A funny thing happened to Sandpoint High J-instructor Erin Daniels in her sixth period class last Monday. Her water broke. In an e-announcing the birth of Emma Marie, she blames the poor timing on Principal Jim Soper. Quoth: "He was in my room 5th, and just being a real pain." Editor Chris Ginzton of the Cedar Post rushed to Erin’s rescue, despite turning the wrong way down a street as he drove his adviser to the hospital. Erin’s favorite line from Chris during the hospital rush? "Can I help? Should I be helping you breathe or anything??" Later, a visibly shaken Chris said, "I don’t know how dads DO that!" Or moms! Erin and Emma are doing fine. Ah’m not so sure about Chris.

Baby makes 7
At 7:59 p.m. Wednesday, the Mighty Quinn entered the world as offspring No. 5 for North Idaho Demo Mike Kennedy and wife, Kathleen. If she’d waited four hours and two minutes, she would have shared a birthday with the paterfamilias. Which proves, sez Mike, “she is a girl with her own plan and direction.” That, or she has a good taste for music. Background music in the birthing room at the time of delivery? Ella Fitzgerald singing Johnny Mercer’s classic “Dream.” Simply irresistible.

Drop and give us 20
Jesse Tinsley, a fortysomething SR photog from the CDA office, wasn’t tempted by the National Guard’s snail-mail offer of a $10,000 bonus if he signed up. Nor was he worried about a year-long vacation in beautiful downtown Kirkuk. Sez Jesse: “I’m not sure I’d survive basic” ...
Huckleberries Online (www.spokesmanreview.com/blogs/nhb) provides a link that’ll help you answer that eternal question: If you were a dog, what kind would you be? (scroll down right side and click on: "What Dog Are You?") … In response to a request to be on his show to discuss the fatal Michael Madonna shooting, Kootenai County spokesman Ben Wolfinger left a curt message, sez Ex-LAPDective Mark Fuhrman. Who responded on the air Friday by saying Wolfinger was too "thin-skinned" to handle his PR job. Guess Mark and Ben won't be exchanging Christmas cards.

Poet’s Corner
When your tale/for facts they’re combing,/have a train wreck/in Wyoming” – The Bard of Sherman Avenue (“A Tip for PR Flacks”) re: BNSF PR flack Gus Melonas’ excuse for cutting off the SR during a brief telephone interview: “I’ve got to run. I’ve got a derailment in Wyoming” … Bill McCrory/Whitecaps couldn’t find anything when he googled “Wyoming train derailment,” which caused him to think: “Not all train derailments make the news, though. Then again, if it isn’t big enough to make the news, why did Gus have to get to it?” Hmm? … An office wag came up with a new twist on an old saying for the latest depot spill: “Fuel me once, shame on you; fuel me twice, shame on me” … And another office jokester had an idea for a new drink at Curley’s Hauser Junction: The Oilermaker (a shot of water from beneath the refueling depot in a glass of beer).

Huckleberries
New Math at WSU: One (a math major) plus one (a PR major) plus two hours equals a dinner for two plus a dozen roses. Cameron Graves and Rory Spence locked lips for more than two hours to emerge as winners of the first KUGR kiss-a-thon Feb. 11. Pucker up and read the rest of the story here … "So, I write poems to distill and crystallize the emotional liquidity. Writing is my mistress now. She’s greedy and needy but I love her" – Bob Salsbury/Unbearable Bobness of Being re: his inner muse … Overheard (in Fred Meyer’s meat section on Valentine’s Day by Bearable Bob): Divorced Dad (fondling a big package of hamburger): I think we’ll have hamburgers tonight. Daughter: “Don’t you have any chicken at your house?” DD: “I’m not supposed to make you anything special.” Sad.

Parting Shot
Remember those three North Idaho College goofballs who drove erratically (first Huckleberry) near the state line in a car with exempt plates – you know the ones throwing things out the window? Well, they were driving a guinea pig vehicle that’d been worked on by students. And their punishment for misbehaving in said vehicle was suspension from operating another NIC car. That’s not all. Starting now, the college is going to slap big NIC stickers on the sides of their vehicle, so motorists, such as Pam I Am, won’t have to call the Idaho Department of Motor Vehicles to see who owns the exempt vehicle.

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