Ok, So Our Freezer Advice Was Soft News

Did we say that? Apparently, Shoshone County Commissioner Sherry Krulitz took to heart the front-page advice in Wednesday’s S-R. A list of 11 things to do and not to do “when the lights go out” included this one: “Keep refrigerator and freezer doors closed. If the door remains closed, a full freezer can keep frozen for two days.” Ah, would you believe 24 hours? Two days after the Great Ice Storm From Hell, Sherry opened her freezer to find that the food inside was frozen in name only. Everything was going bad. She spent the rest of Thursday trying to make huckleberry jam out of squishy huckleberries. (And, if you want to see who else is going to get squishy huckleberries, keep reading.)

CHERRIES JUBILEE: If the “Glass Menagerie” crowd was more appreciative than usual during the second night’s performance, there was a reason. Seems the patrons didn’t mind when the window clerk for the North Idaho College production went AWOL. According to the NIC Sentinel’s Chokecherries column, the freeloaders simply helped themselves to seats. And really meant it when they yelled: “Encore!” … In the Nov. 14 edition, the NIC Chokemeister also tells of an attempt by new-age flower children to organize a “Hippies Don’t Suck Ralley.” Obviously, the neo-hippies didn’t inhale much book learning either. … Then, there was the college hand who tried to vote for NIC trustees at his accustomed place, the student union. But he was turned away by a precinct worker. Wrong precinct? Yes. But that wasn’t the reason he was gonged. “Oh,” said the poll watcher, “that election has already been held.” And college officials were worried the trustee election would be lost in the shuffle if they combined it with the general election.

FAN MAIL: That Huckleberry Past about the pre-game meal for North Idaho College basketball players (steak, potatoes and all the trimmings) caught Mary Souza’s eye. E-mails she: “What’s with the NIC men’s BB team (and the women’s, too)? Have they read a newspaper in the past few years? Do they realize that a heavy, high fat, hard-to-digest meal is not the best choice for game-night nutrition? Where are the coaches?” … Apparently, first-year coach Hugh Watson has introduced the pregame meal ritual to the NIC campus. The steaks are barbecued for a 3 p.m. feast, 4-1/2 hours before tipoff. Watson assured me last week that female cagers are welcome to dine on steak or whatever the men’s team is eating, too - when their games begin. The women have settled for student union burgers in the past. Writes Souza: “I would guess the women actually came out a bit ahead on the ‘not quite as bad as you’ scale. Neither meal indicates cutting-edge awareness.” Tune in next week for the next episode of “As the Stomach Turns.”

HUCKLEBERRIES: Democrat Lynne Hutton was crowing her neighbor’s praises Thursday morning after he used his pickup to pull her car out of a ditch. Seems Lynne got stuck while trying to avoid a trash can in her driveway. Maybe next time she’ll even vote for her neighbor, Republican Commissioner Dick Compton. … Our Man on the Palouse tailed a lass Wednesday afternoon in Pullman whose bumper on her new Geo Storm sent mixed messages. Vanity plate: “THXDAD.” Bumpersnicker: “Men are God’s way of saying, Duh!” Papa must be proud. … The saddest sight during the Great Ice Storm? S-R business writer Eric Torbenson using a cassette holder to scrape the thick ice caked on his car windshield. But what can you expect? Eric’s from west of the Cascades.

PARTING SHOT: On one hand, Coeur d’Alene barrister Harvey Richman tells one and all about the evils of field smoke and sues the grass industry. On the other hand, he represents a polluter who was slapped with a $495,000 fine recently for ignoring health rules protecting our drinking water source, the Rathdrum Aquifer. How do you reconcile this picture? Have Tort, Will Travel.

, DataTimes MEMO: Gotta Huckleberry? Call the Huckleberry Hound Hotline: (800) 344-6718 or (208) 765-7125; daveo@spokesman.com.

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = D.F. Oliveria The Spokesman-Review