By Bob Spiwak
It’s been an interesting week, especially weather-wise. Last Thursday (Sept. 25) was in the middle of days of rain and cloudiness, and while I was driving to Twisp before mid-day, there was a stream of vehicles headed west, their wipers swiping the windshields. All the way to Twisp I conjured the cars’ occupants waking up and saying something to the tune of, “hell, if we’re gonna get soaked we might as well do it at home.”
I would hope the wetness pretty much puts an end to the fire danger, at least for recurrence of the destruction caused over the past few months. No doubt the rain, occasionally quite heavy, did little to lessen the mess and the many tragic results of the flooding that accompanied and followed the fires.
Among the victims of the flooding must have been the gophers. Those who garden or grow anything probably will not shed a tear for the obnoxious pests which, when they are not eating plants, are digging or excavating holes. Well, according to a September news clip provided this morning by rancher Doug Devin, contractors and chambers of commerce in Olympia, Tumwater, Lacy, Yelm and unincorporated Thurston County (if not state-wide) could be affected by a joke by a state legislator, wherein he said he’d propose a bill that could limit gopher trapping in those areas.
What has this to do with Mazama? According to the article, last April “… the federal Fish and Wildlife Service added four subspecies of the Mazama pocket gopher to the endangered species list.” Did you know there was such a thing as a Mazama pocket gopher? Were they named after our subterranean villains? Could they be eligible for consideration as the official state of Washington gopher? Will the Mazama Store change its logo from a goat to a gopher? The possibilities are endless.
On a more serious note, I just received a review copy of a book by former local resident Sam Duncan, titled Five Star Coward. This is a World War II story with the subject of the title being Admiral “Bull” Halsey, who is still given credit for being the naval hero whose command helped end the war and paved the way for the delivery of the atomic bomb to Hiroshima and Nagasaki. From the title and a conversation with the author, it is clearly aimed at debunking the Halsey image. The dedication adds to Duncan’s opinions with, “This book is dedicated to hundreds of sailors who served aboard three Navy destroyers: the USS Spence, the USS Hull and the USS Monaghan. All three ships were lost on Dec. 18, 1944.”
For those of us who lived through WW II or are merely interested, it looks like an intriguing read. The collaboration of contributors includes cover art by Bob Cram, who lived through the Normandy invasion. No word yet on distribution. The cover price is $14.95 softbound. More info as we get it. I start reading the text today.
