Huckleberries: Near-disaster at Christmas showed me Frank Henderson’s calm

My favorite personal story about the late Frank Henderson involves a holiday invitation that he and his late first wife, Lillian, extended to my family in December 1986. Mrs. O, son Seth and 11-month-old daughter Amy were greeted by a warm house and warm hosts that cold evening. I had been at the S-R for two years and counting. Frank, former publisher of the Post Falls weekly who died Monday, was at the relative beginning of a long, local political career that saw him advance from Post Falls mayor to Kootenai County commissioner to Idaho legislator. Sometime during the evening, our hobnobbing was interrupted by a noise coming from the Hendersons’ Christmas tree. Amy was pulling ornaments off. And it was teetering. We prevented it from falling. But it was an embarrassing moment for Amy’s parents. The Hendersons, however, shrugged off the near Yuletide disaster. That unflappable nature served Frank well for decades of enlightened political service. He’ll be missed.

Misfire

Last week, the Washington Post joined the New York Times in weighing in on that irresponsible 9-8 vote that almost killed vital child support enforcement legislation in an Idaho House committee last month: “It would be hard to find people more adept at cutting off their noses to spite their faces than the members of an Idaho legislative committee who balked at bringing the state into compliance with federal child-support collection rules. Not wanting to be told what to do could well cost the state $46 million in direct federal aid. What’s most unfortunate, though, is that the harm will extend to single mothers and fathers beyond Idaho unable to collect on child-support orders. Moreover, if Idaho doesn’t come to its senses, the United States risks being disqualified from an international convention that would ease overseas collections of child support.” Idaho is coming to its senses. Gov. Otter has called a special session to fix this mess. Now, the four North Idaho legislators who joined the majority in voting against this measure (Reps. Kathy Sims, Donald Cheatham, Heather Scott and Shannon McMillan) need to come to their senses.

Huckleberries

Poet’s Corner: “Wars and riots,/her heart was ill –/until she saw/the daffodil” – The Bard of Sherman Avenue (“Spring Tonic”) … Huckleberries doesn’t blame the Post Falls officer on duty at 5:33 p.m. Tuesday for wondering if he’d heard a 911 dispatch correctly. Seems a passenger in a black Chevy Impala had assaulted a motorist at state Highway 41 and Seltice Way by throwing something at him – a hamburger. No word on whether the burger was a double one, loaded with cheese, bacon, tomato, lettuce and special sauce … Google “chutzpah,” and you will find a photo of that driver of a Toyota Prius who was brake-checking a logging truck on northbound U.S. Highway 95 at Wyoming Avenue, Hayden, at 2:18 p.m. Thursday … A city webcam offers proof that the new osprey couple in a nest high above Coeur d’Alene’s McEuen Park is expecting … For those keeping score at home, the Kootenai County GOP Central Committee supports the goofy House committee vote against the Child Support Enforcement bill. And people wonder where Kootenai County finds its Far Right fringe politicians?

Parting shot

So I’m killing time at the Salt Lake City airport Saturday, April 25, on the way back from a vacation in Florida, when I hear the name of state Rep. Vito Barbieri, R-Dalton Gardens, mentioned on the overhead TV. Barbieri is the Idaho legislator who infamously flubbed a legislative abortion debate this year. At the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, “Saturday Night Live’s” Cecily Strong quipped: “Idaho Representative Vito Barbieri recently asked if gynecological exams could be conducted by a woman swallowing a camera. But they can’t. And now Vito and his wife have ruined a perfectly good Go-Pro.”