There’s something about Sarah

In Sandpoint, you can start a fight by mentioning two topics: Sandpoint Bypass, or Sarah Palin. Sandpointers, of course, have been scrapping about the bypass since before the Repub VP wannabe was born in 1964 in the Pend Oreille Lake-side town. Blogger Marianne Love likens native daughter Palin’s impact on Sandpoint to the Beatles’ invasion: “I’ve run across a multitude of Sarah-filled conversations in barbershops, museums, over the phone, via e-mail, in the schools, on bike rides down country roads, and, yes, even at home.” The first question hubby Bill asks when he comes through the door is: “What’s new on the Sarah front?” Even local Dems who support the Obama-Biden ticket agree that Palin’s emergence on the national stage is a big deal for Sandpoint. On a recent Slight Detour blog post, Marianne asked on behalf of the Bonner County Historical Society (www.bonnercounty history.org/index.html) for Palin memorabilia. She’s right in thinking it would be a good idea to collect stuff relating to the first Repub woman to be nominated for VP. She’s also correct in her contention that the community hubbub surrounding Palin will end sooner than the one involving the bypass.

I need a friend

At the Notes on a Napkin blog, Berry Picker Katrina tells of her duty patrol as a newby kindergarten teacher this fall. In the first week of school she asked a crying girl what was wrong. Seems the kid only had “one friend in this whole school, and she’s playing with somebody else!” So Katrina advised the upset girl that she might have only one friend now, but there were lots of girls in her class who would be her friend. As if on cue, reports Katrina, a sweet quiet girl named Brandy stepped forward, after overhearing the conversation, and said: “Hey, I want to be your friend, Kyra! Let’s go play on the slides.” And off they went, leaving Katrina in her tracks with “eyes tearing up, full of sweet gladness at being witness to such a moment.” Adds Katrina: “I can see already that my students aren’t the only ones who will be learning a lot this year.” Don’t you wish things were this easy in the adult world?

Huckleberries

At Huckleberries Online last week, I asked Berry Pickers how big would they like their house to be, if money was no object, using Duane Hagadone’s 22,040sf digs-to-be at Casco Bay as an example of largesse. Frum Helen Back/Hauser Thoughts responded that she wanted a house as big as Hagadone’s: “I wouldn’t need a housekeeper since I would just move to a different room when I got it cluttered. Of course my husband and I could lose one another in a house that big but with cell phones, we could call each other like we do in Costco and Wal-mart” … At his Rants, Raves & Random Thoughts blog, Berry Picker Nic tells of mentioning to a class of employees some of the great promotions offered by their company, adding: “That will give our customers a five dollar discount.” To which, one of the young women in the class responded: “Isn’t that stealing?” Only when you discount with five fingers … In his second online Jim Risch-less debate with Demo Larry LaRocco, Independent Rex Rammell said he didn’t know much about North Idaho until he attended the state GOP convention in Sandpoint this summer. Speaking in Sandpoint last week, Rammell labeled North Idaho “a hidden oasis” and said he suggested to his wife that they should move up here. Shhh … Hat Tip – to Chris Wagar, KHQ-TV’s North Idaho reporter, whose wife is expecting her first baby, who put an acceptable offer down on his first house, in Coeur d’Alene Place, and who has been hired as the next PRmeister at Kootenai Medical Center.

Parting shot

So there’s this group of six Sweet 16s hanging out at the entrance to the Silver Lake Mall at midafternoon last Thursday, smoking and turning the air blue, when one girl notices the flag at half staff. “Hey,” she asks her sisters in truancy, “why is the flag down?” A passing matron overheard the question, shook her head, and answered simply, “9/11.” Mebbe The Young And The Clueless would remember the day if they memorized “9/11,” The Bard of Sherman Avenue’s tribute to the man-made tragedy: “God bless those firemen and those cops/who headed for the building tops/up pitch black stairs toward hell above/– No man hath any greater love.”