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4A COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL April 22, 2015 O PINION CONTACT YOUR ELECTED OFFICIALS Cottage Grove City Hall: 942-5501. www.cottage- grove.org/ Phone: (541) 682-4203 Fax: (541) 682-4616 Oregon State House of Representatives: Cottage Grove Mayor Tom Munroe: 942-5501. Rep. Cedric Hayden (REP) District: 007 900 Court Street NE Suite H-379 Salem, OR 97301 Phone: (503) 986-1407 Fax: (503) 986-1130 Email: rep.cedrichayden@ state.or.us Cottage Grove City Councilors: Mike Fleck, At Large: 942-7302 Heather Murphy, At Large: 942-3444 Rep. Peter A. DeFazio (DEM) District: 004 United States House of Rep- resentatives 2134 Rayburn House Offi ce Building Washington, DC 20515- 0001 Phone: (202) 225-6416 Fax: (202) 225-0032 Email: http://www.house. gov/formdefazio/contact. html United States Senate: Jake Boone, Ward 1: 653- 7413 Oregon State Senate: Sen. Floyd Prozanski (DEM) District: 004 900 Court Street NE Suite S-319 Salem, OR 97301-0001 Phone: (503) 986-1704 Fax: (503) 986-1080 Email: sen.fl oydprozanski@ state.or.us Jeff Gowing, Ward 2: 942-1900 Garland Burback, Ward 3: 337-3702 Kate Price, Ward 4: 954- 9810 Sen. Ron Wyden (DEM) District: 0S1 United States Senate 230 Dirksen Senate Offi ce Building Washington, DC 20510- 0001 Phone: (202) 224-5244 Fax: (202) 228-2717 Email: http://wyden.senate. gov/contact/ Governor: Kate Brown 160 State Capitol 900 Court Street Salem, Oregon 97301-4047 Phone: (503) 378-4582 Fax: (503) 378-6827 Lane County Commissioners: Faye Stewart, East Lane Commissioner Lane County Public Service Building 125 East 8th Street Eugene, OR 97401 United States House of Representatives: Sen. Jeff Merkley (DEM) District: 0S2 United States Senate 404 Russell Senate Offi ce Building Washington, DC 20510- 0001 Phone: (202) 224-3753 Fax: (202) 228-3997 Email: http://jmerkley.senate. gov/webform.htm Offbeat Oregon History French sailors miraculously saved from certain death on the bar BY FINN J.D. JOHN For the Sentinel Back in the 1800s, when a sailing barque struck bottom while crossing the Columbia River bar, its chances of survival were very close to zero. Sometimes a frantic throwing- overboard of everything in sight — cargo, cannons, livestock, anything — would lighten a ship enough to fl oat free. But it had to be done fast, because time was never on a stranded ship’s side. Ships usu- ally crossed the bar on an ebb tide, or on the slack tide just be- fore it started to ebb. That practice made sense. Getting caught on the bar when the tide was coming in — and colliding violently with the seven-knot current of the river water going out — was to be avoided at all costs. But it had some unpleasant implications for a ship that found itself stuck on the sandy bottom of the shoal waters of the bar. Every minute that went by, the tide dropped a fraction of an inch lower, leav- ing the ship a fraction of an inch higher and drier. So trying to lighten a stuck ship was a race against time and tide — a race that the forces of nature usually won. When that happened, the usu- al playbook involved the ship getting hammered against the sand for hours by the incom- ing breakers and swells, which would get especially powerful after the tide turned and started coming in. By the time the wa- ter was deep enough to fl oat a stranded ship, it usually had spent a good nine hours being mercilessly worked against the sand, popping nails and tearing ribs and sometimes even break- ing the ship’s back. If the wreck happened during good weather, the crew stood a great chance of surviving the shipwreck, even though their ship did not. But add a high wind driving heavy seas out of the southwest, and all bets were off. If the crew could just get the lifeboats launched, they could usually make it — most of them. But getting a lifeboat launched in a stranded ship with waves crashing into it is tricky even in the best conditions. Add a howl- ing gale, and it’s nearly impos- sible. And once all the lifeboats were gone, the chances of any remaining crewmembers mak- ing it to shore alive were prob- ably well north of 20 to 1. But every now and then, a ship would beat those odds. Such a ship was the Etoile du Matin, a French barque that found itself in terrible trouble on the bar in July 1849. The Etoile du Matin — usually referred to by the English trans- lation of its name, the Morning Star — had been across the bar a time or two before. This was the ship that had brought Archbish- op F.N. Blanchet back to Oregon with 20 priests and nuns, who would found many of Oregon’s Catholic communities and even convert Dr. John McLoughlin to the faith. Its captain, a fearsome red-bearded man of fl orid face and volcanic temperament, was named Francis Menes. On that particular day, Cap- tain Menes and his crew had been tacking back and forth off the mouth of the river for a week, waiting for a pilot to come out and help them work the ship across the bar. They were coming in from Le Havre, a seven-month journey, and were all very much ready to get some dirt back under their feet again. And they couldn’t fi gure out what the delay was. Then a coastwise schooner came up, making for the bar, and Menes hailed her. Her cap- tain explained to Menes what the problem was: The bar pilot had, a few months earlier, piled a British barque up onto the Middle Sands for a total loss. Knowing this was going to lead to embarrassing questions and/ or criminal charges, the bar pi- lot had thought the better part of virtue might be to run for it, and he’d left town immediately, ap- parently intending to lose him- self in the gold-rush crowds in San Francisco. We can only imagine the bi- lingual expressions of discon- tent that must have greeted this news. And Menes decided that, pilot or no pilot, he?d head into the river on the very fi rst favor- able wind. His chance came on July 11, when the heavy-laden Etoile du Matin turned into the bar, drawing 16 feet of water, and headed for the channel — or, rather, headed for what Menes’ two-year-old charts listed as the channel. Just off Sand Island, the big ship shuddered to a stop, skid- ding into the edge of the shoals, and a raging Captain Menes ran to the taff rail and hurled his charts into the sea. As (bad) luck would have it, the weather was freshening into a regular summer gale now, and the pounding wind-driven seas hammered the stranded ves- sel mercilessly into the sand, working the planks so that wa- ter started to fl ow into the bilge. Desperately the crew started trying to launch lifeboats, but as soon as they hit the water, they’d be dashed against the hull and knocked to splinters. Finally a crewmember vol- unteered to stay in the last boat as it was lowered, holding it in position with oars. But by this time, apparently, the tide was coming in, and the seas were getting huge. Just as the boat hit the water, a massive comber swept across the ship, tearing the boat away, and neither it nor the sailor was ever seen again. Please see OFFBEAT, Page 5A The truth about whole grains, rice and arsenic BY JOEL FUHRMAN, MD For the Sentinel A high-nutrient (Nutritar- ian) diet is largely fo- cused on vegetables, with all of their health- promoting vitamins, minerals and phyto- chemicals. Other foods used liberally in- clude beans, fruits, seeds and nuts, and whole grains, includ- ing whole grain rice. As the most widely consumed grain worldwide, rice serves as a sta- ple food for a large part of the world. However, not all rice is equally healthful. Rice varies by type and origin, which contrib- ute to both its nutritional con- tent and potential level of arse- nic contamination. A whole grain contains a $ PUUBHF ( SPWF 4 FOUJOFM 116 N. Sixth Street · P.O. Box 35 · Cottage Grove, OR 97424 ADMINISTRATION: JOHN BARTLETT, Regional Publisher.............................. 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In foreign countries, postage extra. No subscription for less than Ten Weeks. Subscription rates are subject to change upon 30 days’ notice. All subscritptions must be paid prior to beginning the subscription and are non-refundable. Periodicals postage paid at Cottage Grove, Oregon. Postmaster: Send address changes to P.O. Box 35, Cottage Grove, OR 97424. Local Mail Service: If you don’t receive your Cottage Grove Sentinel on the Wednesday of publication, please let us know. Call 942-3325 between 8:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. Advertising ownership: All advertising copy and illustrations prepared by the Cottage Grove Sentinel become the property of the Cottage Grove Sentinel and may not be reproduced for any other use without explicit written prior approval. Copyright Notice: Entire contents ©2015 Cottage Grove Sentinel. complete “kernel” that consists of three edible parts; the bran, endosperm and germ. Whole grain rice is classifi ed by the color of its bran, and there are four groups: brown, black, pur- ple and red. Wild rice is similar, but technically not in the rice family. The most commonly grown commercial rice is brown rice. When brown rice has its bran and germ removed, it is called white rice. This processing al- lows white rice to have a longer shelf life and shorter cooking time, but the healthful fi ber in the bran and benefi cial nutrients in the germ are lost. More color- ful pigmented whole grain rice varieties are becoming increas- ingly popular, and red, black, and purple rice exhibit higher antioxidant activity as compared to brown rice. Overall, black rice, which is rich in anthocya- nins, showed the highest antiox- idant levels of all rice varieties, followed by red and purple, then brown and lastly white rice. Arsenic is a toxic element that is naturally present in the earth’s crust. As such, it is found in the soil, water and some foods. In addition, some areas have in- creased concentrations of arse- nic as a result of industrial pol- lution, the use of arsenic-based drugs in poultry production, and arsenic-containing pesticides and fertilizers. All plants can absorb some ar- senic, but rice can absorb up to 10 times as much as other grains. This is due to how the rice (in- cluding wild rice) is grown, in fl ooded paddy fi elds. The soil in the fi elds, when covered with water, create conditions that al- low arsenic to be converted to more readily absorbable forms. Arsenic accumulates most in the outer layer of rice, which is the reason that whole grain rice, with its bran intact, can have up to 80 percent more arsenic than white rice. Arsenic is well recognized as a human carcinogen and chronic exposure (via inhalation or from high-arsenic drinking water) is a known cause of skin, lung and bladder cancer and is also asso- ciated with other cancers such as kidney, liver, and prostate. Studies have also demonstrated associations with noncancerous conditions, such as diabetes, heart and lung diseases, immu- nological effects, and impaired cognitive function. Although whole grain forms of rice have a superior nutri- tional profi le compared to white rice, they also have a higher risk of arsenic contamination. When you do eat whole grain rice, these are some ways to mini- mize arsenic exposure: Select whole grain rice grown in areas with low arsenic lev- els. Consumer Reports found that brown basmati rice from California, India or Pakistan has about a third of the inorganic ar- senic as compared to brown rice from other regions and would be the best choice. Rice grown in Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana and most other U.S. locations had the highest inorganic arse- nic levels, so would be better to avoid or minimize. Check companies’ websites. Some rice growers conduct indepen- dent testing for arsenic levels in their rice and post the results. There are also companies that harvest wild-growing rice from northern Wisconsin and Canada without the use of commercial fertilizers. Keep in mind that or- ganically-farmed rice may mean there is less pesticide use, but does not necessarily mean there are lower arsenic levels Rinse rice before cooking to reduce arsenic content. Rinse rice until the water becomes clear. Cook rice in a higher water volume. Research has shown that the amount of arsenic in rice can be reduced by approxi- mately 40 percent if the rice is boiled in a large volume of wa- ter. Cook rice using a 1-to-6 cup rice-to-water ratio, drain and discard the excess water. Eat a variety of starches—not just rice. On a Nutritarian diet, the most emphasized starch sources are beans, lentils and other legumes. There are also healthful starchy vegetables such as butternut squash, winter squash, carrots, beets, parsnips, rutabaga and turnips, and a va- riety of whole grains such as amaranth, barley, buckwheat, bulgur, farro, millet, and quinoa. If you utilize a variety of these foods, arsenic exposure from the occasional serving of rice will not be a concern. However, as a result of this arsenic issue, brown rice should not be eaten often and regularly. Letters to the Editor policy The Cottage Grove Sentinel receives many letters to the editor. In order to ensure that your letter will be printed, letters must be under 300 words and submitted by Friday at 5 p.m. Letters must be signed and must include an address, city and phone number or e-mail address for verifi cation purposes. No anonymous letters will be printed. Letters must be of interest to local readers. Personal attacks and name calling in response to letters are uncalled for and unnecessary. If you would like to submit an opinion piece, Another View must be no longer than 600 words. To avoid transcription errors, the Sentinel would prefer editorial and news content be sent electronically via email or electronic media. Hand written submissions will be accepted, but we may need to call to verify spelling, which could delay the publishing of the submission.
