THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2016
COMMUNITY
1B
LOCAL BREVITIES
HELP SAVE SHERYL’S LIFE
‘A WHITE FROST THIS MORNING …’
s many of my friends know, my wife Sheryl Holcom is in
urgent need of a kidney,” Floyd Holcom posted on Face-
book. Floyd and Sheryl are pictured, with their children, Victoria
and Nate Holcom.
According to the Living Kidney Donors Network (www.lkdn.
org), there are more than 93,000 people on the kidney transplant
waiting list in the U.S. The wait for a deceased donor could be five
years — and in some states, closer to 10 — which is why living
donors, who are willing to donate a kidney, are so crucial to help
patients, like Sheryl, who are on those lists.
If you are interested in becoming a living kidney donor, Legacy
Health has an informative website about the matching and dona-
tion process at http://tinyurl.com/donate-kidney. Even if you aren’t
a potential donation candidate yourself, you can help by letting
people know about the website, and that Sheryl Holcom needs a
kidney donor.
“I’m hoping that if you are able to share this with your friends,”
Floyd wrote, “perhaps we will be able to reach a larger pool of
potential living donors that will save her life.”
‘A
WORLD’S OLDEST BEER?
tidbit for both beer lovers and fans of maritime lore: The pur-
ported “world’s oldest beer” has been brewed from yeast that
was salvaged from the wreck of the Sydney Cove, which sank in
1797 near Preservation Island, part of the Tasmania’s Preservation
Island group off the south coast of Australia (http://tinyurl.com/
oldestbeer).
History note: According to Wrecksite (http://tinyurl.com/syd-
cove), the sailing vessel was heading from Calcutta to Sydney,
loaded with general cargo and rum, when the leaking vessel ran
aground in heavy weather. Six crew members died on the trip,
three on the island, 14 on the “rescue walk” and eight more when
the salvage vessel was lost. Yet the yeast survived.
Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery Conservator David
Thurrowgood and his research team were the ones who extracted
the live yeast from a bottle found in the wreckage, then made the
“worlds oldest beer” using ancient recipes and vintage beer-brew-
ing methods. The result is aptly named Preservation Ale. They also
cooked up some sourdough bread with the yeast, and a photo is
shown, courtesy of the museum.
“The beer has a distinctly light and fresh flavor,” Thurrowgood
said, “giving a taste that has not been sipped for 220 years.”
Next project: Figuring out how to use the yeast to make lots
more beer, so the rest of the world can enjoy it, too.
A
rom The Daily Morning Astorian, Tuesday, Nov. 18, 1884:
• There will be a shooting match given by C. Bradbury,
at J. Austin’s store, at the Seaside, on Thanksgiving Day.
• Ball’s coiled spring, elastic section corset takes the cake, and
the girl behind the counter, at the Empire Store.
• Last week the leading exhibit in the agricultural department
of The Astorian was a 22-pound beet from John Matier’s place
on Clatsop.
• Astoria is to be represented at the New Orleans exposition.
Among the later shipments was one made by Mayor Hume last
evening of some “autograph” salmon.
• Today, at 11 a.m., some very eligible lots, in Upper Astoria,
will be sold by E. C. Holden at public auction. Each lot is 75 by
150 feet, and on the corner is a very desirable family residence,
with convenient outhouses.
F
hile you’re enjoying Thanksgiving dinner, you
might want to contemplate what Lewis and Clark,
and the Corps of Discovery, were up to on Nov. 24, 1805.
From Pvt. Joseph Whitehouse’s journal (http://tinyurl.
com/L-C-Nov24):
“A white frost this morning, and the weather clear and
pleasant. Several of our hunters went out a hunting, and
we put out our baggage, etc., to dry. The River Colum-
bia at this place is three miles from the sea and 660 yards
wide. Our officers went out and took down notes on sev-
eral remarkable points, etc., which they could not before
have done, on account of the badness of the weather.
“We had during this day a number of the Indians that
came across the river yesterday, at our camp. These Indi-
ans were part of two nations, who resided along the sea
coast. They are called the Clattsops and Chinups (Chi-
nook) nations …
“In the evening our officers had the whole party assem-
bled in order to consult which place would be the best, for
us to take up our winter quarters at. The greater part of our
men were of opinion that it would be best to cross the river,
and if we should find game plenty, that it would be of an
advantage to us, for to stay near the sea shore, on account
of making salt, which we are nearly out of at this time, and
the want of it in preserving our provisions for the winter,
would be an object well worth our attention.”
Having found the Pacific Ocean, the Corps’ mission
was complete. But it was almost winter, so it would be too
difficult and dangerous to head back east right then. The
vote taken this day determined the Corps’ plan to stay on
the Oregon side of the river until spring — and inciden-
tally, was why Fort Clatsop was built.
W
HE WAS RIGHT
STINKY JACKPOT
ile this under “Who Needs
the Lottery?”: According to
a story on ScienceAlert.com,
three fishermen from Oman (on
the Arabian peninsula) found a
whopping 176-pound chunk
of ambergris floating out on
the water worth almost $3 mil-
lion (http://tinyurl.com/3mill-
stink). The chunk is pictured,
with one of the fishermen,
courtesy of ScienceAlert.
If you’re not terribly sure
what ambergris is, there is no
delicate way to say it: The waxy, icky-smelling stuff — “like a
cross between squid and farmyard manure,” a previous amber-
gris finder noted — can be either sperm whale vomit or poop.
Ambergris starts out as a secretion in the whale’s stomach to
coat indigestible objects like giant squid beaks. When a certain
amount of covered rubble piles up, out everything comes. One
way or another.
Why is it so valuable? Because it’s used in high-end fra-
grances to make the scent last longer, and, of course, because
ambergris is such a rare find.
“We rushed back to the beach with joy and happiness,” one of
the fishermen said. Undoubtedly.
Speaking of beaches, that is the most likely place to find
ambergris, actually, so keep your eyes open. Sperm whales are
in just about every ocean, so a stinky treasure could wash up just
about anywhere. Even in Clatsop County.
F
GONE GALENA
THE TURKEY’S REVENGE
storian Michael “Sasha” Miller (pictured, right)
brought in a copy of the Thursday, Aug. 25, 1994 edi-
tion of The Daily Astorian — which featured a front page
photo and story about him, “One man’s revolution on
drugs nipped in the bud.”
Sasha parked himself in front of the Clatsop County
courthouse to protest the county’s anti-drug laws, claiming
that legal drugs like aspirin and nicotine are more addictive
and deadly than pot, which was illegal at the time. A hand-let-
tered cardboard sign saying “Marijuana for sale” and “God’s
herb” accompanied him while he read Henry David Tho-
reau’s “Walden” and shared a several-page hand-written let-
ter about his protest — “a revolution of one, but a revolu-
tion” — with anyone who was interested.
Sheriff John Raichl was interested all right, but not in
Sasha’s protest. A court employee who was recruited by the
sheriff and Deputy Dan Johnston gave Sasha $20, and
Sasha in return offered the employee a baggie of “a brown,
leafy substance.” Sasha was promptly arrested and taken to
the county jail. His bail, on two narcotics charges, was a stiff
$70,700.
No, Sasha wasn’t shipped upriver to the Big House. He
spent about two hours in the county jail, he told the Ear, and
his driver’s license was suspended.
Of course, since then, recreational marijuana has, indeed,
been legalized. In retrospect, Sasha mused, “It’s nice to be
right once in a while on a historical level.”
A
cautionary tale for all and sundry who tend to overeat at the
Thanksgiving dinner table (the Ear pleads guilty as charged):
According to a story on the Oregon State Archives Facebook
page, 52-year old housewife Laura Barker of Portland met an
untimely end the afternoon of Sunday, Nov. 30, 1947.
It was rumored amongst family members at the time that the
cause of her demise was “too much Thanksgiving.” Her death cer-
tificate, part of which is shown above, backs up the story. It seems it
was no coincidence that Thanksgiving Day was three days earlier.
Her physician, who attended her during her final 48 hours,
listed the immediate cause of death as “coronary heart disease,”
which lasted only half an hour. What’s notable is the contribu-
tory cause, “acute indigestion,” which lasted two long, misera-
ble days. Yikes.
A
he Peter Iredale shipwreck on Clatsop Spit is known far and
wide after running aground on Oct. 25, 1906, and what’s left of
it is still a staple North Coast tourist attraction. Yet the Galena, also
a cargo-carrying British steel four-masted 292-foot sailing barque
— which ran aground a bit south of the Iredale about three weeks
later, on Nov. 13, 1906 — has sunk into obscurity. Literally. It’s
under the sand, somewhere near Gearhart.
Like the Iredale, all hands survived, according to a Naval Court
inquiry in Astoria (http://tinyurl.com/galenagone): After the mas-
ter of the ship lost his bearings in bad weather and grounded the
vessel, “the ship was pounding very heavily, and the master fear-
ing the masts and yards would come on deck decided to leave the
ship. The life boat was ordered and lowered and all hands left her
for the shore, which they reached in safety.” Part of the crew was
taken to Astoria, but the master and the rest stayed at a farmhouse
near the wreck.
A few days later, the master retrieved the crew members in
Astoria to help dismantle and salvage the stranded ship. They
refused to stay, however, and hustled right back to Astoria. He had
to hire locals to get the job done.
After a stern verbal spanking and some fines levied by the
Naval Court held at the British Vice Consulate at Astoria, some
crew members were discharged, but no one was really much worse
for the wear. Except for the Galena, of course.
T