Because there’s more to life than bad news
August 2008
A News MAGAZINE worth wading through
Inside:
• It IS easy being green! • The hunt for the luscious huckleberry • Clark Fork’s humble hero • The ghost of Banquo to haunt Heron
Sail
Come
Away
Experience Lake Pend Oreille with the wind at your back Plus -
It’s for the Birds, Hikes in the Cabinets, Grammar Damage, Local Food, Idaho Liberals Speak Out, Stories from a Small World and all your favorite writers from the pages of the River Journal.
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Athol- Crossroads Texaco. Bonners Ferry- Visitors Center, Boundary Trading Co., Pacific Far North Outfitters, Larson’. Clark Fork - Hays Chevron, Monarch Market. North Idaho College- Student Union Building Elmira - the Elmira Store. Heron- the Heron Store. Hope- Holiday Shores. Naples - the Naples Store. Noxon - Noxon Merc, Big Sky Pantry, Bull River Station Aitkin’s Quik Stop. Plains- Town Pump, the Printery, First Security Bank, Clark Fork Valley Hospital. Ponderay - Babe’s One Stop, the Hoot Owl, Schweitzer Conoco, Bonner Mall, Yokes Fresh Market, the Co-Op. Sagle- Sagle Mini Mart. Samuels- Samuels Service Station. SandpointVisitor’s Center, Sandpoint Super Drug, Paul’s Chevron, Vanderford’s, Monarch Mountain Coffee, Panhandle State Bank, Waterfront Texaco. Thompson Falls- Town Pump, Harvest Foods, First Security Bank. Trout Creek- Nin’s Local Store, Huckleberry Thicket. Westmond- The Westmond Store.
Inside this Issue
THE RIVER JOURNAL
2 The Elusive Huckleberry. 4 Clark Fork’s Quiet Hero. 10 Come Sail Away. 12 It IS Easy Being Green. 13 Heron Shows “That Scottish Play.” 22 Attacking the Monsters. Jinx Beshears gives you the tips and tricks you need for a successful hunt as the purple season nears.
Desire Aguirre introduces you to Bob Hays, a man who just can’t stop giving. Trish Gannon shares the sensation of summer on the lake without the noise.
Thomas McMahon lets you in on the green secrets behind one of Sandpoint’s newest buildings.
Montana’s Shakespeare in the Parks comes to the Heron Ballfield.
updates on dealing with aquatic invasive species.
Kate Wilson gives
In Every Issue: 5 Staccato Notes 9 Politically Incorrect 14 Our Featured Advertiser 15 Toons 16 Humor 18 Non-Profits Make a Difference 19 Veterans’ News 20 Small World 21 The Scenic Route 24 Outdoors 28 Sports 31 Love Notes 32 Education 35 Technology
37 On the Street 38 Other Worlds 40 Faith Walk 41 The Hawk’s Nest 42 Food 44 Wellness 48 Hobbies 49 Currents 50 Politics 55 Say What? 56 Book/Movie Reviews 58 The Month in Review 59 The Cheap Seats 62 Obituaries 64 From the Mouth of the River
During their 2006 Homecoming week, Clark Fork students duct taped their teachers to the wall. (Ernie says they call it ‘chrome’ in Athol) Want more creative uses for duct tape? See page 37
A News Magazine Worth Wading Through -just going with the flow-
P.O. Box 151 Clark Fork, ID 83811 www.RiverJournal.com 208.255.6957 Fax- 208.266.1523 Calm Center of Tranquility Trish Gannon Trish@RiverJournal.com Ministry of Truth and Propaganda Jody Forest- also PROFreader Sales Brian Neitzke 208.290.2006 Brian@RiverJournal.com Dustin Gannon 208.610.5170 Dustin@RiverJournal.com Cartoonists Boots Reynolds, Scott Clawson, Matt Davidson, Jim Tibbs Regular Contributors
Desire Aguirre; Jinx Beshears; Laura Bry; Scott Clawson; Sandy Compton; Marylyn Cork; Dick Cvitanich; Matt Davidson; Duke Diercks; Mont. Sen. Jim Elliott; Idaho Rep. George Eskridge; Lawrence Fury; Dustin Gannon; Shaina Gustafson; Matt Haag; Ernie Hawks; Hanna Hurt; Emily Levine; Marianne Love; Thomas McMahon; Clint Nicholson; Kathy Osborne; Gary Payton; Angela Potts; Paul Rechnitzer; Boots Reynolds; Sandpoint Wellness Council; Rhoda Sanford; Lou Springer; Jim Tibbs; Mike Turnland; Michael White; Pat Williams; and Kate Wilson
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit.” -Aristotle Proudly printed at Griffin Publishing in Spokane, Wash. 509.534.3625 Contents of The River Journal are copyright 2008. Reproduction of any material, including original artwork and advertising, is prohibited. The River Journal is published the first of each month and approximately 10,000 copies are distributed in Sanders County, Montana and Bonner, Boundary and Kootenai counties in Idaho. Call 208-2556957 or email trish@riverjournal.com with address changes. The River Journal is printed on 40 percent recycled paper with soy-based ink. We appreciate your efforts to recycle.
Cover photo by Kathy Gavin The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 17 No. 15 | August 2008 | Page
HUNTING THE ELUSIVE
Huckleberry
by Jinx Beshears
Huckleberry stories are almost as “big” as fishing tales. The berries are as big as your thumb or as small as a pinhead. It just depends on which huckleberry picker you “pick” to talk to! Usually, huckleberries are about the size of a garden pea and they go by so many names it’s hard to keep up with them. Although a blueberry is a member of the huckleberry family (serious huckleberry pickers are now ready to fight me), they taste nothing like the wild huckleberries found on the mountain slopes of northern Idaho. It’s textbooks that put huckleberries and blueberries in the same category, not the die hard
huckleberry pickers I have spoken to. And there are lots of die hard huckleberry pickers around. As important as fishing, hiking and boating are to area residents for summer recreation, picking huckleberries rates right near the top. Even the New York Times listed huckleberry picking as an attraction of the area and John Henderson, a writer for the Denver Post, called the huckleberry the “truffle of the berry world.” Once you actually taste a huckleberry, then a blueberry becomes nothing more than a “blahberry,” feeding the huckleberry-blueberry sibling rivalry.
Huckleberries grow singly along the stem of the bush and their roots are more shallow than blueberries. They also grow best in damp, acidic soil. I spoke to my friend and berry picker Carolyn Vogel about the berries in this area. “If you want to find the huckleberries, you will,” she says. “You can find them along the road if you just look.” Where do you look? Well, that’s a secret among most serious berry pickers. Carolyn did share that while she hikes a mile or two into the mountains, huckleberries are often found on the roadside, easily accessible to mountain traffic. Wild huckleberries pretty much grow wherever they please and are pretty hard to tame. They are mostly picked during mid-July to mid- August,
Illustration Scott Clawson Page | The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 17 No. 15by | August 2008
depending on the weather, and Carolyn states this year they are running a bit later. There are many varieties of huckleberries in the region, but the big one, the black huckleberry, prefers life between 3,000 and 6,000 feet elevation. By the gallon, huckleberries sold can range from 20 to 30 dollars, selling at even higher prices when they are harder to find. Carolyn says that huckleberry pickers tend to get territorial about their patches, so if you are picking near someone and getting glared at, you might want to move on. Don’t forget that bears eat huckleberries too, the positive side being that only 15 percent of a bear’s diet consists of meat, so if you use some common sense you probably won’t end up as the main course in a bear’s feast, with huckleberries as the dessert. The Xenite website notes, in all seriousness, as to the risks inherent in picking: “Danger is a relative term. Some huckleberry pickers do encounter bears.” If you don’t know what to do when encountering a bear in the woods - you might best stay out of the woods. Or at least visit with the folks at the Forest Service office and find out. Carolyn picks mostly for her own use, freezing the berries and then canning them during the winter months. For canning, visit www.culinarycafe.com or dig up your grandmother’s old basic recipe for canning fruits. For myself, the best way to eat the berries is straight off the stem, which doesn’t make me the best berry picker around. If you are bound to pick, be prepared. Layer your clothes for comfort all day, and be sure to take water and some lunch. A basic survival kit won’t take up any more room than a canteen. Include matches, candles and string, perhaps even a space blanket if you are hiking very far in. First aid gear and emergency food rations would be good as well. Most importantly, if you think it is a bad idea to pick a certain spot, don’t. You never know what you might really be picking! For the newcomer to berry picking, a good place to start is Schweitzer Mountain Resort. Yep, that’s right. The area that’s a dream for skiiers and snowboarders throughout the winter also offers a number of summer attractions - and picking huckleberries is one of them. Head up for their Huckleberry Festival on August 3, an event they bill as “honoring everything huckleberry,” and introduce yourself to this luscious purple fruit. Or head up there anytime for a day of hiking and huckleberry picking - right now, it’s looking
like the berries will be ripe from mid-August on. The activity center has trail maps, safety tips and a few insider secrets they’re willing to share. As their website warns, however, beware. “Eating these berries may make you forget that you came for a hike and two hours later you could find yourself only 100 feet down the trail!” Want to know more about the huckleberry? Visit the Sandpoint General Store online (www.sandpointgeneralstore. com) and check out “The Huckleberry Book” by Asta Bowen. For just $9.95 you can be introduced to such topics as “Bears and Berries,” Huckleberry Hunting,” “How to Eat Huckleberries,” a history of berry picking in America, the difference between a huckleberry and its lesser cousins, and “The Secret Life of the Huckleberry, explaining its mysterious nature, prime habitat, relationship with fire, sex life and typical year.” Once you’re bitten by the pickin’ bug, and you find your kitchen full of huckleberries, your friends at the Community Assistance League are ready to help out with recipes from their cookbook, Savoring Sandpoint, Recipes Across the Bridge.
PRODUCTS
Hills Resort in Priest Lake suggests this recipe for a refreshing, summertime huckleberry dacquiri for one: 1 1/4 oz. white rum 1/4 cup huckleberries 1 Tbsp. simple syrup (1/2 water, 1/2 sugar) 1 1/2 cups ice 1/4 cup orange juice 1. Blend all ingredients in blender until smooth. 2. Serve in a tall glass and garnish with orange slice and cherry. And skip the four-and-twenty blackbirds, settling instead for this wonderful huckleberry pie, also from Hill’s Resort: 1 9” baked pastry shell 4 cups washed huckleberries 3/4 cup water 3 Tbsp. cornstarch 1 cup sugar 1-3 tsp. fresh lemon juice whipped cream or ice cream 1. Simmer 1 cup of huckleberries with water for 3 to 4 minutes 2. Combine cornstarch and sugar and add to cooking fruit. 3. Simmer slowly until syrup is thick and clear. 4. When thickened add lemon juice to taste; depending on berries’ sweetness. Cool slightly. 5. Line pastry shell with 3 cups of berries, pour slightly cooled glaze over raw berries. 6. Mix gently with fork to coat fresh berries. 7. Chill thoroughly. Serve with whipped cream or ice cream. The book also includes recipes for a huckleberry/apple pie, and a huckleberry cream cheese pastry. It is available only at Bizarre Bazaar, 105 Vermeer Drive, Ponderay, ID. 208-263-3400
Gem Berry Products, Sandpoint www.gemberryproducts.com “Rich, full-flavored wild huckleberry jam!... ready for fresh bread, muffins, crackers, or even spread over a cheesecake! Ummm.”
Wild Huckleberry Honey
Huckleberry Haven, Kalispell www.huckleberryhaven.com “Taste the quality of the Northwest’s finest clover honey flavored with only pure wild huckleberry juice. Great natural way to sweeten tea and coffee.”
Huckleberry Ale
Laughing Dog Brewery, Ponderay www.laughingdogbrewing.com “Smooth and creamy with a light touch of huckleberries.“
Huckleberry Blush
Pend d’Oreille Winery, Sandpoint www.powine.com “It’s pink, it’s an infusion, but it’s a serious wine. This is a delightful Riesling infused with a wine we make from local huckleberries, giving it a lovely blush color and the flavor of our local mountains. Try this wine as an aperitif, with fruit salad, or just sip well chilled.”
Wild Mountain Huckleberry Jam
Huckleberry Syrup
Bear Patch Kitchen, Libby www.montanamuffins.com “Our famous huckleberry syrup. Time after time voted the best... just huckleberries, pectin, sugar and lemon juice.”
Huckleberry Fudge
Priest Lake Candy and Fudge Factory, Coolin www.litehousefoods.com The Litehouse website describes this as “10 ounces of delicious, easy to make huckleberry chocolate fudge mix.”
Huckleberry Candy Bars
The Huckleberry People www.Huckleberrypeople.com states these are “5 oz fondant filled huckleberry candy bars... “
Huckleberry Cream Coffee
Monarch Mountain Coffee, Sandpoint www.monarchmountaincoffee.com “This seasonal favorite is infused with a sweet huckleberry oil immediately after the roasting process, allowing the warm beans to suck up the oil’s essence and create a mild aftertaste in your morning cup.”
The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 17 No. 15 | August 2008 | Page
Bob Hays Clark Fork’s Quiet Hero
By Desire Aguirre
Photo by David Broughton
To picture Bob Hays, think of Sean Connery with darker hair and minus the accent. Soft spoken, Bob didn’t discuss his years in Vietnam swooping in and rescuing injured soldiers. Instead, he talked about working as an ironworker and taking over the Chevron Station when Paul Thornton, the original owner, got a job at the post office. Bob, 68, greets his customers with a smile and a handshake. When I first met him, he was pumping gas for an elderly woman. Bob has lived in Clark Fork for 61 years and run the Chevron Station for 45. “Gas,” Bob said, “was 29 cents a gallon when we started.” It took me a while to ferret out why Bob Hays was receiving the Community Star award from Panhandle State Bank this September. According to Tami Wood, the bank gives one award in 15 to 20 communities each year. Tami says all the nominations come from different organizations. The bank’s Council of Excellence members research all the nominees and choose a winner. Finally, I asked Bob point blank, “Why are you receiving the award?” Bob gave me a slow smile, and said, “Oh, that. “It’s supposed to be a shiny armor award. I’m not sure what it’s all about. I’ll get $1,000 to give to a charity of my choice.” Bob said he will probably give the money to the Booster Club at Clark Fork High. They need the money to finish their project of building new bleachers. The bank will recognize Bob at a special ceremony during Clark Fork’s first home football game, at 5:30 on Sept. 19. When I discovered that John Connor’s mom lives in Clark Fork, I asked him, “Do you know Bob Hays?” “Funny you should ask me that,” John said. “I’m a singer/songwriter, and I wrote a song about him called ‘Veteran Savior.’ Bob rescued me and my buddy a couple summers ago.” John and his friend, Aaron, had decided to go on a fishing/camping trip on Sugar Loaf
Mountain. John brought along his old German Shepard, and they set up camp late. They had a couple of beers while listening to the radio. Unfortunately, they left the radio on, and in the morning, the truck battery had died. They knew the dog couldn’t walk five miles back to Clark Fork, so Aaron stayed at camp with the dog while John hitched a ride back to town. When he got to the Chevron Station, Bob greeted him with his customary smile and handshake. “He had this old truck that looked like an army rig,” John said. “I didn’t think it should be running at all, and we had to drive real slow because of all the ruts in the road. Bob told me about his experiences in Vietnam, jumping out of airplanes and rescuing injured soldiers. I told him, ‘You deserve the Purple Heart.’” According to John, Bob jump-started their truck for free, and left the way he came. Later, John wrote the song for him. Turns out, Bob is instrumental in organizing the annual alumni basketball/volleyball tournament in Clark Fork, which raises money for the athletic department at the high school. “The alumni (tournament),” Bob said, “started with the class of 1980. There were two or three families. This year, we had ten teams and about 100 players. We invite kids from Noxon and some come from Bonners Ferry, Sandpoint and Spokane.” Each team pays a fee to play during the tournament the second week of March. The proceeds, usually between $5,000 to $7,000, are donated to the high school to help kids compete at the state level. The money helps pay for traveling, lodging and meals. “I kind of head that up,” Bob said quietly. Bob also helps organize the July 4th celebration, via the Rod and Gun Club. Every year, Clark Fork features a parade, turtle races, games, a raffle, watermelon eating contests, tug-of-wars, and of course, a firework display. “I get things going,” Bob said, “and then everyone falls in.” About 1,000 people show up for the parade, and as the day warms up, many of them end up in the lake for a swim. The entire town of Clark Fork kicks in for the celebration. Local merchants put in tickets for candy and pop, and an airplane flies over the baseball field and drops them for the kids to chase. “It’s an old Fourth of July family deal,” Bob said. “It’s for the kids.” Nobody wants to tell all Bob’s secrets, because he doesn’t want to have them told. But when there’s a need in the community, Bob is one of the first to jump in to help out. “He’s a sweetheart,” said Bugsy Craig, who works at the Chevron. “He’d do anything for anybody. It wouldn’t be Clark Fork without Bob Hays. No matter what someone needs, he’s there to help, from a hug to financial support. There’s not a day that goes by that he’s not doing something for someone.”
Page | The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 17 No. 15 | August 2008
AUGUST AUGUST
STACCATO Notes POAC Arts and Crafts Fair August 9 and 10 36th annual juried art exhibit at Sandpoint’s City Beach. Over 120 booths of original, hand crafted artwork, kids’ activities, food, music and demonstrations. Call 208-263-6139 www.ArtinSandpoint.org
SUNDAY
3
Schweitzer Huckleberry Festival
10 FAS-Kids Day with Spokane Youth Orchestra. Gates open 4:30. POAC Arts and Crafts Fair Spt City Beach
MONDAY
4
11
TUESDAY
5
Hope Bodacious Barbecue 4-10 pm
12
County Fairs
Shakespeare in the Park
•August 13-16 Boundary County Fair •August 15 and 16 Bonner County Rodeo •August 18-23 Bonner County Fair •August 23- Bonner County Demolition Derby •August 25-31 Sanders County Fair •August 28 Sanders County Fair Motocross •August 29 - Sanders County Rodeo •August 31- Sanders County Demolition Derby
WEDNESDAY
6
13 Boundary County Fair FAS-Free movie at Memorial Field, Dusk.
August 16 and 18 Free performances: at the Heron Ballfield in Heron, Montana. Montana’s Shakespeare in the Parks will perform... that Scottish play at 6 pm MST. Then on August 18 MSP will perform All’s Well That Ends Well at the Libby Middle School at 6pm
Ponderay Days August 22 and 23 Sponsored by Ponderay Community Development Corp. Food, festivities, carnival, games and car show. Call 208-255-2414
www2.montana.edu/ shakespeare/ THURSDAY
7
FRIDAY
SATURDAY
1
2
8
Trout Creek 9 Huckleberry Festival
FAS-Smokey Robinson
Trout Creek Huckleberry Festival FAS-Donovan Frankenreiter
14 Boundary County Fair FAS-The BoDeans
15Boundary County Fair Bonner County Rodeo FAS-Ziggy Marley
Long Bridge Swim 9 am in Sandpoint Quilt Show 9-5 Hope Comm. Center
FAS-Pure Prairie League POAC Arts and Crafts Fair Spt City Beach
Shakespeare 16 in the Park-Macbeth
Boundary County Fair, Bonner County Rodeo, FAS-Wynonna Schweitzer Huckleberry Festival
17 FAS18 Bonner 19 20 21 22 23 Spokane Symphony County Fair Bonner County Fair Bonner County Fair Bonner County Fair Bonner County Fair Bonner County Fair All’s Well that Ends performing Ponderay Days Demolition Derby Well - Libby 6pm Beethoven Ponderay Days
MST
24
25
Sanders County Fair
26
Sanders County Fair
27
Sanders County Fair
28
Sanders County Fair
29
Sanders County Fair
30
Sanders County Fair, Schweitzer Fall Fest
31
Sanders County Fair; Schweitzer Fall Fest
The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 17 No. 15 | August 2008 | Page
Page | The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 17 No. 15 | August 2008
STACCATO Notes
REGULAR EVENTS
WINERY MUSIC PEND D’OREILLE WINERY | 220 CEDAR ST IN SANDPOINT | 208-265-8545 Live music at the winery on Friday and Saturday nights. (Note - no music during the Festival at Sandpoint) For August: Justin Landis (2nd) Bridges Home (22nd) Shook Twins (23rd) Emily Baker (29th). SUMMER SOUNDS AT PARK PLACE POAC SPONSORED EVENT | CORNER OF FIRST AND CEDAR | NOON TO 2 PM Takes place every Saturday at Park Place in Sandpoint. In August: Mixolydian (2nd) Kathy Colton and the Reluctants (9th) Selkirk Brass Quintet (16th) Greg Grant (23rd) Dolce Quartet (30th). Concerts are FREE ARTWALK II On display through September 8. Over 25 gallery locations. JAZZ PIANIST DI LUNA’S | 207 CEDAR ST IN SANDPOINT | 208-263-0846 Bill Reid performs at Di Luna’s Cafe every Sunday afternoon at 2 pm MOVIES ON THE MOUNTAIN SCHWEITZER | 208-255-3081 Every Friday night at dusk the community is invited for free outdoor movies at Schweitzer Mountain Resort. TWILIGHT BIKE RACES Schweitzer | 208-255-3081 Every Wednesday at 4 pm. Course changes weekly. Includes kids’ races and after-event parties. FIVE MINUTES OF FAME | CAFE BODEGA IN SANDPOINT Open Mic for prose, poetry, music and improv on the third Wednesday of every month at 6:30 pm. All ages welcome. 504 Oak St. SANDPOINT FARMER’S MARKET | FARMIN PARK IN SANDPOINT Open every Wednesday 3-5 and Saturday 9 to noon NAMI Far North |208-597-2047 Meets regularly on the third Wednesday of every month in the classroom at Bonner General Hospital in Sandpoint, ID. Meetings begin at 6 pm; refreshments are served. The Aug. 20 meeting features Sue Kohut speaking on “Nutrition and Mental Health.”
Of Festivals and Fairs
August
- a time of abundance and celebration. And nowhere is that more true than along the Clark Fork River Valley! Kick off the month with the 26th annual Festival at Sandpoint. Once again this local non-profit organization will be bringing incredible music to the shores of Lake Pend Oreille, in their signature tent under the stars! Performers in the August 7 - 17 lineup include R and B star Smokey Robinson; acoustic rock singer Donovan Frankenreiter; country rock band Pure Prairie League with the Marshall Tucker Band as an opening act; The Spokane Youth Orchestra and an action-packed kids’ day at Memorial Field; Rock and Roll greats The BoDeans; Reggae musician Ziggy Marley; Country artist Wynonna Judd; and the signature finale concert with the Spokane Symphony performing Beethoven to the accompaniment of fireworks, fire danger permitting! Visit www. FestivalAtSandpoint.org or call 208-265-4554 for information. Next on the calendar is the 29th annual Huckleberry Festival in the Huckleberry Capitol of Montana - the lovely river town of Trout Creek. Events take place August 8 to 10. It all starts at 5 pm Friday night with the opening Jam Session, followed by the Miss Huckleberry Pageant and a karaoke sing-along. On Saturday, the pancake breakfast begins at 7 am followed by the Run for Fun and the parade. In the afternoon, enjoy the Swing Street Big Band, Albeni Falls Pipe and Drum, the jam and jelly contest, Airhog with Nat Burgess and Friends, the Festival Auction and, at 9 pm, classic rock and country music with “Oh, Brother.” On Sunday, have pancakes for breakfast again then enjoy Liz Citrino, the Festival Worship Service, the many talents of Dave Oliver, horseshoes, a dessert contest, violin and fiddle tunes and the drawing of the names for raffle winners. Visit www.HuckleberryFestival.com for more information. That same weekend, make time for the 36th annual Arts and Crafts Fair at Sandpoint’s City Beach. Sponsored by POAC, the event features more than 120 booths open on August 9 and 10, plus kids’ activities, food, music and demonstrations. Visit www. ArtinSandpoint.org or call 208-263-6139 to learn more. The following weekend will also be packed as the Bonner County Rodeo takes place on August 15 and 16, along with The Schweitzer Huckleberry Festival on that Saturday. Schweitzer Mountain hosts huck-picking hikes beginning at 9 am, along with arts and crafts vendors and a barbecue at the village that starts at 10 am. Huckleberry-themed activities begin at noon. Visit www.Schweitzer.com or call 208-255-3081. And don’t miss one of the incredible free public performances of Montana’s Shakespeare in the Parks. On August 16 you can head to Heron, Mont. (6 pm MST) to see... that Scottish play performed on the Heron ball field, or on August 18 (again 6 pm MST) visit the Libby Middle School to see All’s Well That Ends Well. Heron organizer Debbie Lyman points out you can attend the play and still make it back to Sandpoint in time to catch Wynonna. August is also the month for County Fairs. Boundary County starts it off with their fair running August 13 to 16, while Bonner County holds theirs from the 18th through the 23rd. The Sanders County Fair will take place August 25 through 31. You can finish off the month with the Schweitzer Fall Fest on Schweitzer Mountain. This 16th annual event features an outdoor microbrew and music festival extravaganza, taking place on August 30 and 31. Enjoy music from around the world along with a tasting tent featuring regional microbrews, wine and soda. Take a ride on the chair lift and don’t miss the special activities for kids. Visit www.Schweitzer.com or call 208-2639555 to learn more.
STACCATO Notes
Long Bridge Swim Swim Fest Celebrates its 14th Year On Saturday, August 2 you’re invited to “take the challenge, take the plunge!” in the 14th annual Long Bridge Swim. It all started when local therapist Eric Ridgway (pictured at left) thought it would be a good challenge to swim along the length of Sandpoint’s Long Bridge. Friends came to cheer him on and some said, “If I’d known you were going to do it, I’d have joined you.” An event was born. This 1.76 mile open water swim takes participants from the south end of the Long Bridge back toward Sandpoint to Dog Beach. The time allotted for the swim is 2.5 hours, but the fastest finish took place in 2007 with a time of 34 minutes, 11 seconds. The swimmer was 19-yearold Kalen Darling from Spokane. Here’s more of the Long Bridge Swim by the numbers.
5 86 67 2 564 5,228
The youngest swimmer to ever complete the race was Seal Gosnell, of Portland, Ore. She completed the swim in 1 hour, 50 minutes and 23 seconds. The oldest swimmer to participate was Imre Schmidt from Bonners Ferry in 2007. It was his seventh race. The coldest temperature recorded on the morning of the swim was around 67 or 68 degrees. The number of years where swimmers “took the challenge” in the rain. In 2006 swimmers faced a furious head wind. The largest number of participants showed up for the race in 2007.
The number of miles (give or take a few) between Sandpoint and Nitra, Slovakia, hometown of 2004 swim participant Veronika Gorova (17).
Eric Clapton’s Crossroads - Part 2
On Wednesday, August 13 the Festival at Sandpoint will be presenting a free movie for the public at Memorial Field. Part 2 of Eric Clapton’s Crossroads Guitar Festival 2004 (part one was shown last year) will play on a big screen in front of the signature tent in downtown Sandpoint. Numerous guitar legends gathered together in June of 2004 at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, Texas, to play a benefit show for Eric Clapton’s Crossroads Center, a nonprofit addiction treatment facility in Antigua. The resulting DVD offers a stunning array of legendary acts; the talent assembled for the show was a music lover’s dream come true, and this document of the event allows those who weren’t there to experience the magic. The DVD includes performances by BB King, James Taylor, Carlos Santana, Joe Walsh, Jimmie Vaughn, John Mayer, Robert Cray, and Clapton himself, among many others. The movie is presented free to the public, along with complimentary popcorn and soft drinks. The movie begins at dusk, so head down early, stake out your spot, and enjoy the music as the Festival kicks off the second week of its renowned music series.
Owner Michael Richardson (right) is an ISA Certified Arborist with a Forestry degree, as is his new climber, Mike Plunkard (top). Richardson offers 25 years of local experience in all aspects of tree tending. His service includes every kind of tree trimming, removals, view clearing, hazard mitigation, fire prevention, brush chipping, stump grinding and forestry consulting. “Our intention is to save trees whenever possible. A well-placed tree can deflect noise, wind, or unwanted views, while giving a home cooling shade and beauty. They return oxygen for carbon-dioxide which is good for our planet, they protect the soil from erosion, and they’ll even filter out air-pollution. Well-tended trees increase the financial value of your real estate.” From the shores of Lake Pend Oreille to the Canadian border, Richardson Tree Care provides the highest quality care for your trees. For estimates or more information, call RTC at (208) 290-3180.
IN THEIR ELEMENT!
The Richardson Tree Care Crew
PackRiverQuilts.com Quilting Classes Unique Patterns & Kits
Colleen Ankersmit | 208 290-6221
The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 17 No. 15 | August 2008 | Page
211 Cedar St. Sandpoint, Idaho
(208)263-3167 800-338-9849 cmbrewster.com cmb@netw.com
40 acres with spectacular Pend Oreille River views! Remote mountain getaway has varied forested terrain with small cabin and travel trailer, developed spring, septic and drain field.
$139,999. Tom Renk MLS #2082367
Major waterfront property near Sandpoint! Gorgeous 32± acres approx. 1160 feet frontage on Pend Oreille River. Mostly level & forested, many big trees. County road frontage, beautiful bldg. sites in big trees beside the river, sandy beaches. Great opportunity!
Panoramic views from lovely waterfront home on 2.7 acres, 3 miles from Sandpoint. Spacious home has 4BD, 4.5BA, vaulted ceilings, gourmet kitchen, great room, sauna in master bedroom, 3-car attached garage. Dock for summer boating and swimming. Great terms!
Spectacular 180° views of Clark Fork River, Lake Pend Oreille, and mountains from this quality log home on 20 acres. Cozy 2000+ sq.ft. home has 2BD, 2BA. State-of-the-art solar power system for comfortable off-grid living. Good well, sunny garden, landscaped yard, garage/shop, outbuildings. Visit the Virtual Tour www.cmbrewster.com
Want to become more self-sufficient? This 16± acres has it all! Main house is bright and cheery 3BD, 2BA custom home with passive solar design, vaulted ceiling, country kitchen, wrap-around deck, large garden, greenhouse, and orchard. Added bonus is attractive 2BD, 2BA modular home with large deck, currently rents for $700/mo. Easy access to Hwy. 95.
Contemporary 3-story frame house has fantastic mountain & river views from decks & large windows. 3BD, 2BA home has living areas on two floors, large country kitchen, tile counters, custom cedar interior, 2-car garage/ shop, orchard, garden, and 2 seasonal creeks. Wooded property adjoins public lands with miles of trails for hiking/biking.
Large, hard-to-find acreage above Bayview with wonderful views over Scenic Bay, Lake Pend Oreille, and the surrounding mountains! 37 acre piece includes a beautiful forest with large trees and several potential building sites. Both power and phone are on adjacent properties. Easy access, less than ten minutes to the lake at Bayview.
North Idaho at its best! 20 beautiful acres has comfortable 3BD, 2BA manufactured home with spacious kitchen,living room with fireplace. Wooded land has approx. 6 acres of pasture yielding 10-20 tons of hay. Plus a 40x60 shop with lean-tos. Big yard includes fruit trees. Just a short drive to Sandpoint.
This is a beautiful piece of property, one of the few large parcels with county road frontage. Enjoy spectacular views of the surrounding mountains and valleys from upper meadows. 55 acres includes several meadows, beautiful woods, southern exposure. It’s away from highway and railroad noise. Power and phone on site.
Enjoy panoramic views of Lake Pend Oreille! Two great view lots, for a total of 3.22 acres, on Lakeshore Drive, just 10 minutes from Sandpoint. Wooded parcels have a cleared building site, with community water system and utilities nearby. Less than 1 mile to public waterfront access at Springy Point.
Cute & comfortable modular home, great floor plan and bright, cheery interior. Fireplace, vaulted ceilings, lots of kitchen cabinets, and nice deck with hot tub. Lovely views of Lake Pend Oreille from house and deck. Private setting with nice trees. Less than 10 minutes to Sandpoint and less than 1 mile to public waterfront access at Springy Point.
$2,195,000 Tom Renk #2081369
$545,000 Tom Renk MLS# 2081916
$335,000 Pat Parks MLS#2083028
Great North Idaho retreat! Cute little frame house with big deck and landscaped yard is set in 9.5 acres of beautiful forest with a rushing year-round stream. There’s also another charming little cabin for guests. Alternative power system runs all lights and appliances. a lookRiver - you’ll Journal want to stay! Page Take | The -A
$279,500 Tom Renk MLS #2075065
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Sunnyside Peninsula! 28 forested acres, 3 BD, 1BA log home, rock fireplace, lots of windows. End of road setting includes barn, outbuildings, fruit trees, garden, Schweitzer view, year-round spring & pond, several clearings, and large trees. Close to lake access. First time on market in 35 years!
$795,000 Tom Renk MLS#2080503
$379,000 Tom Renk MLS#2082438
$249,000 Tom Renk MLS#2081282
Enjoy lake and panoramic mountain views from this exceptional log home on private 9 acres. 4BD, 3BA, natural rock fireplace, granite counters, large shop/garage. Nice lawn and rock walls. Just 5 minutes from Nat. Forest, Lake Pend Oreille public boat access. A rare combination of the best of North Idaho!
$749,000 Ken Clark MLS#2082322
$375,000 Tom Renk MLS#2081129
$249,000 Tom Renk MLS#2081264
Beautiful filtered lake and mountain views Secondary waterfront lot has community from this secondary waterfront lot at the access with dock on Pend Oreille River! Cape Horn Estates gated community. Enjoy Impressive views over Algoma Lake, Private, peaceful 1.5 acres has small mobile the community beach or drive just 3 miles surrounding countryside and mountains! home with cute interior. It’s hidden in beautiful to Bayview for easy access to the lake. Lot Five beautiful wooded acres with level gardens and landscaping, surrounded by a adjoins National Forest on north line for hiking hilltop building sites and gorgeous rock wide variety of trees, meadow, and mountain and more expansive views. Community water outcroppings. Good access, close to town. views.This is a great vacation News Magazine Worthretreat! Wading Through | Vol. 17toNo. 15line. | August 2008 system | andwww.RiverJournal.com utilities are at the lot line. Power property
$185,000 Tom Renk MLS #2080659
$79,000 Tom Renk MLS#2081285
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$79,500 Tom Renk MLS #2071458
Politically Incorrect By Trish Gannon
Email: Trish@RiverJournal.com
Do you remember the commercials “internationally renowned cowboy on television when they first came out artist”) found out that his gift for gab with the Reese’s peanut butter cup candy could translate to writing and he took bar? It was a whole series of images to it like a duck to water. He utilizes about how someone with peanut butter technology fully (computers and email) bumped into someone with chocolate but doesn’t understand it in the least, and oh, what a glorious combination which leaves him in the position of it turned out to be, even though sending me half-finished stories or else conventional wisdom would have it the sending them somewhere out into the two couldn’t possibly mix. ether, while wondering why they never That’s kind of what it’s like for made it to me. It works because he’s writers and deadlines. From the writer’s usually a couple stories ahead. standpoint, a deadline is absolutely Scott (page 17) writes colloquially, the last thing he or she wants to see which means spell check is an unrealized professor” but he smiles too much for the adjective. Nonetheless, as an old-style approaching, and from the deadline’s resource for his stories. Luckily he paid Republican he has a lot to say about our standpoint... well, if a deadline could attention in English class, a fact I should political process. have a standpoint, it would probably be remember as it drives him nuts when I Paul’s an early bird but George in shock to see a writer approaching. correct the spelling on a word he spelled (page 50) is not. Without fail, George And there’s nothing quite like incorrectly on purpose. (Sorry ‘bout that waits ‘til the day before we send the changing a writer’s deadline to illustrate ‘commas’ thing, Scott.) Because he’s final product off to the printer to send that point. the only writer who’s not managed to his story in. George, I think, has In this magazine, the first River like the one I have on Journal as a magazine format, ... well, if a deadline could have amysign office wall - “there’s nothing there are stories from 30 different productive than the last writers, seven of whom are new to a standpoint, it would probably more minute.” As our northern Idaho the deadline game and 23 who representative to the Idaho should, of course, be old hats at be in shock to see a writer legislature, he keeps us up-toit by now. (It should have been date on what’s going on with the 32 writers but two people weren’t approaching. government, and manages to do it able to come within even a mile of without the “vote for me” subtitles. deadline - maybe you’ll read what Anyone who knows Sandy (page 21) they have to say in a future issue.) Each move into the electronic world, I have will not be surprised to find out that he’s of these writers have their own unique to type in all his stories - so changes changeable when it comes to deadlines way of approaching a story, their own can happen frequently. No matter how and writing. One issue he’ll send me little quirks in the way they write, and you spell those words, however, they’re something a week early, the next I’ve their own way of meeting a deadline. If almost always funny. (If they’re not, sent him 12 reminders without hearing you’re a newcomer to the River Journal, they’re probably not spelled the way he a word in return. “Lick it and stick it!” let me introduce you to some of the intended.) he used to say, a promise that I needn’t people who make this publication Lou (page 49) is a consummate worry because his column would take “worth wading through.” If you’re an professional, which means word count only a minute to put into place, with no old-timer, maybe you’ll learn something is hit perfectly and deadline is met further work on my part. Sandy tends about one of your favorites that you generally the day before... unless to be a positive thinker. Which might didn’t know before. the river is beckoning, in which case explain why he came to the River Journal Jinx (page 2 and page 16), for deadline has to wait until rafting is done all those years ago and stuck around. example, types up her stories with with. Lou’s “Currents” generally tells I shared an office with Ernie (page minimal punctuation and capitalization, some sort of tale about water, our area’s 41) for a long time. His writing has and not a single paragraph return. She’s greatest natural resource. slowly grown more philosophical also going blind as a bat, so they hit Marianne (page 31), on the other through the years, probably reflecting my email in a size 27 font. Just one of hand, is the consummate professional... the positive influence of his lovely wife, her stories, pasted “as is” on the page, writer. That means, if she thinks the Linda, the first River Journal marriage we is a never-ending series of words that story deserves it, I’ll get an email asking ever had. (I was Ernie’s best man.) Don’t stretches for 8 or 9 pages. Jinx lives life for extra days and possibly an extra let his stories fool you, though - I’ve as a disaster waiting to happen (that’s thousand words or so. I’d tell her no, watched Ernie fight with his computer. not a criticism, as we’re just alike) and, except she’s always right about what it’s In fact, the computer fighting he so once it happens, she writes about it. going to take to make a story. frequently engages in probably drains Boots (page 64), on the other hand, Marianne loves (pun not intended) his body of negative energy, allowing flings punctuation, capital letters and to tell the stories of the people and him to write in such a positive vein. I paragraph returns into his stories like locations that made this area a place have lots of stories I could tell but I’m he’s sprinkling salt onto his breakfast where other people want to live. holding out for cash money for them. tomatoes, not to mention words that, Paul (page 55) not only meets his Jody (pages 19 and 39) is, quite even after studying the “Hooked deadlines, he meets them early, leaving on Phonics” tapes, take a team of me confused about all the other deadlines simply, the best brother a gal could ask for, even if he does let Microsoft change readers to decipher. (Sometimes Becky that are out there waiting to be met. I get ‘til to till. He’s a fan of ampersands, proofreads his stories before he sends a story from Paul and have to sit down abbreviations and capital letters, all of them. The first time she did so, I sent with a calendar and find out what day it which I take out before his stories print. Boots an email and asked him when he is, because he generally doesn’t have one found the time to go back to school!) due. Paul (who just celebrated his 90th Continued on page 36 Boots (otherwise known as the birthday) should be our resident “irascible The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 17 No. 15 | August 2008 | Page
It Starts with a Dream Wind, Sails and Muscle...
What better way to experience Lake Pend Oreille? by Trish Gannon
“It’s hard to explain the sense of peace,” said Barb Perusse. “It’s so quiet - just the wind in the sails, the water against the boat. After a day working retail, it’s exactly what I need.” Perusse, who owns Mountain Communications in Sandpoint, is no stranger to boating. She grew up on the water and has piloted different types of water craft since she was a youngster. But it wasn’t until a few years ago that she found her passion on the lake - sailing. “I went out with a friend who was just as new to sailing as I was,” she reminisced. “We left out of Bayview, planning to sail to Sandpoint. Well, somehow we ended up a little turned around and we were sailing backward. We were having so much fun, and we were so bad at sailing we couldn’t figure out what we were doing wrong, so we decided to sail all the way to Hope and call a friend to come pick us up. I was hooked.” “Hooked,” is how most sailors describe the experience of synchronizing muscle, sails and wind with Mother Nature. “For most of us, it starts with a dream,” explained Marc DeLaVergne, former Commodore of the Sandpoint Sailing Association and co-owner of Sandpoint’s Outdoor Experience. “When I was in college, I couldn’t afford a sailboat so I bought (sailing) magazines - I had piles of them,” he laughed. “It doesn’t take long before you’re looking at used boats.” Nicky Pleass is another who came to sailing in college, when she met a young sailor who would become her husband. “He was brought up in the big sailing center of Cowes (England),” she said, “and he could probably sail before he could walk. The trouble with teenage boys is they think they know it all. He couldn’t contemplate someone who didn’t know how to sail. It was a tough introduction to sailing,” she laughed, but Nicky, like Barb and Marc, was hooked. Nicky married and raised kids and, when those kids became teenagers, she and her family took off on a sailing trip around the world. “We took the kids out of school,” she said. “We were out four years (so) my children completed their high school education through correspondence courses. And they still got university entrance the same as they would have if they’d stayed in school.” Along with some education they wouldn’t have received in the public school system. That was back in the 70s, when technology was limited, “and we steered by the sun and the moon and the stars.” Today, Zac Sunderland, currently attempting to set a record as the youngest person to ever sail around the world (he’s 16 years old), will have the benefit of computer-aided Page 10 | The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 17 No. 15 | August 2008
navigation, satellite telephones and other technological advances to make the job just a little bit easier - and maybe a little less fun. After the world trip, Nicky and her husband re-settled in Maryland, where they started a sailing school and a charter boat company. And there they stayed until 1988, when a vacation trip brought them to North Idaho. “We had no intention of moving, or retiring,” Nicky said, “but we fell in love with it here like so many do.” It took them a couple years of dual residency before they moved here permanently, but they had a boat on Lake Pend Oreille their first season here. “I really like fresh water sailing,” Nicky said. “I think it’s fun. When sailing, you’ve got to grab it when the weather and the wind is right - it’s an art. Anyone can get in a power boat and turn on the motor and drive it’s like driving a car. With sailing... it’s easy to get on a sailboat and go forward [don’t tell Barb that] but there’s truly an art to getting the best out of the boat. It can be frustrating at times,” she added, “but when it’s good, it’s very, very good.” “Sailing is just a lifelong learning process,” Marc explained. “Every day I go out I learn something new, either from the people around me or from the boat itself, or the lake. Sometimes the lake spanks me,” he added. He went on to explain the ‘art’ in sailing. It starts with Mother Nature mostly in the form of wind. No wind makes for a bad sailing day, but so can too much wind. “If the wind is too high, the boat is not sailing efficiently,” he said. Then there’s the boat, as sailboats, like people, are all different. How they move in the water, the types and number of sails, fiberglass or wood - all can determine how the boat responds to the wind. And then there’s the muscle - which is as much the muscle residing inside your skull as the sinews located in your arms and legs. While wind at your back might intuitively seem beneficial for sailing, that intuition is wrong. “Sailing with the wind at your back is the most difficult to learn,” Marc said. “And sailing into the wind involves learning how to tack and jibe (how to move the boat so that the wind is
crossing the boat at an angle from one side or the other).” Before learning to sail, it might be wise to brush up on some of the terminology for how the boat meets the wind - there’s beam reach, broad reach, close hauled, head to wind and more. And, of course, the “No Go Zone,” where the boat is pointed too close to the wind to generate any power. “But that’s the lure of it for me,” Marc said. “You’re using your skill and your sails to capture the wind. When there’s just a slight wind, and I’m looking at the water, I can find myself in a Zen state. It’s better than drugs!” he laughed. Those interested in sailing don’t have to learn the words and the skills on their own - that’s where the Sandpoint Sailing Association comes in. Every Thursday night the SSA hosts sailboat races starting out at Sandpoint’s City Beach. And anyone interested is welcome to stop by, check out the boats, ask questions, and go out for a sail. “The Thursday night races are deliberately designed to be lowkey,” explained Marc. “They’re a really good time for instruction.” No sailing experience is necessary to participate - the point of the invitation is to offer a way where sailing experience can be gained. Barb took advantage of those nights, and also signed up for
“Captain’s School,” a training program for those who want to sail. “I still have to use the motor to get the sailboat into and out of the dock,” she said. “Don’t tell my instructor.” This year, the Sailing Association has also joined with the City Parks and Rec Department to provide a youth program for 20 kids. A session is scheduled August 4 through 7, so call the Rec Department (208-2633613) to sign up. If you’d like more information, the Sandpoint Sailing Association has recently revamped their website - visit it at www.sandpointsailing. com and give them the chance to meet their goal - “to share every joy of sailing and inspire the passion and adventure that comes with sailing on Lake Pend Oreille.” For those south of Sandpoint, Bayview hosts the Lake Pend Oreille Yacht Club (www.lpoyc.org), organized “to promote sailing and friendly competition on beautiful Lake Pend Oreille.” A word about that ‘friendly competition’ - many passionate sailors are also avid racers, so don’t be surprised if you learn first hand just how fast “12 knots” can be. No matter what your ultimate goal is, you can get out today (or Thursday) and enjoy the lake. And if you find yourself sailing backward, remember this advice from Barb: “Sailing is not about the destination - it’s about the journey.”
The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 17 No. 15 | August 2008 | Page 11
The Sandpoint Financial & Technical Center
The building’s inner beauty is the best part of the story by Thomas McMahon
Panhandle State Bank’s new flagship building in downtown Sandpoint, appropriately named The Sandpoint Financial and Technical Center, (or Sandpoint Center for short) is by far one of the more impressive buildings in town. Located on the block encompassed by Fifth Avenue, Oak, Church and Fourth streets, and standing three stories tall, the building is hard to miss. Not that you want to miss it by any means; terraces, arches, huge windows, amazing brickwork and timberwork, along with an impressive front entrance - the building is beautifully constructed. The Sandpoint Center pays tribute to the Northwest through its architecture. Walking through the revolving main door you enter into a 5,000 square foot atrium which showcases a flowing creek and lampposts that are the same as the ones seen on the streets of Sandpoint. From the atrium you can head on over to the Panhandle State Bank branch, grab a bite or an espresso at The Tango Café, or proceed to the spacious Community Room. Looking at this huge building in downtown Sandpoint from the inside or out, it’s hard to see one of its most impressive characteristics: the use of green technology.
Much of the building incorporates energy-saving techniques and technology in order to reduce operating costs as well as its carbon footprint. I spoke to Travis Kaul, Manager of the downtown site, recently concerning the green aspects of the building and the story he tells is amazing. The first thing you notice - or maybe fail to notice when you enter the building is the light. It’s a very gentle light and as you look up, you see a huge skylight running the length of the atrium. The skylight is a pre-designed, self-supporting system made by Kalwall, which consists of fiberglass sheets sandwiched together. This material provides 30 percent light transmission so the room fills with a soft light. There are two more pre-designed pyramid skylights on the east and west ends of the building. On a similar note, all of the windows within the building are constructed with Solarban low-emissivity glass. These windows have 40 percent better insulation, they transmit 48 percent less solar energy, and are 72 percent more efficient at reducing ultraviolet energy than standard insulating glass. If you ever take a close look at the plants Continued on page 60
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That
Scottish Play and it all ends well Montana Shakespeare In The Parks began its 36th season of providing exceptional entertainment throughout the region in June. One of the summer’s most anticipated attractions, Montana Shakespeare In The Parks brings professional productions at no cost to the public to communities throughout Montana, northern Wyoming, and eastern Idaho. Remarkably selfsufficient, the touring company features 10 professional actors supported by a variety of designers and technicians who work together to bring theatre to communities that may otherwise not have access to it. THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH AUG. 15 BEHIND PLAINS SCHOOL 7 PM MST AUG. 16 AT THE HERON BALL FIELD 6 PM MST Legend has it that one of William Shakespeare’s best-known plays, The Tragedy of Macbeth, is cursed. Many practitioners of the theatre would sooner do just about anything except utter the name of this terrific play while in a theatre. The centuries-old story of the Macbeth curse may originate with Shakespeare’s inclusion of witches in the play. These “Weird Sisters” open the play and speak prophesy to Macbeth, who is captivated by the witches, their spooky maneuverings and wild incantations. Many have waxed eloquent about the themes in the play that have made it relevant for so long. Greed. Lust for power. Betrayal. Most assuredly they are all there in this, Shakespeare’s shortest tragedy, but the fact of the matter is that Macbeth is the wellspring from which all great thrillers and horror stories originate. Macbeth and Banquo, returning from a military victory, meet three witches who prophesy that Macbeth will be king and Banquo the father of kings. Might Macbeth actually be king one day? He writes his wife and tells her of the prophecy. A plan is hatched. Lady Macbeth urges her husband to kill the king when he comes to stay with them. Macbeth protests but eventually relents and kills the sleeping King Duncan, but he is so undone by the deed that Lady Macbeth takes the bloody dagger and plants it on the servants. Macbeth assumes the throne. In short order Lady Macbeth goes a bit mad. Macbeth fears the witches’ prophesy about Banquo and has him killed, but
Banquo’s son, Fleance, escapes before he gets it as well. Banquo makes a macabre return as a ghost. The witches reappear, telling him that “none of woman born shall harm Macbeth.” Macbeth takes this to mean that he’s off the hook, but he’s wrong. And when he realizes it, it’s too late. For audiences, however, Shakespeare’s Macbeth, with it’s soaring language and spellbinding plot, is as close as it comes to a never miss. Macbeth will be directed by Susan Felder. ALL’S WELL THAT ENDS WELL AUG. 18 LIBBY MIDDLE SCHOOL 6 PM MST Rounding out the summer repertory is All’s Well That Ends Well. One of the Bard’s least-produced plays, it is an exemplary counterpoint to Macbeth, one of Shakespeare’s most well-known plays. Largely lumped into a group of plays that scholars call the “problem plays,” the problem is not with the dialogue; the problem is that the play does not fall into any neat and tidy category. All’s Well, for example, has elements of romance and elements of comedy, but it’s neither. It has plenty of drama, but it’s not completely a serious play. It has elements of Shakespeare’s historic and tragic plays. There’s even a bit of sex farce. We don’t know what to call it. That’s the problem – but only for file clerks. Bertram, a young braggart soldier who dreams of military greatness and who places social station above virtually everything else, sets off to serve the King of France. Simply put: he’s a snob. Beautiful Helena, a young woman who serves Bertram’s mother has fallen passionately in love with Bertram. Secretly, she follows him to Paris. A dying king is miraculously cured by Helena, whose father was a famous physician. Overjoyed at being alive, the king allows Helena to choose anyone in the kingdom to marry and, of all people, she chooses the truculent Bertram. He is forced to consent to the marriage but decides that he would rather die in battle than stay married to Helena and so flees to Florence to fight in the Italian wars. Playing out from that point in typical Shakespearean fashion – boy hates girl, girl is determined to get boy, boy is played for a fool, girl triumphs in the end – we’re derailed along the way with some of the Bard’s greatest comic writing in a witty, wry story that, in the end, turns out to have been a fairy tale all along. All’s Well That Ends Well will be directed by MSIP Artistic Director Joel Jahnke. All performances are free and tickets are not needed for admission. Tour coordinators in each of the communities served by MSIP work year-round to raise sponsorship fees to offset the cost of the production. Interested parties are encouraged to show up prior to the appointed curtain time with chairs, blankets, a picnic supper, and plenty of friends and family to enjoy the evening. At left, Debbie Lyman (with husband Dan), the Heron tour coordinator, wouldn’t miss a performance. She is eagerly anticipating Banquo’s haunting of the Heron ball field.
The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 17 No. 15 | August 2008 | Page 13
featured advertiser
Mountain Stove and Spa 1225 Michigan St. Sandpoint • www.MountainStove.com
Tired of working as a corporate executive, Jim Fulling shucked to acclimate better and start out slower... I believe that this was that world from his back in the 70s and went into business a gift from God, to me, who just needed a kick in the butt. The for himself. He and his wife, Betsy, moved to a small town in funny thing is that I didn’t think that I could do it... after cancer, I northern California, opened a Napa Auto Parts store, raised felt that I never got my strength back and was tired all the time. kids and joined the Rotary. As the Rotary played Santa Claus Something made me take on this challenge. It is amazing to me to every child in town, giving each a stocking every Christmas, at how we all tend to underestimate ourselves. Yes, life is good!” Jim allowed his trademark white hair and beard to grow full, She recorded a time of 3.5 to 4 hours to go 4.6 miles for an cementing his likeness to Father Christmas. (He’s only recently elevation gain of 1,432 feet. Hike number 261 in early July this cut the beard.) year was 7 hours, ten minutes for and It was a good life, but the pair they went 12.5 miles - the pair are wanted more. With kids raised, now acclimated. they began to search in the Pacific An avid genealogist, Betsy Northwest for the place they wanted volunteers at the Sandpoint LDS to live, and a viable business they Family History Center, introducing could buy. That search took them newcomers to the intricacies of through Montana, Washington, genealogy (see related story on Oregon and northern Idaho and page 48) and helping to index in the fall of 1990 they arrived in voluminous amounts of information Sandpoint as the proud new owners from microfilm into data compatible of a downtown store selling spas, with publication on the Internet. after considering the purchase of a “Sometimes newcomers come in shingle mill and a video business. and ask, ‘do you have my family “I thought to myself, ‘we’re going history here?’,” Betsy laughed. “It’s At the summit of Squaw Peak so much easier now because there’s to be selling hot tubs? Not a Photo by Jim Fulling so much information on the Internet, chance!’” Betsy explained. But that’s what they did. people don’t realize the kind of hard Not long after they moved the work (those of us who have been store into the old Sears building on Michigan St., where they’re doing this research for a long time) have put into it.” still located today, and they began “phase three” of their life. Betsy has traced her own family back to the 1600s in And then Betsy was diagnosed with breast cancer, Germany, and has traced Jim’s family history...... to the 1600s undergoing two surgeries, radiation and chemotherapy. in Germany. Maybe it was meant to be. “She didn’t have any energy and she wanted to get it The pair both appreciate technology, and Jim early on back,” Jim reminisced. An avid fisherman, Jim suggested made sure his business had a website. He also checks his she accompany him on a hike into the Selkirk Mountains. email frequently (think almost every minute) so he can not only “I suggested just a short hike into the mountains to see how reply instantly to inquiries about stoves, spas and more, but she felt,” he said. “So she went out and bought some hiking can share an enormous amount of jokes and other material. boots.” Today, the store, wildly successful for a Sandpoint business, At the trailhead, headed toward Harrison Lake, Jim carries over 100 floor models of stoves, furnaces and fireplaces, suggested “we could just go up the trail a way, maybe 15 including wood, gas and pellet, plus three separate brands of minutes or so, then come back to the truck.” spas suitable for any price range. Gun safes and accessories “When he told me that, I asked myself, round out the offerings. ‘then why did I buy these expensive shoes?’,” Jim has this to offer about developing a successful business Betsy explained. And phase four began. That in this area. First, sell something people want. “If you have was six years ago, and, 260 hikes later, Betsy private income and just want a hobby, then you can sell things can remember only four weekends in the years like baseball cards,” he said. Without a private income, he says since when they didn’t go hiking your choice of product is crucial. Then, he explains, “Figure - twice due to the flu, and twice you’re going to go at least two years with no money. People because Betsy was out of town have no idea how hard it is to grow a business here. But really,” at funerals for her parents. he added, “I only have three secrets for success. One, keep a Weather has never kept them big inventory. We have enough here that people don’t have to out of the woods. go to Spokane to get what they want. Two, maintain reasonable “We love that little lake,” prices. And three, keep regular hours. When people are ready Betsy wrote. The pair, almost to buy, they need to know that you’re open.” five years to the day after their While he doesn’t mention it, Jim and Betsy practice first hike, went back to Harrison something else, as well - supporting other local businesses as and bushwacked over to Little they go along. Jim and Betsy, through Mountain Stove and Spa, Harrison Lake. “How to get there are the longest-term advertisers we’ve had in the River Journal. used to be a secret but now that is They have advertised in every issue, without fail, since some all changing… however, it is still time back in the mid-90s. In turn, we at the River Journal have only for the adventurous.” Back in purchased three wood stoves from their business over the years her first hike report, she wrote of - and encourage you to do the same. “You can tell people we’re the adventure to Harrison, “The predicting a big year for wood and pellet stoves and furnaces trail started out a bit steep and I as people start evaluating the cost of energy,” Jim said. So started way out too fast. I need stop in today, and get your order in ahead of the rush. Photo (on the way to Squaw Peak) by Todd Dunnfield
humor Scott Clawson
This person caught the Amtrak train from Sandpoint to destinations east or west, leaving at either 11:30 at night or at 2:30 in the morning. Since they arrived in the dark they probably had no idea that the great parking spot they found would be such a disaster. Just ten feet away is a tall utility pole with an Osprey nest on it. Needless to say, when they get back from their trip what a surprise they will have, arriving back in the night. Do you think they have enough windshield washer? Photo submitted by Rich Ballard
Matt Davidson
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Some people never miss a chance to go fishing. When dam problems sent water flooding Trestle Creek Road in early summer, Boots Reynolds took advantage of the lull in any agency’s effort to take responsibility for repair to find out what might be biting. Did he catch anything? Who knows - he lies about fishing all the time. Photo submitted by Becky Reynolds. RESORT REALTY
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Captured the funny side of life in a photograph? Send it in! Email your photos (highest possible quality please) to trish@riverjournal.com.
The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 17 No. 15 | August 2008 | Page 15
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Trish had to have a story about huckleberries. Had to, for the first new issue of the River Journal’s new layout. Of course, that involves going into the mountains to actually look at their habitat and see if they were ready to pick and maybe even eat one or two or a bushel. So, I readily agreed to do the story. Carolyn was my huckleberry source and Kathy likes to go to the mountains as much as I do. Aspen led us as our own version of Huckleberry Hound, so we had our huckleberry team ready to set out on its huckleberry quest. We drove to a secret spot located on the mountainside, where Kathy and Carolyn readily spotted the bushes from the car. As for myself, huckleberries seemed to be elusive and I still haven’t mastered the art of huckleberry detection from the vehicle while driving. The huckleberries were not quite ready yet, still green and small on the stems. We got out of the car to investigate further, mostly just so Carolyn and Kathy could educate me on what a huckleberry actually looked like in its primitive state. We found a single bush, on a hiking path, sitting in the sunshine with its fruit in various stages of ripeness. Before I could reach down to sample the bush’s tasty fruit, my own Huckleberry Hound lunged in front of me to grab at the fruit herself. I growled at her and told her to find her own huckleberry bush! Carolyn had the bright idea to take my picture by the bush, because I was doing this story and it would be “so cute” to h a v e a picture of me with the huckleberries. I sat down behind the bush, while Carolyn tried to figure o u t how to work my camera.
Jinxed Unfortunately, the ant bed I sat in was not real thrilled about being squashed by my butt and retaliated by attacking me. I began to scream, trying frantically to get up without getting stung. Kathy was humming to herself, picking huckleberries like a hippy/gypsy girl. Carolyn was still trying to turn my camera on, ignoring me, while Aspen finished off my bush and turned her attention towards a nearby rock. I almost felt neglected and abused. No one even noticed my dilemma, almost coming out of my pants trying to ensure that no ant had hidden in any crevices that I might later regret. We weren’t really that far up in the mountains, so after eating my fill of huckleberries, we loaded back up in the car intent on driving back to Clark Fork. I am going to interject at this time that I was not driving. Carolyn was. Which somehow doesn’t seem any better right now. Carolyn in the driver’s seat, Kathy in the middle of the back seat and I riding shotgun. It sounds perfectly innocent. We went back to the trail head and that was when a grave error was made. We could have chosen to drive down the way we came, but I asked Carolyn where the other two roads went. Neither Kathy nor Carolyn knew; therefore we were obligated to find out. The road we chose led to an enchanted forest, full of huge trees with tumors and what looked like beer bellies hanging off their trunks. The amount of downed trees was amazing and my frugal friend Kathy began counting them off, “firewood... more firewood,” she would excitedly call out. Since we didn’t have a chain saw, a truck, or a permit for cutting on state land, we ignored her eagerness and drove on into the forest. Meadows of bear grass and wild flowers held our attention with beautiful rock formations on one side of us. The other side was cliff. Kathy watched for firewood, Carolyn watched for flowers, Aspen watched for rocks and I watched Carolyn. It was then I realized how huge my control issue is. I wasn’t driving and I couldn’t stop watching her drive. “Fallen tree alert,” I would whisper, just loud enough for her to hear me. Several times I got out to take pictures, looking back over my shoulder to make sure Carolyn wasn’t intent on using me for a speed bump. Finally, after climbing high enough to reach the moon, we came to a fork in the road. Three roads again. Surely, I have at least one friend who travels the road more traveled instead of the road marked “beware of soft shoulders and fallen rocks and trees!” I clenched my butt cheeks as we set off down the skinny trail where obviously no man
by Jinx Beshears had gone in a long time. The road was narrow to begin with and I am sure the dark lord of the enchanted forest was using a shrinking spell to further decrease the road’s width. Something was out there watching us, I just knew it. Aspen could smell it, Kathy was watching for it and Carolyn was laughing at it. Finally, we saw it. Kathy grabbed at Aspen’s collar so she wouldn’t scare it off and I turned my camera towards it. A female moose and her baby stood boldly in the road staring us down. I thought momentarily of getting out of the car, then I realized how precariously we were perched on the road and how badly it would hurt to have Bugsy beat me later because I know better. Although we had started this journey during daylight hours, it was now dusk and I hadn’t the good sense to learn how to use the “night photo” on my camera; pictures were useless. Mama moose finally had enough of our “oohs and awws” and nudged her baby over the ledge into the darkness. Carolyn threw her car in gear and practically yelled in my ear, “Maybe we will see her on the road after the next switchback!” I looked at her as she took off, my fingers digging into the dashboard. “Excuse me!” I cried back at her, ”skinny, soft-shouldered road alert!” I really tried not to use any foul language while griping at her to slow down, though it was pretty hard. We crossed a little wooden bridge and while I tried to take pictures of it, Carolyn and Kathy froze. I turned to see what the big deal was only to find myself staring at 500 bats circling the car. “Go!” is all I could barely screech out. We came to another fork in the road and Kathy suddenly became animated, “Oh, I know where we are!” She pointed us in the right direction and off we drove. Wrong. We turned around at the dead end with Kathy grumbling, “Well, I don’t remember turning off the main road like this, something isn’t right.” Like we couldn’t all figure that out. Finally, we reached civilization. “Is this a community?” I asked, ignorantly. Yeah it was a community, the community of Heron, Montana. Don’t know exactly how we got there, and I am not sure I could find that road in the daylight. I would say that the next time Trish wants me to do a story, I will make her go with me, but if the two of us went off in the mountains together, I am pretty sure Search and Rescue would have their hands full for a while!
by Scott Clawson
Here I sit and try to ponder what to do for this auspicious issue. Should I try and make you laugh, reflect or reach for a box of tissue? Well, I prefer the first one with a pinch of number two and always, always, always leave room to misconstrue. After perusing previous topics and thinkin’ ‘bout those who read I thought about doin’ this one lightly on learnin’ how not to bleed. Not that I’m against some bloodshed, mind you, I shed some every day. When the stitches come out and the skin grows in, the pain may go away. Or maybe I should discuss retirement as it seems to be related to the realization that its predecessor is becoming overrated. I’ve decided recently, after lots of thought, that my plate has too much on it, for it seems as though the hurryder I go the behinder that I get. This may sound like a conundrum to some and a problem too hard to resolve but it’s plain to see that it’s up to me to make some of my chorse dissolve. Like mowin’, rakin’, and the yard work dance, not to mention building maintenance. Perhaps I should change my woodsy stance and get a condo over in France. My honey wants to trade this in for a villa somewheres in Tuscany. I tell her that’s just fine with me if she can find us lots of money. Oh yeah, I’ve got a retirement plan and it’s based on a simple notion. I simply don’t play on retirin’, but rather find things that require less motion. Now I don’t mind stayin’ busy, for it helps keep one fit and trim but body parts are wearin’ out faster’n new ones comin’ in! The aches ‘n’ pains associated with fifty years of workin’ are really starting to make me think that I need to work on my shirkin’. Like hikin’ and fishin’ and puttin’ and wishin’, or just lyin’ in a hammock but my list of “dos” gets bigger daily which turns my manner to manic. Where I often worry ‘bout what would happen, what would come to pass if I got stuck in a body cast and couldn’t get off my ass. Who would come and keep this place from returning to a sea of floating daisies with jack-pine sprouts and ocean spray peekin’ through the knapweed’s purple hazies? Will all this workin’ be the death of me or my death the end of workin’? Did the chicken come before the egg? The fox before the lurkin’? Havin’ land is in big demand with lots of space and buffer and if you work it with yer own two hands, it’s bound to make you tougher. But it’s also bound to make you bleed, yet wallet and yer skin and every time you get totown, they’ll know just where you’ve been. They notice things like cuts and bruises or an uncovered physical scourge from legs in splints to arms in slings and especially red badges of courage. With encrusted boots you’ll turn up snoots, sportin’ clothes all ripped and pitchy. You setpe inside a downtown store to find a clerk who’s extra bitchy. Don’t turn back, you can give this crack, “I’m just gettin’ in out of the rain!” Show ‘em a grin fer their misguided chagrin ‘cause yer there fer their monetary gain. Livin’ out in the country ain’t so easy with the mud, the blood and the deers but movin’ to town can make you soft an’ wheezy and comes with different fears. Sometimes though I dream of another show causing different joints to pucker. Instead of bendin’ nails, I slepe unplanned and be an ol’ guitar plucker. Let the weeds be damned, the firewood stand and the land return to the buffler. I’m ready to blow, forget the weeds and snow and let someone else be the suffler. That’s a person who suffers through their toils and troubles and seldom gets to play. But I like it here ‘cause it’s got less fear so I need to find a kinder way to get things done and have more fun before they come to take me away! I’ve been gone fer a long, long time... I just ain’t there yet.
The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 17 No. 15 | August 2008 | Page 17
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by Jody Forest
I read where another misguided Likewise, novelist and Vietnam vet offended veterans. Let’s forgive her and Vietnam Veteran, a 54-year-old former Nelson DeMille, who served in 1968, also move on. Meanwhile, I’ll try and forgive Marine asshole named Michael Smith, remembers “the bad morale on our troops those ignorant Yahoos at VFW Hall. spat tobacco juice at Jane Fonda at a caused by Jane’s visit to Hanoi,” again, a As you know, this is the first issue of the recent book signing. He waited in line for full two years before she came out against new format of The River Journal and I’d 90 minutes before the incident, and then the war. Due to “Vietnamization” of the like to take a moment to let new readers ran away before being run down know if you’re in Sandpoint and Retired Col. Larry Carrigan, a former would like to go to one of the and tackled by bystanders. “I’ll bet there’s plenty of vets who’d POW many claim as a source, is so tired many veterans groups’ meetings, wanna do what I did,” he said, they are held at VFW Hall (corner of having to repeat he wasn’t beaten of Pine and Division) and new grinning wildly. This brings to mind a couple after Fonda’s visit that he won’t talk to members are always welcome. of idiots whose pick-up trucks The Vietnam Veterans of America the media anymore. I see parked at VFW Hall in (Chapter #890) meets the Sandpoint whenever I go there second Tuesday of every month for a DAV meeting and whose bumper war, there were less than 50,000 troops, at 6 pm, and both the Disabled American stickers spout hate-filled slogans like “I’ll mostly support, left in Vietnam by the time Veterans (Chapter #15) and the local forgive Jane Fonda when the Jews forgive of her Hanoi visit. VFW Post both meet the third Wednesday Hitler!” Why in God’s name are they so The most serious charge against her of every month at 6:30 pm. The nice girls dead set against an American who stood is probably that she turned over to their of the VFW Auxiliary put on a great free up for what she thought was right? captors slips of paper given to her by dinner every Veterans Day for all local A descendant of Revolutionary War POWs in Hanoi describing their torture, veterans and their families. Thank you! Patriot Samuel Adams and daughter of causing many of them to be beaten; one, ‘til next issue now, smoke ‘em if ya’ got left-leaning actor Henry Fonda (Grapes of Air Force Lieutenant Jerry Driscoll, quite ‘em and All Homage to Xena! Wrath, 12 Angry Men, Mister Roberts) Jane severely. “It’s a figment of someone’s was once named “Miss Army Recruiting imagination” says Driscoll, “I never even of 1962.” She began putting on scores met her, totally false, it never happened.” of free shows and concerts for the troops Mike McGrath, President of the Nam(over 60,000 soldiers attended) with her POWs Association, has verified in an email, friends Donald Sutherland and Peter Boyle. “Excuse the generic response but I’ve been She didn’t begin her antiwar activities until wasting a lot of my time having to respond 1970, (“I couldn’t even find Vietnam on a to all these stories filling the internet by map a couple of years ago,” she told Merv unknown Fonda-Haters. I have spoken to Griffith in a 1972 interview.) so examples all parties supposedly involved and they all of her supposed “hurting morale” (of the state this is an impossible-to-stop Internet troops) prior to that time seem to occur hoax and they wish to disassociate their in someone’s dreamland. For instance, names from the false story.” Historian Eric Bergerud quotes an Army Retired Col. Larry Carrigan, a former Lieutenant who served in South Vietnam in POW many claim as a source, is so tired 1966 as watching in dismay as his troops of having to repeat he wasn’t beaten listened to Jane Fonda arguing the war after Fonda’s visit that he won’t talk to the was a mistake; media anymore. In truth, Fonda carried this a full four home mail from the POWs to their years before families, the first many even knew their her public loved ones were alive, a kindness many a c t i v i t i e s remember fondly. began. For standing up for her beliefs as an American she’s been arrested, beaten, placed on Nixon’s “Enemies List,” had her That’s not all. Get local news, mail opened and her phone tapped. event calendars, movie showtimes, She’s the subject of ignorant, hatejob listings and more. Only on ... filled bumper stickers and is a 66year-old woman who’s been spat on by misguided veterans who then run away. Jane Fonda Produced by Keokee Creative Group has apologized more than once for Web services for area business, too many of her Vietnam-era doings that www.keokee.com 208-263-3573
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Jody Forest lives behind the gates of his palatial estate “Casa de Bozo” in Dover. Reach him at dgree666@sandpoint.net.
The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 17 No. 15 | August 2008 | Page 19
My Friend, Jane Fonda
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It’s a Small World for
Bob Witte
One day back in 1991 I was outside in the yard at Alpine Lumber on Baldy and Division in Sandpoint chatting with a local building contractor who was waiting to get his truck loaded with lumber. I thought I was talking to a total stranger but moments later I found out that we were closer than we ever realized. The man I was talking with was Tom Sykes, a local building contractor who was converting the old railroad station out along the river near Laclede into his home. As the small talk conversation went along, “nice weather,” “boy was that a long winter,” and so on I finally asked the question that so frequently comes up in conversations between strangers in North Idaho: “So”, I asked, “where did you come from?” And the answer was just exactly like the one that also gets repeated so frequently in conversations between strangers in North Idaho: “California.” Tom went on to explain that he was from the Central Coast of California, which is something all of us from the Central Coast are very quick to point out to people because we hate giving the impression that we are from the sprawl of Los Angeles or the Bay area. It’s much cooler being from the land of clean skies, clean ocean and wide open spaces - the less populated Central Coast. Anyway, I let him know immediately that I, too, was from the Central Coast. Tom went on to explain that he was from San Luis Obispo. To which I let him know that I, too, was from San Luis Obispo. I let him know that back in the late 70s, before I moved up north to Morro Bay, I had rented a little house in downtown San Luis. Tom admitted that right around that time he and his wife, Doty, also rented a small house in downtown San Luis. I told him what neighborhood my house was in, and sure enough, it was the same neighborhood as his. I asked him what street he lived on and the answer was Dana Street. Dana Street was a little street just few blocks long that ran along the creek that cut through the center of town. I knew it well because it was the same street I had lived on. This was just an incredible coincidence, meeting a guy in far away Sandpoint, Idaho, who had actually lived the small town of San Luis Obispo, Calif. at the same time I had, and had lived on the same street! So I had to ask what his address was. The answer: 585 Dana Street. You guessed it—I, too, had lived at 585 Dana Street. After comparing notes we figured out that Tom and Doty Sykes had moved out of this little rental house the day before I had moved in back in 1978! As it turns out Tom and I have tons of mutual friends, but we had never met until that day in 1991 at Alpine Lumber. Talk about a small world. Bob Witte works for Pure Health Solutions, Inc. and serves on the board of the Festival at Sandpoint. Got your own “small world” story to tell? We’d love to hear it! Send it to us at trish@riverjournal.com.
Vietnam Veterans of America
Benefit Yard Sale August 2 and 3 At Sandpoint’s VFW Hall at the corner of Pine and Division
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WASTE NOT... Okay, everyone already knows about recycling aluminum cans, right? After all, as of this writing you can get 60plus cents a pound for them. But there’s a couple of things about recycling aluminum you might not know. Unless you really want that money for yourself (and it might be helpful as far as paying for your gas goes) you can donate your recycled aluminum to Sandpoint’s chapter of the Disabled American Veterans. Just take your cans into Pacific Steel and Recycling (located on Triangle Drive behind Yokes in Ponderay) and tell them you want your money to go to the DAV. They’ll make it happen. If you just want to get rid of your aluminum in the quickest way possible, and don’t care where the money for it goes, Bonner County’s Waste Transfer Stations all feature an aluminum recycling bin. The folks who man those site, however, want to remind you that ONLY aluminum goes into those bins, please. That means - no cat food cans or vegetable cans or aluminum foil (they’re not the right kind of aluminum). It’s drink cans only - juices, soda, beer or what have you. By the way - studies have shown that the amount of aluminum Americans throw away each year is enough for auto manufacturers to build every new car they have demand for in a year’s period of time. So don’t toss those cans in the trash - throw ‘em in the recycle bins, instead.
The Scenic Route By Sandy Compton Email: MRComptonJr@hotmail.com | www.SandyCompton.com As you read this column, Marianne’s Love Notes, Lou Springer’s Currents, Faith Walk, The Hawk’s Nest, Mouth of the River or Politically Incorrect by The Calm Center of Tranquility this month, you are holding something quite different in your hands. The River Journal has grown... up? Maybe not “up,” but The River Journal has grown different. Our august publisher has been busily getting ready for the August issue. As a fellow writer, publisher and designer, I can tell you that Ms. Gannon has done a fine job of remodeling what has become a North Idaho/western Montana icon in the past 12, 13 or 14 years. I can never remember quite how many; only that I was browbeat into being part of it long, long, long ago by founder Dennis Nicholls. That’s sort of funny, too, because I tried my best to talk him out of going back into the newspaper business. Funny/ peculiar and funny/ha-ha. Maybe I was trying to save myself, for I have been a sucker for newspapers that don’t “toe the line,” if you will; that aren’t owned and administered for the sake of controlling information or solely for the purpose of making money. The River Journal fit that bill when I first became involved in 1996 (or was it ’95?), and has ever since. Why we do things like continue to write for and publish The River Journal is somewhat of a mystery to me. Maybe it’s just so we can say what we want to say to who we want to say it to when we want to say it. Whatever the reason, it’s probably in the same spirit that has kept High Country News and The Wood River Journal publishing for, lo, these many years: commitment to the ideal of freedom of the press and a desire to continue to be able to print the truth about disparate things without being afraid of losing an advertiser or having ownership come down and fire the press corps. If you have been a River Journal faithful for any time at all, you know that we don’t have a political agenda
or bias; at least, not as an institution. Everyone gets a say. Say What? writer Paul Rechnitzer and I are friends as well as fellow columnists. We also have a sometimes unspoken and sometimes explicit agreement not to talk about politics, and, fittingly, we are often printed on opposite sides of the same sheet in The River Journal. Publisher Gannon’s politics are just a bit to the left of mine, some days, but she gives each local representative room to say what they believe and what they are doing about it in Boise or Helena, no matter what their politics are. If the presentation of diversity of thought is a step toward Universal understanding and tolerance, The River Journal is a leader in that direction. When Mr. Nicholls began the Journal,
have
learned in the pages of The River Journal that ordinary people are most times anything but. The River Journal has always been a personal newspaper, telling the news and sharing views from personal perspectives. Its focus is on the neighbors, and not the stupid stuff they do, but the great things they do — although, we have had some big fun with the stupid stuff when the perpetrators happen to be elected, employed by one branch of government or another or are highly visible members of the business community. The new River Journal will continue to be a positive and personal news source — “Because there’s more to life than bad news.” It will also have a new size, a new style, and new features sprinkled in with a lot of the old ones. It will have a new feel and a new look, and between the covers you will find some new things mixed in with others that have become familiar parts of the Journal over the past 12 . . . uh, 13 . . . okay, 14 years. (Whatever!) I hope you were thinking ahead and put that last paper in a box for your grandkids. It was the last of its kind in shape and size. And get ready for a new generation of The River Journal. We may be growing up, at that. But we’re not about to leave home.
We have learned in the pages of The River Journal that ordinary people are most times anything but. it was in response to several things. For one thing, he wanted an outlet for his own views and writing. He also saw a need for a publication in the Clark Fork/ Pend Oreille drainage that reflected the social and cultural commonality between the folks who live on both sides of the Idaho/Montana border, a paper that would serve as a unifying factor in a place split by political boundaries. And, he wanted to tell the tales of his (and our) neighbors; stories of seemingly ordinary people, set in the seemingly ordinary places in which they live, having seemingly everyday adventures both here and in the rest of the world. What we have learned from this is that ordinary people do extraordinary things with their lives, their hands, their minds, their hearts and their souls. We
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Bull River Family Medicine • 1029 Hwy. 200 Noxon, Mont. • 406-847-2100 $25 payment due at time of service • visit www.CFVH.org for more information The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 17 No. 15 | August 2008 | Page 21
by Kate Wilson
Mounting the Monster Attack regional updates on aquatic invaders
Aquatic invaders are a fairly popular topic these days. “Aquatic invasive species” is a catchy phrase, a buzz word, often discussed, debated and sometimes even dredged (by means of hand-pulling, of course). But popular topic or not, aquatic invaders prove to be one of the greatest threats to our waterways, which inevitably have strong ties to our economy, our local cultures, and our very way of life. With the shift from a logging- and mining-based industrial region to one of tourism and travel, the increased traffic to the Pacific Northwest brings with it the threat of unwanted hitchhikers—especially aquatic ones. Once established, AIS tend to have ricochet effects that initiate with a single plant and become dense stands of non-native species that out-compete the ones that evolved here. Beyond the plant world, there are also hordes of invasive fish, snails, mussels and other creatures. It is one thing to encourage people to come to the region to enjoy our plentiful waters and open lands, but another to avoid preventing the issues that have been marching across the nation for decades. Together, we can. And together, we must. Idaho and Montana both have their share of aquatic invaders. But they both have something up their sleeves to address them, too. In Idaho, there have been two pieces of legislation addressing
the invaders, House Bill 869 (passed in 2006) and House Bill 643 (passed in 2008). The original AIS bill established funding to deal specifically with Eurasian watermilfoil (Myriophyllum spicatum), dubbed one of “the worst water weeds in the West.” The subsequent bill addresses other potential invaders that could be devastating to western states. HB 643 also allocates the power to inspect, quarantine, and restrict boats from entering Idaho waterbodies that are contaminated with non-native species. These programs are managed and run by the Idaho State Department of Agriculture. The Eurasian watermilfoil program is available for any entity that meets the criteria and can demonstrate a need for the prevention or control of the nasty invader. Currently, it is illegal to transport weeds in both states; the enforcement of this law will be instrumental in curbing the spread of all biological invaders. “HB 643 has a lot of potential,” says ISDA Aquatic Plant Program Manager Tom Woolf. “It comes with a deficiency warrant, which allows expenditure from the state in the case of an emergency.” What would warrant an emergency? Well, when this bill was passed, those involved had one particular invader in mind: the mussel. Quagga and zebra mussels, of the Dreissena family (Dreissena
rostiformis bugensis and Dreissena polymorpha respectively), are closely related and potentially deadly to entire aquatic ecosystems, and they are now found relatively close to home. They are freshwater, bivalve mollusks that generally have a white and dark pattern on their shells. They are native to the Black and Caspian Seas and were first discovered on this continent in the Great Lakes. In 2007, both species were discovered in the West, our side of the 100th Meridian. I bring this up because there is a group called the 100th Meridian Initiative that was established to prevent the spread of aquatic invaders (with an emphasis on the aforementioned mussels) to the West, past the 100th Meridian. They thought they had at least five years before they would make it across the line, but it only took one. Now quagga mussels are found in destination hot spots such as Lake Mead and Lake Powell, two lakes that get some of the highest boat traffic around. Once discovered, they spread rapidly. These aquatic hitchhikers attach to hard surfaces such as rocks, concrete, wood, docks and oh, yes, boats. Lots of them. These aquatic invaders can be anywhere from microscopic in size to two inches long; they are commonly found in clusters. A fully mature female mussel is capable of producing up to one million
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Pend Oreille alone has 31 boat launches, so the surveyors will not be able to cover every launch every day, but it will be a step in the right direction in the race to curb the spread of other AIS. The survey gathers precious data on where people come from to boat on Bonner County waterways, how often they come, what they know about AIS transport, and how/ when they wash their boats. The survey also encourages boaters to check for plant debris and/or snails and mussels before entering a body of water. In the reservoirs of the Lower Clark Fork River, there is another AIS Task Force. This Task Force was able to obtain a grant from Montana State Department of Agriculture to conduct a comprehensive mapping effort. The mapping will begin in early August and cover the entire littoral zone (shoreline) of both Cabinet Gorge and Noxon Rapids reservoirs; it will be complete in the fall. “The thought is the survey [mapping] will provide some of the information needed to set us up for future control efforts, and we will be able to measure our progress over time,” says Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks fisheries biologist Jon Hanson. The group will also be utilizing 25,000 to 30,000 square feet of bottom barriers to squelch the Eurasian watermilfoil populations in the reservoirs. “The current plan is to utilize bottom barriers this summer in some of the high risk areas near docks and boat ramps that get a lot of use,” says Hanson. “The barriers will cover approximately two-thirds of an acre total, which is less than 0.01 percent of the surface area of [both] the reservoirs.” The Noxon Cabinet Shoreline
It is one thing to encourage people to come to the region to enjoy our plentiful waters and open lands, but another to avoid preventing the issues that have been marching across the nation for decades. Together, we can. And together, we must.
Coalition is a group of reservoir shoreline users and homeowners that have been extremely active and a very important participant in addressing the milfoil infestation in the reservoirs, says Avista Recreation Specialist Brian Burky. “They (the Coalition) have provided private funds toward the barriers, applied for grants for the project, and have worked tirelessly to produce and distribute educational materials. They have spent many volunteer hours to make a difference on this issue and should be applauded for their efforts.” The boating public is very well informed in the Lower Clark Fork area, says Burky. There is signage at every public boat ramp on the reservoirs, as well as the two information portals at the east and west ends of the river valley. In addition, the Clark Fork Access Site in Idaho near the Montana/Idaho border has signage and advertises a travelers’ info station for boaters coming into the river valley from the west, alerting boaters/anglers to tune their radios to a station that provides a recorded message about Eurasian watermilfoil and how to control its the spread. “Information officers, who work for Avista and MFWP and are out in the field meeting with boaters/anglers to educate them one-on-one about bull trout and lowimpact camping, are now also talking to folks about the spread of milfoil and AIS,” says Burky. The NCSC is also working on information for the general public, which includes brochures, bumper stickers and articles in the local newspapers. The Lower Clark Fork AIS Task Force will be sponsoring a public workshop on Thursday, August 7 in Noxon, Mont. at the Fire Hall from 1 to 5 pm. There will be presentations by three well-known AIS experts (from Mississippi State University, Corps of Engineers and Kootenai County, Idaho) then plenty of time for Q and A. There will also be a boat station there with demonstrations on how to clean and inspect your boat. The workshop is free and open to the public. Call Brian Burky for more details at 406-847-1283. Whether you live on the water, play on the water, drink the water, use it for irrigation or just spend some time staring at it, aquatic invasive species threaten all of us, and they have their eyes on our water bodies too. Get engaged in the fight by educating yourself, as well as your families and friends about the threats and what we can do to prevent new aquatic invaders. Everyone could use some help in identification, routine monitoring, and outreach. Let’s all do our part to preserve and protect our waters from harmful hitchhikers. Get on board! Photos, this page and facing page, courtesy David Britton U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Kate Wilson is a project journalist for Avista’s Clark Fork Project. Reach her at hunterolivemint@gmail.com
The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 17 No. 15 | August 2008 | Page 23
eggs per season! After fertilization, veligers (pelagic microscopic larvae), develop within a few days and soon grow tiny bivalve shells. Free-swimming veligers drift with the currents for three to four weeks while trying to locate a suitable place to settle. By curling its foot into a tube and pumping the foam, the mussel produces sticky threads about the size of a human hair - these are called byssal threads. It varnishes the threads with another protein, resulting in an adhesive that makes it stick to virtually anything. The veligers are very hard to detect, even on physical boat inspections, as they feel like sandpaper. These invasive mussels are a threat to native species, entire ecosystems, and the economy and recreation potential for local communities. They out-compete other filter feeders, cleaning the water but leaving it sterile and full of sharp, smelly mussels. Each adult mussel is capable of filtering one or more liters of water each day, where they remove phytoplankton, zooplankton, and algae (www.100thmeridian.org). On a more local scale, Lake Pend Oreille is currently being treated for over 1,700 acres of Eurasian watermilfoil, but also has Curlyleaf pondweed (Potamogeton crispus), Flowering rush (Butomus umbellatus), Purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria), and Yellowflag Iris (Iris pseudacorus). Bonner County has mounted a massive attack, once again, on the Eurasian watermilfoil, employing the use of herbicides, bottom barriers, and diver hand-pulling (www.co.bonner.id.us/ publicworks/weeds.html). To date, the other invaders have not been addressed, due to lack of data and funding. In 2005 Bonner County created a Task Force of stakeholders to aid them in making decisions in regard to the prevention and control of AIS. At that time, the focus was on Eurasian watermilfoil, but the attention of the group must shift to looming threats also, or it will surely not be too long before the battle reaches o u r beaches. This summer, there is a boater survey taking place in Bonner County. Lake
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Land Management by Michael White
I must admit that while I haven’t done the best job of attending the meetings lately or keeping up, I did manage to get lengthy comments and helpful suggestions into the Planning and Zoning Commission regarding the Comprehensive Plan for Bonner County. But I’m still trying to figure out the new zoning thing. Will they reopen the public hearing; recommend approval or denial; send all or part of the proposal back to staff or the consultant for revisions again; Schedule additional hearings; Will they allow more real public input, etc.? I have gone to the Planning Department’s website (www.co.bonner. id.us/planning). I still find it difficult to understand what stage this plan is in, what are the next steps, what procedures will be enacted leading up to a decision, when a final decision will be made, what real role citizens play in the process, etc. I am looking for a comprehensive source of information which lays it out in layman’s terms with a time-table maybe but, I am a simple man. I do think a new Land Use Plan is needed and that changes to the current plan can be a beneficial thing. I agree with most of the proposed changes and am very supportive of the water/ environmental protections but I do have some concerns. Certain changes to the minimum allowable parcel sizes would make it too difficult, if not impossible, for a person to sell off part of their acreage if they got into financial trouble, and so they would have to sell the entire parcel to meet their financial obligations. The new plan calls for increasing the minimum allowable parcel sizes - the further away from population centers you go the larger the minimum allowable parcel size. I believe this will actually make a cr e a g e
unaffordable for all but the most wealthy of individuals - land might cost less per acre as you get out into the ‘country,’ but that won’t help if you have to buy more acreage. I see potential problems with allowing “accessory dwellings under 800 square feet “ because this could inadvertently become an incentive to create an extra rental house on many single family lots which could create more problems than are solved. I suggest that instead of making the minimum allowable parcel sizes increase as one moves out from population centers, there could be provisions to allow for smaller parcel sizes, such as five acre minimums, along the county roads but then increase to ten-acre and 20acre parcels in the next tiers away from the county roads. This allows for county services to the smaller parcels but decreases the amount of people feeding into the county roads from private roads. Perhaps there could be grandfather clauses which allow those who bought under the current zoning laws to still be able to subdivide a parcel off which meets the old agreement they bought under. I have some other ideas too but I will be emailing and writing my concerns and suggestions to the County Commissioners, et all. Of course the Planning and Zoning staff, the Planning Commission and the Board of commissioners all have the best interest of our county at heart… as each individual sees it. I don’t propose to have all or even any of the right answers, but I do think that the proposals and the potential negative externalities which come from them should be carefully considered in all light and the public should have plenty to say. I am hoping the “LocalFolk” of Bonner County will realize just how profound an effect some of these proposed changes could have on land owner’s rights, use options and the future look, feel and functionality of our county. Some parts of the plan seem to have the potential for negative effects which are unforeseen by the planners, but which concern many who have studied the plan. It is imperative that both people from inside of the process and outside of the process take a careful look at the potential consequences of the proposed changes and I hope they have all made their voices heard… and that it really matters they did.
Michael White is a Sandpoint realtor with a BS in Forest Resources and Ecosystem Management. Reach him at NorthIdahoLandMan.com
by Matt Haag
W
e have had a large increase in our population here in Bonner County over the last decade. Some of these folks are part-time Idaho residents, returning to their home state for the better part of the year. So what state do they claim as their resident state for tax purposes and privileges? That question often arises when folks purchase Idaho hunting and fishing licenses because we have a resident and a non-resident class license. The main difference between the two classes is the price. For example, a resident class hunting license costs $12.75 compared to the non-resident class license at $141.50. Obviously a big difference in price, tempting many people to falsely claim they are Idaho residents to hunt or fish. It is a misdemeanor to possess a resident class license when you do not qualify as an Idaho resident. This is known as a wrong class license purchase. So how do you know if you qualify as an Idaho resident? Proof of residency is required before issuance of any resident license. The license vendors have to see an Idaho driver’s license to issue you a resident license. Please do not give the vendors a hard time as they are following state law, and may risk losing their vendorship if they don’t comply. What is the legal definition of an Idaho resident? It is defined as any person who has been domiciled in the state of Idaho, with a bona fide intent to make Idaho their place of permanent abode, for a period of not less than six months immediately preceding the date of application for any license, tag or permit. To put it in plain language, you must be permanently residing in Idaho, and you must be here for 6 months prior to purchasing a hunting or fishing license. So what can you show to prove you are an Idaho resident? An Idaho driver
must show their Idaho driver’s license to the vendor as I stated above. A non-driver must produce suitable proof of residency such as an Idaho Identification Card issued by the Department of Transportation, or two documents bearing his/her name and address. For example you could use a rent receipt, power bill in your name with an address, or a mortgage statement. Some people try to use a past hunting or fishing license to show residency; this is not acceptable, and it is illegal. A vendor should never be using prior hunting or fishing licenses to issue a new one.
A CHEAT IS A CHEAT NO MATTER WHAT THEY DO. Consider yourself a non-resident of Idaho if you have a driver’s license in another state. Also, if you move to Idaho and want to be a resident you have 30 days to register your vehicle and get an Idaho driver’s license. If you are registered to vote in another state you are not a resident of Idaho. Additionally, if you file taxes as a resident in another state, or claim a homeowner’s exemption in another state you are a non-resident of Idaho. Ownership of real property or payment of property taxes in Idaho alone does not establish residency. There is one exception to the above rules and that applies to active duty military personnel, their spouses, and their children under 18 living at home. After 30 days of being permanently stationed and present in Idaho, they may purchase a resident license. So what’s the big deal? Cheating, that’s the big deal. People who are cheating the system are costing the state of Idaho a lot of money. Say what? You don’t care? Let me rephrase that - they are stealing from you, the resident of Idaho. For example, a resident can purchase a Sportsman Package for $117.25. For those who don’t hunt or fish, this allows the person to have every over-the-counter tag and license in Idaho! It’s a really amazing deal! It would cost a non-resident well over $1,000 for the same product. So when that thief fraudulently claims Idaho residency as they purchase a Sportsman Package, they are stealing over a thousand dollars from your Fish and Game Department. And
Matt Haag is an Idaho Fish and Game Conservation Officer. You can reach him at 208-265-8521 or email mhaag@idfg.idaho.gov
folks, this happens fairly often. I’m looking intently at a file on my desk with over 78 people in Bonner County that I need to investigate and interview for purchasing a wrong class license. Game wardens across the state constantly battle the problem of wrong class license purchases. However, the fight gets better ever year as technology improves. We have great information sharing across agencies such as the Idaho Tax Commission, the county Assessor’s Office, and the Department of Transportation. With the information that is shared we can bring these thieves to justice for wrong class license purchases and, in some cases, much more. Sometimes we find the individual is not only stealing from the IDFG, but also they are cheating on property and income taxes as well. Not surprising though, a cheat is a cheat no matter what they do. When we catch these cheaters they are issued citations just like any other violator. In many instances these folks are paying thousands of dollars in fines and restitution to the state. Please, if you have any doubt about your residency status, call the IDFG regional office or call your local game warden. If you know someone who is claiming Idaho residency that shouldn’t be, please report those thieves like any other poacher to your local officer or the Citizens Against Poaching Hotline at 800-632-5999. The snow is going to be flying before you know it. Get the kids and out of the house and go check on your favorite huckleberry patch, or hit your favorite fishing hole. Respect the resource, follow the rules, and make sure you purchase the correct class license.
Leave No Child Inside
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The Game Trail
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A Bird in Hand by Michael Turnlund
For many of us who fancy birds, the American Robin is the poster child for the thrush family. With their rotund build, upright stance, and a bill that is perpetually pointed upward in a haughty gesture, they are the archetypal thrush. And they seem to be everywhere! Fields, lawns, forest edges, wherever their favorite prey, the earthworm, can be delicately but vigorously tugged from the damp earth. Even now, in August, we can see the dark-capped males and the slightly more pale females being joined by their youngsters, who sport attractive spotted breasts. In fact, this spotted breast is a unifying feature of the thrush family, many of whom retain it in their adult plumage. The Robin is also our harbinger of spring. If you are observant, you will notice that the males are the first to appear, often when snow is still on the ground. Their goal is to establish a breeding territory before the females arrive in the following weeks. And then it is down to work, for our summer migrants do not come to our fair lands for vacation, for time in the sun spent by the lakeside. Instead, it is the serious and all-consuming task of raising a family and perpetuating their specie. It’s all work and no play, the delightful and memorable songs of the male Robin to the contrary. The American Robin is also the most widespread member of the thrush family, partly because of their love of sprawling housing developments! The burgeoning growth of suburbia around American urban centers, with their requisite swaths of vast lawns and trimmed parks has served the needs of the Robin p e r f e c t l y. This is one specie that has gained from
human encroachment and development. Another member of the thrush family that you are more apt to hear than to see is Swainson’s Thrush. This bird is a denizen of our coniferous forests and its ethereal song is probably its most distinctive feature. Anyone who has gone on a hike or spent a day in the woods will have heard the male sing his flute-like, melodious song that seems to wind upward in three, clear bars of music. The bird itself is less distinctive than the Robin, though he retains the definitive thrush features. The Swainson’s is counted among the spotted thrushes (genus Catharus), which includes its cousins the Hermit Thrush and the Veery, both of which are also found in “our neck of the woods.” As a point of comparison, Swainson’s Thrush is smaller than the Robin and carries a brownish, almost olive-colored jacket and tail coordinated with a drab yellowish breast with spots that match the jacket. Many birds might also have a tinge of rust color. Its outfit is complete with a white belly and distinctive eye-rings that give the bird a “spectacled” look. Very smart and wonkish looking, though retaining the arrogant profile of the thrush family. The last specie of thrush that I want to include in this brief overview of local birds is one of my favorites: Townsend’s Solitaire. Here is an odd bird! Common, though less-commonly seen, the Townsend Solitaire is generally a year-round resident. Larger than the Swainson’s and smaller than the Robin, the Townsend Solitaire still retains the thrush profile, albeit in a slimmer and trimmer package. It is a plain gray, though still handsome, bird with distinctive salmoncolored barring on its wings and a long, dark tail framed with white edging. But what is most distinctive about this peculiar bird is its song, which is sung by both males and females and may be heard throughout the year
as these birds defend both a summer and a winter territory. To my ears, the song of Townsend’s Solitaire is one of being perpetually practiced, but never
mastered; a m a n g l e d interpretation of the Black-headed Grosbeak’s lovely warble. Weird, but still beautiful. Townsend’s Solitaires prefer forested hillsides, perhaps alongside a stream or river. Unlike most if its cousins it nests on the ground or under an overhang. If you see a bird that reminds you of a thrush that somehow was crossed with a Northern Mockingbird, you’ve probably seen a Townsend’s Solitaire. There are also other thrush in our area: the We s t e r n a n d the Mountain bluebird, as well as the Varied Thrush with its eerie trill and distinctive black chest band. Regardless of their stripe, the thrush family is a treasured addition to the rich and varied heritage of birds we enjoy in our area and who heap, through color and song, beauty upon beauty. Photos: Top, American Robin, photo by Lee Karney, USFWS, Middle, Swainson’s Thrush, photo by Dan Sudia, Bottom, Townsend’s Solitaire photo by Dale and Marian
Zimmerman. Visit our website at RiverJournal.com to see links to these photos in color, plus links to their birdsong.
Michael Turnlund is a Sandpoint resident who teaches at Clark Fork High School. Reach him at mturnlund@gmail.com
Hiking into Goat Mountain • • • • •
Photo by Jim Mellen This month, “Trails of the Wild Cabinets,” published by Keokee Books of Sandpoint, Idaho, will be re-released in a second edition that includes new hikes in the Cabinet Mountains by renowned area hiker Jim Mellen. Order your copy of the book online at www. sandpointgeneralstore.com or call 208-263-3573. Until you get your copy, enjoy excerpts from the book in the River Journal. Scotchman Peaks/Goat Mountain Perhaps the wildest, most rugged terrain in the Cabinets outside the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness is the 88,000-acre proposed Scotchman Peaks Wilderness. Bounded by the Bull River, the Clark Fork River, and Lightning, Rattle and Keeler Creeks, two-thirds of this rugged and roadless area lies in Montana with the remaining one-third in Idaho. The Forest Service has managed this biologically diverse and pristine area as wilderness for more than 20 years, protecting the habitat for mountain goat, black and grizzly bears, elk, deer, and bull trout. The Friends of Scotchman Peaks Wilderness is making great strides in the popular effort to extend permanent protection to this area. For more information, visit www. ScotchmanPeaks.org. At the top of 6,167-foot Star Peak, you can discover an active forest fire lookout tower, spectacular vistas of the Clark Fork Valley and Lake Pend Oreille, and the only rock shelter in existence on the Kootenai National Forest built in 1908 by Forest Service Ranger Granville “Granny” Gordon. Five different trails access this rocky pinnacle. The lookout tower is typically manned during the summer for the purpose of spotting
wildfires. Respect the privacy of the individual living there during those months.
Goat Mountain Trail No. 135 • Destination: Goat Mountain, 6,380 feet. Map, page 113. • USGS Map: Clark Fork, Scotchman Peak GPS: N48 11 27.3 W116 09 29.7 • Trailhead: On Highway 200 in downtown Clark Fork, Idaho, turn north by the Chevron Station onto Main and go 0.6 mile, turning left onto Lightning Creek Road. Go 3.1 miles to the trailhead. • Trail Length: 3.5 miles • Trail Condition: fair • Elevation Gain: 4,050 feet • Estimated Duration of Hike: 3 to 4 hours up, 2 to 3 hours down
• •
Sweat Index: strenuous Best Features: great views of Scotchman Peak, Blacktop Mountain, the West Cabinets and Lake Pend Oreille Availability of Water Along the Trail: none Stream Crossings: none What is it like? This is one of the steepest trails in the region. This trail received some maintenance in 2007; however, it remains a rather primitive, seldom used trail. Hikers are quickly rewarded by fabulous views of Lake Pend Oreille. From the summit, the rugged northwest faces of Scotchman Peak and Blacktop Mountain stand out prominently. Hiking poles are recommended for this trail, since the steepness of the descent tends to be hard on the knees. Camping: not really Alternate Hikes: Adventurous hikers can venture off-trail to Scotchman Peak by dropping into the saddle to the southeast and then up to the west ridge of Scotchman.
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Saturday, August 16 - Macbeth 6 pm at the Heron Ball Field Monday, August 18 - All’s Well 6 pm at the Libby Middle School
Order by phone or online 800-880-3573 KeokeeBooks.com
The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 17 No. 15 | August 2008 | Page 27
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From Bermuda to the Beach by Clint Nicholson
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Sport. You’re a sport, I’m a sport, we’re all a sport. We have sporting events, sport coats, sport utility vehicles, sports cars, sportiness, sports bar, sportsman, sportsmanship, sportswomen, and sportswomanship. Yes I know, I’m sounding a little like Dr. Suess, but the word sport is a part of all of us, some more than others, and I couldn’t be happier to consider myself a sports fan. My wife, on the other hand, has had about enough. I tried to engage my wife in conversation over the latest sporting news to hit the stands - Brett Favre coming out of retirement, or trying to come out of retirement. She would have no part of it. Who cares? I had to visit a friend of mine to get some good conversation about the subject, because like most football fans, I care. My friend’s point of view was that Favre had retired, left the organization, quit his job, was at the end of his career, and was basically washed up. How could Favre change his mind and cause all these problems for the Green Bay Packers? The Packers were moving on based on Favre’s decision, gave him ample time to make that decision, and wished him well in the future. They had announced their new quarterback, Aaron Rodgers, and were gearing up for this year’s season. My friend lost all respect for Favre. He could have rode into the sunset with everything most athletes dream about. For years, Favre was “The Man” in Green Bay. He was as much Wisconsin as cheese. And now he wants to return, take the spotlight away from Rodgers, and try to lead the Pack to its glory days. Is it fair? Well, I think if I were Aaron Rodgers, I probably wouldn’t think it was fair, but I can’t help but to think of Favre as the ultimate athlete. This is why I say, let him play. Arguably, Favre will go down in history as the best quarterback the NFL has ever seen, and his records speak for themselves. I have empathy for aging athletes. From an early age, all the great athletes grew up doing what they are great at. They had the commitment, desire, and drive to be the best they could be at the sport they loved. Favre didn’t just play football for Green Bay for 16 years, he started playing football the day his dad put a ball in his hands. Talk about commitment! Most of us get tired of doing the same thing after a few weeks. All Favre has known his entire life, is football. Every day of his life, he has football to think about. And now it’s over? I don’t think so. I hope Favre comes out of retirement, gets signed by Minnesota (which is unlikely considering they broke some rules about
Clint Nicholson is the sales manager for Keokee Publishing in Sandpoint. Reach him at clint@keokee.com
tampering), and returns to his greatness. I know this doesn’t sit well with Packer fans, but I say we give him another try in the NFL. He will do one of two things. One, he could have a fabulous year, and prove that he still has the drive in his heart to lead an NFL team to victory. Or two, he will find it difficult to learn a new team’s system, and turn into a mediocre quarterback, which will lead him to his final retirement. In the case of the latter, I would wish Favre all the best in the future, and advise him to pick up a fishing rod and put the same effort into fishing as he did for so long as the best quarterback in the NFL. Many fans can’t imagine Favre in any uniform but a Packer uniform, and frankly, it will be difficult to see him in anything but gold. But I would like to see him in purple on opening day of the season playing against his old team. What bigger challenge for an athlete? It would be one of the most watched games in history. And knowing what I know about Favre, he will light it up. He will put on one of the best shows the NFL has ever seen. Ratings would be through the roof, and the rivalry between the two teams would be lasting. But most of all, it would allow Favre to prove to himself that he either still has it, or it truly is time to hang up the cleats and move on. It all boils down to the competitive nature most athletes are born with. I don’t think it was fair that so much pressure was put on Favre to make a decision about retirement. We all know that a true athlete never gives up, whether it is on the golf course, in a game of chess, or a game of UNO. You know the type, the ones who would run grandma over to make the catch. Take Tiger, Jordan, Montana, Lance, Agassi, Bryant; some of the truest athletes ever. One common thing about them all is that they never give up, and I for one, don’t think anyone should stand in Favre’s way. Don’t give up, Favre!
by Dustin Gannon
Okay, my mother said I need to do my story ASAP so I guess I’ll get it out of the way. Because I always do what my mother says. I was supposed to work today. I woke up to the sound of Van Halen’s “Top Gun“ theme song, ya know? In the beginning of the movie when the planes are flying through the morning sky? Not “Danger Zone” by Kenny Loggins, the other song that people know as, duh nuh nuh na nuh nuh na na nuh na nuh nuh na na nuh na na nuh nuh. Yeah, that one. Well, I had it set as my alarm on my phone at 8 this morning. It woke me up and I said hello to Steeler, my black and gold gecko. Gave him his nutritious breakfast of six baby crickets. I took a shower using strawberries and creme shampoo and conditioner and rinsed off with some Axe Touch bodywash. As I was eating my two packets of ramen noodles for breakfast my phone lit up with “Let Me See Your Hips Swing,” a song made popular by the recent movie “Knocked Up.” I looked at the number - it’s from the golf course. The first thought that came in my head was, “Am I late?” I answered with high hopes that I didn’t misread the time I was supposed to be there today. The caddie master was on the other end. “Gannon! What’s up bro?” I calmly replied, “Not much Eddie, how’s it goin’?” I was certain that his next sentence was going to involve the words hell, where, and you. Not in that order but together, nonetheless. “Hey man, sorry to tell ya this but the group you were gonna caddie for has cancelled. So as of right now I have you down as an extra.” Last summer I would’ve killed to hear those words. As they flowed
past my eardrums, processed in my cerebellum, and then reiterated through my mouth I said, “An extra? That sucks.” I’ve only been getting to work the weekends so missing a day really puts a damper on me going shopping and buying cool things like the new NCAA football game that just came out, a new pair of Reef sandals, or going to see the new Batman movie that looks badass. (I don’t know if I’m allowed to say badass, but if you see this in the print then either I can, or my mom missed it when she edited.) This upcoming Friday is also my 21st birthday so I would imagine that a lot of my funds are going to be allocated to alcohol this weekend. Who needs to pay rent, right? Anyway, as of right now I’m just sitting around my apartment waiting for the unlikely chance that I’ll get a call back from the caddie master saying that he needs another caddie. I doubt it. Last year I begged for days off. Now I’m begging for days. Oh well. Now I have more time to focus on other things, like the squirrels outside, or the water in the pool. I get to check my MySpace every five minutes. Yeah, this is way better than earning money. Plus, I just threw down 24 ounces of Arizona Sweet Tea. Who can say they did that in the first hour of their day? This guy! Now I can finish my day, because I’ve had my sweet tea. I guess I can go play tennis today. I need to start doing that more often. I played tennis for the first time in three months yesterday with my roommate, Kyle. It was back and forth in the beginning. I think I had him at 40-15 most games before I started my patented double faulting spree. He was up on me three games to two before I went on a six-game streak to finish off the pro set in time for my friend Joey’s birthday dinner at Capone’s (the best sports bar in Coeur d’ Alene). I was happy because I won but neither of us had played in a long time so it could’ve gone either way. I’m gonna play again today against Mikey. I beat him last time and the only reason I feel the need to mention it is because I think everybody has heard of Mike Martin and his athleticism and his superb achievements. Chh, the kid is
a fluke!!! Okay, that was a total joke by the way, but if I do beat him today he’s definitely going to hear about it. If I don’t beat him then I’ll never hear the end of it so trash talk will fly either way. There is just too much to do in the summer to sit around inside all day. As far as summer activities go, even in Sandpoint you can walk down to the beach and play basketball or volleyball. There’s pretty much always someone down there getting a game going. Golfing is around just about every corner and so is tennis. There’s a frisbee golf course at NIC and if you still have nothing to do, you have the lake. So this issue doesn’t really cover much about the golf course, its more of a day in the life of Dustin Gannon, but if I remember correctly, my mom had asked me at the end of the winter if I could write a “summer activities” column for her. I think I fulfilled that quota. Enjoy the new River Journal News Magazine, (my idea by the way!) and I’ll be back next time as a legal adult.
Behind every Great play is a Great official North Idaho Officials Association
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Dustin Gannon is a sports fanatic who is learning to enjoy writing as well. Reach him at Dustin@RiverJournal.com
The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 17 No. 15 | August 2008 | Page 29
FORE!play
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say you get two thrills in one because once you’ve gone through the ride, you go back through again - backwards! “Once you board, the cars will slowly move backwards up the starting tower until you’re staring straight at the ground at nearly 190 feet in the air. Then gravity will take over and pull you 177 feet straight down as you reach speeds of 65 miles per hour! You’ll twist and turn though mind-blowing loops and rolls until you
reach the second tower. This time, you’ll be looking at the sky as the coaster pulls you upward at a 90 degree angle, only to release and send you barreling through the whole thing backwards!” The Aftershock Grand Opening took place right at press time for this issue of the River Journal. To be honest, it’s not likely I would get on this thing for love or money. But not all at this publication are as gutless as I. We sent our intrepid reporter, Dustin Gannon, to enjoy the ride on the morning of his 21st birthday. Look for his review of this stomach-turning beast in our next issue. (If it turns out the ride really was stomach-turning, our plan is to say Dustin was representing a different newspaper.) The Shocking Stats: • Make & Model: Vekoma/Giant Inverted Boomerang • Height: 191 Feet • Longest Drop: 177 Feet • Top Speed: 65.6 MPH • Inversions: 3 • Max. Vertical Angle: 90 Degrees • Max G-Forces: 4.5 • Duration: 1:32 Silverwood Theme Park is located on Hwy. 95 in Athol, Idaho. Through September 1 the park is open every day from 11 am to 7 pm. There is no extra charge for admission to the Boulder Beach Water Park. Day passes are $36.99, or $19.99 for children aged 3 to 7 and adults age 65 or over. Parking fees are $4 per vehicle. By the way, for those who worry about the effect of G forces on the brain from roller coasters - a National Institutes of Health study recommends the best way to protect yourself from brain injury is to “make sure your seatbelts are buckled at all times when driving to an amusement park.”
Noxon’s West End Farm and Craft Market, Bicentennial Park, downtown Noxon on Saturdays, 9am to noon through September 6th, 2008 - for more information email actmargaret@blackfoot.net Thompson Falls Market, west lot of the Falls Motel (Maiden Ln & Lincoln St), Saturdays 10am to 2pm through September 13 and the 2nd Wednesday of August and September from 4:30-7:30 - for more information email manager@thompsonfallslodging.com.
Page 30 | The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 17 No. 15 | August 2008
Love Notes By Marianne Love
Email: malove@imbris.net | www.SlightDetour.blogspot.com She called me “Friend,” and I was honored. I knew her as a student, friend and confidante. I called her “Jenny.” I miss my friend. I taught her, joked with her, emailed her, interviewed her, encouraged her and said “good bye” to her just a few weeks ago. Hundreds in her world, which extended from countless friends and family to admiring strangers as far away as New Zealand (because of her poignant blog “Mangy Moose Acres” www.mangymooseacres.blogspot. com), miss her too. Now, we’re all having a difficult time thinking of Jenny Jacobson Meyer in past tense. Maybe that’s because a part of her stayed with each of us who revered her as a phenomenal human being and as one tough cookie who put up a gallant 8-year fight against cancer. Maybe we feel her influence every day as we do our
who’s involved with the fifth annual Celebrate Life walk-run on the Lake Pend Oreille walking bridge, beginning at 9 am Saturday, August 9. In 2004, Julie, along with her best friend January Tuinstra, launched this idea with your blessing. Julie promises that Celebrate Life, which has raised $56,000 for local cancer patients over the past four years, is remaining true to the simplicity you so desired. “Nothing has changed,” she told me. “It’s about everyone being able to participate in a beautiful walk across the lake. Jenny loved that, even though ideas were suggested to make it bigger, bigger, bigger, January and I kept it simple.”
Life have helped with childcare, gas, dinners, groceries and even massages for patients who could use a boost. As long as the community continues to support Celebrate Life, Julie remains dedicated to its mission: offering assistance and enhancing the lives of family, friends and neighbors affected by cancer in the Sandpoint area. Jenny, some members of the Class of 1992, who so admired you as their class president and friend, have even come up with their own touch for this year’s Celebrate Life event and for the years that follow. Melody Deeter Behmer, with graphics help from Amy Gunter-Jahn, publicity from Brian Fischer, and production assistance from your motherin-law, Nancy Meyer, are coordinating a project to honor you. It will also generate money for the Celebrate Life program and for the “Grace Meyer Scholarship” fund. “Sarah McIntyre came up with the idea of having matching shirts and walking as a group to honor Jen,” Melody told me recently. “The response we’ve gotten for shirt purposes has been far greater than we imagined. “We are going to make this an annual event,” she added, “designing a new shirt each year to honor our friend... different colors, different designs, whatever we come up with.” Like everyone, Melody, who started first grade with you, cherishes her relationship with you. “Jenny was an inspiration to me long before her battle with cancer,” she says. “I loved that the simple things in life made her happy... eating our first strawberry from our gardens... making cookies... going to soccer games and driving old pickup trucks. Her friendship was true, and her love was pure” Then, there’s Jeff Bock who’s putting the final touches on “Jenny’s Journal,” the 26-minute DVD documentary he produced, featuring your life with
Maybe we feel her influence every day as we do our personal best to Celebrate Life on this earth, in hopes that Jenny will smile in approval from her eternal heavenly perch.
Participants pre-register by August 1 ($20 for adults 17 and older; $12 for juniors 616) or register after August 1 ($25 for adults; $15 for juniors) at Meyer’s Sport Tees, Bonner General Hospital prior to the event or at 8 am August 9 at Dog Beach. The registration fee includes a T-shirt. Then, will come the images that meant so much to you: the bright colors, beautiful scenery, people smiling and visiting, and lots of them, the family feel, etc. Julie says anyone who cannot attend the event can always support the program by personal best to Celebrate Life on this sending donations to Celebrate Life, earth, in hopes that Jenny will smile P.O. Box 420, Ponderay, ID 83852. in approval from her eternal heavenly From these efforts comes cash to perch. be distributed for a variety of needs Jenny, I hope you’re smiling through the Bonner General Hospital because I’ll be talking about tangible (BGH) outpatient clinic, Hospice and reminders that keep your courage and the Kootenai Cancer Center at BGH. indomitable spirit close to our hearts. This event has aided numerous I’m not going to hog the mike local residents over the years whenever because others have things to say nurses in each center have identified too. First, there’s your sister Julie needs for families enduring cancer Continued on page 61 Walkington, the Bonner General nurse treatment. The funds from Celebrate The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 17 No. 15 | August 2008 | Page 31
Page 32 | The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 17 No. 15 | August 2008
Hey, I Rode a Segway! By Lake Pend Oreille School District Superintendent Dick Cvitanich
I
Email Dick.Cvitanich@lposd.org | 208-263-2184 ext. 218
returned home from Camp and couldn’t wait to tell my family and friends about the exciting things I learned that day. No, this isn’t an excerpt from my fifth grade journal. It just happened this July, and yes, I really rode a Segway; the Personal Transporter. I had only read about these new toys and watched others ride them on television. Now, I was a rider rather than a watcher. Yahoo! Sure, I am 57 years old, but my excitement at trying something new by exploration, and then finding success, hasn’t left my system. It is really what good education is all about; learning in an exciting way that leaves a lasting impression, and a desire to learn more. I am definitely hungry for more; in fact I will take the whole buffet. This wasn’t a special day camp for fifty-seven-year-olds. (Although that isn’t such a bad idea.) I still have plenty to learn about the world in which I grew up, but also about the world in which we currently live. Actually, I would really like to learn more about what the world will look like ten years from now, but I will have to save that for another day. No, this camp was Camp Invention, hosted at the Bird Museum. And what a camp it was! My visit on a sunny Friday morning, the last day of camp for these eager young scientists, was a reminder about how exciting learning can be. When I arrived, approximately 100 students were working with teachers, volunteer parents, and each other, making a beautiful noise. If it had been indoors, there would have been an audible hum in the room. Instead, their eager voices were exchanging ideas and hypotheses on blue sky day. There was laughter and a few groans when ideas didn’t pan out as expected, and much laughter around the subject matter. It was learning at its best. S t u d e nt s were taking apart simple and complex machines to learn how things worked. They were designing crash proof vehicles. They were
exploring propulsion. They were working in teams, collaborating around ideas. They were using their minds to understand their world and the scientific principles that underlie the widgets, gadgets, and machines that we take for granted every day. Most importantly, they were learning they have the capacity to change the world by opening their minds and applying their creativity to problems that face our world, be it world hunger, transportation, or medical science. Guiding this week long activity was a great team of teachers from Lake Pend Oreille School District and Sandpoint Charter School. Their enthusiasm was as clearly evident as that shown by the students. Seeing Farmin Stidwell teacher Nicole Dash dressed up as a princess from another planet was worth the trip to Sagle. Parent volunteers who dropped their children off on day one were so enthused they remained for the entire week, fascinated by the learning taking place not only for their children, but also themselves. Finally, moving about the structured chaos and orchestrating with enthusiasm and commitment, were the Birds. Their love for science, children, and the human capacity to make the world a better place was clearly evident. They participated, encouraged, problem solved, and gave their energy and talents to the children who attended the Camp from Lake Pend Oreille, Post Falls and Coeur d’Alene school districts, plus homeschoolers and students from private schools. There may even have been students from other planets. It was Pam Riddle Bird who was responsible for getting me on the Segway. Unsure of myself at first, and a little reluctant, I did jump on. I wobbled a bit, leaned forward to accelerate and I was off at less than one mile per hour. I soon increased the speed and began to experiment. Like a mentor teacher, she left me to myself to learn more. I didn’t crash… I learned… and I smiled. I then wondered how and why this little machine worked - which was the point of the Camp for kids - asking why and then figuring it out. Back to the Segway. Do you suppose we can get one that will run in snow or climb through the woods? Don’t be surprised if one of the students at Camp Invention doesn’t invent one five or ten years from now! Thanks to Camp Invention, the team of teachers and inventors, but mostly the Birds for encouraging our children to develop their creativity and spirit to learn. What a gift!
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ynne Truss, the world’s preeminent grammar grump, said it best when she wrote (in the international bestseller “Eats, Shoots and Leaves”), “To those who care about punctuation, a sentence such as “Thank God its Friday” (without the apostrophe) rouses feelings not only of despair, but of violence. The confusion of the possessive “its” (no apostrophe) with the contractive “it’s” (with apostrophe) is an unequivocal signal of illiteracy, and sets off a simple, Pavlovian “kill” response in the average stickler.” When I read that phrase, I immediately copied it into an email that I then sent to most everyone I know, saying, “See! It’s not just me!” If you don’t mind appearing to be illiterate, or taking the risk that some small percentage of people out there will wish for your immediate death because of it, then stop reading here. Those of you who have some reason to want others to think you graduated at least the sixth grade - and who litter apostrophes throughout your writing like confetti - should read on. The humble apostrophe, only slightly larger than the evenmore humble period, conveys a wealth of information to readers who understand what it’s all about. For example, a simple apostrophe can let your readers know that you really do know how to spell, but that you have purposely left a letter out of a word. Most people are familiar with this usage in contractions such as aren’t or doesn’t. We have three writers here in these pages who employ the apostrophe for that purpose time and time again - I’ll leave it to you to figure out who they are. Mostly this usage is employed to add a certain colloquial flavor to their words, and in that instance its biggest role is in replacing the letter “G” at the end of a word. Thus you’ll find their work replete with words like pickin’ and grinnin’. One of the most frequent errors I see in this usage of the apostrophe is actually the lack of it, and that occurs most frequently in the contraction of the word until. If you choose to leave off the first two letters of that word, the proper way to write it is to utilize that “missing letter apostrophe,” which then prints as ‘til. Note this is completely different from the printed word till, which as a noun refers to something money is kept in, and as a verb is an action you perform upon the land. gram·mar - noun 1a: the study of the classes of words, their inflections, and their functions and relations in the sentence 1b: a study of what is to be preferred and what avoided in inflection and syntax 2a: the characteristic system of inflections and syntax of a language 2b: a system of rules that defines the grammatical structure of a language 3 a: a grammar textbook 3b: speech or writing evaluated according to its conformity to grammatical rules 4: the principles or rules of an art, science, or technique <a grammar of the theater>; also : a set of such principles or rules -Merriam-Webster Dictionary
For a long time, apostrophes were only used to indicate missing letters, but then someone had the bright idea to also use them to indicate whether or not a word was possessive. (Truss credits this invention to printers in the 17th century.) It’s with this usage that most people fling apostrophes around their writing as if they were Tammy Faye putting on eyeliner. The simple rules when indicating that a word is possessive? Singular and plural nouns that don’t end in in the letter S need an apostrophe followed by an S at the end of the word (the woman’s hat); Use an apostrophe after the S in words that end with S (example: Truss’ book). Personal interrogative and relative pronouns do NOT use an apostrophe - I repeat, do NOT use an apostrophe. This brings me to the second apostrophe misuse that makes the hair I didn’t pull out of my head turn gray - it’s. If you write out I-T-apostrophe-S, it reads “it is.” If you’re using its in a possessive form (Its cold, gleaming eyes, for example) then there should be no apostrophe placed before the S. This is also true for ours, his, hers, yours, theirs and whose. All apostrophe rules go out the window when it comes to an official name that includes (or should include) an apostrophe. It’s a name, not a word, so their preferred usage is what goes. If you have a Diners Club card in your wallet, for example, you’ll note they do not utilize an apostrophe in their name, even though, as a club of diners, you would expect to find one there. (As a club for diners, there would be no apostrophe, but now I’m getting into the area that makes people throw their hands up in the air and fling apostrophes everywhere.) Although it’s an anything-goes world when it comes to business names, I would encourage you to investigate proper apostrophe usage before you name your business, lest you end up going through life explaining why you spell it the way you do. -Trish Gannon Editor’s Note: This column was suggested several years ago by Sandpoint’s Gretchen Ward, and was inspired (or so I’m told by Bill Litsinger) by “The Grammar Grouch,” a column printed in a California newspaper “back in the day.” It would be childish of you in the extreme if the mere fact that we print this article sends you running to the email or phone with glee whenever you find a mistake in our pages. Our pages and stories are all proofread several times, but mistakes can and do occur. If you see that we repeat an error often, indicating there’s something we don’t know, then by all means laugh maniacally, and give us a call.
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The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 17 No. 15 | August 2008 | Page 33
education
Bonner County
Lake Pend Oreille Alternative lposd.alternative.schoolfusion.us
Lake Pend Oreille School District www.lposd.org • Aug. 12- Board meeting at Sandpoint Charter • Aug. 26- Secretaries and principals return to school • Aug. 28- 8 am staff breakfast at SHS • Sept. 2 - School opens
Northside Elem. lposd.northside.schoolfusion.us
West Bonner Co. School District www.westbonnerschools.org
Priest River Jr High sd83.k12.id.us/jrh
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Priest River Lamanna High sd83.k12.id.us/lam
Public Schools:
Aug 28- Back to school activity for staff.
Priest Lake Elem. sd83.k12.id.us/ple Priest River Education Alternative sd83.k12.id.us/prep Priest River Elem. sd83.k12.id.us/pre
Clark Fork Jr/Sr High lposd.clarkfork.schoolfusion.us
Sagle Elem. sd84.k12.id.us/hw/Sagle.Website
Farmin/Stidwell Elem. lposd.stidwell.schoolfusion.us
Sandpoint Charter sandpointcharter.org
Hope Elem. lposd.hope.schoolfusion.us
Sandpoint Middle sd84.k12.id.us/SMS
Idaho Hill Elem. sd83.k12.id.us/idh
Sandpoint High sd84.k12.id.us/SHS
Kootenai Elem. lposd.kootenai.schoolfusion.us
Southside Elem. lposd.southside.schoolfusion.us
AT THE BONNER MALL
300 Bonner Mall Way, Ponderay • 263-4272 MONDAY AUG. 11 • 4:30 & 7:30 SHOWS
Washington Elem. sd84.k12.id.us/hw/mitchell. burright Private Schools: Faith Christian Academy 208-255-2064 Glacier Mountain Academy www.aboutglaciermtn.com Pend Oreille Valley SDA 208-437-2638 Sandpoint Community Christian 208-265-8624 Sandpoint Junior Academy www.sjasda.org • Aug. 14 registration 4 to 7 • Aug. 17 Back to School Work Bee 8 to noon • Aug. 25- School starts Sandpoint Waldorf www.sandpoint.org/waldorf • Aug. 14- trustee meeting at 5:30 • Aug. 25- Parent work day starts 10 am. • Aug. 29- Open house, 5 to 7 pm • Sept. 5- School begins Selkirk School www.selkirkschool.com • Aug. 23- Open house
Boundary County Public Schools:
Boundary Co. School District www.bcsd101.com • Aug. 12- Board Meeting • Aug. 25- District Meetings • Aug. 26-27- In-Service • Sept. 2- School Opens Bonners Ferry High bcsd101.com/bfhs Boundary Co. Jr High www.bcsd101.com/bcjh
Evergreen Elem. bcsd101.com/ev Mount Hall Elem. bcsd101.com/mthall Naples Elem. bcsd101.com/naples Riverside Alternative Valley View Elem. bcsd101.com/vv
Sanders County Public Schools:
Noxon Elem. www.noxonschool.com Noxon Jr High www.noxonschool.com Noxon High www.noxonschool.com Thompson Falls Elem. thompsonfalls. net/51143518151939 Thompson Falls Jr High thompsonfalls. net/51143518182719 Thompson Falls High thompsonfalls.net/ 51143518151711 Thompson Falls Public Schools www.thompsonfalls.net Trout Creek Elem. Trout Creek Jr High Private Schools: Monarch School www.monarchschool.com Students may apply for admission at any time at this year-round boarding school. Spring Creek Lodge Academy www.sclacademy.com Students may apply for admission at any time to this year-round boarding school.
Please remember to watch for students boarding or exiting the buses and stop your vehicle when the stop sign on the bus is extended.
Advance Ticket Sales at SEARS, YOKES, JC PENNEY, & WONDERLAND STUDIO ADULTS $12, KIDS (11 & under) $6 Tickets day of show $16 & $8 Page 34 | The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 17 No. 15 | August 2008
by Thomas McMahon
Photo by Jeanne Davis
With gas prices going up and the economy going down it’s about time we had a car that didn’t rely on gas. Yes, there is biodiesel when it comes to those of you with diesel engines and there’s ethanol for most gas engines, but both of these products are still a hassle to produce in America. Biodiesel usually has to be made at home and can be dangerous, and American cars can not handle pure ethanol. Hybrid cars are a great option, but the main problem with these cars is the fact that they still use gas, even with great mileage. It’s hard to find a totally electric car today that is easy to maintain and charge, and solar cars are still years away from being viable. So what can we use to curb our emissions, save the planet, and most importantly… our wallets? Well, the answer is all around us - air, of course. The month of August isn’t just going to be about the Summer Olympics, it will also debut the Air Car in India. Designed by Guy Negre, an ex-Formula One engineer, the car uses compressed air to push the pistons in the engine. While the Air Car cannot hit 200-plus mph - its highest speed is currently rated at 68 mph - it does have a zero emission rating and it only costs roughly two dollars to fill. In August of this year over 6,000 six passenger OneCATs, the economy model of the Air Car, will be released in India to be used as taxis. There are four models as of now that include a minivan of sorts, a two-seater, a family size, and a small pickup. India is not the only country to try out these new cars
hitting the market; Israel, Germany, and South America are just a few more countries where the Air Car will be marketed. Due to the safety standards of the United States, these first generation Air Cars will not be seen on our streets, but please! Do not lose hope! Zero Pollution Motors has announced that it expects to produce the first air-powered cars for the United States by late 2009 or early 2010. These next gen air cars will
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have an upgraded engine that, when coupled with a fuel, are able to travel 1,000 miles on a tank with a top speed of 98 mph. Now yes, I did mention a fuel, but bear with me for a moment. Right now the Air Car uses a new type of motor that can either use compressed air or act as an internal combustion engine. The compressed air is kept at 4,350 psi in carbon fiber tanks and is fed into the engine where it then expands; the expanding air causes the pistons to pump and gives the vehicle power. For the next gen coming out in America, the motor uses the same principles but is coupled with a fuel to make it a hybrid. When the car is traveling at about 45 mpg or lower it will be using solely compressed air; go above that and the engine automatically switches to a fuel or an air/fuel mixture. When the tank starts getting low you can either hook the car up electrically and use its onboard air compressor to fill the air tanks in about four hours, or use a high pressure pump to fill the tanks up within minutes. If the rumors hold true, we could be seeing a car that can get over 1,000 miles on a single fill up of air/gas. Hopefully, with time, this technology will advance in a way so that air will be the sole fuel and we can really leave gas behind.
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Thomas McMahon is a student at the College of Idaho with an interest in tennis, engineering and playing geeky video games. Reach him at auzie_boy@hotmail.com
The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 17 No. 15 | August 2008 | Page 35
Thomas’ Tech Tales Forget Gas Prices - Air is the Future
Politically Incorrect- Continued from page
Urban Legends
He not only writes for the River Journal, As Superintendent of LPOSD, he’s a busy he’s the northern Idaho delivery boy man, though never too busy to tell a story. (Sandpoint to Bonners) and the sole, He sure likes his Oxford commas, though. entire reason why I’m sane today. (If you Lawrence (page 38) is our newest don’t think I’m sane, you have no clue columnist prior to the new format and, how I could have turned out!) so far, he’s generally weeks ahead of his Keeping it in the family, Dustin (page deadline. We’ll see how long that lasts. 29) is my favorite son and not just As a writer of ghost stories, he doesn’t ‘cause he’s my only one - I really like have to deal with the delays of doing Obama’s Patriotism the boy. I especially like that he shares interviews - I think. by Trish Gannon my political viewpoints and my sense of Desi (page 4) doesn’t write a humor, though he’s more athletic than column but that’s about the only thing A good, conservative friend of mine I’ll ever be. He’s also always willing to she doesn’t write. A late-in-life college (I won’t give you his name) sent me one help his mama out, even agreeing to student studying journalism, she has of the biggest “groaner” emails of the spend the morning of his 21st birthday an enthusiasm that’s contagious, and a season last month, concerning Obama, at a newspaper event on my behalf. wealth of energy I’d like to siphon. She patriotism, flag lapel pins, the pledge of (Of course, it’s the grand opening of also has a lot of neat ideas that she’ll be allegiance and our national anthem. Aftershock, Silverwood’s newest roller bringing to the pages of the River Journal Have you seen it yet? The email coaster. I try to be smart in what I ask in the months to come. suggests Obama was quoted as saying for.) Dustin’s can sit down and write a Duke (page 42) is as good a writer he won’t wear a flag pin as our flag story in about 15 minutes, which makes as he is a chef; he’s another who always “represents oppression,” and that our all the rest of us want to strangle him. meets deadline when he’s aware of it, national anthem is too “war-like” and That’s a good ability, as he thinks of which is a good thing as when his story “bellicose.” Obama, it would appear deadlines like George does - something comes in, I stop what I’m doing it, read from this email, suggested our anthem to meet at the very last minute. it, then go cook. Plan on a lunch break be changed to “I’d like to teach the world to sing.” Thomas (pages 12 and 35) is after you read what he writes. Oh, boy, I can see the Coke my other boy (my daughter Amy’s Jim (page 53) doesn’t write exclusively commercials now! boyfriend) and my resource for all things for me, so he meets my deadlines when Originally posted on a conservative technological. He’s also a good liar, a they happen to coincide with his own. website as satire by one John Semmens, good trait for all storytellers to possess. As the democratic Senator for western it took a lot of folks in, who replied in As a recent high school graduate Montana, he explains clearly the issues the vein of “f-ing commie,” “this is what Thomas has struggled a bit lately with facing his state and the reasons for his Democrats have become,” “sickening,” deadlines, but he promises to keep beliefs and decisions. and, “what a piece of *and$^ he is.” sending in his stories, even from college. And our new writers? With only one That’s the problem with satire Kate (page 22) is not as young as deadline under their belt it’s hard to anymore, people aren’t educated enough she looks in her pictures, but she’s just say. Three were early, two were on time, to recognize it when they see it. Though as smart as her writing would lead you one was late and one still hasn’t met the I would have thought this one was pretty to believe. She meets every deadline deadline as I write this. But here’s what I obvious. I mean, really - I want to teach (though she’s never early) and I would can share. the world to sing?! bet she’s never written a story under Emily (page 43) was the perfect So I’ll spell it out for you - this email a thousand words in her life. She has choice to write about local foods as she is not true. an avid appreciation for the outdoors, chose to become a strict locavore for a About those flag pins by the way (and reflected in her writing, and I heard on year. Laura (page 51) is the Chairman the yellow ribbons people stick on their cars)... it doesn’t matter if you’re talking the the street she’s bound and determined to of Bonner County’s recently revitalized talk if you’re not walking the walk. Patriotism take up hunting this year. Democratic party and will share the - and supporting our troops - demands a Michael (page 24) matches Kate viewpoint of Idaho’s minority party. The lot more than just displaying a symbol. They in word count, though deadlines are Sandpoint Wellness Council (page 44), both must be backed up with action, and something he struggles with. Land under the organizational leadership forwarding emails doesn’t count. management, however, he knows inside of Krystle Shapiro, has big plans for A few words here about proper and out. I don’t let him near my house answering area questions about health protocol for Americans, for those who because I don’t want him to see my concerns. Mike (page 26) is a high missed an education on that, as well. tansy and knapweed - or the ruts in the school teacher who really knows his birds Unless you’re in the military, you ‘salute’ driveway. He’d expect me to fix them and will make sure that you do, as well. the flag by placing your right hand over immediately. They’re on my list - just not Clint (page 28) stepped in at the last your heart, left hand down straight at very high on it. minute for Scott, who’s in school learning the side. During the National Anthem, Matt (page 25) is our area game to sell investments. Hanna (page 59) is you sing along - it’s not supposed warden and according to my daughter one of those high school students who to be performed by one person and Misty (whose fishing license he checks puts the lie to how badly schools are our military, by the way, - those who every time he sees her) he’s a great guy teaching kids. And Angela (page 47)... understand protocol - are offended by to boot. For those of you who remember well, Angela is the one who hasn’t met solo recitals. JJ, who wrote for us until he retired, let deadline yet, but as our friendship is That all goes out the window if you’re a Christian American, of course, as God me say I can see a future Matt describing more than halfway through its second was pretty clear in the Old Testament poachers as “scrotes.” His obvious love decade, I’m willing to give her a break. when he handed down those ten for this area, and his passion to protect And I trust her enough to assume she’s commandments. “You shall not make for it, shows in every column he writes. going to meet it before we go to print. yourself an idol, whether in the form of Kathy (page 40), like Gary who So there it is - the reasons why we anything that is in heaven above, or that shares that column with her, always are able to call this the publication is on the earth beneath, or that is in the meets deadline, even if she’s sometimes worth wading through. If this is your first water under the earth. You shall not bow a little late. This pair demonstrate daily foray, jump in. And if you’re an old-timer down to them or worship them; for I the and in their writing the positive power - thanks for sticking with us. Lord your God am a jealous God...” that God can have on a person’s life. Dick (page 32) is another who always meets deadline... when he’s reminded to. Page 36 | The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 17 No. 15 | August 2008
What is the most creative way you’ve ever used duct tape? Valerie Dana, Clark Fork I had to get a new radiator for the car but the one I got didn’t fit. So I duct taped it in. I had to use some clothes hangers, too. It lasted a long time - I even made a trip from Oregon to Oklahoma with it!
Misty Grage, Sandpoint I managed to rip off the rear end of my car when parallel parking. I had to duct tape it back together so the tow company could tow it to Alpine Motors to be repaired. I think Scott Barksdale was impressed when he saw it. He certainly laughed a lot.
Cathy Bixler, Clark Fork I was at a peace march in San Francisco right before we invaded Iraq and Homeland Security had encouraged all of us to stock up on plastic and duct tape. You know how they have those yellow ribbons for remembering the troops and pink ones for breast cancer? We wore ribbons made of duct tape.
Casey Sims, Clark Fork When I was about ten years old I wrapped my cousin up in it. Pinned him down and wrapped him head to toe, then booted him down the stairs.
Bob Camp, Sandpoint I had a cat that didn’t like the vet, and eventually the vet didn’t like the cat. It needed treatment for a head wound, so I wrapped it in a towel and duct taped it all together. That prevented any major injuries, to people, or the cat!
Larry Baggett, Sandpoint I was on a climbing trip in Colorado. We woke up one morning to discover a large porcupine eating our clothes and packs. He only left little pieces, so we patched our clothes with duct tape to hike out. There was more duct tape than there was cloth!
Dylan Amundson, Sandpoint I didn’t do it myself. but when I was in high school, this girl came to prom with her dress made entirely out of duct tape. I’ve never made a dress for myself out of anything.
John “Sid” Sidwell, Sandpoint I duct taped the tail onto a mermaid when I was in Alaska. Well, no, it was a costume, not a real mermaid. It probably wouldn’t work on a real mermaid.
Fred Solomon, Clark Fork The window in the car wouldn’t roll up, so I duct-taped the gap during the winter so the snow wouldn’t get in. You know, it worked so well it’s still on there!
Lonnie Lockman, Clark Fork. I use it to tape my pants legs down when I’m berry picking - it keeps the mosquitos out so you’re not dancing all over the mountain with mosquitos up your pants. It also works to keep your shoelaces from coming untied.
Clint Nicholson, Sandpoint When I was a kid, the father of one of my friends brought home a case of duct tape from the mines. We found it in the garage and put together a whole tree fort with it. You know, you can twist it and it’s just as strong as rope. It held all our boards together.
Mike Strain, Sandpoint A couple of years ago I used duct tape to hold my headlight in. It’s still working today! Of course, you have to replace the duct tape when it gets hot, ‘cause it will melt.
Kim Benefield, Hope Actually, right now I’m using duct tape to join together two pieces of pipe that have different diameters. It’s for an air conditioning exhaust.
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on the street
Kent Anderson, Sandpoint I was out on my boat and cracked the bow on the cement pier at City Beach. I patched it with duct tape and it held all summer and never leaked!
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In the Valley of Shadows with Lawrence Fury
“...You have a blue guitar, you do not play things as they are...things as they are, are changed upon the blue guitar...” -Wallace Stevens Giving the ghost and haunted house been exceptionally large that year, the stories a rest this month, there are other size of small cherries. Ed and a coworker tales from the Shadows as we hopefully had each gotten three gallons after only welcome new and returning readers to two hours picking a week earlier. the Journal’s new format. Now, Ed decided to check an outTo frame this account, we first go of- the-way area a few miles away that to a small town in Indiana back about had been the site of an old fire. ten years ago as a man retires for the The open area was relatively flat, evening in his upstairs bedroom one about two square miles. Still sparse, the hot summer night. trees ranged from man height to about About to doze off, he was awakened twelve feet with a lot of huckleberry by the sound of something crashing brush. Most of the fruit, though, had through the branches of a tree just either been picked over or had fallen outside his open window. There was a over-ripe to the ground. slight breeze and he dismissed it as a Ed traipsed the area for a good dead branch falling to the ground. hour but found nothing. Wiping sweat The following morning, however, he from his face, he gave the area a last found a plastic soda bottle at the base look around. It was late afternoon and of the tree. A familiar green, obviously he could just see his pickup nearly a a citrus flavor, he was totally unfamiliar quarter mile away. Time to bag it. with the brand: ‘GINGSFRUIT’ and its As he started towards his pickup, he 3-liter size. at first thought it was the late afternoon According to the bottle, the location heat shimmering between him and his of the bottling plant was a small rig. But this was more solid. It ranged town in New York. Calling directory fifty feet into the air and maybe twice information in the town, he found it did that wide. He couldn’t see the young not boast a bottling plant nor could he local trees through it, but could see find any reference to the company on trees of some type. Trees forty or more the Internet. feet tall and more at home in a Florida This leads us to an occurrence in the mangrove swamp. upper Priest Lake country back about Hesitantly moving forward again, the same time with an acquaintance of Ed’s attention was drawn momentarily mine who worked for the Dept. of Lands. by the cry of a bird circling overhead. I’ll call him Ed. Ed decided to stay an Looking back, the mirage was gone, his extra day after conducting a truck plainly visible. survey, when he heard on Puzzled, even a little apprehensive the radio of a man who had now, he slowed, looking around. been picking huckleberries Having grown up in the timber industry, in the general Priest Lake he’d always felt at home in the woods, area and who had been but now, something was different, out reported missing two of place, alien. days earlier. Subconsciously quickening his pace, The berries had Ed didn’t see an old root sticking out of the ground and fell face first. Cursing as he got up, he glanced to his left and saw a man’s boot partially hidden by scrub brush. Picking it up, he realized it was too heavy to be empty. The opening was plugged with what he thought at first was dirt and debris. His fingers met solid
resistance. It dawned on him that the boot still held a foot. (Brings to mind the five right feet still in athletic shoes recently washed up on a Vancouver shore earlier this year, doesn’t it?) The stump was dark as if it had been cauterized. Dropping it in disgust, Ed struggled to calm down, then forced himself to pick it back up. He ran all the way to his pick-up with the grisly find. A few feet from the truck, he noticed something odd about the front right bumper - a small triangular chunk was missing, as if sliced off with a laser. Jumping into the cab he took off in a cloud of dust, not slowing until he had reached Hanna Flats. Ed turned the boot and contents into the Lands office. As weeks went by Ed finally asked about the find. The department denied any knowledge of the boot. The missing man remained officially missing as far as he knew. Vortexes have been reported all over the world that may lead to other realities, some not much different than our own, where a 3-liter soda bottle might be very common. Others may be much different; some perhaps leading to other times. Whatever the explanation, you may not have to sail the Bermuda Triangle to get a glimpse into the void; you may just need to step outside your door, here, in the VALLEY OF SHADOWS.
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Surrealist Research Bureau by Jody Forest
“Great Balls of Fire!” Imagine languidly cruising on a slow ship in the dark night of the Indian Ocean or the Persian Gulf. The sea is calm and an inky black. Suddenly, inexplicably, spokes of a brilliantly glowing underwater wheel spinning rapidly beneath the ship appear, with the possible hub of that vast wheel stretching out to the horizon. Several of these mysterious, glowing wheels may then appear simultaneously, rotating in different directions, sometimes overlapping. The entire eerie display may last for 15 to 20 minutes on average, until the fiery spokes disappear into the distance. Seeing just one of these marvelous displays would normally be filed as a simple type of underwater UFO, but the amazing truth is that there are literally thousands of such reports, many of them witnessed by trained scientists or U.S. Navy warships on patrol. For some unknown reason 90 percent of such “light shows” seem to occur in the Indian Ocean or the Persian Gulf, though they Illustrations by Norman Smith
have also been reported as widely apart as the waters off of Greenland or the Gulf of Mexico. I can remember first hearing of the weird phenomena of the undersea spinning wheels of light back in the early 1960s in the books of the eccentric American compiler of strange goings-on, Charles Fort (Book of the Damned, etc.), and I thought then that it was one of those things whose solution would probably happen in my lifetime. I thought perhaps it was a strange sort of synchronized swimming by tiny phosphorescent marine organisms. Some vast swarms of lightning bugs in the Indonesian jungles, for instance, often put on incredible displays of glowing aerial nightly mating dances at certain times of the year and I assumed that as science marched ever onwards a prosaic explanation would be forthcoming before too long. Forty years have passed and we’re no closer to an answer. Though a few tantalizing clues have surfaced, each one seems to raise its own questions. U.S. Navy warships on maneuver, for instance, have noticed a marked decrease in the luminosity of the “objects” as the ship’s sonar is turned on or off. Experts on the auroral displays of the Northern Lights have long noticed geophysical similarities to these underwater light shows and some simple, as yet unknown electromagnetic force can’t be ruled out or dismissed out of hand. One observer has stated, “The effect on onlookers seems to have been a feeling of weirdness, bordering on fear. At about 11:30 pm there suddenly appeared on each side of the ship the spokes of an
enormous, luminous wheel, each spoke 200 to 300 yards long. Each wheel of light contained about 16 spokes and made a full revolution every 12 seconds. I climbed to the crow’s nest for a better vantage point and although the wheels must have been 500 or 600 yards in diameter the spokes could be seen distinctly all the way ‘round. One could almost fancy one heard a swish as the spokes whizzed past the ship. In speaking of rays of light, I don’t wish to convey the idea they were mere ripplings, such as when schools of phosphorescent fish pass by, but rather, if the sea could be converted into a huge mirror and thousands of strong electric searchlights were shown across it, it would still convey no adequate idea of this strange, grand phenomena.” Well, the phenomena I’ve just told you about are still being reported more than a hundred times a year by trained scientists, pilots, and U.S. Navy crews. Maybe too, some youngster reading this now might say to himself, as science marches ever onwards, surely a prosaic explanation should be arriving soon. “Man lives on a tiny island of ignorance surrounded by a vast and terrible black sea of knowledge and it was not meant for us to travel far.” H.P. Lovecraft
Jody Forest is a noted writer of surrealist poetry. Reach him at dgree666@sandpoint.net
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From the Files of the River Journal’s
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Faith Walk That’s why if we ask Him to, God will give us the ability to love anyone, even our enemies “They will know we are Christians by our love, by our love, they will know we are Christians by our love.” This lyric excerpt comes from a song written by Peter Schools more than 30 years ago. We used to sing it in prayer and camp meetings. I remember the young people as they clasped hands and swayed to the rhythm of the music; smiling, tear stained faces, all longing for the day that these lyrics would be really true. I believe that day is drawing near. The song is based on a passage in the Bible, John 13: 34 &35, which says, ”A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” That verse is impossible to misinterpret no matter what version it is written in. A cross reference Bible verse is 1 John 4:20. This verse says “If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. Of all the New Testament writers, John is most known for his writing about love; love of Christ, love for Christ, between Christ Followers, and love for non-believers. When Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment was, the
question was intended to entrap Him. But what He did with that question not only foiled the attempt to trick Him, it gave us the simplest form of the Gospel possible: Love God, and love people. For a Christ Follower, loving God basically requires that we love people. We cannot love God if we do not love people because God is love and He loves people. As Christ Followers, we can do no less. To follow Him is to be like Him. However, loving people is not always easy. That’s why if we ask Him to, God will give us the ability to love anyone, even our enemies; those who persecute and despitefully use us. It is all joy to us when He is the source of the love we give “They will know we are Christians by the way we love each other.” Is it enough just to say we love one another? Saying it is important. Certainly we all need to hear it from time to time. But even better is when we act on it. Showing love is really very simple. If we see a person with a need, to love that person is to meet their need to the best of our ability. It is an act of the will and requires sacrifice on many levels. To serve Christ is to be like Him, and that means always being on the lookout for ways to, well, act like Him. What did He do? He taught people about God, He healed the sick, He fed the hungry, and He cast out demons. He took care of the needs of the people before Him and He told us to do the same. This list may seem strange in the United States, but in other parts of the world it is quite appropriate. I suspect that it will become more common locally in the coming months. As others see us, and benefit from us acting like Christ, we won’t even have to tell them who we are. They will know we are Christians by our love.
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The Hawk’s Nest By Ernie Hawks
Email: ehawks@photosbyhawks.com | www.PhotosbyHawks.com Sometimes it seems that just as I’m getting used to the latest incarnation of a creation I like, it’s time for a change. Any change is uncomfortable at first because it doesn’t give us that old comfortable feeling, a familiar and expected outcome of pleasantness in our mind. It can’t because the result of any change is, at first, unknown. So, this issue of The River Journal is uncomfortable at best and discomforting at worst, with a completely different format ranging from a new look to new publication schedule. However, I don’t want to give the impression I think change is bad, not this change or many others. Oftentimes change is the result of growth or anticipated growth. A few weeks ago it was spring. In our forest, that meant the Oregon grape was flowering, the Ocean spray was putting out new shoots, all the while the firs, pines, and tamaracks were setting out their new growth for this year. In many cases, the new shoots with flowers and blossoms will change into berries or some other seed bearing shell of the plant. In both the low brush and the tall trees all the new, young life is not just for this year but a foundation for future years of life. The seed heads and flowers will produce seed for another crop; the extensions of the branches on the trees will be a foundation for next year’s extensions, and some of what is new this year will die and go back to the earth for fertilizing future new life. These changes are not just for the sake of change, it makes the plant strong and vibrant. It also is not haphazard or without a plan. I notice each spring the bright green tips on the end of each Grand fir branch, the furry looking ends of the Douglas firs and the branches of the pines reaching out and up into the unknown. But it didn’t just happen. Everything that is new this year has a history that supports it. This
year’s developments are bursting out of last year’s, and last year’s did the same. In fact, where the changes do not occur usually is a sign that the plant is becoming unable to support life at all. I take lessons from what I see around me and try to apply them to my life. When Trish, the publisher of The River Journal, told me she wanted to take the paper to a magazine format, I knew this change was the next natural incarnation of the old River Journal bi-monthly. The first time I remember hearing about it was several years ago in a brain storming session about the business. I wasn’t so sure it was a good idea; really it was just too different for me at that time. Back then, the paper still hit the streets in black and white with an occasional single color for accent. That product, printed
of change comes into play, integrity. Integrity, without a doubt is the most important part of any change, is why it must be supported by a strong history. As I’ve talked to Trish about this I have seen how it is important to her that a change this dramatic must be grounded in the roots of the old paper. This change must continue to support both the readers and the advertisers with intelligence, honesty, and professionalism. The Earth supports the trees and their new growth with nutrients and in turn they convert the air so we can breathe it while providing shade and shelter for other plant and animal species. A paper pays for stories with the support of advertising sales. The readers are the reason those advertisers are in The River Journal. There is another part to change. Not only do the new branches of the trees support newer life, they also age and over the years will be shed to support even more life in another way. Now it is time for The River Journal newspaper to shed an old look to support the change into The River Journal news magazine. As the song says the “young become the old” and the latest incarnation of The River Journal is now the young – with a history. It will have a new unfamiliar feel just as the new growth on the firs feels different, and is proof it is vibrant.
Everything that is new this year has a history that supports it. This year’s developments are bursting out of last year’s, and last year’s did the same. in a little shop in Montana, made a full color magazine seem quite radical. I had become aware of the paper just as it was going from a free paper mailed to every household in the area to a free pick-up paper with several distribution points. The truth is that history of the early paper being sent to everyone was the introduction it needed to survive until today. People wanted to pick it up when the mailings stopped. When the printing was moved to a larger, more professional shop, the idea of a few full color pages started making sense and became a reality. I must admit to my fear of a slick-looking periodical that was more about looks than substance. This is where another dimension
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Duke’s Food Obsession by Duke Diercks | Duke@RiverJournal.com
Big Steaks and Big Reds A few years ago, a merry band of us got together bi-monthly to enjoy our fleeting summers with grilled steaks and red wine. As the leader of the band, I coined the nights “Big Steaks and Big Reds” to accurately pinpoint the level of decadent abandon that should be the order of the evening. You know, steaks as big as a small SUV, and wines that would blow your lips off with flavor. Now those mean spirited individuals who like to call themselves doctors say not to eat too much red meat. Ignore this type of propaganda and bring on the bovine. Or, do as I do and increase your Lipitor dosage. Figuring that there might be some more sturdy individuals out there, I offer my handy guide to a proper Big and Big evening. Rule #1: Do not skimp on the steaks. At the minimum, you must buy choice or better. The cut is important, but not as vital as the quality. With considerable sweat on my part, to save you the trouble, I have sampled many steaks, and find that for the Big and Big night, you can’t go wrong with a rib eye. Or, perhaps a monster t-bone or porterhouse. My current favorite is the flat iron- big on beefy flavor, quite tender, and easy on your pocketbook. Do not consider the filet mignon as it is too mild for this event, and, well, a bit snooty. How you prepare your steaks is up to you, since this is my column, I will offer my favorite methods in order: charcoal grill, pan frying, gas grilling. Since this is all about the meat, side dishes come and go, but being summer
can you go wrong with corn on the cob? You can grill this too, but since the corn we get up here is sometimes suspect, I prefer to boil it with honey added to the water to bump the sweet factor. Perhaps some root vegetablesturnips, potatoes, carrots and onions cut into big chunks, tossed in olive oil and kosher salt, roasted to release their natural sweetness, and finished with balsamic vinegar. A salad is nice too, but it competes with stomach space, so plan accordingly. Rule #2: Do not skimp on the wine. If you are really considering becoming a member of the Big and Big club, you must toe the line. Since a discussion about red wine would fill many columns, I will only offer a personal opinion specific to this event. Many of you reading this are probably in the Cabernet Sauvignon camp. I am not. Sure, I like it, and it can be great, and the fat from the meat can tame the tannins, but to find a great one you most likely have to spend a lot or wait a long time and I am not that patient. No, for Big and Big nights, I have two favorite varietals: Big Zins, or Big Aussie Shiraz’s. You can find many great zinfandels, from the reasonable and reliable Ravenswood Zinfandel, or if you want to splurge, try the Ridge Lytton Springs. For the Shiraz, there are too many to list, but the Glaetzer Wallace is just dandy for the price, or the D’Arenberg Dead Arm is great in the upper price range. But, hands down, the best red I’ve had in recent memory is the Yalumba “Hand-Picked” Shiraz –Viognier blend. It will make you smile and kiss your loved one and giggle. This one I have seen at Yokes. Rule# 3: Repeat as many times as your wallet or liver will allow
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Building your dreams and more Duke Diercks is the master chef and owner of Duke’s Cowboy Grill in Sandpoint. Reach him at Duke@RiverJournal.com
Local Food
The Revival of the Victory Garden
of the
Inland Northwest In 1941, as the United States took a deep breath and launched into World War 2, President Franklin Roosevelt offered a patriotic solution to the problems of a wartime economy: he suggested that Americans plant Victory Gardens to keep the cost of produce low for the war effort. That year, 20 million gardens were planted all across the nation, on city blocks, suburban lawns, and country homes. It is estimated that 40 p e r c e n t o f t h e n a t i o n ’s vegetables produced during wartime were grown in these plots where green lawns previously sat. Our current president has made a drastically different suggestion to thwart our current fuel prices, economic fall-off, and over-participation in countries far, far away. Mr. Bush recommends that citizens of the United States, to protect our humble nation from terrorism and recession, should do as much as possible of the only thing patriotic left in America. And that is to shop. Since President Bush hasn’t stepped up to offer the kind of grassroots advice that benefits the land, the American people, and the security of the nation, a movement that DOES has arisen from the up. And it’s not just about
by Emily LeVine
the price of gas or national security. It’s about healthy, SAFE food for our families, it’s about taking care of our soil, our water, and our air. It’s about creating strong communities and neighborhoods, independently resilient regional economies, and awareness of our impact on the planet. It’s a movement toward a local food system, it’s a movement that has finally reached our little pocket of paradise, and it’s the concept to which this monthly column will be devoted. I should start by saying this: I am not a local. Like thousands of the people who call the Inland Northwest home, I am a transplant, an East Coaster, a “tourist.” So while I know a thing or two about food, my eastward upbringing does put me at a slight disadvantage with regard to local knowledge. Thus mostly I’ll be a reporter, a relayer of information, and, if you would, I’d like for that information to come from you.
Each of you has a local food treasure—a favorite cherry tree in town whose fruit falls to the ground, a salsa recipe that puts up and serves perfectly on Superbowl Sunday, a neighbor with the best eggs in the county. A Victory Garden. In coming issues, I’d like to address topics such as how to find, grow, raise, hunt, buy, prepare, can, freeze, dry, brew, gather, or otherwise utilize local foods and drinks. All of these things with a garnish of recipes and political banter. Hopefully, we can work together to create a food system that benefits the whole community, from the small local farmers to the family table and beyond.
Local Food
of the
month: zucchini
I know it’s kinda scary. But you can do a lot of great things with zucchini, and it’s cheap to buy and/or easy to grow. So easy to grow that August 7 is National Leave-A-Zucchini-On-YourNeighbor’s-Doorstep Day. Try grilling it with some balsamic vinegar for a sandwich or disguising it in a sweet bread for the kids. Check the local farmers’ market for the freshest of this tenacious squash.
Emily LeVine is a soon-to-be farmer living in the Selle Valley. If you have ideas, questions, or comments, or topics you’d like to read about regarding local food, please contact her at localfoodchallenge@gmail.com
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Introducing the Sandpoint Wellness Council The Sandpoint Wellness Council is an association of independent, complementary wellness practitioners located in Sandpoint dedicated to holistic health care, who together see the value of our synergistic practices, and who have chosen to work diligently to bring to you relevant and scientifically researched information on health care options. We believe that there is no “one” solution for everyone; rather each person has unique needs and concerns, and undertaken in such a perspective, effective remediation of causes of distress and dis-ease can be accomplished. This year our collective aim is to bring you information about our individual practices and their objectives so you may make informed decisions about what you want in your personal health care regimen. Complementary health care is about synergy, about working with all ideas for health improvement, prevention, and maintenance of well being. The Sandpoint Wellness Council aims to inform, generate relevant questions, answer those questions, and assist others in finding and understanding current research. Many of our practitioners offer protocols that can effectively provide relief of many common complaints. Each month we will be presenting a topic and will provide information from several of the participating Sandpoint Wellness Council members. We invite our readers to contact us with questions you would like us to address, and we will provide that information in upcoming issues of The River Journal.
A Holistic Approach to Migraines From the Sandpoint Wellness Council Our first topic focuses on migraine headaches. According to Ruth Werner, author of A Massage Therapist’s Guide to Pathology, 28 million people experience migraines. This leads to not only lost wages but to high medical expenses each year. Women tend to suffer more than men, and causes are varied, including genetic factors, personal lifestyle choices and environmental influences. Physiologically, migraines can occur from a narrowing of blood vessels in the brain called vasoconstriction. This increases blood pressure within the vessels. This is then followed by an expansion of the blood vessels called vasodilation. With this expansion comes the intense pain of a migraine headache. Trying to uncover the causes of migraines remains a prominent topic among many professionals. As we accept the bio-individuality of ourselves, we also recognize that a prescription of “one size fits all” does not always effectively deal with the possible triggers that cause migraines. Werner suggests many possible triggers, such as magnesium deficiency (which allows for muscle relaxation), consumption of certain kinds of foods, including red wine,
cheese, chocolate, coffee, tea (all our favorite things!), MSG, and alcohol. As well, Werner relates that stress and hormonal shifts may also be contributing factors. As complementary health practitioners, we see people with a variety of symptoms, and each of us has learned to address these symptoms within our scopes of practice. Following are the educated and professional protocols Sandpoint Wellness Council members utilize to bring comfort and relief for the expressions of migraine headaches for our valued clients. Your review of these multifaceted options may provide you insight for what may work for your specific needs. CranioSacral Therapy- Ilani Kopiecki, CMT In CranioSacral Therapy we use several different release techniques to help with migraine headaches. We release the vertebrae in the neck and upper thoracic area to make sure blood flow to the head is running smoothly. We adjust the sacrum and lower back to ensure release throughout the spine. We also release the occiput, temporal, frontal, and parietal bones in the head so that the dural tissue throughout
Massage - Krystle Shapiro, LMT Oftentimes with severe headaches, the last thing someone wants is to be touched! Depending on the severity of the headache, and/or the type of headache, i.e. cluster, migraine, sinus, tension, or chemical headaches, massage can provide a reduction of stress that may be a contributing factor. Manual lymph drainage, a specialized massage for moving lymph fluids, may be especially helpful in releasing head congestion contributing to migraine symptoms. Biofeedback- Robin Mize CBS. There are a number of alternative or complementary treatment options available for migraine relief. One of these options for migraines is biofeedback. Biofeedback is a technique that involves reducing the effects of pain and stress on your body by learning how your body reacts to pain and stress. Biofeedback does this through monitoring instruments that can detect and display internal bodily function. This is where the EPFX system comes in. This system picks up on those individual stressors and retrains through the subconscious mind. The practitioner is able to share with the client what those stressors may be, and then the client can use that information for lifestyle changes. This can give people better control over body function indicators such as blood pressure, heart rate, temperature, muscle tension, and brain waves. Biofeedback is a type of complementary and alternative
medicine known as mind-body therapy. Biofeedback for migraines may be coupled with relaxation therapy. Relaxation therapy teaches a variety of relaxation strategies for reducing tension and stress throughout the body. I have been able to assist many of my clients that suffer with migraine headaches. Rolfing- Owen Marcus As a Rolfer over that past 28 years, I have had many referrals for migraines. Every one of these clients had an usually tense upper back, neck and head. Neurologists, who were clients of mine and who sent me some of these clients, also saw a consistent pattern of tension with migraine patients. Chronic soft tissue tension is often a reflection of not just a higher stress level, but can come from never being taught how to really relax. Once the body begins to relax, the mind learns to relax. Together the client has greater resiliency to stress, thereby less vulnerable to headaches. Once the soft tissue tension begins to release from the upper body, enviably the migraines would reduce or completely disappear. Reflexology, Herbology- Penny Waters When a client comes to me seeking relief from migraine headaches I immediately anticipate that I will find imbalance in the liver and/or pituitary gland/brain/ spine and nerve reflexes. This is because migraines are associated with digestive difficulties, especially congestion in the liver, tension from stress, which always affects the function of the pituitary gland (and, in turn, all glands), nervous system and constricting and expanding blood vessels in the brain. We begin with a thorough written and verbal consultation about lifestyle, stresses, foods eaten, exercise habits, and so on. I offer hope and an outline of the approach we will take together to facilitate wellness. Despite my initial suspicions, I always let the feet tell me what is out of balance in the body. My client is invited to ‘put their feet up’ and then I go to work giving a full reflexology
Continued on page 46
Photo at left: Sandpoint Wellness Council. Owen Marcus, Penny Waters, Robin and Layman Mize, Ilani Kopiecki, Krystle Shapiro and Mario Roxas – missing from photo: Kristine Battey, Mary Boyd, Tess Hahn, Julie Hutslar and Toni Tessier
The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 17 No. 15 | August 2008 | Page 45
the cranium is open and pliable. Sometimes the jaw and the TMJ areas must be released as well to alleviate pressure in the neck and head. It is also important to counsel the client on diet, lifestyle, and water intake. Health and Fitness- Kristine Battey MSPT, ATC, CSCS, HLC, Exercise can be an excellent tool for fighting off a migraine and may also help the person to relax when they have a migraine. Light cardiovascular exercise followed by stretching and deep, relaxing breathing can relax the body and the muscles in the neck and shoulders that lead to tension related migraine headaches. The use of a foam roller or therapeutic ball for stretching can help the spinal muscles to relax. During acute migraine, I instruct clients to lie down in a quiet room, close their eyes and do gentle stretches along with relaxing, deep breathing techniques. This may relieve the migraine or at least help it to be more tolerable. Another important part of preventing migraines is related to the person’s diet. It is important for a migraine sufferer to clear their diet of toxins and eat high quality, nutrient dense food. I assess my client’s physiological load which is the sum total of all stressors acting on their body: what they eat, when they eat, stress, sleep, their digestive system, and their detoxification system. I also assess what metabolic type they are and guide them to make quality food choices according to what types of food their particular nutritional type would benefit from most. Eating an organic, whole food diet high in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes and quality sources of grass-fed, organic meat are important for optimal health and may help to decrease the incidence or severity of migraines.
wellness
Migraines- Continued from page 45 session on the feet, making notes as to areas of tension, congestion and inflammation. Reflexology is revealing as it tells me which organs or glands are out of balance and needing healing that promote proper function of the body. Reflexology helps the migraine headaches decrease in frequency and intensity and also is profoundly relaxing to the body, mind and spirit relieving stress and the resulting impact on wellness. When the reflexology is complete, I discuss with my client the organs, glands and body parts that are out of balance and the impact of reflexology on promoting wellness. I generally recommend reflexology treatments once a week for 4 to 6 weeks for a transformation in the condition. Individual programs, however, will be made according to the needs of the client. I also recommend herbs that will help bring about and speed up wellness in the affected areas and relieve the migraine headaches. Generally one herbal formula in a tea or tincture is all that I recommend at any one time. At this point I will discuss foods that are commonly associated with triggering migraines and make suggestions for food changes that will help prevent migraines. The goal is to assess the whole person and the life of this person to establish patterns that are leading to this painful condition and to choose a new path leading to wellbeing and joyful living. §
Ask us your questions! Ask individual members or email your questions to trish@RiverJournal.com The Sandpoint Wellness Council Members: • Krystle Shapiro, Touchstone Massage Therapies 208-290-6760 or email krystle.touchstone@gmail.com • Owen Marcus, Rolfing, 208-2658440 • Tess Hahn, Acupuncture, 208-6835211 • Kristine Battey, Divine Health Physical Therapy, 208-946-7072 • Ilani Kopiecki, Integrated Body Work and CranioSacral 208-610-2005 • Mary Boyd, Mountain View Physical Therapy 208-290-5575 • Robin Mize, Quantum Biofeedback Systems 208-610-9997 • Julie Hutslar, Core Belief Restructuring 208-263-1448 • Mario Roxas, Naturopath 208-9460984 • Toni Tessier, Dancing Hands Massage, Bach Flowers 208-610-8681 • Penny Waters, Relaxation Destination, Herbology, Reflexology 208-597-4343 Please visit our website and feel free to add your comments at www. sandpointwellnesscouncil.com
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Page 46 | The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 17 No. 15 | August 2008
Ignorance is Not Bliss
Majestic Landscaping Supplies Hwy. 200 in Clark Fork
by Angela Potts-Bopp
When is ignorance not bliss? When it concerns your health and health insurance! Too many people are unaware of the many possibilities for insurance coverage available in Idaho for people of all ages and health conditions. Employers have the potential to make the greatest impact on the uninsured. There are many ways to do this without burdening the business. Sometimes it is a matter of reallocating expenses already incurred on benefits such as sick leave. What if a business could offer a benefit that improved productivity, reduced absenteeism, reduced turnover, and attracted and retained the best employees in addition to reducing their worker’s compensation insurance costs and their tax liabilities? Who would turn this down? Yet many businesses don’t offer health insurance to their employees because they think it would be too expensive. When Bill Clinton was elected as President and Hillary-Care loomed on the horizon, the Idaho legislature recognized the public’s desire for affordable health care and created individual and small group (under 50 employees) health reforms within a year. Progressive features of Idaho Health Reform included: the formation of a high risk pool for individuals who would have otherwise been declined for coverage; allowing group status (and therefore less expensive coverage) for as few as two employees; disallowing group coverage to decline anyone; requiring all group plan enrollees to be eligible for preferred coverage – including their dependents; and pre-existing conditions would only have a six month look back period. In the spring of 2003, the Idaho Legislature passed House Bill 376. This bill directed the Department of Health and Welfare to design and implement programs to improve the health of Idahoans by decreasing the number of uninsured Idaho citizens. The
Department of Health and Welfare implemented the Access to Health Insurance program in 2005. The target is to reach uninsured children and adults living in families whose income is at or below 185 percent of the Federal Poverty Guidelines. As an example, that could be as little as $1,603 for a single person household, up to $3,268 for a four-person household. This is gross income, and child support is excluded from the income amount. Sadly, there are a fair number of families that meet this threshold. The state of Idaho offers two premium assistance programs to support the purchase of private health insurance: Access to Health Insurance and the Access Card. This article will focus on Access to Health Insurance. This is a premium assistance program that makes health insurance more affordable for employees of qualified small businesses, those employing anywhere from 2 to 50 employees. There is an annual application review. Employers must meet the following guidelines to participate in this program: • Operate an Idaho small business (250 employees) • Currently not offer health insurance • Be willing to pay at least 50 percent of the employee’s premium • Have at least one employee who meets the income guidelines for premium assistance It provides premium assistance of up to $100 per month per person to qualified employees, their spouses, and their minor children, with a maximum premium assistance of $500 per month, per family. This subsidy is not limited to annual enrollment. It can include future employees who qualify. AHI is good for employees and good for business! Access to Health Insurance is not a health insurance plan; it is a way to help pay for health insurance. In addition to the cost sharing it offers the freedom to choose insurers and type of coverage – everything from basic, to limited, to comprehensive health plans. To learn more about this program and to determine if you qualify, call your insurance agent today. You can also learn more by visiting the Idaho Health and Welfare website online at www.healthandwelfare.idaho.gov, or call their family Medicaid unit toll free at 866-326-2485.
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Angela has a passion for meeting the needs of the uninsured. You can reach her at Summit Insurance Resource Group 208-265-9690 x 201 or email apotts@summitirg.com
The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 17 No. 15 | August 2008 | Page 47
When it Comes to Insurance
hobbies
The Number One American Hobby
Genealogy
If you’ve ever heard someone talking about their great-grandfather’s service in the Civil War, or about how their greatgreat-grandparents came to this country during Ireland’s potato famine, and wished you had similar knowledge about your own ancestors, it might be time for you to take up America’s number one hobby - genealogy. With the advent of the Internet, the study of your family’s ancestors has never been easier and, once you’ve been hooked by the information you can find online, you’ll probably discover a willingness to delve a little deeper by researching at local genealogy and historical societies, writing to county clerks and churches, and maybe even making a trip or two to the areas where your ancestors lived. A newcomer to genealogy can do no better than to schedule a visit to their local Mormon church’s Family History Center. (See sidebar for a list of local genealogy libraries.) There you’ll find local experts who will be happy to introduce you to standard procedures and the resources available. And don’t be intimidated by the church surroundings - Family History Center genealogists may or may not be members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and their church affiliation will only come up if you ask for it. To start, all would-be genealogists are
Area Family History Centers: Sanders Co., Mont.
• Thompson Falls Montana - 110 Gulf St. Phone: 406-827-9757 Hours: Wed-Sat 9am-12pm; winter by appt Bonner Co., Idaho • Priest River Idaho - West Albeni Rd Phone: 208-437-2474 Hours: Tues.-Wed 1pm-8:30pm Closed: Major holidays and pubilc school snow days • Sandpoint Idaho -602 Schwitzer Cutoff Road. Phone: 208-263-3327 Hours: Tues-Thurs 9am-3pm; Closed: Holidays, Nov 17-27, Dec 15-Jan 2, and when school is closed due to bad weather. Boundary Co., Idaho • Bonners Ferry Idaho - 1512 Alderson Ln. Phone: 208-267-3802 Hours: Tues. 9am-8pm; Wed. 4pm8pm; Thur. 9am-6pm Kootenai Co., Idaho • Hayden Lake Idaho - 2293 W Hanley Ave Phone: 208-765-0150 Hours: Mon. 10am-5pm; Tue-Thur 10am-9pm
advised to write down everything they already know (or think they know) about their family history. The process begins by verifying those facts, and then adding to them. Grandma was an Indian princess? Probably not. But for every family myth that falls to research, you’re likely to uncover interesting facts about the people who helped to make you who you are today. If you want to plunge into online research, find the online site run by the Mormon church at www.familysearch. org. Enter the information you know in the fields given and you’re off on the hunt. Here’s some tips to help you as you begin to delve into your family’s past. 1. Don’t believe everything you read. Your great-grandma Thelma’s death certificate may state that her father’s name was John Williams, but that might not be the case. Death certificates are generally filled out by spouses or children who may not have direct knowledge about the information they provide. The rule in genealogy is - records are most trustworthy when they’re made close to the time of the actual event, and less trustworthy the further away in time. 2. Don’t overlook a possible ancestor because their surname is spelled differently than what you believe to be correct. It wasn’t until early in the 1900s that the spelling of surnames became standardized. In one document from the late 1800s related to my Presley great-grandparents, their surname was spelled Presley, Pressley, Presly and Priestley, all in the same legal document! 3. Always try to see the source document itself. Your cousin may insist that his father’s birth certificate gives a specific date of birth, but you won’t know for sure unless you’ve seen a copy of the document itself. Despite what you’ve heard about how “they don’t teach penmanship anymore,” handwriting samples from past documents created prior to the age of typewriters (and computers) vary greatly, and many are extremely difficult to read. What looked like a number two to your cousin might actually, on closer look, be a seven. 4. Write down everything you do. When you find information on your elusive great-great grandmother on Ancestry.com, you tend to believe you’ll always remember it. You won’t. And sure enough, the time will come when you’re desperately searching for just where you found a particular piece of information if you neglect to write it down. 5. Don’t give up. Every genealogist, at some time, runs into what’s not-sofondly called a “brick-wall” ancestor, where it seems no information is available and none ever will be. With time and persistence, those brick walls will fall. Happy (ancestor) hunting! -Trish Gannon
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Page 48 | The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 17 No. 15 | August 2008
Currents By Lou Springer
Email: nox5594@blackfoot.net Fire, fire, fire - if fire isn’t on your mind, it should be. Radio reports of July fires in eastern Washington are like hearing from Paul Revere. The fires are coming, the fires are coming. As inhabitants of the heavily forested mountains of North Idaho and Western Montana, we are surrounded by astronomical amounts of fuel. All it will take is a careless match, a spark from a chainsaw, a lightening strike. Most people now understand past human activities and fire intervention have resulted in a vast deposit of fuel to feed a monstrous fire. The Forest Service policy of putting out every forest fire before noon seemed so right. Building roads up every drainage seemed so practical. Harvesting the big trees and ignoring the thick, small trees seemed so economical. In the past, some fires should have been allowed to burn. Roads, built to haul timber, now allow people to be in the woods using their 4-wheelers, chainsaws and cigarettes. Forest management should have been driven by fuel reduction, not harvest quotas. Controlling a huge conflagration would be impossible. National Guard troops are depleted and USFS experienced personnel have been cut back. Resources, fire fighters, and equipment are stretched so thin in California my brother writes that there are a hundred unmanned fires in his vicinity. There are no borate bombers, no yellow-shirted crews, and no helicopters carrying water. He has a generator and a thousand-gallon tank of stored winter water, but unless he is willing to drop the magnificent redwood by the front door, his house would be toast. Check with your local Forest Service headquarters, they have information about creating a defensible space around your home, thinning your forested lands and using controlled burns in the spring to lessen fuel loads. The telephone number for the Cabinet Ranger District is 406-827-3533. The Panhandle Ranger District’s number if 208-263-5111. But don’t wait until you see the flames - by then everyone will be too busy to answer the phone.
Many lessons should have been learned after the Cerro Grande Fire of 2000. Employees of the Bandelier National Monument Park Service lighted a prescribed burn on May 4. High winds blew it out of control and by May 10, 180,000 acres had burned. It could be that those acres needed a good cleansing fire, but 400 hundred homes were destroyed. Since 200 of these were in the town of Los Alamos - America’s nuclear city - the fire got national attention. The Cerro Grande fire investigation
make your buildings safer is the first step. Acknowledging the potential hazards of your site and taking steps to minimize a bad situation would help. A few facts about fire would be good to know. Fire is unusual in that it travels faster uphill than down. Ground fires can remain on the ground if ladder fuels and small trees are removed. Conifers have flammable, oily needles and torch easily. Have an evacuation plan in mind. Make a list of the most important documents to save. Collect the photo albums. Pets, livestock, equipment - you have to know how and where they are going. During the last fiery summer, I packed all the tools and toys such as skis and kayaks in the pick-up and parked it in the middle of a shorn hayfield. The tractor, rototiller, lawnmower, and haying equipment were likewise in the hayfield. The passenger car held all the documents, mementos, photo albums, and floppy discs. The camper was filled with sleeping bags, stove, cooking gear, lantern, food, water, some clothing, and a cat cage. Another necessary component to your own safety is learning how to read a map. I have been amazed at the presumably intelligent people who have no idea where they are. At a Forest Service fire information meeting several years ago, one successful businesswoman asked an embarrassing question that demonstrated she didn’t know north from south. Another was unsure where Noxon, location of his home, was in relation to the Cabinet/ Coeur d’Alene Divide. Without geographical knowledge, a person is at the mercy of rumors, misinformation, and bad ideas. One of our neighbors, during the last fire scare, thought her best route of escape was drive up a USFS road to reach Idaho… from the frying pan into the fiery furnace. Arm yourself with as much information as you can. Your life may depend upon it.
As inhabitants of the heavily forested mountains of North Idaho and Western Montana, we are surrounded by astronomical amounts of fuel. contained interesting information for homeowners. Pictures prove that many of the Los Alamos homes were lost to low intensity ground fires that merely scorched pines and rail fences. Creeping under the rails, the fires crawled across lawns until reaching oily fuels such as ornamental juniper foundation plantings. Whoosh. Every couple of months, there seems to be another McMansion built on the slopes above the Clark Fork River. A steep and narrow driveway through the forest leads to a clearing with a view. The mansion will have an overhanging deck sheltering the fireplace woodpile. Whoosh. It has become apparent throughout the last eight years that we have been saddled with, not less government, as promised, but less effective government. We cannot expect much from a government where lobbyists write legislation and inexperienced cronies operate the agencies. (“You are doing a heckuva’ job, Brownie.”) It therefore behooves us to learn as much as we can about protecting ourselves. Understanding how to create defensible space around your home and how to
The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 17 No. 15 | August 2008 | Page 49
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A Seat in the House with George Eskridge Budget Surplus is not the Entire Picture
The Idaho State Controller just announced: “with the close of Idaho’s fiscal year on June 30, accountants in the State Controller’s Office have been adding up the revenues and expenditures in state government. Their finding - the state will close the books on fiscal year 2008 with a $223.8 million onetime surplus in the General Fund.” The State Controller goes on to say “In these tight economic times this one-time surplus shows that Governor Otter and the Legislature are operating the state’s business in a lean and efficient manner.” As good as this news is, it may mislead the public into thinking that the state has more funding available for the upcoming year than we actually have; and there are probably those directly involved in various state-supported programs thinking that there is more opportunity for increased support for their programs than the legislature may have thought when we set the Fiscal Year 2009 budget last session. The State Controller’s 223.8 million dollar surplus used in the press release should not be announced as a surplus, but rather as the FY ’08 ending cash balance. The legislature estimated a cash balance at the end of this fiscal year, but recognizing the beginning of a reversal in our economic situation last February, incorporated this additional revenue in meeting FY ’09 program appropriations. However, even though much of this cash balance of the end of this last fiscal year is committed, the financial news is still better than expected. The State Controller’s office General Fund collections reported in the newspapers exceeds the estimate that the legislature used when setting the FY ’09 budget by 47.8 million dollars. Individual income tax and corporate income tax receipts were the biggest contributors to the cash balance. Individual income taxes were $51.3 million over the estimate and corporate income taxes were $20.3 million over the estimate. Sales tax collections were $23.5 million under the estimate. However, good news is good news, and this additional revenue will be helpful in appropriating the state’s financial resources to meet program needs in FY ‘09. The state’s financial situation in any given year is impacted by legislation passed by the legislature in each legislative session. After each legislative session the Division of Financial Management
reviews legislation impacting General Fund revenues and then incorporates the estimated loss or gain in revenue created by the new legislation in their Fall revenue projections. This information is incorporated in the DFM’s Budget Activities Summary report. The 2008 legislature passed 15 bills impacting state revenues. Twelve of these bills reduce revenue; three of them increase revenues, but the dollar impact of these three bills is minor compared to the reduction in revenue by the other legislation. The bills reducing revenues decrease projected receipts by $70,152 million while the others only increase revenues by $975,000. The net impact of the 2008 legislation is a decrease in the General Fund of $69,177 million. Surprisingly the largest impact from legislation was caused by House Bill 615 which was necessary to update Idaho
“In these tight economic times this one-time surplus shows that Governor Otter and the Legislature are operating the state’s business in a lean and efficient manner.” Code to include changes necessary because of the federal government’s passage of the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008. The $38 million reduction from this legislation splits evenly the benefit between individual income and corporate income taxes. The second biggest impact was the result of House Bill 588 that increased the grocery tax credit from $20 to $30 for most income levels and from $20 to $50 for households with less then $1,000 taxable income. The legislation also increases the credit for seniors from $35 to $55. House Bill 615 and House Bill 588 cover almost 90 percent of the total estimated decrease in General Fund revenues. To summarize, the end result from the tax related legislation is good news for Idaho tax- payers since it means “less tax paid!” This, coupled with an ending state FY ’08 cash balance of $47.8 million more than expected is good news for the taxpayer; however, the 2009 legislature will still have difficulty in allocating dollars for state programs when there are significant needs that have to be met. Education support, Health and Welfare program needs, the highway construction and maintenance deficit, and the need for additional correctional facilities are examples of increasing demand for taxpayer dollars. But, good news is good news and the good news is that Idaho’s fiscal picture is looking good, even with the current economic situation that we are experiencing! As always please feel free to contact me with issues of importance to you! Thanks for reading! George
George Eskridge is Idaho’s Representative for District 1A. Reach him at PO Box 112, Dover, ID 83825 or call 208-265-0123
There has been an incredible increase in Democratic activity in Idaho this election year. I had been somewhat involved with the local Democrats since 2004, and as a “political junkie,” and avid C-Span watcher, I started learning about the presidential candidates back in late 2006, when John Edwards announced his candidacy. In early 2007, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama declared their candidacies, and I watched them get started on the longest primary season ever. By October 2007, I became committed to working for the Idaho Democratic Party after attending an IDP statewide meeting and training in Post Falls. I had the opportunity to learn about canvassing and campaigning from Parag Mehta, the Democratic National Committee’s Director of Training. I took seminars on fundraising, and other necessary political skills. I came away from that event all fired up, and immediately volunteered to be vice-chairman for the Bonner County presidential caucus
The Wall Street Journal said last week that “Idaho is no longer a lock for Republicans.” in February 2008. Although Idaho and Bonner County have been represented by mostly Republicans at all elected levels, there was a definite feeling of change in the air. We only had to look to our neighbors in Montana, who elected a Democratic Governor and U.S. Senator, to know we in Idaho had our work cut out for us, and could be successful. The first sign of change and success was the February 5th caucuses. The excitement created by Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton in the primary season resulted in an Idaho statewide turnout of 21,224 at the caucuses. Caucus attendance in Bonner County was over 590, and over 150 in Boundary County–both over double the numbers in 2004. In June, the delegates elected in the caucuses gathered in Boise for the state convention. I attended the convention as the newly-elected Bonner County Democratic Chairman, and am proud of what our North Idaho delegates accomplished. There are four delegates from Kootenai and Benewah counties headed to the Denver national convention, and one of the two Idaho DNC pages is University of Washington student Julian Langness from Bonners Ferry. Our youthful Democrats re-activated the Young Democrats in Idaho, and their newlyelected secretary is Dash Paulson from Sandpoint. Now that Obama is the presumptive Democratic nominee, many local people are out talking to their neighbors about him, and registering voters for November. We are fortunate in Bonner County to have an Idaho DNC / IDP Field Coordinator living in Sagle. I have had the pleasure of learning from and working with Shelley Landry for the last four years, and even when she is on the road helping Democrats around the state, she always makes time to help her local Democrats. I have been to Boise twice this year for training, and to meet with my county colleagues and candidates. The Bonner
County Democrats have been busy opening our 2008 office in Sandpoint, and getting out into the community to listen to people’s concerns and tell them about our candidiates. We are on the phone talking with volunteers, hosting events and preparing for the fall. The efforts of Idaho Democrats has not gone unnoticed nationally in the press. Last year, I remember hearing a national pollster on C-Span state unequivocally that Idaho would not have any meaningful contested congressional races in 2008 - it was in the bag for Republicans. This was before the Super Tuesday caucuses and primaries. Many news stories are now focusing on the western states, and although Idaho’s electoral votes will most likely go to John McCain, more Democrats will be elected in the West and in Idaho. Idaho has been in the national news for our congressional races - the Wall Street Journal said last week that “Idaho is no longer a lock for Republicans.” Both Walt Minnick and Larry LaRocco are campaigning to represent Idaho’s people and values in Washington D.C. In Idaho’s Legislative District 1 (Boundary and northern Bonner counties), Sandpoint’s Steve Elgar and Bonners Ferry’s Tom Hollingsworth are running for the Idaho House. These candidates are all running to serve Idaho people and our values of community, democracy, opportunity, justice, freedom, responsibilty/stewardship, and accountability. I encourage all of you to invest some time and energy in the next couple of months, learning about all of the people who are running in the 2008 elections. All are welcome at our Bonner County Democratic Headquarters, located at 105 N Second Ave., in Sandpoint. (You can phone us at 208-947-8073.) I believe that voting is a privilege that we should exercise with the knowledge of who we are voting for and why.
Laura Bry is the Chairman of the Bonner County Democratic Party. Reach her at laurab1@mac.com
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Left Turn with Laura Bry
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In Montana
with Pat Williams
The Greater Yellowstone Coalition
Early in June, one of the keystone conservation organizations in the Rocky Mountains celebrated its 25th anniversary. In 1983 at the little town of Mammoth, The Greater Yellowstone Coalition held its first meeting. Their incorporation papers date back to that time. GYC is the formal citizen-led organization, which works to protect the nation’s first and now 136-year-old national park. However, informal and historic coalitions of people who, through the centuries, have respected, protected, and utilized Yellowstone also warrant our attention. Archeologists are able to document
that they do shape our human responses. In that shaping, we each become a part of the coalition that visits, protects and honors Yellowstone National Park. The Washburn Expedition joined the coalition for Yellowstone around that campfire near what is now Madison Junction. U.S. Sen. Pomeroy of Kansas and Delegate Clagett of Montana joined when they introduced the Yellowstone Park Act on the morning of December 18, 1871, as did President Grant when he signed it the following March. The coalition which so respects Yellowstone includes John Coulter and
I am comfortable with the idea that some places on earth are so beautiful, hold such uncommon natural spectacles and surprises, encompass such uniqueness that they do shape our human responses some of Yellowstone’s earliest inhabitants, the Tukudika Indians from 12,000 years ago. These native people, a branch of the Shoshone and Bannock, commonly called Sheepeaters, found the food, water and wonders of this place to be sustaining influences in their tribal societies. We believe these people, among our earliest societal families, guarded and secured this place, which in turn provided them with sustenance and isolation. Perhaps unknowingly, the Sheepeater Indians were forming a very early coalition for Yellowstone; a coalition whose beginnings are best measured not by papers of incorporation but rather by the stars, ancient Americans, and volcanic action deep within our planet. Although personally ambivalent about the theory known as Environmental Determinism, which holds that the physical rather than societal conditions determine culture, I am comfortable with the idea that some places on earth are so beautiful, hold such uncommon natural spectacles and surprises, encompass such
Jim Bridger; the hundreds of newspaper editors who have protected it with carefully chosen words; the greatgrandchildren of craftsmen and women who designed, constructed and furnished Old Faithful Inn, the firefighters of 1988, and millions more including the Park’s staff and visitors. Pride requires that I also recognize another early member of the Park’s fraternity—or in this case—sorority. My wife Carol’s great-great-grandmother Inez Allen’s obituary noted that she was likely the first Caucasian woman to have traversed the Park from its western boundaries, doing so in the 1860s. All of Inez Allen’s many descendants consider themselves linked to Yellowstone through that pioneer. Those fortunate folks who live near the Park’s border in the towns of West, Gardiner, Cooke City, Silver Gate, and Cody are also members of the coalition to both protect and utilize this one-ofa-kind natural wonder. Yes, there are occasional tensions between some of those citizens and specific efforts of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition whose anniversary we celebrate. However, we should remain hopeful that in the long pull of history, Yellowstone’s grandeur, power and economic opportunities continue to define us in a manner that honors and protects the Park. Pat Williams is the northern office Director of Western Progress, an eight-state policy group. He is also Senior Fellow at The University of Montana Center for the Rocky Mountain West
uniqueness
YOU’RE INVITED!
Help cut the ribbon on Clark Fork High School’s new bleachers & commentator’s stand!
At our first home football game on Friday, Sept. 19 5:30 pm Clark Fork’s
Wampus Cats VS
Kootenai’s
Warriors
Food, Door Prizes and just a few Speeches as Panhandle State Bank recognizes
BOB HAYS
as their Community Star and as the Clark Fork Booster Club recognizes the people and businesses who made this project possible. Join us for football, Wampus Cat style!
Energy Independence and Forest Health
The high price of oil is causing a lot of economic turmoil in America, largely because it so completely saturates our economy. The most tangible aspect, of course, is the increased cost of highway fuels; gasoline prices are having an effect on consumer spending for life’s necessities, let alone those purchases that make life more fun, and diesel prices effect the cost of virtually everything else. It’s no secret to anyone that food prices have shot up dramatically and much of that increase is directly tied to the price of oil. The price of transporting feed, seed, and fertilizer to the farm, the cost of running farm equipment, and the cost of transporting finished goods all depend on fuel costs, not to mention the fact that fertilizer is a petroleum by-product that is seeing its own dramatic price increase. In our hypothetical quest for “energy independence” we
more moisture available for remaining trees to keep them healthy and can reduce the danger of forest fires. A study done for the Oregon Department of Energy—“Western Forest Health and Biomass Energy Potential”—contrasted the $216 cost per acre of fighting fire with the $50 to $150 per acre cost of thinning. I’m not suggesting wholesale tree slaughter, but I am saying that there is a potentially viable market for wood products that don’t have much value for anything else. I’ve written before that there is not a significant construction market to absorb timber from a large scale forest renewal project, and that any such project would need to be government subsidized, which is not all bad. But there can be a methanol market for such timber, and the quality of the timber doesn’t make any difference to the wood stills.
More importantly, the forests in the West are in bad shape and patches of dead and diseased trees are increasingly visible on the landscape. There is a need for stewardship to both maintain and improve forest health and to prevent wildfire. have created another factor that’s increasing the cost of food, and that’s producing ethanol as a partial replacement for gasoline. Forgetting for a moment the fact that it takes more energy to create a gallon of ethanol than the energy contained in that gallon, the amount of cropland that has been diverted from raising other crops in favor of growing the corn used in ethanol production is creating its own little economic mischief. Because less land is devoted to the production of animal feeds the cost of that item is going up, and that cost eventually lands in the American frying pan in the form of more expensive steak, eggs, or pork.
Engines run well on methanol, so well that it was mandated for use by the United States Auto Club after 1964 for the Indianapolis 500. It took a tragedy to accomplish that however, after a seven car pileup in which Eddie Sachs and Jimmy MacDonald were burned to death in their gasoline fueled cars when their gas tanks ruptured. Johnny Rutherford, driving a methanol fueled car also had his fuel tank rupture, but survived the crash because methanol is less volatile than gasoline. It was a safety move by USAC more than anything else, but if methanol is good enough for high performance auto racing, it can work anywhere.
Who dealt this mess? If anyone thinks there is any intelligent planning here I’d like to know about it. The world’s integrated oil companies certainly aren’t anxious to see change as long as they’re cutting a fat hog. In fact, their answer to the problem is, use even more oil. Well, heck, it’s what they do best, but it’s not helpful, let alone even close to an answer.
This is just a suggestion with benefits for a couple of problems, fuel costs and forest health. We tend to stick with things we understand, even when—or especially when—they aren’t working. It is wiser and more productive to recognize problems and anticipate solutions instead of waiting for the crisis, which, by the way, has arrived.
There are a few countries that have not been hard hit by oil prices. They don’t produce a lot of oil, and they no longer import a lot of oil because they have figured out another way to power cars. Brazil relies on its vast acreage to grow sugar cane for ethanol production (no, I don’t know if it’s driving their food costs up), Israel is switching to electric cars, and China is moving toward methanol, otherwise known as wood alcohol. There are a number of products that methanol can be made from; natural gas, coal, CO2 recovery from industrial exhaust gases, and wood. Montana has a lot of coal in the east and a lot of wood in the West. More importantly, the forests in the West are in bad shape and patches of dead and diseased trees are increasingly visible on the landscape. There is a need for stewardship to both maintain and improve forest health and to prevent wildfire. In an era of drought, thinning forests makes
Jim Elliott is Montana’s Senator from District 7. Visit his website at www.JimElliott.org
The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 17 No. 15 | August 2008 | Page 53
Montana Viewpoint with Jim Elliott
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Say What? By Paul Rechnitzer
Email: pushhard@nctv.com There is no question about the influence of TV on our society. The tube has had a profound affect on all aspects of our daily lives. How the impact is measured is to some extent an individual matter. What influences one guy doesn’t mean a thing to another. Critical opinion is all over the board except that ratings are accepted as the true measure of popularity and the best places to put your advertising dollar. Public Broadcasting is supposedly the only way to better serve the viewing public. Higher standards (whatever that means) are intended to offer the viewing public better fare (whatever that means). Anyway, whether the program is available with or without commercials, there are some programs that make you wonder. My favorite, aired with commercials, is Survivor. Accept that what you watch does affect your reasoning. As an example, some of the cop shows have made forensic a more common word .Twenty years ago you would have looked it up to see just what the term means. These days it is being applied to all sorts of things because it implies there is a new method at large to solve crime. But Survivor isn’t about solving heinous crime; it’s about how to win by use of deception, deceit and lies.(DDL). Considering that between our politicians
and sleazy advertising there is plenty of DDL to go around, it is strange that we need a TV program to promote the practice . My Okie colleagues had a another term which I think is quite descriptive - “side stepping and high jumping.” Kinda of what you need to do when walking through a verbal mine field. So to “keep the dream alive” Survivor is going into is 18th season. That’s the bad news. The good news was that you all could audition for a part in the play.
Clinton. On the way to the underside of the bus her virtues are extolled., ad nauseum (L. barf) Of course, the name of the game in Survivor is to mislead. You want your new best friends to trust you and what you say, knowing all the while only one person is going to win and that had better not be them. This is where the side stepping and high jumping comes in. Be sure to have your moves down for the audition. It helps to practice at home with some musical accompaniment. Strings work best. Telling the lie requires some practice unless you have a genetic flair for it. The big problem as we all know is that the facial expression has to support the message. If you look shifty that is an area you need to work on. Practice looking a total stranger in the eye, all the while telling them that the bridge is for sale. Give some thought to the fact that in the tropics you may be swatting all manner of insects as you deliver your carefully thought out deception. It will help your audition if you have practiced sidling up to strangers with hushed messages. Sabotage is an accepted procedure when things are not going as you wished. That was well known in the other ‘reality’ show called the “Great Race.” And finally, remember to keep your eye on the ball. The million bucks they hand you in the studio represents a prize not for outlasting the other characters, but out-foxing ( term selected for G-13 rating) them. It’s a ‘dog eat dog’ world out there and there is no big prize for being nice. And don’t forget that no matter what your dear mother taught you, there is something to be said for being deceptive. It must be so or why would so many people want to watch it?
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It is sort of ironic that an Indian tribe would be sponsoring the event. In case you missed it, the event was in Worley, at the Casino. Isn’t that where there are already quite a few losers? If you win at the tables that may be an omen. If you are of the female persuasion you know what are considered promotable assets so choose your garments carefully. Leave your prom dress home. Same goes for dress shoes. A quick trip to the local Goodwill is a great place to enhance your wardrobe. Remember, looking desperate, tired and on the verge of collapse is part of the game. Make-up is a consideration The same suggestions apply to the men. If you have the body of a god by all means share it with the world. James did that to great effect. If you have never worn the right sized shoes you will be right at home running barefoot. So much for the video. If your mother told you to respect women you can put that bit of manners on hold . The audio is going to require you to practice verbal sincerity. It is a well established fact that before the knife is inserted between the should blades of your buddy, there must be a lot of admiration. If you are not acquainted with this idea just watch Obama praise
The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 17 No. 15 | August 2008 | Page 55
reviews
BookConscience of a Liberal Paul Krugman HC, 296 pages, $25.95, ISBN 978-0-393-06069-0 Published by W. W. Norton
Paul Krugman, columnist for the New York Times and winner of the John Bates Clark Medal, the most prized award given to American economists, has written a tour de force for American liberals and the progressive movement that, in clear economic language, says the unsayable - just why Bush Republicans (movement conservatives) were able to take over America and what liberals can, and should, do about it. Failed Econ 101? Not to worry, as Krugman explains in depth why the conventional wisdom of economics fails to explain the economic story of America in the 20th century. And, in a time when the words “welfare state” engender an almost instinctive dread in many Americans, he offers detail about how the creation of America’s welfare state led to the most prosperous times for Americans as a whole, and how an expansion of the same can take us back to those glory days after World War II. Afraid of socialized medicine? Krugman talks about how socialized insurance is not just an economic imperative for America, but a moral one as well. Just ask anyone who opposes universal health care who is old enough to receive Medicare whether they really want to give it up for themselves. Instead of making unprovable claims, Krugman’s heavily footnoted book challenges all to explain what the unrefuted statistics say about the American lifestyle - in particular, its health care system. How is it that the U.S. spends almost twice as much on health care per person than Canada, France and Germany, and almost twoand-a-half times as much as Britain (all countries with ‘socialized’ medicine), yet have a much lower level of life expectancy? Despite claims that the American health care system is “the best in the world,” the World Health Organization actually rates it number 37.
Readers are invited to submit their own reviews of books, movies and games to editorial@RiverJournal.com.
This book is not just about health care, however, but about how the current Republican party, whose policies are designed to support the very rich, receives so much support from average Americans - in part by playing a particularly ugly ‘race card’ - and why their time of ascendency may be at an end. Conscience of a Liberal is a must read for Democrats who need to recognize the mistakes of the past if they’re not to repeat them. It’s a must read for progressives with its call for immediate action and its blueprint for success. And it’s a must read for the true conservative Republican, aghast at what’s become of his party, who wants to understand how it was taken over.
HHHHH
-Trish Gannon
BookThe Tao of Willie A guide to the happiness in your heart Willie Nelson with Turk Pipkin PB, 184 pages, $12.00, ISBN 978-1-592-40287-8 Published by Gotham Books
When Willie Nelson smiles that whole-body, gamine smile of his, it’s hard not to like him. And after reading The Tao of Willie, the book where he explains his philosophy of life, it’s even harder not to love him. That’s a good thing, because in Willie’s world it’s love that makes the world go ‘round - that and a lot of laughter. Oh, and being true to who you are. Just what you might expect to hear from the nation’s most beloved outlaw, who turned his back on Nashville in 1970 and helped Austin, Texas introduce a new kind of country music. So in typical Willie outlaw fashion this book offers insights such as “Who knows his own nature knows heaven. So what is our true self?” (Sankara) mixed with “You can’t kiss a duck’s butt without getting feathers on your mouth.” In Willie’s Tao, marijuana is the
best stress-buster ever made by God, we should put farmers back to work making bio-diesel, drinking water and breathing deep are two of the best things we can do for our bodies. If the IRS says you owe ‘em money, pay it and move on. And even the most groaner bad joke, if it makes you laugh, is worth it. (What do you call a beautiful woman on a caddie’s arm? A tattoo.) According to Willie, almost his entire philosophy of life can be summed up in the Golden Rule - to do unto others as you’d wish them to do unto you. And while he admits he doubts his “belief in nonviolence would restrain my human reaction if you mess with my family,” he’s probably one of the few men who could tell a United States congressman that he didn’t “remember Moses writing “Thou shalt not kill... unless you think you have a good reason.” That grin aside, Willie’s life hasn’t been all laughs, and he writes how those times also helped him to learn and grow. Asked how he could sell some of his greatest songs for what seems like a pittance (he sold “Family Bible” for $50) he answers, “I really needed $50 at the time,” and goes on, talking of the time when the IRS confiscated his money and his property, to say “they took my money, but they couldn’t take my music.” Criticized by some for his song “Whatever happened to peace on Earth?”, a song critical of the Iraq war, he writes, “The right to speak loudly and freely on any subject you choose is clearly one of the most basic principles of this great nation. Those who would silence criticism of our government’s policies and actions only reveal their own shameless ignorance of what truly makes us great.” As a philosopher, Willie is undoubtedly a better songwriter than a book writer, but The Tao of Willie is a good, quick read that offers an insight into the life of an icon not always found in his music. Friend Billy Joe Shaver once said of Willie, ”He doesn’t realize it, but he’s always good to be around. When you leave, you feel good. The longer you stay around, the better you feel.” The book has a bit of that Willie touch. And, as co-writer Turk Pipkin puts it in the forward, “that’s not just mice nuts.” HHHHH for Willie fans. -Trish Gannon
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reviews
It is those questions about joy, of been avoided. course, that form the heart of the movie’s This would have been a four-star HHHH- Buy it, but you won’t share it much story and our own life stories as well, movie if not for that. HHH not the rip-roaring ride in a Mustang HHH- Rent it or borrow from the library -Trish Gannon Shelby or wearing a silk suit in the midst of Hong Kong. Of course, when you’re MovieHH- Don’t bother unless you’re desperate notified you’ve only a short time left to Evolution H- You’re not THAT desperate live, it might be too late to change the Dreamworks - PG13 world. But it’s never too late to change Released on DVD and VHS January 2001 your own. MovieDirected by Ivan Reitmann. Starring David Duchovny, In watching a movie such as this, it’s The Bucket List impossible not to make your own bucket Orlando Jones, Seann William Scott and Julianne Moore Warner Brothers list as you go along. Yes, I’d like to sit on Released on DVD and VHS January 2008 the very top of the Great Pyramid with Directed by Rob Reiner. Starring Jack Nicholson and the sprawl of El-Giza at my back; no, Morgan Freeman I have no interest in jumping out of an airplane or getting a tattoo; yes, I’d love to see the prayer flags fluttering in the wind at Everest base camp. But have I experienced joy? Oh yes, many times. And have I brought joy to others. I think again I can say yes. But A meteor crashes to Earth, a those ancient Egyptians forgot to ask the mysterious organism begins to grow, third question - how often? That’s the Harry (Orlando Jones) and Ira (David true measure of a life, not that you did it Duchovny) head out to investigate and once, but that you did it all the time. what follow is one of my favorite funny Any movie with Nicholson or Freeman movies of all time. This original screenplay by Justin in it is bound to be worth watching and Not that you’ll find many who agree Zackham and directed by Rob Reiner this one features them both - more with me - critics have routinely panned stars Jack Nicholson as an irascible than enough reason to go out and rent this movie. But sometimes you’re not billionaire (Edward) who finds himself it for an interesting night at home. The looking for genius - you’re just looking to bedded down in the hospital next to conversations you’ll have with your fellow laugh and have a good time. This movie Morgan Freeman (Carter), a scholarly watchers after doing so are an added fits the bill. mechanic, as both of them receive word bonus. You can even go online (www. Ira and Harry are teachers at the local that their respective cancers will end bucketlist.warnerbrothers.com) and university (Harry is also the volleyball their lives sooner than they had hoped. add your list to your Facebook profile coach); Wayne (Seann William Scott) Much sooner. (assuming you have a Facebook profile). is a would-be firefighter; Dr. Allison As Jack Nicholson says, “It’s always One warning: leave it to me to be Reed (Julianne Moore) represents the the things you don’t do in life you regret nit-picky, but there’s one major problem government and these four join up with most, not the things you do.” with this film. Remember when Agatha some unlikely students to fight the alien And so Carter begins to write his Christie published “The Murder of menace. bucket list - the list of things he’d like Roger Ackroyd?” A murder mystery, she The government response to what to do before he ‘kicks the bucket.’ For used a never-before plot device - having might be the end of the world is, as him, it’s a spiritual exercise (“Witness her murderer narrate the story, though we’ve all secretly suspected it would be, something majestic.”) but when his it wasn’t ‘til the end of the novel that the completely inadequate and it’s up to roommate Edward gets his hands on it, reader discovered this fact. It caused these misfits from society to rescue the it becomes a can-do list of excitement as an uproar (we’re talking national news Earth, starting with Arizona. (“No, don’t well, including items like “get a tattoo” here) with Christie almost being kicked call the government,” Ira says early on. “I and “go skydiving.” out of the Detection Club for having know those guys.”) The two take off from the hospital violated the rule of ‘fair play’ with her One of my favorite scenes has to and begin to work the list, which allows readers. Her exoneration was that the be the bit in the shopping mall, as Ira, them to develop an intense friendship book maintained its internal consistency Harry and Wayne hunt down the flying as they explore what they really want to throughout. (If you’re not a reader, think pterodactyl or whatever it is. (Ira: If you achieve before they die. “The Sixth Sense.”) were an alien in a shopping mall, where Sitting atop the great pyramid,, In “The Bucket List” Reiner has would you be? Harry: Lingerie. Ira: Not Freeman’s character shares some Freeman’s character narrate the story you. The alien. Harry: Lingerie.) If you Egyptian philosophy with his friend. and no, he doesn’t turn out to have don’t find yourself singing and dancing Upon death, the Egyptians taught, the murdered anyone. But in an important along with the cast to “Play that Funky newly dead are asked two questions. “Did way, Freeman’s narration violates Music,” your fun gene must be missing. you experience joy in your life?” And completely the internal consistency “Has your life brought joy to others?” HHHHH of the story through the use of sloppy -Trish Gannon language. This could - and should - have The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 17 No. 15 | August 2008 | Page 57 HHHHH- Buy it, keep it, loan it out
Page 58 | The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 17 No. 15 | August 2008 Photos from June 15 through July 15, 2008. Photographers: Trish Gannon, David Broughton, Desire Aguirre, Carl Zmuda. Send your photos to trish@riverjournal.com.
W
hile speeding down the super highway of the World Wide Web I glanced over at my father, who was struggling to see the screen. It then occurred to me that information is so much more easily accessible today than it was 20 years ago that we kids can’t even comprehend how extraordinary it is. We don’t have to look through mountains of library catalogues, we don’t have to wait, and you don’t even have to talk to anybody or leave your house. If there’s something you want to know, just Google it and in a flash, you’ve got your answer; illustrated and in 12 languages. All this information, so fast and so easy, is at the disposal of people everywhere. In fact, this generation of young people and their technological literacy might be the most educated of their age in the past few decades. Or anyway, it should be, but it’s not, thanks to the dominant media outlets. The media, in any medium, from magazines to television to the almighty internet, is not all that it boasts to be. I ask, at what point did simply reporting the news become an outlet for manipulation? Today, major news organizations are controlled by corporations that control everything and anything from how many ply your toilet paper has to who you may vote for in next presidential election. These televised agencies pump out sex appeal and mindless humor like mad with only a few minutes of factual news then it’s back to your ‘reality’ programming. David Rockefeller, meeting with other powerful, wealthy men in Germany, is alleged to have said, “We are grateful to the Washington Post, the New York Times, Time Magazine, and other great publications whose directors have attended our meetings and respected their promises of discretion
Jazz
Online www.ijc.uidaho.edu
by Hanna Hurt
for almost 40 years. It would have been impossible for us to develop our plan for the world if we had been subjected to the lights of publicity during those years.” This is an unverified quote, whose only source is a French periodical, but newscaster Dan Rather was very clear when he said, ““In many ways, what we in journalism need is a spine transplant.” Evidence shows news organizations are censoring information from the public and denying the people their right to know. For example, Project Censored reports that national media
... develop your own opinions and, what’s more, make your own voice heard. have ignored growing support for impeachment of President George Bush, despite polls that show half the country supporting impeachment if Bush lied about Iraq. Maybe, of course, it depends on what you consider a lie. What’s even scarier is that the general population, including the young people, upon whose backs the future resides, believe the tiny bit of ‘news’ they are given without any desire to glance behind the curtain. I know, it seems farfetched, but even those folks who appear to be showing us what’s really going on (Michael Moore, Greg Palast and even the weatherman to name a few) are still just one-sided and just one opinion; they may be backed up by facts, but these facts should only influence our decisions as opposed to making them. I strongly believe that before you take in everything that you hear that might blow you out of the water, look into it more and please, develop your own opinions and what’s more, make your own voice heard. Dr. Lee DeForest, who pioneered the invention of the radio, had this to say about mass media: “You have debased [my] child.... You have made him a laughingstock of intelligence... a stench in the nostrils of the gods of the ionosphere.” Those are pretty strong words from the man who can be credited with the birth of mass media, but also moving as someone who must have had his idea of what the media should be ruined by those who controlled it.
If it wasn’t for real, truthful media, we might never have known about the Watergate scandal, about My Lai, or about Abu Graib. Dr. De Forest witnessed and acknowledged the incriminating effect that media had on his children, and his statement, in my opinion, still rings true today. Television and other mediums like it are eroding the free-thinking youth culture. However, more and more young people are becoming aware of its ill content. All the time people are becoming more and more skeptical of the world that they are living in, making up their own minds, and listening to brighter minds than their own. It is becoming easier to get your hands on an independently produced film, magazine, or even website that hasn’t been tainted by the media moguls who censor what they don’t want you to know. So, the future is up to you, reader. Whether you choose to lead or follow you are contributing in some way, but just, please, be sure that it is a path that you choose, not what others have lain before you. Our rights under the first amendment to our constitution prevents our government from abridging the freedom of the press. With so much information behind bars today, it is good for us to remember we are not guaranteed a free press, just that our government will not interfere if we have one. It is up to us to ensure that we do - by supporting those media outlets and those journalists with the courage to buck the corporate system, and report the truth.
Hanna Hurt is a senior at Clark Fork High School with an interest in writing and the world around her. Reach her via editorial@RiverJournal.com
The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 17 No. 15 | August 2008 | Page 59
The Cheap Seats
What?!
Bank- Continued from page 60
No Balloons?!
Panhandle State Bank’s new building in downtown Sandpoint incorporates stateof-the-art environmental technology, but little known is that other technology used in the building’s maintenance is also on the cutting edge of building practices. For example, the building’s fire suppression equipment. High on the walls in the main atrium lie a couple of small, innocuous silver plates that look a little like a piece of abstract art. What these plates do is shoot a radar beam across the length of the atrium area to detect smoke. “If those beams “see” anything, the (outer) doors will pop open and huge pumps begin to suck in air from the outside to disperse the smoke,” explained Travis Kaul, manager at the downtown branch. The pumps are so massive, and so efficient, that within 60 seconds every bit of existing air in the building will have been replaced with outside air. “That deals with problems with smoke inhalation,” Kaul said. Smoke inhalation is responsible for 50 to 80 percent of all deaths associated with fire. A drawback to the technology? If balloons are let loose and rise to the ceiling, blocking the radar beams, the system will think there’s smoke and kick into gear. So celebrate all you want in downtown’s newest community building, but leave the balloons at home.
in the atrium you will notice they are artificial; Travis explained “the sunlight coming through the windows and skylight isn’t strong enough to support plant life and we would constantly be replacing the plants; plus gnat-like insects breed and would get blown around our system.” The other major energy saving device is the air conditioning unit. While normally a heavy burden on a large building, the bank has used state-of-the-art technology in order to make the system much more efficient. The HVAC system is capable of heating and cooling different parts of the building simultaneously. This means that during winter, the core of the building can be cooled while the exterior areas are heated, and viceversa in the summer. The big point is that cooling comes at minimal cost because the building’s water loop system just trades energy from one area to another. Where possible, all of the motors and fans have been equipped with variable frequency motor drives which means that when one area, or the entire building, doesn’t need the full capacity the motors can adapt so they don’t waste energy. Of course everything within the HVAC needs to be monitored and adjusted -Trish Gannon constantly. “All of the monitoring system is computerized so we rule out
the risk of user error; basically there isn’t a person who can forget to turn a switch off - it’s all automated.” This comes in the form of the Building Energy Management System which is responsible for the equipment start up and monitoring of the buildings systems. At start up the BMS brings the temperature up in a controlled way that saves energy and places less electrical demand on the energy company. The BMS can also alert maintenance of a problem that might occur so it can be fixed before an excess of energy is lost, and it shows where the majority of the energy is used at what time so adjustments can be made to the entire system. With all these innovations together, the building is so efficient that early in May the bank received a rebate check from Avista for $110,524 as an Energy Efficiency Incentive. Private groups working within the building also help contribute to the overall efficiency of the whole. The Tango Café, owned by Barney and Carol Ballard, utilizes some of its own technology and tactics to make it arguably the greenest café in Sandpoint. When Barney first told me about the Magnetic Conduction Converters they use in the café I thought he was pulling my leg. “Well we have magnetic conduction converters…” is how Barney started the sentence. “… No, no, I’m serious.
Page 60 | The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 17 No. 15 | August 2008
Bank- Cont’d from page 60
Love Notes- Cont’d from page 31
We use steel pans in the kitchen, and when we put the pan onto the burner it automatically heats up. This means we aren’t using gas so there isn’t a pilot light on all of the time. The burner heats up almost immediately, and within seconds of removing the pan the burner is safe to touch.” A cost saving tactic that The Tango shares with the bank is when first starting up they don’t turn everything on right away. Instead, they stagger everything so there isn’t a spike in the energy demand. The café a l s o recycles all of their cans, plastics, glass, tins, and they even compost. Plus the food is great too. The main thing I got from Travis during my talk with him is that the building really is about the community, and you can see that just by walking in or driving by. The architecture looks great in downtown S an dp oint, and the atmosphere i n s i d e is really comfortable. With state-of-theart conference rooms and lecture halls available for use, and areas to show local art, you get a feeling that this building will get plenty of use from a grateful community.
terminal cancer and your constant efforts to celebrate day-to-day life with your beautiful daughter, Grace, your eversupportive and loving husband Jeff, your family and with special friends. He says the finished product will be distributed through Kaiser Hospitals or Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. For now, anyone interested in a “no frills” copy can send $10 to Jeff at 17430 Vanowen Street #5, Van Nuys, CA 91406. Whatever is not used for mailing will be sent to the “Grace Meyer Scholarship Fund.” You, Jeff and I developed such a friendship while shooting all that footage over those three years. Recently, Jeff summarized some of his thoughts about the documentary project. “For a private person, even Jenny was surprised that she agreed to do it. Her pragmatism outweighed her ego, always doing the right thing, and she knew this would be important to her daughter, her family and friends, for posterity as well as a life lesson to teach others,” Jeff writes. “So she packed up her fears and went ahead full steam. What came out of those years of filming was something so tender, so touching and so candid that we knew we’d done the right thing.” In October “Jenny’s Journal” will be featured as part of a community cancer forum at the newly restored Tower Theatre in Bend, Ore. Yet, another classmate, Angela Warren Miller, is coordinating that project. “We’re going to have an annual Women of the Tower Campaign, spotlighting a yearly issue we’d like to address and give our community a platform from which they can come together in a healthy and productive forum,” Angela explains. “Our inaugural year will be Breast Cancer Awareness. The evening’s activities will include a presentation by our oncologists and panelists, a Q & A session, the launch of our proposed “Breast Buddy” system and a screening of “Jenny’s Journal.” Angela is hoping the film will educate and empower the women of Bend. So, Jenny, your influence continues, not only among people who have known and loved you but with countless others who missed out on that opportunity. I have no doubt, though, that the legacy you have left will touch them and inspire them to celebrate their own lives in simple ways just as it has done for so many of us.
Thomas McMahon, a recent graduate of Clark Fork High School, medaled at state earlier this year for his design of a “green” low-income housing project.
The activist is not the man who says the river is dirty. The activist is the man who cleans up the river. ~Ross Perot
Celebrate Life P.O. Box 420, Ponderay, ID 83852
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INSURANCE RESOURCE GROUP
1205 Highway 2 | Sandpoint | 208 265-9690
The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 17 No. 15 | August 2008 | Page 61
passages
Coffelt Funeral Home Sandpoint, Idaho www.CoffeltFuneral.com
Sophia Ann Wyborny, 90, passed away at her home on Thursday, July 17. Graveside funeral services were conducted in Pinecrest Memorial Park. Pastor Barry Johnson, New Song Bible Church, officiated. Sophia Ann Sherer Wyborny was born on December 25, 1917, in Sterling Colo. As a young child, she learned to use her hands sewing clothes for her family and friends. She became an accomplished seamstress, and during her adult life, she especially enjoyed sewing outfits of vintage silk materials for her vast collection of antique dolls. She learned to play the piano early in life, and used her talent for many years playing the piano and organ for churches and various funeral homes. She enjoyed raising award–winning silver Persian cats and founded Brentwood Silver Persians, a well–known and internationally–respected cattery, from which her cats were sought after worldwide. She and her husband Ernest celebrated their 72nd wedding anniversary on May 26, 2008. She was a dedicated wife and mother, and raised four children, all of whom love and serve the Lord Jesus because of the example she modeled throughout her life. She and her family appreciated so much the wonderful care she was given by Hospice. She loved each and every one of the workers who tender-lovingly cared for her during her last months of life. She is survived and will be greatly missed by her husband, Ernest, their four children; Craig Wyborny of Sandpoint, Christie Weston of San Diego, Calif., Carole Grove of Seattle, Wash., and Cheryl Alvarez of San Diego; her sister, Serena Huffman, of Sandpoint; 6 grandchildren and 2 greatgrandchildren. Lawrence W. Fryberg, 65, passed away in a canoeing accident near Priest River, Idaho on July 5. Memorial services were conducted in Coffelt’s Funeral Chapel. Pastor Dan Moore, Laclede Community Church, officiated. Lawrence was born on Jan. 27, 1943 in Seattle, Wash., graduating from high school in Bellevue, Wash. in 1961. In 1965 he married Judy Galloway in Pinehurst, Idaho. He served with the US Army in Germany and Viet Nam during the Viet Nam Conflict. He graduated from the University of Idaho in 1970 with a degree in forestry. He went to work for the Department of Lands, in St. Maries in 1970 and transferred to Sandpoint in 1976. In 2002 he retired. Lawrence enjoyed out door activities
including hunting, fishing, canoeing, and land sailing. Following his retirement he liked to travel and walk his dog, Little Joe. He is survived by his wife Judy Fryberg of Laclede, Idaho; his daughter Ruth (Fryberg) Crea of Spokane, Wash.; 2 grandchildren Sean and Cameron Crea of. Spokane; his mother Edythe Swanson of Clinton, Wash; a sister Joyce Swanson in Clinton.; and a brother Don Swanson in Vancouver, Wash. His father Wesley Fryberg preceded him in death in 1950
Lakeview Funeral Home Sandpoint, Idaho www.lakeviewfuneral.com
Mary Virginia Nelson, 87, passed away Sunday, July 13, in Sandpoint, Idaho. Memorial Mass was held at Saint Joseph’s Catholic Church with Fr. Al Scott officiating. Mary Virginia’s cremated remains were placed in the Lakeview Cemetery Niche Wall on the Pend Oreille River next to her husband Jack, who preceded her in death in 2005. Mary Virginia Burch was born in Spokane, Wash. The Burch family were pioneers in Washington, settling in Spokane Falls, as Spokane was called, prior to statehood. Mary Virginia attended Holy Names Academy and Spokane Junior College, finally attending the University of Idaho, graduating with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Education. It was during her time at the university she met the love of her life, Jack Zumwalt Nelson. Jack and Mary Virginia married in 1943, beginning their long loving life together. Jack’s career would take Mary Virginia from Vancouver, Wash. to Wenatchee and to Pittsburgh, Penn. Both Jack and Mary Virginia’s hearts were tied to the Sandpoint area, where they finally retired to Laclede in 1979. For 20 years the couple enjoyed life on the river they loved, gardening and cultivating many friendships. Mary’s life-long passion was exploring the river banks searching for arrowheads and artifacts of Native Americans both on the Columbia and Pend Oreille Rivers. She also enjoyed her art, especially watercolors, painting well into her eighties to the delight of her family and friends. She is survived her sons William Nelson (Carol) of Victoria, B.C. Robert Nelson and Paul Nelson of Phoenix, Ariz.; and Noel Nelson (Mary Kay) of Bellevue, Wash.; 8 grandchildren and 6 great grandchildren, and sister-in-law Alice Nelson in Sandpoint. Leroy Walker Herrmann, 89, passed away peacefully in Sandpoint, Idaho on Wednesday, July 16, just seven days shy of his 90th birthday. A private memorial will be held Leroy was born on July 23, 1918 in Wichita, Kansas to Joseph and Phoebe Herrmann.
As a boy, he spent many hours in the fields hunting squirrels and rabbits and had many unusual animals as pets. Leroy attended Wichita High School North where he was actively involved in the football, wrestling, and swimming teams. He graduated on May 25, 1937 and joined the Kansas National Guard where he attained the rank of Corporal, Troop E, 114th Cavalry. He was later transferred to Battery C, 127th Field Artillery (155 Howitzer), where he gained the rank of Sergeant and was known for his excellent marksmanship. As the country went to war, Leroy was asked to serve his country and willingly did so in the United States Army where he became Staff Sergeant in Company A, 377 Port Battalion, stationed in Prince Rupert, British Columbia and was entrusted with overseeing the loading of anti-aircraft ordinance manufactured in Washington state and bound for the Aleutian Islands. He was also ordered to “stand watch and protect against enemy submarines” that might find their way into the waters off the island there. On a trip home to Kansas accompanying the body of a fallen comrade, Leroy made a quick trip to his parent’s home where he saw “the prettiest girl alive sitting on his front porch” visiting with his sisters. Apparently she already had her eye on him for quite some time. It wasn’t long before he asked that pretty girl, Marcella Bailie, who spent her summers visiting her aunt in Wichita to be his bride. They were married on March 20, 1944 at her parent’s home in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Over the next several years they had 6 children, 3 sons and 3 daughters, and the Herrmann household always seemed to be the place where all the neighborhood kids gathered. After the war, Leroy returned to Kansas and soon moved with his family to southern California where he plied his trade as a carpenter, at first for the movie industry and later in commercial construction. During this time he also built homes for several film stars of the day who liked his eye for quality on the sets. After leaving California in the mid sixties intending to make his home in Sandpoint, Leroy, along with his sons, operated a family construction business. Nearly 10 years later, Leroy finally did make it to Idaho “by way of Washington, Missouri and New Mexico” on July 3, 1974 where he lived and worked for the rest of his life. Leroy lost his beloved wife of nearly 60 years in 2003 and missed her greatly. He was an honest, hard-working man who loved his God, his family, and his country. Around the country are many structural testimonies to his craftsmanship and skill. Leroy was preceded in death by his parents, his wife Marcella; two daughters, Marsha Lee and an infant; and two grandchildren, Nathaniel and Sara. He
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is survived by his remaining 4 children, son Charles Herrmann of Sagle, Idaho; daughter Patricia Age of Ashville, North Carolina; son and daughter-in-law James and Judy Herrmann of Sagle; and Tim Herrmann of Sagle. He is also survived by eight grandchildren; Marca, James Jr., Heidi, Andrew, Jesse, Justin, Cynthia, and Walker; and 2 great-grandchildren, Gracie and Kaden. Our Daddy and Grandpa had a long, great life and although he will be missed immensely by his family and friends, his memory lives on in their hearts. Mary Louise Edwards, 81, fell asleep in death following a brief illness on Thursday, July 17. She was fondly known as â&#x20AC;&#x153;Grandma Mary or Aunt Weezeâ&#x20AC;? to all who knew her. M e m o r i a l Services were held at Kingdom Hall of Jehovahâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Witnesses, with Brother Kevin Monahan officiating. Mary was born on April 26, 1927 in Flippin, Ark., the daughter of Theodore and Ollie (Hanson) Burruss. She moved with her family at an early age to Santa Cruz, Calif., where she grew up and attended schools. She moved to Sandpoint, Idaho in 1968 and later moved to Kona, Hawaii in 1986, returning home to Sandpoint in 2005. Maryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s greatest joy in life was serving Jehovah and sharing her hope with everyone she met. Hobbies included sewing, music, singing,
dancing and planning social events. She also enjoyed her grandchildren - maternal and adopted. Survivors include Jim (Eleanor) Stuart of Pendleton, Ore.; Sue (Jim) Avery of Sandpoint; Jon (Lisa) Stuart of Eureka, Mont.; Pikie â&#x20AC;&#x153;Bumperâ&#x20AC;? (Jim) Ragland of Sandpoint; Ken (Yolanda) Burruss of Sparks, Nev.; Wilma Walters of Eureka; Russell (Mary) Stevens of Illinois. Numerous grandchildren, great-grandchildren, nieces and nephews also survive. Mary was preceded in death by her parents, son Tim Stuart, daughter Nikki Scoffield, and brothers Paul Burruss, Ben Burruss, sister Geneva Beck and grandson Robert Brown. Memorials may be made to Bonner Community Hospice, PO Box 1448, Sandpoint, ID 83864.
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From the Mouth of the River
Back in the early eighteen hundreds a young easterner headed West to become a mountain man. After encountering a tribe of Blackfoot Indians along the way he wrote in his diary, “The Chief offered to trade me one of his daughters for my pack horse. He stripped her of her clothes to show me she had no physical defects. Though she was slender and supple, she did not meet the qualifications of, say, the Edison twins of East Boston. Besides, her feet were not black, they were almost white.” After spending two years helping to deplete the beaver population on the east side of the Great Divide, he ended up on the west slope and followed the Clarks Fork River west to the mouth of what is now known as Lake Pend Oreille, where a settlement of Kootenai Indians lived on its banks. After spending a long winter trapping there, he met up with a fur trader en route to St. Louis with a load of furs and asked him to deliver a correspondence to his father, Mr. Albert Farnsworth McGillas. Dear Dad, I am well and in good health. Hope this finds you like wise. I have met and married a lovely, brown-skinned Kootenai girl, short and plump, but a hard worker. Good cook and replaces the need for two blankets at night. She has the sweet smell of smoked salmon about her. I have built a cabin overlooking the Clark Fork River in this beautiful valley where I intend to reside.
Best regards, your son, Medford P. McGillas. P.S. My new wife, De Grunt, whose name means, “To lift heavy things,” calls me” Dingle Feather.”
This is the start of how the McGillas family became part of our history here on the river. The old cabin still sits high above the bend in the river where each year the flood waters erode its bank closer and closer to the cabin site until some day the river will claim yet another piece of our history. The old man living in that cabin today is Lefty McGillas, the great grandson of Dingle Feather McGillas. I often hike up to visit the old man and his dog, taking him items he could live without, but very much appreciates. Things like coffee, whiskey, sugar, salt and sometimes, canned peaches and evaporated milk. I also carry a heavy walking stick to keep his dog at bay until I reach the cabin. Lefty and all the McGillases before him were born in and lived in that cabin. They trapped, sold furs and lived off the land with very little help from the outside world. Lefty did add a lean-to shed on the west side of the cabin for his dog because he kept dragging critters home that didn’t necessarily smell all that appealing and were sometimes still alive. Dawg, as Lefty calls him, doesn’t smell all that good either. Dawg turned that leanto into his own sports den where he keeps all his trophies. There’s a variety of hides, horns, half eaten creatures of unknown origin and lots of hiking shoes, backpacks and other items of clothing left behind by unsuspecting hikers caught on the trail leading past Lefty’s cabin. Sometimes he has to run frightened hikers all the way back down to the river until they lose something worthy of a trophy. Everyone who’s ever seen Dawg and lived, says he’s a cross between a wolverine and something really big and ugly. My very first encounter with Lefty was while I was fishing the river some distance up from the old bridge. It was one of those days when the fish weren’t biting. I had thrown everything but a rock at those fish and they just weren’t feeding. I was sitting on the bank in the shade of a big cottonwood tree eating a bologna and onion sandwich, when he just appeared out of nowhere, standing there looking down at me. I almost jumped in the river. “Kinda spooky aint ya?” he said with a toothy grin. He was holding two big fat trout on a green
Boots Reynolds
willow stick. Dawg on the other hand was holding my sandwich along with my hand in his mouth, all the while looking down at me and snarling. I tenderly let go of the sandwich and was taken aback by the fact that his breath was melting the buttons off of my shirt. With his green eye he was calculating how much time I had to live while his blue eye was scanning the area for more sandwiches. Every time he blinked, that blue eye would start the search all over again. “Don’t mind old Dawg. He’s kinda bossy,” Lefty said, shoving Dawg aside and hunkering down on the river bank beside me. “Goin fishin’?” he asked. “Been,” I said, rubbing the circulation back into my hand. “Don’t see no fish,” he said. “Got none,” I replied. “Oh, been fishin’ stead a catchin’,” he said, holding up the two fat trout on his stick. “They haven’t been feeding where I been fishing, I guess,” I mumbled. “Well, ya gotta make ‘em hungry,” he explained. “Come on, I’ll show ya. You packin’ any tobacco?” “No. Fish can’t smoke!” “But I do. Now, lets go back up the river a piece to that deep hole where the old log is jammed up against the bank. Now, ya just wade out there to the middle of this here stream and get your pole ready. Now, start dancing a jig.” “You’re pullin’ my Johnson aren’t you? I’m standing here in knee deep water at the head of this deep pool and you want me to dance a jig? Is this some kinda rain dance or something?” “No, taint, but look at the water. It’s getting all muddy and dirtyin’ up the pool. Just keep shuffling your feet until the dirty water goes out the other end of the pool. Then let your bait loose on this here end and it’ll carry on down through the pool,” he explained. After two nice Rainbow, he asked, “You married?” “Yes, I am. It’s just me and my wife,” I said. “Them’s anuff fish for two hungry people, lets quit.” “Okay, but tell me what made those fish bite?” “Well, it’s simple. They thought there was a storm up the country that was bringin’ food down the river and they didn’t want to miss out on the opportunity for a good feed. Besides, their brain is no bigger than a pinto bean, and anybody can outsmart one.” This is how I met Lefty McGillas and his dog, Dawg. More stories of the history of the Clark Fork and the McGillas family will appear in the River Journal periodically.
Boots Reynolds is the internationally renowned cowboy artist and author. Reach him via editorial@RiverJournal.com
THE FESTIVAL AT SANDPOINT
GReat MuSiC…
AUG 7 - 17, 2008
Naturally!
Smokey Robinson with Chic Gamine Thursday August 7 • 7:30 pm • All tickets $ 59.95
PHAT PHRIDAY!
Brett Dennen & Donavon Frankenreiter Friday August 8 • 7:00 pm • All tickets $34.95
SUPER SATURDAY!
Richie Furay Band the Marshall tucker Band & Pure Prairie League Saturday August 9 • 6 pm All tickets $39.95
FAMILY CONCERT “Puss ‘N bOOTs”
with the
Spokane Youth Orchestra
Sunday August 10 • 4:30 pm • All tickets $5.00
the BoDeans with the Waifs Free Microbrew Tasting
Thursday August 14 • 7:30 pm • All tickets $32.95
Ziggy Marley with
Children of the Revolution
Friday August 15 • 7 pm •All tickets $55.95
SUPER SATURDAY!
Wynonna with Bomshel & New Jack and the Rippers
Saturday August 16 • 6 pm •All tickets $49.95
GRAND FINALE
the Spokane Symphony www.FestivalAtSandpoint.com
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conducted by Maestro Gary Sheldon with special guests: the Generations trio Complimentary “Tastes of the Stars” wine tasting Sunday August 17 • 7:30 pm Adults: $29.95 • Youth 0-18 $9.95
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