Huckleberries: Like nowhere else in the world

Mari, of the Dogwalk Musings blog, has a friend from Tucson who’s written a novel about a visitor from a parallel world who has difficulty adjusting to ours. The friend plans to visit North Idaho this summer. Mari believes she’s coming to the right place. “Where else,” muses Mari, “will she find teenage boys wandering around (Post Falls) with pistols and rifles slung on hip and shoulder to educate us about our Second Amendment rights?” Where else, she continues, can a developer (Marshall Chesrown of Black Rock) step up to the plate with $10,000 to sponsor the Fourth of July celebration (only to) get tarred and feathered for his generosity? In the Coeur d’Alene Press, sez Mari, you’ll find front-page stories “decrying the explosion in the cat population,” and the (news that) “the local megabucks man” (newspaper owner Duane Hagadone) is opening his lake home for a Humane Society fundraising event “when he could well build an entire facility for our unwanted and misplaced furry friends with his pocket change.” My Huckleberries Online gang quickly warmed to Mari’s promptings. “Where else,” wondered Bret, “can you go to the local beach in 90-degree weather and be surrounded by smokers, one proudly displaying a ‘white is right’ tattoo across his chest as he teaches his toddler to swim?” Where else, offered Idaho Escapee, can you find “a town that touts itself as a tourist destination because of its lake and beaches” – only to see some of that beach restricted “by a few greedy property owners?” That music you hear is the theme song from “The Twilight Zone.”