Bad Manners, Bad Hair, Bad Vibes, A Bad Day

Kathryn Hamshar’s friend Jeannie had a bad hair day recently. First, the Priest River woman left her beauty parlor with the wrong color hair; then a skinny guy at Safeway insulted her by suggesting a bread she should buy. Said he: “It doesn’t have any fat, which a lot of us don’t need.” Ahem. Fuming, Jeannie waited in a long line with her coupon book to buy $100 worth of groceries. At that point, a guy with food stamps complained: “Well, you’d think that on a busy day like this, a person wouldn’t use so many coupons and make everyone wait so long.” Jeannie screamed at him twice to “Shut up!” and told him what she thought of paying her taxes for his food. Then she saw she’d been charged $2 too little for coffee. But the store clerk just smiled and said: “Oh, that’s all right the entertainment was worth it.” And have a nice day.

Scat, cat

Linda Mullin didn’t expect to be working as U.S. Rep. Helen Chenoweth’s aide when she moved here - nor to have a close encounter with a cougar. She was biking along Fernan Lake’s upper end Monday evening when a big cat plopped down in front of her. Both were startled. Thinking quickly, Linda yelled and rode straight at the cougar, shooing it off. As she hurried home, she thought: “I wish I could get my kids to go to bed that easily.” So does every other parent.

Chain saw massacre

As I walked my dog Cosmo down 15th on Thursday, Karl and Shari Leavitt pulled up to the stop sign at Locust - and excitedly directed my attention across the street. Just behind the Coldwell Banker sign at the base of Best Mountain, a deer was stepping gingerly around piles of fallen trees. Unfortunately, the trees had gotten in the way of progress. The doe seemed bewildered. Too often, our quality of life affects hers.

Oopsies

Sid Fredrickson was amused last week when I chided the Bonner County Bee for a possible typographical error - and then flip-flopped the titles for Parks Director Doug Eastwood and Recreation Director Steve Anthony. … But that wasn’t half as funny to Sid as an S-R report that confessed killer Faron Lovelace had asked to appear before a Bonner County jury “with his hands cuffed to a chain around his waste .” Says Sid via e-mail: “Sounds absolutely disgusting to me.” … The Coeur d’Alene d’Press got into the act Thursday by printing a photo of Lovelace - above a line identifying him as North Idaho Youth for Christ director Brad Bramlet. Typos happen. … Then the state attorney general’s office bungled its easy-smeasy case against Lovelace by giving jurors a transcription of his confession - with two pages misprinted. As a result, the jury couldn’t follow the proceedings, prompting Judge James Judd to say irritably: “Let’s take a recess and see if we can find someone who can run a copy machine.” … The mistake didn’t stop Attorney General Al Lance from crowing about the conviction in five identical faxes to us.

Huckleberries

Coeur d’Alene schools Superintendent David Rawls’ response after Lake City High School student leaders gave him a T-Wolves T-shirt? Is it reversible? Go Viks. … Hmmm. I wonder which is scarier: Lake City High students speeding to and from school on Ramsey? Or Coeur d’Alene police chasing them lickety-split? … Gotcha: Craig Nelson caught Paul Bunyan Pak-Out advertising huckleberry shakes “while thay last.” … If you’re looking for “Republican Headquarters - Kootenai County” in the North Idaho phone book, try the end of the R’s, of course - and the M’s, just beneath Lu Myser’s name. I’m not kidding. … Unlike last year, no one trashed the Lake City High freshman float. But it didn’t escape the annual homecoming parade unscathed. A misguided golf cart blew a tire when it clipped the frosh entry Thursday. Someone had to continue the tradition.

Parting shot

Last week, I told you about county Commissioner Ron Rankin’s anger after buddies Dick Compton and Dick Panabaker glommed onto the better offices at the new annex. Now a reader offers: “They took the view/Dicks I and II/For that they got a spankin’/And now it’s true/ They’ll come to rue/The day they dissed Ron Rankin.”

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