Paul Turner: Readers weigh in on Marmot friendly neighborhood cats and Spokedonians

Here’s a sampling of reader feedback on a variety of topics.

Let’s start with the subject of cats.

This first email came from Steve and Laurae Sather. They wrote last week.

“Paul, here’s an item along the lines of Spokane Man and Florida Man: Yesterday, to our surprise, there was a photo of our family feline, Ravi (as in Shankar) above the fold, in the Northwest section. The caption read ‘A neighborhood cat walks past a patch of snow mold …’

“Couple things: We did not know she was the neighborhood’s cat. How do we get ‘the neighborhood’ to chip in on the care and feeding of NC Ravi (new handle)?

“We did not know she was an expert on snow mold. We did not know there was snow mold. Do you think there is some way to make a profit off her expertise? She’s willing to travel.

“Finally, we think of ourselves as accepting and appreciating the differences in all. Although she has never encountered one, we believe NC Ravi would be marmot friendly.”

Then there was this note from Chris Aiken in Sandpoint, responding to an item about recliners in Sunday’s column.

“My wife hates mine. She refers to it as an ungodly piece of furniture cluttering our family room.

“I refer to it as my cosmic cruiser. It also draws cats. Once I get into it and get it into the cocked position, at least two of our three cats are on my lap.”

Chris refers to this cats-on-lap state as COL.

“When COL, my wife is in charge of everything.”

In the matter of encountering people from Spokane everywhere you travel, I heard from former colleague Virginia DeLeon.

“Hi, Paul. I just read your Sunday column. (I still read the S-R on a regular basis from Dubai.) My family and I are in Bangkok en route to Myanmar for spring break.

“This morning at breakfast in the hotel, I met two sets of people from Spokane. One was a high school student from St. George’s on vacation with his family. Then we met a couple from Indian Trail who used to teach in the Mead School District and now teach in Saudi Arabia. Of course, we had mutual acquaintances because that is the nature of Spokane. We talked about the Zags and skiing at Mount Spokane and 49.

“Another interesting Spokane connection for us happened in Dubai. When Ted was teaching at Ferris, he taught a young man named Elliot Wilde (Debra Wilde’s son). Elliot became a teacher and then taught for a year at Roosevelt Elementary, where both our kids went to school when we lived on the South Hill.

“This year, one of the new teachers at the American School of Dubai was … Elliot Wilde. Such a small world. Spokane connections everywhere.

“We are moving to Vietnam in July. I will look for Spokane connections there.”

Leora Gendreau saw my question about what you wanted to be when you grew up.

“When I was 12, I wanted to own a semi tractor-trailer with a hair salon inside and travel the country as a hairdresser.

“I didn’t think about what the logistics were going to be as to how I would acquire a semi tractor-trailer or even get a license to drive one, but it was a way to get out of my hometown, Boise, and explore America.”

But when she got older, her life went in a different direction.

Coeur d’Alene’s Janet Launhardt also answered that question.

“When I was 12 and growing up in Smelterville, we had a drug store with a soda fountain. The store was owned by a young married couple, Tip and Jeri. I thought Jeri was the most beautiful woman I had ever met and she made all those wonderful ice cream concoctions. So all I ever wanted to be was a soda jerk, just like Jeri.”

Of course, things don’t always work out the way we plan. Keith Hegg is another who learned that.

“I was going to be a professional baseball player. Unfortunately, I got kicked off the junior high baseball team because I decided to skip a ‘voluntary’ preseason baseball practice to go collect money from customers of my morning paper route.”

Keith wound up being a financial adviser. “Seems appropriate,” he wrote.

And a reference in Sunday’s column to what we label people from Spokane reminded Linda Metler of something she read in the paper years ago. A group of kids were asked what a person from Spokane is called.

She still remembers her favorite answer – Spokedonians.

Columnist Paul Turner can be reached at srpaulturner@gmail.com.