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About Wallowa County chieftain. (Enterprise, Wallowa County, Or.) 1943-current | View Entire Issue (March 1, 2017)
A4 Opinion wallowa.com March 1, 2017 Wallowa County Chieftain It’s time for Salem to fund FFA W e seem to forget about the things that work in America. Or at least we quit paying for them. Future Farmers of America is one of those proven values. Anyone who has judged an FFA public speaking contest Voice of the Chieftain has seen the remarkable poise that FFA gives its students. Anyone who has seen FFA kids with animals at county fairs has been impressed with their mastery of animal husbandry. Kathleen Ellyn’s story in this issue describes the legislative drive to restore state funding to FFA. Since 2011, FFA programs have been kept alive by private fund-raising. Our two legislators – Sen. Bill Hansell of Pendleton and Rep. Greg Baretto of Cove – are doing yeoman’s work in pushing the funding legislation. As Ellyn’s reporting indicates, urban legislators are the bill’s co-sponsors. It is not easy sledding in Salem. There will be program cuts. But we must always remember that some programs will be funded. It may as well be ours. Legislators continuously debate whether certain programs are effective. By that measure, the Hansell-Baretto bill holds a high card. FFA works. Let’s fund it. EDITORIAL Can mathematicians end gerrymandering ? by Dick Hughes oo many legislative and congressional districts follow bizarre boundaries that were drawn to ensure a political party’s dominance. That gerrymandering is why the vast majority of legislative and congressional incumbents win re-election. Republican Secretary of State Dennis Richardson created the Nonpartisan Redistricting Task Force this year to propose % of more evenhanded approach. Oregon a That has the Legislature’s majority Democrats worried. voters are Maybe they have good neither reason. One topic during Wednesday’s task force Republican meeting was the decline of nor Democrat. America’s two-party system. Progressive Party leader Dan Meek noted that 40 percent of Oregon voters are neither Republican nor Democrat, and only 8 percent of voters registered under Oregon’s “motor voter” law are signing up as Republican or Democrat. The task force is leaning toward recommending that Oregon take redistricting out of the Legislature’s hands and turn that work over to an independent commission. The Portland City Club has recommended such a system. Meanwhile, a math professor at Tufts University has another approach. Moon Duchin is launching a summer- school class to train mathematicians on how to testify in court about which geometric shapes legitimately make sense for a legislative district. According to a story in The Chronicle of Higher Education about Duchin’s work, “Because of the increase in cases challenging new electoral maps, she says, there’s a need for expert witnesses who understand the mathematical concepts applicable to gerrymandering.” Dick Hughes has been covering the Oregon political scene since 1976. He is a columnist for the Salem statehouse bureau of EO Media Group and Pamplin Media. T 40 USPS No. 665-100 P.O. Box 338 • Enterprise, OR 97828 Office: 209 NW First St., Enterprise, Ore. Phone: 541-426-4567 • Fax: 541-426-3921 Wallowa County’s Newspaper Since 1884 Enterprise, Oregon M eMber O regOn n ewspaper p ublishers a ssOciatiOn P UBLISHER E DITOR R EPORTER R EPORTER N EWSROOM ASSISTANT A D S ALES CONSULTANT O FFICE MANAGER Marissa Williams, marissa@bmeagle.com Steve Forrester, editor@wallowa.com Stephen Tool, stool@wallowa.com Kathleen Ellyn, kellyn@wallowa.com editor@wallowa.com Jennifer Powell, jpowell@wallowa.com Cheryl Jenkins, cjenkins@wallowa.com p ublished every w ednesday by : EO Media Group Periodical Postage Paid at Enterprise and additional mailing offices Subscription rates (includes online access) Wallowa County Out-of-County 1 Year $40.00 $57.00 Subscriptions must be paid prior to delivery See the Wallowa County Chieftain on the Internet www.wallowa.com facebook.com/Wallowa | twitter.com/wcchieftain POSTMASTER — Send address changes to Wallowa County Chieftain P.O. Box 338 Enterprise, OR 97828 Contents copyright © 2017. All rights reserved. Reproduction without permission is prohibited. Volume 134 How to write a cookbook What’s cookin’, Wallowa County? I’ll tell you what. Today we’re going to walk through the steps on how to write a cook- book. I just became an authority on trying to do this, because I’ve been struggling to write a cookbook the last couple months. A lot of people ask me, “Jon, how is it that you became a tremendously acclaimed chef with no formal training and very lit- tle to no understanding of basic kitchen stuff?” Great question. I tell people in my seminars all the time that anything you can imagine doing – anything at all – is probably going to be much, much hard- er than you think. A lot harder. So you should just stick with what you know. Now and then you will be forced into trying new things, so in those situations it’s best to keep resisting, making excus- es and trying to duck out until finally you just have no choice. That’s exactly how I learned to cook, on Wallowa County riv- erbanks as an aspiring guide for Winding Waters River Expeditions. Rowing a boat through rapids I’d nev- er been through was far less scary than helping prepare meals. What if I burn the tenderloin, or don’t cook it enough? What is a dutch oven? Where, exactly, is the thin yellow line between over-easy and over-medium? So many questions. The answer for all of these was to watch people who knew what they were doing and copy them. There’s a lot of gifted cooks and chefs and bakers here in the Wallowas, which may account for our unusually robust potluck culture. A recent study of what AND FURTHERMORE Jon Rombach I think confirmed that Wallowa County probably has more potlucks per capita and square mile than other places. Just think about that statistic. Now stop thinking about that and let’s focus again on writing your cookbook. Use whatever ingredients you like in terms of recipes. I’m working on a great- est-hits collection of recipes requested by guests on river trips over the years. OK. Let’s begin. First step is to pre- heat where you will be writing. I use a drafty shack on my property as an office. It has a temperamental woodstove that’s hard to get going. Here’s a helpful tip: collect a wide range of different cook- books from used bookstores and garage sales. Not to read. You don’t want to be copying how other people do it. I use the old cookbooks to get the fire going. It can sometimes take fifteen or twenty crum- pled recipes. Once your writing shack has reached 70-some degrees it’s time to start adding words. In a blank document, combine your dry facts. This will be the cups of flour and the title and the teaspoons and whatever. Boring stuff. That’s really the secret to writing. Put all the boring things down first, and while your fingers are al- ready typing, trick them into adding all T he gifted cooks, chefs and bakers in the Wallowas may account for our unusually robust potluck culture the other stuff until you run out of room and then you’re done. Easy. All this recent recipe writing has me convinced that teaspoon and tablespoon look way too much alike and we need a new term for one of them. Even the abbre- viated versions are uncomfortably sim- ilar. Observe: tbsp and tsp. Wait, what? Oh, there’s a little “b” in there. Of course. No, not good enough. I hereby nominate “coffeespoon” instead of teaspoon. Now we got 1 tbsp of this and 1 csp of that. Aw, man, now “csp” and “cup” look too much alike. You see what I’m up against. The cookbook genre is actually a pretty tough racket. I may have to start consult- ing those reference guides instead of us- ing them as kindling. Good luck out there with your own cooking endeavors and we’ll be see- ing you soon once spring gets here and potluck season kicks off. Just remember to keep your teaspoons and teaspoons straight. Wait, no, tablespoons. See? So confusing. Jon Rombach is a local columnist for the Chieftain. Are you tough enough? “Katherine,” a friend recently ob- served, “You’re a pleasant person to be around, but I can see you’re not someone to be trifled with.” Well, Old Man Winter has messed with me long enough. I will allow 100 words to gripe and then return to my pleasant self. The triflings: 1. A 360 spin on top of Tollgate. 2. One week of flu. 3. Missing a turn during a white-out and becoming snowbound. I appreciated the timely arrival of Mike’s Towing, but that cash layout hurt. 4. Getting high-centered in my snow and ice covered driveway four times. 5. Slipping and falling when I walked in frustration to an appointment. 6. Missing my friends because snow berms prohibited parking. 7. Being trapped in the house with a tornadic terrier and a moody shepherd dog because below zero weather kept us inside. Okay, so that was 90 words. In spite of all this, however, I am grate- ful for: 1. Heidi Muller’s song, “In Wallowa.” I played this several times to avoid loading up my car and leaving. (That my vehicle was stuck in the snow was irrelevant at that moment.) The refrain, “We’re stick- ing it out in Wallowa” was quite apropos. WALLOWA GAL Katherine Stickroth 2. Neighbors who helped dig me out on more than one occasion. 3. Larry at Sports Corral placing new- ly purchased snow cleats on my boots. (My hands weren’t strong enough.) 4. Friends who brought me soup. 5. People who were mindful to stay home when they had a cold so as not to share it. 6. Lots of time to write. 7. The local Facebook community. 8. Dependable people from Grain Growers who kept my propane tank full. 9. Joyful reunions with friends at Safeway when I dashed out between storms to restock. 10. Bouncing calves cavorting around their mothers along the highway between Joseph and Enterprise. 11. A sneak-away to Imnaha to see if Spring might be coming. Saw robins! 12. Reported sightings of first butter- cups. A t-shirt should be designed with these words on front “Survivor– Wallowa Winter 2017.” On the back it could read Cemetery flourishing LETTERS to the EDITOR The Enterprise Cemetery has flour- ished greatly over the last two years. This has happened because of great ef- forts by the elected board of directors and public volunteerism. The current board members are seeking replacement members so that they can enjoy their retirements. There are 5 positions that need candidates to file by the 16 March O ld Man Winter has messed with me long enough deadline. Any resident of Enterprise is eligible to file and run and the rewards, though intrinsic, are visible when one walks from their home to and through our cemetery and back home again. A monthly business meeting of an hour or so is required as well as a desire to continue improving a community icon. Please consider and file by 16 March for a board position. David Hayslip, Board member candidate Enterprise, Oregon “Are you tough enough?” Speaking of tough, last week my 102 year old grandmother’s sister, whom I called Aunt Carrie, passed away. She never had children of her own, and was widowed at a young age. As a Southern lady to the nth degree, she had strong opinions (think Miss Daisy) and certain expectations of how young girls should grow up ladylike and proper. I was a consternation to her at times, but she taught me so much about determina- tion, strength of character, and doing the right thing. She was a classy dresser and at 100 years old sent a letter to Jergens crediting her lifelong beauty to using their lotion since she was 13 years old. Aunt Carrie helped raise three gener- ations of children. When she was hospi- talized recently and family called, she in- sisted, “Don’t worry about me. I’m fine.” Remembering her only brings a smile. She was tough all right, a real Steel Mag- nolia. Katherine Stickroth is a freelance writer who blogs at awallowagal.com. L etters to the Editor are subject to editing and should be limited to 275 words. Writers should also include a phone number with their signature so we can call to verify identity. The Chieftain does not run anonymous letters. You can submit a letter to the Wallowa County Chieftain in per- son; by mail to P.O. Box 338, En- terprise, OR 97828; by email to editor@wallowa.com; or via the submission form at the newspaper’s website, located at wallowa.com.