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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (July 20, 2017)
JULY 20, 2017 // 3 SCRATCHPAD Mary Todd’s passes from one personal storyteller to another I interviewed her pri- marily to commemorate the 25th anniversary of her establishment (a pillar pub with killer grub) but was curious about something else: Todd is well- known in the local drug-and-alcohol rehabilitation com- munity. I decided to save that potentially touchy topic for the end of our chat; if it didn’t go well, I’d at least have enough material to write about the silver jubilee. By ERICK BENGEL FOR COAST WEEKEND W hen I learned last week that Mary Todd, owner of Mary Todd’s Workers Bar & Grill, had agreed to sell the tavern to Astoria author Diana Kirk, my reaction was something like: “No way!” followed by, “That’s perfect.” I couldn’t put my fi nger on why Kirk seemed a fi t- ting suitor. Then I recalled my fi rst meeting with Todd two years ago. coast INSIDE THIS ISSUE weekend arts & entertainment ON THE COVER The Manzanita Music Festival 2017 poster art by Ryan Pedersen. Cover photos by Anthony Pidgeon. SUBMITTED PHOTO See story on Page 8 COASTAL LIFE 4 Going ‘native’ in Seaside 8 Manzanita Music Festival 12 Northwest beauty in botanical artist’s garden FEATURE Three days of rock, blues, jazz, country, alt-indie DINING Mouth of the Columbia Beach N’ Brew is, humbly, what it is FURTHER ENJOYMENT MUSIC CALENDAR .....................5 CROSSWORD ..............................6 SEE + DO ........................... 10, 11 CW MARKETPLACE ......... 15, 16 GRAB BAG ................................ 19 Find it all online! CoastWeekend.com features full calendar listings, keyword search and easy sharing on social media. Before I could ask a single substantive question, however, she began opening up about her struggle with alcohol dependency, apparently eager to tell her story. Todd was remarkably forth- right, offering gritty personal details that many people would hesitate to reveal to anyone, especially a reporter. It’s a story she shares with people facing addiction to let them know that if she can survive it, so COAST WEEKEND EDITOR ERICK BENGEL CALENDAR COORDINATOR REBECCA HERREN CONTRIBUTORS RYAN HUME EVA MARX NANCY McCARTHY BARBARA LLOYD McMICHAEL KAELIA NEAL To advertise in Coast Weekend, call 503-325-3211 or contact your local sales representative. © 2017 COAST WEEKEND New items for publication consideration must be submitted by 10 a.m. Tuesday, one week and two days before publication. TO SUBMIT AN ITEM Phone: 503.325.3211 Ext. 217 or 800.781.3211 Fax: 503.325.6573 E-mail: editor@coastweekend.com Address: P.O.Box 210 • 949 Exchange St. Astoria, OR 97103 Coast Weekend is published every Thursday by the EO Media Group, all rights reserved. No part of this publication can be reproduced without consent of the publisher. Coast Weekend appears weekly in The Daily Astorian and the Chinook Observer. can they. I left with a unique respect for her; I doubt I would have been so coura- geously candid. What does this have to do with Kirk? Well, are you familiar with her 2016 col- lection of personal essays, “Licking Flames: Tales of a Half-Assed Hussy”? Kirk read selections from her book at a KALA event I attended a while back. Some of her stories — describing sex, intimacy and bodily fl uids — are so boldly revealing that an irrationally prudish part of me wanted to ask, “Are you sure you want to say that in public?” in the same way I recall asking Todd: Are you sure you want this on the record? My impression of these women is that they are disarmingly authentic. And both, in their own way, have made their private journeys gifts to the world. It is reas- suring to know that owner- ship of the workers tavern will pass from one honest storyteller to another. And, as any Mary Todd’s regular will tell you, the tavern itself has an honest vibe. It is a gloriously un- pretentious space where you want to be yourself. A deep history of customer satisfac- tion is evident everywhere, down to the names of patrons and couples etched into the lacquered wooden bar. The place invites self-disclosure, as though a metered dose of aerosol truth serum has been re- leased into the atmosphere. Then again, that may just be the yuccas. CW
