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Huckleberries: Church fire didn’t erase bride-to-be’s smile

Leslie Gillet wins the unflappable award for her performance as a beaming bride at the First Baptist Church in Sandpoint on Oct 1.

The wedding started a few minutes late. Which was understandable. The invitations had said the wedding would take place at the nearby Christ Our Redeemer Lutheran Church on Pine Street. But an empty parking lot, yellow tape and a do-not-enter sign greeted wedding guests at that location. After the rehearsal dinner Friday, a fire in the Lutheran Church kitchen KO’d the decorations, flowers, hors d’oeuvres and venue.

Judging from the composure of the two main attractions the following day, you wouldn’t know anything had happened. Leslie exchanged vows with her new husband, Dennis Minnick, holding a bouquet that had survived the previous evening’s fire.

A bright future awaits the new couple, now that they have test driven the “for worse” part of their wedding promise to each other, with heads held high.

Scanner traffic

On Friday morning, a 911 dispatcher in Kootenai County received a call from a man talking gibberish. The dispatcher was able to direct a patrol officer to the disturbed man’s home, adding: He says, ‘ISIS hates America.’ ” The officer responded, “He’s right.” Dispatcher: “Affirm.” P’haps the 911 caller wasn’t all that crazy … Huckleberries’d hate to be that driver of a white sedan on Highway 95 in the Hayden area Thursday morning – the one who “got a little too close for comfort” to an ISP trooper standing outside his patrol car. Do not pass “Go.” Do not collect $200 … And the answer is: “Scuba dive in the primary digester of the local sewage treatment plant.” Question asked of my Huckleberries blog crowd: “What would you rather do than watch the vice presidential debate?”

Huckleberries

Photographer Keith Boe of Post Falls knows now that a pot of gold isn’t at the end of the rainbow. A Ford pickup is. Keith was eastbound in evening commuter traffic Wednesday when the “end of the rainbow” seemed to touch down on the pickup in front of him, on Interstate 90 near Coeur d’Alene’s Northwest Boulevard. And he has a photo to prove it … Poll: My blog readers aren’t put off by the banking scandal in which Wells Fargo big-wigs padded pockets by opening $2 million in bogus accounts. Fifty-eight percent of Hucks Nation said they didn’t trust banks anyway … Norm Oss of Coeur d’Alene has an appropriate punishment for the punk(s) who vandalized Nina Marie’s Mexican food cart in Midtown: “That’s the place I go to at least two times a week. Very good food and a delightful woman. Hope they find them and force them to eat a hundred very hot peppers” Bingo … Quotable Quote: “It feels ridiculous to even talk about so-called creepy clowns on TV. In the grand scheme of what we should be worried about, people dressed up as clowns is nowhere near the top of the list” – Mark Hanrahan, KREM 2 anchor … Poll: Republican Rep. Mike Simpson is the only member of the Idaho delegation who doesn’t represent North Idaho. Yet, my Huckleberries blog readers consider him to be the best member of the delegation, by a 2-to-1 margin over the next guy, U.S. Sen. Mike Crapo. What does that say?

Parting shot

George Ives knew who to blame when Friends of Tubbs Hill was forced to cancel Saturday’s planned cleanup of Tubbs Hill: “It’s sad that the weather is not a friend of Tubbs, but cold, wet, mossy hillsides do not make for a delightful or safe environment to show our appreciation of our favorite hiking site.” George added, “As the Chicago Cubs would say: ‘Wait’ll next year!’ ” The Cubs, of course, have waited for 108 “next years” since they won their last World Series. Friends of Tubbs Hill probably won’t wait that long to spruce things up on downtown Coeur d’Alene’s prized green space.

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