Public Periscope

Tell us how you really feel

After a recent Spokane City Council meeting, two women engaged Mayor John Talbott in a discussion about the River Park Square redevelopment project. A few minutes into the conversation, one of the women got miffed, saying in a loud tone she couldn’t stand what Talbott was saying. … She walked angrily to the doors of the council chambers, where she turned and yelled, “John Talbott, you’re a jerk!” A calm Talbott responded: “Well, thank you for your opinion.”

In case anyone wondered whom she meant

The verbal exchange mentioned above wasn’t the first flak Talbott had drawn at the meeting. But at least it was clearly directed. … Earlier, Councilwoman Roberta Greene lectured an unidentified person for misleading Spokane residents about possible downtown redevelopment projects other than River Park Square: “If there’s something out there, I’m asking these projects be brought forth. If they’re not, we need to stop talking about them,” Greene said. “Let us not be responsible for offering any false hope to our citizens.” … Several times in the past, Talbott has suggested the federal loan proposed for the River Park Square development might be better spent on other projects.

That’s Ms. Lewd-insky to you

One of the newspaper’s readers experienced an unfortunate side effect of exercising her free speech rights through the letters page. After writing a letter criticizing President Clinton for his alleged involvement with a White House intern, she promptly received a reply with a nude photo, supposedly of Monica Lewinsky. … Turns out the photo was no more real than the envelope’s return address of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. (The genius who sent it obviously forgot the postmark would say Spokane.) The photo was a printout of a Web page offering the prurient a chance to “Win a Date With Monica.” … It wasn’t even a very good fake, with the now-familiar mug shot of the world’s most famous intern sloppily dropped on someone else’s shoulders.

The reader in question wants her name left out of this follow-up - who can blame her? - and didn’t even want to show the letter without cleaning up the picture. The whole thing demonstrates that Lewinsky may have achieved the 1990s version of fame: As of last weekend, there were at least 700 Web sites with some mention of her. Three weeks earlier, there was one: the Internet site for the Pentagon staff directory. Many of the latest sites are links to hard-core porn sites that are boosting sales by morphing Monica onto other bodies.

Too good to be true

Don’t expect a $1,000 check from Bill Gates any time soon, even if you get a chain e-mail message that’s making the rounds. It’s an imposter posing as the Microsoft founder and cream-pie target, claiming to be testing e-mail tracking software. … The message asks recipients to relay it to as many people as possible. If 1,000 people participate, each is promised a thousand bucks plus a free copy of Windows 98, due out in May. “It’s a hoax,” said Microsoft spokesman Adam Sohn, who estimated the message has been making the rounds for at least three weeks.

Back in the fray

Judith Gilmore’s loss to Rob Higgins in last fall’s City Council race hasn’t soured her on politics. The former Eastern Washington representative for Gov. Mike Lowry recently took a job as political coordinator for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. … In that post, she’ll work to “get people talking” - most notably political bodies such as the council or county commissioners - on government/labor issues.

, DataTimes MEMO: “Public Periscope,” published weekly, is compiled by Jim Camden from staff reports. You can contact us by mail c/o The Spokesman-Review, Box 2160, Spokane 99210; by fax at (509) 459-5482 or by e-mail at jimc@spokesman.com.

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Compiled by Jim Camden from staff reports