Ben Stein isn’t making friends with cuss-tomers at Hayden Walmart. In a recent column for the conservative American Spectator, Stein tells of stopping at the Hayden store en route from the Spokane airport to his Sandpoint getaway. He described the cuss-tomers as “terrifying” – and “not at all like the friendly folk at the Walmart near Sandpoint.” Also: “These were enormous sallow men and women, grotesquely obese teenagers, horribly tattooed women in sun dresses at 10 p.m. These were the Jukes and the Kallikaks. Their RV’s were parked in the Walmart parking lot. Terrifying, especially in Walmart’s ultra-bright jail line-up lights.” One of my Huckleberries blog readers who goes by the blog pseudonym Frum Helen Back responded in jest that she thought Stein was describing her. Then, she realized she’s in bed by 10 p.m. Adds Frum Helen Back: “One thing I learned from this article is that I don’t like him and hope I never do run into him anywhere.” Especially at Hayden Walmart/DFO, Sunday Huckleberries. More here.

Other SR weekend columns:

• Campaign donations just enable them/Shawn Vestal
• Smart Bombs: Great Lakes crisis is eerie/Gary Crooks
• Outdoors: Paddler try to keep public in touch with river/Rich Landers
• In the Garden: 'Lasagna gardening' yields big harvest/Susan Mulvihill
• Slice: It's hard not to look twice at world's biggest Radio Flyer/Paul Turner
• Russ Nobbs stayed true to hippie roots despite business success/Doug Clark