Let’S Hear It For The Beach, Boys

Hey, K-County commissioners, don’t ignore that elephant in your front room. You know, that 5-4 waterways advisory board recommendation that the county designate its part of Sanders Beach as a swim area. As a practical matter, Sanders Beach has been a de facto swim area for a century. Or more. Yeah, yeah, Hot Potatoes knows election day is near. And official swim status for part or all of Sanders Beach would have political ramifications. But that’s why we pay you guys the big bucks.

Fan Mail: Hot Potato to grassy swale comment

“Usually I can put up with your brainless twaddle, since it does have some basis in fact or fiction. Please restrain yourself to something you know something about as opposed to comments which relegate you to the verge of stupidity” - Robert A. Costigan of Spirit Lake warming up to castigate Hot Potatoes for opposing grassy swales … The difference between Idaho Republicans and Democrats? About $600,000. So far. Lt. Gov. Butch Otter spent $620,000 to win the GOP congressional nod in May; Democrat Linda Pall, $22,000. Yeah, yeah, Linda was uncontested. But … French Fries (or, “What’s the World Coming To?”): 1, God-touting Democrats; 2, Tolerant Republicans; 3, Gore-hating Greens; 4, Bush-loving McCain; and 5, Reform Party divided against itself (won’t stand much longer).

Smoke gets in your eyes, no matter what you do

The good news? Idaho has temporarily banned Rathdrum prairie grass growers from burning their fields. The bad news? The rest of North Idaho is burning … Sweet Potatoes - to the Coeur d’Alene Public Library Foundation for hanging in there long enough to win approval for a new $3 million building … Hot Potatoes’d love to have been a fly on the Coeur d’Alene Press newsroom wall Tuesday - after a cutline described civil-rights lawyer Morris Dees as (drum roll, please) the “Aryan Nations defense attorney” … Quotable Quote: The guards were “without the intellectual - no, I’m not going to say that - without the great educational achievements” needed to realize what they were doing - attorney Edgar Steele defending racist Richard Butler in a civil case involving a 1998 shooting near the Aryan Nations compound … This edition of Hot Potatoes was brought to you by the No. 3. Or, the number of burly “swans” in the Slippery Gulch Days rendition of “Swan Lake” who wore knee braces with their tutus. Seems pirouettes are as hard to do as they look.