Doug Clark

Who better to commemorate a spanking new restroom than a county commissioner named John? Who better to assess the public's pressing toilet needs than a rugged mountaineer who has endured untold deprivations atop the world's tallest peaks? On many an ice-bound morning, Spokane's John Roskelley probably awoke shivering in the high-altitude air only to wish: "Ah, if only there were a concrete vandal-resistant commode waiting for me just a step or two outside the ol' pup tent."

Kobluk

This certainly won't do anything to dispel those cruel myths about cops and doughnuts. Gordon Grant, a 10-year veteran of the Spokane Police Department, won the city's first Fat Man Dance-Off. "I prefer to say 'size-challenged,"' says the energetic, 6-foot-3 bruiser who squashes the scales at 281 pounds.

South Hill artist Bob Clark has part of his life's work of sculpting on display in his front yard. Photo by Doug Clark/The Spokesman-Review

Phillip Thompson, Matt Muta, Kyoko Ishizuka and Diane Salinas reunited in Spokane after 23 years apart. Photo by Doug Clark/The Spokesman-Review

If the geniuses running the Mattel toy empire had more brains than their Barbies they'd give Spokane's Barb and Dan Miller a Malibu beach house. A real Malibu beach house. The Millers' passion to publish magazines and newspapers devoted to the Barbie doll collecting craze has inarguably benefited the California-based toymaker with a Ken's ransom worth of sales, publicity and good will.

Helen Davidoff spends every waking hour of every day with one all-consuming thought churning through her brain: To coax her 23-year-old daughter, Jennifer, out of the coma she slipped into after a car accident in July.

What price do you put on a boy's life? About 250 bucks if his name is Cooper Jones. That's the puny penalty for running 13-year-old Cooper down as he legally pedaled his racing bike in broad daylight on a wide paved road.

Street-level views. Jerome Green hopes this tour bus helps make his dreams come true. Photo by Sandra Bancroft-Billings/The Spokesman-Review

"They're definitely still the best rock 'n' roll band," says Rolling Stones fan Rick Anderson. Photo by Doug Clark/The Spokesman-Review

Vanessa Suquet and her hero, Marilyn Monroe. Photo by Doug Clark/The Spokesman-Review

There's a big meanie in the Tiffany Cook saga, but it sure isn't Spokane School District 81. By digging in their heels and being stubborn and unreasonable, Tiffany's parents have done their daughter a horrible disservice. She has been taught some positively awful lessons that could haunt her for the rest of her years. The Cooks should be ashamed of themselves for using their own child as the rope in an ugly public tug of war.

Last May I tossed an idea into the air: Wouldn't it be great if Spokane changed back to Spokane Falls, the original name James Glover bestowed on the town he founded in 1880? Ideas to columnists are like feathers. We throw them into the wind and then watch as most of them blow away, never to be seen or heard from again.

Spokane made a costly blunder by repaving the South Hill's stately Grand Boulevard. Those weren't potholes. Those were speed bumps. Thanks to the cushy wonders of fresh, thick asphalt, Grand drivers no longer must drive safely and slowly to prevent their spinal columns from being rattled out of alignment.

Anthony Clark bench presses 727 pounds Saturday during the Idaho Iron National Deadlift and Bench Press Championships at Templin's Resort in Post Falls. Photo by Craig Buck/The Spokesman-Review

John Sweeney, left, and Bob Baldwin talk about their experiences with the Marine Rangers. Photo by Torsten Kjellstrand/The Spokesman-Review

Terry Moreau and Don McBride drove this car to two speed records in one day.

Patty Berg on the Spokane Country Club: "I think all the girls who played with me never forgot this course. It is one of the most beautiful I ever played on." Photo by Doug Clark/The Spokesman-Review

Audrea Canutt, widow of legendary film stuntman Yakima Canutt, donated much of the memorabilia that John Crawford, right and Bob Hickman have installed in a museum in Colfax. Photo by Doug Clark/The Spokesman-Review

When we last visited Citizen Phil Kiver, his runaway mouth was tripping up his race to become Cheney's youngest mayor. During my two hours with him, he picked a fight and swore at a city official, referred to himself as a "sex symbol" and expressed his rapture at seeing his name plastered on signs all around town. "This whole campaign is about 'Dig me!"' said Kiver, revealing his real motivation for entering politics at the tender age of 20.

Nick Johnson reaches for one of the 5,000 cans in his beer can collection. Photo by Doug Clark/The Spokesman-Review

Ban Overly Offensive Books, the right-minded group I founded several years ago, is backing a brave new proposal to keep dangerous literature away from impressionable young minds. Nothing's yet official, but Spokane educators soon may change the status from required to optional reading on such classics as Mark Twain's "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" and Harper Lee's "To Kill A Mockingbird." Though celebrated the world over as important and great, these books were found to be offensive by a few high school students and that's plenty good enough for BOOBS.

The Spokane Shriners Hospital is an undisputed house of good deeds, offering hope and free medical miracles to kids with life-altering disabilities. Which makes the dirty deed done to Barbara Trimble all the more astonishing. After 18 years of loyal labor, the former radiology manager was coldly canned in 1995 during a five-minute meeting.

Phil Kiver, with campaign manager Sheena Thompson talks with some customers at Zips in Cheney. Photo by Christopher Anderson/The Spokesman-Review