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About Cottage Grove sentinel. (Cottage Grove, Or.) 1909-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 24, 2016)
4A COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL August 24, 2016 O PINION LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Easy fi x — No! Over a week ago, starting above Riverstone Trailer Park and going to- ward town, the County took a grinding machine, removing damaged asphalt and putting down a new surface almost to the City Limits (so nice). But from there, it was not so easy. Major digging starts because it was not maintained. Sixth Street is so bad that I take other streets to avoid it. Also, regarding the railroad crossing: I was told by a city offi cial it would be done months ago! Ike Shepherd Cottage Grove Review is common sense Thank you to the Lane County Com- missioners for considering a change to the initiative petition review process. It is common sense to have a review of a proposed measure prior to the election to ensure the County can implement it. It is unfair to petitions, voters and the County to expend efforts and resources on a ballot measure that the County cannot enact. In 1852, my family homesteaded in Lane County. My roots run deep in our community, and I am concerned about the ramifi cations of passing unenforce- able ordinances. Other counties have been pulled into litigation over the pas- sage of ballot measures they could not enact. We all should be encouraging our commissioners to move forward. Bill Hoyt Cottage Grove So long, wieners! The 2016 Weiner Dog Races have come to an end. The Weiner Dog Rac- es fl ame has been extinguished, and the dogs have left the track. We can now only look forward to the 2017 Weiner Dog Races when the fl ame will be lit again. Then that fl ame will be carried from the giant Weiner Dog statue in Coiner Park out to the new location for the races, the Western Oregon Exposition Fair. Congratula- tions to the winning wieners, and for the others, there’s always next year! Randy Stenersen Eugene Offbeat Oregon History The day a dead whale rained out of the sky on an Oregon town BY FINN J.D. JOHN For the Sentinel I t was a sunny November day on the beach near Florence, and Oregon Highway Department project manager George Thornton was standing near a very large, very dead whale, talking to a TV news crew. He was explaining the department’s plan for getting rid of the big, stinky thing. “Well, I’m confi dent that it’ll work,” he said, in the mild, competent drawl of a West Coast engineer. “The only thing is, we’re not sure just exactly how much explosives it’ll take to disintegrate this thing so the scavengers, seagulls and crabs and what-not, can clean it up.” Years later, the reporter, Paul Lin- nman, remembered this response well. “As the young producers on our staff today like to say, OH-MY-GOD!” he wrote in his 1996 book. “The engineer in charge of blowing up something that weighs eight tons doesn’t know how much dynamite to use? That should have been my reaction.” But, perhaps baffl ed by the very in- congruity of the response, Linnman simply rolled with it. “Any chance it could be more than a one-day job?” he asked. “Uh, if there’s any large chunks left,” said Thornton. Spoiler alert: There would be many large chunks left. The morning of Nov. 12, 1970, dawned bright and clear on the Flor- ence beach — clear and stinky. Up on the beach near the town, the rotting car- cass of a 45-foot, 16,000-pound whale slumped on the sand. It had lain there for three days, its black surface soaking up the unseasonable winter sunshine, pouring forth putrid gases that oozed out over the beach and the town. At that time, the beaches in Oregon were under the purview of the Oregon Highway Department, so the chore of disposing of the carcass fell to the highway engineers. They’d spent a little time trying to fi gure out how to handle the problem. The carcass could be simply buried in the sand, true; but it was winter, and storms often removed large amounts of sand. The fear was that the carcass would resurface in a month or two, even more putrid than ever. Or, worse, it could work its way up to just a few inches below the sur- face of the sand, and a strolling beach- comber could fall into it and drown in liquefi ed whale guts. An alternative might have been to drag it up high on the sand dunes and bury it. But by its third day cooking in the sun, that option was no longer viable. Any attempt to pull the thing would simply pull it apart. So, after some conversations with the U.S. Navy, the highway department de- cided to handle it as it would handle a boulder: with dynamite. There was a difference, though. Boulders were big and crunchy; dead whales were soft and blubbery. A cou- ple sticks of dynamite would probably have suffi ced to knock a boulder into the ocean. Thornton would have known exactly how much dynamite to use on a boulder. But a dead whale? And another thing. A boulder, blast- ed into the sea, would sink. A whale would fl oat along for a day or two and then be delivered back on shore by prevailing currents, stinkier and more unmanageable than ever. No, the whale would have to be disintegrated — torn into ribbons of blubber and bone. Now, had the whale not smelled quite so bad, Thornton might have spent a little more time in researching his project. But everyone was eager to get the whale off the beach. Thornton no doubt fi gured if it wasn’t enough to do the job, he could just set another charge. This would not turn out to be the case. But again, I’m getting ahead of myself. As Thornton and his crew were pack- ing case after case of DuPont’s fi nest into a big hole in the sand dug under the shoreward side of the carcass, a crew-cutted military-looking man ap- proached, looking the operation over with a practiced eye. He clearly did not like what he was seeing. This was Walter Uemenhoefer, a Springfi eld business executive with the Kingsford Charcoal company who had received extensive training in explo- sives handling in the military. He later told reporter Ben Raymond Lode of The Springfi eld News that he’d been in town on an undercover mission to scout a possible location for a Florence plant, and he had no idea how dramatically his cover was about to be blown. Right now, though, Uemenhoefer was not thinking about his mission. He was trying to explain to Thornton why using 20 cases of dynamite was the wrong decision here. What was really needed, he told Thornton, was a small charge, like 20 sticks, to push the whale off the beach and into the sea; or a much, much bigger one that would to- tally vaporize it. Twenty cases, he said, was just enough to make a big mess, and maybe hurt some people. Thornton blew the know-it-all stranger off. “The guy says, ‘Anyway, I’m gonna have everybody on top of those dunes far away,’” Uemenhoefer told reporter Wayne Freedman of San Francisco TV station KGO in an interview 25 years later. “I says, ‘Yeah, and I’m gonna be the furtherest SOB down that way!’” And so he would. But if Uemen- hoefer thought his involvement in the exploding whale project was over, he was sadly mistaken. Please see OFFBEAT, Page 10A Nuts: An important component of diabetes prevention BY JOEL FUHRMAN, MD For the Sentinel C omplications from dia- betes result from con- stant elevations in blood glu- cose, which damage the blood vessels and other tissues. Elevated blood glu- cose results in the for- mation of Advanced Glycation End Products (AGEs)—prod- ucts formed when sugars react with and damage proteins or fats in the body’s tissues, espe- cially the blood vessels. AGEs are produced at an accelerated rate in diabetes and contribute to its complications such as im- paired wound healing, diabetic nephropathy and atherosclero- sis. In addition to the AGEs pro- duced in the body due to excess glucose, some AGEs come from foods. Fried foods, meats and dry cooked starchy foods (roast- ed/fried potatoes, bread, crack- ers, cookies, muffi ns and other baked goods, cold cereals, etc.) are high in AGEs. Dangerously high levels of AGEs are found in barbecued and overly cooked chicken and meat. In designing a diet to prevent $ PUUBHF ( SPWF 4 FOUJOFM 116 N. Sixth Street · P.O. Box 35 · Cottage Grove, OR 97424 ADMINISTRATION: JOHN BARTLETT, Regional Publisher.............................. GARY MANLY, General Manager................942-3325 Ext. 207 • publisher@cgsentinel.com ROBIN REISER, Sales Repersentative...............942-3325 Ext. 203 • robin@cgsentinel.com TAMMY SAYRE, Sales Repersentative......... 942-3325 Ext. 213 • tsayre@cgsentinel.com SPORTS DEPARTMENT: SAM WRIGHT, Sports Editor...................942-3325 Ext. 204 • sports@cgsentinel.com CUSTOMER SERVICE CARLA WILLIAMS, Office Manager.................942-3325 Ext. 201 • billing@cgsentinel.com LEGALS.............................................................942-3325 Ext. 200 • legals@cgsentinel.com NEWS DEPARTMENT: JON STINNETT, Editor......................................942-3325 Ext. 212 • cgnews@cgsentinel.com GRAPHICS: RON ANNIS, Graphics Manager (USP 133880) or reverse type 2 diabetes, we should aim to limit after-meal increases in blood glucose and to avoid dangerous AGEs by choosing major calorie sourc- es with a low glycemic load (GL)—foods that provoke rela- tively small increases in blood glucose. An important point here is to choose high nutrient, low GL foods, not just any low GL food—this is where some conventional diabetes diets fall short. Meat is a low GL food, but higher meat consumption is associated with reduced lifespan and increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes; the diabetes risk is likely due to weight gain and AGE content. A diabetic diet emphasizing meat sacrifi ces long-term health for short-term glycemic control. A low fat veg- an diet emphasizing these foods in place of refi ned carbohy- drates has shown some success with improving glycemic con- trol. However, these diets tend to increase triglyceride levels (a risk factor for heart disease), and cooked grains and starches are not ideal calorie sources for diabetics because they still have a signifi cant GL, as you can see below: White potato: 29 White rice: 23 Whole grain (brown rice): 18 Beans (black or kidney): 7 Legumes (lentils): 5 Nuts (cashews): 3 Beans, and nuts (and seeds) are high in nutrients and low in GL, and are far more appropri- ate than grains and meat as ma- jor calorie sources for diabetics. Beans and legumes are higher in fi ber and resistant starch than whole grains, with a lower GL. Beans have been shown to be superior to whole grains for im- proving blood glucose and car- diovascular risk factors in type 2 diabetics. Regular consumption of nuts and seeds also has well documented cardiovascular benefi ts, including cholesterol lowering and reduced risk of sudden cardiac death and coro- nary heart disease. In addition to reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease, nuts have a number of properties that make them a favorable food for diabetics. Nuts are a high-nutri- ent source of plant protein, fi ber, antioxidants, phytosterols and minerals. Nuts provoke a mini- mal glycemic response, which helps to prevent post-meal hy- perglycemia, hyperinsulinemia, and AGE production. Adding nuts reduces the GL of an en- tire meal while adding benefi - cial phytochemicals. Eating nuts with meals also helps with weight maintenance—important since overweight/obesity is the primary risk factor for diabetes. Despite their calorie density, greater nut consumption is asso- ciated with lower body weight; potentially due to appetite-sup- pression from healthy fats. Nuts also have anti-infl ammatory ef- fects that may help to prevent insulin resistance. In a recent study HbA1C, an indicator of long term glyce- mic control, was measured in diabetics consuming either 2.5 ounces/day of mostly raw mixed nuts or an equivalent number of calories in a muffi n—a cooked starchy food (the muffi n had the same amount of fi ber and calo- ries as the nuts). HbA1C levels were lower in the nut group, suggesting long term protec- tion from hyperglycemia when replacing carbohydrate foods with nuts. This new data cements the re- sults of previous observational studies that have found inverse relationships between nut con- sumption and diabetes. For ex- ample, the Nurses’ Health Study found a 27 percent reduced risk of diabetes in nurses who ate fi ve or more servings of nuts per week. Among nurses who already had diabetes, this same quantity reduced the risk of heart disease by 47 percent. Nuts are an important part of any diet designed to reverse heart disease or diabetes along with green vegetables, beans and low sugar fruits. In a study on type 2 diabetics following the diet-style I outline in my book The End of Diabetes, we found that 90 percent of participants were able to come off all dia- betic medications, and the mean HbA1c after one year was 5.8 percent, which is in the non-dia- betic (normal) range. All people with type 2 (and also type 1) di- abetes should read this book. In the case of a type two diabetic, they could resolve their diabetes completely and in the case of a type one, they can reduce their insulin needs by more than 50 percent and prevent much suf- fering and a premature death. Nuts, seeds, beans, and vegeta- bles not only keep glucose lev- els in check, but protect against heart disease and cancer. Dr. Fuhrman is a #1 New York Times best-selling author and a board certifi ed family physician specializing in lifestyle and nu- tritional medicine. His books, The End of Diabetes and The End of Heart Disease, offers detailed plans to prevent and re- verse diabetes and heart disease using a nutrient-dense, plant- rich eating style. Visit his infor- mative website at DrFuhrman. com. Subscription Mail Rates in Lane and Portions of Douglas Counties: Ten Weeks ............................................. $9.10 One year ..............................................$36.15 e-Edition year .......................................$36.00 Rates in all other areas of United States: Ten Weeks $11.70; one year, $46.35, e-Edition $43.00. 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. 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