If our readers knew the number of conversations we have about trivial editorial matters in the course of an average week, they’d probably think we were insane. It’s true though, we’ve spent countless hours discussing the proper usage of commas, whether a word is upstyled or downstyled and whether to hyphenate words or not. The world of an editor is a strange keyhole view into the working mind of those who keep the words you read as error-free and accurate as possible. This week, while editing my article on “weird gifts,” in which I mentioned a “possum” (see Page 14), Editor-in-Chief Zach Hagadone leaned around his computer monitor with an almost apologetic tone in his voice: “Not to be pedantic, but did you know what we call ‘possums’ are actually ‘opossums,’ and what the Australians call ‘opossums’ are actually ‘possums’?”
Thus began a discussion of the difference between two marsupials, neither of which I’ve ever seen with my own eyes. Most Americans use the two terms interchangeably, but they are actually different animals.
Opossums are found in the U.S. and southern Canada, while possums are found in Australia, New Zealand and China. Opossums are quite large, weigh from eight to 13 pounds; have long, pointed, white faces with jagged teeth and black eyes; and sport coarse fur that is usually dark gray or sometimes cinnamon or cream-colored. Their tail is hairless like a rat and, yes, they do often enter a comatose state to appear dead as an effective way to avoid predators.
On the other hand, possums are smaller creatures. They can weigh less than one ounce, but usually average around five pounds. Australian possums have softer features and rounder bodies, with golden or brown fur, though some species might be gray, black or white. They have big brown eyes and full, furry tails. They are quite friendly, and will often walk right up to people.
“I’m changing your ‘possum’ reference to ‘opossum,’” Zach told me. “Some naturalist will thank us, I’m sure.”
“Whatever,” I shrugged and returned to my task.
So rest assured, dear reader, when you read this paper, it has been held in the bosom of our pedantic editor to ensure it is as accurate as possible.
quotable
“In this age, in this country, public sentiment is everything. With it, nothing can fail; against it, nothing can succeed. Whoever molds public sentiment goes deeper than he who enacts statutes, or pronounces judicial decisions.”
— Abraham Lincoln, during the 1858 Illinois General Assembly debates with Stephen Douglas and prior to becoming the 16th president of the U.S.
DEAR READERS,
It’s beginning to look a bit like winter out there. Schweitzer opened for the season on Dec. 3; and, although only Midway is available to ski, it’s sure to scratch that itch. I’m planning to head up this weekend for my first turns of the year — hope to see you on the mountain.
There’s a lot going on this week as we tick off the days until Christmas. Check out our packed events calendar on Page 22. If you’re getting a head start on gift shopping, we launched our annual “Holiday Gift Guide,” in which we offer weird gift ideas (this edition), local gifts (Dec. 11 edition) and last-minute gifts (Dec. 18 edition). Check it out on Page 14. Also, we’ve compiled a list of various winter fairs and markets on Page 17, so get out there and support your local crafters, vendors and small businesses. Remember, when you spend a dollar at a local small business, that dollar stays right here and supports your friends and neighbors.
– Ben Olson, publisher
111 Cedar Street, Suite 9 Sandpoint, ID 83864 208-946-4368 sandpointreader.com
Editors Emeriti: Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey Cameron Rasmusson John Reuter
Advertising: Ben Olson ben@sandpointreader.com
Contributing Artists: Jeanine Asche (cover), Stacey Mueller, Ellen Weissman, Tom Trulock, Henney Family, Perky Smith-Hagadone, Suzanne Jewell, Bill Borders, Lothian Family
Contributing Writers:
Zach Hagadone, Ben Olson, Soncirey Mitchell, Lorraine H. Marie, Brenden Bobby, Kyle Pfannenstiel, Emily Erickson, Brad Smith
Submit Stories To: stories@sandpointreader.com
Printed Weekly At: Tribune Publishing Co. Lewiston, ID
Subscription Price: $185 per year
Website Designed By: Keokee
The Sandpoint Reader is a weekly publication owned by Ben Olson and Keokee. It is devoted to the arts, entertainment, bluster, 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 bonfires to appease the gods of journalism. For back issues, contact the publisher. Free to all, limit two per person, please.
Letter to the Editor Policy:
We welcome letters to the editor on all relevant topics. Please, no more than 200 words, no excessive profanity or libelous statements and no trolls. Please elevate the discussion and stay on topic. Letters will be edited to comply with the above requirements. Opinons expressed in these pages are those of the writers, not necessarily the publisher. Send to: letters@sandpointreader.com
About the Cover:
This week’s cover was painted by Jeanine Asche. POAC will show Asche’s and other artists’ work at their holiday art show. See Page 19 for more information.
The opossum, left, and possum, right. Courtesy photos
BOCC approved modifications to CUP for Idaho Club marina
By Soncirey Mitchell Reader Staff
In a land use hearing Nov. 12, members of the Bonner County board of commissioners approved modifications to an existing conditional use permit for property adjacent to the mouth of Trestle Creek — a lateral move for the development, which has been in the works by the Idaho Club since 2008.
The modifications reduce the overall scale of the development by Valiant Idaho, LLC and Valiant Idaho II, LLC, which includes seven single-family dwelling units and an 88-slip public marina.
The Idaho Department of Lands previously approved an encroachment permit for the development of a 105slip community dock for the housing development, which initially consisted of 13 townhouses, 83 condominium units, a pool, boat storage, a community terrace and gazebo.
Developers could apply for a community dock under Idaho Code because they owned three lots adjacent to the water; however, they subsequently sold one 5.8-acre parcel below market value to the Kalispel Tribe, to be held in conservation in perpetuity. The parcel contains the final quarter mile of the main branch of Trestle Creek.
After the sale, developers proposed the 88-slip commercial marina, holding at least 50% of the slips for members of the public not associated with the Idaho Club. The reduced proposal includes corresponding docks for each dwelling unit, a breakwater, a pedestrian bridge, a boat bilge pump-out station, a 46-space parking lot and boat storage. It further replaced a proposed “common recreational lot” and turnaround with two single-family residential lots, necessitating “less than a 10th of an acre” of fill for the entire project, according to Whiskey Rock Planning + Consult-
ing Owner — and Sandpoint mayor — Jeremy Grimm, who represents the developers.
The proposal also includes the preservation of several artificial islands — one of which includes an eagle’s nest — and the removal of existing rotting boat docks and boat ramp, as well as a culvert, known as the North Branch Outlet. Developers argue that the removal will redirect juvenile bull trout back into the creek’s main branch, which is deeper, more oxygen-rich and farther from shallow-water predators.
Despite this redirection, community members and conservation groups have spoken out against the development, arguing that boat and human traffic, potential pollution, and the dredging and fill needed to complete the project will negatively affect nearby bull trout and kokanee salmon habitat. Bull trout are listed as threatened in all of their known habitats — including Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon and Washington — and are protected under the Endangered Species Act. According to the Idaho Conservation League, more than half of the Pend Oreille Basin’s bull trout population spawns in Trestle Creek.
Though the two members of the public who spoke at the Nov. 12 meeting opposed the development as a whole, the commissioners could consider only the proposed modifications to the existing CUP.
“We are not here today to re-review the previously approved applications,” said Bonner County Planner Jason Johnson. “They were approved years ago. The appeal period is long expired.”
Further, both Williams and Grimm explained that voting against the modifications did not affect the existing CUP.
“We just humbly request support for this modification and the recognition that this is an approved project, and failure to support the modification means approval of the project that is [of] greater intensity and would mean
removal of islands and related elements,” said Grimm.
“Since this project has been altered so extensively since the previous approval, it must only be considered now as a new application,” argued ICL North Idaho Director Jennifer Ekstrom. “I also want to emphasize that the modifications that have been discussed today do not alleviate our extensive concerns about impacts to natural resources, including water, floodplain, wetlands, shorelines [and] endangered species, nor do the modifications alleviate our concerns about the project’s compliance with the law.”
According to Grimm’s presentation, the developer has applied for and received “all federal and state environmental permits and clearances” necessary to continue with the project, including:
• The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers under Clean Water Act Section 404 permit;
• National Environmental Policy Act Review by the Corps, with a letter of con-
currence from U.S. Fish and Wildlife;
• USFWS eagle nest disturbance permit, which is not actually required;
• U.S. Coast Guard bridge permit exemption;
• Idaho Department of Environmental Quality Clean Water Act Section 401 water quality certification;
• IDEQ Clean Water Act Section 402 national pollutant discharge elimination system general permit coverage;
• Idaho Department of Lands encroachment permit for marina and shoreline protection;
• Idaho Department of Water Resources stream channel alteration permit.
“Idaho Conservation League has recently heard from Panhandle Health District, indicating that they had not yet approved a community sewer system for this project,” said Ekstrom.
“Regarding Panhandle Health — the drainfield site was preliminarily approved, and wastewater plans and
specs have been approved by DEQ,” said Grimm. “Anything regarding that has been addressed by DEQ — the jurisdictional authority there.”
When asked for clarification, PHD Communications Officer Katherine Hoyer told the Reader that that particular wastewater system is regulated by DEQ and PHD “does not have any involvement with the review or approval of that system.”
“When you look at this change [to the CUP], it is a reduction in all of the other footprints,” said Williams. “That’s really what they’re asking to do is to reduce their exposure. I can’t go into, ‘Are they doing this for a good reason, a bad reason?’ None of that matters.”
Williams and Commissioner Ron Korn approved the modifications in a 2-0 vote, with Commissioner Brian Domke absent.
The Valiant Idaho, LLC property near the mouth of Trestle Creek. Courtesy image
Idaho sheriffs are warning elected officials that new state Medicaid cuts to critical mental health services for people with severe mental illness could pose a public safety risk.
A letter by the Idaho Sheriffs’ Association is the latest in a string of concerns over cuts by a state Medicaid contractor that stem from the state’s attempts to avoid a projected budget shortfall.
Effective on Dec. 1, the contractor that runs Idaho Medicaid mental health benefits, Magellan of Idaho, planned to cut specialized mobile teams that treat patients with severe mental illness who have struggled in routine settings. It isn’t immediately clear whether the cuts are already in effect.
In a letter dated Dec. 1 to Gov. Brad Little and Republican leaders in the Idaho Legislature, Idaho Sheriffs’ Association President Samuel Hulse urged elected officials to recognize and address the situation. He called the state’s budget situation “self-inflicted.”
“We acknowledge the state’s budget challenges which are self-inflicted by an overly aggressive tax reduction stance of the Legislative Branch and a complicit Executive Branch continuing to reduce tax revenue creating a budget shortage,” wrote Hulse, who also serves as Bonneville County sheriff.
“These reductions to mental health services represent a significant public-safety concern,” he continued. “As sheriffs, our foremost duty is to protect the people of Idaho. We urge state leadership to recognize the real-world public-safety consequences of these decisions and to work with counties to ensure Idahoans in crisis — and the agencies who respond to them —
are not left without support.”
The state’s projected budget deficit is coming after the Legislature and Little approved $450 million in tax cuts during the 2025 legislative session, following years of income tax cuts that have reduced the state’s revenue by $4 billion, the Idaho Capital Sun previously reported.
Magellan and the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare could not be immediately reached for comment.
Sheriffs say cuts could worsen mental health crises, shifting costs to jails, EMS and more
Since Magellan announced the cuts, patients and mental health clinics have sued the Idaho Department of Health
and Welfare and top state health officials.
The Idaho Sheriffs’ Association echoed concerns by some mental health providers, warning that the cuts could worsen mental health crises, shifting costs onto jails, emergency medical services and local taxpayers “who will bear the operational and financial burden of managing the consequences.”
On Dec. 1, Magellan also announced more cuts to Idaho Medicaid mental health services that will start Jan. 1, 2026. The cuts include:
• Blocking providers from billing for skills training and development groups for adults starting Jan. 1 in some cases,
Sheriff Wheeler: ‘I 100%
except for people age 17 and younger and adults who are receiving the early and periodic screening, diagnostic, and treatment benefit.
• Requiring more frequent prior authorization for two services: adult intensive outpatient services, and adult skills-building/community-based rehabilitative services. All adults receiving the adults skill-building/community-based rehabilitative services will need prior authorization.
Jason Coombs, founder of Brick House Recovery, a substance abuse treatment center in Boise and Idaho Falls, told the Idaho Capital Sun in a statement the cuts could limit care access in Idaho.
“These reductions across multiple levels of care raise serious concerns about our ability to adequately serve one of Idaho’s most vulnerable populations,” he said. “While I initially understood the need for greater accountability and some level of tightening within the system, the cumulative impact of these changes may unintentionally limit access to essential mental-health and substance-use treatment.”
This story was produced by Boise-based nonprofit news outlet the Idaho Capital Sun, which is part of the States Newsroom nationwide reporting project. For more information, visit idahocapitalsun.com.
agree’ that cuts to mental health care will endanger public safety
By Zach Hagadone Reader Staff
As top county law enforcement officers throughout Idaho cautioned Gov. Brad Little and legislators in a Dec. 1 letter that budget cuts will imperil mental health care services affecting public safety, Bonner County Sheriff Daryl Wheeler told the Reader, “I 100% agree with the substance of the letter.”
“Cutting these services guarantees that local law enforcement, EMS and hospitals will see an increase of calls for service and patient contacts,” he said. “As noted in our letter, any cost saving the state realizes by eliminating these services will be shifted to the counties to pick up.”
idential Treatment, which without funding will lose clinical stabilization and result in clients reentering the crisis care system;
• Early Serious Mental Illness, an early psychosis program whose removal “dumps all eligible people” into the crisis care system, as well as on ERs, EMS, police, sheriffs deputies and jails;
enforcement and other public safety and health care agencies, “We also know that once these functioning systems are disrupted, it will take substantially more time to build them back.”
According to the letter from the Idaho Sheriffs’ Association, six programs are on the chopping block as the state works to cut costs amid a looming budget shortfall (see “Idaho sheriffs worry Medicaid mental health cuts pose ‘significant public-safety concern’” on this page).
In the letter, ISA called the shortfall “self-inflicted” by deep tax revenue cuts in the 2025 legislative session.
According to ISA, programs eliminated effective Dec. 1 include:
• Assertive Community Treatment teams, which work with individuals diagnosed with severe and persistent mental illness;
• Partial Hospitalization Programs, which help people safely transition to the community after they’ve left inpatient treatment or jail;
• Homes with Adult Res-
• Intensive Outpatient, which allows individuals to receive treatment in their own surroundings, rather than undergoing full hospitalization;
• Peer Support, which helps people navigate care systems, stay engaged with treatment and maintain quality of life. In addition, ISA stated, those services allow individuals who have successfully reclaimed their lives to give back to the community. “Loss of these jobs is not only wrong, it will result in unfortunate outcomes for many,” the association wrote.
According to ISA’s letter, beyond the increased costs and labor that will fall on law
Wheeler told the Reader that, “Of the list of six services listed in our letter, Bonner County will feel the effects of the loss of Peer Support services,” adding that the other services are not offered in Bonner or Boundary Counties.
“I would suspect that the majority of persons who are suffering a mental health crisis and requiring a law enforcement response, are utilizing the Peer Support services provided by Health and Welfare,” Wheeler said.
“I will predict that the stability that support provides, now that it is eliminated, will cause instability and require an intervention by the Sheriff’s Office and local law enforcement,” he added. “Once again, we will be forced to pick up the pieces of this broken system and further stretch our limited resources.”
Bonner Co. Sheriff Daryl Wheeler. File photo
County approves elimination of Sandpoint area of impact
By Soncirey Mitchell Reader Staff
The Bonner County board of commissioners held a land use hearing Nov. 20 to discuss the proposed areas of impact for the cities of Sandpoint and Priest River; and, while voting to approve both, that meant eliminating the former.
Based on previous deliberations between the BOCC and Sandpoint City Council, commissioners agreed to a complete erasure of the city’s AOI, making it the only municipality in the county without one.
The AOI gives cities input on development and planning decisions near their borders, intended to provide an opportunity to help shepherd land that they will one day annex. After the Legislature approved changes to Idaho Code 67-6526, which significantly reduced cities’ power over surrounding areas, all municipalities were required to redraw their AOIs to comply with the law.
The revised code limits AOIs to property that is “very likely to be annexed” within the next five years and is within two miles of a city’s boundaries. It also requires cities to reevaluate their AOIs every five years and submit their proposed maps to their respective county commissioners for approval.
Property within the boundaries of an AOI is not automatically annexed, and adding or removing property does not affect taxation, county zoning or residents’ addresses.
Sandpoint previously had an AOI of 12.3 acres, which the City Council and Sandpoint Planning and Zoning Commission proposed reducing to 3.4 acres in June. This acreage included a contested area near Ontario Street and Chuck Slough, which both Sandpoint and Dover claimed.
After hearing from representatives from both cities, the BOCC determined that neither intended to annex the property in the next five years and, moreover, the area homeowners did not want to be included in either AOI. Following that, the commissioners removed the contested land from both proposals and remanded the maps to the cities, asking them to reduce their proposed AOIs to property they intended to annex.
Sandpoint city councilors voted unanimously Aug. 6 to eliminate the AOI altogether. Mayor Jeremy Grimm argued that, though in theory the city has had a voice in the decision-making process for development within the AOI, “we’ve made comments throughout the years that have been just ignored.”
“Sanpoint stated they have no intention of annexing any properties into the city within the next five years and has requested an area of impact of nothing,” said Interim Planning Director Alex Feyen at the Nov. 20 BOCC meeting.
The BOCC’s motion to accept the eliminated AOI passed without deliberation.
Additional reporting by Zach Hagadone.
Bits ’n’ Pieces
From east, west and beyond
A new X feature reveals where online accounts originate, revealing a significant number of “high-engagement” MAGA accounts are from Russia, Eastern Europe, India, Nigeria, Thailand and Bangladesh.
According to Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., the Treasury Department also has Jeffrey Epstein files, but is “stonewalling” their release. Those records are expected to show a money trail explaining how Epstein got his wealth, how he controlled his victims and what banks and individuals enabled his crimes.
The Washington Post ran an exclusive story about the Sept. 2 attack by the U.S. on a boat allegedly carrying drugs in the Caribbean (followed by about 23 more military strikes). The Post reported that prior to the attack Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued a verbal directive to “kill everybody.” Two survivors were killed, which was not shown in video footage. A bipartisan statement from the Senate Armed Services Committee has vowed “vigorous oversight” of Hegseth’s alleged “kill order,” which some lawmakers in both parties suggested may have constituted a war crime or been illegal at best, Politico reported. Hegseth denies wrongdoing; President Donald Trump said, “I believe him.”
According to various media outlets, Trump recently pardoned former-Honduras President Juan Orlando Hernández, quickly ending his 45-year sentence following a 2024 conviction on charges of drug trafficking.
The Military Times warned in August against using the National Guard in the nation’s capital, saying there’s a distinction between military protecting the country and police protecting citizens — and the Guard was not trained for the latter, putting the lives of servicemembers at risk
That reality was borne out with the shooting of two National Guard members last week near the White House, when Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29, allegedly fired on the troops who were part of D.C.’s occupation. One has since died and the other is in critical condition, as of press time. Lakanwal was struggling with mental health issues, various media reported. He’d worked with a CIAbacked “death squad” unit in Afghanistan, and was one of 76,000 Afghans under Operation Allies Welcome who came to the U.S. in 2021.
By Lorraine H. Marie Reader Contributor
Various media said Lakanwal suffered “dark periods” that suggested PTSD. He’d been granted asylum by the Trump regime seven months before the shooting. Lakanwal, who was also shot, is expected to survive and faces first-degree murder and assault charges, to which he has pleaded “not guilty.” Trump, meanwhile, pushed for more restrictions on Afghan refugees, though experts said many of those were already in place. The president vowed to “permanently pause all migration from Third World countries,” deport all legal immigrants from countries he deems “high risk,” deport those he regards as “non-compatible with Western civilization” and further reduce due process to carry out his plans.
The D.C. shooting came on the heels of a federal judge ruling that the National Guard deployment to D.C. was “likely illegal.” Trump defended the Guard, saying there have been no murders in the capital city for six months; however, there were 62 homicides. The judge put a pause on the deployment for three weeks, allowing time for troop removal and an appeal. Regardless, Trump ordered 500 more troops to D.C. after the shootings.
A recent Politico poll shows 55% of Trump voters see themselves as MAGA, while 38% do not, and the latter do not share MAGA’s enthusiasm for Trump.
On his substack “The Thom Hartmann Report,” political historian and writer Thom Hartmann asked: “Is Trump in mental decline or has he always behaved like an ass?”
Hartmann reviewed Trump’s recent actions, such as making the debunked claim that a congresswoman married her brother, calling for the death of six congressional Democrats and calling Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz “seriously retarded.” Walz, who ran unsuccessfully for vice president alongside former-V.P. Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election, called for the release of Trump’s recent MRI results, given that Trump’s father died of Alzheimer’s. Trump released the results, and said he didn’t know why an MRI was part of his health assessment.
Blast from the past: “Our heads are round so our thoughts can change direction.” — Francis Picabla, French painter, writer, filmmaker, magazine publisher and poet (1879-1953)
New report renews concerns about a massive K-12 virtual school
By Kevin Richert IdahoEdNews.org
A multimillion-dollar virtual school money trail came into sharp and stark focus Dec. 2.
In 2024-’25, the Idaho Home Learning Academy shifted $22.5 million of taxpayer money that had been earmarked for teacher salaries and staff benefits. IHLA saved much of this money by hiring part-time teachers — and far fewer staffers than the state funded.
IHLA then siphoned $20.6 million to a trio of private education vendors.
The vendors then administered $12.6 million in “supplemental learning funds” — $1,700 to $1,800 payments to IHLA families. Much of the money went toward computers, sports fees or musical instruments or lessons. But some of the money went toward private school classes — in direct violation of IHLA guidelines — and sundry items such as streaming services and gardening supplies.
Nothing in this flow of money is overtly illegal. IHLA and other virtual charters are operating in a public policy gray area, using practices neither allowed nor prohibited by law.
And the questions about IHLA’s business model aren’t new. Legislators questioned IHLA’s spending practices during the 2025 session, but made no changes in the law.
But the long-awaited report from the Office of Performance Evaluations, the Legislature’s oversight arm, could intensify the scrutiny on IHLA and the growing virtual school sector. The report recommends a series of policy changes, including
funding safeguards. Several lawmakers seemed open to the idea Dec. 2, and Gov. Brad Little strongly urged the Legislature to act.
A long and crowded hearing — and a few key exchanges
OPE presents reports like this one to the Joint Legislative Oversight Committee — an anomaly among Statehouse committees. The House-Senate committee is equally bipartisan by design, composed of four Republicans and four Democrats.
The Dec. 2 hearing strained space and time allotments.
Before even getting underway, the committee shuffled from a Senate hearing room to the Lincoln Auditorium, the largest meeting room in the Statehouse, to accommodate a large crowd, made up largely of parents wearing matching gray IHLA sweatshirts.
Originally slated to go two hours, the hearing stretched to three hours — as lawmakers pressed staffers, an IHLA administrator and IHLA vendors for details about the school’s business model, its test scores and its curriculum.
The lengthy hearing was long on details and short on dramatics, but lawmakers on both sides of the aisle found chances to make their points.
Sen. James Ruchti, D-Pocatello, said he was “extremely concerned” with the way IHLA, a charter school, had moved around taxpayer dollars.
“If this was a traditional public school district,” he said, “this Legislature would go crazy.”
House Education Committee Chairman Douglas Pickett came to IHLA’s defense. He focused on survey responses, outlined in the report, that indicated that many parents choose IHLA because they
are in some way dissatisfied with traditional brick-andmortar schools.
“These responses to me are very significant,” said Pickett, R-Oakley.
Sen. C. Scott Grow, R-Eagle, also urged legislators to tread carefully, especially in the area of curriculum. He said parents want alternatives to a rigid curriculum, and parents moving into the virtual sector want “some serious say” in what is offered to their kids.
Grow received a round of applause — the only audible reaction from the audience, as the Dec. 2 hearing stretched into the noon hour.
‘Opportunities for misuse’
The 129-page report covered many issues that have surrounded IHLA since its opening nine years ago.
Curriculum is among those concerns. While IHLA’s core curriculum is aligned with statewide academic standards, parents can choose supplemental curriculum. And according to the report, these materials are not reviewed by the Oneida School District, which authorizes IHLA.
Student performance is another concern. IHLA’s test scores lag behind statewide averages — with English language arts and math proficiency rates lagging 12 and 18 percentage points below statewide averages. While students’ scores tend to improve after their first year at IHLA, student growth continues to lag.
“Other Idaho public schools may be doing a better job of preparing students to meet state standards,” the report said.
But much of the report, and much of the discussion Dec. 2, centered on how IHLA spent its $47.8 million
in state funding in 2024-25.
“IHLA is playing by the school funding rules,” said Christopher Shank, an OPE evaluator. But those rules don’t recognize the differences between traditional schools and virtual schools.
By design, IHLA hires fewer teachers and emphasizes parent-directed learning.
The state funded 373 fulltime teaching positions for IHLA, but the school filled just 232 jobs. Much of the savings went to the third-party private vendors. And by hiring most of their teachers to parttime jobs — an arrangement many IHLA teachers like, a school administrator told lawmakers on Dec. 2 — the school saves money on benefits and routes additional money to the vendors.
Much of this money passes from the vendors to the families, in payments that are popular with parents. According to the report, 71% of parents would pull their kids from IHLA if the payments went away.
But the report also found problems.
At least $92,000 of taxpayer money went to private school classes and programs, and IHLA has no policy in place to keep that from happening.
In another case, a family received $382 for the purchase of two paddleboards. One was for the child. The second was purchased for the parent, “for safety purposes,” according to the report.
“The reimbursement process creates opportunities for misuse,” evaluators found.
‘Idaho families are voting with their feet’
IHLA’s growth is beyond debate.
The school opened its virtual doors nine years ago
to 238 students. Enrollment mushroomed during the COVID-19 pandemic and reached 7,600 students last school year. And 11 other school districts across the state are operating similar programs, said Kristie Brownell, an OPE evaluator.
Idahoans are making the choice to move their kids into an online setting, and a more engaged and flexible model, said Hailey Sweeten, an IHLA vice principal and the school’s incoming executive director.
“Idaho families are voting with their feet,” Sweeten said.
Sweeten and representatives from IHLA vendors took turns defending the virtual model.
Responding to repeated questions about the vendors — and their publicly funded profit margins — one vendor said her company budgets only a 4% profit.
“It’s worth it, because education is our passion,” said Emilee Bodily, executive director of Braintree Educational Services, which processed a total of $12.9 million from IHLA last year.
But for several state leaders, the report represented a wakeup call. In a letter to OPE dated Dec. 1, Little called the report both thorough and troubling.
“Statutory safeguards are insufficient, oversight is inconsistent and accountability measures have not kept pace with the fast expansion of the IHLA program,” Little wrote.
Idaho Education News is a nonprofit online news outlet based in Boise and supported by grants from the J.A. and Kathryn Albertson Family Foundation, the Education Writers Association and the Solutions Journalism Network. Read more at idahoednews.org.
Bouquets:
• As we launch into the holiday shopping season, please remember to give our local retailers some love instead of ordering everything online or just shopping at box stores. Not only will you meet some of the coolest people in town, you’ll find unique gifts and support people who live and work in Sandpoint. Shop small whenever you can. It really, really makes a difference.
• The amount of kindness that this community shows our newspaper on a regular basis continually amazes me. Thank you to all the generous people who continue to donate and support our efforts. It means a lot to all of us here at the Reader. I wish I could thank you all individually, but there isn’t enough ink in my typewriter to cover it all. Rest assured, when times get tough and this job seems too daunting to continue, it’s the generosity from you, our dear readers, that makes it all worthwhile.
Barbs:
• This is a reminder to everyone who parks on residential streets in the city of Sandpoint that winter parking restrictions are now in effect. From Dec. 1 to March 1, whether there is snow on the ground or not, there is no parking allowed on the odd side of the street unless posted otherwise. Violators will receive a hefty ticket ($50 for a first offense, $100 if you’ve received a parking ticket before) and will return to an empty parking spot because your vehicle got towed.
The fact that I’m including this public service reminder in the Barbs column should tell everyone how I feel about this dumb rule.
‘Protect women and girls’…
Dear editor,
The phrase “protect women and girls” sent shivers down my spine when I heard it used at City Council a couple of weeks ago.
In our country’s Southern states, that phrase and philosophy resulted in the lynching of many hundreds of innocent Black men. Most of them (maybe all?) had no ill intentions toward the women that accused them of crimes. It is also being used to damn innocent immigrants.
In my lifetime, that phrase has been used to deny me: meaningful employment, the ability to manage my own financial affairs, legal autonomy and various kinds of health care. Some laws have changed to protect me less and give me more freedom. Not all.
Today, in our community, the phrase “protect women and girls” is used to deny basic civil rights and acceptance to a small population that harbors no ill will toward women and girls and does not threaten them. If we truly worry that heterosexual pedophiles and men will abuse our tolerance for transgender individuals, let’s attack that problem, not innocent transgender people.
This seemingly innocent phrase, “protect women and girls,” is too often a trope for discrimination and oppression. Beware when you hear it.
Molly O’Reilly Sandpoint
‘Bullying for bullying’s sake’ …
Dear editor, While my address may say “Sandpoint,” our physical location is not within the city limits. I say this so that I can tell everybody that I’m sorely disappointed in the leadership displayed (or lack thereof) by the Sandpoint City Council.
To allow the “Trump Lite” voice of the BCRCC chairman to influence the council to back down on an ordinance that protects a small minority of residents is just plain bullying for bullying’s sake.
Scott Herndon’s brand of Christian nationalism bears no resemblance to the national identity envisioned by the Founding Fathers, as depicted in the new documentary series The American Revolution. Many of the Founding Fathers believed that government and religion should never be combined. They took great pains to try and ensure that there would not be
“state religion,” as there was in Great Britain. Thomas Jefferson was a deist and the remaining “Fathers” practiced religion within numerous Protestant denominations to varying degrees.
The GOP denies us the freedom to read what we want, women’s control over their own bodies and whom one can love. It has always amazed me that the GOP consistently denies individuals’ “freedoms” while protecting our “liberties” — at least in their Christian nationalist eyes.
Gil Beyer Sandpoint
‘Curiouser and curiouser’…
Dear editor,
In the DocuReal Murderous Minds video on serial killer Peter Tobin, psychologist Jeane Gerard explains that not all psychopaths are violent criminals. Many are successful CEOs or other powerful individuals who are aloof in high-stakes situations, exhibiting extraordinary lack of empathy or remorse. They enjoy inflicting suffering without discomfort. The Institute of Hu-
man Anatomy’s documentary Inside the Brain of a Psychopath explains psychopaths display behavior perceived as inhumane by most.
Recently a man collapsed near Donald Trump. Watch DJT’s lack of reaction. Everyone else rose to help, Trump stood expressionless, turned his back to the crisis and glared at the cameras, bored.
Epstein whistleblower Virginia Giuffre wrote in 2019: “In no way, shape or form am I suicidal … Too many evil people want to see me [quieted],” later committing suicide.
Epstein emails mentioned DJT 2,300 times, bragging he could take Trump down. Under video surveillance, but with two-and-a-half minutes missing, Epstein also supposedly committed suicide. Trump’s ex-wife, Ivana, died falling down a staircase. Her connection to Trump warranted surveillance in case of abduction or robbery, but there was none. All three deaths occurred to people who had damaging details about DJT. Curious and curiouser?
Betty Gardner Priest River
By Emily Erickson Reader Columnist
I’m often asked how I decide what to write about each week — whether I pull from a long-running idea list or simply hope inspiration arrives sometime before the morning of my deadline. Like most things, the answer is somewhere in between. I usually start with an intention, and then see what reveals itself.
Emily Articulated
Good news
This week, after several in a row filled with hard news — both in my own column and the stories surrounding it — I was determined to find something light or happy to write about. I thought of the news segments of my childhood, the ones where squirrels were taught to waterski, family dogs returned home after winding up several towns over or where an elderly man was given a surprise retirement by his community. (Which, not coincidentally, now make up 90% of my Instagram feed.)
With that intention came a kind of tuning in — a readiness to catch small pieces of good wherever they appeared. And, over the course of the week, they did show up, just in slightly different forms than I expected.
The first came with a quiet revelation, like tilting your head and suddenly seeing something familiar from a new angle. I was riding in the passenger seat, next to my partner, with our two slobbering pups in the back seat, and we took a detour to see if anyone had put up their Christmas lights — a quintessential “small town” evening activity.
As we drove through town, the sparkling whites and blues,
reds and greens glowed against the warm streetlamps and the dotted sky above. It occurred to me that holiday lights are mostly for everyone else, not the people who put them up.
By wrapping garland around deck posts, untangling last year’s knotted strands and craning necks to pin lights along the eaves (often with cold fingers and a questionable ladder), this activity is festive, yes, but also undeniably arduous. Yet people do it anyway, offering a little gift to anyone who happens to pass by.
They may enjoy pulling into their driveway when someone beats them home and flips the switch, but the bulk of the joy is communal. It’s an act of generosity: a small, sparkling reminder that we share this place, together.
The next message came in the form of an interview with Vivian Tu, author and media personality, who said something so simple that again it stopped me — my brain clunking the message further into place. She shared that, “We often say, ‘It takes a village,’ but forget that if you want a village, you have to be a villager.”
When asked to expand
on that idea, she continued, “It’s about the little things. If you’re mowing your lawn, mow your neighbor’s. If someone’s having a hard time, reach out.” Basically, show up for people, and they’ll show up for you.
I liked this — not for the implied reciprocity, but for the invitation to participate in the kind of community I want to live in. I’ve heard (and believed) versions of this before, but something about the phrasing reframed it for me. Once it was in my mind, moments of “being a villager” began popping up everywhere: stopping to help a couple load their Christmas tree, picking up an extra bag of dog food for the BTAA bin, taking an extra moment to have a meaningful exchange with the person scanning my groceries.
This is an impulse I’ve always had, but one that gets stymied by how easily I slip into my own interior world. In the past few years, especially, my time alone has far eclipsed my time with others. Finding my way back to this mindset feels like returning to myself.
Finally, the message was driven all the way home while watching my favorite holiday movie, Klaus. It’s set in the bleak northern town of Smeerensberg, where a spoiled trust-fund postal heir, Jesper, is forced to establish a postal system. When he arrives, he finds feuding families locked in generations of bitterness. But, through a series of unlikely events, he meets an old woodsman named Klaus, a gifted though bereaved and hermetic toy maker, and together they set off a chain reaction of kindness that transforms the entire town — and, incidentally, provides a beauti-
ful origin story for Santa. Throughout the film, Klaus’ guiding belief is, “A true selfless act always sparks another,” a perfect counterpart to Jesper’s cynical stance that “everyone is always out for themselves.” While it’s technically a children’s movie, the clarity of the message feels more relevant than ever. Generosity is transformative; it’s choosing to be a villager: showing up, reaching out and sharing light can change the tone of a place. Our instinct
toward division is not, in fact, stronger than our instinct to care for one another.
It’s a simple message, maybe even obvious. But it came to me crystal clear, almost comically persistent. And honestly, that’s all the good news I could hope for.
Emily Erickson is a writer and business owner with an affinity for black coffee and playing in the mountains. Connect with her online at www.bigbluehat.studio.
Retroactive By BO
Emily Erickson.
Science: Mad about
Beyond lethal chemicals
By Brenden Bobby Reader Columnist
There is a lot of dangerous stuff in this world. Many of us heat our homes with a gas that, if uncontrolled, can potentially leak and cause our homes to explode. A drug epidemic is raging across the world fueled by fentanyl, an artificial opiate that can kill a fully grown human with a pencil tip’s worth of the stuff. Even superglue contains enough cyanide to kill someone if left in a home oven.
As dangerous as these things are, there are some chemicals with much greater lethality — some so severe that even the Nazis thought their use was too extreme.
Chlorine trifluoride is an extremely poisonous, corrosive and reactive gas that can be pressurized into a yellow liquid at room temperature for transportation. On a danger scale of 1 to 10, this stuff ranks a solid 14. It was initially produced in Germany ahead of World War II and known as N-Stoff, or Substance N.
Chlorine trifluoride is a fluorinating agent, which means it tears apart other molecules to replace their hydrogen atoms with fluorine and, in doing so, creates an intense exothermic reaction. This makes the stuff incredibly flammable and poisonous, which was the intention behind the Nazis trying to develop and weaponize it.
However, the chemical was so difficult to manufacture and apply safely that it became so expensive to
produce that the Germans only ended up with about one-eighth of what they had projected by the time the Red Army overran the facility where it was made.
The knowledge of chlorine trifluoride’s production didn’t disappear after World War II; rather, German scientists brought their knowledge of the substance to the U.S., where it was briefly used as a rocket propellant. This was a very bad idea, illuminated when a batch of it spilled and burned through concrete and more than a meter of dirt and gravel. That’s right, chlorine trifluoride makes concrete catch fire and burn.
Interestingly, it can be stored in airtight metal containers without corrosion. These metal containers form a thin film of metal and fluoride, which keeps it stable. But if the film is scrubbed away before having time to reform, it will very violently combust. Putting out a chemical fire is tricky enough, but a poisonous chemical fire that’s burning solid steel is a whole different beast.
It’s actually still in production, used as an agent to clean the production equipment that builds semiconductors used in computers.
Another very lethal chemical is dimethylcadmium. Cadmium on its own is a pretty nasty metal, responsible for the death of countless artists throughout human history. It has a number of qualities that make it fantastic for painters, which include its brilliant hues and its ability to resist fading and weathering. Unfortunately, it’s also extremely toxic.
Cadmium was often inhaled or ingested by artists, especially those that would lick their brush to maintain a sharp point for fine detail.
Fun fact for non-painters out there: brush licking is commonplace among artists. You’d think dampening a brush with water would be safer and work just as well, but you’d be half wrong. Our saliva has a certain viscosity that helps hold the bristles together better than water on its own. This is a non-issue if you’re working with acrylic paint, but it’s a pretty important thing to be aware of if you happen to be working with white lead paint or cadmium yellow paint.
Dimethylcadmium is a colorless liquid chemical compound. It reacts with oxygen when exposed to our bloodstream, which allows it to disperse a number of nasty broken-down chemicals very effectively straight to vital organs like our kidneys, lungs and liver. Acute dimethylcadmium poisoning can end your life in a few hours. If you’re fortunate enough to survive, it’s also extremely carcinogenic due to the fact that it shears electrons from your cells, effectively swinging a wrecking ball at your DNA in the process.
Dimethylcadmium is so potent that a few milligrams per cubic meter of air is considered dangerous. It also reacts violently to water with an exothermic reaction that also creates flammable hydrogen gas — the stuff that turned the Hindenburg into a pile of ashes. Friction also causes it to ignite, while allowing it to oxidize
and rust creates an explosive crust when a small amount of friction is applied.
The lesson here is don’t spill dimethylcadmium, you can’t clean it up. You could try, but you’d be cleaning up body parts and the wreckage of your lab in the process.
If you happen to be writing the next great American
spy thriller, hopefully today’s article gave you some fun plot devices to explore. I for one think a story about Rex Brushington saving a bunch of U.N. delegates from a concentrated dimethylcadmium spill would check out frequently at your local library.
Stay curious, 7B.
Random Corner
• The U.S. didn’t have a defined intelligence agency before World War II — the government’s first official spy service was founded in 1941 and called the Office of the Coordinator of Information, which was rebranded a year later as the Office of Strategic Services. In 1945, the OSS became the Strategic Services Unit, then the Central Intelligence Group in 1946 and, finally, the Central Intelligence Agency in 1947.
• The CIA laid the foundation for the technology that helped invent Google Earth. In 2003, the CIA invested in a company called Keyhole, which was developing a 3-D system using satellites to map the Earth. Google later learned of this technology and bought the company, using it to develop Google Earth.
• The majority of CIA officers aren’t spies or undercover officers. They perform jobs as librarians, secretaries, accountants, analysts and engineers. While they usually have to keep the specifics of their jobs a secret, they don’t have to lie to their families about where they work, as films often depict work for the CIA requires.
• When the CIA was formed in 1947, President Harry Truman ensured that it was stated clearly that the agency couldn’t operate on U.S.
soil. Despite this law, the CIA has been caught several times spying on Americans under the guise of fighting terrorism. It’s a moot point, however, because the National Security Agency monitors everything Americans do anyway.
• In 2002, journalists broke a story about the CIA operating “black sites,” or secret prisons where the agency illegally detained and tortured suspected terrorists and those allegedly connected with terrorist networks or other hostile states. The black sites were spread across Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Eventually, and only because the story broke, the U.S. government shut down the secret prison program in 2006. It wasn’t until December 2014 that the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee issued its findings on the CIA’s “detention and interrogation program,” a.k.a. “the Torture Report.”
• During the Cold War, the CIA developed a program called Acoustic Kitty, which involved planting listening devices in cats and training them to sneak into enemy bases. They succeeded in implanting the devices into cats; but, as every cat owner knows, cats don’t follow instructions. The CIA eventually abandoned the project.
dumb of the week
By Ben Olson Reader Staff
No matter how many times I think we’ve reached the bottom of the Dumb barrel in American politics, someone like Pete Hegseth comes and says, “Hold my scrapin’ ladle.”
Formerly a Fox News talking head, now defense secretary for the most corrupt president in U.S. history, Hegseth is, let’s just say, problematic
In an apparent response to allegations that Hegseth’s multiple lethal strikes targeting alleged drug traffickers in the Caribbean amounted to a war crime, he posted an AI-generated image of a children’s book character Franklin the Turtle firing a rocket launcher from a helicopter into a boat. The fake cover of the beloved children’s book reads Franklin Targets Narco Terrorists. Hegseth posted the image with the note, “For your Christmas wish list.”
balked at the claim.
“As usual, the fake news is delivering more fabricated, inflammatory and derogatory reporting to discredit our incredible warriors fighting to protect the homeland,”
Hegseth wrote, probably while strangling a kitten to death. “Our current operations in the Caribbean are lawful under both U.S. and international law, with all actions in compliance with the law of armed conflict — and approved by the best military and civilian lawyers, up and down the chain of command.”
When President Donald Trump was asked about it, he said he has “great confidence” that Hegseth did not verbally order military personnel to leave no survivors: “[H]e did not say that, and I believe him, 100%.”
In response to Hegseth’s meme, X users posted their own AI-generated Franklin book covers, with titles like Franklin Goes to The Hague, Franklin On Trial at the ICC and Franklin Goes to Jail.
“Franklin the Turtle is a beloved Canadian icon who has inspired generations of children and stands for kindness, empathy and inclusivity,” a representative for Franklin publisher Kids Can Press told the U.K. Independent. “We strongly condemn any denigrating, violent or unauthorized use of Franklin’s name or image, which directly contradicts these values.”
Hegseth’s post follows a story by The Washington Post, which alleges Hegseth ordered military personnel not to leave any survivors behind after attacking boats they suspected were operated by drug smugglers. One such incident happened on Sept. 2, when the U.S. military fired a missile striking a vessel carrying 11 people. When two survivors emerged from the wreckage, a Special Operations commander overseeing the attack ordered a second strike to comply with Hegseth’s instructions to “kill everybody.”
There is now growing legal scrutiny from international investigators and members of Congress, who allege that the Trump administration’s missile strike campaign amounts to illegal extrajudicial killings. Hegseth
The National Security Leaders for America, which includes 1,400 retired admirals, generals, diplomats and other officials, said the administration’s actions “would violate a core principle of military ethics and the law of armed conflict, which prohibits targeting people who are no longer a threat or cannot defend themselves.”
On Nov. 27, Trump posted to his social media company that the airspace above and surrounding Venezuela should be considered “closed in its entirety,” but gave no further details.
To put a cherry on top of it all, despite these multiple strikes apparently targeting “drug traffickers” — and his hardline stance against illegal drugs — Trump issued a pardon to former-Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez. The former Honduran president was serving a 45-year prison sentence after being convicted of conspiring to import “an almost unfathomable 400 tons of cocaine” into the U.S., according to court documents, which also claimed he was “at the center of one of the largest and most violent drug-trafficking conspiracies in the world.”
Trump claimed Hernandez was treated “unfairly” and blathered something about Biden before trailing off into a diatribe about windmills, ballrooms and how he aced a cognitive mental test administered to stroke patients.
The AI-generated image that Hegseth posted after his orders were alleged to have been ‘extrajudicial killings.’ Image from X
Off-road vehicles must be managed to protect public lands for everyone
By Brad Smith Reader Contributor
Strong public opposition to recent proposals to sell off public lands to pay for tax cuts demonstrates the deep, bipartisan support Americans have for their public lands. Across the political spectrum, people value our national forests and rangelands for their wild open spaces, clean water, wildlife, natural resources and recreation opportunities.
Access to these lands is a privilege we often take for granted. Unlike medieval Europe — where only monarchs and nobles could enjoy undeveloped areas — public lands in the U.S. are open to everyone.
But with this privilege comes responsibility. Every American has the right to enjoy public lands, but no one has the right to abuse them.
Most people recreate responsibly, but not everyone does. As more people move to Idaho and new forms of
recreation emerge, we need basic rules to ensure that public lands are used and cared for responsibly. This concept isn’t new. When dirt bikes, three-wheelers and four-wheelers first became popular, it quickly became clear that rules were needed to protect streams, meadows, wildlife habitat and newly planted timberlands from damage caused by unmanaged off-road vehicle use.
Republican President Richard Nixon was the first to recognize this need in the early 1970s. He issued an executive order directing federal land agencies to manage off-road vehicle use by designating roads and trails where such use can occur without harming soils, wildlife or other recreation opportunities.
As off-road vehicles grew more powerful and widespread, the Republican George W. Bush administration took further steps to ensure responsible recreation. In 2005, the Forest Service adopted the Travel Management Rule, putting Nixon’s directive into action by requiring each national forest to identify specific roads, trails and areas where off-road vehicles could operate safely and sustainably.
The rule struck a balance — allowing motorized recreation while protecting other users’ experiences and safeguarding natural resources.
Despite this long tradition of support for sustainable off-road vehicle use by GOP presidents, the Republican Trump administration announced in September that the Forest Service intends to repeal the Travel Management Rule. Doing so would open the door to uncontrolled use of off-road vehicles on national forests — undoing decades of thoughtful policy designed to maintain access on designated trails, prevent erosion, water pollution and habitat destruction.
The administration seems to believe that any rule is a bad rule. But deregulating off-road vehicle use is sure to be unpopular with many Americans, including hunters who want to quietly pursue game; anglers who depend on healthy streams and meadows for
abundant fish; and hikers, equestrians and mountain bikers who seek solitude in nature.
Even off-road vehicle users might lose out. While the idea of riding anywhere might sound appealing, a freefor-all will inevitably lead to resource damage, increased county search and rescue fees, and public backlash — giving the entire off-road community a black eye and inviting stricter restrictions down the road.
As an Idahoan and the new chief of the U.S. Forest Service, Tom Schultz knows firsthand the damage unmanaged off-road use can cause. During his tenure as director of the Idaho Department of Lands, he saw how poorly managed recreation can harm soils, streams and wildlife — and create conflict among user groups.
The Travel Management Rule could certainly be updated in response to new technologies and recreation trends, but scrapping it altogether would be a grave mistake. Instead of shifting into reverse, Schultz and the Forest Service should work with hunters, anglers, hikers, riders and motorized recreationists alike to improve the rule, dedicate funding for staff to maintain our trails, and ensure that our public lands remain healthy and accessible for everyone.
Our public lands are part of what makes America unique. Let’s keep it that way — with public lands that are open to all, protected for future generations and managed with the care they deserve.
Brad Smith is the conservation director for the Idaho Conservation League.
Damage caused by off-road vehicles to a meadow in the Salmon-Challis National Forests. Courtesy photo
Top left: Janet Vetter recently celebrated her 101st birthday at Cafe 95 North with the local Red Hats group. Janet’s actual birthday is 1124-24 — 1924, that is! She credits her longevity to an active life working, going often to the Sandpoint Senior Center and the Red Hats luncheons and her loving family. Her years of frequent games of pinochle have kept her mind sharp and she still plays to this day — those fortunate enough to play with her know how good of a player she is. Photo and words by Ellen Weissman.
Top right: The Cedar Street Bridge welcomes all to the bridge this holiday season with a “Grinch Who Stole Christmas” theme. “The Grinch theme ... is a reflection of the story these past couple of years,” wrote General Manager Stacey Mueller. “When the bridge was purchased in February 2024, the heart of the bridge was barely beating; the upstairs was vacant, dining was absent, tenants were downtrodden and locals didn’t want to come in because of the ‘NO this and NO that.’ It got super grinchy when all locks were put on the bathroom doors and no one wanted to decorate for Christmas! ... Many wondered if it would ever recover at all. But with a heart to help and a stroke of kindness, the owner of the bridge made way for a miracle to happen. Hearts of sacrifice and service, and a team who truly cared and a community who dared to return, the bridge found her heartbeat again ... and now it has grown three times in size! We thank our locals for returning and the tenants for serving the cause to create a welcoming gathering hub.” Photo and words by Stacey Mueller.
Middle left: Ruby, an 80-or-so -pound pooch who thinks she’s a cat, never gives up trying to squeeze into the kitchen through the wrong door. Photo submitted by the Henney family.
Middle right: Arleen and Guy Lothian display their wine-stained copy of the Reader in the Red Mountain wine country of Washington.
Bottom left: Scotchman Peak with Pearl Island and Lake Pend Oreille in the foreground. “One of those days when it’s hard to believe how crisp and clear it can be,” wrote photographer Tom Trulock.
Bottom right: “Pondering the state of Sandpoint while at the viewpoint where a friend saw a jaguar yesterday,” wrote Perky Smith-Hagadone. “The river is the Madre de Dios (shared by Bolivia and Peru), a tributary of the Amazon River.”
To submit a photo for a future edition, please send to ben@sandpointreader.com.
HOLIDAYS
By Ben Olson Reader Staff
For many, the holiday season can be a time of anxiety due to a lack of creativity when it comes to giving gifts. That’s why the Reader offers a guide to gift ideas in each of our December editions leading up to Christmas.
This week, we offer weird gifts from off the beaten track, while the Dec. 11 edition will feature ideas that focus on local shops and, finally, the Dec. 18 edition will offer some last-minute gift inspiration.
Now, onto the weird.
Finger capybara puppets
Everyone loves the noble capybara — a rodent the size of a small car that looks like something you might dream about after eating mustard and sauerkraut before bed. Now you can own your own capybara without having to feed and care for a behemoth rodent. Capybara finger puppets can be a stress toy, an emotional support “pet” or just something funny to bring out at the office. Not a fan of capybaras? You can also purchase goat or opossum finger puppets, or buy them all and display them in your manger for all to see how truly strange you are. Buy them at offthewagonshop.com for just $2.19 apiece.
Shark blanket onesie
Are you perpetually cold, but also like marine life that could eat you? Consider purchasing a wearable shark
blanket onesie, complete with a fin, tail and shark-like appearance — minus the whole apex predator thing. If you’re into the whole apex predator thing, you’re in luck, because the blanket is designed to wrap around the body, allowing the wearer to slip their legs into the shark’s mouth, affording you the experience of what it would be like to be eaten by a soft, cute shark. It’s $18.99 and you can buy it on amazon.com.
Pooping dog butt toothpaste topper
Have you ever wanted to brush your teeth with dog poop? If so, that’s super weird, but now you can with this cleverly designed gadget that screws onto the end of a toothpaste tube and squirts the contents out of the dog’s “butt.” Plus, when you’re not using it, the dog’s legs will keep the toothpaste tube off the surface below. Just don’t forget to wipe it clean every so often to prevent germs. Buy on etsy.com for $4.49.
The anonymous potato
If you actually live in Idaho, you probably shrug when an out-of-stater brings up the inevitable mention of potatoes when talking about Idaho. The truth is, most of us don’t really give a damn about potatoes except when we’re cooking, and most of the tubers we eat in the north don’t actually come from the Gem State, but are actually grown in Washington. But, I digress. Here’s my almost-free weird gift idea of the week: give someone a random potato. Send without a return address, don’t include a note or explanation. Just wrap a potato in a bow and send it to them. Trust me, they’ll talk about it. They’ll lie awake thinking about it. It’ll be the best 30 cents you ever spent on a Christmas gift. Buy them anywhere you buy a potato, weirdo.
Custom pet portraits
In this week’s edition of “Things Pet Owners Actually Spend Money On,” we have a curious service whereby pet owners can send off their
pet’s photo and receive a portrait that transforms them into Victorian royalty, a stoic general or perhaps a vile outlaw. All you need to do is select one of the many styles, take a photo of your pet, upload it and the design team will send a preview of the artwork within five days for you to approve. The custom portraits cost about $50 at purrandmutt.com, but that’s chump change compared to a lifetime of people asking, “You actually spent money on that?”
Engrave a face on a wooden spoon
Perhaps you’re vain, or maybe you’ve always wanted to stir your food with your face. Either way, the technology now exists to engrave your own likeness onto a wooden spoon. All you need to do is send the manufacturer a picture you want to use and they’ll send you back the spoon, no questions asked. Why? Why the hell not? Get it on etsy.com for under $15.
Preserved specimens
We all have that one friend or family member who is a little different than the rest. Why not shake things up this Christmas and buy them a bona fide preserved specimen floating in a jar of formaldehyde? You can buy a leopard frog for around $2, a dogfish shark for $12, a squid for $5, an octopus for $11, a scorpion for $5 or any one of the many dozen specimens that are commonly used for biology classes. Buy them at biologyproducts.com, including displays.
MCS presents beloved Czech Christmas Mass, conducted by Jan Pellant
By Reader Staff
Since 1796, Czech’s have marked the sacredness of the Christmas season with the mass composed by Jakub Jan Ryba — a.k.a. J.J. Ryba — which combines religious themes with folk melodies and rhythms drawn from Czech history.
The Music Conservatory of Sandpoint will join the North Idaho Philharmonia and Bel Canto to host a performance of Ryba’s Czech Christ-
mas Mass on Sunday, Dec. 7 from 3-4 p.m. at the First Lutheran Church (526 Olive Ave., in Sandpoint).
Conducted by maestro Jan Pellant, the program will include four soloists, a choir and organ in presenting the pastoral masterpiece, which tells the nativity story from the perspective of shepherds in the Bohemian region of Central Europe.
Soloists include Logan Chevalier, Max Mendez, Brenda Rutledge and Karin Wedemeyer.
According to MCS, Ryba’s Czech Christmas Mass is the most beloved Christmas composition of the Czech Republic, written in the Czech language and featuring “accessible yet heartfelt music” that “captures the true spirit of Christmas for performers and audiences alike.”
Tickets are $26.90 for adult general admission, and $16.55 for students and seniors, available at sandpointconservatory.org/events/czechchristmas.
KNPS to host holiday potluck celebration
By Reader Staff
The Kinnikinnick Native Plant Society is ringing in the holidays with a party Sunday, Dec. 7 at the Sandpoint Senior Center (820 Main St., in Sandpoint).
Bring your favorite dish to share and celebrate the season with fellow plant-lovers from 11 a.m.-2 p.m.
KNPS is a local nonprofit that provides year-round educational programs and service projects intended to “foster
an understanding and appreciation of native flora and the unique habitats in the panhandle of North Idaho, to advocate for the conservation of this rich natural heritage for future generations, to encourage responsible use of native plants in landscaping and restoration, and to educate youth and the general public about the value of our native flora and their habitats.”
The KNPS Holiday Party promises good company, food and festive cheer. Learn more at nativeplantsociety.org.
SASi dishes up community
By Reader Staff
Sandpoint Area Seniors, Inc. is calling on local residents to participate in its Dish Up Community donation drive, which kicked off in early November and will continue through Dec. 31.
The effort is intended to help raise $93,000 to continue serving area seniors through the end of 2025; and, while the organization reported that it has received healthy support, it still has a long way to go.
SASi sent out about 700 envelopes that recipients can use to contribute whatever amount they wish, and donations are being accepted at sandpointareaseniors.org, which also features a QR code that sends visitors directly to Paypal. Checks can be sent to Sandpoint Area Seniors, Inc., 820 Main St., Sandpoint, ID 83864.
Any amount helps, according to organizers, who noted that $600 sponsors 100 meals. As of press time, SASi had raised $55,000 from the effort.
The nonprofit prepares more than 18,000 meals each year, including meals delivered to home-bound individuals throughout the county,
which for some are a lifeline. SASi also serves meals at the senior center, where participants enjoy both the meals and social engagement, which are important to helping avoid loneliness and isolation.
Agency funding provides about 30% of the annual budget needed for annual operations, while 40% comes from grants and donations. Fundraisers account for 5% of revenues, leaving a 22% projected deficit for this year — accounting the amount that SASi is trying to raise through its Dish Up Community campaign.
“SASi is deeply grateful to its generous Dish Up Community sponsors, who share the commitment to community: APEX Construction, Winter Ridge, VCA North Idaho Animal Hospital, Keating Jones Hughes, Mountain West Bank, 113 Main, Kochava, Co-Op Gas & Supply and Sandpoint Super Drug,” organizers stated.
Meanwhile, all are welcome at SASi for lunch Monday through Thursday at 11:30 a.m. For menus and details about classes and activities, visit sandpointareaseniors.org or call 208263-6860 for reservations.
KNPS volunteers help clean up Lakeview Park. Courtesy photo
Bonner Homeless Transitions joins state organization to support local families
Second annual SantaCon to spread holiday cheer for a good cause
By Reader Staff By Reader Staff
Bonner Homeless Transitions is once more participating in the Avenues for Hope Housing Challenge, Idaho’s largest annual fundraising event supporting housing stability and homelessness prevention. Running Wednesday, Dec. 10-Wednesday, Dec. 31, the online campaign is BHT’s most critical fundraiser of the year, helping local families move from crisis to stability and independence.
For more than 30 years, BHT has provided safe, supportive transitional housing and education for individuals and families experiencing homelessness, domestic abuse or financial hardship. Each year, the organization serves more than 60 program participants a month — more than half of whom are children — through housing, counseling, case management and life skills programs designed to break the cycle of instability.
“Every donation during Avenues for Hope directly impacts lives here in Bonner County,” stated BHT Executive Director Rebekah Little. “We’re not a shelter — we provide transitional housing and the support families need to rebuild their lives. Our goal is longterm stability, not temporary relief. This fundraiser helps us keep families safe, supported and moving forward so
they can achieve lasting independence and success.”
Hosted by the Idaho Housing and Finance Association and the Home Partnership Foundation, the Avenues for Hope Challenge unites more than 100 nonprofits across Idaho in a collaborative effort to raise awareness and vital funds for housing programs. Donations made through the campaign platform can also unlock matching funds and bonus prizes.
This year, BHT aims to raise $75,000 to help cover program costs, maintain housing units and expand support services for families recovering from homelessness and abuse. Community members can make a difference by donating at avenuesforhope.org and selecting Bonner Homeless Transitions as their charity of choice.
Supporters can also create their own peer-to-peer fundraising pages to rally friends and family, helping BHT compete for special bonus prizes.
“Each person who fundraises on our behalf helps us reach more people and open more doors,” Little stated. “Together, we can turn compassion into action and ensure every family has a place to call home.”
To learn more or get involved, visit bonnerhomelesstransitions.org or follow @BonnerHomelessTransitions on Facebook and Instagram.
Talus Rock hosts interactive whodunit with ’Til Death Does Us Part
By Reader Staff
Intrigue and a killer good time are on the menu with ’Til Death Does Us Part — an interactive muder mystery hosted Friday, Dec. 5 at Talus Rock Retreat (291 Syringa Heights Road, in Sandpoint).
The evening starts with a no-host bar and hors d’oeuvres from 5-6 p.m. — featuring beer, wine ciders, seltzers and canned cocktails — with the mystery kicking off at 6 p.m. Themed on a wedding reception, guests will participate in solving who committed the nefarious deed at the heart of the puzzle, and are invited to dress to impress, or come as they are.
Twenty main character roles have already been assigned by pre-registra-
tion, but there are plenty of not-so-prominent spots yet to be claimed. Call 208-255-8458 for reservations, but organizers ask that participants give them as much advanced notice as they can. Up to 67 characters can take part in the evening.
Everyone who participates will “mix, mingle, and dine with old friends and new as the evening takes a dark turn,” organizers stated. “Will you be the murderer or the one murdered?”
Detailed synopses of the evening will be provided, as well as character details, costume recommendations and prompts throughout the night.
Tickets are $127 per person plus tax, fees and gratuity. Book a room at Talus Rock and get 15% off your stay.
For the second year in a row, Sandpoint will play host to a grip of Kris Kringles with the return of SantaCon on Saturday, Dec. 13 at Matchwood Brewing Co. (513 Oak St.).
Billed as “Sandpoint’s biggest Christmas party,” organizers invite Claus cosplayers to “dust off your boots, spruce up your suit and fluff up those beards” as the international, onenight annual event will include raising glasses for a pub crawl and raising funds for a charitable “Santa Cause” benefiting the Schweitzer Avy Dogs — a nonprofit that supports the Avalanche Dogs and rescue program on the mountain, offering training and resources.
Meet the Schweitzer Avy Dogs from 4-6 p.m. at Matchwood to kick off SantaCon, with a family-friendly fest including DJ Lady Santa, free face painting, photos for the official Naughty and Nice list, special meals, deals and more.
Participants will also register and pick up their passports, the latter which are to be filled out at locations around town where Santas receive discounts as they spread holiday cheer.
The pub crawl begins at Matchwood at 6 p.m. and continues until 9:30 p.m., with Idaho Pour Authority, Eichardt’s Pub, the Tervan Tavern, Barrel 33, Pivo Peaks Alehouse, Mick-
duff’s Beer Hall, Utara Brewing Co., Connie’s Lounge, Smokesmith BarB-Que, Roxy’s, The Bank, The 1908 Saloon and The 219 Lounge all taking part in the festivities.
Needless to say, the pub crawl is reserved for jolly old elves 21 and older, who will convene at the 219 for the Naughty List Party at 9:30 p.m. with live music and a “Best of SantaCon-test.”
Registration is required and recommended ahead of time, as more than 125 Santas gathered in 2024 to take part in the merriment. Still, last minute, in-person, day-of registration will be available at Matchwood until 7 p.m.
To attend and support the cause, individuals should purchase a 2025 SantaCon passport. Attendees register at matchwoodbrewing.com/santacon. Proceeds from the passport will go directly to the Schweitzer Avy Dogs.
There are some rules, though: participants must have a valid ID proving they’re 21 or older; they must agree to remain respectful of bartenders and staff (with a strong recommendation to tip generously); agree not to leave a mess; refrain from doing anything illegal or otherwise nasty; be nice to kids — “He’s Santa, he makes them smile,” organizers wrote; and “Santa is Santa. Dress as Santa head to toe, you are Santa, Santa addresses Santa as Santa — act as Santa.”
Schweitzer opens Dec. 3
By Reader Staff
It looks like Mother Nature finally got the message. Thanks to favorable cold temperatures and low relative humidity, Schweitzer was able to get snowmaking operations fully underway for a Dec. 3 opening, inviting skiers and snowboarders to begin their season on the mountain.
“With some of the best snowmaking capabilities in the region, we are thrilled to get people sliding on snow this week,” said Tom Chasse, Schweitzer COO. “Although it’s a late start to the season, there’s a lot of excitement as we head into another La Niña winter, with plenty of cold temps and fresh snow projected.”
The Basin Express will operate from 9 a.m.-3 p.m. with access to Midway. No beginner terrain will be available as part of the opening. Lift tickets on opening day are $55 both online and at the mountain. Additional lifts and
2025-’26 winter season
terrain will continue to open as conditions permit. Check the mountain report at schweitzer.com for up-todate information.
Schweitzer is also offering Kids Ski Free Week from Saturday, Dec. 6-Friday, Dec. 12.
During the week, skiers and riders ages 17 and under get free lift tickets by going to bit.ly/KidsSkiFreeWeek and selecting the number of days they wish to “purchase” for a $0 ticket price. Scan the resulting barcode at any of Schweitzer’s ticket kiosks to receive your lift ticket.
Meanwhile, participants 17 and younger get 25% off the new kids menu in Schweitzer’s Lakeview Lodge during Kids Ski Free Week, and the purchase of a kid’s Smith helmet from The Source will earn buyers a free gift while supplies last.
For full details and more information, go to schweitzer.com/things-todo/events/kids-ski-free-week.
Courtesy photo
Kids ski free to kick off the
A bevy of winter fairs
By Soncirey Mitchell Reader Staff
Thanksgiving is barely in the rearview mirror, and the first week of December is already jam-packed with winter fairs to help everyone check off their holiday gift lists. A bevy of festive markets will pop up around the area on or before Wednesday, Dec. 14, giving everyone a chance to shop small and support local charitable and community organizations in the process.
Holiday Artists’ Shop
From Thursday, Dec. 4, through Sunday, Dec. 7, Create (900 W. Fourth St., in Newport, Wash.) will host its annual Holiday Artists’ Shop every day from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The free gathering includes refreshments to enjoy while combing through hundreds of unique gifts, from metalwork to woodcarving. Area musicians Joanne Heinz, Just Andy and Ben Kardos will supply the live music. Visit createarts. org for more information.
Community craft fair
The Sandpoint Lions Club and the local troop of the Girl Scouts from eastern Washington and North Idaho are teaming up for a three-day craft fair from Friday, Dec. 5 to Sunday, Dec. 7. The fair will also raise funds for the group’s activities, including the Lion’s Toys for Tots drive, to which applications remain open until Friday, Dec. 12. The free event will run from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily at the Sandpoint Community Hall (204 S. First Ave.).
Sagle Christmas Craft Fair
The many artists and residents across the sprawling Sagle community will have their own Christmas Craft Fair on Saturday, Dec. 6 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Storybook Early Learning Center (31 Ivy Drive). Santa will make a guest appearance to take pictures with kids, who will all receive a free activity kit. While they play,
parents can look over the local vendors’ handcrafted items.
St. Joseph’s Christmas Bazaar and Craft Fair
The annual Christmas Bazaar and Craft Fair is an experience in and of itself, with a wide variety of gifts, decor and baked goods, culminating in a delicious meal. The festivities will take place from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 6 at the Sandpoint VFW Hall (1324 Pine St., in Sandpoint). Arrive between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. for a lunch of homemade soup and rolls, or just come to take your pick of handmade gifts, fresh wreaths and more holiday-themed goodies.
Holiday Market
The Cottage Market and Sandpoint Teen Center are keeping their partnership going with another Holiday Market — a fundraiser and learning opportunity rolled into one. Teens and local merchants alike run booths full of baked goods, art and more, giving Teen Center members business experience and a chance to raise funds for their own financial goals and for the center’s winter programs. The free event takes place from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 6 at the First Lutheran Church (526 S. Olive Ave. in Sandpoint).
PSNI Christmas Market
With over 50 vendors offering creative and clever holiday goods, the Panhandle Special Needs, Inc. Christmas Market is a one-stop shop for all of your gift giving needs.
Vendors offer a bit of everything, including local artwork, hand-painted glassware, PSNI client-designed mugs, calendars, totes, food products, wreaths, Christmas trees and more.
“No two vendors’ items are alike, everything is unique,” said PSNI Work Services Manager Kim Derr.
PSNI serves our community’s developmentally disabled population, and its clients are involved in the Christ-
mas Market in many ways, including helping Derr to set up and manage booths, restocking merchandise and cleaning up at the end of each day. Several clients are on hand to help patrons carry out their purchases.
The goal is to help each client reach their potential, become more independent, find employment and become an asset to the community. The Market is a small source of
income which helps continue these vital programs.
The event will run from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at PSNI’s Greenhouse (1424 N. Boyer Ave.), seven days a week until Dec. 14.
Eliyah Allen (left) and Cara Warren (right), clients of Panhandle Special Needs, Inc., along with Santa, invite the public to visit their Christmas Market in the Greenhouse, 1424 N. Boyer Ave., from 10 a.m.-6 p.m. daily through Dec. 14.
Courtesy photo
Dave Pietz, 83 (April 30, 1942-Nov. 18, 2025)
Hiker, master naturalist, humanitarian and beloved father, husband, brother and uncle David Allen Pietz, 83, of Littleton, Colo., passed away on Nov. 18, 2025, after a brief illness.
Dave was born on April 30, 1942 in Spokane, Wash., the son of Roy Clayton Pietz and Olive Irene Miller Pietz. He grew up in Bonners Ferry, a town he remained connected to throughout his life. He graduated from Bonners Ferry High School in 1960 and went on to receive a bachelor’s degree in business from Eastern Washington University.
Dave married Ellen Hook on Jan. 14, 1970, and lived in Bay Village, Ohio, divorcing in 1998. He married Lynn Prideaux on Dec. 21, 2002, and they spent nearly 23 happy years in Albuquerque, N.M.; Sandpoint; and Denver.
He spent his career at Energizer, focusing on transportation and environmental compliance. After retirement in 1998, he worked as a consultant for many years and also became
heavily involved in nonprofit work, a strong passion of his.
Dave established a chapter of Family Promise in Albuquerque, which finds transitional housing for homeless families. The chapter he founded has served 500 families since 2003. He also worked to support the food security of people living on the nearby Navajo reservation.
In Sandpoint, he and his friend
Rich Crettol started the Community Resource EnVision Center, which helps people in need connect to services to overcome obstacles they are facing. He also served as an adviser to other organizations helping the disadvantaged.
Dave had a lifelong love of nature. He was a hike leader in the New Mexico Mountain Club, which is where he met Lynn, and while a member of that club he climbed 19 mountains 14,000 feet or higher. He was also active in the Sandpoint Monday Hikers club, and a hiking group in Bonners Ferry, and was a frequent hiker of the Scotchman Peaks.
He was proud of having received his certification as a master naturalist, and enjoyed taking part in a study on the grizzly bear population. Dave also lobbied legislators for legal protection for the Scotchman Peaks, and fought to limit the rail transport of volatile materials through Sandpoint.
He loved travel, touring Europe while in college, and in retirement traveling with Lynn to Europe, Asia and Africa.
Dave was a member of the First Presbyterian Church in Sandpoint and served on the Session Board and the Earth Care Committee.
Dave was a warm and wonderful parent and grandparent, who loved
spending time with his five grandchildren and traveling around the world to see them.
Dave is survived by his wife, Lynn; sons Russell (Christine) of Madison, Wis., and Matthew (Aylin) of Bangkok, Thailand; grandchildren Sebastian (17), Kamelya (17), Marie (14), Kaan (14) and Evren (11); brothers Ken (Josette) of Houston, and Wayne (Margie) of Seattle; nephew and niece Jeff (Lisa) and Janine (Morgan) of Seattle; and Lynn’s children John Whittington (Caitlin) and Merrill Kingsbury (Scott).
Dave was preceded in death by his parents and brother Gordon.
The celebration of Dave’s life will be held at the First Presbyterian Church of Sandpoint at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, Dec. 6.
Memorial donations in Dave’s memory may be directed to one of the nonprofits he helped to found — crecidaho.com and familypromisealbuquerquenm.org — or to scotchmanpeaks.org or any organization dedicated to preserving nature, protecting the environment or helping those in need.
Online condolences may be shared on Caring Bridge: tiny.cc/DavePietz
Submitted by the family of Dave Pietz.
Winery reception for December artists of the month Jenny and Christian Benoit
By Reader Staff
Husband-and-wife artistic duo Jenny and Christian Benoit will be the guests of honor at a reception for their work as artists of the month on Thursday, Dec. 11 at the Pend d’Oreille Winery (301 Cedar St., in downtown Sandpoint).
From 5-7 p.m., sip wine, have a bite to eat, meet the Benoits and take home a new piece of artwork. Though their styles are different, the Benoits’ work is complimentary. Jenny is an acrylic painter who specializes in large-scale pieces featuring lifelike details. Recognized nationally and internationally, her inspirations hail from the landscapes and surroundings of the Northwest.
Christian is an artist as well as a designer and builder, working in unique wood wall art. He uses CAD drafting, laser cutting and plywood
materials including birch, alder and walnut to create structure, while paints and stains provide artistic form.
Learn more and see examples of the Benoits’ work at jennybenoitfineart. com and christianbenoitdesign.com.
Dave Pietz. Courtesy photo
“Sunday Morning” by Christian Benoit
POAC hosts The Art of Giving: A Holiday Showcase
By Reader Staff
The Pend Oreille Arts Council’s fifth annual The Art of Giving: A Holiday Showcase will open its doors Friday, Dec. 5 and run from 5-7 p.m. at the POAC Gallery (313 N. Second Ave., in downtown Sandpoint).
The celebration invites the community to shop small and support Sandpoint’s creative economy. Featuring more than 20 local artists, the showcase offers an eclectic mix of paintings, ceramics, children’s books, jewelry, photography, candles, woven textiles, ornaments and more. All proceeds from every purchase will stay in the community, with sales supporting local artists and helping to fund POAC’s arts education programs such as Kaleidoscope, Art for Life, Expressions and Ovations.
“This showcase is truly a one-stop shop for locally made gifts,” said POAC Arts Coordinator Claire Christy. “It has such an eclectic variety and so many different styles. It’s lovely
to know that every penny made goes directly back to the community.”
The exhibition will remain on display all month during regular gallery hours. All items are ready to take home at the time of purchase, making holiday shopping joyful, local and convenient. For more information visit artinsandpoint.org or call the POAC office at 208-263-6139.
Artwork by Suzanne Jewell
Reader accepting submissions for fifth annual 208 Fiction writing contest
By Zach Hagadone Reader Staff
While it’s hard to believe the Reader’s annual 208 Fiction contest is coming up on its fifth anniversary, they do say “truth is stranger than fiction.”
Submissions for the writing competition are being accepted until 5 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 2, 2026, and the rules are straightforward: to be eligible, submissions must be exactly 208 words long — minus the required author’s name and story title — and they must be an original work of fiction.
That means no memoir or biography, no poetry, no recollections of favorite summer vacations or long-gone pets you had when you were a kid. And by “original” we mean actually written by the entrant, not clipped from another author or — God forbid — generated by AI.
The competition is open to any and all writers of all ages living in Bonner and Boundary counties, with the firstplace winner receiving a $150 cash prize, plus dining gift certificates.
Second- and third-place winners will also take home prizes, which will
remain a surprise for now.
Top stories, as well as honorable mentions, will be selected by a panel of judges composed of Reader Publisher Ben Olson, Editor-in-Chief Zach Hagadone and Senior Writer Soncirey Mitchell, and published in the Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026 edition of the Reader
The cost to enter is $5 per story, and authors are invited to submit as many as they want. To participate, send entries to stories@sandpointreader.com and include the subject line “208 FICTION.”
When submitting your story — or stories — make sure to clearly identify your name and the title of the piece(s). In addition, include your full name and “208 Fiction” with your payment information. If we can’t match your submission with the payment, then your story won’t be considered.
Send payment for entries to paypal. me/sandpointreader, or pay by check or cash at Sandpoint Reader, 111 Cedar St. Ste. #9, Sandpoint, ID 83864.
Until then, good luck putting together the best 208 words you can.
Festival of Trees celebrates Starlit Soirée Gala and Live Auction
By Reader Staff
The Festival of Trees culminates Saturday, Dec. 6 with the Starlit Soirée Gala and Live Auction, scheduled for 6-11 p.m. at The Hive (207 N. First Ave., in downtown Sandpoint).
“Step into the sparkle of the season at Sandpoint’s most magical holiday tradition, the Festival of Trees,” organizers with the Community Resource EnVision Center stated. “This year’s theme, Starlit Soirée, invites you to celebrate under the glow of beautifully decorated trees, joyful performances and community connection.”
pating businesses around town to earn stamps. Return the passports by Dec. 6 to be entered into the drawing.
There’s still time to download a passport, buy tickets and learn more about CREC by visiting crecidaho.com/festival-of-trees.
Raise a paddle and bid on holiday trees, enjoy a catered dinner and more, with funds raised for CREC and its mission to support area nonprofits.
Other top prizes include the Grand Raffle Tree, decorated by the women of the Idaho Club, and $500 in local gift certificates. To enter the drawing, get a passport and visit partici-
LITERATURE
Debut kids’ book from locally-raised author is a heartfelt exploration of family separation
By Zach Hagadone Reader Staff
Kids’ books can be for entertaining, learning and explaining hard topics — and often all three. My House in the Sky, published in 2025 by Jeff Tedd Bock, is entertaining with its whimsical, softly rendered illustrations; instructive with crisp, clear writing perfect for grade-school readers; and most deft at exploring the difficult concept of growing up in a separated family.
“The ‘house in the sky’ came from imagining where my daughter lived emotionally while growing up between two homes,” Bock told the Reader. “She was always positive about having two houses and two rooms, but part of me liked to think she also had a place that was truly hers — a magical combination of the best of both worlds.”
The narrator throughout the book, illustrated by South Africa-based artist Althea Botha, is a young girl who describes both her mother’s and father’s houses, while explaining the days she spends at each and the activities that happen there. Meanwhile, her “house in the sky” is an imaginative third place that she inhabits, filled with all the features and elements that evoke her happiest feelings and memories.
Bock grew up in Sandpoint — where his parents, Ed and Jeanne still live — and graduated from Sandpoint High School in 1992, where he and his brother played soccer with their dad as the coach. My House in the Sky is dedicated to Lili Dot — Bock’s daughter, Lilianna Dorothy — who grew up in Los Angeles, though “Sandpoint is very much her second home,” he said. “She visits every summer and has her own deep connection to this place.”
“Finishing the book took two years, but in reality, the journey was much longer,” Bock added. “I started writing it when Lili was very young and published it near her 18th birthday. In a way, the book grew up with her.”
Remembering the inception of My House in the Sky, Bock referred to the co-parenting schedule of rotating weekdays and alternating weekends, and how that affected his daughter.
“I remember feeling guilty about how often she had to transition back
and forth, and it comforted me to imagine her spending those in-between moments in this peaceful ‘house in the sky,’” he said. “The book grew out of that feeling — a place where she was always safe, always centered and always loved.”
Bock said he’s always been drawn to storytelling, earning a master’s in screenwriting and even making a film in Sandpoint called Losing Julia Finch, based on a short story by fellow SHS grad Keith Lee Morris.
He said that while “self-publishing was an incredible journey with a steep learning curve,” he hopes to work with a traditional publisher for future works.
“I discovered the writing was the easy part — designing, marketing and actually getting the book into the world were much tougher,” he added.
Despite being “literally oceans away,” working with Botha as the illustrator wasn’t one of those tough things. Bock found Botha through a Facebook group for children’s book writers and illustrators, and, “Her watercolor-based artwork immediately struck me — warm, glowing pieces that felt like childhood memories. One illustration of a campfire stopped me in my tracks. She has this rare ability to capture emotion inside an image.”
As for advice to other writers looking to get their projects in print, Bock emphasized joining a writing or publishing group.
“There’s so much great information available now — unprecedented access to creators, publishing experts, illustrators and step-by-step guidance,” he said. “The only thing that can stop you is your bandwidth.”
The other critical component is being open to letting a book develop as it will.
“I vividly remember cracking the heart of the story one spring afternoon in 2023, sitting under my blossoming orange tree, with tears welling up,” Bock said. “Stories arrive when they’re ready. And while I’m not saying you have to sit under an orange tree for magic to happen... it certainly doesn’t hurt.”
For more information and to buy My House in the Sky, go to myhouseinthesky. com.
My House in the Sky by Jeff Tedd Bock. Courtesy image
Send event listings to calendar@sandpointreader.com
Annual Tree of Memorial Lights
5:30pm @ BGH Health Services Building
Bonner General Community Hospice hosts a ceremony to honor loved ones. Learn more at bonnergeneral.org
Bingo Thursday w/ Dusty
6-8pm @ Idaho Pour Authority
Live Music w/ Double Shot Band
5pm @ Connie’s Lounge
Live Music w/ Nobody Famous
5-8pm @ Pend d’Oreille Winery
Live Jazz w/ Bright Moments
6-8pm @ Baxters on Cedar
Live Music w/ Son of Brad
5:30-8:30pm @ Barrel 33
Live Music w/ Justin Lantrip
6-8pm @ Smokesmith BBQ
Live Music w/ Jackson Roltgen
6-8pm @ Smokesmith BBQ
Live Music w/ Isaac Smith
5-8pm @ Pend d’Oreille Winery
Live Music w/ John Daffron
5:30-8:30pm @ Barrel 33
Live Music w/ J.P. Darin
6pm @ Connie’s Lounge
Live Music w/ Miah Kohal Band
9pm-midnight @ 219 Lounge
Music w/ DJ Sterling
9pm-midnight @ Roxy’s Lounge
Open Mic Night
5:30-7:30pm @ Evans Bros. Coffee
December 4 - 11, 2025
THURSDAY, december 4
Holiday Artists’ Shop (Dec. 4-7)
10am-5:30pm @ Create Arts Center (Newport, Wash.)
Enjoy live music and refreshments daily, shop
local and find unique quality gifts at 900 W.
Fourth St. in Newport
Cribbage tournament 6pm @ Connie’s Lounge
Live Music w/ John Daffron 8-11pm @ Tervan Tavern
FriDAY, december 5
Christmas Craft Fair (Dec. 5-7)
9am-4pm @ Sandpoint Community Hall
Join the Sandpoint Lions and Girl Scouts
Live Music w/ The Real McCoy 9pm @ 219 Lounge
Live Music w/ BTP
8-11pm @ Roxy’s Lounge
Live Music w/ Hannah and Ezra
6-8pm @ Idaho Pour Authority
SATURDAY, december 6
Christmas with The Gothard Sisters
7:30pm @ Panida Theater
Celtic Christmas tunes, Irish dancing and more. See Page 25 for more info Festival of Trees Starlit Soirée Gala
6-11pm @ The Hive
Live auction, bid on beautiful holiday trees, dinner and more. crecidaho.com
Friends of the Library monthly book sale
10am-2pm @ Sandpoint Library
Books make great Christmas presents!
Sagle Christmas Craft Fair
9am-3pm @ 31 Ivy Drive, Sagle
Local vendors and hand-crafted items
Music, poetry, stories and more
Live Music w/ Mason Van Stone
6-8pm @ Baxters on Cedar
Live Music w/ Kjetil Lund
6-8pm @ Idaho Pour Authority
Sandpoint Chess Club
9am @ Evans Bros. Coffee
Magic with Star Alexander
5-8pm @ Jalapeño’s
$5 Movie: The Life Aquatic 7pm @ Panida Theater
St. Joseph’s Christmas Craft Fair
9am-5pm @ Sandpoint VFW Hall
Craft gifts, lunch served from 11am-4pm
KNPS holiday party
SunDAY, december 7
11am-2pm @ Sandpoint Senior Center
Bring your favorite dish to share
Czech Christmas Mass
11am-2pm @ First Lutheran Church
See Page 14 for more info
Monday Night Blues Jam w/ John Firshi
7pm @ Eichardt’s Pub
Trivia
6-8pm @ Idaho Pour Authority
Festival at Sandpoint annual membership meeting
5-6pm @ Festival office, 525 Pine St.
Learn about the Festival at Sandpoint’s 2025 fiscal year and receive updates from the board president
Live Trivia • 7pm @ Connie’s Lounge
Gnome Macrame Ornament Class
6-8pm @ Barrel 33
$35 includes supplies
Live Music w/ Frytz Mor 8-11pm @ Roxy’s Lounge
KRFY’s Holiday Spectacular
7-9pm @ Panida Theater
A variety show with all-local music, seasonal readings, skits and comedy
Encore for the Holidays dining concert
5pm @ The Idaho Club
See Page 24 for more information
’Til Death Does Us Part Murder Mystery
6pm @ Talus Rock Retreat
See Page 16 for more information
Live Music w/ Ian Newbill
6:30-9:30pm @ MickDuff’s Beer Hall
Live Music w/ Jacob Robin
5-7:30pm @ Matchwood Brewing Co.
Sandpoint Swing Dance
6-9pm @ Sandpoint Community Hall
One-hour swing basics dance lesson at 6pm, followed by general dancing from 7-9pm. All welcome. $10
Annual St. Joseph’s Christmas Craft Fair 9am-5pm @ Sandpoint VFW Hall, 1324 Pine Handcrafted gifts, holiday decorations and seasonal treats by local artisans. Lunch served from 11am-4pm
Holiday Market
11am-3pm @ First Lutheran Church
Local merchants, crafts, baked goods, hand-crafted candy and more Swing lessons and dance social 4-6pm @ Barrel 33
$15/person, partner recommended
Live Music w/ Sheldon Packwood 6-9pm @ MickDuff’s Beer Hall
Beyond the Divide — Great Divide Trail slideshow 5pm @ The Heartwood Center
Admission is free as Matt and Dan share stories, photos and reflections from their time on the Great Divide Trail. Proceeds benefit Ethan Murray Fund
monDAY, december 8
Outdoor Experience Group Run 7pm @ Outdoor Experience
tuesDAY, december 9
Bluegrass open jam 5pm @ Connie’s Lounge
Live Music w/ Lou Hazel, Alexa Rose and Little Wolf
6-9pm @ Idaho Pour Authority
Ticketed show for this listening event (see Page 25)
Live piano w/ Jennifer Stoehner
5-7pm @ Pend d’Oreille Winery
wednesDAY, december 10
Live Music w/ John Firshi and family night
5-7pm @ Matchwood Brewing Co.
Artist Reception: Jenny and Christian Benoit
5-7pm @ Pend d’Oreille Winery
Meet the artists and take home their work
Live Music w/ Peter Lucht 5-7pm @ Pend d’Oreille Winery
ThursDAY, december 11
Cribbage tournament 6pm @ Connie’s Lounge
Line dancing lessons
6:30pm @ The Hive
$10 at the door, 21+
Music Matters! Christmas Concert 6pm @ Panida Theater
Music Conservatory of Sandpoint’s student musicians perform festive holiday selections
SHS Band Winter Concert 7pm @ Sandpoint High School
Drama and Dessert
7pm @ Sandpoint High School
A drama performance and dessert
STAGE & SCREEN
Panida continues Wes Anderson series with TheLifeAquatic
By Reader Staff
The Panida Theater dives into the deep end of its Wes Anderson film series with the oceanic adventure The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou and an accompanying costume contest. The film screens on Sunday, Dec. 7, at 7 p.m. in the main theater (300 N. First Ave.), with $5 tickets available at the door or online at panida.org.
ocean, encountering pirates and a host of colorful characters played by Anderson’s usual favorites.
The story follows famed but fading oceanographer Zissou — played by Bill Murray — as he drags a ragtag team of adventurers on an illegal shark hunt. Why? The shark in question ate his friend, so like Captain Ahab before him, he makes it his mission to exact revenge.
Along for the ride are a journalist (Cate Blanchett) and Zissou’s possible son and estranged wife (Owen Wilson and Anjelica Huston, respectively). The crew travels above and below the
The Wes Anderson series is sponsored by La Chic Boutique and the Pend d’Oreille Winery, which, along with the Panida, will supply prizes for first-, second- and third-place finishers in the Life Aquatic-themed costume contest. Dress with the characters and Anderson’s saturated, pastel color palette in mind for a chance to win.
Based on 150 votes from the community on their favorite Anderson movies, the series will continue with Fantastic Mr. Fox on Jan. 10, 2026, and Royal Tenenbaums on Feb. 13, 2026. The remaining shows will begin with an Anderson-themed fashion show and art show, respectively, featuring the work of Sandpoint High School students under the direction of teacher Ezra Stafford.
MUSIC
Night of Italian fine dining and piano performances at Idaho Club benefit MCS
By Reader Staff
It will be an evening of fine food and musical performances Friday, Dec. 5 with “Encore for the Holidays: Echoes of the Italian Coast” at the Idaho Club (151 Club House Way).
Starting at 5 p.m., attendees are invited to enjoy a three-course Italian-inspired dinner with specialty wine pairings, followed by entertainment
from the Music Conservatory of Sandpoint’s Matthew Goodrich and Melody Puller featuring works by Domenico Scarlatti and other Italian masters on the grand piano.
The menu includes an antipasti first course, followed by a second-course choice of osso buco, pasta con cozze alla tarantina and risotto alla Milanese. The third course includes a choice of tiramisu or sorbet.
Reservations are $175 per person, $700 for a table of four and $1,050 for a table of six — as well as the option of adding a year-end donation — with proceeds benefiting student scholarship programs at the Music Conservatory of Sandpoint.
“Your ticket and optional year-end gift serve as your contribution for the evening — no additional fundraising or paddle raise will take place,” stated MCS, which is an educational nonprofit eligible for the Idaho State Education Tax Credit.
“Every note and every course helps nurture the next generation of musicians,” MCS added.
For more information and to make reservations, go to bit.ly/48xLW9m.
Celebrate the season with The Gothard Sisters
By Reader Staff
There are many sounds that define the Christmas season: sleigh bells, the crunch of boots on freshly fallen snow, the quiet tinkle of an old vinyl record in another room.
In Sandpoint, the holiday soundscape now includes an annual appearance by The Gothard Sisters as they perform their uniquely Western take on Celtic music.
A Christmas with The Gothard Sisters starts at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 6 at the historic Panida Theater (300 N. First Ave.). Doors open at 6:30 p.m. and tickets are $27.
The Gothard Sisters — oth-
erwise known as Greta, Solana and Willow — have gained an international following for their festive holiday performances, which weave together Christmas carols, Celtic songs, Irish dancing and more.
The contemporary Celtic folk multi-instrumentalists are also composers and songwriters, blending their Celtic flavor with folk, world, new age and classical music. The sisters play violin, acoustic guitar, mandolin, bodhran, djembe and whistle, adding warm vocal harmonies to create a multi-faceted live performance that is fun for the whole family.
Purchase tickets at panida.
Music Conservatory presents Music Matters! Christmas Concert
By Reader Staff
The Music Conservatory of Sandpoint has introduced countless students to music through its Music Matters! after-school program over the years. Now, the student performers in the youth orchestra, choir, handbell choir and percussion ensemble will take the stage at the Panida Theater for a special Christmas concert at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 9 to share the sounds of
the season.
About 80 local music students will perform a variety of festive selections, including Mozart’s “A Little Night Music,” a handbell choir version of “Away in the Manger,” “Jingle Bells,” and a spirited performance of “Little Drummer Boy” by the percussion ensemble and a mix of other holiday selections.
Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for students, with kids 6 and under free to attend.
J. P. Darin, Connie’s Lounge, Dec. 6
The Pacific and Inland Northwest music scene is no stranger to Spokane-based songwriter J.P. Darin (a.k.a. Just Plain Darin), who plays hundreds of gigs a year with only his voice, guitar and loop pedal. The former frontman of Kidd Robin, Darin dedicates nearly every day to his craft, whether writing, performing or teaching. Audiences can expect to hear unique covers at his concerts, but Darin mostly introduces people to his original music, which can’t be easily defined. Albums like Brand New Day and My Heritage have songs that can lean jazzy
or bluesy, while others have a more nostalgic sound reminiscent of ’90s smooth pop hits. With the use of his loop pedal, he brings these studio recordings to life with harmonies and multiple guitar parts that give the illusion of a full band. Catch him at Connie’s Lounge before he heads back to Washington.
— Soncirey Mitchell
6 p.m., FREE. Connie’s Lounge, 323 Cedar St., 208-2552227, conniescafe.com. Listen on justplaindarin.com.
Lou Hazel, Alexa Rose, Little Wolf, Idaho Pour Authority, Dec. 9
Sometimes the music one creates defines a place. That’s certainly the case with folk singer Lou Hazel, who grew up along the Allegheny River, “where New York meets Pennsylvania and Northern Appalachia slips into quiet obscurity,” according to his bio. Hazel’s songs are like funeral dirges lamenting the loneliness of forgotten towns, blue-collar fatigue and that old, familiar hardship many of us walk with every day.
Joining Hazel is Alexa Rose, praised by NPR as “the soul child of Bob Dylan and Dolly Parton, who sings with
This week’s RLW by Zach Hagadone
READ
If you finished Ken Burns’ recent docuseries The American Revolution and found yourself wanting more, you can do no better than picking up any of Alan Taylor’s trilogy of books: American Colonies, American Revolutions and American Republics. Taylor won both the Pulitzer Prize for History and the Bancroft Prize (the latter being the Oscars of history writing), and you might recognize his name from Burns’ documentary, and for good reason. Find them where you find books.
LISTEN
a shimmering falsetto that Alison Krauss would stop and listen to.”
Opening for Hazel and Rose will be Little Wolf, composed of Sandpoint’s own Josh Hedlund and Justin Landis — a folk duo worth their weight in gold.
This is a listening show.
— Ben Olson
Doors at 5 p.m., show at 6 p.m., $20. Idaho Pour Authority, 203 Cedar St., 208-597-7096, idahopourauthority.com. Listen at louhazel.com, alexarosemusic.com and littlewolfband.com.
Odds are that by now you’ve heard Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas” whole or in part no fewer than three times a day at least since the day after Thanksgiving. As an antidote — and which still hews somewhat to the wintertime theme — check out Yeti Season from El Michels Affair. The New Yorkbased “cinematic soul” group combines funk, hip hop, jazz and a touch of psychedelia to create dreamy, groovy low-key tracks that feel like full experiences. Find it on the streamers.
WATCH
The brand-new documentary The Age of Disclosure is being called “unprecedented” and “revelatory,” as it includes more than 30 current and former high-level U.S. government and military officials who, despite disparate politics and backgrounds, agree that we are not alone in the universe, non-human intelligences have and continue to interact with us, and governments and corporations possess their exotic technologies (and even their bodies). Critics give it a 30% but audiences rave with 93%. Decide for yourself and rent it (for $19.99) on Amazon.
org and listen to The Gothard Sisters at gothardsisters.com.
(L to R): Willow, Solana and Greta, otherwise known as The Gothard Sisters. Courtesy photo
Music Conservatory of Sandpoint choir students rehearse for an upcoming concert. Courtesy photo
From Pend Oreille Review, December 3, 1909
UNKNOWN MAN IS KILLED
An unknown man was killed sometime Monday night on the Great Northern track at Naples. Tuesday morning’s “dinky” train was stopped when the engineer saw the maimed form of a man on the track. An examination showed that the unfortunate man’s right leg had been ground off between the knee and ankle and the flesh torn from his right arm. The injured man was taken to Bonners Ferry but lived but ten or fifteen minutes after arrival there. The fellow never recovered sufficiently after being found to give his name or address.
Coroner Knapp went to Bonners Ferry Tuesday evening and found that the dead man was apparently about 40 years of age, five feet ten in height. He was evidently a laborer. There were no scars or marks on the body to assist in idenfication and no money was found in the pockets. The coroner found that the man had stopped for two nights of the accident at a boarding house at Bonners Ferry but had not registered. It is supposed he met his death by boarding a train at Bonners Ferry and falling off as the train was passing by Naples. The unknown man had told some parties at Bonners Ferry that he was acquanted with a man by the name of Bush, a contractor, and it is possible that when Bush is located he can establish the man’s identity.
BACK OF THE BOOK In praise of ‘performative reading’
By Zach Hagadone Reader Staff
The New Yorker carried an interesting piece on its website Dec. 2 titled “Now Watch Me Read,” in which Brady Brickner-Wood explores the idea of “performative reading.” That is, the vibes — real or perceived — that are put off by people who show up in a public place like a bar or coffee shop, crack open a hefty tome and start flipping the pages.
Apparently, this activity unsettles a lot of people, who feel like anyone who dares consume a physical book outside their private space is somehow showing off, lamely attempting to attract a mate or otherwise insulting everyone else by not scrolling through their phone like everyone else.
Of course, no one can know the motivations for someone bringing a book to the bar, but that doesn’t matter. According to Brickner-Wood, the root reaction among the anti-performative readers is that performative readers are “pretentious” in a variety of ways and, therefore, commit the sin of inauthenticity. Who do they think they are, the critics argue, to think they’re impressing anyone by ruminating over Moby Dick instead of binging on TikTok or Instagram?
More dire, the article considers that the repulsion felt by many toward public book-readers stems from the “deprioritization of the written word.”
With so many forms of media tailored for rapid, passive consumption — or, in the case of generative AI, rapid, passive creation — what’s the point of settling for a singular narrative that may require hours, days or even weeks of sustained concentration?
Even more depressing, Brick-
ner-Wood writes:
“Performative reading has emerged as a suspicious activity not because reading books is suspect but because being beheld reading a book is understood to be yet another way for one to market himself, to portray to the world that he is indeed deeper and more expansive than his craven need for attention — demonstrated by reading a difficult book in public — suggests.”
formative reading” backlash is guilt.
That observation implies people have become so trained to the algorithmic ebb and flow of how information and personalities are presented via a screen that any action (even in the real world) is clocked as if it’s being curated for viral online consumption. Everything is a commercial, including reading a book.
“When did life become a land mine of possible performative gestures?”
Brickner-Wood writes, later adding, “If our culture of liberal individualism demands anything of us, it is to be, above all else, authentic. To be seen as a poseur or a phony — a person who affects rather than is — violates some nebulous code of acceptable self-cultivation.”
We must “keep it real” at all times and at all costs, whatever that means.
It’s a good read, but a question that gets lost along the way and deserves asking is why reading a book, specifically, elicits such a negative response as somehow affected or “phony.” It’s not just the “deprioritization of the written word” in a galaxy of digital “content,” nor is it the hair-raising stats that show Americans are not just becoming less literate but less capable or willing to understand what they can or wish to read.
The missing component to the “per-
People know that it’s better for their mind, body and spirit to read a book than it is to spend between seven and 11 hours or more per day consuming whatever is on the nearest screen (which are the numbers most sources cite for the average American — and, let’s admit, we’re all “the average American”).
It’s the same as running, biking, swimming, taking a walk or simply “touching grass.” It’s the same as eating healthy or doing yoga, meditating or playing an instrument, painting or making anything with your hands.
Everyone, whether they’re conscious of it or not, knows all those things are healthy; and, when we see someone else doing them while we’re not, it’s a common reaction to despise them because we know we should be doing those things, too.
There’s guilt in that reaction, but also some shame spiced with jealousy.
Sure, there’s a flex inherent in whipping out War and Peace on a crowded plane when everyone else is putting their brains on autopilot with whatever device they have at hand, but so what? Better to performatively read than underperformatively exist. Really, in the end, which of those “performances” is more authentic anyway?
Photo illustration by Ben Olson
Laughing Matter
Solution on page 26
By Bill Borders
akimbo /uh-KIM-boh/
Word Week
of the
Corrections: In the Nov. 25 article
“BoCo fairgrounds’ new bookkeeper finds discrepancies in finances” we reported that the 2024 Lost in the ’50s concert cost the fair $17,000. This figure actually applies to the 2024 Concert in the Dirt. We apologize for the error.
[adjective]
1. with hand on hip and elbow bent outward.
“She stood with arms akimbo, glaring at the man trying to parallel park next to her luxury automobile.”
If you’re ever selling your house, and some people come by, and a big rat comes out and he’s dragging the rattrap because it didn’t quite kill him, just tell the people he’s your pet and that’s a trick you taught him.
