Huckleberries: These public fountains fall short of city code

A whole lotta peein’s goin’ on in downtown Coeur d’Alene after hours. And, judging from the latest Downtown Bar Report, not all of that urine is finding its way into proper receptacles. In a recent 12-day period, CPD Blues arrested eight drunks for public urination, including a 26-year-old man we’ll call I.P. Freely. Seems I.P. suffers from a small bladder or a fundamental lack of modesty. Case in point: I.P. was caught watering the sidewalk after exiting the Rendezvous bar en route to Las Palmitas. When the cops asked I.P. why he didn’t pee at the Rendezvous, the drunk said the restrooms were full. Then he admitted he’d gotten a citation in June for public peeing. He’d just paid off the $190 for that fine two days earlier. One of many stories in our Urine-Part-Of-Town.

Out, damn tank top

When last we visited Post Falls restauranteer Raci Erdem, he was stirring up political partisans with a billboard crack about President Barack Obama. Remember? “Due to Boredom, Obama, Etc., we need your money.” Now, Raci (pronounced Rah-gee) is targeting a fashion faux pas that haunts North Idaho. In a reader-board advertisement for the Oval Office restaurant, Raci announces: “Men with tank tops not allowed.” Do I hear a second to that emotion? … A Berry Picker got an eyeful when she spotted North Idaho College volleyballers in bikinis washing cars in the Runge Furniture lot in Coeur d’Alene’s Midtown on Thursday. Seems there was beaucoup skin on display under sunny skies. Which is OK in resort town CdA, if you’re 18 and use sunscreen. (BTW, a motorcyclist who frequents my blog offered a second opinion after stopping for a bike wash: “Wowsa!”) … Huckleberries hears that muckety-mucks from Gozzer Ranch refer to erstwhile Squaw Bay on Lake Coeur d’Alene as “Gozzer Bay.” Which is presumptuous since it now has a Native American name: Neachen Bay.

Huckleberries

Poet’s corner: “Oh tiny rootlet, orange and sweet/you nestle near the pickled beet;/torn from your home and shipped by truck/your life’s been full of lousy luck,/and now through circumstance and fate/you find yourself upon my plate;/how sad this is the way I meet you —/but nonetheless I plan to eat you” – The Bard of Sherman Avenue (“To A Baby Carrot in His Salad”) … Most of us have had our houses TP’d. But a Hayden woman on Amethyst Drive didn’t appreciate the added ingredient used by her toilet-paper attackers Thursday – chocolate cake. ’Tis funny, if you’re not cleaning up the smears … Yeah, that was ex-Coeur d’Alene resident Bruce Reed eating lunch with President Obama at the Good Stuff Eatery in D.C. in that Associated Press photo Wednesday. You run with the biggest dogs when you’re chief of staff for VP Joe Biden.