Reader_Nov22_2023

2 / R / November 22, 2023

DEAR READERS,

The week in random review

By Soncirey Mitchell Reader Staff

smooth criminal

The downside of being a kid and firmly believing in magic is that everyday activities become more high-stakes.

Stepping on a crack will break your mother’s back and gremlins under the bed will eat your toes. When I was 9, I found out that some guy named Michael Jackson — who I’d never heard of — owned the rights to The Beatles’ entire back catalog. Since they were my favorite band, this fact obviously threw me into a blind rage that only little girls and chihuahuas can achieve. I cursed Jackson to the heavens, swore my eternal hatred of him and wished him dead so that my beloved Paul McCartney would get his music back.

Imagine my horror when Michael Jackson went and died two weeks later. Oops. I was absolutely convinced that I’d killed him with my magical powers, but I kept my mouth shut. I’d watched enough cop shows to know that they couldn’t charge me without a confession.

beware the pink cheetah print

Poison dart frogs use aposematism — bright colors and patterns — to warn predators that those tiny packages pack a punch. I, similarly, spent my tadpole years clad in bright pink animal prints and track suits that would make Paris Hilton faint. One day on the school playground, as I was wearing a pair of pink cheetah-print pants, a group of kids twice my age came up to me and decided it would be fun to play a prank on the poorly dressed preschooler. “We have to go inside for a bit. Make sure no one hurts our sandcastle,” one of them said to me, pointing to a sad mound in the middle of the sandbox. Clearly, these big kids saw how brave and strong I was and entrusted me with their most prized possession. As they left to go hide in the bushes and spy on me, their other friend stomped over and laid siege to the castle by throwing rocks and threatening to squash it with his giant, eighth-grade feet. There was no negotiating — I realized that the only language he understood was violence.

The next time he dangled one Skechers-clad foot over the castle, I took a running start and lunged at him with all my might, tackling him to the ground and sitting on him. His friends begged for mercy, but I didn’t stop whaling on him with my tiny, bony fists until my mom came and pulled me off him. The sandcastle never fell.

come on, batman, let’s go party

If you think my childhood love of princess dresses and the color pink was at odds with my knack for crushing my enemies, please understand that I frequently had tea parties with two toddler-sized dolls: Princess White-Sparkle (she had a white, sparkly dress) and Christian Bale’s Dark Knight. Batman and I would sometimes wear matching dresses made by my nana as we rescued stuffed animals from the Lava Pit of Doom, where they were simultaneously suffocating and burning alive. This is a PSA to all our male readers: ask the woman in your life what brutal games she played with her toys, then think about that answer next time you cross her.

It’s a strange feeling sending this paper to our printer on Tuesday night after almost nine years of Wednesday night deadlines, but it’s nice to know we’ll have a long weekend to spend with our families after this truncated, hectic week.

We’ve certainly gone through a lot these past nine years since bringing the Reader back from the dead: death threats, Idaho Press Club awards, a worldwide pandemic and a never-ending conveyer belt of issues to cover and share with our readers. The list goes on. They haven’t all been great times, but we feel this kind of work is essential for every community. We all need to be better informed, to laugh, to shake our heads and, yes, even to pound our heads on the table from time to time.

We are so thankful for you, our dear readers. Keep asking questions, keep demanding answers and stay informed however best you can. In exchange, we’ll keep bringing you the arts, entertainment, bluster and news that we cover.

Happy Thanksgiving!

– Ben Olson, publisher

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

sandpointreader.com Publisher: Ben Olson ben@sandpointreader.com Editorial: Zach Hagadone (Editor) zach@sandpointreader.com Soncirey Mitchell (Staff Writer) soncirey@sandpointreader.com Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey (emeritus) Cameron Rasmusson (emeritus) John Reuter (emeritus) Advertising: Kelsey Kizer kelsey@sandpointreader.com Contributing Artists: Karley Coleman (cover), Ben Olson, Karen Hanna, Anna Schramm, Todd Wendle, Southworth family, Mark Cochran, Bernard family, Karen Hempstead, Sundquist family, Charlotte Gardunia, Bill Borders Contributing Writers: Zach Hagadone, Ben Olson, Soncirey Mitchell, Lorraine H. Marie, Brenden Bobby, Emily Erickson, Luke Omodt, Deb Hunsicker, Raphael Barta, Mike Wagoner, Sandy Compton Submit stories to: stories@sandpointreader.com Printed weekly at: Tribune Publishing Co. Lewiston, ID Subscription Price: $165 per year Web Content: Keokee The Sandpoint Reader is a weekly publication owned and operated by Ben Olson and Keokee. It is devoted to the arts, entertainment, politics and lifestyle in and around Sandpoint, Idaho.

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

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

Sandpoint Reader letter policy: The Sandpoint Reader welcomes letters to the editor on all topics: –No more than 300 words –Letters may not contain excessive profanity or libelous material. Please elevate the discussion.

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

Email letters to: letters@sandpointreader.com Check us out on the web at: sandpointreader.com About the Cover

This week’s cover of a Tom Turkey was taken by Karley Coleman.

See more of Karley’s work at: fivemegawatts.mypixieset.com November 22, 2023 / R / 3

NEWS

BOCC addresses numerous county issues at special meeting

By Ben Olson Reader Staff In a sprawling special meeting Nov. 16, the Bonner County board of commissioners covered a laundry list of topics, ultimately passing several motions involving retention of outside legal counsel, the legality of a sheriff’s deputy recording executive sessions with a body camera and the attempts by one commissioner to obtain the email records of another via public records requests.

For the first order of business Chairman Luke Omodt introduced a motion to cure any violations of open meeting law that had occurred during the Nov. 7 meeting of the BOCC. It is not known what specific motion or motions were cured because they were passed during the executive session portion of the meeting; however, Commissioner Asia Williams told the Reader they had to do with “litigation,” and that there wasn’t an attorney present in order to pass those motions, so they were voided with a unanimous vote.

The next topic under discussion Nov. 16 involved retaining outside legal representation for Bonner County Clerk Michael Rosedale, who has previously been represented by the law firm Holland and Hart regarding tort litigation from Deputy Prosecutor Scott Bauer, who is currently suing Bonner County for $3.5 million.

Rosedale spoke at length during the meeting to address recent accusations against his office regarding potential fraud with the Bonner County Fair Board.

“The accusations by Sheriff 4 / R / November 22, 2023

Bonner County Clerk Michael Rosedale testifies before the BOCC on Nov. 16. Screenshot courtesy of youtube.com.

[Daryl] Wheeler and his sonin-law [Deputy Prosecutor] Scott Bauer against my office, my comptroller and Hayden Ross first revolved around a claim that there was failure to disclose any potential fraud at the fairgrounds,” Rosedale told the Reader in an email. “I have been accused that my office wrongfully/negligently and perhaps with criminal intent told Hayden Ross to not audit the fairground activities.”

Rosedale sent the Reader documents to back up his claim that the clerk’s office was not responsible for auditing the Fair Board, referencing an email from Hayden Ross attorney Tony Matson, which instructed Rosedale, “As we discussed today, the Bonner County Fairgrounds FY2022 financial information will not be included, and is not part of, the county’s audit or audited financial statements.”

Furthermore, Rosedale pointed to another accusation that his office stated there was no fraud at the Fair Board, referring to a questionnaire he had filled out and contained multiple responses, including, “[the] issue at the fairgrounds is still unknown and it is not under our purview/control.”

“There is some allegation of some financial mismanagement by the past fair director, but the fair is separate from the county and does not affect our grants that I am aware of,” Rosedale wrote in the fraud questionnaire.

Rosedale said at the Nov. 16 meeting that he required outside counsel because the accusations by Wheeler and Bauer were being waged, “in the court of public opinion.”

Following up on that assertion, Rosedale wrote, “Sheriff Wheeler has an attorney (Scott Bauer, his son-in-law) working for him. And Scott Bauer himself is railing against my office and my staff and external auditor, most recently in the form of a notice of tort. …

[O]ur prosecutor’s office is not defending me in this and I was left to fight this myself with no legal representation. I had little choice but to ask for representation from somewhere else.”

Commissioner Asia Williams opposed the motion, claiming an impending tort litigation is not an actual lawsuit yet, therefore retaining counsel would not be financially prudent. Prosecutor Louis Marshall informed the board that his “office has a right to defend

ourselves,” which he indicated would be in written form.

The board made a motion to expand the Holland and Hart contract to represent Rosedale, with Commissioners Steve Bradshaw and Omodt voting in favor and Williams voting against.

Next on the agenda was an action item to utilize Idaho Code 31-802 to obtain emails from Williams through public records requests submitted by Omodt.

That section of statute establishes the powers of boards of commissioners to “supervise the official conduct of all county officers, and appointed boards or commissions of the county charged with assessing, collecting, safekeeping, management or disbursement of the public moneys and revenues,” as well as seeing that “they faithfully perform their duties” and “direct prosecution for delinquencies; approve the official bonds of county officers, and when necessary, require them to make reports, and to present their books and accounts for inspection.”

“This is a continued showing of this board intentionally trying to just be different for one commissioner than anoth-

er,” Williams argued. “What does the board of commissioners need in my email box?”

“It’s not the emails, it’s the tax dollars being spent on special privileges and the coordinated lack of transparency from the sheriff, prosecutor and commissioner,” Omodt wrote in an email to the Reader. “The public has a right to know where the tax dollars are being spent; it is literally my job to supervise the expenditure of county tax dollars.”

In an email to the Reader, Williams wrote, “Until the community demands that Omodt and Bradshaw focus on the business of the county, things will not improve.”

Williams put forward a motion to deny any requests for the board to access her emails, but it died for lack of a second.

Omodt then moved to use Idaho Code 31-802 to obtain Williams’ emails, which Bradshaw amended to include the line, “pending legal interpretation,” before the motion passed with Bradshaw and Omodt voting in favor and Williams against.

The next agenda item dealt with whether the judge who issued a civil protective order

< see BOCC, Page 5 >

NEWS < BOCC, con’t from Page 4 > against Bradshaw for alleged threats made toward Williams had intended that the deputy assigned to supervise the BOCC be allowed to record executive sessions on his body camera. The agenda item asked whether the BOCC should hire outside counsel to investigate that question.

“A deputy prosecutor is currently suing Bonner County for $3.5 million,” Omodt wrote. “The Bonner County Fair Board gets a prosecuting attorney to attend their meetings but the BOCC does not. I have repeatedly asked for legal advice, receiving no response, then been accused of wilfully breaking the law in writing by our own attorney, and then had the same attorney initiate a serial meeting, which is an open meeting law violation.”

Bradshaw spoke briefly about questions of legality involving the deputy filming during a closed-door executive session, wondering, “Does this constitute a Bonnergate? We will get clarification on this,” referring to a trip he was making to Coeur d’Alene to address the matter with legal officials there.

Bradshaw would neither confirm nor deny the trip to the Coeur d’Alene federal building in a follow up email to the Reader, but stated he believed, “there is an effort to surreptitiously record and video my every move in the administration building and executive sessions,” and that “entrapment” was one of his concerns.

“I’m not sure what the law considers ‘spying,’ but I feel like this would fall dangerously close to that edge of the envelope,” Bradshaw wrote, adding that he has made a request for the footage to be preserved and retained in its original format, as well as a list of everyone who has viewed, copied or accessed the footage.

Williams contended that the deputy wouldn’t need to be present during the executive session portion of the meeting if Bradshaw simply attended the meetings via Zoom.

“The answer is able to be fixed instantly. Excuse yourself from in-person executive sessions,” she said, referring to Bradshaw.

“An elected official cannot serve the residents of Bonner County remotely,” Omodt wrote to the Reader in the days following the Nov. 16 meeting. “The

voters of Bonner County choose who represents them, not a judge, and the Constitution and laws of the state of Idaho determines when an elected official is removed from office.”

Bradshaw declined to comment on that topic.

The motion passed for the county to receive clarification on the judge’s civil protective order regarding recording or filming during executive session, with Omodt and Bradshaw voting “yes” and Williams abstaining because of a conflict of interest. Williams then stated she would request a “deck hearing” for Bonner County to represent her in defense of this motion and would refer the matter to the attorney general’s office for “corruption.”

A subsequent motion seeking written counsel from the Bonner County Prosecutor’s Office regarding the surveillance of executive sessions passed unanimously, with Williams stating the board is never barred from asking for a legal opinion from the prosecutor.

Omodt introduced the final agenda item, which would have retroactively eliminated the attorney-client privilege for the entire BOCC from the moment they took office on Jan. 9, 2023 to the present.

“The prosecuting attorney’s office unilaterally gave away my individual attorney client privilege as a commissioner while protecting Commissioner Williams,” Omdot wrote to the Reader. “Rules for thee and not for me is not how a republic is supposed to work. I am 100% sure that this privilege is being used to block my public records requests.”

Williams pushed back on the motion, claiming the agenda item was first titled in such a way to address her alone, but was expanded to include all the individual board members.

“We shouldn’t play ring around the retard,” Williams said, eliciting several gasps from the audience and one member of the public stating, “That’s so offensive.”

Omodt voted in favor of the motion while Williams voted against, but the motion died after Bradshaw abstained, saying, “From what I’ve seen, we don’t have attorney client privilege anymore.”

After just over an hour, Omodt adjourned the meeting.

Bits ’n’ Pieces From east, west and beyond

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

A recent sampling: Farmers are not benefiting from rising grocery prices. Bloomberg reported on a conventional-agriculture farmer in Minnesota who said he now pays twice as much for diesel, and is paying 242% more this year for “key [crop] nutrients.”

The Supreme Court’s unenforceable code of conduct is being countered with the proposed Judicial Ethics and Anti-Corruption Act, introduced to the Senate.

According to Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., the Act calls for a binding code of conduct for the Supreme Court, bans federal judges from owning or trading individual stocks, tightens restrictions on gifts and privately funded travel, overhauls the “broken” recusal process and creates new tools to hold judges accountable for their conduct.

As witnessed by Mercy Corps, more than 2.3 million people in Gaza have no water, power, internet or food, and 1.5 million are seeking shelter. Sanitation services have collapsed. Hospitals are severely compromised, many becoming death traps.

According to Mercy Corps, once the organization has safety guarantees and access, its response will accelerate and include essential items and shelter materials.

Historian Heather C. Richardson recently pointed out that for the U.S., Israel is a “strategic ally” in efforts to stabilize the Middle East. A stabilized Middle East will help maintain the Middle Eastern oil supply that’s essential to the global economy.

A primary goal of recent talks in the U.S. between President Joe Biden and China’s Xi Jinping: to restore communications, CNN reported. China agreed to “go after” its companies that make chemicals used to produce fentanyl.

Discussion topics included Taiwan, Israel and Hamas (with Biden emphasizing he regards Hamas as separate from Palestinians), artificial intelligence, transparency on nuclear issues and restrictions the U.S. has on technology exports to China. Xi regarded those restrictions as “technological containment,” but Biden said the U.S. refused to provide technology to China that could be used by the Chinese military against the U.S. Both countries agreed to increase renewable energy capacity around the world and, in a first for China, to reduce

By Lorraine H. Marie Reader Columnist

power sector emissions.

The Senate last week approved the short-term government-funding bill that passed in the House, avoiding a government shutdown before Thanksgiving. ABC reported that the new Republican House speaker came up with a two-step plan: Veterans Affairs, Transportation, Energy, and Housing and Urban Development will be funded until Jan. 19, 2024; other government functions will be funded until Feb. 2, 2024. The “stopgap” bill has no supplemental aid for Israel or Ukraine.

If retail service isn’t what it used to be, an Institute for Policy Studies report hints at why. Rather than hire more workers, CEOs are instead opting to put money — which some call “excess cash” — into stock buybacks. Example: one big box store spent close to $35 billion on stock buybacks in the past 3.5 years, artificially inflating the value of its stock. That included $14.1 billion spent in 2022, which would have been enough to give each of the company’s 301,000 employees a $46,923 bonus to pad their annual average pay of $30,000. Or executives could have used some of the buyback funds to relieve understaffing.

CDC data shows a 3% rise in infant mortality in 2022: 5.6 deaths per 1,000 live births. Axios reported the 2021 figure was 5.44. The increase hit all ethnicity groups, except for Asian infants. Black infant deaths remained highest, almost twice the average. A Toronto professor of population health commented that, given U.S. technology, the infant deaths reported should be “super rare.”

Overconsumption of social media has been linked to a rise of narcissism, best-selling health author David Perlmutter points out in Brain Wash. But brain plasticity indicates that trend can be reversed by engaging in empathy. For a start on a quick fix: Giving Tuesday is Nov. 28.

Blast from the past: “If the only prayer you say in your whole life is ‘thank you,’ that would suffice.” — Meister Eckhart (1260-1327/1328), German-Catholic theologian, philosopher and mystic.

And more: First Lady Rosalynn Carter died peacefully at age 96 on Nov. 19. Her husband, President Jimmy Carter, 99, said marrying Rosalynn was the “pinnacle of my life.” Her legacy, according to historian Stanly Godbold: she was “a master politician, diplomat, as well as caring mother and wife, she was intimately involved in every aspect of the Carter presidency.”

November 22, 2023 / R / 5

COMMUNITY

Festival of Trees spreads holiday cheer

By Soncirey Mitchell Reader Staff The Festival of Trees fundraiser returns to the Bonner County Fairgrounds Thursday, Nov. 30 under the stewardship of The Community Resource EnVision Center.

This beloved tradition began with Kinderhaven — now called the Kinderhaven Foundation — to raise funds for their mission to support Bonner and Boundary County children in crisis.

“We’re very excited and honored to have been selected to take on the mantle,” said CREC Vice President Becca Orchard. CREC works to unite local organizations that provide necessities like housing, food and education so that community members can easily find and access the resources they need.

This year the festival will auction off 18 beautifully decorated, live Christmas trees ranging from the modest to the extravagant.

20% of the proceeds will go to local nonprofits chosen by each tree’s donor, and the rest will fund 6 / R / November 22, 2023

CREC’s community outreach.

“Some of the most important and valuable services that are being provided to people in need are the least well known and the least supported financially,” said Orchard. Visit the festival to enjoy the trees’ stunning lights and ornaments — with a cup of hot chocolate and a cookie — and stock up on holiday gifts at the Christmas Shoppe.

Kids will love meeting Santa and judging the festival’s new gingerbread competition, which emerged from a partnership with LPOSD. CREC gave participating fourth grade classes $50 to create anything imaginable out of gingerbread. Festivalgoers will vote on their favorite cookie creation and CREC will auction off the winner at the following Winter Wonderland Gala on Dec. 2. The winning class will receive $200 to fund their education and all proceeds from the auction will go to a nonprofit of their choice.

“We thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be neat if we could play a role in helping young people see the value in generosity?’” said Orchard.

The Festival of Trees 2020.

Photo by Karen Hanna Finally, attendees can purchase keepsake ornaments as part of the event’s Giving Tree. Each bauble will fund a gift — from grocery cards to games — to help foster families in Bonner County. Organizers hope that they can brighten the holiday season for these families, who have become all the more important since Kinderhaven no longer operates as a shelter.

“It’s empowering,” said Orchard. “That’s a word that’s very front and center for us. We really believe that that’s the role we can play — to empower our neighbors, to empower our service providers and to empower our community.”

Celebrate the spirit of the holiday season by helping the people and organizations that make this community a wonderful place to live.

The festival is FREE and runs from 4-7 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 30 at the Bonner County Fairgrounds, 4203 N. Boyer Ave. For more information, visit crecidaho. com/festival-of-trees.

Annual Christmas tree lighting ceremony

By Reader Staff Santa will make his way to Jeff Jones Town Square on Friday, Nov. 24 for the annual tree lighting ceremony, sponsored by the Greater Sandpoint Chamber of Commerce. Enjoy cookies and hot chocolate to warm your hands

Photo by Ben Olson while waiting to see this year’s Christmas tree lit up on that cold, autumn night. The ceremony will run from 5:30-7 p.m. — with Santa arriving at 6 p.m. — at 306 N. 3rd St. Bring the whole family to share in the holiday magic.

PERSPECTIVES

Emily Articulated

Retroactive

By BO

A column by and about Millennials

Generosity

By Emily Erickson Reader Columnist

I came across a recent Facebook post on the Sandpoint Forum page so lovely that I spent the better part of a morning following its progress. It read, “What is one thing or a few things you need but cannot afford right now? Everyone check to see what others say. Maybe you have [a needed item], or have a connection to get it. We never know how we can help each other.”

The post blossomed with comments and connections, pairing searchers with gifters for everything from “a double bed frame for my daughter who grew so fast” and “a haircut for my son’s unruly curls,” to winter clothes, food for Thanksgiving, firewood and “someone to help me move my couch.”

Watching the web of community weaving itself was like seeing kids on the playground swapping their old toys, delighted in the newness of another’s nearly discarded ones. I was moved to tears, recognizing how hungry I was to witness people taking care of each other.

The post, albeit simple, created space for people to ask for help without fear of shame or judgment, while also offering an avenue for others to reflect on the things they’d been holding onto or didn’t think someone else might need. It closed the distance between those asking and those who could help, simplifying the opportunity for generosity and forging direct connections for positive impact.

The obvious effectiveness of it all made me wonder — maybe the holiday season, and the giving it inspires, is like the nudge we used

Emily Erickson. to need from our parents, simply reminding us that it’s a good thing to share.

As adults, the act of sharing may not be as simple as turning over our least favorite Pokemon card to the kid next to us, but it can be boiled down to generosity in four main forms: resources, spirit, time and thought.

The generosity of resources is what usually comes to mind when we think about giving.

It’s prompted in food drives and clothing donations, in gift-giving trees and red swinging buckets with slots for bills. It’s the most straightforward version of sharing, and often, has the highest potential for impact. Because sometimes, something as simple as warm, dry feet, made possible by a good pair of boots, is the little bit of comfort that reminds someone they’re not alone, even in the coldest of seasons.

Then, there is generosity of spirit. We’ve all been affected by those people for whom lifting up others around them seems so natural. Like the light inside of them can’t help but pour out, splashing golden goodness onto anyone lucky enough to be in their vicinity.

It’s found in each warm smile and genuine “hello,” in every spontaneous compliment and heartfelt

“be well.” Witnessing someone in their fullest, and choosing to elevate them with kindness, is a gift that stays with them far longer than it takes to give it.

Next, there is the generosity of time — the modality of giving that rarely gets the recognition it deserves. For this, I think about my mom, spending days leading up to Thanksgiving dinner chopping onions, roasting squash, baking bread and pureeing pumpkins, all so my family could spend an hour around the table together in communion. So many people give generously of themselves and their time, just to make experiences better for others. Recognizing them, and all their silent labor, is a gift for which they should never need to ask.

Finally, there is generosity of thought — a pattern of thinking that prioritizes listening over speaking, community over individualism and collaboration over competition. It’s a way of viewing the community and our place in it that is both childlike in its obviousness, and emotionally mature in its practice. Generosity of thought is understanding that no one operates in isolation, regardless of the energy we dedicate to thinking we can do it all on our own. It’s a wholehearted belief that we have something to give just as much as something to gain and that caring for others is far more inherent than tearing each other down.

This holiday season (and every season thereafter), I hope you find a way to be generous and recognize the many incredible ways people already are.

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.

November 22, 2023 / R / 7

Kindness is alive and well in Sandpoint...

Bouquets: • Thanksgiving is all about showing gratitude, which is why I’m going to give a little attention to the people who make the Reader possible. First of all, thank you, our dear readers, for allowing the Reader to be a part of our community for all these years. Thank you to our awesome advertisers and donors who make it possible for us to continue. Thanks to Editor Zach Hagadone, who started this newspaper with two friends from college in 2004. He’s one of the best journalists in Idaho right now and we’re so lucky to have him. Thanks to Staff Writer Soncirey Mitchell, who joined our crew in the summer and immediately started hitting home runs. We’re so fortunate to have her unique voice in our pages.

Special thanks to Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey, who ended her six-plus year stint with the Reader this summer just before having a beautiful baby boy. We wish you, Alex and baby Liam so much joy, Lyndsie, and we appreciate your work all these years. Thanks to Chris and Sandy Bessler, who have been tireless advocates for the Reader since Day 1, and to our friends at Keokee who help us out when we’re in a bind. Finally, so much more could be said than “thank you” to our wonderful columnists, guest contributors and artists who help fill our pages without asking for anything in return. I’m so fortunate to be surrounded by amazing people. Here’s wishing you all a wonderful Thanksgiving.

GUEST SUBMISSION: • “I have worked in the Hope precinct elections several times. I also am retired from LPOSD. I worked at Clark Fork Jr./Sr. High and Sandpoint Middle School. I am a former resident of East Hope (Dover now) and I know Purley Decker very well.

For a year, I shared a classroom at Clark Fork with him. I would like to tell you about a moment I had with him at the recent election. As the issuing clerk at the Hope Precinct, I handed him a ballot without his name on it for the school board Zone 1 position. Purley has been elected to his position on the school board many times, as he has served for 16 years. This was a special ballot, because it didn’t have his name on it as a candidate. Purley has served in the military, taught school and served as a board member for many years. Truly a lifetime of service to his nation, his vocation and his community.”

— By Sandy Ross 8 / R / November 22, 2023

Dear editor, I found myself having to wear a sling for six weeks to keep an arm immobile after shoulder surgery. First, I am grateful this is only a temporary condition and I will have the use of two arms again.

Secondly, in this time of heartbreaking inhumanity to our fellow beings on the planet, I wanted to share how kind people have been during my time of disability.

I can’t tell you how many perfect strangers have opened doors for me, offered to help reach things on shelves, and given me words of encouragement and healing. One woman saw I was pushing a wonky cart and offered to trade for her solid cart. She even transferred the items I had in my cart to hers. People really went out of their way to be kind and helpful.

Remember, when you’re digesting the latest news, there is kindness in abundance in this world. For that I am grateful.

Cynthia Mason Hope

‘How would you like this world to be?’…

Dear editor, When we finally hear each other answer it, one little question cuts through all the “us vs. them” we ever thought there was.

Our answers also end the heartbreaking like that We, the People of this World have no power.

It’s such a simple question, yet so profoundly fundamental, vital, urgent… so very obvious, yet so hard to see — the mighty question is: How would you like this world to be?

Please just imagine it, bravely, from the heart and speak it. Write your answer and share it with the world.

Then listen to each other — especially the kids.

Greg Flint Sandpoint

‘Loving Sandpoint to death’…

Dear editor, On her April 11, 2023 podcast about “loving Sandpoint to death,” Lisa Gerber talked with Jeremy Grimm, our new mayor, about development. It was an interesting conversation back-and-forth regarding developments in small town/rural areas. During this conversation there appears to be a consensus that irresponsible development is not good for any area.

“A good planner will elicit from the residents what is your vision in 20-25 years. What do you want more of and what do you want less of?” per Jeremy Grimm.

It needs to be responsible growth. I’m not sure how the project at Trestle Creek and Idaho Club serves our community. Now the Idaho Department of Lands approved this project that so many residents are not in favor of.

Where are we headed for? I hope Jeremy Grimm can help us not “love Sandpoint to death” and be the mayor that he campaigned as.

Suzanne Baker Sandpoint

OPINION

November surprise — Part 2

Non-existent records, false claims and other problems with Bonner County

By Luke Omodt, County Commissioner Dist. 3 Reader Contributor

On July 26, 2023, Sheriff Daryl Wheeler issued a public release incorrectly stating that the fairgrounds financial activity was to be audited and included in Bonner County’s Fiscal Year 2022 financial statement. On Aug. 4, 2023, Deputy Prosecutor Scott Bauer — Sheriff Wheeler’s son-in-law — in his capacity as legal representative of the Fair Board assigned by Prosecutor Louis Marshall, incorrectly stated the fairgrounds financial activity was included in the FY2022 audit of the county.

These claims are simply not true, but there are other problems.

On Friday, Nov. 17, I received a response to my public records request submitted to the Bonner County Fair Board. I requested the following records: The list of conditions stated

by Bonner County Fair Board Chairman Tim Mahan on Friday, Oct. 20, 2023.

A record of all payments issued to the bookkeeper hired by the BCFB from the period of 2014-present and the scope of services.

Copies of all certified budgets presented to the BOCC under Idaho statute from 2014-present

Commissioner Luke Omodt. File photo.

detailing the probable income and balances remaining in its treasury, and the amount to derive from levied property taxes.

Copies of all noticed Fair Board meetings and workshops discussing annual budgets and the adoption of the certified budget for presentation to the BOCC for fiscal years 2014-present.

Copies of the meeting minutes related to item No. 4. These records do not exist.

Copies of the publication in an official newspaper of general circulation, the detailed statement of all monies received and expended in connection with the operations of the Fair as per Idaho Code 22-204 for fiscal years 2014-present. These records do not exist.

These records do not exist.” For item No. 2, the BCFB didn’t employ a bookkeeper until August 2023. For item No. 3, the information presented was maintained by and included in the audited financial statements of Bonner County.

On Oct. 31, 2022, Bonner County Fair Manager Darcey Smith took her own life after being accused of misappropriating fair funds. An investigation was conducted finding there was evidence supporting that funds were misappropriated. Ms. Smith was never charged or found guilty of a crime.

The Bonner County Fair Board doesn’t have the records necessary to conduct an audit, didn’t have a bookkeeper/treasurer until 2023 and no records exist of the detailed financial statements required by law from

2014-present. Yet, the sheriff and the deputy prosecutor allege that the county commissioners and clerk’s office willfully committed fraud by not auditing the fairgrounds in FY2022.

Meanwhile, Wheeler has authorized the surveillance of BOCC executive sessions, during which the BOCC discusses confidential matters such as litigation, personnel and HR/risk without a court order or statutory authority. The BOCC doesn’t know who has access to or seen these recordings.

My most recent public records record request denial was issued by Bauer on Nov. 17.

When a county commissioner can’t get public records related to county government, that’s a problem. When an elected official, or their deputies, allege fraud and then block attempts

to view records, that’s a big problem. When the county fair board alleges fraud and the misappropriation of funds while not maintaining the financial records required by law, that’s a bigger problem. When elected officials receive privileges and services that the rest of the taxpayers do not at taxpayer expense, it’s just wrong.

My job as your Bonner county commissioner is to safeguard the taxpayer and I intend to do it.

If you have questions send them to luke.omodt@bonnercountyid. gov. I pay taxes too.

Luke Omodt represents District 3 on the Bonner County board of commissioners, comprising the areas immediately north of Sandpoint and the eastern portion of the county.

The responses I received are troubling. For items No. 1, 4, 5, 6 the response was, “This, or,

November 22, 2023 / R / 9

Mad about Science:

Brought to you by:

stainless steel

By Brenden Bobby Reader Columnist As you and your family gather around the table this Thanksgiving, stop and ponder for a moment the miracle that is your stainless steel cutlery. Unlike other steel implements, it does not rust when exposed to water, it retains sharp points and edges, and it’s perpetually shiny. What kind of magic makes stainless steel so incredible? Chromium.

Chromium is a chemical element with the symbol Cr and an atomic number of 24. It’s a lustrous element that’s extremely reflective in sufficient quantities.

Chrome plating — seen abundantly in Sandpoint every May during Lost in the ’50s — is one of the most common appearances of chromium. This effect is achieved by electroplating a very thin layer of chromium over steel to create a smooth and reflective surface that begs to be smudged by your grubby fingertips. This is not the process that creates stainless steel, however.

Stainless steel is an alloy of chromium, iron and nickel.

These metals together create a unique metal substance with a wide variety of applications, though its most identifiable form is through cookware.

Cookware is a popular use for stainless steel for several reasons. Stainless steel has a different response to oxidation than iron on its own. When iron oxidizes, it rusts and becomes brittle and flaky.

Thanks to chromium, stainless steel reacts differently to oxygen and instead creates a protective sealing film over the surface of the object, which is capable of self-healing minor 10 / R / November 22, 2023

scratches and indentations. This film also gives residual bacteria virtually nowhere to hide and makes cleaning our cookware easy.

The various qualities of stainless steel make it a perfect candidate for something that repeatedly stabs into hot food and survives the crucible of our saliva and gnashing teeth.

Commercial kitchens are loaded to the brim with stainless steel. The same properties that make it safe to go in our mouths make it easy to hold water and clean with soap.

Sinks in commercial kitchens are often three-chambered and made of stainless steel. Prep surfaces, storage spaces and fans are often made of this alloy as well to make thorough cleaning a relatively simple affair.

Imagine how much bacteria must live between the fibers of a wooden countertop. Even most laminate will degrade over time, as will chemical sealants that are repeatedly subjected to a knife’s cutting edge.

These features also make stainless steel an attractive choice for the medical and dental fields, including uses for scalpels, sinks and clamps, among myriad other uses.

Stainless steel requires a lot of heat and energy in order to melt. The melting range for stainless steel is between 2,550 and 2,790 degrees Fahrenheit.

Achieving these kinds of temperatures is a seriously difficult task — while it might not be immediately apparent, the ability to create that level of heat was one of the major technological hurdles that kept humanity from reaching the Industrial Revolution for thousands of years.

Humans first began dabbling

in metallurgy around the 6th millennia B.C.E. The development of ceramics that could retain and resist heat went hand-in-hand with smelting technology. The discovery and development of fuel was another major hurdle for early civilizations. Copper, believed to be one of the earliest metals ever worked by humans, has a melting point of 1984 degrees Fahrenheit. Wood fire burns at up to about 700 degrees.

Charcoal was a major development for metallurgy. Created by burning wood in an environment with limited oxygen, charcoal is the result of burning away virtually everything but pure carbon in a very controlled manner, leaving a substance that can burn at temperatures exceeding 2,000 degrees — especially in an enclosed space like a forge.

If you’re keeping track, the maximum temperature of a charcoal-fueled fire is still vastly below what’s needed to produce the forks on your Thanksgiving table. Stainless steel is often produced in an electric arc furnace.

Graphite electrodes are lowered into the furnace and a powerful electrical charge is applied to the metal within via an electrical arc. The enclosed air is heated to extremely high temperatures, which separates the waste into a lighter slag layer and the desired metal into a molten liquid at the bottom. Waste gasses are vented out.

Due to an absence of electrical power, this would have been impossible to achieve millennia ago — however, a neighboring technology, the blast furnace, may have existed in China as far back as 200 B.C.E. A fascinating topic for another day.

Stainless steel was first developed in the early 1800s.

Aside from the technological challenges of heat production (which had been largely solved by that point in history with the development of open-hearth furnaces and widespread blast furnaces), the availability of chromium had been a major roadblock to the discovery and development of stainless steel.

Large deposits of chromium were usually mixed with other elements — often corundum, which required more advanced

processing methods in order to extract meaningful amounts of the element. Chromium is what gives gemstones like rubies their trademark red color.

While you feast this holiday, stop and ponder the origins of your humble fork and knife and the thousands of lifetimes that were spent working toward developing something you can rinse off with a quick squirt from the sink.

Stay curious, 7B.

Random Corner berries?

Don’t know much about cran • Cranberries are one of the few fruits we eat today that are native to North America (blueberries, strawberries, persimmons and Concord grapes are also indigenous). They can be found along the northern portion of the U.S. from Maine to Wisconsin, and along the Appalachians to North Carolina.

Cranberries growing in the western U.S. were all introduced.

• Although the Native Americans did not cultivate cranberries (called sasemineash by the Narragansett tribe), they gathered berries and used them in pemmican, a mixture of dried meat or fish and berries that was pounded into a pulp, shaped into a cake and dried in the sun. Natives were also the first to make cranberries into a sweetened sauce using maple suger.

The berries were also eaten raw and used as a poultice for wounds. When mixed with cornmeal, cranberries were an excellent cure for blood poisoning. Finally, the juice was used as a dye to brighten the colors of their blankets and rugs.

We can help!

•When the first colonists arrived in North America from Europe, they found cranberries growing in peat bogs and marshes and quickly discovered their importance as a food source.

• Early settlers called the fruit “craneberry” because before the flower expanded, its stem, calyx and petals resembled the neck, head and bill of a crane. Over time, the term evolved to “cranberry.”

• Historians generally agree cranberries were likely on the table for the first Thanksgiving feast in 1621.

• There are about 3,500 different species of cranberry.

• Cranberries are covered in sand to protect the plants and roots from insects and fungi. When the bogs are flooded, the sand settles and the cranberries float to the surface.

• Cranberries, like limes, were eaten by sailors to prevent scurvy.

To submit a photo for a future edition, please send to ben@sandpointreader.com.

Top left: Anna Schramm sent this photo on Veterans Day with the message, “Thank you veterans for protecting us.”

Top right: The Nov. 16 edition of the Reader featured a mountain goat standing on a prominent rock overlooking Lake Pend Oreille from atop Scotchman Peak. Todd Wendle submitted this photo of his uncle taking a nap on the exact spot “sometime in the ’80s.” Wendle said he named the photo, “Heavenly Nap.” Thanks for the then and now perspective, Todd.

Middle left: Teri and Dick Southworth just completed a five-day visit in Rome and brought the Reader along.

Bottom left: Dr. Mark Cochran took along the Reader to the Indiana Dunes National Park on the shores of Lake Michigan.

Bottom center: Lonna and Sean Bernard from Hope brought the Reader to the Nubble Lighthouse in Cape Neddick, Maine.

Bottom right: Karen Hempstead snapped this photo while on a fall stroll at Buttonhook Bay in Farragut State Park. “The wester larch were all aglow!” she said.

Bottom far right: The Sundquist family took the Reader on their family vacation in Greece. This picture was taken in the town of Delphi.

November 22, 2023 / R / 11

PERSPECTIVES

Demographics and affordability Bonner, Boundary county real estate markets dominated by older, repeat buyers

By Raphael Barta Reader Contributor In the current chaos that is the housing market, everyone is focused on interest rates. The housing market is a sector of the economy that is especially sensitive to interest rate fluctuations, and given its multiplier effect, the housing market significantly affects the U.S. economy. Of course the present situation, which is untenable, results from a myriad of factors and simply reducing interest rates does not address the complexities.

One of the most basic human needs is shelter: interest rate gyrations, marble vs. granite countertops, discussions about density, any downstream topic about housing is still tied to million-year-old DNA that had our ancestors searching out the right cave.

This is very emotional territory.

Data is not supposed to be emotional, although it is the compilation of, and reflects, the emotional decisions buyers and sellers have made over time. “What is my house

12 / R / November 22, 2023

worth?”; “How much house do I qualify for?”; “Are home prices rising or falling?” are all emotional concerns, driven by data analysis.

Some of the hard numbers are relatively easy to access, like what homes are currently selling for, how many days listings have been on the market and so on. Demographic questions, like who is buying right now, are trickier because title companies, county assessors and MLS systems do not track much personal information.

The National Association of Realtors mailed a survey to about 186,000 people to determine a wide range of demographics.

They’ve been conducting this survey for about 45 years, and the most recent version covering 2022-2023 revealed that first-time buyers represented 32% of buyers, down from the longer-run average of 40%.

This should not be surprising, given the lack of affordable homes on the market and the spike in mortgage rates since Spring of 2022. First-time buyers made an average down payment of 8% and their median age was 35 years old. Repeat buyers, folks who were selling a current home and trading up, were a median age of 58 years old and put down 20%, presumably from equity generated from the sale of their existing residence. Meanwhile, the median household income for all homebuyers jumped from $88,000 to $107,000 — that’s in just one year.

The NAR survey was targeted to individuals; institutional buyers made up about 12% of all home purchases over the past several years, as Wall Street funds became landlords in the single-family housing marketplace (not really an issue for us here in North Idaho, however).

I’d love to see in-depth interviews for every North Idaho buyer and seller over the past year, but that is not possible. A review of the data provides some demographic insight as follows: There are currently fewer than 20 properties listed for sale under $400,000 in Bonner and Boundary counties. An 8% down payment on $400,000 is $32,000, so the buyer needs that amount in cash to even play. Mortgage principal and interest payments on the resulting $368,000 are about $2,700 per month. An annual household income of $110,000 is required to stay within the mortgage lender’s underwriting guideline of 30%.

This math puts many first-time buyers into the renter category.

On that same $400,000 house, the repeat

Raphael Barta. File photo.

buyer with 20% down faces mortgage payments of about $2,300 per month. There is a clear advantage to the older demographic, which has had more time to accumulate savings/equity, while these buyers are also reaping the benefit of the 48% increase in home values since 2019 (from a Case Shiller report). Average hourly earnings during this same time period increased 21%, so the affordability gap widened.

Bonner and Boundary County demographics show a larger concentration of residents 60 years or older than the national and the state of Idaho population distribution. In past years, lower-cost housing helped explain this as retirees from other states embraced the North Idaho lifestyle, but now the local housing market has caught up with and surpassed the national values. Over the same period, the younger demographic moved away to attend college and to seek more rewarding jobs in more culturally vibrant places.

Housing accessibility/affordability is a significant determinant of the make-up of a society, and the age/wealth gap became more pronounced here. If it looks like the Baby Boomers are buying up most of the homes, that’s because they are the dominant demographic numerically and financially.

Raphael Barta is an associate broker with an active practice in residential, vacant land and commercial/investment properties. raphaelb@sandpoint.com.

PERSPECTIVES

Voices in the Wilderness A rare sighting

By Deb Hunsicker Reader Contributor

“There’s some kind of animal down there.” I shift my attention from the bag of trail mix I’m focused on and scan the area my husband is pointing to — an open, grassy area next to a small lake. Then I see it, too. A small, dark shape is slowly working along the lake’s edge, nose to the ground.

We are quite a distance away, on a rocky ridge high above the lake, so at first, we aren’t quite sure what we are seeing. We watch for a few minutes and tick through the possibilities. Moose? No, it’s too small and not the right body shape. Bear? No, it’s got a long tail. Wolf? We’ve heard wolves howl for the last few miles, but the legs are too short. Badger? The fur color is wrong, and this isn’t a badger habitat.

Then we look through the 30-times zoom of a cell phone camera lens and can hardly believe our eyes — it looks like a wolverine!

We have had a lot of amazing wildlife sightings in our years of hiking, but we have never been lucky enough to have a wolverine cross our path. Until now, until hiking for days to reach this small lake in the heart of a rugged wilderness area.

As we sit and watch the animal, the wolves begin howling again, two of them howling back and forth across the lake basin. Are they discussing this rare carnivore who is wandering in their territory?

Or maybe it is our presence that has them talking?

The animal seems mostly unconcerned by the wolves and continues, perhaps looking for dinner or a snack.

We savor the moment and continue watching until the small, dark animal,

Deb Hunsicker at Heart Lake and Pearl Lake. Courtesy photo.

having completed a full circuit of the lake, retreats into the forest. It’s getting late, and daylight will soon be fading. Time for us to pack up and retreat into the forest, too, to find a place to pitch our tent for the night.

After we return home, we share our fuzzy photos and videos with some wildlife experts we know. Their reply was not what we wanted to hear — the animal we saw most likely wasn’t a wolverine, but rather a rare “dark-phase” red fox.

Initially, I felt a bit disappointed after believing that we had finally seen the elusive wolverine. A fox? We’d briefly considered it a possibility, but all of the foxes I’ve seen before were red or gray. I had no idea

that foxes could have black fur.

The disappointment fades as I think back to that quiet hour we spent, perched above a beautiful mountain lake, experiencing the joy of seeing a wild animal going about its day, all while listening to wolves howling in conversation. It was a perfect late summer afternoon in the wilderness. And we just saw a rare, dark-phase red fox.

How cool is that?

Author’s note: This incredible experience happened while hiking in the Great Burn Proposed Wilderness area. The Great Burn, much like the proposed Scotchman Peaks Wilderness, spans the Idaho-Mon-

tana divide. For more information on this unique area and the effort to save it, visit the Great Burn Conservation Alliance at greatburn.org.

Deb Hunsicker, also known by her trail name Walking Carrot, has hiked the triple crown (Appalachian, Pacific Crest and Continental Divide trails) and lives in Sagle with her husband (and adventure buddy), where she works as an environmental consultant. When not enjoying the outdoors, she enjoys knitting, curling up with a good book and snuggling with her two cats.

November 22, 2023 / R / 13

By Mike Wagoner Reader Contributor

holidays You know how certain songs can get stuck in your head … maybe like …

“Country Roads Take Me Home.” See … you just sang it to yourself a little right then, huh? Well, it’s cool. I mean, music helps to make this life not only more tolerable but fun, comforting and at times even inspirational. However, if you find yourself exposed to a tune spawned by the devil and you can’t get away or make it stop … it can be stressful, sorta like yellow jackets at a picnic, and the potential sting can stay with you for a while. For me, one of those types of songs is “The twelve Days of Christmas.” I mean, I know where it’s goin’ and it takes forever to get there.

I like the holidays but it’s a time that also puts me on my guard. Last year I

14 / R / November 22, 2023

got trapped in a checkout line waiting to pay for some Christmas gifts when the department store muzak system suddenly began to rain down … you guessed it … “on the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me.” My eyes glazed over a little and it was either just drop the merchandise and walk briskly for the door or just stand there and take it… well, I took it, knowing full well that it might get lodged in my head like a burr in the side of a dog.

I know this sounds a little … anal and abnormal … there are plenty of other things to concern oneself with in this life and I’m happy to report it did go away … it only took about like …

12 days or so.

OBITUARY

Charles David Hutchens David Hutchens stepped off into the next mystery on Sunday, Nov. 5, 2023 at Garfield Bay under the tender care of hospice hosts Becky and Jerry “Hooey Man” Luther. Private family service has been held.

David was born Dec. 26, 1951 in Phoenix, Ariz. and raised in Chandler, Ariz. His grandmother, Grace, lived down the alley and taught him the magic of roses and gardening in the desert.

Coming of age, with the skill of pottery adopted, he afforded himself a bus ticket and arrived in Spokane, Wash., with a dog in tow. In no time at all, he settled in Sandpoint where he became a father and established himself as an accomplished artist, master gardener and fine finish carpenter. He spent a lifetime of braiding three masteries into the path of sustenance.

His husbandry included dogs, horses and birds, with rolling pigeons being his latest passion. The Modena, his first bird love, was also the last: the full circle.

As a lifelong student of clay, one early

stop along the way landed him in Sun Valley as the director of the Sun Valley Center for the Arts. Decades later he returned to the desert and found himself at Arcosanti developing a clay center. He enjoyed being Paola Solari’s last best friend. He read Paola’s works aloud weekly and spent hours at his elbow. David was given the great honor of building Paola’s coffin and setting him to rest in the red soil of the desert that they both loved and understood.

While in Arizona, David participated in cultural endeavors where potters, geologists, archeologists and anthropologists combed the desert to find original sources of clay and David taught them to harvest clay in season and make coil pots under the original sun. It was reclamation on many levels.

David traveled waterways like others use highways. With friend Jamie, he built spruce kayaks that struck awe when parked atop his truck. Everything he built, be it a pot, a boat, a door, a hutch, a barn:

(Dec. 26, 1951-Nov. 5, 2023)

Charles David Hutchens it was at the apex of craftsmanship. Heart.

Hand. Soul.

David’s greatest life focus was his daughter, Aleya. He loved being in the adventure of parenting thanks to Aleya.

As Aleya came of age, David took her to Italy to experience the long-beaten trails of

humanity. They visited villages and walked old paths, ate authentic foods and looked at the world’s revered art. Aleya will return to those paths with David for his final trek and we are reminded that, “No one is lost to us” — words of poet Debra Magpie Earling.

David is survived by beloved daughter, Aleya Hutchens of Sandpoint and brother Dan Hutchens of Phoenix. In the last decade with his partner, Patty Factor, they built a home on the family homestead at the base of Goat Mountain in Clark Fork, where Patty remains tending horses and dogs.

David was preceded in death by mother Betty Marchant and grandmother, Grace, of Arizona. Lake View Funeral Home in Sandpoint is tendering arrangements. Please visit the online memorial. Tell the stories. Share the heart, hand, soul stories at lakeviewfuneral.com and sign the guestbook. In lieu of flowers, send a donation to the public school ceramics/clay programs in Hope or Clark Fork or the Sandpoint Arboretum.

Grow a tree.

November 22, 2023 / R / 15

FEATURE

Idaho’s unofficial state bird

How turkeys went from an ‘exotic’ novelty to conquering Idaho

By Zach Hagadone Reader Staff Most people probably already know that the turkey is a uniquely North American bird — a fact primarily responsible for its central role in the also uniquely North American holiday of Thanksgiving. Just as well known are the complicated colonial underpinnings of our national day of thanks, but lesser known — at least to many of us — is that turkeys are also settler-colonists of a sort, at least to Idaho.

Despite their near ubiquitousness in the driveways, roads, fields and yards of rural North Idaho, there is no such thing as a “native” Idaho turkey. Prior to the 1960s, there were no turkeys in the Gem State.

What’s more, it wasn’t until the mid-1980s that there were enough of them in North Idaho to hunt — even then, the permits were limited in number and the season only open in Boundary County and some areas around Lewiston.

How the most-American of poultry came to be a transplant in Idaho — and a veritable newcomer to North Idaho — is a story not so much of wildlife management, but of wildlife swapping in the interest of giving the state’s hunters something more interesting to stalk. The wisdom of this policy is debatable, and it’s clear from the newspaper records that the overpopulation of turkeys was becoming a problem by the 1990s; but, all the same, they’re everywhere now, and how and why they got here is a seemingly forgotten though fascinating story.

A new voice in Idaho’s ‘wildlife chorus’ Digging through the archives of local newspapers — digitized by the Bonner County Historical Society and hosted online by the East Bonner County Library — reveals a trove of articles about turkeys, dating from early 1960s to the end of 1999, when the local fixation on the fowl seems to have faded.

The arrival of the birds in Idaho made for a good-sized story in the Feb. 2, 1961 edition of the Sandpoint News Bulletin under the headline: “Wild Turkey Yelps and Gobbles Added to Idaho’s Wildlife Chorus.”

Written by Jim Humbrid, of the Idaho Fish and Game Department, the piece described how four mature toms and 13 hens had been flown into the state from Colorado, then released in the Whitebird area, south of Lewiston.

The turkeys — of the wild Merriam’s

16 / R / November 22, 2023

species — were native to the Rocky Mountains from Mexico to Pikes Peak, in Colorado, whence they had come after a trade: mountain goats from Idaho for turkeys from Colorado.

According to Humbird, Merriam’s turkeys had a long and important history.

“Spanish conquistadores obtained from this breed the stock from which domestic turkeys were developed in Europe, and these were brought back to America by the early colonists,” he wrote.

The Fish and Game Commission began its effort to bring turkeys to Idaho about a year earlier, in 1960, with the express intention of providing sport for hunters.

“Objectives behind the releases are to provide a source of stock planting to other suitable Idaho locations and eventually to provide turkey hunting in the state,” Humbird wrote, going on to caution that Idaho wildlife officials were prepared for the possibility that the “trial releases” “may result in complete failure.”

However, he noted, similar flocks had been previously transplanted to Montana, South Dakota and Wyoming, where their numbers had grown large enough to allow for the establishment of hunting seasons within 10 years of their introduction. “[The commission] needs the help of everyone likely to encounter the wild turkeys, help in protecting the big showy birds and giving them ‘every chance of taking hold in their new home,’” Humbird wrote. “Specifically, all persons concerned are urged not to feed the turkeys. They are fully capable of obtaining their own food at all seasons of the year.”

Courtesy photo.

Ending on a somewhat triumphal note, Humbird quoted from then-Fish and Game Commission Director Ross Leonard that even if Idaho’s new population of turkeys failed to take hold in numbers sufficient to allow for hunting, “the venture will be worthwhile ‘if we can go out at daybreak in the spring of the year and hear the yelp of the hen and the gobble of the old harem-master himself.”

Enter ‘the exotics’ Though the first birds were rehomed in the Lewiston area, local interest followed soon after. In its very next edition, the News Bulletin reported that the Clark Fork Rod and Gun Club would hear a presentation from a University of Idaho expert on Idaho’s new turkeys, and, “It is hoped that these game birds will be distributed over several areas.”

That process would be slow going, and include multiple transplantations from other states in exchange for a number of other Idaho wildlife species. A further 11 turkeys came to the state from Colorado — again in exchange for mountain goats — in the spring of 1962 and another shipment of the birds came in December that year.

The steady introduction of Turkeys from Colorado continued through the following years, to the point that by the spring of 1965, the News Bulletin could report that, “Somewhere between 500 and 1,000 Merriam’s wild turkeys now strut along the lower Salmon River, mainly the offspring of 39 transplants brought to Idaho from Colorado in exchange for mountain goats,

and some of these are being trapped and introduced into other parts of the state this winter.”

The paper wrote that, “The introduction of exotic wildlife species where feasible habitat can be found and damaging competition with other species will not follow is part of the [Fish and Game] department’s five-point program for the future.”

By the mid-1960s, it became clear that Fish and Game — and by extension the local papers — were hot to trot for turkeys.

Article after article through the end of the decade meticulously followed the growing population and range of the birds throughout the state, with one dispatch in 1965 stating, “Noble Game Birds Thrive: Wild Turkeys Promise Thrill For Idaho Hunters in Near Future.”

Quoting from the Lewiston Tribune, the News Bulletin wrote, “To the traveler attuned to the manners and moods of the wild creatures, the first glimpse of a wild turkey is an experience to be prized for a lifetime.

The tourist may be driving through the high, clean ponderosa forests toward the north rim of the Grand Canyon, when he first sees a proud, graceful tom stalking through a bright cluster of aspen. Or he may be hiking up a mountain trail in Colorado when he first glimpses three wild turkeys at a bend in the path. Wherever the encounter occurs, it imprints upon the memory of a grateful human a picture which can be recalled in all its splendor when the winds of the winter blow or the turmoil of daily problems beat upon frayed nerves.”

That poetic language held out “another bright now hope … to the dreams of the watchful sportsman in Idaho,” the News Bulletin wrote.

Despite flowery reports and high-flown promises, even by 1966 there were only scattered reports of the turkeys coming north from their original transplant areas — one lengthy article in July 1966 hinted that perhaps a few of the birds had been seen in the St. Maries area. Otherwise, the population remained south of Lewiston.

Given the slow progress of the turkey introduction program in Idaho, it was telling in the spring of 1967 that the News Bulletin carried a large piece claiming that the importation of wildlife species into non-native habitats was “now [a] scientific effort.”

Citing evidence from other species of game birds such as Chinese pheasants, Hungarian partridges and chukars, the paper wrote that introduction of these “exotics”

< see TURKEYS, Page 17 >

< TURKEYS, con’t from Page 16 >

had provided highly successful hunting opportunities in other parts of the country.

According to the News Bulletin, California bighorn sheep, opossum shrimp, Japanese green pheasants and, of course, turkeys were all being actively relocated to Idaho.

However, in the Nov. 23, 1967 edition of the paper, Jack McNeel, of the Idaho Fish and Game Department, contributed an article to the News Bulletin on “a modern Thanksgiving,” opening his piece with the statement: “The year 1967 will be remembered for many things of worldwide interest, but for many Idaho sportsmen it will also be remembered as the first year that turkeys have been hunted in Idaho. For the first time in the history of the state, a few hunters will be sitting down to a Thanksgiving dinner graced by a wild turkey killed along Idaho’s Salmon River.”

Almost 1,500 Idahoans applied for 150 tags costing $5 each. Of those, only 135 were collected and, ultimately, only 15 hunters were known to have taken a bird during the inaugural two-week season.

Not a great showing, though McNeel wrote, “Perhaps panhandle area hunters will have the opportunity to bag a wild turkey before many more seasons. Fifteen hunters this year have already had a dream come true with a story to tell their grandchildren of how they killed a turkey for Thanksgiving in Idaho’s first-ever turkey hunt in 1967.”

Slow growth in gobblers At the close of the 1960s, turkeys still hadn’t made their way into the upper panhandle, with one piece in the Daily Bee reporting in late October 1969 that while some birds had been introduced around St. Maries, “the winters apparently are too snowy and the springs too wet for this species of upland game bird to take hold.”

Regardless, a few months later in the spring of 1970, McNeel wrote in his “Wildlife Window” column that about 52 wild turkeys were known to have gathered around St. Maries, but “have become quite tame since there has been no hunting allowed on this flock.” Rather than institute North Idaho’s first turkey hunt, a handful of those birds were trapped and taken south to the Boise area.

Asked why they weren’t either allowed to stay or otherwise distributed to other parts of the panhandle, McNeel wrote, “As the better areas get filled, they will be moved into some of the areas that look less likely, and perhaps other areas in North Idaho will fall into this category.”

Our neck of the woods apparently wasn’t turkey territory for a good reason. Still, “It’s an interesting program … and one that I think most conservationists and hunters are interested in,” McNeel concluded.

True enough, turkey populations were finally starting to grow elsewhere in Idaho, with about 3,000 statewide in the spring

of 1970. By that winter, wildlife hunters contemplated a hunt in St. Maries for the fall of 1971. That didn’t happen. Nor did it happen in 1972. By the spring of 1973, McNeel’s admitted in his column, “This flock has never expanded the way we had hoped it would.”

“When we made the initial release in the St. Maries vicinity, it was thought that we would be hunting them within three or four years,” he wrote. “Six years have now elapsed since the release and we still haven’t had any hunts in that area.”

While articles continued to be printed in the local papers extolling the nobility and craftiness of the Merriam’s turkey, it wasn’t until November 1974 that the Bee could report, “Wild Turkeys Are Coming.”

“Seems there are some wild turkeys on the loose around here,” Bee writer Dave Finkelnburg reported. “There aren’t many, and they may not survive the winter, but it appears that wild turkeys are going to become a permanent part of the wildlife of Bonner county before too long.”

Finkelnburg went on to write that turkeys had been released in the Coeur d’Alene River drainage and even some had “wandered” west from Washington into the Priest Lake area, but “disappeared.” Meanwhile, other birds had similarly trekked east from Montana into the Clark Fork River area.

“If the wild turkeys are successfully introduced into this area, they will be a striking sight for people lucky enough to see them,” Finkelnburg wrote, adding later, “Then perhaps some lucky hunter will be able to sit down to a Thanksgiving feast with a real wild turkey.”

Again, this proved to be wishful thinking. Riggins remained the nearest place from Bonner County to hunt turkeys in the spring of 1975. Finally, in the spring of 1976, a handful of turkeys were planted near Bonners Ferry, and three sites in Bonner County were being considered for releases: Granite Creek, Hope and Laclede.

Meanwhile, that fall, the Bee reported that the number of wild turkeys nationwide had grown from about 100,000 birds in 1952 to 1.2 million.

Regardless of that population growth elsewhere, it was with a note of disappointment that McNeel wrote in December ’76 that, “Turkey Prospects Look Bleak.”

“The history of the turkey in Idaho is less than 20 years old and the history of the turkey in the northern portion of Idaho is even newer than that,” he wrote, later adding, “I had big hopes that population would multiply and we would be hunting turkeys in northern Idaho by the early 1970s. Unfortunately, that hope has since faded and although there are a few birds around, the population is not very high.”

Boom times in the turkey trade Turkey seasons came and went through the end of the 1970s, and it became clear

Courtesy photo.

that at least some of the birds had made Bonner County home. Real estate advertisements in the late-’70s occasionally listed seeing wild turkeys as a selling point for rural properties, but still no local hunters were heading out into the brush to bag their Thanksgiving entree.

By the fall of 1979, an estimated 2,500 turkeys could be found throughout Idaho, and even then the state was trading its own wildlife for additional supplies of gobblers.

Idaho struck a deal to swap 40 pine martens to South Dakota for 120 Merriam’s wild turkeys in 1980, but delivery of the animals took more than a year to complete.

As many as 250 turkeys were brought to Idaho from five states in 1982, including both Merriam’s and Rio Grande birds from South Dakota, Kansas, California, Texas and Oklahoma — all transplanted in central and southeastern Idaho.

Other trades that year included kokanee eggs to New Mexico and even grizzly bear skins for turkeys. The turkey trade again boomed in mid-February 1983 with news that 150 Rio Grandes and 50 Merriam’s would be coming to Idaho by the end of the month from Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Texas, though the only transplant location in North Idaho would be near Harrison in Kootenai County.

“With luck, the turkeys will prosper as well as the now-flourishing flock of turkeys that was planted several years ago in Boundary County,” the Bee reported.

Those birds had proliferated to such a degree that they numbered about 300 in Boundary County, and had even started “plaguing farmers,” resulting in a plan to trap some of them and move them elsewhere.

“Quite honestly, we didn’t think they would do as well as they did,” the paper quoted McNeel, who served in the Coeur d’Alene office of the Idaho Department of Fish and Game.

Underpinning the growth of Idaho’s turkey population was “a sort of chain reaction of wildlife trades with other states.”

The “game plan,” so to speak, was for Kansas to give turkeys in exchange for sharp-tailed grouse from North Dakota, which would in turn receive chukars from Idaho. But first, Idaho would need to get the chukars from Nevada in a swap for Columbian sharp-tailed grouse. Meanwhile, New Mexico would again receive kokanee eggs from Idaho and Oklahoma would get Gem State antelope.

South Dakota still owed Idaho for its earlier pine marten trade, and Texas would receive ring-necked pheasants from south-central Idaho.

Just in time for Thanksgiving 1983, McNeel published an article that Fish and Game was now “getting complaints about geese and wild turkeys,” ostensibly for flocking in farmers’ fields and eating all the seed. Undaunted, the transplants continued and, in early 1984, the local paper announced, “All of a sudden, turkey hunting is a big sport for Idaho outdoorsmen.”

Yet, the problem of the turkeys becoming too domesticated mounted, with many of them displaying tendencies toward becoming “barnyard fowl” when accustomed either to conscious feeding by residents or the ready availability of feed near human habitations.

Finally, spring and fall turkey hunts were allowed in Boundary County in 1984, which resulted in 20 birds taken from among 41 tag-holders.

Seasons continued in Boundary County, and more and more turkeys came into Idaho from other states during the following years, including a trade of river otters from Idaho for Nebraska turkeys in 1986.

By February 1987, more than 500 Merriam’s and Rio Grande turkeys had been brought to Idaho in the 1980s alone, and they were known to be (finally) traveling into Bonner County.

In the first years of the 1990s, the North Idaho turkey population reached an apparent tipping point, entering a period of rapid

< see TURKEYS, Page 19 > November 22, 2023 / R / 17

events

November 23 - 30, 2023

Send event listings to calendar@sandpointreader.com

wednesDAY, november 22 5th Annual Burger Dock Giving Thanks 4-6pm @ The Burger Dock Come down to the burger dock and enjoy free Harvest Burgers, sweet potato fries and pumpkin pie shakes while supplies last.

Tap Takeover with Kettlehouse 5-7pm @ The Back Door

Cribbage League 7-9pm @ Connie’s Lounge

Wednesday Line Dancing Lessons 6:30-8:30 @ The Hive Lessons are $10, and there are usually 3 lessons. Open dancing from 8:30-9:30 pm so you Ponderay Rotary Raffle can practice afterwards. Ages 21+ Tickets $50 each Get tickets from PonderayRotaryClub.com or email at PonderayRotaryClub@gmail.com for other options. Drawing Nov. 24

Open Mic Night 6pm @ Tervan Tavern Bring your talent in front of a live audience with a chill vibe

Live Piano w/ Bob Beadling 5-7pm @ Pend d’Oreille Winery

COMMUNITY Kootenai Tribe sponsors free community concert

THURSDAY, november 23

HAPPY THANKGIVING!

Annual Turkey Trot 9am @ Great Northern Park, Lincoln Ave. Join Litehouse YMCA and Sandpoint Parks and Rec for Sandpoint’s Annual Turkey Trot food drive. This low key, untimed event features a 5K, 10K, or whatever distance you want to run or walk (no bikes please). This run is free with your donation to the food bank. Best costume wins a pie.

Signed waiver required (minors need a parent or guardian signature). Arrive early to sign off waivers and drop off your donation to the food bank Thursday Night Football 4:45pm @ The Hive 21+ Live Music w/ Brian Jacobs 7-9pm @ The Back Door

Live Music w/ Jacob Robin 6-8pm @ Idaho Pour Authority

Live Music w/ Sam Leyde 7-10pm @ Eichardt’s Pub Live Music w/ Jordan Pitts 6:30-9:30pm @ MickDuffs Beer Hall

Game Night 7pm @ Tervan Tavern

FriDAY, november 24

Live Music w/ BTP 5-8pm @ Pend d’Oreille Winery Classic rock, oldies and favs Bourbon County Stout Day 11am-6pm @ 219 Lounge Bottles of barrel-aged stout for sale and on draft at the Niner

Shook Twins Giving Thanks Show 7:30pm @ Panida Theater The annual concert from Sandpoint’s hometown sweethearts, with special guest Karli Fairbanks and others. Feel the love with the Shookies

Schweitzer Opening Day @ Schweitzer Let the winter begin! Weather permitting, this is the opening day

Holiday Cottage Market 10am-2pm @ Sandpoint Senior Ctr Saturdays prior to Christmas. Santa Claus will be there every Sat. in December. Raffles, gifts, etc.

SATURDAY, november 25 Live Music w/ Zach Simms 5-8pm @ Pend d’Oreille Winery Live Music w/ Ian Newbill 6-9pm @ MickDuffs Beer Hall

SunDAY, november 26

Sandpoint Chess Club 9am @ Evans Brothers Coffee Magic with Star Alexander 5-8pm @ Jalepeño’s

Supaman. Courtesy photo.

Tree Lighting 5:30-7pm @ Jeff Jones Town Sq. The annual tree lighting in Sandpoint hosted by the Chamber.

Santa will be there, so bring the kiddos and have a great time Fine Art & Craft Fair 10am-4pm @ Hope Marketplace Pop-up event including many art mediums, going from Nov. 24 to Dec. 3 in Hope

Live Music w/ Biddadat (21+ / no cover) 9pm-midnight @ 219 Lounge Funky nationally ouring band with origins in Sandpoint. One of the most fun shows you’ll see all year

monDAY, november 27 Monday Night Blues Jam w/ John Firshi 7pm @ Eichardt’s Pub Weekly Trivia Night 6-8pm @ Idaho Pour Authority Lifetree Cafe • 2pm @ Jalapeño’s Restaurant With rotating hosts “An Evolving Faith” Outdoor Experience Group Run 6pm @ Outdoor Experience 3-5 miles, all levels welcome

Pool Tournament Mondays • 6pm @ Connie’s $12 entry, with $10 going to prize pool

tuesDAY, november 28

City of Sandpoint Open House 5-7pm @ City Hall Share your ideas for the Travers Park expanded inclusive playground and splash pad. Kids of all ages are invited to attend and draw their ideal playground. Hot cocoa, holiday cookies and drawing supplies provided

Supaman concert (FREE) 6pm @ Bonners Ferry HS Auditorium See story to the right for more info

wednesDAY, november 29

Live Piano w/ Jason Garret Evans 5-7pm @ Pend d’Oreille Winery

Open Mic Night 6pm @ Tervan Tavern

Wednesday Line Dancing Lessons 8:30-9:30pm @ The Hive

ThursDAY, november 30 Festival of Trees Friends and Family Night 4pm @ Bonner County Fairgrounds A free and festive kickoff to the holidays. View beautifully decorated trees and vote on your favorite gingerbread creation, get a pic with Santa and enjoy cookies and hot chocolate 18 / R / November 22, 2023

Thursday Night Football 4:45pm @ The Hive 21+

Cribbage League 7-9pm @ Connie’s Lounge

Game Night 7pm @ Tervan Tavern

By Reader Staff In honor of November’s Native American Heritage month, the Kootenai Tribe of Idaho is proud to sponsor a free community concert performed by the national touring artist known as Supaman.

“Supaman” is Christian Takes Gun Parrish, a Native American dancer and innovative hip hop artist who has dedicated his life to empowering and spreading a message of hope, pride and resilience through his original art form. He has been nominated for and won several music awards and is currently on a national tour spreading the good medicine of resiliency, love, laughter and inclusion.

Supaman’s one-of-a-kind presentation combines Native culture, comedy and urban hip hop culture which dazzles audiences and captivates listeners. For this he has gained the respect of his community and generation. The communicative talent along with the compassion that exude from his music allows him to connect with people from all walks of life. His uncanny ability to motivate, encourage, and inspire through dance, and hip-hop music keeps him at the forefront among his contemporaries, which gives him a platform to educate on Indigenous issues.

This free concert will be at 6 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 27 at the Bonners Ferry High School Becker Auditorium. This event is suitable for all ages.

< TURKEYS, con’t from Page 17 > expansion. In 1994, the local press reported that the population of turkeys in Boundary County had “sometimes caused problems” and even resulted in a surplus for stocking other areas in the state.

Thirty-five years after the first turkeys came to Idaho, Bonner County received about 50 birds relocated from Kootenai County, which were planted in Laclede. The plan in 1996 was to move a total of 200 others into the panhandle, including from British Columbia, Canada, where Idaho birds had spread and were being returned to their home with some annoyance — though, of course, Idaho had never really been their “home.”

“When it comes down to it all, all wild turkeys are either themselves transplants or they are the offspring of transplants,” the Bee reported in late-February 1996, going on to write that more than 1,200 turkeys had been moved into the panhandle alone since 1982 and about 7,000 hunters statewide had taken more than 1,500 of the birds just in 1995.

That should have been a big victory for the original 1960s plan to establish a new game species for hunters, but by Thanksgiving time 1998, the paper carried a story about policy changes necessitated by the birds’ rapidly expanding numbers.

“Have you noticed that turkeys have been running rampant in the area lately?”

Daily Bee Staff Writer Mary Berryhill asked in the lede to her Nov. 26, 1998 story, quoting from an IDFG expert that the population had experienced “a great increase” in the previous two years and new regulations would be put in place to allow hunters to take up to three turkeys in a year to “relieve the problem” of overpopulation.

The IDFG official suggested that “the turkey situation is a tough one,” as, “Hunters like to hunt turkeys and enjoy having them around, while others who don’t hunt like to observe them.”

Echoing the current status of the turkey population in the area, Berryhill concluded, “Whatever the case may be, if you don’t find turkey on your platter for Thanksgiving dinner, you’ll probably be able to see plenty in the fields right outside your window.”

Turkeys conquer Idaho While turkeys had grown from an “exotic” novelty in the early 1960s to a “problem” by the late 1990s, the state was still importing them from other places as late as 1999. That same year, the state again altered the hunting regulations, allowing for two turkeys to be taken per hunter in the spring and the timing of the fall hunt changed to “address some problems landowners have encountered with birds congregating just prior to winter,” according to a February

1999 article in the Bee. On the eve of the 21st century, Idaho Fish and Game Conservation Educator Phil Cooper looked back in the Nov. 18, 1999 edition of the paper on almost 40 years of turkeys in Idaho, writing that the IDFG “got serious about the turkey transplant program in the early 1980s.”

According to Cooper, 439 hunters had taken to the field in 1985, bagging 73 birds statewide.

In 1999, that number was more like 13,000 hunters taking about 5,000 turkeys.

“As you can see, turkey hunting has grown quickly in popularity,” he wrote.

About a month later — just weeks from the turn of the century — the Associated Press reported that Idaho had moved into “second place among Western states in the number of turkeys taken by hunters.”

Though non-native and in-

creasingly a nuisance to some, by the year 2000 the turkey had conquered Idaho — a transplant that owed its presence to direct government intervention, giving it no small claim to being the unofficial state bird of Idaho, for better or worse.

Courtesy image.

November 22, 2023 / R / 19

HOLIDAY

Grateful memories The Reader staff reflects on Thanksgivings past ‘Home’ is a moveable feast By Zach Hagadone Want to take your own adventure with a Florida Man? It’s simple: just type in “Florida Man” and your birthday into a search engine and prepare to be entertained by the results. For this new column, we will plug in the date of the edition and share with our readers what follows.

NOVEMBER 22

Florida man spit food into woman’s mouth during road rage incident, deputies say An arrest report from Pinelles County Sheriff’s Office claims David Paul Wipperman, 61, was arrested on felony battery charges after spitting food into a woman’s mouth during a road rage incident.

Wipperman reportedly got out of his truck during the incident and approached the woman’s vehicle. She rolled down the window and apologized to Wipperman, who then spit the food he was chewing at her, opened the door and screamed at her.

NOVEMBER 22

Florida man arrested for breaking into a house, taking nap, making coffee The police were called to investigate a robbery in Escambia County and found the robber had undertaken the activity with several creature comforts. Police wrote, “The suspect had smashed the glass on the porch door, used the bathtub, slept in the bedroom, made himself a nice cup of coffee in a mug (which he left on the back porch) and filled the kitchen trash with trash (including his bus ticket stub). Let’s just say he was not the type of criminal to try to cover his tracks and was identified as Zachary Seth Murdock.”

20 / R / November 22, 2023

Images of Thanksgiving — at least the idealized ones — are of tables loaded with food in cozy, home-feeling places that are filled with home-feeling people soon to be stuffed with all that food.

I’ve been fortunate to have almost all of my Thanksgivings look exactly like that, and I’m acutely aware that not everyone can say the same. But “home” is a moveable feast, especially on Thanksgiving.

When I was a kid in the ’80s or maybe very early ’90s, I recall one instance when my mom decided we’d have Thanksgiving dinner at Connie’s Cafe, in downtown Sandpoint. My brother and I were more than a little skeptical about the idea, but I

remember it being pretty good. It certainly reduced the cooking and cleaning time, but didn’t yield many (if any) leftovers.

I also remember Thanksgiving 1998, when extended family members gathered at my now-departed uncle’s house in Northern California to mourn the then-recent death of my grandmother. It was an epic feast — including my introduction to tofurky (not a fan).

During that trip, we also traveled to a place in the woods, spoke some words as a family and scattered Nana’s ashes in a nearby river. We did the same thing in 2022 — at the same time of year and in the same place — for the same beloved uncle

A fiery Thanksgiving Thanksgiving has always been a memorable time of year in my life.

As kids, we would load up in the car and spend the day at our parents’ friends’ home in the mountains, playing in the snow until dinner and feasting with a table filled with loved ones. I have vivid memories of returning home stuffed to the gills, peeling off my snowpants and collapsing in front of our wood stove with a crackling fire soothing me to sleep.

Later, while I was in high school, my mom became interested in making water fountains with pumps that circulated the water continuously. One of these fountains

with whom we’d spent that Thanksgiving in 1998.

One time I had Thanksgiving in a diner in Ashland, Ore., with my brother and mom. Another time, we had a big family Thanksgiving at Monarch Mountain Coffee, back when it was located next to the Post Office and at the time owned by one of my cousins. That one was especially cool.

Many of those places weren’t “home” for me, but looking back on it, they all were — if not for the place, but the people, and I suppose that’s the point.

By Ben Olson

was next to our dinner table and, in preparation for the Christmas season ahead, my mom put some kind of papier-mâché angel inside of it next to a candle motif. As we went around the table and shared what we were thankful for, flames suddenly shot up from the fountain. Upon closer inspection, they were coming directly from the angel’s wings, which had caught on fire from the candle flames. We all shared a hearty laugh as we doused the angel (and everything else within a three foot radius) with our water glasses.

Finally, as an adult, my partner and I attempted to cook our own turkey one year

and almost lit the house on fire. I opened the oven and flames shot out, so I grabbed a bowl full of flour I’d used earlier to toss on the flaming bird. Pro tip: Don’t use flour to extinguish flames. It works as well as you’d imagine it would. We managed to finally put out the inferno before burning the house down, and the turkey didn’t taste half bad, either.

It’s interesting that so many of my Thanksgiving memories involve open flames. Perhaps this year I’ll cook with a fire extinguisher close at hand.

The fourth member of the family By Soncirey Mitchell For my family, Thanksgiving is the most mellow holiday of the year. My mom and I sleep in, have a light breakfast — usually strawberries and cream — and then spend the day cooking. If we’re feeling especially sacrilegious we’ll listen to Christmas tunes.

All my cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents live on the other side of the Cascades, so rather than risk life and limb driving over Snoqualmie Pass in avalanche season, we’ve always set a small Thanksgiving table at home.

It was a tradition when I was a kid to set four places at the table — one for me, my mom, my dad and Floppy the Dog. Floppy is a stuffed animal older than I am

with huge ears and the waist-to-hip ratio of Jessica Rabbit.

As a kid, I carried him with me everywhere, slung over my arm, so that eventually all the fur, stuffing and fabric wore away from his stomach. That just made him floppier.

He would usually wear a red evening gown, or a dress that matched mine, during formal occasions because he didn’t care for gender norms.

Floppy was the guest of honor during all holidays — in part so that I could get double helpings of everything. We would stack pillows on a chair so that he could sit at the Thanksgiving table with his proportional appetizer plate, salad fork, teaspoon

and a crystal dessert glass filled with Martinelli’s Sparkling Cider. Naturally, Floppy and I liked the same foods so I would help him finish his dinner.

In the years since I’ve had to re-stuff him, darn the holes in his stomach, repaint his eyes and nose and needle felt his new fur. He now wears an X-Files T-shirt from Petco and sits very happily on my bookshelf.

Floppy no longer visits for dinner, but my doxiepoo Peggy — who looks remarkably like Floppy — took up his place next to me. Unfortunately for me, she only gets boiled turkey gizzards on her plate.

STAGE & SCREEN

On pointe in Sandpoint

Allegro Dance Studio performs The Nutcracker

By Soncirey Mitchell Reader Staff Allegro Dance Studio brings the magic and whimsy of Christmas to the Panida Theater main stage for its second annual performance of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker. This rendition, directed and choreographed by Devyn Vaughan-Jolley, will feature new roles, costumes and choreography to innovate the ballet while staying true to the original vision.

“Dancing is an expression of joy, and when I hear The Nutcracker’s music it brings back good times and memories of when I danced and performed in The Nutcracker,” said Vaughan-Jolley. Selkirk Brass will perform the iconic music from the ballet with surprise additions from local singers and performers.

Anyone looking for some extra holiday cheer should purchase tickets for the pre-show Sugar Plum Gala on Saturday, Dec. 2 from 4-6 p.m. 133 Main will host the black-tie event, with all proceeds benefiting scholarships for local students at Allegro Dance Studio.

“Gala guests will enjoy a premier seat for the perfor-

This week’s RLW by Ben Olson

READ

There are a handful of authors I read as a young man who cemented my decision to become a writer. Hunter S. Thompson, Kurt Vonnegut and Jack Kerouac reigned supreme during my late teens, when I was still discovering what the world was all about through my new adult eyes. Kerouac’s On the Road is his opus, but don’t neglect his lesser known titles like Big Sur, Dharma Bums and Visions of Cody. To say they changed my life would be an understatement.

LISTEN

mance, a commemorative gift, complimentary savory hors d’ oeuvre, decadent desserts and drinks, live music and a photo booth with the Nutcracker and Sugar Plum Fairy,” said Vaughan-Jolley.

Tickets to the gala are $65 for ages 13 and up and $55 for younger children. The performance will be a chance to rediscover the childhood wonder of Christmas while helping local dancers achieve their dreams.

Visit 26360.danceticketing. com/r/events/ for tickets, which range from $35 to $55 depending on location. Shows are Friday, Dec. 1 at 7 p.m.; Satur-

day, Dec. 2 at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m.; Sunday, Dec. 3 at 2 p.m. Doors open 30 minutes before. For more information, visit panida. org or allegrodancestudio.org.

The Nutcracker cast members (from left to right): Reagan Lynch, Naomi Anderson, Lily Giles, Lucy Giles, Taylor Burrows and Khandis Pettingill. Photo

by Charlotte Gardunia.

The Follies to hold auditions in January

Have you always wanted to participate in the annual Sandpoint Follies variety show fundraiser for Angels Over Sandpoint? Now is your chance to step forward.

Auditions for the 2024 Follies will be held from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday, Jan. 6-7 by appointment only. The 20th anniversary show is scheduled for March 1-2, 2024 and tickets will go on sale Feb. 2.

Organizers are looking for

sensational performers and curiosities. They want your daring acts, including jugglers, plate spinners, contortionists, stilt walkers, hula hoopers, singers, musicians, magicians, comedians, clowns, silly skits or whatever might bring a smile to those in the audience.

Those interested in auditioning can contact Val Moore at folliesfun@yahoo.com. This year, the Follies will be celebrating the theme “Circus.”

A snapshot of notable live music coming up in Sandpoint BTP, Pend d’Oreille Winery, Nov. 24

Zachary Simms, Pend d’Oreille Winery, Nov. 25

Rock trio BTP — Ben Baker, Ali Thomas and Sheldon Packwood — will perform their take on classic hits at the Pend d’Oreille Winery on Friday, Nov. 24. Locals will recognize Baker as the lead guitarist and singer for three other local bands: The Other White Meat, Beatdiggers and Miah Kohal. He takes the stage alongside two members with equally impressive resumes. Thomas specializes in percussion and is the head of the Contemporary Music Depart-

Indie singer-songwriter Zachary Simms will create a mellow, comforting atmosphere Saturday, Nov. 25 at the Pend d’Oreille Winery. His smoky voice highlights his slow melodies, which speak to his background as a multi-instrumentalist who dabbles in many musical genres.

Simms will perform original music, which is influenced by his childhood in Nashville, Tenn. and his faith. One of his most recent singles, “Come Out From

ment at the Music Conservatory of Sandpoint, where she shares her passion for West African drumming. Finally, Packwood knows his way around an instrument because he makes and fixes them himself at Packwood Custom Guitars. Rock out with these three legends in one exciting night.

— Soncirey Mitchell 5-8 p.m., FREE. Pend d’Oreille Winery, 301 Cedar St, 208-2658545, powine.com.

Your Hiding Place,” explores his struggles with anxiety and the role of faith in his life. It is inspired, in part, by C.S. Lewis’ Till We Have Faces. Relax with a glass of wine after the holiday while listening to his gentle stylings.

— Soncirey Mitchell

I still remember when I first listened to Nick Drake’s smoky, quiet voice and haunting guitar.

It was as if I finally learned the answer to a riddle that had been haunting me for years. His songs always smooth over the jagged edges of the world for me, and it’s a shame he didn’t live long enough to make more music. Pink Moon is the masterpiece of his three studio albums, but everything with his guitar and voice in it is worth listening to.

WATCH

Hands down, the best movie to watch on Thanksgiving will forever be Planes, Trains and Automobiles starring Steve Martin and John Candy. I still use so many lines from this movie, including some favorites like “Those aren’t pillows!” or “My dogs are barking today,” or “He says we’re going the wrong way,” — “Oh, he’s drunk, how does he know where we’re going?” and finally, “You alright? I’ve never seen anyone get picked up by his testicles before.”

5-8 p.m., FREE. Pend d’Oreille Winery, 301 Cedar St, 208-2658545, powine.com. Listen at zacharysimms.com.

November 22, 2023 / R / 21

BACK OF THE BOOK

On miracles From Northern Idaho News, November 23, 1915

CLARKSFORK SAFE IS BLOWN OPEN The store of John B. Whitcomb at Clarksfork was broken into last Thursday night and the safe cracked, between $30 and $40 being secured by the robbers. Deputy Sheriff Jack Mulcahy got to Clarksfork early the next morning on the “dinkey” and made a thorough inspection of the premises, which, however, failed to reveal any clue to the perpetrators.

Entrance was obtained through an upstairs window reached by a shed, the robbers walking downstairs and into the store. The robbery was not discovered till the opening of the store the next morning. The tools were secured in the store and a round hole the size of a dollar cut out of the safe door by making a succession of small drill holes in a circle.

Into this hole, which must have taken over an hour to cut, the robbers poured dynamite, exploding it and forcing the door open. The Northern Pacific depot was also broken into, apparently by the same men, but nothing of value was secured.

22 / R / November 22, 2023

We’ve been arguing forever about how we became a species. True, some don’t argue. They just believe one way or another, or accept that they will never know. These relatively rare subjects are happy to be at peace with the question. Maybe they know that their vision of the Spirit is nobody else’s business. Some Higher Power may be hanging around, but I have no idea what It’s up to, though I often ask It favors. As vague as my vision might be, I’m OK with it. When folks come knocking with their answers, I ask if they’re happy in their faith.

Sometimes they are.

Creation is a touchy subject for us creatures. Is Darwin right, or did God build the world in six days and take Sunday off?

Or did She work Sunday and take Saturday off? Did Coyote create the people on the Clearwater? Or did a great Nordic whale puke us up on a rocky beach. We don’t really know, but we surely argue about it.

The only thing we really know is that we came from somewhere and, according to the methods described, we and everything else arrived by some miracle.

Even Darwin’s version is miraculous. By his thinking, that we became human has infinitely longer odds of happening than a high school football team winning the Super Bowl 48 to nothing.

The point of contention is always the miracle. We even argue about meanings and methods of the same miracle, especially in major religions, often to disastrous results.

We seem to love to argue. We love being right, even if we aren’t. Most especially, we love to get what we want, sometimes at great cost to ourselves and those with whom we argue. Witness: every war and persecution in history.

What solution, then? I can’t say in any concrete way. There is no 12 Easy Steps to World Peace guide, but there may be just one step: simply letting others believe what they believe. Maybe if we do what J.C. advised a couple of thousand years ago — as well as a few other prophets before and since — “Love your neighbor as yourself,” we can quit killing each other for our own selfish and uninformed reasons.

One of the problems with this is that many of us don’t love ourselves very much.

Some seem intent on self-destruction, and of these, some seem to want to take as many others along as they can. Witness: terrorists who believe that dying while killing innocents earns them a place in heaven.

The kid who shows up with an AR-15 at school — theirs or another — and bloodies the place is self-destructing via a method conservative pundits and politicians endorse by refusing to control the proliferation of weapons of war in the public arena. It seems like those with an education sufficient to be in positions of power should know better than to let the mentally ill and those with no hope have means of expressing their frustration by killing innocents so someone else will kill them. It might be better to address their mental health and hopelessness, don’t you think?

In the musical South Pacific, the lieutenant sings, “We have to be carefully taught,” in reference to prejudicial views.

This is true of many of our failings when it comes to loving the neighbors and ourselves. Parents, peers, teachers and preachers teach in subtle and incredibly specific ways that if “they” don’t believe what “we” believe, “they” must be bad. It is often ignored that “we” are also “they.”

It’s easier to follow the lead of others than to figure out things for ourselves, especially if we are children, which we have

STR8TS Solution

Sudoku Solution

By Sandy Compton Reader Columnist

all been at one time or another; some longer than others. Some people never become adults, except in appearance and physical capability. Ease of life in the Western World keeps some people in elementary mode, where they think it’s OK to bully, steal, lie and flaunt common courtesy. They don’t know how to play well with others. Witness: Congress.

The rich and famous and powerful get away with antics that land the poor and unknown and disenfranchised in jail — or make them and a few other people dead.

The true miracle may not be about where we came from, but that we have made it as far as we have without destroying ourselves. If we ever grow up as a species, it may be another miracle altogether.

But, let’s keep trying.

Sandy Compton’s latest book (perhaps his best) is Her Name Is Lillian. It is available at Vanderford’s, The Corner Bookstore and on amazon.com.

Crossword Solution

During the Middle Ages, probably one of the biggest mistakes was not putting on your armor because you were “just going down to the corner.”

Solution on page 22

Solution on page 22

By Bill Borders

monadnock /muh-NAD-nok/

Woorf tdhe Week

[noun] 1. a residual hill or mountain standing well above the surface of a surrounding area.

“Hikers flock to the monadnock, eager to conquer its towering peak and experience its rugged beauty.”

Corrections: Nothing to report this week, folks.

Copyright www.mirroreyes.com

Laughing Matter

CROSSWORD ACROSS 1. Personnel 6. Fathers 10. Baby buggy 14. Warble 15. Computer symbol 16. Sharpen 17. Sound 18. Alone 19. Death notice 20. Abstainer from alcohol 22. Hefty volume 23. Motherless calf 24. Is melodramatic 26. Resorts 30. Paintings 31. Droop 32. French for “Wolf” 33. Exude 35. Clutch 39. Golden 41. Friendly 43. Follow 44. Kind of palm 46. Farm equipment 47. 3 in Roman numerals 49. Thick flat pad 50. Chops 51. Powerful 54. Picnic insects 56. In place of 57. Countrywide 63. Circle fragments 64. 1 1 1 1 65. Agitated

Solution on page 22 66. Blue-green 67. Defeat decisively 68. Category 69. Glimpse 70. Hearing organs 71. Water vapor

DOWN 1. Statistic (abbrev.)

2. Not false 3. Assistant 4. Dart 5. Inundation 6. Dissents 7. Devotee 8. Handout 9. Breathes noisily while sleeping

10. Picture 40. Similar 11. Android 42. Slogan 12. Japanese 45. Not professional animation 48. Neglect 13. Distributes 51. A type of 21. Breakfast bread writing tablet 25. Wise men 52. Rubber wheels 26. Thin strip 53. Review 27. Decant 55. Hitches 28. Certain 58. Dwarf buffalo something 59. Assist illegally 29. Insincerely 60. Individual 34. Heathenism 61. Former Italian 36. Possessing currency necessary skills 62. Primordial matter 37. At low speed 38. Wooden benches November 22, 2023 / R / 23

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