There’s Gold Under Them Thar Park Bleachers

Jerry Ryen, Coeur d’Alene Parks Department employee and umpire extraordinaire, saved Barry McHugh from a month of Sundays on the couch. Seems McHugh, a deputy for the Idaho attorney general’s office, left a little something behind after a recent softball game at Memorial Field. His wedding ring. Panicking, McHugh called Parks Director Steve Anthony, who sent Ryen in search of the ring. It had fallen through a crack in the grandstands. Ryen found it after scouring the spooky maze beneath the wooden bleachers. As for McHugh? He was given a second chance to live happily ever after.

Know thine enemy?

Graham Paterson, campaign guru for Congressman Give-‘em-Helen Chenoweth, was feeling his oats recently. He predicted that wannabes Tony Paquin of Coeur d’Alene and John Hale of Moscow “won’t get as many votes as John Levinger.” Levinger, of course, was the slightly off-balance Nampa physician who challenged Chenoweth in the 1996 Republican primary. Only his first name is William. And what does that say about Paterson’s polling data?

DI? Lee Ray, a former Coeur d’Alene planning commissioner, has been conscious of stares since Princess Diana’s death. Lee doesn’t bear any resemblance to the late British royal - other than the fact that she’s a blonde, drives a black Mercedes and wears dark sunglasses. But that’s close enough nowadays. … When an employee at a Bayview store offered a vacationing British couple her condolences over the death of the princess, the icy Brits replied: “She’s been nothing but trouble for the royal family. Good riddance.” Now, that goes beyond keeping a stiff upper lip - way beyond.

Huckleberries

The first sign of fall: Coeur d’Alene Trustee Vern Newby making his annual tour of the public schools - with apples for the teachers, of course. … On Aug. 22, a Sandpoint man was caught urinating in public twice, within five minutes - first by the city gendarmes, then by Sheriff Chip Roos’ deputies. This, according to the Bonner County Bee. If the typographically impaired Bee reported these facts accurately, you have to wonder what the guy was drinking … Upon introduction at the last North Idaho College Board of Trustees meeting, Monte Twin said he was proud to be starting a cultural diversity program at the college. Why? “Because,” said the Cree Indian as he gazed over the crowd of lily-white administrators, instructors and students, “around here, I can see we really need one.” … Don’t Water The Animals: Sportswriter Jim Meehan spotted this sign on the press box exit at Falcon Stadium during the game between Air Force and Idaho: “No alcoholic beverages allowed outside the press box.”

Gotcha

Hmmm. Is it just me, or were those location maps on the new stretch of the Centennial Trail between Ross Point Road and Coeur d’Alene printed backward? (Coeur d’Alene Recreation Director Doug Eastwood says it isn’t just me.) … So, how did state Rep. Hilde Kellogg, R-Post Falls, respond when a new constituent via Alaska phoned to ask for her address so she could send her some material? “No thank you.” Click. (Maybe that’s Morse code for P.O. Box 1479, Post Falls, ID 83854-1479.)

Parting shot

Commissioner Ron Rankin wasn’t happy with the way his buddies divvied up suites in the new Kootenai County Courthouse annex. This, according to a courthouse bloodhound. Seems Kings Richard I (Compton) & II (Panabaker) took rooms with a view of Lake Coeur d’Alene - and assigned ol’ Mr. Vox Pop the third office, with its sweeping vista of a gravel roof. Seniority, you know. Rankin preferred a populist method such as drawing straws. And, I suppose, the hoi polloi would have preferred to vote on the commissioners’ new digs - rather than have the building thrust upon it. In fact, the commissioners once clamored for a public vote (before they took office, of course). My, how they all change.

, DataTimes MEMO: Gotta Huckleberry? Call the Huckleberry Hound Hotline: (800) 344-6718 or (208) 765-7125; daveo@spokesman.com.

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = D.F. Oliveria The Spokesman-Review