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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, MAY 26, 2017
CONTACT US
ewilson@dailyastorian.com
(503) 325-3211 ext. 257
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DailyAstorian
IN ONE EAR • ELLEDA WILSON
HELP THE ASTORIA FERRY
GLIMPSES OF 1890
ne of our biggest challenges today is raising money to haul
the ferry out to inspect the hull and integrity of all fasteners
and wooden components under the water line,” a new post on the
Astoria Ferry Facebook page says. “We have researched hauling
out at Tongue Point, but that option is sadly looking like no option,
because of the possibility of damaging the boat, and the cost of cre-
ating a cradle that could hold it.
“So, we really need your help to reach our goal of making the
Tourist No. 2 a regular vision on the Columbia. Which means, if
you are as passionate about this goal as we are, we need you to reach
into your pockets for some $$$ and send us whatever you can.”
Want to help out this nostalgic enterprise? Click on the “Donate”
link at www.astoriaferry.com, mail a check to the Astoria Ferry
Group, P.O. Box 261, Astoria, OR 97103, or send a pledge email to
astoriaferry@gmail.com
“We promise we will put (your donations) to good use!”
‘O
BIGGEST BOX
he Who’s Got the Biggest Box Ship battle on the high seas
wages on. The last winner was Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (MOL)
Triumph, built by Samsung Heavy Industries. At 1,312 feet
long, and 192 feet wide, it can carry 20,150 containers.
Only launched a month or two ago, Triumph has already been
eclipsed by the newest heavy-weight on the block, the Orient
Overseas Container Line (OOCL) Hong Kong. The ship, which
will also serve in the Asia-Europe area, is pictured, courtesy of
Maritime Executive.
The recently christened behemoth — also built by Samsung
— while almost identical in length and width to the Triumph,
can carry 21,413 containers. However, its deadweight is only
about 4,300 tons more than the Triumph, according to Maritime
Executive (http://tinyurl.com/OcclHK) — which means it would
have to carry some lighter containers, or some empty ones, to
reach maximum load capacity. So, the Ear feels compelled to ask:
What’s the point?
T
TO GOON OR NOT TO GOON
nd the Goonies 2 speculation grinds on. For one thing, if
nothing is happening (as so many are claiming), then why is
there a “The Goonies 2” Internet Movie Data Base (IMDB) list-
ing for it (http://tinyurl.com/goon2list)? Details are few and far
between, only listing The Donners’ Company as the producer
and Chris Columbus as the writer.
Sean Astin (pictured in photos from his Facebook page), aka
Mikey in “The Goonies,” does a lot of interviews, and someone
always asks him about it. “There should definitely be a remake,”
he told Mlive.com at the Motor City Comic Con May 21 (http://
tinyurl.com/AstinMlive). “I used to really want a sequel, a proper
sequel, and at this point I don’t know if that makes as much sense
now. But if they rebooted it, and gave the original Goonies a little
cameo or something like that, I would think that would be cool.
And it will happen. Steven Spielberg just has to say yes.”
And there’s the rub, apparently. If Speilberg continues to stay
mum, at some point, Astin speculates, “in a few decades” when
the director has “finished his journey on earth,” then Warner
Brothers “will, absolutely, like immediately, go into production.”
“Maybe the reboot sucks,” Astin speculated. “Maybe it’s
great. But why not? People love it so much.”
In other words, we still don’t know nuthin’.
A
THIS IS WHERE THE MAGIC HAPPENS
limpses of life in Astoria from the Thursday, May
29, 1890 issue of The Daily Morning Astorian:
• A.W. Utzinger has a handsome new rig, and is deliv-
ering bottled beer in all parts of the city.
• The engine house of Astoria No. 1 will be moved
forward 20 feet and stalls erected for the fine span of
black horses which are to be purchased to draw the
steamer.
• Returning Astorians from California say much inter-
est is manifested in San Francisco and elsewhere regard-
ing Astoria property; everybody realized that our seaside
city is destined to have a splendid future.
• There seem to be no law breakers here, for the
police make no arrests. When Officer Beasley was asked
by a reporter last evening what he was doing, replied:
“Nothing, only polishing the nail-heads in the plank
sidewalks.”
• The sidewalk now building in front of The Astorian
building is the fourth built there in the last dozen years.
The remains of two of the former ones are visible.
• Ed. Frazer, chief carpenter, and two assistants
arrived yesterday with all the scenery of the “After Dark”
company, including a 2,000 gallon tank, which was put in
position (at Ross’s opera house) and will be filled at 10
o’clock this morning.
• Cathlamet real estate is looking up. A man named
Harrington recently bought the John Docker place for
$20,000 (about $518,000 now).
• Children cry for Pitcher’s Castoria. (It was laxative
containing “senna leaves, bicarbonate of soda, essence
of wintergreen, extract of taraxacum — a fancy word
for dandelion — sugar, water, pumpkin, anise and worm
seed, Rochelle salts, peppermint and 3 per cent alcohol
(http://tinyurl.com/castlax)). No wonder the children
were crying.
G
MEMORIAL DAY ONE
irbnb has earned quite a reputation as a great way to find
inexpensive overnight housing for those who are traveling.
The idea caught the attention of Sweden’s tourism authority, Vis-
itSweden, who put the whole country up for rent, for free, on
Airbnb. You can see the video ad at http://tinyurl.com/bnbsweden
The unconventional listing is based on Allemansrätten, Swe-
den’s constitutional Right of Public Access, which allows every-
one in Sweden the “freedom to roam just about anywhere in the
countryside, as long as we do not disturb or destroy” (http://
tinyurl.com/roamsweden).
In VisitSweden’s view, that makes Swedish nature “just like
a regular home.” Amenities, aside from eye-popping views,
include “100,000 tempered infinity pools” and au natural bath-
rooms (“Swedish minimalistic style”). It’s easy to believe the
ad’s narrator when he says: “This is where the magic happens.”
A
LIGHTS OUT
he Ear can’t count how many times people have posted ques-
tions about power outages on Facebook, looking for informa-
tion about how long it will last, etc. Worry no more, Pacific Power
now has an online outage map, that updates every 15 minutes,
showing locations and estimates about how long they will last in
Oregon, Washington, and even California. You can find them at
http://tinyurl.com/outandon. Just pick a state, and start zooming in.
Two caveats, though: Don’t take the pinpointed locations too
literally, they’re approximations, and mark an area affected, not
necessarily the exact location where the outage happened; and,
the restoration time is a “best estimate,” according to the press
release. Want to report an outage? Call 877-508-5088.
Nope, this service isn’t available on the Pacific Power app yet,
but that’s expected to happen in coming months.
T
THIS ’N THAT
ave you ever wondered when the first Memo-
rial Day (first known as Decoration Day) and
which originated during the Civil War) took place? After
a little research, here’s one answer, anyway, from an 1898
source:
“On the sixteenth of April, 1862, some ladies and a
chaplain from Michigan were chatting together at Arling-
ton Heights (Virginia). They were talking about the hor-
rors of the war and one lady said: ‘How lonely and cheer-
less the bare graves of the soldiers look.’ Another proposed
gathering some flowers and laying them on the graves of
the Michigan soldiers that day.
“They did so — and the next year they decorated the
same graves. The third year (1864) the same chaplain and
ladies were in Fredericksburg (Virginia), and they deco-
rated the soldiers’ graves there. So the beautiful custom
grew and spread its influence with its flowers each year.”
(http://tinyurl.com/DecDay1)
Not so fast. Columbus, Mississippi, has a dog in this
who’s-first fight, too: “In the spring of 1866 Miss Matt
Moreton, Mrs. J. T. Fontaine and Mrs. Green T. Hill …
were in the habit of visiting Friendship cemetery and
cleaning off as best they could the weeds and briers and
decorating with flowers the neglected graves of the Con-
federate dead. This … resulted in a determination to make
the decoration of the soldiers’ graves an annual occur-
rence, and the first celebration to take place was April 25,
1866.
“… Decoration Day (has) its origin with the ladies of
Columbus … (which) also claims the distinction of being
the first to decorate the graves of both Confederate and
Federal soldiers alike.” (http://tinyurl.com/DecDay1)
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Many locations
staked a claim in the who-started-it tiff, but President
Lyndon Johnson settled the matter in 1966 by declar-
ing — right or wrong — that Waterloo, New York, is the
birthplace of Memorial Day (www.usmemorialday.org).
Why? Probably because New York was the first state to
officially recognize the holiday, in 1873.
H
few little local tidbits to consider:
• Stacy McKenney of Astoria called in to say that her
daughter, Rhiannon McKenney, was heart-warmed to see a police
officer changing a tire for a stranded motorist on the New Young’s
Bay Bridge, and thought he ought to get a shout out. A little digging
revealed it was Warrenton Police Department’s Senior Police Offi-
cer Len Mossman who helped the motorist. So, a collective, and
well-deserved thank you goes to Officer Mossman. “You always
hear bad, bad, bad,” Stacy said, “and it’s time for some good news.”
Indeed.
• Seen the petition “Preserve Local Businesses, Art and Com-
munity in Astoria’s Historic Odd Fellows Building” by the Lower
Columbia Coalition for a Sustainable Community on Change.org?
It’s a plea to save the building, and the existing local businesses
inside it, from change (aka the nasty “G” word, gentrification) by
potential out-of-town buyers. Want to read it and/or sign it? Go to
http://tinyurl.com/nochange-odd
• Remember the prodigal chicken that hopped into a truck in
Rosburg, Washington, and hopped out at U.S. Bank in Astoria? She
stayed in the bank’s parking lot all summer, perched in trees nearby,
judiciously used the crosswalks, and even laid an egg or two. She
was a wily bird, and eluded capture for months; many were con-
cerned she would not make it though the winter. Well, worry no
more. It turns out someone finally did catch her, and she was returned
to her owners in November. She is just fine, thank you, although the
Ear will surely miss those odd moment chicken sightings.
A
COMMUNITY NOTES
SATURDAY
Sit & Stitch — 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., Home-
spun Quilts & Yarn, 108 10th St. Bring knit-
ting, crochet or other needlework projects to
this community stitching time. All skill levels
welcome.
Columbia Northwestern Model Rail-
roading Club — 1 p.m., in Hammond.
Group runs trains on HO-scale layout. For
information, 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
SUNDAY
Line Dancing — 5:30 to 8 p.m., Sea-
side American Legion, 1315 Broadway. For
information, call 503-738-5111. No cost;
suggested $5 tip to the instructor.
embroidery and quilting. All are welcome.
For information, call 503-325-1364 or 503-
325-7960.
Senior Lunch — No lunch served today.
Columbia Senior Diners — No lunch
served today.
MONDAY — MEMORIAL DAY
Warrenton Senior Lunch Program —
No lunch served today.
Scandinavian Workshop — 10 a.m.,
First Lutheran Church, 725 33rd St. Nee-
dlework, hardanger, knitting, crocheting,
Astoria Toastmasters — 6:30 p.m., Ho-
tel Elliot conference room, 357 12th St. Vis-
itors welcome. For information, go to www.
toastmasters.org or call Christa Svensson at
206-790-2869.
TUESDAY
Do Nothing Club — 10 a.m. to noon,
24002 U St., Ocean Park, Wash. Men’s
group. For information, call Jack McBride at
360-665-2721.
Senior Lunch — 11:30 a.m., Bob
Chisholm Senior Center, 1225 Avenue A,
Seaside. Suggested donation of $3 for
those older than 60; $6.75 for those younger
than 60. For information, call Michelle Lew-
is at 503-861-4200.
Columbia Senior Diners — 11:30 a.m.,
1111 Exchange St. The cost is $6. For in-
formation, or to have a meal delivered, call
503-325-9693.
Astoria Lions Club — noon, Astoria
Elks Lodge, 453 11th St. Prospective mem-
bers welcome. For information, contact
Charlene Larsen at 503-325-0590.
See NOTES, Page 2B