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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2018
CONTACT US
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IN ONE EAR • ELLEDA WILSON
IF YOU BUILD IT, THEY WILL COME
J
esse “Chuck” Day is preparing for his favorite summer
“migrant workers” to arrive. “They travel from southern Mex-
ico and Central America here every year, and have been doing it for
forever,” he wrote. “… They work for free, and only need houses to
stay in and raise their little ones. Oh yeah, and they have feathers.”
“They are my tree swallows,” he explained, “that I put up bird
boxes for, and maintain, to keep attracting them back to my prop-
erty every year. I get a nearly bugless summer. Each bird can eat
catch up to seven times their weight in bugs each day as they feed
their brood of babies. … I’m also given shows of amazing aerial
acrobatics almost everyday.”
As an aside, he’s curious to know if the boxes put up in other
people’s yards were ever occupied, and if they have been cleaned
every year. “The old nest can harbor mites and diseases,” he
warned, “that can kill the baby birds before they can leave the nest.”
Chuck wishes more people would put up birdhouses for tree
swallows. “The little guys need all the help they can get,” he noted.
He has an excellent good birdhouse plan to share with anyone who
wants a copy. You can find it here: tinyurl.com/swallowbox.
“My birdhouses have been tried and tested for over 20 years,”
Chuck added, “hundreds, if not thousands, of baby birds have been
raised in my birdhouses.”
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, OREGON
PEACOCK SPIT CLAIMS STEAMSHIP
T
hursday was the 88th anniversary of the intercoastal
steamship SS Admiral Benson running aground on
Peacock Spit near Cape Disappointment in dense fog
on Feb. 15, 1930, carrying 39 passengers and 65 crew
(tinyurl.com/AdmBenson). Capt. Charles C. Graham
wasn’t particularly worried at the time, since the sea and
wind were calm, so he only sent a call for assistance, not a
distress signal.
Consequently, no one rushed to get there, and surfboats
from the local lifesaving stations didn’t turn up till the next
day to take 34 passengers and some crew members off
the ship. The captain tried to get the ship floating again
at high tide, but it wouldn’t budge. Meanwhile, that nice
weather was turning nasty by Feb. 17, so the Coast Guard
removed the rest of the passengers and most of the crew.
On the 18th, the weather got even worse, so everyone but
the captain was removed by breeches buoy. On Feb. 23, the
captain gave up and had his date with the breeches buoy
during a lull in the storm.
At a hearing in Portland Feb. 25, the captain pleaded
guilty to a charge of negligence for grounding the ship,
and his mariner’s license was suspended for six months. A
salvage crew took two weeks to remove as much of value
as possible from the ship, using highline-rigged gondo-
las, after which the ship’s owners decided to abandon her
on Peacock Spit. Salvagers got whatever was left inside,
and over the years the SS Admiral Benson slowly broke
up where she lay.
THINK PINK
T
erry Enke Arnall wrote in, proud of her young cousins,
Brooke (9) and Paige (12) Simonsen, who made the national
news when they testified in front of the Maryland State House of
Representatives. (The girls’ great-grandparents are Chris and
Olga Simonsen of Hammond.)
According a story in the Washington Post, the girls’ goal is to
get a bill passed that allows hunters to wear fluorescent pink as
well as the usual fluorescent orange (tinyurl.com/huntpink). The
girls took up the cause when their father, Mike Simonsen, urged
them to take a hunting safety course, and they found out all the
pink gear they bought isn’t legal in Maryland, which only allows
hunters to wear orange.
To get the law changed, the girls began lobbying Sen. Ade-
laide C. Eckardt to add pink to hunters’ wardrobe color choices.
Sen. Eckhardt and Brooke and Paige are pictured in a Rachel Sie-
gel/The Washington Post photo.
The girls backed up their request with research, citing studies
about pink’s visibility. Plus, the color is already legal for hunters
in several states.
Convinced, the senator sponsored the bill to make pink legal
for Maryland hunters, and Brooke and Paige were on hand —
wearing hot pink, of course — to speak about the bill’s merits in
front of the House.
Their bill passed, and now it moves forward to the Maryland
Senate.
JUST DON’T
LOCAL BREVITIES
I
n celebration of Oregon’s 159th birthday as a state on Valen-
tine’s Day, a few weird Oregon facts are in order, courtesy of
ThatOregonLife.com (tinyurl.com/weirdOR). (The Oregon Tour-
ist Map shown is courtesy of JournalMaker.com)
Oregon residents own a quarter of the U.S. total llama popula-
tion. The name Oregon is thought to be derived from the French
word “ouragan,” which means “hurricane” (think 2007’s Great
Coastal Gale).
Oregon is the only state with an official state nut; although one
could argue there are plenty of unofficial ones. Oregon has more
ghost towns than any other state. One was Idiotville, in the Tilla-
mook Forest, so remote, it was thought you’d have to be an idiot
to live there.
Oregon is sixth in the nation for Bigfoot sightings (Washing-
ton is No. 1), but first for the tallest barber shop pole in the world,
at 72 feet, in Forest Grove. And finally, our state is also home
to the largest single organism on earth, the Oregon Humongous
Fungus, a honey mushroom that covers 2,200 acres, and is esti-
mated to be 2,400-plus years old. Too bad it’s not a truffle.
SATELLITES SAVE LIVES
N
ational Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration satellites per-
form another lesser known, but vital tasks in addition to keep-
ing an eye on the weather: The satellites helped rescue 275 peo-
ple in 2017, 186 of them at sea, gCaptain.com reports (tinyurl.com/
noaasaves). The image of satellites shown is courtesy of NOAA.
The satellites are part of the international Search and Rescue
Satellite Aided Tracking System (COSPAS-SARSAT), which uses
a network of spacecraft to detect and pinpoint distress signals from
emergency beacons anywhere on earth.
The signal’s location is sent to the NOAA SARSAT Mission
Control Center in Maryland, which immediately informs Rescue
Coordination Centers operated by the U.S. Air Force (land rescues),
or the U.S. Coast Guard (water rescues).
“NOAA satellites aren’t just for accurate weather forecasts,”
Tim Gallaudet of Oceans and Atmosphere said. “They play a direct
role in saving lives.”
A
F
rom The Daily Morning Astorian, Tuesday, Feb. 16,
1886:
• Prof. N. S. Keith, the inventor of the electric system
that bears his name, and Col. S. C. Blasdell go to Portland
on this morning’s boat.
Note: Mr. Wikipedia says Prof. Nathaniel Keith built
the first electric plant for San Francisco in 1884 and,
among other accomplishments, was an adviser to Thomas
Edison. (tinyurl.com/ProfNSK)
• Among the county court proceedings: Ordered that
Geo. Flavel, W. E. Dement and John Hobson be appointed
to a committee to take into consideration the providing the
county with a poor farm …
Note: This was apparently a no-go, as there doesn’t
appear to be a record of Clatsop County having a poor
farm to employ people who were destitute. (tinyurl.com/
PoorFrm)
• On the first … there came ashore three bodies, flesh-
less and limbless. It is thought they are the bodies of
Capt. Exon, mate Jamison and a crew member that were
drowned at the wreck of the Carrie B. Lake at Shoalwa-
ter Bay Jan. 3.
Note: The fishing schooner got caught in a stiff gale
and slammed into a shoal. All five hands hustled into the
lifeboat, which capsized; only two survived. The U.S.
Life-saving Service conclusion was terse: “Had the people
remained by their vessel, they would all have been saved.”
(tinyurl.com/CaBLake)
From the Wednesday, Feb. 16, 1887 edition:
• A responsible party who wishes to legally adopt a lit-
tle girl of 4 years of age can find an opportunity by apply-
ing to M. D. Corno.
• In what is referred to as “A Case of General Interest,”
U. V. Hansen of the Globe saloon sued M. Yocum, a fire-
man on the tug Columbia, for $67.20 (about $1,675 now)
for “goods, wares and merchandise.” Yocum’s pay was
garnished, but on appeal Judge Deady cited a law decree-
ing a mariner’s wages could not be attached by creditors.
Presumably, saloon owners took note.
storia Library Director Jimmy Pierce gave Mayor Arline
LaMear a newspaper clipping about 1876 Astoria ordi-
nances. Here are a few:
Wagon speed was topped at six miles an hour, or four over
“piled or bent work roadway.” There were curfews (minors, 8
p.m.; adults, midnight), and begging on the streets was not per-
mitted at any time.
You couldn’t split wood on the sidewalk, or cut wood on Sun-
day, or smoke opium, or swim in the river between 6 a.m. and 6
p.m. without a bathing suit. It was also illegal not to destroy cat-
erpillars or thistles on private land.
Boats could not be tied to roadways (which were built over the
river and consisted of planks on piers), and you had to have a per-
mit to put a privy under a sidewalk (also built over the river). It
was probably best to just stay home and count caterpillars.
GOING HOME
A
few weeks ago there was a story in this column about the
Finley family, Angel and Evan, and their daughter, Svea-
Jade, who was scheduled for open-heart surgery for a large heart
murmur. There was a raffle and fundraiser to help the parents
be able to stay at a hotel near Doernbecher Children’s Hospital
because the Ronald McDonald House was full.
The happy news is that Svea-Jade came through the surgery
very well, and is going home. “She is doing absolutely amaz-
ing,” Angel wrote. “We are so beyond proud of our daughter and
all of her strength. We can’t express enough how grateful we are
to have our princess on the path to a better quality of life she
deserves. We can’t wait to have her at 100 percent.”
“Evan, Svea-Jade and I would like to thank everyone who
came together and donated for the raffle,” she added. “We are
breathless and stunned our community is so giving loving and
caring! Thank you all so much for your love, support, concern,
sharing, caring and donations.”
COMMUNITY NOTES
SATURDAY
Sit & Stitch — 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.,
Homespun Quilts & Yarn, 108 10th St.
Bring knitting, crochet or other nee-
dlework projects to this community
stitching time. All skill levels welcome.
Columbia Northwestern Model
Railroading Club — 1 p.m., in Ham-
mond. Group runs trains on HO-scale
layout. For information, call Don Car-
ter 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 astoriafiberarts.com
Broadway. For information, call
503-738-5111. No cost; suggested
$5 tip to the instructor.
— 9 to 9:45 a.m., Astoria Senior
Center, 1111 Exchange St. For in-
formation, call 503-325-3231.
Cannon Beach American Le-
gion Women’s Auxiliary Break-
fast — 9 to 11:30 a.m., American
Legion, 1216 S. Hemlock St., Can-
non Beach.
Seekers Group — 6 to 7:30
p.m., Pioneer Presbyterian Church,
33324 Patriot Way, Warrenton.
Group discusses issues facing re-
ligious faith in the modern secular
world. All are welcome. For informa-
tion, call 503-861-2421.
Scandinavian Workshop —
10 a.m., First Lutheran Church, 725
33rd St. Needlework, hardanger,
knitting, crocheting, embroidery
and quilting. All are welcome. For
information, call 503-325-1364 or
503-325-7960.
Line Dancing — 5:30 to 8 p.m.,
Seaside American Legion, 1315
MONDAY
Chair Exercises for Seniors
Grace and Encouragement
for Moms — 10 to 11:30 a.m.,
SUNDAY
Crossroads Community Church,
40618 Old Highway 30, Svensen.
GEMS group is a time for moms to
relax and enjoy each others’ com-
pany. Free childcare is provided.
For information, call Rachael Bid-
dlecome at 503-458-6103.
Senior Lunch — 11:30 a.m.,
Bob Chisholm Senior Center, 1225
Avenue A, Seaside. Suggested do-
nation $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. Cost
is $6. For information, or to have a
meal delivered, call 503-325-9693.
Warrenton Senior Lunch Pro-
gram — noon, Warrenton Commu-
nity Center, 170 S.W. Third St. Sug-
gested donation of $5 for seniors
and $7 for those younger than 60.
See NOTES, Page 3B