Column

I certainly don’t claim to speak for all Spokane cyclists. Opinions on this vary widely, no doubt.

Mike Gelhaus was once like a million other railroad enthusiasts. His trains ran on tracks laid out in an upstairs room that Gelhaus’ parents turned over to their rail-obsessed boy.

BOISE – David Adler, a longtime political science professor and constitutional scholar at Idaho State University, has been named the new director of the Andrus Center for Public Policy at Boise State University. Since he spent the last two years as director of the University of Idaho’s James A. and Louise McClure Center for Public Policy Research, Adler is completing an arc over all three of the state’s universities. “With our designation by the State Board of Education as Idaho’s public affairs university, Dr. Adler’s appointment allows us to realize the full extent of our public affairs mission,” said Boise State President Bob Kustra.

Coeur d’Alene has wonderful pieces of public art, from David Govedare’s “Guardians of the Lake” (aka “The Feathers”) on Northwest Boulevard to kid favorites Mudgy & Millie in five downtown locations. But you wouldn’t see new artwork until the Great Recession is over, if newbie Councilman Dan Gookin had his way. At the council meeting last week, Gookin opined that the city should quit spending money on public art until hard times pass. Instead, he said (according to draft council minutes), the city should use the dedicated arts money to purchase property. Which can’t be done.

Let’s start with a Bloomsday salute. What’s your attitude about using a portable toilet?

Bloomsday eve is one of those days on Spokane’s calendar when our city comes in for a little extra scrutiny because we have a lot of visitors. That’s fine. Nothing to worry about. Once people can be persuaded to come here, Spokane usually sells itself.

If you are not doing Bloomsday on Sunday, it’s time to start getting ready. Getting ready to not do it, that is.

Robert Vaughn looks remarkably at ease for a musician who carries the weight of our baby boomer generation on his shoulders. My friend laughs when I utter this modest proposal.

With barbecue and picnic season just around the corner, I decided it’s time to conquer my pathological fear of tubular meat. That’s right. I’m giving hot dogs another chance. At 9, I turned my back on the iconic American food. That’s because one afternoon as my mom boiled wieners on the stove, my sister picked up the package and read the ingredients aloud.

Today, offered as a cautionary tale, The Slice presents the transcript of an interview with a suspiciously anonymous Spokane-area woman who keeps falling in love with other people’s houses. You won’t believe what she had to say.

If you grew up in a civilian family, please skip ahead to the next item. But if you were a military brat decades ago, I want to ask you something.

BOISE – Newt Gingrich has made good on the bounced check he earlier sent to the state of Utah to file for its June 26 presidential primary election, the state’s elections chief confirms. Utah elections director Mark Thomas said his office received a $500 cashier’s check from the Gingrich campaign, in time to make an April 20 deadline to replace an earlier bounced check and qualify Gingrich for the Utah ballot.

It isn’t every day that a Dem congressional candidate in blood-red Idaho asks for support from a man who spoke at the 2008 GOP national convention on behalf of presidential candidate John McCain. And gets it. But Jimmy Farris is special to former Washington Redskins coach Joe Gibbs. Farris, who lasted eight years with five teams in the tough NFL after playing high school football at Lewiston, contacted his old coach when he decided to run for Republican congressman Raul Labrador’s 1st District seat.

If you see a young person and an adult suddenly position themselves rigidly back to back while a third party looks on, don’t worry. You probably are not about to witness a duel.

Let’s start with a round of the email name game. “I work for the federal government and our department’s naming convention is to use the first initial of your first and last name, insert a random letter in the middle and tack a number on the end,” wrote Ted Teske. “Thus, Ted Teske can be turned into ‘tit5’, which I have learned over the years gets caught in many spam filters as ‘tits’. Most people that get mail from me never forget it. Since I am ‘tit5’ I have often wondered if there are others that have come before me. Maybe we could start a support group.”

Today’s Slice is a quiz for those in mixed marriages. You know, couples consisting of one person who grew up here and one person who moved to the Spokane area from far away.

OTIS ORCHARDS – The nation may be teetering on the cutlet of another mad cow panic, but the news hasn’t affected James T. Kirk. On Wednesday, the transplanted Scotsman (who, surprisingly enough, was NOT named in honor of that mythical Starfleet commander of “Star Trek” fame) sat down at the head of a table inside the landmark Otis Grill, where he attempted to consume a burger big enough to be orbiting Neptune.

I don’t text. I don’t tweet. I don’t Facebook. I’ve heard of but don’t have any idea what Angry Birds really is. And I’m fine with it that way. Moreover, when my old flip phone finally died, I replaced it with a cellphone pretty much just like it. I can make and receive calls. I have voicemail and phone book functions, both of which are handy. There may be other things I can do with the phone, but I really have no interest in learning what they may be. I was not remotely tempted to get a smartphone or any of its cousins because, for one, they do a bunch of stuff I don’t need and, for another, I resent mightily having a device, by its name alone, that is clearly brighter than I am.