Huckleberries: Yes, she wanted to be ‘Queen for a Day’

If you’re a certain age, you remember the question Jack Bailey posed to women in his large TV audience: “Would you like to be queen for a day?” Bailey made queendom the dream of women nationwide during his run as the show’s host from 1945 until 1964. Nina Oss was one of the approximately 5,000 winners. Christina Oss LaBang, of Coeur d’Alene, recently found a faded newspaper photo of her mother with a crown on her head, holding flowers and smiling broadly. Her mother had competed with other women for the “Queen for a Day” crown and prizes. Each had shared a hard-luck story. Applause from the studio audience and the “applause meter” had decided the winner. Nina’s back story was compelling. Daughter Christina tells Huckleberries: “My mother (Juanina Marie Fernandez) won because she and two of her sisters and a brother were incarcerated in a prisoner of war camp in the Philippines during World War II. While in the camp, she met my father (Norman Alfred Oss Jr). She married my father after being processed in United States at Catalina Island.” Jack Bailey and “Queen for a Day” brought the Osses full circle when the prizes awarded that long-ago day included a return trip to Catalina Island.

Not a chance

Do you remember that scene in “Dumb and Dumber” when Lloyd asks Mary if there’s a chance that he and she might get together? Mary responds by figuring the odds would be “one out of a million.” To which, Lloyd replies happily: “So you’re telling me there’s a chance?” Well, the likelihood that Idaho elector Jennifer Locke, of Hayden, will vote for someone other than Republican Donald Trump is far less than that. Jennifer is one of four Trump electors from Idaho who’ll vote in the Electoral College next month. She has been bombarded/ harassed with calls and emails from around the nation requesting/ demanding that she not vote for Trump. When Huckleberries asked about the odds of her voting for someone other than Trump, Jennifer responded: “That would never happen. I’m 100 percent in for Trump. It’s been that way since late January 2016, when I sought out a Trump director to try to start up a state campaign for Trump in Idaho. Loyalty and my word are two big things for me.” Sorry, Lloyd.

Huckleberries

Poet’s Corner: “This month, turkeys/are selected:/some get stuffed and/some elected” – Tom Wobker, The Bard of Sherman Avenue (“November Ritual,” Nov. 14, 2005) … Poll: Idaho is surrounded by states and British Columbia that have legalized marijuana in some form. In a poll Wednesday, 51 percent of my Huckleberries blog readers said Idaho should legalize pot for recreational use. Another 19 percent said for medicinal use. Only 26 percent opposed loosening Idaho pot laws. But Huckleberries doesn’t recommend that you take one toke over the state line of law-and-order Idaho any time soon … Sometimes, the phonetic spelling by patrol officers via 911 dispatch gets creative. Last week, an officer was spelling a name on a driver’s license after a traffic stop when he came to “Kirk, like in Captain.” (He must have enjoyed the latest “Star Trek” movie more than Huckleberries did.) … Quotable Quote: “If a DQ blizzard has nuts in it, it counts as dinner, right?!” – Kris J. Helstrom, of Coeur d’Alene … A wag on my Huckleberries blog wasn’t surprised that a Whitman County judge stayed the suspension of WSU defensive lineman Robert Barber in that high-profile assault case: “Of course they will let him play. Gosh have you seen the middle of their line since he has been out?” Priorities. Priorities.

Parting shot

Liz Peterson, of Rathdrum, was barely awake last week when she heard her dog, Percy, going cuh-razy outdoors. Still in her skivvies, the Coeur d’Alene PD crime analyst sprung to her window. And what to her wondering eyes should appear? Her harpy dog was chasing a moose through the neighborhood. Luckily, Percy didn’t catch Bullwinkle. Later, Liz found Percy cornered by her cat, Felix, who was annoyed by the commotion. Liz tells Huckleberries: “I’m not sure how much sense that dog has, but he sure is sweet.” And that’s what counts.