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Huckleberries: Now that’s how to welcome new residents

Coeur d’Alene gave newcomers Howard Kuhns and his mother-in-law, Ella Mae Chronic, quite a Fourth of July welcome. First, you should know that Howard and his wife, Pat, recently moved from Rathdrum to Coeur d’Alene’s 12th Street. And Ella Mae has joined them. Now, onward. Howard, who plays various instruments for church, was delighted July 1 when he heard the eclectic Perfection Nots marching band practicing near his new home for Coeur d’Alene’s Fourth of July Parade – so excited that he raced up 12th Street to ask director Larry Strobel if he could join them. Strobel welcomed Howard on the spot. Then, Howard made another request: Would the band mind playing “Happy Birthday” for Ella Mae? The longtime matriarch of the Bonner County Chronics was turning 90 the next day. Strobel and the band couldn’t figure out which key to use. So the band turned in unison toward Ella Mae, sitting on the street corner, and sang “Happy Birthday.” And here’s hoping she enjoys many more.

Sandpoint

Viewtiful Sandpoint, the little North Idaho community that could, is the subject of a tug-of-war between two media heavyweights: the New York Times and actor/essayist Ben Stein of the conservative American Spectator. Kirk Johnson, a Seattle-based Times reporter, recently reported how Sandpoint survived the closure of Coldwater Creek and the poor Schweitzer ski season when such a double whammy would have shuttered other struggling Western towns. Johnson concluded that Sandpoint survives because people don’t want to leave town. Which prompted Stein, a part-time Sandpoint resident, to respond in a letter to the New York Times that Johnson missed the essence of the town: “Simply put,” he said, “it is the real ‘enchanted kingdom.’ You usually get here on Route 95 over an enormous bridge over the peaceful, blue green Lake Pend Oreille/Pend Oreille River junction. Once you are over the Long Bridge, the whole world changes. There are no gangs. There is no violence to speak of. There are no sullen people on street corners. No riots. No one even honks his or her horn.” Don’t you love it when they’re fighting over you?

Huckleberries

Poet’s Corner: “There was too much spinach/for her to finach” – The Bard of Sherman Avenue (“The Big Salad”) … Mary Tumminello, a Rathdrum resident by way of Hawaii, planted three grapevines in her backyard and then proudly dubbed them “The Grapes of Rathdrum.” Badabump. Onward … A Post Falls Police Department officer reported recently that he was en route to check out three young men at a Q’emiln Park picnic table “smoking the reefer.” Without missing a beat, the 911 dispatcher deadpanned: “They must be from Washington” … Sightem: Where does Spokane Indians manager Tim Hulett enjoy his free afternoons? S-R sports scribe Greg Lee spotted him sun-worshipping on a bench along the City Beach seawall last Wednesday afternoon … Dueling polls: A Wallethub poll says Idaho is the fourth most patriotic state in the nation. Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Justice ranks Idaho third in the nation in pornography offenses with child involvement. How do you make sense of those tea leaves?

Parting shot

According to some media covering the Cape Horn fire, including the Associated Press, Bayview, Idaho, is an “upscale” resort community. As Inigo Montoya of “Princess Bride” might say, “I do not think (that word) means what you think it means.”

Casual? Sure. Laid back? Certainly. But too many regular folks live in Bayview to consider the town upscale.

That will change, of course, when the southern Lake Pend Oreille community is discovered and “upscale” people begin scraping older homes to make way for their mansions. (See: Fort Grounds, Coeur d’Alene.)

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