CRREADER.COM • Vol. XVI, No. 1 • April 15 – May 15, 2019 • COMPLIMENTARY Helping you discover and enjoy the good life in the Columbia River region at home and on the road
WHERE DO
YOU READ THE
READER
?
page 36-37
EASY PACKING WITH A LLAMA page 16
FANTASY ART AT THE ALCOVE GALLERY page 35
page 30
COLUMBIA RIVER
dining guide
Impresario GIAN PAUL MORELLI
CRR COLLECTORS CLUB
EVENTS • BOOKS • SUBSCRIPTIONS We’ve recently added two wonderful new CRR series and reprised our popular historical chronicle, Michael Perry’s “Dispatch from the Discovery Trail.” Adding writer and filmmaker Hal Calbom, creator of “People+Place,” and renowned naturalist Robert Michael Pyle to our stable of monthly contributors prompted many of you to ask the same question:
“Can we subscribe to the Reader and not miss a single issue?” We’re listening! We’ve responded to your suggestions and are introducing a bonus: a line of CRR-published and distributed books. Welcome to our latest innovation: the CRR Collectors Club. We’re not just celebrating the Columbia River lifestyle and good reads — we’re collectible!
LEWIS AND CLARK REVOLUTIONIZED
What really — truly — happened during those final wind-blown, rain-soaked thirty days of the Lewis and Clark Expedition? Southwest Washington author and explorer Rex Ziak revolutionized historical scholarship by providing the answers: day by day and week by week. We’re delighted to offer In Full View, and Rex’s other two books, one with an extraordinary fold-out map, as our inaugural offerings from CRR Collectors Club.
IN FULL VIEW Rex Ziak
Announcing a special subscription program which includes a host of other benefits to membership, including special events and author access, book signings and readings, as well as the convenience and efficiency of monthly home delivery.
ENJOY THESE CRR REGULAR FEATURES $29.95
A true and accurate account of Lewis and Clark’s arrival at the Pacific Ocean, and their search for a winter camp along the lower Columbia River.
EYEWITNESS TO ASTORIA Gabriel Franchére
THE READER COMES HOME!
$21.95
The newly edited and annotated by Rex Ziak version of Franchére’s 1820 journal, Narrative of a Voyage to the Northwest Coast of America in the Years 1811, 1812, 1813 and 1814, or The First American Settlement on the Pacific.
Alan Rose Books • Miss Manners Civilized Life • Marc Roland Wine Alice Slusher Northwest Gardening • Tracy Beard Out and About Ted Gruber and Greg Johnson Astronomy Debra Tweedy Quips & Quotes • Tiffany Dickinson Happenings Perry Piper Lower Columbia Informer • Ned Piper The Spectator Dr. Bob Blackwood Movies • Columbia River Dining Guide CRR Readers Where Do You Read the Reader?
CRR EXCLUSIVES AND CONTINUING SERIES People + Place
Hal Calbom’s photos and interviews
The Natural World
Bob Pyle’s essays and commentary
Lewis and Clark
Michael Perry’s Dispatch from the Discovery Trail
Annual subscription: 11 issues $55. Order by mail using the form below or via credit card or PayPal on our website www.crreader.com. Questions? Call 360-636-3097.
CRR Press 1333 14th Ave. Longview, WA 98632
CRR COLLECTORS CLUB
Name______________________________________
DOWN AND UP Rex Ziak
$18.95
A unique fold-out guide mapping day-by-day Lewis and Clark’s journey from the Rockies to the Pacific Ocean and back. All book orders to include shipping and handling charge. All book and subscription orders to include, if applicable, Washington State sales tax. 2 / Columbia River Reader / April 15 – May 15, 2019
___@ $29.95 = _______
In Full View
Eyewitness to Astoria ___@ $21.95 = _______ Down and Up
___ @ $18.95 = _______
Street______________________________________
Add Book Shipping & Handling
City/State/Zip________________________________
email_______________________________________
11-issue Subscription ___@ $55 = __________ Start with next issue
Phone _____________________________________
Sub-Total ______________
Washington residents add sales Tax
$3.90
8.1%__________
TOTAL _________________
(Check payable to CRR Press enclosed)
W
elcome to the April issue. This month’s People+Place feature takes us behind the scenes at the Columbia Theatre and shines the spotlight on its executive director, Gian Paul Morelli. Gian often tells the audience, “This is YOUR Columbia Theatre.” It’s true.
Sue’s Views
When my son Perry was 11, he had a part in “Annie,” the musical produced in the theatre’s three-week summer camp for kids. I knew I’d want to see all four performances, so I volunteered to play clarinet in the orchestra (luckily, there were no auditions). There in the pit I had plenty of time to look around at the old-made-new interior, with its gleaming brass door hardware, amber mica chandeliers, and fancy wrought iron grillwork and ornamentation. Memories flooded back. For the first time, I realized what a community treasure this theatre is. As a young girl growing up in Longview, I didn’t know the Columbia was special. I spent many Saturday afternoons there in the late 50s and 60s. You got a lot for your money at the double-feature-with-cartoonsand-newsreel Saturday matinee. With the “four bits” my dad advanced me from the next week’s allowance, I paid for my ticket and three 5-cent Publisher/Editor: Susan P. Piper Columnists and contributors: Tracy Beard Dr. Bob Blackwood Hal Calbom Tiffany Dickinson Alice Dietz Ted Gruber Jim LeMonds Michael Perry Ned Piper Perry Piper Robert Michael Pyle Marc Roland Alan Rose Rosemary Siipola Alice Slusher Debra Tweedy Production Manager/ Photographer: Perry E. Piper Editorial/Proofreading Assistants: Merrilee Bauman Tiffany Dickinson Michael Perry Marilyn Perry Debra Tweedy Advertising Manager: Ned Piper, 360-749-2632 Columbia River Reader, llc 1333 14th Ave • Longview, WA 98632 P.O. Box 1643 • Rainier, OR 97048 Office Hours: M-W-F • 11–3* *Other times by chance or appointment Website: www.CRReader.com E-mail: publisher@crreader.com Phone: 360-749-1021
size — holding nearly a quarter of the new city’s population. It was a firstclass luxury theatre, too. But over the years, vaudeville died and it became a movie theatre, its condition gradually declining as television, drive-in movies and finally multi-screen cineplexes pulled away audiences. The Columbia was scheduled to be torn down, but the 1980 eruption of Mt. St. Helens delayed the planned demolition long enough for Virginia Rubin, a local interior designer and former radio actress, to rally support to save it. (Note: The Plaza in front of the Theatre is named in honor of Virginia Rubin.) Over the years since then, the theatre has been transformed and some great shows staged there.
It’s OUR Columbia Theatre. candy bars chosen from my favorites, Milk Duds, Junior Mints, Walnettos, Sugar Babies or Big Hunk.
For me, highlights include singer Don McLean (Bye Bye Miss American Pie, And I Love You So), the Smothers Brothers (YoYo Man), Ed Asner (who called Perry “a genius” for fixing Asner’s cell phone), Judy Collins, Arlo Guthrie and Peter Yarrow. I can still feel the energy and excitement of
Photo by Hal Calbom
Cover Design by
Where else could an ordinary person like me have the chance to play in the orchestra for a Broadway musical, while watching her own son perform on stage, and in a historic, world-class theatre? And there was another thing. When the flighty Miss Hannigan appeared on stage wearing a black rayon crepe, roseflowered, flouncy dress, I immediately recognized it as one I’d donated 15 years prior to the R.A.Long High School theatre department, where my good friend Marty Freeman was in charge of costumes. What goes around comes around, they say. It must be true. And Gian Paul Morelli is right. It is our theatre. Even my old dress made it into the spotlight.
Sue Piper
In this Issue
ON THE COVER
See story, pg. 19
Sitting in the orchestra pit for “Annie” in Longview some 18 years ago, I felt an odd combination of nostalgia, discovery and gratitude.
Columbia River Reader . . . helping you discover and enjoy the good life in the Columbia River region at home and on the road.
When it was built in 1925, the Italian Renaissance-style Columbia Theatre was huge for a town Longview’s
Gian Paul Morelli, Executive Director of the Columbia Theatre for the Performing Arts.
audiences packing these events, proud to think that big name entertainers were visiting our town.
4
CRR Collectors Club
5
Miss Manners
7
Dispatch from the Discovery Trail ~ Just the Grizzly Facts
9
The Threshold Choir
11
Medical Matters
12
Roland on Wine:
16
Out & About ~ Lighten the Load with Llamas
18
People+Place Recommended Books
19-22 People + Place ~ Setting the Stage: Gian Paul Morelli Columbia River Reader is published monthly, with 15,000 copies distributed free in the Lower Columbia region. Entire contents copyrighted by Columbia River Reader. No reproduction of any kind allowed without express written permission of the publisher. Opinions expressed herein belong to the writers, not necessarily to the Reader.
23
Essay by Robert Michael Pyle: The Territory of Tint
25
Northwest Gardening: A Slug-fest in your Garden
26
Besides CRR, What Are You Reading?
27
Cover to Cover ~ Bestsellers List / Book Review
30
Lower Columbia Dining Guide
Submission guidelines: page 28.
31
Movies by Dr. Bob Blackwood
General Ad info: page 14
32
Lower Columbia Informer ~ My trek back to Latinalia
33
Astronomy ~ Night Sky Report
34
Quips & Quotes
35
Local Art: Neo-Fantasy Art at the Alcove Gallery
Ned Piper 360-749-2632.
CRREADER.COM Visit our website for the current issue and archive of past issues from 2013,
Subscriptions $55 per year inside U.S. (plus $4.40 sales tax for subscriptions mailed to Washington addresses). See form, page 2.
28-29 Outings & Events Calendar/ Hikes
36-37 Where Do You Read the Reader? 38
The Spectator ~ People+Place One Year Later
38
Plugged In to Cowlitz PUD Columbia River Reader / April 15 – May 15, 2019 / 3
Your security is our business! Business, Residence & Automotive Locksmithing SERVING Battle Ground • Castle Rock • Cathlamet • Chehalis • Kalama • Kelso • La Center • Longview Napavine • Ridgefield • Toledo • Toutle • Vader • Winlock • Woodland • Rainier • St. Helens • Clatskanie
2025 9th Ave. Suite 110 Longview, WA
360-423-4443
Licensed•Bonded•Insured Serving Cowlitz County Since 1980
Achieving Excellence Property Management Commercial Sales Leasing and Development
360-425-3700
www.rodmanrealty.com
WAREHOUSE CLEARANCE SALE Mill Closeout 1st Quality Carpet
River City Singers to perform in St. Helens, Clatskanie, then on to New York Taking on a repertoire edited by Maestro John Rutter, Columbia County’s own masterworks choir, the River City Singers, is offering a series of concerts this spring. “Cathedral Reflections” will be performed on Sunday April 28th at 7 pm at the First United Methodist Church, 560 Columbia Blvd., St. Helens, and on Saturday, May 4th at 2 pm at the Birkenfeld Theatre, located within the Clatskanie Cultural Center, 75 S. Nehalem, Clatskanie. Tickets are $10. Later in May, a group of River City Singers choristers will go on to New York City to join a massed choir in singing these works at Carnegie Hall under the direction of Maestro Rutter. The choir thanks the Columbia County Cultural Coalition for its generous grant, which made their local concerts possible.
Local Credit Unions Host Shred Day The 13th annual Shred Day event is Saturday, April 20, 10–2. Citizens can bring up to three 10-ream paper boxes to be shredded securely and professionally for free. Monetary and non-perishable food donations for area food banks will be gladly accepted. Cowlitz and Clark County credit unions, with help from the Southwest Washington Chapter of Credit Unions, are sponsoring the event to fight identity theft. Shred Day Sites: Longview: Behind Fibre Federal Credit Union Main Branch, 820 12th Ave., Longview. East Vancouver: 2nd Ave & Mill Plain Blvd. (Next to JC Penney).
Your Columbia River Reader
Read it. Enjoy it. Share it. Recycle it.
Columbia River Reader is printed with environmentally-sensitive soy-based inks on paper manufactured in the Pacific Northwest utilizing the highest percentage of “postconsumer waste” recycled content available on the market.
Plastics
Longview only accepts plastic numbers 1 and 2
Reminder
• 25 yr Wear • 25 yr Defects • 25 yr Soil Resistence • 25 yr Texture Retention • Lifetime Pet Warranty
Glass No Longer Accepted - Since Jan 1, 2019
Please place your glass bottle and jars in your green garbage container or you may bring them directly to Waste Control for recycling
Acceptable
SALE $149Reg $2.99 • 15 Rolls, 3,000 Yards! in d 53r Yearss! Busine
Unacceptable
• Milk jugs • Soda and water bottles • Peanut butter or salad dressing containers
Some grocer y stores now use #2 plastic bags, which are acceptable. Empty contents and rinse lightly. Throw away plastic lids and caps.
Please do not place your recyclables in plastic bags Place directly into your BROWN recycling container
In an effort to serve you better, the City has compiled common information that residents often request, plus created an easy way for you to communicate with us.
Got a question? Just Ask Longview!
• Toys • Styrofoam • Pet carriers • Plastic caps • Lawn furniture • Prescription bottles • Plastic coat hangers • Motor oil, pesticide or other solvent bottles • Plastic packing peanuts • Clear plastic cups & tubs
Most plastic bags are a solid color, preventing sorters from seeing the contents. Used needles or other hazardous materials are sometimes found; for safety reasons, such bags are not opened up.
Recycling Rule of Thumb: Reuse or donate if possible, but... When in doubt — throw it out!
Hours: 9–5:30 pm • Sat 9–4pm
WA LIC. COLUMR529 LQN, OR: 145 www.Carpetone.com
105 B. Street West Rainier, OR Phone: 503-556-0171 Toll Free: 800-886-0171
4 / Columbia River Reader / April 15 – May 15, 2019
- Check out the new and improved -
www.longviewrecycles.com
Civilized Living DEAR MISS MANNERS: Although I did not comment, I was offended when a dinner guest got up from the table and fed her steak to her dog. She has no dietary restrictions, so I can only assume she didn’t like it. By Judith Martin, Nicholas Ivor Martin and Jacobina Martin
DEAR MISS MANNERS: In our office, we frequently have a catered lunch that is served buffet-style. The meal is set up by a team of employees. This group announces that the meal is being served, and all the managers rush to the head of the line to serve themselves ahead of the rest of the employees. I was taught that management, or those hosting the party, serve themselves last. I am about to be
AGENT SPOTLIGHT~
J
promoted to the management team. What is one to do? I hate feeling incorrect. GENTLE READER: Then set a good example. Having been promoted, you have a unique opportunity to do this. Miss Manners recommends that you take full advantage, telling your new cohorts, “Let’s let the other employees eat first as a show of appreciation for how hard they work.” She further permits you to do it in a loud voice, if you must, in order to get full credit.
Jo Ann Crayne!
o Ann has been in real estate for almost 30 years, 9 in ownership and the remaining doing what she loves most — working with her clients, buyers and sellers. Jo Ann considers her clients’ needs above all. She has a strong referral business because her customers feel valued and listened to when working with her. Her expertise gives them confidence that their needs will be met.
When not working, she enjoys her family. Her grandchildren bring her and her husband great joy as do their children and plentiful extended family of 10 siblings and more! Reading, fishing and quilting also fill her time as well as community projects and involvement with several non-profits in our area like CASA, 100 Women Who Care and more. Giving back to the community that has supported her for so many years is a priority to her.
The other guests consumed every morsel, so I know it wasn’t because it was not tasty. My husband says I am being over-sensitive. What do you think? GENTLE READER: That you should stop allowing guests to bring their dogs to your dinner parties. DEAR MISS MANNERS: I’ve been invited to a party. The hours are from 6 p.m. until 10 p.m. Am I required to be there the entire time? I had hoped to stay until the end so I can help my host with cleaning up afterward. GENTLE READER: How long you are required to remain depends on the nature of the party. Leaving in the middle of a sit-down meal is rude, while holding out past the end of a cocktail party may be equally rude.
WO
DEAR MISS MANNERS: What is the proper etiquette for attendance at a wake or funeral for someone you do not like, or had a “falling out with” years ago with no chance of recovering the friendship? I have faced this twice: Once was an ex-boss, the other, an ex-friend. I feel that it looked bad or was deemed unprofessional that I did not attend a four-hour celebration of life that co-workers attended. In the other case, I believed my attendance was hypocritical for both the dead and their family. These instances happened years ago, yet I carry the question. cont page 32
RKSHOP
S
Workshops and inspiration for Mom and you!
Kelso/Longview • 360-636-4663 209 W. Main St, Suite 200 • Kelso, WA
Cathlamet • 360-795-0552
Miss Manners presumes that your desire to clean up is altruistic — you want to be helpful, rather than enjoying the act itself. But she assures you that if you reciprocate the invitation, you can clean up your own party rather than hanging around the kitchen at your friend’s.
SHOWROOM, GALLERY, BOUTIQUE and PAINT WORKSHOP
102 Main St, Suite 200 • Cathlamet, WA
360.636.0712
Mon- Fri: 8:30–5:30
1267 Commerce Avenue www.teaguesinteriors.com
Your Regional Source for Art and Decorating
Get the best care for your loved one.
Openings NOW!
Adult Family Home Advantages
360-703-5830
P In Home Doctor Visits P Home Cooked Meals P Locally Owned P 6 to 1 Caregiver Ratio P Small Homelike Setting P 24-Hour Registered Nurses Support P Memory Care Experts P Therapies in Home P Licensed facilities that exceed state standards
www.thehavenslongview.com
PREMIE
R SENIO
R CARE
The Havens is a group of 11 premier, independently owned and operated homes. Drop in for a tour any time!
Member SIPC
Columbia River Reader / April 15 – May 15, 2019 / 5
REAL ESTATE TIPS by Mike Wallin
Be proactive: Head off problems in the home sale before they happen
T
oo many home sellers feel that their listing agent is responsible for everything that comes after signing the listing agreement. Nothing could be further from the truth. The homeowner is an active participant in many aspects of the sales process, from settling on the listing price to preparing the home for the market and being flexible when buyers’ agents request a tour. While the 2019 real estate market will not likely be moving at the warp speed of last year and the year before, it’s still a prime time to sell a home, so expect lots of activity when you list your home. Then is not the time to prepare – that time is right now. Taking certain steps right now ensures smooth sailing through the entire process. “If you’re proactive, you focus on preparing. If you’re reactive, you end up focusing on repairing,” according to American author John C. Maxwell. And, we agree.
Consider a pre-sale inspection
When we live in a home for some time we naturally assume we know about all of its problems. Wrong. We often see homeowners who are caught completely by surprise when the home inspector’s report turns up problems. Depending on the scope of the problems, the deal can end up significantly delayed or even derailed. Knowing all of the home’s problems prepares you for what is to come. And, should you decide not to make the repairs, it can help you more appropriately price the home for its condition.
Internal Medicine & Preventative Care Open Every Day for Your Convenience Holidays & Weekends Included
Make the repairs that lenders/ insurers commonly demand
If your buyer is using an FHA- or VA-backed mortgage, the lender may require certain repairs before agreeing to lend money to the buyer. Typically, the lender will take issue with any problems dealing with the health and safety of the home’s occupants.
APPOINTMENTS NOW AVAILABLE
Sure, it sounds like a lot of work, but being proactive saves you time and helps you make more money on the sale of your home.
Questions? We are happy to help.
Mike Wallin
Five Star Broker, REALTOR
Highest Rated Locally 360-560-3636 CELL michaelkwallin@gmail.com 1140-11th Ave., Longview, WA By appointment only
To read the full article and learn more, log onto
www.mikewallin.com
Richard A. Kirkpatrick, M.D., FACP
Britta C. Fischer, BS, PA-C
Brooke Wethington, Karen L. Joiner, MPAS, BS, PA-C RN, MSN, ARNP
Dara M. Newberry, Rachel Roylance, RN, MSN, DNP BS, MPAP, PA-C
Carol Sayles, RN, MSN, ARNP
Bev Search, RN, FNP, MA, ARNP
Melanie Hughes, BS, MPAS, PA-C
Vlad Bogin, M.D., FACP
We Accept Most Insurance Plans
Extended clinic hours: Mon-Fri, 8am to 8pm Sat, 9am to 1pm Sun, Noon to 4pm
360-423-9580
1706 Washington Way, Longview
ON THE CIVIC CENTER www.kirkpatrickfamilycare.com
Kirkpatrick Foot & Ankle • American Board of Podiatric Surgery • Diabetic Foot Care • Ingrown Toenails • Heel & Arch Pain • Foot Surgery
Ye a r s Over 20 rience of Expe
• Fungal Conditions Mark Rawson, DPM, Podiatrist
• Board Certified in Wound Care
360-575-9161
783 Commerce Ave. Suite 120 BOTH BUSINESSES UNDER SAME OWNERSHIP 6 / Columbia River Reader / April 15 – May 15, 2019
Lewis & Clark
On the road again after wintering in Fort Mandan
A
“Handsome Falls,” renamed Rainbow Falls by a railroad surveyor in 1872, had a 47-foot drop. It was one of the five major waterfalls encountered by the Lewis and Clark expedition at presentday Great Falls, Montana. Dams have diverted the water to generate electricity, but it is possible to see where some of the falls used to be. The railroad bridge shown in this picture was built in 1901, and the dam was completed in 1910. Photo by
bout this time 214 years ago, the Corps of Discovery had resumed their westward trek after wintering at Fort Mandan. During the winter of 1804, Lewis and Clark pulled together all available information about what might lie ahead. Besides the maps they brought from St. Louis and obtained from several explorers, they recorded information from Indians. They had great hopes the maps they would be relying on were accurate. As they made their way across present-day North Dakota and Montana, they were pleased to find rivers where the Indians had told them they would be. Progress up the Missouri River after leaving Fort Mandan on April 7, 1805, was better than expected. The Corps reached the present-day border between North Dakota and Montana on April 26th. Michael Perry enjoys local history and travel. His popular 33-installment Lewis & Clark series appeared in CRR’s early years and began its second “encore” appearance in April 2018.
Lewis & Clark Encore We are pleased to present
Installment #12 of Michael Perry’s popular 33-month series which began with CRR’s April 15, 2004 inaugural issue. “Dispatch from the Discovery Trail” helped define and shape Columbia River Reader in its early years during the Bicentennial Commemoration of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Each installment covered their travels during the corresponding month 200 years prior. We are repeating the series for the enjoyment of both longtime and more recent readers.
Don’t Rock the Boat! On May 14, 1805, disaster struck the white pirogue. In it were Sacajawea and Pomp, along with her husband Charbonneau, and five other men. Clark wrote, “a Squawl of wind Struck our Sale broad Side and turned the perogue nearly over, and… She nearly filed with water – the articles which floated out was nearly all caught by the Squar who was in the rear. This accident had like to have cost us deerly; for in this perogue were embarked, our papers, Instruments, books, medicine, a great proportion of our merchandize, and in short almost every article indispensably necessary to… insure the success of the enterprise.” Lewis tells us, “Charbono was at the helm of this Perogue… Charbono cannot swim and is perhaps the most timid waterman in the world… Capt. C. and myself were both on shore… spectators of her fate.” Charbonneau panicked as the wind, “turned her… topsaturva. Capt. C. and myself both fired our guns to attract the attention…, but they did not hear us… they suffered the perogue to lye on her side for half a minute before they took the sail in, the perogue then wrighted but had filled within an inch of the gunwales; Charbono still crying to his god for mercy, had not yet recollected the rudder, nor could the repeated orders of the Bowsman, Cruzat, bring him to his recollection until he threatened to shoot him instantly if he did not take hold of the rudder and do his duty.” Two men bailed out the water with kettles as the other three rowed to shore. A very close call, but it wasn’t the first time; just a month earlier, Charbonneau had almost overturned the same boat under similar conditions. Capt. Clark: Romance on his mind? On May 29th, while traveling through the Missouri River Breaks section now designated a National Wild and Scenic River, Clark named the “Judith River” in honor of Julia (Judy) Hancock, a 13-year old girl in Virginia he would marry three years later. Captain Lewis didn’t mention it in his journal and probably didn’t approve of naming the river after a young girl, but two weeks later he did a similar thing. Is this the way to the Great Falls? On June 2nd, near present-day Loma, Montana, they came upon a fork in the river not shown on their maps. The Captains had been told there was only one major northern river between the Mandan villages and the Great Falls of the Missouri; the Indians called it “the river which
Marilyn Perry
scolds at all others.” The Corps had passed such a river three weeks earlier and named it the Milk River due to its white color. So, what was this “extra” river doing here? Lewis wondered which river the Indians “had discribed to us as approaching very near to the Columbia river. To mistake the stream… and to ascend such stream to the rocky Mountain or perhaps much further before we could inform ourselves whether it did approach the Columbia or not, and then be obliged to return and take the other stream would not only loose us the whole of this season but would probably so dishearten the party that it might defeat the expedition altogether.” If the Missouri went north, then why hadn’t the Indians told them of the river coming in from the south? Both rivers were about the same size since it was peak runoff. The north fork was muddy while the south fork was clear. The north fork was deeper, but was a little narrower and slower-flowing. The Indians had told them “that the water of the Missouri was nearly transparent at the great falls” so Lewis and Clark were sure the south fork was the true Missouri. However, everyone else felt the Missouri was actually the north fork. What to do? Management/Labor Negotiations A small party was sent up each fork in an effort to determine which was the major stream, but they returned the same day with no conclusive information. Lewis and Clark could have simply ordered the men to proceed up the south fork, but they decided to each take a small party to “ascend these rivers until we could perfectly satisfy ourselves of the one, which it would be most expedient for us to take on our main journey to the Pacific.” By June 8th, after both parties had returned, there still was no definitive answer. Lewis wrote that the men, “said very cheerfully that they were ready to follow us anywhere we thought proper to direct, but that they still thought that the other was the river and that they were afraid the South fork would soon terminate in the mountains and leave us a great distance from the Columbia.” As it would turn out, both groups would be right – the south fork was the true Missouri, but taking it would still leave the Corps with a very difficult overland passage across the Rocky Mountains. After spending a week deliberating about which route to take, the Captains decided to proceed up the south fork. Party Time! Lewis wrote, “wishing that if we were in error to be able to detect it and rectify it as soon as possible it was agreed…” that Lewis “should set out with a small party by land up the South fork and continue our rout up it until we found the falls or reached the snowy mountains.” Lewis named the north fork “Maria’s River” in honor of a cousin. Later they found out the reason the Indians had failed to tell the Corps about the Marias river was because they always cut across the plains on horses and never saw where it joins the Missouri. A dram of whiskey was passed out and the men danced around the campfire as Pierre Cruzatte played his fiddle. The supply of whiskey was running low so only half a gill (2 ounces) was dispersed. cont page 9
Columbia River Reader / April 15 – May 15, 2019 / 7
We’re fundraising with
Welcome to Historic Downtown Longview! The Broadway Gallery
Everyday clothing for the everyday man
See ad, page 13
INSTAGRAM: THEOUTFITTERLGV
See ad, pg 5
Columbia River Reader office • M-W-F • 11- 3 1333 - 14th Ave., Longview, Wash. info: 360-425-0430
Not your run of the mill restaurant!
Enjoy our twist on American Comfort food
Family friendly • Full Bar Banquets up to 100
MON-SAT
11am – 9pm: Family Dining 3pm – Late: Breakroom Bar
See ad, pg 31
11 – 5 • 7 DAYS A WEEK 1235 COMMERCE AVE LONGVIEW, WA
EXPLORE
Just arrived! A spring AUXILIARY selection of boxed chocolates, bars & novelties available now.
360.703.3904
1265 14th Ave #130 • Longview
1260 Commerce Ave www.millcitygrill.com
Longview Outdoor Gallery
Unique sculptures along the sidewalks of Downtown Longview, both sides of Commerce Ave.
Women’s contemporary clothing, accessories and more...for her GIFT CERTIFICATES
M–F 11–5:30 • Sat 11–4
1262 Commerce • Longview, WA • 360-353-3533
We know beer and wine
We’ll help you unleash your “inner connoisseur” World-class Beverages
WHAT CAN WE DO FOR YOU?
We are a local business hiring local people and supporting local schools, our city and county. The Internet doesn’t do that! S
OU • CRUISES WASH THWEST INGTO N’S PR • TOURS CRUIS EMIER E CEN TER • GROUP TRAVEL • FAMILY VACATIONS • AND MORE!
600 Beer Varieties 700 Wines 14 Tap Handles & Growlers Filled
BBQ Restaurant Meats Slow-Smoked On site
Open Daily for Lunch and Dinner
Catering • Cigars Home Brew Supplies 21 & Older
Bulk Grains, Extracts & Hops
360.577.1541 • 924 15th Ave • Longview WA 8 / Columbia River Reader / April 15 – May 15, 2019
Jillian
Frank
Nicole
Call today for an appointment!
ASK ABOUT OUR PARK AND FLY PROGRAM!
Now at 875 Broadway • Longview
360-578-5464 • 800-I-GO-KINGS (446-5464)
info@travelkings.com
Song Sisters
Lower Columbia Threshold Choir sings peace to the passing By Tiffany Dickinson
T
he threshold between life and death has been pondered by poets, sages, and fools. Wherever we fall in that group, most of us have considered the ideal circumstances of our passing. Enter the Threshold Choir. Calling each other “song sisters,” their mission is to “blend our voices into a lovely, deep offering of kindness, respect, presence, and song to those approaching the threshold between life and death.” Choir members, in groups of two to four, visit hospice, hospitals, and homes by invitation of patients, families, or caregivers. A calm, focused presence at the bedside, gentle voices, simple songs, and sincere kindness, sooth and reassure clients, family, and caregivers. Families and caregivers are invited to join in song or simply listen. Jana Freiberger, who died one and one-half years ago from ovarian cancer, started the local Choir in 2013. The group’s driving force, they strive to carry on her legacy. Rehearsals typically begin with “Circle of Music,” a short song beckoning
Tiffany Dickinson contributes regularly to CRR. She lives in Longview.
Lewis & Clark cont from page 7
Lewis wrote, “several of them were considerably effected by it; such is the effects of abstaining for some time from the uce of spirituous liquors; they were all very merry.” Do You Hear What I Hear? Three days later, Lewis wrote, “I had proceded on… whin my ears were saluted with the agreeable sound of a fall of water and advancing a little further I saw the spray arise above the plain like a column of smoke… which soon began to make a roaring too tremendous to be mistaken for
each member to join the group. Many of the songs are reminiscent of Gregorian chants. Indeed, one of the songs they rehearse is the Latin prayer, “Dona Nobis Pacem” (grant us peace) in a lovely round of three parts. Some song titles are: So Many Angels; Rest Easy; Life, Grace, Trust; Sim Shalom; and Night Prayer. The women support each other throughout the rehearsal by holding hands, listening, and nodding. Doris James had seen several family members pass away in hospice and wanted to give back. “It’s very therapeutic for us,” she said. “It’s cheaper than therapy!” added Mary Lyons. Most of the songs are written by members of the global Threshold Choir community, which consists of about 200 chapters across the U.S. Members of the Lower Columbia group have added to that canon. “Hospice care is ‘alone work,’ said Mary, a home hospice volunteer in Seattle before moving to Longview. “In the Threshold Choir you get to be part of a group,” she said. “I had a very large family, growing up. There were lots of funerals that were family gatherings. Death was just another part of life.” Recent health issues have kept Barbara Byker, a string bassist and bell ringer, from playing her instruments. “Music is everything to me. My voice is the last thing I have.”
any cause short of the great falls of the Missouri… I hurried down… to gaze on this sublimely grand specticle.” Lewis named it Handsome Falls (see photo, page 7). Lewis sent a man back to tell Clark they were on the right river. And, he decided to explore upstream to find out where the best route around the falls might be. To his dismay, he found there were actually five major waterfalls, and many sets of rapids — dropping more than 400 feet in 10 miles — that would require an 18-mile overland portage. More on that next month. •••
The Choir chooses songs to respond to the client’s musical taste, spiritual direction, and current receptivity. Because the songs are not religiously oriented, they are appropriate for those who are deeply spiritual, whether religious or not. How do they handle their own emotions? “You’re given what you need,” said Tami Tack, the current Choir leader. Sometimes, it’s hard... but it’s not about us.” June Pierce, who’s been singing publicly since childhood, volunteered in hospice for years and felt this was a perfect pairing. Tami sang to her mother on her deathbed. “I climbed into the bed with her; I knew this was what I wanted to be doing.” Gloria Staat, a former music teacher, stayed with her grandmother through the night as she passed and loves the presence of singing with the dying. “I was with a friend’s dying mother about a week and a half before her death. She was so tense, uncomfortable. We sang to her and she relaxed visibly. It was visceral.”
COMFORTING SONG
Bask in songs of love, peace, and comfort LOWER COLUMBIA THRESHOLD CHOIR Sunday, May 5, 3:30 – 4:30pm St. John Medical Center Chapel 1615 Delaware St., Longview Free and open to the public. Especially for those who are grieving, traumatized, or experiencing any type of soul hurt. Thresholds of life that can be sung through include divorce, job losses, and loss of home.
About the Choir The Threshold Choir, Lower Columbia Chapter, honors all spiritual paths and has no religious affiliation. Members’ voices are a gift, offered free of charge to people in Kelso, Longview, Rainier, and nearby areas. Currently with 11 members, the Choir sings twice a month at Hospice and by request about three times per month. They rehearse three times per month, and they welcome new members. Auditions are not required, but singers should be able to carry a tune, hold their part, sing softly, and blend with others (or sincerely want to learn how), communicate kindness with their voices, and be willing to accept peer feedback as they work together to bring the sweetest, most blended and graceful sound possible to their clients.
Doris shared the story of singing to an unresponsive man. For more info call 360-562-0467 or “ We d i d n ’ t k n o w visit https://thresholdchoir.org/LowerColumbia whether he could hear us or not, but we went on. They say that Family members have said that they’ve hearing is the last sense to leave. seen the anxiety melt away from their We finished up and without saying loved one. When patients are anxious, anything, he lifted his hands and we try to have a volunteer sit with clapped. He applauded us.” them. I don’t always have a volunteer A session typically lasts five to 15 available. I can call on the Threshold minutes; if there appears to be benefit, Choir. They’ll get two or three women they might sing longer. Using soft, together and get there and sing. The lullaby voices, they blend in harmony effect is beautiful. They are so willing or sometimes in unison. They offer and gracious; it really is a calling.” their singing as gentle blessings, not as The group sings requests, including entertainment, and feel honored when spiritual hymns. They’ve sung “Home a client falls asleep as they sing. on the Range” and Frank Sinatra songs. Families have said that their presence Their youngest client was six years helps them to “be” with their loved one old. After singing several traditional after the “doing” is done. Often, they comfort songs, Gloria was inspired to will continue singing for their loved roll into “Skip to My Lou.” one after the Choir departs. Cheryl Reeder, Hospice Care Volunteer Coordinator, said, “They have a calming effect on everyone – staff, family, and patients. Patient’s breathing slows and their anxiety decreases.
“The child just lit up,” Mary Lyons said, beaming. “So often, we’re just inspired,” added Gloria. “It’s not from us.” •••
Columbia River Reader / April 15 – May 15, 2019 / 9
Pacific Imaging Center Delivers Top-Quality MRI Services Pacific Imaging Center features experienced techs, rapid appointment scheduling, and state-of-the-art technology. Kaiser patients with a referral are always welcome at PIC.
“Director of Imaging Services Jack Berry handled my MRI. He was friendly and professional. I was surprised by how quickly the radiologist’s report was completed and returned to my neurologist.” - Mary C-F “Jack (Berry) and PIC were willing to go the extra mile for my daughter. Their cooperation
was instrumental. We are very appreciative.” - Susan Edwards “The PIC staff took the time to interact with me as a fellow human, not a cow being herded through a chute. Their system was smooth and efficient. Their smiles, questions, and quiet and gentle demeanor made it clear they cared for me as a person.” - Cherish Yost
longviewpsi.com/pic/
360.501.3444
10 / Columbia River Reader / April 15 – May 15, 2019
“I’m a Kaiser patient and have been very happy with my results with PIC. The people are great and efficient.” - Lon Buck “I was constantly being referred to Portland. I finally insisted on Pacific Surgical and PIC. They are the best!” - Gleeann Kamp
MEDICAL MATTERS
April 11 was National Pet Day. Hurrah!
Dr. McLeod attends foot and ankle workshops By Jim LeMonds Jake McLeod, DPM, of Longview Orthopedic Associates recently attended two professional conferences that dealt with the latest techniques for patients receiving foot/ankle care.
He also participated in an advanced lower extremity trauma course in San Diego that focused on methods for treating ankle and midfoot fractures and Achilles ruptures. McLeod and other surgeons also spent time in the cadaver lab working on minimally invasive approaches to treating these injuries.
~Smokey Man in the Kitchen’s cat
~Ginger
Victoria Findlay’s dog
“I’m constantly trying to improve my techniques to offer “We’re always looking for ways to deal with Dr. Jake McLeod the best possible outcomes to my injuries in a way that will reduce post-operative patients, and these courses give me complications, including painful scars, infection, and delayed tips from other surgeons on how healing,” McLeod said. “For example, I’ve started using a rod, to achieve this goal,” McLeod said. rather than a standard plate and screws, to treat fibula and ankle fractures because the rod requires a He attended the national smaller incision.” conference of the American College of Foot and Ankle Surgeons in New Orleans. Courses included total ankle replacements, flatfoot and cavus foot reconstruction, and Achilles pathology management.
Dr. McLeod is double board certified in foot surgery and reconstructive ankle surgery. For more information or to schedule an appointment, contact LOA at 360.501.3400.
“There’s always a fair amount of discussion regarding the best ways to manage flatfoot and cavus foot (high arches),” he said, “and the classes I attended focused specifically on difficult cases and the best treatment options.”
••• Former RALong High School English teacher Jim LeMonds is a writer, editor, and marketer who rides his mountain bike whenever he gets the chance. He lives in Castle Rock, Wash. His published books are South of Seattle and Deadfall.
Visit Castle Rock ...“in bloom” year-round!
Mt. St. Helens Gifts Jewelry • Souvenirs • T-Shirts Ash Glass & Pottery
Welcome! from Kori at the Visitor
Information Center. Stop by and say Hello!” Exit 49, west side of I-5, 890 Huntington Ave. N. Open M-F, 11–3
Drink Good Coffee, Read Good Books Located in the historic Castle Rock Bank Building 20 Cowlitz Street West M-Sat 8:30–6 • Sun 10–4 Open 7 Days a Week
Festival of Lights Spring Bazaar fundraiser: May 4th at Parker’s (I-5 Exit 49) Castle Rock Farmers Market begins May 5th. For details, call 360-274-6603
Castle Rock Bigfoot HQ I-5 Exit 49
1254-B Mt. St. Helens Way
360-274-7011 The
Quilt Nest
& Yarn Boutique
Auto, Home, Flood, Boat, RV, ATV Business & Commercial Insurance & Bonding
360-274-6991
25 A. ST. SW • CASTLE ROCK • 866-514-3356 LIFE • DISABILITY • LTCI BUSINESS CONTINUATION FUNDING INDIVIDUAL AND GROUP MEDICAL
FAST FRIENDLY SERVICE!
Voted #1 Florist
WE DELIVER Custom Florals & Unique Gifts M-F 9–5:30 • 101 Front Ave. SW Castle Rock
360-967-2731
Quality Quilting Fabric Notions • Kits Classes • Yarns Follow us on Facebook for all upcoming classes.
105 Cowlitz Street West Mon-Fri 10–5 • Sat 10–4
360-274-4663
Columbia River Reader / April 15 – May 15, 2019 / 11
Roland on Wine
Nice dinner out?
By Marc Roland
Spring for a good wine!
D
id you know that wine prices double or triple the moment you walk through a restaurant’s door? Why? Because the retailer knows that you will want a glass or bottle of wine to compliment your meal. But a glance at the menu can bring on sticker shock. You say, “Really?” This bottle of wine is going to cost me as much as two entrees! And you know you could buy that same bottle at the liquor store for a fraction of the menu price. It is not unusual for restaurants to mark up prices. The rule of thumb in most places is to mark their bottles up to around three times the wholesale price. You’ll see even bigger price hikes on the BTG (by-the-glass) options. Restaurants can charge you more because they know you’ll pay it. Many guests won’t want to shell out for a whole bottle, but it is cheaper per ounce to buy a whole bottle. Retailers know this, so they bump up the per glass price. Here’s a tip: If you are a regular wine drinker, buy the bottle; drink what you want and take it home. This is legal in Washington.
The idea of wanting to make a profit off wine is reasonable, but what you might not realize is just how important the drinks list is to a restaurant’s bottom line. The fact is, restaurants make most of their profits from drinks rather than food. Food is more price sensitive. When Nancy and I go out for a nice leisurely meal, we want enough wine to last the evening. One glass just doesn’t last. But often we will be tempted to get just a glass apiece because bottle prices seem so high. However, after the first glass we start to relax, and inevitably, we get a second. We made two mistakes. We paid toomuch for the glass pours, and BTG wine is not the best wine with the lowest margins. If you’re looking for low markups (and not just the lowest prices), here’s a little secret: The biggest markups tend to be on the cheapest bottles. It makes sense. While you wouldn’t blink at a $30 restaurant bottle that the restaurant paid $5 for, most
11 Beers on Tap • Cocktails & Wine OREGON LOTTERY • Shuffleboard • Pool
Alston pub grub
25196 Alston Road • Rainier, OR Open daily at 11AM • 503-556-9753
Still, it depends on the restaurant what price you pay. Part of that has to do with expectations. A trendy restaurant can charge more because customers are paying for atmosphere. A casual restaurant with a small staff has less overhead and can afford to keep drink costs down without losing profit. Keep in mind that you aren’t just paying for the wine itself like you would at home. We can expect to pay more for wine in a restaurant; you’re also paying for storage, servers to uncork and pour and bussers and dishwashers to clean up after you. But don’t be deceived.
Knowledgeable waiters love to point out the best values. If you are going out for a nice dinner, spring for a good wine. •••
le y t s e m o H Cooking of the s 60s & 70 All natural ingredients Old Fashioned Favorites
Longview resident and former Kelso teacher Marc Roland started making wine in 2008 in his garage. He and his wife, Nancy, now operate Roland Wines at 1106 Florida Street in Longview’s new “barrel district.” For wine tasting hours, call 360-846-7304.
Meet your friends and relax at this classic neighborhood watering hole!
customers won’t pay three times the usual cost of a wine that the restaurant bought for $30. Markups tend to be lower. Restaurants also can charge a premium for big sellers like merlot and chardonnay. Customers are likely to stick with what they know instead of blindly ordering an unfamiliar bottle, so the tried-and-true favorites tend to have higher markups.
If you have the budget for it, getting a wine a bit farther up the price list, especially if it’s from a less-known region or variety, will probably give you the best quality for the best value. And if it’s not the last time you will drink wine this week, take it home and enjoy it later. Don’t be afraid to ask for recommendations.
Private tasting parties by appointment. Use website form or call 503-201-4545
Closed Mon & Tues Open Wed thru Sun 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.
1140 15th Ave Longview 360-636-6181 Good times ROLL at the
LUIGI’S PIZZA
Historic
Goble Tavern Like us on Facebook!
TRY OUR JUKE BOX
“Goble Tavern, The Historic” for Entertainment Schedule
Cold Beer • Micro-Brews • Good Food • Pool Video Poker • Keno • Scratch-Its • Darts
503-556-4090
Milepost 41 on Hwy 30
70255 Columbia River Hwy • Rainier, OR
12 / Columbia River Reader / April 15 – May 15, 2019
Luigi’sPizza Pizza • Calzone
Evergreen Pub & Cafe DAILY OPEN 8AM
Family Dining
Homemade Soups • Salads Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner Daily Specials Serving Halibut and Cod Fish & Chips
Best Burgers in the Area
FULL BAR
Play Sandwiches VIDEO Spaghetti • Lasagna POKER Burgers • Salads Beer, Wine & Sodas
119 First St E • Rainier
503-556-4213
Open 11am daily
115 -117 First St E • Rainier Keno • Video Poker
503-556-9935
‘Seven Last Words of Christ’ to be performed in Astoria April 17 North Coast Chorale will perform “The Seven Last Words of Christ” at 7 pm, Wednesday, April 17th at the Performing Arts Center at 16th and Franklin, Astoria. The program is a benefit for the Arts Center; a $10 donation is suggested. The sacred cantata is a rendering of Jesus’ crucifixion and His seven last phrases, called “words,” of Forgiveness, Salvation, Relationship, Abandonment, Distress, Triumph, and Reunion. The work will be accompanied by Vincent Jones-Centeno on the PAC’s Estey Opus-429 Organ. Phil Keim, Lois Willis, and Elias Hesse, wellknown Chorale soloists, will further illustrate the presentation, along with the North Coast Chorale singers. This program is supported by the Oregon Arts Commission and Luma Toyota in Astoria.
You’ll love our home style cooking so much ... you’ll come back for JOIN US Friday & Saturday evenings for
PRIME RIB
Mon-Fri: 6am - 8pm Sat-Sun: 7am - 8pm
THE BEST BREAKFAST and BURGERS ON THE RIVER!
MICRO BREWS • WINES • SPIRITS • LOTTERY ROOM
102 “A” St E • Rainier • 503-556-8772
“Each Day I Can’t Wait to Start Painting!”
Every First Thursday New Art, Music and Nibbles 360-577-0544 1418 Commerce Longview, WA Mon - Fri 10 - 5:30, Sat 10-4
Call before you go Save money. Your Will costs less than a contested Probate. Have your Will prepared today.
“Spring” by Barbara KaemfMatkowski, New Gallery Member
the-broadway-gallery.com In Historic Downtown Longview Your Local SW Washington Artist Co-op since 1982
CATERING Be a guest at your next event!
“I make house calls”
THE LAW OFFICE OF
Vincent L. (Vince) Penta, P.S. 1561 11th Ave. Longview
360-423-7175
Serving the Columbia River region, including Longview-Kelso.
503-366-9099 800-330-9099 201 S. 1st Street St. Helens OR wildcurrantcatering.com
2019 Mt. St. Helens Regatta Western Modified Outboard Winter Nationals ALSO: Western Stock Championship Outboard Hydroplane Races
Clatskanie Mini-Storage
Temperature conditioned units -15 sizes! RV Storage • Boat Moorage Quality since 1976 Resident Manager
503-728-2051 503-369-6503
SILVER LAKE RESORT 3201 Spirit Lake Hwy, Silver Lake, WA
May 4-5 • 10am-6pm FREE Admission Columbia River Reader / April 15 – May 15, 2019 / 13
HOT PIZZA FRESH COOL SALAD BAR THE BEST AROUND! IN ST HELENS 2124 Columbia Blvd.
503-397-3211
Raindance
Acupuncture & Bodywork, Inc.
Healing in a time-honored and holistic way Acupuncture & Chinese Herbal Medicine Most Insurances Accepted
Amy L. Schwartz, L.Ac, LMP 208 Church Street Kelso, WA
360.751.0411
Roberta O’Donoghue A Sewing Studio Alterations & Tailoring 513 East A Street Rainier, OR 97048 robertaod@msn.com By Appointment
503-781-4911
IT PAYS TO ADVERTISE! Call an ad rep: Ron Baldwin 503-791-7985: Wahkiakum, Pacific, Clatsop Counties, Mouth of the Columbia. Tiffany Dickinson 706-284-4008:
Downtown Longview, Castle Rock. Ad Manager-Ned Piper, 360-749-2632: All areas.
AD DEADLINES May 15 Issue: April 25 June 15 Issue: May 25 Free Calendar Listing Submission Guidelines: page 28 14 / Columbia River Reader / April 15 – May 15, 2019
MAY ISSUE COMING OUT May 15
Featuring • People+Place by Hal Calbom, featuring Kayaking on the Columbia • Out & About with Tracy Beard at Columbia Hills State Park • NEW! Me & My Accordion • Man in the Kitchen: Tips & Tools Ad Deadline: April 25 Submission Guidelines, p. 28.
Take a kid fishing! This year’s Lake Sacajawea Kids’ Fish-In, sponsored by the Longview Early Edition Rotary, is scheduled for April 27. Seven 45-minute sessions starting at 8am will start on the hour and end 45 minutes later. Longview Parks & Recreation will handle the registration for each session. Go online to mylongview.com/rec, stop by the office at 2920 Douglas St., Longview, or call 360-442-5400, 11am – 5pm. Seven sessions with 60 participants ages 5 – 14, per session, means a total of 420 kids will have a fun experience. Please sign up now for the session most convenient for you. Once registration fills up, the event will be “sold out.” Please arrive at least 10 minutes before your scheduled session and remember, no personal equipment is allowed into the Martin’s Dock area during this event. Organizers expect Lake Sacajawea to be stocked with more than 2,000 rainbow trout and approximately 30 or more larger brood trout from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. Let’s go fishing! ~ Gerry Bosh, Longview Parks & Recreation Foundation volunteer
The Ultimate Chick Flick
Shirley Valentine – one woman’s Retha Porter, triumph over the ordinary By Arts Renaissance Team
S
hirley Valentine is coming to town! Who is she? She’s a little bit of all of us – and the heroine of a movie, by the same name, that every woman really should see – or see again. The plot in a nutshell: Feeling trapped in a world of domesticity, Shirley (played brilliantly by Pauline Collins), a housewife from Liverpool, England, needs a change in her life before she has another conversation with the walls. When her friend invites her on a trip to a Greek island, Shirley jumps at the chance. Upon landing, the friend ditches Shirley for a fling, which means Shirley is left to her own devices. Shirley wanders the island, meets a taverna owner and begins to find the joy in life again. The film plays one night only, Tuesday, May 7 at 6:30 p.m. (doors open at 5:30 p.m.) at the Kelso Theatre Pub at 214 S. Pacific in downtown Kelso. Tickets are a $20 donation and make a great Mother’s Day gift, or girls’ night out. Your ticket includes the movie, a huge slice of pizza, three raffle tickets for some great prizes, a fun swag bag and
loads of laughs. Tickets are available at the Columbia River Reader, The Soap Factory, Teague’s Interiors and the Kelso Theater Pub. Plus, you’ll be doing your community good. All proceeds from the venue, made possible by the Kelso Theater Pub and the Art Renaissance Team (ART), go toward bringing the Chihuly’s sculpture to downtown Longview. To learn more, visit KTPUB.com or cowlitzart.org.
It’s a great night for great art! So, grab your mums (as Shirley would say) or your girlfriends for a fun-filled evening with the wit and inspiration of Shirley Valentine, who might just help us rediscover our dreams and find the courage to fulfill them. ••• The Art Renaissance Team (ART), chaired by Kalama resident Retha Porter, is dedicated to bringing worldrenowned art to our community for the education and enjoyment of all. ART is a committee of Longview Public Service Group a 501c3 organization.
Proud to be Longview’s Premier Seafood Restaurant OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK
M-W 10–8 • Th-F-Sat 10–9 • Sun 11–8
Bring the whole family!
Dine in or use our drive up window
• Fresh Smoked Albacore Tuna Melts • Fresh Pan-fried Oysters • Many gluten-free options • Prime Rib Thursdays • Pit-smoked Pork Ribs Fridays
360-414-3288 360-431-6286
1110 Commerce Ave. Longview
WALSTEAD MERTSCHING What’s the secret to the best Mother’s Day ever?
A gift that helps her do more of what she loves. Show Mom just how grateful you are for everything she’s done to help you be your best by returning the favor. A Spa Membership is a great way to THANK MOM!
812 Ocean Beach Hwy Suite 100 esteticaspa.com Longview, WA @EsteticaDaySpaLv
360-577-6956
Attorney Michael Claxton Licensed in WA & OR
Attorney Brian Brault LL.M in Taxation
ESTATE PLANNING & ELDER LAW Walstead Mertsching provides advice and a variety of estate planning services, including: • Asset Protection • Community Property Agreements • Durable Powers of Attorney • Guardianships • Healthcare Directives/Living Wills • Medicaid and Long-Term Care Issues • Probate • Tax and Retirement Planning • Wills • Will Contests
ATTORNEYS AT LAW
A Full Service Civil Law Firm for more than 90 Years CIVIC CIRCLE BUILDING, 3rd FLOOR 1700 HUDSON ST., LONGVIEW, WA
360-423-5220 Longview www.walstead.com
Columbia River Reader / April 15 – May 15, 2019 / 15
Out & About
Llama backpacking The “gourmet way” to hike AND take a load off Story and photos by Tracy Beard
O
utdoor enthusiasts often say, “Why stay in a five-star hotel when you can stay at a billion-star hotel?” I have been camping since I was a kid and hiking and backpacking for more than 15 years. As the years go by, hauling a heavy pack is not as easy as it used to be. When my kids were small I often lugged 60 pounds, but over time they carried more of their gear; today my pack is down to 45 pounds, which I find quite heavy. Castle Rock, Washington, resident Jeff Fisker has an answer. This year he and his business partner, Denise Bardal, are guiding small groups out into the Gifford Pinchot National Forest for two to five nights. All you need to carry is a light day pack. This summer they are offering four luxurious llama packing trips (see sidebar, next page). The easiest packing trip ever In September I ventured out on a three-day, two-night llama packing trip with Jeff and Denise. Llamas Dinah, Llew and Dillion hauled all the food and gear. Jeff drove us out to Chinook Pass and parked the truck and trailer in the Pacific Crest Trail parking lot. It was a glorious, sunny day, and I relaxed while watching Jeff and Denise load the animals up with all the gear and supplies. Soon we headed down the trail. People stopped us, asked questions and admired our easy hike. Adult llamas can easily carry 60 to 80 pounds. Jeff’s specially-designed ice chests and bags fit into the panniers attached to the llama saddles. I was amazingly light on my feet; my daypack contained my water bottle, jacket, and camera gear , all weighing less than 20 pounds. We hiked three miles and 800 feet elevation drop down to Dewey Lake in the William O. Douglas Wilderness area. I was a bit anxious about the
Tracy Beard writes about luxury and adventure travel, fine dining and traditional and trendy libations for regional, national and international magazines and is a regular “Out & About” contributor to Columbia River Reader. 16 / Columbia River Reader / April 15 – May 15, 2019
hike back out, but I knew I only had to carry myself back up the hill and not all my gear. We stopped along the way to admire the incredible views and an unnamed lake. Jeff and Denise scoured the area looking for the perfect campsite. Regulations prohibit camping closer than 200 feet to any water when accompanied by large animals. Jeff spotted the perfect place just over a small ridge in the center of a meadow. He and Denise unloaded the camp chairs and handed me one. After setting up my tent, I rested in my chair while they assembled the camp kitchen. Gourmet food in the woods My hosts had consulted with me about the menu before the trip. Jeff is quite the chef, and our first dinner was comprised of halibut topped with crab, steamed broccoli with homemade hollandaise sauce, freshly baked bread and warm brownies for dessert. They
provide all the food, do all the cooking and all the cleanup. I watched, relaxed and read my book. Jeff does not supply alcohol but guests are welcome to bring their own liquor and the llamas will pack it in. Pixie, Jeff’s dog, is a well-trained, lovable black lab that usually joins the trek. The first night we chatted late into the evening about our favorite places to camp. I learned more about my hosts, and my toes stayed nice and toasty with Pixie lying against my feet. The following morning, I awakened to the smell of fresh coffee. Jeff gets up early to feed the animals and start breakfast. The llamas can carry quite a bit, so the first few days of a trek include delicious fresh items. Jeff whipped up mushroom, cheese, bacon and chive omelets, served with zucchini bread and sweet grapes. I cannot tell you cont next page
PROVISIONS
from page 16
LUXURIOUS LLAMA PACKING TRIPS • Summer 2019
what a treat it is to have people wait on you out in the woods. I am usually the one cooking and cleaning when I go camping or backpacking. This trip, almost all the work was done for me.
If you don’t want to carry a heavy load and would like your own personal gourmet culinary/ housekeeping team, consider booking a spot on one of Jeff Fisker’s summer packing trips, each accommodating 4–6 guests. Prices are per person and subject to sales tax.
My hosts packed a picnic lunch to take with us on our hike around the lake. We were traveling midweek late in the season, blessed with a lack of bugs and people. Around noon we found the perfect log to sit on and enjoy lunch. We looked out over the lake at a stunning view of snow-capped Mt. Rainier. Back at camp, I read, Jeff checked the llamas and Denise filtered some water for drinking and dinner.
•Pompey Peak June 26-28 $795. •Juniper Ridge: Aug. 5-8 $1,195. •Languille Ridge: Aug. 19-24 $1,595. •Vanson Lake Loop at Mt. St. Helens Volcanic Monument: Sept. 3-7 $1,495.
My hosts wanted me to try the style of dinner they serve a few days into a trip when most of the fresh ingredients are gone. Denise prepared delicious quinoa with black beans and corn. She has a fully stocked spice kit, and guests can season their dish to their liking. The pièce de résistance was the fresh avocado on top and the sweet cornbread Jeff made on the backpacker stove. I was too full to indulge in one of the leftover brownies and retired early to read while snuggled up in my sleeping bag, as it was very cold.
Jeff Fisker
dba Washington Llamas/Duraguard Woods, llc
360-749-3084. What to bring: Tent, sleeping bag, pad, clothes, raingear, medications, special snacks, and wine or alcohol if desired. Each guest is allowed 30 pounds. Tents, pads and sleeping bags are available for rent if needed.
The perfect packing companions “Llamas are reliable and interesting travel companions,” Jeff said. He and Denise have spent many hours training these llamas to be wellbehaved and obedient. Dinah, Llew and Dillion were great companions and I appreciated them most as I hauled myself out of the bottom of the canyon, carrying just my lightweight daypack.
To: Centralia, Olympia Mt. Rainier Yakima (north, then east) Tacoma/Seattle
Columbia River
101
Chinook
•
Grays River
Cathlamet 4
Warrenton • 101
Seaside
Pacific Ocean
Astoria Birkenfeld
Vernonia
• Kelso-Longview Chamber of Commerce Kelso Visitor Center I-5 Exit 39 105 Minor Road, Kelso • 360-577-8058
Mount St. Helens
Longview
Ape Cave •
Kelso
Clatskanie Rainier
Cougar •
Kalama Woodland
503
Columbia City St Helens
• Ridgefield
rnelius NW Co ad o R s Pas
To: Salem Silverton Eugene Ashland
Sauvie Island
Vancouver 12
Portland
• Wahkiakum Chamber 102 Main St, Cathlamet • 360-795-9996 • Castle Rock Visitor Center Exit 49, west side of I-5, 890 Huntington Ave. N. Open M-F 11–3. • Naselle, WA Appelo Archives Center 1056 SR 4, Naselle, WA. 360-484-7103.
Local in
for
Points o mation f In Recre terest Special ation Dinin Events Arts & Eg ~ Lodging ntertain ment
• Pacific County Museum & Visitor Center Hwy 101, South Bend, WA 360-875-5224 • Long Beach Peninsula Visitors Bureau 3914 Pacific Way (corner Hwy 101/Hwy 103) Long Beach, WA. 360-642-2400 • 800-451-2542 • South Columbia County Chamber Columbia Blvd/Hwy 30, St. Helens, OR • 503-397-0685 • Astoria-Warrenton Chamber/Ore Welcome Ctr 111 W. Marine Dr., Astoria 503-325-6311 or 800-875-6807
Col Gorge Interp Ctr Skamania Lodge Bonneville Dam
Troutdale Crown Point
97
Goldendale
• Seaside, OR 989 Broadway, 503-738-3097; 888-306-2326
•Yacolt
Scappoose•
Oregon
Serve with syrup, berries and whipped cream.
• Woodland Tourist Center I-5 Exit 21 Park & Ride lot, 900 Goerig St., 360-225-9552
Skamokawa
WestportPuget Island FERRYk
Ilwaco
Washington
Castle Rock
• Naselle
Grease the griddle or large frying pan with cooking spray butter. Pour 1/3 batter onto the griddle and cook on medium until bubbles form. Flip and cook until light brown.
VISITOR CENTERS
504
Long Beach
Place cheese, sugar, almond and vanilla extract and buttermilk in a food processor and process until smooth. Add the pancake mix until combined. Add in the almond paste and almonds, pulse until incorporated.
FREE Maps • Brochures Directions • Information
Vader
Ocean Park •
Tracy’s Almond Pancakes 4 oz. mascarpone or cream cheese at room temp 1 tablespoon sugar 2 teaspoons almond extract 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 2 cups of pancake mix 1 ½ cups buttermilk ½ cup almond paste (room temp) cut into small pieces ¼ cup toasted almond slices or slivers (chopped) Butter or cooking spray Maple syrup Fresh raspberries Sweetened whipped cream or whipped topping
Brush the bacon on one side with syrup and dust with chili powder. Spray a cooling rack with cooking spray and place on top of a cookie sheet lined with foil. Place bacon on the rack with the syrup side up and bake for 15-25 minutes or done to your liking in a preheated oven at 400 degrees.
•••
Raymond/ South Bend
Breakfast is excellent any time of day. Writing about breakfast on this trip reminded me of some of my favorites.
Spicy Bacon 6 -10 slices of your favorite bacon Cooking spray Maple syrup ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
Although Jeff has guided many llama packing trips, 2019 is his first year commercially offering them. He has a big heart and wants everyone to enjoy the thrill of backpacking. Packing adventures are suitable for families, grandparents with their grandchildren, couples and individuals.
Oysterville •
ALONG THE TRAIL
Maryhill Museum
Stevenson Hood River Cascade Locks Bridge of the Gods
The Dalles
To: Walla Walla Kennewick, WA Lewiston, ID
Map suggests only approximate positions and relative distances. Consult a real map for more precise details. We are not cartographers.
Columbia River Reader / April 15 – May 15, 2019 / 17
National Police Week is May 12 – 18. Please join us in thanking our local law enforcement officers for their commitment and sacrifice in serving and protecting our communities.
See story page 19
people+ place GIAN PAUL MORELLI’S
Top Five Books
1. A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century by Barbara Tuchman. Want to understand the basis for the clash of religous cultures?
2. The Collected Works of Robert Frost
Humanity’s wisdom there in the old poets (Frost, Whitman, Dickinson, Donne, Jonson, Herrick, orca, Rilke, etal)
Proud sponsor of People+Place
3. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (accompanied by Issac Asimov’s Guide). The Bard... completely de-mystified.
For 25 years, Cowlitz County CASA has been working to provide every abused and neglected child in Cowlitz County a voice amplified by a caring Court Appointed Special Advocate. We thank their staff and dedicated volunteers for serving some of our community’s most vulnerable residents. Please join us April 27 at their annual fundraiser to support this important work!
4. George R.R. Martin’s The Game of Thrones ENTIRE SERIES. Pretty intense reading at 1,000+ pages per volume (x5) but worth it.
Event details, see page 29.
The Evans Kelly Family One of Longview’s pioneer families.
Proud sponsor of People+Place
5. Jack Park’s Ohio State Football History.
CASA is always looking for volunteer advocates! To learn more visit www.cowlitzcountycasa.org or call Christy Grubbs, 360-414-5212
Guess you have to be a fan to like this one.
Serving the Community and Wahkiakum County since 1985... strengthening families by promoting self-sufficiency, life-long learning, and healthy living free of substance abuse, child abuse and family violence.
Matt and Tracy Turner and Sue Lantz appreciate the work of
To donate or learn more visit www.stjamesfc.org Sue Lantz donates 10% of every commission to a local non-profit of her clients’ choice
360-636-4663 360-751-5157
slantz@windermere.com www.suelantz.com
Proud sponsor of People+Place
Kudos to the Oregon Food Bank, the OSU Extension Service and their volunteers for offering this free beginning gardening course, where participants learn how to start a garden and grow their own food on a tight budget. SEED TO SUPPER 6 weekly sessions in Rainier, April 24 – May 29. Details, p. 29.
It’s fun to grow, cook and eat your own fresh food ~ bon appetit!
Paul W. Thompson CRR’s Man in the Kitchen Emeritus
Proud sponsor of People+PlaceProud sponsor of People+Place 18 / Columbia River Reader / April 15 – May 15, 2019
A monthly feature written and photographed by Southwest Washington native and Emmy Award-winning journalist
Hal Calbom
Production Notes
Setting the Stage: Gian Paul Morelli
Heart of the Country
According to its current executive director the Columbia Theater, or any kind of theater for that matter, was most certainly not part of R.A. Long’s original vision for his Planned City. Hal Calbom
C all
people+ place
it country ,
folk-rock, country rock. It’s our most enduring music. It survives and flourishes. When I heard that Ray Benson and the group he’s founded and fronted for 30 years — Asleep at the Wheel — were coming to the Columbia Theater I flipped out. Although our subject was the theatre’s irrepressible Gian Paul Morelli, the sounds and pictures would be heart of the country. Ray celebrates the music of Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys — twin fiddles, steel guitar, ballads and boogie — known as Texas Swing. He’s cycled more than 90 musicians through the band over the years, an impresario himself in Stetson and boots. Among their standards — San Antonio Rose, Route 66, Take Me Back to Tulsa — it’s the quirky barroom staple Hot Rod Lincoln I anticipate most, Ray boogieing the frets off his Telecaster, audience’s feet stomping and heads nodding: Son of mine you gonna’ drive me to drinkin’ If you don’t stop drivin’ that hot rod Lincoln The rich roots of country include gospel, black rhythm and blues, folk songs and jazz. Even in the riotous 60s and 70s we rock and rollers followed The Band, Byrds, Poco, Eagles, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, even the Beatles paying homage to our country roots.
Libraries and schools naturally take precedence when you’re miraculously inventing something out of nothing — in this case this hub for logging, sawmilling and transportation springing from the marshlands and mud at the confluence of the Cowlitz, Coweeman and Columbia Rivers. Was it simply Mr. Long’s notorious puritanism? After all, he did regard neighboring Kelso as a den of iniquity inappropriate to housing his workers and their families. Would theatre people in fact be mere transients, conjurors and freaks? Their theaters and music halls themselves gateways to the forbidden realms of dancing, card playing, and moral dissolution? Rarely do planters of roots perfectly anticipate the fruits. That their tracts and neighborhoods soon become communities and cities. That their communities and cities soon crave culture and connectedness. Or that the newly empowered citizens themselves could create and open to the public in 1925, just two years after the city’s formal founding, a majestic entertainment palace fit for a thousand patrons, one quarter of its population. ________________________________________
NICE TO MEET YOU Gian Paul Morelli resides
Longview, Washington occupation
HC: You’ve said the theatre serves more than just the community?
HC: How do you get such highquality acts, so many diverse shows?
Executive Director, Columbia Theatre for the Performing Arts
GPM: It serves the talent, too, the people who come here and play. The performers love it. Peter Yarrow was a delight. Ed Asner was a delight. The Columbia Theater is one of the finest theaters I’ve ever been in, as far as the feel of the whole place.
GPM: Magic. We’re too small a community to do what we do. I honestly don’t know how we’re doing it but we’re doing it. And truly it wouldn’t be here if the community didn’t want it to be here. There is no way this place can do this without deep involvement of the community.
Canton, Ohio (home of the Football Hall of Fame)
HC: So in a sense we are performing for them, not just them for us? GPM: Very much so. We are an ambassador for this whole community and to the artists who come here, and they get a sense of who we are and that word gets around. I’m in a wordof-mouth, relationship-based business. There is not a person who walks in here who doesn’t feel that welcome. And that welcome is contagious.
HC: Punching above our weight? GPM: We are punching way above our weight. My colleagues are shocked at what we do with the budget we have. When I came here the budget was $750,000 a year. This year it’s $804,000 — ten years later. HC: Does this feel precarious?
from
known for
Passionately persevering in the world of non-profit arts reading
The Farmer’s Away Bah! Neigh! by Anne Vittur Kennedy, Popup Book of Bugs, Pop-up Book of Dinasaurs, Goodnight Moon, Blind Fish Don’t Talk for fun
Discovering new performing artists (especially singersongwriters), cooking, enjoying the world of a 5-year-old grandson recommends
Podcasts of Krist Tippet’s “On Being,” OPB Sunday nights
cont page 20
There’s a rich variety of sounds and shows on the Columbia’s seasonal dance card. But tonight the cowboy hats and boots and vests seem to indicate Southwest Washington’s particularly warm welcome. I think Ray and the band feel right at home. ••• Columbia River Reader / April 15 – May 15, 2019 / 19
People GPM: This is the most precarious of businesses. But we have no debt. We have no crises going on. We’re operating as well as you can in a profession that is high risk and can flip at any moment. HC: What keeps you awake at night? GPM: Right now I’m trying to attract new board members. The board is a crucial link to the community in everything from what we program to how we spend our money. So we’re looking for people who want to step up and say, ‘I want to make positive change in this community.’ HC: Is it hard to find board members?
“ It’s a kind of noble calling: I want to bring these to people to our potential audiences. We are not an elitist place. We’ve got to have a foothold and a community that wants us to be here, that’s the only way we can survive. HC: And you rely on a lot of volunteers, I understand? GPM: Oh my gosh, they are so much part of the miracle of what we do. If we weren’t deeply passionate about what we do, all the way to stage crews and volunteers and everybody that has a part to play here, then the place literally falls apart.
The newly opened Columbia Theater featured a grand organ accompanying the silent films of the era, and showed thousands of movies over the years until the advent of multiple screens in the 1970s began to erode business. In a twist memorable to most locals, the theatre, fallen on hard times, was slated for demolition in the early 80s, then saved, literally, by an act of God. The equipment gathered to raze the building stood parked outside the morning of May 18th, 1980, and emergency response to the spectacular eruption of Mt. St. Helens spirited it away. When the mountain cooled, the community began the decades-long process of rescue and renovation. Its facelift and capital campaigns nearing completion, the theatre’s patrons chose Gian Paul Morelli, a feisty arts management pro from Canton, Ohio, as its executive director.
GPM: A lot of people these days are less eager to become board members. They want shorter stints. They don’t want to become involved. We’re not perfect, by far, and we have too few people wearing too many hats. But I would say if there is one board you would want to sit on I would say it would be the Columbia Theater Board. Number one it’s fun. Number two it doesn’t take a huge amount of effort — we meet every other month. But during the recession we so pared down the organization that we really still need to reboot. HC: And you get to see good shows and meet cool people? GPM: You bet. The board is our eyes and ears and fan club, too. We have to always have a connection
People + Place goes behind the footlights. April is National Volunteer Month
The Emergency Support Shelter serves victims of domestic violence, sexual abuse, trafficking and other crimes. ESS provides education, training and support to our community and their services are free and confidential.
Thank you to all of the volunteers in our communities...you make a huge difference!
WE
We thank them for their important service.
VOLUNTEERS
To learn more or donate: www.esshelter.com
EXCAVATION • SITE PREPARATION • UTILITIES Proud sponsor of People+Place 20 / Columbia River Reader / April 15 – May 15, 2019
Proud sponsor of People+Place
+ Place
e experiences to people GPM: I came here in 2007. What I liked about it was doing both the capital campaign and the renovation. I’d done other similar improvement projects and I wanted to do this. And my objective was
to continue and finish those, then put an artistic viewpoint together. And I saw it at the time as being a huge opportunity. HC: Had you always been an arts management guy? GPM: No, I started off as an actor, worked in New York for awhile, smaller roles on Broadway and lots of summer stock back in my home town in Ohio.
”
~ Gian Paul Morreli
things together, a lot of dancing. I was the only kid in the home of the Football Hall of Fame that studied ballet. I just fell in love with it. My mother remembers taking my sister to ballet lessons. I think we were five years old. And in those days you could just leave your kid in the hallway and she said, ‘Stay right here, I’ll be back in a half hour,’ because it was safe. And I still vividly remember the green Naugahyde 30s-style benches. I bet they had 100 students on a Saturday, of all ages. And my mother and sister came back after class and found me staring under the door at the tap dancers. And my mother said, ‘Would you like to do that?’ And I know clearly now why that was. In all of our lives, our entire five years of life, my sister and I had done everything together and this was the first time not.
lessons and voice lessons and acting lessons. In Canton there’s a lot of artistic activity. A huge amount. There’s a lot of summer stock, theaters around. It was a heady day back then, because people could leave their Broadway contracts, take the summer off, and do summer stock in the regional theater. HC: So you were a regional guy, even then? G P M : We h a d a m a z i n g experiences as kids. 14 years old, my sister and I worked together, probably worked 18 hours a day at Canal Fulton Summer Arena. To me that’s the only way to learn the business, by being immersed in it. Equity company, a lot of experience, and you’re actually working with people, in small roles, with this incredible company of people. HC: When did you seque into arts management? GPM: I looked around and thought I didn’t want to be constantly fighting to find the next job. And I’d been bitten by this bug of ‘How does this thing work?’ And the romantic sense of that was that what I really wanted to do was provide work for actors. And I made the choice that I wanted to do regional theater. In non-profit arts we truly are a community resource. We enhance the quality of life in a community. We just do that. And if you’re constantly reaching out to people, evangelizing, it’s a kind of noble calling: I want to bring these experiences to people.
HC: Were your parents artistic? GPM: No, not at all. But we had all kinds of lessons. Ballet lessons for my sister. Tap lessons for me. Drum
HC: Canton, Ohio seems more likely to breed football players than actors, doesn’t it?
HC: Are you more an artistic guy or business guy?
GPM: Home of the Football Hall of Fame! But, yes, I was too small for football, and I’d been exposed to the arts early.
GPM: Well, that’s a good question and we struggle with it with the Board. I like being a managing director, handling the business side. It’s really tough handling
HC: Were you star struck? GPM: Not especially. But I always thought I was going to New York. I had a twin sister, and we did a lot of
cont page 22
NORPAC has partnered with Impact Washington to provide a comprehensive Train the Trainer program starting in January 2019. Impact Washington’s manufacturing experts bring decades of experience working with Washington Manufacturers both large and small. Their mission is to support and energize the local industry by enhancing the job instruction knowledge in daily work. In the end, it helps productivity and performance of Washington Manufacturers.
Proud sponsor of People+Place
We support the mission of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. FCA focuses on serving local communities around the globe by engaging, equipping and empowering coaches and athletes to unite, inspire and change the world through the gospel. To donate or learn more, visit www.fcq.org.
Proud sponsor of People+Place
360-577-7200
Columbia River Reader / April 15 – May 15, 2019 / 21
People + Place from page 21
both sides, which I’m doing now, because you have to balance the artistic viewpoint, with the realities of the business. HC: Can the board help you with the artistic side, or is that all on you? GPM: By all means. I rely on them to keep me close to what the community wants. What people want. But there’s a catch there. People will tell you what they want but that may not be what they’ll come and see.
HC: Is there pressure to fill these 800 beautiful seats? GPM: Oh yeah. That never ends. You have to be courageous at times. And I say, ‘Okay you didn’t like that, get out the tar and feathers, but just give me a head start!’ It still is an organization that belongs to the community. I keep saying, ‘It’s your community theatre.’ When you become the visible face of the theatre people start to think it’s yours. And it’s not. It’s theirs.
You need to be very, very deliberative about what you do. How do we make sure that the gains we’ve established can be solidified, we can hang on to them, and reward the community’s faith and investment in us?
HC: Well, continued good luck and thanks for a great night out! GPM: You’re welcome. Come back any time. •••
HC: What’s on your agenda now, besides the next great show?
Fun at Ape Cave
HC: How’s that? GPM: It’s because people will tell you what they’ve seen but they cannot tell you what they want to see. I did a survey, once, what shows would you like to see. One of my great mentors said to me, ‘We’ll do that, but whatever show they say they want to see, that will be the least attended show.’ And sure enough, the survey said ‘Godspell,’ a great show, and it was the least attended all year. HC: So do you simply trust your gut? GPM: That and your relationships. There are great shows coming up and down the coast and we can “poach” a day or two to fill out our schedule. That’s one of the ways we can deliver so much value. And then you need to get people out of the sense that this is not for them, that this is elitist somehow. The only elitism is people who say, ‘I only listen to blues, or country, or jazz, or classical.’ Our premise is give people a wide variety of choices, broaden all of our horizons.
GPM: Getting some more great board members. We will cultivate and look for people who say, ‘I want to find out what it takes to run this thing.’ There are a huge number of moving parts. You do kick-ass programming. You market the hell out of it. You develop your base of support. What this place has going for it is a base of support.
APRIL
Sports Eye Safety Month
Hal Calbom is an independent film producer, educator, and writer. A third-generation Longview native, he attended RA Long High School and Harvard College and currently lives in Seattle. He began his media career as a broadcast journalist with the Seattle NBC affiliate, KING Television, as a producer and news anchor. Today, he dreams of playing guitar alongside Ray Benson, but shooting him in the Green Room before the March 23 performance by Asleep at the Wheel is as close as he’s come.
Lower Columbia School Gardens empowers our community by connecting kids and families with real food and hands-on learning. Through dynamic garden and cooking programs, they cultivate health, equity, life-long learning, and stewardship of the world around us.
“Protecting Young Eyes” Dr. Jeffrey Tack
Dr. Terence Tack
Dr. Kristi Poe
Proud sponsor of People+Place 22 / Columbia River Reader / April 15 – May 15, 2019
Proud sponsor of People+Place
Please join us in supporting their work! Become a perennial donor today and help local students and gardens flourish! Visit www.lcschoolgardens.org for more information and to sign up.
Give Longview’s Columbia Theatre a try! By
Rosemary Siipola
Past President, Columbia Theatre Board of Directors
O
ver 35 years ago, a group of communityminded citizens made it their mission to save the Columbia Theatre from the wrecking ball. In the parlance of movies, they took a page from “It’s a Wonderful Life” and decided that Longview was going to be Bedford Falls, not Pottersville. That attitude continues today, as the theatre continues to bring entertainment that is fun, thought-provoking, stretching boundaries and reinforcing all the good things that a solid cultural institution can bring to a community. I had the pleasure of attending the first Southwest Washington Symphony concert in the building in 1983, bundled up like everyone else that cold November evening. Later, my husband and I sweated, along with 800plus other friends and family members, through several ballet recitals where our little darlings performed. Now, as we continue to march into the future, the building is completely remodeled, air conditioned, and again functioning as a year-round facility. After six years on the board of directors for the theatre’s non-profit operating arm, I am proud of the work we have done and look forward to success in the coming years. Memories are made at the Columbia Theatre every time an actor, musician, comedian or tiny dancer takes the stage. I encourage everyone to give the theatre a chance to entertain you, broaden your horizons and meet your friends to share the experience. If you are interested in becoming a board member, I can tell you that “there’s no business like show business” and that your experience will be unlike any other. There is an art to making it look easy and understanding how hard we’re swimming under the surface to keep it that way. Being a part of this effort will give you knowledge and a sense of pride that you are part of something unique and wonderful. I invite you to give the Columbia Theatre a try. You won’t regret it. Call me at 360-431-1363 for more information. •••
The Natural World
The Territory of Tint By Dr. Robert Michael Pyle
T
he color gray appeals to me, or perhaps I should say the full spectrum of grays, from pearly pigeon-breast gray to ashy or granite gray to weathered cedarplank gray. And I like it spelled that way: g-r-a-y. Just as well, in both cases, since I live in a place called Gray’s River, which was named after Captain Robert Gray but could easily take its name from the panoply of leaden, pewter, and old aluminum skies that ceil this rainy place. I delight in a cloudy, foggy, or mist-ridden morning. In fact, I take keener relief from a cool gray break in a too-long stretch of overheated, UV-saturated, bluesky days than the reverse. Even so, I consider the human trait of color vision to be one of the greatest gifts of kindly evolution. As a kid, I loved the fact that our license plates bore the motto COLORFUL COLORADO and that, according to our fourth grade teacher, Mrs. Frandsen, the name Colorado referred to our state’s red rocks. I was crazy for Crayola, and the bright construction paper from which we fashioned turkey tails and autumn leaves for our classroom windows. Given this childhood infatuation with the rainbow, it isn’t surprising that seashells and butterflies captured my fancy, or that I asked for parrot tulip bulbs for my eighth birthday. In “Kodachrome,” Paul Simon sings, “Everything looks worse in black and white.” While I don’t entirely agree— penguins, polar bears, early Hitchcock films, and a December day in Gray’s River would all suffer from colorization—I happily echo his sentiments when he sings, “Give us those nice, bright colors.” Or, as Cezanne put it, “Long live those who have the love of color—true representatives of light and air!” I find no conflict between this view and my penchant for hoary hues. After all, the very author of the gray I celebrate most days, the rain, sponsors as well the richest gathering of greens you could find anywhere. And my PhotoGray glasses not only lessen the glare of the sun, they also saturate tint. Yet we couldn’t even consider such questions were we not imbued with vision across the portion of the electromagnetic spectrum—lying between the ultraviolet and the infrared— that we call “color.” Some people, when they discover that color vision is not general in mammals, feel bad for their pooches and pussycats. Yet our pets know nothing beyond their limited chromaticism, and even if they
Robert Michael Pyle is a naturalist and writer residing along Gray’s River in Wahkiakum County for many years. His twentytwo books include the Northwest classics Wintergreen, Sky Time in Gray’s River, and Where Bigfoot Walks, as well as The Thunder Tree, Chasing Monarchs, and Mariposa Road, a flight of butterfly books, and two collections of poems. His newest titles are Butterflies of the Pacific Northwest and Magdalena Mountain: a novel, released in August 2018. Photo by David Lee Myers
This is the eleventh in a series of selected essays to appear in Columbia River Reader. These were originally published in Orion Afield or Orion Magazine in the author’s column, “The Tangled Bank” and, subsequently, in the book of the same name published by Oregon State University Press in 2012.
did, I’m not sure they would swap the exquisite sensitivity of their smell and hearing for what they might regard as the cheap trick of a parti-colored existence. Of the subtle range of perception they achieve through their noses and ears, we know nothing more than they know of our near-deaf progress through a colorful world. We haven’t even a word for nose-blindness! Yet anyone who reads Henry Williamson’s classic Tarka the Otter or Daniel Mannix’s The Fox and the Hound will apprehend something of our mammoth ignorance of these alternative sensory systems. And what about the colorblind of our own species? Should we feel sorry for them? Two of the best butterfly observers I know, biologists Janet Chu and Paul Ehrlich, have orange-green colorblindness. In fact, Ehrlich’s research subjects of choice have been checkerspot butterflies—orange animals of green habitats. Perhaps their color-sight “aberration” (from our viewpoint) gives such people keener pattern recognition than the fully color-sighted ordinarily enjoy. Certainly such traits can vary. My wife, Thea, and illustrated-journal artist Hannah Hinchman both possess incredibly perceptive eyesight. Thea routinely spots four-leaf clovers in full stride, and hiking with Hannah in Idaho, I was astonished at what
her peepers picked out. Yet both women’s acuity flags at the onset of dusk; each, in fact, has markedly poor night vision. Our visual abilities, including the perception of color that we so often take for granted, arise through specific populations and configurations of rods and cones in the retina of the eye. Certain invertebrates, such as bees and butterflies, also see in the color spectrum, via clusters of ommatidia—parallel fiber optics that convey images as light waves through the thousands of lenses in their compound eyes to their optic nerves, and on to their brains. But these creatures tend to see in the ultraviolet as well, which we cannot. Observers often assume that a yellow crab spider secreted against a yellow daffodil achieves invisibility from its prey, but we cannot know how a UV-sighted insect sees the spider. Its camouflage has actually arisen to confer safety from its own colorsighted, avian predators. Conversely, the pink-and-purple dots and lines in the mouths of flowers, called nectar guides, fluoresce in ultraviolet, looking like neon strips to their insect pollinators. As a sharp student in one of my butterfly classes remarked, “Oh, I get it. Landing lights!” I often hear people declare that butterflies prefer this color of nectar flowers over that, but I mistrust such opinions because what looks yellow or mauve to us might look otherwise to an insect. UV perception often trumps color in mate recognition, too, in butterflies. Among the vertebrates, we humans share color vision chiefly with birds, which also enjoy a degree of UV perception, according to current research. Color vision in humans and other old-world primates came about for adaptive reasons, often cont page 24
Columbia River Reader / April 15 – May 15, 2019 / 23
Tangled Bank from page 23 thought to include our omnivory. In his fascinating book on the evolution of human eating habits, Why Some Like It Hot, chile-pepper aficionado Gary Nabhan explains how peppers have coevolved with herbivores. Birds, insensitive to the fiery compounds with which hot peppers are graced and craving the carotene they contain, seek out peppers and pass the seeds through their guts intact. Mammals, whose digestive systems would harm the seeds, typically find capsaicin unpalatable and learn to avoid peppers. Humans are the exception, likely because of the power of peppers and other spices to preserve food and deter parasites. Those benefits may have outweighed the peppers’ oral burn, which many people have even come to enjoy. Presumably, birds pick out pecks of peppers by recognizing their bright red colors. It is interesting that some of the only other vertebrates that can discern chile peppers by color have come to value them as condiments. Certain aspects of our relationship to the territory of tint strike me as even more curious. For example, why the peculiar adaptation of a sense of beauty, as it relates to color? Why should we thrill to a rainbow? Swoon before a
coral sea? Experience, upon viewing a scarlet tanager for the first time, what the ornithologist Arthur Cruikshank Sr. once described on a field trip as an “ornigasm?” I cannot say. I only know that when I see the russet fletching of a sharp-shinned hawk’s breast against the cones of a Sitka spruce, or a red-tail’s tail flashing past last year’s fronds of a winter cedar, something about the scene seems eminently right. Nothing clashes in nature, but certain colors just look good side by side. For example, the cherry crown of a redpoll among rosehips deep in winter’s bleakness on a white Wyoming plain. Spring azures nectaring on bluebells, and swallowtails on lilacs at Easter time, as Paas-bright eggs hide in the fresh green grass below. The magenta of Parry’s primrose in the alpine and Lambert’s locoweed in midsummer meadows. Then in September, Wilson’s warblers staging like lemon drops among scarlet currants before migration, and cinnamon monarchs floating over fallen peaches. I still love a winter’s monochrome on the lower Columbia, and admire the array of grays that gives rise to every rainbow. But I am no less thrilled to awake each day to a world produced in Technicolor.
24 / Columbia River Reader / April 15 – May 15, 2019
•••
Skamokawa Swamp Opera in Concert Skamokawa Swamp Opera will perform Saturday, April 20, at 7pm at Skamokawa’s River Life Interpretive Center/Central School/Redmen Hall, 1394 State Route 4, Skamokawa, Wash. Skamokawa Swamp Opera consists of Andrew Emlen, Kyleen Austin, Erik Friend, and Jillian Raye. From hiphop to opera, folk and pop, these four exceptionally talented musicians have something for everyone. Tickets for the show are $15 each, two for $25 and are available in Cathlamet at Bank of the Pacific and Daisy Chain Floral and in Skamokawa at the River Life interpretive Center and The Skamokawa General Store. Tickets are also available at www. friendsofskamokawa.org. The festivities start at 3pm with the Farm & Flowers photography exhibit opening and reception from 3–5pm (see calendar listing, page 28), then a brief interlude with dinner options available by request, followed by the concert.
Spring Is Here!
Landscape Installations Lawn Aerations Fertilization Sprinkler Installations Paver Patios/Fire Pits Clean-Ups Maintenance Packages Lawn Cutting Backyard Blitz...
Improving your outdoor space!
360.356.6588 FREE ESTIMATES COUNTYWIDE!
Licensed-Bonded-Insured
backyardblitznw@gmail.com
Northwest Gardening
A slug-fest in your garden
Battling those pesky, slimy prowlers By Alice Slusher
A
giggling 4-year-old told me a joke recently: What is the definition of a slug? A snail with a housing problem! But it’s no laughing matter, and we grow our slugs BIG here. Every spring I see them at dusk, crawling out from damp vegetation at the side of my driveway, on the prowl for something to eat. Outside your garden, they are great decomposers, helping to break down organic matter and enrich the soil. Inside your garden they can eat the leaves off your flowers or vegetable plants in the blink of an eye! They seem to be especially fond of lettuce, tomatoes, peppers, strawberries, hostas, and dahlias.
First, take a look around. Get rid of their daytime hiding places — damp, dark places, like ground vegetation, weeds, rock, plant debris, and boards lying on the ground. Prune leafy branches so they don’t touch the ground. For many reasons, reduce use of insecticide in your garden so that ground beetles and other predators on the night shift can eat slugs. Water your garden early in the day so the soil surface will dry out by evening. Try out some plants that don’t seem as tasty to slugs, such as penstemons and crocosmias (great hummingbird magnets), lavenders, roses, ferns, nasturtiums, and sedums.
Trapping can be effective, too. We’ve all heard about leaving saucers of beer in the garden, but why waste perfectly good beer? A mixture of a little yeast and sugar in water works just as well. New research at OSU suggests that slugs just plain love cucumbers, too! You can make a “Hotel California” trap (they can check out any time they want, but they can never leave!) using a plastic water or soda bottle. Cut the top off, invert the top so it fits inside the bottle, and duct tape where they meet to make the trap water-tight. Sink it into your garden soil so that the opening is level with the soil surface. In the morning, simply pick it up, seal it in a plastic bag and pitch it. You can also intentionally leave a board on damp soil, and in the morning pluck slugs off the underside of the board and drown them in a pail of soapy water or spray with ordinary ammonia window cleaner. A satisfying solution, not for the weak of heart, is to arm yourself with a headlamp and scissors and spend some quality time hunting down slugs and snipping them in two. My son swears that he has cheerfully decimated the slug population in his yard with this gruesome method.
The most common culprits are the gray garden slug and the European red slug. Tiny when just hatched, they can grow to more than 10 inches. The slime trail they produce helps them to glide along smoothly, even over sharp surfaces. Coffee grounds, sand, coarse bark, and diatomaceous earth don’t even slow them down. So what to do about these voracious beasties? It’s not a hopeless situation. Here are some steps you can take to prevent this pest from beating a slimy trail to your garden this summer! As with any garden pest, it’s best to start with nonchemical options.
I asked my rural-living friends what they do to control slugs, and they smugly answered, “Ducks!” The little quackers love slugs.
Copper barriers, such as wire around a planter or copper collars around the stems of new plants, are expensive but fairly effective solutions. Stop trouble before it starts: Look for and destroy the small, round, pearly white, slug eggs in the soil in the fall and early spring.
Home-built Slug Trap
So you’ve tried all these hints, and you’re still losing the battle? The least toxic chemical choices are pellets with iron sulfate as the active ingredient (E.g., “Sluggo,” “Escar-Go!” and “Worry Free”). It’s relatively non-toxic to children and pets—follow all label directions, though, and keep all chemicals in a safe place. Avoid products containing metaldehyde and ferric sodium EDTA, as they are more toxic and can harm children, pets, and earthworms. A real solution may be on the horizon: OSU research teams have high hopes of creating widely available attractants and biological controls to help keep down the slug population. Let’s keep our fingers crossed! •••
Kalama resident Alice Slusher volunteers with WSU Extension Service Plant & Insect Clinic. Drop by 9–12 Mon-Wed-Fri. at 1946 3rd Ave., Longview, with your specimen, call 360-577-3014, ext. 8, or send question via cowlitzmastergardener@ gmail.com.
Columbia River Reader / April 15 – May 15, 2019 / 25
BESIDES COLUMBIA RIVER READER...
What are you reading? By Alan Rose
“
The more I study the Bible, the more I discover its truths,” said Tania Spaulding, “truths that are rich, deep and broad, multidimensional, and totally relevant to my life.” Tania remembers when she first read Matthew 16:15, (“Who do you say I am?”) “I realized Jesus was inviting me into a personal relationship — to know Him for myself. That’s when I understood the importance of studying the Bible.” For her, the Bible “is all about the love that’s found in the intersection of this truth and grace.” It’s a testament and reflection of her faith in God, “His love letters to me and the world.” This faith has borne her and her family through experiences of enormous challenges and great suffering. “My mom lived through Stalin, Hitler, and Auschwitz,” she said. “My dad was an unbelieving skeptic who came to faith at the end of his life, and I witnessed a miracle upon his death bed. God first spoke to me at the age of 5, and He’s given me strength daily as I’ve battled a congenital muscle condition, along with many other life challenges.”
Tania Spaulding is a teacher and writer who has worked in public education and law enforcement. She also enjoys art, music, gardening, cooking, and water sports.
26 / Columbia River Reader / April 15 – May 15, 2019
Clearly, for Tania the Bible is not a book you read once; it takes a lifetime “to plumb the depths and the integration of truth, wisdom, b e a u t y, a n d l o v e contained within these living words.” Reading it provides answers to her problems, “opens portals of understanding, supplies wells of living water, and provides nourishment for my soul.” Through her life experiences and study of scripture, she continues to find evidence of God working in her life and the lives of others, revealing a deeper truth that supports and sustains her. •••
ATTENTION, READERS
Read a good book lately? To be mini-interviewed by CRR Book Reviewer Alan Rose for a future “What Are You Reading?” spotlight, please contact him at alan@alanrose.com or the publisher/ editor at publisher@ crreader.com.
Cover to Cover
Top 10 Bestsellers PAPERBACK FICTION 1. The Tattooist of Auschwitz Heather Morris, Harper, $16.99 2. A Gentleman in Moscow Amor Towles, Penguin, $17 3. An American Marriage Tayari Jones, Algonquin Books, $16.95 4. The Immortalists Chloe Benjamin, Putnam, $16 5. The Woman in the Window A.J. Finn, Morrow, $16.99 6. Us Against You Fredrik Backman, Washington Square Press, $17 7. All the Light We Cannot See Anthony Doerr, Scribner, $17 8. The Lost Girls of Paris Pam Jenoff, Park Row, $16.99 9. The Power Naomi Alderman, Back Bay, $16.99 10. The Huntress Kate Quinn, Morrow, $16.99
PAPERBACK NON-FICTION 1. Born a Crime Trevor Noah, Spiegel & Grau, $18 2. Braiding Sweetgrass Robin Wall Kimmerer, Milkweed Editions, $18 3. Sapiens Yuval Noah Harari, Harper Perennial, $22.99 4. White Fragility Robin DiAngelo, Beacon Press, $16 5. Being Mortal Atul Gawande, Picador, $17 6. My Own Words Ruth Bader Ginsburg, S&S, $18 7. Killers of the Flower Moon David Grann, Vintage, $16.95 8. The Collected Schizophrenias Esmé Weijun Wang, Graywolf Press, $16 9. Thirst: 2600 Miles to Home Heather Anderson, Mountaineers Books, $17.95 10. I’ll Be Gone in the Dark Michelle McNamara, Harper Perennial, $17.99
BOOK REVIEW By Alan Rose
The Great Believers
By Rebecca Makkai Viking $27
W
e are coming up on the fortieth anniversary of when AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) first appeared on the nation’s radar. In 1981, numbers of young gay men in New York City and San Francisco began mysteriously falling ill and dying without a known cause. Rebecca Makkai’s The Great Believers,
Alan Rose, author of The Legacy of Emily H a r g r a v e s , Ta l e s of Tokyo, and The Unforgiven, organizes the monthly WordFest events and hosts the KLTV program “Book Chat.” For other book reviews, author interviews, and notes on writing and reading, visit www.alan-rose.com.
HARDCOVER FICTION 1. Where the Crawdads Sing Delia Owens, Putnam, $26 2. The American Agent Jacqueline Winspear, Harper, $27.99 3. Daisy Jones & The Six Taylor Jenkins Reid, Ballantine, $27, 4. There There Tommy Orange, Knopf, $25.95 5. Unsheltered Barbara Kingsolver, Harper, $29.99 6. Devotions Mary Oliver, Penguin Press, $30 7. Tiamat’s Wrath James S.A. Corey, Orbit, $30 8. Wolf Pack C.J. Box, Putnam, $27 9. The Great Alone Kristin Hannah, St. Martin’s, $28.99, 10. The Travelling Cat Chronicles Hiro Arikawa, Berkley, $20
Brought to you by Book Sense and Pacific Northwest Booksellers Assn, for week ending Mar. 31, 2019, based on reporting from the independent bookstores of Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana. For the Book Sense store nearest you, visit www.booksense.com
HARDCOVER NON-FICTION MASS MARKET 1. Becoming 1. The Name of the Wind Michelle Obama, Crown, $32.50 Patrick Rothfuss, DAW, $9.99 2. Educated 2. American Gods Tara Westover, Random House, $28 Neil Gaiman, Morrow, $9.99 3. Horizon 3. Dune Barry Lopez, Knopf, $30 Frank Herbert, Ace, $9.99 4. Mama’s Last Hug 4. The Wise Man’s Fear Frans de Waal, Norton, $27.95 Patrick Rothfuss, DAW, $9.99 5. Deep Creek 5. Good Omens Pam Houston, Norton, $25.95 Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett, 6. Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat Morrow, $9.99 Samin Nosrat, Wendy MacNaughton 6. The Pharaoh Key (Illus.), S&S, $35 Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child, 7. The Life-Changing Magic of Grand Central, $8.99, Tidying Up 7. 1984 Marie Kondo, Ten Speed Press, George Orwell, Signet, $9.99 $16.99 8. Foundation 8. Maid Isaac Asimov, Spectra, $7.99 Stephanie Land, Hachette Books, $27 9. The Left Hand of Dark9. Women Rowing North ness Mary Pipher, Bloomsbury, $27 Ursula K. Le Guin, Ace, $9.99 10. The Uninhabitable Earth 10. Mistborn: The Final David Wallace-Wells, Tim Duggan Empire Books, $27 Brandon Sanderson, Tor, $8.99
CHILDREN’S ILLUSTRATED 1. Goodnight Moon Margaret Wise Brown, Clement Hurd (Illus.), Harper, $8.99 2. I Am a Bunny Ole Risom, Richard Scarry (Illus.), Golden, $7.99 3. My Heart Corinna Luyken, Dial Books, $17.99 4. Uni the Unicorn Amy Krouse Rosenthal, Brigette Barrager (Illus.), Random House Books for Young Readers, $8.99 5. Inky’s Amazing Escape Sy Montgomery, Amy Schimler-Safford (Illus.), Simon & Schuster/Paula Wiseman Books, $17.99 6. The Good Egg Jory John, Pete Oswald (Illus.), Harper, $17.99 7. Blueberries for Sal Robert McCloskey, Puffin, $7.99 8. Baby Night-Night Kate Merritt, Workman, $5.95 9. The Gruffalo Julia Donaldson, Puffin, $7.99 10. Where the Wild Things Are Maurice Sendak, Harper, $18.9
A portrait of grief’s lasting scars a finalist for the 2018 National Book Award, revisits this painful period in our recent history. In the 1980s, Fiona Marcus is a teenager who adores her older brother Nico. She becomes part of his world, dazzled by his witty and talented friends. Among them is Yale Tishman, a development director for a university art museum. When Nico dies from AIDS, Fiona and Yale support each other through the ensuing years of loss —“Nico’s friends, who’d become her only friends, dying one by one and two by two and, if you looked away for a second, in great horrible clumps.” In powerful and poignant scenes Makkai captures the tenor and tone of that time: the fear and uncertainty, the layering of losses, the frustration with the Reagan administration’s willful negligence and inaction. In spite of health authorities calling for urgent federal action, it wouldn’t be until the Clinton administration that it was even acknowledged there was a national health crisis and appropriate levels of funding provided, a decade after the epidemic had appeared. By then, a half million Americans had become infected and three hundred thousand had already died.
No one wanted to do much in the weeks after Nico’s memorial. Whoever you called was busy taking food to Terrence’s place, or you yourself were taking food to Terrence. Or people were sick, just regular sick, with coughs brought on by the drop in temperature. Guys with families flew home for Thanksgiving to play straight for nieces and nephews, to assure their grandparents they were dating, no one special, a few nice girls. To assure their fathers, who had cornered them in various garages and hallways, that no, they weren’t going to catch this new disease.
We would like to think that people “get over” their deepest losses and “move on” with their lives. And people do, carrying their grief quietly, hidden away in their secret hearts. But, as Fiona comes to realize, getting over her losses and moving on with her life is not the same as healing. For our deepest losses, “the best (one) could hope for was good scarring.” ••• Alan’s novel about the AIDS epidemic, As If Death Summoned, will be published in April 2020 by Amble Press, an imprint of Bywater Books.
~ from The Great Believers The chapters alternate between the harrowing years of the 1980s and 2015, when Fiona, now in her fifties, has traveled to Paris, searching for her estranged daughter, Claire. These two storylines—re-living the plague years and searching for Claire—become parallel tracks that at last converge in Fiona’s mind as she realizes how her grief has limited her from loving anyone for fear of again losing that person, limited her even in loving her own daughter.
May 13 • Cassava 1333 Broadway Longview
SECOND TUESDAY
www.alan-rose.com
Columbia River Reader / April 15 – May 15, 2019 / 27
k : y e
Outings & Events
Performing & Fine Arts Music, Art, Theatre, Literary Submission Guidelines Letters to the Editor (up to 200 words) relevant to the publication’s purpose — helping readers discover and enjoy the good life in the Columbia River region, at home and on the road — are welcome. Longer pieces, or excerpts thereof, in response to previously-published articles, may be printed at the discretion of the publisher and subject to editing and space limitations. Items sent to CRR will be considered for publication unless the writer specifies otherwise. Writer’s name and phone number must be included; anonymous submissions will not be considered. Political Endorsements CRR is a monthly publication serving readers in several towns, three counties, two states and beyond and does not publish Letters to the Editor that are endorsements or criticisms of political candidates or controversial issues. (Paid ad space is available.) Unsolicited submissions may be considered, provided they are consistent with the publication’s purpose. Advance contact with the editor is recommended. Information of general interest submitted by readers may be used as background or incorporated in future articles. Outings & Events calendar (free listing): Events must be open to the public. Non-profit organizations and the arts, entertainment, educational and recreational opportunities and community cultural events will receive listing priority. Fundraisers must be sanctioned/sponsored by the benefiting non-profit organization. Businesses and organizations wishing to promote their particular products or services are invited to purchase advertising (contact info, page 3).
FIRST THURSDAY • May 2 Broadway Gallery Enjoy refreshments and meet guest artists Jaime Bacchus (paintings and prints) and new gallery member Adrienne Stacey (ceramics). Reception, 5:30-7:30pm. Music: by Keith Hinyard, guitar and vocals www.the-broadway-gallery.com 1418 Commerce Ave. Downtown Longview, Wash. Forsberg Art Gallery, Lower Columbia College Rose Center for the Arts. Gallery open 5–7pm. Across the River Cowlitz County Historical Museum 405 Allen St, Kelso, Wash. 7pm Program: TBA. Take a chance! Programs are always interesting. Or call the Museum to check, 360577-3119.
Longview-Kelso
Community Concert Association
2 0 1 9 - 2 0 2 0 ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTIONS AVAILABLE
EARLY BIRD
DISCOUNT
Maureen McGovern Sat, May 4, 2019 - 7:30 pm
HOW TO PUBLICIZE YOUR NON-PROFIT EVENT IN CRR Send your noncommercial community event’s basic info (name of event, sponsor, date & time, location, brief description and contact info) to publisher@ crreader.com Or mail or hand-deliver (in person or via mail slot) to: Columbia River Reader 1333-14th Ave Longview, WA 98632
Submission Deadlines Events occurring: May 15 – June 20: by April 25 for May 15 issue. Events occurring June 15– July 20: by May 25 for June 15 issue. Calendar submissions are considered for inclusion, subject to lead time, general relevance to readers, and space limitations. See Submission Guidelines, above.
Grammy Nominee
A multi-GRAMMY nominee, Broadway and recording artist, Maureen’s star-studded career includes 45 years of concerts, theater, film and television. Her international hit, “The Morning After” from The Poseidon Adventure, garnered her a #1 Oscar-winning GOLD record. Maureen will engage the audience with sentimental stories and iconic songs. Performances at Lower Columbia College Rose Center for the Arts
Tickets Available Online or at the Door
Order by May 4 to receive the Early Bird discount:
Season subscription prices:
Adults $70 • Students $30 • Family $160 Prices after May 4:
$85 Adult • $40 Student • $190 Family Single tickets $25 Adults; $10 Students
For Information: Susie Kirkpatrick 360-636-2211
28 / Columbia River Reader / April 15 – May 15, 2019
www.lkcca.org
Broadway Gallery Artists co-op. Classes for all ages, workshops, paint parties. Featured artists, April: gallery member Debra Chase (paintings); May: guest artists Jaime Bacchus (paintings, prints) and new gallery member Adrienne Stacey (ceramics). Hours: M-F 10-5:30, Sat 10–4. 1418 Commerce, Longview, Wash. 360577-0544. www.the-broadway-gallery.com. Tsuga Gallery Fine arts and crafts by area artists. Thurs-Sat 11–5. 70 Main Street, Cathlamet, Wash. 360-795-0725. Redmen Hall History and art. 1394 SR-4, Skamokawa, Wash. Thurs-Sun, 12-4pm. Info: 360-795-3007 or email fos1894@ gmail.com.
Forsberg Art Gallery at LCC Through May 2: Gail Owen, Reduction Prints. Rose Center for the Arts, 1600 Maple St., Longview, Wash. Gallery summer hours: Mon-Thurs 10–4). Free. Info: 360442-2510 or lowercolumbia.edu/gallery. Community Ar ts Work shop with volunteer instructors and a variety of arts and crafts materials available. Free. Alcove Gallery through May 29: Neo-Fantasy Art by Jeremiah Landis and Jerry Filbeck (see story, page 35). Located in the CAP building,1526 Commerce, Longview, Wash. Open Mon–Thurs 12–3:30pm. For more info: 360-425-3430 x 306, or email capartsworkshop@gmail.com. Koth Gallery, Longview Public Library Glass Case~April: Cowlitz Coin Club. Gallery~April: Karen Jones. 1600 Louisiana Street, Longview, Wash. Mon-Wed 10am8pm, Thurs-Sat 10am-5pm. Info: Daniel, 360-442-5307. Cow litz Valley Old T ime Music Association Music jam night with open mic, 7–9pm, 1st, 3rd and 5th Fridays, Catlin Grange, 205 Shawnee, Kelso, Wash. Primary instruments: guitar, mandolin, banjo, fiddle, piano, accordion. Traditional country and/or bluegrass. Dance floor open. Info: Archie Beyl, 360-636-3835. Farm & Flowers April 20, 3–5pm. Photography exhibition by Desiree East Craven (Backwater Farm, Puget Island) and Brian Winner (Blue Skies Farm of
Puget Island). Capturing the intensity of the natural world from the vast to the minuscule, these photographer/farmers reflect the essence of life on a Puget Island farm. Displayed in Skamokawa’s historic 1894 Schoolhouse/River Life Interpretive Center, 1394 SR-4, Skamokawa, Wash. Skamokawa Swamp Opera April 20, 7pm. River Life Interpretive Center, Music from hip-hop to opera, folk and pop, by four talented musicians. Tickets $15, two for $25. Details, page 24. Longview Public Library Book Sale May 2-3-4, 10am–4:30pm. 1600 Louisiana St., Longview, Wash. Hardcovers, 50¢, pocket books 25¢. Saturday, bag sale, $2 per bag. Media also available. Contributions always welcome. Info: 360-442-5300 Maureen McGovern May 4. LCC Rose Center for the Arts, See ad, this page. Benefit Showing of the film “Shirley Valentine,” Tues, May 7, 6:30 p.m. Doors open 5:30pm. Kelso Theater Pub, 214 S. Pacific, Kelso,Wash. $20 ticket includes movie, pizza, fun swag and raffle. Tickets available at Columbia River Reader, Teague’s Interiors, Soap Factory and Kelso Theater Pub. Proceeds benefit the Chihuly sculpture for Downtown Longview. Event is sponsored by the Art Renaissance Team and Kelso Theater Pub. The Princess and the Pea May 10, 7:00pm. Presented by Astoria School of Ballet. Liberty Theatre, 1203 Commercial St., Astoria, Ore. Tickets $15. Box office WedSat, 2–5:30pm or online, libertyastoria.org. The Artisan Guild of Mt. St. Helens Annual Spring Faire. Fri, May 10, 9–5. Cassava, 14th and Broadway, Longview, Wash. Featuring photography, high quality beaded jewelry, lampwork and stained glass, fused glass, whimsical garden art, creative custom jewelry. Senior Piano Recital for Ethan Chung, RAL/LCC student. May 18th, 7:00 pm at St. Stephen’s, 22nd and Louisiana Street, Longview, Wash. Free admission. Presented by Karla Dudley Piano Studio. Barefoot in the Park by Neil Simon. May 17–June 2. Fri-Sat 7:30pm, Sundays 2pm. Presented by Stageworks Northwest, 1433 Commerce, Longview, Wash. Tickets/ info: www.stageworksnorthwest.org or 360-636-4488.
Outings & Events
Recreation, Outdoors Gardening, History, Pets, Self-Help Cowlitz County Museum Open Tues-Sat 10am–4pm. 405 Allen St, Kelso, Wash. www.co.cowlitz.wa.us/museum. Info: 360577-3119. April 4, 7pm program: Tyler Stockton, local music research (see First Thurs. sidebar, page 28.) Seed to Supper Gardening Course Six free classes held on Wednesdays, April 24-May 29 at Rainier City Hall Meeting Room, 10am–12noon. Regardless of gardening experience or type of garden area available, these classes are created to help Oregon residents stretch tight budgets. An Oregon Food Bank and OSU Extension partnership. Register at S2SColumbia.eventbrite.com or email S2SColumbia@gmail.com, call Debi 503-543-3294. CASA Gala & Auction April 27, Cowlitz County Event Center. Tickets $75; buy online at cowlitzcountycasa.org or at office. Info: Christy Grubbs, 360-4145212. Lake Sacajawea Kids’ Fish-In April 27. Register now! See story, page 14. Got Talent? Kiwanis Club of Kelso L o n g v i e w f u n d r a i s e r, 3 p m S u n . , April 28, Columbia Theatre for the Performing Arts, 1231 Vandercook Way, Longview. Admission $12 general, $10 students/seniors, under age 3 free. Purchase tickets in advance from CTPA
or at the door the day of the show. Proceeds assist the Kiwanis Club with local scholarships and programs, Kiwanis Doernbecher Children’s Cancer Program. 2019 Mt. St. Helens Regatta May 4-5, 10am–6pm, Silver Lake Resort, 3201 Spirit Lake Hwy, Silverlake, Wash. Outboard hydroplane races. speeds 35–90mph. Competition for national championship. Free admission. See ad, page 13. Friends of St. John annual uniform/scrubs sale. May 7–9, Tues/Wed 7am–7pm; Thurs 7am–3pm. Proceeds support medical scholarship funds, projects at the hospital, employee education. PeaceHealth St. John Medical Center cafeteria, Delaware and Kessler, Longview, Wash. Info: Kathy Davis 360-751-1048. P.E.O. Mother’s Day Garden Sale May 9–11 (Thurs 4–7pm; Fri 9am–6pm, Sat 9am–4pm). Cowlitz Expo Floral Bldg, 1900 7th Ave., Longview, Wash. Large hanging baskets, planters, birdhouses, vegetable and herb gardens, shabby chic, painted furniture and more. Cash, check and credit card. No early sales. Proceeds for scholarships for future education of women. Info: Terri, 360-425-5820.
AMALAK SPRING SALE (formerly the Plant and Book Sale in Kalama), Fri, May 10, 9–4, Sat, May 11, 9–2. Fundraiser for non-profit women’s organization Kalama. Plants, yard art, baked goods, and attic treasures, plus Kalama Library-FOLK’s big used book sale. Event to be held in the Activity building in Haydu Park, on Kalama River Road, EXIT 32 off I-5, follow the signs on River Road. Swing Into Spring Sat, May 11, 9–3. Clatskanie Farmers Market sale will be held in the Hazen Hardware Building on Nehalem St. just one block off Hwy. 30 in downtown Clatskanie, Ore. Garden starts, hanging baskets, baked goods and sweet treats, local crafters and artisans, with lots of gift ideas. Still accepting vendors. More info: clatskaniefarmersmarket.com, 503-728-4723 R Square D Square Dance Club dances 2nd Friday and 4th Saturday, through May (no dance 2nd Saturday in May). June begins summer dance schedule: 2nd and 4th Wednesday. Dance times: 7pm - 8pm Plus with advanced rounds, 8pm - 9:30pm Mainstream with rounds. 106 NW 8th Ave, Kelso, Wash. by the Rotary spray park at intersection of OB Hwy (SR-4) and W. Main, Kelso/Longview. PLUS DANCERS through May 22, workshop/ lessons on Wednesdays, 7pm - 9pm, $2.50 per person. More info www.r-square-d.info, or call Annie Tietze, 360414-5855. DATE CHANGE FROM AUGUST
Rainier City-Wide Garage Sales
Changed to Sat., June 15, 8am–4pm. Rainier Senior Center, 48 West 7th St., Rainier, Ore. Table rental $10 each. Call to reserve or for info: Rachel, 503-3696382. Senior Center kitchen will be selling food 11am–2pm.
TAKE A
HIKE
with
Mt. St. Helens Club
This friendly club welcomes newcomers. For more info please call the hike leader or visit mtsthelensclub.org. RT(round trip) distances are from Longview. E=easy, M=moderate, S=strenuous, e.g.=elevation gain.
Wed, April 17 Lake Sacajawea (E) Walk around the whole lake (3+ miles) or walk half the lake (1+ mile). Leaders: Trudy and Ed, 360-414-1160. Sat, April 20 Capital Forest (M) Drive 137 miles RT to Margaret McKinney Campground; hike 6 miles with 500 ft. e.g. on the Waddell Creek loop, a quiet hike through dense forest. Leader: Bruce 360-425-0256. Wed, April 24 Clatskanie Walk (E) Drive 29 miles RT. Walk 3+ miles in charming Clatskanie, mostly paved with minimal elevation gain. Leader: Bonnie L., 503-5562332. Sat, April 27 Buck Creek - Wicky Shelter Loop (M) Drive 260 miles RT. Hike 10-mile loop with 1,200 ft. e.g. in the foothills of Mt. Adams. Ponderosa pine parklands make a noticeable change from our lush undergrowth. Leader: George W 360-562-0001.
Wed, May 8 Strawberry Loop (E) Drive 150 miles RT to North Bonneville. Hike 4-mile loop with 50 ft. e.g. in scenic Columbia River Gorge. Optional tour of the Bonneville Dam Visitor Center after hike. Leader: Bruce 360-425-0256. Sat, May 11 Tracy Hill Loop (M) Drive 230 miles RT. Hike 6-mile loop with 1,800 ft. e.g. just east of the popular Catherine Creek area. Open slopes, spring wildflowers and oak copses make this a scenic hike. Leader: George W 360-562-0001. Wed, May 15 Lake Sacajawea (E) Walk around the whole lake (3+ miles) or walk half the lake (1+ mile). Leaders: Trudy and Ed, 360-414-1160. Sat, May 18 Wygant/Chetwoot Trail (M/S) Drive 194 miles RT to east end of the Col. River Gorge. Hike 6 miles with 1,200 ft. e.g. or 8.5 miles with 2,000ft. e.g. Excellent views of Columbia River from ridgetop viewpoints. Leader: Bruce 360-425-0256.
Columbia River Reader / April 15 – May 15, 2019 / 29
Clatskanie Fultano’s Pizza 770 E. Columbia River Hwy Family style with unique pizza offerings, hot grill items & more! Sun-Thurs 11am–9pm. Fri-Sat 11am–10pm. 503-728-2922
Ixtapa Fine Mexican Restaurant 640 E. Columbia River Hwy Fine Mexican cuisine. Daily specials. The best margarita in town. Daily drink specials. Sports bar. M-Th 11am–9:30pm; Fri & Sat 11am–11:30pm; Sun 11am–9pm. 503-728-3344
Rainier Alston Pub & Grub 25196 Alston Rd., Rainier 503-556-4213 11 beers on tap, cocktails. Open daily 11am. 503-556-9753 See ad, page 12.
COLUMBIA RIVER
dining guide
Longview 716 Triangle Shopping Center. 18 rotating craft brews, pub fare. M-W 12 noon –9pm, Th-Sat 12 noon-11pm, Sun 12 Noon-8pm. 360-232-8283. Follow us on Untappd .
The Original Pietrio’s Pizzeria Homestyle cooking from the 1960s-1970. All natural ingredients. Beer and wine available. Open Wed. thru Sun, 7am–8pm. 1140 15th Ave., Longview. See ad, page 12.
Evergreen Pub & Café 115-117 East 1st Street Burgers, halibut, prime rib, full bar. 503-556-9935. See ad, page 12. Goble Tavern 70255 Columbia River Hwy. (Milepost 31, Hwy. 30) Food, beer & wine + full bar, Live entertainment. 503-556-4090. See ad page 12.
Luigi’s Pizza 117 East 1st Street, Rainier 503-556-4213 Pizza, spaghetti, burgers, beer & wine. See ad, page 12.
614 Commerce Ave., Longview. 18 varieties of pizza. Salad bar, Lunch buffet all-you-can-eat. Beer & wine. Mon-Fri open 11am, Sat-Sun 12 Noon. 360-353-3512.
The Carriage Restaurant & Lounge
Full breakfast, lunch and dinner 6am– 9pm. Full bar in lounge, open 6am. Three happy hours daily (8–10am, 12– 2pm, 5–7pm). Group meeting room, free use with $150 food/drink purchases. 1334 12th Ave. 360-425-8545.
Conestoga Pub Cornerstone Café 102 East “A” Street Microbrews, wines & spirits Prime rib Friday & Sat. Open M-F 6am–8pm; Sat-Sun 7am–8pm. 503-556-8772. See ad, page 12.
1260 Commerce Ave. Serving lunch & dinner Mon–Sat 11am–10pm. Full bar, banquet space, American comfort food. 360-703-3904. www.millcitygrill.com. See ad, page 9.
Country Folks Deli 1329 Commerce Ave., Longview. Serving lunch and dinner. Sandwiches, soups, salads. Open M-Sat 11am. 360-425-2837.
Freddy’s Just for the Halibut. Cod, halibut & tuna fish and chips, oysters & clams., award-winning clam chowder. Prime rib every Thurs. Beer and wine. M-W 10–8, Th-Sat 10–9, Sun 11–8. 1110 Commerce 360-414-3288. See ad, page 15.
Hop N Grape 924 15th Ave., Longview M–Th 11am–8pm; Fri & Sat 11am– 9pm; Sun 11am–7pm. BBQ meat slowcooked on site. Pulled pork, chicken brisket, ribs, turkey, salmon. Worldfamous mac & cheese. 360-577-1541 See ad page 8
Masthead Castaways 1124 Washington Way, Longview. Famous fish & chips, gourmet burgers, Chowders. 13 beers on tap. Extra parking in back. 360-232-8500.
30 / Columbia River Reader / April 15 – May 15, 2019
Porky’s Public House 561 Industrial Way, Longview Slow-roasted prime rib Fri & Sat, flat iron steaks, 1/3-lb burgers, fish & chips. 33 draft beers. Full bar. Family-friendly, weekly jazz and acoustic dinner hour sets on Weds. 360-636-1616. See ad, page 16.
Toutle/Mt St Helens Fire Mountain Grill 9440 Spirit Lake Hwy, Milepost 19. Lunch & Dinner: Burgers, sandwiches, salads, steaks seafood, chicken & dumplings, housemade cobblers and infamous Bigfoot Burger. Riverside dining. Open 10am–8pm daily. 360-274-5217.
St. Helens, Oregon
Sunshine Pizza & Catering 2124 Columbia Blvd. Hot pizza, cool salad bar. Beer & wine. 503-397-3211 See ad, page 14.
Scappoose Fultano’s Pizza 51511 SE 2nd. Family style with unique pizza offerings, hot grill items & more! “Best pizza around!” Sun–Th 11am–9pm; Fri-Sat 11am– 10pm. Full bar service ‘til 10pm Fri & Sat. Deliveries in Scappoose. 503-5435100.
Ixtapa Fine Mexican Restaurant
Red Kitchen 848 15th Ave., Longview. Cocktails, taps, vino. Traditional diner fare, breakfast, lunch, dinner. Sandwiches, burgers, funky comfort food, incl. Bacon Gouda Mac n Cheese, shepherd’s pie, healthy options. Full service bar, incl 12 taps. 7am–10pm, M-F, 8am–10pm Sat-Sun.
Roland Wines 1106 Florida St., Longview. Authentic Italian wood-fired pizza, wine, and beer. Casual ambience. 5–9pm Wed-Sat. See ad, page 33.
33452 Havlik Rd. Fine Mexican cuisine. Daily specials. The best margarita in town. Daily drink specials. M-Th 11am–9:30pm; Fri & Sat 11am–11:30pm; Sun 11am–9pm. 503-543-3017
Warren Warren Country Inn 56575 Columbia River Hwy. Fine family dining. Breakfast, lunch & dinner. Fri Prime Rib special, Taco Tuesday. Full bar. M-Th 8am–9:30pm, Fri-Sat 8am–10:30pm, Sun 9am–9pm. Karaoke Fri & Sat.503-410-5479.
Woodland Teri’s 3225 Ocean Beach Hwy, Longview. Lunch and dinner. Burgers, steak, seafood, pasta, specials, fresh NW cuisine. Happy Hour. Full bar. Sun-Mon 3–8pm. Tues–Sat 11:30am–9pm.. 360577-0717.
The Oak Tree 1020 Atlantic Ave., Woodland. Full breakfast, lunch and dinner menu. Fresh from scratch cooking. Great happy hour menu. Sun 7am–9pm, M-Th 8am–9pm, Fri-Sat 7am–10pm. 360-841-8567
Castle Rock Parker’s Restaurant & Brewery 1300 Mt. St. Helens Way. I-5 Exit 49. Lunch, Dinner. Burgers, hand-cut steak; seafood and pasta. Restaurant opens 11am, Lounge 12 Noon. Closed Monday. 360-967-2333
To advertise in Columbia River Dining Guide, call 360-749-2632
Blackwood on Movies
Tim Burton’s “Dumbo” with Production By Dr. Bob Blackwood from the Walt Disney Studio
W
hen I saw that Tim Burton was putting together a new version of the short film “Dumbo,” (originally 64 minutes long), only longer and also a bit more grim than the original tale, I got a bit antsy. I should have realized that the Disney folks would give Burton some leeway, but they really wanted to keep that elephant flying, not stomping. Dumbo is just as gentle and charming as the original film, though he is a tad more assertive. There are a few menacing characters in the film, but it doesn’t lose its crowd-pleasing touch for the little kids and those of us who have been one of them.
The PG film is set just after World War I in the USA. Danny DeVito is running the small circus, traveling from small town to small town and doing his best to make a living. His circus folks are keeping an eye on two youngsters — played by Nico Parker and Finley Hobbins — who are waiting for their father’s return from the war. Colin Farrell gives a solid performance as both their father and a responsible human being who has seen hard times in World War I. He returns from the war having lost an arm, but he has not lost his love for his children nor his desire to be a performer in the circus.
Dr. Bob Blackwood, professor emeritus of the City Colleges of Chicago, co-authored with Dr. John Flynn the book, Everything I Know about Life I Learned from James Bond. Mr. Blackwood lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Though his job as a cowboy is not really needed anymore, the circus does need someone to take care of the elephants. And that’s when Mrs. Jumbo comes in, pregnant, too. And her baby, Dumbo, has the largest ears ever seen on a newborn elephant, and they keep growing as he does. He certainly is pleasant.
As the days pass by, we see more and more activity from Dumbo. Yes, this elephant can fly. Soon, the word is spread throughout the country as the circus travels. Michael Keaton’s V. A. Vandevere, the wealthy circus mogul, and Danny DeVito both want that flying elephant, but Keaton’s rich character winds up controlling the tiny circus that DeVito owns. Soon, Keaton brings along his girlfriend, the French aerialist Collette Marchant, played by Eva Green. I thought Keaton’s character could have been developed a bit more, but, let’s face it, this is Dumbo’s film. All eyes are on the flying elephant. Eva Green is not only a star, she almost steals the show with her chic qualities and her aerial style. Together, Marchant and her manager and friend, Vandevere, almost eclipse Dumbo, for a few moments anyway. But soon that good old Disney magic has the flying elephant gripping your heart and your applauding hands. Bravo, Burton; Bravo Disney! •••
Service Open Saturday 9-3 No appointments needed for oil changes!
360-423-3350
1111 Washington Way, Longview WWW.STIRLINGHONDA.COM Columbia River Reader / April 15 – May 15, 2019 / 31
Miss Manners
the Lower Columbia
from page 5
GENTLE READER: Funerals are not the time to re-litigate past differences, and not only because it would be a one-sided debate: Expressions of satisfaction, even ones you believe to be muted, tend to be ill-received by those who are there to mourn. Trusting that you can maintain a properly respectful tone, Miss Manners excuses you from attending the funeral only if your disagreement was strong enough that it precluded a civil meeting while you were both alive. In any other case, normal rules should apply, namely that one attends the funeral of those with whom one had a relationship, professional or otherwise. DEAR MISS MANNERS: Could you please tell me how to eat cooked peas? Specific instructions, please. GENTLE READER: Chase them around the plate with your fork. You will not catch all of them, but learning to accept that should make your life easier in other respects. Oh, all right. You can run them into other foods on your plate to which they might stick, such as mashed potatoes. Just so you don’t bring up, or follow, the old ditty (“I eat my peas with honey / I’ve done it all my life / It makes the peas taste funny / But it keeps them on the knife”), which is wrong, and which Miss Manners is tired of hearing. DEAR MISS MANNERS: Is it polite for me to give a gift to a friend in front of a hopeful new friend? These two friends are each spouses to gentlemen my husband works with. GENTLE READER: As a general rule, Miss Manners would say “no” — unless the present is in connection with an event for which the new person would not qualify (i.e., your friend’s birthday) and is delivered discreetly.
Informer by Perry Piper
My trek back to Latinalia
A
when you do splurge, you’ll be hard pressed to pay more than $40 for a meal including two or three drinks.
I had many fears surrounding the initial test trip to Barranquilla and Bogota within the lands of cocaine and Pablo Escobar, but the excursion was a huge success and we made many new friends. While I did more research and planning for that half month adventure than any other of my life, I discovered how casual and fun the place turned out to be. Not to say there wasn’t danger or the U.S. isn’t statistically safer, but there are clear protocols to follow to stay safe.
I’ll be working remotely writing articles and designing ads for the Reader via a file syncing program that makes it feel like our work computers are right next to each other. It’ll be especially easy because I’ll only be three to five hours ahead, as opposed to nine or more like in my normal European or Asian tours. Every time I connect to wifi, typically while in bed or sometimes the lobby, my files will upload to the publisher’s (Sue’s) computer and her files will download to me. Since the files are so small in modern terms compared to even slow developing nation WiFi, loading will be very fast.
fter completing a successful two week trip to Colombia with my high school friend Vince two years ago, I’ve decided to return to see the rest of the South American continent.
I bought a bug net last time, which I will be upgrading to the full body model this time, as well as waterproof full body clothes. The temperatures and humidity, especially for people from our cool region here, are overwhelming. I would lie awake at night in my bed at 2am in nothing but boxers and I was still sweating because there was a huge monsoon scale storm that knocked out the air conditioning. At every turn, we upgraded our room to an air conditioned tier so we could come home to a true treat each day. This time around, I’ll be flying into the remaining Colombian cities I have yet to see, via a $360 one-way flight. Hostel lodging, the superior way to travel because of the almost guaranteed path to making global lifelong friends and having a builtin social calendar, are a mere $10 per day, average. Food can be done on $5 a day if you don’t need to dine out much. Even
••• Please send your questions to Miss Manners at her website, www. missmanners.com; to her email, dearmissmanners@gmail.com; or through postal mail to Miss Manners, Andrews McMeel Syndication, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106.
I’m going to be working my way south, meeting two previously-met Chilean friends, reconnecting in central Chile near Santiago for the July 2 total solar eclipse, which will be the second one
I have analyzed the region in general, but going on this specific trek, I’ve actually done the least itinerary planning ever. I plan to leave in a few days and haven’t even booked the flight or hostel yet because my previous research showed ticket prices costing the same regardless of purchase date. The main difference I’m making this time is that I’ll have enough cash to avoid ATM withdrawal fees. I highly recommend South America because it is incredibly low cost, the culture is amazingly fun and welcoming and you will probably be as surprised as I was by the fantastic people, sunny weather and new experiences to be had. ••• Perry Piper will be leaving soon for an extended trip through South America. While he is away, he’ll be helping remotely with CRR and can refer clients to a technical consultant filling in for him to help people with their computer needs. Reach Perry at 360-270-0608.
Enjoy one of the highest rated parks in Washington State!
Original • Local • Organic We love our River and region. Let’s laugh and have fun! Lewis & Clark subscribed. Covers suitable for framing.
Music lasts a lifetime!
Family Resort with loads of activities for kids Pool • Hot Tub • Fire Pits Private Saunas • Horseshoes Disc Golf • Volleyball & Basketball Courts Daily-Weekly-Monthly Rates
Reservations 360-274-8373 www.greatrvresort.com 150 Happy Trails Road Castle Rock, WA • I-5 Exit 52
10 PARK MODELS IN STOCK www.flickr.com/photos/parkmodels
Piano Lessons A great investment in yourself or as a gift
Martin E. Kauble Longview, WA
360-423-3072
(www.kaublepianostudio.com)
technique • theory • performance 32 / Columbia River Reader / April 15 – May 15, 2019
I’ve ever seen after the August 2017 one in Madras, Oregon. After that, I’ll loop around the some of the smaller countries like Guyana before finishing in Brazil and finally, Argentina. If the timing works out, I’m considering a week-long cruise to Antarctica while I’m in the neighborhood.
Cavco Ashkicker Jr,Loaded $33,995; Ashkicker Loaded with deck $43,995, Ashkicker Loft w/deck (2 in stock) $46,495 and $48,995. Creekside Cabin (DB Cooper) LOADED $74,995, Used Cavco non-loft $45,995, Palm Sequoia (2 in stock) starting at $58,995. Models open 9am–4pm 7 days a week For further details:
360-274-7448 or 503-425-9105
Astronomy
SKY REPORT / FRIENDS OF GALILEO
April 15 – May 18 By Ted Gruber
Watch May 6 meteor shower from Halley’s Comet debris trail Evening Sky While most of the planet action takes place in the morning skies this month, Mars is visible high in the western sky as darkness falls. The red planet is slightly dimmer than it was last month. On the evening of May 6, Mars gives the constellation Taurus the bull a third horn when it appears halfway between the stars Elnath and the fainter Zeta Tauri that form the two horns of Taurus. Mars remains visible until setting in the west-northwest between 11:00pm and midnight. If you have binoculars or a telescope, you’re in for a treat the evening of May 10 when the moon passes through the Beehive star cluster, also known as Messier 44 or simply M44. The Beehive is an open cluster of at least 1,000 stars and is about 600 light years distant. Morning Sky Jupiter, Saturn, and Venus continue to dominate the pre-dawn sky. In mid-April, Jupiter rises around 1:00am in the southeast, followed by Saturn about two hours later. Venus, the brightest of the three planets, rises in the east just before 6:00am. By midMay, Jupiter and Saturn each rise about two hours earlier, and Venus about one hour earlier. The moon passes just north of Jupiter the morning of April 23.
showers appear to radiate from points in the eastern sky, which means that facing east will provide the best chance to see any meteors. The Lyrids are active from April 14 to 30, peaking the night of April 22-23, with a predicted rate of 18 meteors per hour at the peak. Unfortunately, the nearly full moon that night will drown out many of the fainter meteors. The shower is called the Lyrids because the meteors appear to radiate from a point in the sky in the constellation Lyra, which includes the bright star Vega. The Eta Aquarids are active from April 19 to May 28. This shower peaks in the early morning hours of May 6 and has a predicted rate of 40 meteors per hour at the peak. This time the moon cooperates; the new moon occurs just two days before the peak. The meteors result from the Earth passing through the debris trail left by Halley’s Comet as it orbits the sun.
Meteor Showers After no significant meteor activity since January, two showers peak over the next month. The meteors in both
••• Kelso resident Ted Gruber makes a regular report to fellow members of Friends of Galileo, a familyfriendly astronomy club which meets monthly in Longview. For info about FOG, visit friendsofgalileo.com.
Accepting children & adults as new patients. Call to schedule your appointment. Laser Dentistry Services Fillings and
many other procedures can be completed without drilling or anesthesia injections.
Daniel Haghighi, dds
Lower Columbia Oral Health Center for Implant Dentistry
&
“Where Dentistry Meets Medicine”
1538 11th Ave. Longview, WA • www.lcohdental.com • 360-636-3400 Columbia River Reader / April 15 – May 15, 2019 / 33
Q
UIPS & QUOTES
Selected by Debra Tweedy
Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought. ~ John F. Kennedy, 1917-1963, 35th President of the United States.
Never worry about numbers. Help one person at a time, and always start with the person nearest you. ~ Mother Teresa, Albanian-Indian Catholic nun and saint, 1910-1997
Each of us is more than the worst thing we’ve ever done. ~ Bryan Stevenson, 1959–, American lawyer, activist, writer
The sole meaning of life is to serve humanity.
What is love? After all, it is quite simple. Love is everything which enhances, widens, and enriches our life. In its heights and in its depths. Love has as few problems as a motorcar. The only problems are the driver, the passengers, and the road.
~ Leo Tolstoy, Russian writer, 1828-1910
~ Franz Kafka, 1883-1924, Germanspeaking Bohemian writer.
I would challenge you to a battle of wits, but I see you are unarmed. ~ William Shakespeare, English poet and playwright, 1564-1616
We all require devotion to something more than ourselves for our lives to be endurable. ~ Atul Gawande, 1965–, American surgeon, writer, educator
All the goodness and the heroisms will rise up again, then be cut down again and rise up. It isn’t that the evil thing wins—it never will—but that it doesn’t die. ~ John Steinbeck, 1902-1968, American author and winner of the Nobel Prize
Leave tracks. Just as others have been way-pavers for your good fortune, so you should aid those who will follow in your way. ~ Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, 1933-
Debra Tweedy was born and raised in Longview and has lived on four continents. Recently retired, she and her husband decided to return to her hometown and bought a house facing Lake Sacajawea. “We came back because of the Lake and the (Longview Public) Library,” she said.
5,000 REWARD • Please Help! Bring our adored giant missing Newfoundland boy home!! $
diamond rez
Taken on June 2nd, and we’re desperate to find him. If you see him, please take a picture.
PLEASE CALL
Alex (213)507-6616 or Rob (213)507-6672. We live in the Portland suburbs. 34 / Columbia River Reader / April 15 – May 15, 2019
Experience Fantasy art at Longview’s Alcove Gallery
NOW HIRING! ENTRY-LEVEL POSITIONS AT THE KELSO PLANT
B
rightly colored canvases with enigmatic, energetic images and mystical, monochrome backgrounds for planets and wizards are seen in paintings by Longview neo-fantasy artists, Jeremiah Landis and Jerry Filbeck, on exhibit at Community Arts Workshop’s Alcove Gallery at CAP, 1526 Commerce in Longview, through May 29. The workshop and gallery are open Monday through Thursday from 12–3:30pm and are located near the Columbia Theatre. Fantasy art is described by the art history site, all-art.com, as a genre of art that “depicts magical or other supernatural themes, ideas, creatures or settings.” Also known as Neo-Fantasy and “fanart,” it includes themes and subjects from science fiction, depictions of ancient myths and legends and indications of magical or supernatural forces. Dragons, wizards, fairies and other fantastical and mythical creatures are common features in today’s neo-fantasy art. These subjects are an art source going back to the time of prehistoric cave paintings and have always been a part of human imagination. As with the work of Filbeck and Landis, the painting styles used to depict these themes vary from realistic to abstract. Landis started painting with graffiti style work and says he is “not a realist,” but an abstract artist feeling whatever people get out of his art is what he wants them to get. He notes that his graffiti painting style kept him sober in the past and his present neo-fantasy work can be challenging and difficult at times as different ideas keep flowing, but he is always excited when the painting is finished. Landis says to gallery visitors that “the world is full of criticism, I critique my own stuff constantly and everybody’s stuff, so feel free to do the same!” Filbeck started drawing as a kid, and enjoyed the art classes he took at Mark Morris High School. His recent work began about two years ago when he bought some paint on a whim. He started to paint things he found interesting, like dragons and aliens and the universe and found that getting deeply involved with the
Employment Opportunities Production Days 8:00 am – 4:30 pm Production Swings 4:30 pm – 1:00 am Weigh & Price Days 9:00 am – 5:30 pm Weigh & Price Swings 6:00 pm – 3:30 am Sanitation Nights 11:30 pm – 8:00 am Employment Benefits
process of creating images on canvas is a therapeutic process, as well as an artistic one. Both Landis and Filbeck have been supported in their work by CAW volunteer instructors Catherine “Cat” Walquist, Lisa and Craig Clark, and CAW founder Yvette O’Neill Raynham. Raynham and Craig Clark design and install the exhibits in CAW’s Alcove Gallery. For more information about this exhibit, call Community Arts Workshop at 356-425-3430, ext. 306 or visit capartsworkshop@gmail.com.
•Comprehensive Medical, Vision, and Dental Plans. •Life Insurance Plan: 100% company paid! •Foster Farms Profit Sharing Plan: 100% company paid! •401(k) Retirement Savings Plan. •Employee Sales of your favorite Foster Farms products! •Education Expense Reimbursement: 100% tuition and 80% books! Foster Farms is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Minorities, females, veterans, and individuals with disabilities are encouraged to apply. Foster Farms participates in E-Verify during the hire process at all locations for all new employees.
Foster Farms servicing the Kelso community since 1998! For more information, please visit us at www.fosterfarms.com Employment Requirements
•Work safely and set an example of safe working habits. • Understand and perform established tasks and standards. • Work the scheduled times and occasional overtime. • Report to work on time and ready to work. • Submit and pass both a pre- employment drug test and a criminal background check.
ation at our Pick up an applic es Office: Human Resourc Avenue 1700 South 13th 6. Kelso, WA 9862 about ion For more informat ase call our ple s, ing en op nt curre
) 575-4955
Job Hotline: (360
GARDENING NEEDS? Lawn Maintenance Clean-Ups Bark • Soil Planting • Pruning Aeration • Fertilization Weed Control Blackberry Removal Tree Planting & MORE!
FREE ESTIMATES REFERENCES J.J. Landscaping 360-241-6889 or 360-425-0738.
Columbia River Reader / April 15 – May 15, 2019 / 35
The whole crew in Croatia From left: Castle Rock resident Gavin Mills, her son Eric Coleman and
grandson Ty Coleman of Castle Rock; daughter-in-law Suzanne Karnofski and son Tim Coleman, of Bend, Oregon, and daughter Andrea Coleman, of Santa Clarita, California. The family visited Croatia together in October 2018. Pictured here they are at Roman Amphitheater in Pula. The Arena was made in the 1st century, A.D.
PUBLISH CITATIOER’S N 6
READE 6 DIFFE RS REN ISSUES! T
WHERE DO YOU READ THE READER? Submission info, page 37
Blond bombshell in the desert Nora Govednik, 4, of
Longview, Wash., in Palm Springs while vacationing with her family. Photo by her dad, Joseph Govednik.
Where’s an usher? St. Helens resident Kay Holt and her daughter, Jessica Knauss, in Merida, Spain last summer at Roman theatre ruins.
Responds within hours, not days! Clean-Up • Repairs • Dry-outs Restoring more than just your peace of mind. WATER. FIRE.
SMOKE. MOLD
ServiceMaster by JTS–Longview, WA www.servicemasterjts.com 36 / Columbia River Reader / April 15 – May 15, 2019
Call 360-425-3331
Where do you read
THE READER? Longview couple reads CRR throughout nine-state sweep! John and Barbara Reynolds embarked on an almost month-long vacation to Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio last fall. They started in Boston with lunch at the Cheers Restaurant, followed by a bicycle tour, including a stop at Fenway Park. From Boston they headed south, stopping at Plymouth Rock on a rainy day, then on to Cape Cod for a week in West Yarmouth, Massachusetts. They explored the Kennedy Museum in Hyannis plus the other 10+ towns on Cape Cod. Day trips from West Yarmouth included Battleship Cove in Providence, Rhode Island and Mystic, Connecticut, where they visited Mystic Pizza. Other visits included the historic Plymouth Plantation, and Delekta’s Corner Store in Warren, Rhode Island, an old-fashioned “coffee cabinet” unique to Rhode Island and what everyone else would call a soda fountain. From Woods Hole, they ferried to Martha’s Vineyard to check out the gingerbread houses and see old cars. They continued on to Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, exploring several quaint towns, stopping at many covered br i d g e s , hi king in Woodst ock, Vermont, tasting local foods (lobster roll in Glen Cove, Maine), touring the Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream factory i n Wa t e r b u r y , Ve r m o n t a n d enjoying a sample. They visited Niagara Falls from both the U.S and Canadian sides (photo is of the American Falls, the second largest of the three waterfalls known as Niagara Falls on the U.S. side). They passed two Great Lakes (Erie and Ontario) on their way through New York and Pennsylvania, ending in Amish country, Ohio, where they visited family.
WHERE DO YOU READ THE READER? Send your photo reading the Reader (high-resolution JPEG) to Publisher@ CRReader.com. If sending a cell phone photo, choose the largest file size up to 2 MB. Include names and cities of residence. Thank you for your participation and patience, as we usually have a small backlog. Keep those photos coming! Columbia River Reader / April 15 – May 15, 2019 / 37
the spectator by ned piper
People+Place a Year Later
I
t’s hard to believe that the very first People+Place interview appeared in the Reader one year ago this month. If you’re a regular reader, you may recall that famed naturalist Robert Michael Pyle was the first person featured. Mr. Pyle not only survived the experience, but he became a regular CRR contributor, raising the paper’s literary excellence, exponentially. There have now been, with this month’s Gian Paul Morelli feature, a dozen interviews in the P+P series. Each has showcased a different bit of texture in the “lifestyle fabric” making our corner of the world unique, interesting and livable.
Longview-Kelso 2019-2020 Community Concert Association Jason Lyle Black
Sunday, October 20, 2019 - 3:00 pm
Jason’s Unique combination of familiar music, comedy and interaction leaves audiences laughing and crying in the same night. From his comedic routines like “Songs Not to Play at People’s Weddings” to his upside down, head-pedaling piano act, Jason wows and engages audiences worldwide. A whirlwind of music and laughs.
2 0 1 9 - 2 0 2 0 ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTIONS AVAILABLE
EARLY BIRD DISCOUNT
Jeannine Goeckeritz Sunday, January 26, 2020 - 3:00 pm
Internationally-renowned flutist Jeannine Goeckeritz has entertained audiences around the world with her captivating live performances, expressive style and inspiring music. Her program highlights beautifully orchestrated compositions that blend popular and crossover classics consisting of Starry, Starry Night, Annie’s Song, My Favorite Things and more. A rich signature sound.
Sail On - Beach Boys Tribute
Friday, February 14, 2020 - 7.30 pm
Sail On brings a young look and authentic sound reminiscent of the original Beach Boys during the prime of their career. The group’s harmonies capture the sound of the iconic band and transport the audience to the beach for an evening of memories and Fun, Fun, Fun Energetic and youthful tribute to “America’s band.”
Sons of Serendip
PLUGGED IN to COWLITZ PUD
There is more to this series that differentiates it from the rest of the Reader’s content. You may have noted that the People+Place sponsors shine a spotlight on various non-profits, rather than advertising their own products and services. I have the honor of contacting these sponsors each month about which charity they plan to spotlight. I’ve come to realize that they thoroughly enjoy making that decision. The choice is thoughtful, usually boiling down to a worthy cause whose values and purposes they embrace and endorse. Listening to Hal and Sue work through their selection process, choosing who they will approach to be the next People+Place interviewee is also a treat. A former Longview boy, Hal is a highly accomplished journalist and talented interviewer. Sue is an amazing editor. They are a great team. A side benefit of being connected with the Reader in general and the People+Place series in particular is that we learn so much from the articles and the interviews. I hope that our readers also learn from the wealth of information woven into the pages of the Reader. Please take note of all the businesses — P+P sponsors and regular advertisers alike — who make the Columbia River Reader possible. Let them know you appreciate their role in as we collectively discover, enjoy and celebrate this good life around the river. ••• Longview native Ned Piper enjoys reading, writing, putzing in the yard, watching all manner of TV sports, and schmoozing with CRR advertisers and readers.
Are You a Zero Cost Customer?
H
By Alice Dietz
opefully by now you’ve seen or heard our current promotion of the Zero Cost Customer, one of the PUD’s first campaigns of its sort. Unfortunately, I can’t think of a recurring bill in my household that has decreased over time... groceries, water, sewer, garbage, gas. In high school, I remember my girlfriend filling up her red hatchback Honda Civic for $12! I’m not sure $12 in gas would get me to Olympia now. (This is my equivalent to my grandparents’ stories of having to walk ten miles in the snow.) My point is that as the cost of services increase, it is our job to work towards more cost effective ways to do business. Cowlitz PUD receives 90% of our power from Bonneville Power Administration, and while it’s important to continue to put pressure on BPA for fair rates, we also have to work hard to find additional ways customers can save. The Zero Cost Customer pays their monthly billing via automatic checking account deductions (ACH), and signs up for electronic billing (eBill). It costs from 60¢ to more than $2 to process a customer’s transaction each per month. With over 48,000 customers, that processing can add up! If we reach our goal of 7,000 customers signing up as Zero Cost customers, we can save the PUD more than $100,000 annually, not counting the labor costs saved. Now through June 30th, we are offering a $10 credit for customers who sign up for eBill and ACH. If you donate your $10 credit to the Warm Neighbor Fund to help a family in need, you are automatically entered to win an iPad. For information or to sign up as a Zero Cost Customer please contact us at 360.423.2210 or email us at customerservice@cowlitzpud.org. •••
Alice Dietz is Communications and Public Relations Manager at Cowlitz PUD. Reach her at adietz@ cowlitzpud.org, or 360-501-9146.
Sunday, March 29, 2020 - 3.00 pm
Sons of Serendip create beautiful music through the use of harp, piano, cello and voice. This Billboard charting quartet is gaining popularity since appearing on season 9 of America’s Got Talent as finalists. Their program is a fresh mix of emotionally expressive popular music, engaging stories, and audience participation. Musical serendipity.
Performances at Lower Columbia College Rose Center for the Arts Tickets Available Online or at the Door Order by May 4 to receive the Early Bird discount: Season subscription prices: Adults $70 • Students $30 • Family $160 Prices after May 4: $85 Adult • $40 Student • $190 Family Single tickets $25 Adults; $10 Students For Information: Susie Kirkpatrick 360-636-2211
www.lkcca.org
38 / Columbia River Reader / April 15 – May 15, 2019
Management & Maintenance Experts Specializing in Commercial & Residential Properties
www.catlinpropertiesinc.com 360-636 2897
Columbia River Reader / April 15 – May 15, 2019 / 39
40 / Columbia River Reader / April 15 – May 15, 2019
