Huckleberries: Predator pic leads to talk of dialects

My Huckleberries Online crowd is easily distracted. I posted a bushy-tailed predator photographed along the Kalispell Bay beach path by the Priest Lake Photos Facebook crowd on Tuesday – and asked whether the critter was a coyote or wolf. The overwhelming consensus (including from the Sandpoint F&G office) leaned “Wile E.” Too small and the markings were wrong for Br’er Wolf. Then, the conversation focus switched to the proper pronunciation for “coyote.” One claimed “coyote” with a long-E is a dead giveaway that the speaker is a darn Easterner. Another that KYE-yoat indicates that the speaker is a Zane Gray/Louis L’Amour fan. A third opined: “The English cognate ‘coyote’ is taken directly from the Spanish word of the same spelling, in which the final “e” is pronounced (co-yo’-tay).” Then, we circled back to our East Coast bias by agreeing that anyone who referred to a cougar as a mountain lion is definitely not from here, especially after Wazzu’s recent upset win over U-Dub in Pac-10 basketball. Go, Mountain Lions? Nah.

Huffy Dude

Ryan Brodwater, of Post Falls, tells of a close encounter with a food court employee at the Spokane Valley Costco last week. As the worker handed him a sausage, Ryan said: “Thanks, brother!” Only to have the guy huff. Which surprised Ryan until he saw the worker’s name tag. “Dude” was a lady. Ryan didn’t know what to do – ap-hollow-gize or leave. He left. Ryan’s faux pas became great water cooler fare at work. Ryan: “It was universally voted that in a situation like that, you don’t try to explain or apologize. You just make a hasty exit.” Is there an etiquette book for stuff like this?

Huckleberries

Pecky Cox of As the Lake Churns blog and her hubby, Fred, struggled Wednesday, with the temperature at 4 degrees, trying to shoo a deer off Priest Lake’s ice. Three times Bambi scrambled farther out onto the ice, resisting help from Pecky and Fred. All the time, Pecky was praying that the ice wouldn’t break (as one of her camera lenses did). Her prayers were answered … The death of “Grizzly Adams” creator Charles Sellier in Coeur d’Alene last week brought to mind an interview I conducted with the late actor Denver Pyle in the late ’70s in Kalispell, Mont. Pyle was just coming off a two-year run as Mad Jack in the TV series “The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams,” and was excited about his next role as a grandpa in a crazy series, featuring hot cars and wild grandkids. Anyone hear what became of “The Dukes of Hazzard”? … Hucks Online poll: By a 3-to-1 margin (72.6 percent to 24 percent), my blog readers say the Idaho Republican Party leans too far right. Which should surprise no one but Idaho Republicans.

Parting Shot

If you gripe about the rough hand life’s dealt you, don’t do so around Brandon Adam, the Army sergeant from Sandpoint who lost both legs in an IED explosion in Baghdad in spring 2007. When last we checked with him, Brandon was shaking hands with then-President George W. Bush as he recuperated/exercised at a medical center in San Antonio in November 2007. Recently, ESPN photographed Brandon on a mono-ski at the Winter X Games in Aspen, Colo. Brandon later won a silver medal in the Mono X race. You have troubles? Deal with them.