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DEAR READERS,

The week in random review

By Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey Reader Staff

my spotify, wrapped

Each year, around the start of December, the music streaming platform Spotify offers its subscribers a “wrapped” playlist of their top songs from the year. Count me among the avid music listeners who get way too excited when it’s time to find out what my listening habits had to say about me over the past 11 months.

Plus, listening to the compilation is like a ready-made soundtrack to my life in 2022. Some of my top songs correlate perfectly with specific memories, like “Engine Trouble,” by The Last Revel, which I forced my husband to listen to on repeat on our honeymoon road trip; “Sugar in the Creek” by Bendigo Fletcher, which was playing when I saw at least 20 head of elk in my hay field while packing firewood in March; and “Bathroom Light,” by Mt. Joy, which might take the cake as my favorite song of 2022, only bolstered by the fact that I got to hear it performed live at the Festival at Sandpoint in July.

orange gold

Doesn’t everyone have a food they can stomach no matter how sick they might feel? Mine is baby carrots. I don’t remember the origin of this habit, but baby carrots have remained a mainstay of my grocery list just in case. Saltine crackers are a close second, of course, but something about the cold, bland sweetness of those little orange nodes is so comforting to me.

that one dream

I repeatedly have this dream where I find out I’ve been enrolled in college classes for months and forgotten to attend them. Sometimes I live in my old dorm room; other times I live my current life in my current home with my husband.

Somehow, he has been attending his classes regularly and I’ve simply dropped the ball. That’s usually how I know it’s a dream.

lyrically speaking

“If you were a teacher, I would fail your class/ Take it over and over ’til you noticed me.”

— “Waiting Room” by Phoebe Bridgers

nick

Our lives are full of people who we interact with on a limited basis, but make up the fabric of our day-to-day. Each one of them, a unique person with stories and circumstances — factors most people will never come to understand, making it all the more imperative that we approach every interaction with empathy. This is what came to mind when I heard about the passing of Nick: a man I knew only on a first-name basis because he regularly changed the oil in my car at Lightning Lube on McGhee Road. Our community mourns the loss of a hard worker and kind person. Those closer to him mourn a whole lot more. RIP, Nick.

By the time you’re reading this, we’re likely getting the next round of snow, which is expected to last until midday on Friday. Hooray!

On that note, I’m not a huge fan of the city of Sandpoint’s new winter parking policy, which states that there should be no parking anytime on the even sides of the residential streets, even when it’s not snowing. Eliminating roughly half of residential parking for the entire span between Dec. 1 and March 1 is a little severe. There are circumstances that make this a real pain for a lot of us. At my place, the odd side of the street is fourhour parking, with no parking posted from 2-6 a.m., which forces me to park quite far from my place. I know there are others with the same difficulties.

I’m totally on board with ticketing and/or towing those who leave their cars unattended, causing huge mounds of snow to pile up that can be hazardous, but forcing everyone to park on their lawns or on the opposite side of the street in the off chance we might get snow seems a bit excessive. The policy should state the rules are only in effect when it’s snowing or has snowed.

– Ben Olson, publisher

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

www.sandpointreader.com Publisher: Ben Olson ben@sandpointreader.com Editorial: Zach Hagadone (Editor) zach@sandpointreader.com Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey (News Editor) lyndsie@sandpointreader.com Cameron Rasmusson (emeritus) John Reuter (emeritus) Advertising: Jodi Berge Jodi@sandpointreader.com Contributing Artists: Chelsea Mowery (cover), Ben Olson, Boden Architecture, Dan Carpenter, Bill Borders. Ruth H. Photography Contributing Writers: Zach Hagadone, Ben Olson, Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey, Lorraine H. Marie, Brenden Bobby, Emily Erickson, Molly O’Reilly, Cate Huisman, Brenda Hammond Submit stories to: stories@sandpointreader.com Printed weekly at: Tribune Publishing Co. Lewiston, ID Subscription Price: $155 per year Web Content: Keokee The Sandpoint Reader is a weekly publication owned and operated by Ben Olson and Keokee. It is devoted to the arts, entertainment, politics and lifestyle in and around Sandpoint, Idaho.

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

The Reader is printed on recycled paper using soy-based ink. Leftover copies are collected and recycled weekly, or burned in massive bonfires to appease the gods of journalism.

Free to all, limit two copies per person.

Sandpoint Reader letter policy: The Sandpoint Reader welcomes letters to the editor on all topics.

Requirements: –No more than 300 words –Letters may not contain excessive profanity or libelous material. Please elevate the discussion.

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

Email letters to: letters@sandpointreader.com Check us out on the web at: www.sandpointreader.com Like us on Facebook.

About the Cover

This week’s cover photo was taken north of Bonners Ferry near Porthill, facing the Kootenai River Valley by Chelsea Mowery. Thanks Chelsea!

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NEWS

Deputy prosecutor amends complaint against commissioners

Lawsuit to see scheduling conference in January

By Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey Reader Staff After an initial notice of tort claim in late 2021, Bonner County Deputy Prosecutor Scott Bauer officially filed a civil suit against Bonner County commissioners and Bonner County Chief Information Officer Brad Ptashkin in July, then submitted an amended complaint leveling a handful of additional allegations against the parties in August.

According to Idaho District Court records, a telephonic scheduling conference has been slated with Judge David C. Nye for Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2023 — one week after the court’s deadline for each party to file joint litigation and discovery plans in the case.

Bauer, an employee in the prosecutor’s office since 2007, filed a notice of tort claim against Bonner County on Dec. 28, 2021.

The notice didn’t constitute a lawsuit, but rather served as a warning that grounds for a case might exist centered largely on allegations of “malicious defamation” and “libel with malice.”

Bauer was removed from advising the board of county commissioners on Jan. 3.

Records show that Bauer’s lawyer, William Mauk of Boise firm Mauk Miller & Hawkins, PLLC, filed the official complaint against the commissioners and Ptashkin on July 1. While the lawsuit names commissioners Jeff Connolly and Steve Bradshaw only in their official capacities, Commissioner Dan McDonald and Ptashkin are named in both their official and individual/personal capacities.

Bonner County, as an entity, is also named in the suit.

According to the amended complaint filed Aug. 25, Bauer’s action is “for legal and equitable 4 /

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relief and monetary damages” brought on by several claims, including “deprivation of his procedural due process rights related to his employment”; “deprivation of his liberty interests in his good name, professional status and reputation”; “retaliation taken against him for engaging in protected activity under Idaho’s Protection of Public Employees Act”; and “various breach of contract, defamation and other tort claims under Idaho law.”

Specific instances of each claim are outlined in the 24-page complaint, including the alleged findings of the independent law firm that Bonner County Human Resources retained to investigate Bauer’s initial grievance in December 2021. According

to Bauer’s amended complaint, the commissioners and Ptashkin “refused to cooperate and engage with the investigation at any level,” reportedly blocking access to documents and county computer systems. The alleged findings of that investigation include harassment on the part of McDonald, and the dissemination of “malicious rumors” by McDonald, Connolly and Ptashkin.

The amended complaint features specific allegations against McDonald, which Bauer claims took place in July and August, including that the commissioner “unilaterally interfered with Bauer’s service as legal counsel to the Bonner County Fair Board and its Director, contradicting legal advice Bauer had given to the Fair Board and effectively

impairing Bauer’s ability to render independent legal service.”

Bauer also alleges that McDonald told various department heads “not [to] include or engage with Mr. Bauer on any business” in an August communication, and that the commissioner posted to Facebook in response to the tort claim: “This is what happens when you try to drain the swamp, aka Good Old Boys network here in Bonner County. They fabricate accusations based on hearsay.”

He allegedly went on to write that the “network” “doesn’t work for the people of the County, but rather only looks to feather their own bed via taxpayer dollars.”

Bauer is requesting a trial by jury, and wishes to be awarded reinstatement to his former posi-

tion of employment or a position similar in stature; all economic losses and damages; $300,000 for general and compensatory losses; injunctive and declaratory relief; punitive damages; interest and attorney fees.

Talking to the Reader on Dec. 7, Bauer said: “Don’t be surprised if there is another amended complaint because things have just developed.”

“It’s a dynamic situation,” he added.

While Connolly, Bradshaw and Ptashkin did not comment before press time, McDonald did tell the Reader via email on Dec. 6: “We can say that we find the complaint filed by Bauer to be without merit based solely on hearsay and lacks any credibility.”

KRFY powers up

Local radio station gets new transmitter, launches annual fundraising drive

By Reader Staff Panhandle Community Radio, which brings KRFY 88.5 FM to listeners throughout North Idaho, announced Dec. 6 that the station’s transmitter and antenna are hooked up to their new permanent home and the station is now back on full power.

That’s thanks in large part to the Lake Pend Oreille School District, which entered into a long-term lease with the nonprofit radio provider to boost its signal with an unused transmitter owned by the district.

The move was made necessary when the station heard in August that its previous rental of transmission tower space would be terminated after 10 years, requiring the antenna and trans-

mitter to come down and a new broadcast site found.

KRFY Production Manager Jack Peterson, along with Vector Broadcasting owner Conrad Agte, took down the KRFY equipment. In the meantime, with the help of loaned equipment from KPBX in Spokane, the station broadcasted in a temporary, low-power form from the roof of the building the KRFY studio occupies in downtown Sandpoint.

However, listeners in Clark Fork, Priest River, Bonners Ferry and Athol could no longer receive the signal, though KRFY continued to stream online.

That changed Dec. 5 at around 5 p.m., when KRFY switched back to full power with a loud and clear broadcast signal.

But it hasn’t been cheap.

“This unexpected tower relocation has put the station’s budget in a bind, so we will be reaching out to our listeners and supporters this December to recuperate some of the unbudgeted expense,” stated KRFY Station Manager Suzy Prez.

KRFY’s annual yearend, on-air fundraising outreach event is slated for the week of Monday, Dec. 12-Friday, Dec. 16, with live broadcasting each day at 8 a.m., noon and 4 p.m.

Guests have been scheduled from underwriters, community organizations and local musicians.

For more information, visit krfy.org or call 208-265-2992.

Workers install the new KRFY broadcast tower.

Photo courtesy KRFY.

NEWS

Council OK’s goose hunt at City Beach

By Zach Hagadone Reader Staff

It was a hefty agenda at the Dec. 7 regular meeting of the Sandpoint City Council, including one item that is sure to ruffle at least some feathers: a goose management plan that includes permitting the hunting of Canada geese at City Beach.

Councilors unanimously approved the ordinance, which allows shooting at the beach from approximately 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. (with cleanup by 11 a.m.) on two days per week from Friday, Dec. 16, 2022 through Friday, Jan. 13, 2023.

Councilors Joel Aispuro, Kate McAlister, Deb Ruehle and Jason Welker voted to approve the hunt, as well as voted “yes” to allow dogs off leash at City Beach during the goose hunt, ostensibly to aid in the recovery of harvested birds.

Councilor Justin Dick, who owns nearby Trinity at City Beach, voted “no.” Councilor Andy Groat was absent.

Would-be hunters will be required to apply for a free permit, from which the winning entrants will be drawn at 6 p.m., Tuesday, Dec. 13 at Sandpoint City Hall (1123 Lake St.). The application form and rules will be posted to the city’s website (sandpointidaho.gov) on Thursday, Dec. 8 and hard copies will be available at City Hall. Entrants must be in attendance during the drawing to obtain their permit.

The drawing is only open to applicants who are 21 years of age or older and able to show a valid Idaho hunting license, federal migratory bird stamp and migratory bird permit. An applicant may bring up to three guests who can present the appropriate licenses and permits, but may be younger than 21 years of age.

Shooting will be limited to three designated locations, established as Zone 1 — North Blind, Zone 2 — Middle Blind and Zone 3 — South Blind.

The blinds will be situated

east of the beach, placed at 200yard intervals facing into the waterway. Only non-toxic shot will be allowed.

“Everything the city of Sandpoint has done to mitigate the geese basically isn’t working,” Sandpoint Police Chief Corey Coon told councilors, touching on years of tactics to reduce the goose population, including the use of dogs, various repellents, flags, statues of predators and, most recently, the capture and relocation of the birds.

According to a basic cost accounting provided in a report to councilors, removing goose fecal matter from the parks incurs $5,000-$8,000 per year in city staffing costs; contracting dogs and handlers to harass the geese cost $5,500 per year from 2015 to 2021; the purchase of sand and grass sweepers to remove fecal matter ran to $27,300; coyote decoys and flags cost $1,500; and repellants cost $2,000 per week.

The “last alternative,” Coon said, is to open up the beach for a hunt.

“We’re hoping this is a good start,” he said.

According to the city’s staff report, “A controlled Canada goose hunt has been recommended by the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, wherever possible, within city limits to help control overpopulation.”

The idea is that hunters will immediately reduce goose numbers while also “encourag[ing] geese to move out of the city limits,” and ultimately “discourage migrating geese from staging or wintering here.”

The staff report noted that the city applied to have its permit renewed to relocate the geese in 2022 — as it has done in past years — but was denied due to the incidence of bird flu around the country.

In addition to the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, representatives of the Kalispel Tribe “have indicated strong support for a goose hunt as a

management strategy and next best step,” according to the city.

Council President McAlister said she’s “thought a lot about this,” noting that while “citizens are concerned about the geese and what will happen to them … I also thought about what was the original intent of City Beach when the Lions Club put it there?”

Reading from an original document describing the purpose of the public park and beach, McAlister said, “The intent is pretty clear there that it would be a park for all of us to enjoy, and not used as a geese sanctuary. …

Really, it’s about the people.”

Again, nodding to the several years of other mitigation efforts, she added: “We’ve done everything — and reaching out to the Kalispel Tribe was really great.”

Councilor Jason Welker asked how the goose hunt would be tracked for success or failure.

“How can we be sure we’re not out there shooting geese who literally just landed on their way to Mexico or wherever?” he said.

Coon said the first year of the goose season at City Beach will be too early to tell, and, “I think it’s a couple years out before we get some good data.”

The rules of the hunt stipulate that any geese that are taken bearing leg bands must be reported to the city, in order to keep tabs on which of the birds

are migratory or regular visitors to the beach.

Another question raised by Welker, and reiterated by Sandpoint Mayor Shelby Rognstad, was how effective the hunt will be if shooters are facing out toward the water, when most of the geese are typically congregated on the grassy area of the park.

“They’ll have to wait for them to take flight,” Coon said, adding that it’s illegal to “harass” the animals into flying in order to shoot them.

Sandpoint City Administrator Jennifer Stapleton said the city plans to resubmit its application for relocating the birds, but given the prevalence of avian flu, “the likelihood of us getting approval for a relocation is unlikely.”

The other option is to seek a depredation permit, meaning the city would be authorized to euthanize the geese, though

Canada geese being rounded up for relocation in 2019 at the Sandpoint City Beach. The Sandpoint City Council approved a new measure on Dec. 7 to hunt geese at City Beach. Photo by Jane Fritz.

Stapleton said that public input suggests the hunt is preferable: “actually a harvesting of the goose, as opposed to a wasting of the meat through euthanization,” she said.

Coon described the plan as a two-phase project, with hunting in the short-term and seeking a relocation permit in the long-term. For this first year, signs will be put up at the beach indicating when and where the hunting will take place, and police officers will be posted at the site.

“If we get some results, I think it’ll be a success,” Coon said, later adding, “It’s not a once and done.”

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NEWS

Bits ’n’ Pieces The Hive revived From east, west and beyond

New owners of downtown concert space announce slate of December shows

By Zach Hagadone Reader Staff The Hive is soon to come alive again, according to a post Nov. 30 on Facebook by Mack Diebel, who co-owns the once and future First Avenue hotspot with his father-inlaw Joe Pedeferri.

“The support and love of The Hive is truly special, one we had no clue resonated like it does,” Diebel wrote.

Diebel announced a trio of shows through December, beginning with a Christmas party and community celebration scheduled for Friday, Dec. 9. The free, 21+ event will feature music from locals Brian Jacobs and Kevin Dorin from 6:30 p.m.-9 p.m., and with a country dance party from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. with Devon Wade. Doors open at 6 p.m. and organizers suggest bringing a donation of canned food for the Bonner Community Food Bank or an unwrapped toy for the Lion’s Club’s Toys for Tots program. A portion of the bar sales will also benefit the nonprofits.

Yonder Mountain String Band plays at The Hive in 2018. Courtesy photo.

Realm Partners will present the Miah Kohal Band on Friday, Dec. 16, with the music starting at 8:30 p.m. Finally, The Hive is hosting an early New Year’s party Friday, Dec. 30 with The RUB. Tickets are $10 in advance or $15 at the door, available starting Friday, Dec. 9. VIP tickets and private booths are also available, starting at $20 per person.

“It’s going to be a ton of fun adding another heartbeat to Sandpoint’s thriving downtown,” Diebel wrote.

For more info, visit beeswaxsystems. com/THEHIVE.

Panida Century Fund advances to goal

By Reader Staff The Panida Century Fund advanced this week in its fundraising effort to replace the theater’s leaking roof. Individuals donated $2,006, which Ting Internet is matching, to yield a total of $4,012 collected for the fund this week.

With the Century Fund drive now past the ¾ mark, a total of $213,443.77 has been raised toward the first-year goal of $273,100.

“Once again, we simply have to say a huge thank-you to our generous donors,” said Panida Board Member and Fundraising Chair Foster Cline. “And it’s a double thank-you to Ting Internet, too — because each donation an individual makes is matched by Ting. That simply means, if you can donate, the match that Ting provides will double your donation. It’s like making two donations in one.”

Ting has pledged to match individual donations of $5,000 and under, up to a total of $200,000 over the five-year campaign, which is broken out in annual phases, to raise a total $1.9 million to address long-deferred 6 /

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maintenance needs leading up to the Panida’s 100th anniversary in November 2027.

“While we are most of the way to our goal now, we still have that last 25% to achieve,” Cline added. “For any who are contemplating a donation — help us get over the goal line.”

To donate, or see detailed plans for the campaign itemizing expenses, visit panida.org.

East, west or beyond, sooner or later events elsewhere may have a local impact.

A recent sampling: Enabled by the Railway Labor Act, Congress recently intervened to deter a strike by railroad unions. Forty percent of U.S. freight is moved by rail, according to The New York Times. Low regard for railroad laborers has been part of the system since its inception, with a goal of rewarding investors with high profits, rather than workers.

Pre-pandemic, close to one-third of the nation’s railroad workforce was laid off, resulting in a larger (and riskier) workload for each employee, but “handsome stock dividends” for investors. Meanwhile, railroad workers who have to travel seek out cheap hotels — one said he bought cheap clothes he could throw away to avoid bringing bedbugs home.

The U.S. has no national standard on paid sick leave, in contrast to most industrialized nations, CNN reported. The stats: 33 million U.S. workers have no paid sick leave, most of them low-wage earners. A separate congressional vote on giving railroad workers seven days of paid sick leave failed in a 52-43 vote in the Senate, with 60 votes needed to pass it.

Six Republicans and all but one Democrat voted “yes” on sick leave. It remains to be seen if the public blames workers for wanting sick leave, or railroad management for refusing to grant it.

A report from the inspector general of the Health and Human Services Department, which examined a week’s worth of Medicare Advantage claims in 2019, found 18% were wrongfully denied, and Advantage plans were systematically overbilling the government.

Heating homes has become more expensive, and families in Germany are turning away from natural gas (much of it supplied by Russia) to a climate-friendly 1970s technology — the heat pump. The New York Times reported that sales of heat pumps in the country have doubled in recent years. In contrast, Finland and Norway already have 10 times the number of heat pumps. So far the biggest problem for Germany is an inability to meet demand for the pumps in a timely way — both from installers and manufacturers.

According to a Rand Corporation report, Americans pay 2.56 times more for prescription drugs compared to consumers in 32 other countries. Elements of

By Lorraine H. Marie Reader Columnist

the Inflation Reduction Act seek to correct that.

Former-President Donald Trump, who recently announced he would run again in 2024, asked on his Truth Social media platform if the 2020 election results should be tossed, since he said they were the result of “massive fraud.” He continued that such “fraud” clears the way for “the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution.”

The Biden White House response: “The Constitution has been a sacrosanct document for over 200 years” and has “guaranteed that freedom and rule of law prevail … It’s the ultimate monument to all who have given their lives to defeat self-serving despots that abused their power and trampled on fundamental rights. Attacking the Constitution and all it stands for is anathema to the soul of our nation … You cannot only love America when you win.”

Others stated that Trump’s call for termination of the Constitution was a bid to establish a dictatorship.

Initially, Republican Party leaders did not comment. But Liz Cheney, disowned by the party for wanting to hold Trump accountable for the Jan. 6 insurrection, commented: “No honest person can now deny that Trump is the enemy of the Constitution.” And Republican Adam Kinzinger stated “not a single conservative can legitimately support him, and not a single supporter can be called a conservative.”

Various media reported that earlier this week, following a six-week trial, the Trump Organization was found guilty of all charges that spanned a 15-year tax fraud scheme. Reports said the scheme was “orchestrated” by top company executives, and included criminal tax fraud, falsifying business records, and failure to report and pay taxes on compensation for top executives.

Blast from the past: In 2004 the 9/11 Commission, inside the Oval Office, asked President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney about the Sept.

11, 2001 attacks. Their responses were recently released when the government declassified a 31-page “memorandum for the record.” One of the CIA briefings Bush failed to take seriously was titled “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.” For more details Google “government declassifies 31-page 9/11 memorandum.”

NEWS

Urban renewal board approves parking lot agreement with City Hall

By Zach Hagadone Reader Staff The Sandpoint Urban Renewal Agency took its first step toward the eventual redevelopment of the downtown Sandpoint parking lot, approving a memorandum of understanding with City Hall at its regular Dec. 6 meeting.

Sandpoint city councilors already approved the MOU at their Nov. 16 meeting, with the document establishing a framework for how the agency and city will collaborate on the project, which envisions a potential mixed-use development with additional parking.

Under the terms of the agreement, a steering committee will be assembled with representation from the agency and city to jointly agree on the terms of a request for proposals. The committee would then review the proposals and offer a recommendation to the agency’s board of commissioners, which would ultimately select the developer.

The chosen developer would then enter into an agreement with SURA, after which the final details of the project would be hammered out, followed by confirmation of the financing and going through the permitting process.

With all that accomplished, the city would convey the property to the agency, which would then almost simultaneously pass it on to the developer to begin construction.

“Certainly there’s a lot of details to be developed,” said Meghan Conrad, of Boise law firm Elam & Burke, which serves as legal counsel to the urban renewal agency board.

However, early indications are that it’s going to be a quick process — 12 months having been set aside to get through the

RFP and selection process.

“Having a 12-month timeframe does require everyone to move expeditiously through the project,” she said, though added that the date could be extended.

“There’s a lot of moving parts with this and there’s definitely more to come in pretty short order,” she added.

An extended morning meeting is scheduled for Thursday, Dec. 8, at which SURA Board Chairman Eric Paull and Commissioner Kendon Perry will represent the agency on the steering committee.

Paull emphasized that the parking lot project is currently at “ground zero,” though it has been in the works — at least conceptually — for a long time.

“We talked about it 10-12 years ago, but we didn’t get very far off the ground with it, but it was in discussion at one time that urban renewal would take the city parking lot, work with a developer and transfer the property, so we’re kind of picking it up — starting over again, if you will,” he said.

Conrad agreed that “we’re at the ground floor,” with much of the details to be determined by the steering committee.

“You really have the opportunity to set the parameters of what the community would like to see developed at that site,” she said, prompting SURA Commissioner Marilyn Sabella to ask: “What about public input on this? Will there be an opportunity for citizens to make their interests known?”

Conrad said she didn’t yet have an answer to that, pending what the consultants on the project may have planned.

“Sometimes these types of projects have a robust public outreach component to them, sometimes they don’t,” she said.

“In terms of moving a project forward, certainly the project has

to comply with all city planning and zoning requirements,” she added, though if the project is already acceptable under the relevant planning documents, “that does somewhat limit the public opportunity.”

One member of the public had their say at the Dec. 6 meeting, testifying that the parking lot redevelopment is “a solution in search of a problem.”

Citing a recent parking study presented by the city of Sandpoint, resident Kyle Schreiber testified, “We already own the parking lot, we don’t need additional parking and there’s no reason that we should lose taxpayer money on this project to provide something that we don’t need.”

What’s more, he doubted the need to increase the amount of commercial property downtown — noting that a number of “blighted properties” already exist around downtown, and adding more square footage to that sector would actually disincentivize redevelopment elsewhere.

“It doesn’t seem fiscally

responsible for a public agency to dispose of a prime piece of real estate and then sell or lease it back from a developer at a premium,” Schreiber added, ultimately asking that the project be tabled “until an actual need exists.”

The city parking lot in downtown Sandpoint, which potentially could be developed into a mixed-used development with additional parking. Photo by Ben Olson.

Members of the SURA board voted unanimously to approve the MOU.

BSS offering Christmas basketball camps

By Reader Staff Basketball School of Sandpoint is offering its first ever Christmas break basketball camps this year, with four days of skill-building slated for Tuesday, Dec. 27 through Friday, Dec. 30.

The camps, which will take place at Kootenai Elementary School, are planned to feature two daily sessions targeted at different age groups. Boys and girls ages 7-10 will take the gym from 8-11 a.m., followed by athletes ages 11-16 during the 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. time slot.

Organizers said that campers will be grouped based on abili-

ty and taught fundamentals like ball-handling, passing, shooting, rebounding and defense. The camps will include creative games, competitions, races and tournaments, all meant to help athletes develop their basketball skills.

Cost to attend the four-day camp is $90 per player. There are discounts for sibling groups. All players will receive a BSS Christmas gift and there will be opportunities to earn championship trophies on the Friday of camp.

BSS emphasizes the importance of fun throughout each camp experience.

Register by Monday, Dec. 12 at basketballschoolofsandpoint.com.

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‘Rest in peace’…

Dear editor, Rest in peace Christine McVie of Fleetwood Mac. “Songbird” may be the best song ever written and Rumours may be the best album ever. Thank You. Sincerely, Bouquets: • Sometimes all it takes to make a bad day go away is a moment of kindness. Last Tuesday, when Zach and I were sitting in our office complaining about everything under the sun (mostly the growing ugliness of our world and our mutual feelings of losing touch with this community), a man named Ray walked in, complimented us on the paper and donated $150. Instantly he brought us out of our shared funk — not just because of the donation, but because it’s infectious when people are kind. We can and should still call people out when they break the rules of our society, but we should always strive to be gentle with ourselves and others.

Barbs: • It was another banner week for the Republican Party. Former-President Donald Trump dined with anti-Semite and human dumpster fire Kanye West, along with white nationalist edgelord Nick Fuentes.

Trump later ranted on his social media platform — two full years after the election, mind you — that the 2020 election results should be thrown out and he declared the winner, along the way calling for the “termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution.” This incredible statement prompted very little pushback from his fervent followers. Following that, only six Republicans voted in favor of granting sick leave for rail workers to avert what would have been a devastating strike, the rest voting against the bill, which passed 221 to 207 (Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin also voted against it). In other news, Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz shared what amounts to revenge porn on Twitter after Elon Musk’s so-called “Twitter Files” release of data from Hunter Biden’s laptop. After months of Republicans hyping this laptop as the biggest scandal since Watergate, it turned out to be a big nothingburger involving some pornographic photos of the president’s son, which the Biden campaign asked Twitter not to release because it would have violated the site’s terms of service (which it does). Sheesh.

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Daniel Strauss Sandpoint

Pine Street Woods is a blessing…

Dear editor, This is a huge shout out to the Kaniksu Land Trust. As my children and I were joyfully sledding down a hill at Pine Street Woods today, I was once again marveling at the immense blessing this space continues to be in our lives and those of our friends. Looking at the peaceful meadow, it was all too easy to picture it as the setting of yet another fancy subdivision, but instead we all get to enjoy it to make snow-filled memories, share thoughtful walks, squeeze in quick sledding trips and soak up the beauty of the land as it changes through the seasons.

Thank you to all who had the vision to create this space, to those who made it happen and to all who continue to support and use this beautiful space. We so, so appreciate it.

Julia Lekander Sandpoint

Some words on student loan forgiveness…

Dear editor, It would be a mistake for the government to forgive student loan debt, just as it would be a mistake to forgive mortgage debt, car loan debt or gambling debt. It undercuts accountability.

Let colleges loan the money to students. If colleges and universities have a vested interest in getting their money back they will want to loan money to students majoring in something that will make them employable when they graduate, not to students pursuing worthless degrees like gender studies that render them unemployable everywhere but McDonald’s or Burger King, or academia, where they will regurgitate the tripe they learned to a new batch of students.

When a third party (the taxpayers) pick up the bill there are no checks and balances — a college can hike tuition year after year while handing out worthless degrees with no consequences to

them.

In other words, let the free market work. If a student knows he/she is on the hook for a loan, they will shop around for a college that will give him/her the best bang for the buck, and the colleges will be motivated to attract students by offering the best education for the least amount of money to those students most likely to pay off a loan.

I am not opposed to higher education; I just want a degree to mean something. At the very least a college graduate should learn the proper use of the words “there,” “their” and “they’re” before receiving a diploma. Is that asking too much?

Dave Mundell Sandpoint

‘Let us remember’…

Dear editor, Wednesday, Dec. 14 will mark the 10-year anniversary of the tragic Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Conn.

Shortly after 9:35 a.m., armed with his mother’s Bushmaster XM15-E2S rifle and 10 magazines with 30 rounds each, the killer shot his way through a glass panel next to the locked front entrance doors of the school and killed 26 people.

Twenty innocent children between 6 and 7 years old were brutally murdered in their classrooms and hallways. The other six victims were dedicated teachers and adult staff members. Regardless of your position on gun control, I think everyone can agree this was a heartbreaking event.

As our communities continue to witness mass shootings in shopping centers, churches, concerts, dance clubs and, yes, still in schools, I thought we should all remember Sandy Hook Elementary School on Dec. 14 and those precious firstgrade children and their educators who lost their lives.

We should also ask ourselves, 10 years later, is our nation a safer, better place?

Sincerely, Kelly Miller Sandpoint

Camp Bay proposal is not in the ‘best interests of county residents’…

Dear editor, The best interests of residents vs. the wishes of an out-of-state developer regarding our public access to Camp Bay’s shoreline is again on the commissioners’ agenda.

Bonner County tax dollars built Camp Bay Road to the shoreline and has maintained it for years to provide residents direct access to the lake. As it is, there are a limited number of public spots where a kayak or canoe can be easily launched for an enjoyable day of paddling.

The developer’s proposal to make 2,550 feet into his private road is purely self-serving for his gated-community dream. His newest proposal to establish a parking area with a foot path for the public’s use is not a good plan. Anyone wanting to launch their boat into the bay (other than those buying into this gated community), would need to portage their boat and carry gear to a location on the southern shoreline. This task, up and down the hill, making several laps, would be over a mile of hauling.

From what I saw in September when I kayaked there with girlfriends, the southern shoreline is steeper and has a culvert creating a marshy area. Anything different than our established, clean, centeredin-the-bay, 50-foot shoreline would make launching a boat a lot harder.

Nothing about this proposal is in the “best interests of Bonner County residents.” If you agree, email your thoughts to the commissioners

by Tuesday, Dec. 13 at planning@ bonnercountyid.gov. We also need residents to show up on Monday, Dec. 19 for a 9 a.m. hearing in the county administration building on Highway 2 and Division Avenue.

If we can keep Camp Bay Road open to the public, as it’s been since 1908, then all of us will continue to enjoy this “million-dollar view” on our beautiful Lake Pend Oreille.

Rebecca Holland Sandpoint

‘It’s time for majority rule’…

Dear editor, The smoke and dust has settled.

The audits are concluded and totals certified. Now let’s talk about the takeaways from this midterm election. First, let me say that I’m delighted to see that we had over 65% of registered voters show up for Nov. 8, 2022. We had a very good turnout of younger voters. If that isn’t a positive I don’t know what is.

My congratulations to the many people (phone bankers, letter writers, sign placers, door knockers, event organizers, et al.) who worked their tails off on Steve Johnson’s write-in campaign for state senator.

He may have lost but it definitely wasn’t due to a lack of effort on their part. They showed the people of Idaho that good things are possible if we all work together.

It should be noted that Steve lost by the fewest number of votes of any other contested race and that his opponent won by a narrower margin than any other contested election. I see this as a very good sign.

Keep your notes on what worked, what didn’t and get ready for 2024 because, with rational candidates, Idahoans can defeat the radical extremists.

Idaho, it’s time for majority rule.

Gil Beyer Sandpoint

‘What is wrong with Mayberry?’…

Dear editor, A few weeks ago while I was at my coffee group, we (I) had an interaction with a couple of men at the table adjacent to our group of eight or nine. One of the two people at our neighboring table, a well known anti-government elected official, was sitting with his pistol prominently displayed. I (we) asked why he felt it was necessary to be armed (in a bank of all places).

His partner countered with, “Hey, this is not Mayberry anymore.”

I replied, “It was until people like you moved here.”

To which he replied that he was raised here, as he was going out the door.

Had I had the chance, I would have asked him, “What is wrong with Mayberry?”

I was born in Moscow, Idaho, 77 years ago and have lived in Sandpoint for over 20 years. I never thought of Sandpoint as Mayberry but, in retrospect, I think Mayberry was an apt description — at least until the past few years. As for the man at our neighboring table seeming happy that Sandpoint is not Mayberry anymore. My question is: What is wrong with Mayberry?

Marty Stitsel Sandpoint

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Write a letter to the editor.

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PERSPECTIVES

Emily Articulated

A column by and about Millennials

Notes from home

By Emily Erickson Reader Columnist

In the warm haziness of childhood memory, I remember my dad teaching me how to take down a wall. I gripped the hammer — not a toy hammer — its weight matching the heaviness I felt for being tasked to hit something so permanent.

He mimed swinging at the drywall, using his construction-thickened hand to point at the spot where I was to make impact.

As tears welled in my eyes beneath huge, plastic goggles, and as my insides squirmed with what felt more like dread than anticipation, I braced myself and swung.

I have always attached emotional significance to physical places, unable to easily distinguish a space as separate from the memories made within it. So maybe it was grief for something I had understood as permanent, or some previously ascribed significance to that patch of wall and the room it was a part of, but something beyond my then emotional comprehension caused my tears to spill over when peering at the dent my hammer left, and the spidery network of cracks that sprung from it.

Perhaps knowingly, my dad explained, “We have to take this down to make room for something else.”

Now, more than 20 years later, I’m standing in the “something else.” A large bay window looks out onto an empty lawn and a sleepy street. There used

Emily Erickson. to be a maple tree in the center of that lawn, with branches that bobbed under the slinky hops of my old white cat.

Oak floors span the length of the room, showing their years with every scratch from moved furniture and scuff from shuffled sneakers and skidding dog paws. A wood stove is pressed against the back wall, its layers of dust and ash co-mingling from years of use followed by un-use. And in the center is a mattress, on top of a box spring, on top of the floor, that never used to be there.

My dad lay upon it, his emaciated shoulders rising and falling in time with his sleepy breath. As in the room around him — the room he built from the scattered debris of an old, taken-down wall that is now a makeshift bedroom — lines of hard, solitary living and illness are etched into him, too.

We had spent the morning getting breakfast

at the local diner — which, despite the hands of its ownership continually changing, hasn’t changed at all — at a table next to groups of people I know, but haven’t known for years. In small towns like this one, the one in which I grew up, everything always changes while remaining exactly the same.

I ate jam-covered toast while he picked at his eggs, and I talked to my dad — who listened with clarity for the first time in such a long time — about the life I live 1,500 miles away. I felt sadness in my wondering of how many

more breakfasts we’ll share, and gratitude for the quality of those moments spent finding the bottom of bottomless cups of coffee (like being aware of a future nostalgia).

Now standing here, watching him rest away the toll of our outing, I feel the confusing mix of life being long and time being short and the fact that certain places somehow allow us to experience both at once.

I’m reminded of my childhood self, holding a hammer, gazing at a wall I thought was forever, and with too many commingling emotions to parse.

Being home will likely always be complicated for me, and more so as time continues to wear and pass. But I’ll also always cherish the memories contained within these walls, and all that can be felt when making a dent with my dad.

Retroactive

By BO

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Mad about Science:

Brought to you by:

smells, sugars and you

By Brenden Bobby Reader Columnist What do hydrocortisone steroids, dryer sheets and Febreze all have in common?

Corn cobs.

I’m sure you’ve wondered how aerosol air fresheners work. They’re advertised as trapping and eliminating odors, but how do they do it?

As we know from the law of the conservation of mass, matter cannot be created or destroyed, but it can change shape. Your air fresheners aren’t really destroying the molecules responsible for your smelly trash bin, but they are altering and covering them up.

First, let’s understand how smell works. Most everything has some kind of smell, and that comes from microscopic particles on the surface of the object breaking off and floating through the air, then being sucked into our noses. Smells often originate from bacteria or mold — this is why a plastic cup that’s been left out for a couple of days may smell musty.

Residual bacterial colonies and mold propagate on the surface while bits fly off when subjected to changes in air pressure, like your sniffer coming close and drawing in air.

Other organic materials produce gasses that make funny smells, like hydrogen sulfide, which smells like rotten eggs and is one of the primary reasons your farts stink.

We have specialized cells way up high in our noses called olfactory neurons, which are connected directly to our brains.

Each of these has a smell recep10 /

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tor, which samples particles that get sucked into our noses and then sends that information to the olfactory bulb in our brain, which processes that information into something we can understand: a smell.

Our ability to smell is an important sense that helps us understand the world around us without using up too much processing power. It helps us taste and enjoy our food and avoid dangerous places that might contain poison or disease.

Obviously, we prefer nice fragrances over stinky smells, but what tells us if a particular odor is good or bad?

There’s a lot of debate around this, and I can’t answer it with crystal clarity. It’s likely that we have some genetic memory carried over hundreds of millions of years of evolution that helps us discern good smells from bad ones. We’ve also learned to enjoy certain smells over others, with some perhaps even programmed into our DNA. Most things that cause disease, like unsanitary areas with a lot of bacteria, produce smells that signal to our brains that we can get an infection or die from exposure to them — likely one of the major reasons we don’t like the smell of feces or its aerosol sibling, the fart.

That makes sense, but why is it that we love the smell of flowers?

I can’t tell you with absolute certainty, but it’s likely that many current cultivars have been adapted by humans to smell good for our benefit. The flowers that smell the best have the greatest chance of propagating new generations, so the plants are trained to evolve to suit us.

Isn’t that weird to think about?

As far as we know, these flowery fragrances have been used to mask bad smells for as long as civilization has existed. These smells don’t eliminate the bad ones, but if people blanketed the stink with enough perfume, our olfactory neurons would only be able to pick out the prevalent aromas — most of the time.

That changed with the development of human-made aerosolized air fresheners like Febreze. The primary ingredient in these air fresheners is cyclodextrin, a complex sugar harvested from corn cobs.

Cyclodextrin has some really interesting properties: it’s a starch that effectively binds to scent-producing molecules; it has a hydrophobic interior, meaning it avoids or repels water; and a hydrophilic exterior, which means it is attracted to and dissolves in water.

When placed into a pressurized can with an abundance of perfume, it can be sprayed into the air to bond with stinky molecules and ignore the perfume. The cyclodextrin doesn’t destroy the stink, but it bonds with and weighs it down, so only the perfume can reach your olfactory neurons.

This sounds great in practice, but cyclodextrin is not a permanent solution to a problem. Heat causes the sugar molecules to break down and can release bad smells back into the air. This is actually the premise behind your dryer sheets. Dryer sheets are manufactured with cyclodextrin to trap good smells within the sheet. As the sheet is exposed to heat from your dryer, the cyclodextrin breaks

down and allows fragrant molecules to escape and blanket your clothes in a pleasant smell. This also means that your 20-yearold couch, which you’ve never cleaned, is one prolonged sunbeam away from stinking up your apartment.

Cyclodextrin is also used in some medications, including hydrocortisone steroids. The interesting nature of having a hydrophobic interior and a

hydrophilic exterior means that it can release the steroids in a controlled or prolonged manner under very specific circumstances. This can prolong the use of medication and ensure less of it is just neutralized and discarded by your body and also make controlled doses last for a longer period of time.

And to think, all of that from a lousy corn cob.

Stay curious, 7B.

Random Corner tag? ( # )

sh Don’t know much about the ha • Before Twitter, the hashtag was referred to as the “pound” sign. The Latin term for “pound” is libra and “pound by weight” is libra pondo, which in the 14th century became abbreviated to “lb.” (To this day, the British pound symbol, £, remains an archaic upstyled “L” for libra pondo, literally meaning a pound of sterling silver.) In the late 1800s, the Blickensderfer Model 5 typewriter explained in its manual that the # symbol could be used for pound weight, as there was no “lb” button. The manual claimed that typing # in front of a word made it a number, while placing it after a word referred to a pound weight.

• The hashtag wasn’t used in its contemporary online context until Aug. 23, 2007, when Chris Messina suggested employing the symbol as a way to keep track of conversations on Twitter. Messina approached Twitter with the concept, but the company never took action, so he began using it anyway, hoping to start a trend. Twitter users eventually caught on, and now the hashtag is a ubiquitous presence in

We can help!

the online world. Messina’s first-ever hashtag was #barcamp.

• The hashtag wasn’t added to the Oxford English Dictionary until June 2014. The OED defines it as, “A word or phrase with the symbol ‘#’ in front of it, used on social media websites and apps so that you can search for all messages with the same subject.”

• The first truly viral hashtag phenomenon was #thedress, which took the internet by storm in 2015.

Caitlin McNeill posted a photo of her dress on Tumblr and asked if the dress was blue-and-black or white-and-gold following a dispute at her friend’s wedding. The post was everywhere, getting about 14,000 views per second at one point. The discussion continued on Twitter, where people started using hashtags alongside the image.

They either wrote #blueandblack or #whiteandgold to say how they saw #thedress. (For the record: #thedress was actually #blueandblack.)

• The most used hashtag of 2021 was #love.

PERSPECTIVES

‘You get the kind of mobility you invest in’

Sandpoint must get more creative with traffic, parking plans

By Molly O’Reilly Reader Contributor The Idaho Transportation Department must be delighted that they finally have a Sandpoint administration, appointed and elected, willing to sacrifice community and residents for high-speed through traffic. Few communities have had the knowledge and determination to keep from becoming a throughway in the face of “traffic projections.” Sandpoint used to be one of those and we have a lovely town today as a result.

Look at Coeur d’Alene to see what happens when you go the other way; highways that divide and conquer.

We too have north/south and east/ west highways inside our borders and thus a potentially similar highspeed, multi-lane future.

Since the 1950s, it was assumed in the U.S. that we could outbuild congestion and everyone could drive wherever they wanted to go. We’ve sacrificed streets and neighborhoods to that goal, fouled our air and endangered those walking, cycling and riding motorcycles. From a few blocks away, people can’t safely walk to restaurants, drug stores or other shopping and services. Driving

is the only way to get there, and that means more lanes and more parking.

And asphalt — asphalt that doesn’t pay property taxes. Asphalt that weakens the fabric of a small city.

Recent expert thinking at the national level, based on research, is encouraging states and cities to think in less auto-centric ways. Unfortunately, that thinking is scarce in Idaho. When Sandpoint refused the Idaho Transportation Department’s demand for “the curve,” now “the couplet,” we got the Fifth Avenue compromise between Boyer Avenue and Cedar Street. Our city leaders were appalled at the speed and danger on five-lane Fifth Avenue and refused to add significant capacity.

We are told that changes to Highway 2 in the Spokane area will increase our through traffic. They don’t tell you that it’s only true if capacity is there for that traffic, so vehicle GPS’s say it’s the fastest way to get to destinations. If traffic is significantly slowed in Sandpoint and other Highway 2 towns, it will go elsewhere or move slowly enough to look for future alternatives.

So let’s talk about traffic projections. They are generally higher than the actual traffic and are most accurate for higher volume roads,

though still generally low. Those are the roads that have choked out other ways of getting around and forced everyone into their cars.

How E Bikes will affect future traffic is still unknown. They are cheaper to use than cars, easy in our flat town and are selling briskly.

Will we build a highway couplet that turns out to be overbuilt? Today, at most hours of the day, most of the year, our five-lane Fifth Avenue is overbuilt and it has been this wide for at least 15 years.

Research shows that adding capacity induces more traffic and thus results in congestion with more lanes.

Coeur d’Alene is an excellent example of this. Research also shows that reducing capacity causes some traffic to vanish from that area. (I’m not citing research sources because they are at your fingertips with Google.

When I say “research,” I know you can verify my statements.)

Research shows that you get the kind of mobility you invest in. Cities that invest in transit, walking and cycling have much higher proportions of trips taken those ways. Not everyone can travel those ways, but not everyone has to for the system to work smoothly.

In the past few years, traffic

deaths of those walking have skyrocketed in the U.S. and continued falling in Europe. Huh? We’ve built wide, fast roads for “safety” and with traffic reduced due to COVID, the remaining drivers speeded up.

Research shows that speed kills in the traffic world. European cities have invested in transit, walking and cycling with narrow roads that slow motorists even when not congested.

Fatalities there have fallen.

Without “the couplet,” downtown will not need additional parking. I’m not a parking expert, but investment in a structure would seem to require paying for parking in it, if only to keep the lights on and trash swept. Unless on-street parking was also charged for, few would choose to pay if they had any hope of free parking. Thus, it’s likely all parking downtown would cost money. That wasn’t popular before. Are we ready for it now? Especially when “the couplet,” which will reduce parking, will serve outsiders much more than in-town residents?

Despite the City Council vote [News, “A talk in the park(ing lot): City of Sandpoint moving toward big changes to downtown parking infrastructure,” Nov. 22, 2022], we could step back and examine alter-

natives before taking real action.

When Sandpoint debated “the curve,” they consulted Gary Toth, engineer and planner now with Alta Planning. He used to work for the New Jersey Department of Transportation. Another resource is Chuck Marohn, of Strong Towns.

One of their campaigns is to end highway expansion: “We seek to curtail the primary mechanism of local wealth destruction and municipal insolvency: the continued expansion of America’s highways and related auto-based transportation systems.”

The scope of change resulting from “the couplet” and expansive, expensive, paid parking downtown merits spending the time and resources it takes to understand the outcomes and carefully explore alternatives. As Albert Einstein is reputed to have said, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.”

Molly O’Reilly is a member of the Project 7B Steering Committee, board member of the Idaho Walk Bike Alliance, past board member of America Walks and a former member of the city of Sandpoint Pedestrian and Bicycle Advisory Committee.

Foundation seeks to revitalize the Rex Theater in Priest River

By Reader Staff It has been almost 100 years — exactly — since the Rex Theater opened its doors in 1923 in the historic Beardmore Block of Priest River. In its day, the space played host to the films of pioneering female director Nell Shipman (who premiered her film Grubstake there prior to its national release), and continued on to serve as the home of numerous performances and films through the 1950s.

Though by then renamed the Roxy, the theater went dark and remained so for decades, but a local effort has been underway since 2019 to revive it, with the mission of “bring[ing] additional art, culture and commerce” to the region, according to members of the Rex Theater Foundation.

As the Rex Theater approaches its centenary, the nine-member

non-profit foundation is underscoring that goal of restoring, preserving and operating the once-and-future performing arts institution for future generations.

Present efforts include continuing the organization’s development, stabilizing the building, planning for future programming and renovation, grant research, fundraising, website redesign and establishing working committees.

Over the past several years, the board and consultants have developed preliminary design studies and architectural drawings for the theater renovation. Board President Chad Summers and his crew also recently completed the cleanup of debris from the old theater while saving historical artifacts.

The plan is for a 250-occupant theater with a stage, flexible seating and balcony designed to accommodate a variety of events. The theater will include enhanced acoustics

and state-of-the-art audio-visual and recording equipment. The theater will be available as a community-based resource for use by schools, community organizations, businesses and individuals — and will complement the existing Priest River Event Center.

“Smaller than the event center and focused on live performance, the Rex will be a showcase for local, regional and occasionally national performance acts, and will host a wide variety of live events,” organizers stated, though “successful fundraising efforts are required for this project to succeed.”

As for the timeline, the foundation envisions a four-year plan to raise funds through a combination of grants and corporate and individual donations to fund the rehabilitation and develop operations for the theater.

Foundation board members

include Summers as president, Vice President John Naccarato, Secretary/Treasurer Katlyn Ward and six community members.

Additional board members and volunteers are welcomed.

“Revitalizing the theater has been a longtime goal of many community members and the time

The current state of the Rex Theater, as seen from the stage. Courtesy photo. is right to make this happen,” the board stated.

For more information, visit rextheater.org and beardmoreblock.com/the-building.html.

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PERSPECTIVES

How we can honor Human Rights Day all year

By Brenda Hammond Reader Staff

This year, Human Rights Day will mark the 75th anniversary of the day the United Nations adopted, Saturday, Dec. 20, 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

After WWII, when the atrocities committed by Nazi Germany became fully apparent, it was the consensus within the world community that a universal declaration that specified the rights of all people was needed to prevent the kinds of actions that prompted that war from ever happening again.

Former-First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt was chair of the committee that drafted this document, which defines the inalienable rights of every human being around the world — regardless of race, color, religion, gender, national origin, social or any other status.

The UDHR establishes a common standard to which each nation can aspire.

However, even in countries taking the lead in human rights, there is much to be done.

In our country, hate crimes continued to rise in the first half of 2022, after double-digit increases over the past two years, according to the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism. The Southern Poverty

Law Center reported 733 hate groups and 438 anti-government groups in 2021.

More and more hate incidents are being prompted by a many-sided anti-democratic political movement that rejects equality and pluralism, and presents a vision that is exclusionary and where people of color, women, LGBTQ individuals, religious minorities, immigrants and non-Christians are marginalized. The kind of hate that led to the conditions prior to WWII is increasing all over the United States.

For this reason President Joe Biden, in September 2022, hosted the United We Stand Summit. It presented a shared vision for a more united America, demonstrating that the majority of Americans agree that there is no place for hate-fueled violence in our country. It called upon Americans to renew civic bonds and heal divides in our communities. Federal agencies were called upon to strengthen their support and resources to local schools, law enforcement and community institutions to prevent and respond to hate-fueled violence, to identify solutions and support local initiatives to foster unity and heal divides.

In Idaho, the U.S. attorney’s office launched a “United Against Hate,” initiative

on Nov. 17 in North Idaho, and will hold other conferences throughout the state.

Members of the regional human rights task forces from the northern counties were invited. Six members from the Bonner County Human Rights Task Force attended.

The difference between hate incidents and hate crimes was clarified. Hate itself is not a crime. Only when it is a criminal offense — motivated by someone’s bias against a person based on race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity or gender identity — does it become a hate crime. True threats are not covered by the First Amendment and are defined by a serious communication of an intent to commit an unlawful act of violence against a particular individual or group that belongs to a protected class.

Hate incidents can include harassment, intimidation, name-calling, and general or implied threats that may not rise to the level of an actual crime. It was stressed by representatives from the Department of Justice that both hate crimes and incidents should be reported to law enforcement as well as to the local FBI office and to local human rights task forces.

Law enforcement will determine if a

crime has been committed and follow up accordingly. However, the FBI and the community task force will be aware that actions motivated by hate are taking place and will keep a record. The information they have will be valuable to both prevent and prosecute a crime if one exists in the future.

In honor of Human Rights Day, and the work that has been done in the past to uphold the basic rights of all people, we can pledge to support our neighbors — to reach out to anyone in need — and to report actions that are motivated by hate, whether or not they rise to the level of a hate crime.

In this way we can participate in taking a stand against hate. Information about reporting will be available on the BCHRTF website (bchrtf.org), and members of the task force will be available to provide support, information and resources to anyone who is aware of, or a victim of, any actions motivated by hate.

May our community be known as one that fosters unity, heals divides, and is motivated by kindness and love instead of hate.

Brenda Hammond is president of the Bonner County Human Rights Task Force.

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FEATURE

Carousel of Smiles restoration passes halfway point New renderings released of potential new home on Sand Creek

By Ben Olson Reader Staff If the renovation of the historic Carousel of Smiles was a horse race, it would be rounding the bend and heading for the home stretch.

Restoration of the classic 1920 Allan Herschell carousel began in 2018, two years after owners Clay and Reno Hutchison announced the project to the Sandpoint community. Since then, the ongoing work has received generous support and widespread interest. Hundreds of residents turned out when the horses and machinery were first unpacked from the trailers that housed them for more than 64 years, and later when the Hutchisons and volunteers reassembled the then-unrestored carousel at the Bonner County Fairgrounds.

Meanwhile, an army of volunteers under the direction of the Hutchisons have poured their hearts into this effort.

“There have been so many volunteers who have helped with this project,” Clay told the Reader. “We’ve had probably 100 total volunteers, 50 who have been reasonably active this whole time. This restoration is only made possible by the generosity of our volunteers.”

Reno estimated that more than 10,000 volunteer hours have already gone into the renovation effort, which has passed the halfway point.

Volunteers tackled the project one horse at a time. Of the 36 horses, 18 have been brought back fully (maybe more so) to their former glory. Restoration has begun for another eight horses, leaving another 10 that have yet to be started. There are also two chariots waiting to be completed.

The process is slow and methodical, with attention to detail and gentle handling paramount, given the carousel’s vintage.

Progress has also been made on the 14 medallion shields, each of which contains an original head cast out of metal.

“What’s really cool is that we were able to contact the great-grandson of the man who carved the cast heads,” Clay said. “If everything goes really well, the carousel will be done by the end of 2024.”

One of the most exciting aspects of the project is the unveiling of a facility to house the carousel, which will double as a “cultural house” inspired by similar architecture in small towns across Scandinavian countries.

Think of them as cultural centers combining art, recreation and public gathering spots for the public to use all year long.

The Hutchisons tapped local architect Tim Boden to design the building to house the finished carousel, with a tentative plan 14 /

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to place it along Sand Creek at the old Lakeside Inn location west of the tracks by Sandpoint City Beach.

“When Clay came to us and said he wanted to have us do the carousel and arts center, we were thrilled,” Boden told the Reader.

When he first began work on the project, Boden said he kayaked to the possible future site and took extensive photos and notes on how the building could best fit there. Known for his work on important projects such as the Amtrak station renovation, the Skyhouse at Schweitzer and the Belwood’s historic renovation, Boden began to see the building grow from the empty space.

“The form of the building was dictated partially on the shape of the carousel,” Boden said. “The carousel is a historic piece of architecture … and I wanted to form some kind of tent-like feeling to the building.”

“Tim is an incredible local talent,” Reno said. “He’s lived in Sandpoint for a long time and he’s vested in this community.

Who better to design a building for a community than him?”

Instead of just a place to contain the carousel, Boden and the Hutchisons collaborated on ideas to turn the future building into an arts and community center that can provide residents and tourists alike somewhere to gather regardless of the season.

“The space will be way bigger than just a carousel,” Reno said. “It’s going to be a community space, where children’s birthday parties can happen, weddings, corporate events. I see this building as a community center that will bring year round activity not only to the carousel, but art exhibits, reading rooms, learning centers. We’re even hoping to have an artist in residence and

maybe even a sculpture park outside.”

Also included in the building are plans for a second floor with a balcony, 2,000 feet of art gallery space and a specially designed roof featuring solar panels that could potentially be tapped to power the carousel itself.

Reno lamented the fact that there is often a lack of places where people without means can go to spend time with family — especially in the winter.

“It takes a lot of money to go skiing, so if you have a building like this in your community to spend an afternoon and it doesn’t really cost anything, that’s something that’s priceless,” she said.

With their sights first set on placing the carousel at the City Beach, the Hutchisons adjusted the potential location to the parking lot along Sand Creek and Bridge Street, and have delayed launching a capital fundraising campaign to cover the costs of the building until the carousel’s new home

Header images: The first 18 restored horses for the Carousel of Smiles. Images courtesy Reno and Clay Hutchison. Top: A rendering of the potential new Carousel of Smiles building sitting on the shores of the Sand Creek west of the train tracks. Above: A view of the building design from above, showing a series of solar panels above the room housing the carousel. Top and above images courtesy Tim Boden Architecture. has been made official.

Sandpoint City Administrator Jennifer Stapleton told the Reader that due to a variety of competing uses already at City Beach, as well as taking public comment into account, it was determined the Sand Creek parking lot was a preferred location for the carousel. Because that property was acquired by the Idaho Transportation Department for the Sand Creek Byway project, Stapleton said City Hall was still doing its “due diligence for the siting and a potential ground lease” for the carousel.

“A survey of the site is almost complete,”

< see CAROUSEL, Page 15 >

< see CAROUSEL, con’t from Page 14 > Stapleton wrote to the Reader. “The city funded the survey and engaged the survey firm to speed up the process. Once the survey is complete, ITD will prepare the appropriate documents to transfer the property. Until this is complete, the city cannot enter into a ground lease with the carousel or move forward with any of the projects anticipated in the adopted concept plan or as may be updated through the downtown waterfront design competition. Ultimately, we expect the land transfer [to] occur next spring.”

The design competition, introduced by the city in September, aims to take a “more holistic approach that provides for broader community participation” in the style of private development, ensuring designs “uniquely fit the goals, history and character of Sandpoint,” according to Stapleton.

Stapleton said the city expects that the Sand Creek site will remain the preferred site.

“The design teams will not be tasked with designing the carousel building per se, but they will consider the site location and scale of the building related to other publicly owned elements at that site,” she added.

Currently the downtown waterfront concept has included a non-motorized boat launch at that site, as well as a connecting boardwalk from Sand Creek to City Beach that extends under the railway and byway.

Stapleton said that while the land transfer process with ITD was moving slowly, she’s hopeful the transfer and design competition processes will wrap up by next summer.

“We look forward to continuing to work with Clay and Reno, the carousel board of directors, and the many artisans and community volunteers who have continued to move this project forward,” Stapleton said.

The Hutchisons presented a project update including building designs to the Sandpoint City Council on Dec. 7.

While the Hutchisons are excited about the potential of locating the finished project on Sand Creek, Clay pointed out that, “The carousel itself doesn’t care where it lives, it just wants a place and the community will take care of it.”

Boden agreed.

“This project has just taken the community by storm,” he said. “Clay and Reno are infectious with the way they present this project. … They are the driving factor behind it and they’ve really kept the momentum going.”

With several hurdles still yet to come, Clay and Reno remain optimistic that the carousel will find its forever home in Sandpoint soon.

“The community loves this carousel,” said Clay. “The carousel is going to love them back.”

‘Be bold’

POAC to host Old Power House reception showcasing the work of local painter and art teacher Dan Carpenter

By Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey Reader Staff

Dan Carpenter isn’t one to take himself too seriously. The lifetime artist, known for his works in the wildlife and Western art genres, is quick with a joke and matter-offact in his artistic conversation. He draws inspiration from the natural world around him, and in his creative process — not to mention, his life — the emphasis is on fun.

It’s easy to see why the Pend Oreille Arts Council’s Artist of the Year is revered as someone worth knowing as often as his artwork is noted as worth seeing in person.

Locals will get a chance to do both when POAC hosts a reception Friday, Dec. 9 from 5-7 p.m. featuring a new exhibit of Carpenter’s paintings at the Old Power House (120 E. Lake St. in Sandpoint). The event promises wine, up-close art viewing and, without a doubt, a couple of Carpenter’s signature jokes.

As for the works on display at this particular exhibit, Carpenter told the Reader: “It’s a pretty diverse bunch of paintings.” There will be some of his better-known wildlife works in the collection, as well as some cowboy-themed art and landscapes, which afford the artist more creative flexibility.

“My wildlife generally has to be more accurate, more detailed, because everyone has seen wildlife and they know how many eyes an eagle has, so I can’t fudge on that,” he said. “But with landscapes, sometimes I’ll work from photographs, but a lot of times I’ll just make up a landscape.”

That drive to be a little more abstract in his work has grown in recent years, Carpenter said. A new habit is to take the colors already on his pallette, add them haphazardly to a canvas, then sprinkle the surface with sea salt. Once it dries, Carpenter considers

his next steps.

“I stare at the colors and see what happens,” he said. “I might turn it into a landscape or wildlife or both.

“I get more bold as I get older,” he added.

His decades as an artist have given Carpenter the confidence not only to try new things, but also to let go and start over.

“Years and years ago, if I did a painting and it didn’t sell, I wouldn’t get rid of it because I already had so much time in it,” he said. “Now, I like to paint over a canvas.

It doesn’t bother me. It’s just something else I’ve learned.”

To abandon fear of imperfection is a lesson Carpenter strives to teach his painting students at POAC’s Joyce Dillon Studio, where he teaches three days a month.

“Rainbow Brigade” by Dan Carpenter.

“The main thing I try to teach is, ‘Don’t be afraid to start over, or to be bold,’” he said. “A lot of people — and me, too — get caught up in the details when a big brush will work better, and it’s more fun.”

Learn more about the event by finding POAC Sandpoint on Facebook. Also view Carpenter’s artwork in person at the Sandpoint Elks Club Lodge (30196 Highway 200 in Ponderay) and ArtWorks Gallery (214 N. First Ave. in downtown Sandpoint). Learn more about the artist at dancarpenterart. com, and learn more about POAC art classes at artinsandpoint.org/jds-studio.

For those interested in catching up on the project, visit thecarouselofsmiles.org online or check out the restoration efforts in person at their physical location on the corner of Fifth Avenue and Cedar Street in the Misty Mountain Furniture building.

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FEATURE

The spirit of song

Pend Oreille Chorale lifts its voices for the community

By Cate Huisman Reader Contributor It is a warm, bright September evening, the kind that gives no hint of the cold and dark that will inevitably come. Sweaterless, I toss my music folder and pencils — I can’t sing without a pencil — into my bike basket and pedal off to an autumn ritual: the first practice of the Pend Oreille Chorale as it prepares for its Christmas performances.

Rehearsal begins with reunion. I greet my fellow tenors, the altos who sing the notes I once could, the sopranos whose ranges I haven’t had since grade school. I hear about Gloria’s new grandchild, and Jodie’s new job at the hotel and ask Ed if he’s in shape for the ski season. I’m pleased to see that Jim is back; as one of a few who have been in the group since it first performed 30 years ago, he helps maintain its institutional memory and culture.

None of us would be here were it not for the devotion of Mark and Caren Reiner.

They are, as one chorister has said, “unimaginably caring mentors.”

When they arrived in Sandpoint in 1992, they noticed that the community lacked a chorale and orchestra, and saw they might be able to do something about these omissions.

It would be their contribution to the health and well being of their new community.

The Pend Oreille Chorale sings only classical music and, within that genre, only music the Reiners call “spiritually uplifting.” This is usually liturgical music. We never sing show tunes or jazz or pop or rock pieces. We present at least one and usually two concerts annually, something no other Sandpoint group in modern memory has been able to do, in large part because of the Reiners’ inspiration.

Theirs is no small undertaking. In addition to the choral practices each week, there are orchestra practices, as well as practices for soloists. Mark and Caren provide sheet music for all the musicians, perhaps 40 copies for chorale members and another 30 copies for orchestra members.

Often it is copied sheet-by-sheet from their own collection — legally, because they use only sheet music in the public domain. They arrange for the use of a hall for rehearsal and for places to perform, usually in Sandpoint churches. The Reiners are adamant that all performances must be free to the public. It’s their contribution.

On this first evening of practice, we search out our sheet music from among the piles the Reiners have provided, and start off by sight-singing through each piece. For a few, this is a straightforward process, but for many, like me, it is not. I keep my pencil 16 /

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ready behind my ear, and on this first night, I draw it out often to write “find this note” in the margins of my music. Occasionally I’m so lost that I circle an entire passage and draw a “!” next to it. Caren has told us it helps to lift our eyebrows to keep our tones from going flat, so I draw little eyes with uplifted lashes where I am told this is liable to happen.

In addition to getting the musical notes right, I have to learn to sing the words right.

Words sung in English need to change slightly from how they are spoken, especially those with a hard “American r.” So on this first night I start to cross out every “lord” and “ever” (of which there are many) and replace them with phonetic reminders: “lawd” and “evah.” Still, I struggle most to sing the notes correctly; I won’t get these other details right until the snow flies, if then. ***

By October, summer’s end is hard to deny. Dry leaves crunch under my bike tires in the street, and the air smells of wood smoke. I’ll need lights for the ride home — such a bother, always misdirecting themselves, hard to get on and off, burning through batteries.

But when I get to rehearsal, I’m delighted to find that Alan has made and brought a set of his vital CDs. Alan, a retired physician who sings bass, uses a synthesizer he calls “The Mighty Kurzweil” to create recordings for each voice.

Starting with a performance in the public domain of the piece we are to perform (sung by a professional outfit, in which every singer gets everything right), he plays the notes for each voice — soprano, alto, tenor, bass — on the synthesizer, and records them on top of the pros’ performance. Then he makes copies of the appropriate CD for each member of the choir, so we can hear the notes we are supposed to sing, as well as see them on the printed sheet music.

Alan labels each CD helpfully. This year we are singing “Handel’s Messiah,” and my CD label reads, “Tenors! Here is slower and less threatening version of ‘The Messiah’ by

G. F. Handel with every note of your part emphasized!”

This is important, because some choir members cannot read music at all. Choral prospects are told that reading music is not required, and there are no auditions for the choir. Usually just a small number of singers have no such recourse to the printed page. But many of the rest of us find the recordings really helpful.

Tonight we are struggling through “For Unto Us a Child is Born,” a challenging section of “The Messiah.” It takes a particular toll on us tenors, who often must sing notes in the middle of chords that aren’t as easily identifiable as the root notes the basses get to sing at the bottom, or the melody that sopranos warble at the top. Mark has us sing our part alone, with Caren playing just our part on the piano.

After a couple of tries, we get it right.

We singers exchange relieved glances now that we have a better sense of what we are supposed to be singing. But when we are joined by the rest of the voices, our notes become elusive again. I come in on time but on the wrong note, and I’m scrambling as we finish the phrase and move on to the next section, having not yet perfected the last.

There is barely time to scratch several circles and exclamation points, and two or three entries of “Find this note!” before we move on to the next section, “Glory to God.” ***

By November in North Idaho, darkness is already deep at rehearsal time. With few streetlights and fading bike lights, I count on literally blind faith to get me there. I arrive late, and find myself marooned at the end of a row of tenors, next to a soprano.

This is risky for me, because as a singer I am easily corrupted. Although I do my best to sing the notes I am supposed to, I have a tendency to align my voice with whatever nearby notes sound nice. Usually, I try to seat myself in the midst of the tenors, where I will be surrounded by supportive voices, and led in the proper direction instead of down the primrose path. I feel a little nervous in this position, and I’m acutely aware

The Pend Oreille Chorale before a holiday performance. Courtesy photo. that the season is progressing and my time to master the correct notes is dwindling.

Evidently, Mark is feeling some of this pressure as well. Although with his snowy beard he looks like a taller and somewhat slimmer version of Santa Claus, he seems to take life too seriously to appreciate such a comparison. He can play bassoon and trumpet but has chosen to focus more on conducting and composition — some other years, we have sung his own piece, “In the Stillness, a Star,” as part of our Christmas performance.

But tonight he is again frustrated with our rendition of “For Unto Us,” although the basses are the ones struggling now — failing to come in where they are essential for starting a fugue.

Occasionally, out of desperation as well as in an attempt to lead by example, Mark sings their line for them in a fine deep voice. Meanwhile, the altos — who, like us tenors, sometimes struggle to find the notes in the middle — are having the same problem. Mark tries to sing along with them, too, but singing alto is one of the few musical talents he doesn’t have, so Caren takes over and sings their part.

Caren provides a light, almost comic counterbalance to Mark, exemplified in random riffs on the piano, perhaps a bit of that challenging “For Unto Us” transmogrified with a ragtime beat. These often emerge when Mark is desperate to get us to focus seriously, like now, and they give us a brief reprieve in the midst of highly focused effort. But her gifts include a great deal more than that: Just at a point where I don’t have a clue what notes I am supposed to be singing and can’t hear them from other tenors, I hear her playing them ostentatiously. The fact that she could hear we needed this support and was able to play our notes in addition to the written piano accompaniment, with only the normal number of hands — all the while singing the alto part as well — does not seem like something a mere human should be able to do.

The experience is sobering. I’ve

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removed and reinserted the pencil from behind my ear so often that my hair is falling in my face, and I promise myself once again that I will practice more at home. ***

I shouldn’t have checked the thermometer when I left the house. I’m not sure I want to know that it’s this cold. I wish it would warm up and snow, so I would have an excuse to drive. The air is crackling and the stars are bright, but during the ride to practice I am too miserable to appreciate them.

With just three weeks to go, Mark is getting antsy about some of our continued failings. “You’ve got to count,” he exhorts us, and I know it’s true. I’ve been depending on the altos to come in on time so I can follow them. But they are depending on the sopranos, who are having a difficult time this evening — not only arriving on schedule, but continuing their delicate dance among the highest notes available to the human voice.

Desperate to keep things aloft, we are struggling through “For Unto Us” and coming in flat. Not having a particularly fine-tuned musical ear, I don’t suffer much from this experience, so I must take my cue from our leaders. Caren’s face shows concern. Mark’s is so contorted that he is unable to speak, but the problem is evident as he stabs his baton skyward, letting us know we are flat once again.

At times like this, it is easy for me to feel that we will never be the choir Mark wants us to be, that his demands of perfection from the random denizens of a small mountain town in the Idaho panhandle are entirely unreasonable. But his demands are his strength, and they draw from us the best we are capable of, even if it is not perfection. And I know, because he has often said so, that he appreciates us to an extent verging on reverence, recognizing the time and effort we are willing to provide and the community we are willing to form.

For every, “Don’t go flat!” (verbal or nonverbal), there is an, “I am so grateful,” often voiced at the end of a difficult rehearsal such as this one.

That attitude about their human companions reflects the Reiners’ deep concern about the state of the earth. They are worldly and sophisticated, and yet otherworldly as well, living far up Grouse Creek, 20 miles out of town, off the grid in a house they built themselves — everything from the solar collectors on the roof to the arched, stained-glass windows.

The living room floor is reinforced to support the weight of two grand pianos. In the basement workshop are the carved decorative parts of a wooden pipe organ, Mark’s current project. Outside, a monster garden provides for a vegetarian diet. They are ready to be fully self-sufficient if necessary.

But ready to present the choir in performance — that is another thing. This is evident, to me, in the number of penciled notes remaining on my sheet music. My habit is to erase them as I’ve mastered the problems

they mark, and now, as Thanksgiving approaches, a distressful number remain. When I concentrate hard, I get a lot of the notes right. But as we end a phrase, I can hear Caren’s stage whisper: “‘ev-ah,’ not ‘ev-err.’”

the hallway that makes visible what is all around me. And the hallway reveals something else, too — not just what is visible, but what is audible.

Over the sound of my quiet voice on my phone, I hear singing. A sound better than any *** I had imagined we could make comes from Advent is upon us, and time is running beyond the door of the rehearsal hall. From out. We start again with “For Unto Us,” here, I can hear how the voices fit together, which I actually did practice this week. how most of the notes, which we get right Some of the notes fall into place, and I’m most of the time, create a harmonious whole. I able to carry on even when others around want to linger in the darkness and listen to this me are struggling. I count. I come in when choir as it knits its voices together to form the I’m supposed to. But Mark has that grimace sounds I’ve been hoping to hear. I realize that again. I draw the eyes with the raised eyeMark and Caren’s demands have enabled us lashes. “Glory to God,” however, is soundto sound, if not perfect, at least heavenly. ing better, and in the “Hallelujah” chorus, I When I take my seat again in the midst have just a few pencil marks. of the choir, it sounds the same as when I It’s almost a relief when I remember I left — we are still struggling must step out for a moment to come in at the right time Pend Oreille Chorale: and to remember not to go to check with my daughter on the phone. In the quiet, G.F. Handel’s ‘Messiah’ flat. But what I heard from the shadowy light of the empty Friday, Dec. 9, 7 p.m.; Sun- hallway stays with me. Now hallway outside the rehearsday, Dec. 11, 4 p.m.; FREE. I know that even if we never al hall, I dial her number.

Sandpoint Church of Jesus get everything exactly right, Through the tall windows Christ of Latter-day Saints, our performance will still be at the front end of the hall, uplifting. People will come in 602 Schweitzer Cutoff cones of light in the parking from the cold, knock the snow Road, 208-310-3616. lot reveal the first light off their boots, pile their winter flakes of the season, drifting coats on the pews beside them, down between the cars, settling just past and experience that joyous harmony I felt in my bike under the overhang, suggesting the hallway. that it will be a slippery ride home. At the Even if we sing “ev-err” a few times other end of the hall, a narrow window at instead of “ev-ah,” they too will feel the the back of the church tells no such story stirring of the season inside them and know of snow, revealing only the faint outlines of a deep peace as Handel draws us through to pine and dogwood in the dark. his final resounding chords.

None of this is evident from the wellThis article first appeared, in a slightly lit rehearsal room. It is only the dark of altered form, in Idaho Magazine.

208 Fiction writing contest now open for submissions

By Ben Olson Reader Staff

One of the most difficult tasks for many writers is to embrace brevity. We can help with that.

Back for its second year, the Reader’s 208 Fiction writing contest is open to submissions from anyone who reads these words. The rules are that the submission needs to be exactly 208 words long, not including title or author’s byline. The only other requirement is a $5 entry fee, which can be paid via check sent to the Reader, 111 Cedar St. Ste. No. 9, Sandpoint, ID 83864; or online by “donating” $5 to our PayPal account: paypal.me/ sandpointreader. We will match submissions with entry fees, so make sure your fees are taken care of at the same general time as your writing submission, otherwise your work will not be judged.

The winning submission will win $150 in cold, hard cash. Well, it’ll be a check, but

you get the idea. The winner will also see their work published in a January edition of the Reader, along with several honorable mentions. Last year’s winner was Jeffrey Keenan for his story “Winter Mask.”

This year, we’re pleased to announce another set of judges who have agreed to look at all the submissions, offer notes and ultimately select one short story to rule them all. Judges include Reader columnist Jen Jackson Quintano, former Reader Editor Cameron Rasmusson and Sandpoint Magazine Editor Trish Gannon. Special thanks to all the judges for taking the time to participate in this contest.

To submit a story, please send to stories@sandpointreader.com. There is no limit to the amount of submissions you can send — each will require a $5 entry fee to help us pay for the $150 prize.

Submissions will be accepted until Dec. 31, with the goal to announce and publish winners by the third week in January.

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events

December 8-15, 2022

THURSDAY, December 8

Artist Reception for Sara Taylor • 5-7pm @ Pend d’Oreille Winery Dynamic fluid acrylic artwork

FriDAY, December 9

Live Music w/ Mobius Riff 5-8pm @ Pend d’Oreille Winery Clarinet, sax, flute, guitar, cello, mando!

Live Music w/ Bright Moments Jazz 3:30-5:30pm @ Barrel 33 Live Music w/ The Cole Show 6-9pm @ Blue Room Live Music w/ Ron Keiper Jazz 7pm @ Eichardt’s Pub This Christmas Night: Into the Land of the Nutcracker (Dec. 9, 10 & 11) 7pm @ Panida Theater Feat. Allegro Dance Studio and Suzuki String Academy. Tickets $35 and up Live Music w/ Ken Mayginnes 5-7:30pm @ Drift in Hope

Wreath making with 9B wreaths 5:30-8pm @ Barrel 33 Wine and wreath making w/ 9B Wreaths Sandpoint Lions Club & A&P’s Annual Toy Drive Party 6-9pm @ A&P’s With live music by Miah Kohal Band.

Silent auction, food & drink. Please bring unwrapped toy to donate Live Comedy Show w/ Deece Casillas 7:30pm @ Paddler’s Alehouse The Hive reopening concert (FREE) 6:30-9pm @ The Hive Brian Jacobs & Kevin Dorin until 9pm, then Devon Wade until 11pm. Bring a can of food or toy for Food Bank and Lion’s Club’s Toys for Tots program

Live Music w/ Hillfolk Noir (FREE) 9pm-midnight @ 219 Lounge Bluegrass / string-band / punk heroes Live Music w/ John Daffron 4:30-7pm @ Barrel 33 Live Music w/ John Firshi 7pm @ Eichardt’s Pub A Celtic Christmas w/ Gothard Sisters 7pm @ The Heartwood Center Celtic folk music, Christmas carols, Irish dancing, stories and more. $15-$30 Live Music w/ Miah Kohal Band 8:30pm @ The Hive (Tickets $10/$15)

Live Music w/ Bright Moments Jazz 6-9pm @ MickDuff’s Beer Hall Raye of Hope 3-9pm @ Utara Brewing Co. Help 9-year-old Raye’s Christmas wish to help the area’s homeless come true This Christmas Night: Into the Land of the Nutcracker (Dec. 9, 10 & 11) 2 & 7pm @ Panida Theater Live Music w/ Tom Catmull 5-8pm @ Pend d’Oreille Winery Folk, pop and rock favorites

SATURDAY, December 10

SunDAY, December 11

Sandpoint Chess Club • 9am @ Evans Brothers Coffee Sunday night magic with Star Alexander • 5-8pm @ Jalapeño’s Restaurant

monDAY, December 12

Monday Night Blues Jam w/ John Firshi Group Run @ Outdoor Experience 7pm @ Eichardt’s Pub 6pm @ Outdoor Experience 3-5 miles, all levels welcome, beer after The Festival at Sandpoint Youth Orchestra Winter Concert Lifetree Cafe • 2pm @ Jalapeño’s 6pm @ The Heartwood Center “Decluttering Solutions offered” Evening of classical, pop and holiday favs

tuesDAY, December 13

Paint and Sip w/ Lori Salisbury 5:30-7:30pm @ Pend d’Oreille Winery Paint a winter wonderland scene. $45 for supplies, instruction and a glass of wine Craft Beer Trivia 6-7pm @ Utara Brewing Co. Prizes, fun, beer, food

Music Matters Christmas Concert 6-8pm @ Panida Theater Youth orchestra, youth choir, percussion and bell choir playing Christmas music, presented by the Music Conservatory of Sandpoint. Tickets avail at MCS website

Live Piano w/ Peter Lucht 5-7pm @ Pend d’Oreille Winery Contemporary, classical jazz on the grand Industry Night 3-8pm @ Utara Brewing Co. All food and bev. workers enjoy discounts on food, drink, snacks and merch

Jazzy Nutcracker (by Studio 1 Dance) 7pm @ Panida Theater The Nutcracker incorporates all ballet students and the Christmas Spectacular incorporates jazz, hip hop, tap, contemp. lyrical and ballet. Panida.org for info

wednesDAY, December 14

ThursDAY, December 15

Paint and Sip with Nicole Black • 5:30-7:30pm @ Barrel 33 18 /

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COMMUNITY Music Matters! Christmas concert celebrates the season at the Panida

By Reader Staff The Music Conservatory of Sandpoint is serving up its annual Music Matters! Christmas concert, slated this year for Tuesday, Dec. 13 at the Panida Theater.

Featuring the Youth Orchestra, Youth Choir, Percussion and Bell Choir groups from 6-8 p.m., student musicians will be led

by Director Janice Wall, as well as Orchestra Conductor Sylvia Rannette and percussion teacher Ali Thomas, supported by interns and teachers from MCS, including Denis Zwang and others.

The Music Matters! program is made possible by grants, and includes early childhood classes, classes in percussion and choir at area schools, and classes at MCS for youth orchestra and ensemble choir groups, as well for older and more advanced students. Handbell choir is also under the Music Matters! umbrella, and brings together adults and young students.

“The Music Matters! suite of classes teaches students from walking age to adults,” MCS organizers stated in an email.

Woodwind teacher Denis Zwang with student. Percussion teacher Ali Thomas pictured in the background. Courtesy photo.

There is no charge to attend the Dec. 13 event at the Panida, but a donation of $10 per family at the door is suggested, so audience members can give back to the program at a level they’re comfortable with.

Tuesday, Dec. 13; 6-8 p.m.; FREE, $10 suggested donation. Panida Theater, 300 N. First Ave., 208-263-9191, panida.org. Visit sandpointconservatory.org for more info.

STAGE & SCREEN

Willow series illustrates that Disney will capitalize on its intellectual property, but why?

By Zach Hagadone Reader Staff Disney’s nostalgia-industrial complex is at it again, this time resurrecting beloved 1988 dark fantasy flick Willow into a series, which premiered Nov. 30 on the Disney+ streaming service.

The house that Mickey built prides itself on being the abode of “imagineers,” but it seems with increasing clarity that it doesn’t take much imagination to turn a buck when you’ve got the intellectual property of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg stacked in your quiver.

Star Wars underwent its most recent reinvention with Andor, which concluded its first season in late November, and everyone’s favorite bad-boy archaeologist is due for yet another latter-day un-retirement with Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, the trailer for which dropped in the past week.

Now we have Willow with which to revisit our gauzy VHS childhood memories (at least if we’re Gen X-Millennial cuspers).

Starring Warwick Davis as the titular Nelwyn (dwarf) sorcerer Willow Ufgood, the series opens about 20 years after the events of the film. Evil witch-Queen Bavmorda is long since defeated — done in at the hands of Willow, rakish swordsman Madmartigan and the villainess’s own daughter Sorsha, who is many years into her rule as a good, though weary, potentate.

Warwick Davis returns as Nelwyn scorcerer Willow on Disney+. Courtesy photo.

Sorsha (played by original actress Joanne Whalley, and still exuding her signature side-eyed intensity) got married to and had two kids with Madmartigan (Val Kilmer in the film, but absent from the show due to his health problem), and they are a handful.

Prince Airk (Dempsey Bryk) is a horny cad carrying on with the cook, whom he calls “Dove” (more on her later), and Princess Kit (Ruby Cruz) is restless, impetuous and more-than-a-little-petulant. She has a relationship with one of the household ladies, Jade (Erin Kellyman), who is driven to become the first female knight of the realm.

As for “Dove,” a.k.a. Brünhilde (an inexplicably blonde-and-blue eyed Ellie Bamber), it turns out she is much more than she seems.

Rather than the humble scullery maid, she’s actually Elora Danan — the brown-eyed-red-haired baby at the center of the 1988 film, whose prophesied destiny as the future empress of Tir Asleen led to Bavmorda’s kidnapping and thwarted infanticide, meant to secure her own immortal suzerainty.

It turns out Willow placed little Elora in the care of Sorsha, scrubbed of her identity, in an effort to keep her safe until the time came for her to rule over the kingdom — protected in the meantime by a magical forcefield.

The forces of evil haven’t gone away, however, as they puncture the safety of Tir Asleen and steal away Prince Airk (for what reason, we don’t know yet). That gives Kit a handy excuse to leave

the castle — and avoid her forced marriage to equally unenthusiastic Prince Graydon (the wonderfully charming Tony Revolori, who played Zero Mustafa in The Grand Budapest Hotel).

Sorsha instructs Kit and company (which includes the criminal Boorman, whose importance is also yet to be fully explained) to seek out Willow.

Meanwhile, Dove/Brünhilde/ Elora Danan has set out on her own to find Airk, with whom she’s in love, though it’s unlikely he returns her affections with the same vigor.

The parties cross paths, Willow is brought into the quest, identities are revealed and away we go.

Is Willow any good? Sort of.

Nostalgia is, as always, a mainline to the shriveled serotonin receptors of the generally jaded people born between the 1970s and early-’80s.

Simply seeing the old characters of Willow and Sorsha, and retreading the fantastical world of Nelwyns and Daikinis is a pleasure.

However, the casting of a few new characters (particularly Kit, who is actually super annoying) feels a bit off, and the dialogue and writing has come in for some critical drubbing for its tendentiousness and, frankly, whininess.

Even Warwick Davis told The Guardian in late-November that, “It was weird at first,” to

portray a crankier, older and wiser (let’s add regretful) version of Willow, who he said, “in my mind is a certain person who does certain things a certain way. So going outside those boundaries was a little uncomfortable.”

The reviews are only so-so so far: 5.2/10 on Imdb, 83% on Rotten Tomatoes and 63% among Google users. The feeling among some observers is that it’s a bit wooden, lacking in the joyful escapism of the original. Or maybe that’s just because there are only so many reboots, sequels, prequels and spinoffs that people are willing to get excited about.

For this viewer, who loved Willow when it came out when he was 8 years old, it’s unclear what Disney is trying to sell me: my own childhood or a reminder that I’m probably too old for this stuff.

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FOOD & DRINK

Uncorking community

Barrel 33 offers wine and good eats on First Ave.

Photos by Fitzmorris Photography.

By Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey Reader Staff

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There is a new face in the downtown wining and dining scene: Barrel 33, which owner Alayna Reichl said aims to be a “family-friendly eatery and wine bar” for anyone and everyone to enjoy.

“We have always focused on creating an environment that anybody can come into,” said Reichl, who also owns and operates a sister business in Big Bear, Calif. “You can be dressed up to go out on a date without your kids; you could bring your whole family; you could come in from the beach in your board shorts and flip-flops; you could wear cowboy boots.”

The endeavor began when Reichl and her husband, Manuel, began selling wine barrel furniture at a California farmers’ market. They opened Barrel 33 in Big Bear five years ago, and now Sandpoint’s location at 100 N. First Ave. in October.

“I had previously worked doing wine tasting in people’s homes, so wine felt natural to me,” Reichl said. “My husband is from Germany and his family has been making wine for hundreds of years, so it was somewhat natural for him, too.”

The pair discovered Sandpoint during their travels delivering wine barrel furniture around the country.

“The community is wonderful. The people are wonderful. The wine is good,” Reichl said of Sandpoint. “We focus on working with local wineries as often as we can.”

Barrel 33 currently offers a wide variety of / December 8, 2022

wines as well as an extensive menu of sharing plates, flatbreads, salads, soups, sandwiches and sweets. There are also a couple of German staples paying homage to Manuel’s background, including a giant Bavarian pretzel served with beer cheese and whole-grain mustard, as well as a spiced wine served warm in German mugs. The entire menu can be viewed at barrel33sandpoint.com/menu.

Barrel 33 aims to be a go-to gathering place in downtown Sandpoint, and is slated to host a number of paint-and-sip events in the coming weeks, as well as a “yoga and mimosa” event on Saturday, Dec. 17. More details about Barrel 33 events, including live music on Friday and Saturday evenings, can be found at barrel33sandpoint.com/events.

The shop also aims to offer locally made artisan goods.

“We’re passionate about working with locals as often as possible,” Reichl said. “We want to carry items that are handcrafted.”

With inclusivity, craftsmanship and delicious libations in mind, Barrel 33 is set to add its own flavor to downtown Sandpoint’s vibrant community of eateries.

“It’s a homey, comfortable place for everyone to hang out,” Reichl said.

Barrel 33 is located at 100 N. First Ave. in downtown Sandpoint. Learn more at barrel33sandpoint.com. To contact the owners about offering your locally made artisan goods at Barrel 33, email alayna@barrel33sandpoint.com.

MUSIC

Like a musical postcard

Gothard Sisters to bring Celtic Christmas performance to the Heartwood Center

By Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey Reader Staff The Gothard Sisters came upon Celtic music by chance, and the subsequent musical journey has been nothing short of remarkable.

Real-life sisters Greta, Solana and Willow have gained an international following and performed worldwide to great acclaim, lauded for their uniquely Western take on classical and Celtic music.

The Gothard Sisters will bring that sound to North Idaho on Saturday, Dec. 10 at 7:30 p.m., as the group performs its Celtic Christmas show at the Heartwood Center (616 Oak St. in Sandpoint).

The Reader caught up with Greta Gothard as the group launched its Christmas tour across the Pacific Northwest to talk about the sisters’ humble musical beginnings and what​​the Heartwood Center audience can expect when The Gothard Sisters take on Sandpoint this weekend.

Sandpoint Reader: How did you all get started playing these specific instruments and this specific style of music? What has inspired you to stick with it for so many years?

Greta Gothard: When I was little, around 5 years old, I saw someone playing the violin at a concert and thought it was so

beautiful that I started crying; it affected me very deeply. My parents thought that was lovely and asked if I wanted violin lessons, so I started learning how to play classical violin. After that, my sisters Willow and Solana were both inspired to play violin as well and they also took lessons.

It was a few years after that that we first heard Celtic music — I think it was a combination of when Riverdance first came out and hearing a program on NPR called “The Thistle and Shamrock” — but we all fell in love with the special energy of the music from Ireland and Scotland. Eventually, as teenagers, we made the jump from playing classical music to Celtic folk music, and have continued into writing our own music in a combination of the two genres. It’s so joyful and energetic.

SR: How have you seen your music change over the years? What inspires your current songwriting?

GG: Our music now is inspired by many things: our travels, the beauty and timelessness of nature, comfortable rhythms and singable melodies. It’s very influenced by the dance tunes and ballads from Ireland and Scotland, but we’ve also been told that it sounds thoroughly American, with a particularly Western earthiness to it. I love that. Our music is always evolving and changing, and

we try not to stick it in a box or be strict about genre, but instead think of each album release as a musical “postcard” of where we’re currently at, musically.

SR: What are some of your favorite things about touring together? What can sometimes make it challenging?

GG: It’s an amazing thing to be able to share these experiences of traveling and playing music with my sisters. We’ve gone through so much together that it has made us very close. It can sometimes be challenging to work with family, because it’s a very different dynamic from another kind of band, but mostly we have such similar tastes in music and visions of where we want to go (and now so many shared experiences and stories) that the rewards mostly outweigh the challenges.

SR: What can the Sandpoint

The Gothard Sisters will play the Heartwood Center on Saturday, Dec. 10. Photo by Ruth H. Photography. community expect from your Christmas performance? What makes it a special show?

GG: We’re so excited to bring the Christmas show to Sandpoint for the first time! The Christmas concert is full of Celtic tunes and songs, dancing, drumming, stories, our original music and old traditional carols done in fresh new ways. We would love to offer the concert to the community as a fun way to get into the Christmas spirit, and to take a pause from the hectic busyness to be present in the magic of the season.

Tickets are $25 in advance at mattoxfarm.com or $30 at the door. Youth tickets are $15. Learn more and listen to The Gothard Sisters at gothardsisters.com.

Mobius Riff, Pend d’Oreille Winery, Dec. 9

Hillfolk Noir, 219 Lounge, Dec. 10

It has been said that jazz is the only true American artform, originating in New Orleans from the combination of Western European classical music traditions and African culture. Show your musical patriotism by watching Sandpoint’s own eclectic jazz band Mobius Riff at the Pend d’Oreille Winery.

The quartet features Tom Duebendorfer on guitar and mandolin; Larry Higgins on bass and cello; Larry Guldberg on percussion;

If you somehow missed the last coming of Hillfolk Noir in July, the Boise-based musical institution — which has been laying down its “junkerdash” sound for 15 years — is returning to Sandpoint with another show Saturday, Dec. 10 at the 219 Lounge.

Whimsically described as “bluegrass’s trouble-making cousin,” “a bit of string-band blues” and “a concoction of electrified rockin’ soulful folksy witchcraft

5-8 p.m., FREE, Pend d’Oreille Winery, 301 Cedar St., 208-2658545, powine.com. Get more info at mobiusriff.com.

READ

My fiancé hauled a hefty tome home from the library a few months ago. David Colbert’s Eyewitness to America: 500 Years of American History in the Words of Those Who Saw It Happen is everything the title suggests it should be, snipped into short, fascinating chapters. I plan to give out a couple of copies as Christmas gifts this year.

LISTEN

A snapshot of notable live music coming up in Sandpoint

and John Sarchio on clarinet, soprano and alto saxes, as well as the keyboard. This multi-instrumental group plays a mix of originals and covers, dabbling not only in jazz, but also classical, rock, Celtic and Middle-Eastern styles.

— Ben Olson

This week’s RLW by Jen Heller

mayhem,” Hillfolk Noir prides itself on existing in class — and genre — of its own.

Hear what all the fuss is about at the Niner, otherwise it’s a long haul to the City of Trees.

— Zach Hagadone 9 p.m.-midnight, FREE, 21+.

219 Lounge, 219 N. First Ave., 208263-5673, 219.bar. Listen at Listen at hillfolknoir.com, soundcloud. com/hillfolknoir or spotify.com.

As hiking season wound down this fall, I found Ziggy Alberts’ mellow Aussie tunes popping onto my Pandora stations far more frequently. In particular, his four-track album Four Feet in the Forest is getting a lot of play time as I watch my angsty pup wind down from bike season. Shoulder season is hard on all of us. Here’s hoping she likes his sound as much as I do.

WATCH

This summer, we discovered the odd phenomenon that is 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown. It’s a bizarre British mashup of two television shows that are popular in the UK — Countdown, a popular, longstanding “letters and numbers” game show for the public; and 8 Out of 10 Cats, a competition between two teams of rotating comedians, who banter over current events, public opinions and statistics. Merge the two, and you get a rowdy competition between irreverent, hilarious comedians vying for useless prizes. Episodes are posted on YouTube for those who are not easily offended.

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BACK OF THE BOOK

No: The Nazis were not liberals.

Stop trying to say they were From Northern Idaho News, Dec. 8, 1925

PRETTY YOUNG GIRL SUES RICH ATTORNEY In the district court at Sandpoint Nov. 2, M.S. Lindsay secured annulment of his marriage to Eva Lindsay, alleging she was consorting with other men both before and after marriage. The annulment was not fought in the courts, but was granted by default.

Last week, Lindsay happened to be in Spokane and was served with papers to answer a suit for $55,000 damages which Eva had filed there.

Lindsay, a wealthy pioneer lawyer and timber operator of Priest River, presented her with many diamonds three months ago when he married her, representing he was 50 years old, but he has stripped her of the presents and annulled the marriage, according to Eva Lindsay, age 20, alleging he is 71.

The sensational case was launched in Spokane, and the lawyers will fight the charges.

In May of this year, she was visiting her sister at Priest River.

Mr. Lindsay met her there and told her he was in love with her. He further informed her he was wealthy and that if she would marry him, he would make her his only heir, according to the complaint.

They were married on Aug. 25 at Seattle.

Mr. Lindsay asks $55,000 in damages. Mrs. Lindsay wants the jewelry given to her, worth $5,000 that she alleges was taken at the Victoria Hotel in Spokane, plus bonds worth $25,000 that she avers were not deliveried. She is also seeking general damages because of her husband getting the marriage annulled and because her health is wrecked by his conduct and deception about his age.

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By Zach Hagadone Reader Staff There’s been a curious trend in the letters to the editor I’ve been receiving lately: people trying to claim that the Nazis were “actually” liberals and that the Democratic Party is the second coming of the Third Reich.

Here is a snippet from one: “Truth be told a good portion of the Democrats’ use of the Nazi slur is projection.

Hitler was anti-capitalist, pro-abortion and said at rallies ‘above all I am a socialist.’ He was obsessed with race, nationalized education and took over the German media which he used to demonize his political opponents. I have to ask, which party does this sound like today?”

Another letter trod similar ground, in addition to calling the Nazis “secular humanists” (they were not, officially espousing a muddle of völkisch mysticism and “ethnotheism,” with Hitler often appealing to a spiritual force he called “providence”).

Elsewhere, in a painfully obtuse effort to align Nazi economic policy with “socialism,” that letter also somehow managed to completely reverse the historical record on the party’s supposed “nationalization” of industry. Beginning in the mid-1930s, the Nazis actually reprivatized a huge number of industrial sectors that had been nationalized by the Weimar Republic in response to the global depression. In this way, Hitler’s government was acting more conservatively than any other Western power of the day. (There’s a salient article on that in the 2009 edition of The Economic History Review.)

In summation, that letter-writer, too, concluded with a vague rhetorical question suggesting that it was the Democrats, rather than the Republicans, who “actually” most deserve the “Nazi” tarring.

When I receive these kinds of letters, the first thing my mind does is boggle at how stunning they are in their oversimplification,

STR8TS Solution

intellectual dishonesty, disingenuousness and outright misinformation. The second thing I do is recoil in terror that the very definition of Nazism is somehow now up for debate.

This is profoundly dangerous, especially in North Idaho.

So here is the simplest answer I can offer to the questions posed by these and similar letter-writers: “This sounds like someone who is trying desperately to twist history away from the fact that the Nazis were a right-wing totalitarian movement in order to clear the way for espousing right-wing totalitarian ideas without the political baggage.”

To borrow a phrase, it’s a deflection by way of a “projection.”

For one thing, calling Hitler “anti-capitalist” is a gross misinterpretation. The Nazi Party relied heavily on the financial backing of the largest corporations in Germany (and several in the U.S., prior to the war). Far from “anti-capitalist,” the party concocted a blend of capitalism and a planned economy, into what U.S. government observers in the 1940s wrote “defie[d] classification,” though which was decidedly neither “socialist” nor “state capitalist” in that it retained private property and enterprise, and eschewed state-ownership.

Ultimately, the Nazis’ economic thinking was opportunistic. It was to the industrial titans of Germany that Hitler owed the bankroll critical to the party’s first successes, and their bottom lines did not suffer under the Reich (Bayer, IBM, I.G. Farben, Ford Motor Company, Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, Shell, Siemens and Volkswagen are all no worse for wear for being deeply aligned with the Nazi Party).

As for Hitler’s much-repeated claim that “above all I am a socialist,” it is known from his own writings — and the writings of subordinates including Joseph Goebbles — that the use of the term “socialist” in the party’s rhetoric was a ploy to capture the support of working class people who otherwise would

Sudoku Solution

have been swayed to left-wing parties.

As the editors of Reshaping Capitalism in Weimar and Nazi Germany put it, “This attractive blend of anticapitalist rhetoric and largely capitalist practice helped secure backing for the Third Reich and sustain its ferocious dynamic.”

As for Hitler’s “pro-abortion” stance, he and the party were only “pro-abortion” in the most abhorrent mangling of the concept possible: certain people deemed “undesireable” to the regime were to be forcibly eliminated by any means, including pre-birth. For those people deemed “desirable,” however, abortion was illegal starting in 1932 and, by 1943, those found guilty of performing an illegal abortion faced the death penalty.

These letter-writers’ attempt to leverage the Nazi’s “racial hygiene” policies for their own present-day partisan ends can only be done with the ugliest and most insulting of intentions.

There are a number of other, equally spurious claims made in letters such as these — too many to debunk in this space and, frankly, it’s horrifying that this exercise must be undertaken at all. Yet here we are, and apparently this brand of sinister revisionism is so prevalent that no less than the editors of the Encyclopedia Britannica felt it necessary to address the “canard,” writing, “Were the Nazis socialists? No, not in any meaningful way, and certainly not after 1934.”

I don’t know where these people are getting this stuff — Dinesh D’Souza? Jonah Goldberg? They clearly aren’t coming up with it on their own — but, for the record: the Nazis were not liberals, the Democratic Party is not the Nazis and, for that matter, the Republican Party is not the Nazi Party.

However, Nazis are as Nazis do, and if that’s somehow uncomfortable or inconvenient for you, well, you may need to think hard about why that is.

Crossword Solution

CROSSWORD

By Bill Borders

Copyright www.mirroreyes.com

Laughing Matter

Solution on page 22

Solution on page 22

ACROSS

It’s funny, but when you look at an old man, then you look at a photo of him when he was a young man, then you look at the old man, then the photo, back and forth, pretty soon you’ll do whatever anybody tells you to.

mansuetude

Woorf tdhe Week

/MAN-swi-tood, -tyood/

[noun] 1. mildness; gentleness.

“Her grandpa’s mansuetude was a welcome relief after spending the past weekend with her husband’s stockbroker friends talking a mile a minute.”

Corrections: In last week’s Junk Drawer column, I referred to the MickDuff’s restaurant building as the former “City Hall” when I meant to say the former post office. Sorry for the mistake. — BO

1. Mindful 6. Indian music 10. Plate 14. Greens with dressing 15. Ages 16. Put ____ words 17. Fatuous 18. Play parts 19. Pretentious person 20. Acculturate 22. Belgrade native 23. In the center of 24. Floor 26. Molten rock 30. Consumed 31. Our star 32. Frosts, as a cake 33. Essence 35. Coniferous forest 39. Flying disk 41. Turned a corner 43. Above a baritone 44. Pierce 46. Open to all 47. 18-wheeler 49. Night before 50. Large northern deer 51. Suppurate 54. Plateau 56. Unit of paper 57. Subjugation 63. A Great Lake 64. Taps 65. Push

Solution on page 22 66. Portent or omen 67. Type of sword 68. Consumer of food 69. Miami basketball team 70. Fathers 71. Pottery fragment

DOWN 1. Largest continent 2. Grows pale 3. “Oh dear!”

4. Hindu princess 5. Swelling 6. Facts

7. Colonnades 8. An international trade treaty 9. Judge 10. Disharmony 11. Not outer 12. Cache 13. Spare-time occupier 21. Picture 25. Ballet attire 26. Boost 27. Anagram of “Care” 28. Blood vessel 29. Variety 34. Crosses 36. False god

37. Nerd 38. Combines 40. French cheese 42. Overweight 45. Enticed 48. Felt blindly 51. Not stale 52. Spooky 53. Siberian antelope 55. Donkeys 58. Daddy 59. Monarch of Iran 60. Infinitesimal amount 61. Not under 62. Geek

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