Like many Coeur d’Alene-area residents, Suzy Sindelar was surprised when tourism writer Steve Winston used terms like “gas-lit streetlamps,” “cobblestone” streets, “alpine lake” and 7,000-foot mountains to describe the Lake City. Winston’s hyped descriptions were contained in an article naming Coeur d’Alene as the top “Mountain Town” in the USA. A stickler for accuracy, Suzy challenged Winston’s description in an email to him – and got this response: “In answer to your question … Yes, I have been to Coeur d’Alene.  I was there about three years ago. And in some of my wording in this article, I was apparently not entirely accurate. I believe the sidewalks – at least in part of the town – are red-brick, not cobblestone. So I did use a poor choice of words there. And I believe, as well, that I should have used the word ‘style’ in describing the streetlamps … as in ‘gas-lit-style.’  I don’t believe there’s a town in America that has actual ‘gas-lit’ streetlamps anymore.” Winston was surprised by the reaction of Sindelar and other locals to his upbeat report about the Lake City/DFO, SR Sunday Huckleberries. More here.

Other weekend SR columns:

• Moos lands Kent, gets his man/John Blanchette
• Smart Bombs: All the speech you can afford/Gary Crooks
• Wildlife biologist Ferguson relishes his career/Rich Landers
• Slice: Our capacity to care endures in any language/Paul Turner
• Eye on Boise: IPAAT's Lanza booted from ed task force/Betsy Russell
• Sixth-grader's tweets as crossing guard are all about safety/Shawn Vestal
• We BOOBs say naughty novels don't belong in high school hands/Doug Clark

Question: How often do you brag on the beauty of the Coeur d'Alene area?

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