Weird Al Shakes Up School Chiefs

More than 100 school superintendents and other school officials from around the state were concentrating hard on learning the latest about accreditation standards, student testing and a $1 billion education budget proposal Thursday, when the walls started shaking.

It turned out that next door to the annual superintendents’ gathering with the state Department of Education, roadies were setting up for a concert by Weird Al Yankovic.

Security vs. sausage

One of the most popular foods at Basque celebrations like the recent Jaialdi in Boise is chorizo, a pork sausage. It’s not actually distinctively Basque, but has been popular among Basques for so long that it might as well be.

John and Mark Bieter, in their new book on the story of Basques in Idaho, tell of one Basque immigrant who rode a train across the country to Idaho carrying a string of spicy chorizos, filling the train car with the scent.

Ben Ysursa, a Boise Basque and chief deputy secretary of state, has his own chorizo story.

Ysursa was headed off to school in St. Louis with a special care package - 10 pounds of fresh, homemade chorizo.

“It goes through the airport security thing, and on the screen it looks like dynamite,” he recalled.

When the security guards demanded to know what was in the package, he explained, “It’s 10 pounds of Basque sausages.”

“I didn’t tell them it’s dynamite for the stomach,” he added.

Getting ready to rough it

Things are dusty, dirty and thoroughly rustic at Camp Alice Pittenger, a Girl Scout camp on Payette Lake in McCall. The youngsters sleep in tents, hike across camp to the showers and generally do things the camp way.

But that didn’t stop one family from taking a unique approach to delivering its daughter to camp this year. Among the station wagons and minivans rattling down the dirt road to the check-in last week was one long, black stretch limousine.

Jaws dropped as a sleeping bag and the usual camp gear were unloaded from inside. But the shiny limo didn’t generate as much excitement as another sort of attraction a few yards away. There, a velvet-antlered deer wandered through, calmly unimpressed by either the limo or the start of camp.

The other resolutions

In light of all the talk about the Washington GOP resolution on tribal sovereignty, anyone wondering what resolutions the Idaho GOP passed this year?

Most have heard by now that the Idaho Republican Party voted against term limits and for privatizing public television during its convention this summer. But here are some of the lesser-known resolutions:

One endorsed Alan Keyes for vice-president of the United States. Another called for not only ending wolf-recovery programs, but also the “immediate removal of wolves from the state of Idaho.” Another would allow manslaughter charges to be filed against any person who physically transports a grizzly bear into the state for reintroduction, if the bear later kills someone.

Idaho Republicans also voted for a “Stand by Your Ad/Truth in Sponsorship” resolution on campaign advertising, school release time for religious instruction, and the Delaware Plan for presidential primaries, which would have the least-populated states - like Idaho - vote first.

Idaho scenes, Olympic contenders

ESPN2 is planning an international broadcast today and again Tuesday of the HP LaserJet Women’s Challenge, a world-class women’s cycling race that took place in southern Idaho this summer.

Top women cyclists from around the world competed, with several performing well enough to clinch spots on their respective Olympic teams for the summer games in Sydney, including American Mari Holden.

The one-hour program is the first international broadcast of an all-women cycling event. Viewers around the world will see the top women race over scenic mountain passes, across arid desert landscapes and even around the Idaho state capitol.

The skies are alive

Mountain Home Air Force Base, southeast of Boise, is planning the biggest air show ever in Idaho this weekend, dubbed “Gunfighter Skies 2000.”

The base hasn’t played host to an air show in four years, partly because one planned for last year was canceled due to a deployment to Kosovo. The wait just made for bigger plans for this year’s show. In addition to the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds and a huge array of other attractions, civilian aerobatic pilots who will perform include Steve Appleton, better known as CEO of computer-chip maker Micron Technology Inc.