Steamy Novel Burns Mother
Take a memo to Lake City High officials: I think I have a book of yours, “Goodbye, Janette” by Harold Robbins. It’s about three women - “as richly sensual and exciting as only Harold Robbins can create.” Tanya, Janette and Laren are in one graphic sex scene after another - from bondage to incest. The book arrived in the mail with an anonymous note. Usually I toss anonymous letters but this one caught my attention. A mother writes that she heard her daughter and two friends giggling in her daughter’s room. She investigated, and discovered the book. “Anonymous” asks three questions: “How can anyone write such trash?” (Answer: Money.) “How can a publisher print such trash? (Money.) “And how can a book like this get into a school library where a 14-year-old girl can get ahold of it?” (Sex education?) Anyway, can someone from your school pick up the book before my wife hears about it? She has this thing about women routinely being called “whores” and worse. Thanks.
Smile when you say ‘liberal,’ mister
Is Congress(wo)man Helen Chenoweth a liberal in disguise? No way. She may be the most independent member of Idaho’s all-GOP delegation. But the most liberal? That’s a stretch. Yet some drew that conclusion from a Congressional Quarterly report on voting patterns. Larry Craig, Dirk Kempthorne and Mike Crapo voted with their party and the Conservative Coalition 94 percent of the time or better. Our Miss Chenoweth scored 91 percent in both categories. She’d have been higher if she hadn’t voted for Big Bird in the great public-broadcasting debate. Still, she sided with the GOP on 578 of 635 votes and with the Conservative Coalition on 101 of 111 bills. Those numbers should keep her safely to the right of Bella Abzug.
Smile when you say ‘potato peeler’ too
The Lakes Middle School kitchen staff and managers have dished up a Hot Potato for Idaho Rep. Don Pischner, R-Coeur d’Alene. Seems Don wanted support staff included in a bill that would require background checks on teachers. Quoth Don: “I’m more worried about the potato peeler in the kitchen than my child’s teacher.” Well, the kitchen help didn’t like the “potato peeler” reference and fired a letter off to Pischner, noting that they were trained professionals as well as mothers, grandmothers and aunts of students. Wrote they: “You cannot be in food service without having concern for the welfare of the children in mind.” Your serve, Don.
, DataTimes MEMO: D.F. Oliveria’s “Hot Potatoes” runs Tuesdays and Thursdays. You can comment on the items by calling (800) 344-6718 or (208) 765-7125.