Spencer gets out (of) the vote
Larry Spencer enjoys stirring up things in North Idaho, whether he’s fighting to stop the Kroc Center in Coeur d’Alene or Timberlake Fire District officials closer to his Bonner County home. The uberconservative gadfly spent some of his spring stumping for successful Kootenai County commissioner candidate Jai Nelson. He spent part of primary election day with a person holding a sign in support of a write-in candidate for a GOPrecinct post near the Seventh-day Adventist polling place. So you’d think that Spencer woulda taken time to vote. But he didn’t. When I called him on his oversight on my Huckleberries Online blog, Spencer offered this excuse: “Well, for one thing, the polls weren’t open when I left in the morning, and I worked in CdA until nearly 8 p.m. going door to door in CdA getting people driven to the polls down here. By the time I was done, there was not time to make it back to vote before the polls closed. I planned to make it back in time, it just didn’t happen.” He shoulda just said that the dog ate his ballot. Or voted absentee.
Ol’ ball-and-chain
Dunno if you’ve ever used a locksmith. But Councilman Mike Kennedy has. At least once. After his bachelor party. Seems his groomsmen thought it’d be funny to put his ankle in a ball-and-chain device, featuring a badly cured concrete ball, only to forget where they put the key. This, at Kennedy’s old rental at 11th and Front. Kennedy was able to free himself from the ball portion of his ankle weight by smashing it on the curb outside. But he couldn’t break the lock, prompting an S.O.S. call to a local locksmith. I’ll let Mike explain the rest: “The genius groomsman who hid the key is from Colorado, where he is, no kidding, a PhD in Engineering teaching young minds. … Turns out he hid the key in the cap of my deodorant figuring that I’d find it after I showered. Problem is I didn’t shower until the chain got cut off, ergo, I found the now unneeded key.” Mike admits that his college buddy’s logic makes sense, after you’ve imbibed much Rainier beer.
1902 chick fight
Columnist Steve Crump of the Twin Falls Times-News has the answer for those who’ve wondered how Fightin’ Creek got its name: “In 1902, when the Coeur d’Alene Indian Reservation was first opened for homesteading, the settlers had a big dance. Two of the women at the dance got into a hair-pulling, face-clawing set-to. The next day during a discussion about a suitable name for the settlement, a man – of course – suggested Fighting Creek. Guys love chick fights” … Tensed, which originally was called DeSmet, got its name after the U.S. Postal Service turned down the town’s application for a post office because there was another spot in the road nearby named after the popular Jesuit priest. So DeSmet No. 2 reapplied for a post office as Temsed – or DeSmet spelled backward. Alas, the “m” was read as an “n” by a long-ago USPS bureaucrat, and the rest is local history.
Huckleberries
In the “Good Karma” department, Stickman reports that a female brought back about half the 20 or so sticks that were stolen from his breezeway about a month ago. Seems the walking sticks, which Stickman carves from Tubbs Hill wood and gives away, had been taken by a wild ex-boyfriend of the woman’s sister who wound up in jail on another matter. She thought the dastardly deed stunk and wanted to make it right … You may be excited re: the two new Walmart stores that’ll open in Kootenai County by mid-September. But 170 of 261 readers (65 percent) who responded to my recent online poll aren’t … BTW, 77 percent (173 of 226) of HucksOnline readers voted that state Rep. Phil Hart, R-Athol, who owes about $400,000 to the IRS and state of Idaho, is a “tax dodger” rather than a “principled man.” … Edgar Steele, my old penpal, is facing charges in a murder-for-hire case. As you probably know. But did you know the former Aryan Nations attorney would occasionally e-mail me from Bonner County to offer unpleasantries that usually began with the salutation: “Oliveria (which rhymes with diarrhea).” Only it doesn’t … I didn’t hear of any bodies washing up on Hauser Lake’s shores, so that drunk must have made it – you know, the one who launched from the Rainbow Inn area with plans to swim across.
Parting shot
I agree with that Pilgrim’s Market employee who asked a man wearing a gun, either on his hip or in his waist band, to leave recently. The guy mumbled something re: a right to bear arms. But he left the Midtown natural foods store rather than pushing the matter. Bean sprouts and firearms never are a good mix.