Huckleberries Online

Wild Card/Tuesday — 10.19.10

Posted by DFO

Oct. 19, 2010 5:30 p.m. • 22 comments

In “New Year’s Day,” poet Billy Collins notes that we have a second birthday each year when we’re able to take stock and start over. Later in the poem, he talks about that unnamed day now that will be marked down on future calendars on a loved one’s wall as the one in which we check out. Today is one of those days in my family — the day my father was killed in a vehicle crash in 1976. It changed the whole dynamic of my family. He was 55 when he died. I’m 5 years older than that. My biggest regret in life is that my kids weren’t born then and never had a chance to meet their wonderful grandfather. Do you have a day on the calendar that you approach with trepidation? Now, for your Wild Card …

22 comments on this post so far. Add yours!

brentandrews on October 19 at 10:20 a.m.
Good to see the ad spots filling up on HBO - I think the upper left corner is a good buy at $300/mo - I think that’s what it was - and would have one, already, if we were selling any books but we’re not. Book sales have ground to a halt. We need something to give, before we start letting out any more ads. Catch-22. Broke if you do, broke if you don’t. LOL. Thumbs down, from me, to the Great Recession. Thumbs up to the new ads, though.
Cindy_H on October 19 at 10:21 a.m.
So sorry for your loss Dave.
As for days I approach with trepidation— that would have to be most every Monday.
brentandrews on October 19 at 10:24 a.m.
Everyone buy your friends a copy of The Pot Plan for Christmas and I’ll kick some of the proceeds back into our favorite blog.
kamm on October 19 at 10:36 a.m.
My Mother died the Saturday before Thanksgiving 1987.
She had dealt with medical problems from childhood because of scoliosis and kyphosis which worsened with age.
She was a survivor, though, and always proved her doctors wrong when they tried to restrict her activity. Her mantra was ” I’ll tell you when I’m sick, Doc. I have too much to do right now.”
When she admitted she felt sick on Friday we all had a sick feeling in our guts; She died the next day.
She was the heart of our family and we only started to be her standard bearer when our own children grew and wanted to carry on some of her Holiday traditions.
It’s still not the same though; she was 67, too young to leave us.
brentandrews on October 19 at 10:36 a.m.
I wrote The Pot Plan to help alcoholics stop drinking - it was the drinking that was killing me, as it has killed so many others, including far too many innocents. Our response to this disease has been inadequate - people are still dying. Feeling my way along in the dark, having tried nearly everything, I found a way to stop drinking and driving - the pot plan, the ‘marijuana maintenance’ plan I learned to call it after coming out of the closet, and meeting one after another alcoholic who had stopped drinking (and drinking and driving, and getting arrested, and breaking up relationships) through the same plan. The pot plan is easy. It’s hard to talk about - hard as it is to believe, marijuana is still illegal in some states - but it’s an easy plan to work. The Pot Plan could have been 25 pages, instead of 552, but if you just read the chapter called ‘The Pot Plan’ you’ll get it in a nutshell. I wish it wasn’t so expensive. I meant to give a lot of copies away free. I didn’t write The Pot Plan for the money.
oneandonly on October 19 at 11:06 a.m.
Thanks Brent-
Just when I thought I’d give up…one more option for a friend.
kamm on October 19 at 11:23 a.m.
@Larry Sanders
Re: Stimulus Money
Governor Otter was outspoken against the Stimulus Package and stated he wouldn’t accept any of it in Idaho.
Only months after it’s approval and signing, he was quietly taking every penny he could get.
Show me the money-over 1,000,000,000,000 available for Idaho.
The Oregonian
Salon
So, what’s your take on that bit of info?
Frum Helen Back on October 19 at 11:45 a.m.
I’m sure that December 18th will always be a day of trepidation for us from now on. That’s the day my daughter died and if she had hung around she would have been able to hold and love her first grandson who was born five months later. And it makes me sad that he’ll never get to know her.
DFO on October 19 at 11:58 a.m.
Contrary to rumor circulated as fact on OpenCDA.com, Christie Wood and Ken Howard are about to debate Ron Nilson and Robert Ketchum at the North Idaho College SUB in three, two, one minutes. The quartet will have a second debate/discussion at noon Friday at the Kootenai County Democratic Club luncheon at the Iron Horse. And another one for the Kootenai County Young Professionals Monday night.
danofthecommunity on October 19 at 12:25 p.m.
Actually this Friday it’s the Clerk candidates but hope you all come anyway. I think the NIC candidates may be the next week.
DFO on October 19 at 12:41 p.m.
Thanx for the correx, Dan. I must have gotten ThomG’s memo mixed up re: the NIC trustee debate. It’ll be interesting to see if Cliff goes on the offensive re: the Brannon-Kennedy election lawsuit, as he did during the League of Women Voters debate. Dunno if the dining Dems would appreciate such a tactic.
Sisyphus on October 19 at 2:18 p.m.
C’mon Dave. You know your berries wanna talk about this candidate for NY governor.

http://tv.gawker.com/5667676/listen-to-jimmy-mcmillans-rent-is-too-damn-high-rap-song

Here’s some excerpts.

http://tv.gawker.com/5667182/crazy-rent-is-too-damn-high-candidate-steals-the-show-at-ny-gov-debate

He puts ProLife to shame.
DFO on October 19 at 3:08 p.m.
Would do you guys think of the tile ads in the upper left rail. Brent said that the political advertisers got their money’s worth ($150 for 2 weeks, $300 for 4 weeks). Do you agree? (BTW, there’s room for one more tile ad before we pull the plug on new ones.)
Sisyphus on October 19 at 4:21 p.m.
Hehehehe. Dave, Betsy threatened to cooler BlueIdahos for making “potentially defamatory” comments. I think she made the right call. But who am I to say. ;-)

http://www.spokesman.com/blogs/boise/2010/oct/19/minnick-i-have-skill-set-do-business-job/#c207331
ReggieH on October 19 at 5:32 p.m.
@DFO: That’s funny. I was just commenting to my wife on the new ads, and how I like it when my favorite blogs garner advertisers. I don’t know whether they got their money’s worth or not, but I certainly noticed the ads.
DFO on October 19 at 5:53 p.m.
@ ReggieH … thanx. I certainly notice them, too, especially since they’re all different colors. Which makes each of them pop. If you consider that I got 10,000-plus page-views on Monday and that each reader is on the page for more than 2 minutes, those ads are being viewed directly or indirectly for quite some time. Know way to know if they make an impact in a tight race. But you’d think they have the same importance or more than a yard sign alongside the road. Post Falls Mayor Clay Larkin told me that he felt he got his money’s worth last year when he ran for re-election. I’d like to think the tile ads were worth a couple of votes for Mike Kennedy, who, if memory serves me correctly, had a tight race in the 2009 City Council elections. I think he won.
DFO on October 19 at 5:53 p.m.
@ Sisyphus re: “Dave, Betsy threatened to cooler BlueIdahos for making “potentially defamatory” comments. I think she made the right call.”

I wonder who her adviser was on that one … ;-)
moscow_minidoka on October 19 at 6:11 p.m.
I like the ads, and I think the advertisers are getting their money’s worth. And they don’t ruin the design of the blog, which is nice.
kamm on October 19 at 7:47 p.m.
I like the ads; I wouldn’t mine seeing some selective, and in good taste, ads after Toxic Tuesday is over.
ReggieH on October 19 at 8:17 p.m.
@Moscow Minidoka: I sent you a private message over at 43SB. I don’t know how often you check over there, so I figured I’d alert you over here as well. Please respond when you get a chance.
brentandrews on October 19 at 9:03 p.m.
I have sold more books off HBO clicks than any other external Website, including one this very day. HBOers click through, and buy. Some of us just click through for you, on principle, Dave. But who cares why we click if we get there … Looking forward to getting one of those ads and I hope the line is not getting too long. Guess you can only stack ‘em so deep.
ReggieH on October 19 at 9:18 p.m.
@Brent: I commend you for writing on such a touchy subject. If I can afford it, I will indeed buy a copy, but I won’t know until I run the finances here in about a week or two.

I’m a rabid proponent of Cannabis legalization, but tend not to say so publicly b/c of various reasons. Actually, I still need to make my annual donation to MPP this year.

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D.F. Oliveria is a columnist and blogger for The Spokesman-Review. Huckleberries Online was judged the best 2008 Idaho newspaper blog by the Idaho Press Club. And the best 2007 news blog in the Pacific Northwest by the Society for Professional Journalist. Print Huckleberries is a past winner of the Herb Caen Memorial Column contest by the National Association of Newspaper Columnists. The Readership Institute of Northwestern University cited this blog as a good example of online community journalism.