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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, MARCH 2, 2018
CONTACT US
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(503) 325-3211 ext. 257
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DailyAstorian
IN ONE EAR • ELLEDA WILSON
WHO GOES THERE?
‘I
saw these Wednesday, Feb. 21, on the river beach near the
South Jetty,” Cheryl Conway of Hammond wrote, describ-
ing the photo shown. “They are squid egg sacs. How excit-
ing! I didn’t know what they were at the time, but put them
back in the water. Each sac had to have dozens of eggs in
it.” Tiffany Boothe at the Seaside Aquarium confirmed the
egg sacs are from common market (aka opalescent) squid.
According to the Monterey Bay Aquarium (montereybayaquarium.
org), Doryteuthis opalescens dines on worms, small crustaceans
and fish. Around 11 inches long, enormous schools of these irides-
cent squid migrate back and forth in coastal waters from Mexico to
Southeastern Alaska. A popular commercial fishing catch, you’ve
probably encountered them on your plate as calamari.
When it’s spawning time in the spring and fall, thousands of
squid head for shallow waters, where, after mating, the females
lay about 12 egg sacs that hold 180 to 300 eggs each. The adults
die after mating, and their offspring don’t fare much better; they
grow fast, and only live for a year.
“Evidently, our area had some serious spawning going on :-),”
Cheryl noted.
BANK ON IT
WITHOUT A TRACE
I
n August 1911, the steel four-masted schooner Amer-
icana, loaded with 1 million feet of lumber bound for
Australia, was almost destroyed when she nearly drifted
ashore near Tillamook Rock during a calm spell. Luck-
ily, an onshore observer witnessed the vessel in distress,
and tugs were summoned to tow her out of danger. The
Americana is pictured, courtesy of the San Diego Histor-
ical Society.
When she left Knappton, Washington, on Feb. 28, or
March 1 or 3, 1913 (the reports vary), again loaded with
lumber bound for Sydney, Australia, this time the story did
not have a happy ending. She cleared the Columbia River
bar, but never arrived at her destination.
On Aug. 30, 1913, the similarly-named vessel, Ama-
ranth, carrying a load of coal from Newcastle, New South
Wales to San Francisco, wrecked on Jarvis Island in Micro-
nesia during a hurricane. Now uninhabited, at the time, the
crew spotted the ruins of a guano mining site, which con-
sisted of nine buildings and a two-story house. The captain
and crew all survived, but the ship was beyond repair, so
the crew took two lifeboats and left the island. Both boats
wound up in Samoa, and news of their arrival soon spread.
In October 1913, the San Francisco Call published a
story about the confusion that ensued after the Amaranth
crew reached Samoa (tinyurl.com/Amerigone). Initial
cablegram reports mistakenly noted that the captain and
crew of the Americana had survived a wreck on Jarvis
Island. A few days later, another cablegram said the Ama-
ranth’s captain and crew had arrived safely on Samoa after
being wrecked near the same island.
It was when the Ventura arrived in Honolulu, carry-
ing only the Amaranth’s crew, that people realized both
cables actually referred solely to the Amaranth. “The news
came as a shock to Mrs. Johnson, wife of the captain of the
Americana, who lives here,” the Call reported.
Although the Americana disappeared without a trace
with all 11 hands, it is presumed she went down in the
same storm that caused the wreck of the Amaranth. Offi-
cially, though, it’s still an unsolved mystery.
ommercial fisherman and fisher poet Dave Densmore has
written a new poem, but this one has nothing to do with the
sea or fishing: He’s telling the story of Wauna Federal Credit
Union. While it’s off his usual theme, it’s with good reason (aside
from being a member of the credit union since 1997): Because
“Wauna Credit Union has a lot of heart.”
You can give a listen here: tinyurl.com/DaveWFCU
C
LOCAL BREVITIES
UPLIFTING CORRECTION
VOTE FOR REACH BREAK BREWERY
A
storia’s Reach Break Brewery has been chosen by USA
Today as one of 20 top new breweries nationally (from the
last two years) to be included in their current 10Best voting contest
for Best New Brewery,” Bev Allison wrote. “The contest is now in
progress, you can vote daily until the end of the contest.” Some of
their wares are pictured, courtesy of Reach Break Brewery.
You can cast your ballot at tinyurl.com/votebreak, but you’d
better get on it, and share the link, because earlier this week Reach
Break was only at No. 18. But there’s still time for improvement,
as voting doesn’t end until 9 a.m. Monday, March 19. The win-
ners will be announced Friday, March 23.
“This is a huge honor for a small brewery from a small town!”
Bev added. “They need help with votes to compete with larger
areas.” So go vote, already.
AMERICAN PIE
A
storia’s favorite expatriate, Chef Daymon Garrett
Edwards, who now lives in South Korea, was written up
in The Korea Times, the oldest of three English-language daily
newspapers. “A pie odyssey of a retired American” details Gar-
rett’s life in America, as well as his business ventures, including
his flagship Seoul pie shop, Ruby Edwards Tartine Bakery &
Café (tinyurl.com/ChefDGE). The shop is named after Garrett’s
mother, who gave him his first cookbook when he was 10. He is
pictured in a Korea Times photo by Yun Suh-young.
“When I first came to Korea, everyone said Koreans don’t
like sweets,” he said. “But when I observed Korean customers
in Dongbuichon-dong (Seoul’s ‘Little Tokyo’), they would say
it’s too sweet, but they would buy all of them.” So, why not pies?
He set up shop in Dongbuichon-dong, and got to work mak-
ing and baking American-style pies. In 2008, the shop moved to
the Itaewon district, and now, 10 years later, he’s made pie history
— as of Jan. 26 this year, he has sold 3 million pies. For a coun-
try that supposedly doesn’t like sweets, that’s a whole lotta pies.
SLIPPERY SLOPE
S
L
aurie Caplan sent an email noting that Astorian Jim Stof-
fer had a letter published in the Feb. 26 issue of The New
Yorker, a wowser of an accomplishment that is up there in the
lofty reaches unattainable for most of us.
“I know it is extraordinarily difficult to get any mention in the
magazine whatsoever, and getting my letter published was not
even a consideration,” he wrote. “But when I opened the mag-
azine to the article on paper jams, I only glanced at the maze of
text and one word popped out, ‘Bernoulli.’
“So I read that paragraph, then disbelievingly reread the para-
graph. Asking myself if The New Yorker could ever be wrong.
Then asking myself if I could be wrong about Bernoulli, carefully
double-checking my understanding.
“Turns out the author had Bernoulli upside down, because if
the author was correct, none of us would be flying. So I quickly
wrote a letter; it was not anything other than a correction of the
fundamental principal of the theory of lift …”
You can read the letter online at tinyurl.com/YorkerJS
“Anyway, getting the letter published was fun,” he added,
“and maybe a few people will get interested in what makes an air-
plane fly, or a sailboat able to tack into the wind. Try to get a piece
of fiction published in The New Yorker and you might spend
years, unless your last name is O’Hara, or Updike, or Lipore.”
Getting a letter published there is probably just as difficult, so
bravo to you, Jim Stoffer!
nippets from The Daily Morning Astorian, Saturday,
March 2, 1889:
• The widow of Ben Holladay has entered suit for $100,366
(about $2.5 million now) against Joe Holladay.
Note: Ben Holladay was a transportation magnate who built
the Seaside House Hotel in 1871 (https://tinyurl.com/bholla).
When he died in 1887, he was deep in debt, and was being
sued by his brother, Joseph, for $315,000 (https://tinyurl.com/
bholla1). The convoluted family lawsuits went on for years.
• … The tobacco bill passed at the recent session of the leg-
islature … (is) an act to prohibit the sale of tobacco, cigars or
cigarettes to minors under the age of 18 years.
Note: On Aug. 9, 2017, Gov. Kate Brown signed a bill rais-
ing the age from 18 to 21, effective Jan. 1 this year (https://
tinyurl.com/nopuff21).
And, on Sunday, March 2, 1890:
• The time when Astoria will have incandescent electric
lights must soon come. They are as necessary as the large arc
lights, and are better suited to offices than those now in use.
Note: Once Thomas Edison and his team discovered that a
carbonized bamboo filament in an incandescent bulb could last
over 1,200 hours, the Edison Electric Light Company began
marketing them in 1880 (https://tinyurl.com/bulb1880).
• Swan Island bar is the present bugbear to captains of
craft drawing more than 15 feet that essay to go very far in the
interior.
Note: Even though dredging around Swan Island was done
annually in the late 1800s, it wasn’t enough. It wasn’t until 1927
that a 35 by 1,155-foot channel was dredged on the south side
of the island, which became an airport. That same year Charles
Lindbergh landed there. (https://tinyurl.com/SwanIs)
• At low tide says the Journal, the clam diggers are busy on
the flats in front of Ilwaco, where the clams are numerous and
fat. A few years ago no such thing as a clam was to be found in
Bakers Bay, while now the supply seems to be inexhaustible.
J
ust about everyone knows earthquakes cause tsunamis; that’s
not news. What is news is that scientists have recently released a
study that reveals why oceanic landslides can also generate 65-foot
high tsunamis: Slime. More precisely, slime on the sea floor cre-
ated by accumulations of decomposing microscopic organisms,
International Business Times reports (tinyurl.com/slimywave).
When an undersea landslide happens, the clay layers resting
on top of the ooze start sliding. “When the seabed loses its stabil-
ity and starts to move, it often happens in much larger dimensions
than landslides ashore — and at slopes with very low gradients,”
the report from Helmholtz Center for Ocean Research Kiel says.
The resulting displacement of large amounts of sediment slipping
on the slime can cause “devastating” tsunamis.
Now that they know these landslides are causing tidal waves,
a mystery remains, according to the report: “Why and when sub-
marine landslides develop is hardly understood.” Back to the
drawing board.
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.
Detachment 1228 Marine
Corps League — noon, El Compa-
dre, 119 Main Ave., Warrenton. For
information, contact Lou Neubecker
at 503-717-0153.
Columbia Northwestern Mod-
el Railroading 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 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.
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.
SUNDAY
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.,
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.
For information, or to volunteer, call
503-861-3502 Monday or Thursday.
See NOTES, Page 4B