Huckleberries: Some bad-news sharing needs audience

A funny thing happened to Christa Hazel, of Coeur d’Alene, while she was taking her kids to school Wednesday. The new Bryan School PTA veep got popped by CPD Blue Pat Sullivan for speeding 11 mph over the limit at 11th and Harrison (not a school zone). At which point she had to pick between an $85 ticket that would go on her record and hike her vehicle insurance rates, or a $75 ticket, plus three-hour traffic school, that wouldn’t affect her insurance. She was told to choose on the spot, with a busload of children passing by with their little faces pressed against the windows, waving. Christa picked Door No. 2, the traffic school taught by Officer Nick Knoll. The traffic school, Christa told Huckleberries, provides insight into situations handled by police patrols. Among Christa’s traffic schoolmates was her best friend, Angie Phillips. Who was cited for going 11 mph too fast, too. (Aside: Christa and Angie once attended a NASCAR-type racing school for a week.) The worst part of Christa’s experience? Her children begged her not to tell hubby Joel about the ticket until they returned from school to witness the spectacle.

Jaywalking & peeing

Did you hear the one about the 30-year-old drunk who was caught jaywalking in downtown Coeur d’Alene recently? CPD Blues stopped him when he almost staggered into a patrol car in the 300 block of Sherman Avenue. Seems he was so drunk that he didn’t have the right answer when the gendarmes asked him why he thought they’d stopped him. Jaywalking? Nah. The drunk thought they’d popped him for public urination. Now, there’s a whole lotta outside peeing going on in the streets and byways of that public urinal known as downtown Coeur d’Alene after hours. Seventeen drunks got tickets for public urination between Aug. 18 and Sept. 6. Our honest thirty-something sot wasn’t one of them. Which saved him a fine of $110. A fact he’ll probably toast in the future.

Huckleberries

Poet’s Corner: “Oh my goodness/such a bummer –/here comes autumn/there goes summer!” – The Bard of Sherman Avenue (“The Day After Labor Day”) … Scanner Traffic: Then there’s the one about the older guy with a handgun in his waistband who got into a fight with another driver over a handicap parking spot at Coeur d’Alene’s Costco. You’d think if you can fight that you wouldn’t need the handicap spot. Right? … Tongue firmly cheeked, Coeur d’Alene council wannabe Amber Copeland wondered what she should wear to turn in her candidacy papers – “sensible business attire or a miniskirt and tube top?” Then, she added: “Tube tops should be illegal after 25 … maybe that’s a law I can look into creating at some point.” … For those keeping score at home, North Idaho College squandered $152,000 to successfully fight the lawsuit filed against the Education Corridor lease by self-appointed gadflies Tom Macy, Bill McCrory and Larry Spencer. So much for the trio’s fiscal conservatism.

Parting shot

Poet’s Corner II: “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 …” – The Bard of Sherman Avenue (“9/11”)