He with the most to discuss
The late Malcolm Forbes once said: “He who dies with the most toys wins.” But I would suggest otherwise after spotting an old familiar face while biking home recently. At Garden Avenue and torn-up Fourth Street, I saw Bob Hough walking home with his sweetheart of 59 years. Bob was the voice of KVNI (before “newcomer” Dick Haugen replaced him in the early 1990s). Before then, he was a DJ known as “Bubblehead Bob.” Now, he’s a proud grandfather. You may have heard of his two grandkids: TV’s “Dancing with the Stars” pros Derek and Julianne Hough. Julianne is also a budding country western singer and screen star. Bob was as eager to talk about the grandkids as I was to ask about them. Julianne had been a presenter and nominee at the country music awards the night before. As for her brother, Bob and his wife were still miffed that Derek and Lil’ Kim hadn’t finished ahead of “that cowboy” (rodeo star Ty Murray) in the latest competition. Bob and I caught up on many things ’ere I pedaled off, thinking that a man has to consider himself a winner if, at 82, he still has a loving wife by his side. He has left his mark on the community. He has kids nearby. He has lived to see his grandkids prosper.
Wind-blown look
You learn to improvise in North Idaho. Recently, ex-SR buddy Taryn Hecker grand-opened her photo studio (and a new blog: http://taryn ahecker.blogspot.com) in Spirit Lake during the first Bent & Taryn’s BeerBQ Cookoff, featuring Jeff Selle’s homemade beer and a barbecue contest among the better cooks at Huckleberries Online. Taryn shot portraits inside her house while Jeff, Phil Thompson, Councilwoman Kerri Thoreson and other BBQers trash-talked one another. For her portrait, Kerri requested a wind-blown look. Alas, Taryn didn’t have a wind machine. But she did have a leaf blower. After snapping, ahem, wind-blown shots of Kerri and two others, Taryn told Huckleberries: “Nobody knows by looking at the pictures that we’re using a leaf blower to make our supermodels look superfantabulous. Or that my assistant and wind blower-aimer is decked out in head-to-toe camo.” Until now.
Huckleberries
Poet’s Corner: Great clouds of pollen fill the breeze/and innocents now cough and sneeze;/from tiny babe to world war vet,/the throat is raw, the eye is wet/Enough, I say, it’s gone too far – /this nation needs a Pollen Czar – The Bard of Sherman Avenue (“More Regulation, Please”) … Their bodies of bronze flood the street/with abs made of steel they’re replete/they swim, run and pedal,/each testing their mettle/the Ironmen come again to compete!/Wes Andrews, 29 Words Or Less (“Ironman CDA”) … Scanner Traffic (from Monday): “Nettleton Gulch resident reports that his neighbor may be using jet fuel in his vehicles” … TeeHee-Shirt message on woman holding beer at Spirit Lake Lawnmower Drag races June 21: “Where the #@%!! is my Prince Charming.”
Parting shot
Didja know … that the guy suspected in the June 17 machete attack in Spokane has a strange, shirt-tail relationship to a Sanders Beach lawsuit? In summer 2007, then-Prosecutor Bill Douglas said in a court deposition that he’d spoken to suspect Douglas W. Harmon’s father, Glenn, about Lake Coeur d’Alene’s high-water mark in 2004 before joining the Sanders Beach suit. Attorney E. Glenn Harmon was a water expert who’d represented Washington Water Power (Avista). Only he died 10 years before Douglas claimed to have spoken to him. All this, according to SR reporter Meghann Cuniff.
Later, Bill Douglas said a court reporter misquoted him. Of course.