JAIL BREAK COVID-19 RUNS RAMPANT BEHIND BARS PAGE 12
BRING ON THE SNOW GIFTS, EVENTS AND MORE IN SNOWLANDER PAGE 25
DOMESTIC TERRORISM THE LATEST ON THE ATTACK ON LOCAL DEMS PAGE 16
DECEMBER 17-23, 2020 | NEAR NATURE. BUT NOT LOST.
Your streaming guide for unsung Christmas classics, Scrooge-friendly hits and this year’s Oscar hopefuls
SEASON’S Jamie Foxx stars in Pixar’s latest, Soul
SCREENINGS PAGE 20
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INSIDE VOL. 28, NO. 10 | COVER DESIGN: DEREK HARRISON
COMMENT NEWS COVER STORY SNOWLANDER
5 12 20 25
CULTURE FOOD FILM MUSIC
41 45 50 52
EVENTS I SAW YOU GREEN ZONE ADVICE GODDESS
54 56 57 62
EDITOR’S NOTE
L
et’s accept it: Christmas in quarantine is going to be weird. And a little sad. And, if we embrace it, maybe ENTERTAINING in ways we didn’t expect. So, give yourself a break, ditch the usual guilt and make the best of it. Maybe it’s time to bake some top-notch holiday cookies (page 45). Or snuggle under a fuzzy blanket and host your own movie marathon of unsung Christmas classics, Scrooge-friendly hits and this year’s Oscar hopefuls (page 20). Or crank up the jingle bells (page 52) and, if you’re so inclined, stop to smell some flower (page 57). There’s always fresh mountain air as you cut through stashes of powder (page 25). Or, if you’re me, it’s sledding in the backyard in my pajamas, bottomless mimosas and fort-building with blankets and cardboard boxes. — JACOB H. FRIES, Editor
INSIDE THE WALLS PAGE 12
NOT IN MY CITY PAGE 18
C IS FOR COOKIE PAGE 45
YULETIDE TRACKS PAGE 52
ElementsMassage_SpreadCheerGiftCard_110520_3H_
• dining • • shopping • • culture •
PAGE 34
INLANDER
SPOKANE • EASTERN WASHINGTON • NORTH IDAHO • INLANDER.COM
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MAC’s
Ho-ho-holiday
Celebration
Saturdays, 4-6 pm Dec 19 & 26 Holiday family fun at the MAC northwestmuseum.org
Festive lights and some arts and culture-style activities - all outdoors! Vintage Crescent Department Store window display Scavenger hunt Campbell House Holidays video along with the cook’s pre-packaged sugar cookies Museum store open for holiday shopping Register in advance. Suggested donation $5.
DECEMBER 17, 2020 INLANDER 3
LET lOCAL lOCAL ARt ARt LIGHT LIGHT
YOUR HoLIDaY Spokane’s artists haven’t stopped creating, and we shouldn’t stop supporting them. It’s up to us to to keep our culture thriving!
E X PLO R E WHAT LO CAL CR EATO R S A RE U P TO AT
L I V E LO C A L I N W.C O M
Pictured: Pottery Place Plus on N Washington
Pictured: From Here inside River Park Square
Pictured: New Moon Art Gallery on E Sprague
This program is funded by Spokane County CARES Act dollars
4 INLANDER DECEMBER 17, 2020
COMMENT STAFF DIRECTORY PHONE: 509-325-0634 Ted S. McGregor Jr. (tedm@inlander.com)
WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE, OR LEAST FAVORITE, HOLIDAY SONG?
PUBLISHER
CHRISTINA WEBER: “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” sung by Judy Garland. The song just wants you to be happy and light and her voice is so soothing, like your mom singing to you when you’re a kid and letting you know that whatever is wrong in the world is going to work out in the end.
J. Jeremy McGregor (x224) GENERAL MANAGER
EDITORIAL Jacob H. Fries (x261) EDITOR
Dan Nailen (x239)
MANAGING EDITOR/ARTS & CULTURE
Chey Scott (x225) FOOD & LISTINGS EDITOR Nathan Weinbender (x250) FILM & MUSIC EDITOR
Derek Harrison (x248) ART DIRECTOR
Chris Frisella
COPY EDITOR
Wilson Criscione (x282), Daniel Walters (x263), Samantha Wohlfeil (x234) STAFF WRITERS
Young Kwak
PHOTOGRAPHER
Caleb Walsh
ILLUSTRATOR
Amy Alkon, John Grollmus, Bob Legasa, Will Maupin, Alex Sakariassen, Jonathan Thompson CONTRIBUTORS
Lauren Gilmore INTERN
ADVERTISING Kristi Gotzian (x215) ADVERTISING DIRECTOR Carolyn Padgham-Walker (x214), Emily Walden (x260) SENIOR ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES Mary Bookey (x216), Jeanne Inman (x235), Rich McMahon (x241), Autumn Adrian Potts (x251) Claire Price (x217), Wanda Tashoff (x222) ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES
Kristina Smith (x223) MARKETING DIRECTOR Houston Tilley (x247)
EVENTS & PROMOTIONS ASSISTANT
PRODUCTION & SUPPORT Wayne Hunt (x232) DESIGN & PRODUCTION DIRECTOR Ali Blackwood (x228) CREATIVE LEAD
Derrick King (x238), Tom Stover (x265) SENIOR GRAPHIC DESIGNERS
Jessie Hynes (x231)
GRAPHIC DESIGNER
Frank DeCaro (x226) CIRCULATION MANAGER Travis Beck
CIRCULATION SUPERVISOR
Jess Kennedy (x212) ADVERTISING SUPPORT
OPERATIONS Dee Ann Cook (x211) BUSINESS MANAGER Kristin Wagner (x210) ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE
EDITOR’S NOTE
Normally, we ask our question of the week of people we randomly encounter on the street. But with the coronavirus pandemic, we instead asked our followers on social media to share their thoughts.
MELODY DAINES: My favorite is “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” by Barenaked Ladies & Sarah McLachlan. They put their own spin on a stuffy old classic and made it really fun. I can’t hold still when I hear it. BRIGETTE COLE: Favorite is a tossup between “Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy” by Bing Crosby and David Bowie and “Mele Kalikimaka” by Bing Crosby with the Andrew Sisters. PAUL RICHARD STAVE: “Merry Christmas, Here’s to Many More” by Relient K. Optimistic song about dealing with holiday depression. No, it’s really good.
PURCHASE YOUR STREAM TICKET AT WWW.SPOKANECIVICTHEATER.COM STARRING JEFFERSON MAYS ADAPTED BY JEFFERSON MAYS, SUSAN LYONS, MICHAEL ARDEN PRODUCTION CONCEIVED BY MICHAEL ARDEN & DANE LAFFREY DIRECTED BY MICHAEL ARDEN
KRISTINA MARIE: My favorite is “Merry Christmas, Darling” by the Carpenters. The Carpenters’ Christmas Portrait is usually the first and last Christmas album my mom plays every year and it’s been that way my whole life, so it has stuck with me. ANDI UTIGARD: My favorite is “White Christmas” by Bing Crosby. It makes my heart feel like I am home even if I am hundreds of miles away. My least favorite is “Little Drummer Boy;” there is no way that the brandnew baby Jesus smiled at him, and who thought drums would be a good gift for a brand-new baby? TRINA CLEVELAND-HORAN: “Last Christmas” is my least favorite because it is so overplayed, repetitive, cheesy, and the only version I barely tolerate is by Wham! My favorite song is by Andy Williams called “Christmas Bells.” GAVIN RIDER: The worst is “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” by Brenda Lee. I worked in a record store for years, and this song is on every holiday CD compilation ever pressed. So, every 30 minutes the disc changer would change, and we’d hear it again. And again. n
Text/Chat Questions, but can’t go into a health center? Chat with an educator today! Get your questions answered from a health educator. Chat online or text “PPNOW” to 774636 (PPINFO)/plannedparenthood.org
DECEMBER 17, 2020 INLANDER 5
COMMENT | ENVIRONMENT
Joe Biden has an opportunity to rebuild better than before.
Introducing
Aymen El-Khatib DDS, Dentist
Dr. Aymen El-Khatib’s interest in high-quality dental care led him to the United States. His passion for helping patients and getting to know them, led him here, to Unify Community Health. Dr. El-Khatib enjoys educating patients on proper dental hygiene, and working with the patient to create treatment plans. His favorite visit is the first visit where he gets to know you, your goals for your dental health, and helps you set a plan for treatment.
Now accepting new patients.
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6 INLANDER DECEMBER 17, 2020
yvfwc.com
The Task Ahead
GAGE SKIDMORE PHOTO
Biden needs to go beyond a Trump reset BY JONATHAN THOMPSON
I
n early 2017, not long after President Donald J. Trump moved into the White House, his chief advisor, Steve Bannon, said that the administration’s aim was the “deconstruction of the administrative state.” A charitable listener might have heard a run-of-the-mill libertarian goal, to downsize the bloated government in order to make room for personal liberties. It has since become clear that Trump cared more about freedom for government and corporations — and for that matter, COVID-19 — to run rampant. Perhaps nowhere was Trump’s approach more thorough than when it comes to the Earth. He removed limits on mercury and methane emissions, incapacitated the Clean Water Act
and gutted protections for the Tongass National Forest in Alaska, to name just a few of nearly 100 rollbacks. All purportedly to help the economy, achieve “energy dominance” on public lands and make him look good — energy-efficient light bulbs, he said, “make you look orange.” President-elect Joseph R. Biden has indicated that he’ll quickly roll back the rollbacks as soon as he’s inaugurated. Yet a reset is not enough. In fact, many of the rules didn’t cut it under President Barack Obama, and though Obama tried to fix many of them, his efforts often fell short. Here are a few examples of policies and rules that Trump obliterated, and that Biden — hopefully with Congress’s help — could now rebuild, making them better and stronger than before.
u CLEAN POWER PLAN: President Obama’s plan mandated a cut in power sector carbon emissions by 32 percent from 2005 levels by 2030, which essentially would have forced coal out of the energy mix while leaving room for natural gas. Before it went into effect, Trump gutted the plan, though it was hardly necessary: Economics forced coal plant retirements after Trump’s election, coal mining jobs continued to wane and emissions dropped even more than the Obama plan would have required. The plan was obsolete before it was finalized. Biden’s plan must include more ambitious emissions cuts and, equally as important, provide for a just transition for workers and communities that will be abandoned by the fossil fuel industries.
Biden’s plan must provide for a just transition for workers and communities that will be abandoned by the fossil fuel industries. u OIL AND GAS DEVELOPMENT: Trump rolled over the environment by rolling back rules for fracking, stocking the Interior Department with industry insiders, ramming through approvals of pipelines built by his multi-million-dollar donors, and by slashing royalties paid by oil companies. Yet Obama’s policies were equally friendly to energy development. His administration leased out 2 million more acres of public land to oil and gas companies during his first term than Trump and oversaw a drilling boom of unprecedented magnitude. Biden needs not only to roll back the rollbacks, but also to overhaul the leasing process to shift power away from corporate boardrooms and back into public hands, and increase oil and gas royalty payments across the board to give American taxpayers a fair shake. u BEARS EARS NATIONAL MONUMENT: In 2015, the Navajo Nation, Ute Mountain Ute, Hopi and Zuni tribes asked Obama to designate as a national monument 1.9 million acres of public land in southeastern Utah, with tribal representatives having a major management role. When Obama established the monument, it was 600,000 acres smaller than the proposal, and the tribal role was reduced to an advisory one. Trump slashed the monument by 85 percent and rammed through a shoddy management plan for what remained, further diminishing the tribal role. Biden should restore the monument, giving the tribal nations an equal role in determining new boundaries and creating a strong management plan. That’s only the beginning. Biden will also have to restore another 80 or more regulations, redirect agencies that have been steered off-course, invalidate the lease sale for the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge, bring science back into policymaking, stop the building of the border wall, and clean the house of Trump appointees who are trying to destroy the so-called administrative state from within. That includes William Perry Pendley — Twitter handle @Sagebrush_Rebel — whom Trump installed as acting director of the Bureau of Land Management in 2019. This September, a judge ruled that Pendley — never approved by Congress — had served unlawfully, and ordered him out of his role. Anticipating Trump, Pendley changed his title and refused to leave, insisting that the law and the court’s order “has no impact” on him. With Trump now taking a similar stance, Biden may be forced to drag two people out of office come January. n Jonathan Thompson is a contributor to Writers on the Range, writersontherange.org, a nonprofit dedicated to spurring lively conversation about the West. This story was originally published at High Country News (hcn.org) on Nov. 24, 2020.
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DECEMBER 17, 2020 INLANDER 7
COMMENT | FROM READERS ELISABETH PAGE: You added your name to a lawsuit that tried to throw out the legal votes of millions of Americans. You aligned yourself with a man calling for states to leave the union. At its worst, it is treason and voter suppression. At its best, it is behavior unbecoming a member of the United States Congress. For shame Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers. GEOFF CARSON: She would do anything to keep her radical right constituents riled up. She is the worst example of a leader.
Time to take off the gloves when it comes to challenging U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers. WILSON CRISCIONE PHOTO
Readers respond to Steven A. Smith’s guest column (12/14/20) calling out Congresswoman Cathy McMorris-Rodgers for signing on in support of a Texas lawsuit to overturn the presidential election.
Juno PAINTING & SCULPTURE
Toby Keough MURALS & FURNITURE
8 INLANDER DECEMBER 17, 2020
JOHN FERRIS: Her shamelessly cynical signing of this sham document deserves a political reckoning next election. Surely there must be a Republican or Democrat in the 5th District with more scruples?
LYN CUNNINGHAM: Please step up to challenge her. We need better representation now more than ever. SANDRA FELIX FOY: I actually wrote to her to call out this despicable behavior. Of course, it is a continuation of her usual. LORNA HARTMAN: I’m in her constituency. Have disagreed with her heavily in the past, but this is beyond disagreeing on political stances. This is her disagreeing with the system, period. A system you don’t uphold, you shouldn’t be governing, at any level. REBECCA SHANNA: More garbage reporting … only one-sided and extremely hateful. DON LAMP: Contact her and tell her she ought to resign. I just did.
MICHELE MILLER: Hero; Standing up against the suppression even though she knows she’ll get backlash. Thanks, Cathy!
BARB LAIDLAW MURPHY: What we need to do is get a viable candidate to run against her. Not quite kidding when I say don’t we have a retired astronaut we can get.
BILL KRELS: So you’re OK with throwing out other people’s votes as long as it suits your personal agenda?
CHRIS WARREN: Simple solution … the Constitution says that these representatives should not be seated come January.
ELIZABETH LOCHTE: Eastern WA Republicans are loyal. That’s the only thing they care about. Is there an R next to her name? We need term limits to get rid of career politicians on both sides. MICKEY LONCHAR: Being a shameless political hack has served her well these past 16 years. MARK JOPLIN: All commenters that are against her should also show outrage about the way Trump was treated by the Dems. CHARLENE EVANS: She is doing a fine job. Exactly why we voted her in. Unlike all the left-wing buffoons who are running in circles trying to prop old Joe up. KAREN MADSEN BLAINE: The House has the power to sanction all members who signed on to this sedition. DAVID NEWTON: She has to go for no other reason than this. But she is from a heavily red district and will win again, I am afraid, as they vote for her no matter how bad she is. And this is from someone who voted for her a few times back. n
HIRE A LOCAL ARTISTS MAKE OUR COMMUNITY AND LIVES BETTER.
Shantell Jackson MULTIMEDIA VISUAL ARTIST
Visit spokanearts.org/artists to find a full roster of working musicians, designers, visual artists, photographers and more for all your special projects, virtual lessons and unique creative needs.
YOU’LL NEED A BIGGER TREE. We’ve got a month full of giveaways that even the big guy will want to get in on. Enter the $48,000 Holiday Bonus, $21,000 Gift Tree Giveaway, and more. Get all the details at northernquest.com/holidays
LET THE COUNTDOWN BEGIN. New Year’s Eve… and beyond. Dance, eat, drink and game the night away with live entertainment, $24,000 New Year’s Eve drawings and much more! The live entertainment continues through Jan 2. Find more info at northernquest.com/NYE Northern Quest is committed to supporting responsible gaming. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, please call the Washington State Problem Gambling Helpline at 800.547.6133 or Camas Path at 509.789.7630.
DECEMBER 17, 2020 INLANDER 9
EUR D’ALENE O C FOR THE
Holidays Eat, Drink and Be Merry For a festive holiday meal, head to Coeur d’Alene
A
turkey and some mistletoe can help to make the season bright. Whether you need a little sustenance to power through your Christmas shopping, or you want to treat yourself to a holiday meal you’ll never forget, the Lake City is ready to serve you. If frosted lake views are in order, there’s no shortage of waterfront restaurants that also serve up stellar views. Look to TONY’S ON THE LAKE for exceptional Italian fare, and the chance to spot one of the many bald eagles that migrate to the lake this time of year to gorge on kokanee salmon.
We’re not serious, but We seriously like Wine. M-Th 3-8 • Fri/Sat 3-9 Sunday 10:30am-8
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Sweet Taste Of Italy
To view the silent pageantry of the COEUR D’ALENE RESORT’S HOLIDAY LIGHTS display, make a reservation at CEDARS, the region’s only floating restaurant, where you can watch the cruise boats glide by on their journey to the North Pole to visit Santa’s workshop. All of the restaurants inside the Resort also offer sweeping lake views, plus the Resort is totally decked out for the holidays, with elegant displays of lights, greenery and lots of sparkle. Choose WHISPERS BAR for cheery cocktails like the Decadent Peppermint Patty with Godiva liqueur, DOCKSIDE for a hearty meal and view of the marina, or BEVERLY’S with its panoramic views of the marina, lake and surrounding hillsides. Reward yourself for crossing items off your Christmas shopping list with lunch or dinner out. HONEY EATERY AND SOCIAL CLUB is located in the heart of all the local shops in downtown Coeur d’Alene. If you just need a quick snack, order a sampling of their small social plates, and make sure to try their Honey Truffle Deviled Eggs, or settle in for some of their renowned fried chicken. Maybe a cocktail or pint will provide the
217 E Sherman Ave, Coeur d'Alene
10 INLANDER DECEMBER 17, 2020
COEUR D’ALENE
inspiration you need to keep crossing gifts off your list. TAPHOUSE UNCHAINED, CROWN AND THISTLE or CRICKETS are excellent options to help you recharge. If you just need a sweet treat, stop into WOOPS! for one of their signature macarons (and buy some to give as presents) and know that creamy peppermint ice cream with chunks of peppermint candy are back in season at ABI’S ICE CREAM. Pro tip — order it in a white chocolate dipped peppermint cone. EVANS BROTHERS COFFEE is another great option for a quick pick-me-up, and a solid option for gifts. Who wouldn’t love one of their monthly coffee subscriptions? For a Christmas dinner you’ll never forget, treat yourself to THE COEUR D’ALENE RESORT’S Grand Christmas Feast on Christmas Day (noon to 2:30 pm and 4-6 pm). The Resort is planning a festive holiday buffet with a variety of food stations featuring cedar planked salmon, roasted prime rib, deep-fried smoked turkey, pork osso-buco, traditional Christmas sides, bakery-fresh breads, decadent desserts and much more. BEVERLY’S is also offering a luxe chef-curated dinner experience on Christmas Day (Christmas Eve 4-9 pm, Christmas Day noon-8 pm), and DOCKSIDE is serving a special holiday menu all day (Christmas Eve 7 am-10 pm, Christmas Day 7 am-11 pm). Want to snuggle at home by the fire on Christmas, but avoid a sink full of dishes? The Resort is offering a gourmet, traditional Christmas dinner you can carry out. HONEY EATERY & SOCIAL CLUB has also put together an impressive feast you order togo.
For more events, things to do & places to stay, go to cdawinter.com
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NOVEMBER DECEMBER26, 17, 2020 INLANDER 11
HEALTH
NO ESCAPING
THE VIRUS COVID-19 sweeps through incarcerated populations in Spokane and Airway Heights BY SAMANTHA WOHLFEIL
W
hile officials focused on the threat that Thanksgiving gatherings could add to already spiking COVID-19 cases, a huge Inland Northwest outbreak was already starting among people who aren’t in control of their meals or gatherings: inmates. By the first week of December, it was clear that the virus had started spreading at Airway Heights Corrections Center, a prison run by the state Department of Corrections. Soon after, the Spokane County-run Geiger Corrections Center also had to create a quarantine unit for its own outbreak.
Within days, the number of positive cases exploded. While officials had only reported seven cases at the state prison from the start of the pandemic to Thanksgiving week, by Friday, Dec. 11, there were 792 cumulative cases and 1,535 inmates in the main facility. (Another 365 are housed in a separate minimum security building.) By Monday, Dec. 14, there were 869 cumulative cases. Spokane County Jail Director Mike Sparber reported on Dec. 11 that 79 out of 138 Geiger inmates had tested positive.
The state-run prison is home to hundreds of inmates with COVID-19. YOUNG KWAK PHOTO
12 INLANDER DECEMBER 17, 2020
The outbreaks are testing the ability to handle social distancing, isolation, quarantine and constitutional rights in spaces designed for confinement. Inmates have dealt with limited showers, moving from building to building, and in some cases difficulty reaching their families or using free phones set up to contact their attorneys. While it’s unclear what started either outbreak, inmates at Geiger were concerned that some officers’ refusal to wear masks before the outbreak could have brought the virus in. At least three inmates confirmed that officers on their floor sometimes did not wear masks until after the current outbreak started. Bjorn Manycolors, who was booked into Geiger in June on possession of controlled substances, says he remembers that there was a potential scare three or four months ago after someone was transferred away and tested positive. He recalls guards wearing masks more often and more sanitation protocols, but says the measures quickly relaxed when no outbreak happened. “It made me see they don’t learn from anything, they act like it’s a surprise every time,” Manycolors says. “They only just started wearing masks.” While Sparber says the virus may have come from someone going to court, talking to a loved one or from staff, he confirms that although a mask requirement for staff interacting with inmates was in place before the outbreak, a clearer policy was sent to staff after the current “onslaught.” “On the onslaught of this, we of course mandated everyone to wear the mask, including our inmate population that we’re providing masks for,” Sparber says. For those inside who got sick and are now stuck in quarantine units, it’s been frustrating and scary as they get conflicting answers from the people in charge and feel mistreated. For their families, who sometimes go days without hearing from them, it’s been just as nerve-wracking. “I feel like we are not being treated fair or with care,” writes Miguel Reyes from the state prison in Airway Heights. As of Dec. 10, he says he hadn’t had a shower in four days. “I may have made a mistake, but I’m still human!”
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BAD BREAK
Not everyone in jail has been convicted or committed violent crime. For Tommy Davis, it was an old DUI for which he’d never finished treatment classes that landed him at Geiger this fall. Davis’ girlfriend, Danielle Schafer, says that about a month before he had wrapped up his requirements for that DUI about four years ago, Davis had his heart broken. He took off to Alaska where he lived off-grid for a few years, she says. But this summer he returned to Spokane with the intent to clear out that old case, even letting his employer here know that’s what he was doing, she says. “He was out with his friend only a few days after he got here and she got pulled over, and they asked for his ID,” Schafer says. “They took him in.” He got bailed out and a court date was set, but due to COVID, his court dates were pushed back repeatedly. One date was then moved earlier again, Schafer says, but Davis never got the letter and later confirmed with the county clerk’s office that the mail was returned as undeliverable. However, since he had failed to appear, he was booked into jail again. Despite getting an attorney and signing up for the class he’d nearly finished before leaving years ago, a judge found him to be a flight risk and sentenced him to more than 200 days. “The judge just threw the book at him,” Schafer says. After being booked into Geiger this September, Davis quickly completed another alcohol course inside the jail. He was set to have another hearing around Thanksgiving, but that was postponed, says his sister Carma Blalock. “He potentially could have been released before he contracted the virus,” Blalock says. By Dec. 5, he’d tested positive for COVID, along with many other inmates who were moved together into a floor of the “A” building at Geiger. ...continued on next page
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DECEMBER 17, 2020 INLANDER 13
NEWS | HEALTH “NO ESCAPING THE VIRUS,” CONTINUED... Manycolors, another inmate who tested positive and has been staying in the quarantine area, says that it wasn’t until several days after someone first reported feeling sick at Geiger that he and others were taken to the downtown jail to be tested. After first being locked down for about four days without showers, they were transferred and housed in an isolation unit downtown for another four days while everyone was tested. Then they were returned to Geiger, put on the same floor, and told they had COVID. Several inmates asked if they could see their test results, and Manycolors says they were later handed pieces of paper without any names or identifying information that said “you tested positive on Dec. 2.” “It’s like a pacifier so we stop asking questions,” says Manycolors, who expressed frustration at the conflicting information they continue to receive from the officers who work with them as policies seem to keep changing to deal with the outbreak. There were about 50 people on the isolation floor where positive inmates were staying when he spoke to the Inlander on Dec. 10. Throughout the pandemic, inmates have slept two to a cell instead of four as usual, but they’ve been back to full cells of four in that unit, he says. “They say after 14 days we’re all off quarantine, but we’ll probably all be on this floor for a long time,” he says. “The easiest thing to do would be leave us here.” He says that the free phones used to contact attorneys are on another floor that they’re not allowed to go to because they’re COVID positive. They often wait for more than an hour to use the phones on their floor, which require payment by either inmates or the person answering a call, and a new phone system installed last
Don’t forget Stocking Stuffers
Spokane County operates the Geiger facility. week has complicated things further. “It is extremely hard to get ahold of attorneys from the phones on our floor,” Manycolors says. “A lot of times attorneys aren’t in the office so it’s hard to catch them at work, or they’re in court so you can’t get ahold of them, and now you can’t leave voicemails anymore under the new system.” Meanwhile, his mother, Cynthia Manycolors, was among other family members who told the Inlander they’ve struggled to get information about the outbreak while their loved one was being moved around. Without consent forms on file to share HIPAA-protected health information, relatives were told they couldn’t learn anything about their incarcerated loved one’s status. “It was very frustrating and concerning,” Cynthia Manycolors says.
BIG AND BIGGER
The outbreaks at both facilities are massive, affecting about 57 percent of the inmate population at each so far,
Help for our patients. Hope for the future. Learn how you can help: providence.org/GivingEWa
Downtown�Spokane�on�Howard�St.
14 INLANDER DECEMBER 17, 2020
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but the situation at the Airway Heights prison is particularly large considering the sheer number of people affected. Multiple spokespeople for the Department of Corrections did not make time for an interview, but answered some written questions. When asked whether the facility could effectively prevent the spread at this point, with so many affected inmates, a spokesperson noted that social distancing is being encouraged within the facility as they address the current outbreak. “Airway Heights Corrections Center has established multiple alternative housing areas within the facility to safely house COVID-19-positive incarcerated individuals separately from healthy individuals,” writes Rachel Ericson, a deputy communications director. “The gym/ rec building is one of the alternative housing areas, this area has cots, provided by the Red Cross, shower and bathroom capabilities and handheld phones for incarcerated individuals to call their loved ones.” At Geiger, the first known case of COVID reported
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to the Spokane Regional Health District involved an inmate. At the state facility, where things started is not known. “The start of the outbreak is speculative,” Ericson writes. “The Department of Corrections is focused on mitigating and ceasing the spread of the outbreak.” Reyes, the state inmate who wrote that he hadn’t showered in a few days last week, says they were told some chemical dependency counselors, who offer classes to inmates, had tested positive for COVID. But he and others who’d been exposed to them before those positive tests were not immediately taken for testing themselves. “[The Department of Corrections] did absolutely nothing that I have knowledge of to prevent further spread at that time,” Reyes writes. “We were still attending ‘morning meetings’ which are meeting[s] for 30 to 40 people seated in rows.” Reyes says he was told that if he didn’t want to be exposed, he could be removed from the meetings, and he and others mentioned multiple times they thought the governor’s restrictions on gatherings of that size applied to them. “But we were told prisons don’t need to follow the shutdown protocols,” Reyes writes. He initially tested negative for the virus, but then later became sick, and describes hearing others struggling as they coughed through the night. He says he was told on Dec. 7 that they’d be moved according to their test results. When he expressed concerns about being placed with someone who wasn’t sick, because by that point he had symptoms and his results were a week old, he says he was told not to worry. “They told me word for word if [you] tested negative you cannot get anyone sick,” Reyes writes. “This has been one of the most intensely traumatic [experiences] of my life … they have failed us all in ways that are unimaginable and have [led] me to believe [their] intentions were and are to allow and facilitate the spread of Covid 19 through the entire population.” n samanthaw@inlander.com
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DECEMBER 17, 2020 INLANDER 15
NEWS | CRIME where!’” Kuhn recalls. But when it seemed like the man moved out of view, Kuhn seized the window of opportunity and escaped. Yeager, police later said, didn’t have a bomb. His backpack contained gasoline, motor oil, toilet paper and a camping lighter. After his bomb threat emptied the building, he set it on fire. Police arrested him as he left the Teamsters Building. But his motivations remain unclear. How much of the attack was about politics and ideology? And how much of this was about trauma and mental health? Does it stem from the alleged arsonist’s post-traumatic stress disorder stemming from his time in Iraq? Or from our country’s deeper breakdown? After all, Spokane Police Chief Craig Meidl — who also was a Marine — says that, lately, mental health-related crisis calls have been skyrocketing. “Right now they’re about four or five times higher than they normally are,” Meidl says. “Which I think is a combination of everything that’s occurring from COVID to isolation to unemployment to recession to the political divide that you’re hearing in the nation right now. All of that, I think, is manifesting itself in different ways.”
Joe Kuhn, who was a Marine, recounts his encounter with an arsonist: “He was very focused. That’s what worried me about him.” COURTESY OF JOE KUHN
Two Marines and a Terrifying Attack
The alleged arsonist who attacked the Spokane County Democrats offices was a veteran, but so was the man he tried to take hostage BY DANIEL WALTERS
I
t was like a bomb had gone off. When Joe Kuhn returned to what remained of the Spokane County Democrats offices in the Teamsters Building last Thursday, he was shocked by the sheer amount of damage. Flames had peeled paint off the doors. Ceiling tiles had collapsed. The copy machine had melted from the intensity of the heat. “It was destroyed. The whole inside was gutted,” says Kuhn, a 56-year-old Teamster. “This guy clearly intended to burn the whole building down. He wasn’t just trying to torch the office.” The day before, on Dec. 9, Kuhn had been standing in that office, face-to-face with 45-year-old Peter James Yeager, who police say drove 85 miles from his apartment in the tiny town of Grand Coulee, Washington, to Spokane to attack the Spokane County Democrats’ headquarters. He’d shoved his way through the door, confronted two Democratic volunteers, and carried a handwritten “manifesto” that he wanted them to share far and wide on social media. He was also holding what Kuhn says appeared to be a socket-set box with wires coming out of it connecting to a backpack. It looked like a bomb. The man said it was a bomb. “He did say several times, ‘I don’t want to hurt anyone, but you’re not going anywhere. … You’re my new bargaining chip,’” Kuhn recalls. “By that point, he was telling me to ‘come inside, close the door.’”
16 INLANDER DECEMBER 17, 2020
Effectively, Kuhn says, he’d been a hostage. Kuhn had a concealed gun, but he worried that using it could trigger the bomb. His hostage taker snapped back and forth between placid and agitated. “I was trying to keep the guy calm,” Kuhn says. “He was very focused. That’s what worried me about him.” Kuhn fell back on his de-escalation training from when he was a sergeant with the state Department of Corrections. Keep the guy talking. Don’t make any quick moves. Give others time to evacuate. Establish rapport. Establishing rapport was easy, it turned out, Kuhn says. The man asked Kuhn if he was a veteran. He was. Kuhn had served as a helicopter crew chief for the HMH-361 Flying Tigers in the Marine Corps in the ’80s. And when the purported bomber told Kuhn he was a vet, too, serving in the Marine Corps and Army Guard, Kuhn responded with the Marine Corps motto: “Semper Fi,” meaning always faithful. In that moment, Kuhn says, he could see something change in the man’s body language, a sort of connection snapped into place between hostage and hostage taker. Still, the man told him to turn around and put his head up against the wall. “He kept yelling at me, ‘Don’t move; don’t go any-
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he attack was a political one. It may have been nonpartisan — he claims the only reason he attacked the Democrats and not the GOP was the Dems’ office was closer — but Yeager also told police he was trying to make an ideological point when he set fire to the building, according to court records. Call that terrorism and Meidl won’t disagree. “If you were trying to compel a change in the politics of this country through destruction, I think someone could reasonably argue that that is a terrorist act, yeah,” Meidl says. Yeager has been charged with arson, but Meidl suggests that more charges are likely, and they’re keeping federal agencies like the FBI in the loop. The goal, Yeager allegedly told police, wasn’t an intent to overthrow the government or hurt anybody, but rather to bring attention to his manifesto decrying the political elite. But so far, the police have declined to share the full manifesto, releasing only a portion. “Although I have profound respect for the grassroots movements of both the Democratic and Republican parties, sharing many of their ideals and values, we will continue domestic operations against their ruling elite as they exist in their current form,” reads the selection. “Long live the Republic.”
“If you were trying to compel a change in the politics of this country through destruction, I think someone could reasonably argue that that is a terrorist act.” Meidl acknowledges that there are a lot of unanswered questions, including this: While Yeager told investigators he’s a “lone wolf,” why did he write, “We will continue domestic operations”? “Is that one of those things where he is trying to speak for who he feels is the silent majority?” Meidl says. “Or is that his circle of friends?” Extremism experts like those at the Anti-Defamation League note that “lone wolves” are often acting in the service of a larger extremist ideology or goal. “Every report I’ve heard is that he acted alone,” says Nicole Bishop, chair of the Spokane County Democrats. “[But] that’s not to say that he hasn’t had influence from a national dialogue that incentivizes, emboldens, and al-
lows for drastic and violence action.” Right now, as President Donald Trump continues to fan false claims of a stolen election, the national landscape is brimming with the threats and violence. A man was shot in Olympia as members of the right-wing Proud Boys and left-wing antifascists clashed at a rally. In Michigan, the Legislature’s offices were shuttered on Monday due to “credible threats of violence.” Washington state House Minority Leader J.T. Wilcox tweeted Monday that Washington state election staff had been targeted with “horrific threats,” including “pictures, scope crosshairs and home addresses.” Meanwhile, police guard the home of Gabe Sterling, a Georgia voting system official who defied Trump. In a dark bit of symbolism, hundreds of handwritten postcards meant for Georgia special election voters were caught up in the blaze in the Spokane County Democrats. Some survived. “There might be a few people in Georgia receiving some singed postcards from Spokane, Washington,” Bishop says.
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et so far, police haven’t released anything that explicitly ties Yeager to any of these present conflicts. He’s not even registered to vote in Washington. While sometimes a social media page will give a clear indication of a person’s ideology, Yeager’s social media presence is sparse. A recently created Facebook page features a handful of folk songs sung by Yeager, filled with strange lyrics about Old Testament judgment, aliens and the apocalypse. The page belongs to a Peter James Yeager from California, who Yeager’s cousin confirms to the Inlander is the same man arrested in Spokane. Yeager sings about “bloodthirsty dragons” and “riot policemen calling on the telephone.” He proclaims that “the Lion of Judah is near with a scythe and a scale.” Yeager doesn’t use the phrase “long live the Republic” on the Facebook page but does sing the phrase “long live the lights that explode through the night.” Neither Trump nor Biden are mentioned. You can find more extreme political sentiment from some of Yeager’s friends. One of his Facebook contacts — a fellow Marine veteran and the only person to endorse Yeager’s LinkedIn profile — shares far-right posts about “elite pedophilia” and “organ harvesting,” how COVID-19 lockdowns are about “social controls,” and how the constitutional spirit was being eradicated by liberalism and “warped by power groups.” Yet Yeager’s contacts also frequently talk about supporting vets with PTSD, about “the turmoil discharge creates once your time is done,” and about how hard it is to adjust to the “new normal” in civilian life. Psychotherapist Myrieme Churchill says that the trauma leftover from war is a monster that can take many forms — suicide, drug abuse, domestic violence, even extremism. She’s the executive director of Parents For Peace, an organization dedicated to helping rescue loved ones from extremism. “Hate is another way of self-medicating trauma,” she says. “Belonging to extremist groups and lashing out is a way to get rid of a lot of pressure or hurt.” While Kuhn is a veteran, he’s never seen combat. But he’s had friends die in accidents, and he can imagine how going to war could mess with a person’s mind. And that, in a small way, gives him some understanding for what happened last week. “That made me think a little differently about it,” Kuhn says. “I know we have a lot of guys who are really messed up, who probably haven’t gotten help but need it.” Yet that empathy only goes so far. The vast majority of the vets who may be “totally screwed up from the war aren’t doing something heinous,” Kuhn says. And now Kuhn and two Democratic volunteers, having faced down a bomb threat, are left to grapple with their own recent trauma. Lately, Kuhn’s had trouble sleeping. He’s angry. He’s replaying the events over and over again in his head. “It’s something you’re not just going to wipe out of your brain,” Kuhn says. “That’s one of the problems with things like PTSD. You can’t just say, ‘I’m not going to think about that anymore.’ It doesn’t work that way.” n danielw@inlander.com
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DECEMBER 17, 2020 INLANDER 17
NEWS | HOMELESSNESS
Not in My City
Spokane got a grant for a new young adult shelter, but the mayor doesn’t want it here. What now? BY WILSON CRISCIONE
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ince the city of Spokane was awarded a $2.7 million grant this summer for a young adult shelter, city and regional leaders have agreed on one thing: The shelter is urgently needed. What they can’t agree on is where to put it. That’s frustrated Fawn Schott, the president and CEO of the local Volunteers of America, the nonprofit that would operate the shelter. “This is NIMBY at its core,” Schott says. “Nobody wants a shelter in their backyard.” Spokane Mayor Nadine Woodward doesn’t want the shelter in city limits, feeling that the city has borne too much of the burden in addressing a regional issue. And while Spokane Valley might be open to finding a spot for it, it would require a lengthy zoning change that could take at least a year. Meanwhile, there’s a clock: The state Department of Commerce grant is set to expire at the end of the year if no solution is found. Last week, however, regional partners agreed on a plan that they hope will prevent the nearly $3 million from drying up and will lead to a long-term solution. The plan calls for a phased model, which will have VOA add young adult shelter beds to existing shelters while a permanent shelter location is found. The Department of Commerce is expected to allow an extension once presented with that plan, though as of Monday, the department says it hasn’t seen any plan yet. The agreement presents Spokane City Council President Breean Beggs, who has pushed for a solution on a location, with some optimism. But it still means a permanent young adult shelter location could be years away, with no more clarity on where it will go. “Right now I’m in a good mood about it because we have a path forward. But I have been frustrated along the way because I’ve been focused on how important it would be to have a young adult stand-alone shelter,” Beggs says. “That’s the biggest gap we have in our system.”
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young adult shelter is necessary not just because there’s an overall lack of shelter beds for all age groups in Spokane, Schott says, but also because providing shelter to young adults is an effective way to prevent them from becoming chronically homeless through adulthood. A majority of 18- to 24-year-olds who are homeless end up camping away from shelters because they don’t feel safe in them, Schott says. Or they may not feel like they fit in. “A young person doesn’t see themselves as chronically homeless and needs intentional resources to get them on a pathway to start resolving homelessness,” Schott says.
18 INLANDER DECEMBER 17, 2020
Fawn Schott, CEO of the local Volunteers of America, the nonprofit that would operate a young adult shelter — if there were one. The Spokane Continuum of Care board, a collection of regional stakeholders, identified a young adult shelter as an area of great need and applied for the grant from the Department of Commerce as a region this summer. Right now, there is no shelter specifically designated for this age group. VOA wouldn’t want to open a young adult shelter downtown, due in part to safety concerns, Schott says. VOA is moving its teen shelter away from downtown to a spot near Spokane Community College for the same reasons. Ideally, Schott says, a young adult shelter would be somewhere near the new teen shelter. That way, it’s near higher education institutions, and hopefully it could be near transportation services. Woodward, however, wants the shelter outside Spokane. Through a spokesperson, Woodward declined an interview for this article, but city spokesman Brian Coddington says she views homelessness as a “regional challenge” that “requires a regional solution.” “Right now those are all in the city of Spokane, and predominantly in the downtown area,” Coddington says. “That has created a disproportionate solution on homelessness in one neighborhood in particular.” As for the properties near Spokane Community College, those on the county side — just outside city limits — are not in areas zoned for “habitation by humans,” Coddington says, but instead more industrial areas. Beggs says Woodward wouldn’t approve any shelter just inside city limits. That’s partly because the city received some feedback from neighbors of the homeless shelter that opened this summer at 55 W. Mission Ave. “She feels like people blame her for having a shelter near them,” Beggs says. “She tried to engage with people and meet with them, and they were angry and frustrated with her. She says she doesn’t have the bandwidth to deal with general unhappiness about shelters.” Meanwhile, Spokane Valley has its own obstacles to hosting a homeless shelter, says Mayor Ben Wick. He says the city’s code would allow a homeless shelter in a multifamily use zone, but only through a conditional use permit. The process for such a permit could take some time, but Wick says that begs the larger question of whether putting homeless shelters in a high-density, multifamily zoning area is the right move. “Is that really where we want a homeless shelter?” Wick says. Wick says the Valley may be open to siting the young
YOUNG KWAK PHOTO
adult shelter within its city limits, but it will require a change to the city’s comprehensive plan, which will take months at least. Then, early this month, Woodward began to face pressure from another direction. Lisa Brown, director of the Department of Commerce, wrote her a letter expressing disappointment that the city hasn’t agreed to locate the shelter within city limits. “Political boundaries are invisible to young people who have no home because they’ve been kicked out, fled abusive relationships, exited foster care, or simply cannot afford rent,” Brown wrote. Brown also criticized the plan to use this money for added bed space in existing shelters. All combined, plans for a young adult shelter had reached a deadlock — which is why Schott expressed deep skepticism last week over the future of a young adult shelter. But the next day, that all changed.
L
ast Thursday, some progress was finally made, Schott says. VOA was officially chosen as an operator for more young adult bed spaces — about 40 to 45 overall. Starting in April, young women will find bed spaces at Hope House, in an area separate from the older adults. And young men will find some spaces at another shelter that’s yet to be determined. Those will be temporary locations until a permanent location is found. Notably, Beggs says Woodward became more flexible on where a shelter may be located. That’s because VOA said it would do outreach with neighbors on potential shelter locations, instead of city staff, Beggs says. “That was her condition, that she would not have to be the one to explain it, wherever it was going,” Beggs says. Commerce must first approve this plan and sign off on it, and a spokesperson tells the Inlander that hasn’t happened yet. But it remains likely that it will, despite a permanent location not being found by the end of the year. Schott says that, all things considered, this plan makes the most sense. “It gives us an interim option and the time to build it out the right way, by finding the right location and engaging the neighborhood,” Schott says. “I am more optimistic.” n wilsonc@inlander.com
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DECEMBER 17, 2020 INLANDER 19
Carol
20 INLANDER DECEMBER 17, 2020
SEASON’S SCREENINGS A holiday streaming guide for unsung Christmas classics, Scrooge-friendly holiday hits and this year’s Oscar hopefuls
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BY NATHAN WEINBENDER
he holidays look weird this year. So, too, does the movie industry. Since COVID-19 lockdowns began in March, blockbusters have either been indefinitely delayed or relegated to streaming platforms. Here in Spokane, movie theaters reopened for a little less than a month, only to shutter again as case numbers skyrocketed. It seems like the traditional theatrical release model is in a perilous position, and the latest hurdle was Warner Bros. announcing that its entire slate of new films — including Dune, In the Heights, The Suicide Squad and new installments of the Matrix, Conjuring and Godzilla franchises — will premiere on HBO Max concurrently with limited runs in theaters. That’s assuming theaters will still be around to play new movies. The thing is, movies and Christmas are inextricably linked. It’s the time of year when studios toss out their
prestige pictures and kid-friendly tentpoles, and millions of families have made an annual tradition of venturing to the multiplex on Christmas to take in the latest Disney adventure or future Oscar winner. Obviously that’s not a reality for most folks this year, but regardless of how you’re spending Christmas 2020 — whether it’s a modest gathering with the two or three people you’ve kept in your bubble, or alone in your apartment while your family beams in via Zoom — you’ll inevitably get to the point in the night when you’re desperate for something to watch. So we’ve done the hard work for you, curating a diverse collection of movies that you should consider streaming this holiday season. We’ve included some unsung Christmas classics, some weird and wild yuletide-themed films, and even the newest movies that will no doubt be part of the upcoming awards conversation.
UNSUNG CHRISTMAS CLASSICS These are generally beloved films, all of which are set at Christmastime, but none of which are usually brought up in the same breath as bonafide holiday classics like It’s a Wonderful Life or A Christmas Story (or, for that matter, Die Hard). But they’re just as timeless and just as yuletide-y, and you’ll either want to revisit them or finally cross them off your to-see list.
Highsmith novel tracks the blooming love affair between a wealthy housewife (Cate Blanchett) and a department store clerk (Rooney Mara) who lock eyes across a room and find an instant connection. Let the swooning commence. Streaming on Netflix.
CAROL (2015)
OK, so maybe it’s still too recent to be designated a classic, but Todd Haynes’ sumptuous romance is the sort of movie that feels like it’s going to be around for a long time. Set in the 1950s (during Christmas, natch), this flawlessly realized adaptation of a Patricia
METROPOLITAN (1990)
Whit Stillman’s directorial debut, one of the finest indie films of the ’90s, is a vicious satire dressed up as an urbane ensemble comedy in which a middle-class college student insinuates himself into a group of posh rich kids. It’s filled with swanky Christmas parties in upscale Manhattan apartments, as well as the sparkling (and often hilarious) dialogue and lacerating wit that became Stillman’s trademark. Streaming on HBO Max.
THE APARTMENT (1960)
Like the work of Frank Capra, Billy Wilder’s Best Picture winner is somewhat misremembered — a romantic comedy that’s a lot more melancholy than you probably recall. It’s the story of lonely hearts at Christmas-time, including an office drone (Jack Lemmon) leasing out his bachelor pad to cheating executives, and an elevator operator (Shirely MacLaine) having one of those affairs. What are the odds they’ll find love with each other? Rent through Amazon, Google Play and YouTube.
miniseries version and a three-hour theatrical cut. Streaming on the Criterion Channel.
THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER (1940)
FANNY & ALEXANDER (1982)
Ingmar Bergman’s epic tale of childhood, social status and religious fervor opens with an elaborate and decadent Christmastime set piece, instantly establishing the wistfulness and magical realism that pervades the rest of his late-career masterpiece. It’s available in two versions, both worthwhile — a five-episode TV
Margaret Sullivan and James Stewart star as feuding co-workers at loggerheads during their store’s holiday rush, unaware that they’re also anonymous pen pals falling in love with each other via letters. The premise might sound familiar — You’ve Got Mail would copy it 50-plus years later — but this predecessor is infinitely superior, not only one of the best romantic comedies ever made but arguably the best of director Ernst Lubitsch’s sterling career. Rent through Amazon, Google Play and YouTube. ...continued on next page
DECEMBER 17, 2020 INLANDER 21
STREAMING
Eyes Wide Shut
KEEP CHRISTMAS WEIRD Christmas-based narratives tend to pick one of two lanes — either comforting predictability, or Bad Santa-esque weirdness. The former might not be your cup of chamomile, but there’s plenty of off-kilter Christmas fare out there, and these titles might be best enjoyed with a nip of egg nog, or after you’ve smoked some, uh, mistletoe.
tery and sets out to find carnal depravity for himself in the lead-up to Christmas. Typical of Kubrick, it’s detached and disorienting, but isn’t that how the holidays feel sometimes? Streaming on Hulu.
EYES WIDE SHUT (1999)
This existential curio rode a huge wave of publicity upon release: It was the final work by the legendary Stanley Kubrick, it starred then-couple Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, and it was loaded with censored sex and nudity. And it’s still a divisive film, a dark fable about a hotshot doctor who learns his wife has contemplated adul-
22 INLANDER DECEMBER 17, 2020
LADY IN THE LAKE (1947)
You wouldn’t think Christmas and film noir would go hand in hand, but the holiday setting of this B-movie takes murder and intrigue and decorates it with tinsel. What makes Lady in the Lake special is its central gimmick: The entire film is shot from the POV of famed detective Philip Marlowe as he hunts for a missing woman and becomes embroiled in a more elaborate plot, and that somewhat cheesy approach lends the material a woozy, dreamlike weirdness. Rent through Amazon, Google Play and YouTube.
BRAZIL (1985)
Terry Gilliam’s mad vision of the near future, as famous for its mix of slapstick and surrealism as its post-production nightmares, where a totalitarian government has made its populace over-reliant on cumbersome machinery it never intends to repair. It’s a black comedy that uses its Christmas setting as an ironic juxtaposition to Orwellian dystopia and Kafkaesque bureaucracy, and every shot is bursting with detail and invention. Streaming on Hoopla; rent through Amazon, Google Play and YouTube.
a murderous performance artist. Ho, ho, ho. Rent through Amazon, Google Play and YouTube.
THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER (1955) FEMALE TROUBLE (1974)
Although provocateur John Waters has been trying to get an honest-to-god Christmas movie made for years, you’ll have to settle for an infamous scene in this deranged, pitch-black comedy. It comes early in the film, when teenager Dawn Davenport (the late, great drag queen Divine) doesn’t get her cherished cha-cha heels for Christmas, destroying the living room and running away to become
One of the greatest movies ever made, actor Charles Laughton’s sole directorial effort has a singular, eccentric tone. Robert Mitchum delivers his most iconic performance as a murderous Southern preacher who goes looking for his former cellmate’s hidden stockpile of money, marrying the man’s widow and pursuing her children as they escape with the fortune. It doesn’t have any Christmas scenes until the very end, but they help to drive home the unexpectedly hopeful tone of this allegory for original sin and redemption. Rent through Amazon, Google Play and YouTube.
ANTI-CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS MOVIES
More of a Scrooge than a Tiny Tim? Consider these movies that have a Christmas backdrop but are almost actively anti-Christmas themselves, defying the froth and frivolity of their snowy settings. Here’s a bit of misanthropy and nastiness to stuff in your stocking.
BETTER WATCH OUT (2016)
A thoroughly twisted (and twisty) little Christmas slasher flick that starts out as one thing and ends as something much different and much darker. It begins with a nerdy 12-year-old kid and a slightly older babysitter being left home alone on a dark December night, and they’re menaced by home invaders with no apparent motive. But all is not as it seems, and… well, the less you know about the plot’s bloody surprises, the better. Streaming on Amazon Prime.
DEADLY GAMES (1990)
On Christmas night, a maniac dressed as Santa breaks into a giant house, only to be outsmarted by a crafty kid with an arsenal of booby traps. Sound kinda familiar? This wild French thriller (also known as Dial Code Santa Claus and Game Over) was released the same year as Home Alone, and its director even unsuccessfully sued the makers of that holiday classic. Here, that familiar premise is mined for menace and Rambo-style action, and it’s truly bonkers. Streaming on Shudder.
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SCROOGED (1988)
Even though Bill Murray’s miserly TV executive undergoes the requisite thirdact change of heart, this weirder-than-you-remember take on A Christmas Carol spends an awful lot of time wallowing in the sort of darkness and grotesquery not normally befitting a holiday favorite. Most of the supporting players (especially Carole Kane’s maniacal fairy godmother) seem to have waltzed out of Looney Tunes, and there’s even a subplot involving Bobcat Goldthwait going postal. If you can’t stomach a scintilla of sentiment, this is the Christmas movie for you. Rent through Amazon, Google Play and YouTube.
THE SILENT PARTNER (1978)
One of the great underappreciated heist films, a Canadian caper starring Elliott Gould as a meek guy who uncovers plans for a robbery at the bank where he works. He decides to swoop in and steal the money away, but the thief (Christopher Plummer), who dresses up as a shopping mall Santa, gets wise and engages Gould in a crafty, unpredictable cat-and-mouse game. It’s darkly funny and tense, and features a young John Candy in one of his first film roles. Rent through Amazon, Google Play and YouTube.
TRADING PLACES (1983)
Arguably Eddie Murphy’s best golden-era film, an uproarious Reagan-era riff on The Prince and the Pauper that stars the comedian as a homeless huckster who, by way of a Christmas bet between two bored stockbrokers, switches places with a bratty millionaire (Dan Aykroyd). Not all of its jokes have aged terribly well — is there an ’80s comedy where that isn’t the case? — but it’s propelled by an old-fashioned screwball energy, and the supporting cast — Don Ameche, Ralph Bellamy, Jamie Lee Curtis, Denholm Elliott — is A-plus. Rent through Amazon, Google Play and YouTube. ...continued on next page
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Soul
OSCAR SEASON Netflix has started to corner the market on endof-the-year Oscar-y releases — in recent years, they have seen titles like Roma, The Irishman and Marriage Story get plenty of Academy Awards attention. 2020 is no exception, even though the state of the Oscars is still sort of up in the air. Here’s what you should see to keep up on your office’s (virtual) Oscar pool.
celebrated play, the film is set in a recording studio as a group of musicians wait for troubled 1920s blues singer Ma Rainey to arrive, dredging up just as many reminiscences as rivalries. Streaming on Netflix starting Dec. 18.
HILLBILLY ELEGY
Critics (including yours truly) didn’t much care for this backwoods melodrama based on J.D. Vance’s controversial bestseller, but it’s hard to imagine a year in which members of the Academy would overlook a film so expertly calibrated to get their attention. It also helps that its stars, Amy Adams and Glenn Close, have been nominated for multiple Oscars without winning. Could this be their year? Streaming on Netflix.
MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM
Viola Davis is an Oscar winner herself and will likely get her fourth nomination for Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, but it’s her co-star, the late Chadwick Boseman, who will no doubt be the real Oscar front-runner this year. Based on August Wilson’s
24 INLANDER DECEMBER 17, 2020
Davies, could score her first-ever nomination. Streaming on Netflix.
NEWS OF THE WORLD
Tom Hanks’ last collaboration with director Paul Greengrass, 2013’s Captain Phillips, featured one of the best performances of the beloved actor’s career. The Academy ignored Hanks’ work then, but they likely won’t do the same for Greengrass’ News of the World, starring Hanks as a grizzled Civil War survivor whose journey to retrieve a missing girl in the treacherous Texas plains is equal parts True Grit and The Searchers. Streaming on Netflix starting Dec. 25.
SOUL MANK
David Fincher’s first feature since 2015’s Gone Girl is the sort of thing the Academy loves — a Hollywood film about Hollywood. Gary Oldman stars as the irascible, alcoholic Herman J. Mankiewicz, a prolific screenwriter whose political and personal conflicts would inspire the legendary Citizen Kane. His performance is a shoo-in for awards love, and Amanda Seyfried, playing scorned starlet Marion
Soul, Pixar’s 23rd feature, premiered at the London Film Festival in October to rapturous response. It’s about an aspiring jazz musician who, right as his career is about to take off, suffers an accident that has him trapped between realms in some kind of afterlife. It comes courtesy of Up director Pete Docter, so expect this one to snag a best picture nomination and become the 11th Pixar production to handily win the Oscar for best animated film. Streaming on Disney+ starting Dec. 25. n
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MOUNTAIN PEOPLE
G
MR. MOGUL
How Joey Cordeau became king of the mountain
rowing up in Biddeford, Maine, Joey Cordeau started skiing when he was in high school. “I started so I could get in on the school ski trips, and then I saw this freestyle skiing movie in 1972, the year before I graduated, and I said, ‘I can do that.’ They were falling everywhere. ‘Yeah, I can do that — I want to do that,’” Cordeau recalls with a laugh as we ride the chairlift at Lookout Pass. Over the next 50 years, Joey would be be heavily involved in the sport of freestyle mogul skiing. He’s appeared in over 10 Warren Miller films, his images have been featured in skiing magazines numerous times, and he won the title of World Pro Mogul Champion four times in the 1980s. Joey’s competitive skiing career started in 1973, when he entered his first freestyle contest. “I had terrible results, and I wanted to get better,” Joey recounts. “So over the next few years I pursued it, going to Sugarloaf,
BY BOB LEGASA
Maine, for a few years. Then all my friends said, ‘You want ski moguls, and Sun Valley’s the place you need to be,’ so I went to Sun Valley and spent a year there, just skiing and honing in on everything.” After a few years strictly focused on getting better in the moguls, Joey decided he was ready to compete again. His first event was in Waterville Valley, New Hampshire, where he made the finals — a big improvement from a few years earlier. After that event, Joey made the drive halfway across the country to Boyne Mountain, Michigan, and placed third. He was now starting to have some success. In 1979, the World Pro Mogul tour started up, and Joey focused his skiing efforts on competing on that tour. His first season he had mixed results, but the following year it all came together for Joey, and he was crowned World Pro Mogul Champion in 1980. His perseverance was beginning to pay off.
O
ne day in the winter of 1981, Joey came across a brochure for a new Pro Mogul tour that was sponsored by the Swedish car company Saab. “I saw a little brochure at a ski shop two weeks before this first contest was going to start. Like, ‘Holy cow, they’re giving a car away, man. I got to get in on this,’” he recalls thinking. Together with four of his mogul skiing buddies from Sun Valley, he and his new wife, Barb, drove crosscountry in a van that a Sun Valley ski shop had loaned them. “Oh my God, what a trip. On the way back, the van started burning oil, and we had to change the spark plugs every hundred miles. It was classic, and looking back on it now, it’s funny. I ended up winning the Saab turbo that year — that was in ’81. The next year, in ’82, I got hurt so I had to drop out. Then I won the world championships in ’83, ’84, ’85,” he says. ...continued on next page
CONTENTS
GIFT GUIDE SKIING WITH DAD THE WANG SHACK WINTER EVENTS LAST RUN
30 32 37 38 39
ON THE COVER: LOOKOUT PASS SKI & RECREATION AREA BOB LEGASA PHOTO
Joey Cordeau on Lookout Pass. BOB LEGASA PHOTO
DECEMBER 2020 SNOWLANDER 27
MOUNTAIN PEOPLE
Joey Cordeau tearing it up.
COURTESY OF JOEY CORDEAU
“MR. MOGUL,” CONTINUED... Joey’s reputation as a mogul skier was farreaching. One skier who looked up to Joey was freestyle skier Bob Vogel, who was a stunt double in the movie Hot Dog. Bob, or BV as his friends call him, had this to say about Cordeau: “Like many up-and-coming mogul skiers, I first saw Joey Cordeau’s iconic style on the big screen by Warren Miller and Dick Barrymore — no ski movie in the late ’70s and early ’80s was complete without a segment of ‘Sun Valley’s hottest bump skiers shredding huge powder bumps.’ Cordeau’s effortlesslooking style, his power and technical skill were remarkable, knees and skis glued together, huge absorption and tip drive into each mogul with serious carving angulation. Emulating his style became a lofty and elusive goal for me.” BV entered a few Pro Mogul contests in the ’80s and got to see Joey in his element firsthand, including at the world championship in Snowbird, Utah. “I was knocked out of the early rounds by the massive moguls on Silverfox — a run that is deemed too steep by today’s FIS World Cup mogul standards. I got to see Joey win the World Pro Mogul Championships on that run. Cordeau’s ability is even more impressive in person.”
J
oey’s talent was in high demand by sponsors, filmmakers and photographers. “I kind of rode the wave, doing ski pictures with photographers and one of my sponsors at the time, Quicksilver clothing. I did a bunch of Warren Miller films; Warren took me over to New Zealand once or twice,” Joey says with a humorous smile. In the ’90s, Joey slowed down a little to focus on family and his painting business. In the summertime, Cordeau’s painting crews would travel to numerous ski resorts and paint the chairlift towers and chairlifts. In the early 2000s, Joey really focused on coaching kids in Sun Valley. Joey is one of the more renowned mogul coaches in the freestyle skiing world, and he’s helped pave the way and progressed the sport
28 SNOWLANDER DECEMBER 2020
with his techniques. Over the years he’s created a wave of young skiers as future U.S. Ski Team Athletes including both his children, Shane and Christine. Shane was on the U.S. Mogul team, and Christine was on the first U.S. Skier Cross team. Now at 66, with over 20 years of coaching freestyle athletes, Joey has officially retired from ski coaching. He and his wife of 43 years, who’s also a former pro mogul skier, are pulling up their deep Sun Valley roots and moving to North Idaho. Joey and Barb have lived in the Sun Valley area for over 40 years. But over the past 10 years, the couple had visited a few times to the Silver Valley area, where one of their longtime Sun Valley friends had moved. During one of these visits, the friend took Joey and Barb skiing at Lookout Pass, and the hook was set. With its close proximity to the Lookout Pass and Silver Mountain ski resorts, Wardner, Idaho, is where the Cordeaus will now call home. Joey said, “I was just looking for a small hometown thing and more. Hailey, Idaho, used to be like that — where everybody just goes out and does their thing and skis a lot. One of the main reasons we came up here: I was looking for soft snow and a different vibe in the ski world, sort of a hometown vibe.” Joey has taken on the role of contractor as he’s currently building their retirement home on a hillside in Wardner. One of the good things about being your own boss is, you can take time off for a good ski day like he did when we skied at Lookout Pass on a beautiful bluebird day. With a new home under construction and a new dream, Joey is settling down and enjoying this new retired routine to its fullest. With ski passes at both Silver and Lookout, Joey is already racking up some days at his new playground. You can hear it in Joey’s voice on the chair: “Like I said, Bob, it’s a hometown place. I love the fact that people are just out having their fun, and it’s not a big race everywhere. I knew this was it. Like they say in Texas: I may not be from here, but I got here as quick as I could.” n
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GIFT GUIDE
GIFTS FOR MOUNTAIN PEOPLE Eight creature comforts for the winter enthusiast on your gift list BY ALEX SAKARIASSEN SKULLCANDY SESH EVO WIRELESS EARBUDS
$29.99, various stores Skiing and music are one of those killer combinations, like peanut butter and jelly or Saturday mornings and coffee. Slip a pair of Skullcandy Sesh Evo earbuds under the tree, and you can bet your shred-obsessed loved one will spend the rest of the season pretending they’re hotdogging alongside the pros in their favorite ski flick. No fussy tangle of wires here. Just simple Bluetooth-enabled vibes. There’s even a built-in microphone — handy for those fleeting moments when the outside world calls to check in.
30 SNOWLANDER DECEMBER 2020
HESTRA WAKAYAMA MITTENS
$170, Ski Shack It’s a popular theory in the snowsports world that comfy feet make for happy riders. True as that may be, happiness is hard to hang onto when your hands are blocks of ice. Hestra’s made a name for itself among skiers and snowboarders by ensuring that never happens, and the evidence doesn’t get much cozier or chic than the Wakayama mitten. An exterior cut from cowhide keeps that frigid winter wind at bay, while interior layers of polyester and terry wool guarantee the fingers of that special powderhound on your holiday shopping list will
stay in prime can-clutching shape all season long.
DERMATONE SKIN PROTECTOR
$9.59, dermatone.com Nothing ruins a day on the slopes faster than a frost-nipped nose. Which is why the folks at Dermatone have been churning out tins of their “frostbite fighter” for years. An ideal stocking stuffer for any snowsports enthusiast, this pocket-sized face balm will keep the cold and wind at bay, and with its SPF 23 ranking, it’ll also shield against winter’s other familiar foe: the sun.
MIDLAND T51 VP3 TALKER TWO-WAY RADIOS
$49.99, Cabela’s With ski lodges throughout the region operating at reduced capacity (or closed altogether), tracking down wayward riding companions will be trickier. This is exactly the type of season when a set of Midland walkie-talkies could come in handy. One word broadcast over a range of 28 miles can signal that it’s time to rally at the car for lunch, and with a built-in weather alert system, that special someone on your gift list can stay on top of any storms that might delay their appearance at dinner.
FIELDSHEER BACKCOUNTRY HEATED VEST GCI FIREPIT ROCKER CHAIR $179.95, Spokane Alpine Haus Even on those gorgeous bluebird days, winter gets darned cold around these parts. And while layering up has been the tried and true way to stay warm for centuries, technology continues to make the battle easier. Fieldsheer’s Backcountry vest (available in both men’s and women’s) includes a 7.4-volt heating system effective enough to keep a skier’s core temp up through every chilly lift ride but compact enough to maintain that stylish aprés-ski look. Temperature settings range from 90 to 135 degrees, controlled by either a built-in touch control or Mobile Warming’s free smartphone app.
$59.99, Sportsman’s Warehouse Thanks to COVID-19, the aprés-ski scene isn’t going to involve a stool in a crowded bar this season. That skier or snowboarder on your holiday gift list will need a new perch, one that can transform a backcountry trailhead or ski area parking lot into a cozy (and socially distanced) hangout. Any camper who has kicked back in a GCI fireside chair knows how portable the lap of luxury can be. And as if the rocker feature wasn’t soothing enough, the attached cupholder will keep any mellowing elixir close at hand.
TEVA EMBER MOC SLIPPERS
$74.95, REI Ski boots may not be the pinched plastic prisons they once were, but a daylong shred-fest can still make for some extremely unhappy feet. What riders really need when the lifts stop turning — aside from a beer — is some cozy padded cocoon for their tired tootsies. That’s where Teva’s Ember Moc Slippers come in. Part sneaker, part wraparound cloud, a pair of these stashed in the car will make sliding into aprés-ski mode a highlight of any powder day.
GEO SINGLE-SERVE COFFEE
$18, treelinecoffee.com One thing holds true in every ski season: No matter how deep the snow or blue the sky, every day eventually ends. And when it does, there’s that dark drive home to consider. With a couple packets of instant coffee bouncing around the glovebox, though, your beloved powderhound can ride a jolt of caffeine all the way to the front door. Bozeman-based Treeline Coffee Roasters offers an array of handcrafted, single-serve coffee blends in pouches specifically designed with adventure in mind. Just tear, pour and bid the indignity of lukewarm gas station dark roast goodbye. n
Schweitzer_WinterUnrestricted_121720_10H_CPW.pdf
DECEMBER 2020 SNOWLANDER 31
MOUNTAIN PEOPLE
SKIING BEYOND THE FOG Father and son skied in Vail in the mid-’80s.
Dad’s dementia robbed us of that one happy last run, but in my dreams, he’s carving powder down sunny slopes
M
y earliest memory of skiing is from age 4 when I was dropped off by my dad at a place called the Gingerbread House. Sitting wherever you are now and reading this you can’t be blamed for thinking something along the lines of, “Man, being 4 and going to a place called the Gingerbread House must have been a dream come true.” It’s fair if you’re picturing some quaint house in the woods run by a rosy-cheeked grandmotherly figure where the delicious smell of freshly baked cookies always hung in the air. However, the actual truth was nothing like that. The place was something more like a very impersonal day care center where a couple of times a day we kids were forced outside into the freezing cold to slog uphill toting skis and gear only to be shoved back down that same hill by some nameless adult while we screamed in fear. This is, at least, how I remember it, although I’m fairly sure the reality was nowhere near that awful. Somehow, miraculously it would seem, my next memories related to skiing are very positive. I recall pestering my dad relentlessly until he finally agreed to pack my mom, my sister and my now 6-year-old self into an embarrassingly bright yellow Volkswagen Dasher and drive us to the mountains. It’s never quite clear to me
32 SNOWLANDER DECEMBER 2020
what changed, but by this time skiing had gone from being an activity that inspired epic fear in me into one that inspired pure joy. There’s a great picture of my family on the slopes from around this era where I seem to be about 4 feet shorter than even my slightly older sister, but what I lacked in stature, I made up for by the size of the gigantic grin on my face. The decade or so that followed brought many changes to my family unit. My dad moved out of the house, then back in, and then back out for good. My sister eventually moved off to college, and somehow along the way my mom and I developed the habit of not being able to speak with each other in any form other than an argument. Throughout these years my dad seemed, to me at least, to have decided that I would never live up to his lofty expectations of me. However, even in this trying period of my life, whenever my dad and I would head for the slopes, all my problems and concerns seemed to simply fade away into the euphoria of skiing.
A
s I grew into adulthood, ski trips with my dad would develop into quite the tradition. It all began with those childhood day trips into the mountains around home. During the day we’d carve up
COURTESY OF JOHN GROLLMUS
BY JOHN GROLLMUS
the slopes, and then we’d usually stop for a boys dinner on the way home. I can still vividly remember the Mexican restaurant, long since burned down, where we’d often stop and test our mettle by seeing who could eat the most of their famously hot four-alarm salsa. Later, when we lived far apart, we would meet up in some famous ski location like Colorado, Utah or British Columbia to keep the ski dream alive. As the dynamic of our on-mountain experience changed and I became the better skier, we might separate for a while during the day so I could chase powder, or girls, or just try to get hurt by hucking myself off any available cliff, but toward the end of the ski day, we always came back together for an après ski beverage and maybe even some chips and salsa. It always felt like no matter how far we drifted apart both physically and mentally, a therapeutic ski trip always brought us back together, even if only for a short time. As time wore on there was a particular trip that made me worry. I’d flown to California, near where my dad now lived, to meet up with him and ski the Tahoe area while we stayed at the ski house of one of his friends. He’d already been to the house and unloaded his stuff before he came to pick me up from my flight and on the
Commitment to value.
return trip things took a turn for the worse. He didn’t seem to know where he’d actually come from and then began driving very erratically. I took over driving and called his wife who then talked me through getting us to the house. In the morning, things seemed to be back to normal, and our trip went on mostly without a hitch. However, I discussed the incident with my dad’s wife and my sister who also happened to live near my dad. It wasn’t too long after that I got the call to give me the news I’d been fearing: My dad had been diagnosed with a particularly cruel and fast-progressing form of Alzheimer’s.
W HI T EF IS H M OUN TA IN RES O R T
W
hile he still had the mental capacity to do so, my dad convinced us all that what he really wanted, and perhaps even needed, was one last ski trip. This one, however, would present some interesting challenges. My sister and I put a plan in motion. She would travel with him to be sure all went safely, and they would come to stay with me at my slope-side abode so we could reduce the number of variables while trying keep things going smoothly. When the morning finally arrived to get my dad out to ski, we awoke to a foreboding gray fog that had settled menacingly on the mountain. Out on the slopes things did not go well. Between the everincreasing fog clouding my dad’s head and the actual fog outside our goggles, he couldn’t really do much.
Father and son back on a mountain.
Commitment to character. In the ‘30s local skiers discovered good skiing on the “big mountain” north of town. Since then we’ve been committed to a life of good times,
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COURTESY OF JOHN GROLLMUS
A pattern quickly developed wherein he would make a turn and then almost sit down on the snow; I’d then pick him up and attempt to instill some confidence in him, and then he’d start out again only to quickly be back on the snow. This depressing cycle continued for longer than any of us really wanted it to, but we had to give him this one last shot. Finally, after a toboggan ride down from a particularly compassionate patroller, we found ourselves in the first aid room. Have you ever watched a person with dementia try to pass concussion protocols? I can tell you from experience it doesn’t go well, but with a quick explanation in a side conversation, we were able to secure our release and head home. The rest of our time together that weekend went much better, but there was no avoiding the awful reality that my final ski trip with my dad was sadly in the rearview mirror. A few years later, shortly after his unfortunately premature passing, I had a dream about my dad. In it I was visiting him at the assisted care facility where he’d spent his waning days, and a look of clarity I hadn’t seen in years appeared on his face, followed by a sly smile. He suggested I sneak him out and we make a break for the one final and greatest ski trip of our lives. Well, we did just that, and in classic dream sequence fashion, we were on the hill in no time. It was a particularly beautiful day with sunshine and powder in abundance. We made lap after lap in the sun, sharing stories and laughs about ski trips gone by as we rode the lifts. Finally, as the sun began to dip low in the sky, we came to a ridge that I somehow seemed to know well. My dad took a turn onto a run of untouched powder sparkling with sun-kissed diamonds and I just stood there relishing the memories as I watched him ski away. n
DECEMBER 2020 SNOWLANDER 33
dining • shopping • culture Businesses are working hard to serve customers and stay safe: Support them and you support our region’s recovery.
APPETIZERS FROM A PAST EPICURIAN DELIGHT
Gatherings Reimagined In a normal year, the Epicurean Delight gala fundraiser is one of the highlights of the local Arts & Culture calendar, featuring 60 purveyors of food and libations each November. It attracts 1,200 guests and raises essential funds for Vitalint (formerly the Inland Northwest Blood Center) and the Blood Center Foundation of the Inland Northwest. It’s one of the largest one-day food and beverage events in Spokane. But 2020, as we know all too well, hasn’t been a normal year. “This year, obviously, we couldn’t host it, and so we shifted our perspective to trying to support the food and beverage industry, who have supported us for the past 38 years, especially because they were so hard hit this year. Even though Vitalint needs help too, we just wanted to show up for our partners,” says Haley Rippee, who coordinates Epicurean Delight. The “reimagined” event for 2020 is called Bites and Delights. Instead of being a one-night, in-person gathering, it puts a book of vouchers in donors’ hands. Those coupons can then be used to sample an assortment of viands and
libations at 36 participating establishments. That can include anything from a free appetizer or dessert to a complimentary wine tasting. Although Epicurean Delight’s organizers did contemplate a virtual event, they decided that the voucher booklet would be a safe, fun middle ground between the smorgasbord that people have come to expect and the current restrictions on large gatherings. “Our event is so experience-based,” Rippee says. “Everyone gets to go around and taste test everything, and that’s just not something you can take online. And we’ve had a lot of sponsors come forward with an offer to step up their sponsorship, so we’re able to pay all of our participants very generously this year.” Shifting to the booklet has had some further unexpected upsides. On top of supporting local food and beverage establishments at a time when they really need the help, it opens the event to more attendees and creates more possibilities for them to sample from a wider range of establishments than one evening would typically allow. The vouchers are
BACK TO BUSINESS Partner Organizations 34 INLANDER DECEMBER 17, 2020
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valid for both dine-in (conditions permitting) and takeout, and they’re valid through the end of August 2021. “We’re really pleased with the response from all of our guests. We’ve had so many people who haven’t attended the event before who have purchased the booklets,” says Rippee. In fact, the reception has been so positive that there’s a chance the voucher booklet will continue in some form alongside the in-person fundraiser in the future. Re-creating the experience of live fundraising events and holiday performances has proved challenging for every arts organization. Despite all that, the Spokane Civic Theatre has been working hard to continue entertaining the community. “We’ve found a way to bring our holiday show to our patrons safely and virtually,” says Civic Marketing Director Brianna McCracken. In lieu of the planned stage production of A Christmas Carol, the Civic is offering its audiences two alternate versions: a radio play and a streaming performance. The radio version of A Christmas Carol will be performed by a who’s who of local actors and broadcast for free on Spokane Public Radio at various times through Dec. 24. The streaming performance is a Broadway-quality, nationally acclaimed one-man show starring Jefferson Mays. That can be viewed until Jan. 3; a portion of each ticket sale benefits the Civic. “It’s something you can gather and do as a family,” McCracken says. And though the radio broadcast as well as the theater’s ongoing Civic Presents streaming series can be enjoyed completely free of charge, she encourages supporters to take advantage of the Civic Eats events, which benefit the theater as well as a local restaurant, or make a direct donation on the theater’s website. “Every dollar really does make a difference, especially during this pause. So even if they just give $5, for us that’s huge. That’s what keeps us afloat.” ◆ Bites and Delights voucher booklets are available at three different price points and can be purchased online at epicureandelight.org. To donate to the Civic or get more info on the radio and streaming productions, visit spokanecivictheatre.com. Tickets for the streaming version of A Christmas Carol are $50 per household. Use code SCROOGE to get $10 off the streaming ticket price.
ASHTANGA YOGA SCHOOL SPOKANE SOUTH HILL Yes, you can do yoga! Find your path toward physical, mental, and spiritual wellness at Ashtanga Yoga School Spokane. AYSS offers guidance for ANYONE interested in practicing yoga. The studio offers a welcoming and safe environment, and teachers with decades of experience. All classes are currently available online, and will also be offered in person as state guidelines allow. Ashtanga Yoga School Spokane seeks to offer hope and inspiration to anyone, wherever they are. As state guidelines shift to allow in-person instruction, AYSS will continue to offer courses online to maximize availability for all practitioners. 995-5505, 505 E. 24th Ave., ashtangaspokane.com
SPOKANE CHILDREN'S THEATRE GONZAGA DISTRICT Spokane Children’s Theatre (SCT) was established in 1946 and is Spokane’s oldest theater organization! SCT’s mission is to provide enjoyable, educational and affordable live theatre to children, adults and families. SCT is also Spokane’s family theater — we are one of the few activities that families can be part of together. SCT is a 501(c)3 nonprofit, and all donations are tax deductible. SCT is also a debt-free organization, so all donations go directly to supporting our mission. Live theater is closed, but we have online classes and are now offering virtual performances. 328-4886, 2727 N. Madelia St., SpokaneChildrensTheatre.org
MAIN MARKET CO-OP GROCERY | DOWNTOWN Spokane’s only local food co-op! Providing an awesome deli and bakery, grocery, supplements, bulk foods, local produce, local meats, beer, wine and specialty cheeses. We support LOCAL producers and the LOCAL economy! We have substantially increased our cleaning and disinfecting protocols including: increased daily disinfection, monitoring staff closely, relaxing call out procedures, and educating staff about the virus symptoms. We have had no symptomatic staff, but will send any home and have access to a medical contact for testing. We also currently offer instacart online ordering. 458-2667, 44 W. Main Ave., mainmarket. coop
Fresh sheet deals • specials • updates KATZE BOUTIQUE SPOKANE [ EAST ] Mention that you saw us in the Inlander and receive 10% off total purchase. Open Wednesday to Saturday 10 am-5 pm. 1816 East Sprague Avenue
MAIN MARKET CO-OP
THIN AIR RADIO SPOKANE DOWNTOWN KYRS-Thin Air Community Radio is a volunteer-powered, non-commercial, listener-supported, community radio station in Spokane, serving the area with unique programming since 2003. Heard on 92.3 & 88.1 FM and streaming 24/7 at KYRS. org, we provide a mix of news, views, culture and music often overlooked by other media. We produce our own local news and community affairs programming, as well as airing Democracy Now! with Amy Goodman, Thom Hartman, Ralph Nader, and much more. KYRS offers independent music from rock to folk and world to funk. Local music, local people, local issues: KYRS is your home on the airwaves! 747-3012, 35 W. Main Ave., kyrs.org
VALLEYFEST SPOKANE VALLEY Valleyfest is the Spokane Valley community celebration. Events include Cycle Celebration in July, Multicultural in August and the three-day festival in late September. Mission Statement: Valleyfest, a 501(c)(3) organization, produces community driven, safe, family oriented, visually dramatic festivals in Spokane Valley. We expose the talent that enriches the Spokane Valley region and celebrate the visual and performing arts, education, science, and recreation so the entire community can experience them. Valleyfest changes for 2020 included Leaping to Virtual events for multi-sport, shopping and entertainment. Valleyfest brought events to your neighborhoods with the Porch Decorating Contest and the Lily Pad Procession. In 2021, Valleyfest will be a combination
of neighborhood events and communitywide events. 922-3299, 10814 E. Broadway Ave., valleyfest.org
WESTCOAST ENTERTAINMENT DOWNTOWN WestCoast Entertainment is an independent presenter of national touring Broadway productions, concerts and other special events. Based in downtown Spokane, WestCoast Entertainment has brought top Broadway shows to Spokane and the First Interstate Center for the Arts for more than 30 years. Broadway will be back in Fall 2021! For the best seats at the best prices, purchase STCU Best of Broadway season tickets now. Single tickets for individual shows will be available at a later date. Gift cards to use toward tickets are available at any time. 818-3440, 421 W. Main Ave. Suite 200, broadwayspokane.com
THE ZAG SHOP APPAREL | NORTH SPOKANE Located on the Gonzaga campus, the store has everything you need to celebrate the Zags all year round. The Zag Shop has a wide selection of apparel and accessories for the whole family, home decor, and gifts to show off your Gonzaga pride. Face coverings are required for all staff and customers. Increased cleaning protocols are being followed. Customers are asked to sign in upon entering the store. Fitting rooms are closed, and no apparel or accessories may be tried on. Returns are accepted, with apparel and accessories being quarantined for at least 24 hours before being available for sale. Online orders can be picked up in the store or at the curbside. For curbside pickup, please call 313-6390 upon arrival. GO ZAGS! 801 E. Desmet Ave., 3136390, zagshop.com
ABOUT Back to business • These weekly pages are part of a local marketing effort in support of the hospitality
sector brought to you by leading institutions and businesses to help promote the Spokane County economy, supported in part by Cares Act funding. With the goal of balancing commerce and public safety, you can follow along here in the Inlander, and via the links below, as local restaurants, shops and more share their stories and invite your support.
OVER THE MOON RELICS LLC SPOKANE [ NORTH ] Working Tube Radios from 1930s1950s. $5 off any priced item between $45 & $54 also $10 off $55 and over. 604 W Garland Ave
NW CRAFTED MACRAME SPOKANE [ NORTH ] Knots and Shots Virtual Macrame classes are open for registration! 4017 East Rich Avenue
SPOKANE HOME BUILDERS ASSOCIATION SPOKANE VALLEY Virtual Tours for the 2020 Fall Festival of Homes still available. Visit fallfestivalofhomes.com now! 5813 East 4th Avenue
ROOTED YOGA SPOKANE [ NORTH ] 10 infrared sauna sessions for $200. 10% off personalized yoga practice, private instruction; online or in-studio. 220 East Wellesley Avenue
BARK, A RESCUE PUB SPOKANE [ DOWNTOWN ] We have outdoor seating! Stop by and warm up, while visiting some furry friends! Reservations are recommended. 905 North Washington Street
FRESH SHEET CONTINUES ON THE NEXT PAGE
more to come • Through the end of the year, watch
the Inlander for special Back To Business guides, along with special sections, sharing more recovery stories and community business features.
Safe business practice resources KindnessNotCovid.org • Financial resources for businesses InlandBizStrong.org
DECEMBER 17, 2020 INLANDER 35
Fresh sheet deals • specials • updates 3 NINJAS SPOKANE [ DOWNTOWN ] Stocking stuffers are ready. From now until the end of December, if you buy 3 bottles of our hot sauce, you’ll get a forth bottle free. 1198 West Summit Parkway
ARBOR CREST SPOKANE VALLEY We’re ringing in the holidays with our holiday sale. Purchase 3+ bottles and receive 15% off. 4705 North Fruit Hill Road
BARNWOOD SOCIAL SPOKANE [ NORTH ] We’ve got our Bloody Mary ToGo Kits available. Stop by and pick one up today. Or call one in, and we’ll have it ready for you. 3027 Liberty Avenue
THE BLACK DIAMOND SPOKANE VALLEY Come in tonight for some cold (or hot) drinks and some delicious food, all under our heated tent. We hear the PBLT is a hit too. 9614 East Sprague Avenue
BLAZE PIZZA SPOKANE [ NORTH ] Gift cards are available, and when you buy $25 or more this holiday season, we’ll hook you up with a free pizza. 926 North Division Street
BORRACHO TACOS & TEQUILERIA SPOKANE [ DOWNTOWN ] Have you tried our Mexican Hot Cocoa kit yet? What about the Bloody Mary Kit? Take one home with you today. Limited Supply. 211 North Division Street
BRICK WEST BREWING CO. SPOKANE [ DOWNTOWN ] Our new pavilion tent is all set up, complete with heating, TVs, speakers, and plenty of space and airflow. All we’re missing is you! 1318 West 1st Avenue
CHARLEY'S GRILL & SPIRITS
LIBERTY CIDERWORKS
SPOKANE [ DOWNTOWN ] Order your Traditional Holiday Dinner today. It serves 4 guests and comes with plenty of food. Order by Dec. 21; $60 801 North Monroe Street
SPOKANE [ DOWNTOWN ] Limited edition tasting trios now available. Grab yours while supplies last. Pickup in the taproom or order online. Three bottles/2 tasting glasses 164 S. Washington St. Ste. 300
COLE'S BAKERY & CAFE
ROW ADVENTURE CENTER
SPOKANE [ NORTH ] Our cookie decorating kits are ready. A bakers dozen cookies, delicious frosting and decorative sprinkles, ready for a fun family evening. 521 East Holland Avenue
SPOKANE [ DOWNTOWN ] $10 off Spokane Rafting day trips when booked and paid in full by 12/21/20. 209 S Washington St
FERRARO'S ITALIAN RESTAURANT SPOKANE VALLEY Family style dinners: Feeds 4+people. Choose off our mama classic entrées. Starting at $39, includes salad, bread, and spumoni. 11204 East Sprague Avenue
HAY J'S BISTRO LIBERTY LAKE Come enjoy our heated outdoor seating! And if you order takeout, get 10% off your order. 21706 East Mission Avenue
MAX AT MIRABEAU SPOKANE VALLEY Receive a $20 gift certificate reward with every $100 gift certificate purchase. And make sure to check out our Family Meal deals. 1100 North Sullivan Road
NO-LI BREWHOUSE SPOKANE [ DOWNTOWN ] Come grab a beer and enjoy our heated outdoor patio. Purchase a pint Tuesday or Thursday and get a free holiday pint glass. 1003 East Trent Avenue
THE OTIS GRILL OTIS ORCHARDS When you purchase a $40 gift card in person, you will receive a certificate for a free burger. 21902 East Wellesley Avenue
BLOSSOM'S ANTIQUES SPOKANE [ NORTH ] Small Business Saturday every Saturday until Christmas! 10% off Christmas and 20% off your first regular-priced item. Gift with purchase NMBD Bag (wsl) 2415 N monroe
CBD OF SPOKANE SPOKANE [ NORTH ] Santa and his elves will be at CBD of SPOKANE every Friday and Saturday starting through Dec. 19. Free photo and gift bag. 220 East Wellesley Avenue
RITTERS GARDEN & GIFT SPOKANE [ NORTH ] Our 12 Days of Christmas special starts today! Every day will be a different special on a great holiday decoration or gift. 10120 North Division Street
TOMATO STREET SPOKANE [ NORTH ] Tomato Street gift cards make excellent gifts. For every $50 in gift cards, we’ll give you a bonus $5. 6220 North Division Street
CHENEY SHOE BARN CHENEY Winter is here! Beanies $2.99, hat & scarf combos $5.99, and hat & glove combos $4.99 223 1st Street
VINO! A WINE SHOP SPOKANE [ DOWNTOWN ] Call your order in and we’ll have curbside pickup available. We can also help you select the wines you’re looking for. 222 South Washington Street
FRENCH TOAST MAMA & MINI KENDALL YARDS Celebrate small business: Shop online with code
SHOPSMALL2020 and save 15% off. 1170 West Summit Parkway
TECATE GRILL SPOKANE [ NORTH ] Hola Amigos Tecate Grill is open for takeout. Serving great fajitas & margaritas. Gift cards available, Feliz Navidad! Order online. 2610 West Northwest Boulevard
GIFT CARDS ARE A GREAT OPTION Early in the pandemic, when his firm wanted to do something for their employees and felt the need to support local businesses, Metals Fab in Airway Heights gave out gift cards to local restaurants. “It was a no-brainer for us,” says Todd Weaver, president of the steel fabricator that does work across the Pacific Northwest. “It was something good for employees — it took some worry off them at a time when nobody knew what was going on.” They handed out cards to Cochinito, Hello Sugar, and Downriver Grill (which can also be used at Flying Goat and Republic Pi). “It was also a way to introduce our team to some places we love that they maybe weren’t familiar with,” Weaver adds. Now that the holiday gift-giving season is upon us, gift cards are again a great option for employee gifts, or for friends and family. Especially now with indoor dining on hold, they can make a big impact for our local businesses. The Davenport Hotel Collection offers a card that works across all their properties — the Grand Hotel, the Historic Davenport, the Davenport Tower, the Lusso, the Centennial — including all their restaurants. It’s even good for the Davenport Home Store and the Spa. And you get $50 off for $500 in gift cards (two $250 cards or five $100 cards, for example). Another example of one card giving you multiple options is the one offered by the Eat Good Group, chef Adam Hegsted’s collection of restaurants that spans the Inland Northwest. It’ll get you credit at the Wandering Table, the Gilded Unicorn, Incrediburger and Eggs, the Yards and many more. Gift cards aren’t just for chains any more — just about any business you can think of is likely to have some kind of program. So if you want to support your favorite local business and spread the word, consider that old last-minute standby: the gift card. ◆
MORE FRESH SHEET follow up-to-date info at btb.inlander.com 36 INLANDER DECEMBER 17, 2020
SPONSORED CONTENT
ESSAY
WELCOME TO THE WANG SHACK It was without a doubt one of the coolest little ski bars ever BY JOHN GROLLMUS
Y
ou just have to wonder what kind of an establishment puts a sign right in the middle of its front door that reads, “Please use other door” — especially when the place only has one door. I’d argue the best kind. The kind of place you have to have a history with to understand. The kind of place that had to have a history to even exist. The kind of place that could be named the Wang Shack, and have that name actually make sense, without anyone really knowing what it means. Some great ideas are born in an instant, like the moment Archimedes stepped into a bath and noticing the water rise exclaimed — Eureka! — realizing that he suddenly understood how water displacement works. Similarly, Newton understood gravity the moment the apple fell upon his head. Other great ideas aren’t born but rather grown into over time and through a perhaps unlikely series of events. The tiny, funky, cheerful and crusty-aroundthe-edges Wang Shack definitely falls into this latter category. Originally born as a small shack — essentially, a storage shed — the first incarnation of what would become the “Wang” was a ski demo facility. It was an extension of the village retail store located at the highest point on Schweitzer Mountain, where adventurous skiers could pay a fee to take the latest skis out for a few laps and then conveniently make a change of equipment and head out on a different set-up without having to venture into the hustle and bustle of the regular retail zone often packed with skiers looking for a regular rental set-up. Somewhere along the line, likely after so many inquiries from thirsty shredders, a decision was made to add selling beer into the equation, beginning phase two of its development into one of the coolest little ski bars ever. In the immortal words of the Dude, what really “tied the room together,” so to speak, was a final decision to transfer management of this tiny mountain-top gem out of retail and into food and beverage. Once that move was made, what followed was accidental genius. Rental skis moved out and a couple of small tables with stools, a bit of refrigeration, a few bags of
chips and a bartender moved in, and with that, the true Wang Shack that so many remember was born. I’d been stopping by this quirky little shack from time to time, getting to know it pretty well, but the experience that made me a regular is about as typical Wang Shack as it can get. The bartender and I were discussing music, as we often did, and I professed my love for Hall & Oates. Without missing a beat, he pointed to a number written on the wall — the walls of the Wang were covered in modern-day Sharpie cave paintings — and directed me to dial it immediately. After some light protesting, because really who knew what I was getting into, I made the call and had my mind blown. Who knew there was a Hall & Oates hotline? Well, now you do, too. It was experiences like this that eventually built a tribe of kindred spirits. Some of the best times, best cheers, best powder day high-fives ever had at a ski hill happened right there at an unlikely storage shed turned ski bar with a really strange name. I mean how many ski bars are there where, from time to time, a regular customer might actually ski right into the bar? Sadly, we’re all too familiar with the expression, “It’s too good to last.” And the Wang Shack was no exception. Just as the trusted old double chairs made way for high-speed quads and 205cm GS skis made way for fat skis, this fringe-worthy and sometimes even a bit cringe-worthy little piece of ski history gave way to bigger things. However, if you ever hoisted a shotzski, watched a confused first-timer spin around after reading the sign on the door, swept a semiconscious fly off a table to make room for your beverage or shared a conversation about something random with the ever-fabulous bartender within those hallowed and heavily adorned walls, the Wang Shack will live on forever in your memory. If you were never lucky enough to pay a visit, then keep an eye out for the gal or guy with the #savethewang coozie on their beer and ask them to tell you a story, I guarantee you will not regret it. n
As with many things, it was too good to last. COURTESY OF JOHN GROLLMUS
DECEMBER 2020 SNOWLANDER 37
WINTER EVENTS DECEMBER
bowling contest takes place on the slope side of the lodge deck, just above the mountain brewfest tent. Sign up a two-person team (one adult or sibling pushes a kid, age 12 or under, on a saucer, acting as the bowling ball). Contest starts at 2 pm; brewfest available from 11 am-2 pm. Sun, Jan. 31. Lookout Pass, I-90 Exit 0 at Mullan, Idaho. skilookout.com (208-744-1301)
NIGHT SKIING AT MT. SPOKANE Tentative dates for the 2020-21 season for this annual evening activity are Dec. 18-March 13, with no night skiing offered on Christmas Eve or Day. See operations calendar for details; upcoming night skiing dates are Dec. 18-19, 23, 26, Dec. 30-Jan. 2 and then weekly, Wed-Sat, the rest of the season. Night operations are from 4-9 pm, with $27 lift tickets. Mt. Spokane Ski & Snowboard Park, 29500 N. Mt. Spokane Park Dr., Mead. mtspokane. com (238-2220) SNOWSHOE TOUR OF MT. SPOKANE Learn the basics of snowshoeing during a guided hike on snowshoe trails around Mt. Spokane State Park. Pretrip information is emailed after registration. Tickets include snowshoes, instruction, walking poles and guides. Ages 13+. Dec. 19 and 20 from 10 amnoon ($25/session; a Sno-Park Pass and transportation are participants’ responsibility for these two sessions). Also offered Dec. 27, Jan. 1, Jan. 10 and Jan. 18 from 9 am-1 pm, ($29/session; transportation for these sessions is provided from Yoke’s Fresh Market at 14202 N. Market St.). Register at spokanerec.org (625-6200) TWILIGHT SKIING AT SCHWEITZER Enjoy after-dark skiing and riding in the Stomping Grounds Terrain Park and the beginner terrain off Musical Chairs. Offered daily Dec. 26-31; FriSat nights from Jan. 1-March 6 as well as Sun, Jan. 17 and Sun, Feb. 14. Passes ($20) valid from 3-7 pm. Schweitzer Mountain Resort, 10000 Schweitzer Mountain Rd., Sandpoint, Idaho. schweitzer.com (208-263-9555) DRESS LIKE SANTA DAY Stop by the lift ticket window in a complete Santa suit (beard, hat, red coat/pants, black belt, etc.) and get a ticket for only $20. All proceeds from this special promotion help provide holiday gifts to needy kids in the Silver Valley. See website for complete rules and requirements. Tue, Dec. 22. Lookout Pass, I-90 Exit 0 at Mullan, Idaho. skilookout.com (208-744-1301) SKI WITH SANTA Enjoy a few runs with the big guy before he takes to the skies to deliver gifts this holiday season. More details to come; this event is subject to change due to current health and safety precautions. Dec. 23-24. Schweitzer Mountain Resort, 10000 Schweitzer Mountain Rd., Sandpoint, Idaho. schweitzer.com (208-263-9555) CHRISTMAS DAY SPECIAL Lookout is open on Christmas day, offering six-hour lift tickets for a
38 SNOWLANDER DECEMBER 2020
FEBRUARY
CROSS-COUNTRY SKI TOUR WITH FRIENDS OF MT. SPOKANE Learn about the mountain from Friends of Mt. Spokane member and local expert Chris Currie, who has published two books on the park and the history of skiing in the region. This guided interpretive tour on the crosscountry ski trails is not a lesson, and is thus for experienced hikers. Tickets include equipment rental. Ages 13+. Sun, Feb. 7 from 9 am-3 pm. $35. Register at spokanerec.org (625-6200)
Enjoy after-dark skiing at Schweitzer this season. half-day rate, and a special Christmas luncheon (11 am-2 pm). Fri, Dec. 25 from 10 am-4 pm. Lookout Pass, I-90 Exit 0 at Mullan, Idaho. skilookout.com (208-744-1301) YOUTH WINTER ADVENTURES Kids (ages 9-12) can learn to crosscountry ski and snowshoe at Mt. Spokane State Park, as well as spend time building snow caves and searching for animal tracks. Transportation, snowshoes, skiing equipment, trail passes and instruction provided. Bring a sack lunch. Offered Dec. 29-30 from 9 am-4 pm. $99. Departs each morning from the Northeast Community Center, 4001 N. Cook St. Register at spokanerec.org (625-6200) TORCHLIGHT PARADE This annual New Year’s Eve tradition for the mountain and the Silver Valley community is back. Guests can accompany mountain employees by skiing/riding down the mountain in the parade, or can sit back and spectate from the Loft Pub, which is offering food specials all night. Those who wish to participate in the parade must sign a release of liability. Thu, Dec. 31 at 5 pm. Lookout Pass, I-90 Exit 0 at Mullan, Idaho. skilookout.com (208-744-1301)
JANUARY
LEARN TO SKI & SNOWBOARD MONTH AT 49 Commit to learning something new this month and get outdoors on a snowboard or a pair of skis. Details TBA. Events set to occur Jan. 1-31. 49 Degrees North Mountain Resort, 3311
Flowery Trail Rd., Chewelah. Ski49n. com (935-6649) CROSS-COUNTRY SKI LESSONS (49 DEGREES NORTH) Learn to cross-country ski and tour the trails of the 49 Degrees North Nordic Area with the mountain’s certified ski instructors. Ticket includes equipment, trail pass and instruction (students must provide their own transportation to the mountain this year). Additional information to be emailed after registration. Ages 13+. Offered Jan. 3, Jan. 30, Feb. 21 and March 7 from 10 am-2 pm. $53. Register at spokanerec. org (625-6200) LADIES-ONLY CLINIC With three different days to choose from this season, women can enjoy a fun-filled day on the mountain led by Mt. Spokane’s best women instructors. Open to all skills, with groups divided by ability to allow all participants to learn and have fun at their pace. Lunch is provided, and the day ends with door prizes and drinks. Offered Fridays, Jan. 8, Feb. 12 and March 12 from 8:30 am-2 pm. $79-$140/session. Mt. Spokane Ski & Snowboard Park, 29500 N. Mt. Spokane Park Dr., Mead. mtspokane.com (238-2220) NORTHERN LIGHTS FIREWORKS SPECTACULAR Spend the MLK weekend at Schweitzer and enjoy this annual fireworks display in the village. (Event is subject to change due to current safety and health precautions.) Sat, Jan. 16. Schweitzer Mountain Resort, 10000 Schweitzer Mountain Rd., Sandpoint,
SCHWEITZER MOUNTAIN RESORT PHOTO
Idaho. schweitzer.com (208-263-9555) TOYOTA SKI FREE FRIDAY Visitors who head to Schweitzer in their Toyota, Scion or Lexus vehicle are eligible to receive one free adult lift ticket for use that day. Fri, Jan. 22. Schweitzer Mountain Resort, 10000 Schweitzer Mountain Rd., Sandpoint, Idaho. schweitzer.com (208-263-9555) MOONLIGHT SNOWSHOE HIKE Quietly explore the meadows and woods around Mt. Spokane. Guides, transportation (departs from Mead Yoke’s Fresh Market, 14202 N. Market St.), headlamps, walking poles and snowshoes are all provided. Additional information to be emailed after registration. Ages 16+. Offered Jan. 23, Feb. 26 and March 26 from 6-9 pm. $29. Register at spokanerec.org (625-6200) SNOWSHOE TOUR OF 49 DEGREES NORTH Tour the trails of Chewelah Peak and learn tips for better control and more fun on your snowshoes. Lunch is included after this trek, and your registration fee includes equipment rentals, trail pass and lunch. Pre-trip information to be emailed after registration. Transportation is participants’ responsibility for this event. Ages 15+. Offered Jan. 23, Feb. 20, March 6 and March 20 from 10 am-4 pm. $43/ session. Register at spokanerec.org (625-6200) MOUNTAIN BREWFEST & SNOW BOWLING The mountain’s fifth annual snow
LET IT GLOW FIREWORKS SHOW Spend the long Presidents Day weekend at the mountain and enjoy a Sunday night fireworks show in the village. Sun, Feb. 14. (Event subject to change due to health and safety precautions.) Schweitzer Mountain Resort, 10000 Schweitzer Mountain Rd., Sandpoint, Idaho. schweitzer.com (208-263-9555) TOYOTA SKI FREE FRIDAY Drive any Toyota (or Scion or Lexus) vehicle to 49 Spokane and receive a free lift ticket, courtesy of Toyota. Lift tickets (driver only) will be passed out in the parking lot as you arrive. Fri, Feb. 26. 49 Degrees North Mountain Resort, 3311 Flowery Trail Rd., Chewelah. Ski49n.com (935-6649)
MARCH
MEGA DEMO DAY Join Schweitzer as it raises money for the Panhandle Alliance for Education (PAFE) while offering a chance to sample 2022’s newest skis and boards. More details to come. (Event subject to change due to current COVID-19 regulations). Sat, March 6. Schweitzer Mountain Resort, 10000 Schweitzer Mountain Rd., Sandpoint, Idaho. schweitzer.com (208-263-9555) TOYOTA SKI FREE FRIDAY Drive any Toyota vehicle to Mt. Spokane and receive a free lift ticket, courtesy of Toyota. As you pull into the parking lot, you’ll be handed one free adult direct-to-lift ticket. All other passenger lift tickets ($29-$67) must be purchased online in advance. Fri, March 12 from 9 am-9 pm. Mt. Spokane Ski & Snowboard Park, 29500 N. Mt. Spokane Park Dr., Mead. mtspokane.com (238-2220) n
LAST RUN
Limited vor! Fla Edition
Bourbon Egg Nog With Bourbon Butterscotch This week only, in Sauce limited quantities Natural & Organic • Made-on-Site Fresh • peanut and tree-nut free 112 n. 4th st. • cd’a, ID 208.930.0699 abisicecream.com
TIGHT CIRCLES
Find comfort where you can.
Keeping friendships alive through a distanced winter
T
BY ALEX SAKARIASSEN
endrils of snow snake down the front side of Rumsey Mountain, interrupted here and there by large brown patches of dirt. Discovery’s summit lift looms above, its chairs motionless below a brilliant bluebird sky. A rowdy pack of college students clusters at the base of the lower triple — the only option spinning this early in the season — as Mike leans down to unclip his snowboard binding. We tug our buffs higher over our noses, skate forward and thank the masked liftie as we take our seats. Over the past few hours, between rock-dodging runs and parking lot brats, Mike and I have caught up on a lot of things. Work, politics, the pandemic, our personal lives. Now, as we gaze at the walls of conifers flanking us, the talk steers to more intimate ground. The past year has worn on everyone in strange ways, and neither of us is an exception. Friends for over a decade, we find comfort and reassurance in opening up about how we’ve grappled with the slings and arrows of 2020. In the books I’ve read and conversations I’ve had lately, the subject of kinship keeps surfacing with all the suddenness and unpredictability of a trout rising for caddis. One moment I’m skimming a passage about older ways of life, and the next I find myself reflecting on the social tiers we establish to delineate our relationships, or the bonds we form over time and often without intention. It’s a path of reflection that has deepened
an already strong understanding of how skiing has altered my life. Up until college, skiing had largely been a family affair. Far-flung trips and casual weekends at our home hill wove my parents, my sister and me ever more tightly together, while at the same time offering us the freedom to move as independent threads. Later, with Mike and Emily and numerous other friends, Montana’s slopes became avenues for the shared experience and adventure that classes, bars and board game nights couldn’t foster. We’ve cracked cans on lifts, whooped in unison on powder days, come to each other’s aid in times of injury. You simply don’t forge those kinds of memories in a single night or over a couple rounds of Cards Against Humanity. Our social circles have already shrunk this year at the exclusion of many friends and casual acquaintances. As the cold conspires to limit opportunities to hang out in the coming months, we’re faced with the demoralizing task of contracting our individual communities even more. But as Mike and I cruise down our last run of the day, headed for a final distanced brat before heading our separate ways, I realize that I’ve already made the toughest choices without knowing it. A few faces I’ll see up close because I can’t imagine not. A few others I’ll see only behind a balaclava and goggles, not because it’s the only option but because, for us, it’s the best one. n
All the Cool Kids are asking for Music this year! WE HAVE
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more info at www.wedonthaveone .com DECEMBER 2020 SNOWLANDER 39
keep washing your hands. (it's icky not to!)
40 SNOWLANDER DECEMBER 2020
TV
’TIS WHAT SEASON?
Rugrats get in the spirit.
TV specials that will get both parents and kids in the holiday spirit BY LAUREN GILMORE
L
ike a lot of latchkey kids, my siblings and I grew up on a steady diet of cartoons. During the pandemic, I’ve gone back to a lot of the shows we used to love and been surprised how well they hold up. I can trace so much of my taste now back to those early, absurd exercises in color, imagination and condensed storytelling. (I’m pretty sure I became a socialist from the ant rebellion in A Bug’s Life.) We were a decidedly unreligious household. When the holidays rolled around, we took the time off school to drink hot chocolate and bake cookies, but were more likely to watch A Nightmare Before Christmas than It’s a Won-
derful Life. Still, December is a rich time of year for TV specials, whatever your affiliation or non-affiliation with a particular holiday. So, whether you’re looking for something to watch with your family or simply to entertain your inner child, here are six suggestions for wintry, holiday-themed TV.
“A RUGRATS CHANUKAH,” RUGRATS (SEASON 4, EPISODE 1)
From the ’90s to early 2000s, Nickelodeon aired nine excellent seasons following the zany lives of babies. In this special, main character Tommy Pickles learns about
Hanukkah the hard way. Since Tommy and all his friends are still acquiring language, they mishear his grandpa and think he’s participating in a play called “The Meanie of Hanukkah” instead of “The Meaning of Hanukkah.” Like any responsible grandchild, he sets out to save his family from what he imagines is a giant, adult-sized bully just like the mean kids at day care. Other tough lessons include: dreidels are not edible, latkes are not ordinary pancakes, and the menorah is not a bunch of birthday candles. (Streaming on Hulu). ...continued on next page
DECEMBER 17, 2020 INLANDER 41
CULTURE | TV
Adventure Time
“’TIS WHAT SEASON?,” CONTINUED... “THE NUTCRACKER,” COURAGE THE COWARDLY DOG (SEASON 4, EPISODE 1)
giant rats in a junkyard. (Streaming on Amazon Prime)
When I forced him to watch this show for the first time, my partner said, “This is like a really dark Looney Tunes.” If you have never experienced Courage the Cowardly Dog, and you care about cartoons at all, YOU MUST. The show’s only attempt at a Christmas episode, “The Nutcracker,” is about what you’d expect from a series about an anxious pink dog who constantly protects his owners from bizarre and terrifying situations. In this one, his love for Miriam leads him to a ballet dance-off against
“HOLLY JOLLY SECRETS,” ADVENTURE TIME (SEASON 3, EPISODES 19 & 20)
Adventure Time is pure imagination candy, and its holiday special is no different. Originally conceived as a chance for protagonists Finn and Jake to provide commentary to actual Christmas movies, this special instead gives a backstory of the show’s antagonist, the Ice King. If you haven’t seen any of the show and want to dive into this, all you really need to know is that the Ice King
is a bad guy who lives with a lot of penguins in the Ice Kingdom. In these episodes, Finn and Jake unearth his secret video diary and start to learn answers to questions about him they’ve never asked. (Streaming on Hulu)
“SEVEN DAYS OF KWANZAA,” THE PROUD FAMILY (SEASON 1, EPISODE 12)
Good news: The early 2000s masterpiece has been picked up for a continuation, The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder. If you’re preparing for the release, consider refreshing your memory with the first season’s excellent Kwanzaa special.
WE CAN HELP! CAREGIVER SUPPORT Are you caring for a relative or friend?
AHANA Continues to Help Multi-Ethnic Businesses Survive COVID-19.
There is help for you. Give Aging & Long Term Care a call to find out how we can support you during this difficult time with services such as support groups, counseling, and respite care.
As the only multi-ethnic business association in the Inland Northwest, AHANA has become the primary source and trusted messenger for outreach and technical assistance to ethnic and culturally diverse businesses in Spokane.
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509.960.7281 ALTCEW.ORG
We are helping micro and small businesses apply for local, state, and federal CARES Act funds and business loans during COVID-19, including the Wa. State Small Business Resiliency Grant.
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Contact:
We also council businesses on how to expand or pivot in order to survive, and we are working to ensure that multi-ethnic businesses have the same opportunities when it comes to obtaining loans and receiving local and state government contracts. If you own a multi-ethnic or multi-cultural business and need help, please give us a call. If you would like to get on our mailing list to be informed of grant and other COVID-19 funding programs, please send us an email or visit our website.
Ben Cabildo at (509) 999-5365 | ahana.meba10@gmail.com | www.ahana-meba.org
The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina
While Christmas shopping, the Prouds meet a homeless family. When they invite them over for dinner, they don’t expect them to stay for seven days, teaching them valuable (and hilarious) lessons about materialism, generosity and heritage. (Streaming on Disney+)
The miniseries follows two half-brothers lost in a strange forest as they try to find their way home. Binge this for bizarre trials, hauntingly catchy musical arrangements, gothic mansions, and windswept stories of friendship and perseverance. (Streaming on Amazon Prime)
OVER THE GARDEN WALL
“A MIDWINTER’S TALE,” THE CHILLING ADVENTURES OF SABRINA (SEASON 1, EPISODE 11)
Sometimes, Halloween just needs to last longer. If Christmas decorations make you miss cobwebs, you’ll definitely want to check out Over the Garden Wall, whether you have children or not.
Okay, so this one isn’t a cartoon, but it is based on the Archie Comics series Sabrina the Teenage Witch. If your kids
are a bit older and disenchanted with heartwarming story arcs, they might enjoy this very nontraditional holiday special. Half-witch and LETTERS half-human, Sabrina Send comments to Spellman struggles with editor@inlander.com. the darker parts of her family’s identity while attending high school. In this episode, the Spellman family’s celebration of the Winter Solstice is interrupted by a seance gone awry. (Streaming on Netflix) n
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DECEMBER 17, 2020 INLANDER 43
CULTURE | DIGEST
Star Wars’ future isn’t in movies. That’s a good thing ALL HAIL HOLLAND Happiest Season got a lot of hype for being a mainstream, Christmas-set lesbian rom-com, but it unfortunately falls short of being, you know, good. If you can’t root for a rom-com’s main couple, that’s a pretty big problem. But the movie streaming on Hulu has its moments, and almost all of them come courtesy of Mary Holland as Jane, the wannabe fantasy author and in-house Geek Squad fixer-upper to sisters Harper (MacKenzie Davis) and Sloane (Alison Brie) and their parents. Holland similarly stole every scene she appeared in earlier this year in Robbie, the Rory Scovel Comedy Central sitcom available via YouTube. She’s one to watch. (DAN NAILEN)
T
BY DANIEL WALTERS
he hit Star Wars TV show The Mandalorian isn’t a show about great acting (though there are a few moments) or great dialogue (there isn’t much dialogue at all). It’s not a show about clever plot twists (most of the big surprises aren’t). Instead, it’s a show about something much more foundational, more primal, more cinematic: sound effects, music and iconography. That’s what made the original Star Wars movies great: The sound of the Tie Fighters screaming overhead. The iconic image of the skyline of Imperial Walkers tromping toward the base. John Williams’ symphony swelling as the rebel fleet made its attack run on a fully armed and operational Death Star. Let Star Trek have its philosophical quandaries. Star Wars had lightsabers that went bzzzzwwaaaahhh. It was simple, but that simplicity was what made it so exciting: With each planet and image, there was a hint of this entire galaxy of possibility, a thousand planets filled with a million stories.
THE BUZZ BIN
THIS WEEK’S PLAYLIST Some noteworthy new music hits online and in stores Dec. 18. To wit: PAUL McCARTNEY, McCartney III. A spiritual sequel to the cleverly titled McCartney and McCartney II. And bound to be pretty great. DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS, The New OK. Previously released digitally, get your physical copy of the Truckers’ surprise album drop. You won’t regret it. VARIOUS ARTISTS, The Prom (Music from the Netflix film). I don’t know about this Prom, but mine had way too many Cutting Crew songs involved. (DAN NAILEN)
44 INLANDER DECEMBER 17, 2020
Which is why it was so disillusioning that the new Star Wars movies kept telling the same one over and over again. Tatooine, again. A planet-destroying superweapon, again. Someone’s dad was the evil dude the entire time, again. The new movies felt constrained, burdened by four decades of fan expectations. J.J. Abrams slavishly tried to meet those expectations; Rian Johnson slavishly tried to subvert them. In both cases, the movies felt so crammed as to be hollow. It didn’t have to be this way. I grew up on a diet of Star Wars video games and novels, the sort that spun out entire worlds and backstories from the five-second shot of the hammerhead alien in the Mos Eisley cantina. Some were dreck, some were almost brilliant. But they all tapped into this exhilarating promise that the Star Wars movies were just jumping off points for something bigger. Last week, Disney announced an onslaught of new Star Wars TV shows, most of them centered on established characters. Obi-Wan Kenobi! Lando Calrissian! The tentacled Twi’Lek Jedi Ashoka! Some guy named Cassian Andor from Rogue One! You could dismiss it as creative stagnation, as a megacorporation squeezing every cent of profit they can out of their intellectual property. But the magic of TV is that it’s expansive. Just by handing writers more time to fill, they can take greater risks than a blockbuster franchise, explore more interesting ideas and hyperjump to more new locales. They can recapture the magic of Star Wars, not through imitation, but through exploration. After all, in the Star Wars cinematic universe, the important part isn’t the cinema. It’s the universe. n
INSIDE THE HOSPITAL Most of Lennox Hill, a Netflix docuseries that follows four physicians at a New York hospital, takes place before the COVID-19 pandemic. In some ways, that makes their hardships and hectic work lives even more powerful. The physicians make difficult decisions to save patients while also tending to their own personal lives — and those lines too often are blurred. In the last episode, the pandemic has arrived, and while viewers have less access to the doctors then, we can only imagine what they’re going through, given what we’ve seen already. (WILSON CRISCIONE)
DRINK TO THAT The Inlander has covered the Keep Music Live movement aiming to raise $10 million to support Washington’s shuttered live music venues and their employees. Now there’s a tasty way to support the cause. Elysian Brewing created a Keep Music Live IPA currently available on the West Side and planning to come to Spokane, too. All proceeds go to support the cause. You can also pick up a T-shirt, hoodie, pint glass or other bit of merch to help, available at keepmusiclivewa.com. (DAN NAILEN)
GIMME ONE REASON Am I going to tell you Christmas Chronicles 2 is a great movie? I am not. But I am going to tell you that when it comes to new, generally mindless holiday products, you can do a lot worse than watching Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn as Santa and Mrs. Claus. The story? Forgettable. Santa’s beard? Fierce! And really, you can just fast-forward this flick on Netflix straight to the point when Darlene Love shows up as an airport ticket agent who bursts out into song, an original new holiday tune called “The Spirit of Christmas” written by Little Steven Van Zandt. It ain’t Christmas without a little Love. (DAN NAILEN)
Three Birdies Bakery’s cookies are excellent Christmas comfort treats.
BAKING
Holiday Cookie
Magic Three Birdies Bakery’s owner shares tips for making fabulous cookies at home as she wraps up a busy year BY CHEY SCOTT
J
amie Roberts finds herself in a sweet spot as 2020’s end nears. The Spokane-based cookie artist and owner of Three Birdies Bakery has seen so much demand for her hand-decorated sugar cookies that her calendar is completely booked with custom orders into early 2021. Earlier this year, Roberts was able to leave a full-time desk job to focus solely on her home-based cookie business, launched as a passion project in 2018. “It’s what I’ve always dreamed of. My dream is here, and it’s coming true and it still doesn’t seem real,” Roberts says over Zoom from the “cookie room” of her North Spokane home. (Washington’s cottage food rules allow production of low-risk foods, like cookies, in a residential setting for direct consumer purchase.) In an unexpected turn of events, the pandemic’s work-from-home routine actually helped Roberts convince her husband that she could decorate and sell her highly detailed, royal-iced sugar cookies full time, while also overseeing their three daughters’ home-based schooling. It turns out cookies are pretty pandemicproof, too. “I think the reason [business] has sustained so well is because people are grasping for some sense of normalcy, and I think cookies really give that,” she says. “I think those calls back to comfort food really help people mentally.” That’s not to say the pandemic has been a total boon for Three Birdies. In spring, Roberts saw a large slate of orders canceled as events from baby showers to birthdays were postponed. As time went on, however, and people figured out creative ways to host “virtual” events in place of in-person gatherings, Roberts says
YOUNG KWAK PHOTO
orders picked back up. “People adjusted and conformed, so it still worked out because cookies are something very versatile,” she says. To supplement these custom orders, and with more time to focus on the tedious process of baking and elaborately decorating her cookies with colorful, dimensional royal icing designs, Roberts also launched a cookie subscription box service. “Anytime” cookies were a common request from customers, and the monthly service has options for a half-dozen to two dozen cookies in seasonally themed collections. Subscribers commit to signing up for three months at a time; regardless of quantity, the cookies are $3.50-$4.50 each, a $1 discount compared to custom orders. For the January through March subscriptions, more than 100 customers had signed up before Roberts even unveiled the box’s themes. To make cookie pickup easy and contactless for her customers, Roberts installed a small “cookie cottage” in her front yard, similar to the miniature structures that house Little Free Libraries. The local cookier — an industry name for cookie artists whose main medium is royal icing — has also stayed busy with several massive custom cookie orders (including 600 cookies for Gonzaga, plus more than 900 to fill pre-ordered holiday cookie advent calendars), and a handful of side projects. One of the latter is a weekly social media spotlight of regional small businesses Roberts personally adores. In photos posted on Three Birdies’ pages, she presents iced cookie versions of logos of area small businesses. ...continued on next page
DECEMBER 17, 2020 INLANDER 45
FOOD | BAKING
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FROM HERE • WHIZ KIDS • BEN & JERRY'S • LELAND’S BARBERSHOP • ANDERSON & CO. POLKA DOT POTTERY • BREIGHELA JAMES • SMALL BIZ SHOPPE • AND MORE! Jamie Roberts
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“HOLIDAY COOKIE MAGIC,” CONTINUED... “I just want to help,” she says. “We’re all a community, and I want to help my fellow small businesses. It’s not me making these to sell cookies—it’s me doing it to get word out about these local small businesses.”
A
lthough you’ll be hard-pressed to get your hands on any of Three Birdies’ holiday-themed treats in time for Christmas this year (there may be a flash sale or two via social media), Roberts was gracious enough to share some of her top tips for making your own festive royal icing cookies at home. The good news for casual home bakers is that you don’t need any specialty tools, and Roberts’ recipe for royal icing only calls for three basic ingredients: water, powdered sugar and meringue powder. Store-bought piping bags for icing can easily be replaced with sandwich bags; the thicker, gallon-sized freezer bags work best, Roberts notes. For anyone who has browsed cookie artists on Instagram and noticed gadgets like miniature lazy-susans to rotate cookies while icing or fancy metal sticks (called cookie scribes, Roberts says) used to smooth out the icing, you don’t need those either. A toothpick works in place of a scribe, and a paper towel or plate to rest each cookie while you ice also suffices. To mix up royal icing, Roberts says a stand mixer is best, but a handheld mixer works, too. To know you’ve got the right consistency for the frosting, Roberts says to look for “soft peaks” like the consistency of soft-serve ice cream for the borders, which need to be a little thicker to contain the thinner “flood” icing that fills the area inside the outer borders. The flood should be runny enough that when dragging a spatula through the icing it quickly blends back together. “The rule of thumb I use for flooding is however many cookies you have, divide by half and that is how many ounces of [icing] to make,” Roberts says. “For piping it just depends. It’s better to make less, and more if you need it, than to make an ungodly amount of frosting.” Any food colorings will do, and Roberts says local shop Carolyn’s Cake & Candy Supply (3131 N. Division St.) stocks her favorite dye, Americolor brand gel. To keep the icing a crisp bright white, you may want to consider a white food dye. Avoid adding any dark flavorings like vanilla extract or your base will
46 INLANDER DECEMBER 17, 2020
ROYAL ICING From Jamie Roberts, Three Birdies Bakery
INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup meringue powder 1 cup warm water 7 cups powdered sugar
INSTRUCTIONS
Mix water and meringue powder for 30 seconds on high in a stand mixer or with a hand mixer. Then add all powdered sugar at once and mix on low until incorporated, then mix on high for four minutes. Portion out icing into desired quantities and mix in any colorings/dyes, then scoop into piping bags for use. Notes: This consistency works well to pipe edges of icing or for lettering/writing. For a thinner consistency to fill in or “flood” cookies add water a little at a time. A spray bottle works well. Icing can be stored in the fridge for up to a week or the freezer up to a month. be brownish in color. Roberts says any sugar cookie recipe will do, and that the cookies themselves don’t need to be perfectly smooth after baking as the icing can help fill in and level surface unevenness. Simple shapes are best for beginners. Make sure to wait for your cookies to fully cool before icing to prevent it from melting. For inspiration to decorate, Roberts suggests searching on Instagram or Pinterest as a starting point. “As far as tips, the hard part isn’t making the frosting, it’s the time it takes to do everything and the art that you’re essentially creating,” she says. “Just keep it simple — simple is beautiful. Don’t go in with the mindset that you have to create these elaborate cookies. You could have red, white and green and make beautiful cookies with basic shapes.” n More about Three Birdies Bakery at threebirdiesbakery.com, facebook.com/ threebirdiesbakery, instagram.com/ threebirdiesbakery
+
Now on Inlander.com: National and international stories from the New York Times to go with the fresh, local news we deliver every day DECEMBER 17, 2020 INLANDER 47
FOOD | OPENING
Tropical Escape Local restaurateur leaves behind Taco Del Mar franchise to open independent taco and burrito spot DéGar’s BY CHEY SCOTT
A
fter more than a decade and a half as a local franchise owner of Taco Del Mar, Frank Schoonover’s out. Despite the hardships it’s presented to so many small business owners, the COVID-19 pandemic turned out to be an opportune time for Schoonover to develop his own restaurant. DéGar’s Reef Taco, serving coastal-style, Mexican-inspired cuisine in a fast-casual format, is now open. “We shut Taco Del Mar down for about 41 days as we analyzed what was going on with the stimulus, and got a [Paycheck Protection Program] loan and reopened with our drive-thru and did really well again for about nine weeks or so,” Schoonover says. “Then the PPP money had run out, and when it did it only took me five minutes to look at the spreadsheet and see we’re still not
DéGars delivers a taste of sunny SoCal.
COURTESY OF DÉGAR’S REEF TACO
going to make it.” Having already fulfilled the time commitment on his franchise contract, there were no penalties for Schoonover to ditch the Taco Del Mar brand. “I spent a couple months figuring out DeGar’s. I knew I needed a lot smaller menu, so there’s less food waste, and I needed less people but could pay them more,” he says. “The menu is concentrated down to flavor contrasts within the ingredients.” DéGar’s opened in Taco Del Mar’s former location in far north Spokane’s Wandermere area last month, and currently is only serving its concise menu of burritos, tacos and burrito bowls through its drive-thru window. Schoonover says he’ll spend this winter remodeling the in-person dining area while safely serving customers through takeout-only service. DéGar’s opening menu is sparse, with just nine items,
yet the quality of food and the size of each item offers a much better value, Schoonover says. DeGar’s serves three tacos ($5.75-$7.25 each; they’re bigger than typical street-style tacos) and three burritos ($8.75-$15.50). Burritos and tacos each have the option of three main fillings: beer-battered cod, chicken or shrimp. There’s also the DeGar’s Bowl ($13), an all-vegan, protein-packed mix of rice, curried jackfruit, salsa, beans, red cabbage, avocado aioli and roasted baby peppers. Chips as a side ($3.50) come with either house-made tropical salsa or avocado aioli. “It’s key the business model itself is fashioned around the pandemic right now,” Schoonover notes. “So in my eyes, it’s a very tight menu with the least amount of ingredients possible to save on operations and waste, and that is what I’m trying to do.” The restaurant’s name is a nod to Schoonover’s 25year career as a flight engineer in the Navy. During that time, his crew made frequent stops at a R E S TA U R A N T small coral atoll in the FINDER Indian Ocean called Looking for a new place to Diego Garcia, and eat? Search the region’s nicknamed DéGar. most comprehensive bar “It has this crystal and restaurant guide at clear aqua-blue lagoon, Inlander.com/places. and you look straight down and see fish and mantas and dolphins,” he recalls. “It’s just absolutely beautiful, like one of those pictures you see of a faraway beach.” n DéGar’s Reef Taco • 12501 N. Division St. • Open Mon-Sat noon-7 pm • Facebook: DéGar’s Reef Taco
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48 INLANDER DECEMBER 17, 2020
FOOD | TO GO BOX
Introducing
Kacy Scarpa
PA-C, Family Medicine Brick West Brewing Co.’s head brewer Sam Milne.
Big Beer Wins
DEREK HARRISON PHOTO
No-Li and Brick West take home medals at U.S. beer competition; Ruins and Little Noodle get crafty with takeout
Now accepting new patients.
BY CHEY SCOTT
T
wo breweries from the Inland Northwest took home top accolades at the recent 2020 U.S. Open Beer Championship, one of the biggest brewing competitions in the country. NO-LI BREWHOUSE landed a silver medal in the American Strong Pale Ale category for its Big Juicy IPA. Recent newcomer BRICK WEST BREWING CO., meanwhile, landed bronze in the Vienna-style category for its Brick West Vienna. Beyond Eastern Washington, a handful of familiar names made this year’s winners’ list, including Reuben’s Brews of Seattle (fifth overall), Deschutes Brewery (2020’s Grand National Champion) in Bend, Oregon, and Icicle Brewing out of Leavenworth (four medals overall). More than 6,000 beers representing over 140 styles were entered in this year’s blind tasting, the championship’s 12th.
CREATIVE TO-GO HIGHLIGHTS
With Washington state’s second dine-in shutdown extended through Jan. 4, takeout is here to stay for a bit longer. Among area restaurants’ menus that cater to delivery and pickup orders are plenty of creative winter and holiday specials.
Kacy is a talented and passionate physician’s assistant who truly enjoys patient care. From the beginning to the end of the visit, she is ready to listen and think critically to ensure the best possible health outcome. She enjoys treating hypertension and loves seeing improvement in her patients’ blood pressure over time.
Among the many offerings that have caught our eye: RUINS’ collection of sausage rolls ($20/ dozen) and chicken pies ($24/dozen, $15/half dozen) with harissa. Chef Tony Brown says the items are now available for preorder to be picked up between Dec. 21 and Christmas Eve, from 3-5 pm. Order at ruinstogo.com. At the new, seasonal LITTLE NOODLE ramen and pho spot in the Garland District, chef Kadra Evans is regularly putting together “pho-kits” for preorder. You’ll have to watch Little Noodle’s Facebook page for when the next batch becomes available, although hot bowls of pho to go are available during regular takeout hours. Little Noodle’s pho-kits come in two sizes; for two ($33-$35) or four people ($65-$69). Each kit comes with a choice of beverages (hard seltzer, beer or Thai tea), protein (smoked pork, shrimp, tri-tip or smoked tofu), and the option to add wild mushrooms, tendon or tripe for a small upcharge. Broth in the soup kits comes frozen so you can keep everything fresh in the freezer/fridge for a day or two before reheating and eating. Noodles and other soup toppings are all individually packed in containers to then be added to Evans’ ultra-slow-cooked broth. n
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DECEMBER 17, 2020 INLANDER 49
HOLIDAYS
CHRISTMAS CHEESE Hallmark holiday movies are corny, homogeneous and painfully predictable. Why do people love them so much? BY NATHAN WEINBENDER
O
f all the holiday traditions I regularly see people tweeting about, the one I understand the least is the Hallmark Christmas movie marathon. For about a decade, the greeting card company’s TV channel has been cranking out aggressively sexless holidaythemed films for its annual “Countdown to Christmas,” inspiring books, podcasts and even fan conventions. Without ever having seen one, I felt like I somehow knew the conventions of the Hallmark Christmas Movie anyway. Your standard HCM centers on a generically attractive hetero couple, usually played by a former soap opera star and a ’90s sitcom actor, and they either A) fall in love despite their initial reservations, B) mend their relationship because the spirit of Christmas demands it, and/or C) team up to rescue their rural hamlet from a Scrooge-like land developer. These films (if you can call them “films”) are G-rated excuses to show off luxurious sweaters, cozy living rooms and glistening piles of artificial snow.
50 INLANDER DECEMBER 17, 2020
The Hallmark movie machine is a beast. The channel starts airing Christmas content the week before Halloween, with a new feature-length movie each week (true to their machine-made form, they all clock in at a brisk 83 minutes without commercials). And Hallmark isn’t the only network taking on this subgenre: Lifetime cranks ’em out at a rate that’d make Santa blush, as does Netflix, and there’s a Hallmark spinoff channel called Movies & Mysteries that, I guess, is the edgier of the two networks. Since I had nothing better to do, I decided to dip my (mistle)toe in these uncharted waters. I wanted to get to the core of why people seek comfort in these movies, but I also wanted to look at them as movies. I wasn’t about to watch all of the 40-some titles punched out of the Hallmark cookie cutters this year, so I picked a select few based on some ranked fan lists and some highly scientific personal criteria (basically, the ones with the punniest titles). Because all of these movies follow nearly identical
schematics, I’ve developed a handy shorthand key for some of the most common HCM elements. RBCST — Rustic But Charming Small Town UWHJ — Unhappy With Her Job CYGH — Combative Yet Generically Handsome LMCOH — Last Minute Change of Heart LOC — Love of Christmas Here’s what I watched.
GOOD MORNING CHRISTMAS!
Morning show host Alison Sweeney discovers her CYGH co-host, a former quarterback played by Marc Blucas, is quitting. But as they broadcast from the Christmas celebrations in a RBCST, she has a LMCOH and realizes she’s in love with him, while he decorates a single gingerbread house and discovers an unfettered LOC.
CHRISTMAS SHE WROTE
Danica McKellar is a chaste Carrie Bradshaw type who
MAKE IT MERRY & MAKE IT BRIGHT AT KIZURI
gets laid off, realizes she was always UWHJ and returns home to the RBCST where she grew up. Her readers revolt, and when her CYGH editor can’t get her on the phone to reinstate her position, he hops on a plane and follows her (instead of just texting like a normal person). She has a LMCOH about her job, and so he has to convince her to head back to the big city and leave behind her hunky ex-boyfriend who’s also a doctor.
NEVER KISS A MAN IN A CHRISTMAS SWEATER
FAIR TRADE - LOCAL - EARTH FRIENDLY
An elementary school teacher who also paints the ugliest Thomas Kinkade ripoffs you’ve ever seen hits a CYGH jogger with a Christmas tree, then offers him her guesthouse to convalesce, and then… I turned it off. This was the third Hallmark movie I watched in rapid succession, so maybe fatigue had set in. Moving on.
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THE CHRISTMAS HOUSE
The Christmas House has garnered publicity for being the first Hallmark movie to feature a gay couple in lead roles. It’s also the one I saw that came closest to approximating an actual movie, despite an absolutely deranged premise: As they prepare to sell their house, a rich AF family indulges in their once-annual tradition where they swap out all the furniture and replace it with a storage locker full of Christmas stuff, because they’re absolute psychopaths. Will this final descent into holiday mania inspire a LMCOH? Yes, Virginia, there is such a thing as too much LOC.
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DELIVER BY CHRISTMAS AND THE CHRISTMAS RING
I picked these titles because they respectively placed first and dead last in an E! Online ranking of 2020 Hallmark joints. And honestly, I don’t much see a recognizable gradation in quality between the two — I thought they were both insufferable. Deliver by Christmas was the highest rated title on that list, and it’s a You’ve Got Mail-style rom-com about a baker who doesn’t realize her new favorite customer is also the handsome widower she chats up at the Christmas tree lot. In the bottom-ranking film, The Christmas Ring, a journalist UWHJ tries to track down the original owner of an inscribed diamond ring, leading her to a CYGH contractor in a RBCST that intensifies her LOC. So now that I’m clearly an expert in the Hallmark Cinematic Universe, I simultaneously understand the appeal and don’t understand it at all. I call this conundrum Schrödinger’s reindeer. They’re uniform in ways I find just a bit unsettling. They’re all set in picturesque American towns populated by actors trying to conceal their Canadian accents. They’re all photographed in tight, shallow-focus shots and on generic sets with minimal background extras. There’s always a scene set at a Christmas tree lot. There’s always a character reliving some kind of trauma tied to the holidays, as well as an advice-dispensing friend or sibling who works in a cute little bakery/coffee shop. Without fail, the movies end with a closed-mouth kiss and/or a job promotion. There are also wreaths. So, so many wreaths, on every available surface. These movies are so algorithmic and conventional that the scripts must look like Ikea furniture manuals, and although they appear to be credited to actual people with actual names, I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re all aliases for some kind of filmmaking A.I. that follows recipes with predetermined ingredients. And yet I totally get how these could have become comfort blankets, something you can put on in the background while you do literally anything else and still be able to follow the plots. They exist in a bizarro world where no one is politically divided, where everyone lives in a catalog-ready home, and where everyone’s personal problems are eventually tied up in a neat little bow in the final minutes. As a died-in-the-wool cynic, I had a hell of a good time drinking whiskey and razzing them Mystery Science Theater-style. Whether or not that’s how they were intended to be seen, that may become my new Christmas tradition. n
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DECEMBER 17, 2020 INLANDER 51
HOLIDAYS
Yuletide Tracks
Carrie Underwood embraces some gospel on her holiday album.
We survey the new Christmas albums from Dolly Parton, Carrie Underwood and more BY NATHAN WEINBENDER
C
hristmas is all about tradition, and one of ours involves tearing the wrapping paper off the year’s batch of holiday albums and assigning them a totally arbitrary grade on a wildly inconsistent scale. Art released in 2020 will always have an asterisk next to it, but one thing that hasn’t slowed is the glut of highprofile, holiday-friendly album releases from household names. This year we’ve got yuletide-friendly material from a couple divas, a ’90s rock band, a Broadway star and more.
A HOLLY DOLLY CHRISTMAS, DOLLY PARTON
Dolly Parton is perhaps positioning herself as the new ambassador for the yuletide season, what with the simultaneous release of her Netflix film, Christmas on the Square, and this warm and fuzzy collection of well-worn favorites and original compositions. Everyone loves Dolly, and so the high-profile stars come running to appear on the album — from her brother Randy and her goddaughter Miley Cyrus (Billy Ray’s in there, too), to Michael Buble, Willie Nelson and, uh, Jimmy Fallon. This likely won’t make it into my regular Dolly rotation, but she brings an angelic glow to everything she touches, and what more could you want right now? OUR GRADE: Three coats of many colors
MY GIFT, CARRIE UNDERWOOD
The country superstar’s first Christmas album is the least secular of the bunch I listened to, with hymns like “Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee” and “O Come, All Ye Faithful” and newer standards like “Mary, Did You Know?” The record is at its best when it leans into its gospelinflected influences, and highlights include the soulful original “Let There Be Peace” and the John Legend duet “Hallelujah.” Underwood’s voice is undeniable, of course,
52 INLANDER DECEMBER 17, 2020
but the whole thing is a bit staid for my tastes. OUR GRADE: Two Nashville nativity scenes
A VERY TRAINOR CHRISTMAS, MEGAN TRAINOR
Megan Trainor, she of “All About That Bass” fame, already released a proper album in 2020, and now she closes the year with this upbeat, shopping mall-friendly Christmas collection. She applies the slick R&B-adjacent production that made her a Top 40 star to the likes of Wham’s “Last Christmas” and the Seth MacFarlane duet “White Christmas,” as well as seven new songs that feature assists from various members of her family and funk legends Earth, Wind and Fire. The covers are mostly unremarkable, but some of the original songs are surprisingly fun. OUR GRADE: Two and a half inflatable candy canes
IT’S CHRISTMAS ALL OVER, GOO GOO DOLLS
Yes, those Goo Goo Dolls, the guys behind soaring ’90s power ballads like “Iris,” who go a jazzier, brass-tinged route on this yuletide LP. Recorded in quarantine after the band’s most recent tour was scrapped, it gets its title from the Tom Petty classic, featured here alongside a weird collection of covers, including “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” and the Chipmunks novelty hit “Christmas Don’t Be Late.” The Johnny Rzeznik-penned compositions are just OK. OUR GRADE: Two used copies of the City of Angels soundtrack
NOW THAT’S WHAT I CALL R&B CHRISTMAS
There’s nothing new on this compilation from the seemingly never-ending Now That’s What I Call… series,
but it’s stacked with all-time great artists from multiple generations — Whitney Houston, Boyz II Men, Luther Vandross, the Supremes, the Temptations and more. My favorites are the vintage tracks, especially Stevie Wonder’s “Someday at Christmas,” James Brown’s “Please Come Home for Christmas,” Otis Redding’s “Merry Christmas Baby” and Marvin Gaye’s “I Want to Come Home for Christmas.” Of all the albums on this list, this is the one I’ll be spinning most. OUR GRADE: Four Motown Christmas tree toppers
THE CHRISTMAS ALBUM, LESLIE ODOM JR.
From its retro-looking album cover to its no-nonsense title, Hamilton star Leslie Odom Jr. is clearly going for a back-to-basics vibe here. And yet the sound is much more contemporary than you might expect: “Winter Song,” featuring Oscar nominee Cynthia Erivo, has a shuffling R&B beat, and album closer “Heaven & Earth” has the soulful sheen of a John Legend ballad. Oh, and turns out Odom’s a great vocalist — what a surprise. OUR GRADE: Three autographed Hamilton playbills
CHRISTMAS VIBES, WARREN WOLF
It’s tough to capture the Christmas spirit without words, but percussionist Warren Wolf’s newest album does just that. It’s in the same vein as one of the best-ever holiday albums, Vince Guaraldi’s score from A Charlie Brown Christmas, and even features a few of the same tracks (“Christmas Time Is Here,” “Skating”), alongside jazzy, instrumental interpretations of John Lennon’s “Happy Xmas (War Is Over)” and “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch.” This would make the ideal soundtrack for opening gifts on Christmas morning. OUR GRADE: Three and a half tinsel-covered vibraphones n
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DECEMBER 17, 2020 INLANDER 53
PERFORMANCE HOLIDAY REMIX
Looking for some live holiday entertainment to heat up this dreary December? This year, The Hip Hop Nutcracker is going virtual. A contemporary twist on the beloved classic, this program revamps Tchaikovsky’s score with a set from MC Kurtis Blow and performances from a dozen dancers, a DJ and a violinist. Director and choreographer Jennifer Weber blurs past and present, trading the 19th-century Germany backdrop of E.T.A. Hoffman’s original story for the sights and sounds of contemporary New York City, offering a fresh version of everyone’s favorite winter tale. General admission tickets will allow viewing the show at a scheduled time, while VIP tickets get you an on-demand taping of the show that you can view within a 48-hour window, access to a post-show conversation with the show’s creators, and an autographed show poster. — LAUREN GILMORE The Hip Hop Nutcracker • Sat, Dec. 19 at 7 pm • $20-$50 • Online; details at firstinterstatecenter.org
54 INLANDER DECEMBER 17, 2020
MUSIC HOLIDAY! CELEBRATE!
THEATER MUTANT CHRISTMAS
Lucky You Holiday Special • Sat, Dec. 19 at 7 pm; rewatch through Dec. 25 • Pay what you can • Online; details at luckyyoulounge. veeps.com/stream/schedule
X-MAS: A Merry Mutant Musical • Fri, Dec. 18 at 7:30 pm and Sun, Dec. 20 at 2 pm • $25 • Streaming at cdasummertheatre.com
Lucky You Lounge has put together quite the to-do to help you get in the spirit of the season, and not just via the amazing music lined up for the first-ever Lucky You Holiday Special. A lovely collection of talented folks will hit the stage, including Allen Stone, Water Monster, Jenny Anne Mannan, Scott Ryan, Caroline Fowler and more. The Rayce Rudeen Foundation is helping pull it all together, and will match the event’s donation of its pay-what-you-can ticket sales to Millwood Impact, an organization dedicated to providing mentorships for young folks in the community. So, you’ll be giving a gift just by tuning in and throwing a few bucks in for a great night of holiday sounds. That’s true Christmas spirit! — DAN NAILEN
It may not be its regular season, but Coeur d’Alene Summer Theatre is prepared to give your holiday a Marvel-y twist by streaming their prerecorded production of X-MAS: A Merry Mutant Musical. Written by Sarah Mucek and Christian Duhamel, the irreverent show, which has previously been staged in New York and Seattle, lovingly kids both the tropes of Christmas musicals and the lore surrounding Stan Lee’s creations. It begins as Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Storm and the lot get together for the holidays, only to have Professor X’s mansion destroyed by a robot intent on ruining their good time. It’s the perfect gift for comic book geeks and musical theater nerds. — NATHAN WEINBENDER
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What can you give this week? VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES VOLUNTEERS NEEDED - CHAS HEALTH TESTING CENTER
COMMUNITY LIGHT UP THE NIGHT
Packing crowds of people inside the steamy, humid environment of Manito Park’s Gaiser Conservatory for its annual holiday lights display, a 20-year local tradition, is obviously off the table this pandemic year. Instead, event organizer the Friends of Manito teamed up with Spokane Parks & Rec to create a safer, socially distanced alternative. The second and final weekend of the wildly popular (cars have been lining up for blocks) Enchanted Garden drive-thru is lifting spirits with a holiday lights display spread through the heart of the park, and entirely viewable by car. Don’t miss the last few opportunities to pack up the family, grab some hot cocoa and maybe extend the experience by taking a leisurely drive in the neighborhood surrounding the park, a consistent highlight for festive holiday light displays. — CHEY SCOTT Enchanted Garden Drive-Thru Holiday Lights • Through Sun, Dec. 20; Fri-Sat from 4:30-9:30 pm; Sun-Thu from 4:30-8:30 pm • Free; donations accepted • Manito Park • Enter at Grand Blvd. or Bernard St. and 25th Ave. • thefriendsofmanito.org/holiday
CHAS Health needs volunteers to help monitor traffic and keep the lines flowing at the new COVID testing center at the Spokane Arena. The morning shift is from 8:30 am-12:30 pm. The afternoon shift is 12-4 pm. Volunteers are also needed on-site to observe patients self-swab and ensure adherence to CHAS infection control practices. The shifts are the same as listed above. Sign up online at Volunteerspokane.org
EVENTS AND BENEFITS VIRTUAL SANTA VISITS - SACRED HEART CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL Thanks to COVID-19 restrictions, visits to St. Nick are going to look a little different this year. Fortunately the North Pole has great wi-fi! For a $50 suggested donation to Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals, the child in your life can spend 15 minutes sharing his or her wish list with Santa and Mrs. Claus via a live video call now through Dec. 24. Funds raised stay local to support Sacred Heart Children’s Hospital. Sign up online. Questions? Call Providence Health Care Foundation at 474-4917. providence.org/ewash.Santa
DONATIONS NEEDED PICKUP TRUCK DONATIONS NEEDED
- WOMEN’S HEALING & EMPOWERMENT NETWORK In late October, the Women’s Healing and Empowerment Network’s (WHEN) pickup truck was stolen. In addition to offering a variety of programs to educate and inform victims and offenders about mental and physical abuse, WHEN also supports a food pantry. The truck was used to bring food to the pantry. The truck was later recovered but had been damaged beyond repair. A number of kind benefactors have provided donations to help buy a new truck. Can you help? You can donate via the website or call Mable Dunbar, founder of WHEN, at 998-5332. whenetwork.com
WISH LIST ITEMS REQUESTED Union Gospel Mission reports Christmas gifts for their residents are down this year. Here’s a list of some items they’d love to receive: • Gifts for men: shoes, boots, new hoodies, flannel button-up shirts, new pants • Gifts for women: socks and slippers, robes and pajamas, gift cards (Walmart, Target, Fred Meyer, Safeway or Walgreens)
MUSIC TSO TO-GO
For two decades, Trans-Siberian Orchestra has taken its prog-rock holiday show on the road in the months leading up to Christmas, and inevitably Spokane would be part of the tour. For a certain cross-section of headbangers and Christmas lovers, the group is a holiday tradition at this point as revered as caroling or screening Christmas Vacation. Obviously the pandemic is keeping band leader Al Pitrelli and his crew off the road this year, but TSO is putting together a livestream performance of their 1996 debut album, Christmas Eve and Other Stories, a holiday-themed rock opera they’ll deliver with all the flashy lights and pyrotechnics fans have come to expect. This time, though, you’ll have the best seat in the house, because it’s your house. The live performance happens on Friday, Dec. 18, but ticket buyers will be able to watch the show through Sunday, Dec. 20. — DAN NAILEN Trans-Siberian Orchestra: Christmas Eve and Other Stories • Fri, Dec. 18 at 5 pm • $30 • Online; details at trans-siberian.com
• Gifts for children: boy and girl pajamas (including larger sizes for teens), hoodies, slippers. • Warm socks, gloves, scarves and hats. • Participate in “Christmas in a Bag” for Men’s Shelter guests. Bring in plastic zip bags filled with lip balm, candy, socks, razors, deodorant, etc., before Dec. 21. Please drop off items at UGM’s administrative office at 1224 E. Trent Ave. Let them know they are Christmas gifts.
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DECEMBER 17, 2020 INLANDER 55
a good reason the person loving you can’t write and mail a thoughtful letter of apology and intent and send it to you in the mail? Why such a public forum for the regret? Stick to your decision if you are on a healthy path. Stay the course. There is love that is real and honest in life. Don’t settle for bad habits. Let’s hope the person “loving” you is plea-ing from a healthier place on their own journey. Stay well. Stay happy. Stay hope-filled for your best life.
CHEERS
I SAW YOU COVID EX CHRONICLES #1) lost after 2019 backcountry ski trip, blames Google maps, is unaware of pandemic and actually in Canada #2) refuses vaccine and prophylactic with latest tinder conquest, is a father-to-be #3) gets dui after drinking too much kombucha in recently purchased sprinter van, gets first job #4) vaccine trial volunteer, gets placebo, and chlamydia while attending rogue music festival #5) fistfights for artisanal bread yeast by day, cries in the shower in denim cutoffs by night. WOMAN! The person “loving” you is grasping and clinging to any shred of hope that you won’t come to know that argumentative PASSION(?) and CHEMISTRY(?) is “their” persuasive manipulation that has kept you offering multiple chances. Accusations and breaches of trust are the least of your problems. Be careful of that controlling theme. Abuse might be the shadow clouding your view. Look into the definitions, available at Domestic Abuse Services sites. Consider reading: “How To Be An Adult in Relationships” (Richo). “Safe People” (Cloud..?) “Proper Care and Feeding of Relationships” (Schlessinger). Abuse, addiction, and affairs are huge, high mountains to climb, but there is a clear view on the other side. Don’t look back, at least not now. Consider this glaring reality: Is there
PUPPY LOVE Cheers to the Nine Mile Falls Newfoundland Breeders with the big hearts. They helped mend a broken heart when a Spokane woman trying to maintain a connection with her deceased daughter was scammed by a criminal. We should all take a lesson from you. MOMMY, MOMMA, MOM “You are more than just my mom. You are my best friend. Better yet, you’re the bestest friend and bestest mom a daughter could ever want! I am truly blessed! Thank you for showing me (and continuing to show me) the unconditional love a mother should never stop having for their child! Thank you for being my strength & getting me through the roughest and toughest moments in my life when I was too weak to do it myself. Just so you know, you’ll always be a “Super Woman Warrior Princess” to me! I love you, Mom!” MEANINGFUL MERLYN’S Thank you to the man and child who asked me to take their picture at Merlyn’s with the dragon. It was so lovely to see you both having such fun while being masked up and socially distant. Having such a normal interaction in these abnormal times made my whole day! IN A HARSH WORLD To the person reading this, I feel like it’s important for you to hear this. You a beautiful person, someone worth happiness and love. We make mistakes in our lives but that doesn’t mean we are our mistakes, we just need to learn from them. There are so many people on this planet, but not a
single one of them are like you. You are important, you are worthy of love and support. You reading this, please remember that even through this hardship, you aren’t alone. I truly hope, reader, that the rest of this year and the rest of your life brings you happiness, luck, support and a strong sense of community. We may
“
JEERS TO THE WASHINGTON STATE GOVERNMENT Laid off because of Covid for a second time... First time it took almost 6 months for unemployment to give me any of the funds they owed me, and the help I received from my family is the only reason I still here. Now it’s happened again, laid off over three weeks ago, and unemployment continues to disqualify me because they say they overpaid me last time (I checked, they definitely did not). So yeah, let’s talk about the Covid death toll, let’s talk about how much bigger that number is when we include all the people this government has put out of work and left without any way to survive, without any resources; then politely tells you to go away while you’re asking how you’re supposed to pay to feed yourself and put a roof over your head after they took your job away and gave you no alternative. I ARGUED WITH BAD SANTA AT MY CHIMNEY! Jeers to Chimney Sweep! Bad Santa (not to be confused with the genial chap from the North) came to
1. Visit Inlander.com/isawyou by 3 pm Monday. 2. Pick a category (I Saw You, You Saw Me, Cheers or Jeers). 3. Provide basic info: your name and email (so we know you’re real). 4. To connect via I Saw You, provide a non-identifying email to be included with your submission — like “petals327@yahoo.com,” not “j.smith@comcast.net.”
her mask, but Bad Santa was without! When I confronted Bad Santa about his lack of festive apparel, he jeered at me and lectured that this pandemic was no big deal and strictly like the common cold! I stood flat-footed and told him he had no idea where I had been (I knew he’d been in countless houses already)! It wasn’t safe! He waved at me without a twinkle, and poo-pooed my worry. This Bad Santa knew better than the good scientists of the world! He peeked at my chimney, and declared it clean — no magic there, despite being hired! He asked about usage and made fun of our habits, despite being suggested by previous Santa Sweeps. This Grinch swooped out, never doing his work, and left me confounded, and possibly infected. Jeers to the [Bad Santa Sweep], and to all, stay safe! PROFESSIONAL DOLT Jeers to myself. I apologize to the lady whose car I almost got into while she was sitting in her car in the Shadle Walmart parking lot. When you are tired and just want to get home, one red SUV looks pretty much like any other. I was embarrassed and unable to say I’m sorry due to what I think is a common American social tic. I can say excuse me, thank you, please and occasionally you’re welcome. But like Elton sang, “Sorry seems to be the hardest word.” It involves fault, a gaff, an intentional or deliberate mistake, and seems to carry far too much emotional weight for being so small a collection of letters. I am sorry
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UPS Jeers to UPS for telling drivers NOT to go into apartment buildings to deliver packages!!! UPS driver refused to deliver package Wednesday evening at 6 p.m.
”
As I recognized the shipper - Amazon - and knew the resident, I delivered it myself. She as well as I have had packages stolen that were left inside the building. Mine was of medical supplies few people would know. Folks - request a signature or have your seller ship thru USPS or FedEx! I have alerted KXLY about this also as a news story. OF COURSE CM-R SIGNED ON TO THE IDIOTICUS BRIEF Trump can give her her dollar now... wouldn’t advise spending it all in one place, could be a very long time before the next one trickles down... MY REPRESENTATIVE? You supported a radical effort by Texas to take away the voting rights of other independent states. I’m a conservative. How are you representing me? n
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NOTE: I Saw You/Cheers & Jeers is for adults 18 or older. The Inlander reserves the right to edit or reject any posting at any time at its sole discretion and assumes no responsibility for the content.
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if I startled you. I did not mean to try to get in your car. Thank you for not yelling at me. Sincerely, Jennifer
This Bad Santa knew better than the good scientists of the world!
not be as close and things have changed, but there is good in the world. It’s OK not to feel good though, and sometimes the best thing a human can do is just sit with another in the dark. So when you read this, please know someone is thinking about you. I wish you the best of luck.
SOUND OFF
my home to clean my chimney. While my back was turned so I could grab my mask — after all even good elves know what’s right — Bad Santa walked in without my knowing. I turned from my rack to find him by my fireplace, no headgear in sight. His little reindeer left outside had said she would hoof it for
STRAINS
Peak Nesting
Lucky Devil’s Sundae Driver. COURTESY OF LUCKY DEVIL FARMS
These three cannabis strains will put you in the Goldilocks zone of cozy winter comfort BY WILL MAUPIN
I
t’s cold, it’s snowy and the nights are as long as they’re going to get. We’re reaching the peak of indoors season here in the Inland Northwest, which means it’s time to tailor your cannabis to a cozier lifestyle. Put those strong, energizing sativas away until springtime and puff on something a little more relaxing. Here are three strains available locally that pair perfectly with a warm blanket, hot beverage and these endless, dark nights.
WEDDING CAKE
An indica-dominant hybrid that’s typically pretty high in THC content, Wedding Cake is a classic strain for staying in. The main terpene in Wedding Cake is limonene, giving it a distinctive citrusy odor and flavor. Limonene is also thought to be responsible for some stress-relieving BE AWARE: Marijuana is legal for adults 21 and older under Washington State law (e.g., RCW 69.50, RCW 69.51A, HB0001 Initiative 502 and Senate Bill 5052). State law does not preempt federal law; possessing, using, distributing and selling marijuana remains illegal under federal law. In Washington state, consuming marijuana in public, driving while under the influence of marijuana and transporting marijuana across state lines are all illegal. Marijuana has intoxicating effects; there may be health risks associated with its consumption, and it may be habit-forming. It can also impair concentration, coordination and judgment. Do not operate a vehicle or machinery under the influence of this drug. Keep out of reach of children. For more information, consult the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board at www.liq.wa.gov.
and mood-elevating effects of the strains in which it’s dominant. Pair those effects with the relaxing indica nature of the strain and Wedding Cake makes for a perfect treat before putting on a movie or starting a Netflix binge. Try Good Earth Cannabis’ Wedding Cake prerolls, available at Cinder for $9 per gram.
GORILLA GLUE
For many, cannabis is the best sleep-aid out there. Not me, though. Smoking before bed has the same effect on me as a late-night cup of coffee. So, I did some digging to find the sleepiest strain I could, and Gorilla Glue is the one that stuck. While it hasn’t yet knocked me out, it’s got enough of a couch-lock aspect to it to keep me safely indoors where it’s warm rather than bundling up for a night walk in the snow. If you’re looking to just relax and
do nothing all night, Gorilla Glue is for you. Try Lifted Signature’s Gorilla Glue prerolls, available at Apex for $11 per gram.
SUNDAE DRIVER
The name says it all: slow like a Sunday drive and delicious as an ice cream sundae. Sundae Driver is a relatively low-THC hybrid that is high in the terpene myrcene, giving this strain a strong calming effect. With a lower THC content than most of the popular strains on the market today, Sundae Driver is a safer bet if you’re looking to avoid a groggy morning-after. And, by not blasting you high into space, it’s great for activities like cooking or reading that require some mental acuity. Try Lucky Devil’s Sundae Driver prerolls, available at The Vault for $12 per gram. n
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NOTE TO READERS Be aware of the differences in the law between Idaho and Washington. It is illegal to possess, sell or transport cannabis in the State of Idaho. Possessing up to an ounce is a misdemeanor and can get you a year in jail and up to a $1,000 fine; more than three ounces is a felony that can carry a five-year sentence and fine of up to $10,000. Transporting marijuana across state lines, like from Washington into Idaho, is a felony under federal law.
Warning: This product has intoxicating effects and may be habit forming. Smoking is hazardous to your health. There may be health risks associated with consumption of this product. Should not be used by women that are pregnant or breast feeding. For USE only by adults 21 and older. Marijuana can impair concentration, coordination and judgement. Do not operate a vehicle or machinery under the influence of this drug.
DECEMBER 17, 2020 INLANDER 57
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Warning: This product has intoxicating effects & may be habit forming. Marijuana can impair concentration, coordination, & judgment. Do not operate a vehicle or machinery under the influence of this drug. There may be health risks associated with consumption of this product. For use only by adults 21 years or older. Keep out of reach of children.
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Get Stocked Up!
PIONEER SQUARES
Stocking stuffers might be the best thing you can get your cannabis lover this year BY QUINN WELSCH
E
veryone loves a good stocking stuffer, whether it’s a handful of pre-rolls or a handful of candy cane-flavored Hershey Kisses (in that order). Sometimes the best things come in small packages. Here are a few low-cost ideas to fill your cannabis lover’s stocking this holiday season.
TOKER POKER
PIONEER SQUARES
Coming at 10 milligrams per dose and 10 doses per package, the Pioneer Squares contain a tiny surprise inside. Want a pineapple flavored gummy? Get a little piece of candied pineapple inside. Want a cherry flavored gummy? You get the idea. You can likely find a package for under $10. Bonus points for being vegan and kosher!
ASSORTED GADGETS
There are a number of low-cost gadgets and gizmos you can use to enhance your cannabis experience, and they can all fit neatly inside a stocking. Head to Cinder and you can pick up their trademark plastic grinder for a mere $1. Also at Cinder, you can find a variety of glass pipes in all different shapes, colors and sizes, ranging between $6-$20. Or, pick up a Toker Poker, a multi-tool that holds a lighter, stainless steel poker, tamper and a hemp wick, for just $10.
JOURNEY TINCTURE
GREEN REVOLUTION’S JOURNEY TINCTURE
Looking for a cannabis product that’s outside of the box? Check out Green Revolution’s “Journey” tincture. At 100 milligrams of THC per 1-ounce bottle (about 20 servings), this water-based, water-soluble tincture can be applied orally via dropper or mixed in with a beverage, such as a nice cinnamon apple spice tea enjoyed by the fireplace.
DRAGON BALM
60 INLANDER DECEMBER 17, 2020
DRAGON BALM DEEP TISSUE RELIEF SAUVE
You might consider Dragon Balm’s Deep Tissue Relief for a chronic lover who also happens to suffer from chronic pain. This 2-ounce container of 1-1 THC to CBD (175 milligrams) provides a cooling and soothing relief for those who suffer from back, leg and even head pain. Simply rub it in and let the ingredients do the rest. n
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Warning: This product has intoxication effects and may be habit forming. Smoking is hazardous to your health. There may be health risks associated with consumption of this product. This product should not be used by women that are pregnant or breast feeding. 21+
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My boyfriend, who was adopted as an infant, just heard from his birth mom for the first time ever. She contacted him out of the blue, sending a perfectly nice message, not expecting anything from him. Instead of responding to it, he’s just sort of shutting down. Times are tough enough, and I don’t think it’s healthy to bottle up his feelings. However, whenever I point that out or ask him how he feels, he says he doesn’t want to talk about it. How can I help motivate him to process his feelings? —Caring Girlfriend
We all have to deal with rejection, but most of us get our first taste of it at 6 — years old, that is, not six minutes after a nurse cuts our umbilical cord. Emotions are basically the helper elves of humanity. They evolved to motivate behavior to help ancestral humans survive, mate, and pass on their genes. We tend to see “negative” emotions like sadness and anger as damaging, but evolutionary researcher Randolph Nesse, M.D., explains they are just as functional as “positive” emotions. Negative emotions are the brakes for behavior that isn’t working for us. Though, these days, minor bad choices usually aren’t fatal, our psychology is calibrated as if they could be. The psychological operating system driving our behavior today is adapted for a harsh ancestral hunter-gatherer environment. Say some Neanderbro had the brilliant idea that he’d catch wild game for dinner by asking it nicely to throw itself onto his spear. But say, after collecting only windblown dust on his spearhead, the emotions he felt were happiness and excitement. He’d stick with his hunting approach and end up dining on tree-bark rib-eyes, the culinary choice of people who slowly starve to death. Though men get depressed just like women do, another evolutionary researcher, psychologist Joyce Benenson, notes that men tend to be less emotionally sensitive than women, showing less fear and sadness from infancy on. Men are also less emotionally fluent, meaning they have trouble understanding exactly what they’re feeling, which, in turn, keeps them from being able to put names to their emotions. Though these seem like shortcomings, they serve men’s evolved role as the “warriors” of our species. In combat, men would put themselves and their fellow warriors at risk if they jabber on about how terrified they are and plop down on the battlefield for a good cry. How does your boyfriend feel? Best guess: Emotionally overwhelmed. If so, his “shutting down” makes sense. It’s basically the human version of overloaded electrical wiring triggering a circuit breaker in your house — as opposed to keeping the juice flowing and triggering an electrical fire, turning your home into a two-bedroom, two-bath pile of smoking ash. Sigmund Freud, who saw having actual evidence to support his claims an unnecessary bother, drove the widespread assumption that “repression” — avoiding upsetting thoughts to prevent or minimize anxiety — is emotionally and physically destructive. In fact, clinical psychologist Karin Coifman and her colleagues observe that there’s “a small and relatively inconsistent body of evidence” that associates “repressive coping” with health costs. Research increasingly suggests it can be “adaptive” — beneficial for a person to direct their attention away from experiences that cause negative feelings (especially negative feelings about themself...say, like being “given up” for adoption). And the Coifman team’s own study finds that the “emotional dissociation” of repressive coping can actually lead to better adjustment, fewer health complaints, and “a less significant medical history.” Consider, too, that men often “speak” through action rather than words. Your boyfriend is probably flooded with uncertainty about what he should do: contact his birth mom, meet with her, do nothing. You can help him — by being loving and supportive as he goes about this his way. If he still seems to be suffering a month from now, you might Google adoptee discussion boards and ask him whether you could give him the links. Reading about others’ feelings and experiences could help him understand his own feelings and decide how he’ll proceed. Ultimately, the emotional expressiveness that comes naturally to many women is unnatural for many men. Benenson explains that women tend to bond through “sharing vulnerabilities” and soothe themselves by talking about their feelings, behavior that would leave most men feeling exposed and threatened. This provides helpful perspective on men’s seemingly counterproductive reactions to bad stuff that happens. True story from one of my male friends: “A few years ago, I mentioned to my wife that there was a guy at work who was a real pain in the ass. She said, ‘Do you want to talk about it?’ I said, ‘I just did.’” n ©2020, Amy Alkon, all rights reserved. • Got a problem? Write Amy Alkon, 171 Pier Ave, #280, Santa Monica, CA 90405 or email AdviceAmy@aol.com (www.advicegoddess.com)
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