by timber companies (19 per-
cent), small private woodland
owners (15 percent), state (3
percent) and others, including
Native Americans (3 percent).
should also mention the headline and date of
publication.
The Daily Astorian welcomes short “in
gratitude” notes from readers for publica-
tion. They should keep to a 200-word max-
imum and writers are asked to avoid simply
listing event sponsors. They must be signed,
include the writer’s address, phone number
and are subject to condensation and editing
for style, grammar, etc.
Submissions may be sent in any of these
ways:
E-mail to editor@dailyastorian.com;
Online form at www.dailyastorian.com;
Delivered to the Astorian ofices at 949
Exchange St. and 1555 N. Roosevelt in
Seaside.
Or by mail to Letters to the Editor, P.O.
Box 210, Astoria, OR 97103
I found it to be an interest-
ing juxtaposition of this letter
to the North Coast Business
Guide. The writer stated that
“… huge machines, not log-
gers, are used to bring down
the forest.” I wonder who runs
these machines. Robots? In
the above-mentioned guide,
one local logger stated that
he employed 50 local loggers,
contractors, etc. There are at
least 10 such logging compa-
nies in Clatsop and Tillamook
counties, some larger with
100-150 employees, some
smaller with 10-25 employees.
In addition, there are many
other associated irms that
truck logs, build roads, replant,
etc. This adds up to hundreds
employed in logging. Lum-
ber mills in Clatsop and Tilla-
mook counties employ several
hundred more workers, who
pay taxes and contribute to the
local economy. Historically,
“huge machines” have always
been used to harvest timber.
The writer may be sur-
prised to learn that Big Creek
in Northeast Clatsop County
was selected as a “sanctu-
ary stream” for wild salmon
and steelhead stocks. This
selection was made, in large
part, because of the excellent
aquatic habitat available in Big
Creek and its tributaries.
The Big Creek watershed
is almost entirely privately
owned, intensively managed
commercial timberland. The
area also holds healthy pop-
ulations of big game species
and non-game animals and
birds. This belies the statement
that timberland owners “don’t
care.” All timberland owners
pay property taxes, in addition
to severance taxes when tim-
ber is harvested.
Let’s see. How does that
add up? Replanted hills to
insure future generations have
the products they need, helps
the local economy by provid-
ing family wage jobs, helps
local governments by provid-
ing taxes, provides building
materials and paper products
we all use every day, and pro-
tects the environment through
the Oregon Forest Practices
Act. Sounds like a winner to
me.
BUD HENDERSON
Knappa
those who have attended an
opening session of the Oregon
State Legislature — must have
a recollection of standing up
and robustly singing Oregon’s
oficial state song: “Land of
the Empire Builders/Land of
the Golden West ...” However,
very few people recall the per-
son who wrote the chosen lyr-
ics that were set to music.
This is an opportunity to
memorialize a prominent ig-
ure in Oregon’s history. John
Andrew Buchanan, an Asto-
ria judge, composed the two-
stanza poem. A Portland theater
organist, Henry B. Murtagh,
set that poem to music. Their
composition was entered in the
December 1920 statewide com-
petition to select Oregon’s state
song, under the auspices of the
Oregon Society of Music Com-
posers. Their entry was chosen
over 200 other entries.
The Society promoted the
song around the state with
sheet music in every home,
in schools, theaters and busi-
nesses. Everyone sang it in
assemblies and public gather-
ings; numerous choruses and
church choirs added it to their
repertoires.
Senate Joint Resolution No.
3 oficially adopted “Oregon,
My Oregon” as Oregon’s State
Song in February 1927.
he good, pragmatic and
truly democratic thing
would have been for Hillary
Clinton to pick Bernie Sand-
ers as her running mate. He did
garner 43 percent of the pri-
mary vote, and represents a lot
of voters. Such a ticket would
have produced a landslide for
the Democrats, and the Trump
nightmare would be over.
Clinton wasn’t wise or con-
ident enough to do this, and
now we have heard that Dem-
ocratic National Convention
Chairwoman Debbie Wasser-
man Schultz, and her minions
at the DNC, had set forth to
slander and denigrate one of
this country’s inest senators
and presidential contenders
through the primary campaign.
Bernie and his staff had
complained about these sus-
picions for months, and no
one believed him. Wasserman
was forced to resign, but was
hired by Hillary in another
capacity. Lovely.
So. There’s more emails to
come. If Trump wins, it will be
because of Hillary Clinton’s
bad choices in friends and
staff, and her disdain for the
common citizen.
MARY TANGUAY
WEBB
Astoria
September 10, 2016
www.racetothebar.com
Who:
You (walker or runner)
What: 5K walk/run or 10K run, followed by a bonire on
the beach
When: 5:00 p.m., Sept. 10, 2016
Where: Peter Iredale Shipwreck at Fort Stevens State Park,
Warrenton, Oregon
How:
Cost:
Register online at www.RaceToheBar.com.
$40 before Aug. 26, includes a shirt. $45 on Aug.
26 or later, shirt not guaranteed after Sept. 5.
Help to provide hospice care for those in need.
Honor judge
nyone who attended an
Oregon school since 1920
— or a music jubilee — and
A
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