Column

Gail Curless, of Dover, and husband, Randy, have ridden their 2002 Ford F-350 down to the hub caps running horses, sheep and border collies throughout the Northwest and Canada. Gail affectionately calls her pickup the “White Whale.” Last week, Gail took the “White Whale” for a final ride, to a car dealer in Bonners Ferry. She almost didn’t get there.

The lights are always brighter on the other side.

A holiday for the rest of us.

Finally, everything will be ship shape.

By 10:15 Saturday morning, the line at the counter at Auntie’s Bookstore was several people deep. Shoppers juggled stacks of books while reaching for their wallets. A toddler clutched a board book, unwilling to part with her find even for the minute it took to ring it up. Teens milled around in small herds, jostling each other in the aisles, while parents pondered coloring books and consulted Christmas lists.

It’s the most wonderful time for a party ... or not.

Let’s talk about what our pets have trained us to do.

It would be an understatement to say that Kari Glessner, of Coeur d’Alene, fears bugs. They terrify her. Ditto for spiders and snakes. So you can imagine the terror Kari felt when she found herself eyeball-to-eyeball with a stink bug as her vehicle rolled through a Coeur d’Alene car wash. Only her husband’s “whoa” stopped her from getting a good soaping outside the car.

Jingle bells, Batman smells ... aw, forget it.

In recognition of the fact we have visitors in our midst because of the holiday and as a salute to “fake news,” which apparently is a thing now, here are 21 fun facts about Spokane.

Out in the fridge there arose such a clatter.

The Spokesman-Review’s front page looks different today; that’s on purpose.

The Slice asked for advice to pass along to adults planning on sitting at the children’s table today.

Some people are claiming a rash of graffiti and possible hate crimes are hoaxes. As these incidents mount, so do denials. If you’ve let the Klan into your tent, after all, you’ve got to pretend it isn’t so.

I wish I had it in me to believe that this Thanksgiving will turn out to be what we all hope for – a big joyous meal shared with family and friends, nourished by laughter, warmth and good tidings. But unless you and your companions are ideologically in sync, that Norman Rockwell Thanksgiving isn’t happening this day.

To watch or not to watch, that is the question.

Only Warren Zevon would rhyme Spokane with divan.

Idaho Secretary of State Lawerence Denney got his first chance to preside over a state Land Board meeting last week, as Gov. Butch Otter was in Hawaii for a conference and Lt. Gov. Brad Little, who was acting governor in Otter’s absence, was in Moscow to speak to the North Idaho Legislative Tour.

During his two-decade run as host of “Queen for a Day,” the late Jack Bailey honored about 5,000 women with that title. One of those was Nina Oss, who had a compelling story about her wartime experience as a prisoner of war. Recently, Nina’s daughter, Christina Oss LaBang, found a faded newspaper photo of her mother wearing a “Queen for a Day” crown. LaBang tells Huckleberries how her mother became “Queen for a Day.”