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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, MAY 3, 2019
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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.