Candidate blasts back at blogger
In the strange world of the blogosphere, anonymity allows some individuals to burrow under the skin of others, triggering outbursts. A poster named “Phaedrus” is adept at annoying those in the spotlight. He irritates me at times. But he angers City Council wannabe Dan Gookin more. In a recent exchange between Phaedrus and Gookin under a Coeur d’Alene Press online story about Gookin’s political aspirations, Phaedrus rattled the office seeker, causing him to hint at revenge. Phaedrus did so by noting that Gookin demands openness from elected city officials. But, Phaedrus claims, Gookin doesn’t practice what he preaches on his OpenCDA.com blog. Seems Phaedrus has been blocked from posting comments on that blog. Gookin went ballistic, firing back that Phaedrus was banned from OpenCDA.com because “you could not stop slandering people. The lies you told were intolerable and I informed you of that in a private e-mail message.” Gookin huffed further that Phaedrus exhibits “the same type of behavior here, lying about me in cowardice behind your various pseudonyms.” And: “I know who you are.” And: “I shall keep that in confidence as long as you like, as long as you don’t continue to press the issue. Therefore, I believe it’s most likely in your best interest not to continue exploiting an episode that would be potentially painful to you.” Methinks Gookin needs to develop thicker skin if he wants to hold office in this town without pity.
A side of broccoli
On KVNI recently, Jeff Smith of Fins & Feathers Tackle Shop was on a cell phone giving Norm McBride a rundown about what fish were biting where when he mentioned that Fernan Lake was producing some nice catfish. This, while out on the water guiding fishermen toward the southern end of Lake Coeur d’Alene. At that point, Norm asked Jeff if catfish are good to eat. Jeff responded that some people love catfish, others hate the bottom feeders. Then, Norm asked Jeff if he liked to eat catfish. “Yeah, I like to eat those things,” responded Jeff. “Then, I like to eat broccoli, of all things.” Broccoli? “Seinfeld’s” Newman had it right when he said of broccoli: “Vile weed.”
Huckleberries
Scanner Traffic: Aug. 21, a harried mother in Coeur d’Alene reported to police that her 9-month-old baby had his head stuck in the rungs of a rocking chair. The baby was giggling, nursing on a bottle, and uninjured. But Mom needed help freeing his head. Been there, done that … Three hours later, a motorist called in to say that a motorcyclist was performing tricks on his bike as he zipped along the interstate near Post Falls, including standing up in the seat. Some refer to guys like that as “future organ donors” … Huckleberries Online has run a coupla polls re: possible Coeur d’ Alene council races. In one, my Merry Hucksters (by 45% to 38%) said that the aforementioned Gookin is going to beat incumbent Deanna Goodlander. And (by 86% to 13%) incumbent Mike Kennedy is going to throttle challenger Jim Brannon … Bumpersnicker (sighted by Taryn Hecker on brown pickup at an Athol restaurant) – a pack of wolves with cross-hairs over it and this message: “Smoke a pack a day.”
Parting shot
Shoshone Conservative, an online Merry Huckster, contends that elected leaders and police overreacted when they met at the stateline to denounce the three racists spreading hate fliers around the area: “I am sure in some trailer park somewhere there are three Richard Butler wannabes rolling on the floor laughing at how they got the who’s-who of Spokane and Kootenai counties to hold a large press conference, simply by throwing their nonsense literature in a few yards. The wannabes wanted attention, and they got it.” Then, it’s not who laughs. But who laughs last. Just ask those who used to hang out at Butler’s Aryan Nations compound.