Huckleberries: Barflies, bull kept cops hopping at Car d’Lane

Car d’Lane has been tame since the 1999 riot in downtown Coeur d’Alene. But that doesn’t mean it has been without incident. CPD Blues were busy after the cruise this year, according to the Downtown Coeur d’Alene Bar Report (which mysteriously appears at Huckleberries HQ each week or so). Local cops issued 68 warnings for open containers after the cruise that opened the event (June 17 and 18) – most to Iron Horse cuss-tomers who were unaware (or didn’t care) that they couldn’t have booze outside the chained area on the sidewalk. Nine other warnings were issued to nearby Moose Market drinkers, three to Icon/Beacon barflies, and the remaining 30 or so throughout the downtown area. One boozer who got more than a warning was that 55-year-old sot with a blood-alcohol content of .138 who burned rubber in front of a gendarme on Sherman Avenue. The CPD Blue noticed an open can of beer between the driver’s legs when he made the traffic stop. Do not pass go. Do not collect $200.

Hey, Toro, Toro

One of the more impressive drunks during Car d’Lane weekend was the guy who pretended to be a bull in the busiest intersection of downtown Coeur d’Alene. The Bar Report didn’t include a blood-alcohol content for the 26-year-old Californian who was doing his best toro impersonation at Fourth and Sherman, blocking traffic. But CPD Blues on the scene were impressed that the guy stayed on his feet while hunching forward and holding his hands up to simulate a bull’s horns. Olé.

Huckleberries

Huckeberries wonders if there’s a curse for someone who leaves a box of kittens in the trash, like the one found Thursday morning in a Worley Dumpster off Cave Bay Road. Should be … The number of Aryans who attended the Northwest region confab at Lake Cascade State Park in Valley County (Cascade) last week could fit into a VW van: eight. Happily, that’s a far cry from the late Richard Butler’s world congresses. Which attracted the who’s who of the neo-Nutsy movement back in the day … First, the Kootenai County Constitution Party condemned that public art sculpture of Hindu idol Ganesha in downtown Coeur d’Alene. Now, it abhors the idea of combining Kootenai County with Spokane County into a metro statistical area. The C-Party website urges Kootenai County/Coeur d’Alene to invoke its “10th Amendment right of Nullification” and to assert its “endemic right of rule by consent of governed” to pull out of the metro area. In Chamber of Commerce-speak, that translates: “Shop locally.” Methinks.

Parting Shot

Idaho Gov. Butch Otter told Kerri Thoreson on her KVNI show Friday morning that he considers the five northernmost Idaho counties to be part of “northern” Idaho not “North Idaho.” Quoth Butch: “I consider ‘north’ to be a direction, not a place.” In Butch’s mind, there are three geographic regions in Idaho: Eastern, Southern and Northern. He swayed Kerri somewhat. But I’ll continue to refer to the five northernmost counties as “North Idaho” (as many other locals do). I consider this part of paradise separate from the rest of the state and certainly from the Kingdom of Ada (Boise), where Butch holds court. Which brings to mind this bumpersnicker saying: “North Idaho is a state of mind; Southern Idaho is a mindless state.”