Get away from it all, but don’t forget the phone
So, what does a U.S. Forest Service worker bee do when she and her family want to get away from it all? If you’re Judy York, you head for the hills and the Lunch Peak Lookout tower. If you really want to get away from it all, you leave your cell phone home, as Judy did recently. Which wasn’t such a good idea. Later, as Judy and her loved ones enjoyed the view from the tower, they spotted two fires in the Lightning Creek drainage nearby. As Judy debated whether to hike out for help, the fires spread. But it wasn’t long before helicopters and smokejumpers arrived to do battle. Judy relaxed and made a mental note to bring along that “Can You Hear Me Now” guy next time.
Q&A
Question: “I just saw Rocky Watson being interviewed on Q-6’s ‘Six Questions’ segment of the news. I was wondering if you could ask Rocky the question that Dan Kleckner forgot to ask: ‘When did it become legal for a person, even if he is a sheriff, to privately own (and shoot) a fully functional machine gun?’ I was under the impression that has been illegal since at least the 1950s” – Paul Karr. Huckleberry Hound: Ah, um, er, gotta plead the Fifth. In my prior life as a working hound, I fired Rocky’s Tommy gun from his deck into the hillside across the way. And I have the picture to prove it. Eatcher heart out, Baby Face.
Dumb & Dumber
If you and a coupla buddies are going to vandalize mailboxes, don’t videotape your crime. It makes it too easy for Deputy Dawgs to pin it on you. Just ask those three underage nitwits who were nabbed for knocking over mailboxes in the Post Falls area. Film at 11 … How fast do thieves turn a credit card into goodies? One had already used Teresa Johnston’s credit card at Fashion Bug in the Silver Lake Mall by the time Teresa, of the Kootenai Medical Center oncology department, noticed the card, an insurance card and $30 in cash missing from her purse at work. Be careful out there … About that man who Bonner County Deputy Dawgs found under the Oldtown bridge, yelling at the top of his lungs. He was just talking to God. And wanted to make sure God heard all the way up there in heaven.
Poet’s Corner
The builders all I stand and cheer,/a fine bike trail they gave us here;/I give them too a standing O/(a little sore to sit, you know) – The Bard of Sherman Avenue (“After Riding the Trail of the Coeur d’Alenes”).
Huckleberries
Graciously, legal eagle Freeman Duncan of Post Falls swapped his attorney fee (60 hours at $100 per) for auditing the Hayden Chamber of Commerce books after the Blunder Over the Prairie fiasco for (drum roll, please) – a golf shirt and ball cap from the air show. P’haps the chamber would have broken even at the air show if they’d traded a few more of those $6,000 shirts … “The unsung heroes of the race are the families and friends of the athletes, and the people of Coeur d’Alene. Screams, cowbells and waving signs from 30,000 fans feed the athletes’ desire to push themselves to their limits and beyond” – John Brooks, 42, circulation manager for USA Today and a participant in the recent USA Ironman Coeur d’Alene … After he was traded for the third time in three years, this time from Portland to Golden State, I felt sorry for ex-Zag Dan Dickau until I saw his 2004-05 salary ($893,000, with a club option of $1.6 million for 2005-06). This, for averaging 3 points per game during his first two years in the NBA … “If you had to travel up to Moscow, Idaho, in December, God help you guys” – Idaho coach Nick Holt in The Times-Picayune re: Florida International’s schedule … A slip of the computer key at The Cathedral of Our Lady of Lourdes in Spokane transformed shut-ins into a seven-letter vulgarity in The Cathedral of Our Lady of Lourdes bulletin last month that had John Livingston and other Spokane catechumens chucklin’ … Earlier this month, Americans for Tax Reform issued a press release containing the names of 22 incumbents and challengers who have taken the Taxpayer Protection Pledge not to raise taxes, including Ron Vieselmeyer of Coeur d’Alene, who is sure to keep his promise because he lost in the GOPrimary … As the Coeur d’Alene tribe’s casino has grown, its name has changed from Coeur d’Alene Tribal Bingo to The Coeur d’Alene Tribal Bingo Casino, from Coeur d’Alene Casino to Coeur d’Alene Casino Resort Hotel – not to mention “House of Fury.” Everyone’s allowed one clunker.
Parting Shot
In the “what have you done for us lately” category, Waylon Safranski of the Daily Evergreen congratulated ex-WSU QB Ryan Leaf for finally making it to No. 1 – as ESPN’s top flop in sports over the last 25 years. As a prologue, Safranski noted that Leaf had finished third in the Heisman Trophy voting, was the second overall pick in the 1998 NFL draft and came up just short at the Rose Bowl. Take it away, Waylon: “Those 14 touchdown passes and 36 interceptions while on four NFL teams in four seasons are finally worth something.” Ouch! How soon they forget Leaf’s marvelous career aboard the USS Cougar.