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Huckleberries: CdA officials regress to grade-school antics

Do you suppose that the hard-working 911 dispatcher bit her tongue when Coeur d’Alene Councilman Steve Adams SOS’d to tattle on City Attorney Mike Gridley? A short version of the two-minute 911 call made by Adams after the testy council meeting Tuesday: He’s bigger than me, and he called me names (“moron” being the only printable one). The two have been dueling over the councilman’s attempt to sidetrack a federally mandated $33 million expansion of the city’s sewer plant. The dispatcher coulda told Adams to call a Wahhhmbulance. Or lectured him not to use 911 except for emergencies. But she remained professional throughout. Which is something that can’t be said for Adams or Gridley.

Freedom!

Attorney Duane Rasmussen emailed Huckleberries three photos of the now-deceased Freedom Tree at McEuen Field on Thursday. Unhappily, the tree got in the way of the McEuen Field progress and was sliced and diced Friday morning, well before the announced 10 o’clock chopping time – to avoid photogenic scenes involving old veterans, I suppose. It’ll be replaced by a younger version at a vets’ memorial elsewhere in the re-emerging park. Lamented Duane: “I wished someone had tied a yellow ribbon around it” … Tweet of the Week: “My mother always says, ‘if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.’ With that in mind, I don’t think I can do the weather tonight” – Kris Crocker/KXLY weathercaster. (Glad my Mom never said that to me. Woulda ended my future 43-year career as a journalist right there.) … On Monday, it’ll be 25 years since the last of the old wooden tour boats (Seeweewana) was sunk a quarter mile off the rest area of the Coeur d’Alene Resort boardwalk. And I’m still ticked that a flotilla of small boats blocked the view of us boardwalk gawkers.

Huckleberries

Poet’s Corner: “Where geese have gathered/in large flocks,/be careful of your/shoes and socks” – The Bard of Sherman Avenue (“An Observation on Dike Road”) … Scanner Traffic: A transient created a ruckus at the DexCo Mini Mart on Government Way when he pulled a “do-not-disturb” sign and something that looked like a small bomb from his yellow backpack. The clerk told him to get lost, and the owner called the cops. The “bomb” turned out to be a 2-inch, homemade rocket … How do you know you live in North Idaho? Bill Blumenauer of Bonners Ferry tells Huckleberries: “Your kid gets back from his day camp with his Boy Scout troop and asks if he can go over to his buddy’s fire pit to clean and cook the beaver tail they trapped” … Bumpersnicker (spotted by Steve Sibulsky on a black Honda in the Coeur d’Alene Library lot Wednesday): “Those who can, teach; those who can’t pass laws about teaching.” Accurate description of the Idaho Legislature … In the “Idaho Gets No Respect” Dept., a couple standing behind the yellow crime tape at a murder scene for “Blue Bloods” beckons Detective Danny Reagan (actor Donnie Wahlberg) over. Thinking they are witnesses, Danny walks over only to be told: “We’re from Idaho, and we wanted to get photos with you.” Hey, at least they weren’t wearing white hoods.

Parting shot

My Huckleberries (spokesman.com/hbo) blog crew and I compiled this potential cast for a sitcom based on Coeur d’Alene’s dysfunctional council: Mayor Sandi Bloem (Helen Mirren), Ron Edinger (Ed Asner or the late Pat Buttram), Steve Adams (Gilbert Gottfried), Woody McEvers (Howard Hesseman of “WKRP in Cincinnati” fame), Dan Gookin (Harvey Fierstein), Deanna Goodlander (Maggie Smith), and Mike Kennedy (his cousin, Sean Astin). City Attorney Gridley, of course, would be played by the GOP convention version of Clint Eastwood, talking to the chair (the chair being Adams). Action!

Follow Dave Oliveria on his Huckleberries Online blog, www.spokesman.com/hbo; Twitter at @hucksonline.

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