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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (May 3, 2019)
B1 THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, MAY 3, 2019 CONTACT US ewilson@dailyastorian.com (503) 325-3211 ext. 257 COMMUNITY FOLLOW US facebook.com/ DailyAstorian IN ONE EAR • ELLEDA WILSON SURVIVAL BROS RULES AN AMAZING EYE RUNAWAY WHALE F ormer Seasider Cameron McKirdy has been a com- petitive eater (joining cast iron stomach masters such as Joey “Jaws” Chestnut), and a professional cuddler in Portland at Cuddle Up to Me. Now he can add successful YouTube creator to his resume. He has more than 10,000 subscribers for his Sur- vival Bros channel (bit.ly/survbros), which he describes as “a fun community of friends interested in emergency prepared- ness, and topics such as: health food, gear, precious metals, Bitcoin, the outdoors, #vanlife and more.” One of his videos, the 13-plus minute “Marine Corps Everyday Carry Items and Pocket Dump” (bit.ly/USMC- carry), featuring the late Curtis Fairless explaining what he carries with him on any given day, has garnered over 1.1 million views. Cameron says another popular video is about clam digging in Seaside (bit.ly/SSclamming), which has almost 32,000 views. One of the perks of having over 10,000 subscribers is that it entitles creators to spend one day a month for free in the YouTube Space L.A. production studio. The facility has stages, green screens, lights and sound gear, cameras and even postproduction goodies like private editing suites and voiceover recording booths. And, he’s ready to roll and head to Cali in his Survival Bros Chevy Astro van (converted into a camper) to take advantage of some of that studio time. Since he’s been vlogging for more than nine years, he’s not exactly a newcomer. Actually, he got an early start. “In eighth grade, I had my first radio show on KSWB, talking about Broadway Middle School sports and events,” Cameron explained. “Later, I hosted a radio show on 94.9 FM six days per week at night. I got away with a lot of mischief on air.” All together there are more than 180 videos on the Sur- vival Bros vlog, covering a huge range of topics. It doesn’t cost anything to subscribe, and you can watch them all for free. “FYI, I am still operating SurvivalBros.com,” Cameron added, “and if anyone would like to get in touch, you can email me at camthecuddler@gmail.com” ‘B raden Saylors (inset) was invited to be the featured artist at The Ocean Lodge, 2864 S Pacific St. in Cannon Beach on Saturday,” his proud mom, Amy Saylors, wrote. The exhibit is from 5 to 8 p.m. One of his photos is shown. “He just turned 16 years old, and has an amazing eye for photography,” she explained. “He attends Asto- ria High School, and works evenings at Astoria Fulta- no’s. He has worked hard and saved up to buy his dream camera, and his dreams are all beginning to become reality.” She’s not kidding, he does have an amazing eye. You can see that for yourself on his Instagram page, @bra- densaylors, where he already has an astounding 3,600- plus followers. “How I fell in love with photography!” Brandon exclaimed. “I fell in love with the expressive quality of photography. “It all starts with my parents. I started traveling at birth. I’ve been on well over 200 flights in my life. I realized early on that I wanted to capture the beautiful places I was experiencing.” “Photography went from a hobby to something more serious about four years ago,” he added. “I want to make a career out of this passion. Ideally, I find myself in a spot where my life revolves around this form of art.” So if you’re headed to Cannon Beach on Saturday, be sure to stop in and greet the young artist. Then, years from now, when he’s a famous photographer, you can brag, “I met him!” T he headline “Whale Found With Harness May Have Escaped from Russian Navy” on Maritime- Executive.com certainly was an eye-catcher (bit.ly/ runawaywhale). The beluga whale turned up to greet some fishermen in Norway’s far northern waters wearing an odd contrap- tion equipped with a GoPro camera mount. The critter was quite tame, and kept approaching the boat for a peek at everyone, and to sample a snack. The Norwegian Directorate of Fisheries’ Marine Ser- vice sent out a boat team to help free the whale from the harness. A still shot from a Dagbladet TV video of the men interacting with the friendly whale is shown (bit.ly/ whaletreat). Once the harness was retrieved, it was found to have some buckles on it; one read “Equipment of St. Peters- burg.” That’s when speculation began, and quickly spread internationally, that the whale had escaped from some sort of mysterious arctic Russian Navy project. An intriguing theory, except for one thing: Why, then, was the buckle in English, not Cyrillic? The whale, who revealed nothing of his true intentions, swam off into the sunset. IMPORTANT AGAIN SEND GOOD VIBES NOT THE USUAL GARBAGE A ‘W e’ve sort of adopted the river beach at Fort Stevens, and do our best to pick up the usual garbage,” Astorian Jennifer Nightin- gale wrote. “Once in awhile, we run into something that is truly remarkable. “A couple of weeks ago, we found what appears to be a Santa, though some were suggesting it was a Viking. It was right at the surf line and from a distance, it looked like a silver robot. As you can see, he has seaweed in his beard; my dog, Mickey, is checking it out. “I think it would be great fun,” she added, “to have readers share some of their unexpected beach finds.” Definitely, Jennifer. So, as an ongoing feature for this column, send in a photo or two of your amazing, odd, unusual and whimsical beach finds, along with a descrip- tion of where and when you found it, to ewilson@dailyas- torian.com, and we’ll see what happens. THE ALMIGHTY ALMANAC W hen the Ear was but an earlet living in a lob- stering/oystering village in New England, the arrival of the annual Farmers’ Almanac (pub- lished since 1818) was of practically biblical importance (farmersalmanac.com). The almanac often hung on a hook in the kitchen it could be referred to on a daily basis. Yes, it still has the punch hole for easy hanging. How the almanac’s writers knew in advance what the weather would be like for a whole year was a source of great mystery to all, even more so because they were rarely wrong. So. On that positive note, it was quite cheering to receive an email update about the summer forecast: “Where Will Sum- mer Be Dry? It looks like the Pacific Northwest can expect a drier-than-usual summer, despite the fact that the first days of the new season start off with some showery weather. As far as temperatures are concerned, this zone can expect pleasant and fair conditions all the way through to August.” One can only hope they are right, as usual. ‘T his insanely beautiful dark morph Red- Tailed Hawk was found on the side of the road in very bad shape,” the Wildlife Cen- ter of the North Coast posted on its Facebook page. “The gentleman who stopped to check on him didn’t think he’d even make it to our doorstep, and on arrival, we honestly weren’t sure how good his chances were. “We opened the transport box to find him lying on his back, mostly unresponsive and covered in feather lice. (Yes, it’s totally a thing.) The ultimate culprit? Rodenticide poisoning. This poor fellow at some point enjoyed a tasty meal that included a nasty side of rat poison.” “Unfortunately, the effects in raptors tend to be much slower and more agonizing than they are to the rodents they’re intended to kill,” the post explained. “The poi- son leaves the raptor severely impaired and unable to hunt, ultimately rendering them emaciated, dehydrated and terribly confused.” This hawk’s plight serves as a sad reminder that put- ting out poison can very likely wound or kill other ani- mals in addition to the ones the poison was intended for. But, as you can see from the before and after pho- tos (courtesy of the wildlife center), the hawk is making amazing progress. WCNC not only hopes you’ll “send good vibes for continued healing,” but also donate at coastwildlife.org so they can continue their mission of helping wounded wildlife like this hawk. Inside United Way’s Day of Caring lifts commu- nity, Page B2 Astoria High School senior recog- nized as Silent Servant, Page B3 Community Notes, Page B4 2017 story from the Goonies1632.com blog by the “French Goonie,” Fred China, has resurfaced, and it’s an interesting bit of Astoria history about the now iconic Goonie House (bit.ly/goonhouse). Back in the 1970s, when Nyssa Perrin Clark lived there as a child for a few years, it was anything but iconic, she told Fred. Her photo, with the color restored, is shown, courtesy of Fred China/Goonies1632.com. “… As you can see from the photo I submitted, the house is in terrible disrepair,” Nyssa said. “The house was built in 1896; it had probably never been renovated or remodeled. It was very big, drafty and cold. It was old. “I remember the porch seemed like it might fall apart, and how dark and creepy the old cellar was. But at one time it was probably a quite fancy house, though. “The kitchen had this wonderful old-fashioned walk-in pantry like homes back then had. That was my favorite part of the home, I liked to hide in there sometimes. “There was a sense that the home we were in was once important. That important people once lived there. I never imagined it would be important again.” And so it is. GOING ONCE, GOING TWICE R ecently in this column there was mention of two RMS Titanic items that were going up for sale at Henry Aldridge & Son in England on April 26: a letter and a badly dented silver flask. Both are pictured, courtesy of Henry Aldridge & son. BBC.com reported the auction results (bit.ly/flaskltr). The letter, written by steward Richard Geddes to his wife on Titanic stationery, was mailed before the sinking, and mentioned an earlier incident when the Titanic was almost struck by another ship. It was expected to sell for $15,000 to $23,000; it sold for $19,500. First class passenger Helen Churchill Candee gave the flask, a family heirloom, to her friend, Edward Kent, because she mistakenly thought he had a better chance of surviving. She was wrong. She made it home, and the flask went to his home with his body. Kent’s sister, Charlotte, later returned the flask to Candee. At auction, it was expected to fetch $65,000 to $105,000, and was bought for $99,000.
