Inlander 09/23/2021

HOUSING CRISIS

WHO’S STANDING IN THE WAY OF ACTION? PAGE 8

TERROR AND TRAUMA SQUEAMISH EXPLORES ONE WOMAN’S PAIN PAGE 21

IS IT REALLY WORKING?

TIME TO DITCH SPOKANE’S “STRONG MAYOR”? PAGE 6

SEPTEMBER 23-29, 2021 | PLEASE GET VACCINATED

Respiratory therapist John Frostad inside Deaconess Hospital’s ICU.

THE

TIRED AND THE DEAD

With unvaccinated COVID patients swamping local hospitals, exhausted health care workers stare down death on a daily basis

BY SAMANTHA WOHLFEIL

PAGE 12

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2 INLANDER SEPTEMBER 23, 2021

INSIDE VOL. 28, NO. 50 | COVER PHOTO: YOUNG KWAK

COMMENT NEWS COVER STORY CULTURE

5 8 12 21

FOOD MUSIC EVENTS I SAW YOU

25 28 30 32

36 GREEN ZONE ADVICE GODDESS 38 BULLETIN BOARD 39

EDITOR’S NOTE

O

ver the past year and a half, I’ve read a million news stories about COVID-19, but few as eye-opening as staff reporter Samantha Wohlfeil’s account this week from inside our local hospitals. COVID is real and deadly, and you can see it in the faces of SHELL-SHOCKED DOCTORS AND NURSES. You can hear it in their voices and in the beeps of machines feebly trying to keep the sick and dying alive. There aren’t enough beds, enough staff, enough hours in the day. As one nurse tells Wohlfeil: “I was not used to this number of deaths.

I’ve kind of put my heart and soul into my patient care, and that’s definitely taken a chunk out of me this go-around.”

This pandemic isn’t over, and we can’t look away. Don’t miss Wohlfeil’s special report on page 12.

— JACOB H. FRIES, editor

We’re seeking an

Executive Director In the last twenty years, the Kenworthy Performing Arts Centre, Inc. (KPAC) in Moscow, Idaho, has become the leading performing arts center of the Palouse region. Called by the Wall Street Journal, the “Tuscany of America,” the Palouse reflects its two research universities and the wheat fields of its iconic rolling hills. Its small-town environment with a big city lifestyle is famous for its quality of life, arts, and community involvement.

We are hiring a new Executive Director with the vision to take the non-profit center to the next level of providing high quality entertainment and public events to the region.

To apply or for more information, visit kenworthy.org or email hiring@kenworthy.org

KenworthyPerformingArtsCentre_ExecDirector_091621_3H_CPR.pdf

Now open in

SUGARY SWEET PAGE 23

DAY TO NIGHT PAGE 25

Coeur d’alene Both Locations have

Breakfast Daily • Lunch and Dinner Taco Tuesday • Prime rib friday 12303 E Trent, Spokane Valley • 314 N 4th St, Coeur d’Alene www.storminnormansshipfacedsaloon.com

CALLING THE LOVERS PAGE 28

HAPPENING THIS WEEK PAGE 30

INLANDER

SPOKANE • EASTERN WASHINGTON • NORTH IDAHO • INLANDER.COM

1227 WEST SUMMIT PARKWAY, SPOKANE, WA 99201 PHONE: 509-325-0634 | EMAIL: INFO@INLANDER.COM THE INLANDER is a locally owned, independent newspaper founded on Oct. 20, 1993. It’s printed on newsprint that is at least 50 percent recycled; please recycle THE INLANDER after you’re done with it. One copy free per person per week; extra copies are $1 each (call x226). For ADVERTISING information, email advertising@inlander.com. To have a SUBSCRIPTION mailed to you, call x210 ($50 per year). To find one of our more than 1,000 NEWSRACKS where you can pick up a paper free every Thursday, call x226 or email frankd@inlander.com. THE INLANDER is a member of the Association of Alternative Newsmedia. All contents of this newspaper are protected by United States copyright law. © 2021, Inland Publications, Inc.

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COMMENT STAFF DIRECTORY PHONE: 509-325-0634 Ted S. McGregor Jr. (tedm@inlander.com) PUBLISHER

J. Jeremy McGregor (x224)

HAVE YOU BEEN DENIED MEDICAL CARE DUE TO THE OVERWHELMING NUMBERS OF COVID-19 PATIENTS? LORI REMZ: Someone I know has been waiting for knee replacement surgery almost from the start of COVID. They had finally been able to schedule it, then delta hit and his surgery is again on hold.

GENERAL MANAGER

EDITORIAL Jacob H. Fries (x261) EDITOR

Dan Nailen (x239) MANAGING EDITOR/ARTS & CULTURE

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U.S. Coins and Currency Foreign Coins and Currency Gold and Silver Jewelry Loans on Coins and Jewelry Silver, Gold and Platinum Bullion M-F 9:30am-5:15pm • Closed Saturday 3190 N. Division St., Spokane, WA 99207 • (509) 327-6241

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VICTORYA ROUSE: Yes. Had foot surgery canceled due to the number of COVID cases in the hospitals.

Chey Scott (x225) FOOD & LISTINGS EDITOR

Spokane String Quartet

Derek Harrison (x248) ART DIRECTOR

Chris Frisella COPY CHIEF

Wilson Criscione (x282), Daniel Walters (x263), Samantha Wohlfeil (x234) STAFF WRITERS

Young Kwak PHOTOGRAPHER

Amy Alkon, Howard Hardee, Will Maupin, Lillian Piel, Nate Sanford, Ben Stuckart

Every week, we ask our followers on social media to share their thoughts.

ABOVE: Nurse Christie Charbonneau at MultiCare Deaconess Hospital.

YOUNG KWAK PHOTO

CAROL MCVICKER: Yes. A friend had to postpone knee surgery and another heart procedure. Waiting to see about my shoulder.

LETA GRIEVES: Yup. How come those people who didn’t care to follow medical advice and get the vaccine now are treated as priority by the medical community?

CONTRIBUTORS

Madison Pearson INTERN

ADVERTISING Kristi Gotzian (x215) ADVERTISING DIRECTOR

Carolyn Padgham (x214) SENIOR ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE Adrianne Haunert (x216), Jeanne Inman (x235), Autumn Adrian Potts (x251), Claire Price (x217), Tracy Menasco (x260), Wanda Tashoff (x222) ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES

Kristina Smith (x223) MARKETING DIRECTOR Houston Tilley (x247) DIGITAL SALES & EVENTS COORDINATOR

PRODUCTION & SUPPORT Tom Stover (x265) PRODUCTION MANAGER Ali Blackwood (x228) CREATIVE LEAD & MARKETING MANAGER Derrick King (x238) SENIOR GRAPHIC DESIGNER Frank DeCaro (x226) CIRCULATION MANAGER

Travis Beck (x237) CIRCULATION SUPERVISOR Jess Kennedy (x212) ADVERTISING COORDINATOR

OPERATIONS Dee Ann Cook (x211) BUSINESS MANAGER Kristin Wagner (x210) ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE

A.D. FRANK: Just an acquaintance.

In August, she was rushed to Deaconess, but was rerouted to Sacred Heart ER. However, she had to wait 11 hours to be seen because the ER at Sacred Heart (as far as she could tell) was only able to handle the influx of COVID patients they’d received….

She is now on hospice, and I wonder if she could have been seen sooner if that would be true today.

LISA PACOT: Yes. A friend’s 14 year old cannot get in for heart surgery. The closest they can get is Sacramento.

JON MARONI: Not me, but my one-year-old adopted daughter. She was born with a cleft lip and palate.

Her lip has been repaired and her palate surgery was scheduled for Sept. 14 but was delayed because her recovery requires admission to the hospital for observation postsurgery. We still have time, but her speech development suffers because her mouth can’t physically create certain sound forms. We have time, but ideally this happens right around her first birthday. Hard stuff!

3 P. M . S U N DAY O C TO B E R 3 M a r t i n Wo l d s o n T h e a t e r at The Fox

Back on stage with music by Mozart, Mendelssohn a n d F r a n k B ri d g e

SAFETY NOTICE: STATE OF WASHINGTON MASK REQUIREMENT IN EFFECT. PROOF OF COVID VACCINATION OR NEGATIVE COVID TEST REQUIRED FOR ENTRY INTO THEATER.

w w w. s p o k a n e s t r i n g q u a r t e t . o r g

We’re Hiring!

Administrative Assistants Accounts Receivable Bookkeepers Customer Service Reps Legal Assistants No fees for applicants Short term and long term positions

STEVE ALBURTY: Yes, I was supposed to go to Sacred Heart for a special pulmonary PET scan due to a severe respiratory condition. That has now been put on hold.

TRAVIS NICHOLS: Yes, my dear friend awaiting cancer surgery. n

CONTACT US TODAY 509-747-6011 • Jobs.SpokaneWA@ExpressPros.com ExpressPros.com/SpokaneWA

SEPTEMBER 23, 2021 INLANDER 5

COMMENT | CITY HALL HOME OF THE S P O K A N E SYM P H O N Y

THE FOX T HEAT ER Live Nation Presents TONIGHT!

ASHLEY McBRYDE: THIS TOWN TALKS TOUR Thurs, Sept. 23, 8pm

SPOKANE STRING QUARTET Return to the Stage Sun, Oct. 3, 3pm

Spokane Symphony Masterworks 2

BEETHOVEN’S SOUL

James Lowe, conductor Sat, Oct. 9, 8pm • Sun, Oct. 10, 3pm Inland Northwest Opera

ORPHEUS AND EURYDICE

Fri, Oct. 29, 7:30pm • Sun, Oct. 31, 3pm Spokane Symphony Masterworks 3

POINTS NORTH

James Lowe, conductor Sat, Nov. 13, 8pm•Sun, Nov. 14, 3pm

SPOKANE STRING QUARTET with Guest Artist Archie Chen Sun, Nov. 21, 3pm

ALTON BROWN: BEYOND THE EATS Tues, Nov. 23, 7:30pm

Spokane Symphony with State Street Ballet

THE NUTCRACKER BALLET

Thurs, Dec. 2 through Sun, Dec. 5 Spokane Symphony

HOLIDAY POPS WITH THE SWEEPLINGS Sat, Dec. 18, 8pm • Sun, Dec. 19, 2pm Spokane Symphony

NEW YEAR’S EVE: BEETHOVEN’S NINTH James Lowe, conductor Fri Dec. 31, 7:30pm

Live Nation Presents

TONIGHT!

“Expertise is valued more than political patronage in a council-manager government.”

It’s Not Working The case for scrapping Spokane’s “strong mayor” form of government in favor of a city manager

BY BEN STUCKART

S THURS, SEPT. 23 8PM S P O K A N E

SYM P H O N Y

Deep Cuts by Beethoven curated

by Music Director, James Lowe!

BEETHOVEN’S

SOUL James Lowe, conductor

SAT, OCT. 9 8PM • SUN, OCT. 10 3PM

Tickets (509) 624-1200 SpokaneSymphony.org • FoxTheaterSpokane.org 6 INLANDER SEPTEMBER 23, 2021

YOUNG KWAK PHOTO

pokane’s “strong mayor” form of government is not working. We watched half of City Hall’s housing and human service professionals leave under alarming circumstances. Local media is again reporting the same stalemate between the mayor and City Council as the number of houseless community members grows. The to-do list is growing and the trust in local government is shrinking.

Debate is good. Citizens should expect a thorough vetting of policies and expenditures from their local government. We shouldn’t encourage groupthink, but we should expect action on the issues that plague our community. The political jockeying inherent in divided government is great theater but hell on the non-political professionals who work for the mayor and are tasked with implementing the policy and laws passed by the co-equal legislative branch. How do we recruit the talent to take our city to the next level and address our challenges when most of what an external job candidate reads about is the Washington, D.C., style dysfunction of City Hall?

We are dealing with year 20 of the strongmayor government experiment. Over those 20 years we have watched the dueling political ac-

tion committees go to war every two years for control of City Hall. Special interest groups dropped over a million dollars in the last mayoral election alone. We have seen decisions made as retribution against public sector unions. We have witnessed simple data withheld from decisionmakers, vetoes, veto overrides and staff ordered not to pick up the phone.

I

know firsthand how this system impacts taxpayers. The City Council has been forced to increase its budget to meet the basic requirements expected by their constituents as mayors have directed city staff to not support the work of the legislative branch. How is a council supposed to craft laws if they worry the advice they receive from a department is tainted by a mayor that disagrees with the proposed policy? This is not a critique of the City Hall professionals doing their best every day. This is a critique of the failing local government system they work under. In the 1990s, before we experimented with the strongmayor system, the city’s combined city manager

and City Council budget amounted to about $500,000. Today, the mayor and City Council’s budgets together cost taxpayers more than $3 million. This resource arms race between the administration and legislative branch is not fiscally responsible or sustainable.

It is time to close the chapter on the strong-mayor experiment.

We must admit the original hypothesis of a political savior coming in to fix the city’s issues was misguided. We know the issues we must tackle and the opportunities we must capture are only possible when we do it together. We can bring the power of local government back to the people by returning to the council-manager form of government that served our city successfully for LETTERS 40 years before this experiment.

Send comments to The council-manager form editor@inlander.com. emphasizes professionals implementing the vision of the community based on the guidance and direction of elected representatives from the entire city. This means your elected officials are still held accountable, but a professional manager is responsible for the day-to-day operations of city government. The council has the responsibility of appointing and firing the city manager. As a refresher, the mayor is the elected leader of the council yet holds no super powers under the council-manager form of government.

Under that style, a mayor gets to vote on policy just like every other council member and listen to the testimony and feedback of citizens.

We must admit the original hypothesis of a political savior coming in to fix the city’s issues was misguided.

T

he council-manager style is the most used form of local government across the United States. It is the government of choice of conservative small towns and large liberal super cities alike. From our neighbors in Spokane Valley to Tacoma and Vancouver, Las Vegas, San Antonio and Phoenix — communities of all shapes and sizes have chosen the professional over the political for the basics of local government.

Expertise is valued more than political patronage in a councilmanager government. The use of data and research in decisionmaking triumphs over the whisper of a political donor in the council-manager government. Simple things like hiring a planning director (vacant at City Hall for the last three years) get done.

The arbitrary and physical walls between the administration and legislative branch are torn down. Economic development opportunities improve, and employee retention increases. The duplicative services utilized by the mayor and council merge, and waste is eliminated. Most importantly, City Hall professionals have the freedom to innovate in their work without the fear of being roped into political drama. The council-manager government is not a fix for electing poorly prepared political leaders. However, it gives us the best chance to have solution-focused elected leaders and professionals in place to implement the policies and laws enacted by city leaders.

As we enter the colder months in the midst of a housing and homelessness crisis, the cubicles of the professionals needed to address these life and death challenges sit empty. We need those experts on our team right now. We need our politicians to make decisions and the public service professionals to follow through on those decisions. It is cliché, but it is also true: Our local government is broken. We can take a step toward fixing it by correcting a mistake we made 20 years ago. Bring back council-manager. n Ben Stuckart, Spokane City Council president from 2012-19, ran for Spokane mayor in 2019, losing to current Mayor Nadine Woodward. He is currently the executive director of the Spokane Low Income Housing Consortium as well as doing some side consulting.

New Fall Exhibitions www.northwestmuseum.org Support provided by:

Hugh and Jane Ferguson Foundation Carl M Hansen Foundation

Awakenings

Traditional Canoes and Calling the Salmon Home

Opens Sept 25 The story and canoes of the annual Columbia River Canoe Journey by the United Tribes of the Upper Columbia (UCUT).

Continuous Lines

Selections from the Joe Feddersen Collection Now open American Indian contemporary art from the artist’s personal collection

SEPTEMBER 23, 2021 INLANDER 7

Todd Beyreuther, president of Spokane’s Plan Commission, stands in front of a single-family home near Manito Park. The building used to be a duplex, but because of the city’s restrictive zoning laws, the owner would not be allowed to convert the property back into a duplex. YOUNG KWAK PHOTO

HOUSING

Who’s Afraid of the Duplex?

The Spokane City Council agrees to legalize duplexes, triplexes and fourplexes almost everywhere — eventually... maybe

BY DANIEL WALTERS

F

rom one view, Spokane City Councilman Michael Cathcart’s proposed addition to the city’s housing action plan on July 26 was sweeping and radical: Temporarily legalize not just duplexes, but also triplexes and fourplexes in every single residential neighborhood of the city.

Right now, building multiple units on a single lot is illegal in 80 percent of Spokane — including the 60 percent of the city that has been dedicated to low-density “singlefamily residential” zones.

The entire nation has been struggling with a housing shortage, but it’s been particularly bad in Spokane: In July, Spokane had the second-highest rent increase in the nation.

“We have an opportunity to hopefully do something to make a difference,” Cathcart said during the July meeting. If it was a housing emergency, he argued, it was time to take emergency measures.

His proposal sharply divided the council, not along conservative or liberal lines, but along how the city should grow and how much control neighbors should have over surrounding density.

Councilwoman Candace Mumm was visibly upset by

8 INLANDER SEPTEMBER 23, 2021

the ramifications of Cathcart’s proposal to go around the typical process.

“In no way are we going to explain to our neighborhoods how in one night with no notice are we going to change the landscape of the entire city,” Mumm said.

“It’s too extreme and it’s certainly not something I can support.”

Ultimately, four of the seven councilmembers sided with Cathcart, enough to include their support for duplexes, triplexes and fourplexes “on a list at the back of the housing action plan.” But to make it an actual emergency ordinance — the sort that would bypass the lengthy development process and take effect almost immediately — he needed five votes. With Council President Beggs and Councilwoman Lori Kinnear joining Mumm in opposing Cathcart’s amendment, the impact would be more symbolic than immediate.

“We continue to discriminate against those forms of housing,” Cathcart says.

And for now, changing that would mean winding through a lengthy community process involving the council, city staff and the citizen-led Plan Commission.

It could take years.

“It’s time for bold action. Council — on a 4-3 — said we need urgent action now,” Cathcart says. “And nothing is happening.”

L

ast week, the entire state of California passed a bill guaranteeing property owners the right to construct as many as two duplexes on singlefamily lots across the state. Two years earlier, the state of Oregon passed a similar bill.

But Washington state remains the lone West Coast holdout to allow cities to ban duplexes in “single-family” zones.

“The Association of Washington Cities and the Association of Washington Counties are really powerful at the state level,” says Ben Stuckart, executive director at the Spokane Low-Income Housing Consortium, an association that promotes affordable housing. “And they put a kibosh on anything that takes away local control.”

But Stuckart also knows exactly how difficult it is to get those kinds of measures passed at the local level. ...continued on page 10

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NEWS | HOUSING “WHO’S AFRAID OF THE DUPLEX?,” CONTINUED...

Stuckart led the City Council for eight years, from 2011 to 2019 — managing to get a vetoproof 6-1 majority of progressives — but he never got enough votes to do the kind of whole-scale zoning reform he thinks is necessary today.

“Clearly with the housing crisis in the state, local control isn’t working,” says Dan Bertolet, a research director at the pro-housing activist group Sightline.

The issue splits the left, Stuckart notes. Leftwing Councilwoman Kate Burke enthusiastically supported the conservative Cathcart’s policy, seeing it as part of reforming the “structurally racist” single-family-zoning ordinances that had historically been used to perpetuate segregation.

But loosening housing regulations can just as easily be tarred as something that gives developers more power and strips neighborhoods of their influence.

“This is exactly what the lobbyists have been waiting for, is this moment,” Mumm, a moderate liberal compared to Burke, argued at the July meeting, “So they can wipe out all the public process, all the thousands of people who worked to build up the community, without having their voices heard.”

“This is exactly what the lobbyists have been waiting for, is this moment.”

At one time, local leaders could argue legalizing duplexes wasn’t just necessary, it was patriotic. After the United States entered World War II, the city of Spokane passed a temporary emergency zoning ordinance to address the local housing crisis sparked by the surge of workers moving here to assist the war effort. As long as the war lasted, the duplexes would be legal in single-family zones. Many of the bigger houses in historic districts like Browne’s Addition, Cannon’s Addition and Nettleton’s Addition were divided up into apartments during this time, Spokane housing history buff Logan Camporeale says.

But Spokane’s more recent history is filled with examples of neighborhoods making duplexes and triplexes politically toxic.

When a developer asked to rezone some of his properties in the Indian Trail neighborhood to allow duplexes in 1997, angry neighbors threatened to put up signs that would say “duplexes and renters are unwelcome” in their front yards. In the mid-2000s, developers were using zoning that allowed duplexes to create ad-hoc boxy additions to homes in the Logan neighborhood to take advantage of the demand for student housing. But neighbors were furious, calling the duplexes a “disgrace” that was “degrading” and causing “destruction of the neighborhood.”

The City Council ultimately downzoned part of the area to a single-family zone.

And when Stuckart came into office in 2011, he says, he was focused on giving those neighborhoods more power to thwart developers, not less.

“I probably came into council more neighbor-

10 INLANDER SEPTEMBER 23, 2021

hood-oriented for sure: ‘Listen to the neighborhoods, they should have veto power,’” Stuckart says. “But I think the crisis in housing has become more acute, so you’ll see more people changing their mind.”

While Spokane’s rents aren’t nearly as expensive as Seattle, Portland or San Francisco, our apartment unit availability is far worse: Spokane only has one available unit for every 200 apartment spaces, a rental market almost 10 times tighter than Portland.

Today, Lindsay Shaw, chair of the Logan neighborhood, says she recognizes the seriousness of the housing crisis.

“I know that some people on a certain side of town have squawked a ton about having fourplexes coming into their neighborhood like it would ruin it. I don’t think it’s gonna ruin our neighborhood,” says Shaw. “But I just hope that, if they do it, they do it citywide and not just in the lower-income neighborhoods.”

John Schram, the co-chair of the Comstock neighborhood council on the South Hill, is less sympathetic to the city’s efforts, arguing that the city needs to get its own house in order, focusing on issues like addressing traffic problems, “rather than all these grand ideas with little impact.”

Asked why neighbors would be concerned if the ideas have little impact, Schram says that they’re worried that minor tweaks would lead to larger, more obtrusive ones.

Sometimes the opposition to duplexes and triplexes has come in the form of concerns over traffic and parking. Other times, Stuckart says, the concerns are more classist — he shares one anecdote about a moment where half the opposition to a South Hill zoning change melted away as soon as the developer revealed how expensive the homes he planned to build would sell for.

But just as often the opposition is mostly aesthetic. Shaw talks about the neighborhood’s desire to make sure duplexes or fourplexes fit with the architectural character — to fit the surrounding neighborhood — rather than just sticking out as some blocky cookie-cutter duplex built during a housing emergency. Guarantee that duplexes or triplexes won’t be ugly through design standards, and you dampen a lot of those neighbor’s fears.

“I think that does go a long way toward mitigating an underlying concern,” Schram says.

B

ut Mumm’s concerns are more long-term: Before running for council, she had served as president of the city’s Plan Commission for a decade. She’d help codify the city’s “centers and corridors” strategy, the one that tried to push commercial and denser residential development toward arterial roads and a limited number of neighborhood hubs, like the South Perry district.

“We want these centers to be vibrant, to have them become walkable and socially active centers,” Mumm says. “I have seen the fruits of that investment.”

Legalizing triplexes and fourplexes everywhere could dilute those efforts, she worries, along with straining utilities.

On the other hand, compared to other major Washington state cities, Spokane was by far the worst at building enough housing to keep up with our last decade of population growth,

WHERE DUPLEXES ARE BANNED IN SPOKANE

Residential (Duplexes on single lots banned) Industrial (Duplexes banned) Residential (Duplexes allowed — but not triplexes or more) Residential (Duplexes and larger apartments allowed) Commercial (Duplexes and larger apartments allowed) according to Kevin Schofield, writer at the Seattle City Council Insight blog, Seattle added new housing units almost as fast as they added new residents. Yet Spokane? Our population grew two and a half times faster than our rate of housing growth.

The Plan Commission’s current president Todd Beyreuther argues that the centers and corridors strategy is “somewhat dated,” noting that people can “weaponize it by saying, ‘outside the centers and corridors, we won’t have any density.’”

For two years, he says, he’s tried to push the commission to support more forms of housing in single-family zones, with limited success.

“It’s been hard,” says Beyreuther. “There’s a lot of ways to slow roll if you’re opposed to it.”

Cathcart hopes that his addition to the city’s housing action plan will make it clear to both the commission and the city staff that the council supports allowing up to four units on every residential lot city-wide.

Longtime city planner Louis Meuler says the city’s planning department expects to bring forward the first wave of code amendments next year — which may include support for legalizing duplexes on corner lots. But Meuler suspects it would take longer to kick off the process to discuss controversial pieces of the housing action plan, like legalizing triplexes and fourplexes.

Those would require changes to the city’s long-term “comprehensive plan” — a process that usually takes at least a year or more to complete.

Stuckart estimates it’s a “three-year public education process led by the city from the start to finish.”

While developers who’ve built duplexes, like Terra Homes’ Steve Edwards, welcome some of the city council’s tweaks to allow for more density, they also say they’re not nearly enough to address Spokane’s housing crisis.

“Us in the industry are saying, ‘We’re just rearranging the chairs on the Titanic,” Edwards says, “We’re not really getting where we need to be.” n danielw@inlander.com

SEPTEMBER 23, 2021 INLANDER 11

THE

TIRED AND THE DEAD With unvaccinated COVID patients swamping local hospitals, exhausted health care workers stare down death on a daily basis

12 INLANDER SEPTEMBER 23, 2021

BY SAMANTHA WOHLFEIL

Nurse Christie Charbonneau, left, and respiratory therapist John Frostad treat an ICU patient at MultiCare Deaconess Hospital on Sept. 17. YOUNG KWAK PHOTO

SEPTEMBER 23, 2021 INLANDER 13

COVID-19

N

Her body is heaving for air as the team of residents, nurses and ICU medical director Dr. Ben Arthurs makes the morning rounds, getting updates on the severely ill patients in MultiCare Deaconess’ COVID-19 unit of the ICU. Several other patients here Sept. 17 are in even worse shape. Their bodies, desperate for oxygen, are not visibly gasping for air because they’re paralyzed with medication so they don’t disconnect the ventilators that are breathing for them.

The staff, pushing computer carts with patient chart information as they go, update Arthurs on a laundry list of medications, blood levels and often declining health status for each COVID patient here. They huddle outside the glass doors of each room that’s been converted to negative air flow, forcing air into the patient room whenever the door is opened, to reduce the risk of transmission.

Outside one room, Arthurs dons a disposable yellow gown, face shield and a more protective N95 mask to change the settings for a man on a ventilator, as a nurse adjusts additional settings on a stand of medical equipment outside the room delivering several medications and fluids via drip lines.

That equipment is run on long tubes out to the hallway to reduce how many times staff have to go into each room, the nurse says, because they’re constantly beeping with alarms, needing bags changed out and getting regular cleaning.

As Arthurs exits the room a few moments later, he asks a nurse, “someone was trying to get ahold of me?”

“Yeah, I got a call from the 11th tower charge.

There’s a patient up there they asked for an ICU bed for,” she replies.

Do they have a bed? Arthurs asks the group around him. More importantly, do they have the staff? With patients who need this level of care, nurses would typically only have to oversee one or two people. But now they’re having to run between the many needs of three intensive care patients at a time.

The flotilla moves on to the next patient update, but Arthurs is soon interrupted as another nurse says a patient on another floor of the hospital is on the verge of crashing. Before long a surgeon pops in to update Arthurs on a different patient. Then there’s another update as the man upstairs is rapidly declining.

“In theory we round and we go to each patient and see them before noon,” Arthurs tells the Inlander. “But when it’s crazy like this, rounds include me getting interrupted four times in a presentation.”

On these long, 12- to 16-hour ICU shifts, Arthurs has also been spending three or four hours per day calling families as he discusses the difficult reality that after 20 or 30 days on a ventilator, their loved one may never get better.

“And they have to make those tough decisions over video chat,” Arthurs says. “It’s hard. It’s much easier when they are here and they can feel this a little bit.”

The delta variant has changed the game for the worse as Inland Northwest hospitals are filling up with a record number of younger and younger COVID patients. Idaho hospitals have entered crisis standards of care, with some patients getting beds in conference rooms, while others

14 INLANDER SEPTEMBER 23, 2021

early a dozen medical staff wearing surgical masks crowd in the hallway of one of Spokane’s busiest intensive care units on Friday morning as they strategize treatment for an unconscious patient.

are experiencing staffing and supplies at a level usually considered unacceptable. Washington hospitals are also nearing a breaking point, with Spokane’s hospitals halting all non-emergency surgeries to free up capacity for the sickest patients.

While the COVID surge continues, cancer patients aren’t able to get tumors removed, people suffering heart attacks are sometimes waiting hours in the emergency room before they’re able to be seen, and people who’ve long been waiting for things like knee and back surgeries are being told it could be months before that can be scheduled.

Hospital staff who normally work in administrative jobs are being asked to scrub toilets, clean rooms and work cafeteria shifts to ease the burden on overworked nurses and support services staff.

Meanwhile, health care workers, already exhausted from working through a pandemic for 18-plus months, are now dealing with the worst rate of admissions and deaths yet. Nurses are being asked to work extra days.

Some aren’t taking more than a 10-minute lunch break in a 16-hour shift, while others make sure to drink most of their water for the day before they start work so they don’t have to run to the bathroom later on.

“Imagine caring for 750 people dying over the last 18 months,” says Peg Currie, chief operating officer for Providence in Eastern Washington, in an update to reporters. “That’s equivalent to [more than] five 737 plane crashes in Spokane alone.”

Unlike the winter hospitalization wave, when the majority of patients who ended up in the ICU were older adults or elderly, Arthurs says this wave has seen patients in their 30s, 40s and 50s ending up on ventilators, many of them so sick they need dialysis and other extreme measures to stay alive.

“If it’s younger people, six months ago we were seeing 50 to 60 percent getting through. If it was older people, it was more like 20 to 30 percent,” who survived after being put on a ventilator, Arthurs says. “Unfortunately what we’ve seen the last month is we’re getting people who are so sick … I don’t think they’ve had a success story in three or four weeks.”

As he’s answering another question from the Inlander, Arthurs and the medical staff are suddenly called upstairs to urgently intubate a patient with a breathing tube, and an eerie hush falls on the ICU unit.

The sad reality for these extremely ill patients is most of them will die, and it will have been an isolated, lonely death, surrounded by strangers.

These patients can’t have in-person visitors until it’s clear they’re going to die. Their family can’t offer them physical touch while they’re being treated. Some families are begging nurses and doctors to simply hold their loved one’s hand for a moment each day, so they feel something.

“We’re setting up iPads and family members are Zoom-meeting in and sometimes their family members can’t interact with them. You’re looking at somebody lying in a bed,” says Deaconess ICU nurse manager Bailee Walters. “That’s something I know the ICU team really struggles with, is that we don’t want people to die alone.

We want people to go surrounded by the people that they love, and not through a glass door and not on a screen.”

Nurses who went into this field to heal people have

FROM TOP: Dr. Ben Arthurs, dialysis nurse Alex Litovkin, ICU nurse manager Bailee Walters and nurse Lee Rowe in the Deaconess COVID ICU. YOUNG KWAK PHOTOS

seen so many patients die on a daily basis in recent weeks that they summarized the current mood in one word during their Friday morning meeting, Walters says: Hopeless.

“One of the things that we’re seeing right now is that we are having more deaths than we are accustomed to and I think that really hurts people’s souls because we’re here to help people get better,” Walters says. “This is the first time in my career I’m seeing ICU nurses break down and cry because they feel that the care they’re providing is inadequate.”

But the crush of patients has shown few signs of slowing down, and with schools recently starting up again and the colder weather moving more people moving indoors where transmission is easier, it’s not clear if relief is in sight.

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There’s an irony to the protests that have regularly happened outside Kootenai Health hospital’s campus in Coeur d’Alene in recent months. As anti-mask and anti-vaccine protesters question whether hospitalizations are being exaggerated, and promote potentially dangerous “home remedies,” their overall battle cry is that the pandemic can’t possibly be this serious.

But because the virus is so serious, visitors can’t just walk through the ICU to “see for themselves” how bad things have gotten. That would put too many health care workers at risk of exposure at a time when they’re needed to treat a record number of patients.

“I understand that it’s very frustrating. A lot of people don’t see what I see on a daily basis,” says Dr. Robert Scoggins, medical director of Kootenai Health’s ICU. It’s true that most people who get COVID will in fact recover, he says, but for the 3 percent who end up in the ICU, it’s a very dire situation with a low chance of walking out of the hospital again.

“I can tell you from taking care of these patients in the ICU that are very sick, they regret that they didn’t take this very seriously. About 90 percent are unvaccinated,” Scoggins says.

“Watching somebody die from COVID is awful. I mean they struggle for breath and it’s usually not fast. It’s days and days of struggling. These are nice people, and as a staff we get to know some of them.”

Overall, Kootenai Health has seen as many as 115 COVID patients at a time, with up to 40 or so in intensive care when the hospital typically only has 26 ICU beds for any illness. Even when the hospital might discharge a dozen patients in a day, they might have to admit another 15.

Not only has Kootenai had to add bed space for more patients in one of its teaching buildings, but it has had to get help from a military medical team sent by the U.S. Department of Defense, and another 100 or so nursing staff being provided by a federal contractor. The number of beds is less limiting a factor than the number of personnel needed to care for patients in those beds.

Yet protesters have gathered outside on Highway 95, where signs along the hospital’s property say “We ♥ Our Health Care Workers,” to loudly proclaim that the situation is being overblown.

“The main COVID unit is on the third floor that faces the highway, so the irony is that you are with your sick, intubated, proned, paralyzed patient, who you might have FaceTimed their family before you helped put their breathing tube in, and then you look out and you see [the protesters],” says Kootenai Health ICU nurse Emily Farness. “The patients, if they’re not intubated, they hear it, too, and they look out their window and it’s really demoralizing for everyone.”

Some patients may have even been part of those protests at some point.

“I think a lot of them feel conflicted, because a lot of their friends and family might agree with the protestors outside, and they’re now in a position where they’re having to kind of reconcile those two realities,” Farness says.

That includes the reality that those who get sick enough to end up in the ICU are likely to die or leave with permanent changes to their health. ...continued on next page

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SEPTEMBER 23, 2021 INLANDER 15

COVID-19

Dr. Robert Scoggins, medical director of Kootenai Health’s ICU, and ICU nurse Emily Farness say it’s demoralizing to see so many preventable illnesses and deaths right now.

ERICK DOXEY PHOTO

“THE TIRED AND THE DEAD,” CONTINUED...

“What’s almost just as frustrating and heartbreaking as seeing people die is once people get that sick, they often never return to their prior quality of life,” Farness says. “They might survive, but they’re not returning to the jobs they had, they’re not returning to their prior independence and abilities.”

sion for them to make,” Warnock says. “But you know, they’re only allowed to be there for four hours, so they left and I had to hold his hand while he was dying, and that was really hard.”

Ashley Blew worked in the Providence Sacred Heart ICU just after graduating from WSU nursing school in May 2020, and now works in an ICU in Boca Raton, Florida, which is also seeing a crush of patients. Blew says she’s also had to be there with patients in their final moments. She can set up an iPad for families to video chat if it looks like their loved one might pass away, but some say no to that option.

“Some families opt to not, I guess, say goodbye, because they don’t want to see their loved one in that state. They want to remember them as before,” Blew says. “That’s even harder on us because we’re truly the only person there for that patient when they’re decompensating or passing away. It’s been pretty tough.”

Arthurs, the Deaconess ICU medical director, says he’s found himself going through more extreme emotions, at times having a short fuse as he talks to patient families who still question things like vaccine effectiveness.

“I’ve probably cried more this week at the end of long days than usual with so many deaths and so many really difficult conversations with family at the end of the day. It’s hours on end,” Arthurs says on Sept. 17. “The last two days I haven’t gotten done with my work until the end of my day at 6 [pm] and then I’ve got two hours of conversations with families and then I try to go home and kiss my kids goodnight.”

The sleep deprivation is setting in for many health care workers being asked to pull 16-hour shifts several times a week right now. And so is the frustration with how bad the situation has become.

“We really try to give everybody the same care, it doesn’t matter your race or color or choice on vaccina-

Imagine caring for 750 people dying over the last 18 months.

That’s equivalent to [more than] five 737 plane crashes in Spokane alone.”

EMOTIONAL TOLL

Meanwhile, the patients who are dying are putting an extreme emotional toll on the health care workers who care for them.

Whitney Warnock, an ICU nurse at Providence Holy Family hospital in north Spokane, says she might have seen one of her patients in the ICU die every six months before the pandemic. Now, as she works two or three 12- to 16-hour shifts per week, she’s seeing someone die on every single shift.

“I was not used to this number of deaths. I’ve kind of put my heart and soul into my patient care and that’s definitely taken a chunk out of me this go-around,” Warnock says. “I think if there’s one thing I wish everyone understood is, it’s not your grandma and grandpa anymore. It’s your mom and dad. It might be your sister and brother. We’re seeing families getting taken out by it.”

What’s more, at Holy Family, relatives can only visit their sick loved one when it seems clear they’re about to die, and there’s a time limit on how long they can stay.

“I actually just had a patient who the family decided to go comfort care on and that was a very hard deci-

16 INLANDER SEPTEMBER 23, 2021

tions, you come in and we treat you with dignity as best we can,” Arthurs says. “But there are days when you go through those emotions, frustration, sometimes anger, because you’re dealing with all the stress of this.”

The amount of attention COVID patients need once they end up in the ICU is very high, and nursing staff are so short right now in some hospitals that nurses are having to deal with quadruple their normal workload, Warnock says.

Jennifer Torres, another ICU nurse at Holy Family, says unlike before the pandemic, another thing on their pre-intubation checklist is finding a patient’s cell phone before they’re too far gone to unlock it for a call home.

Sometimes patients are already so oxygen-deprived that their motor functions are impaired and they have to just tell the nurse their passcode, Torres says.

“We always try to look for a cell phone and get them to speak to their family for the last time, because it probably will be,” she says.

Work has been such a struggle that Warnock says some of her co-workers have started group therapy with a co-worker’s spouse who is offering pro bono services.

“I would really like to get out … to all people in health care right now that have stayed, how valued they are, even if they don’t feel like it,” Warnock says. “In this group that I’m going to, we’re all reporting incidents of insomnia, anxiety, irritability, feeling triggered when someone says, ‘Have a good day at work.’ That used to be such a great statement and now it’s so triggering, because we don’t have any good days.”

Farness, the ICU nurse at Kootenai, says she and her co-workers similarly are leaning on each other for emotional support.

“My co-workers and I talk all the time about how we know we need to go to therapy, but we don’t have the time or the energy to right now,” Farness says. “With the onset of this delta wave, we recognize within ourselves these signs of PTSD. We’ve already been here before and the unknown that this is gonna keep on going, there’s so much death and suffering that’s uncalled for.”

The surge is also reducing the ability for anyone with an emergency to get care. ...continued on page 18

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SEPTEMBER 23, 2021 INLANDER 17

COVID-19 “THE TIRED AND THE DEAD,” CONTINUED...

PACKED EMERGENCY ROOMS, STRAINED RURAL CARE

One of the concerns many physicians have about the current surge is that patients who need to come get treatment for other urgent reasons will delay their visit.

Patients are still encouraged to seek out care, but emergency room wait times may be significantly longer than usual. Some people are having to spend a day or more in the ER waiting for admission to a hospital, which means patients who are slightly less sick than they are also have to wait hours on end to get treated once that bed space frees up.

At smaller critical access hospitals that are licensed for up to 25 beds, sicker patients are being treated in-house because there’s no space to transfer patients to larger hospitals.

Even as Bonner General Health hospital in Sandpoint and Gritman Medical Center in Moscow are both still offering the higher “contingency” standards of care despite the overall state declaration of crisis standards in Idaho, both have seen more patients being admitted.

“We’re safe and open for folks to come in if they have an emergency or appointment,” says Brad Gary, a spokesman for Gritman. “We have a dedicated COVID unit that has been at capacity on several occasions in the past couple of weeks, but we’re still admitting COVID patients and patients for just about anything that needs to be treated.”

As of Sept. 15, Gritman had seen 11 COVID admissions in the previous week.

When reached the week before, Erin Binnall, spokeswoman for Bonner General, noted that patients who typically would be transferred from the 25-bed facility (four of which are reserved for childbirth and family needs) are spending much longer at the Sandpoint facility.

At the time, nine COVID patients were admitted to the hospital, including four at ICU level who were either on ventilators or less invasive BiPAP breathing machines.

“The ability to transfer patients in need of specialty care is unlikely, there’s no available beds,” Binnall says. “Patients we typically transfer are being cared for here, increasing the burden on our staff, supplies and providers.”

Likewise, Newport Hospital and Health Services in the neighboring northeast corner of Washington is struggling to transfer patients who need higher levels of care.

Typically, if someone needs ICU-level care, they’d be stabilized at Newport and then staff would find space for them at Providence or MultiCare facilities in Spokane, or maybe at Kootenai Health in Coeur d’Alene, says Dr. Geoff Jones, Newport’s ER medical director.

But now, those places might have a waiting list of 10 or 15 people, which means calling Washington’s wider health care network and sometimes even looking for hospital space in other states.

“I’ve done transfers to Missoula and both big hospitals in Boise,” Jones says. “We’ve talked to hospitals in Utah, Salt Lake City, in Colorado. We’ve talked to folks in Oregon, Northern California.”

When space is found, it creates a huge burden on emergency medical services, because these patients are so sick they need to be transferred by ambulance several hours away at times when helicopters aren’t available, says Dr. Curtis Gill, who also works in Newport’s ER. Many COVID patients being transferred are on high-flow oxygen, which can be hard to ensure is available from a finite supply on a several-hour drive, Gill says.

Sometimes patients on less

18 INLANDER SEPTEMBER 23, 2021

invasive BiPAP machines have to be put on ventilators to ensure they can remain stable for the ride, even though they wouldn’t have been at that point yet if they could get into a closer hospital, he says. When they’re transferred further away, it may also be harder for family to come visit or, should they recover, for them to get home. “[This] is a low-income, underserved area. If I were to send a person to Seattle or Montana, trying to get home after that can be a major problem,” Gill says. “[Family] can’t ride along in the ambulance or go on the helicopter with them to these further away hospitals, so they have to find a car, find a friend, and ultimately if their loved one does well, they have to find the same resources again to pick them up and bring them home again.”

Oxygen flow is also getting pushed to the limit within the smaller facilities, many of which have installed larger oxygen tanks to keep up with demand. Some patients are requiring 40 to 60 liters of oxygen flow per minute.

At that rate, pipes that weren’t built with such a high demand in mind may freeze over as the liquid oxygen is vaporized into gas. A handful of times, Newport’s system has been taken offline and patients had to be put on portable tanks until that could be fixed, Jones says.

It’s just one reminder that COVID is unique in that it is hospitalizing such a large number of people with the same problems all at the same time.

“It seems like half the patients coming through the ER in recent weeks have been COVID positive and therefore have pretty severe disease,” Gill says. “No other disease has had this many people in the hospital at the same time for the same reasons since I’ve been practicing medicine.”

Other patients are struggling to get care because of it. Gill says he was shocked when he tried to transfer a heart attack patient to Spokane recently and couldn’t. While Spokane’s hospitals have to accept trauma patients, the heart attack didn’t qualify.

“One of the most frustrating things for all of us is we’ve reached a point where we don’t feel like we have to exist this way anymore.

Last winter, before there was any vaccine for this, we went into work expecting to be overwhelmed with patients with no good options and nothing to do,” Gill says. “And now things are different, we’re still seeing this overwhelming thing, but the population we’re taking care of is a very biased side of it.”

Nearly all COVID hospitalizations are among the unvaccinated, which reinforces that vaccination is one of the most effective tools in preventing severe infections. ...continued on page 20

INLAND NORTHWEST COVID BY THE NUMBERS Death reporting may be delayed, all numbers as of Monday, Sept.

20, 2021, unless otherwise noted.

SPOKANE COUNTY  814 deaths since the start of

the pandemic, including 69 since Sept. 1  221 currently hospitalized  5,288 confirmed cases since

Sept. 1

NORTH IDAHO (KOOTENAI, BONNER, BOUNDARY, BENEWAH AND SHOSHONE COUNTIES)  444 deaths (as of Sept. 16)

since the start of the pandemic, including 47 since Sept. 1  125 currently hospitalized  2,989 confirmed cases since

Sept. 1

PEND OREILLE, FERRY AND STEVENS COUNTIES  73 deaths since the start of the

pandemic

 63 hospitalizations since Sept. 1  783 confirmed cases in the two

weeks up to Sept. 20

WHITMAN COUNTY Dr. Curtis Gill, who works in Newport’s ER. YOUNG KWAK PHOTO

 55 deaths since the start of the

pandemic

 19 hospitalizations since Sept. 1  415 confirmed cases since

Sept. 1

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SEPTEMBER 23, 2021 INLANDER 19

COVID-19 “THE TIRED AND THE DEAD,” CONTINUED...

HOW TO REACH THE SKEPTICAL

ICU nurses and doctors say that some of the patients who are extremely ill by the time they reach their care have asked when they could get vaccinated. Those who recover could ultimately get the vaccine to help boost their immunity later on, but vaccines don’t treat the infection once it has set in like that, when outcomes are unlikely to be good.

Holy Family ICU nurse Warnock says she’s had people tell her various reasons they didn’t get a vaccine.

“By the time we see them it’s too late, so that’s very heartbreaking,” Warnock says. “I asked one patient why she didn’t get the vaccine, because I am curious [about] people’s reasoning. I don’t judge them, I just want to know. She said that her friends told her to wait. She’s no longer with us.”

Newport ER director Jones says in his work as a family physician within the health system, he’s asking every patient about this topic and trying to answer as many questions as he can to encourage people to get vaccinated.

“Our community here is extremely supportive. You know, people are very kind, people at the coffee stand, patients that you talk to. … And yet, we have a really low vaccination rate,” Jones says. “I’d say the best thing you can do to support us is to get vaccinated.”

He’s actually been surprised at how receptive most of his family medicine patients are when he has that conversation with them.

“What really wears me out is when our hospital staff is also adamantly opposed to vaccination,” Jones says. “You almost feel like you’re fighting it in the community, you’re fighting it at work, and you just never catch a break.”

Similar to other hospitals around Washington, some nursing staff at Newport have said they will refuse to get vaccinated despite Gov. Jay Inslee’s mandate that healthcare workers receive the vaccine. Some may lose their jobs or quit.

You almost feel like you’re fighting it in the community, you’re fighting it at work, and you just never catch a break.”

“These are really good people that I think are making choices that put them and all the rest of us at risk,” Jones says.

Nurses Warnock and Torres say they’re both vaccinated, but they disagree with the mandate.

“I think whatever their reasons are are personal, and I don’t judge anyone for that,” Torres says. “I don’t think anybody, especially in what we do, I don’t think anyone is taking that decision lightly.”

Both nurses worry it’ll make short-staffed hospitals even more strained.

“We’re already really struggling for help and it’s getting rid of a lot of help and a lot of valued team members,” Warnock says.

“But I’m also very pro-vaccine and I sleep a lot better at night knowing that everyone I love and hold dear to my heart decided to take that step for themselves.” n

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Samantha Wohlfeil covers health, rural communities, the environment and cultural issues for the Inlander. Since joining the paper in 2017, she's reported sensitive investigations into people who overdose after getting out of prison, Idaho's highest-in-the-nation child marriage rate, the deceptive practices of crisis pregnancy centers, sexual assault, and other abuses of power.

20 INLANDER SEPTEMBER 23, 2021

Holy Family Hospital ICU nurses Whitney Warnock, left, and Jennifer Torres.

YOUNG KWAK PHOTOS

HORROR

TERROR TRIP

Stage Left’s streaming Squeamish is a one-woman horror tale that takes audiences deep into one woman’s trauma

BY LILLIAN PIEL

M

ental illness, addiction, and trying to find a sense of balance and control.

Sharon, the woman at the heart of Stage Left Theater’s new streaming production Squeamish, is dealing with all of these themes — as well as being off her meds in a small town far from her New York City home — in a compelling addition to the theater’s “Alone Together” series. It’s a blend of horror, dark comedy and psychological thriller rarely seen in live theater.

Squeamish, written by Aaron Mark and published in 2017, is a one-woman play that tells the story of a woman working as a therapist who takes a trip to visit her family for her nephew’s funeral.

Over the course of the play, Sharon embarks on a journey of selfdiscovery to regain a sense of control over her life, although how she tries to find control takes a dark turn.

Directing is Lisa Edwards, a local theater artist who has been involved with both Stage Left and Spokane Civic Theatre, and currently serves on Stage Left’s board of directors. Squeamish will be the first full-length show she’s directed in Spokane. ...continued on next page

Dana Sammond plays Sharon, the woman at the center of one-woman horror play Squeamish at Stage Left. YOUNG KWAK PHOTO

SEPTEMBER 23, 2021 INLANDER 21

THEATER | HORROR

Squeamish is the first full-length play directed in Spokane by Lisa Edwards, and it’s a multi-media challenge.

YOUNG KWAK PHOTO

“TERROR TRIP,” CONTINUED...

Squeamish was chosen for the “Alone Together” virtual programming series because not only are Sharon’s struggles in the play relatable, Edwards says, it goes outside the box in terms of what audiences might expect.

“It’s a little edgy, pushing the boundaries, makes you think, makes you feel,” Edwards says, adding that she wants audiences to know that there are a lot of potential triggers in the content of the play, and that audiences should know this is a horror play and not suitable for children.

Since the show will be livestreamed, Edwards says she had to adjust her directorial style to fit the way the play will be filmed. This includes working to meet challenges that might arise when directing a show for the camera instead of a live audience.

Edwards says that when she lived in New York, she was able to see a few horror plays, which was an interesting experience because the audience shared a feeling of discomfort.

“It’s different than, like, you see a horror movie, and that’s on the screen, that’s not live, you know,” she says.

“Actors [are] doing that in front of you, and so [audiences have] that shared connection.”

F

or Dana Sammond, the actress playing Sharon, the experience of performing in a one-woman show is a whole new ball game.

Sammond says she enjoys the collaborative aspect of theater, how different people come together to work on a show, so she initially put a lot of pressure on herself for

22 INLANDER SEPTEMBER 23, 2021

Squeamish given that she’s the only performer. She was nervous to accept the role of Sharon, but everyone at Stage Left was supportive and encouraging.

She says this show has helped her grow as an actor and not be as harsh of a critic of her own work. Reminding herself that Sharon is just a person telling her story and imitating other people in telling it has helped Sammond on the development of the character as well.

“Every rehearsal, Lisa and I, we always find nuances in the script, there’s so many layers in it, you know, and it’s so juicy…it really draws you in and the time just goes in a snap,” Sammond said.

To Sammond, themes that stand out in Squeamish are trauma, compulsion, identity and relationships. She finds it interesting how each character’s relationship to Sharon changes throughout the play, and she enjoys how wellwritten it is.

The added layer of Squeamish being a horror play makes it so that Sammond must remain completely present in whichever part of the show she is in, so as to not get ahead of herself and to keep the genuine aspect of the performance, she says. Although she never imagined she would perform a one-woman horror play, she feels a sense of accomplishment in doing so and has enjoyed the experience.

Sammond hopes audience members recognize that although parts of the play can be grotesque and that many of the characters have severe mental health problems, they are still human beings. For her, Squeamish forces her

to confront the depth of humanity, and she hopes audiences feel the same.

“It poses these ethical and moral conflicts in the show, and Sharon thinks she is doing what is right for her, but as the audience you’re like, ‘What the f-word is happening?’” Sammond says. “It’s like a train wreck that you can’t look away from.”

Edwards wants audiences to enjoy the experience and appreciate Squeamish for what it is, even if it’s not light viewing.

“Sharon thinks she is doing what is right for her, but as the audience you’re like, ‘What the f-word is happening?’”

“I want people to push through the discomfort that they will feel while watching it and appreciate it for the work of art that it is, and the beautifully crafted story and the beautiful acting that Dana is bringing to the piece.

And it has comedic moments, too, it’s a dark comedy, so it’s okay to find moments funny in this really dark story,” Edwards says. “I hope they leave feeling like they’ve watched something that made them think.” n Squeamish • Fri-Sun, Sept. 24-26 • $20 • stagelefttheater.org and broadwayondemand.com

CULTURE | DIGEST

THE PROBLEM WITH SUGARY SWEET TV

THE BUZZ BIN

How Ted Lasso can escape the nice-TV trap

BY DANIEL WALTERS

T

ed Lasso’s all-time-great first season ended with a serious problem for the show’s future: Ted Lasso won.

Yes, the American coach lost the soccer game — or as the Brits still insist on calling it “football” — and were relegated to relegation, but Lasso wasn’t really going for athletic victory. He was going for the more total moral victory.

He starts with an entire country mocking him, but he proves them wrong, not with brilliant coaching but through aw-shucks unflappable American charm.

Like an Age of Empires priest, Lasso spent the first season converting every character on the show — the arrogant star, the icy team owner, the other arrogant star — to his brand of decency. They attacked him with insults and sneers, but by golly, he just kept baking them biscuits and referencing pop culture until they had to give in.

By the end, the other characters not only accepted Lasso, they’d practically become him. Mustache aside, they started treating each other with his brand of unconditional kindness. The end.

Except, then you have to have a second season. And where do you go, when Ted Lasso has nothing more to conquer? Few things are as satisfying as watching characters replace contempt and conflict with warmth and friendship. (See: Parks and Recreation and The Good Place for other examples.) But the shows that linger afterward aren’t remotely as satisfying.

For much of the second season, Ted Lasso has felt aimless, almost ephemeral — and not remotely as funny. The characters are watered down.

When everyone’s Ted Lasso, no one is.

The longest-running comedies from Cheers to the Simpsons understood that maintaining conflict is essential.

Like a good biscuit, a show can’t be too sweet: All

that sugar has to be leavened with butter and salt.

Fail to do that, and you get something like Lasso’s saccharine Christmas episode: It packed in all the cheesy Christmas episode climax cliches, without doing any of the work to make them meaningful.

All the great Christmas episodes — indeed, all the great works about Christmas, period, from It’s a Wonderful Life to A Christmas Carol to the actual straight-fromthe-Bible Nativity story — have one thing in common: They start from the core of deep sadness and pain.

Your idiot brother lost $8,000 or there’s no room at the inn or you’re a mean one, Mr. Grinch.

But if the Grinch never steals Christmas, then all the Who’s singing down in Whoville are doing little more than karaoke. A show can’t be heartwarming if all the hearts are warm to begin with.

Just like a dark drama needs comic relief, a sweet comedy needs dramatic relief. The good news is that if there’s anyone adept at the dance between light-heartedness and brokenheartedness, it’s Lasso showrunner Bill Lawrence, who mastered that balance on shows like Scrubs and Cougar Town. In the latter half of this season, there are hints the show understands this — uncovering the depression and anxiety that lurks behind Lasso’s mustache.

So maybe, in the dialect of a sports fan seeking optimism during a disappointing season, this was simply Ted Lasso’s “rebuilding year.” n

IS IT DUSTY IN HERE? Do yourself a quick favor and Google your way to Water Monster’s new video, “Real Love.” Not only is it an exquisite shimmery song from Monster man Max Harnishfeger, but the Sean Finley-directed video is gorgeous, touching, and stars local talk show host/soul man Ryan Tucker and his daughter Bea. (DAN NAILEN)

AMERICAN MASTER Author Paul Rees makes a pretty convincing case in his new biography, Mellencamp, that the Midwestern songwriter John Mellencamp should be considered in the same league as Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen. That will be news to anyone who stopped listening when Mellencamp stopped having pop hits, but the sections of this book dealing with the second half of his life — as he pushed his writing into more traditional folk styles, and spent more time painting distinctly dark canvases than on tour — proves far more interesting than the typical rise-to-fame stuff covering the “Jack and Diane” era. A veteran music journalist, Rees talks to dozens of folks, from band members to his children, as well as Mellencamp himself, in coming up with a pretty interesting portrait of a guy who defines “ornery ol’ cuss.” (DAN NAILEN)

THIS WEEK’S PLAYLIST There’s noteworthy new music arriving in stores and online Sept. 24. To wit: ANGELS & AIRWAVES, Lifeforms.

Tom DeLonge was right about UFOs; maybe he was right to bail from blink-182 after all?

JESSE MALIN, Sad and Beautiful World. This guy’s been criminally underrated for decades, since leading D Generation out of New York.

THE SPECIALS, Protest Songs 19242012. These long-running ska-loving Brits tackle a bunch of killer covers.

(DAN NAILEN)

SEPTEMBER 23, 2021 INLANDER 23

CULTURE | WORDS

Direct Line to God or Mail-Order Fraud?

Psychiana Man explores the strange history of an Idaho-based religion that captivated the country

BY NATE SANFORD

F

or a brief period of time, the largest mail-order religion in the world was based in Moscow, Idaho.

If the ads were to be believed, followers of this new religion could use its powers to cure illness, escape poverty and harness the “most scintillating, dynamic, pulsing, throbbing Power which exists on this earth.”

It was a direct line to God himself, and it came with a money-back guarantee.

The religion was called Psychiana and it was founded in the late 1920s by Frank Robinson, a pharmacist, charlatan, prophet and advertising pioneer. Robinson and the religion he created are the subject of Psychiana Man, a new book by author Brandon R. Schrand, director of communications for the College of Agricultural, Human and Natural Resource Sciences at WSU. The book follows Robinson from his birth and volatile upbringing all the way to his death in 1948. Born in England to Baptist parents, Robinson was essentially exiled by his father at age 17 and sent to work in an exploitative child labor program in Canada. He soon left and began wandering the American West and working a variety of odd jobs. He later settled into life as a pharmacist in Moscow. From there, Robinson would begin to build his life’s work.

After writing the foundational texts of Psychiana in a caffeinated, chain-smoking frenzy, Robinson moved on to the important work — advertising. He was a gifted copywriter and had a revolutionary understanding of mass media communications. The study of propaganda and public relations was still in its infancy, but Robinson had an innate understanding of the human attention span and what makes people tick.

“He was always supplying content and repackaging his message over and over again,” Schrand says. “He was really good at repeating these sound bites to make sure that they would stick.” “‘I TALKED WITH GOD’ (Yes I Did - Actually and Literally)” read one early advertisement in vivid block text.

It was proto-clickbait and shockingly effective.

Letters from prospective students began to pour in, overwhelming the Moscow post office Author Brandon R. Schrand with correspondence from new converts.

By mailing Robinson $20 (about $280 today), adherents would receive biweekly lessons on the tenants of Psychiana. The offer came with a money-back guarantee, but few took Robinson up on the offer.

The religion grew to encompass hundreds of thousands of students around the world. Robinson hired dozens of employees and bought office space in Moscow to handle the large influx of letters.

24 INLANDER SEPTEMBER 23, 2021

P

A century ago, the world’s largest mail-order religion, Psychiana, was based in Moscow, Idaho.

sychiana was unique in many ways, but it was still a product of its time, Schrand says. The Great Depression was a period of intense instability and many Americans were desperately searching for answers. People were losing faith in government, banking, organized religion and other institutions that previously provided structure. New forms of mass communication further compounded people’s vulnerability to dubious information.

“I think that movements, however brief, don’t occur in a vacuum,” Schrand says.

It’s hard to read Psychiana Man without thinking of QAnon and other modern epistemological crises. If Robinson were alive today, you get the sense that he would have been incredibly active (and kind of annoying) on Twitter.

When Schrand first began his research, he didn’t have much sympathy for Robinson. He thought of him as a charlatan and a fraud, a hustler exploiting vulnerable people and taking their money during a difficult period in American history. But as he dug deeper into the research, Schrand’s view began to soften.

Robinson was unusually progressive for his time.

Unlike most religions, people of all races were welcomed into the congregation. He was also generous with his money, frequently helping families in need during difficult times. He even donated the property for Robinson Park in Idaho, which still exists as a recreation area to this day.

“There’s more to this guy than meets the eye,” Schrand says.

At the same time, one can argue that Robinson’s inclusivity was driven by greed and a desire to maximize profits. He was a compulsive liar and had a penchant for drama and showmanship.

“You make up your mind about him in one way and read something by him the next day and it would change

your thinking about him,” Schrand says. “As a writer, it was gratifying to tackle that kind of personality.”

Robinson was accused of committing mail fraud and became subject to investigations by United States postal inspectors. He was also embroiled in a legal battle over his citizenship and was briefly deported. With help from an Idaho senator, Robinson was able to obtain a visa and return to the United States in 1942.

Many of the letters students sent to Robinson have been preserved, and Schrand devotes significant portions of the book to their lives. The letters tell a broader story of the Great Depression and a nation in duress. Schrand tried to reach out to existing family members of former students, but many were unwilling to talk when they learned the subject of his research.

There’s one big question that hangs over the book: Did Robinson actually believe this? It’s the question Schrand says he would be most interested in asking Robinson if he were alive today.

It’s difficult to know for sure, but there are clues in Robinson’s writing. Shortly after World War II, Robinson’s health began to fail and he increasingly appeared to question the power of Psychiana.

“There was a kind of desperation in his writings that he really wanted it to be truer than what I think he thought it was,” Schrand says.

After a heart attack in 1948, Robinson’s son Alfred remembers him saying, “There must be a God, a law which I can draw on to lick this physical problem.”

It was a revealing moment, Schrand says. If Robinson was a true believer, he doesn’t think his faith would have faltered as it did. In October 1948, Robinson died at age 62. His son briefly took over the work of responding to letters and managing Psychiana, but by 1952 the movement officially folded. Unlike Mormonism, Scientology and other new religions, Robinson hadn’t named a direct successor. Psychiana died with him. n

OPENING

Day to

Night

Connected eateries People’s Waffle and Emma Rue’s take diners from coffee and brunch to cocktails and dessert

All pastries served at Emma Rue’s are gluten-free.

YOUNG KWAK PHOTO

BY CHEY SCOTT

I

n one half of the corner space, a colorful retro vibe sets the tone for People’s Waffle, which serves sweet and savory waffles from morning to mid-afternoon.

Next door, meanwhile, gold-toned accents and plush, velvet furniture are set against a backdrop of emerald green walls for the swankier, 1920s, Euro-inspired setting of Emma Rue’s cafe and cocktail bar. ...continued on next page

SEPTEMBER 23, 2021 INLANDER 25

FOOD | OPENING “DAY TO NIGHT,” CONTINUED...

Both eateries are newly opened in downtown Spokane, split between the former location of the Observatory bar and music venue, and are owned and operated by a trio of local entrepreneurs: Aaron Hein and Bryan and Alyssa Agee.

While People’s Waffle opened for in-person dining earlier this spring, Emma Rue’s debuted a few months later in late August as part of a phased rollout, largely due to pandemic-caused disruptions in construction and the global supply chain.

The owners’ grand vision for Emma Rue’s is an all-day coffee shop and cocktail bar specializing in housemade desserts, pastries and absinthe spirits, yet it’s currently serving only espresso drinks and an abbreviated selection of gluten-free pastries.

“The bar is being built still, and will be done in the next couple weeks,” Hein says. “Thanks to COVID and the challenges of everything, the timeline is shifting, but we will be fully open by the end of the year.”

Emma Rue’s espresso bar serves Portland-based roaster Coava Coffee as its “anchor” coffee, but owners also plan to have a regular rotation of featured roasters from across the Pacific Northwest and beyond.

“The goal is to introduce Spokane to something new, and feature roasters from outside Spokane for the most part, just to be able introduce people to something they’ve never tried before,” Alyssa Agee says.

Future plans for Emma Rue’s also include educational, in-person events like coffee cuppings and cocktail classes.

“Absinthe is going to be a huge piece of what we’re doing in all our cocktails,” Hein says. “We will have a beautiful absinthe fountain and a lot of options, and will

Owners Alyssa Agee (left) and Aaron Hein inside the newly opened downtown coffee and cocktail bar Emma Rue’s. teach people about all the classic ways to enjoy it. It’s a really cool spirit, and is a huge flavor profile in French bars.”

Emma Rue’s spirits extend beyond absinthe; however, the bar won’t have any beer taps, just cans

YOUNG KWAK PHOTO

and bottles, and the focus for its wine list is on French imports, including champagne.

For its wide selection of baked goods and desserts, head pastry chef Emily Krug has crafted an entirely gluten-free menu of traditional French pastries and more

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People’s Waffle / Emma Rue’s • 15 S. Howard St. • Emma Rue’s open daily 7 am-3 pm; People’s Waffle open Wed-Sun 8 am-2 pm • peopleswaffle.com / emmarues.com

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lthough Emma Rue’s and People’s Waffle share a space and ownership, the businesses operate as separate entities, which means customers can’t cross-order from both menus in one or the other eatery.

IC LANTERN THEATER MAG

“We want different experiences, and what they each offer to stand alone,” Hein says.

Even so, and since the seating inside People’s Waffle is somewhat limited, on busy weekends customers are welcome to order coffee at Emma Rue’s while they wait for a table. The waffle shop also offers its complete menu to-go via online ordering.

“I like to think of it more like what you see in some larger cities, where it’s shared amenities but separate entities,” Agee says. “Which I know is a little unique to Spokane, because even though the [restaurants] share a restroom and a kitchen, it doesn’t extend much beyond that.”

People’s Waffle originally debuted in 2020 as a food truck operating near the Wonder Building. Its concise menu features housemade waffles ($9-$15) loaded with sweet or savory toppings. Savory waffles include creative combos inspired by a banh mi sandwich, pulled pork tacos and eggs benedict. The waffle shop’s signature London Fog is topped with Swiss meringue, honeycomb crumbles and an Earl Grey tea sauce.

Sweeter waffles include strawberries and cream, lemon blueberry and the “Plain Jane” ($9) with only butter and syrup. Other breakfast staples ($3.50-$4.50) can be ordered on the side, including yogurt with granola, sausage, bacon, eggs, avocado and fruit salad. n

SO

— cookies, coffee cake, cream puffs, tarts.

While Emma Rue’s opens early to offer coffee and pastries throughout the day, Hein and Agee envision it becoming an intimate late-night stop for the downtown crowd to enjoy a decadent dessert and cocktail once the full bar debuts.

“Our intention is to do this into the evening, so if you go to the Fox and want to go out and get some dessert afterwards, you can come over here — or maybe you want coffee and dessert,” Hein says.

Emma Rue’s has been a concept in the making for over a decade between Hein and the Agee couple.

“We’ve known what we wanted it to be like and the feel of it, and knew it would be about the people we’re serving and we’re staffing,” Agee says. “And when this space became available, it was less about the perfect timing and expertise, and more about finding a place where this would work.”

The Agee family, including Bryan’s father Mark Agee, own the entire four-story, historic Symons Block building in which Emma Rue’s and People’s Waffle are located, and have plans to turn the upper stories into nontraditional offices, residences and a micro-hotel.

“We want to be invested and a real cultural influence to downtown,” Agee notes.

LESLIE ODOM, JR.

Performing with the Spokane Symphony Friday, Oct. 15, 2021 | 7:30 p.m. | Fox Theater

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An award-winning vocalist, songwriter, actor and author, Odom captivated audiences as Aaron Burr in the Broadway musical Hamilton, earning him a Tony Award.

In the new critically acclaimed film One Night in Miami, he performs the legendary songs of Sam Cooke. He has released four highly lauded albums and performed on esteemed stages from the White House to the Super Bowl. In 2018, he published Failing Up: How to Take Risks, Aim Higher and Never Stop Learning.

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sustainableconnections.org SEPTEMBER 23, 2021 INLANDER 27

SOUL

Calling the Lovers Modern soul crew Durand Jones and the Indications give love a chance on new album

BY HOWARD HARDEE 28 INLANDER SEPTEMBER 23, 2021

M

usic has the power to transport the listener to a place where their anxious inner voice is reduced to background noise and everyday troubles melt away, and sometimes musicians wield this power intentionally.

As suggested by its title, Private Space — the latest album by classic soul revivalists Durand Jones and The Indications — is designed as a personal escape, an opportunity to put needle to vinyl and get lost somewhere that isn’t being rampaged by viruses and wildfires and cable TV news personalities. It’s a welcome respite.

But even on a record that’s mostly about getting lost in the music and moment, it’s 2021, so there’s an upfront acknowledgement that terrible events are unfolding that cannot be ignored. The slow and sexy album opener “Love Will Work It Out,” featuring an ultra-smooth vocal performance by Jones, references both the weight of the Covid-19 pandemic and the struggle for racial equality in the U.S. “Folks overtaken by disease / All the people lost made me fall right down to my knees,” he sings on one verse. On another: “I got so down being alone / Watching modern day lynchings in the streets that I called home.” Jones muses that in both instances, love is the answer: “I knew I had to trust the faith that love would work it out.”

The Indications formed in the early 2010s after Jones, drummer Aaron Frazer and guitarist Blake Rhein

bonded over their shared interest of oldies as students at the University of Indiana’s Jacobs School of Music. After releasing its self-titled debut album in 2016, the group attracted national attention with the dreamy, slow-dancey single “Is It Any Wonder,” featuring a hair-raising vocal performance by Frazer, the drummer with horn-rimmed glasses and an angelic falsetto.

Emphasizing vocal melody and harmony and displaying the sensibility of classic record collectors, the group followed up with 2019 record American Love Call, having established itself as a successful touring outfit with an especially strong following among the Chicano lowrider community in Los Angeles.

Durand Jones and The Indications is bringing its message of love to Riverfront Pavilion on Wednesday, Sept. 29, in what promises to be an evening of throwback influences, super-tight vocal harmonies and generally positive vibes.

The group will perform in support of veteran rock outfit My Morning Jacket, which is touring its first album in six years, Regularly Scheduled Programming, and recently dropped a groovy, psyched-out single, “Love Love Love.”

The track comes complete with very Beatles-like vocal hooks, a fuzzy guitar freakout in the manner of George Harrison and a timely reminder from My Morning Jacket frontman Jim James to love each other and generally pay it forward: “The more you give, yeah / The more you get, now.”

UPCOMING SHOWS ASHLEY McBRYDE Thu, Sept. 23, 8 p.m.

Fox Theater $22.50-$35 MANNEQUIN PUSSY, ANGEL DU$T Fri., Sept. 24, 8 p.m.

Lucky You Lounge $16 OLD DOMINION, CAITLYN SMITH Sat, Sept. 25, 7:30 pm Northern Quest Resort & Casino $59-$109

PORTER ROBINSON (ABOVE), JAMES IVY Sun, Sept. 26, 6:30 pm Spokane Pavilion $25-$40

Durand Jones and the Indications get cosmic on new LP. EBRU YILDIZ PHOTO

Both outfits proudly display their decades-old influences and easily weave them through their original music. Private Space finds The Indications working with a slightly different sound palette than before, with more swinging rhythms boogying into the mix. Here the group dabbles for the first time with elements of funk and disco, from the Nile Rodgers-esque chic funk guitar rhythm on “The Way That I Do” to the glittery-sounding synthesizer that kicks off lead single and instant roller rink classic, “Witchoo.”

Private Space doesn’t represent a big systlistic stretch, however. The old-school vibes that have been so integral to The Indications’ success are still present in this distinctly modern production, as the group once again pulls old sounds into the present — and doesn’t ignore the moment’s darker realities.

On the final track, “I Can See,” Frazer laments that the world is “looking so tired today,” full of empty branches and gray skies. But he reaches a similar conclusion as his musical partner, Jones, on the album’s opening song: Love and hope are the answer. In his sweet falsetto, he sings, “But the darkness of night / Gives way to new light.” n Durand Jones and The Indications supporting My Morning Jacket • Wed., Sept. 29 at 6 pm • $45 • All ages • Spokane Pavilion in Riverfront Park • 574 N Howard St. • spokanepavilion.com • 888-929-7849

THE SESHEN, WATER MONSTER Wed, Sept. 29, 8 pm Lucky You Lounge $10 LOUDERMILK, LADYBIRD UNITION, DUSTMOTH Fri, Oct. 1, 8 pm Lucky You Lounge $18 TENNIS, MOLLY BURCH Sat, Oct. 2, 8 pm Knitting Factory $20 BLACK LABEL SOCIETY, OBITUARY, PRONG Tue, Oct. 5, 7:30 pm Knitting Factory $35 TANYA TUCKER Wed, Oct. 6, 8 pm Bing Crosby Theater $45-$68 MADELEINE PEYROUX Sun., Oct. 10, 8 p.m.

Bing Crosby Theater $41-$68

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SEPTEMBER 23, 2021 INLANDER 29

MUSIC ROCKING THE SUBURBS

You could look at the first Silverland Rockfest as a way to reintroduce yourself to a music festival environment after too long in lock down, or a means to hop in the wayback machine to when bands like Everclear, Hoobastank and Wheatus dominated “alternative” radio and MTV. I’m going to suggest your attendance based solely on the shocking presence of Living Colour (pictured) on the bill. The brilliant quartet led by monster guitarist Vernon Reid and ace frontman Corey Glover introduced many late ’80s headbangers to the idea that there are amazing Black musicians playing aggressive, occasionally avant garde rock ’n’ roll (in case they didn’t get that from Jimi Hendrix or Prince). “Cult of Personality” was their biggest hit, but they created several albums of killer songs and since reuniting after a brief pause in the late ’90s, they’ve continued delivering scorching live sets and putting out new music. They alone are worth the price of admission.

— DAN NAILEN Silverland Rockfest with Everclear, Living Colour (pictured), Hoobastank and Wheatus • Tue, Sept. 28 at 6 pm • $59-$98 • Greyhound Park • 5100 W. Riverbend Ave., Post Falls • silverlandrockfest.com

VISUAL ARTS RIVERSIDE ROAMING

The 14th annual Little Spokane River Artist Studio Tour is back and better than ever with 48 artists in five studio locations, all within easy driving distance and representing every media imaginable: painting, pottery, photography, leather, fiber, stone, glass and more. This year’s limited-edition tour poster was created by artist and tour participant Sheila Evans and is available to purchase for $50, the net proceeds of which benefit Spokane Public Radio, KPBX. While last year’s event was forced into the virtual realm, organizers of this year’s in-person tour have public safety top of mind, and as such all artist booths at each site are well-spaced, and guests must wear face masks per the governor’s statewide mandate. Parking at all tour sites is free, but carpooling with friends or family is a great idea to reduce congestion.

— CARRIE SCOZZARO Little Spokane River Artist Studio Tour • Sept. 25 from 10 am-5 pm • Free • Event map and details at littlespokanestudios.com

30 INLANDER SEPTEMBER 23, 2021

WORDS WORDS ’N’ STUFF

Writing is, well... hard. Maybe you, too, feel this pain regularly; if not, ask any journalist, novelist, screenwriter, biographer, researcher, philosopher, etc., etc. Still, it can be easy (even for a writer) to imagine the act of writing itself being neatly contained between the beginning and end of any story put down on paper (or screen). Usually, though, it’s the least onerous part of the process.

Local authors Kate Lebo (The Book of Difficult Fruit) and Sam Ligon (Miller Cane: A True and Exact History; first serialized right here in the Inlander) are teaming up to share the real truth behind writing, and both have several titles under their belts to prove it. Turns out, there’s lots of research, fact checking, rounds of editing, rewrites and much more. Event host Auntie’s requests guests RSVP for an accurate headcount in order to assure safety, and proof of COVID-19 vaccination is required to attend.

— CHEY SCOTT Books are Made of Other Books with Kate Lebo and Sam Ligon • Fri, Sept. 24 at 7 pm • Free • Auntie’s Bookstore • 402 W. Main Ave. • auntiesbooks.com • 509-838-0206

State of the art stuff... but way cooler!

THEATER SUNSET SHAKESPEARE

A second weekend of performances in the stunning Riverfront Park Pavilion caps off the inaugural summer season of the newly founded local theater troupe, Spokane Shakespeare Society. Under the direction of Jessica Loomer, a cast of just three actors — Jerry Sciarrio, Kaylan Martin and Robert Tombari — perform in this whirlwind production (written and first performed in the early ’80s by London’s Reduced Shakespeare Company) that crams all 37 of the Bard’s plays into just 90 minutes of stage time. From familiar titles to Shakespeare’s lesser-known works, this comedic ode to the most recognized playwright of all time is an apt way to send off summer. Get there early to this free, unticketed event to save a seat on the lawn or terrace. Picnics are also welcome inside the venue, although food and beverage vendors will also be on site.

— CHEY SCOTT Shakespeare in the Park: The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) • Sept. 23-25 at 6:30 pm; Oct. 2-3 at 2 pm • Free • All ages • Pavilion at Riverfront • 574 N. Howard St. • spokaneshakespearesociety.org

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CABINS

WORDS LOCAL LIT

A year after the release of local literary icon Jess Walter’s bestselling novel set in early 20th century Spokane, The Cold Millions is coming out in paperback. To celebrate this — and Walter’s recent win of the Washington State Book Award’s fiction prize — Spokane Public Library and Auntie’s Bookstore are teaming up. The reading party is at the Library’s brand new venue in the Sprague Union District, The Hive. The Cold Millions is a wild and spellbinding tale about two young brothers trying to survive in grim and gritty early Spokane — the deep rift back then between the rich and poor, haves and have nots, feels eerily prescient in our 100-years-later reality. This in-person event requires proof of a COVID-19 vaccine and purchase of a $5 ticket or a copy of the book ($17), and entry can be paid for in advance on Auntie’s website.

— CHEY SCOTT Jess Walter: The Cold Millions • Tue, Sept. 28 at 7 pm • $5 • The Hive • 2904 E. Sprague Ave. • Register at auntiesbooks.com • 509-838-0206

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For more information Call Kelly Kearns 208-597-1727 SEPTEMBER 23, 2021 INLANDER 31

I SAW YOU

I SAW YOU I FOUND YOUR NECKLACE 9/7 Ft. Spokane Boat Launch Parking Lot. Found delicate necklace with 2 silver hearts. If you’re missing it, email me the initials to identify. cynfarr2015@outlook.com HAPPY HUMP DAY You were the gorgeous woman with the long lashes who wished me a happy hump day & made my night.

I wish you would have come back at 10 to flirt with me again. How about I buy you a Monster & take you to dinner. Come by again or drop me an email swgasguy@ google.com BILLY IDOL CONCERT 8-12 I was on duty working the concert when you (pretty female) and your male friend (Sergei?) approached my coworker and began to talk to him. I thought you were his date so I didn’t pay attention to you. You (pretty female) stepped in front of me and said hello. You closed the distance and told me it was your 28th birthday. I wished you a happy birthday and I mentioned that you were still quite young. You asked me my age and then asked if I was single. I confirmed I was single and you asked me out. I was not expecting someone as pretty as you to ask me out and I got nervous and turned you down. I suck, I know. But I thanked you and told you I was flattered by your gesture. When you walked away, I immediately regretted turning you down.

If it means anything and the offer is still good, I’d like to get to know you. You know where I work.

RE: I SAW YOU AGAIN Very unlikely I’m the person this was directed at. In the off chance I am, this is what I have to say: You made things clear, said my friendship stresses you out more than any other, then dropped off the face of the Earth. I loved you hard. Wanted something you weren’t offering me. I wasn’t enough and you didn’t choose me. The days leading up to today have been hard and sad. Today was the hardest and saddest. I never imagined walking through the doors of the place I took you to be repaired, to be repaired myself by the same MD, all by myself.

No call, no text, no concern whatsoever.

The way I’m choosing to move forward is with pride and not embarrassment or shame. Just because I loved you with all my heart and you didn’t love me back doesn’t mean I’m going to be afraid to love again.

Someone will see the gem I am and that I’m more than enough and deserve to be loved back. I have a lot of healing to do before I’m ready for that but I’ll get there.

CHEERS FIRST INTERSTATE CENTER STAFF Even though I was extremely disappointed having driven up from Moscow to see the Monkees and not being admitted because I’d forgotten my vaccination card, cheers to the ticketing staff at the First Interstate Center who had to deal with a lot of angry customers who were unaware of the current policy. We’d have known if we’d read the Inlander!

SO BLESSED A couple of weeks ago I was at the Hillyard Safeway with my dad. He’s recently in hospice care and we were having a rough day, but needed to go to the store.

When we were checking out, the wonderful cashier seemed to know exactly what was happening. He looked me straight in the eyes and told me I was so blessed to have my dad and be able to help him. It was wonderful to hear someone else see it as a blessing and not a burden. I’ve been thinking about that moment since it happened. Thank you!

JEERS PARKING ENFORCEMENT SHAME Officer.

Get a life. A few of the meters in front of my

home are 4 hour. The 24 hour ones always get taken. So if I happen to get off late from work most of the time the only spots available are 4 hour parking spots. I have a monthly parking pass but you still find it

“

visit, or because we won’t give you animal de-wormer, while insisting this is all a hoax dreamed up by the left. The nurses, doctors, nursing assistants, housekeeping staff, food service providers, phlebotomists, respirato-

Your callous disregard for the safety and security of your community members is bad enough, but then you show up to our emergency rooms begging for help when you cannot breathe, infected by a totally preventable virus.

necessary to ticket me as if there’s a business that needs the spots. It’s all residential and apartments on this block. Please quit making me wake up 3 hours after going to bed to go find a new parking space just to avoid your ticket happy ways. You guy’s doubled your parking fines recently. This is unsustainable. There are literally people that park their project cars for months at a time in the exact same spot. But just because they’re in a 24 hour spot they don’t get ticketed while having the monthly pass.

Ticket them for hogging up all the meters.

I’m trying to earn a living over here and paying 60 dollars a month in parking tickets on top of the monthly parking pass to park on the same block as my home is starting to affect my families already borderline poverty level economic status.

ry therapists and everyone else who keeps the hospitals running is so ridiculously sick of your bullshit. If you’re not brave enough to get a SAFE vaccine, put a mask on you and your kids. If you can’t be bothered to wear a mask, stay home. Your rights don’t outweigh every other person in the community. And just remember - if you or someone you love needs a hospital right now for non-COVID related health issues, there is literally no room. We can’t care for Granny with her stroke or Pop-Pop with his gallstones, because there is no room anywhere. Thank your asshole neighbors from Idaho for that as well. Stop being gigantic doucheholes and do the right thing for once in your life.

WHERE’S MY WEEKLY HOROSCOPE?! Hey Inlander- I’ve been reading your issues for most of my 34 years in life. I love this section (I Saw You, Jeers, Cheers) & I appreciate all the work that goes into the weekly Inlander BUT I’m really missing the horoscope section! It’s s been a while since I’ve seen it... what happened & can we get them back please?! Sincerely- a Pisces missing her pieces. Thanks!

YOU CAN’T CALL US HEROES AND ACT LIKE ASSHOLES Enough is enough. As a member of the medical community, those of you who refuse to mask, get vaccinated, or simply stay home when you are sick are the sole reason our community is crumbling under this pandemic. Your callous disregard for the safety and security of your community members is bad enough, but then you show up to our emergency rooms begging for help when you cannot breathe, infected by a totally preventable virus. You scream at our nurses and doctors, insisting we are fabricating our diagnoses as you have to be intubated at bedside. Your family threatens us with lawsuits for not being allowed to

RE: JEERS UNVAXXED BY CHOICE I completely agree! unvaxxed should automatically forfeit their access to medical care/ treatment. I’m in full kidney failure and I’ve had people tell me I don’t have to wear my mask in certain places. I wear it

SOUND OFF

be In the know FOR ALL THINGS DAZE SCHOOL SAYS ABOUT WHAT THE LATEST RESEARCH COVID-19 AND THE CLASSROOM

HURRY UP AND WAIT SO LONG TO

PAGE 8

NOT LOST LONG SHUTTERED, | NEAR NATURE, JANUARY 9-15, 2020 PAGE 44 BUT BEGIN PROJECTING AGAIN

SEEKING INSPIRATION

JANUARY 14-20, 2021 | LIBERTY, EQUALITY

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ADVENTURE AWAITS

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AND FREE PAPERS!

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A NEW POETRY PROJECT CELEBRATES PAGE 14 SPOKANE’S NEIGHBORHOODS

UP!

DODGE TRUCKS - AN INDICATOR OF THE DRIVER’S STATE OF MIND? I’ve noticed that a high percentage of folks that fly the dumb flags and insist the last presidential election was “stolen” drive Dodge Trucks. Have others noticed the same? While the Dodge Truck phenomena warrants more investigation. I’ve also noticed that folks that drive Toyota Tundra’s tend to have bike racks or outdoor activity stickers and seem to be less likely to go into road rage mode than the Dodge dudes with dumb Trump flags.

Am just wondering if the Right leaning wackos actually get discounts from Dodge.

I actually find it kinda funny since the reliability of the Toyota’s are for the most part so much better. Makes one wonder... n

WHY IS IT TAKING 8 GIVE OUT VACCINES? PAGE

SCREEN THE BIGSPOKANE THEATERS

NOVEMBER 12-18, 2020 | PLEASE MASK

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a mask while he was checking my ID. The bar was PACKED and had no precautions, no masks on ANYONE and no adherence to the covid laws.

A S S T

NOTE: I Saw You/Cheers & Jeers is for adults 18 or older. The Inlander reserves the right to edit or reject any posting at any time at its sole discretion and assumes no responsibility for the content.

1. Visit Inlander.com/isawyou by 3 pm Monday. 2. Pick a category (I Saw You, You Saw Me, Cheers or Jeers). 3.

Provide basic info: your name and email (so we know you’re real). 4. To connect via I Saw You, provide a non-identifying email to be included with your submission — like “petals327@yahoo.com,” not “j.smith@comcast.net.”

32 INLANDER SEPTEMBER 23, 2021

to prevent infection and/or the spread of infection. I’ve had my shot but my immune system is so compromised that I’ll die if I’m exposed. I went to a bar last weekend and the bouncer flipped me $hi+ for wearing

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W I N T E R Monthly in the Inlander

S E R I E S October – February

Ask about our Snowlander Packages! Advertising@inlander.com

ARI SHAFFIR Shaffir’sNetflix special Double Negative is presented in two 45-minute episodes. Self-described as his version of a “Smashing Pumpkins Double Album,” this type of double header release hasn’t been seen since George Carlin’s 1972 release of FM & AM. Sept. 23-25; showtimes vary. $25$35. Spokane Comedy Club, 315 W. Sprague. spokanecomedyclub.com PREDICTABLE Technology constantly suggests what we should watch, who we should follow and even autocompletes what we we were going to say.

So why not what we should improvise?

The BDT players combine your suggestions with the whims of a predictive algorithm to generate hilarious improv situations. Fridays in September at 7:30 pm. Rated for general audiences. $8.

Blue Door Theatre, 815 W. Garland Ave. bluedoortheatre.com/predictable SAFARI Blue Door’s version of “Whose Line,” a fast-paced improv show with a few twists and turns added. Rated for mature audiences/ages 16+. Reservations recommended. Saturdays from 7:30-9 pm. $8. Blue Door Theatre, 815 W. Garland Ave. bluedoortheatre.com DANNY DUNCAN WORLD TOUR 2021 Live comedy by the YouTube personality, sketch comedian, skateboarder and founder of the “Virginity Rocks” clothing brand. Sept. 29, 8 pm. $25.

Knitting Factory, 919 W. Sprague Ave. sp.knittingfactory.com (509-244-3279) DRY BAR COMEDY LIVE Dry Bar maintains its whirlwind momentum by producing live shows across the U.S., featuring comedians who’ve performed on many late night shows including The Tonight Show, Jimmy Kimmel, Netflix Comedy, TBS’s Conan, Comedy Central and more. Sept. 30, 7:30 pm. $25.

Spokane Comedy Club, 315 W. Sprague. spokanecomedyclub.com JEREMEY PIVEN Jeremy Piven was most recently seen as a series regular in the CBS television series “Wisdom of the Crowd” and the popular PBS series “Mr. Selfridge.” Among his many notable roles, Piven is best known as movie agent Ari Gold in the hit HBO series “Entourage,” which aired for eight seasons and won Piven three Emmys and a Golden Globe. Oct. 1 and 2 at 7:30 (18+) and 10:30 pm (21+). $30-$60. Spokane Comedy Club, 315 W. Sprague. spokanecomedyclub.com/events/47217

COMMUNITY

STATE OF THE COUNTY ADDRESS Greater Spokane Incorporated hosts its State of the County Address, offering crucial insights about the current and future economic environment of the Spokane Region. Sept. 23, 11:30 am. $20-$40. Spokane Convention Center, 334 W. Spokane Falls Blvd. spokanecenter.com (279-7000) DROP IN & PLAY Join staff, volunteers and other members of the creative community to play board and card games together in a relaxing, positive environment. Thursdays from 12-2 pm.

Free. Spark Central, 1214 W. Summit Pkwy. spark-central.org TRIVIA NIGHT AT SCHMUCK PARK The Whitman County Library’s trivia night at the park invites adults to come out to Schmuck Park in Colfax (weather permitting). Bring your team or compete solo in this fun trivia contest featuring

seasonal, historical, and just-for-fun questions. The winning team will receive a small, fall-themed prize and the losing team may pick a trivia category for next time. The library provides hot chocolate and apple cider; feel free to bring your own goodies too. Don’t forget a blanket or lawn chair. This event also streams on Whitman County Library’s Facebook Live. Sep. 23, 5:30 pm.

Free. Details at whitcolib.org WILD THINGS This showcase inside the Campbell House explores the personal histories behind period clothing made from leather, fur and feathers to interpret the social fabric of the Campbell family’s era. It also tracks historical relationships with living creatures, from subsistence to fashion and features exceptional examples from the MAC’s collection. Through November 2021; open Tue-Sun from 10 am-5 pm. $7-$12.

Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture, 2316 W. First. northwestmuseum.org CHILDREN’S BOOK ARTS FAIR A fundraiser hosted by The Center for Children’s Book Arts, this event includes workshops from local artists, family activities, the Book Bus and inexpensive treats. The Center’s mission is to celebrate the art of children’s literature and make beautiful, high-quality children’s texts accessible to Spokane families in order to promote literacy culture both in the community and home. Sept. 25, 10 am-6 pm. Free; donations encouraged. Prairie View Park, 3724 E. 61st Ave. centerforchildrensbookarts.org COMMUNITY DANCE Celebrate National Ballroom Dance Week with a fox trot lesson (7-8 pm) taught by professional instructors. Following, from 8-10 pm, is general dancing, refreshments, door prizes and more. Sept. 25, 7-10 pm. $5/$9. Ponderay Events Center, 401 Bonner Mall Way. (208-263-0271) GEMS ROCK! An interactive presentation for kids covering how the earth and rocks were formed, geological changes, plate tectonics and more. Sept. 25, 10 am. Free. Sandpoint Library, 1407 Cedar St. (208-265-9565) KIDS DROP IN & CODE: Students in grades 4-8 are welcome to explore the world of coding. Concepts explored rotate each month. Fourth Saturday of the month from 12:30-2:30 pm. Free.

Spark Central, 1214 W. Summit Pkwy. spark-central.org (509-279-0299) RUMMAGE SALE FUNDRAISER A variety of vintage items are for sale. Cash only; all sales final and masks are required. Items available include home decor, clothing, accessories, books, art, furniture, linens and more. Sept. 25, 8 am-5 pm. Free. Woman’s Club of Spokane, 1428 W. Ninth. womansclubspokane.org (509-838-5667) NATIONAL VOTER REGISTRATION DAY Volunteers and staff are available at all branches to help update voter registration and register to vote. Event is all day during library hours on Tue, Sept. 28. Free. scld.org HOW LATINA/LATINO REPRESENTATION CAN IMPROVE DEMOCRACY Drawing from interviews, policy analysis, and personal experience, Professor Maria Chávez investigates the obstacles contributing to this underrepresentation and explores ideas for how to move toward a more inclusive society and a healthier multiracial democracy.

Sep. 29, noon and Oct. 5, 6:30 pm. Free.

Online at humanities.org

O u t g n i in ON STAN

OctoberDS 7

OPINION

Author Jess Walter weighs in on November’s election PAGE 8

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This serious Joker movie is laughable PAGE 34

OCTOBER 3-9, 2019 | HUNGRY FOR MORE

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LADIE’S NIGHT OUT The studio’s 4th annual event at Beacon Hill kicks off with a yoga flow, followed by bites from Beacon Hill and wine from Barrister Winery. Also includes chair massage sessions, stretch therapy sessions and raffle prizes with ticket sales benefitting Vanessa Behan Crisis Nursery. Sept. 23, 6-9 pm. $58. Eclipse Power Yoga, 3209 E. 57th Ave. Suite E. eclipsepoweryoga. com (509-598-8938) LIGHT THE WAY AUCTION The American Childhood Cancer Association’s 17th annual auction and fundraiser. Silent auction ends Sept. 25 at 10 pm. Virtual event tickets ($75/person or $500 for a home host package) available for the live program on Sept. 25. one.bidpal.net/accoin/welcome ART FROM THE ATTIC SALE Proceeds benefit the Moore-Turner Heritage Gardens. Sale features paintings, framed prints, fine home decor, garden art, sculptures, metal art, quality collectibles and much more. Sept. 25, 9 am-4 pm. Corbin Art Center, 507 W. Seventh. heritagegardens.org (509-625-6677) JUNIOR LEAGUE OF SPOKANE’S “LOOK-A-TRUCK” This community event offers children of all ages an opportunity to see and learn about favorite big rigs in a safe environment. This year’s event is a drive-through experience with recorded audio for kids to experience fire trucks, ambulances, police cars, power line trucks, city buses, tow trucks, garbage trucks and many other vehicles and heavy machinery.

All proceeds support the Junior League of Spokane’s mission to improve childhood literacy. Sept. 25, 9 am-1 pm. $10 suggested donation per car. Spokane Community College, 1810 N. Greene St. jlspokane.org/touch-a-truck TEAM HOPE WALK The Washington State Chapter of the Huntington’s Disease Society of America (HDSA) is virtually hosting the Spokane/Coeur d’ Alene Team Hope Walk. All proceeds support HDSA’s mission to improve the lives of people affected by Huntington’s disease and their families. Huntington’s disease is a brain disease that is passed down in families from generation to generation with symptoms described as having ALS, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s – simultaneously. Sept. 25, 10 am. washington.hdsa.org/about/spokane-coeur-d-alene-team-hope-walk DISHMAN HILLS CONSERVANCY CELEBRATION DINNER The annual celebration dinner is DHC’s largest fundraising event of the year and consists of a presentation designed to celebrate the Conservancy’s accomplishments and outline priorities for the coming year, with presentations from DHC leaders, partners and supporters. This year’s keynote speaker is Hilary Franz, Washington State’s Commissioner of Public Lands, who oversees the State Department of Natural Resources (DNR), a major partner to DHC. Sept. 30, 6 pm.

Free. Online at dishmanhills.org WALK TO END ALZHEIMER’S Held annually in more than 600 communities nationwide, the Walk to End Alzheimer’s is the world’s largest fundraiser for Alzheimer’s care, support and research. This event calls on participants of all ages and abilities to join the fight against the disease. Learn more at alz. org/walk. Oct. 2, 8:30-11:30 am. Free to attend, donation suggested. Riverfront Park, 507 N. Howard. (509-321-4538)

COMEDY

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EVENTS | CALENDAR

The Palm Court Grill’s signature crab cakes SUPPLEMENT TO THE INLANDER

The seasons are changing and Inlander readers are looking forward to seeing what is fresh on fall menus at local restaurants. The Dining Guide section in our annual Dining Out issue provides the opportunity for restaurants to showcase their favorite fall menu items and entice readers to come in and give it a try!

FOR INFORMATION ON PROMOTING YOUR FALL MENU, CONTACT:

advertising@inlander.com RESERVE YOUR SPACE BY SEPT 30

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GET LISTED! SUBMIT YOUR EVENT DETAILS for listings in the print & online editions of the Inlander.

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SEPTEMBER 23, 2021 INLANDER 33

EVENTS | CALENDAR JUDGING INEQUALITY The surge of inequality in the U.S. has been thoroughly documented with the issue often framed as having only political and economic origins. Missing from this picture are the large role that courts and judges play in creating inequality. James Gibson takes on this misconception in his upcoming talk, drawing from his recently published book “Judging Inequality: State Supreme Courts and the Inequality Crisis.” Sept.

29, 12-1 pm. Free. Online at youtu.be/ KCEHVPIPL0A WHO’S WHO IN THE LATINX ETHNIC COMMUNITY? Join Olga Lucia Herrera to better understand how Latinos/Hispanics label themselves and how ethnic labels have changed over time. This program celebrates LatinX Heritage Month. Register with Spokane Public Library to receive an email with instructions on how to participate via Zoom, or join on Facebook Live. Sept. 29, 6:30-7:30 pm. events.spokanelibrary.org/event/5482267 DUNGEONS & DRAGONS FOR TEENS Play a virtual game of Dungeons and Dragons with other teens in the Spokane area. All skill levels welcome. Your dungeon master has pre-generated characters for you to choose from. We will meet in the DnD voice channel and/ or DnD general channel in Discord (spokanelibrary.org/kids/teens/discord/).

Learn how to sign up on our event calendar. Sessions on Oct. 1 and 15 from 3:15-5:15 pm. events.spokanelibrary.org/ event/5469775 (509-444-5382) SPOKANE FESTIVAL OF SPEED OKTOBERFEST Car registration and proceeds go to the Inland Northwest American Childhood Cancer Organization. Additional donations are welcome and encouraged. A beer garden and food is provided by TT’s Brewery and BBQ; plus live music, T-Shirts and more. Oct. 1, 4-9 pm. $30/car; free to spectators. Downtown Spokane. spokanefestivalofspeed.org CUSTER’S 46TH ANNUAL FALL ANTIQUE & COLLECTOR’S SALE Dealers from across the Northwest offer everything from rare to retro. Shop among thousands of unique items including: Kitchenware, industrial, estate and costume jewelry, furniture, primitives, midcentury modern, rustic garden, elegant glass, prints and much more. Oct. 2 from 10 am-6 pm and Oct. 3 from 10 am-4 pm. $7; kids 12 and under free. Spokane County Fair & Expo Center, 404 N. Havana St. custershows.com

FESTIVAL

85TH ANNUAL GREEK FESTIVAL The 85th annual celebration of Greek culture showcases authentic Greek cuisine and pastries, Greek music, history and more, including tours of the church. Food available to-go only; tours require masks and social distancing. Sept. 23-25 from 11 am-8 pm. Free to attend. Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church, 1703 N. Washington St. holytrinityspokane.org/festival DOWNTOWN FALL FEST The festive fun of a fall farm is transported into the heart of downtown with community activities for the third annual Fall Fest, including sing-alongs, magic shows, roaming dancers and interactive fun. Oct. 2-3 from 11 am-5 pm. Free. Downtown Spokane. downtownspokane.org LILAC CITY COMICON The Lilac City Comicon promotes awareness of local artists and businesses from around the Inland Northwest in the pop culture realm, and includes cosplay contests, a vendor market, games, special guests

34 INLANDER SEPTEMBER 23, 2021

and more. Oct. 2, 10 am-6 pm and Oct. 3, 10 am-4 pm. Spokane Convention Center, 334 W. Spokane Falls Blvd. lilaccitycon. com (279-7000) STONELODGE FARMS FALL FESTIVAL Includes food, vendors and activities for all ages, as well as a pumpkin patch and fresh pumpkin donuts. Oct. 2-24; Sat and Sun from 10 am-5 pm. Stonelodge Farm, 6509 Stonelodge Rd. (509-991-4389)

FILM

DRIVE-IN MOVIE NIGHTS: THE BLIND SIDE / THE SANDLOT The HUB’s outdoor drive-in movies run through the fall. Admission is per car, and local food trucks will also be on site selling snacks and concessions. See website for complete schedule and COVID-19 safety policies. Sept. 25 at 7 pm (The Sandlot) and 9:15 pm (The Blind Side). $20. HUB Sports Center, 19619 E. Cataldo Ave. hubsportscenter.org (509-927-0602) FIGHTING FOR LOVE: STRONG WOMEN IN ONSCREEN ROMANCES Join Professor Allison Palumbo as they explore 40 years of fighting female characters onscreen, from private eyes to cops and spies, who struggle to find love.

Learn how love has been constructed in American culture based on heterosexual norms and power dynamics that favor men’s strength and independence. How do America’s ideals for romance create inequitable relationships? How can we imagine more inclusive and equitable ways of loving? Sept. 28, 8 pm. Free. Online at humanities.org

FOOD & DRINK

FOOD TRUCK FRIDAYS Downtown Spokane shuts down Wall Street every Friday this summer to offer a variety of local food trucks and entertainment. Fridays from 11 am-2 pm through Sept. 24. downtownspokane.org FRIDAY NIGHT MARKET & OPEN MIC The weekly market features area food trucks, along with an open mic session, lawn games, crafts and other allages activities. Fridays from 5-9 pm through Sept. 24. Free. Hillyard Food Truck Pavilion, 5108 N. Market St. facebook.com/Hillyard-Food-Truck-Pavilion-100232218924654 ROCKET WINE CLASS Rocket Market hosts weekly wine classes; sign up in advance for the week’s selections. Fridays at 7 pm. Call to reserve a seat, or register online. Price varies. Rocket Market, 726 E. 43rd Ave. rocketmarket.com (343-2253) SWEET ANNIE’S ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY SHINDIG Celebrating the creamery’s first year in Liberty Lake with a day of deals, giveaways and surprises. Sept.

25, 11 am-9 pm. Free. Sweet Annie’s Artisan Creamery, 1948 N. Harvest Pkwy. fb.me/e/Nvj81obK (509-381-5469) ALL YOU CAN EAT PANCAKE BREAKFAST Pancake breakfast served with eggs, sausage and OJ, plus fresh homemade Green Bluff applesauce. Sept. 26, 8-11 am. $7/adults; $3.50/under 12 years.

Green Bluff Grange, 9809 Green Bluff Rd. greenbluffgrowers.com (979-2607) KILL THE KEG & SERVICE INDUSTRY NIGHT This weekly special includes $2 off select GHP beer taps, $1 off select guest beer tap, and a 20% discount for service industry patrons. Tuesdays from 3-9 pm.

The Golden Handle Project, 111 S Cedar St. goldenhandle.org (509-868-0264)

HISTORICAL TOURS Take a guided stroll around the estate’s grounds while hearing tales of its early days. Tickets include a beverage at the conclusion of your tour.

Sept. 29 at 4:30 pm and 5:30 pm. $15.

Commellini Estate, 14715 N. Dartford Dr. commellini.square.site (509-466-0667) MEDICAL PERSONNEL APPRECIATION NIGHT All medical and healthcare-related personnel, students, staff and professionals receive a 20 percent discount off all GHP beer and food. Wednesdays from 3-9 pm. The Golden Handle Project, 111 S Cedar St. goldenhandle.org PRESERVE IT! SUMMER HOME FOOD PRESERVATION SERIES This series features research-backed information on timely preservation of produce. Sept. 29, 6:30 pm. $15/class. WSU Spokane County Extension, 222 N. Havana St. extension. wsu.edu/spokane/2018/05/2019-foodpreservation-safety-classes SUNSET SIPPER RESORT BLEND WHISKEY TASTING An exclusive tasting and reveal of the custom single barrel bourbon made exclusively for the Coeur d’Alene Resort in partnership with Maker’s Mark Distillery. “The Sunset Sipper” was handcrafted by our female-lead Resort Team in hopes to create a smooth but spicy blend. Sept. 30, 6-7 pm. $45.

The Coeur d’Alene Resort, 115 S. Second. cdaresort.com (208-765-4000) YAPPY HOUR Celebrate with the Better Together Animal Alliance and your canine companion at the Ponderay PetSafe Dog Park. Enjoy local beer, music sunshine and community. Last Thursday of the month from 4-7 pm through Sep. 30. Free. Ponderay Petsafe Dog Park, 870 Kootenai Cuttoff Rd. bettertogetheranimalalliance.org (208-265-7297 ext. 103) PREPARE TO PRESERVE Home canning has standards; start by downloading a free copy of the USDA’s “Complete Guide to Home Canning” (2015) for reference.

Then join this five-week online course for the in-home consumer who wants to learn about food preservation and food safety. Meets in person Saturdays from 10-11:30 am, Oct. 2-30. $75. WSU Spokane County Extension, 222 N. Havana St. extension.wsu.edu/spokane/event/ prepare-to-preserve-2/ (509-477-2048) WORLD FAMOUS APPLE DUMPLINGS During Green Bluff’s annual Apple Festival, the Grange serves its “World Famous Apple Dumplings.” Take-out dumplings available on Saturday (10 am-4 pm) and Sundays (12-4 pm) through Oct. 17. $5/ dumpling. Green Bluff United Methodist Church, 9908 E. Greenbluff Rd. (509979-2607)

MUSIC

AN AMERICAN QUILT: A GUEST RECITAL WITH KRISTIN JONINA TAYLOR, PIANO An exploration of a multitude of voices from the Americas: a transcription of Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring, a relatively unknown piano sonata from the 1940s by Joanne Baker, a seldomplayed Joplin rag, an audience-pleasing rag by William Bolcom, a Brazilian tango

by Ernesto Nazareth and scenes from the Wasatch Mountain range in Utah by Bryan Stanley. Sept. 23, 7:30 pm. Free.

Kimbrough Music Building (WSU), Pullman. events.wsu.edu/event/dr-kristintaylor-guest-recital-piano MUSIC AT THE WINERY Doors open at 5 pm; reservations required. Guests can bring a picnic dinner or order food from Beacon Hill Catering (orders must be placed by noon the day prior before).

Find updates on who’s playing each week on the winery’s Facebook page.

Music happens Wednesdays and Fridays from 7-9 pm. Free. Barrister Winery, 1213 W. Railroad Ave. facebook.com/BarristerWinery (509-465-3591) PIANIST TERESA WALTERS Teresa is known as the “International First Lady of Piano.” She chose The Cutter to share her acclaimed concert. Sept. 24. Cutter Theatre, 302 Park St., Metaline Falls. cuttertheatre.com BACKROAD JAMMERS Cary and Frank Newman, a father-son duo from Cavendish, Idaho, play music in a variety of styles including classic rock, country, Americana and blues. Sep. 25, 7-9 pm. $10. Dahmen Barn, 419 N. Park Way., Uniontown, Wash. artisanbarn.org KPBX KIDS’ CONCERT: VILLA BLUES & JAZZ The next KPBX Kids’ Concert is broadcast on KPBX 91.1, taking audiences from classic to jazz with Villa Blues & Jazz. They’ll perform memorable and fun songs that have become jazz standards, along with some educational conversations about songs, instruments and more.

Sept. 25, 1 pm. spokanepublicradio.org NEIL DIAMOND NIGHT A tribute concert of Neil Diamond’s hit songs, featuring Jack Powell’s voice that captures the voice aspect, tone, drama and passion of Diamond’s songs. Sept. 25, 7:30 pm. $37-$42. Bing Crosby Theater, 901 W. Sprague Ave. bingcrosbytheater.com WASHINGTON IDAHO SYMPHONY: 50TH SEASON PREMIERE The orchestra’s 50th season premiere program includes compositions by Gustav Holt, William Grant Still, Samuel Barber and Atonin Dvorak. Proof of full vaccination is required for all event attendees age 12+.

Sept. 25, 7:30 pm. $10-$25. Pullman High School, 510 NW Greyhound Way. waidsymphony.org (509-332-1551) AN EVENING OF JAZZ FT. KEN PEPLOWSKI Playing with the Benny Goodman orchestra all the way up through headlining at the Hollywood Bowl, renowned clarinetist Ken Peplowski has been a fixture in jazz since the 1970s.

Sept. 26, 4-6 pm. $17. The Jacklin Arts & Cultural Center, 405 N. William St. thejacklincenter.org (208-457-8950) INTERSECTING EXPRESSIONS: A FACULTY ARTIST SERIES An evening of music expressed through instrumental performance, poetry and visual arts. Sept.

28, 7:30-9 pm. Free. Bryan Hall Theatre (WSU), 605 Veterans Way. events.wsu. edu/event/faculty-artist-series-dr-christiano-rodrigues/ (509-335-7696) KEN PEPLOWSKI WITH THE SFCC JAZZ FACULTY World-renowned jazz clarinetist and saxophonist Ken Peplowski performs with the Spokane Falls Community College jazz faculty. Sept. 28, 7:30 pm. $10. Holy Names Music Center, 3910 W. Custer Dr. (326-9516) SILVERLAND ROCKFEST FT. EVERCLEAR, HOOBASTANK, LIVING COLOUR, WHEATUS StockPulse presents the SilverLand Rockfest featuring Everclear, Hoobastank, Living Colour and Wheatus. Sept. 28, 4:30-10 pm. $69-$89.

Greyhound Park & Event Center, 5100 Riverbend Ave. silverlandrockfest.com

SPORTS & OUTDOORS

SILVEROXX MOUNTAIN BIKE FESTIVAL Silver Mountain’s annual end-of-summer mountain bike festival. Sept. 24-26. Silver Mountain Resort, 610 Bunker Ave.

silvermt.com SPOKANE ARENACROSS Two nights of action-packed dirtbike racing under the lights, featuring professionals and amateurs, as well as food and beer. Sept. 2425 from 6-10 pm. $15. Spokane County Fair & Expo Center, 404 N. Havana St. spokanecounty.org (208-446-4273) RELENTLESS PRO WRESTLING: PUMPKIN SPICE FIGHTS Currently scheduled to appear: Chase James, Jackson Price, Keita, “Outlandish” Zicky Dice, Verified Steve Migs, Tre’ Lamar, Drexl, Chase Holliday, The Bash Bros, Hawlee Cromwell.

Card is subject to change. Sept. 25, 7 pm. $20-$25. Trailbreaker Cider, 2204 N. Madison St. trailbreakercider.com STATE PARKS FREE DAY Visit Washington State Parks without a required Discover Pass ($10/day or $30/year). Includes day access locally to Riverside, Mt. Spokane and Palouse Falls State Parks.

Sept. 25, Nov. 11 and Nov. 26. Free. parks. state.wa.us/281/Parks SEATTLE KRAKEN VS. VANCOUVER CANUCKS The Seattle Kraken play their first ever NHL Preseason game at Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena. The game is be one of three “home” games played by the expansion Kraken in their inaugural preseason with each being hosted by a WHL club in Washington. Sept. 26, 6 pm.

SOLD OUT. Spokane Arena, 720 W. Mallon Ave. spokanechiefs.com (279-7000)

THEATER

SHAKESPEARE IN THE PARK: THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE (ABRIDGED) Spokane Shakespeare Society presents their inaugural season in Riverfront Park. Friends and families can gather, bring their lawn chairs or blankets (open seating in the Pavilion), pack a picnic or enjoy food from Riverfront restaurants and enjoy a night of professional theatre under the stars. Sept. 23-25 at 6:30 pm; Oct. 2-3 at 2 pm (new dates). Free. Riverfront Park, 507 N. Howard St. my.spokanecity.org/ riverfrontspokane (509-625-6600) SQUEAMISH By Aaron Mark, directed

by Lisa Edwards and starring Dana Sammond. Squeamish is the final production in the “Alone Together” series of online one-person shows, funded by Spokane Arts. Sept. 24-26, and viewable through Oct. 1. stagelefttheater.org/tickets SWIMMING POOLS By Tan Prace Collier, MFA Candidate, and performed as part of the “First Bite” New Play Series via Zoom.

“Swimming Pools” explores addiction, friendship, healing, and what it means to learn how to swim again... no, not literally. Sept. 24-25 at 6 pm and Sept. 26, 2 pm. Free. uidaho.edu/theatre SUNSET BOULEVARD A stage adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Tony Award-winning musical masterwork of dreams and desire nestled in the shadowed hills of Hollywood. Sunset Boulevard is RTOP’s return to live theatre and is a Washington state premier featuring national talent and local artists. Sept. 30Oct. 10; Wed-Sat at 7:30 pm and Sat-Sun at 1:30 pm. $18-$23. Regional Theatre of the Palouse, 122 N. Grand Ave. rtoptheatre.org (509-334-0750) DR. JEKYLL & MR. HYDE A staged adaptation of the classic novella by Robert Louis Stevenson. Oct. 1-3 and 7-10 (times vary). $12. Pullman Civic Theatre, 1220 NW Nye St. pullmancivictheatre.org THE DURABLE BARFLY By Kelsey Rain, MFA Candidate and performed for the First Bite New Play Series via Zoom. An

adult comedy based on the true story of Michael Malloy. Oct. 1-2 at 6 pm, Oct. 3 at 2 pm. Free. uidaho.edu/theatre A HALLOWEEN SPOOKTACULAR An hour-long production featuring some of Halloween’s most famous friends and foes. Oct. 1 at 7 pm, Oct. 2 at 3 pm, 5 pm and 7 pm. $26-$36. Kroc Center, 1765 W. Golf Course Rd. kroccda.org

VISUAL ARTS

BLACK LIVES MATTER ARTIST GRANT EXHIBITION This show celebrates and showcases 20 Washington artists using their voices, experiences, and artistic expression toward social justice efforts in response to systemic racism. Open Tue-Sat through Dec. 18.

Free. Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art WSU, 1535 NE Wilson Rd. museum. wsu.edu (509-335-1910) CONTINUOUS LINES: SELECTIONS FROM THE JOE FEDDERSEN COLLECTION This exhibition features work from Feddersen’s personal collection of contemporary American Indian art, reflecting his friendships and artistic interests over the past few decades.

Sept. 18-Feb. 7; Tue-Sun from 10 am-5 pm. $7-$12. The MAC, 2316 W. First Ave. northwestmuseum.org EYE CONTACT... A NIGHT OF AR: Volunteers of America’s annual fundraiser is a one-night event that brings together local artists to showcase their work while drawing attention to the needs of some of Spokane’s most vulnerable residents. Sept. 23, 5-8 pm. $20. Washington Cracker Co. Building, 304 W. Pacific. voaspokane.org MIRROR, MIRROR: THE PRINTS OF ALISON SAAR Featuring over 30 prints and six sculptures by the Los Angeles–based artist. Her lithographs, etchings and woodblock prints are evocations of the sculptures for which she is renowned. Saar undertakes printmaking with the same tangible approach to unconventional materials and methods found in her sculpture.

Open Tue-Fri from 1-4 pm, Sat from 10 am-4 pm through March 12. Free.

Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art WSU, 1535 NE Wilson Rd. museum.wsu.edu MY BODY, MY TRUTH + RECENT “My Body, My Truth” focuses on issues of body autonomy, from the fight to preserve reproductive rights to issues of gender identity. June T Sanders’ “Recent,” an exhibition of portraits, challenge assumptions of scale and intimacy. Sept. 19-Nov. 21; open by appt.

Opening reception Oct. 10 from 5-7 pm. Dog & Pony, South Hill. dogandponyshow@christopherrussell.art 14TH ANNUAL LITTLE SPOKANE RIVER ARTIST STUDIO TOUR The annual tour features dozens of professional artists in the region exhibiting their work across five studio locations in the Little Spokane River valley. See website for tour map and complete list of participating artists. Sept. 25, 10 am-5 pm. Free. littlespokanestudios.org AWAKENINGS: TRADITIONAL CANOES AND CALLING THE SALMON HOME The MAC, in collaboration with the United Tribes of the Upper Columbia, tells the story of the annual inland canoe journey from the purchase of old growth cedar logs and carving the dugouts to the annual launch and landing at Kettle Falls through contemporary and historic canoes supported by the words of those who have experienced it. Sept. 25-Aug. 21, 2022; Tue-Sun 10 am-5 pm. $7-$12. Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture, 2316 W. First. northwestmuseum.org

BASIC IMPRESSIONISM USING COLOR BLOCKING TECHNIQUES Trying to be looser in your landscape renderings? Painting/drawing in an impressionistic manner is about capturing the shape of something and trusting the process. Ages 16+. Saturdays from 10 am-noon, Sept. 25-Oct. 16. $80. Spokane Art School, 811 W. Garland Ave. spokaneartschool.net EWU FACULTY EXHIBITION This annual exhibition offers students and community members throughout the region an opportunity to experience artwork currently being produced by EWU’s Art Faculty. The show includes a diverse array of artistic styles in a wide variety of media. Sept. 29-Nov. 4; open Mon-Fri 9 am-5 pm. Opening reception Sept. 29 from noon-1 pm.

EWU Gallery of Art, 140 Art Building. ewu.edu/cahss/fine-performing-arts/ art/gallery/ (509-359-2494) INK! AT THE DRIVE-IN Dress up as your favorite monster or urban legend to view the 2021 INK! prints, see this year’s documentary, and enjoy food and drinks while enjoying live music and trivia. Sept. 29. Hayden Discount Cinema, 300 W. Centa Ave. emergecda.com MASTERPIECE & MURALS A showcase of current works by various street artists and muralists who mainly use spray paint as their medium. Each piece is 4x5 feet, with smaller pieces by the same artist. Sept. 30-Oct. 30; open Thu-Sat from noon-5 pm. Opening reception Oct. 1 from 5-8 pm. Free.

New Moon Art Gallery, 1326 E. Sprague. newmoonartgallery.com

THE INSIDER’S GUIDE to the INLAND NORTHWEST

WORDS

TEDX SALON FT. KRIS DINNISON Join online to chat with local author Kris Dinnison about her TED experience.

Attendees can ask questions at the event or send them in to hayley.lydig@ gmail.com. Dinnison spent two decades as a teacher and librarian, while dreaming of becoming a writer. Her first novel “You and Me and Him” was released in 2015. Sept. 23, 6 pm. Free. facebook.com/TEDxSpokane/Events BOOKS ARE MADE OF OTHER BOOKS A reading and conversation with Kate Lebo (The Book of Difficult Fruit) and Samuel Ligon (Miller Cane, a True and Exact History) on research, fact checking and the books that influenced them as they wrote their own. Sept.

24, 7-8 pm. Free. Auntie’s Bookstore, 402 W. Main Ave. auntiesbooks.com THE COLD MILLIONS BY JESS WALTER: Auntie’s is celebrating release of the paperback edition of Jess Walter’s bestselling novel, The Cold Millions.

Sept. 28, 7 pm. $5. The Hive, 2904 E. Sprague Ave. auntiesbooks.com WHITWORTH PRESIDENT’S LEADERSHIP FORUM: MADELEINE ALBRIGHT Madeleine Albright, who served as the nation’s 64th secretary of state, is the featured speaker at Whitworth’s fall President’s Leadership Forum. Sept. 29, 7:30-9 am. $75/ person. Spokane Convention Center, 334 W. Spokane Falls Blvd. whitworth. edu/leadershipforum/ (279-7000) AN EVENING WITH JESS ARNDT & LEAH HAMPTON Jess Arndt and Leah Hampton, both 2021-22 visiting faculty in Creative Writing at UI, read from their debut collections of short stories, Large Animals (Catapult, 2018) and F*ckface. Sept. 30, 7-8:30 pm. Free.

Palouse-Clearwater Environmental Institute, 1040 Rodeo Dr. pcei.org (208882-1444) n

Inside the guide:

ANNUAL REPORT

NIGHTLIFE

EDUCATION

SHOPPING

The nation’s real estate hot spot Downtown’s new sports structures Seven big ideas for the region

Live entertainment highlights World’s best axe thrower Music venue survivors

Changes in education EWU’s new president Local university research

The region’s best vintage shops Home transformations Local shopping events

ARTS

RECREATION

FOOD & DRINK

GREEN ZONE

The Inland Northwest bike scene New Ice Age Floods Playground Gonzaga’s sky-high expectations

Best of Broadway New work from local writers Spokane’s vibrant murals

New restaurants Chefs from around the world A craft beer lover’s dream

and more!

Washington’s cannabis rules Find the right edibles for you Celebrity cannabis strains

Pick up your copy on an Inlander rack near you!

Inlander.com/AnnualManual SEPTEMBER 23, 2021 INLANDER 35

Rules of the Road

Any packaging that includes a structure or function claim must include this exact phrase, “this statement has not been evaluated by the State of Washington. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.”

THE RICHARDSON RULE?

A closer look at the fine print of cannabis

BY WILL MAUPIN

L

ast week, a couple of developments took place at both the state and global levels regarding the regulation of cannabis in regards to it being something that humans put into their bodies.

LABELING LINGO GETS SPECIFIC

The Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board issued a policy statement last week clarifying the rules surrounding structure or function claims made about cannabis-infused products. Those are essentially claims about what a product does. For example, a bottle of daily multivitamins may say something about maintaining heart health, or a vitamin C supplement could mention

36 INLANDER SEPTEMBER 23, 2021

CBD tincture labeling is strict in Washington. that it supports the immune system. What could not be said, however, is that either product is meant to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.

As a matter of fact, when it comes to cannabis, products making structure or function claims — like a CBD tincture formulated for pain relief — must explicitly state on the product’s packaging that it is not meant to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.

In early July, just prior to the start of the Tokyo Olympics, a rising star in the world of track and field made headlines for something that happened off the track.

American sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson was issued a one-month suspension after testing positive for THC. Richardson said she had consumed cannabis after learning of the death of her mother; Richardson is of legal age and was in Oregon, where cannabis is legal, at the time.

Cannabis is not considered legal in the eyes of the World Anti Doping Agency (WADA), however. As a result, Richardson was forced to miss the Olympics.

The backlash was massive. Even President Biden, who has not come out in support of cannabis legalization, questioned WADA’s rules. Now, WADA is questioning them as well. Last week at a meeting in Istanbul, WADA’s executive committee approved initiating a scientific review of cannabis to determine whether or not it should remain a prohibited substance.

Any potential changes to cannabis’s status, according to WADA, will not take place ahead of the next Olympic games, however, which are now less than five months away. n

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NOTE TO READERS Be aware of the differences in the law between Idaho and Washington. It is illegal to possess, sell or transport cannabis in the State of Idaho.

Possessing up to an ounce is a misdemeanor and can get you a year in jail and up to a $1,000 fine; more than three ounces is a felony that can carry a five-year sentence and fine of up to $10,000. Transporting marijuana across state lines, like from Washington into Idaho, is a felony under federal law.

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SEPTEMBER 23, 2021 INLANDER 37

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38 INLANDER SEPTEMBER 23, 2021

AMY ALKON

I’m a divorced guy in my 40s. I was at a bar with friends and went over to talk with a woman I found really attractive. Though she wasn’t the friendliest, I asked to take her to dinner. She said she’d think about it and then asked for my Instagram. Several days later, I texted her, and she agreed to go out. We’ve since had a few dates, but I’m bothered that she wouldn’t go out with me until she’d scoured my social media. What does that suggest about her?

—Offended

You don’t expect much from a woman who’s “known” you all of 20 minutes: just blind trust that you’ll do the gentleman thing of opening the passenger-side door for her — as opposed to the psychopathic gentleman thing of stuffing her in your trunk.

Of course, the latter could happen if two gay men were dating, but there’s good reason women — more than men — would opt for a “buyer beware” versus a “buyer be guessin’” approach. “Most men fear getting laughed at or humiliated by a romantic prospect while most women fear rape and death,” observes personal security expert Gavin de Becker in “The Gift of Fear.”

Even the stringbeaniest man can probably whup the average woman.

Men have 15 to 20 times more testosterone than women, explain endocrinology researcher David J. Handelsman, M.D., and his colleagues. Higher “T” is associated with increased “muscle mass and strength” and “bone size and strength.”

This means that even the power broads of the female athletic world are ill-prepared for any battle of the sexes. Take women’s tennis rock stars Venus and Serena Williams. In 1998, when they were ranked fifth and 20th respectively, each got trounced by 203rd-ranked male tennis player Karsten Braasch — whose “prep” for these matches was playing a round of golf and throwing back a couple of beers.

Beyond physical safety concerns, there’s one half of the species that pees on little plastic sticks after sex to see whether they’re about to make another human being — one which, on average, will cost $233,610 to raise until age 17. (College, grad school, and multiple stints in rehab priced separately.)

This difference in male and female reproductive physiology led to the evolution of differences in male and female sexual psychology — namely in their general level of sexual selectivity. It’s in men’s evolutionary interest to have sex with a slew of women — and the hotter the better, because the features we find beautiful (youth, clear skin, and an hourglass figure) reflect health and fertility. (In a pinch, a woman with a pulse will do.)

An ancestral man could cut and run after sex — leaving it to the Miss Neanderbrow he hooked up with to feed and care for any resulting fruit of the womb — and still have a pretty good chance of passing on his genes. In contrast, ancestral women who didn’t just stumble off to do it in the bushes with every Clooneyesque club toter likely left more surviving children to pass on their genes (carrying their psychology of choosiness).

Women’s emotions push them to act in their evolutionary best interest.

Women fear getting involved with men who will be unwilling and/or unable to pick up the tab if sex leads to, um, the creation of small mammals who will run up big bills at the orthodontist. In other words, it benefits a woman to scope a new man out and decide whether the ideal time to go to dinner with him might be the first Tuesday in never.

We’re psychologically unprepared for the “evolutionarily novel” experience of vetting a stranger we meet in a bar, because our psychological operating system is adapted for an ancestral hunter-gatherer world: small, consistent communities of perhaps 25 to 100 people in which “intel” on a person was readily available through the grapevine. What’s a modern, stranger-encountering woman to do? Well, this one apparently hoped to get some clues about you from your social media: probably from the sort of stuff you post, your follows and followers, and how you engage in the comments.

What does this woman’s precautionary approach say about her? Well, probably that she isn’t so desperate for a man or a free dinner that she’ll take risks with her safety and go out with any Joe Bar Tab who offers to treat her to a meal.

This isn’t to say she’s found a foolproof vetting method. Though social media is a new thing, it’s rife with a well-worn evolved tool: deception — used to defeat the precautionary strategies of the opposite sex. This typically leads not to rape or death but the sinking feeling of being had — when, say, visits from the guy who posted pics of himself “flying private” always coincide with rolls of toilet paper going missing. n ©2021, Amy Alkon, all rights reserved. • Got a problem? Write Amy Alkon, 171 Pier Ave, #280, Santa Monica, CA 90405 or email AdviceAmy@aol.com (www.advicegoddess.com)

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14. Surname of the only MLB brother trio to play together in the outfield 15. Poet who wrote “We loved with a love that was more than love” 16. In a chair 17. *1990s Nicaraguan president Chamorro 19. Ruinations 20. Kind of smoothie 21. *Reason for an R rating 23. One who delivers 25. Numbered hwy.

26. Berkeley school, for short 27. *Actress Davis who said “I see what y’all write about my snot tears” 31. Fuss 33. Warning signs

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35. On the ocean 36. Jimi Hendrix followed them at Woodstock 38. Shy person ... or the progression of the starred clues beginning with 17-Across 43. Special-____ (football players used only in specific situations) 44. Rakish fellow 45. Mythical figure known for ribaldry 48. “____ was saying ...”

49. *Arthritis drug recalled in 2004 50. OB/GYN’s org.

51. “Well, lah-di-____!”

53. Luau finger food 55. *Birth state of four of the first five U.S. presidents 58. Cough drop name yodeled in ads 63. Chipped in 64. *Goes poof!

66. Sure-to-succeed 67. Bed-Ins for Peace participant 68. Small grievances 69. Dates not found on the calendar 70. Clever one 71. 2015 World Series winning manager Ned DOWN 1. Shade of blue 2. Potpourri 3. Big name in synthesizers 4. Member of Kirk’s bridge crew 5. Decide one will 6. Waste away 7. Wally’s TV brother, with “the” 8. Bob Marley’s “____ the Sheriff” 9. “Madam Secretary” star 10. Yield to pressure 11. Right this minute 12. Certain Saudi

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34. Performers of the ceremonial haka 61. Prince’s “____ Go Crazy” 62. Mgr.’s helper dance 65. DiFranco of Righteous Babe Records 36. Cousin of reggae 40

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