Posted: Friday, September 12, 2008 12:00 am
Corvallis Gazette-Times editorial for Friday, Sept. 12, 2008
ROSE (roz) n. One of the most beautiful of all flowers, a symbol of fragrance and loveliness. Often given as a sign of appreciation.
RASPBERRY (raz'ber'e) n. A sharp, scornful comment, criticism or rebuke; a derisive, splatting noise, often called the Bronx cheer.
We hereby deliver:
• ROSES to Marcus Henderson, an Oregon State University football center whose recent account of growing up in a family plagued by physical abuse and poverty should be shared - especially among young men at risk for becoming abusers.
Statistically, Henderson is such a person. It's well documented that those who grew up in a home with an abusive parent are far more likely to mirror that behavior with their own children. And there's plenty of abusive households in Oregon, according to domestic violence statistics from the state Department of Human Services. In 2007, the agency responded to 126,053 domestic abuse calls for help.
Speaking out in the Sept. 7 article, "A story of survival," Henderson credited his childhood with showing him what not to do. Let's hope it's a message that is shared and discussed and heeded.
• RASPBERRIES to the stubborn refusal of computers to do what we want, when we want. It was a hard first-day-of-the-school-year lesson for teachers, administrators and students at the Corvallis School District, where the new student-information system had a rough first day, to say the least.
Among the problems: Some teachers couldn't log on; others found entire classes "missing"; and some class lists were repeated twice, including students from last year as well as this one at Adams Elementary School. We could go on, but we're just glad to report that it appears the bugs are out and the system is working fine, adding another chapter to our ongoing love-hate relationship with technology.
• ROSES to that spiffy-looking Willamette Grange Hall and the volunteers whose efforts last Saturday made it that way. The 1923 building at Highway 99W and Greenberry Road was looking a little … well … unloved. Not so anymore!
A classic example of the traditional gathering place for people who live in agricultural communities, the charming building is now on the Benton County Register of Historic Places, and its supporters are hoping to place it on the National Historic Register.
More power to them! In the meantime, we enjoy seeing the white, clapboarded building with the many-paned windows looking as fresh as paint.
• ROSE-RASPBERRIES to the idea of vegetarian dog food.
We respect peoples' dietary choices. We can even applaud them. But we confess to having some reservations about feeding dogs vegetarian dog food.
Yet we've always been big fans of Stahlbush Island Farms, a Corvallis company that recently launched Nummy Tum-Tum, dog food in organic pumpkin and sweet potato. We're betting dogs will love it.
But then, most dogs are not exactly gourmets. We've seen them drinking from toilets and snarfing down a long-dead gopher and fresh raspberries with equal relish - and pickle relish itself, for that matter. Dogs are omnivores, like people.
Although we have to applaud a healthy addition to a dog food market that in recent years has sold consumers contaminated food that led to kidney failure and even a few deaths, we think some caution is called for.
Dog owners - excuse us - animal guardians who opt for this vegetarian fare would do well to heed the recommendation of the manufacturer: feed the pumpkins and sweet potatoes as a supplement. Anyone tempted to put Fido on a vegan diet needs to have a heart-to-heart with a veterinarian to ensure their best furry friend doesn't end up like that gopher.
• RASPBERRIES to yet another invasive species that is the stuff of nightmares: Giant clawed frogs, and to the irresponsible vendor who was selling them as tadpoles via mail-order, promising "It's not just an ordinary frog!"
You can say that again. Florida-based "Grow a frog" was shipping about 200 of these giant clawed frogs to eager customers when Nevada game wardens finally tracked them down after seizing a bunch of the dangerous amphibians. Turns out they're illegal in Nevada, and 10 other states - including Oregon.
The problem is that the Grow-a-Frog folks have only agreed to stop shipping to Nevada, but the problem is that once you sell them in any state where they are legal, these things have a way of finding their way everywhere. And nobody with a bit of common sense want these large croakers around.
Native to Africa, these frogs grow as large as another invasive frog species, the bullfrog, and they eat everything they can swallow, which would include Oregon's much smaller native frog species (already in big trouble) and pond turtles (also crashing).
If you hear of anyone ordering or owning one of these frogs, please call the Oregon Department Fish and Wildlife.
• ROSES to the bang-up cut-up job that Florida-based Titan Salvage metal recovery crews are doing on The New Carissa's, the Japanese-owned wood chip freighter whose stern has been wedged in the surf off Coos Bay since early 1999.
The company has removed about 850 tons of rusted steel in recent weeks from the stern and crews are now dismantling the engine compartment using chains to hoist the metal high enough to keep it out of the crashing waves.
In a few weeks, the salvagers predict that nothing will be left of The New Carissa but a darned good maritime yarn about the ship that refused to sink - even after it split in two during a winter storm.