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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Love and pizza transcend the distance

D.f. Oliveria The Spokesman-Review

On Wednesday morning, Destiney Turner was about to begin her day at King Pizza on Fourth Street when she received an unusual call. About 9:45. A guy wanted to send a pizza to his gal because she’d forgotten her lunch. Nothing unusual about that, you say? Well, the guy was a sergeant calling from Iraq. And he had his lover on his mind. Not the temperature in the Middle East, which he said hit 130 degrees that day. Destiney told Huckleberries that he ordered a medium pepperoni pizza and a Pepsi for his love – and wanted to add a $10 tip to the bill. The King Pizza worker refused to accept the tip or payment for the pizza. She couldn’t remember the name of the sergeant. But said that his true love worked at the U.S. Bank call center. Also, Destiney recalled the love note she added to the order for the soldier, word for word: “I love you, Sugar Drop. Hope you’re having a wonderful day.” After fielding Sgt. Sugar Drop’s call, Destiney hung up and cried: “He’s over there and concerned about her. Amazing.” Indeed.

Spencer for ire

Ubiquitous Larry Spencer was involved in an offbeat GOP convention story that was published only at Huckleberries Online. Spencer, the uberconservative gadfly who fought the Kroc Center, was one of three District 2 delegates to the recent GOPfest in Sandpoint who were initially thrown out on a technicality. Seems the District 2 nomination meeting wasn’t properly notified. And Shoshone County GOP Chairman Bill Dire wanted no part of the chosen delegates: Spencer, Del Rust and Dan Thompson. Spencer told S-R reporter Erica Curless that he suspected then state GOP chairman Kirk Sullivan was behind the ouster because he and his two fellow delegates supported Norm Semanko’s candidacy for party chairman. The GOP Resolution Committee narrowly upheld the delegation ouster on Friday. But recanted Saturday after Spencer pointed out that other counties had nominating problems, too – and threatened to sue. In the end, Spencer got his five minutes of convention fame, Semanko was elected, and the wacky delegates voted to abolish the Federal Reserve and return America to the gold standard. Feel safer?

Huckleberries

After checking out the eye candy at Ironman CdA village in City Park, Mrs. Huckleberry Hound cell-phoned to say that “Seinfeld” may be right about “good naked” and “bad naked.” But there’s no such thing as “bad triathlete” … How did I miss the fact that Ken Thompson, a terrific CdA city administrator before he was axed by Boy Mayor Steve Judy, is now city finance director in Spokane Valley? … ‘Twas hard to say what shocked Staci Lehman/Kootenai MPO blog most on Tuesday – regular gas selling for $4.36 in Spokane or a yard sign a coupla blocks away that read: “stun guns $20” … If you think Repub Lt. Gov. Jim Risch will have a walk in the park as he runs to replace U.S. Sen. Larry Craig, think again. In a Wall Street Journal article Wednesday, Craig admits that he and other establishment R’s are worried that Independent Rex Rammell could be a spoiler in Risch’s race with Dem Larry LaRocco. Quoth Craig: “As an independent, it’s yet to be determined if he (Rex Rammell) can gain traction. A lot of Republicans are worried about that, as am I.” They should be. Think: Ross Perot, Ron Paul.

Parting shot

After 12 years of enjoying sweet, succulent home-grown raspberries, Berry Picker Zelda will go without this year. Seems the deer chewed off every flower bud on the canes this week – and $200-plus worth of flowers. Said Zelda: “This kind of damage has never happened this early in the year.” Zelda added at Huckleberries Online that the deer population is out of control in her neck of the suburban woods and that a big contributor is a transplanted neighbor who puts out troughs of feed year-round. Just so they can see the fawns. Zelda, again: “If you’ve lost a friend or relative on the highway in a deer collision or if you’ve damaged your vehicle hitting a deer, it’s no laughing matter.” Rather than feed the deer, she suggests, people make a donation to a food bank instead.