4A • February 12, 2016 | Cannon Beach Gazette | cannonbeachgazette.com
Views from the Rock
When good governance makes good romance, too
I
n this day and age of the poli-
tics of extremes and the unfath-
omable divides of left and right,
a world tense with worry over the
latest terror strike, and a Wall Street
market that shows signs of throwing
a tsunami, it’s hard to get a good grip
on Valentine’s Day. I mean, really,
Cupid and his bow? Blushing lovers
holding hands? C’mon, now!
Lianne Thompson, a Clatsop
County Commissioner and Arch
Cape resident, celebrates her 71st
birthday Sunday, Valentine’s Day.
She accepted her marriage pro-
posal from Ralph Wyatt before their
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married in Cannon Beach just a few
days after it.
Policy wonks in love
Thompson and Wyatt met at an
Association of Oregon Counties lun-
cheon. She was attending as a dele-
gate to the Council for Forest Trust
Lands.
She’d “heard” of Wyatt before.
He was the savvy Linn County Ad-
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Both had been married before.
Wyatt, 76, was widowed with three
adult children after 54 years of mar-
riage.
Thompson has three children
from two previous marriages. De-
spite political differences — he’s a
registered Republican, she’s not —
they shared common values: “to do
good and have fun.”
“I was happy to see him because I
like smart, capable and humble peo-
ple,” Thompson said. “He sat next to
me at the luncheon but he didn’t look
at me. I wasn’t sure if he didn’t like
me or was shy.”
After the conference, “we kept
talking, so I decided he was shy,”
she said. “He’s low-key — what the
Chinese would describe as ‘wu-wei,’
generating energy without resis-
tance.”
The association’s December leg-
islative committee coincided with
the Annual Oregon Leadership Sum-
mit in Portland in mid-December.
Wyatt and Thompson were both
there.
“Listen, we’re policy wonks,”
Thompson said. “We talked about
everything. Politics, economic de-
velopment, good governance. Good
governance is essential to who I am
as a person, because I believe in de-
mocracy and so does he.”
CANNON SHOTS
R.J. MARX
A couple of days after the sum-
mit ended, Wyatt called Thompson.
“I’d like to get to know you better,”
he said. “Would you like to go to
lunch?”
“Here’s the deal,” Thompson
replied. “I said, ‘If you want to be
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interested in romance, I’m ready for
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not interested in a dalliance.’ We just
kept talking from there.”
On Dec. 28, Wyatt drove out to
Thompson’s home in Arch Cape
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dropped down to one knee and pro-
posed,’ she said. “And I said, ‘Ralph,
I will.’
“You get a good bureaucrat in ac-
tion and we know how to get things
done,” she added.
Did they kiss?
“Of course, silly!”
Tying the knot
“I knew nothing about him ex-
cept that I admired him and had the
intuition that we could have a long-
term, satisfying, complete marriage,”
Thompson said. “ I could see that.
But that’s how I am.
“I said, ‘I’ll meet you in Portland
on the 30th, get the ring, get the li-
cense and go to the symphony.’”
The ring, symbolizing Bud-
dhism’s “eight points of light,” was
“deep, subtle and beautiful,” and
resonated with Thompson’s own per-
sonal outlook.
Then there were family and
friends to notify.
Did Thompson care what other
people thought?
“That’s not how I live my life,”
Thompson said. “My son said, ‘Mom,
congratulations, best wishes I wish
you every happiness.’ My middle
daughter understands and supports
my decision. My youngest is not sure
mom gets to behave so impulsively.”
Wyatt’s children said “We sup-
port you, Dad,” he said. “There was a
small element of ‘What the hell were
you thinking?’”
While the Episcopal Church ad-
vised a 60-day wait, Thompson and
Wyatt were ready to tie the knot.
Clatsop County’s Community De-
velopment Director Heather Hansen
SUBMITTED PHOTO/CANNON BEACH GAZETTE
Ralph Wyatt and Lianne Th ompson share a romantic moment.
offered to conduct the civil ceremony
and Ann Fontaine provided the venue
in Cannon Beach.
Wyatt continues to live in Cor-
vallis and Thompson in Arch Cape.
He plans on retiring in 2016; in the
meantime, they get together every
chance they get.
“From my perspective, we are tru-
ly blessed,” Wyatt said. “My daugh-
ter described me as giddy, and I’m
probably still in that state.”
“It’s fricking amazing!” Thomp-
son said. “Who’da thunk it?”
Happy Valentine’s Day
Thompson has guidance for
those seeking a little more Valen-
tine’s Day romance in their lives.
“Do your work,” she advises. “Be
a contributor to the community. Do
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you. Be courageous about asking
what you want and being open to
what it looks like.
“Live in such a way with no re-
grets, to see as far as you can, be
kind to other people, be courageous
about taking risks. Be generous. It’s
great to spread joy instead of pain
and heartbreak.”
“Well, my advice would be, if
the door opens with opportunity,
SUBMITTED PHOTO/CANNON BEACH GAZETTE
go through the door,” Wyatt added.
“You’ve got to be careful, but if you Lianne Th ompson displays her
ring.
have the opportunity, go for it.”
If Tom McCall had been elected to the presidency
Library friends, if you’re any-
thing like me, Feb. is just about the
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arrive. I adore rain, wind, heavy surf,
and storms in general — but I’m
getting ready for buds on trees, the
blooming of bulbs, and being able to
leave the library door wide open!
But not too surprisingly, we at the
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of reading and special events.
Happy birthday to us!
Feb. is the month we celebrate
the birthday of our library — we
are 89 years old this year!! In 1927
eight Cannon Beach women put to-
gether a small library in a store in
town, checking out books on loan to
us each week from the state librar-
ian. Today, decades later, we have
University will be at the library as
part of our November to April HRAP
AT THE LIBRARY
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CARLA O’REILLY
lecture will be “Marine Mammals,
the Marine Mammal Stranding Net-
work and Marine Reserves”.
Three days later on Saturday,
nearly 15,000 books in our in-house Feb. 13, author Bill Hall will be
collection and thousands more in our speaking about his new
digital collection — a far cry from book “McCallandia.”
our tiny beginnings. We can be very In this year of poli-
proud of what we have achieved, tics, Mr. Hall focuses
made possible by community sup- on “what might have
porters, donors, and volunteers!
been,” if Oregon Gov-
February is also Library Lovers’ ernor Tom McCall
Month. For the entire month we will had become Richard
be celebrating all public and private Nixon’s successor as
libraries alike. But that’s not all for President of the Unit-
Feb..
ed States. The Au-
On Feb. 10 from 7 to 8:30 p.m., thor Series will be at
'U'HEELH'XI¿HOGRI2UHJRQ6WDWH 2 p.m. at the library.
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p.m. Feb. 17, the Cannon Beach
Reads group will be discussing this
month’s selection, The Heart is a
Lonely Hunter, by Carson McCull-
ers, which they’ve been reading.
Marjorie MacQueen is February’s
discussion leader. As always, new
members are welcome.
Other opportunities
Volunteers are need-
ed in several areas. Mem-
bers of the Adopt-a-Section
group need help organizing
and cleaning bookshelves
throughout our library. Vol-
unteers are also needed to
repair spine labels on books,
audiobooks, and DVDs. Book
pricers are needed during
preparation of books for our on-
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volunteers are always needed at the
circulation desk. If you have a little
time and can help us, please contact
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436-1391 or info@cannonbeachli-
brary.org.
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you learn to access books by means
of our eBooks program. Buddie is
also the person to contact if you
need help doing this, and we have
introductory materials available at
the circulation desk.
So as we work our way to the
sweeter weather of springtime,
this is a reminder that our Cannon
Beach Library stands ready to help
us get through what remains of win-
ter — stop in and warm up!
Finding the ‘quiet season’ isn’t so quiet in our city
I’ve been waiting for Cannon
Beach’s “quiet season” to hit The
Wine Shack and Provisions 124, but
I haven’t seen it yet. Yes, we’ve had
rainy days with only a couple of cus-
tomers, but we’ve been busy getting
the stores ready for summer.
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Wine Shack store and tasting room.
Contractor Todd Rowley, from TNT
Construction, did a beautiful job in-
stalling new lights which do a really
nice job of highlighting the wine bot-
tles. The bottles seem to sparkle with
the new lighting focused on them.
Todd also re-faced the front counter
with wine barrel staves laid out in a
weave pattern. I had seen this design
Publisher
Steve Forrester
Editor
R.J. Marx
Reporter
Lyra Fontaine
Advertising Manager
Betty Smith
Production Manager
John D. Bruijn
Circulation Manager
Heather Ramsdell
Advertising Sales
Laura Kaim
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Rose’ was “Best of Class” at Savor
STEVE SINKLER
Northwest and was named a “Top
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Pinot Gris 2015 is still in tanks, but
the labels have been approved and
before and I always thought it was an the wine should be bottled by the
interesting way to use old wine bar- end of February. We’re almost ready
rel staves. We also had a new Wine WRUHOHDVHRXU3XI¿QSLQRWQRLU
Shack sign made for inside the store. I’ve submitted it to the upcoming
Made by a metal shop in Austin, Tex- Savor Northwest Wine Competi-
as, the new Wine Shack signs helps tion, held here in Cannon Beach
create a fresh, slightly industrial, feel and I can’t wait for the judges to try
for the store and tasting room.
the wine. It’s elegant and delicious.
7KHQH[WYLQWDJHRI3XI¿QZLQHV We’ve been keeping a secret that we
are almost here! Our new 2015 Puf- FDQ¿QDOO\VKDUH7KH3XI¿QÀRFNLV
¿QURVpLVERWWOHGODEHOHGDQGUHDG\ H[SDQGLQJ WKLV VSULQJ 3XI¿Q FKDU
for me to pick up. This wine has big donnay 2015 will be released in ear-
UNCORKED RAMBLINGS
LETTER POLICY
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Letters must be 400 words or less and must be
1555 N. Roosevelt, Seaside, Oregon
signed by the author and include a phone number
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Email: editor@cannonbeachgazette.com 9285, or email rmarx@seasidesignal.com
CANNON BEACH GAZETTE
The Cannon Beach Gazette is published
every other week by EO Media Group.
ly spring. We’ve been collaborating
with John Derthick, the winemaker
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wines and I’m really excited to have
John make our new chardonnay.
John knows what he’s doing with
it come to the world’s most popular
white wine as evidenced by his 2013
Lujon chardonnay, which earned 91
points and was named a “Best Buy”
by Wine Enthusiast. The chardonnay
is still in oak barrels and should be
released by April. If you’re a char-
donnay fan, you’re going to be hap-
py.
We’ve also been working on a
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to debut in April. We’ve wanted to
SUBSCRIPTION RATES
Annually: $40.50 in county, $58.00 in and out of county.
Postage Paid at: Cannon Beach, OR 97110
POSTMASTER
Send address changes to Cannon Beach Gazette, P.O.
Box 210, Astoria, OR 97103
Copyright 2015 © Cannon Beach Gazette. Nothing can
be reprinted or copied without consent of the owners.
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bought the store and with the addi-
tion of the new chardonnay, the time
is right. We’ll release more details
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close to its launch.
We’re also doing some work in
Provisions 124 during the quiet sea-
son. We’ve added lighting to bright-
en up the store, added more local
food products and more artisanal
cheese. We’re also adding more in-
store signage to help cheese lovers
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With everything we’ve been
working on, it clearly isn’t the quiet
season.
Please drink responsibly.
THE NATIONAL AWARD-WINNING