If You Think This Is Hot, You’ve Lived Here Too Long

You’re becoming a Northwest native (in the loosest sense of the word) when temperatures in the lower 90s cause you to pant. It was about this hot 18 years ago when I moved from the San Joaquin Valley to Kalispell, Mont. I was amused that a neighbor helping us settle into a rental house complained about the “heat wave” and looked longingly at the nearby Rockies. Only days before, I’d left behind 106 degrees and Stockton, Calif. Times have changed. The temperatures don’t have to get Chicago-hot for me to whine and think fondly of Lake Coeur d’Alene. Somewhere between Kalispell and Coeur d’Alene, with a stopover in Lewiston, I’ve become a warm-weather wimp. And possibly a Northwesterner. And you?

Ugly is in the eye of the beholder

It’s hard to view Post Falls as a “disadvantaged border area.” Yeah, yeah, the River City must declare itself that to win tax breaks for prospective businesses. But that doesn’t make it right. Post Falls is a booming community with the Highlands golf course brightening its eastern flank, Bob Templin’s resort in the middle, and the Jacklin brothers’ Riverbend Park on the west - across from the proposed “disadvantaged” area. In the mid-1980s, Coeur d’Alene was forced to play this bureaucratic game, too. The City Council had to deem the downtown a blighted area to land a community block grant. Councilman Ron Edinger was offended that such a term would be used to describe his beautiful adopted city. But Coeur d’Alene played along, received the grant, and upgraded its “slum.” Today, the Coeur d’Alene downtown is one of the nicest in Idaho. Moral? It pays to lie.

The far right has nothing on the far left

In case you think the far right has a corner on conspiracy theories, consider the crazy views of some environmental activists. A Cove-Mallard Coalition spokesman suggested U.S. Forest Service officials might have written an anonymous letter warning that trees have been spiked in timber sale areas. Said Jake Kreilick: “We are viewing it perhaps as a setup.” (Yeah, sure, and the U.S. government bombed the Oklahoma City federal building.) Earth First! and other extremist groups have made a nuisance of themselves in recent years trying to stop legal logging in the CoveMallard area. Now, a radical group called Environmental Rangers contends violence may be inevitable. Do you suppose President Clinton and his tree-hugging pal, Vice President Al Gore, will blame talk radio for fighting words like that?

, DataTimes MEMO: Hot Potatoes is a feature of the Tuesday and Thursday Opinion pages.