Reader_Nov23_2022

The week in random review

By Zach Hagadone Reader Staff

quotable

“The worst feeling in the world is the homesickness that comes over a man occasionally when he is at home.”

— E.W. Howe, 1853-1937, American newspaper editor, magazine publisher, editorialist and novelist.

312,000

Number of Idahoans expected to travel for Thanksgiving this year, according to the AAA. The Idaho Press report ed Nov. 17 that figure is up 1.5% from the previous year, which itself was far higher than during the pandemic, when “staycations” typified most Americans’ holiday plans. One AAA representative in Idaho characterized the upswing in holidays away from home as “revenge travel,” presumably meaning that folks are taking “revenge” against the virus for keeping them at home; because, you know, that’s definitely going to hurt a virus… that relies on people transmitting itself to other people. That doesn’t make much sense, but I guess that’s how we roll. Anyway, travel safe.

SNEWS

You might have missed it Nov. 16, but the Sandpoint City Council is underscoring rules regarding snow removal and infrastructure maintenance during the winter months, as well as preparing to roll out some new ones. First of all, there will be no parking on the odd side of the street citywide (unless otherwise posted) from Dec. 1 through March 1. Secondly, residents are going to need to remove snow from their sidewalks within 24 hours of two inches of accumulation (for a path that’s minimum 36-inches wide), as well as shovel out nearby hydrants and ADA curb ramps. Third, snow must be cleared from vehicles parked on the street within 24 hours to ensure visibility and safety for plows, pedestrians and other drivers. Beginning next winter, there will be no parking on either side of the street on posted emergency routes, and there will be no parking within a culde-sac. City Council President Kate McAlister said the rules came from what citizens said they’d like to see in terms of wintertime enforcement. “I really want to reiterate that this information, a lot of it, is based on citizen input,” she said Nov. 16. “Citizens can be mad at one another, but don’t blame the city because this is data that we brought in and listened to the citizens.”

roald in peace

Celebrated, complex and frequently controversial author Roald Dahl died Nov. 23, 1990, at the age of 74 in Oxford, England. His books sold upwards of 250 million copies, but what most people don’t know (beyond Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) is that Dahl was a Royal Air Force fighter ace with at least five kills to his name, carried the rank of acting wing commander and was discharged in 1946 as a squadron leader. An aircraft malfunction resulted in his crashing in the Egyptian desert in 1940 — an experience that he chronicled in print, launching his career as an author. Rendered unable to fly by the wreck, Dahl served out the rest of the war as an intelligence officer attached to the Brit ish Embassy in Washington, D.C., which he compared to his frontline service as “a pre-war cocktail party.”

READER DEAR READERS,

It’s Thanksgiving week, which means the Reader has hit the streets a day early.

Speaking for the entire staff, we’re thankful for a lot this year. We’re thankful for such an involved, engaged community. Our readers scour every page, buy from our ad vertisers, donate regularly and live true to our mission statement: “Sup port an informed community.”

We’re thankful that this little rag has continued to exist when so many other newspapers around the country have failed in recent years. None of us are getting rich doing this, but if we were in this for the money, I’d be trying to sell you a condo, not pub lishing a newspaper. Thank you to all of our advertisers, our contributors, our patrons and you, our dear readers.

Finally, we’re bringing back the 208 Fiction writing contest for the holidays. See the ad on Page 13 for more detailed information, but in a nutshell, writers submit short sto ries that are exactly 208 words long and judges pick a winner, who earns $150! That’s better than a turkey leg in the face. Write on.

–Ben Olson, publisher

111 Cedar Street, Suite 9 Sandpoint, ID 83864 (208) 946-4368

www.sandpointreader.com

Publisher: Ben Olson ben@sandpointreader.com

Editorial: Zach Hagadone (Editor) zach@sandpointreader.com

Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey (News Editor) lyndsie@sandpointreader.com

Cameron Rasmusson (emeritus) John Reuter (emeritus)

Advertising: Jodi Berge Jodi@sandpointreader.com

Contributing Artists: Ben Olson (cover design), Cynthia Dalsing, Kari Saccomanno, Mark Perigen, Bill Borders

Contributing Writers: Zach Hagadone, Ben Olson, Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey, Lorraine H. Marie, Brenden Bobby, Emily Erickson, Tim Henney, Marcy Timblin, Sandy Compton

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The Sandpoint Reader is a weekly publication owned and operated by Ben Olson and Keokee. It is devoted to the arts, entertainment, politics and lifestyle in and around Sandpoint, Idaho.

We hope to provide a quality alterna tive by offering honest, in-depth reporting that reflects the intelligence and interests of our diverse and growing community.

The Reader is printed on recycled pa per using soy-based ink. Leftover copies are collected and recycled weekly, or burned in mas sive bonfires to appease the gods of journalism. Free to all, limit two cop ies per person

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Requirements:

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Letters will be edited to comply with the above requirements. Opinions expressed in these pages are those of the writers, not necessarily the publishers.

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About the Cover

This week’s cover was designed by Ben Olson. Hope you all have a wonderful holiday.

A talk in the park(ing lot)

City of Sandpoint moving toward big changes to downtown parking infrastructure

By Zach Hagadone Reader Staff

Sandpoint city councilors unanimously approved a mem orandum of understanding Nov. 16 with the Sandpoint Urban Renewal Agency to pursue redevelopment of the downtown surface parking lot between Main and Church streets, marking the first step toward a long-talked about multi-use structured parking facility.

Sandpoint City Administrator Jennifer Stapleton described the process as including the compila tion of feasibility and market re ports, as well as the establishment of a steering committee composed of two members from SURA, three representatives from City Hall and one community member, all who would work with Leland Consulting, which has been con tracted to shepherd the project.

According to Stapleton, the city would transfer the property — popularly known as the city park ing lot — to SURA, which would then collaborate with the city to develop a request for proposals in search of a private developer to redevelop the site.

One model includes the developer constructing a parking facility, then leasing back a certain number of spaces to the city. An other, more common, path is for the developer to build out the lot, “and, in essence, the space would be condoized,” Stapleton said, with city-owned parking on one or two of the floors of the structure, and commercial and residential development occupying high er floors or being intermingled throughout.

City officials highlighted the public-private partnership model as a way for large capital projects to be completed for the “highest and best use” of municipal proper ty, but without taxpayers having to directly foot the bill.

“It is a growing trend,” Staple ton said, citing examples in Twin Falls and Boise, which include structured parking incorporat ed with ground-floor retail, and

condo, apartment and hotel uses taking up the rest of the space.

“You can get a really nice de velopment,” she said, noting that “there is market demand” for such a project, and it has been a long time coming.

“It’s something that stalled out and just hasn’t moved forward,” Stapleton added.

It’s too early in the process to tell what that might mean for downtown workers, who regular ly use the city parking lot during the hours of 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. — currently for free and without a time limit.

The moment seems to be right for the city to bring changes to its parking infrastructure, as it announced a “design competition” in late September for the down town waterfront redevelopment project along Sand Creek, which Stapleton said extends even to the concept of a downtown parking garage. Depending on the design, the downtown waterfront project will affect at least 43 hitherto public parking spaces.

Likewise, the City Beach rede velopment envisioned in the Parks and Recreation Master Plan will include major revisions to where and how vehicles of all types can be parked at one of the city’s only other free parking areas.

“Really think of it as develop ing a master plan for our down town,” Stapleton said.

With the MOU approved by council, Stapleton added that the goal is to kick off the process Tuesday, Dec. 7 with the steer ing committee appointed by the mayor, and armed with the final report from Leland Consulting on economic development and housing, which is set to go before the City Council at its regular Dec. 7 meeting.

The other critical component for moving forward on the parking garage concept was the presenta tion of a long-term parking study conducted by Portland, Ore.-based Kittelson and Associates, which representatives presented Nov. 16 to councilors.

Completed during the summer

using on-street observation and drone flyovers, the study sought to capture a snapshot of the amount and length of park ing occupancy throughout the downtown area on a peak-season Thursday and Saturday in July. The resulting data found that while on-street parking throughout down town is generally less than the 85% benchmark, there are pockets where the crunch for available spaces rises to 100% and higher during peak times — partic ularly along First Avenue, at the downtown waterfront and in the area surrounding Bonner General Health. On-street parking around Farmin Park is similarly hard to come by during weekend hours, presumably due to traffic fueled by the Farmers’ Market.

The city parking lot, mean while, regularly exceeds the 85% threshold, underscoring the heavy use of the site by visitors and — critically — downtown workers.

“This is really consistent with what you’re seeing in other recreation resort communities,” said Kittelson consultant Wende Wilder, pointing specifically to places like Ketchum and Sun Valley in Idaho, and Bozeman and Whitefish in Montana.

While parking in Sandpoint may feel tight now, the key take away from the Kittelson report was what it will likely look like in the next few years, as growth and redevelopment continue. As the report stated: “On-street parking cannot fully absorb peak summer demand with the loss of public lots and increased growth/ development.”

And Sandpoint is all but guaranteed to lose at least one of

its current public parking op tions — the Idaho Transportation Department-owned lot along Fifth Avenue, which has provided some spillover from the otherwise at- or near-capacity city lot and Sand Creek-fronting spaces.

Stapleton said part of the urgency for figuring out how to expand parking capacity down town stems from ITD’s plans for “the couplet” — a realignment of Highway 2 to deal with excess traffic flow, which would eventu ally require use of those properties currently used as public parking on the west side of Fifth Avenue.

“They’re starting with some improvements on Highway 2 in the next year,” Stapleton said, add ing that City Hall expects to see that space lost to public parking in the next five to 10 years.

“When we lose the ITD lot ... we do not have the on-street parking to be able to meet that de mand that will be pushed onto the streets,” she said. “The plan for the city parking lot is something that we have in process.”

It’s not going to be cheap, however. Wilder, with Kittelson and Associates, estimated that the typical parking garage requires

A map showing on-street parking occupancy for a typical weekend at 11 a.m. Courtesy image.

stalls of between 300 and 350 square feet, costing $25,000 to $45,000 per space as a portion of “order-of-magnitude planning.”

In the meantime, there are a number of other strategies the city may explore based on the Kittelson report, including: increasing driver awareness of parking options; increasing travel options such as biking, walking and public transit; managing the existing parking supply, including tweaking the time limitations on certain parking spaces; enhancing enforcement of parking violations; adjusting the permit program; and exploring paid parking programs.

“The challenge in Sandpoint, when you’re a resort and recre ational community, is whatever we do as parking management, it’s got to fit the local residents,” Wilder said.

“We have to be really cogni zant of taking care of the residents as well as accommodating the recreationalists and tourism folks,” she added.

Layers of fairgrounds investigation unfurl in public records

‘Land war’ with the sheriff’s office noted as source of tension

By Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey Reader Staff

It’s been just over a week since Bonner County Prosecuting Attorney Louis Marshall, Bonner County Sheriff Daryl Wheel er and Sandpoint Police Chief Corey Coon released a joint statement urging constituents to cease directing “unfounded accusations and threats” toward their agencies as they investigate allegations against the Bonner County Fairgrounds and late-Fair Director Darcey Smith.

According to a Nov. 1 email between Coon and Bonner County Commissioner Dan Mc Donald, obtained Nov. 16 via a public records request to the city of Sandpoint, those allegations include “failing to follow county policies on part-time employees, completing contracts with said employees and issuing 1099 to said employees for tax purpos es”; “using Bonner County Fair funds for personal use”; and “misappropriation of donations from [Sandpoint High School] grad night.”

SPD is leading the investi gation due to the fairgrounds’ location within city limits.

In light of Smith’s death by apparent suicide on Oct. 31, Marshall told the Reader that the Nov. 14 statement from the three law enforcement officials was meant to discourage the public from making claims that “blame county employees and elected officials for bullying Ms. Smith and causing her death.”

The investigation, which launched before Smith’s death, marks the latest in what’s been a tumultuous year for the Bonner County Fairgrounds, dating back to October 2021, when commis sioners signed a lease with the Sandpoint Community Center Corporation, allowing the non

profit to use an empty parcel near the fairgrounds for the proposed Sandpoint Ice Arena. Proponents of the project, including Mc Donald and Smith, lauded the indoor facility as an opportunity to provide more funding for the fairgrounds and further recre ational opportunity for locals in the winter.

Wheeler mounted vigor ous opposition to the proposal, alleging in November 2021 that the parcel in question was actually intended for the eventual expansion of the Bonner County Jail and equating the lease to an attempt to “defund the police.”

In December 2021, Wheeler leveled an open meeting law vio lation against the commissioners, alleging that the ice rink lease agreement had been improperly noticed. The Idaho attorney gen eral’s office issued an opinion in February stating that the county “likely” violated open meeting law by being too vague on its business meeting agenda and, on March 1, commissioners voted to void the ice rink lease.

Smith and the fairgrounds also drew pushback from the sheriff while attempting to accept a grant to expand the fairgrounds RV campground in July. Wheeler said the two acres in questions would be better suited as the eventual home of a parking lot outside a new justice complex.

The county accepted the RV campground extension grant de spite the sheriff’s opposition.

“We are not trying to take things away from the sheriff,” Smith said in July. “We are good neighbors to them.”

Smith referenced the tensions between the fairgrounds and the sheriff’s office in her Aug. 9 grievance against four county employees, including Bonner County Deputy Prosecutor Scott Bauer, who is also Wheel

er’s son-in-law. The grievance followed an executive session with the fair board, which Bauer initiated.

“Seems odd that in the middle of what most perceive to be some type of ‘land war’ between the BOCC and the Sheriff that the Sheriff’s son-in-law all of a sudden takes a bizarre interest in the Fair Board and Fairgrounds,” Smith wrote, “attempting to apply Sheriff’s Office policies and place the Fair under Sheriff’s Office technology. All in a very manipu lative and intimidating manner.”

Bauer told the Reader Nov. 22 that the only portion of the ex ecutive session that pertained to the sheriff’s office had to do with transitioning the fair board’s IT services to the IT manager based out of the sheriff’s complex, who also manages IT operations for other county offices such as the clerk and assessor.

“We call it the sheriff’s IT simply because it’s based out of the sheriff’s office,” Bauer said, adding later: “It wasn’t to give the sheriff intel, because it is not actually set up that way. The information is siloed and segre gated completely.”

Bauer also noted that he wrote the ice rink lease while represent ing the commissioners and the fairgrounds in the fall of 2021, effectively acting “against the sheriff’s interests.”

Marshall also weighed in on the suggestion that Bauer’s ac tions were at all tied to Wheeler’s clash with the fairgrounds, telling the Reader Nov. 22: “I want to make it very clear allegations pertaining to the fair director did not stem from the Bonner County Sheriff’s Office nor from Scott Bauer. They came to me from a few separate sources.”

Marshall said he was the one who assigned Bauer to the fair board to address those allegations.

“When allegations are made it is absolutely necessary for my office to make sure a proper investigation is performed or else the public loses confidence and believes things are just swept un der the rug,” Marshall said. “The investigation, which is ongoing, is not being conducted by Sheriff Wheeler nor his office and he has in no way attempted to influence myself nor Chief Coon. We are solely interested in the facts and finding the truth.”

In a November email ex change with Coon regarding the investigation into Smith, Mc Donald also referenced the prior year’s intra-county clashes, not ing that Smith faced “harassment from a few well-known members of the public over both the Ice Rink and the RV Park, which the Sheriff was an outspoken oppo nent of both.”

“While we saw some of that, we didn’t see it all,” McDonald wrote to Coon.

As for the alleged misappro priation of SHS Grad Night dona tions, records obtained through the city of Sandpoint included an email exchange between Smith and the representative of a Sagle gas station company, who was puzzled by the use of several gas cards that had been donated to students at grad night, but which appeared to have been redeemed by Smith, her daughter and two of her daughters’ friends — after Smith had organized the event at the fairgrounds.

“l am still struggling with understanding, if the certificates were distributed the way that you have claimed and the way that I understood that they would be, how three of the certificates ended up being redeemed by you and your daughter and out of the other three that have been redeemed to date at least two of them were signed by the same

girl,” Heather Fournier, of Pacific Northwest Fuel, wrote to Smith on April 7 — an exchange that appears to have triggered the sub sequent inquiries into operations at the fairgrounds.

“Can you offer an explana tion as to how this would happen and also explain your previous response that you have no way of knowing who received them when in fact you yourself re deemed one?,” Fournier added in her April 7 email.

Smith responded to Fournier in an email April 11 that, “a LOT of the kiddos traded items/certif icates from their [grad night gift] baskets with one another. I recall watching them sitting on the floor of the cattle barn trading with each other.”

She added that her daughter had traded with several class mates who were going to out-ofstate colleges for their gas cards.

“Until you brought this to my attention, I had no idea other than the one I redeemed for my daughter, as to who had the certif icates. … It is quite possible that the other five certificates could very well have gone to kids that I know, or that my daughter is friends with, but honestly Heath er I can’t tell you who has them,” Smith wrote, later adding:

“At the end of the day, I cannot say where the other five certificates are. If you would like me to reimburse you for the five certificates that were redeemed, I will be more than happy to.”

Asked by the Reader in a follow-up phone call Nov. 16 how the issue with the gas cards played out, Fournier said, “In my opinion, it was not resolved.”

Additional reporting by Zach Hagadone.

Panida seeks new managing director

Veronica Knowlton makes transition to the Festival at Sandpoint

By Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey Reader Staff

After just more than a year as managing di rector of the Panida Theater, Veronica Knowlton is stepping down to accept a new job as opera tions manager of the Festival at Sandpoint.

“I cannot emphasize enough how grateful I am for the opportunity to manage Sandpoint’s treasured living room for the past 14 months,” Knowlton shared in a Nov. 17 statement. “Growing a performing arts venue through the rebound of a pandemic, cultivating multiple series programs and launching the Panida Century Fund campaign has taught me a de termination and resolve that I will carry with me for the rest of my career.”

The Panida board released its own an nouncement Nov. 17.

“For more than a year, Veronica has orchestrated the rebirth, growth and success of the Panida,” the board stated. “She has en sured that the Panida has continued as an out standing venue for local, regional and national performers. We know the arts community will benefit from Veronica’s skills that have been so helpful to the Panida. The Board wishes her success in her new venture.”

Looking back on her time with the non profit, Kowlton said she is most proud to have worked closely with Panida Board Chairman Jim Healey and volunteer Chris Bessler to orchestrate and launch the Panida’s Century Fund campaign, which aims to raise nearly $2 million for capital improvements before the theater’s 100th birthday in November 2027.

“It’s really been a year-long labor of love,” Knowlton said of the campaign, also noting the fact that local internet company Ting has pledged a $200,000 match for all donations of $5,000 or less.

“That’s a huge piece of community moti vation as well,” she added.

Knowlton will oversee season passes,

marketing and sponsorship for the Festival at Sandpoint — a job more aligned with the fair and festival work she did for nearly a decade before joining the Panida. As for the next person to manage the theater, Knowlton said the job is best fit for someone “fun, dynamic and patient.”

“The facility is 95 years old this month,” she said. “You can plan for anything and everything with your budget and then all of a sudden you need to replace a toilet.

“There’s an element of patience that I think is required to successfully juggle all the needs of the facility,” she added.

Kowlton said she encourages anyone interested to apply for the managing director position, and that she will be involved in the transition process to ensure it goes smoothly for the beloved theater.

“I would really like to see the Panida continue the momentum that I’ve created over the past 14 months,” she said. “I would just encourage anybody and everybody to apply. It takes all kinds of kinds, you know?”

Those who wish to apply should submit a cover letter and complete resume to board@ panida.org. The application deadline is mid night on Sunday Dec 4, 2022.

Second rail bridge opens for traffic

By Reader Staff

Trains began traveling across the newly constructed BNSF rail bridge over Lake Pend Oreille on Sunday, Nov. 20, marking the opening of the Sandpoint Junction Connector bridge nearly a year ahead of schedule.

“We are excited about the benefits this second bridge brings, including reducing con gestion and helping to move current rail traffic more efficiently,” said Matt Jones, director of public affairs for BNSF. “Mostly though, we are incredibly grateful to the residents of Sandpoint and the greater Bonner County area for their patience and support throughout the three-year construction of the new bridge.”

BNSF’s mainline track meets up with Montana Rail Link at Sandpoint, previously creating a bottleneck where multiple tracks merged into a single track to cross Lake Pend Oreille. The second bridge will allow trains to

run in both directions, reducing the need for trains to stage and idle while waiting to cross the single track on the existing bridge. As a result, the flow of freight and passenger trains will be improved throughout the region.

The completion of the new rail bridge will also facilitate maintenance activities, including a modernization project on the original rail bridge. The existing bridge will be closed while crews perform this work, expected to be com pleted in the middle of 2023. Once improve ments are finished, both bridges — running parallel about 50 feet apart — will be open for rail traffic. The completed bridge is 4,873 feet in length and contains 49 spans, 224 precast concrete girders and 6-pile bents totaling ap proximately 55,000 feet of 36-inch pipe pile.

For Sandpoint Junction Connector bridge information and to sign up for ongoing project updates, visit keepsandpointrolling.com.

Bits ’n’ Pieces

From east, west and beyond

East, west or beyond, sooner or later events elsewhere may have a local impact. A recent sampling:

France is now mandating installation of solar panels on parking lots with at least 80 vehicle spaces. The Daily Optimist said the move is expected to double the nation’s solar energy production.

If executed, the proposed $24.6 billion Kroger-Albertsons grocery merger would result in the companies controlling one fifth of the U.S. grocery market, according to The Guardian. If government regulators allow the merger, The Guardian reported that it could result in store closures in communi ties with stores owned by both Kroger and Albertsons. Higher prices are also likely. Kroger’s CEO said the merger will allow the company to better compete with WalMart, Costco and Amazon. Sens. Bernie Sanders, D-Vt., and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., rec ommended the Federal Trade Commission reject the proposal.

A federal judge put a halt to part of Florida’s Stop-WOKE Act, Politico reported, ruling that the legislation violated First Amendment free speech protections and the 14th Amendment due Process rights. A portion of the Act would have restricted how lessons on race and gender are taught in colleges and universities. Those challenging the Act said the decision is a major win for campus free speech.

After Donald Trump announced his third bid for the presidency, media outlets focused on the role played by the former president in the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection, the federal criminal investigation against him, as well as alleged mishandling of classified documents. What the media failed to cover, according to Popular Information, was Trump’s “expanding financial relation ship with Saudi Arabia.” The implication of billions of dollars sent by Saudi Arabia to Trump and his family “raises the prospect of a major party nominee that is on the payroll of a foreign government.”

The Guardian reported that, given the poor performance of Trump-backed candi dates in the recent midterm elections, media mogul Rupert Murdoch said he will not support Trump in his bid for the presiden cy — a move likely to affect news coverage by the Murdoch-owned New York Post, Wall Street Journal and Fox News.

Election results: Republicans won the House by a narrow margin. “It will be a challenge to get even the most basic work in Congress done,” given the “unyielding far-right members,” The New York Times predicted. Based on politicians’ comments so far, the Republican House is expected

By Lorraine H. Marie Reader Columnist

to prioritize investigation over legislation. Another issue: wrangling over the debt limit, with some Republicans indicating that they seek to use that as leverage for “entitlement reform,” which could affect Medicare and Social Security. If handled poorly, a U.S. debt default would jeopar dize finances worldwide.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced she is stepping down from House leadership, but will continue to serve as a California rep resentative. Pelosi began serving in Congress in 1987. Rep. Kevin McCarthy will be the next house speaker; Sen. Mitch McConnell will continue as Senate minority leader.

A $3.1 billion legal settlement has been proposed by WalMart for the sale of prescription opioids at its pharmacies, the Associated Press reported. CVS Health and Walgreen Company claimed they would pay $5 billion each. More decisions are coming about how best to use the funds for treatment and recovery. Opioids have been linked to more than 500,000 deaths in the U.S. over the past two decades.

A recent study indicates COVID-19 may directly infect fat cells, lending support to the observation that overweight or obese individuals can suffer long-term COVID-19 health problems. According to the CDC, obesity can triple the risk of hospitaliza tion for those with COVID-19.

Polio has resurfaced. Complicating polio eradication efforts is the fact that by the time the virus is detected, it may already be out of control, The Nation reported. Like COVID-19, a person can be an unaware carrier. Unlike COVID, polio can sud denly cripple victims, who are most often children, but sometimes adults. The author of the Nation article recounted his own childhood experience with polio: he had not been vaccinated, was hospitalized for three months, then had to wear leg calipers and a device to keep his back straight. It took years to gain better mobility, and he’s al ways had a severe limp. The whole story is found in Patrick Cockburn’s autobiographi cal book, The Broken Boy.

The world population likely reached 8 billion people recently: the population grew by 1 billion in the past 12 years, CBS reported. It took hundreds of thousands of years for the human race to reach a popula tion of 1 billion. The U.N. warns it will be a significant challenge to feed, house and keep pollution down with more people.

Blast from the past: President Ulysses S.Grant was arrested in 1872 for speeding with a horse-drawn carriage, the only known incident of a sitting president being arrested.

Emily Articulated

A column by and about Millennials

Gratitude

By Emily Erickson Reader Columnist

If the chamber in my brain that holds existential dread is a heavy door with a creaky spoke handle and a red blinking warning light, the chamber of gratitude would be nearby (or as near as something can be in a head full of things). Its door would be old and carved, set into the floor like it was crafted in the earliest days of the cre ation of my mind. The handle would gleam like worn brass, and golden light would seep from the cracks between the bolts of its impressive hinges.

To access this chamber, I’d have to kick aside the detritus stacked on top of the door — boxes of mundane anxieties and stressors that, when accumu lated, hold it closed with their collective weight. I’d heave off the crate holding too much me dia consumption and push aside the box of ruminations about impending work deadlines. I’d heft the cabinet of unaffectable outcomes — taking extra care to toss the folder holding all the medical maladies that could one day befall me and the peo ple I love — and discard the jug of unimportant and undirected busyness that is known to spill into my everyday life.

Once cleared, the door would open itself, sending dust particles into swirling beams of sparkles and light. I’d tip-toe down the chamber’s stairs, revealing more of the high-ceil inged circular room with every step. Evenly spaced arch

ways would line the curved, sunshine-colored walls, and hand-painted signs would hang atop each door.

The first sign I’d make out would read “Friends and Fam ily,” and the sound of laughter would gently reverberate from inside its depths. The warmth of the space would be the first thing to greet me, like the feeling of lifting your hands to a fire — the chill seeping out of each finger to be replaced with relief. Generations of memories would mingle together: the soft carpet of my grandparents living room beneath the large wooden table of my childhood home; the people who shaped me and the people who continue to shape me sitting around that table; my late-Mom bobbing my newest nephew on her knee.

I’d hear the hum of familiar ity between them and feel the edges of support that hold them — and me — together.

With the warmth of the room entering my chest, it’d fill the spaces in me designed specifically to carry it; recon figuring my priorities until I remember (with that deep kind

of remembering) that this is all that really matters, all that is really important.

I’d back out of that arch way, glowing with my new found clarity, and make my way through the neighboring entry labeled “Community and Purpose.” The plucky sounds of string instruments would mix with thuds of feet on hardwood floors, all clumsily dancing over downbeats in that special lost-in-the-music daze. It would smell like Evan’s Brothers coffee and freshly roasted connections — the kinds of connections that are sparked by spontaneous conversations and Sunday morning chess matches. It would feel like Eichardt’s and foamy-topped dollar beers, with familiar faces huddled close together on bar stools.

I’d bask in the parts of the room that pulse with vitality — a movie at the Panida and a concert in the Granary Arts District — and revel in the perfection of a Bluebird Bakery croissant, passion packed into each buttery layer of the pastry.

I’d be called to create something inspired myself, jolted awake by the prospect of contributing to the kind of place I love to live. Jittering with the potential of it, I’d exit the room and turn to face the final archway.

The sign over this door would catch the light, the words “Perspective and Joy” nearly glowing in their illumination. I’d enter with purpose, running my hands along the smooth walls, remembering how good it feels to notice beautiful things. With the veil of apa

thy lifted, I’d bear witness to the small miracle that is the contrast between fresh snow and autumn leaves, the wonder of a healthy and able body and the places it can take me, and the pleasure waiting inside the pages of a newly opened book.

Leaving the room, I’d gather the easy slowness and the space to breathe, and cup the permis sion to experience joy between my fingers. With arms (and

heart and spirit) full, I’d walk up the chamber’s stairs, re newed, as always, in the infinite reasons for which I have to be grateful.

Emily Erickson is a writer and business owner with an affinity for black coffee and playing in the mountains. Con nect with her online at www. bigbluehat.studio.

Emily Erickson.

Retroactive By BO

Bouquets:

•There are several people who work behind the scenes to help make this newspaper succeed. They don’t often get mentioned in print, but they are vital to the health of this paper. One of my favorites is Sandy Bessler, who has been in charge of keeping our books and accounts since we brought the Reader back to life in 2015. I can honestly say I’d be completely lost without Sandy. She is a positive force for good, always patient with me, always there to catch any billing mistakes I make. She also speaks directly with our advertisers if they have questions about their bills or ac counts, which is always appre ciated. Aside from the excellent bookkeeping she does for the Reader, Sandy is one of the kind est people I’ve met. We appreciate you so much, Sandy! I’m thankful to have you working behind-thescenes, making this newspaper (and me) better every week.

•When I tried to pay local photographer Racheal Baker for a print of her work, she tried to run out of my office and lock the door behind her before accepting any money. I finally managed to convince her to accept a check and thanked her for her amazing work. For several years, Racheal has provided her excellent pho tos to the Reader free of charge, spurning many of our attempts to pay her for her work. She is a tal ented artist whose unique point of view captures a slice of life we enjoy showcasing in the pages of our newspaper. Her live concert photography is especially top notch. If you haven’t checked out Racheal’s work yet, visit ra chealbakerphotography.pixieset. com and support her art.

Barbs:

• It’s Thanksgiving, so I’ll re frain from listing any Barbs. Go hug your mom, play catch with your kids, go for a walk with your partner and pet your dog. All will be well.

Dear editor, Bravo — terrific letter, so well written [Let ters, “Look what’s goin’ down”... Nov. 10, 2022]. Thank you for putting in words what so many are thinking. And thank you for your service. A horrible time lest we forget.

K.L. Huntley Sandpoint

Dear editor, Having worked with Darcey Smith for several years while she was an administrative assistant for the Board of Bonner County Commissioners, I find it extremely difficult to believe that she would have knowingly engaged in any misappropriation of funds from the Bonner County fairgrounds.

Kudos to reporters Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey and Zach Hagadone for shedding light on the situation in the article they wrote for the Nov.17, 2022 edition of the Sandpoint Reader. Hopefully the county and those investigating the case will provide a full accounting of what transpired when the investigation is complete.

Mike Brown

Former news director, Blue Sky Broadcasting Kootenai

states that he/them are the sole authority of morality and nothing else. This is not my America, red or blue.

Lawrence Fury Sandpoint

Tipping point…

Dear editor,

In the junk drawer this week, [Nov. 17, 2022]

Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey says service workers should be tipped a bare minimum of 20%. My wife and I recently went into Heart Bowls for coffee. There was a sign saying a 20% tip would be automatically added to the bill. I have never seen this before. This is a place where you place your order at the counter, pick up your order and then bus your own dishes. To me this is vastly different from a full-service restaurant, where the waiter has to take your order, remember any special requests, check on you during the meal and bus your table. I will not go back to Heart Bowls.

The sign said the tip was so their employees could basically have a living wage. In my opinion, the employer has a responsibility to their employees to provide a fair wage.

I realize that in this town that is becoming pretty much an impossibility, but a tip isn’t going to fill that void. Fixing that problem is going to require a lot more than a mandatory 20% tip added to a coffee shop order.

Jon Nylund Sandpoint

Property rights are a two-way street…

Dear editor, Thanksgiving time folks!

Write down five things you are thankful for each day for a week. The reward to your mental and physical health is amazing and can last up to six months for this one week alone. It is OK if someone helps you with your list. Just try it; it works. Gratitude improves physical health. Gratitude improves psychological health. Grati tude enhances empathy and reduces aggression. Grateful people sleep better. Gratitude improves self-esteem. Gratitude increases mental strength.

If you focus on what you “have,” you can improve your satisfaction with life.

“In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” — 1 Thessalonians 5:18.

Kathy Nash Blanchard

Dear editor,

In regard to K.L. Huntley’s piece in last week’s edition [Perspectives, “Fighting Hate Groups,” Nov. 17, 2022], the two northern Idaho counties were once a welcoming place to live for all. But with the election of Mr. Herndon early this month to the state Senate by a five to three margin, I fear that the goal of wel coming and acceptance has just gotten more difficult.

Mr. Herndon may not state it in public, but his positions made me think of something now occurring in Iran. How long will it be if more of those with Herndon’s point-of-view attain office? Before a Chris tian nationalistic “morality police” come into being, which tells us we must bow to their opinion on any and everything?

Herndon represents the forefront of hate, hate that

Dear editor,

On Dec. 7, the Bonner County Commissioners will decide on goals and objectives for the Compre hensive Land Use Plan. While citizens expressed concerns this summer that the plan update was not as inclusive and open as it should be, the Plan ning Commission did adopt some recommendations to better protect the public interest.

For instance, they included a goal under “Property Rights” that emphasizes property rights are a two-way street — acknowledging that land use actions impact people off-site. They included a policy to require “full urban services” for subur ban densities. At its Nov. 3 meeting, the BOCC struck that language, and said the county lacked the jurisdiction to protect natural resources.

It’s this kind of leadership that has led to E. coli in the drinking water of people living in a new subdivision north of Sandpoint (find the Daily Bee story on Project 7B’s Facebook page). A few years ago, the county removed requirements for develop ers to get approval for wastewater systems before getting subdivisions platted or to build homes (deci sions that ignored our current land use plan goals). This is where county decisions matter and affect our health, natural resources and quality of life.

The revised goals and objectives can be read under file #AM0012-22 under Current Projects on the county’s Planning Department website. The current version, the Planning Commission and the BOCC versions are posted. The land use plan should reflect the public’s vision (not just develop ers’ vision) for how our county grows.

Susan Drumheller Sandpoint

‘Bravo’…

Looking forward to full accounting of fair investigation…

‘This is not my America’…

‘Attitude of gratitude’…

In the hunt for a few more years

By Tim H. Henney Reader Contributor

“Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.” Those historic, heroic words were by British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in August, 1940, praising British pilots — average age 20 — who defended England against Ger man bombings and foiled Hitler’s planned invasion. Today — in my case — they pay tribute to North Idaho caregivers.

Like runaway locomotives hurtling downhill, my 1957 bride and I were blasted a year or so ago by “the perfect storm.” Or, the perfect medical typhoon. A pha lanx of North Idaho conductors, engineers and associated experts (a cardiologist, nephrologist, family doc, nurse practitioners, registered nurses and technicians in Sandpoint and Coeur d’Alene) are reaching for the brakes: If not to stop us from derailing (at ages 87 and 91), then to at least to slow the descent.

At roughly the same time, my wife began suffering now-severe memory loss, my kidneys gave out, constant dizziness made walking difficult and catching an occasion al breath became arduous. Turns out that the valves and other pipes carrying blood to and from the heart were clogged. Doctors also discovered I’d had a heart attack. What? You’re kidding!

The upshot is that my 1957 bride recalls nothing of our wed ding; our friends; her parents; our many travels and homes; even her young brothers, ages 9 and 11, who with their dad vanished aboard his sailboat in a Bermuda Triangle storm. Not to be eclipsed by her memory deficiency, I spend three afternoons each week as squawking machines tended by talented technicians and nurses Ashley, Chris, Alyssa, Glen and partners clean my blood and remove fluids from my heart and lungs at Sandpoint’s dialysis clinic. Fun!

As a long-ago member of the corporate world, I have served in and managed some hard-work

ing outfits. Never have I known employees with such dedication and camaraderie as the caregivers at the clinic — as well as their counterparts in the cardiac section of Kootenai Health in Coeur d’ Alene, who burst into my life during the past year.

Old popular songs are among my weaknesses, and I include here a lyric from a classic that seems to address the issues with which my 1957 bride and I now struggle: “Into each life some rain must fall/ too much is falling in mine./ Into each heart some tears must fall (my tears, for my dear soulmate’s mental demise)/ someday the sun will shine.”

Like so many near the bottom of the U.S. economic pay pole, the lifesavers cited above are grossly unrewarded for what they do.

Alongside professional athletes, national legislators or TV’s bellowing “pillow guy” buffoon, for example, our caregivers are financial peasants. Most have families and work 12-hour days.

Sandpoint’s dialysis clinic opens at 4:30 a.m. and welcomes the first patients at 5 a.m. Then caregivers sprint all day from one chair to the next, ushering up to 24 patients a day in and out as four-hour treat ments begin and end — tweak ing computers, monitoring fluid removal, checking blood pressure, changing bloody bandages, adjust ing under-the-skin catheters and fistulas, fussing with big needles

inserted into veins. And I’m lucky to be there.

Why? Well, all but a fistful of guys I went to college with, sailed boats with, sang songs and played tennis with for 45 or more years, and for 30 years labored in the corporate vineyards, checked out years ago. Yet here I am, bantering merrily with dialysis caregiv ers and paying regular hospital visits to skilled cardiologists for heart issues and Dr. Joel Sears of Advanced Dermatology in Coeur d’Alene. Also Dr. Frazier King and super-nurse Amy, who keep all players in the medical loop: nephrologist, cardiologist, nurses, technicians, nurse practitioners, pharmacies, medications, appoint ments, flu shots and boosters — so many directions I’m reminded of the Jimmy Buffett lyric from “Cheeseburger In Paradise”: “Well, good God almighty, which way do I steer?”

These ebullient caregivers do the steering. And my 1957 bride and I live in North Idaho, not in some less caring, less capable place. A dialysis RN who recent ly moved here from Southern California said to me, “Where I lived, if you bought a drive-up coffee, for example, the people who served you didn’t smile or talk. They didn’t act happy. Here everybody laughs and likes each other. I love it!”

Well, who doesn’t? Life in south Sandpoint, where we reside in our 14th and final home, re minds us of Mr. Rogers’ Neighbor hood. For instance, it’s beautiful. Years ago, when we were even younger, we camped often on a wilderness lake lot we owned near Woodstock, Vt. Believe me, North Idaho trees in the fall are as stun ning as Vermont’s best and bright est. Plus, in Mr. Rogers’ Neighbor hood we have bikers Mary Toland, Susan (Panida Mom) Bates-Har buck and local sailor, pilot and KRFY DJ “Just Plain Bob” Hawn; dog walkers Bonnie Hagan (with Coco), Pete Larramendy (with Welsh corgi attack dogs Sally and Betty), Ed Smith (with humon gous Jessie) and Frank Faucett (with even heftier Chester).

Mr. Rogers didn’t have a

world-class mountain lake. Some of us dogsters and dogs like the lake in winter as much as summer. Sandy beaches begin to appear, perfect for chasing tennis balls. Soon the water recedes so that an athletic canine can race for miles along the shore without putting paws in icy water.

The way Best Friend Tippy and I reach the lake is through gorgeous Lakeview Park, a brief hike from home. The adjoin ing stadium evokes images of Sandpoint’s gifted academic and athletic leadership — our teach ers, counselors and coaches, and the spirited students they nurture. Of bleachers packed with proud parents and pals roaring approval as Coach Ryan Knowles’ highschool football varsity, and boys and girls soccer teams led by Tan ner French and Conor Baranski, power through another winning season. As did our cross-country runners, led by role model athlete/ coaches Angie and Matt Brass. As have Sandpoint’s swimmers, led by coach Greg Jackson, and senior academic scholarship recipients honored by Ponderay Rotary and other local organizations.

Should it surprise anyone that Sandpoint High School ranks No. 28 academically out of 332 public high schools in Idaho? How many towns in Idaho attract such talent?

We have so much going for us here it’s tough to remember just how special this place is. And “this place” includes cardiologist Ronald Jenkins and the upbeat, joyous receptionists, nurses and technicians at Kootenai Health’s cardiac center in Coeur d’Alene — Juanita, Katie, Michelle, Belinda, Keith, Donnie, Adriel and colleagues — tending to every need during cardiac surgical adventures and overnight visits. (I’m now experi enced in those, too).

Growing ancient does have its upside. My bride and I receive from pals like Karen Barkley, Sue and Jay Shelledy, and Becky and Jerry Luther breathtaking bouquets

from the Luthers’ magnificent Garfield Bay gardens. Tango Table breakfast buddy Faye Griffiths decorates our yard with handmade folk art. We dine on scrumptious desserts from Christa Faucett, soup from teacher Jen Cornelius, tacos and chili from our caregivers and caretakers next door, to whom we happen to be closely related. And we are visited by fellow Tango Tablers Barney Ballard, Bruce Duykers, Dan Murphy, and Sally and Dick Sonnichsen — the latter who comes to pilfer my aged scotch more than for brotherhood.

Unsympathetic members of the breakfast brigade have suggested my medical setbacks are pay back for misdeeds: like telling thousands of people I won the Heisman Trophy for outstanding college football player in Amer ica. Truth is, I didn’t make the college fraternity’s flag football team — even when president of the fraternity!

Turns out the golden years, while not all golden, are golden enough to preserve for a while. Caregivers can make that happen. The frontline good guys of a civil, responsible America, they are the educated guardian angels of the good life. Which they protect and enhance with humor — and with competence and zest seldom seen, at least by me.

As Thanksgiving nears, loving North Idaho caregivers, know that you are needed and much valued. Many thanks.

Tim Henney. Courtesy photo.

Science: Mad about

By Brenden Bobby Reader Columnist

There is one universal truth about Thanksgiving: what goes in, must come out. Poop is gross, but at least we live in an age of controlled bodily waste. During the first Thanksgiving, it was likely that the waste of the feast ended up in one of two places: a chamber pot or secluded spot to squat.

It turns out that the pilgrims didn’t spend a lot of time writing about where their poop went. To be fair, aside from the occasional emoji, do you chronicle your bowel move ments for future historians to analyze? We know they used chamber pots during their voyage on the Mayflower. Chamber pots were large pots you squatted over to do your business, which you would the oretically empty once you were done. Sometimes they had lids, other times they didn’t.

The first flushing-rim toilet made its debut in 1824. Courtesy photo.

wind was always blowing the smell out to sea and away from the crew and passengers.

Personally, I think this is a much more intelligent solution than a chamber pot on a boat, as anyone who was feeling par ticularly lazy ahead of a storm would face an unfortunate spill or splatter during rough seas. Rancid smells were unavoid able on the Mayflower, regard less of the fastidiousness of the pilgrims. Rats were common place on sailing vessels, and they pooped, too, spreading bacterial diseases like leptospi rosis to the humans onboard. The Mayflower was anything but a pleasure cruise.

aqueducts to create a constant flow at communal toilets. They saw pooping as a social event, and an opportunity to catch up with your neighbors on recent events and politics.

Notably, early toilets lacked the tanks that most home toilets have today. This particular innovation wouldn’t become widespread until 1902, though it still used up to seven gallons of water per flush and required a gravity feed from a spring in order to use. Over time, toilets became more efficient at using less water. Today, they use around 1.5 gallons per flush.

You’ll hear water flowing in from the supply line and you’ll notice the water in the bowl is moving. Luckily, there’s an overflow tube that sits just above the float ball that collects excess water and prevents your toilet from overflowing at the tank. You’ll want to correct whatever is wrong with your toilet, how ever, because this will end up costing you a lot of money if you just let it run indefinitely.

The last bit of toilet triv ia I’ll leave you with is this: Have you ever wondered what the deal is with reading on the toilet? Apparently during the early 1900s, rather than having dedicated toilet paper, folks would collect magazines and newspapers to wipe with when they were done. I wouldn’t recommend trying that after reading on your phone.

Stay curious, 7B.

toilets Random Corner

I can’t account for the location of chamber pots on the Mayflower, but it was common practice for large sailing vessels of the day to have an area near the prow where sailors could do their business and send it into the sea. This is the origin of the term “the head,” as these mar itime waste evacuations would occur at the head of the ship.

There was a very specific reason for the placement of this facility. If it were placed at the back of the ship, the wind filling the sails would also push a persistent smell across the entire deck of the ship for the duration of the journey. If the facility was at the front of the ship, the

Once the pilgrims landed, it’s likely that dealing with waste became a little more difficult than at sea. You can compost human waste, but doing so runs the risk of spreading communal diseases to your crops through bacteria in the waste — this is particularly true when applied to root vegetables, which di rectly absorb and store nutrients and other hitchhikers directly into the edible part of the plant. Similarly, dumping waste into the ocean from the shore will likely just result in your effluvia washing back onto the beach, with sea winds pushing the smell right at you.

Compared to the pilgrims, we live a pretty good life. The first modern flush toilet was described in 1596 by John Harington, godson of Queen Elizabeth I. Harington is the reason we refer to toilets as “Johns” to this day.

Prior to that, the ancient Romans were believed to have used flowing water routed from

The premise of a toilet is fairly simple, but the mathemat ics behind it are very involved. There’s a reason it took so long for people to develop the kinds of toilets we use today.

Your toilet consists of two major components: the tank and the bowl. Pushing the lever on the tank opens the flush valve at the bottom of the tank, which sends the water from the tank flowing down into the bowl. This change in pressure causes a siphon to occur, pull ing your waste into the siphon tube, which then directs it to the sewer or your septic tank. A water supply line refills your toilet’s tank and, after a certain point, a float ball attached to the flush arm will be pushed up and into a neutral position by the rising water. This will seal the water supply tube and also the flush valve, resetting the toilet and letting you know it’s prepared for another use.

If there is a defect with your flush valve or something isn’t quite calibrated properly, your toilet might continue to run.

Don’t know much about the first thanksgiving? We can help!

•The first Thanksgiving was thought to have been celebrated in 1621 over a three-day harvest festival. It included 53 surviving colonists of the Plymouth Planta tion who shared a meal with their neighbors, 90 Wampanoags. It is believed by historians that only five women were present.

•Turkey wasn’t central to the menu at the first Thanksgiving. Instead, venison, duck, goose, oysters, lobster, eel and fish were likely served. (For more on that, see Pages 16-17.)

•The traditional story holds that colonists and the Wampanoag had cemented a fruitful relation ship with their 1621 feast, but his torians argue tensions between the two were frosty, mostly due to the early Europeans behaving “more like raiders than traders,” accord ing to historian David Silverman.

•Silverman asserts that the Wampanoag had a vested interest in cooperating with the Pilgrims

leading up to the 1621 feast. The tribe valued goods that the Europeans brought; but, more im portantly, they sought a political alliance in order to confront their traditional enemies, such as the Narragansetts to the west.

•An earlier Thanksgiving celebration took place in Virgin ia in 1619. It was organized by English settlers who had arrived at Berkeley Hundred on board the ship Margaret, which had sailed from Bristol, England under Capt. John Woodcliffe.

•Arguments have been made that Martin Frobisher’s 1578 voyage in search of the Northwest Passage included the first North American Thanksgiving celebration.

•Historian Michael Gannon, on the other hand, proposed that the first celebration of the kind happened in Florida, on Sept. 8, 1565, when Spaniards shared a communal meal with surrounding Indigenous peoples.

Brought to you by:

Remember Fall?

To submit a photo for a future edition, please send to ben@sandpointreader.com.

Right: Sandpoint High School Interact Club demonstrated their pumpkin carving skills at the club’s annual fall party. Rotary sponsored Interact clubs bring together young people ages 12-18 to develop leadership skills while discovering the power of Service Above Self. These local clubs are sponsored by both the Ponderay and Sandpoint Rotaries. Photo courtesy Kari Saccomanno.

Middle left: Fall colors, before the winter season set in. Photo by Tricia Florence.

Bottom left: Nov. 13-19 was Nurse Practioners Week, which celebrates more than 50 years of NP practice in the U.S. Nationwide, there are more than 270,000 NPs, with more than 1,400 practicing in Idaho. Idaho was actually the first state to license NPs and the first state to grant Full Practice Authority to NPs, which helps increase access to care for Idahoans. Pictured here are some of the local NPs who practice in our community at their last meeting. Thank them for their service if you get a chance. Photo courtesy Cynthia Dalsing, District 1 Representative of the Nurse Practitioners of Idaho.

Bottom right: The Granary Building from a unique autumn viewpoint. Photo by Mark Perigen.

A family rooted in forestry preserves land for the future

By Marcy Timblin Reader Contributor

Roger Gregory’s heritage is rooted in forestry. His father came to Sandpoint in 1907 at the age of 18 to work in the lumber camps as a horse logger, which he had done in Austria. At 12 years old, he was harnessing and driving a team of horses. Around 1914 he purchased 22 acres near Elmira and built a log home from trees harvested from the property. Having a deep appre ciation for the land, Gregory’s father raised his son to cherish the forests and care for the land that supported them.

In 1975 Gregory purchased 92 acres near Oldtown as an investment property, giving him a place to practice his favorite pastime.

“I like trees and forests. For estry is my hobby,” he said.

The upland forest situated at the base of the Selkirk Mountain Range has been carefully tended by Gregory and his family through the years. Working the forest together, he passed his fa ther’s values of land stewardship to his own children.

“I’ve planted over 12,000 trees,” he recalled.

Perhaps because of his con nection with the trees and the family time that he cultivated on this land, an attachment began to take root and he no longer viewed it as merely a financial asset.

“I changed my mind,” he said. “I’m leaving it for posterity.”

Gregory wants this 92-acre parcel, which lies near other protected lands, to remain as an unchanged, undeveloped forest under the care of people who will be responsible stewards. When asked what he hopes this land will look like 50 years from now, he said, “Just like it is now.”

Gregory has entered into a voluntary agreement with Kaniksu Land Trust to preserve the integrity of the land he owns. The agreement protects

his natural working forest while restricting subdivision, commer cial facilities, hard surface roads, and a number of other particulars that are important to Gregory and his family. KLT will main tain a working relationship with the landowner, visiting the prop erty annually to ensure that the agreement is being observed to the satisfaction of both parties.

The legal agreement stays with the land, not the land owner. If Gregory decides to sell the land, the prospective owner would be made aware of the agreement, and KLT would continue to uphold the restric tions and cultivate a relationship with the new owner. In this case, however, Gregory intends to bequeath the land to his daughter and son-in-law when he passes.

The rapid rate of develop ment in the region is a concern for many landowners who wish to see their special places conserved, even after they pass on or sell their land. Land trusts work with such landowners to identify the characteristics they hope to protect and to determine if a legal agreement that restricts certain activities on the land is the right choice for them.

“I think of land ownership as being like a pencil box. Your land is the box, and the pencils are your rights as a landowner with respect to the land. You get to choose which pencils to take out. If you wish to remove the pencil representing subdivision in order to maintain your prop erty as an undivided parcel into the future, you can take out that ‘pencil’ and hand it to an entity like KLT,” said KLT Conserva tion Director Regan Plumb.

The organization does not have legal authority to attach every possible restriction that a landowner might desire, and every land trust works within a slightly different range of proj ect criteria. In Roger Gregory’s case, protection of the property was justified because it is locat ed in close proximity to other protected lands, exceeds KLT’s

acreage minimum and meets three of KLT’s six conservation priorities.

In addition to the criteria that must be met in order for a land trust to work on a particu lar project, the landowner will also have a number of things to consider. There are costs associ ated with closing a conservation agreement, such as appraisals and filing fees. But KLT works to reduce costs whenever possible and can sometimes seek private funding to support important projects.

Kaniksu Land Trust is in the initial stages of setting up a fund to assist landowners whose land may hold significant value, but may not have the funds to cover the costs of conserving that land.

Restrictions on how the land may be used could limit its resale value, since a poten tial buyer would never be able to conduct certain profitable activities on the land. To offset this potential deficit, landown ers who put their property in conservation often receive a tax benefit for up to 15 from the

date of the agreement.

“My family asked me why I would [put the land in conser vation] when I could get a lot of money by subdividing it. I told them ‘that’s my contribution to the environment. The land all around it will eventually be subdivided, but here will be this great forest,’” Gregory said.

The process of establishing a legal conservation agreement can take a year or more depend ing on the complexity of the agreement. The Gregory Forest Conservation Agreement was signed in October 2022, about a year after Gregory made initial contact with KLT.

Kaniksu Land Trust has completed 30 such projects, con serving more than 4,000 acres of land over the past 20 years. Its mission is to care for the lands and people of the Kaniksu Region, today, tomorrow and forever. The Kaniksu Region refers to the traditional homeland of the Kalispel people, including North Idaho and parts of western Montana. KLT’s conservation work includes a robust education

“I’ve planted over 12,000 trees,” said

program and community initia tives that seek to address critical community challenges through land-based solutions.

Gregory doesn’t do much forestry work these days, except he still plants 100-200 trees a year. His three grown children have helped work the land as he has gotten older. The family still gathers there every winter to go sledding and enjoy their special property together. Knowing that future generations will be able to enjoy that land “just the way it is now” is Gregory’s motivation for caring for and preserving it.

“The reason I plant trees is for future generations,” he said.

For more information about KLT, visit kaniksu.org or call 208-263-9471.

Marcy Timblin is director of communications for Kaniksu Land Trust.

Roger Gregory. Courtesy photo.

COMMUNITY No cost, all gratitude

Hoot Owl, Burger Dock offering free Thanksgiving meals this week

By Reader Staff

Part of the magic of living in North Idaho is the willingness of so many to pitch in and help their fellow community members as needed. This is especially true once the snow flies and the holiday season arrives. To live in North Idaho is to truly know community spirit.

Two local businesses are taking that philosophy to heart this Thanksgiving as they offer free meals on a first come, first served basis. Here are the details:

Wednesday, Nov. 23

The Burger Dock’s 4th annual “Giving Thanks” community feast

116 N. 1st Ave., Ste. B

This downtown joint will offer free meals of a full Harvest Burger (complete with rosemary and sage aioli, cheddar, orange zest cranberry sauce and Ruby spring mix), sweet potato fries and a pumpkin milkshake to anyone and everyone from 3-6 p.m. the day before the actual Thanksgiving holiday. This

event is The Burger Dock’s way of saying “thanks” to its loyal Sandpoint custom ers. Everything will be made fresh, so patience will be appreciated. This event is dine-in only.

Thursday, Nov. 24

Hoot Owl Cafe’s annual free tradi tional Thanksgiving dinner

30784 ID-200

Even with new owners taking over this fall, the Hoot Owl Cafe will keep to its longstanding tradition of providing free Thanksgiving meals on Thanksgiv ing Day. This year’s event will run 11 a.m.-3 p.m., with to-go orders available after 1 p.m.

Weekly free meals are available in Sandpoint and the surrounding areas year round through local businesses, churches and nonprofits. Contact the Community Resource EnVision Center at 208-9201840 to learn about free meal schedules and other social services available in Bonner and Boundary counties.

Nationwide pet support program provides one-millionth service through BTAA

Pets for Life brings access to care for people and their pets

By Reader Staff

This month, the Hu mane Society of the United States’ Pets for Life program reached a major milestone, providing its one-millionth service to animals. The recipient was a poodle mix named Freeda, who Ponder ay-based Better Together Animal Alliance was able to assist with the help of Pets for Life.

Pets for Life works to increase accessibility to resources through commu nity programs that provide services like veterinary care, spay/neuter, groom ing, behavioral training, pet supplies and more at no cost to people and their pets in underserved communities. To date, over 250,000 pets have received support, includ ing critical services and supplies. Many families have received multiple services through the program.

The mission of the Pets for Life pro gram is to increase equity in access to care for all people and pets and making com panion animal welfare more inclusive, just and fair. Freeda’s service was a much-ap preciated bath and grooming. She and her human mom Janis have been BTAA clients for over a year.

“It is incredibly important that our program honors the love people have for their pets and removes barriers to pet services that far too many people face,” said Amanda Arrington, senior director of Pets for Life. “Thanks to over 50 partners across the country and our flagship markets in Los Angeles and Philadelphia, we ensure families have what they want and need for their pets. The work BTAA is doing in their Idaho community is an example of support being provided in communities across the country. We are proud of and grateful to all who have helped us reach this millionth ser vice milestone and of course, we celebrate Freeda and Janis.”

A core program of the Humane Society of the United States, Pets for Life is guided by the philosophy that a deep connection with pets transcends boundaries of socio economics, race, ethnicity and geography

and that no one should be denied the opportunity to experience the benefits, joy and comfort that come from the human-an imal bond. In underserved communities nationally, Pets for Life data shows that 70 percent of pets have never seen a veterinar ian before — not because people don’t love their pets, but because systemic poverty and structural inequities create barriers to veterinary care and pet resources similar to the challenges many people experience in accessing healthy food, education, jobs, health care and housing.

The team that runs BTAA’s Pets for Life program first met Janis in June 2021 when doing community outreach. At that time

Janis had a senior chihuahua named Baby. Through the program, over the next year, BTAA facilitated multiple veterinary visits to address eye and ear issues and provided a variety of supplies. Earlier this year, Baby developed an inoperable tumor. BTAA provided palliative care and, just a few weeks ago, was there to provide end-of-life services for Baby and support for Janis. Losing Baby makes Freeda an even more essential part of Janis’ life. BTAA and the HSUS are grateful to be part of ensuring these two are happy and healthy together for years to come.

As Janis shared, “It takes a community sometimes. I am so grateful for BTAA and Pets for Life. I don’t know what I’d do without them.”

Pets for Life has been implemented in over 50 communities across the US and is carried out by various types of partners in cluding open admission or municipal shel

ters, limited admission or private shelters, non-sheltering animal welfare groups like spay/neuter or community medicine clinics, and Native-led agencies. Since 2012, the Pets for Life program has delivered indepth mentorship, training, guidance and support, including more than $2.3 million in financial support in 2022, to these local partner organizations.

“We are proud to be a Pets for Life part ner organization,” said BTAA Executive Di rector Mandy Evans. “PFL compliments our mission of keeping pets and their families together whenever possible and enables us to serve hundreds of families each year. It is an honor to celebrate the program’s success and the million services it has provided over the years.”

Learn more about BTAA and Pets for Life at bettertogetheranimalalliance.org.

Janis and her pup Freeda were the recipients of the millionth Pets for Life service. Courtesy photo.

History on the menu

The age-old roots of a few ‘traditional’ Thanksgiving dishes

By Zach Hagadone Reader Staff

We tend to think of the foods in our Thanksgiving spread as the defi nition of “traditional” American fare — as intrinsic to our provincial identity as, well, apple pie. The historical reality, however, is that what we consider quintessential “American” dishes are actually the products of global trade and colonial invasion dating back as far as the Norman Conquest of England in 1066 CE. Meanwhile, “turkey and all the trimmings” share almost nothing in common with what the Pilgrims and their wary Wampanoag neighbors actually ate during the mythical “First Thanksgiving.”

In This Land is Their Land: The Wampanoag Indians, Plymouth Colony and the Troubled History of Thanksgiving, by historian David Silverman, the standard fare most often mentioned in the records includes corn — lots of corn, and many bushels of which the Pilgrims stole from the Wampanoags’ buried stockpiles — crabs, as evidenced by the appearance of their shells found in the Wampanoags’ summer homes, which the Pilgrims also looted while they were away in their winter abodes; and “blackfish,” or pilot whales, which a band of Pilgrims observed Wampanoags carving on the beach.

As for the actual “First Thanksgiving” menu, Silverman’s sources indicate that the celebrants probably feasted on corn; peas; fowl such as ducks, geese and probably some turkey; cod and bass; roasted or stewed venison; clams, mussels, oysters, lobsters, scallops, crab and eels; as well the Wampa

noags’ nasamup, which was boiled cornmeal mingled with vegetables, fruit and meat.

What they didn’t have were potatoes. Being indigenous to South America and the Caribbean, the tuber hadn’t made its way that far north yet. There were also no pies. Lacking any milk-producing livestock, the Pilgrims 0f 1620-’21 had no access yet to butter, nor wheat flour nor sugar. If they had dessert with their meal, it was likely fruits like red and white grapes, strawberries, gooseberries, raspberries and plums. Corn meal fry cakes with fruit or honey were probably enjoyed as a treat — a dish the English learned from the Wampanoags.

“The people’s meals during these fes tivities bore only scant resemblance to the modern Thanksgiving spread,” according to Silverman.

Put simply: “[T]he legendary First Thanksgiving meal consisted largely of wild game and seafood.”

This also wasn’t a pious gathering, it was to feast and indulge in “recreations,” including militia drilling and target shoot ing. The Pilgrims were avid beer drinkers, and also imbibed “strong water” and maybe wine, resulting in records of drink-fueled contests of speed and strength.

As Silverman writes: “Modern Ameri cans tend to imagine the Pilgrims as stern and joyless. They could be both of these things, but not on this occasion.”

While that first “Thanksgiving” was indeed a time to “rejoice together” for having survived a brutal first winter and looking

forward to a second winter with ample sup plies — and it did include the attendance of Wampanoags — it’s a miracle the latter hadn’t already wiped out the Pilgrims after they’d been pilfering their stockpiles and breaking into their homes during the previous year.

In honor of our national day of giving thanks — which has more to do with the badgering of 19th-century Godey’s La dy’s Book editor Sarah Josepha Hale, who convinced Abraham Lincoln to establish Thanksgiving as a holiday amid the Civil War in 1863, than the mythology surround ing Pilgrims and Wampanoags — here are a few examples of how America’s definitive menu is really its most international and, in some cases, commercially inspired.

Yams and potatoes

As we all know (or should know, being good Idahoans), potatoes originated in South America as many as 10,000 years ago and were introduced to European tables by the Spanish in the early 16th century. Still, what we consider to be “potatoes” today (most all with white flesh) didn’t become a staple on Euro-North American tables until the early- to mid-1700s, when the most common method of preparation was what we’d recog nized as mashed pota toes, with milk, butter, salt and cream.

Meanwhile, yams have a longer and

even more fraught history in the American diet. The first true “yam” originated in West Africa, cultivated for who-knows-howlong with especial success in the region of what came to be known as the Bight of Benin. It was from that coastal location that nyam, nyami and nyambi (all Indigenous African terms meaning “to eat”) entered the European culinary experience — though the introduction came by way of the African slave trade dating back to the 16th century.

According to an evocative history penned by Lex Pryor for theringer.com, “Slavers regarded the crop as they did the people who they aimed to make chattel: wretched and expendable.”

This first variety of yam was huge, hairy and had a different flavor than we’d identify today as “yammy.”

Yet, a bit of linguistic transfer occurred when kidnapped and enslaved Africans encountered North American sweet potatoes — actually a different tuber long cultivated on the continent — and, upon finding them similar to their native foodstuff, used the word they knew best: “yam.”

“‘[Y]am,’ a term that was spawned as a tumor of European exploitation, spread from the tuber of West Africa to the sweet potato of the Americas in conjunction with the birth and expan

The First Thanksgiving at Plymouth, oil on canvas, by Jennie Augusta Brownscombe, 1914. Courtesy image. Photos on Page 17 are also courtesy images.

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16 >

sion of the slave trade,” Pryor wrote. “And its usage continued long past enslavement for so many years and so many lives that Americans white and Black not only forgot where the word came from, but that it came from anywhere at all.”

No matter what you call it, the crop was considered “plantation food” until, as Pryor has it, ear ly-20th century marketers decided to elevate its place at the table and, by the 1950s, the yam (now referred to interchangeably with the sweet potato) had been “cer tified Americana.” Yet its journey to North American Thanksgiving feasts is so intricately tied to the slave trade that slaving voyages would be timed around the tuber’s harvest cycle — a cheap, nutri tious, hardy and native staple to keep captured Africans alive on their long journey into servitude across the Atlantic from their homes.

(Read Pryor’s piece “The Deep and Twisted Roots of the Ameri can Yam” at theringer.com.)

‘Candied’ foods

Glazing carrots and yams, or sweet potatoes, with honey or var ious varieties of sugar is time-hon ored, though the innovation of adding marshmallows to the latter tubers is much newer.

According to Boston Maga zine, that twist on the recipe came in 1917, when the advertising arm of Angelus Marshmallow hired Bostonian cook Janet McKenzie Hill to invent some new uses for their product. She’s the one responsible both for “sweet potato casserole,” as well as the conven tion of putting marshmallows in your hot chocolate. (However, Boston Magazine notes, a version of candied yams appeared in an 1896 cookbook.)

That’s not to say the dish is universally loved. Southern ers, who had been eating sweet potatoes for a much longer span of time, thought the marshmallow topping was literally over the top. Northerners, meanwhile, were attracted by the innovation of industrially puffed sugar on their veggies, and so quickly adopted the dish.

Cranberries

from the first waves of German migrants to North America, most of whom came as indentured servants hoping to fulfill their labor obligations in exchange for farmland.

Cranberries coupled with turkey — the most American of wild fowl, which Benjamin Franklin famously preferred over the bald eagle as the United States’ national bird — almost certainly predated the Revolutionary War, with one standard recipe appear ing in a 1796 cookbook that called for roasting turkey with “boiled onions and cranberry-sauce.” Interestingly, this same cookbook suggested serving turkey along side pickled mangoes, which had become trendy in the late-18th century with their importation to North America from India. Glo balization for the win.

Cider

Celtic Brit ons drinking a fermented beverage made from crabap ples. Likewise, peoples living in the northern regions of the Iberian Pen insula (a.k.a., present-day Spain and Portugal) were drinking sidra before the Common Era.

The notion of smothering vegetables (especially root vegetables) in sugary substances is actually pretty old. Historians agree that at least as early as 1597 — following the introduction of North American sweet potatoes to European palates earlier in the century — English cooking instructions for them included the use of wine or boiled prunes to amp up the tuber’s inherent sweetness.

Sugar as a commodity took Europe by storm in the late-Mid dle Ages and early-Renaissance. King Henry VIII had a notorious sweet tooth, keeping his sugar supply under armed guard and employing a personal confectioner who would form sugar into elab orate shapes (including plates, on which further sugary dishes would be served for a decadent, tooth-de stroying dessert).

Thanksgiving’s signature sauce is unique in that it spans the northern Atlantic World, and has probably the longest legitimate pedigree of any dish we still consume to celebrate the holiday. The bitter little berry is endemic to both Europe and North America. Indigenous peoples in North Amer ica grew, gathered and consumed cranberries, as did medieval Britons, who referred to them as “moss-berries,” owing to their prevalence in bogs.

According to The Wash ington Post, one record from 1672 indicated, “Indians and English use it much, boyling them with Sugar for a Sauce to eat with their Meat.”

The word “cranberry” actually has Germanic roots, corrupted from “kranberee,” in refer ence to the plant’s long stamens, which curve like the neck of a crane. English colonists in the 1600s adopted that name

What’s a feast without some thing to wash it down? Beer, of course, is almost prehistorically old. Wine is likewise integral to the human experience. But cider — especially made from fer mented apples — has its own long history, and one that is much more specifically tied to Europe, Euro peans’ invasion of North America, and its subsequent association with Euro-Americans’ founding traditions and earliest celebrations.

According to the Washing ton State University College of Agricultural, Human and Nat ural Resource Sciences, Julius Caesar wrote in 55 BCE of the

How fermented apple cider came to North America has to do with that long British tradition of cider drinking. First the Celts, but, more recently, following the Norman Conquest of England in 1066. The French invaders subsequently introduced a number of apple varieties to England, spurring a boom in hard cider production, which had been (and continues to be) a highly popular beverage in the western-most areas of France, such as Brittany, and throughout the British Isles.

Historians, including at Washington State, note that the Plymouth, Mass. colonists of 1620 planted apple trees within their first decade in North America, immedi ately commencing to turn their yield into a boozy beverage that for more than 200 years would be the commonest tipple among Europeans on the continent. (According to

an article from The Washington Post, residents of the Massachu setts Colony consumed about 35 gallons of cider per person. That’s probably low. For more, read The Alcoholic Republic: An American Tradition by historian W.J. Rora baugh.)

That all changed with the upswing in beer consumption in the mid-19th century of German and Irish immigrants, as well as the baleful conquest of whiskey, which helped fuel the Temperance Movement and later Prohibition in the early-20th century.

Still, cider remains rooted in Americans’ minds as a traditional autumnal tipple, and, for that, we can be thankful to the ancient Celts and Medieval Normans.

events

November 23-Dec. 1, 2022

wednesDAY, November 23

Live Piano w/ Jason Evans 5-7pm @ Pend d’Oreille Winery

Live Music w/ John Firshi 7pm @ Eichardt’s Pub

Hoot Owl Free Dinner

11am-3pm @ Hoot Owl

First come, first serve. To go orders available after 1pm. Traditional Thanksgiving dinner

The Burger Dock’s Giving Thanks 3-6pm @ The Burger Dock

The 4th annual free food event!

Free meals include burger, sweet potato fries and pumpkin pie.

THURSDAY, November 24

Trivia Night

5-8pm @ Paddler’s Alehouse Prizes include free beer, appetizers, swag and more

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Annual Turkey Trot (hosted by Litehouse YMCA and Spt. Parks & Rec

9am @ Travers Park, 1202 W. Pine St.

A low key, untimed run for all ages. Run or walk 5K, 10K or whatever distance you want (no bikes please). Race is free with donation to the Food Bank. Best costume wins a pie! Arrive early to sign waiver

FriDAY, November 25

Tree Lighting and Santa’s arrival

5pm @ Jeff Jones Town Square

There will be choral singing, warm refreshments and the lighting of the grand Christmas tree. A visit from Santa will open the holiday season in Sandpoint

Live Music w/ Bridges Home

5-8pm @ Pend d’Oreille Winery A magical night of local music

Live Music w/ Kevin Dorin 7pm @ Eichardt’s Pub

A different take on the blues

Live Music w/ BTP 6:30-9:30pm @ MickDuff’s Beer Hall Classic rock superstars

Holiday Fest at Annie’s Orchard 10am-2pm @ Annie’s Orchard Antiques Nov. 25-Dec 4, with Santa visiting Dec. 2-3. Fresh trees, wreaths and gifts, local artistry. 208-264-8606 for info

SATURDAY, November 26

Live Music w/ Headwaters 9pm-midnight @ 219 Lounge Multi-genre mountain music

Old-Time Fiddler’s Association

monthly jam session

3-5pm @ Sandpoint Senior Center Up to 20 musicians show up to play for an audience free!

Live Music w/ Ken Mayginnes

5:30-8pm @ Drift (Hope)

Shook Twins annual Giving Thanks concert 7pm @ Panida Theater (Doors open at 6pm)

The annual nostalgic coming home party where friends meet again on stage and in the audience to share in a great night of music and laughter. Featuring Sandpoint’s own Shook Twins, with fan favorite John Craigie and Harold’s IGA opening. $25/advance, $28/day of. panida.org

Live Music w/ Zachary Simms 6-9pm @ MickDuff’s Beer Hall Alternative

SunDAY, November 27

Sandpoint Chess Club • 9am @ Evans Brothers Coffee Meets every Sunday at 9am

monDAY, November 28

Monday Night Blues Jam w/ John Firshi

7pm @ Eichardt’s Pub

Live concert: Dead Horses

7-10pm @ Heartwood Center

Traveling folk band. For more info: heartwoodsandpoint.com or read Page 20 for an article

Live Music w/ Doug and Marty 5-8pm @ Pend d’Oreille Winery Guitar mandolin duo

LPO Repertory Theatre has performance opportunities for ages 8 to 85 this winter

By Reader Staff

LPO Rep has partnered with The Pend Oreille Arts Council to provide a tuition-free theater production program for students ages 8-17. The program is called Winter One-Acts and details/ enrollment can be found at www. lporep.com/education.

Additionally, LPO Rep’s next main stage show is Into the Woods, and auditions are December 5-6. Audition sign-ups and details can be found at www. lporep.com/events.

Please feel free to contact Courtney Roberts with any ques tions or if additional information is needed at 541-631-9555.

Chamber and city of Sandpoint collaborate on tree lighting ceremony

By Reader Staff

The Greater Sandpoint Chamber of Commerce and the city of Sandpoint will once again kick off the holiday season with a tree lighting ceremony, this

year scheduled for 6 p.m., Fri day, Nov. 25, at Jeff Jones Town Square (323 S. Third Ave.).

Bundle up and bring the kid to greet Santa as he comes to light the tree. Cookies, hot cocoa and cider will be available.

Group Run @ Outdoor Experience

6pm @ Outdoor Experience 3-5 miles, all levels welcome, beer after

tuesDAY, November 29

wednesDAY, November 30

Live Piano w/ Bob Beadling

5-7pm @ Pend d’Oreille Winery

Contemporary music on the grand

ThursDAY, december 1

Bonner Classical Academy Interest Meeting 6pm @ The Envision Center, 130 McGhee Rd. Ste #220 Meetings held first Thursdays Sept-Dec. BCA will open an elementary school in fall 2023 and will add a grade every year until it becomes K-12. Come meet and learn about the school. info@bonnerclassicalacademy.com

Trivia Night

5-8pm @ Paddler’s Alehouse

Prizes include free beer, appetizers, swag and more

Sip

and Shop for Boy’s B-Ball

4-8pm @ Pend d’Oreille Winery

A percentage of proceeds from the evening will benefit the SHS basketball team

The English is a brilliant, hard-edged Western

By Zach Hagadone Reader Staff

After a lifetime of watching Western movies, there came a line in the 2015 independent film Bone Tomahawk (starring Kurt Russell) that altered my view not only of the genre, but the time period itself. Amid a series of unfortunate events trig gered by casual murder, arro gance and ignorance — eventu ally involving cannibals — one character in Bone Tomahawk says with obvious exasperation, “This is why frontier life is so difficult. Not because of the Indians or the elements, but because of the idiots.”

It’s a deadpan comedic state ment that punctures and imme diately deflates the stereotypical “Western saga,” filled as it is with the gaseous self-important hokum that supports settler-colonial rac ism and stupidity masquerading as prideful “independence.”

I kept thinking of that phrase — “because of the idiots” — when I avidly binged the six-part joint BBC-Amazon miniseries The English, which premiered in early November; though, instead of “the idiots,” it was “because of the killers and thieves.”

That’s a sentiment shared by the titular “English” — Lady Cornelia Locke (Emily Blunt), who travels from her stately-yetgrim British manor to the plains of North America in search of vengeance against the man who killed her son. (How exactly this man committed the murder, and the circumstances surrounding it, is critical to the plot, so you won’t get any more details here.)

At one point, after encounter ing nothing but wanton murder, cruelty and bald avarice among nearly every person she en counters on the landscape, Lady Locke wonders aloud, “It cannot be that this whole country is nothing but killers and thieves.”

Well, to a certain extent, it can be.

In the time and place The English drops viewers — the

American Midwest of the 1890s — all bets are off. Uniformed soldiers roam the countryside acting as de facto death squads, ostensibly serving a continental imperial project but more often killing because they can and want to. Bushwackers operate like Medieval bandits. Little conmen serve big conmen; the latter committing petty grifts and betrayals for short-term personal gain, and the former spinning larger, more lethal graft into the establishment of towns where they can rule with illegal impunity.

With the buffalo mostly ex tinct and the Indigenous peoples squeezed onto ever-shrinking allotments of their former land, greed and arrogant ignorance run the range. Even people we’d like to assume are ordinarily “good” are forced into evil deeds just to survive. This is the “Wild West” not as Americans are used to see ing it, but as an outsider — Brit ish director Hugo Blick — has evocatively rendered it. I have to say, his version rings closer to the truth than our typical “whitehat/black-hat” redemption tale of “taming” the “wilderness.”

The English is far more com plex than that, turning on the re lationship between Lady Locke and Wounded Wolf, a.k.a. Eli Whipp, who is conflicted by his dual existence as a former-U.S. cavalry scout and member of the Pawnee Tribe. His impeccable military career earned him the (mostly grudging) respect of the whites with whom he served, but only so long as he’s wearing the uniform. Without it, he’s just an other “Indian” — a fact that he’s reminded of constantly, as he strikes out post-service to claim the land the government should owe him, but which everyone (both white soldiers and the In digenous people he encounters) tell him is “not for you.”

Locke meets Whipp in one of those piratical settlements set up by a local robber baron, where he’s been beaten and bound for the crime of simply where and

who he is. The two outsiders make a partnership of conve nience that turns into much more as they navigate the slaughter house that settler-colonialism has made of the Great Plains. Despite the thematic ugliness

inherent in The English, it is gorgeous to behold. Landscapes, costuming, music, casting and acting are all captivating in their various ways.

The English is a romance, but it’s not in love with the same

things as most Westerns — it’s after something more real. Stream it

on Amazon Prime.

Emily Blunt and Chaske Spencer in Amazon’s western series The English Courtesy photo.

A little grunge, a lot of growth

Dead Horses to play Heartwood on Nov. 30

By Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey Reader Staff

Sarah Vos, vocalist and guitarist for the Milwaukee, Wisconsin-based Dead Horses, describes the folk band’s 2022 album Brady Street as a “com ing-of-age” work. It’s a telling sentiment, encapsulating Dead Horses’ commitment to evolving as artists and as people.

“Previously we had been touring relentlessly and covering some serious miles since around 2015. It’s the general strategy for bands trying to make it: play as many shows as you can, open as many shows as you can, and grow at all costs,” Vos said, add ing that while this period in the band’s history was fun and edu cational, the pandemic brought a time of largely idle reflection.

“We became more deliberate in our arrangements, and we de cided to produce this new album ourselves,” Vos said. “Personally, the theme of vul nerability within art became much more significant to me. I guess I can’t say exactly why. I have always loved music-making as a form of

Dead Horses

expression, as a safe place to say or do really anything, but in these last couple of years I’ve valued vulnerability within art even more.”

“Vulnerability” is certainly a term at top of mind while listen ing to Dead Horses, which layers acoustic guitar, upright bass and drums with Vos’ soothing vocals to create a sound that blurs the lines between straight-up Ameri cana, poignant singer-songwriter and possibly just a hint of grun ge. Above all, according to bass ist Dan Wolff, live performance drives the band’s creativity.

“You know, people playing the instrumentation in an authen tic way that you hear it on their albums,” he said. “I see Dead Horses as a live band. That’s what we try to capture in the studio.”

@ the Heartwood

Wednesday, Nov. 30; doors open at 7 p.m., music starts at 8 p.m.; tickets are $20 in advance at mattoxfarm.com, or $25 at the door and $10 for youth; Heartwood Center, 615 Oak St.; listen and learn more about the band at deadhorses.net.

Sandpoint will get its first chance to experience that inspiration in person when Dead Horses plays the Heart wood Center on Wednesday, Nov. 30. The doors will open at 7 p.m. and the music starts at 8 p.m. Eichardt’s Pub will be on hand to sell refreshments.

Touring has always been a

staple of Dead Horse’s identity, as the group is known to play more than 100 dates each year.

“We both find that the actual playing of music is the best part of touring, and we have a shared desire to play well and be aware and present for every song, every show,” Vos said. “There is a beauty in the balance between spontaneity and familiarity while performing, and I think we’ve only just begun to dip our toes in that.”

That sense of imminent growth — again, that theme of evolving as artists — is clear in

talking to both Vos and Wolff.

“We enjoy sharing music and the thrill of playing live with an audience makes it a new expe rience every time,” Wolff said, adding later: “The chemistry between Sarah and I has grown tremendously over the years. We went from playing with 5-6 peo ple onstage to just her and I [and sometimes a drummer]. I really enjoy her creative spirit and the way she performs her songs for people. Performing live always seems a little like an experiment, and when everything is click ing just right it’s a really good

feeling.”

The Heartwood Center gig is the band’s second stop on a 14-show tour of the West before Christmas. It’s another leg in a musical journey that the listener can’t help but feel is only getting started.

“Each album has really been a bit of a different thing for us,” Wolff said. “Hopefully that newness is something that keeps driving the way we create songs for future recordings.”

Sarah Vos and Dan Wolff of Dead Horses. Courtesy photo.

MUSIC

A hometown holiday

By Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey Reader Staff

There is an energy in live music that seems impossible to capture on a record. When a musician truly connects with an audience, a conversation takes place without any exchange of words. That connection hangs in the air, floating on each note and lyric, and lingers long after the instruments are packed up and the venue shut down.

When you attend a Shook Twins “Giving Thanks” show at the Panida Theater, you experi ence that connection on an expo nential level.

That might be because it was one of the first stages where the band’s frontwomen Laurie and Katelyn Shook performed for their hometown community. It also might be because their annual Thanksgiving-week show is so highly anticipated by the friends and family who remain based in North Idaho. It’s also possible that the unbridled energy and rap port stem from the fact that the twins are simply very good at what they do.

Most likely, it’s a combina tion of all of the

Shook Twins

above.

“Seeing our parents and chosen family dancing and singing to our songs is an ineffably fulfilling moment as artists,” Laurie told the Reader

Shook Twins will play the 12th annual “Giving Thanks” concert at the Panida on Saturday, Nov. 26 at 7 p.m. Doors open an hour before the music, which will feature openers Harold’s IGA, a local three-piece known for its multi-in strumentalist indie rock flair, and Portland singer-songwriter and comic storyteller John Craigie. Tickets are $25 in advance and $28 the day of the show.

This particular gig has grown into a labor of love, Katelyn said.

“We prioritize this show every year because it is so rewarding,” she said, adding that, despite all the hard work required to both promote and perform the “Giving Thanks” show, “all those hours of logistics and stress always turns into this grand explosion of love once we hit the stage.”

“Giving Thanks” show ft. John Craigie and Harold’s IGA

Saturday, Nov. 26; tickets are $25 in advance at panida.org/ event/shook-twins-giving-thanks, or $28 at the door; doors open at 6 p.m., music starts at 7 p.m.; Panida Theater, 300 N. First Ave.; 208-263-9191.

“It’s so fun for us to get to curate the entire night and choose exactly who we want to work with, too,” she added. “And playing a show to your hometown community is really special to us and fills our cup so

much more than far away shows.”

The Shooks, with Laurie based in Portland and Katelyn in Sandpoint, will be bringing their full band to the Panida show, enabling them to show off the full power of their signature indie folk pop, achieved through both folk instrumentation — think banjo and mandolin — and pop elements like electric guitar, keys, electronic drums and some of the cleanest harmonies you’ve ever heard.

“As we continue to play with these amazing bandmates and we all continue to grow individually as musicians, our groove gets deeper,” Laurie said. “We are more comfortable in the songs and they come easier, which gives us more trust in each other and the tunes. We have such a good team lately and the shows have been feeling so great.”

The “Giving Thanks” concert will once again benefit the Panida Theater, with proceeds from ticket sales and limited edition com memorative posters going toward ongoing efforts to fund the nearly 100-year-old venue. Katelyn currently serves on the Panida Board, highlighting the musicians’ commitment to their hometown.

Both Katelyn and Laurie are eager to share their gratitude for their community the best way they know how: through their art.

“We can’t tell you all how much your support of us and our music has basically kept us going over the years,” Laurie said when asked what else locals should know ahead of the “Giving Thanks” show. “We love you Sandpoint! Always.”

A snapshot of notable live music coming up in Sandpoint

Bridges Home, Pend d’Oreille Winery, Nov. 25 Headwaters, 219 Lounge, Nov. 26

You know that warm, fuzzy feeling you get when driving home across the Long Bridge after being away for a while? That’s what it’s like listening to Bridges Home live. They chose their band name well.

This multi-instrumental trio of Dave, Tami and Paul Gunter offers a pleasant array of origi nal tunes that cross genres from high energy Celtic, old-time and bluegrass, lowdown Delta blues

and foot-stomping roots/Ameri cana. Be prepared for a haunting Irish ballad or two, as well.

It’s always a good time watching Dave, Tami and Paul make beautiful music.

— Ben Olson

5-8 p.m., FREE. Pend d’Oreille Winery, 301 Cedar St., 208-265-8545, powine.com. Listen at reverbnation.com/ bridgeshome.

They began as BareGrass, but a series of evolutions has brought us Sandpoint’s latest good-time bluegrass band, Headwaters.

Featuring John Edwards on the stand-up bass, Jared Johnston on guitar, Mick Taylor on drums and John Firshi playing lead guitar, Headwaters turns out a new dimension of bluegrass that incorporates a bit of the blues, forming a comfortable, easy-go ing sound that pairs beautifully

with a glass of whiskey or pint of heady beer.

Headwaters plays the mu sic that rings true. It meanders through genres and styles, but always remains true to the high-mountains sound that sur rounds us here in North Idaho.

—Ben Olson

8 p.m., FREE. 219 Lounge, 219 N. First Ave., 208-263-5673, 219.bar.

This week’s RLW by Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey

READ

Having a mom as an elementary school librarian has ensured that my Scholastic Book Fair years never ended. I shop for books to give as Christmas gifts, as well as a treat or two for myself. This year’s book fair fea tured a new genre of YA novel: sto ries about kids in the COVID era. One book — Rez Dogs by Joseph Bruchac — uses poetic verse to tell the story of a girl who is visit ing her grandparents on a Wabana ki reservation when the pandemic hits. I’m just a couple of pages in and very intrigued so far.

LISTEN

For Josi ah and the Bonnevilles, any song can be a country song. That philosophy appears to be working well for the independent band, as each pop song cover takes on new (dare I say improved?) life as soon as front man Josiah Leming applies his signature twang. While the band’s covers of Glass Animals and Tay lor Swift songs might be putting them on the map, its originals are even more special. Check out “Sto len Love” and “Blood Moon.”

WATCH

Welcome back to another in stallment of “Movies Lyndsie Should Have Seen a Long Time Ago.” This time: Men in Black Let us set aside our feelings about Will Smith accosting Chris Rock (not cool) and remember how in credibly charismatic and influential he was at the turn of the millenia. Combine him with surly Tommy Lee Jones and the larger-than-life world of extraterrestrial shenani gans and we have a winning com bination.

From left to right: Laurie Shook, John Craigie and Katelyn Shook. Courtesy photo.

Shook Twins, with friends John Craigie and Harold’s IGA, to play 12th annual ‘Giving Thanks’ show at the Panida

From Northern Idaho News, November 17, 1914

ATTACKS OFFICER, GETS BULLET IN THIGH

An unknown man was shot in the thigh last night by Deputy Sheriffs Spoor and George Bush while resisting arrest some four miles from Wrencoe today.

Last evening a man came into Wrencoe who said he had entered a cabin about four miles out to ask a question and the man had run him out with an axe. The description of the man in the cabin tallied with that of the Finn for whom the officers were searching, so they set out to get him with E.A. Shear as a guide.

At the cabin, Bush under took to see that the man did not escape from the rear of the cabin while Spoor went in the front door. The man at tacked Spoor with an axe and forced his way past him and attempted to get away. He was brought down by a shot in the thigh, both officers firing and not knowing which hit him, according to advices received by Sheriff Remer today.

The wounded man was tak en to the hospital at Laclede as soon as possible where he was given a half dozen different names and has been so unruly that he is being brought into Sandpoint for care. His wound is not dangerous. He is not the Finn wanted for the Laclede murder.

BACK OF THE BOOK

By Sandy Compton Reader Columnist

I am keeping my promise not to write about politics for a while; and it may be forever. It seems moot. We are stuck in a political and ideological quagmire, and it appears we will re main so for a while. It might be better to explore something we can agree on, if it can be found.

’Tis a nice day, as I write; sparkling blue skies over a light frosting of snow. Fall has frozen right into winter after an extra-long summer. The tamaracks and maples seem somewhat confused, but they’ll get over it. Hopefully, we will too.

Sometime before summer — maybe February — I began reading the booster seat edition of the American Heritage Dictionary It’s a large book, with XLIV introductory pages (time to review your Roman numerals) plus 2,140 pages designated by Arabic num bers, including the appendix (this one is not a tube-shaped sac attached to an opening into the lower end of the large intestine in humans and some other mammals). And, FYI, Arabic numbers likely originated in India, and didn’t replace Roman numerals until about 1200 CE (Common Era).

I’m going through the dictionary word by word, some of which I already know, many of which I don’t and a number of which I will never ever remember. Example: hypereutectic: adj. having the minor component present in a larger amount than in the eutectic composi tion of the same components. Clear as mud.

And “hypereutectic” isn’t all that hard. Just look up “eutectic,” right? Maybe. Some times, I have to look up three words to have an idea of what the original might mean. And don’t get me started on math terms. Still, as a writer and lover of words — not all of them, you understand — I am enjoying my trip through the letters.

The letter beginning the most words

On the dictionary

in English is “S.” In second place is “C.” Thanks to an eternity in “C,” and a summer that prevented diligent dictionary reading, I am working my way though “I” as winter de scends. Ahead of me is an incredible selection of words beginning with “i-n.” And, right after “inwrought” is “Io,” a mythological maiden Zeus was enamored of and got turned into a cow by Zeus’s jealous wife, Hera, who was, oddly enough, also Zeus’s sister.

Those Greek gods and goddesses were such nice people, always killing one another, fooling around with their siblings and their friends’ significant others, and making brash promises that turned out to be the height of ironic tragedy. Reminds me of television dra ma, and well it should. The formula — “and then everybody died” — still seems to work. Whoever said, “There is nothing new under the sun,” was referring to human behavior and they said it a long, long time ago.

In fact, there is a new movie being touted by entertainment land entitled Violent Night — a riff on the name of a familiar Christmas hymn. The film seems to feature a homicidal Santa smashing things — and maybe people — with a sledgehammer. I didn’t pay attention to the trailer, and I will never pay to watch such bull-pucky (not in the dictionary). But, what a fine example it is of the holiday spirit as celebrated in America today. You know, unbridled commercialism.

Oops. I might be getting too close to poli tics for comfort. Sorry. Back to the dictionary.

Some of the most fascinating entries are about famous people, real and fictional — witness Io — with short descriptions of their lives. The entries often include the dates of birth and death of the real ones, by which one can infer — with a little simple arithmetic — how long these folks lived. Some of the biggest names didn’t make it far as I have, or half as far. Alexander the Great, for instance — overachiever that he was — was a goner

Sudoku Solution STR8TS Solution

at 33 (356-323 BCE [Before Common Era]). It seems he might have been poisoned. A lot of his fellow rulers (emperors, kings, queens, czars, dictators and despots) met similar fates, many of them while doling out the same.

Were the mythologizers ascribing to the gods what they saw in human behavior or were the humans taking their lead from my thology? It’s hard to tell, like the chicken and the egg. But why does the chicken always end up guillotined and the egg smashed by a Santa with a sledgehammer?

Personally, I like happy endings. Turning to the end of the dictionary (it’s not really cheating; the plot is nonexistent), I see that the second to the last word is zymurgy: n. the branch of chemistry that deals with the fermentation process, as in brewing. Zymur gy was discovered long before Hera turned Io into a heifer, and led to what I believe are happy discoveries — like beer and wine.

Maybe we can agree on that.

Crossword Solution

When he was a little boy, he had always wanted to be an acrobat. It looked like so much fun, spinning through the air, flipping, landing on other people’s shoulders. Little did he know that when he finally did be come an acrobat, it would seem so boring.

Years later, after he finally quit, he found out he hadn’t been working as an acrobat after all. He had just been a street weirdo.

Laughing Matter

Solution on page 22

By Bill Borders

CROSSWORD

ACROSS

1.It has a palm and fingers 5.Besmirch 10.Travel on foot 14.Away from the wind 15.Deadly snake 16.A Great Lake 17.Prophetic 19.At the peak of 20.Before, in poetry 21.Companionless 22.Exhausted 23.Soccer goal scorer 25.Distant 27.Crimson 28.Water removal 31.S S S 34.Goblet 35.Weep 36.Neighbor of Vietnam 37.Fake 38.Eye infection (variant spelling) 39.Arrange (abbrev.) 40.Mitt 41.Speech defects 42.Sobriquet 44.Purge 45.Wash out with a solvent 46.First book of the Bible 50.Infectious agent 52.More than once 54.North-northwest 55.Decorated, as a cake 56.Tombstone

DOWN

1.Rabbits 2.Ready for anything 3.Not at any time 4.D 5.Climbed 6.Engine 7.Anagram of “Bone” 8.Overdue payment

Solution on page 22

Solution on page 22 9.Beam 10.A knife or gun 11.Antiquities (Br. sp.) 12.King of the jungle 13.Retained 18.Bodies of water 22.Earth 24.Angers 26.Been in bed 28.Pilot a car 29.Grasp 30.Visual