During 1989-90 I was employed as the Production Manager of the Chinook Observer weekly newspaper in Long Beach; an unusually lengthy sandspit on the northwest coast of America. A few vestiges of this blue-collar summer resort can still be found amidst the r-v`s and inbred oyster-shuckers. I lost my first brand-new, uninsured car to the ocean surf here. I still return to the peninsula for fresh oysters.