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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, MARCH 24, 2017
CONTACT US
ewilson@dailyastorian.com
(503) 325-3211 ext. 257
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IN ONE EAR • ELLEDA WILSON
ASTORIA IN ‘JEOPARDY’
MAP QUEST
O
n Monday night, The Daily Astorian managing editor, Laura
Sellers-Earl, noticed that “Astoria” was the answer to one of
the questions on the ABC TV show “Jeopardy.” The question: “In
1811, the Pacific Fur Company established this fur trading post on
the Columbia River.”
But that’s not the first time “Jeopardy” has shown Astoria some
love. On another Monday night, last Oct. 10, Laura heard another
local question: “There’s a maritime museum named for this river
near its mouth in Astoria, Oregon.” Answer (but you already know
this): Columbia.
Just for chuckles, it should also be noted that two North Coast-
ers have appeared on “Jeopardy’s” sister show, “Wheel of For-
tune.” Carrie Thoreson of Astoria appeared on the show in May
2012 (“I truly had the time of my life”), and Dan Campbell of
Seaside had his shot at the wheel last December (“I felt privileged
to be one of the chosen few”).
FLY AWAY HOME
‘T
his handsome male eagle (pictured) was originally found on
a property not far from our Wildlife Center grounds, after
sustaining injuries from a territorial battle,” the Wildlife Center of
the North Coast posted on its Facebook page March 18.
The Wildlife Center nursed the eagle back to health, as it has
done so often with so many local critters. A WCNC photo of his
release is shown. (Want to help them with their good work? Donate
or volunteer. Call 503-338-0331 or go to www.coastwildlife.org)
“While (the eagle) stayed with us as his wounds healed and he
regained strength,” the post continued, “staff and volunteers started
noticing a large female bald eagle hanging around the center, and
often flying low near our hospital building. Bald eagles mate for
life, so we can only assume the visiting female eagle was a wor-
ried spouse checking in! Today we were thrilled to send this mag-
nificent bird back to the wild skies, and hopefully to its loyal mate,
who we assume was waiting patiently just beyond the trees.”
ARE YOU HAPPY?
O
ften this column contains stories from the 1880s
and 1890s with Astoria street names both famil-
iar and unfamiliar. Astorian Fred White took the Ear to
task, and rightly so, about the configuration of the down-
town streets being different then than now. So the ques-
tion became: How different?
The answers are in “Whitney’s Map of Astoria” cour-
tesy of the David Rumsey Map Collection online, where
there is a detailed street map of 1890 Astoria (http://
tinyurl.com/Ast1890b); to see it compared to present-day
Astoria, go to http://tinyurl.com/Ast1890a. A detail of the
map is shown.
In 1890, Astoria was composed of several districts.
Working east, the westernmost district was Taylor, which
went from Smith’s Point to roughly between the current
Flavel and Hume streets. Next, the McClure district cov-
ered about the present-day Second to 14th streets; the
Shiveley district was from 14th Street to about the 32nd
to 33rd street area; Adair was from about 33rd Street to
around Nimitz Drive; Alderbrook was from between 46th
and 47th streets to around 53rd Street; and Van Duesen
& Brown covered 53rd Street to what’s now known as
North Tongue Point. And those are just the north water-
front areas.
Each district had its own street naming system, creat-
ing quite a maze of confusion. For example, Taylor has
Third through Seventh streets running northwest to south-
east; McClure has First through 13th streets running east
and west; and Shively has numbered streets running north
and south. You get the idea.
Fortunately, the city grid was eventually consoli-
dated and renumbered, probably after the 1922 fire. Hap-
pily, there are no longer four or five (or more) different
Fourth Streets, but it’s still fun to see Astoria as it was
then.
ALL BOTTLED UP
GIVE ME LIBERTY …
D
id you know that Norway is now considered to be the hap-
piest country in the world? In this year’s World Happi-
ness Report, the Land of the Midnight Sun scored 7.53 out of 10,
according to a story on CNBC.com (http://tinyurl.com/norsewins)
And Scandinavia scores again, with Denmark — who was last
year’s winner — squeaking in at second place (7.52), Iceland in
third place (7.50) and Finland in fifth place (7.46). Sweden went
awry somewhere, as they came in 10th (7.28), but the Ear is sure
they will rebound.
The report is produced by the Sustainable Development Solu-
tions Network, in association with the United Nations, and the hap-
piness ranking is calculated by combining the “economic, health
and polling data on approximately 3,000 respondents in each of
more than 150 countries.”
DONE IN BY AN iPAD
M
odern technology is a useful tool in the shipping industry,
but it can also cause some unanticipated problems. The
U.K. Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) has issued
its report about the causes of last year’s collision between a his-
toric 50-foot wooden motor launch, Peggotty, and a freight ferry,
Petunia Seaways, in dense fog on the Humber River in northern
England. The Peggotty is pictured, in happier days, in a photo on
eBay.
Several safety issues on both vessels were brought to light, the
Old Salt Blog reports (http://tinyurl.com/saltyblog), but one find-
ing stood out: The Peggotty’s captain, an off-duty ship pilot, was
using a navigation app on an iPad as his primary means of naviga-
tion. All of a sudden the Wi-Fi signal dropped out, the app stopped
working, there was no radar backup, and no compass.
The skipper, who now had absolutely no idea where he was in
the pea-soup fog, nonetheless kept on going … right into the ship-
ping channel, and the Petunia. The captain on the Petunia didn’t
even realize they’d hit the Peggotty at first, but as a result, the Peg-
gotty sank. There were no injuries, and no pollution resulted, but
both skippers were fined.
In the aftermath of this iPad debacle, if you can believe it,
according to gCaptain.com, the MAIB report did not make any
recommendations.
‘I
‘W
hat happened to our Liberty!” Jeff Daly asks. “In March
2011, a nearly 100-year-old sign from the Liberty The-
ater (pictured) was uncovered from years of rubble and pulled
from the depths of the building.
“The sign is from the same era of the Astoria Theater sign
where Clark Gable give his first public presentation as an actor.
In 1923, the theater was located where Wells Fargo is today.” Jeff
retro-restored the Astoria Theater sign (pictured, right), by the way,
and it can be seen at Carruthers Restaurant.
“The Liberty sign that had more than 200 light bulbs was on
display at the Astoria Clown Museum until March 2014, and then
returned to the Liberty set storage area,” Jeff explained. “There
was enthusiasm to display the sign in the entrance to the McTavish
Room, where it had originally hung on the 12th Street entrance for
50 years — the brackets are still there.
“During a recent behind the scenes ‘spring cleaning,’ it was dis-
covered that nobody knows where the 200-pound 8-foot by 4-foot
sign went. When, where or why? We lost our Liberty! Contractors
and scrap yards confirm they have never seen it. ‘Give me Liberty
or give me death’ could be one of the Liberty’s many infamous
ghosts’ response as the mystery remains unsolved.”
Know where it’s hiding? Contact the Ear at ewilson@dailyasto-
rian.com or 503-325-3211, ext. 257.
found this bottle Saturday at Fort Stevens (near South
Jetty). It clearly came from Japan,” Astorian Jennifer
Nightingale wrote. “Many friends suggested that I check
it for radioactivty. As we don’t have a Geiger counter
in our tool box, how should we get such things checked
out?” The bottle is pictured, and it still contains some clear
liquid.
The first call was to the Coast Guard’s local Marine
Environmental Response office. Nope, they don’t have a
Geiger counter, but suggested a call to Fort Stevens State
Park. But Park Ranger John Koch at Fort Stevens said
they don’t have one, either, and he recommended calling
Ken Murphy, who is also a park ranger.
“Oregon State Parks has a program in conjunction
with Oregon Health Authority that includes the testing
of ocean water, sand and adjacent tap water sources up and
down the coast for any trace amounts of radiation that may
have made it to our shores,” Ken wrote. “As an agency,
we have also used Geiger counters on ‘suspicious debris’
for a number of years to make sure we were not receiving
radioactive material from the Fukushima reactor, or any
other sources.
“After years of this debris testing, no instances of radi-
ation have been found, so we have largely discontinued
the practice of using Geiger counters (except for very spe-
cific instances). At this time we have also found no trace of
radiation in any of our water or sand sample testing, which
is an ongoing practice on the Oregon Coast … (At) this
point the greatest likelihood (99.99 percent) is that this is
debris that came to our shores by way of one of the hun-
dreds of vessels that enter the Columbia River from Asian
origins.”
So there you have it. There’s no need to worry about
debris you find on the beach being contaminated with
radiation, folks. Looks like the real problem, here, is ship-
board littering.
LOCAL BREVITIES
N
ewsy notes from 138 years ago taken from The Daily Astorian,
Tuesday, March 25, 1879:
• J.N. Reynolds, formerly of Astoria, has fallen heir to a consid-
erable sum of money in Kansas. The estate wishes to hear from him
through The Astorian. J.N., write to us.
• Police Court: Ed. Kennedy, found in an opium den, sent up
five days in default of $10 fine ($232 now) … Nellie Ramsey, ditto,
ditto, forfeited her deposit of $10 … Mary McCarthy paid a fine of
$2 ($46 now), it being the first offense, for the blessed fun of a drunk.
• There are two sides to the Main street lamp question. Council-
men tell us that there was no provision made to pay the lamp-lighter
for extra duty.
• Citizens should at all times be prepared to greet, with cold lead,
the assassins and robbers now in our midst. Take aim, keep steady,
and make a sure shot. Let us have a few corpses of that ilk. They
are being driven out of the valley, and seem to hive here in Astoria.
Spare none.
COMMUNITY NOTES
SATURDAY
Angora Hiking Club — 9 a.m., Sixth
Street parking lot. Willapa Bay Nature Trail
hike. For information, call Arline LaMear at
503-338-6883.
Columbia Northwestern Model Rail-
roading Club — 1 p.m., in Hammond. Group
runs trains on HO-scale layout. For informa-
tion, call Don Carter at 503-325-0757.
Spinning Circle — 1 to 3 p.m., Astoria
Fiber Arts Academy, 1296 Duane St. Bring a
spinning wheel. For information, call 503-325-
5598 or go to http://astoriafiberarts.com
mation, call 503-738-5111. No cost; suggest-
ed $5 tip to the instructor.
Chair Exercises for Seniors — 9 to 9:45
a.m., Astoria Senior Center, 1111 Exchange
St. For information, call 503-325-3231.
Mothers of Preschoolers — 10
to 11:30 a.m., Crossroads Community
Church, 40618 Old Highway 30, Svensen.
MOPS group is a time for moms to re-
lax and enjoy each others’ company. For
information, call Tracy Wilson at 727-514-
1611.
Scandinavian Workshop — 10 a.m.,
First Lutheran Church, 725 33rd St. Needle-
work, hardanger, knitting, crocheting, em-
broidery and quilting. All are welcome. For
information, call 503-325-1364 or 503-325-
7960.
Senior Lunch — 11:30 a.m., Bob
Chisholm Senior Center, 1225 Avenue A,
Seaside. Suggested donation $3 for those
older than 60; $6.75 for those younger than
60. For information, call Michelle Lewis at 503-
861-4200.
SUNDAY
National Alliance on Mental Illness
(NAMI) Support Group — 2 to 3:30 p.m.,
Seaside Public Library, 1131 Broadway.
Family to Family Support Group, for anyone
with friend or loved one suffering from a se-
rious brain (mental) illness. For information,
contact Myra Kero at 503-738-6165, or k7e-
rowood@q.com, or go to www.nami.org
Line Dancing — 5:30 to 8 p.m., Seaside
American Legion, 1315 Broadway. For infor-
MONDAY
Columbia Senior Diners — 11:30 a.m.,
1111 Exchange St. Cost is $6. For information,
or to have a meal delivered, call 503-325-
9693.
Warrenton Senior Lunch Program —
noon, Warrenton Community Center, 170
S.W. Third St. Suggested donation of $5 for
seniors and $7 for those younger than 60. For
information, or to volunteer, call 503-861-3502
Monday or Thursday.
See NOTES, Page 2B