The River Journal, Nov. 2008

Because there’s more to life than bad news

FREE—NOVEMBER 2008

A News MAGAZINE worth wading through

Inside:

• Insights on the Local Economy p.2 • Wood Burning Primer p.4 • Have a Drink this Election Day p.6 • Forgotten Past- the Chinese Cemetery p.7 • Student Store p.10 • Making ‘Cents’ of Mitigation p.20

Plus- If Trish were elected (19); the Trumpeter swan (22);

Defending a controversial Superbowl (25); the march of the 10,000 (29) and Duke is makin’ bacon! (34)

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Open Tues-Fri 10-6 • Saturday 10-3 • Closed Sundays, Mondays & Thanksgiving Day Featuring local art by Ben Dooley Metalworks Heidi Hobbi Glass Etching, Selkirk Antlers, James Junget wood carving, Scott Point Prints and much more!

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Ask for Beth Hall 107 N. First • Sandpoint

208.255.4550 208.610.5858

Inside this Issue

2 Troubled Times.

4 Got Your Wood Yet? 6 A Drunken Election?

7 Forgotten Past.

10 Mark Your Calendars.

11 Seconds Anyone?

20 Making Cents.

Panhandle State Bank President and CEO Curt Hecker explains the national financial situation.

Ernie Hawks explains the romance and the practicalities behind heating your home with wood.

Idaho says good-bye to the final vestiges of Prohibition on this first election day where voters can order alcohol.

Kathleen Huntley tours Hope’s

“Chinese” Cemetery.

Sandpoint’s Kick-Off to the holiday season begins this month.

Desire Aguirre visits a new thrift store run by local students.

Kate Wilson explains mitigation dollars for dams on the Clark Fork.

In Every Issue:

8 Staccato Notes 13 Veteran’s News 15 Toons 16 Humor 19 Politically Incorrect 20 Outdoors 24 Sports 27 The Scenic Route 28 Other Worlds 30 Education 31 Love Notes 32 Technology

34 Food 36 Faith Walk 37 The Hawk’s Nest 38 Wholistic Health 44 Politics 47 Say What?

48 Book/Movie Reviews 51 Currents 52 Obituaries 55 The Cheap Seats 56 From the Mouth of the River

Ever wanted to know how to decorate a fantastic Christmas tree? See page 46 for decorating tips from the pros who decorate for the Kinderhaven Festival of Trees.

THE RIVER JOURNAL 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; Herb Huseland; Emily Levine; Marianne Love; Thomas McMahon; Gene Merica, Clint Nicholson; Kathy Osborne; Gary Payton; Angela Potts; Paul Rechnitzer; Boots Reynolds; Sandpoint Wellness Council; Rhoda Sanford; Lou Springer; Jim Tibbs; Mike Turnland; Tess Vogel; 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 208-255-6957 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.

The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol 17 No. 18 | November 2008 | Page

“Living Through Troubled Times” Panhandle State Bank’s Curt Hecker reaches out to a concerned community to explain these current economic times Are you worried about your money? Most folks are these days as the national headlines fill with the news of failures in the financial sector, massive taxpayer bailouts, mortgage foreclosures, a manic/ depressive stock market, shrinking retirement accounts and grim comparisons to the Great Depression.

Curt Hecker, the President and CEO of Intermountain Bank Corp.—the governing entity for Panhandle State Bank—decided to take a pro-active approach to local concerns with a series of Town Hall meetings, where he spoke one-on-one with local business owners, depositors and stockholders of the bank about the current financial crisis and what it means in our local area.

“Although it’s not official, I would say we’re in a recession,” he told an afternoon group in Sandpoint. “So we’ve been traveling and talking about what’s going on. I’m not selling you anything, just offering some straight talk.

“We are in troubled times,” Hecker says. “You’ve heard many CEOs say ‘our bank is safe and sound.’ Yes, our bank is safe and sound but things can happen that you and I can’t foresee. It’s important to look at contingency plans to ensure long-term stability and safety regardless of outside influences.” He added, “We are a great company and we do a good job of running our business. We have no control over bad luck—or over good luck, for that matter.

Our institution is purely a product of our local community.”

As background, he offered an explanation for the financial situation we find ourselves in not just as a nation, but internationally as well. “We’ve gotten a little bit off the rails (as far as) staying within our means as a country. Profligate borrowing has led to staggering international debt.”

Hecker explains it all started five to ten years ago, when times Continued on next page

by Trish Gannon

“The only thing to Fear is Fear itself.”

Reflecting on 30 years as a mortgage broker, Herb Huseland says we should plan for the worst

Not since 1929 has this country or, for said, “We have nothing to fear except fear that matter, the world, seen a meltdown of itself.” Right now, people are running for the economy such as we are facing today. cover. Millions of dollars are moving from Topping 1200, the Dow-Jones average is stocks to government bonds. These bonds below 9000 and dropping precipitously. don’t earn much, but at least you don’t lose Oil prices have soared, then fallen back, your principal. but was it in time? 401Ks and retirement Much of the blame for this dilemma lies accounts are in the toilet. Unemployment is on the doorstep of the Federal Reserve. soaring, which will be followed by more, if Neither the current administration, nor consumers stop consuming. even the previous one, has had much effect Many factors went into the results we on this market. Let’s start with the housing are looking at today. First, the economy is boom. supported for the most part by consumer Home values increase at the rate that confidence. Lose that and it’s over very interest rates go down. Very low interest quickly.

President Franklin Roosevelt, to a wide open market where the Page | The River Journal - A News Magazine rates Worthlead Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol 17 No. 18 | November 2008 speaking during the Great Depression, Continued on page 14

Continued from previous page

were good and it seemed the sky was the limit.

Everyone wanted to get in on the boom, and home ownership has long been a symbol of achieving the American dream. We began to believe that everyone could own a home—and mortgages began to reflect that; mortgages that Mara Der Hovanesian, writing for “Business Week” back in 2006, called “Nightmare Mortgages.” Homeowners who couldn’t pay those mortgages began to default, which created the beginning of a domino collapse of financial entities.

“We were shocked to learn that we have firms that are just too big (to be allowed) to fail,” said Hecker. “It is a concern for me that we have companies so large that the taxpayers have to step in to bail them out.”

“Clearly what is different now is we’re more globally interconnected,” offered IMBC CFO Doug Wright. “The international financial system depends on the flow of money back and forth, which places a heavy demand upon availability of credit. Some of that is useful—it does help grease the wheels of the economy—but it’s probably gone overboard.

The whole world has realized we’ve gone too far.

“People must bear in mind that the (government) bailout is only a short-term fix.

In the longer term, it is probably a two- to threeyear cycle before we will see a substantial recovery. There are a lot of excesses to work out. That’s healthy for the long term, but in the short run, it will be painful.”

Following is a partial list of questions and answers that arose in the Town Hall meeting.

banks to work with customers on an individual basis to determine how to keep their money safe. There are many ways we can structure your accounts so they are fully insured. In addition, all non-interest bearing accounts are insured to unlimited amounts.

Q. If I have more than $250,000 in the bank, do I need to split my accounts up among different banks?

Q. Has concern over the economy led your customers to take their money out of the bank?

Q. Nationally, banks are becoming much tighter in terms of credit. Will that have an impact on our local businesses?

A. As far as we’re concerned, we put 100 percent of our dollars back into our community. We are still working with our existing customers.

That’s the big difference between a big bank and a small bank—we know our customers and can make good judgments about appropriate levels of risk according to that knowledge.

Q. What’s happening in our local housing market?

A. We still have a substantial overhang in the number of homes on the market. It’s hard for contractors to get loans on new construction.

The other major constraining factor is availability of credit. Right now, it’s tougher for people to qualify (for a mortgage). If you look at this situation as if it were a 9-inning ball game, we’re probably in the middle.

Q. Will Panhandle State Bank be acquired by another bank?

A. Our intent is to be a growth company, not an acquisition for another financial institution.

Generally, if a business doesn’t want to be acquired, then it’s very difficult for that to happen.

A. No. We have set up specialists in all our

• • •

• • • • •

BAILOUT 101

Continued on page 18

$250 billion is available as a loan to banks and other financial institutions. This money is to be repaid, with interest. $250 billion (and up to $700 billion) will be used to purchase the most ‘toxic’ assets currently held by banks and other financial institutions. $150 billion will be used for individual and business tax breaks, including a patch for the Alternative Minimum Tax, tax exemption for any mortgage debt forgiveness, deductions for college tuition, a sales tax deduction, and non-itemized deductions of property tax, energy tax credits, and tax-free charitable donations made from an IRA. Raises the FDIC insurance to $250,000 per account. Banks pay insurance premiums Encourages lenders to modify the terms of troubled mortgages.

Photos courtesy of the Directs the SEC to study accounting rules on how securities are valued.

Franklin D. Roosevelt Establishes two oversight committees.

Library and Museum Places some limits on executive pay for companies that participate in The bailout.

River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol 17 No. 18 | November 2008 | Page the

Tips & Tricks With increases in the price of electricity, the thought of heating with wood can be tempting. Here’s what you should know: •

Invest in a good quality wood stove. Newer stoves are not only safer, they burn wood more efficiently.

•

Go ahead and use your River Journal for firestarter, but first rip the cover off and toss it into the trash. Slick, colored papers burn dirtier.

•

Not into cutting firewood? Energy logs (available at the CoOp) burn as efficiently as wood. One unit is roughly comparable to one cord of wood.

(Unit energy logs16.3 million BTUs; cord paper birch-20.3 million BTUs, cord Doug fir-18.1 million BTUs.) It’s also cleaner to store, though it must be kept away from moisture. You can even buy broken Presto logs directly from Lignetics at a discount.

•

Speaking of storage, do not keep your woodpile right next to your house. You don’t want the bugs or the fire danger.

•

Always start the fire season with a clean chimney. Most problems with wood heat are related to poorly maintained chimney stacks.

Got Your WOOD

A

s the days get colder and the nights get shorter, the glow of a fire from a wood stove or fireplace can end the cold trek in from the car with a warm, secure experience. Fuel wood is not only romantic, it is a renewable resource that supports the local community economically rather than sending a check to a large energy corporation. When used properly, it is as environmentally friendly as fossil fuels that are not renewable.

In the Inland Northwest, especially rural areas, wood heat is quite common. For me, our full wood shed makes me feel good. Yes, I mean physically feel good. It represents hours of demanding, healthy work. We get all of our fuel from our own forest so not only are we getting good outside exercise, we are saving money and maintaining our forest all at the same time.

In addition, the stove in our home is efficient; with good wood and proper loading it burns as clean as a modern fossil fuel heat source.

In this area the best and most readily available fuel woods are Douglas fir, often called red fir and western larch, commonly called tamarack. These two species are found in most of our forests and are quite widespread. Birch is another excellent wood, but the tree needs more moisture to grow so isn’t as widespread as the two conifers. Other woods such as the various pines all are used but do not burn as efficiently.

Red fir, birch and tamarack are dense woods that burn hot and hold the heat. A well-banked stove will still have good fire in the morning after burning all night. Pine will burn hot but not hold heat as long as the others and can create more soot. It will also smoke more, so the draft needs to be held open a little more, which contributes to a faster burn.

Anyone who has heated with wood will tell you any dry wood will work and they are right, but some just burn better than others. For that matter, wood that is still green and/or wet will also burn—however, every time that has been the only option for me I swear I will never let it happen again.

We start our selective cutting looking at forest density and trees that are dead or dying; we leave some standing dead, usually lodge pole, for wild life use. We try to get diseased grand fir or Doug fir, hoping to stop any spread.

I have found the best wood for me is wood I cut in the winter. If the rounds are more than about 6-7 inches, I will split it at least once before I put it in a drying stack. My drying stacks are all only one course wide and held off the

ground about 3 to 4 inches. I find places in our woods where each stack will get good sunlight during the summer. A piece of plastic over the top will keep any moisture from getting on the pile. Throughout the winter and spring we try to get out and split as much of it as possible, saving only the smallest in rounds.

In our house, both my wife and I practice wood chopping therapy. Many times one of us, after an especially difficult day or meeting, has gone out to a wood pile to chop our way out of frustration or anger. After the cord wood has been flying for a while it isn’t unusual for the other one to quietly bring out a glass of wine to help the relaxation process. The length of time between the start of a therapy session and the wine depends on the level of discontent.

In the chopping process we have taken the advice of a chimney sweep who recommends we burn smaller, hotter fires. To do this we will split a 6- or 7-inch round four times. By using smaller pieces of wood and feeding it slowly, we can get a cleaner, hotter fire.

When purchasing fire wood there is no perfect formula except experience, since the only way to know what you are buying is to recognize the different kinds of wood after it

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D Yet? is cut and split. To determine how dry the wood is can be difficult since weight of the different woods will vary by species; tamarack is heavier than pine because it is denser. Try to educate yourself on how the woods look.

It is also important to buy from someone you trust. Unfortunately, there are some people who will claim they are selling one thing and ask a premium price when, in fact it, may be poor quality fuel.

In the end we use nearly any kind of wood that is dry, since we have some trees that have been down for quite a while and need to be cleaned up. However, the poorer quality material is used during the warmer parts of the heating season and we see it as part of our forest management plan. You can burn what you have if that is the only way to be comfortable—the better the quality, the cleaner and hotter the fire.

Now it is time to go out to the woodshed so we can enjoy our warm home, bathed in a glow from our fire.

by Ernie Hawks

IT RUNS DOWNHILL

Local group provides opportunity for community to protect Lake Pend Oreille

Lakeshore homeowners have the opportunity to help protect the quality of Lake Pend Oreille by way of a new replacement septic program. The “Lake Nearshore Committee” will be initiating the program this fall in an effort to curb pollution from outdated septic systems near Lake Pend Oreille. A site has very recently been chosen for a pilot project.

“This program is a way that we can help willing landowners install more efficient systems that will also protect Lake Pend Oreille,” says John Sugden, Program Director for Tri-State Water Quality Council. “We are excited to get this project on the ground.”

Due to the voluntary nature of this potential project, homeowners’ privacy is one of the top priorities. Another priority is helping homeowners understand that the Lake Nearshore Committee is a useful resource when they are making management decisions for their homes and properties.

The Lake Nearshore Committee is made up of a variety of members with a diversity of expertise; they tackle water quality issues and land use practices that impact the nearshore waters of Lake Pend Oreille. The group is comprised of local entities, state and federal government agencies, private professionals, and non-profit organizations.

Excess nutrients from upland runoff and other sources fertilize aquatic plants in the lake, which leads to potentially harmful or fatal oxygen levels for fish as well as nuisance plant and algal growth.

Poorly maintained or substandard septic systems have the potential to increase nutrients, such as nitrogen and phosphorus, in the lake.

This septic pilot project is being introduced in order to comply with water quality standards as determined by the Federal Clean Water Act. Designated to protect water quality, the plan, known as a “Total Maximum Daily Load” for Lake Pend Oreille, addresses nutrient issues in the nearshore waters.

In addition, many lakeshore homeowners participated in a survey in 2007 concerning a variety of water quality issues. As is turns out, their

biggest concern regarded septic and sewer systems; the issue is a priority for the Lake Nearshore Committee.

A project has been selected on the south side of the Long Bridge. Members of the Lake Nearshore Committee will be working on securing grant funds to assist with the project throughout the winter. Implementation is planned for 2009.

The project will feature a community system that will replace individual septic systems and be designed to eliminate nutrient contribution to Lake Pend Oreille. The project is also intended to raise general public awareness of the potential for outdated systems to contribute to water quality problems.

If the pilot project is successful and deemed worthwhile, the committee will work towards implementing a longer term program for other homes that meet the criteria. Stay tuned.

“Outdated septic systems near the lake have the potential to cause problems,” says Greg Becker, District Conservationist for the Natural Resource Conservation Service. “This pilot septic project will address the issue by working with interested landowners to replace individual systems with an updated community system. It is the kind of action that builds bridges to make a positive step in protecting water quality.”

For more information on the septic pilot project, call the Bonner Soil and Water Conservation District/NRCS at 208-263-5310. For more information on the nearshore TMDL for Lake Pend Oreille see the Tri-State Water Quality Council website at tristatecouncil.org.

Hay’s Chevron Gas • Convenience Store Unofficial Historical Society

Oil Changes Tire Rotation by appointment

208-266-1338

The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol 17 No. 18 | November 2008 | Page

Hummingbirds Fly to Mars

Come November 4th you can not only vote for the candidates of your choice... you can hoist one in their honor, as well. At least, you can in Idaho January 29, 1920—Any day of the week, any time of the year, if you wanted a glass of wine with dinner (unless you had made it yourself) you could go to jail—directly to jail, no passing Go, no collecting 200 dollars. Prohibition—the 18th Amendment as supplemented by the Volstead Act—prohibited the sale, manufacture and transportation of intoxicating liquor, defined as “any beverage containing over 0.5 percent alcohol.”

Speakeasies—underground saloons where people could procure illegal alcohol—flourished, with over 100,000 of them in New York City alone, although you had to have a password to get in. Organized crime also flourished, and Al Capone, America’s best known gangster, came to power on Prohibition’s back. He ran Chicago with guns and blood, partially funded by the ownership of all 10,000 of Chicago’s speakeasies.

March 23, 1933—”I think this would be a good time for a beer.” So said President Franklin Delano Roosevelt when he signed into law an amendment to the Volstead Act, which allowed for the manufacture and sale of beer (3.2 percent alcohol by weight) and light wines.

December 5, 1933—The 21st Amendment to the United States Constitution was signed into law. It stated simply, “The eighteenth article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States is hereby repealed.”

The 21st Amendment, however, also reserved to states the right to restrict or ban the purchase or sale of alcohol, which has led to a multitude of laws across state and county lines. Some continued Prohibition for a while; it wasn’t until 1966 that Mississippi became the last state to repeal the law within its borders.

Others kept a patchwork of laws so that now, within a state, one county may be ‘wet’ for hard liquor while being ‘dry’ for beer and wine, even though across Senator Morris Sheppard, the border in the next county, beer and wine might be one of the creators of legal to purchase, with hard liquor sales illegal. These types of “Blue Laws” have included the prohibition of the 18th Amendment, said the sale of alcohol on election days.

November 4, 2008—The state of Idaho says “There is as much chance a final good-bye to prohibition as it conducts its of repealing the Eighteenth first election where alcohol sales are legal. “This bill in no way intends to threaten the sanctity of our Amendment as there is for government,” said Mike Jorgensen, a Republican a hummingbird to fly to senator from Hayden who supported the new bill. It was estimated that Idaho businesses, along with the the planet Mars with the state itself, which retains control of liquor sales, lose Washington Monument tied approximately a half million dollars every election day because of the previous ban on sales. tail.” 2008 Page | The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol 17 No. to 18 its | November -Trish Gannon

Since childhood I’ve been attracted exposure view snuggled against the to cemeteries, both from curiosity and mountains, and realized I was looking because of their historical place in our toward the site of the Kullyspell house culture. I’ve viewed the fresh roses left that David Thompson built. The hillside for Marilyn Monroe by Joe DiMaggio precariously cascaded toward the at Forest Lawn in California and stood highway and I saw nothing but wildly before Lincoln’s tomb in Springfield, growing colored underbrush and our Illinois. One of the main highlights Northwest collection of trees. Was attracting me to England was to visit this guy nuts? I thought. I didn’t see a Westminster Abbey in London and cemetery. pay homage to Mary Queen of Scots.

I watched as he bounded down I practically had to walk over Charles the slope of the hill on a barely visible Dickens to find her under an ornate mountain goat trail;. certainly not one canopy commissioned by her son. humans often traveled. There were no The tombs, grave sites and memorials markers, no posts and most definitely, across our world are history and culture no fence. He began to explain, as I was preserved with dates in stone. They attempting to catch up, how many of have always seemed important to me the headstones had been stolen. I was and obviously are of significance to following as fast as I could and at the the people who established them in the same time looking down to make sure first place. Consider the pyramids, for I wouldn’t roll like a ball on one of the instance. rocks and end up spinning toward the The first tombstone I remember clearly highway. “Did I hear correctly? Stolen at about age seven had the unraveled Continued on page 42 ropes from a circus trapeze cemented forever above the name of the artist headstones? Who in the world would who fell. It isn’t the acknowledgement of do this?” My thoughts were racing while death that I have been attracted to, but all along I was gripping my new camera rather that of the living who immortalized and still thinking I might catapult onto the lives of the people they loved and, Highway 200 at any moment. on a few occasions, hated.

Finally he came to a stop, somewhat So, when my friend asked me at the grinning that we had reached the end of a beautiful fall day on Lake Pend destination of our descent. I had to Oreille if I ever had been to the Chinese carefully look around at the terrain to Cemetery, I was immediately intrigued determine exactly what kind of place we and wanted to go. He had no idea I had stopped at. was a bona fide cemetery wanderer and I think the next emotion I felt could even collected a few books on epitaphs. best be identified as disconcerted. I was I still haven’t told him. ruffled and perplexed at what was being He aimed his little truck up the exposed along this definitely unkempt hills of Hope, Idaho and maneuvered area and raggedy trail. Graves! Grave with expertise the meandering wildlife sites in decaying repose. Uneven ground, trails that they call roads. After a “Mr. rocks and ancient, broken, wooden Toad’s Wild Ride” at an eclectic variety fencing. I found two, widely separated of possible vehicle angles, we pulled headstones. The underbrush could hide off the side of the pavement where maybe a bicycle could pass. He said, Story and photos by Kathleen Huntley “Here it is!” I looked about the southern The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol 17 No. 18 | November 2008 | Page

STACCATO Notes REGULAR EVENTS

The Kinnikinnick Chapter of the Idaho Native Plant Society | 208-255-7928 The regular monthly meeting takes place at 9:45 am on the fourth Saturday of every month at Sandpoint’s Community Hall. Visit www.

NativePlantSociety.org for information.

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.

Jazz Pianist at 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

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.

Alcoholics Anonymous | 208-263-2740

Every Tuesday, Friday and Sunday at 7 pm at Sandpoint’s Gardenia Center, located at 400 Church St

Winery Music at Pend D’oreille Winery | 220 Cedar St In Sandpoint | 208-2658545 Live music at the winery on Friday and Saturday nights.

IN NOVEMBER The Coeur d’Alene Symphony Orchestra | Wine Taste | November 8 The Orchestra is holding a wine taste event on November 8, 2008, at 4:30 pm at the Jacklin Arts and Cultural Center, 405 William Street, Post Falls. This

will be a fundraiser for the symphony and will include wine, food and chamber music as well as an auction. Musicians for the evening include: David Demand on piano, Dr. Phil Baldwin on violin and Merilee Updike on clarinet, featuring the music of Mihlaud, Stravinsky, Khatchaturian and Ives. The Golden Baton will be auctioned off; the winner to conduct a selection at the Coeur d’Alene Symphony Christmas Concert. Tickets are $35 and available at the Symphony Office. Please call 208-765-3833 for tickets and further information.

The Sandpoint Transportation Initiative | Multimedia Event | November 14 The Sandpoint Transportation Initiative is hosting “Imagine Tomorrow-Today” at Sandpoint’s Panida Theater, 7 pm on Friday, November 14. The keynote address “Transition: The most exciting movement in the World” will be given by Michael Brownlee from Transition Boulder County, the first official designated Initiative in the US. Join us for presentations, videos, music and conversation. Find out what is happening locally and future possibilities for creating a sustainable, resilient and vibrant community. Tickets $5 or more, at Eve’s Leaves, Eichardt’s Pub & Grill, Monarch Mountain Coffee, FC Weskills, Common Knowledge Book Store & Tea House. For more info see www. sandpointtransition.org, call 208-255-2440 or email info@sandpointtransition.org. The following day will feature working groups from 1 to 5 pm at the Sandpoint Charter School. Call for information.

Christmas Lighting Extravaganza | Sanders County Fairgrounds The Sanders County Fairgrounds Christmas Lighting

Extravaganza takes place this year on November 23.The fairgrounds are bedecked with all types of Christmas lights, life-size figurines and a nativity scene. Come join the festivities and get into the Christmas spirit when we turn on the lights November 23.

Free chili dogs and hot chocolate for those brave enough to face the evening’s chill, plus fireworks top off the evening. The lighting ceremony begin s at 6:00 pm. The Christmas Lighting Display will be available for viewing nightly from dusk to 9 pm. Go to www. sanderscountyfair.com for more information.

Silent Auction | Thompson Falls Friends of the Library From Monday, November 24

through Saturday, December 6 during regular library hours, visit an auction like no other!

There are over 100 items to bid on including an array of gift baskets and gift items including framed artwork by local artists, works by skilled crafts people, and local products and services, a children’s auction, a handmade quilt raffle and a dinner raffle.

It’s all at the Thompson Falls Public Library, 911 Main Street in downtown Thompson Falls. Call 406-827-1997 for library hours and information.

Historic Holiday Trails | Bonner County Museum From Thanksgiving through

Christmas, on Saturdays with the occasional Friday, the Bonner County Museum will present a running display of model and tinplate trains combined with a historical railroad photo exhibit and displays. We will have 80+ feet each of O gauge (O Scale and Lionel trains), S Gauge (American Flyer) and HO Gauge (all brands of HO trains) track set up so that visitors can enjoy watching a variety of trains run by the Museum volunteers or bring their own trains and run them themselves! There is a small admission charge or free for members. Nov 28-29 and Dec 6, 13, 20, 26-27 11am-3pm.

208-263-2344 bchs@verizon.net

Your current North Idaho legislators thank you for your support of our democtatic process by voting.

Photo by Pat Young

Paid for by the Committee to Re-Elect Eric Anderson, Keep Keough Senator, and the Committee to Re-Elect George Eskridge.

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NOVEMBER

STACCATO Notes

SUNDAY

Holly Eve Harvest Dinner

November 12 Hope’s Memorial Community Center hosts Harvest Dinner 2008.

Catered by Pend Oreille Pasta, doors open at 5:30 pm. Appetizers, no-host bar, bucket raffles, and dinner at 7. Tickets are $20, and $2 goes to the Christmas Giving Program; tickets available at the center or by calling

Golden Dragon Chinese Acrobats

208-264-5481

208-263-6139

MONDAY

November 16 POAC sponsors a performance by the Golden Dragon Chinese Acrobats at 7:30 pm.

Direct from Hibei, China, the company has gained international acclaim.

Tickets are $22 adults, $18 for POAC members, and $8 for youth.

TUESDAY

November 22 Break out the formal wear! This holiday fashion show and gala benefit for the Panida and Festival at Sandpoint begins at 6:30 pm at the Sandpoint Event Center, and includes champagne, hors d’oeuvres and entertainment.

Fishing Derby November 28-30 Annual Thanksgiving Fishing Derby on Lake Pend Oreille sponsored by the Lake Pend Oreille Idaho Club. Cash prizes for first through fourth in Rainbow and Mackinaw.

Also daily prizes. Awards ceremony December 6 at 7 pm at the Bonner Mall.

208-263-9191

THURSDAY

FRIDAY Schweitzer Fear Fest

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Fall Fishing Derby. Hills Resort Arts & Crafts Show Priest Lake 10 to 6 Holidays in Sandpoint Kickoff. Santa arrives at Bonner Mall at 10 am.

Golden Dragon Chinese Acrobats Panida Theater 7:30

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Fall Fishing Derby

Imagine Tomorrow-Today Panida Theater 7 pm

Xiayin Wang Piano Concert Panida Theater 7:30 pm

Hope Harvest Dinner Memorial Community Center 5:30 pm

Annual meeting for NAMI

Murder at the Castle. Panida Theater 8 pm

Turkey Bingo.

Bonner Mall

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Don’t miss the Nutcracker at Sandpoint’s Panida Theater, 7:30 pm on December 3

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Murder at the Castle. Panida Theater 8 pm

Turkey Bingo.

Bonner Mall

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LPOIC.org

SATURDAY

1 Schweitzer Fear Fest

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Murder at the Castle. Panida Theater 8 pm Wine Taste CDA Symphony 4:30

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Holly Eve 6:30 at the Sandpoint Event Center Turkey Bingo. Bonner Mall

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Fall Fishing Derby Hills Resort Arts & Crafts Show Priest Lake 10 to 4

The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol 17 No. 18 | November 2008 | Page

Mark Your Calendars Sandpoint’s traditional parties to kick off the holiday season start this month

Yep, it’s hard to believe but Christmas is right around the corner, and Sandpoint’s traditional start to the season, Holly Eve, takes place on Saturday, November 22 in the beautifully restored, third-floor auditorium at the Sandpoint Event Center (the old Sandpoint High School).

Despite a disconcerting national economic picture, donations have been steady and event organizer Marilyn Sabella says the live and silent auctions feature many great goodies to help you spark your holiday spirit.

In addition to the popular Fashion Show, back after a brief hiatus, plan on complimentary champagne and sparkling water, and an incredible array of hors d’oeuvres from many of your favorite local restaurants.

Doors open at 6:30 pm and tickets are $25 per person. Get your tickets at Eve’s Leaves; Panhandle State Bank and the Festival at Sandpoint office, or call 208263-8956 for more information.

As always, proceeds from this event benefit the Panida Theater, the Festival at Sandpoint, Pend Oreille Arts Council, Bonner Community Hospice and Community Cancer Services.

The following weekend, November 28, the traditional tree lighting ceremony takes place in downtown Sandpoint at 5:30 pm. Every Saturday throughout the season (beginning November 29 and continuing through December 20) you will find Santa at the North Pole (located inside the Cedar St. Market, on the Cedar St. Bridge). And to make it easy to shop at home for the holidays, the city is offering

free parking all day at the city parking lot (just across from Town Square) from November 27 through December 31.

Don’t miss the traditional showing of The Nutcracker at Sandpoint’s historic Panida Theater. The Eugene Ballet performs this holiday classic on Wednesday, December 3 at 7 pm. Colorful sets, dazzling costumes and talented local dancers highlight this imaginative ballet.

Tickets are $22 for adults, $18 for POAC members, and $8 for youth. Call 208263-6139 for more information.

Need a Christmas tree to go? The first weekend of December marks Kinderhaven’s Festival of Trees. It all happens at the airplane hanger just off Great Northern Rd. Friday, December 4 is family night, a free event open to the public with the opportunity to see Santa. Head out to gaze in delight at over a dozen magnificently decorated Christmas trees. Then head back on Saturday, December 6 at 6 pm for a night of fine dining and spirited bidding on the fully decorated and accessorized trees. Trees are delivered on Sunday to the winning bidder’s living room where Kinderhaven volunteer elves will unwrap it and set it up; your only job is to turn on the lights. Individual tickets for the event are $75 each, or sponsor a table of eight for $1,500.

Can’t make the gala event? Stop by for a holiday luncheon on Friday, December 5 from 11:30 to 1 pm. Tickets are $35, or $500 for a table of eight.

See page 46 for tips on decorating a unique Christmas tree from Kinderhaven Festival of Trees alumni.

-Trish Gannon

Get your Christmas tree to go this year from the Kinderhaven Festival of Trees.

Annual Customer Appreciation Sale!

Now through December 20

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*Excludes Bradford Products

Diamonds • Custom Orders Fine Colored Stones Wildlife ornaments & collectibles Thomas Kinkade, Terry Redlin and Janene Grende artwork

In the Bonner Mall at the JC Penney entrance 208-263-0010

Help Yourself to Seconds Senior Citizens mentor Lake Pend Oreille Alternative High Students in the operation of a new thrift store in Sandpoint

By Desire Aguirre The old Chinese proverb, “I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand,” best describes the philosophy behind the newest thrift store in Sandpoint, 2nds Anyone? The store, located on the corner of Pine and Boyer, operated by students from Lake Pend Oreille Alternative High School and senior citizens, held its grand opening Friday, October 3.

Colleen Ross, the director of the thrift store project, along with Randy Wilhelm, Linda Spade, Rick Dalessio, Mona Stafford and other staff members at LPO, believes in enriching the lives of students by providing them with hands-on learning experiences and opportunities to give back to their community. The thrift store will enable students to receive frontline, on the job training in purchasing, merchandising, landscaping, construction, maintenance, accounting, bookkeeping, janitorial and people skills while meeting the needs of the community.

What sets this store apart from other businesses is its unique partnership with the Senior Citizen Center. Research shows that teenagers and senior citizens, as a group, feel like they are not valued

in their community. The seniors, who ran a thrift store for years, will mentor the students.

The thrift store is a workforcetraining center, said Colleen Ross, and believes in recycling. Need a new pair of shoes? I bought a slightly used pair of super comfortable Nikes for $2. My daughter, DaNae, wants to become a seamstress. She purchased a fully functioning sewing machine, complete with table and bags of recycled clothing, for $15. The store has furniture (a nice couch costs $10), dishes, shoes, a vast assortment of clothes, jewelry, and linens, all at reasonable prices. In addition, they feature daily specials in the store, and frequently run dollar bag sales on Saturdays.

Lyn Walters, the store manager, has high hopes for the thrift store.

“We want to get things in and get things out. If somebody wants a sofa and doesn’t care if it’s a little faded, this is the place.”

The store accepts donations during working hours, Tuesday through Friday, 10 am to 5:30 pm and on Saturdays from noon to 4 pm. They can’t take mattresses, exercise equipment, older televisions,

computers or printers over three years old, broken or dirty appliances or baby car seats. For big donations, like a bed or sofa, please call first to make sure the store can accommodate it. Please do not leave items on the porch.

“We don’t want things that aren’t going to move,” Lynn said. “If you would not give it to a friend or relative, we probably can’t sell it, so please don’t bring it here.”

The store originated with the help of a grant from Panhandle Alliance for Education. The store has six months to become fully self-supporting. Lynn said that after expenses have been paid, proceeds will provide local scholarships, buy materials and supplies for LPO and for the Senior Citizen Center. The store gives back to the community by providing bargain-shopping opportunities of slightly used merchandise.

“The community has been really supportive,” Lyn said. “Coldwater Creek donated the hangers and stands, and we already have a full shop.”

In fact, the store already needs a storage unit. Anyone interested in donating some space please call Colleen Ross at 265-9190 or 610-1474.

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The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol 17 No. 18 | November 2008 | Page 11

Goodbye, my friend, it’s hard to die Tyler James Pesce 1990-2008

T

“...and flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.”

yler Pesce helped me to write what I believe is one of the greatest poems ever written. Last year, an English class at Clark Fork High School had been given an assignment to re-write Walt Whitman’s “I Hear America Singing,” updating this classic tribute to American workers to the world of today. My daughter, Amy, was having trouble coming up with her re-write for the poem so I began making suggestions. I am not only not a poet, but I tend to have a highly developed sense of the ridiculous and Amy, it should be noted, was less than impressed with my contributions, not even with the line about the “raging, black cloud of Bush-evil.”

Tyler, however, loved my suggestions. For the next few hours we roamed farther and farther afield in the areas of modern music, the life of today’s workingman, favorite Disney movies and corporate food standards and, at the end, sometime long after midnight and much laughter had come and gone, we had written what I think was an A+ production.

I don’t know what the teacher thought—I had the kids turn the poem in as an anonymously completed assignment, but she never graded it. Perhaps she didn’t appreciate the conjunction of “I hear America singing,”

with “caramouche, caramouche, can you do the fandango?” But I will never again hear the first line without hearing the second along with it. And, of course, I will never hear either without thinking of Tyler Pesce.

When Tyler died underneath the crushing weight of a car on Clark Fork’s Old River Road in early October, I cried but I didn’t cry alone. This town has been united in its grief over our loss of this special young man.

All kids, of course, are special, all are unique and deserve to be celebrated for the joy they bring to our lives.

But rare is the person who brings as much joy as Tyler did.

He was not the most gifted student academically, nor was he especially talented athletically. But no one could match Pesh in sheer love of life, not student, nor adult. He had the talents of being able to live fully in the moment, of loving unreservedly, and of finding enjoyment in whatever situation he found himself in. Over the next few days, as students gathered to share their favorite memories of Tyler, those themes began to emerge.

“For some reason he just decided to take off running, but Baugh’s car was in the way. Of course, he ran right into it... I told him to tap me on the shoulder when he was ready to get back into the game. I was talking to someone and suddenly there comes this blow, it almost took

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me to my knees. I turned around and there was Tyler. “I’m ready,” he said... Tyler and I decided we were going to get abs in one day.

So we kept working out with this tenminute ab video over and over. I was on the floor in agony, ready to quit, and Tyler said, “let’s do it one more time!”... No matter what happened, Tyler could make it better. He always noticed when something was wrong... He was always a friend...

Pesh was everyone’s number one fan. You could always hear him cheering you on...“

He was tall and goofy and uncoordinated, and had an incurable sense of humor. He was caring and loving and never afraid to show that care and love. He smiled a lot; in fact, he smiled most of the time. He had some atrocious taste in music. “Tyler said he wasn’t afraid to die,” one of his friends told me and maybe that’s so, but the gift of Tyler is that he wasn’t ever afraid to live.

Sitting in a classroom with a group of Pesce’s friends, one pulled out a twoliter bottle of Pepsi. “He was drinking out of this right before he died,” she said. “We can all take a drink and then we’ll all have a little bit of Pesce inside of us.” Solemnly, the bottle passed around the table and we each, in turn, took a sip. As the spicy cold soda bit its way down my throat I found myself hoping that the part of Tyler that came to me was the part that made us all love him so much—his joy in life.

-Trish Gannon This waterfront home on Cocolalla Lake has 204 front feet, 2 decks, and is immaculate. Two bedrooms, two baths, circular driveway, 2 car garage and many large mature trees shade this .57 acre parcel (3 lots). Easy access to Sandpoint or CDA. Affordable waterfront and private. $499,921.

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Page 12 | The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol 17 No. 18 | November 2008

by Jody Forest

Comrade Citizens! Not a whole lot double-check what kind of ID you need to This, the first half of the book, is by far my going on, though since it’s Veteran’s Day bring and if it covers family members—it’s favorite section. In the second part, “On this month there’s a few things happening toll free at 800-523-2464 Lessons Learned and Leadership,” Moore that might interest you. First off we have the On Tuesday the 11th of November at is absolutely scathing in his analysis annual “free-to-all-veteransof George W. Bush as and-their-families” Veteran’s “We think of our fallen comrades, forever young as Commander in Chief; My Day dinner prepared by the we grow old, and of how they died before they had god, he wonders, didn’t lovely ladies of the VFW we learn anything from even begun to live. We were all young then and had Auxiliary which will be held Napoleon or Hitler?

Sunday, November 9 at 1 no real understanding then of all they would never Who taught us, if nothing pm at VFW Hall in Sandpoint know—the joy of a good woman’s love, of watching else, that you should not (corner of Pine and Division). our children grow, of savoring all that is good and voluntarily open a war on You can bring a dessert if bad in a long life.We who were fortunate enough to two fronts lest you end up you like. destroying yourselves! survive have tasted all those experiences and now we Next we have the annual know all that they gave up when they laid down their In a speech at West Marine Corps League dinner precious lives for us. Far from fading in memory, the Point, Moore famously told on Saturday, November 8 at the class that the war in Iraq pain and sorrow only grow more acute.” the Beach House at noon. wasn’t worth one American -We are Soldiers Still Shawn Keough is expected life, and that Rumsfeld, to be the guest speaker Cheney and Bush were and for further information you can call 11 am (Armistice Day) the ladies of the incompetent morons. “I felt I owed them Jay Hermann, the Commandant at 265- DAR will be guests at the annual memorial nothing less than the truth,” he recalled. services at War Memorial Field (where the 8058 (home) and 597-0383 (cell).

Erasmus: Dulce bellum inexpertis The Golden Corral Restaurant offers Festival’s held every year in Sandpoint). A (war is delightful to those who have no a free Veteran’s Day dinner as well every special theme of this year’s memorial will experience of it). year, though this year it will be on Monday be Remembering Women in the Military. ‘til next time, smoke ‘em if ya’ got ‘em The Disabled American Veterans and All Homage to Xena! the 17th of November from 6 to 9 pm. I’d suggest bringing a copy of your discharge Chapter #15 of Bonner County would papers or VA medical card. I don’t like to thank the members of Vietnam generally go to these simply because, with Veterans of America Chapter #890 for the price of gas nowadays, by the time their generous donation of $500 towards you drive all the way to Spokane and back the DAV Van Fund, which will be used to it’s ate up in gas anything you’d save. But replace the current van as it ages. If you’d if you’re heading into the big city anyway, like to help you can donate at Sandpoint’s Well’s Fargo Bank to “DAV Van Fund.” you might as well get a meal out of it!

I’ve been informed the Coeur d’ Alene You can also help by donating your Casino in Worley this year is also giving aluminum cans to the DAV at Pacific Iron free dinners to Veterans on November 6 and Metal on Triangle Drive in Ponderay. at 6 pm. You might call beforehand and The DAV would also like to thank V.V.A. members Will Ditman and Don Carr for their assistance in clean-up and repairs last month, which saved a disabled vet’s home from being condemned.

A final note; “We are Soldiers Still” (Harper, Collins, 2008) is the follow-up book to the 15-years-ago best selling memoir by Lt. Gen. Harold Moore and reporter Joe Galloway, “We were Soldiers Once, and Young” (since made into a movie starring Mel Gibson). In this book, Joe, Harold, and a few old friends from the 1st Cav go back to walk through Vietnam’s Ia Drang Valley and to meet and talk with their battlefield opponents from so many years ago.

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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. 18 | November 2008 | Page 13

November’s a Month of Meals

Fear itself- continued from page sky is the limit. Five years ago, one could buy five acres of unimproved land fronted on county roads for around $30,000.

Last year that same five acres was priced more than $100,000. Home prices went into the stratosphere even when lumber mills were closing because of low prices.

Values then, are based mostly on the ability to pay payments.

Compounding that principle was Congress, pressuring the lending industry to make it possible for anyone who wanted to own their own home, to have one. There is only one way to make that happen. Lower lending standards. If you raise the debt to income ratios and lower the credit requirements, that can happen. The problem with that is there were real good reasons for the standards that used to be in place. Fannie and Freddie had tough lending standards that worked well for years, until the Senate and House finance committees forced looser standards on them.

Another part of the equation was the rapidly ascending marketplace. Under artificially low interest rates, rates not seen since the 50s, home prices went up, up, up. Finally, the bubble burst. The old adage that everything that goes up must come down applies to more than just aircraft.

We are now facing several realities.

One, those who are still clinging to home prices that were valid two years ago can forget it. Easy come, easy go, except for those who bought at the top of the market. These people now owe more than their homes are worth. Current values are easily 30 to 35 percent lower than at the peak. In the coming months

and perhaps even years, they may sink much lower. For those who have been in their homes for several years, purchased before the boom started, they lost money only on paper. In the long run, real estate is still the best place to invest, but I must emphasize the term “long run.” Recovery may take a long time.

Some similarities with 1929 must be examined. Back then, over leveraging was the root cause for the stock market collapse, along with coming right after a boom market called “The Roaring Twenties.” Starting to sound familiar?

There are differences though. For instance, the picture that most people have of the Great Depression, if indeed they have a picture at all, is that of foreclosed farms, hobos camped under railroad underpasses and the like. In reality, most people owned their homes outright back then. Where 80 percent of our population lives in or near large cities now, it wasn’t so almost 80 years ago. Most lived on five or ten to twenty acres, had livestock, a garden and knew how to preserve food

without freezers like we enjoy now. They canned, cured, and dried their meat that they raised on subsistence farms that were mostly self-supporting.

Today, this isn’t the case. Very few family farms still exist, having sold out to the large corporate conglomerates that can farm more efficiently. Scattered around are families that still live on the homesteads their grandparents founded in the early 1900s. Where mass starvation didn’t occur then, it can now. Look around. Former UN Secretary general, Kofi Annan recently remarked, “Every day, 10,000 people die from starvation or malnutrition.” Whether these figures are accurate or not, it does point out that it could indeed happen here if we fall into a lengthy depression.

There. I’ve used that word. Most people, when referring to the previous depression, look to 1929. Actually it took three more years—until 1932—before the depth of the disaster occurred, and it lasted until about 1939, when our industries started to gear up to supply the British at the beginning of World War II. That was prior to our having sent our heavy industry offshore. We don’t have a steel industry anymore, and if the big three auto makers go down, and that could happen, we won’t have that industry either. Where world war rescued us after ten years of horror, it can’t now.

The old adage goes something like this: “Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.” Come spring, plant a garden.

Buy a cow. Work to ensure that your family will have food on the table. And learn a lesson from the ‘big boys;’ try to do it without spending more money than you actually have.

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Page 14 | The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol 17 No. 18 | November 2008

The 401-keg Plan A reminder to readers that college students are sometimes the wisest investors: If you had purchased $1,000.00 of AIG stock one year ago you would have $44.34 left. With Wachovia, you would have had $54.74 left of the original $1,000.00. With Lehman, you would have had $0.00 left. But, if you had purchased $1,000.00 worth of beer one year ago…drank all of the beer, then turned in the cans for the aluminum recycling ... you would have $214.00 cash.

humor

Matt Davidson

You’ve just got to love a sense of humor. Pat Young snapped this shot on a dirt road somewhere near Lewiston, Idaho in October. Shouldn’t the sign have a second sentence that reads, “except for this one”? Ernie Hawks gives special mention to the highway signs on Hwy 95S that read “no passing snowplow on the right.”

He says that strikes him as a selflimiting problem.

Have you 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. 18 | November 2008 | Page 15

Page 16 | The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol 17 No. 18 | September 2008

By Jinx Beshears I hadn’t been to a real football game in I don’t know how many years. I don’t watch it much on TV, but I love to watch it live.

Now, here I was with great seats right on the sidelines, waiting for the games to begin!

Red and white jerseys were scattered across the field, kick-off was about to take place. The referees stood ready on the sidelines and the tension was mounting.

Balls hurled back and forth on the sideline, as the teams warmed up their throwing arms. Both teams lined up, staring each other down, yellow flags proudly strapped to their waists.

The ball was hiked and I watched Zoe Speelmon’s red pigtails waving in the wind as she put her game face on to take down the opposing team member. I could almost hear an audible “grrr.” The ball was thrown wild, but Max Icardo managed to hold onto the football anyway. Conorey Vogel blocked for Max, who swerved to the left, then to the right, finally running several yards before being stripped of his flags.

Running back to the team huddle, coaches encouraged the kids to continue with each play. Again the ball was hiked and thrown to another team member, straight into his chest. Wham! I could almost feel the pain myself! Then I heaved a sigh of

relief; the ball was a brightly colored nerf ball! Whew! No damage; these are only 8to 9-year-olds playing here.

When my own son, Dustin, was playing football, I can remember the coaches yelling at him, but the Sandpoint coaches are evidently playing a whole different ball game. These coaches are supportive and explain to the kids why they are required to trade out players, so no feelings get hurt. It’s not unusual to see a coach on his knees, eye level with a kid, talking about a play that the child thought may have not gone quite right. The kids are taught good sportsmanship, even picking up the other team’s flags after ripping them from their waists. I did hear a few parents—only a few—screaming for their kids to “take em’ out,” but I am sure they were just caught up in the heat of the moment. Flag football can be quite competitive for parents.

I loved listening to the kids talking to each other on the sidelines through their mouth guards: “diya seme knocktha dude dow?” It was like listening to a patient at a dentist’s office.

Even the rain couldn’t stop these kids from flying across the field, although at one point, I thought my own seat was in jeopardy—the kids don’t always know where out of bounds begins and ends! Who cares if a little mud gets slung, it’s all a part of the game, and puddles are just a positive bonus. Whistles blowing, refs screaming, “one alligator, two alligator, three alligator,” (evidently the kids can’t cross the line until the third count).

Rules are not always explained well during games.

Two games per Saturday, fifteen minute halves and 30 minute games from

beginning to end, and pure innocence.

Siblings bouncing up and down on the sidelines, impatiently waiting for either their turn or a McDonald’s trip at the end of the games. I voted for the Mickey D’s trip. If you get a chance, check out the games played on Saturdays at Travers Park in Sandpoint. It just might turn into a football game you never forget!

Thank you to all those this election season who took part in this democratic process by informing themselves and by voting; and to those who supported my efforts, your encouragement has been much appreciated.

Joe Young

Paid for by the Committee to Elect Joe Young County Commissioner

By Scott Clawson A day for taking stock of all that you’ve got and maybe goin’ fer a walk or havin’ a good talk, maybe at the same time.

With family or friends, a pullin’ up stories about life’s little bends and making amends for whatever reason or crime.

Like that time at Grandma’s when the whole dern family was there and you shot peas from yer nose to prove you had hair which was immediately removed from your ego with ease by a big grumpy frown who put you over his knees.

But a day for thanks giving ain’t nearly enough to property give thanks fer all of our stuff.

What about the things we’ve taken for granted like the crops from seeds that others have planted?

Genuis and toil have brought us this far from refridgerator to the family car.

The things we use on a regular basis that help to keep our lives in relative stasis.

Our power to reason is reason enough to give thanks for this season for a life less tough.

We don’t live in caves or have to chase our dinner but I bet if we did, we’d be a whole lot thinner.

Through study and work, others have paid our dues and because of this, I don’t have to make my own screws.

And being a carpenter, I can say this with ease, without input from others, lumber’d still be in trees.

We’ve gone from smackin’ rocks to a click of the Bic, back a hundred years or so would’ve been one hell of a trick.

Or even jump in your ride and goin’ fifty miles one way put in eight hours and get on back every day.

From stone scrapers to carbide, we’ve made great advances at livin’ instead of dyin’, so we’ve got a lot better chances.

I prefer flippin’ switches ‘stead of packin’ around candles or tanning some hides for to make my own sandals.

I knd of sounds novel to go backwards in time when life was much simipler and far more sublime.

But it’s always been crazy this planet of ours things are no different now, there’s just different powers.

Chaos and greed pretty much run this old show, I ain’t pointing fingers but I know what I know.

We’ve all been guilty of takin’ fer granted A standard of livin’ that’s heavily slanted.

There’s a few billion people that’s tryin’ like hell to have it our way and it’s not a hard sell.

To have the amenities, the thrills and the pay, to be able to work and still go somewheres to play.

But the vast majority is under some stresses from lacking most everything ‘cept ecological messes to despotic rulers who see no other courses other ‘n harrangin’ their people with a big show of forces.

So this Thanksgiving as yer sayin’ graces I’d like to see a smile all over yer faces, for the realization that yer luckier’n most ‘cause you weren’t born without privelege and poor as a post. AMEN

• Bonner Mall Cinemas • Centerfield sports • Cox Custom Leather • Beads & Fine Art • Deep Creek Gems & Crystals • Dollar Tree • GNC • Hideaway Lounge • “Home Sweet Home” • consignment & antiques • Horizon Credit Union • Idaho State Liquor Store • JC Penney • Les Schwab Tires • Marcy’s Hallmark • McDonalds • Meyer’s Sport Tees • Monarch Mt Lodge • North Idaho College • Paris Hair Design & School of Poise • Sandpoint Diner • Sandpoint Furniture • Sandy’s Sugar Shack • Sayers Jewelers • Sears • Sew ‘n Vac • Smokers Express • Staples • Wonderland Studio • yokes Fresh Market • Opening soon “It’s a Wrap

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Troubled Times- Continued from page A. We have seen next to no significant activity in that way.

I think that’s because we’ve done a good job of talking to our customers and explaining our current status and future plans. We have developed a lot of trust within our banking community, and that goes two ways.

Q. Given the bailout, will finances get worse or get better?

A. It’s not going to be easy, but our government has had some tough decisions to make in a short period of time and it seems to be working. Now we need to move forward and work our way out of this.

Q. How will taxpayers manage to pay for this bailout?

A. The plan that was put in place allows for the bailout to pay for itself. For example, the government takes an ownership share in banks that participate in the bailout, and they keep that ownership share until the bank pays back what Curt Hecker addresses the it was given. If they pay back within the first five public. years, they pay 5 percent. After that, banks pay 9 percent interest on the money they borrowed. Another part of the bailout is buying these failing mortgages—at a highly discounted price. There’s a reasonable chance of getting those assets at such a discount that we’ll come out whole. Where the direct equity infusion is concerned, that’s a less certain outcome. You can’t control for every risk out there, but the government is not just giving this money away. FDIC insurance premiums are paid by the banks, and if there are payouts from that pool, and the fund drops, the banks will pay more. The economic stimulus methods (checks to taxpayers) will not be repaid directly, and will therefore add to the debt.

Q. Is what’s happening now comparable to the Great Depression?

A. Not really. From an academic standpoint, this recession is fascinating. What’s happening now is on a global scale, not just a U.S. scale. There are a lot of different factors in play. For example, FDIC insurance was created after the events of 1929 and that provides a tremendous safety net to protect today’s depositors. We have moved from a cyclical manufacturing economy to a more stable, service-oriented economy.

Farming is no longer a major employer, so the country is not as susceptible to massive unemployment from that sector as occurred during the droughts of the 1930s. Trade laws during the Depression very quite restrictive, and today we live in a true global marketplace. Today, governments have many more options for addressing our current economic situation. While this is not a perfect world, it has become a very different one over the past 80 years. We can learn from history, but we don’t have to relive it.

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Page 18 | The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol 17 No. 18 | November 2008

It’s hard not to play the “if I won the lottery game,” even though I never buy a ticket. By the same token, I know what I’d do if I were elected to office; be glad I’m not running.

Even without an IV line in my house connecting us directly to the boob tube, it’s been hard to miss the fact that, almost overnight, Henny Penny appeared everywhere on the national scene to let us know the “sky is falling! It really is!” Well, finally.

Maybe now the American public will make up its

mind—and tell its legislators— how it wants to go about the business of government. If I were elected, here’s the things we’d be talking about: Raising Taxes. Yeah, I know.

Legislators on both sides of the aisle, especially Republicans, tell you they’re for fiscal responsibility all the time, right? Do you remember how Jesus said you judge a tree by its fruit? Well, our national debt currently stands at $10.2 trillion. The national debt clock in New York City doesn’t even have enough spaces available to show all those digits! If you take a look at any of those automated debt clocks

installed on websites, the digits are moving faster than they do on the gas pumps.

And interest? Well, interest on the debt uses up almost 45 percent of all the money the government takes from taxpayers each and every year.

Then we learned in September that Wall Street—private business, mind you—needed $700 billion to prevent a crash and burn.

My, what a difference two terms can make.

Every year we, as a government, have been spending more than we make, and we do that by borrowing money—sixty percent of what we’ve borrowed came from other countries.

We’re in hock to China, alone, for $4 billion.

So yes, China, keep sending us toxic products because we owe you a bunch of money and therefore don’t have much ground to stand on in demanding higher quality. Borrowing money isn’t inherently evil—most of us who own homes would not have them if we hadn’t borrowed money.

But government borrowing should have to include a repayment plan.

Think about it. Every year you could get an accounting from the government of how much money you’re going to owe in taxes on the repayment, and approximately the date when you’re going to be expected to pay it.

Our current debt stands at $86,017 per person. (At least, it did when the national debt clock

ran out of room.) Now imagine that document. It tells you, “We’re sending you a stimulus check this year for $300. However, six years from now (or when someone else is in office) we’re going to increase your taxes by $8,600 per year for the following ten years so you can pay what you owe. Oh, plus that $300.” Bet that would engender a renewed interest in how government works. And then taxpayers would have a chance to determine what they want badly enough it’s worth going into debt for.

Consequences: AIG was going down, down, down so top executives in the company got an extra $5 million in bonuses.

Once the $85 billion bailout of the company was approved, its top sales executives took off for a $440,000, one-week retreat at the St. Regis Resort. Anyone who believes in rewarding incompetence with bonuses and vacations must believe that incompetence is a good thing. I disagree with them.

Here’s an idea: the executives of any company that needs a government bailout will be fired, and will be banned from working in any related field for, say, five years.

This could be expanded, by the way, to any company that ends up costing the taxpayer money... for example, companies responsible for generating Superfund sites.

Free markets. Do they work or not? Given the number of bailouts we taxpayers are on the hook for, I would suggest that they don’t work—at least, not without some forms of regulation.

There is a mind set that believes government can never do as good a job as the private sector can do—a mind set I don’t actually believe in. Government will do as little or as much as we

POLITICALLY INCORRECT by Trish Gannon

IF I WERE ELECTED

Trish Gannon is the publisher of the River Journal. She lives in Clark Fork. Reach her at trish@ Continued on page 26 riverjournal.com

The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol 17 No. 18 | November 2008 | Page 19

Page 20 | The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol 17 No. 18 | November 2008

Making Cents

The Ins and Outs of Mitigation Dollars

by Kate Wilson Money is hard to come by these days; it’s true. If the need is for dollars to protect the environment and the various critters and humans that utilize it, the task becomes even more difficult. Of the many natural resource protection, enhancement, and restoration projects in the region, some of them featured right here in this column, a significant portion are funded or somehow connected to the funds made available through the Clark Fork Settlement Agreement for the ongoing operation of the two dams on the lower Clark Fork River. It is high time we had a talk about how this process works—especially in the case that you may have a project or idea that fits the criteria set forth in the Clark Fork Settlement Agreement, an essential factor.

In the mid 1990s, the two lower Clark Fork dams were up for relicensing, a process that most large hydroelectric projects in the nation must follow. Avista Corporation, a Washington-based utility company that holds license to two dams on the lower Clark Fork River at Noxon Rapids and Cabinet Gorge, decided at that point to take a non-traditional approach to the relicensing; they created the “Management

Committee,” a group of 27 stakeholders.

This committee is comprised of a mélange of state and federal agencies, tribes, non-profit groups, and local government representatives; together they crafted the CFSA and continue to implement it today.

Through the CFSA, Avista has committed financial and technical support over a multi-decade timeframe to assist with wildlife, water quality, wetlands, fisheries and recreation projects in the river basin. Though many of the proposals are submitted and implemented by members of the Management Committee, the process is very much open to other entities. It is important that people understand this is not a grant program. Rather, it is the product of a collaborative, consensus-building approach to protect, mitigate and enhance resources associated with the operation of the two aforementioned

dams.

The CFSA includes protection, mitigation, and enhancement measures to protect and improve specific aquatic and terrestrial resources in the “project area” near the dams, which is most of the lower Clark Fork-Pend Oreille watershed (from Thompson Falls downstream as well as Lake Pend Oreille and its tributaries). The

PM&Es address very specific resources, all spelled out in the appendices of the CFSA. They are: fisheries, water quality, wetlands, wildlife, botanical, land use, recreation, aesthetics, and cultural resources.

“This is a neat example of a pretty highpowered power company taking an ethical approach to mitigating for impacts,” says Chip Corsi, Panhandle Supervisor for Idaho Department of Fish and Game. “It

is unique, innovative, and people have the opportunity to participate if they choose.”

2009 will mark the 10 year anniversary of the CFSA—no easy feat in the light of some tough issues facing our region such as unprecedented growth and the associated impacts on fish and wildlife, as well as land and water resources.

Kate Wilson is a project journalist for Avista’s Clark Fork Project. Reach her at hunterolivemint@gmail.com

The CFSA sets specific dollar amounts for each resource for each year, though that does not mean all of the funds are utilized each year, it just depends on the projects that are approved. There are smaller groups, much like subcommittees, that help rank, select, and guide the project proposals, though each proposal must, ultimately, be approved by the larger Management Committee. The subcommittees include the Water Resources Technical Advisory Committee and the Terrestrial Resources Technical Advisory Committee. Although most projects are generated by those already involved, others are encouraged to contribute as well.

In order to submit a proposal to the

Management Committee, there are some tools that are available. First of all, familiarize yourself with the CFSA and the objectives set forth in the Protection, Mitigation, and Enhancement measures

(see www.avistautilities.com/resources/ hydro/clarkfork/ for more information).

From there, Joe DosSantos or Nate Hall (both with Avista) can direct you to the appropriate contact. DosSantos works with tributary acquisition, water quality and fisheries projects, while Hall focuses on land management, recreation and wildlife habitat.

“A mitigation program is designed to make up for losses that are the result of an impact from a specific project,” says Regional Fisheries Manager for IDFG Jim Fredericks. “A grant program could be much more broad and could be set up to fund any sort of projects the review committee supports.”

Some examples of projects that fit the criteria and have been funded in the past include: the acquisition of key bull trout and wildlife habitat along the Bull River in Montana; the development and maintenance of recreational sites along the reservoirs; and a stream restoration project in Idaho.

In 2001, over 140 acres on the Bull River in Montana was purchased by Avista through the CFSA process. The parcel is protected by a conservation easement that ensures the key habitat contained in the shoreline and associated wetlands, for e s t s, a n d

meadows will be kept in its natural state perpetually. The project provides vital habitat for species such as bull trout, westslope cutthroat trout, grizzly bear, mountain goats, moose, and mountain lions. The Clark ForkPend Oreille Conservancy, a local land trust that deals often with Avista and the Management Committee projects, holds the title and easements for the property.

Over 30 recreation sites above the Cabinet Gorge Dam have been created or enhanced through the CFSA in the last decade. The Bull River campground, for example, is located just off of Highway 200 (mile marker 11) in Montana. It is managed by the U.S. Forest Service, and has been a work-in-progress for many years now. Some of these improvements include: a beautiful new day use picnic shelter, repairs to the boat ramp and parking area, a new boat dock, educational signage, two new restrooms, and a handicap access trail. The Bull River site offers 26 overnight campsites, swimming areas, picnic areas, drinking water, flush toilets, a boat ramp and handicap accessible dock, and fishing access.

In the Lower Clark Fork-Pend Oreille watershed, where there is an estimated 4,000 individual adult bull trout in Lake Pend Oreille alone, 1, 136 miles of stream/ shoreline, and 49,755 acres of reservoirs and/or lakes have been designated as critical habitat.

“The realm of fisheries is usually the biggest issue [when it comes to dam mitigation],” says Idaho Department of Environmental Quality Tom Herron, a newcomer to the Management Committee. “I appreciate the group’s scrutinizing of funds and am impressed by the thorough nature of the project.”

Gold Creek, a tributary to Lake Pend Oreille, is slated for some work to benefit native trout next year. The project will involve obliterating a section of abandoned road and stabilizing the section where the road crossed the stream. “Basically, there’s an old road where unauthorized use has created a wide, shallow crossing on Gold Creek,” says Regional Fisheries Manager for IDFG Jim Fredericks. “The project is about narrowing the [stream] channel, stabilizing the banks, and then obliterating the road so it doesn’t happen again.”

Though the CFSA is the product of a complex process, it is fairly straightforward when it comes to funding projects that meet its standards. All proposals must be in no later than the 1st of December each year. That is a final proposal deadline though, meaning that applicants would need to pitch the idea and develop if fully.

For more information or assistance with proposal development, please call Joe DosSantos at 406-847-1284 or Nate Hall at 406-847-1281.

The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol 17 No. 18 | November 2008 | Page 21

Page 22 | The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol 17 No. 18 | November 2008

A Bird in Hand

As you read this article the cold will have chased many of our summer visitors south, and I don’t just mean the birds! The passing of the seasons brings new birds into our area as others leave, so there never is a lull in birding opportunities.

Counted among the best of these is the passage of the swans as they migrate out of the north and away from their tundra breeding grounds and toward their home-away-from-home somewhere in the southern part of our country or along the Pacific coast. We are fortunate to be located in an area that many migratory waterfowl travel through, and the swans are part of that feathered horde. As a family, swans are easy to identify: large white birds with elegant carriage, huge black beaks, and often with that long iconic S-curved neck—nothing comes close. But separating one from the other requires a bit more knowledge, and that is where I come in. Let me introduce you to Mr. Tundra and Ms. Trumpeter. Mute can speak for himself.

The most common swan you will see in our parts is the tundra swan. In fact, it might be the only swan you see. I have seen up to forty birds at a time resting on Lake Pend Oreille in the springtime, spending a few days recharging their flight batteries before taking the next leg of their trip north to, you guessed it, the tundra.

These are large birds and not easily confused with anything else. Surprisingly, they are more often a dingy color than the storybook birds, but that doesn’t really detract from their beauty. Though size is difficult to judge while in the field, for the sake of statistics the tundra swan can weigh up to 20 pounds and have a wingspan of just over 75 inches. In comparison, another large bird in our area, the bald eagle, can just beat it in wingspan, but will weigh only half as much. Yes, the tundra swan is one big bird!

Since size is not always a good indicator of specie, a

few handy field marks are helpful to keep in mind. First off, the tundra swan will typically have a bit of yellow at the base of its bill—something that is normally lacking in the other swans. In addition, the tundra swan is a bit more goose-like than the other swans you might see and doesn’t often sport that elegant curve to the neck.

Instead, it tends to keep its head level and its neck straight. But wow, is it dramatic when it flies overhead! Juveniles are often easy to pick out of the flock since they tend to be grayer than the adults, though nearly as large.

In some of your older field guides, the tundra swan is listed as the whistling swan.

This was changed a few years back when the whistling swan of North America and the Bewick’s swan of Eurasia were merged into the same specie. They are now considered to be conspecific, but I would not hold my breath. The taxonomy of birds seems to be fluid—modern genetic analysis to the contrary.

The other swan you might be lucky enough to see is the trumpeter swan. Much rarer than the tundra, though increasing in numbers, the trumpeter swan is the largest waterfowl in North America, perhaps in the world. This bird makes the tundra swan look like a duck! A large male might

by Michael Turnlund have a wingspan approaching 95 inches and tip the scales at 35 pounds. Those are impressive dimensions. It is no wonder these birds need a running start in order to get airborne.

For field marks, look for a large, almost oversize, black bill that seems to merge with the eyes. There will be no yellow anywhere to be found. In addition, the top of the head seems to follow the slope of the bill and isn’t rounded like the tundra swan. Lastly, the trumpeter is more apt to carry that distinctive and expected curve to the neck, which only adds to its allure. Similar to its cousin, the juvenile birds are distinctly more gray in color than the adults.

The last swan and one you probably won’t see outside of a zoo or city park is the mute swan. This is a large bird with a distinctive knob on the top of the bill.

Walt Disney made this one famous. It is also a nasty and aggressive bird, and has proven to be a problem with the native trumpeters. The mute swan is a European import that has established breeding populations in some parts of the country.

If you see one of these obnoxious, though gorgeous, birds in our area it is probably a domestic escapee. Big, beautiful, but vain—like some people I know. It also has an orange bill.

Keep your eyes peeled for these lumbering giants. They will either be passing north or south, depending on the season. But they are kind enough to allow us a good long gander before they head off into the blue. Happy skies!

Michael Turnlund is a Sandpoint resident who teaches at Clark Fork High School. Reach him at mturnlund@gmail.com. Visit our website at RiverJournal.com for color pictures and links to birdsong. Swan photo by Martin Joosse

by Matt Haag

Hunting season is in full swing with lots of hunters hitting the woods. With the November 1st doe whitetail opener, and the rut right around the corner, it will be a busy time out there for your local game wardens. We have been working hard and are happy to report that the majority of folks are following the rules and making ethical decisions.

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Ethical decisions? What is making an ethical decision while hunting, or so-called hunting ethics? It’s a question that I frequently ask my hunter education classes. It’s amazing that those 9to 12-year-old kids already have an understanding of ethics when they correctly respond, “doing the right thing.” Webster defines ethical as “in accordance with the accepted principles of right and wrong that govern the conduct of a profession.” I like to tell my hunter education classes that it’s simply doing the right thing when no one is looking. It’s important that our children have a solid grasp of hunting ethics at an early age. It’s been shown through research that once a child is taught the wrong way to hunt and not allowed to develop a hunting ethic, that child will continue to poach as an adult.

That individual will prolong the cycle and pass it down generation to generation, similar to the actions of domestic violence or substance abuse.

Isn’t hunting ethics just following the laws? Following the hunting regulations is just a part of being an ethical hunter.

Hunting and fishing are extremely personal experiences that are riddled with individual decisions that no two people would make the same. For example, if an elk is standing at 400 yards in a clear-cut across the canyon and there were three hunters deciding whether to shoot or not, you would most likely hear three different responses. The decisions to shoot would be based on many personal experiences such as hunting experience, weapon choice, marksmanship, etc. There are no laws regulating the maximum distance that a hunter can shoot big game. Conversely, there are many people that would never take that shot and would look negatively at a hunter that would attempt such a feat.

Some might think that there is a chance that the animal may be wounded at that distance, and not produce a clean kill.

Some might think that a 400-yard shot is not hunting and would prefer to stalk the animal. On the other hand, there are sportsmen that have the capability, the means, and the knowledge to successfully make that shot. Now if someone made that shot but couldn’t hike over to that canyon to retrieve the meat, that would be illegal.

If you picture hunting ethics as the core or center of sportsmen’s decisions, then hunting regulations are on the fringe of that core, guiding the decision process.

Illegal hunting acts are never ethical, but sometimes unethical hunting decisions are legal. Somewhere in that gray area is the difference between a true sportsman and just a plain old big game killer.

Sportsmen have an ethic that extends to the animals, the land, and fellow hunters. I would challenge all of us to broaden that ethic to include everyone, and yes, even those who don’t hunt. Many individuals choose to never hunt, and although this is a decision I cannot relate to, that is their hunting ethic, not mine. I respect that decision to not hunt; however ,non-hunters should not force their ethic on the hunting community. Subsequently, hunters should not force their ethics on non-hunters, respecting their views.

For example, when we have a successfully harvested an animal we should be cognizant of how and when we display that animal as we travel home. There are a few Neanderthals out there who just don’t care about the damage they cause to the hunting community. These folks are few in numbers but speak the loudest when it comes to adverse hunting publicity. These people give a majority of law abiding, ethical hunters a bad name. Please report these thugs so we can protect our great hunting heritage.

Hunting ethics are a little window into ourselves. The people we are to our families and to our community can be seen through the way we act in the woods. I’ve seen some people that don’t break the laws but are pretty unethical.

Start your children off on the right path and create that ethic early in the life. If you don’t, someone else’s child or parents will do it for you.

Enjoy all that we have out there, and don’t forget to include the kids. Be safe, be legal, and most of all, be ethical. See you out there!

Leave No Child Inside

Matt Haag is an Idaho Fish and Game Conservation Officer. You can reach him at 208-265-8521 or email mhaag@idfg.idaho.gov

The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol 17 No. 18 | November 2008 | Page 23

The Game Trail

From Bermuda to the Beach

by Clint Nicholson

Don’t know what you have until it’s gone Adam “Pacman” Jones, are you listening? I think most of us have had something we took for granted, and wished we had back. I can think of a hundred examples.

I wish I had my first bicycle back. I wouldn’t have left it on the sidewalk for someone to steal had I realized how much I was going to miss it. I wouldn’t have climbed to the top of an apple tree had I known I was going to break my arm when I fell out of it, and not be able to swim in my best friend’s brand new swimming pool all summer. I wish I hadn’t thrown that rock at my friend, hitting his dad’s brand new car. And I wish I had my $50 back from last Saturday night’s poker game.

But these are all pretty small compared to someone like Pacman’s rap sheet. Here’s a guy who makes millions of dollars playing a sport he grew up loving. At age 25, he’s made more money than most people will all their lives. Yet, he continually finds himself in the middle of something he shouldn’t be doing.

For those of you who don’t know, Adam “Pacman” Jones is (was) the cornerback for the Dallas Cowboys football team. He was drafted in the third round by the Tennessee Titans, until they traded him for his off-field behavior and a one year suspension from the NFL, which, by the way, is the first time he has actually been disciplined by the sport in which he plays.

Here’s Pacman’s credentials: He attended Westlake High school and was selected as the conference Player of the Year following his senior year. He left Westlake with 120 tackles, six interceptions and 1,850 rushing yards. He also played in the Georgia-Florida all-star game. Jones earned All-American honors in basketball and track. His basketball team won two state championships.

Pacman went on to college at West Virginia, where he is ranked second on West Virginia’s school career kickoff return yardage list with 1,475 yards. He is also ranked eleventh on the school’s career punt return yardage list with 404 yards, while his 10.92 yards per punt return is the sixth most in school history. Jones is one of the highest drafted players ever from West Virginia. They must be proud!

Or not…

Here is his rap sheet: On July 13, 2005, he was arrested and charged with assault and felony vandalism after a nightclub altercation. In October 2005, the state of West Virginia filed a

petition stating that Jones had not been contacting his probation officer and that he had not reported his July 2005 arrest. The judge extended the probation for just 90 days. On March 23, 2006, Pacman was charged with marijuana possession in Fayetteville, Georgia, later bragging to his friends that he knew how to beat the NFL’s drug test. On August 25, 2006, he was again arrested for disorderly conduct and public intoxication after being ordered by the cops to leave a night club several times. Jones claimed a woman stole his wallet. The woman claimed that Jones spat on her. On October 26, 2006, Jones was issued a citation for misdemeanor assault after a female student from Tennessee State claimed that Jones spit in her face at a night club (what’s with all the spitting?). On February 19, 2007, Jones was in the middle of a fight and shooting at a strip club in Las Vegas that left one man paralyzed and two more wounded. The fight broke out after Jones allegedly tipped strippers on stage with $81,000 dollars (not eighty-one dollars, not eight hundred and ten dollars, not eight thousand, one hundred dollars, that’s eighty-one thousand dollars). The club owner claims Jones was beating a stripper’s head against the bar (spitting just didn’t work the first couple of times). On January 3, 2008, Pacman is accused of punching a woman in the face at a strip club. The woman says Jones reached over the counter and sucker punched her in her left eye. Should have stuck to spitting, Pacman!

I wonder what Pacman would do if he was banned from the NFL forever. My guess, he would find himself in a penitentiary somewhere saying over and over to himself, “If I only knew then what I know now.” Hmmm!

The Dallas Cowboys assigned a “bodyguard” for Pacman this year, but I doubt it was to protect Pacman from his fans. I’m sure it was to protect Pacman from himself. What did Pacman do with the bodyguard? He beat him up. Probably spit on him, too. And now, Pacman may have his opportunity to discover what he had, because now it’s gone, maybe. Roger Goodell, the league commissioner, suspended Pacman indefinitely, or for at least four games. To get paid millions of dollars to play football, there isn’t much I wouldn’t do to have that opportunity.

Ah well, October is my favorite month of the year; grab some couch and watch some pig skin. Or, there’s always next year Manny, and if that isn’t enough, I can always flip the channel over to Court TV and watch O.J. wriggle in his chair.

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600 Schweitzer Plaza Dr. behind Super 8 Motel in Ponderay Page 24 | The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol 17 No. 18 | November 2008

FORE!play

by Dustin Gannon

There’s a difference between the words ‘sad’ and ‘upset’ and they are often used together. There is also a difference between the words whiney, and babies, and they, too, are often used together. And in this particular situation, all four words may be used together in this perfectly grammatically correct, ingenious sentence: The fans of the Seattle Seahawks are a bunch of sad and upset whiney babies.

I don’t discredit their loyalty to their team; I do believe that you should stand by your team. However, the people of the Pacific Northwest need to wake up and smell the fresh French roast of downtown Seattle and realize that nearly three-anda-half football seasons ago, their team just wasn’t good enough.

Nearly every day, when someone notices that I am loyal to the black and gold, they spit out the words, “paid officials.” This is a term that is no longer a form of speech, but a reflux of air that reiterates painful memories. It is also a term that refers to the way that fans of the Seattle Seahawks feel about their loss in the 2005 Superbowl.

Here’s where I come in. The officials were in no way paid off, and in no way ignorant for the calls that were made during that game. Below, if you Seachickens haven’t completely flipped out yet, is a detailed description on why the Steelers beat the Seahawks, so read up.

Controversial call numero uno.

The Roethlisberger touchdown run. Did the ball break the plane of the end zone? If you watch closely on the replay, you can see the front tip of the ball cross over the goal line before Roethlisberger is pushed backwards. Most people quickly offer their opinions, saying that he didn’t get in the end zone. They do this because he actually lands on the one yard line and then crawls into the end zone. What you don’t notice however, is just as Seattle linebacker D.D. Lewis makes contact with Roethlisberger, Ben’s arm slightly jolts forward and the front tip of the ball does touch the plane of the end zone. Now, being a ref, watching that play in live time you might rule it a touchdown or you might not, but in this case it was.

So now Mike Holmgren decides to challenge the play. Here is the rule about challenges. In order to overturn a call on the field, the referee has to find something in the replay that shows that the play was indisputably—keyword indisputably’— NOT a touchdown. Because the ball was so close to the end zone, there was no video evidence that the play wasn’t a touchdown.

Therefore, the ref can’t overturn the call on the field, resulting in a Steeler touchdown.

Realizing that this play was in fact a Steeler touchdown is just as easy as realizing that Sarah Palin is more than far from qualified to be the vice president of the United States.

Oh wait, if you’re voting for McCain and Palin then you probably voted for Bush. So yeah, how would you know if someone is qualified or not?

Controversial call number two.

Offensive pass interference against Seattle WR Darrell Jackson. This one is simple. He pushed off. There you have it. Whether it be a little or a lot, he pushed off. The wide receivers in the league are very, very talented athletes and in order for them to have a better chance at catching a pass they only need that little bit. They only need the amount of space you need in a toaster to fit a slice of bread, or something as big as the hole in your toothbrush holder. But sometimes, somehow, they end up with enough space for a car to park in. Sometimes they use their talent to do so. Sometimes they don’t. So for all of you out there who think this is a poorlycalled play, let me explain to you a little something in the NFL called pass interference.

Offensive p a s s interference means that a player can NOT push or interfere with the defensive player while trying to catch the ball. When you watch the replay

Continued on page 41

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The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol 17 No. 18 | November 2008 | Page 25

Politically Incorrect- Cont’d from page 19 demand of it. The private sector will do what is best for itself—sometimes that will translate into being best for the general good as well, and sometimes it won’t; consider the deregulation of energy.

Hello, Enron.

One free market system that demonstrably does not work is in the payment for health care. Yes, I would advocate for single-payer health insurance. (Trish, you little socialist, you.) I think it’s time we recognize that the $12.6 billion in profits seen in 2007 by insurance companies is not in the best interest of Americans as a whole. And if you wonder why your mother’s prescriptions cost so much money, let me point to the $46 billion in profit seen by the pharmaceutical industry. That’s profit, mind you—the amount left over after they paid all their bills, for their CEO’s inflated salaries, their marketing, administration, lobbyists, denial specialists and the Vienna Dark blend in the office coffee pot.

You don’t think this hurts you? A recent study by Harvard University researchers found that the average outof-pocket medical debt for those who filed for bankruptcy was $12,000, and that 68 percent of those who filed had health insurance. In fact, 50 percent of all bankruptcy filings were partly the result of medical expenses.

A report for the Commonwealth Fund shows that 41 percent of working-age Americans—or 72 million people—have problems with medical bills or are paying off medical debt.

And what are you getting for it? Not what you would expect for the most expensive health care in the world. According to the World Health Organization, we rank 20th in life expectancy from birth, our babies are more likely to die before they reach their first birthday, and our medical system itself, through errors, drug reactions, hospitalacquired infections and more, is the number three cause of death for Americans.

American Oil Dependence: The one point I never hear made in discussions about the American dependence on fossil fuels is the fact that we want something we don’t have. You can ‘drill, baby, drill’ all you want in the U.S.—tear up the Rocky Mountain front and the Bob Marshall Wilderness, stack the oil drills five deep on our coastlines and kill every polar bear that gets in the way of more drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and that’s not going to change the fact that we’ve made ourselves dependent on a product

we can’t produce.

According to the CIA (yep, they keep these kind of statistics—wonder why?), Americans consume 7.56 billion barrels of oil per year, almost 70 percent of which is used in the internal combustion engine.

We produce 2.77 billion barrels per year.

So every year we run an oil deficit of about 4.8 billion barrels. We have proven American oil reserves of almost 23.5 billion barrels. So if we drilled out every bit of oil we have, no matter where it’s located, we would run out of oil in just over three years.

That leaves us in the position of buying what we consider a necessity from people who, let’s face it, don’t really like us much.

And they don’t have to—after all, don’t we Americans believe if it’s ours, it’s ours and we can do with it what we want? Or do we only believe that when it really is ours? When it’s yours and we want it, then you have to give it to us and if you don’t, then you sponsor terrorism and we’ll invade your country.

By the way, China wants that oil as well. Remember China? The people who loaned us all that money? China’s oil consumption is around 6.5 billion barrels a year, and is growing at 7 percent every year. It produces about 3.6 billion barrels every year. Does this math look good to anyone? Can anyone other than Sarah Palin and George Bush believe we can drill our way out of this problem? Anyone who doesn’t think we better hit the ground running to figure out how to fuel what we want fueled with something other than oil probably deserves to go back to an 1880s lifestyle.

Terrorism and War: I could go on forever, but you’ll quit reading. So one final discussion for the American public. First, let’s have a true, independent analysis of what happened on September 11, 2001.

The official explanation simply doesn’t hold water. This is one of those “who knew what, when” questions that must be answered—and people/institutions must be held accountable.

Speaking of accountability, you might be surprised to learn that I would not support an effort to impeach President Bush after the November elections. First, because that’s too late, and second, because more than Bush have been involved in crimes against the American people. What I would like to see are charges (at the least, charges of treason) brought against Bush, Cheney, et al. Bring the charges and let’s let the evidence of

the trial see the light of day—no more ‘executive privilege.’

That goes for all of ‘em. The investigation brought against Palin in Alaska for abuse of power has shown clearly how the McCain/Palin presidency would treat malfeasance among its own.

Now Obama/Biden must step forth with some courage and demand that our checks and balances be returned to the system, and all elected congressmen need to grow some cojones and start living up to their oversight responsibility, or get booted out.

If they don’t, I guess I could always run, myself.

They have ‘slipped the surly bonds of earth’ and ‘touch the face of God.’

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Page 26 | The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol 17 No. 18 | November 2008

It’s time to settle down, quit running scared and go to work...

In Barbara Kingsolver’s book Small Miracle she outlines a plan for staying somewhat sane in crazy times like these. The book was written in response to the tragedy of eight years ago, when planes flew into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Small Miracle is a collection of essays, reflections on a world in which the unthinkable has become commonplace and fear lives on our shoulders, even in our beautifully safe—or so we thought—country.

The first essay, “Small Miracle,” outlines a tiny incident that happened in the Middle East on the same day that we have come to call 9-11. During the hours that the tragedy in New York was unfolding, a young boy of three was found by a group of Iranian village men who had been looking for him for several days. He wandered away from his mother who was working in a field, and though his family and the rest of the women and children who were working alongside them looked all the rest of that day, he was not to be found. As darkness came, the men of the village joined them, and, for the next few days, the search widened even as hope faded.

In the end, only a few men continued looking. By then, it was not for a boy, but his body, for they were sure he was dead. In an everexpanding circle, they searched into the foothills and then into the mountains. At last, they came to a cave, and in the cave, they found the boy—and a bear. Nobody knows how the boy and bear found each other, but it was clear that the bear had been caring for the child. He was not only alive but well. With much rejoicing, the boy was returned home to his mother.

There was no mention of what might have been done with the bear, but it’s my deep hope that it also went unharmed.

Kingsolver’s purpose in telling this story was to point out that even on that dark day, good things continued to happen in the world.

Small good things, tiny miracles, hundreds and thousands of them, took place while we were riveted by the horror in New York.

Not many noticed. We are drawn, it seems, to big, messy, noisy events that our planet is probably famous for, if there are others out there watching.

Disasters are attractive distractions, it seems. We end up hypnotized by television, devouring headlines and mesmerized by links to “breaking news” on the Internet. We seem to have an insatiable appetite for tragedies that the various media force feed us via every venue available. Even local news speculates about how spectacular and threatening a current event is, even if it’s the weather. We have become tragedy junkies, all the while wondering what the latest “development” might have to do with us.

Witness the financial fandango that in the past months has built to such a dramatic flux of fortunes as Wall Street struggles with the disastrous result of its own unbridled greed. The roller coaster ride the stock markets of the world have been on are the latest source of 80-point headlines, endless palaver by television “experts” and teasers tempting us to click through for an up-to-the-minute story about the latest surge—up or down— on Google, Yahoo!, MSN, Hotmail and every other Internet information site.

The stock market is purely and simply having a heart attack, a result of overstimulation, lack of exercising (good judgment, mostly) and over-consumption.

And we stand watching with our mouths open, wondering if and when the victim can be resuscitated.

Brazil had the good sense to close their stock exchange. We might do the same; put that sucker in isolation, observe it for a while and let its panic-stricken body come to rest. It’s fear and greed that are chasing those numbers up and down the charts; the fear of all those who have spent the last few years taking advantage of the financial world’s unhealthy habits and now face losing it all, and the greed of those who would trade their country and fellow citizens for personal gains—not to mention their souls.

In the meantime, here in the real world, there are lost children to look for, if we can pull our head out of the television long enough to go look.

Kingsolver found that as long as she concentrated on disasters, of which there are plenty, she was paralyzed. So, she took her television to the trash and quit trying to keep up with the daily news. To keep appraised of world events, she buys a majormarket newspaper on Sunday, takes it home and reads it cover to cover—on Tuesday.

The elections might be over by the time you read this. No matter what, we will soon or already have a new president, thank God. I have an idea of who I would like that to be. But, I pray that whoever he is, he will have an ability to bring us back to focus on a good future for ourselves and the rest of the planet; get us to settle down, quit running scared and go to work on solving problems instead of standing with our mouths gaping while the media shouts “The sky is falling! The sky is falling!”

That would be a big miracle, but it could be made up of thousands of small ones, the kinds we can witness in our lives every day, if we are paying attention to the right things.

THE SCENIC ROUTE by Sandy Compton

AN ATTRACTIVE DISTRACTION

Sandy Compton is an author and designer. Visit his website at SandyCompton. com. Reach him at MRComptonJr@ hotmail.com

The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol 17 No. 18 | November 2008 | Page 27

Page 28 | The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol 17 No. 18 | September 2008

In the Valley of Shadows with Lawrence Fury

“The autumn frost will lie upon the grass, like bloom on grapes of purple brown and gold.” - Elinor Wylie I was six in 1962, my cousin Bob, eleven. They were on one of his family’s frequent trips to Sandpoint to visit our grandmother the end of October that year and Bob went out with us.

One of our first stops was Mrs ‘B’s house. From there we would then branch out about a four-block radius.

Mrs. ‘B’s house was two stories with a high peak. Clean, the yard immaculate.

We kids used a little imagination and could see that left to itself for several years, it would make a perfect haunted house.

Along with four neighbor kids, we were a group of six that year. The elevenyear-old smart aleck in Bob had brought a squirt gun. He had the intention of soaking anyone who didn’t put out any candy. I doubt he would have the guts to spray a stranger, but someone we knew, he thought, would take it all in jest.

Hanging back, Bob was the last one Mrs. ‘B’ offered the bowl of candy to.

Whipping out his gun, he let her have it right between the eyes. After a startled minute, she looked down at him sternly and said, “Bob, I thought we were friends.” With this, she stepped back and shut the door in his face.

The rest of us had already raced to the next house, assuming Bob would follow. Instead, he slowly turned and headed the other way to Grandma’s house.

It was the last time Bob went trick-ortreating. Years later Bob told me he had glanced back at Mrs. ‘B’s house and up to the second floor window. For a moment, he thought he had seen a man’s face illuminated by the corner streetlight. Thing was, Mrs. ‘B’ was a widow, her husband had died several years earlier.

Frowning, Bob turned and continued back to Grandma’s with his few pieces of candy.

He put the incident out of his mind and he returned with my uncle and aunt a few weeks later for Thanksgiving.

Uncle Pat wanted to spend as many holidays with his mother as possible. She died in ‘69.

The afternoon before Thanksgiving I returned home from school to find dinner preparations in full swing—pots on the stove, turkey on the table, stuffing being made. But there was something else, a ham. Full of questions, Mom told me that there would be eleven of us the next day— including Mrs. ‘B’, who would be bringing a potato casserole and Grandma, her best friend, pies.

Waking the next morning, the house was already full of smells of the holiday.

Along with the usual parades, Uncle Pat, Aunt Peggy, Bob and Molly showed up about eleven. My other cousin, Mike, had just married his first wife and was spending the holiday in Eugene with his new in-laws.

Around noon, Dad left in our ‘56 Fairlane to fetch Mrs. ‘B’ and Grandma.

They returned 30 minutes later, each carrying two pies. Apple, cherry, coconut cream and three pumpkin highlighted our dinner.

Bob, I noticed briefly, was maintaining his distance from Mrs. ‘B’ but thought little of it at the time.

Dinner was boisterous and I was relegated to the smaller kitchen table with my three-year-old brother. Mom promised next year that we’d both be at the adult table as usual.

Dad spent most of the rest of the afternoon watching football on our black and white TV with his brother and Bob, even though he was never into pro-sports although he had played high school and some college football.

By early evening, the obligatory turkey sandwiches were served along with more pie before it was time for the Oregon Furys to take Grandma and Mrs. ‘B’ home on their way back to their motel.

Bob told me that upon dropping Mrs. ‘B’ off he unwillingly accompanied his father to the door to use her bathroom.

While Uncle Pat waited for him inside the front door, he went upstairs as the half bath on the ground floor needed plumbing work.

Coming out of the bathroom, Bob started for the stairs when out of nowhere, a small, narrow stream of water hit him square in the face. Startled, he wiped his eyes, but couldn’t see where the water could have come from and ran the rest of the way.

As Bob followed his father out the door, Mrs. ‘B’ looked down at him with a funny little smile, saying, “We’re square now.”

As my Uncle Pat pulled away from the curb, Bob looked up at the second floor window and got a fleeting glimpse of a smiling, masculine face.

Next month, three ghosts in a Valley of Shadow’s Christmas.

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Surrealist Research Bureau THE MARCH OF THE 10,000 At the beginning of the 4th century B.C. there occurred one of the most remarkable feats of arms in history: the march of the 10,000 Greeks from Babylon home to Athens, surrounded by a million man army of their enemies, fighting constantly. Students of war and modern generals still study it ceaselessly.

Erwin Rommel, the famed Desert Fox, used it as the basis for his masterful retreat across Africa in WWII, as did Robert E Lee in the American Civil War. While the stand of the 300 Spartans at Thermopalae may have been one of the more well known and undoubted turning points in the history of the Western world, the march of the 10,000, though lesser known, is still a noteworthy and aweinspiring feat of arms and stands alone as an example of brave men, resolute and determined in the face of disaster, to see their homes again.

In brief, King Cyrus hired as mercenaries 10,000 Greek soldiers, recognized as the best, most disciplined warriors of their time, to help him wrest the throne of Persia from his half brother, Ataxerxes. Though his forces won the battle, Cyrus himself was killed and the 10,000 Greeks found themselves stranded a thousand miles from home, surrounded by their enemies.

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Ataxerxes, by a ruse, convinced the Greek generals and captains to attend a feast at his palace to discuss their options but had them cut down to a man by unseen archers and spears on arrival.

The Greeks were now not only stranded but leaderless; but here the Greek traditions of discipline and democracy came to the fore. The troops hurriedly voted on electing new generals and officers and, rebuffing offers from Ataxerxes of soldiering in his own army, began their masterful fighting retreat homewards.

Xenophon was one of those elected a general and his account, “Anabasis” (The Persian Expedition, at Sandpoint library) is a fascinating tale of ad hoc improvisational warfare on the run, though modern readers might be a tad disconcerted by both the Greek’s treatment of young, good-looking male captives and by the constant sacrifices

by Jody Forest of captured prisoners in the hopes of divining the wishes of the Gods in their entrails.

The successful release last year of the movie “300,” about the famous Spartan stand at Thermopalae, has caused many Hollywood studios to cast about for similar “sword and sandal” low-budget tales and Sony Pictures has reportedly almost finished a version of Xenophon’s “Anabasis.” The story had previously been filmed as “The Warriors,” a modern day tale of a street gang surrounded in their rival’s territory and forced to fight their way home.

At least two other novels, Micheal Ford’s 2001 book “The Ten Thousand,” and Harold Coyle’s 1993 “The 10,000,” which show the tale transplanted to modern Europe with U.S. forces fighting their way out of Germany, also reveal modern man’s fascination with the subject. My own favorite is John Ringo’s 2008 “The Last Centurion” which involves a march away from Baghdad by U.S. troops abandoned in Iraq after a global catastrophe.

One of the most poignant moments in Anabasis is when, after fighting upwards toward a mountaintop, the Greeks finally see from afar the Mediterranean and weep and shout as one “The sea! The sea!” That cry is also used in James Joyce’s great novel “Ulysess,” when Buck Mulligan says, “Ah, sweet Daedalus and Xenophon! The Greeks! You must read them in the original, Thalatta! Thalatta!

(The Sea! The Sea!) She is our great sweet mother!”

Jody Forest is a noted writer of surrealist poetry. Reach him at dgree666@sandpoint.net

The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol 17 No. 18 | November 2008 | Page 29

From the files of the River Journal’s

FOCUS ON EDUCATION

A Night on the Town Being the Superintendent of Schools in the Lake Pend Oreille School District certainly has its share of challenges. Having close to 600 total employees, 3,900 students, and ensuring that our instructional program meets student needs certainly keeps me on the move. However, when it comes time to relax and unwind, my position affords one of the great perks of any job in the area. I get the opportunity to attend our many student activities free of charge. Fortunately, my wife Diane enjoys these activities as well. It has become our night out on the town. We have been doing a lot of dating this fall and couldn’t be happier.

I have known superintendents who like to disconnect from work on the nights and weekends when no meetings are scheduled.

Those evenings are few. However, I like to take advantage of these opportunities to watch our students and staff in a venue far different than the classroom. This is the area of student activities; one in which the LPOSD is one of the state’s leaders.

Are there better places to watch games than Memorial Field or Clark Fork? Watching the moon come up over the Antelope Mountain in the clear evening sky at Clark Fork is special.

Seeing the Wampus Cat running the sidelines only adds to the fun. Feeling the breeze at Memorial Field in late August or early September, at an evening football or soccer game, can’t be beat. With the stands packed with students and parents, the band playing fight songs to accompany the action, we feel like we are part of something very special.

Watching our female athletes on the soccer pitch and volleyball courts reminds us that Title lX has truly made a difference in the lives of our students. As we sit cheering them on, it reminds both of us how great it is that our young women can participate in athletics; something that challenges them physically and mentally.

This is far different than before Title lX when women were confined to clubs, social teas, and other events in high

school. My wife was a very good athlete, but high school afforded her nothing athletic beyond cheerleading.

Recently, we sat in on some of the many Saturday events that occur. We have begun scheduling more games on Saturdays to prioritize classroom time, as well as to provide more opportunities for parents and community members to watch. Watching an SHS swim meet at POAC is a noisy, steamy and exciting event. These athletes understand how to compete, but also how to encourage each other. The same is true for our cross country team runners from SHS and Clark Fork. We recently attended the Sandpoint Invitational Cross Country meet at Dover. Despite the downpour of rain and a breeze, the area was packed with runners and cheering parents.

As fall sports begin to wind down and our successful teams advance to playoffs, there will be a bit of a lull between seasons. We will miss the cheering crowds, the green grass on which the games are played, and the warmth of the sun. However, in a short time we will be able to take part in the excitement of basketball games and the grittiness of wrestling matches in warm gymnasiums.

In addition, as the year moves forward we get the opportunity to hear our choirs sing, bands perform, and thespians ply their craft. We truly enjoy the band concerts at the different elementaries, although we do know the songs by heart at the end of our tour. Our elementary musicals are great fun and always have a different twist to them.

Secondary musicians and vocalists invariably offer a stellar performance and the holiday concerts always bring a sense of the season to us. Finally, the comedy and drama that we enjoy when watching our young performers reminds us of how much courage it requires to be a part of a school play.

I encourage you and your family to join us in the support of our many activities. Our high school and middle school teams are well coached, play hard, and demonstrate good sportsmanship. Our young performers demonstrate confidence and poise.

You can always get a good seat at an affordable price! Come join us.

By Lake Pend Oreille School District Superintendent Dick Cvitanich | Dick.

Cvitanich@lposd.org | 208-263-2184 ext. 218

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Page 30 | The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol 17 No. 18 | November 2008

The 30th birthday of Annie Love was a time for reflection on three women after thirty years. Times change, but some things also stay the same.

While Annie was making party plans and carrying them out, I was spending a lot of time thinking about our “baby,” whom Bill dubbed as “Precious,” turning 30. Many, many memories came

drifting back. For five days prior to her birthday, I posted photos of Annie on my www.slightdetour. com blog, often with teary eyes and with an incurable case of maternal nostalgia.

I also reflected on how Grandma’s, Mom’s and daughter’s first 30 years have differed both historically, technologically and culturally. These frequent moments of reverie satisfied my sentimental needs, but they also dramatically illuminated the growth and bonds transforming our three generations from mother-daughter adversaries into good friends who have grown to respect each other’s differences and to fully appreciate each other’s unique, strong-willed personalities.

I also got to thinking about where I was personally at 30 and where Annie’s grandmother was at the same milestone in her life. Such plunges into the past reveal tangible changes, subtle differences in attitudes and, refreshingly, a host of similarities running through the family line.

At 30, my mother had just purchased our North Boyer farm with $7,500 cash. She had three rambunctious kids, 40 acres, rows of broken-down fences, a few cows and a horse named Largo.

Her first husband had a drinking problem, so she worked at times for 75 cents an hour at Sandpoint Cleaners to make ends meet.

With no mother of her own for guidance (her mother died when she was 3), Mother received occasional advice from our Aunt Louise (her foster cousin) in faroff Michigan.

She had moved around the country and had grown up and graduated from Catholic boarding schools, including Nazareth College where she majored in art and French.

Relatively speaking, this was her first taste of family life, and, with no model to follow, she did her best to teach us right from wrong, which was a challenging job at the time.

Mother also took time out daily to call friends, standing in the living room, at the crank-up phone on the wall. We always heard her tell the Mountain View phone company operator, “382, please.” That was Ardis Racicot’s number. When not talking to Ardis, her mornings were generally spent changing loads of laundry at the wringer washing machine while listening to crooners, Vaughn

by Marianne Love

Bill and I celebrated our daughter’s 30th birthday this past month. Maybe I’d better rephrase that. Bill and I acknowledged our daughter’s 30th birthday. Annie did the celebrating with her friends in Seattle.

We were originally on the docket to participate on-site in the month-long recognition of her three decades on this earth.

Our Annie is a meticulous scheduler.

So, she selected the Columbus Day three-day weekend as Mom and Dad’s assigned time to visit and to do the parental birthday niceties: gifts, dinner, geocaching, and, of course, The Check.

We looked at the economy after receiving our invitation to come to Seattle where Annie suggested that Dad could even take in a Seahawks’ game.

We also looked at the Seahawks’ success so far this season and figured we could probably afford a few scalper tickets.

Weighing the options, however, we declined Annie’s invitation, explaining that finances were too unsettled right now to spend nearly a thousand dollars on a weekend trip.

Annie understood.

Besides, she had already planned a festive series of other celebrations, even her “surprise” party on Friday night of Birthday Weekend and her self-styled party on Saturday night of Birthday Weekend. She planned to spend Sunday of Birthday Weekend (which was her actual birthday) hanging out with a couple of friends from high school. On Monday, the day after Birthday and Birthday Weekend, she would take the day off from work and rest.

Sounds good to me.

LOVE NOTES

AFTER THREE DECADES

Marianne Love is a writer and blogger.

She lives in the Selle Valley. Reach her at malove@ imbris.net. Visit her blog at www. slightdetour. blogspot.com

Continued on page 50 The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol 17 No. 18 | November 2008 | Page 31

Beware the

Ides Of October?

September was a difficult month, the ninth in a row of what’s been a difficult year. “October,” I said, “is going to be so much easier.” Several major projects had come to completion and I was looking forward to a little bit of extra time and, by the way, my birthday.

Then October arrived; Dustin hurt his shoulder, Misty hurt her neck and I won’t tell you what I did to my leg because then I’d have to tell you how—suffice it to say that Gerald Ford would play me in the movie. The lives of several people I care deeply about began to implode and one of them lost his life many, many years sooner than should happen.

And then the computer crashed. On deadline.

It all started when I got mad at my Internet service provider (Wild Blue) who told me I’d used way too much service and was going to lose some of my connection speed until I could get my profligate Internet usage under control.

They were wrong—my usage was no more nor less than usual. But they insisted their records were correct. After a while, I began to regret being angry at them (I’ve got that Irish temper, but it burns itself out much too quickly) so I gave them the benefit of the doubt. And I asked some questions.

It seemed the only way we could both be correct about my computer’s connection to the Internet was if my computer had a virus. I doubted this was the case—I have good anti-virus software and have never had a problem—but like I said, I was giving them the benefit of the doubt.

So I began visiting anti-virus websites that offer scans of your computer.

Eventually, I found a company that located something on my hard drive. I don’t remember what it was—viruses, trojans, spyware, pop-ups—some of that annoying stuff, anyway. Of course, I had to purchase their software to clean the mess up off my system. I did so.

That’s when the computer began to crash.

In the time since, I’ve learned much that would be worthwhile to share.

• Too many different types of antivirus software on your computer can crash your system, as the programs

•

•

•

•

•

interfere with each other. Let your favorite computer technician advise you on what to use, and then don’t put anything else on your system. Think of it like vitamins—too much of a good thing is called an overdose. Don’t have a favorite computer technician?

Mine advised me to use the free antivirus software available from Grisoft (www.grisoft.com) called AVG and it’s always worked wonderfully. I should have left it alone.

Nasty people who want to wreck your computer will stop at nothing to do so—including creating a virus that they sell as anti-virus software.

Again, do not install anything on your computer unless it’s from a trusted source. If you’re not sure, ask that favorite computer technician about it.

Dust is really not good for your computer and should periodically be removed from its innards. Don’t open up your computer and blow— you will regret it. Buy some of that canned air and use it. You might want to schedule this as a semi-annual event; plan for it when you check the batteries in your smoke detector.

No matter how annoying your cats are as they investigate what you’re doing with your head inside a computer, it is not a good idea to squirt them with the canned air. It’s not actually air, you know. It’s chemicals. So ignore the temptation.

Invest in a good external hard drive.

I paid less than $100 for one to store all my digital photos, which were using up all the room on my hard drive. That turned out to be a lifesaver when the computer began to crash as I was able to frantically begin dumping data files onto it.

It looks like I saved most of what I would want. If that hard drive is plugged into your computer, it won’t save you from a power surge (get a good quality surge protector) but it does give you an option that might be beneficial at some point.

Remember that paper and pen make a good backup. Although it’s convenient to let the computer remember for you, I keep a small

notebook with all my usernames and passwords for the thousands of things I now need a username and password for. Thankfully, that means I won’t have to re-register, or call support, in order to log in to all my favorite sites—like those where I pay my bills. I wish I had done the same with all my email addresses. It would have been fairly simple to, once a year, say, print off an address book with all that information. That’s some of the data I’ve now lost.

• Make sure you have all your program disks. Most new computers these days come bundled with software and don’t include the actual disk in case you ever have to re-install it—and that includes your operating system.

If you buy a computer without disks, ask how you’ll be able to reinstall programs if there’s a problem.

• You’re reading this issue of the magazine because I have an extra computer already loaded with my main software—so I was able to get up and running, somewhat, fairly quickly. The next time you buy a new computer, you might want to think about keeping your old one around—especially if your computer is more of a necessity than a luxury.

This issue is eight pages shorter than usual, by the way, because I did lose some data, and because some writers were not able to make deadline this month. I am not the only one who’s had a difficult October.

• If the worst does happen, try not to panic too badly. A good computer technician can actually recover much of what you might fear is lost on your computer.

Thankfully, as I write this, there are only seven days left to go in October.

The end is almost in sight. And I still have a usable computer, so eventually I’ll be able to go online and learn why, when I opened the dishwasher yesterday, it was still full of water. If I find a site that wants me to download some diagnostic software, however, I think I will politely decline.

-Trish Gannon

Page 32 | The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol 17 No. 18 | November 2008

Technology Essentials for College

by Thomas McMahon

Photo by Jeanne Davis

While I might not be as qualified as a lot of people out there, I feel that since I have now taken two midterms I can say I’m a legit college student. Therefore, I feel that I am able to give some sort of advice pertaining to the college lifestyle, even though I have only been in college a short six weeks.

There is a lot to deal with when leaving for college; one of the biggest items, for me anyway, was living alone in a dorm room with a roommate I have never met. I am not focusing on dealing with an ornery roommate, instead I’ll focus on some gadgets that help a student get by in this new environment.

Sure, you could go online and find one of the countless articles with the title “Top Ten _______ for a College Dorm” but I feel that this may hit closer to home since I’m going through this right now. This is supposed to be a tech column so I’ll keep the focus on some gadgets and “necessities.”

First of all, you’ll definitely want something to play your music with, personally and out loud. Of course, iPods are the most popular gadgets, but you can find many other MP3 players out there for a cheaper price. Many companies are

making docking stations now; you can plug your iPod into it to charge, but it will also play music through speakers from your iPod. Many of these docking stations also perform other functions such as alarm clock and radio, and some unique ones even dance.

I personally don’t have an iPod or station, so I use my laptop to play my music from via iTunes. A laptop or desktop is pretty much a must-need for college students, with laptops being a favorite due to the fact that they can easily be carried around and used in classes. If you want to look really cool you can even put on a scarf and take it to Starbucks. As of now I don’t really carry my laptop around with me; it sits on my desk most of the time. That’s not to say I don’t use it, I’m on it right now to type this article out and listen to some Flogging Molly. The big issue with laptops is usually price, but you can find a perfectly decent one as low as $500.

Entertainment-wise, a laptop can usually be used to watch movies on, but if you want to bring some friends over to play Halo or that cute girl across the hall to watch a movie, then a TV is a

must. As college goes, the flatter the TV is, the cooler it is. Size isn’t too much of an issue as dorm rooms are relatively small. I just got a 22-inch and anywhere around that size works out great. A couple guys have some 40-inch plus screens and those just fill up the room and are unnecessary.

If your dorm has cable then you’re set; if not, then you’ll definitely want to get a DVD player or game consol. My Xbox 360 can play DVDs so I’m set with movies and gaming. Parents might worry that having an Xbox or something will make their kids hole up in their room, but it actually helps to bring a lot of kids into the room. It gets pretty intense with four guys sitting in a dorm room playing Halo 3 while system linking with the room across the hallway; after we’re done with our group study session of course. It really helps to relieve that midterm stress when you log onto Live and zone out with the game of your choice.

Now I haven’t touched on microwaves and the likes and I’m not going to. If you think you might need that stuff then go for it; if not, then don’t worry about it. A lot of the little stuff is slightly redundant too—if you have a cell phone (texting is a necessity if you want to be in the loop) then use that as your alarm clock and day planner. Surge protectors are very important so you don’t fry your new equipment and Ethernet cords are a must as sometimes the wireless connection is faulty in the dorms. Plus, an Ethernet connection is much more reliable/faster if you’re going to be using your Internet for anything like online gaming.

A flash drive is also a must, then you don’t need to buy a printer since you can just go to the library. One last tip is to replace that MySpace account with a Facebook account; barely anyone I’ve met here uses MySpace and you hear about a lot of stuff (parties!) happening on campus through Facebook.

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. 18 | November 2008 | Page 33

Thomas’ Tech Tales

Page 34 | The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol 17 No. 18 | September 2008

Duke’s Food Obsession

by Duke Diercks | Duke@RiverJournal.com

Makin’ Bacon The view from the top of Schweitzer on a cloudless day. The smiling face of a three-month-old. A soaring eagle. A slab of bacon. These are beautiful things. And, now that I have personally cured and smoked bacon, I consider myself more of a man.

My quest to make bacon began simply enough. As an avid cook, I don’t really follow recipes anymore. That is not to say that I don’t read recipes. In fact, I read them all the time, watch documentaries on food, and bookmark food websites. I make the exception when I have absolutely no clue how to handle an ingredient, or if the technique is particularly tricky. Such was how I found myself with 50 pounds of pork belly. My quest to make bacon started with an initial recipe for braising pork belly.

Pork belly is all the rage now on big city menus. You can find it braised in dark soy and used in Chinese pork buns, or seared and placed atop a piece of salmon (this sounds weird but salmon has a natural affinity with cured pork). On his show, the “F-word,” Gordon Ramsay made a piece of skin-on pork belly, braised slowly in the oven, pressed and chilled under a weight, and then pan seared to produce a crackly, fatty porky mound of love. I had to make this. There was no other option.

So, I called Yokes and ordered one pork belly. Well, maybe because I was a restaurant owner, Yokes ordered me not one pork belly, but rather one case of pork bellies. That is about six whole 12-pound sides.

Yikes. I would either have to braise enough pork belly to feed a battalion of Marines, or figure out what to do with all of this pig.

Simple, I would make bacon! (I did make the braised belly and served it atop white beans with sage pesto—it was terrific.)

Now, I know very little about making bacon. So I consulted the Internet. Turns out it is relatively simple: you first cure the pork for about a week in salt and seasonings, and then cold-smoke it as you would European-style lox.

Having recently swooned through Martin Picard’s book from his restaurant Au Pied du Cochon, I knew that I must marry the pork with maple syrup somehow. I recently received a bottle of genuine Vermont Maple syrup as a gift, and incorporated this into the cure. The cure can either be dry or wet—floating in water and salt or rubbed on and left to sit.

I chose a dry brine, or cure sealed, with a vacuum sealer. Rather than measure out sodium nitrate and salt, I just picked up a bag of Morton’s Tender Quick at the store. To this I added maple syrup, brown sugar, and black pepper. (See the recipe below.) After seven days, you remove the almost bacon, rinse and dry and leave to dry further overnight in the refrigerator.

Now it’s time to smoke. This is really the only difficult thing as I said the bacon must be cold-smoked with the temperature not climbing past about 80 degrees or so. To do this, the fire needs to be offset from the smoking chamber. I use an old refrigerator with a hole cut near the bottom of one of the sides. Next, I put some ventilation pipe into the hole and I ran it to an old flower pot where I put smoking chips. I set fire to them with an electric charcoal starter.

Once alight, I covered the pot with foil to let it smolder and voila, a cold smoker.

Salmon takes very little time, but something like bacon I smoke for about six hours. After six hours or so, remove the bacon, and rub it with a damp cloth to remove some of the smoke residue. Next, cut into sections, wrap and freeze. You will need to remove the skin before cooking, and slice by hand. To make this easier, I

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406-847-0033 or 253-720-4311 recommend slicing and skinning the bacon when it is partially frozen. It is much sturdier at this point and easier to slice.

You now have something that is pure porcine pleasure. And, you made it yourself, knowing that is has not been injected with water or chemicals or artificial flavoring. So what do you do with it now? How about fettuccine carbonara?

Or bucatini amatricana replacing the tesa or pancetta with bacon? Bacon wrapped salmon filets? An amazing BLT? Or just with eggs and pancakes? In fact, one of my favorite dinner parties is to invite friends over and make breakfast. This way you can imbibe with your breakfast and eat your fill without being loaded down all day. If you choose to simply cook your bacon for eggs or BLTs, forego the skillet and put the sliced bacon in a sheet pan and pop it in the oven at 375 for a half an hour or so depending on thickness. It is much less messy and provides more even heat.

If you choose to go on your own bacon quest, you can find pictures of my state-ofthe-art refrigerator smoker, and my own bacon quest on the River Journal website.

As always, I remain yours in bacon.

Dry Brine for Bacon: For approx 10-12lb pork belly 6 oz Morton’s Tender Quick (available at grocery stores) ½ cup maple syrup ½ cup brown sugar ½ cup coarse ground black pepper Grated nutmeg (to taste) Ground allspice (to taste)

Duke Diercks is a master chef. Reach him at Duke@RiverJournal.com

The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol 17 No. 18 | November 2008 | Page 35

Faith Walk

Violence Begets Violence... Again

“Give me wisdom and knowledge…” answered Solomon to the Lord’s offer of any gift for the young king. Wisdom and knowledge—two blessings which we could all use a little more of this fall.

Days ago I returned from my most recent trip to Russia, Ukraine, Poland and Hungary. In the twin capitals of Moscow and St. Petersburg, every conversation with church leaders was colored by the impact of the “August war” which erupted between Russia and Georgia. The outline is simple: long-simmering ethnic tensions, a precipitous military action by the Georgians, an overwhelming military response by the Russians, two pieces of Georgia now self-declared independent “states” protected by occupying Russian troops, and the lowest point of U.S.Russian relations since the end of the Cold War. This is the outline of the military and political drama played out weeks ago in the Caucasus.

The rest of the story, however, deals with burned villages, bombed cities, thousands of ethnic Georgians and

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Ossetians displaced to squalid conditions far away from their homes. As always seems to be the case in our modern age, it is the victims (many of whom are the elderly, the infirm, and the children) who suffer most from the violence wrought by armies pushed forward by breast-beating national leaders.

The lesson reaffirmed for me in this ugly episode is truly that “violence begets violence.” Simmering hatred stoked by rhetoric and the ambition of political leaders spills over into attacks against “the other.” The recently attacked respond in kind, then escalate the violence. Soldiers and civilians die, communities are destroyed, victims suffer, and the young on both sides are taught to hate and seek revenge. The cycle continues. Indeed, “violence begets violence.”

Amidst the nightmare, I learned of the response of faithful Christians to the Georgian crisis. Members of the Russian Orthodox Church sped food, hygiene kits, and much more to refugees who had fled into Russia. Members of the Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists collected clothing, diapers, food and other supplies driving the supplies from as far away as St. Petersburg to the Caucasus area. Members of the Moscow Protestant Chaplaincy took a special offering dedicated to providing vitamins to nursing mothers displaced by the violence. Churches from around the world channeled monetary support for refugee assistance in both Georgia and southern Russia. Reconciliation is a long way off, but love and care for the victims is a step toward a better future.

Now back in the North Country, I am forced to ask, “Are there lessons from this international crisis which I can apply

t

to my life here?” If we as humans are so conditioned to respond to violence with more violence, are there simple things open to me in my faith walk which may break the cycle? Am I called to reach out to the murder suspect confined in the country jail?

Am I called to offer more assistance to the food bank where families in need have been caught up in the violence of an economic crash? Am I called to engage in restoring a part of God’s creation set upon by the forces of unwise development and gated communities? Is this the time to volunteer as part of a work team to journey to Texas in response to the violence of Hurricane Ike and the lives damaged in the storm?

Ancient King Solomon asked for wisdom and knowledge. The gift of wisdom suggests that violence need not necessarily be met by violence. When the body of Christ joins together we can break the cycle through prayer, love, and acts of kindness.

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Page 36 | The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol 17 No. 18 | November 2008

An unknowing victim of a Chinese curse, I live in interesting times... at least around deadline.

and not responding to anything except those loud, luminescent lorries on our lawn.

When I reached the first one I asked the driver where he needed to be. He was headed to our neighbor, so I gave quick directions. “Turn around, go to the corner, take a right.”

It seemed easy enough, all but the first part that is, turning around. Three big rigs and a box van with lights in a narrow drive all pointing the wrong direction wasn’t easy at all, much less easy enough.

Talking over the roar of motors, sirens and dogs barking (a dog from down the road had joined Nikki), I wondered if all the sound was necessary since the only vehicles in their way were their own. Finally, one by one, they shut off the warning noises but not the flashing lights, which were still upsetting our now hyper dog. It looked nearly impossible to break up a fire truck clusterf**k in the forest, but these guys and gals were quite determined; they were going to a fire, and with only minor red paint marks on the trees, were off in the right direction.

Nikki wanted congratulations for running them off.

We walked through the woods to the source of the commotion where our (naturally) distraught neighbor was being comforted by her son. The fire did minimal damage and they all are fine.

In defense of the emergency responders, our roads are not marked well and they didn’t know they were going the wrong way until they saw our street numbers.

To avoid this in the future, our little community here is going to do some better road marking.

I would suggest anyone living off the county roads take a look and see if it would be easy and quick to find your place. Yeah, I know, “Duh,” but we hadn’t, either.

So that was Sunday. When dinner was over it was easy to put off writing for another day. On Monday I started on this column again. Just as I sat down the light over my desk flickered as I watched the computer monitor go black along with the light bulb. The music and ceiling fan stopped and the place was silent and dim.

After dancing a bit because I had an excuse for not working I started feeling responsible again.

“There must be some way to write without electricity,” I thought.

“People used to do it all the time.” When I can, I write outside on the laptop so I pulled it out.

The battery was dead. I thought I remembered, stored somewhere deep in a shed someplace, my old ‘60s area Royal manual typewriter.

I went looking. Under one boot (who knows where the other one is), next to a broken ski, resting on an old lawn mower body was the machine that I typed on in high school.

Boy, they’re heavy, but I did get it onto a bench for a quick check.

I had forgotten how hard you need to push on those unpowered keys to get them to work. Then I discovered the chipmunk nest inside. A swift eviction and some shaking and it looked ready to get back to work. Without the chipmunks the typing was easier but still, I wasn’t sure I had enough stamina to pound out a thousand words or so. But I started.

After about an hour of trying to adjust the font so it was big enough to read, I remembered I can’t do that. USING ALL CAPS WOULD REALLY MAKE TRISH MAD SO I DIDN’T DO THAT, EITHER. I started again.

All of a sudden I heard a loud bell. “Oh my God, don’t tell me the fire trucks are back again. Wait, that’s right. That means I need to push the carriage back.” It didn’t

by Ernie Hawks

I sat down a couple days ago to write this column. I formatted the page, choose a font size I could read without glasses, something I never used to have to do, then sat back with my keyboard on my lap and got to work.

I tend to write in fits and starts so it wasn’t long and I had a fit that required a walk in the woods.

Inspiration, you know.

While out, starting the barbecue for dinner seemed like a good idea; I could write later.

It was a Sunday so a walk with my wife while the barbi heated seemed to take precedence over working; I still had a couple days before this deadline.

After a good trek and feeling responsible, we headed back.

When we got to the house we could hear sirens in the distance.

It happens occasionally, since the highway is only about a mile and a half away.

After a bit we realized they didn’t seem to be going away. In fact, they seemed to be getting closer. I looked at the barbecue to see if all was well; no problem, so I tried to look through the woods at our road. Sure enough, in the much-filtered view through the trees, I saw flashing lights.

Nikki, our dog, started to bark as the first fire truck came into view.

I turned around and looked at our house. It wasn’t on fire. The truck turned into our drive and another appeared on the road. I started running toward the red, flashing source of a very loud siren playing a duet with another… no wait, it’s a trio… and an ambulance.

Needless to say, these trucks look like monsters on our little road and Nikki had never seen, or heard, anything like it.

Sometimes we call our mellow, mixed breed the Darvon Dog, but at that moment she was freaking out, hair on end, fangs showing

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Ernie Hawks is an accomplished photographer and speaker. Visit his website at PhotosbyHawks. com. Reach him at ehawks@ Continued on page 54 photosbyhawks.com

The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol 17 No. 18 | November 2008 | Page 37

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 Fibromyalgia From the Sandpoint Wellness Council Our topic this month focuses on Fibromyalgia Syndrome. Several of the Sandpoint Wellness Council members treat clients complaining of this condition who have been searching for years for ways to alleviate the very painful and confusing symptoms FMS presents. Oftentimes, patients receive feedback from health care providers that what they are experiencing is “all in their heads” or that they are “hypochondriacs” due to no findings of specific clues leading to their discomfort, or they have experienced a series of diagnoses and treatments that have not proven beneficial for them over time.

Fibromyalgia Syndrome presents as chronic, muscular and joint pain that causes widespread body achiness with tenderness at various points on the body.

This achiness tends to move around and therefore becomes hard to pinpoint, sometimes reflecting a burning sensation and/or a tingling sensation. They may also complain of loss of sleep, low energy, stiffness following rest times, or a lack of feeling rested after a night’s sleep. It is often greatly debilitating. Mostly FMS causes a general, all over body ache and constant pain and discomfort—a condition that affects one’s overall well being and ability to function fully.

In researching my resources (listed below) FMS symptoms often overlap other disorders such as chronic fatigue syndrome, irritable

bowel syndrome, hypothyroidism (low thyroid function), sleep disorder, and/or TMJ dysfunction (if pain first shows up in the jaw area). This is why FMS is so hard to pin down for the medical community.

The most important therapeutic direction focuses on the management of FMS and on learning all one can about what is being experienced—paying attention to body signals, timing, and when it is weak or strong.

Joseph Pizzorno, Ph.D and Michael Murray in their “Textbook of Natural Medicine,” discuss the findings of several research hypotheses, one centered on low serotonin levels on sleep deprived individuals that can lead to a heightened sense of pain. The research findings did not really pan out for them on this point as serotonin is a vasoconstrictor and would therefore restrict blood flow. They found a more important approach focused on hypothyroidism, whereby there exists a “particular cellular resistance to thyroid hormone or other metabolism-impeding factors.” These factors are such things as poor diet, “nutritional deficiencies, low physical fitness, and metabolism-impeding drugs.” The authors go on to report that “cellular resistance to thyroid hormone is the underlying mechanism of two main features of FMS: chronic widespread pain and abnormal tenderness.” This condition,

inadequate thyroid hormone regulation, causes impairment to two mechanisms in the body. In the first mechanism ITHR tends to increase the release of Substance P which affects the body by increasing the sensations of pain. Thyroid treatment oftentimes proves effective in lowering Substance P and therefore reduces pain in FMS patients. The second mechanism is the reduction of the synthesis and secretion of norepinephrine. “Adequate NE is essential to normal function” of neurotransmission from the central nervous system mechanisms and is dependent also on the secretion of serotonin, which in turn stimulates the release of opiates, which in turn has the effect of lowering pain sensations.

This chemistry can be oh so confusing to us, but even such brief information, I believe, enables those suffering from Fibromyalgia Syndrome to begin to ask pertinent questions of their care providers.

Seeking appropriate tests and gathering scientific data from many sources will help in finding better pathways toward management and overall comfort.

Resource: Pizzorno, Joseph and Michael Murray. Textbook of Natural Medicine. Churchill Livingstone Elsevier, St. Louis. 2006.

Members of the Sandpoint Wellness Council offer several methods from their experiences that often prove effective in supporting their FMS clients and initiating more comfort.

Krystle Shapiro, BA, LMT, CDT, Reiki, Touchstone Massage Therapies, 208/290-6760 For many people who live with chronic pain, the idea of being touched may not be welcomed. During times of lower pain and discomfort, seeking massage therapy may be just what is needed. FMS sufferers have many irritating chemicals running through their bodies and may be hypersensitive. Massage therapy, however, provides many benefits: it is effective in reducing pain, anxiety, depression, and improves sleep patterns.

Massage has a gentle detoxification effect to help rid the body of some of those unwanted or overproduced chemicals.

Human touch provides a warm as well as a nurturing sensation that stimulates all of our good brain chemistry, which in turn supports all our bodily systems. With detoxification, such as with manual lymph drainage massage, the body benefits from ridding itself of accumulated wastes,

and then it has clearer pathways for good nutritional ingredients to reach the cells.

As the article above references, a good nutritious diet, regular exercise, restful sleep, and appropriate medications lead to reduced symptoms and painful experiences of FMS. Penny Waters, Herbology and Reflexology, Relaxation Destination, 208/597-4343 Whether it was your nervous system, an overloaded immune system, a virus, a hormonal and/or emotional breakdown, or too much prolonged stress, your body has changed and you may have fibromyalgia.

Reflexology will stimulate the internal organs and glands, nervous system, muscular system and immune system when pressure is applied to the reflexes in the feet. This promotes a healing response in the body reducing tension, congestion, inflammation, and easing the symptoms of fibromyalgia—aches and pains, constipation or diarrhea, mucus conditions, and fatigue. It is extremely relaxing to the nervous system and clients usually report sleeping more deeply for several nights after one reflexology session.

Herbs are enormously supportive for providing relief. A formula will include herbs to strengthen the nervous system.

Herbs which reduce inflammation and cleanse the toxic elements in the blood and liver will be included to reduce sore muscles and aches in the body. In particular, herbs for the colon and lungs will be considered.

There’s no doubt that other lifestyle changes need to be made. Healthy, alkaline, nutritious food must replace empty fast foods; rest and time out from stress must be sought. Change can be difficult, so I make it as easy as possible. I provide a ‘super foods’ list and have a cookbook to make this easy. I also advocate the use of music, aroma, visualization, and uplifting reading for ways to balance our entire body, mind and spirit, and I provide ideas for these too.

You don’t have time? Your body will make you sick enough until you have no choice!

If we listen to our bodies, they tell us what we need to do to get well. Yes, they are telling us to change our jobs, change our careers, or ask for counseling to deal with emotional situations. The journey to wellness is a journey of self-help, selfdiscovery, and self-actualization. It can be the most rewarding journey you will ever take.

Owen Marcus, MA, CAR, Rolfing, 208/265-8440 Do you have on going, non-specific pain? Is this pain worse when you are tired or stressed? If you answered yes, you may be suffering from fibromyalgia.

I wrote a post on fibromyalgia for my www.StressedOut.org blog explaining fibromyalgia and its relationship to stress. This post is the most read post on that blog. When you put stress

Continued on next page

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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

Fibromyalgia- Continued from page 39 and fibromyalgia in Google, this post comes up as the fourth search result.

Fibromyalgia is a hot topic.

For years, I have told my clients that as a culture we live on the fibromyalgia continuum. Virtually everyone is at least developing some of the symptoms. The subclinical symptoms may only show up sporadically when we have pushed ourselves for several days.

Chronic sufferers of fibromyalgia just didn’t suddenly catch the illness.

Fibromyalgia comes from our bodies being progressively run down. Years of stress, working hard, and not getting enough rest and good nutrition are some ways the body can manifest the exhaustion which develop into fibromyalgia.

Exhausted and hyper. What is interesting from a clinical prospective is all the diagnosed fibromyalgia sufferers I have seen in my practice are wired and exhausted. Most often, their soft tissue is lacking life or as an oriental medical doc would say, low chi. Their deeper soft tissue is tense and fibrous. Many of these clients are committed to getting well and have seen many other good practitioners without getting well. These docs and healthcare providers, along with the clients, can’t understand why they are still sick.

Much like with depression and chronic fatigue that are closely related to fibromyalgia, fibromyalgia clients need to release the deep chronic tension to get well. That deeper layer of soft tissue needs to come back to life. It is as if that layer is blocking the chi and blood circulation from reaching vital organs and the more superficial levels.

The power of Rolfing. Over the 30 years I have treated people, I have received many referrals from others who normally get great results, but were not getting them for these clients. We all learned that without these deep layers releasing it is as if the other work such as homeopathy and clinical nutrition can’t get into the tissue. Once the stress, exhaustion and tension releases, all the therapies that once were not working start to work better than the norm. These clients often prove to be some of the most successful cases for other practitioners.

Rolfing can free the body to allow other therapies to support deep healing and rejuvenation.

Fibromyalgia is not a disease. I find fibromyalgia with the correct therapies combination “curable.” As I mentioned in the post on StressedOut.org, the medical profession fails to recognize fibromyalgia

as a real problem because they believe they have a drug for it. As you read up on this drug, you read that the drug company is not promising a cure, just a mitigation of symptoms.

Fibromyalgia is a condition that developed because the body became run down—not because of an illness that was contracted from being exposed to a pathogen. To get well you don’t treat the problem, you treat the cause. Once the cause shifts, the problem disappears.

Rolfing releases the tension and teaches the body not to recreate it.

From my experience, if a person truly wants to get well from fibromyalgia and is willing to step outside the presently considered treatment box, they will get well. The road back to wellness will take a while. It will require commitment and a willingness to feel and express old emotions. There will be times when the person will feel worse—more exhausted and more depressed and possibly experience more short term pain. By hanging in there – you will get well.

Ilani Kopiecki, CMT, IET, CranioSacral and Integrated Massage, 208/610-2005 With the heat and inflammation of fibromyalgia, tissues can be chronically tight and painful. CranioSacral therapy can help fibromyalgia by gently and effectively releasing tight, sore muscles and joints so that oxygen can enter those areas and enhance healing. CranioSacral therapy also addresses areas of the body that have been holding due to chronic pain, such as the neck, lower back and spine. When those areas are relaxed and aligned the whole body can be more flexible and able to move through the day.

Please visit our website at www. sandpointwellnesscouncil to read all articles presented by council members and leave any comments or questions.

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FOREplay- continued from page 25 in slow motion, you see Jackson put his hand on Steelers safety Chris Hope’s chest. So what, right? Wrong. When you watch the play at regular speed, you can clearly see that Hope loses forward momentum. Which is exactly the toaster slot that Jackson needed to become wide open in the end zone. Just that little bit.

He gave himself an unfair advantage in order to catch the ball.

Now some of you might say, “Dude, he barely touched him at all! That shouldn’t be interference, that’s ticky tack.” Okay.

First off, let me say that if in the final round of American Idol, if the singer slightly mispronounces a word in the song, she stands a good chance at losing. That’s because it’s the final round, the best of the best. Even the slightest thing can keep you from winning. So why not at the Superbowl? After all, it is, in fact, the largest sporting event in the world, the biggest enter tainment stage in the world and is also viewed by the most people in the world. The Superbowl is the best of the best. So the refs should be the best, too. The play happened right in front of the back official. Had he let it go and just looked the other way, he would have been put into the same boat of ill-advised scrutiny as the other officials. He made a very difficult call which, according to the rule book, was the right one. If you boys and girls of Starbuck-land don’t follow the rule book, then yeah, Seattle should have won. NEXT. Controversial call number three. Holding against Sean Locklear of Seattle. Offensive holding in the ‘04-’05 season was almost non-existent. Throughout the season referees constantly let little holding plays go. So I will admit that the Seahawks were victims here. Not victims of a bad call, but victims of inconsistent policy. Had the call not been made, which it

probably wouldn’t have been had it been week seven of the season, Seattle would have had first and goal on the one yard line, which would have most likely turned into a Seattle touchdown. However, like I said before, it is the SUPERBOWL. Not only is it the biggest game of the year, but the refs are under a microscope.

They can’t let that holding call go, just like how they can’t let Jackson push off even a little bit. Once again, the officials made a call because it gave an unfair advantage to a player. It just so happens that it was against the Seahawks. So stop cryin’ about it.

Controversial call number four.

Matt Hasselbeck “low-block” call. Okay.

The officials actually messed up here.

I’ll admit it. However, it really made no impact on the game.

Pittsburgh intercepted the pass and they started their drive 15 yards ahead of where they should have.

Now here is where the Seahawks start to give up. They ‘think’ that calls aren’t going their way so they quit giving it their all.

Does that make them worthy of being called a champion?

No. Because champions don’t give up. Just like it was in the AFC divisional playoff game between the

Steelers and the Colts. Troy Polamalu intercepted Peyton Manning and that would have most likely sealed the game for Pittsburgh. However, they ruled it an incomplete pass because Polamalu fumbled the ball after he got up. A bad call in my opinion, but did Pittsburgh give up? No, they fought back and won it in the end. Then, a week later, Hines Ward was penalized and a touchdown was erased for Pittsburgh. However, on the very next play they scored a touchdown from a longer distance. Those are examples of Champions. They never give up, and they fight until the end. The call against Hasselbeck was unfair. It was a horrible call, but not game changing; the preceding interception, however, that was game changing. The bad call was more like the boot to the stomach while you’re already cuddled up in a fetal position next to the curb.

A lot has been said about that Superbowl and a lot is still being said to me in particular, which is why I decided to write this piece. The ‘errors’ of this game are extremely miscued. The public needs to know that Pittsburgh simply made the plays they needed to win the game. If you really think the Seahawks had what it took to become the champions, then why did Jeramy Stevens drop so many balls?

Why did pro-bowl QB Matt Hasselbeck forget what clock management was at the end of both halfs? How many field goals were missed by Josh Brown? How come their defense didn’t stay at home against the Randle El touchdown pass? How did Hines Ward have a beat on his man when it was third and a mile? How do you let Willie Parker get a 75 yard touchdown run up the right side untouched? The Seahawks were simply the lesser team and didn’t deserve to hold the Lombardi Trophy. I’m sick and tired of seeing officials with Steelers’ hats and black and gold stripes. Quit crying and just stick to your wireless Internet and cappuccino because they help you more than your football team does.

My name is Dustin Gannon, and I am part of Steeler Nation. GET SOME!!!

The Seahawks were simply the lesser team and didn’t deserve to hold the Lombardi Trophy

The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol 17 No. 18 | November 2008 | Page 41

Cemetery- Cont’d from page

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stranding as grim reminders of a stolen past.

The graves quietly revealed themselves, gently cradled now in autumn’s colorfully dyed hands.

It was obvious that in less than a decade this monument and the history of settlement in the Northwest would be erased forever from our ground. The footprints of those left behind, along with their precious past, would be gone eternally with only the slim possibility that future cultural archeologists might discover them to wonder how they got here.

When was it that this place became dispensed with? When was it no one cared or was left to care? Did the owner of the tiny embroidered Chinese shoe which shrouded a bound foot lay here? The Bonner County

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anything in between the remaining stones.

The tragedy compounded itself as I ran my fingers over the carefully etched dates trying to determine their age. Mercifully my friend took his water bottle and poured it down the granite to reveal the date of death. 1890!

The cemetery was clearly at least 118 years old. We both got quiet then and continued to creep along and through the low-growing and brightly golden-leaved shrubbery. It was undeniably hallowed ground. But the tiny, hand-hewn fences marking children’s graves lay quietly on their sides, speaking silently to the testament of life. Bases of what at one time held headstone, names, dates and contributions to our society were

Museum displays her shoe. But where is her final resting place? Are the people here that smoked the long, skinny pipes now cloistered behind glass? Is Hope’s famous Chinese vegetable farmer here? Are these tiny graves children or small Chinese laborers brought here to build the Northern Pacific Railroad?

Will we ever know? The two remaining stones are carved with Anglo names. Bonner County records show there are over thirty burial sites here. Only half appear to be of Chinese descent, the other half showing Anglo names. Knowing a little bit of history, I would bet there are more graves than the Bonner County records show.

I photographed the graves I could identify. Artistically they are lovely photos.

My lighting was good and the compositions well done in my opinion, but ethically I was in a real quandary. Shouldn’t this sacred place be maintained? Or should it be left to nature to quietly and privately decompose and become as it was in the beginning?

If the site were lovingly restored, would other shallow individuals void of a moral sense remove the headstones? I flashed to the lovely young couple living in Noxon, Montana who clearly had a headstone by their front door with oriental inscriptions on it. Was it from Hope? I was, and still am, understandably confounded with mixed emotions. Just whose responsibility is it?

How should it be handled? Who takes care of these things?

I don’t know. I’m perplexed. I guess the best word to explain my feelings would be a bit disconcerted. At what point did our society turn to no longer care about our past and the grand souls who enriched our history? Look on the Internet and it states that the “Old Hope Cemetery� or the “Chinese Cemetery� has been abandoned.

Somewhere, someone turned their back and walked away.

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A Seat in the House with George Eskridge

In a previous article I reported that even though the national economy was experiencing difficulty, the state of Idaho was in good condition with about 200 million dollars â&#x20AC;&#x153;surplusâ&#x20AC;? on June 30, the end of fiscal year 2008. I did inform the readers that most of this surplus had been anticipated when we developed the budget last session and was used in establishing the fiscal year 2009 budget. However, it did appear that we were going to have an actual surplus of about 47 million dollars at the end of fiscal year 2009.

Since that time the change in the national economic situation and its impact on Idahoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s economy has resulted in Idaho revising its 2009 revenue projection downward. Idahoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Department of Financial Management recently announced a reduction in projected fiscal year 2009 General Fund revenue from an original projection of $2,940,600,000 to $2,766,300,000. Obviously, the 47

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million dollar surplus we anticipated is not enough to cover the difference in the forecasts.

As a result, Governor Otter, by Executive Order 2008-03, ordered a 1 percent state budget holdback on September 26 that directed state agencies to reduce their spending beginning immediately. The Governor also ordered state agencies to â&#x20AC;&#x153;hold an additional 1.5 percent of their appropriated budgets in reserve as a hedge against further declines in state revenue in the months to come.â&#x20AC;?

The holdback will not affect at least three areas of special concern to the public: public schools, transportation funding and implementation of the grocery tax credit.

There are three main reserve accounts established by the legislature to avoid major financial impacts resulting from unanticipated revenue shortfalls. One of these reserve accounts is the Public Education Stabilization Fund that currently has a balance slightly over $118 million. Funding that will be withheld from the public schoolsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; budget will be compensated for by drawing down the Education Stabilization Fund. The fund only covers public schools so other education areas, such as higher education and professional/technical education, will have to institute the 1 percent holdback and will not be able to cover the decrease from the stabilization fund.

The Transportation Department will not be impacted by the holdback because it does not receive a general fund appropriation. The department receives its appropriation from fuel tax, registration fees and other revenue sources outside the general fund. There are other agencies in this same position, including Fish and Game and most regulatory boards and commissions, that will not be impacted by the holdback.

The implementation of the increase in the grocery tax credit can be delayed if two conditions are met: one, that a holdback of at least 1 percent be issued between July 1 and October 1 and two, that the holdback remain in effect on October 1.

The Governorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Executive Order did not

George Eskridge is North Idahoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Representative to the state legislature. Reach him by email at geskridg@house. idaho.gov, by phone at 208-2650123, or by mail at P.O. Box 112, Dover, Idaho 83825 delay the implementation of the increased grocery tax credit even though these two conditions have been met; however the Governorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s action does leave â&#x20AC;&#x153;the option of a future delay open should it become necessary to do so.â&#x20AC;?

I believe this action taken by the Governor was a prudent measure given the uncertainty of our national economy and the impact it is having on our stateâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s economy. By instituting the holdback this early in the fiscal year and advising the agencies to hold additional spending in reserve, it provides the agencies time to adjust their budgets before committing to spending that would create even more difficulty in meeting revenue shortfalls later in the year.

The Governorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s holdback only applies to fiscal year 2009, the period of time from July 1 of this year to June 30 of next year. The real challenge in the event the economy doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t improve this year will be in setting the fiscal year 2010 appropriation when the legislature meets in January.

Because of statutory increases and one-time money used in meeting agency needs in fiscal year 2009, the ongoing FY 2010 spending base could very well be larger than anticipated revenue. Assuming the Governorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s holdback is permanent, then the base general funds budget we would be working from in determining general fund appropriations for FY 2010 would be $2,885,685,300. Just adding in statutory increases would increase the general fund budget to $2,986,611,700, an increase of about 3.5 percent.

Without a significant improvement in state revenues the legislature is going to have to look hard at existing agency funding to find significant savings in order to have adequate funds to meet the most needed government services.

It will be an interesting and challenging legislative session.

Thanks for reading! George

Page 44 | The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol 17 No. 18 | November 2008

Taking a Left Turn with Laura Bry

It is difficult for me to write this column because I write before the election, and most of you will read this afterwards. I hate to be presumptuous, but at this time, it looks pretty good for Barack Obama.

By the time most of you read this, we will have elected our next President. It seems that regardless of the outcome, there are going to be some mighty disappointed, even angry Americans. My thoughts at this time are for peace and harmony among my fellow Americans. I had the opportunity to appear on a radio show this week with a Republican Central Committee member, and I was happy to realize we have a lot more in common than not. My experience working with local non-profits, on city commissions and in the political realm as Democratic County Chairman is that we all have common ground and it is a pleasure to work with committed citizens from all backgrounds and political persuasions.

The focus is always on making our area and the country a better place.

Frank Luntz, pollster for Republicans and a Fox News analyst, says Americans just want us all to get along. This reminded me of Rodney King, and how long we have been focusing more on our differences than our similarities. I learned in high school that one of the most important political skills is the art of compromise.

Are we and our politicians ready to pursue this tack, and actually move us forward?

I think the voters are saying, “git ‘er done!” They want our political leaders and representatives to work together and implement solutions for the problems we are facing now. Leadership has to provide hopeful vision, and step up and encourage us to work together for our future.

I am ready. I have been ready and working for many years, participating in our democracy. I love listening to the views and ideas of young and old, rich and struggling, Democrats, Republicans and Independents, people of all ethnic backgrounds, natives and transplants.

I am always pleased to see vision turn into reality when caring people take the time to hash through an issue, look at all the possibilities and come to a fair and workable decision. More than at any time in my life, it is critical we come together as fellow Americans, with respect for each other, putting aside differences, with the priority on problem-solving. As a person

in her mid-forties, I am confident we can work in fellowship on these projects.

The Economy—how can we strengthen the system, recreate it so it works for corporations as well as individuals? Did you know the Wall Street investment banks hired physicists and mathematicians to write the complicated financial calculations for the credit default swaps? Couldn’t we hire them to help us revalue property, refigure mortgages, payments and taxes? How do we find a new balance between providing opportunity for innovation and stability for the long term? How do we begin saving money without hurting an economy based on spending beyond our means?

Education—how can we develop opportunity for all people, of all ages, not only to learn work and professional skills, but critical thinking and civics. How do we encourage lifelong curiosity—the strong desire to learn and know? How can we ensure people have the time and energy to pursue learning and participate in our political community? There is so much disagreement on how we solve this it’s clear to me we need a multi-pronged approach—an expansion of strategies.

Energy and Infrastructure—how can we realize clean and more efficient ways to power our lifestyle? How will we leave our world for those who follow? How will we balance our freedom to come and go where and when we please, with our larger environment? This is a HUGE project, according to Tom Friedman in his new book “Hot, Flat and Crowded.”

I haven’t finished the book, but I listened to a two-hour presentation from Friedman this summer, and although the undertaking will be daunting, we have the possibility of an amazing future. The solutions to our sustainability issues are inextricably linked to the economy and education, and the benefits we will derive from tackling these issues together will be enormous.

I read this on Scholastic.com for youngsters: “A citizen is a participatory member of a political community.” If you voted, thank you for taking the first step toward participating. Now it is time for all of us to engage permanently in our process. If we do, then the enormous forces of power will not be able to control what happens to us—we will. This is what our founding fathers envisioned. Let’s make them proud.

Laura Bry is the chairman of the Bonner County Democratic Party. She lives in Sandpoint.

Reach her at laurab1@ mac.com.

Visit the Democratic party’s website at www.

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The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol 17 No. 18 | November 2008 | Page 45

Montana Viewpoint with Jim Elliott

You Break It, You Buy It We seem to be once again at a point in the history of our great nation when the lust of the few for money and power has brought low the fortunes of mere working men and women. The last time we were treated to this was the Great Depression, but before that was the Panic of 1907 which was caused almost singlehandedly by one of the Butte Copper Barons.

These three events are all similar in nature; there is an aggregation of money in the hands of a few extremely capable and manipulative men (yes, men) because a festering flaw in the financial morals of the time erupts and allows them to turn to unscrupulous methods and fraudulent schemes to accrue money. Capitalism is a system based on trust, and cannot prosper for long when making money is based on chicanery. There have been many innovative schemes in recent years; the Long-Term Capital Management hedge fund debacle in 1998, the totally phony books of Enron in 2001, and the current mortgage bundling scam. If the underlying mortgage contracts had been sound there may have been little problem with this latest scheme; but they weren’t, and purposely so. National firms gave their mortgage brokers bonuses for negotiating terms they knew would cause the buyer to default. At the very foundation of the scheme there was fraud; who could think that it could survive for long?

Well, it survived long enough for a good number of people to make an astronomical sum of money, even as their institutions were collapsing around them, until it reached a crisis point where the taxpayer was enlisted to bail them out.

I have a suggestion; make the jerks that created the crisis pay for the bailout.

It’s been done before; in ancient Greece and Rome many functions of government were paid for by “liturgies” donated by the wealthiest citizens. In emergencies they were expected to donate large sums to the public treasury to help defray the cost to the state. In those days the wealthy were expected and obligated to their community to use their wealth for the public good—this in a country the wealthy ran, if you can fathom that.

That kind of civic responsibility has happened in America, too; one hundred and one years ago J. P. Morgan, then one of the wealthiest men in the world, helped avert worldwide economic catastrophe by stepping in and putting things right during the Panic of 1907. The Panic was the baby of F. Augustus Heinze, a brilliant and powerful figure in the Butte mining industry who employed whatever methods it took to best the Amalgamated Copper Company (later the Anaconda Company). After a lengthy legal battle with Amalgamated, Heinze sold his Butte interests to them and founded the United Copper Company. An attempt by Heinze’s brother to corner United’s stock failed, and in its failure exposed an intricate web of interconnected directorships which manipulated the American banking system. This exposure created massive distrust in depositors, who began to withdraw their money from the banks in a mad panic, causing the banks to fail for lack of funds.

Morgan saw his duty as one of protecting the American financial system (and himself) by saving the more liquid banking companies from failure, and asked the Presidents of 50 solvent banking companies to come up with $25 million to shore up the troubled banks. Twentyfive million was Large Cash back then. He summoned them to the opulent library of his New York mansion and told them to work things out themselves. He then left the library, locking the doors behind him, thus locking in the 50 bankers. At three in the morning Morgan entered the library to find that nothing had been achieved so he had a document drawn up that shared the $25 million among the 50 banks and asked the Presidents to sign it. No one moved. Morgan approached Edward King, the President of the Union Trust bank, took him by the arm and led him to the table where the contract lay. Pointing to the contract, Morgan said, “There’s the place, King, and here’s the pen.” King signed, and the other 49 followed suit.

As I watch this pathetic drama of a few greedy people bringing our country low I think more and more of the phrase in the Parable of the Faithful Servant; ”to whom much is given, much shall be required.”

JIM ELLIOTT, is Montana’s Senator from District 7. Visit his website at www.JimElliott. org, or email him at Jim@ Jim.Elliott.org There is a responsibility to the common good that has been ignored by these “malefactors of great wealth,” as Teddy Roosevelt used to call them.

We expect our elected officials to have the best interests of America and Americans at heart. That’s because they are our government and steer the nation for our benefit. But what happens when a few enormously wealthy unelected corporate managers become powerful enough to become the government, as has now again happened? Where is their allegiance to America? Where is their patriotic duty to do what’s best for the nation? From what I can see, it ain’t there.

Well, it should be, so maybe they should be reminded of their obligation to the American citizenry and handed a contract and a pen... a Red, White and Blue pen, of course.

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Page 46 | The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol 17 No. 18 | November 2008

No candidate is perfect. But whoever you vote for should be someone who thinks like you do. viewpoint. Each characteristic is best defined by what you expect.

Furthermore, it depends on whether you are talking about money, social order or what you expect from society.

In my mind a liberal is one who

believes government is the solution to most problems. A more level playing field, if you will, especially using someone else’s money.

Some I know are elitist in that they feel better informed and smarter than the average Joe. Most are pretty smart and to some extent have had the benefit of more time in the classroom. They have some good ideas and some that are not so good.

Likewise the conservative has some good ideas and some that are not so good. A true conservative believes in less government—sometimes to the extreme, believing they are more virtuous than others and if everyone else felt the same society would be better off.

Some want to mix their political agenda with their religious belief. Abortion has become the hallmark of some conservatives.

Most conservatives are not in for social experimentation. Many are strong for support of the Second Amendment.

Whatever you believe, the election always boils down to either A or B. Years ago I would, on occasion, be assailed by some disgruntled voter for not fielding better candidates.

Actually,

there is not a perfect candidate any more than there are perfect voters. Good or bad, each person who runs for office deserves some credit, emphasis on the some.

There are candidates who are simply driven by their own ego; the welfare of the voters is a secondary consideration.

There are some who feel they simply know better that the average guy. There are some who have been involved in the system so long they owe it to their constituents to continue on. And there are some who need the job because otherwise they would be unemployed.

Whoever you vote for should be someone who thinks like you do (get as close as you can). You should be able to defend most of your candidate’s positions, proving that he or she thinks like you do or vice versa.

You should believe they will do the ‘right thing,’ whatever that is.

Which brings us down to the nitty gritty. In any election it boils down to either A or B. Get over that either or both may be lacking a virtue you consider important.

Recognize that neither—or any— candidate is perfect or even close to whatever prefect may be. Which candidate best expresses how you feel? Can you defend his positions?.

And lastly you have to look at the record each offers. Experience, good or bad, speaks louder than words. Your life experience should give you a clue.

And once more. Get over that the candidate you would like to vote for isn’t running. If all else fails, vote for the one who has the least number of flaws (in your judgement.) Recall that some wag once said “to never underestimate the ignorance of the American voter.” Let’s not make his words ring true. Know what you are doing. Be sure to vote, it is your country.

by Paul REchnitzer

Years ago the Denver Post had a saying as part of its masthead on the editorial page. “He who lives in hope lives in despair.” That quotation has always haunted me because of what it infers. I took it to mean that hope was a form of wishing; doing nothing with the expectation that everything is going to turn out okay if you do nothing or that you are powerless so don’t do anything.

To the dear reader that quotation may mean something else all together. But since the term has been used so liberally during the current election cycle it seems appropriate to think about it some more.

As a political junkie I enjoy, to a point, politicians and their campaigns. It fascinates me no end to read or hear what some guys or gals will say to persuade you to vote for them. The truth always gets stretched a bit but there is nothing unusual about that. Most people say things that are somewhat correct but may be factually incorrect. The sad part about any campaign is the promise that is almost certainly undeliverable.

In the current season one guy promises to do away with the infamous ‘earmark.’ There is no way one Congressman could do that. He might refrain from the practice but that wouldn’t do away with the practice. Which reminds me that both Presidential candidates are promising changes that are controlled by the Congress. None has recognized that all the President can do is lead, push or cajole.

Which brings we to the point I originally planned to make.

The term liberal or conservative is being used generally by the commentators to describe any candidate. So what is a liberal and what is a conservative? For openers, it depends on your

SAY WHAT?

The Work of Hope

Paul Rechnitzer is a railroad buff and writer. Reach him at pushhard@nctv.com

The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol 17 No. 18 | November 2008 | Page 47

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One frigid midwestern morning in 1988, head librarian, Vicky Myron,heard a strange noise coming from the afterhours book return bin of the public library in Spencer, Iowa. A tiny frostbitten orange kitten was found shivering in the corner of the bin in much need of TLC. Both Myron and the library staff promptly fell in love with him, and, it was decided that he would be the library mascot. He was dubbed Dewey Readmore Books.

Dewey turned into a handsome fellow, making many friends at the library by sitting in many laps and greeting library visitors at the door. He had an uncanny knack for knowing just who needed his attention at any given time –school children, elderly patrons, and sometimes, those who were undecided about the wisdom of having a cat living in the library. He was welcomed at storytime and caused great excitement among the children. He had an quirky love affair with rubber bands.

Dewey was a character.

Notably, Dewey spent most of his life in the library building. Only once did he venture out on his own. One night when the janitor propped open the back door, Dewey ran out into the night. Upon discovering that he was not hiding in any of his usual haunts, all the staff was frantic to find him. After a few days when all concerned had given up hope, one of the library patrons mentioned seeing a cat underneath a parked car not far away. There was a very bedraggled Dewey, looking fairly worse for wear!

Readers are invited to submit their own reviews of books, movies and games to editorial@RiverJournal.com. Reviews are due by the 15th of each month.

BookTales of the Cryptids- Mysterious Creatures that may or may not exist

After his recovery from this adventure, he never attempted to go exploring on his own again!

As Myron relates how Dewey’s presence affected her life and that of her patrons through the years, she also relates times of economic hardship faced by Iowans during the farm crisis in the 1980s and 1990s. In a time when many farms failed and industries closed putting many people out of work, the library became a place of refuge and a necessary place for people looking for jobs and job assistance. Dewey provided a bright spot in an otherwise grim landscape. He was the heart of the library.

Dewey’s picture began to appear in newspapers and magazines all over the United States and spread to Britain and Japan. He brought worldwide attention to this little farm town. Myron was amazed at the number of families who drove miles out of their way to come to Spencer to visit their famous mascot.

Some of the most moving parts of this memoir tell of the intense bond Dewey had with Myron, who survived the loss of her family farm, a breast cancer alarm and an alcoholic husband. He may have been the library cat, but Vicky Myron really did consider him as hers, and, it seemed that Dewey reciprocated this regard.

This wonderful, charming story was unputdownable. Recommended for cat lovers, book and library lovers, and anyone who appreciates the amazing impact that animals have on our lives.

HHHHH

Kelly Milner Halls, Rick Spears & Roxyanne Young HB, 72 pages, $18.95, ISBN 1978-1-58196-049-5 Published by Darby Creek Publishing

At last, a book about monsters, real monsters, just in time for Halloween and geared especially towards younger (ages 7 to 12) readers. Subtitled “mysterious creatures that may or may not exist.”

Lots of pictures, sketches and photos through the book that covers nearly 60 of the most famous mystery monsters, including Bigfoot/Sasquatch, and Nessie/ Ogopogo, but also such rarer and lesserknown cryptids as the Mongolian death worm and Austrailia’s fabled Bunyip.

A cryptodictionary is included for younger folks as well as a “reality index” rating.

Loren Coleman, perhaps the world’s premiere living cryptozoologist, ha stated “Cryptids is worthy of being in every children’s library in the world. It’s time for this subject to be seen as the new frontier of learning it is.” Highly recommended!

HHHHH for kids —Jody Forest

-Submitted by Marcia Vanderford, Vanderford’s Books & Office Products

MovieNick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist

Columbia Pictures and Mandate Pictures- Rated PG-13 mature thematic material including teen drinking, sexuality, language and crude behavior. Released in theaters October 2008. Directed by Peter Sollett. Starring Michael Cera and Kat Dennings

Michael Cera and Kat Dennings star in this interesting take on teenage romance. Cera plays a hilarious part ‘as usual’ as a poor, heartbroken kid who just broke up with his long time girlfriend. The plot is kinda sporadic throughout the movie but everything seems to tie together.

Throughout the movie several, and I mean several hilarious phrases are used that appeal to the teenage and young adult group. If you are between the ages of 15 and 25 I think you will extremely enjoy this movie. Funny and exciting.

-Dustin Gannon

HHHHHH

Page 48 | The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol 17 No. 18 | November 2008

Deck the Halls

Tips on decorating a Christmas tree from Kinderhaven’s Festival of Trees alumni

Fans of the River Journal will likely how you place them: start at the bottom be displayed within the tree for greater remember that my acquaintance with of the trunk and, as soon as you get to interest. Use more than you think you Christmas trees has been less than cordial the part of the string where lights begin, need—too much is a good thing, said at times. Nonetheless, for many years wrap them around each and every Donna Deshon. Wired ribbon is easier the River Journal (that’s myself and my individual branch of your tree. Yes, you to place than un-wired if wrapping kids, with some help from Jinx and other heard that right—each and every branch. throughout the tree. Un-wired ribbon can friends) have Decorated and donated a This process takes two to three hours, but be used to cascade from the tree-topper tree for the Kinderhaven Festival of Trees. is the foundation of a beautiful tree and down.

Notice that is ‘decorated’ with a capital should not be neglected.

TREE TOPPER—Go wild and creative ‘D’... because these trees are a step above Use the same type of lights throughout with your tree topper. This is where what most of us are satisfied with in our the process, by the way. I have oftentimes you really should be thinking outside homes each holiday season. draped my tree with multi-colored lights the box—almost any item can make a Following are some tips and tricks of only to run out and then had to fill in with fantastic topper as long as it fits with your tree decorating from some of the many white lights, which was all I had in the tree. ladies who put together trees each year house. THIS LOOKS TERRIBLE. Lights are TREE SKIRT—The tree skirt is your final for the Festival—trees which, by the way, fairly inexpensive if you buy them when touch to set your theme and get out of the generally auction for several thousands of they’re on sale; I’ve gotten them for a decorations aisle to look for one. Fabric, dollars. Use some or all of these tips to dollar per hundred lights. blankets, sheets and more are available make your own tree a masterpiece during FABRIC—Not garland, not ribbon, in a wide variety of colors and designs to the Christmas holidays. fabric. If you choose to use fabric on your fit just about any theme you can come up WATER—The most beautiful Christmas tree, this is the second decoration to place. with. tree will not look beautiful for long if it Use a wide swath tucked throughout the THE TRICKS—At the Festival of Trees, dies from lack of water. Believe me, this tree to set the foundation for your theme decorators spend a great deal of time is something I’ve learned from experience or color scheme. with a hot glue gun, gluing the tops in my own home. A ‘crispy’ Christmas tree DECORATIONS—Use large, of ornament balls to the ornaments does not look pretty. inexpensive ball ornaments in a unifying themselves. This is done because the trees No matter how fresh your tree is, re- color to pull together disparate objects are transported to the successful bidder’s cut the stump before you place it in a tree on the tree. Include at least five large home still decorated, but it also works stand at your home, as the small vessels ornaments—much larger in scale than well on a home tree to keep ornaments that take in water can close up quickly. anything else on the tree—for visual together.

If you’re like me, and it can take several interest.

Decorators do not use ornament hooks, days to get your tree to stand in a tree Your should have enough ‘themed’ but instead wire everything to the tree with stand, you may need to take it out and ornaments to be able to use 15 of them a light gauge wire (available in the crafts re-cut it once again before you begin to for every two feet of tree. That’s 90 section of many stores). This allows for decorate. ornaments for a standard, six foot tree so precise placement of the ornaments on Then check the water in the tree every choose your theme with the availability of the tree for maximum visibility. single day, refilling as needed. ornaments in mind.

Spray glitter is a favorite at the Festival THEME/COLOR SCHEME—At the FILLER MATERIAL—Choose filler of Trees. You don’t want to use it on a live Festival of Trees, the trick to decorating material, again, based on your theme tree, but on a cut tree a spray of silver a tree is to have a theme and a color and/or your color scheme. This includes or gold glitter is a spectacular finishing scheme, something we don’t always ribbon, garland, bows, silk flowers, touch, as the glitter helps to pick up the consider in our own homes. If you want twigs, berries, raffia, beads, pinecones, light to create a magical sparkle. to use ornaments that your family has etc. Smaller, lighter presents can also collected throughout the years that don’t fit a theme, then you’re going to rely on a EXAMPLES—One of my favorite The topper of this tree was a stuffed color scheme to pull it all together. trees decorated for the Festival of Trees bear in a fishing vest and hat, holding Themes and color schemes used on was my first—a fishing-themed tree. The a fishing pole. The skirt was a piece of River Journal trees for Kinderhaven’s Lake Pend Oreille Idaho Club donated fabric designed to look like water.

Festival of Trees have included a fishing over 50 hand-tied fishing flies, which The Starry Night tree was the easiest theme (multi-colored), Scents of Christmas I hung suspended from fishing line in to decorate as star-themed decorations (red/gold), Starry Nights (blue and silver) clear, glass ornaments. are plentiful.

We used short pieces of and “Hiss-tree” (history—all natural This tree also engendered the famous blue and silver ribbon (Jacquie Albright’s materials).

Marsha Ogilvie ban on live animals on idea if I remember correctly) to suggest To some extent, the type of tree you the Kinderhaven trees, as I also hung comets shooting from the tree. Scents have will determine your theme, as a wild tree will not hold up (neither literally nor fish on the tree—Fighting Fish (bettas), of Christmas allows for a homemade visually) heavy ornaments. also in clear, glass ornament balls, flair, with wrapped cinnamon sticks and LIGHTS—The tree is up and you’re ready filled with water, of course. There are dried orange slices. “Hiss-tree” had an to begin decorating. The first item to place many beaded wire, hanging cradles for old-fashioned flair with lots of natural on the tree is lights. First tip—use twice as candles available that would hold these touches—raffia, rose hips, etc, and many lights as you think you need. For a wonderfully, as the tops must remain burlap for a tree skirt (coffee bean bags 6-foot tree, I generally use at least 1,000 open to allow air into the water. Talk with donated by Monarch Mountain Coffee). lights, if not more. the pet store where you buy the fish to Ornaments chosen also had an oldIf you’ve been in the habit of draping ensure your ornament is an appropriate fashioned touch. your tree with lights just like you do fish bowl.

-Trish Gannon garland, stop. The best-decorated tree will look blah without lights, so here’s The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol 17 No. 18 | November 2008 | Page 49

Love Notes- Continued from page 31 Monroe and Patti Page, or to her favorite soap opera â&#x20AC;&#x153;Ma Perkinsâ&#x20AC;? on good olâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; KSPT-1400 radio station.

She cooked three high-calorie meals a day. We ate rich whipped cream from our guernsey cow Bossy and big steaks or roasts from steers butchered by our neighbor, Mr. Clarence Best.

Harry Truman was President, and the McCarthyism/Communist-scare was the hot news.

I rather doubt that Mother had either a surprise party or planned one of her own when she turned 30. She was too busy chasing after us and the cows.

Fast forward to the late â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;70s. When I turned 30, I listened to John Denver and Anne Murray on the radio or our record player, watched Archie Bunker malign The Meathead, and followed the Jenny and Greg romance on my favorite TV soap â&#x20AC;&#x153;All My Children.â&#x20AC;? I was getting used to Jimmy Carter as President.

We had just taken a 30-year mortgage with Bank of Idaho to purchase our tenacre farm on Great Northern Road.

Price: $35,000. I recall eating our share of macaroni and cheese or top ramen.

Cool Whip, purchased from M & J Food Market on North Fifth, replaced Bossyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s whipped cream.

I had just become a mother for the first time two months before turning 30.

Daycare became a necessity so that I could continue my teaching career and pay for the daycare, the food, and monthly mortgage while Bill paid for our cars and utilities. I had a mother just a mile away for guidance but not for babysitting.

We used a dial-up phone, and the digits for local numbers had increased to seven. I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t remember a big celebration for my 30th birthday. That summer I was changing diapers and trying to get a garden to grow.

In 2008, my daughter has a new iphone, which supports her active life in many ways. She can send us photos from mountaintops. She can identify background music at dancing clubs by recording a few seconds of a song, learn its name and download it for further enjoyment. She can find her way to restaurants and check out whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s good and how much it costs when going out to eat in an unfamiliar setting. The phone has so many options, totally unthought of in 1951 when Mother was cranking into her conversations, that Bill jokingly asked Annie if she could actually use it to call people.

Annieâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Boise State University degree has thus far helped her find employment as a Marriott Hotel front-desk clerk and as a customer-relations specialist at Groundspeak, Inc. (creators of the game of geocaching).

Annie has no mortgage, but she hopes that her 401K is worth something when sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 60. She rents an apartment in Seattle, walks to work, plays on a soccer team, takes frequent trips with friends or travels to faraway places like New Zealand and Hawaii all by herself.

I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t think she eats much whipped cream, but I know sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a sushi fan. A Nirvana and Pearl Jam follower, she often attends live contemporary concerts in Seattle. She also records her lifelong favorite soap opera â&#x20AC;&#x153;General Hospital,â&#x20AC;? and watches it before going to work every morning.

All three generations from Grandma to Mom to Annie love politics and have supported the same Presidential candidate this year. We jump at the chance to travel. Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re independent, strong-willed souls with healthy giggles, and we appreciate family. Plus, we admire each other.

And, yes, Annie now plans her own birthday parties.

Considering these observations of my daughterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s entrance into the 30somethings and as I plod through my own 60-somethings, I canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t wait to see how lifestyles have changed when Annie turns 60 and Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve started the decade leading to the century mark well after Grandma Tibbs has turned 100.

It should be interesting, especially if I still have a memory. And, if so, you can bet that Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll follow my daughterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s lead and plan my own birthday party.

Historic Holiday Trains! at the Bonner County Museum

b qbttjpo

Please stop by for the Annual Holiday Library Wine Tasting Friday and Saturday November 28 & 29 12 noon to 5 pm Wine, cheese, cider Live music Current Release Wines 20% off, Library Wines 10% off Vintnerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Choice Wine Futures pre-release discount of 25%

A running display of model and tinplate toy trains.

80 feet each of 0, 8 and HO gauge track Plus- more displays, historical railroad photo exhibit and railroad artifacts

511 S. Ella in Sandpoint â&#x20AC;˘ Regular Admission Applies â&#x20AC;˘ 263-2344 open daily | 220 Cedar Street 208.265.8545 | powine.Com

Runs Nov 27-29, Dec. 6, 13, 20, 26-27

Sponsored by: Community Assistance League, Idaho Electric Supply, Merwins TrueValue Hardware, Traderâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Building Supply & the Co-Op Country Store

Page 50 | The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol 17 No. 18 | November 2008

Filling the freezer and woodshed can’t make up for the onthe-reef wreck of our world. It’s time for a change.

CURRENTS

October Contradictions

by Lou Springer

One hundred and twenty This has been one of the It has been a warm and dry pounds of spuds, 20 pounds of loveliest autumns in recent fall for accomplishing all the onions, 12 winter squash, 10 memory. To enjoy 80-degree chores imperative to rural life. pounds of carrots, 8 braids of days after the fall equinox was a Most animal life out here can garlic, way too many pints of wonderful surprise. Diving off a grow a thicker pelt to prepare for salsa for any two people to eat, dock into the waters of the Clark winter; those of us who can’t must freezer full of cider, salmon and Fork on October 1st and relishing get cords of wood stacked under chicken would normally give us it was the rarest of a sense of smug security. This treats. Flowers glorious autumn with bright days blooming, of good weather in which t o m a t o e s to accomplish all the fall r ip e nin g, chores would usually peppers getting promote a positive big enough to outlook. eat, lots of winter Instead, we have squash in early been hammered October allows by the final a gardener to a c c e p t a n ce forget past years’ that we have no disappointments c o n t r o l — following the no matter shock and awe how full the of a killing freezers and August fullmoon frost. woodshed— The colors this cover, have the propane tank over the on-the-reef-wreck of our autumn have been outstanding. filled, roofs repaired, chimneys world. The Ship of State, piloted The russet hawthorn, brassy cleaned, windows caulked and by lunatics, has run aground and serviceberry, shimmering coins pipes insulated. the tide is going out. Incredibly, of aspen, orange apple leaves Does the wildlife chuckle, I the political party founded upon and red cherry foliage nearly wonder, to watch our constant fiscal responsibility and rights of blind the eye with beauty. activity of food production? The the individual morphed into neoHuckleberry are so crimson, they digging, hoeing, raking, planting, con fantasy. look like they are on fire. By the the weeding, mulching, watering.

Bedazzled by one scandal after time of publication, larch gold Finally after the picking, pulling, another, most people seemed to will drip down the mountainsides digging, lugging, whitetail are have become too numb to accept as if poured slowly from a paint allowed into paradise. It took the irrefutable proof that the USA bucket. the old doe seven minutes after attacked another country on the Excited robins, their bags entering the yard to realize that administration’s lie that ‘weapons packed, on the move, fill the air even though the green metal of mass destruction’ were present with their calls. The large flocks posts remained, the nasty stinging and the cynically delivered rumor seem to be travelling together. wire was gone. (In comparison, of Al Qaeda influence. Could it One rose from the big willow, it used to take our big lab seven Lou Springer get any worse than this? groomed the recently dug potato days before he trusted that the hot Turns out it can get worse. patch, and in noisy unison can be reached wires were gone.) This morning Water is pouring into the engine departed south. Stellers jays at nox5594@ the little fuzzy-horned buck, room and the American public is are back, competing with the mom with twins, and the old blackfoot.net bickering about the placement of chickadees and nuthatches for doe are feasting on nasturtiums, the damn deck chairs. Throw the sunflower seeds. The turkeys have sunflowers, cosmos, parsley and chairs overboard, pump the bilges, learned to relish windfall apples tiny green tomatoes. and chart a different course. and peck them to a sponge-like mess.

The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol 17 No. 18 | November 2008 | Page 51

Coffelt Funeral Home Sandpoint, Idaho www.CoffeltFuneral.com

ELIZABETH “BETTY” AMELIA CHEEKS, 91, passed away in Sandpoint, Idaho on Friday, October 3, 2008. Private family services will be held later.

Elizabeth was born on May 26, 1917 in Bridgeville, Penn. She lived in Bridgeville, where she attended school and married Walter Cheeks on June 5, 1940. She continued to live in Bridgeville while her husband served in WW II. In 1950 she moved to Inglewood, Calif. and worked as a switchboard operator for the Auto Club of Southern California. She moved to Carson City, Nev. and then to Sandpoint in 2001.

Elizabeth was a member of Christ Our Redeemer Lutheran Church in Sandpoint. She collected music boxes and had over 100 of them. She liked bowling, roller skating, and needle point. She loved her family and her friends.

She is survived by her son Don (and Susan) Cheeks.; daughter Joyce Knott; grandchildren Matthew and Jason Cheeks, Danny (and Charlene) Knott, Lorena (and Rick) Steiner, Teresa (and Robert) Schultz, Donald L. Schade (and family), Heather Moreno (and family), and 14 greatgrandchildren.

Betty was preceded in death by her parents, her husband Walt, a daughter Bonnie, and a sister Helen.

Memorials may be made to Christ Our Redeemer Lutheran Church, 1900 Pine Street, Sandpoint, ID 83864.

DOUGLAS MICHAEL BALLARD II, 36, passed away on October 4, 2008 in Clark Fork, Idaho.

Graveside Services were held with Pastor Mark Wendle officiating.

He was a member of the Clark Fork United Methodist Church.

ARTHUR JAMES POST, 87, passed way in Sandpoint, Idaho on Saturday, October 4.

Private family services will be held at a later date.

Arthur was born in Missouri on July 11, 1921 the son of Charles and Drucilla Post. He attended school in Missouri and then worked in a defense plant. During WWII he served with the US Army doing topographical mapping. Following the war he worked, as a bookbinder, in the graphic arts business. He moved to San Benito, Tex. in 1988 and then to Hope, Idaho in 2006.

He loved the Big Band era of music and played the trumpet. He enjoyed a book that was well bound, and sharing time with his family. He was a Mason and a Shriner.

Arthur is survived by his son Richard Post; 2 grandchildren and 5 great grandchildren.

He was preceded in death by his parents, his wife Marie, two sons James Post and Jeffrey Wayne Post.

RITA LYNEA PLUMMER 51 passed away in Ponderay, Idaho in September 2008. Memorial services were conducted in Coffelt’s Funeral Chapel. Rev. John Paul Travis officiated.

Rita was born in Moscow, Idaho on June 9 1957, the daughter of Melford and Shirley Sturman. The family later moved to Coeur d’Alene, Idaho where she attended school. She worked as a sales clerk in various retail positions and moved to Sandpoint in 2005.

She enjoyed doing arts and crafts and presenting her work to her family and her friends.

She is survived by her daughter Christa Jennings; her son Derrick Washburn; 7 grandchildren; her parents Melford and Shirley Sturman; her brother Mark Sturman; and a sister Roslie Bowman.She was preceded in death by her brother Randy Sturman.

MARION ELEANOR POWERS, 87, passed away on Monday, October 6, in Sandpoint, Idaho. Funeral services were conducted in Coffelt’s Funeral Chapel.

Pastor Steve Nickodemus officiated.

Marion was born in Los Angeles, Calif. on

November 30 1920. She graduated from L.I.F.E. Bible College in Los Angeles in 1939 and has been an ordained Foursquare Minister since 1940. She has pastored churches in LaCygne, KS; Tallmadge, OH; Lima, OH; Elyria, OH; and Culver City, Calif..

She worked for Hughes Aircraft for 25 years, participating in the “Surveyor Project” which was the first ‘soft’ landing on the moon. She married James G. Powers on Dec. 23, 1972 in Simi Valley, Calif. In 2001 she moved to Sandpoint living at Alpine Vista where she played the organ for bible studies and on Sunday mornings.

She enjoyed her relationship with God and wanted to be a blessing to everyone. She was a longtime member of the Christian Women’s Business and Professional Association. She loved her family and her friends.

Marion is survived by her son Harold Knott; Stepson Gary Powers; brother Robert Lindsey; sister Pauline Stahly; 9 grandchildren Danny, Lore, Tere, Keith, Kevin, Heather, Katie, James, and Dustin; 21 great grandchildren; and a great great grandson.

She was preceded in death by her husband James, her son Howard, stepson Dana, and two brothers, David and Gordon.

TYLER JAMES PESCE, 18, passed away on Wednesday, October 8, near Clark Fork, Idaho Funeral services were conducted in Coffelt’s Funeral Chapel.

Tyler was born in Sandpoint, Idaho on May 17, 1990. He attended Hope Elementary School and was finishing his senior year at Clark Fork High School. He enjoyed sports, playing both football and basketball for Clark Fork. He was a member of the Aca Deca Club. He worked, as a prep cook, at the Floating Restaurant.

He is survived by his father Jimmy J (and Teresa) Pesce; his mother Shirley Pesce; two brothers, Jimmy and Brent; his sister Michelle Aloisi; and his grandmother Lucille Fuhrman along with 1 niece and 3 nephews. He was preceded in death by his two grandfathers and his grandmother.

ALBERTA PEARL JOHNSON, 90, passed away on Thursday, October 9, in Sandpoint, Idaho.

Funeral services were conducted in Coffelt’s Funeral Chapel. Pastors Barry Johnson and Chuck Wigton officiated with interment following in Pinecrest Memorial Park.

Alberta was born on April 9, 1918 in Yuma, Colo.

She attended school in Alliance, Neb. and moved to Cocolalla, Idaho in 1937. On October 31, 1938 she and Marvin Johnson were married in Cocolalla.

For many years she drove a contracted school bus, the Cocolalla Loop Route. She helped establish Johnson’s Sandy Beach Resort on Lake Cocolalla in 1959. She worked in the resort, operating the convenience store. She also helped with the family tree farm, and kept the books for the family business.

In retirement she, and Marvin, enjoyed traveling throughout Canada and the United States. She enjoyed knitting, crocheting, her flowers and her vegetable garden.

She is survived by her husband, of almost 70 years, Marvin Johnson, her 3 children Lois (and Mason) Chapin, Leland (and Vickie) Johnson, and Kathleen Johnson. She is also survived by 7 grandchildren, 11 great grandchildren, and 2 great great-grandchildren.

She was preceded in death by her parents, 3 brothers and 3 sisters.

Memorials may be made to the New Song Bible Church Building Fund or to a charity of one’s choice.

IRMA PAULINE RIDLEY, 80. passed away in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho on Saturday, October 11.

Memorial services were conducted in the First Lutheran Church in Sandpoint. Pastor Steve Neuder officiated.

Irma was born in Haxtun, Colo. on September 8, 1928 the daughter of Paul and Sadie Tillberg. The family moved to the Sandpoint area in August 1942 and she graduated from Sandpoint High School in 1946. On December 26, 1948 she and Howard

Ridley were married and they lived at the south end of Division Street. For many years the family helped care for the Lakeview Cemetery which was across the street.

She volunteered for more than 20 years with the Sandpoint Senior Thrift Store. She enjoyed league bowling for many years in the Sandpoint Leagues and playing bingo. She was a loyal sports fan following the Seattle Mariners and the Seattle Seahawks. Her friends, her family especially the grandchildren and great grandchildren were very important to Irma.

She was a member of the First Lutheran Church in Sandpoint and the Eagles Lodge Auxiliary. For many years she participated, with the drill team, in Eagles Lodge ritual competition.

Irma is survived by two daughters, June (and Randy) Campbell and Carla Barnes; four sons Jack (and Donna) Ridley, Wayne (and Claudia) Ridley; Kirk (and Debi) Ridley and Gary (and Barbara) Ridley; 13 grandchildren and 8 great grandchildren.

Also surviving are two sisters Mae (and Walt) Burt and Gloria Buck; two brothers, Steve (and Maureen) Tillberg, and Stan (and Nancy) Tillberg; and her best friend Lucille Kibler. She was preceded in death by her parents, her husband Howard, and 3 brothers Paul, Morris, and Johnny.

Lakeview Funeral Home Sandpoint, Idaho www.lakeviewfuneral.com

KEITH ROGER “KIT” ST. CYR, 70, passed away on Tuesday, September 16, at his home in Sagle, Idaho. A Funeral Mass was held at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church with Fr. Dennis C. Day officiating.

Kit was born on May 6, 1938 in Swift Current, Saskatchewan, Canada to Martial and Ester St. Cyr. He grew up and attended schools in Swift Current, later serving in the Canadian Armed Forces.

Kit married Phyllis Cossette on November 27, 1963 in Calgary, Alberta. The couple lived in Duluth, Minn. Kit owned and operated Envirotech Ventures, which developed, manufactured and distributed pest control agents. The couple moved to their home on Lake Pend Oreille in 1999.

Kit was a member of St. Joseph’s Catholic Church. He loved his dog “Brodie” and his cat “Meow.” He enjoyed hunting big game and bird hunting with his labs. He also enjoyed reading, and spending time with Phyllis boating, dancing and traveling.

He is survived by his son, Cordell (Diane) St. Cyr of Gillette, WY; his brother, Bill St. Cyr, of Calgary, Canada; two granddaughters Kaitlyn St. Cyr and Allison St. Cyr; one step-daughter, Leann Bjella of Everett, WA; three step-sons, Douglas Renier of White Bear Lake, MN, Kent Renier of Bloomington, MN and Dean Renier of Duluth, MN. He was preceded in death by his parents, and wife Phyllis.

ALEX PAUL HARMON, infant son of Angela Hecker and Robert Harmon, was stillborn at 3:15 pm on Tuesday, October 14, in Sandpoint, Idaho.

Funeral services were held at the Lakeview Funeral Home in Sandpoint with Pastor Matt Lombard of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church officiating.

Alex is survived by his parents, Angela and Robert, of Sandpoint; sister Abigail Hecker of Sandpoint; brother Scott Harmon of Victorville, Calif; grandparents Lori Mancuso of Sandpoint; Russ Patterson of Sandpoint; Robert Harmon of Bellflower, Calif; and Lois Binning of Hesperia, Calif; great grandparents Charles (Lorene) Mancuso of Delta Junction, AK and numerous aunts, uncles, and cousins.

Alex was preceded in death by his uncle Vincent Mancuso.

CLYDE F. SCHILLING, 82, passed away on Monday, October 13, in Spokane, Wash. Funeral services were held at the Lakeview Funeral Home in Sandpoint. Burial and full military honors followed at Pinecrest Cemetery.

Clyde was born on June 18, 1926 in Princeton, Minn/ to Frank and Alta Schilling. Clyde moved to

The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol 17 No. 18 | November 2008 | Page 52

Hope, Idaho in the 1940s. Clyde served his country in the United States Army during WWII. He served in two major battles in the Philippines. In 2006 Clyde received his “Lame Duck” award, for surviving 60 years after WWII. He married Clara Reed on January 4, 1948 in Sandpoint. Clyde worked on the garbage route in Sandpoint until 1953, when he moved to Wyoming and went to work for Charles M. Smith Construction. In 1963 he moved back to Sandpoint and worked for Joslyn Pole Yard until he retired in 1982. After retiring Clyde helped Melvin Hansen run his sawmill.

Clyde was a member of Aerie No. 589 Fraternal Order of Eagles. He enjoyed hunting, fishing, gardening, wood working, and cold beer.

He is survived by his four daughters, Marcella (Bob) Land, Marlene Martino, and Lorraine (Rick) Chapman, all of Spokane, and Twila Adams of Blanchard, Idaho; two sons, Chester (Debbie) Schilling and Clyde (Vicky) Schilling; one sister, Beverley Morgan; two brothers, Ronald Schilling and Donald Schilling; and numerous grandchildren and great grandchildren.

He was preceded in death by his parents, wife Clara, eight brothers and sisters Ruth, Lorraine, Marcella, Marlene, “Sunny”, “Toad”, “Sober,” and Kenneth Lindholm.

LOUANNE JO DAARSTAD passed away peacefully on October 16, with her family by her side after a brief struggle with cancer and pneumonia.

Louanne was born on January 22, 1932 in Kansas City, Missouri, the daughter of Wanda and Joseph Frye. After her parents divorced, she and her Mom moved to California in 1944. They lived in Temple City, a suburb of Los Angeles. Louanne attended Woodrow Wilson Jr. High School in Pasadena and then the Pasadena City College where she graduated in 1950.

She worked at the Southern California Gas Company in Los Angeles until 1956 when she moved to San Francisco and worked for the Container Corp. of America. The same year she decided she wanted to see a little more of the world and went to work as a civilian with the U.S. Army in Poitiers, France and Verona, Italy. Louanne took advantage of weekends and vacation time to travel and explore the rest of Europe. In 1960 she returned to the U.S. and started to work for the Houston Fearless Corp. and then Arthur Young and Co. in downtown Los Angeles.

On a ski trip to Aspen, Colo. in January 1963 she met Erik Daarstad. They fell in love and got married six months later, on July 6, 1963. They decided to take up residence in Manhattan Beach, Calif. One month later Erik got an assignment with the Disney Co. filming a television program in Jackson Hole, Wyo. Louanne resigned from her job and joined Erik for three wonderful months living in a cabin surrounded by the beauty of the Grand Teton National Park.

When they returned to Caliifornia, Louanne went to work for Space Technology Laboratories in Redondo Beach where she worked until their first child, daughter Kari Ann, was born in February 1965. Louanne became a full time stay-at-home mom because Erik’s work required extensive travel around the U.S. and around the world.

They had two more children, a daughter Heather Britt and a son Erik Even. Because Erik had free time between assignments, they always took their children on trips to many places around California as well as other states. Each summer they spent time at a wonderful old guest ranch in Aspen, where they and their children enjoyed horseback riding, fishing and hiking.

Because they loved Aspen the way it existed in the early 60s they planned to build a house and move there. However, in the late 60s Aspen started to change and they started to look at other options.

Somebody in Aspen told them about this little town in northern Idaho called Sandpoint where there

also was a ski area. They decided to check it out and after a couple of summer trips decided to give it a try. They bought an old farm in the middle of Wrenco Loop and moved there in June 1976. The children went to school here and Louanne and Erik became active members of the community.

In 1986 Erik was presented with an employment opportunity in Seattle and they packed up and moved, residing at first in Redmond and later in Bellevue. They enjoyed their 11 years there, but when Erik started to think about retirement they eventually decided to move back to Sandpoint. They built a house, one of the first in a new development called Northshore in South Sandpoint and their oldest daughter, Kari, decided to move back as well. Again they became active in the community.

Louanne joined the Auxiliary as a volunteer at Bonner General Hospital and they became active supporters of POAC, the Festival and the Panida Theater. Louanne and Erik were happily married for 45 years.

Louanne is survived by her husband, Erik, and her three children; Kari Ann (Clay Saccomanno), Heather Britt (Dale Downey) and Erik Even (Stacey Daarstad) as well as her eleven grandchildren; Kendall, Sage, Nathan, True, Micah, Rory, Clara, Selah, Haley, Ethan and Jake.

She will be remembered as a very special individual, a loving wife and a wonderful and loving mother and grandmother. She will be sorely missed but the family will remember and treasure all the wonderful times and special moments throughout their life together. When Louanne was diagnosed with lung cancer a month ago, she expressed how good and rewarding her life had been. Sometime this coming spring or summer there will be a celebration of her life at Kari and Clay’s place near her old Wrenco Loop stomping grounds.

Louanne would love any donations in her memory to be made to the Community Cancer Services, P.O. Box 2213, Sandpoint, ID 83864 to help those who need help in battling this insidious disease.

WERNER H. OPPELT, 83, passed away on Saturday, October 18, at his home in Sagle, Idaho surrounded by family. Memorial services were held at the Lakeview Funeral Home in Sandpoint with Pastor Steve Neuder of the First Lutheran Church officiating.

Werner was born on November 27, 1924 in Dresden, Germany to Hermann and Elsa Oppelt.

He grew up and attended schools in Germany, and served in the German infantry during WWII. After the war he worked as a police officer on an American military base.

Werner married Mathilde Klassen on December 8, 1946 in Sande, Germany. In 1953 the couple moved to Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, where Werner began his career with Safeway as a produce manager. In 1964 the family moved to Monterey, Calif., and Werner remained with Safeway until his retirement in 1984. Werner and Mia moved to Sagle in 2002 to be closer to family.

Werner was a member of the German rowing club, and the Grand Jury in Monterey, he also served as President of the German American Club in Monterey. He was very artistic and creative and enjoyed cooking, baking, photography, wood working, making wine, playing the harmonica and raising canaries.

He is survived by his loving wife of 61 years, Mathilde “Mia” Oppelt; one daughter, Angela Rast (David Stroud); three sons, Hans (Lee) Oppelt, Perry (Linda) Oppelt and Roger Oppelt; 6 grandchildren, 2 great grandchildren and one brother, Karl-Heinz Oppelt.

Werner and his family express great gratitude towards Hospice for their tremendous help and compassion. Memorial donations may be made to Bonner Community Hospice, PO Box 1448, Sandpoint, ID 83864.

ESTHER R. “MONA” THOMPSON, 67, passed away on Sunday, October 19, in Sandpoint, Idaho.

Funeral services were held at the Lakeview Funeral

Home with Pastor Jim Osman of the Kootenai Community Church officiating. Burial was at Coeur d’Alene Memorial Gardens.

Mona was born on January 20, 1941 in Madera, Calif. to Henry and Lois Volking. Mona’s father was a traveling preacher, so the family moved throughout the United States, while she was growing up.

In 1969, while a member of the Del Rosa Gospel Choir in San Bernardino, Mona helped record an album. In 1974 she became a cosmetologist. Her love of her profession lead to a teaching position at Riverside Community College after graduating from UCLA. Mona married Billy Thompson on October 19, 1980 in Lake Tahoe. After more than 30 years of living in California, Mona moved to Sandpoint in 1997 to be closer to her family.

Mona enjoyed being a part of the Sandpoint chorus Sweet Adelines. She enjoyed art, cooking, sewing, and singing. Family was the most important thing to Mona. Her caring nature and loving presence was felt by all and transcended beyond the traditional definitions of family.

Mona is survived by her loving husband, Billy Thompson; two sons, Daniel Brown and David (Penny) Brown; four granddaughters Danielle, Darian, Sunny, and Dariel; two brothers, Eldon (Dolly) Volking and David (Cybil) Volking; and one sister, Mary Thomas.

RICHARD LESLIE MARSHALL passed away on October 18, after a lengthy illness.

He will be missed by all who loved him. At his request no service will be held.

Richard was born in Tacoma, Wash. on September 9, 1937 to George and Kathryn Marshall. As a young child his family moved to Spokane, he attended West Valley High School and graduated in 1956. Directly after high school he entered the U.S. Navy and served for two years. Rich graduated from University of Washington in 1962 with a Bachelors degree in business. While working in the banking business in San Francisco he attended night school at Golden Gate University to obtain his law degree. He practiced law in California and Idaho for 28 years. Rich was not an attorney that the “lawyers” jokes referred to, he valued and respected his clients and never made financial gain from their pain and problems.

Rich loved the Pacific Northwest and Spirit Lake, Idaho in particular. Before moving to Spirit Lake in 1990 he visited every summer with his family. He enjoyed fishing, boating, swimming, watching the wildlife and golfing. When Rich wanted to take up a sport or interest he worked hard at it until he could be the best that he could be. Animals were some of his best friends; he would be sitting around a lot with a dog and cat on his lap on any given day. All were happy!

Upon moving to Idaho Rich worked as the Prosecuting Attorney for Spirit Lake for four years and also had a private practice in Coeur d’Alene.

He retired in 2000 due to illness.

Rich had a wonderful sense of humor and he liked to tease. Sometimes it was hard for people until they got to know him and then when they did they loved to banter with him.

Richard is survived by his wife of 20 years, Leslie Marshall; son Leslie Garret Marshall, stepsons Greg and Geoff, grandchildren Jake and Tyler Marshall, Tylor, Zak and Kenzie Blank. He is preceded in death by his parents George and Kathryn Marshall.

The last year and a half of Rich’s life was spent in Valley Vista Care Center where he met many new friends and caregivers. He received wonderful care and attention and our thanks to those at Valley Vista who knew him and took such good care of him. They made us a part of their family and gave all they had from their hearts.

The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol 17 No. 18 | November 2008 | Page 53

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Hawk- Cont’d from page 37

move. A piece of something old and brittle was dislodged from a track and things seem to be ready to go. I started again.

By this time the cat, TC, was sitting on the dining room table next to the old contraption that once wrote about Homer, Hemingway and history. She was, no doubt, smelling the recently removed chipmunks and, while probing, found the key levers carrying the letters, snapping up and down, to the semi-usable ribbon. A quick grab and the typewriter hit her paw, which hooked the tape and she was off the table, tape still attached to a claw.

I said something (kind, I’m sure) to her as I gave up the project until there was power. I also started wondering how I would get a hard copy to Trish since I know everything about her except her mailing address. Okay, there are a few things I don’t know, and probably shouldn’t.

When the lights flickered to life and the fans started spinning I put the old Royal back in the shed with the boot, ski and other important stuff.

Now, what were all those starts about anyway?

I don’t have a clue. But as long as there’s no fire, I’m going to make deadline anyway.

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The Cheap Seats

by Hanna Hurt The epiphany, “wow, life is short” hits everyone at some point in their lives. Of course the circumstances are always different. Sometimes it comes when you are watching your retirement fund melting away at 40 or sometimes it’s when you see a plane crash. It doesn’t matter how or when this painfully true statement hits you, it usually comes at a time that is

What if, for just a minute, everyone stepped out of the conformity of their everyday lives and did exactly what they thought was right? least expected and at the worst time imaginable.

With luck, you will use this to your advantage. You will pick the ‘extremely hot’ over the ‘mild’ sauce, you will jump naked into the river, and you might even loosen the purse strings a bit and buy an over-priced sports car.

But alas, the age-old instinct of fear sets back in after a few days and you step back in to your old conservative day-to-day activities. You are wearing the same Halloween costume you’ve worn to every costume party for the past five years, you are using the same coffee blends, and you are taking the same insane orders from your boss you’ve taken since were promised that promotion.

But that’s just the thing that I was pondering the other day. The phrase caught me off guard and in the worst way just a few weeks ago. Now, while I haven’t done anything rash and/or insane (like arson), I have started to hopscotch around the path I’ve been

following. I am traveling in the same general direction but there is some skipping here and some graceful leaps there.

Of course, I am prepared for the euphoria to end, but what if it didn’t?

What if, for just a minute, everyone stepped out of the conformity of their everyday lives and did exactly what they thought was right? If they wrote a letter to their estranged relative, learned a new hobby... heck, just admitted they were wrong or debated that you were right? I mean, wouldn’t everyone be happier? Isn’t the secret to success being happy with what you’ve got?

How can anyone be happy, even contented, if they don’t like the situation they find themselves in? So therefore, based on the theory of success, very few people are able to reach that goal. We do what we’re told and keep quiet, taking opportunity for granted and we fear the unknown, always playing by the rules, hence keeping the ‘average Joe’ just average. I think that we should, at least every now and again, step out of our daily schedules to take a few spontaneous risks to liven up our lives. After all, they are short.

The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol 17 No. 18 | November 2008 | Page 55

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Page 56 | The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol 17 No. 18 | November 2008

From the Mouth of the River

Do you know how to put a paper towel diaper on a vine ripe tomato sandwich?

I bet if you’re from the Midwest you do.

Before paper towels were invented you had to eat tomato sandwiches over the sink, or go outside. You had to roll up your sleeves if you had a long-sleeved shirt on because the juice would run down your arm and off your elbow.

Aw, the good old days. In fact, they happened again at our house last week.

That’s right, Lovie planted eight tomato plants this spring; four were cherry tomatoes and four were large tomatos.

She nurtured them like they were her own children. I helped her build a plastic house for them this fall when it started raining, so they wouldn’t split from the rain. And guess what? Those plants are loaded down with tomatoes—not just any tomatoes, but with large, juicy red ripe ones the size of grapefruit. I haven’t been this excited sense the hogs ate my little brother.

The tough part was waiting until they actually ripened before picking one; however, the cherry tomatoes ripened first, the sun golds and the reds.

We ate as many as we could but they finally overtook us and started to gain in volume. That’s when Lovie and our neighbor lady, Barb, started

making salsa. I didn’t even know Barb was Mexican! But those two gals are staying up with the tomatoes. In fact, I had to threaten them with bodily harm to keep them out of the big tomatoes, and our house smells like a Mexican salsa factory, but let me tell ya, Man, this is some good stuff. We even had fried green tomatoes and now the Salsa Queens are thinking about Chow-Chow, canned stewed tomatoes and tomato catsup. I haven’t had homemade tomato catsup since I was a big old ugly kid. I don’t know how much more of this good stuff I can take!

The only thing they haven’t tried is, Heaven forbid, tomato juice wine. All this canning is a lot of work and it’s like having a yard full of puppies; there’s a lot of cleaning up to do. But it’s worth it. This winter, when the snow is deep and the game is on, all of this will be worthwhile.

Salsa and chips followed up with a bowl of Elk stew made with potatoes, carrots and onions from the garden topped off by a big bowl of peach cobbler made from fresh, frozen Green Bluff peaches we put up. Warmed for the third time by the firewood we cut, split and stacked, one might just doze off into slumber on the couch. Someone will tell you later how the game came out.

All this canning by the Salsa Queens brings back childhood memories of when my Grandma would can everything in the garden and I would have to carry it all down to the cellar for her. But she didn’t just can what was in the garden; no sir, we went down on the creek bottom and it was my job to climb up the wild grape vines that grew up the cottonwood trees and cut loose bunches of possum grapes until we had enough to make grape jelly for the year. A possum grape is about the size of a sweet pea and strong as all get out; it takes a lot of sugar to sweeten the juice but it’s the best jelly you ever ate. It takes a wagon box full of grapes to make enough jelly to last a nine-year-old boy a year if he lets his Dad have a bite once in a while. For those of you who don’t know how much a wagon box holds, it’s about what you

Boots Reynolds

could pile up in a pickup truck bed.

I always liked to harvest Possum grapes because that’s the only time the folks would let me swing on the vines.

“Now you be careful up there and stop showing off you little idjit, if you fall outta that tree and break your neck I’ll whip your butt! Besides, who would I get that was dumb enough to crawl up there and get my grapes?”

One other thing about those grape vines; when they were dead in the fall or winter you could break off short pieces and smoke them just like a cigarette because they were hollow. Some times you would suck fire down your throat but what the heck, you were acting like a grown-up anyway what with all that hackin’ and coughin’ and they made your lips red and swollen. We were going through the early stages of idiocy!

The last of our fall harvest was the pecans. Again, it would be the boys who would crawl up the pecan trees and, using a long cane pole, we would thrash the pecans off the outer branches of the trees on to a wagon sheet where they would be easy to collect.

Then there were the black walnuts; Dad would hang them from the rafters of the barn in a gunny sack to dry and take down the ones he had hung there last year. On cold winter days us kids would break the hulls using a hammer and a brick and pick out the goodies with a eight penny nail. Granny would then make divinity if it was a clear day or fudge if it was cloudy.

Ah, the good old days.

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Boots Reynolds is the internationally renowned cowboy artist and author. Reach him via editorial@RiverJournal.com

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