Rustler’s moving to new roost
As you may know, owner Woody McEvers closed Rustler’s Roost/Hayden Sunday to move into a new building 100 feet away. It’s the third move for the Roost. Kendra Goodrick-Martinez recalls the eatery’s second incarnation (in the old Sambo’s restaurant building on CdA’s Sherman in the late 1980s): “Rustler’s Roost was my absolute utopia of a bohemian paradise … keep in mind, this was before Java, before the other end of Sherman became hip. And we were probably not Mr. McEvers’s favorite customers: Basically, we’d come in for hours at a time, drink endless cups of coffee, and perhaps the more flush among us would order a biscuits and gravy or two … But, oh, the conversation. I hung with the bookish stoner crowd that chafed at all things establishment and thirsted for something, anything, as long as it was big city or even better, Eurotrash. I remember sitting, entranced, one day, all my friends leaving one by one, as I first read Kerouac’s “On the Road.” Looking up, guiltily, as the waitress finally asked me to move up to the bar. I looked around and realized I was alone in a large booth littered with detritus from probably a dozen like-minded teens who’d come and gone. I breezed out of there, head filled with visions of beat poets and cross-country travel, feet barely touching the floor. Woody wants as many volunteer feet on the floor as he can get from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m. Saturday when he moves the innards of his restaurant next door. He’ll throw in a free breakfast for those who help out. Will you work for food?
Have snake, will travel
Hercules the 8-foot snake is doing fine, thank you – not that he’s any closer to finding a permanent home. As you probably know, Hercules was turned over to animal control after he was found slithering under an apple tree in a Post Falls yard. Only to be handed over to a foster parent. Who sold him on eBay for $250 to cover the cost of vet treatment. Who was then charged with grand theft because the snake, which is valued at $1,300, is the property of the sheriff’s office. Hercules has remained unfazed through it all. A snake specialist at Spokane Reptile Rescue told S-R reporter Pia Hallenberg Christensen that Hercules is not suffering anxiety despite being moved around. Hercules appears socialized, she said, because he slithers around among people. If he was scared, she said, he would coil up. Also, the specialist ID’d Hercules as a red tail boa, which is different than a python, because red tails have live births and pythons lay eggs. And if you’re like me, that’s all you ever want to know about a snake. Of any kind.
Huckleberries
Poet’s Corner: At breakfast only seven;/at lunch hour but eleven;/and by the time they sat to dine – /nine hundred thousand ninety-nine – The Bard of Sherman Avenue (“The Leaves On His Lawn”) … Quotable Quote: “Remember AIG, the big insurance company that got bailed out by all of us? Well, they must still be functioning because they sent me a spam e-mail trying to sell me life insurance. At least they’re trying to save some money. Sending spam is cheaper that using the U.S. Postal Service” – From Helen Back/Hauser Thoughts … A Photoshopped picture brought smiles to long-suffering WSU and UI football fans as it popped up in e-mails in the Inland Northwest. It features the green-and-white directional sign for Exit 214 of Highway 270, pointing to “Pullman/ Moscow.” Alongside is one of those mobile carts that show motorists their speed. Only this one was photo shopped to say: “Caution: Bad football next 9 miles.” Ouch.
Parting shot
At Moscow-based F-Words, blogger Sara Anderson tells of her mother receiving the following hand-printed note on her car windshield: “Obama is a racsist (sic) and he hates America just read one of his books. Blameing (sic) Bush for gas prices shows what a (two scribbled out words) you really know. 70% of what you pay at the pump is the price of raw oil which we import. Canada, Mexico & Saudi Arabia are sticking it to us because they know that the environmentalists in our country have tied our hands to produce our own. And the rest of the costs is high gas taxes witch (sic) are the highest in the liberal Democrat states like WA. Your (sic) welcome.” And why was Sara’s mom targeted for grammatically incorrect lecture? She had a bumpersnicker that read: “Gas was $1.46 a gallon when Bush came into office.” Won’t you be glad when this election is over?