Closest seat for playoffs was at a Seattle restaurant

So, you’re a lifelong Seahawks fan who’s ticketless in Seattle. How much would you pay for a coupla scalped ducats to see Seattle battle for a Super Bowl spot? $100? $200? More? Marianne Love’s daughter, Annie, was ready to offer $112 per ticket for the extras being sold at the last minute at Qwest Stadium on the recent next-best-thing to Super Bowl Sunday. But she and friend Rachel were too far back in the line. The window closed before they could claim the coveted tickets. So, they worked the scalpers. But the scavengers were asking for $300 per ticket, according to Marianne’s Slight Detour blog. Meanwhile, via cell phone, Marianne was providing play-by-play of Seattle’s first two scores of the game so near yet so far away from her daughter. At halftime, Daughter Dearest called back from a restaurant/bar near the stadium. She had put her $112 to good use, buying a fine dinner – and enjoying free TV coverage of the game. At least, she can tell her children she was in the vicinity when the Seahawks beat Carolina. And nothing could be fine-a.

No respect

Spokane continues to be Washington’s Rodney Dangerfield – even when minding its own business. Take the column written by Danny Westneat/Seattle Times on Friday. Please. Danny did a good job pinning ex-Safeco CEO Mike McGavick down on a recent statement made in Spokane while glad-handing for Maria Cantwell’s U.S. Senate seat: “I like to say I was born in Seattle when you weren’t embarrassed to say you were from Seattle.” When confronted by Westneat, the Republican said he personally wasn’t embarrassed by Seattle. But he knew others who were. “This guy has a future in politics,” the columnist surmised, applauding McGavick’s tap dance – “assuming he can get any votes in the state’s largest city.” Seems Bush carried only 18 percent of Seattle’s votes. (Then again, the King County Election Department did the counting.) So, what’s all this to do with Spokane? After racking his brain for minuses about Seattle, Westneat seized on the biggest one: “Smug provincialism.” Added he: “People love it here so much it’s downright annoying. So sue us. But whatever you do, don’t apologize for us in Spokane.” We can feel that slap all the way over here in North Idaho.

In tune with Boise?

That report card released last week by the Corporation for Enterprise Development had grades that didn’t surprise Average Idaho Joe – you know, B for job creation, but an F for the earning power of its new jobs. While the Big Shots are crowing about the state’s low jobless rate, Joe and Jane Lunch Bucket have traded decent mill and mining jobs for a conductor’s hat to run the miniature train at Silverwood. Chuck Thomas, an ex-CdA fireman, might catch lightning in a bottle by singing about the situation. A Democrat who’s after the Senate seat of Dick Compton, R-Coeur d’Alene, Thomas captures his campaign platform with the song “Idaho Way.” It begins: “In Idaho not long ago/A man could take his pay/And buy a house for his kids and spouse/And have a little left to play/Then the Hog It Alls, the greedy jerks/Weaseled in the right to work/And took away all the workers’ perks/And the Fat Cats like it that way.” Woody Guthrie comes to mind when Chuck’s singing. Time will tell if he’ll hit the right chord with down-and-out voters in District 5 (Post Falls area).

Huckleberries

When it appeared, they rushed to see/the wise old man aged eighty-three/to ask what this strange thing might be/and whether they should quickly flee;/The old man said, “No need to run/for harm’s unlikely to be done./I saw it last at twenty-one;/I think they used to call it sun” – The Bard of Sherman Avenue (“A Northwest Tale.”) … Quotable Quote: “Vultures wearing Gucci-tassled loafers roosting on the rotunda rails waiting to pounce on the legistators” – The late Kootenai County commish Ron Rankin describing lobbyists before we’d heard of Jack Abramoff … Quotable Quote II: “I always listen to ‘the other side’ and then ignore it completely and continue on with my bias, which is based upon previous enlightenment, conviction and common sense” – ex-North Idaho solon Gary Ingram, reacting online to an MSNBC story about how political bias affects brain activity … Huckleberries hears that conservative radio gabber Tony Snow used “Sometimes the Sun” by the Lashes on his show the other day. As I’ve mentioned, columnist Doug Clark’s son, Ben, is the group’s lead singer. And the Lashes ( www.thelashes.com) is getting ha-huge.

Parting shot

Yeah, state Rep. Dick Harwood, R-St. Maries , said: “In my community, we have four people; the only thing they got was high school graduation, and yet they’re the main contributors to our community. The key to being successful is to find something you love to do and doing it – not really the education.” Harwood was challenging the UI prez Tim White’s assertion in a budget committee meeting that higher-ed is beneficial. This, according to Betsy Russell/Eye On Boise. Harwood holds a welding blueprint reading certificate from North Idaho Junior College. Obviously, education isn’t a prerequisite to serve in the Idaho Legislature.