Reader_Sept15_2022

The week in random review

By Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey Reader Staff

dear evans brothers burrito

I owe you my sincerest gratitude for all the days you sustained my body and brain. Your perfectly grilled tortilla shell; the way your beans, corn and sweet potatoes provide a beautiful bed for scrambled eggs; the way you are exactly enough for breakfast or lunch — a true culinary dream, made for a gal who is always, for better or worse, on the run. Never change, my love.

rain dance

Music plays a vital role in nearly all my superstitions. When I’m craving a good rainy day, I listen to “Monsoon” by Hippo Campus. The song has very little to do with rain, but it’s not the lyrics that bring me a sense of hope and peace — it’s just the way the song sounds.

symbiotic vultures

I recently learned that various species of vulture take part in different stages of a deceased animal’s consumption. In areas where multiple species live, they each play an important role in the clean-up process, with some preferring flesh, some liking ligaments and others eating bones. I found this fact as satisfying as it is disgusting and, in turn, discovered a great band name: The Symbiotic Vultures.

straw hack

I generally write off life hacks as highly individualized and overhyped, except for one: If you want to drink more water, get a water bottle with a straw. I haven’t seen this life hack not work for anyone.

no context iphone notes entry, 9/17/17

“That would be a sight to see,” he said. “What?”

“You, in a white dress.”

DEAR READERS,

It sure was a pleasant sound to wake up to rain on Wednesday morning. Hope you all enjoyed it, too, although the nearby fires are still burning with intensity. Hang in there. I know how difficult it can be to deal with everyday life when you can’t even see Baldy Mountain from town.

This week’s cover features a painting by local artist Amy Stephensen of beloved Jeff “Sprouts” Rich, who passed away earlier this year. There will be a memorial for Sprouts at the Pine Street Woods on Sunday, Sept. 18 from 2-7 p.m. (please carpool, ride your bike or walk). Check out a touching Perspectives piece by Pete Hicks on Page 9.

If you’ve ever thought, “Hey, I’d like to see my painting or photograph on the cover of the Reader,” we’re always interested in checking out your submissions. If you have something you think might look cool on our cover, please send a snapshot or scan of it to ben@sandpointreader.com and we’ll take a look. We’re always honored to put your creativity on display. Have a good week out there.

–Ben Olson, publisher

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

www.sandpointreader.com

Publisher: Ben Olson

ben@sandpointreader.com

Editorial: Zach Hagadone (Editor) zach@sandpointreader.com

Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey (News Editor) lyndsie@sandpointreader.com

Cameron Rasmusson (emeritus) John Reuter (emeritus)

Advertising: Jodi Berge

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Contributing Artists: Amy Stephensen (cover), Ben Olson, USFS, Lee Santa, Woods Wheatcroft, Foster Cline, Ellen Weissman, ICL, Dan Eskelson

Contributing Writers: Zach Hagadone, Ben Olson, Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey, Lorraine H. Marie, Brenden Bobby, Kelcie Moseley-Morris, Emily Erickson, Jackie Henrion, Jen Jackson Quintano, Maureen Cooper, Sandra Rasor, Ranel Hanson

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About the Cover

This week’s cover was painted by Amy Stephensen.

By Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey Reader Staff

A legal firm representing development company M3 ID Camp Bay, LLC sent a cease and desist letter dated Sept. 2 to lawyers representing Fred and Jennifer Arn, a couple residing on Camp Bay Road who have been vocal in opposing M3’s efforts to vacate a portion of the road that some argue leads to public lake access.

“While M3 ID admires and supports earnest grass-root campaigns genuinely seeking to protect and/or advocate vested public rights, your clients have evidently chosen to pursue a path of misrepresenting the operative facts and the applicable law to the public at large (or, at the least, to withhold highly material aspects of the same),” wrote Rick Haruthunian, an attorney with Coeur d’Alene-based Ramsden, Marfice, Ealy & De Smet, the law firm representing M3.

“Such conduct, along with their unabashed disparagement of the company and its principals, has se-

verely damaged M3 ID in a manner clearly actionable and recoverable under Idaho law,” the letter, addressed to the Arns’ lawyer, Preston Carter of Givens Pursley, continues. “Such conduct has necessitated this letter, which to provide some color is the first cease and desist letter issued on behalf of M3 ID and/or any affiliate entity in over forty (40) years of business.”

The letter marks the latest development in the legal battle over 50 feet of Lake Pend Oreille shoreline located at the end of Camp Bay Road. Bonner County commissioners approved M3’s petition to vacate the last 2,550 feet of the road in April 2021, ruling that such an action would be in the public’s interest. The Arns challenged that decision, with a judicial review on the claim that Camp Bay Road provides public beach access, and the court remanded the matter back to the commissioners, stating that the board “failed to issue an adequately written decision,” among other deficiencies.

Also in that ruling, the judge

noted that the road extends “from Sagle Road to its termination at the high-water mark of Lake Pend Oreille in Camp Bay.” The parties disagree about where, exactly, that high-water mark exists.

The road’s termination would prove to be a sticking point for the county commissioners, who voted against the road vacation in a second hearing on the matter in February 2022, citing uncertainty regarding lake access. M3 filed for judicial review shortly after, and the Arns intervened. With attempts at negotiations having fallen through, both parties now await a ruling from the district court.

The September cease and desist letter from M3’s lawyers is extensive, running to 10 pages, and details several instances of what the company’s legal representatives call “fundamentally flawed and inflammatory public comment.” The letter threatens “immediate legal action” unless the Arns retract or remove online statements no later than Monday, Oct. 3.

The letter points specifically

to statements written on the Arns’ website, 50feet.net, as well as on Facebook, which make claims of public lake access at the end of Camp Bay Road.

The letter concludes with a request for the correspondence to serve as a “litigation hold” on all materials pertaining to M3, dictating that the Arns and their legal counsel refrain from sharing such information with a list of platforms and individuals, including social media,

Kootenai River Complex fires choke region with smoke Camp Bay Road dispute prompts cease and desist letter

50feet.net, local land use watchdog nonprofit Project 7B, county officials and employees, some local legal professionals and media outlets, anyone who has contributed to the Arns’ GoFundMe campaign and others.

Neither representatives for M3 nor Fred Arn commented on the letter before press time.

Officials anticipate short-term weather conditions to help moderate fire activity

By Zach Hagadone Reader Staff

Residents throughout North Idaho, eastern Washington and western Montana have experienced ongoing smoke-choked skies — with the air quality index reaching into the “hazardous” category Sept. 12 and, despite morning rains on Sept. 14, remained “unhealthy” — as the Kootenai River Complex continues to burn on more than 20,700 acres in the high country surrounding Bonners Ferry.

According to a Sept. 14 update from the Type 2 Northern Rockies Incident Management Team 4, smoke from the Kootenai River Complex has been exacerbated by other fires throughout the western U.S., though light winds on Sept. 13 helped keep local fire activity minimal.

Fire managers grouped the Eneas Peak, Katka, Russell Mountain, Scotch Creek and Trout fires into the Kootenai River Complex on Sept. 2, noting Sept. 14 that the Russell Mountain Fire had

consumed and been merged with the Trout Fire.

That means the Russell Mountain Fire now includes the Trout, Scotch Creek and Eneas Peak fires, located about seven miles northwest of Bonners Ferry. The Katka Fire is burning on about 305 acres eight miles southeast of Bonners and five miles west of the Idaho-Montana border.

An overnight infrared detection flight Sept. 13-14 showed an increase of 1,034 acres across the fire area. Smoky conditions grounded helicopter operations Sept. 12 and Sept. 13, and officials stated that may continue to be the case, depending on whether heavy smoke levels persist.

According to reporting Sept. 14, the Katka Fire to the southeast and Russell Mountain Fire to the northwest were burning as low-intensity ground blazes, with a total of 369 personnel onsite. Work on the perimeter of the complex of fires was at 79% as of Sept. 14. Fire managers estimate full containment by Oct. 15.

The blazes are burning in a mix of subalpine fir, lodgepole, larch and cedar, with an understory of mixed shrubs and heavy dead and down trees. In addition to standing dead trees in the steep terrain, the fire area poses a continued threat both to containment lines and firefighter safety.

Crews are working on thinning vegetation along parts of Westside Road, as well as strengthening the fireline and using pumps and sprinklers to prepare private structures, as the fire is anticipated to continue moving downhill toward Westside Road and the fireline.

No structures are currently at risk and there are no evacuation orders for residents, though fire officials stated that those living on Westside Road closest to Ball, Burton and Clark creeks are in “set” evacuation status — the readiness stage prior to evacuation.

Cloudy conditions and rain on Sept. 14 caused the fires to smolder and creep, which fire managers estimated would continue through Thursday, Sept. 15. Decreased fire

activity was also anticipated through the week, with nighttime high relative humidity helping moderate growth.

Meanwhile, suppression efforts and fire activity have resulted in road closures or restricted access to a number of areas.

Westside Road is open only to residents, while Ball Creek (FR 432) and Trout Creek roads (FR 634) are closed.

Several National Forest trails are also closed, including: Russell Mountain (No. 12), Russell Ridge (No. 92), Ball and Pyramid Lakes (No. 43), Pyramid Pass (No. 13), Pyramid Peak (No. 7), Fisher Peak (No. 27), Trout Lake (No. 41), McGinty Ridge (No. 143), Clifty Mountain and Clifty/ Burrow (No. 182), Myrtle Peak Trail (No. 286) and Burton Peak Trail (No. 9).

A map of the Kootenai River Complex fire, which continues to burn on more than 20,700 acres in the high country surrounding Bonners Ferry. Image by USFS.

Residents in Boundary or

Bonner counties can visit nixle. com or text their home zip code to 888777 to sign up for emergency alerts. To track the Kootenai River Complex, go to inciweb.nwcg. gov/incident/8378.

North Idaho manufactured home park is no exception to rising rents

Few options exist to help preserve mobile homes as affordable housing

By Kelcie Moseley-Morris Idaho Capital Sun

While much of the conversation around real estate in Idaho has focused on how rising rents and home prices affect those living in apartments and single-family homes, one segment of the population that is frequently left out is those living in manufactured or mobile homes.

Housing advocates say manufactured home communities are one of the last affordable housing options available to Idahoans — and are also some of the most vulnerable to displacement when developers or investors purchase them. That is even more true in today’s market, when home values across the state have increased significantly in the past year.

One of the areas with the most dramatic property value growth is Kootenai County, where a manufactured home community called Oak Crest is dealing with the consequences of that growth. Orem, Utah-based investment company

Havenpark Communities purchased Oak Crest about a year ago, and rising rents prompted 34 residents to reach out to the Idaho Capital Sun anonymously about the difficulty of paying for those increases.

Havenpark Capital Partners has acquired other mobile home parks around the country, including in Iowa, and increased lot rents by as much as 69%. The company has taken a different approach with rents at Oak Crest, allowing existing residents to be grandfathered into a lower rent while new residents are charged more.

Mobile or manufactured homes are most often owned in the same way a vehicle is owned, with a title and ownership of the home itself. In most cases, the owner pays lot rent where the home is parked or placed, which is typically much lower than the average rent for an apartment or rental home.

Lot rent jumps at North Idaho manufactured home park

According to letters from

residents of Oak Crest, lot rent for existing renters increased about 23% from $365 in August 2021 to $447, which will take effect Nov. 1.Prior to Havenpark’s ownership, residents said they were told rent would increase 2-3% per year.

The letters also say the lot rent for new residents has increased 33% from $595 per month in August 2021 to $795 per month, which residents said makes it difficult to sell the homes to prospective buyers if they are thinking about moving elsewhere.

Those who wrote letters said they are on fixed incomes with Social Security and disability benefits, and the new rents will create financial burdens that will be difficult to shoulder, plus few options for recourse. Several letters were from elderly and disabled veterans and other retired people in their 70s and 80s who said the new rent will cost as much as 60% of their monthly income.

“Affordable housing is very difficult to find, and mobile home parks are our last refuge in Kootenai County,” one letter said. “With property prices increasing, affordable housing [is] even more important here and throughout our state. Because of this, affordable housing needs to be protected or we will have increased homelessness here as well as other counties in our great state of Idaho.”

In response to the concerns, Oak Crest management distributed letters to residents saying the increases are part of bringing the community up to market rates and making improvements to sections of the road throughout the park, adding new amenities such as playgrounds and sports courts and installing new signage. The company also said it was one of three potential buyers of Oak Crest, and the seller chose Havenpark because they plan to keep it as a manufactured home community for “decades to come.”

“In order for us to preserve Oak Crest as a manufactured home community, we had to pay a market price that was compet-

itive with what the development companies were offering,” the letter said.

The letter added that inflation contributed to the rent increases, and they are hopeful inflation will slow down to allow much lower rent increases moving forward.

“While our plan is to issue very reasonable annual rent increases to manage upkeep and keep up with ongoing costs, we want to clarify that there is no plan for our ‘grandfathered’ residents to ever pay the same rental rate as our market rent residents. We are intentionally taking this approach to make annual rent increases more manageable for our long-time and loyal residents,” the letter said.

City of Boise purchased mobile home park as part of preservation pilot project

Nicki Hellenkamp, housing adviser to Boise Mayor Lauren McLean, said that in an effort to preserve mobile homes as affordable housing, the city purchased Sage Mobile Home Park at the end of August with the intent to keep it out of investors’ hands and ensure manageable rents for residents to keep them in place. The purchase allows the city to pilot a housing preservation program with the Boise City/Ada County Housing Authorities to gauge the success of the management model, Hellenkamp said.

“We can build and build new units until the cows come home, but if we’re not also looking at the reality, which is that we’re losing these affordable units, then we’re not making all of the progress we would hope we’d be,” she said.

Deanna Watson, executive director of the Boise City/Ada County Housing Authorities, said in the 26 years she has been working with the housing authority, she has seen the market squeeze out many mobile home residents.

“It always breaks my heart, because a lot of times people who purchase a mobile home are making a choice to live independently without a lot of support services, but then when the rug gets pulled

out from underneath them, they don’t have that safety net to hold onto them,” Watson said.

She expects to see more mobile home parks around the state sold to developers in the future, in part because they are often located in prime areas for public transportation and other city amenities.

Residents can look at forming cooperatives in Idaho before being acquired by developers

One option available to mobile home owners who are worried about developers taking over is to form a resident-owned community program, also known as ROC.

A resident-owned community program can be formed by people who own mobile or manufactured homes in one area and come together to create a limited equity cooperative that can purchase the land so that each mobile home owner owns the land instead of paying lot rent to another entity.

Holly Apsley, ROC program manager for LEAP Housing Solutions, a Boise nonprofit organization that works on affordable housing efforts, manages 10-year contracts for one ROC in Garden City and one in Caldwell. She said there are about 301 examples of the model across the country.

“It’s definitely a growing model because it recognizes that it’s really a win-win solution,” Apsley said. “It requires a lot of due diligence to make sure the sale price would balance out with keeping rents affordable, but they’re still happening across the country.”

It can be difficult to form a ROC after a purchase has already occurred, Apsley said, so it’s helpful when state law requires residents to be notified when the land is for sale.

According to the National Consumer Law Center, “Idaho requires a community owner to give notice to residents within 15 days of entering into a listing agreement with a licensed real estate broker for the sale of the community, but only if the residents have formed a notice for the purpose

of purchasing the community and given the community owner an annual written notice listing the names and addresses of three designated members or officers.”

States like Connecticut and Rhode Island, according to the law center, give residents the right of first refusal before selling the community.

Hellenkamp said changes at the state level around the law would help preserve the affordable housing of mobile and manufactured homes and avoid displacing people.

“[Mobile home ownership] has many of the risks of homeownership and not that many of the rewards,” she said. “It’s not real property, it depreciates in value over time the same way a vehicle does. The idea of stability, the belief that I own something and have some level of control, that is all an illusion, basically, because you don’t own the land. If the landowner makes a decision to sell, you don’t have much recourse.”

Letters from Oak Crest residents also requested help from the Idaho Legislature to take action that would help protect them from losing their homes, saying intervention is needed immediately.

Others made a simple plea for relief.

“In today’s economy, it’s getting more and more difficult for us and a lot of people like us, as you well know,” one of the handwritten letters said. “How can you just move in [and] take every penny from the low income in these ever-more expensive times? I know you have the power to do it, and the legal right to, but how do you have the lack of empathy to do it?”

This story was produced by Boise-based nonprofit news outlet the Idaho Capital Sun, which is part of the States Newsroom nationwide reporting project. For more information, visit idahocapitalsun.com

NEWS BoCo Comp Plan updates due for adoption Sept. 20

‘Goals’ document marks the first step in land use policy overhaul

By Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey Reader Staff

The Bonner County Planning Commission continues to rework the county’s Comprehensive Land Use Plan, starting with the “Goals, Objectives and Policies,” which serves as a jumping-off point for the various facets of the extensive guiding document.

Last updated in 2005, the Comp Plan is used to inform land use decisions with policies surrounding natural resources, housing, property rights, transportation and more. Earlier this year, Bonner County split its Planning and Zoning Commission into two separate entities in an effort to expedite a Comp Plan update, which the Planning Commission has been working on throughout the spring and summer. August saw several workshops specifically on the goals and objectives of the Comp Plan, which will set the stage for more fine-tuned revisions to the broader document.

While the Planning Commission was slated to adopt the goals and objectives during a hearing on Aug. 30, commissioners elected to continue the hearing to Tuesday, Sept. 20 at 4:30 p.m. Planner Swati Rastogi told the Reader that the commission “is likely to make a recommendation” on the goals during that Sept. 20 hearing, which will then go to the board of county commissioners.

The most current version of the revised goals and objectives document — as well as previous versions — is available for review online at bonnercountyid.gov/ FileAM0012-22. It can also be accessed by going to bonnercountyid.gov, hovering over “Departments,” clicking “Planning,” selecting “Current Projects” from the left-hand menu and finding “File AM0012-22 - Bonner County Planning Commission” under “Amendment.”

The file’s webpage also features links to written comments from agencies and the public, as well as the staff report.

According to the Sept. 20 agenda, the commission is no longer accepting public comments on the “Goals, Objectives and Policies.”

The Planning Commission is also going to begin discussing individual components of the Comp Plan — including natural resources, school facilities and transportation — at the Sept. 20 hearing. That hearing will take place in the first floor conference room of the Bonner County Administration Building, located at 1500 Highway 2 in Sandpoint. All hearings are live-streamed on the Bonner County Planning YouTube channel.

The Bonner County Planning Department can be contacted at 208-265-1458.

City seeking arts grant applications, plans to host Lakeview dog park workshop

By Reader Staff

Nonprofit arts organizations are invited to apply with the city of Sandpoint for one-time competitive grants, intended to support groups and programs affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

A total of $100,000 in grants will be awarded based on the applicants’ specific needs and range from $5,000 to $30,000. The application process opens Thursday, Sept. 15 and closes Friday, Sept. 30.

The funds come from a $150,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts in 2021, leveraging American Rescue Plan monies and administered by the city of Sandpoint, which used $50,000 to fund its new arts and historic preservation officer position.

Awards will be offered one-time only from the city’s NEA-ARP Operations Support Grant, and will be a reimbursement program with a period of performance from Nov. 1, 2022 to July 31, 2023. Documentation of expenses will be required before reimbursement is made.

To be eligible, organizations must be a 501(c)(3) nonprofit registered in the state of Idaho; hold an active, valid city of Sandpoint

Bits ’n’ Pieces

From east, west and beyond

East, west or beyond, sooner or later events elsewhere may have a local impact. A recent sampling:

Depending on how the far-right activist majority on the Supreme Court rules, the upcoming Moore v. Harper case may mark the end of voter representation in the U.S. It will look at the “independent state legislature” theory, which gives state legislatures alone the power to regulate federal elections in their state.

The attempt to activate the theory was a significant factor in the Jan. 6, 2021 attempt to overthrow the will of the voters, which, in the “Eastman memo,” said state legislatures could decide — contrary to state voters — who should be president.

Political author and former Labor Secretary Robert Reich pointed out that the Constitution says states can decide the times, places and manner of holding elections, but it does not give states total power over democracy. Supreme Courts over the past century have repeatedly rejected the independent state legislature theory.

That pro-autocratic ideas are weakening was indicated recently by news that more than 150 prominent Republicans in Michigan are supporting the re-election of their Democratic governor, Gretchen Whitmer, according to metrotimes.com. Whitmer is being opposed by a Trumpbacked anti-abortion candidate.

business license; and “meaningfully contribute to the themes and goals identified in the city of Sandpoint’s adopted Arts, Culture and Historic Preservation Master Plan,” according to the city.

Eligible organizations must also have a unique entity identifier (UEI) number issued by the Federal System for Award Management (sam.gov). Institutions of higher education, units of state or local government, and federally recognized tribal government are also eligible.

To apply, access the grant portal on the city of Sandpoint’s website at sandpointidaho.gov.

For questions, contact Sandpoint Arts and Historic Preservation Officer Heather Upton at 208-946-2705 or hupton@sandpointidaho.gov.

The city of Sandpoint is also inviting residents to attend a workshop Monday, Sept. 19 to review concepts and gather feedback for a future dog park at Lakeview Park, behind War Memorial Field. Attendees are encouraged to gather at 5:30 p.m. at the picnic shelter near the boat launch and restroom.

A survey on the dog park proposal is also scheduled to be released, and will be available at sandpointidaho.gov.

A New Mexico judge ruled that Couy Griffin, founder of Cowboys for Trump, will be removed from his county commissioner seat for participating in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. Griffin is disqualified under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which prohibits anyone holding office who has engaged in “insurrection or rebellion” against the country. The clause was last enforced in 1869.

If he runs for re-election and wins, Trump stated he will look at “full pardons” for individuals convicted of crimes related to the Jan.6 Capitol insurrection, NPR reported.

Former-Trump adviser Stephen Bannon has been charged by the Manhattan district attorney with two felony counts of money laundering, two felony counts of conspiracy and one felony count of a scheme to defraud, regarding his association with We Build the Wall Inc, a plan to add to the unfinished southern border wall. Bannon faces a maximum sentence of 15 years, according to various media.

A document describing an unnamed country’s military defenses and nuclear capabilities was found in the FBI’s August

By Lorraine H. Marie Reader Columnist

search at Trump’s Florida home, Axios reported. Trump’s former “fixer,” Michael Cohen, has advised searching other Trump properties for more documents, since he believes Trump wanted to use them to “exert power,” The Telegraph reported.

CNN: South Carolina Republicans failed to pass a ban on abortion without exceptions for rape or incest. The party was undermined when not enough Republicans provided support. Three pro-life Republican women lawmakers urged a bill that protects all innocent lives, not just the unborn.

According to The New York Times, research from Israel on COVID-19 treatment Paxlovid finds it most effective, with significantly fewer deaths for those ages 50 to 64. Using Paxlovid, that same age group showed reduced need for hospitalization and a “pronounced effect” among the unvaccinated and obese.

New research in the British Journal of Sports Medicine found that people who exercise regularly (in moderation) have better immune defenses. Other research shows a post-vaccine workout may prevent serious COVID-19 illness. But, that may be due to exercise fans already having better health habits. Alcohol is another consideration: it can interfere with immune response, depending on how much is used. Moderate use appears OK (up to two drinks a day for men, one for women). Over that amount can amplify post-vaccine reactions. In China, a COVID-19 outbreak has locked down 33 cities and seven provincial capitals.

The Telegraph says England has lost 65% of its insect population since 2004, affecting pollination and trout. To help insects: allow autumn leaves to decompose and grow bee-friendly plants.

Blast from the past: In September 1974, former-President Richard Nixon was granted a pardon by President Gerald Ford for his role in the Watergate scandal. Ford hoped the pardon would help the nation heal from the political debate about Nixon’s deeds and deceptions. Years later, 11 indicted Ronald Reagan administration officials were pardoned under President George H.W. Bush for their illegal actions arming Contra insurgents to overthrow Nicaragua’s leftist government (Bush was also implicated). That case’s prosecutor regarded those pardons as demonstrating “that powerful people with powerful allies can commit serious crimes in high office, deliberately abusing the public trust without consequences.” Then-Attorney General William Barr had advised Bush to go forward with the Reagan-era pardons.

Emily Articulated

Tipping

By Emily Erickson Reader Columnist

I spent an entire decade of my life in a tip-based industry, waiting tables, tending bar and tour-guiding at everything from college pubs to fine dining restaurants to après-ski bars to garden-side wedding venues. I chose these jobs for their translatability — using my skills to move anywhere in the country, often to highly sought-after places, and financially support myself. I also chose them for the baked-in community of service industry folks that accompany the non-traditional schedule and unique pace of work (other trade regulars to swap stories with on “today’s my Friday” Tuesdays). And I chose them for the opportunity to earn tips.

Tipping as we know it began as a tradition of European aristocrats, who demonstrated favor to their servants through bonuses on top of their wages — a practice that Americans originally rejected for its incompatibility with their hard-earned egalitarianism.

Prior to the U.S. Civil War, exchanging gratuity for services rendered represented, for many Americans, a lopsided power dynamic, with one person exercising a form of control over another’s financial outcome. But in the late1800s and early-1900s, our cultural shift toward tip-subsidized service industry wages began.

Drawing on racial and gendered roots, we adapted the European tipping system to one even less egalitarian, in which a worker’s wage was either non-existent or well below the minimum earned in comparable industries. It became customary to not pay or underpay employees in the service-based jobs, which of course

were disproportionately held by women and people of color, in exchange for the “opportunity” to earn tips.

This concept was codified in 1938 through the establishment of a sub-minimum wage for disabled and service-based employees, making it legal for employers to compensate their workers well below the nation’s minimum. This standard, albeit with stricter regulations, is still upheld in 43 states today. In Idaho, the minimum cash wage for tipped employees is $3.30/hour, making tips the foundation of employees’ earnings.

Despite the guaranteed low wage, many people (my former self included) opt for tippedbased service jobs for the chance at high earnings during “good tip” shifts. On any given day, and at the whim of any generous customer, a service employee has the potential of earning well above the national minimum. There were many occasions when I finished a shift, wallet stuffed with cash, feeling like I won the lottery. And others where I was one “pretty smile” request away from flipping a table (but I’ll save the disproportionately high incidence of sexual harassment in the service industry for another article).

Lately, and since the great-rearranging of social norms and expectations sparked by the COVID-19 pandemic, it feels like we’re at the precipice of another cultural shift regarding tipping in America. With concepts like auto-gratuities, three-option digital tip prompts and tip-creeping, our unwritten rules of tipping etiquette are gradually evolving. More frequently than ever, I find myself asking “is 25% the new 20%?”; “How much am I supposed to leave on to-go orders, again?”; and, most significantly, “Wait, am I supposed to tip for this now, too?”

Upon scouring the internet and asking my peers for the answers to these questions, it seems that some folks are charging forward into a new, more generous tipping paradigm, while others remain firmly rooted in the formerly established etiquette (and others still, are simply exhausted by trying to keep up with changing expectations).

Appropriate tipping at dine-in establishments seems to remain at 20% of your bill, but with the caveat of that percentage being largely removed from the quality of service rendered. Tipping 20%, with the exception of a server’s rudeness or really poor execution of their duties, seems to be the new baseline, with 25% and even 30% gratuities left for exceptional service. Leaving a dollar per beverage or 15-20% of bar or coffee counter bill has largely remained unchanged, and to-go orders — arguably the most confusing due to pandemic-related shifts in demand — now range from 15-20% of the order’s total, plus an additional sum for delivery. As for non-restaurant industry work and the newest industries to the tipping scene, your guess is as good as mine (but 10%-20% seems to

A column by and about Millennials

be a good rule of thumb).

In general, the consensus is that service and tipping-based jobs are hard and that everybody deserves a consistent and livable wage. In our current system, whether we like it or not, customers exchange lower prices and high-quality service for the expectation of subsidizing employees’ wages — holding the power to make or break another person’s financial security with the amount they leave on the tip line.

Of all the thoughts people

shared on the subject of tipping, the most practical was, “If you can’t afford to tip well, don’t go out to eat.” Similarly poignant was, “If you’re in a position to be generous, be generous, always” — an applicable sentiment for most aspects of life, I think.

Emily Erickson is a writer and business owner with an affinity for black coffee and playing in the mountains. Connect with her online at www.bigbluehat.studio.

Retroactive By BO

Bouquets:

•I’m a big fan of Mattox Farm Productions’ Robb Talbott, one of the nicest guys in town. Robb has made it his mission to connect good people with good music. Last week, Robb presented the last free outdoor concert of the year for the Sandpoint Summer Music Series, which was very well attended all summer. My band, Harold’s IGA, played along with John Firshi and the Eichardt’s Monday Night Blues Jam crew, and we all had a blast. For the first time in what seems like months, I looked out over a crowd of people and recognized 90% of them. It was a magical night, and it all was made possible by Robb and his unflagging efforts. Please support this guy whenever you can — this town wouldn’t be as cool without him. He recently took over at the Heartwood Center, so stay tuned to hear about whatever great shows he has in store for us next. Keep up the good work, Robb.

Barbs:

•Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, earlier this week proposed a nationwide abortion ban after 15 weeks, with exceptions for rape, incest and when the life of the mother is in danger. This is after Republicans claimed incessantly that the issue should be left up to the states to decide. This after years of Republicans crying about “federal overreach.” This from the same guy who urged people to “use my words against me” when supporting the move to deny Merrick Garland a hearing for the U.S. Supreme Court 10 whole months before the 2016 election, claiming that if the nomination for a justice occurred at the end of Trump’s first term of office in 2020, he wouldn’t support the nomination until after the election. News flash: This is exactly what happened when Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed away only 10 days before the 2020 election. Republicans forgot the “rule” they made up in 2016 and sped through the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett in a whirlwind. It’s crazy how fast Congress can move when it actually wants to do something. It’s no wonder people have lost faith in the Supreme Court, when so many justices were appointed under a cloud of unfairness and made-up rules. Whatever continues getting them elected, I guess.

Dear editor,

I recently worked with my neighbors and community to appeal a minor land division approved by the BOCC. For use of the term “urban water” to mean “private well system” and that county staff inferred this concept from the code, should cause concern for everyone who appreciates a rural way of life. Especially for those that choose a rural lifestyle over an urban one. For the BOCC to say they’ve “completely unpacked this thing” and “ran it through the ringer,” yet not provide the community with evidence of that other than interpretation made from the zoning code is erroneous and irresponsible.

I’ve heard both Mr. [Jake] Gabell [planning director] and Mr. [Dan] McDonald [BOCC chairman] say, “If someone can provide the definition of responsible growth, I’d like to hear it.” Here it is: To meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

This translates to actively maintaining and preserving local livelihoods for our children and beyond.

Local livelihoods are small-town characteristics and a healthy ecosystem that invite tourism, sustainable timber management, hunting, fishing, wilderness survival, ranching, small and large farms, homesteading, offgrid living, and many more.

These are the livelihoods that this area has now and has had for generations. Land use decisions should have a greater scope of consideration for these things.

The flagrant land use decisions that are narrow in decision scope and happening all over our county need to stop, now. We need the county Comprehensive Plan to be reflected in the zoning code, be responsible and reflect the will of the people and future generations.

The community should be granted a full year, or more, to make public comments on these updates and be made a valuable constituent in the process.

In gratitude for our lands and communities,

Liz Iha Sandpoint

County planning must respect the will of the people… Reclaim

person, not the party. Maybe in a big city it is necessary to vote straight ticket, but here we can do better. We can more easily become acquainted with the candidates or know people who know them and their work.

Steve is a lifelong resident with varied experience in the communities of North Idaho. He is a farmer, logger, small business owner and he has been a leader in education here. He speaks to the major issues of our time and place: fair taxation with conservative use of government money, preservation of our North Idaho quality of life and opportunity for the upcoming generations. He shares our local values, and his message is, “Doing real work for the real issues North Idahoans face.” Visit stevejohnsonforidaho.com.

Please join me by writing in Steve Johnson, the independent candidate, for District 1 Senate on your ballot this November.

Christine Moon Sandpoint

Represent all of us with your vote…

Dear editor,

Remember Shawn Keough, a longtime (21 years) Republican senator?

In 2018 she endorsed Jim Woodward, R-Sagle, and he represented our area well the last four years. I had hoped we could depend on Jim for another two years, but Scott Herndon won the Republican nomination by using much out-of-state money for publicity, telling lies about Jim in order to win.

For many years, Mr. Herndon has been at the Farmers’ Market, the Festival at Sandpoint, churches and schools with his anti-abortion signs and a loud bullhorn. His approach is lately to include legal decisions about what birth control a woman can use. He wants to make it a crime of murder if a physician intentionally ends a pregnancy to save the life of a mother. As a woman, I am disgusted to think he could be in our Legislature and make decisions about any woman’s medical program.

ceive a large increase in funding. On the heels of Reclaim Idaho’s ballot initiative, the state Legislature passed a bill for $330 million for K-12 schools and $80 million for community colleges.

The real credit for this funding goes to more than 100,000 registered voters who signed Reclaim Idaho’s petition. It’s inconceivable that this amount of money would have been committed in a special summer legislative session without the impending citizens’ ballot initiative ready for passage on Nov. 8.

Idaho’s “citizen legislator” system has a high bar for getting ballot initiatives before the voters. It took hundreds of Reclaim Idaho volunteers carrying clipboards in all kinds of weather to collect enough signatures from registered voters to qualify the measure. Others worked to notarize signatures and submit the petitions to their county. It was seen that the majority of voters supported the initiative because, as many said, they found it frustrating that Idaho’s education funding was ranked lowest in the nation.

With this new $410 million investment, school districts will be able to hire more teachers to lower class sizes. Additional school counselors will help our K-12 students to succeed. Popular career-technical classes for workforce training will offer teenaged students new opportunities.

All of these measures were strongly promoted by Reclaim Idaho’s education initiative, which was set to pass. This is a huge victory for our children and Idaho’s future! Join Luke Mayville, 2003 SHS graduate and mastermind for Reclaim Idaho, in celebrating this success on Thursday, Sept 15, at Matchwood from 5-7 p.m.

Rebecca Holland and Christine Moon Reclaim Idaho District 1 co-leaders Sandpoint

Steve Johnson... In defense of ‘trickle down’…

Dear editor,

This is an invitation for you to consider writing in the name Steve Johnson, the write-in independent candidate for Idaho state Legislative District 1 Senate. The place to write “Steve Johnson” as the Independent candidate is on the blank line provided right below the printed name of Scott Herndon, the Republican party candidate.

Steve is the better person for the job. Here in our rural and small town legislative district, there is a generations-old practice of voting for the best

Steve Johnson, running as an independent, is a logical thinker, former educator, logger and local rancher for 40 years; he is running for District 1 senator as a write-in candidate. Steve will work to reduce your property taxes, support quality education and preserve our rural lifestyle. He cares about all Idahoans. Steve Johnson, in line with Keough’s and Woodward’s philosophies, will represent us all with thoughtful, caring diligence and fairness.

Write in Steve Johnson for District 1 Idaho Senate on Nov. 8, as if your own freedom depends on it. It does!

Lynn Pietz Sandpoint

Dear editor, Idaho’s public schools are set to re-

Rich individuals will invest the top trench of their earnings in enterprises with the potential to change the world and people of lesser means who need work will work in these enterprises, some realizing hefty gains.

Whenever a government taxes a rich person and redistributes it to a person of lesser means, it cuts the rich person’s incentive to invest that money and of the person of lesser means to work. Both contribute to an overall reduction in our nation’s wealth. Everyone loses.

The bottom line is that, although the rhetoric of “tax the rich” resonates well with the electorate, it is the worst thing a government can do for the working population.

Rodrigo Silveira Priest River

Growth comparisons are ‘apples to pears’…

Dear editor,

After reading Jeremy Grimm’s article “Facts on local growth” in the Sep.t 8 issue of the Reader, we are in agreement in one area, however I observed some glaring inconsistencies in some of his writing.

When he keys in on the growth in Sandpoint at an annual rate of 2.2%, he uses figures from the last U.S. Census, 2010-2020. Yet in comparing our growth percentage to other communities, he lists several, yet he uses much more current figures from 2020-2021 for those communities. Why doesn’t he also provide figures for Sandpoint for that same time period? It’s true the growth experienced in our community was significant for the 10-year census that ended in 2020, but I think it’s fairly obvious that the increase has been much more significant in the years since the Census was done.

Dear editor, I’m writing my views on the Perspectives article by Rep. Lauren Necochea, published in the Sept. 8, 2022 issue [“This time, we got something for kids”]. Ms. Necochea bemoans the Idaho legislative special session’s results that yielded a tax cut for the Idaho people and a $410 million investment in education. Ms. Necochea complains about the upside down tax package that Republicans have been passing for years. Historically, countries that increase their taxes experience a wealth decline effect; check the tax increases in Germany and Japan in the past 50 years, and the U.S. since the early ’90s. Countries that decrease their taxes experience a wealth increase effect; check the wealth growth, at all levels of society, resulting from the U.S. tax cuts in the ’80s and, most recently, in ’17.

Next, in his percentage comparison of where workers live in comparison to their job location, Jeremy also failed to provide valid comparisons. He stated the latest figures available were from 2010-2019. However, isn’t it at least worth mentioning that the number of people moving here and working remotely has very likely experienced a significant increase during the COVID years of 2019-2021 rather than trying to use outdated information to make his point?

I do however agree with Jeremy in redirecting money from the Travel and Convention Tax toward affordable and/ or workforce housing. In my opinion that seems like a no-brainer. We definitely don’t need to continue advertising for more tourism at this point in time.

In closing, I would just suggest that when trying to make valid points in a rebuttal of someone else’s opinion, that Jeremy should have provided information that compared apples to apples and not apples to pears.

Tari Pardini

Sandpoint

Remembering a ‘true servant of mankind and plants’ Celebrate Jeff ‘Sprouts’ Rich and his life at Pine Street Woods

By Pete Hicks Reader Contributor

Jeffrey Rich, known to many of us as Sprouts, blessed our community for more than 40 years. My family only got the chance to know him about nine years ago, soon after we moved to Sandpoint. The first time I met him, he pulled a bag of dried plums from his pocket and passed them out to my children and me. With the gift of fruit and only a few words, we became friends. Little did we know how much kindness and love in action he would pour into us.

When we moved into our home, Sprouts saw an old abandoned garden and, as we carried boxes and set up the house, he spent hours pulling threefoot-tall weeds and eventually planted a row of raspberries. Every week or so he would show up and give them a dose of manure tea.

He gave us our first garden. His focus on caring for the earth and the joy he took in harvesting fruit and vegetables got into our bones and, today as I look at our bountiful garden, I think of him and his quiet way of blessing.

It was also at that same time when our son was a newborn. Sprouts spent hours holding Jassim while we unpacked, singing songs to him and making Sprouts baby sounds. He loved being with children and playing games with them.

Sprouts had a vehement dislike for knapweed and tansy. On many a summer day I would see him across our yard, shirt off and shovel in hand, going after the weeds. Whenever I expressed concern about him working in the near-100-degree heat, he talked of

Get

involved to address county land use issues…

Dear editor, Bonner County is facing many critical land use issues that need our immediate attention. Developers are convincing the commissioners to give them the end of Camp Bay Road and our lake access at no cost, so they can turn around and sell that land for millions of dollars and gate out the public.

The term “urban water” has been mysteri-

the urgency of getting them out before they went to seed. I was always amazed at his energy and stamina. It was all I could do to get him to sit down in the shade with a cool drink for five minutes.

He seemed to carry a master plan in his head of the abundant garden of Bonner County. There was that group of untended apple trees near Clark Fork, the neglected plum trees in Sagle and the cherries in Priest River he fought off the robins to glean. He knew them all.

When he went to harvest, he filled bucket after bucket and brought them to homes all over just like mine. When he pulled into my drive, almost daily, I’d call out to him, “How are you doing, Sprouts?” Invariably he replied, “Plum crazy.” It was just another day combing the county for the given bounty.

The amount of time and energy he gave to my family and me is immense. Now I realize he blessed countless people and families in the same way — with the sweetness of fresh fruit, laboring with shovel or chainsaw, hauling rocks and mulch, building walls and pretty much anything that needed doing.

It was always special to be with Sprouts at a potluck or concert or anytime when he was at play. He loved to dance and he would dance until the music stopped. I imagine that when he danced he felt the joy of the earth and the sweetness of movement and sound in a way that is reserved for the true servants of mankind and plants. He lived his life dedicated to sharing love, peace and practical kindness. My memories of him, though many, are only a paragraph in the book of his life.

Jeff’s family from Pennsylvania have

ously defined as a shared private well, so that areas zoned suburban can now be subdivided into one-acre parcels without adequate services, paving the way for urban sprawl.

We have commissioners who are spot zoning on request and claiming, without evidence, that there is no legal basis for the current 20-acre minimum zoning that preserves our rural areas.

As wildfires creep ever closer, many of our land use actions happen without fire district comment.

chosen Sandpoint as the place to celebrate his life. Join us Sunday, Sept. 18 from 2-7 p.m. at the Pine Street Woods, 11915 W. Pine St. Bring your stories

The working people that keep this county going cannot afford to live here and our Comprehensive Plan is being rewritten with a minimum of data collection and very little public input. We need quality data and analysis, broad public input and careful planning so that we can set a course to a bright future that includes all the people of Bonner County! While I have lent my voice to the issues we all care about, like preserving our rural character and public lake access, during my tenure on the Zoning Commission I was care-

of Jeff, a dish to share for the potluck dinner, an instrument and your dancing shoes (or bare feet). Parking is limited. Please carpool, ride your bike or walk.

ful to maintain an open mind and professional approach to each and every file presented. My voting record reflects that.

If you care about these issues too, donate, volunteer, get involved and speak out! Also, all of our local fire districts need volunteers now!

Kristina Kingsland Sandpoint

Science: Mad about

the science of golf

By Ben Olson Reader Staff

Editor’s note: Brenden Bobby is out sick this week, so Publisher Ben Olson is donning the mad scientist jacket this week. Get well, Brenden.

The physics involved with hitting a little white ball with a golf club are more complex than one might imagine. Those who have never played the game might think it’s a simple process of grabbing a club and whacking a ball, but anyone who has played 18 holes knows how difficult it can be to hit the elusive “perfect” shot.

To start with, the game of golf is about chasing, rather than achieving, perfection. The most perfect golf shot you’ll ever hit could result in a hole in one, or the ball could take a weird bounce and end up running off the green and carried into the sand trap by a gust of wind.

The best golfers know and understand that they can inch closer and closer to the edge of perfection with years of diligent practice, but there lies a bit of magic somewhere that makes this game one of the most enjoyable and frustrating sports.

While a good golf swing might seem like magic, it’s actually a series of interconnected muscle memories, strung together with the goal to eliminate as much variance as possible from swing to swing. Think of it as a Rube Goldberg machine, whereby a chain reaction of events occurs in a planned sequence. If one action is off slightly, it can throw the whole machine out of kilter and send your ball into the

nearest pond.

While there is no perfect golf swing, just as there is no perfect golf shot, there are some generally agreed upon actions that affect the overall flight path and distance of a well-struck golf ball. The two main components that go into golf swing physics are good swinging speed of the arms and shoulders, and uncocking the wrists at the right moment so the club connects squarely with the ball.

The first aspect is fairly obvious. One must generate enough club head speed through their swing to hit the ball hard enough so that it travels an appropriate distance.

The second part is a bit more complicated.

To understand the physics of a golf swing, you must first consider the mechanics of rotational motion. When an object travels in a circle (your club head), it moves outward if not constrained. Imagine sitting in your friend’s car and they suddenly make a sharp right turn. Those who aren’t buckled in might go flying across the car to the left. This effect is called centripetal acceleration.

Because velocity is a vector quantity (it has both a magnitude, a speed and a direction), when a body travels on a circular path, its direction constantly changes, which means its velocity changes, producing an acceleration.

A club head is attached to the grip, and thus your hands, so it won’t fly away, which means you can channel the energy and acceleration to produce a preferred outcome.

A typical golf shot will see the golfer take the club back,

low and slow, to create an arc. Imagine a hula hoop on a slant — your club head will follow this path. As the shoulders and arms rotate back, your hips follow and, at the top of the backswing, your wrists cock to “load” the shot. When starting the downswing, the sequence is reversed. The wrists “drop” into the hula hoop swing plane and uncock at precisely the right moment to return the club face to square as it strikes the ball. The follow through ensures that you swing through the shot, not “stab” at it.

It’s the uncocking of the wrists that straightens out the clubface, as well as providing additional speed, which translates into a harder hit ball. The best golfers swing the club just over 100 miles per hour, which can create a ball velocity of more than 160 miles per hour.

The ideal scenario is to uncock your wrists so that the club face squares itself to the ball. If the clubface is open and the swing plane (or hula hoop) comes over the top, a slice is the result. If the clubface is closed and the swing plane is shallower, a hook is the result.

Every swing is different, but the goal is for each golfer to find that ideal point to uncock their wrists prior to the release point. If all the elements are in line, the result could be that effortless golf shot that you can feel ringing in your loins; but, if just one aspect is off, you could dig a divot the size of a beaver tail and watch the ball dribble a few feet ahead of you.

This is, of course, a very simplified version of the golf swing. There are many other variables to consider, like hitting the ball

on the “sweet spot” of the golf club, instead of off the toe or heel, or the loft angle of the club or determining where the club strikes the ground in relation to the ball.

So much effort goes into this point of impact, which lasts about 0.0005 seconds with a force of up to 2,000 pounds.

Golf is still a magical game to most of us who play it; but, broken down into physics, it’s a simple equation of finding the ideal swing speed and swing plane to send that Titleist 300 yards down the middle of the fairway.

Stay curious, 7B.

Random Corner

•The color black is not technically considered a color at all in scientific terms. It’s what you get when there is a complete lack, or absorption, of visible light.

•The color black is achromatic, like white and gray, which means it has no hue.

•Because there is no true black “color,” all black pigments are dyes that just look black. They are made up of other pigments in specific combinations to reflect the least amount of light possible.

•Despite not being a “color,” black was one of the first colors used by humans to make art. Our distant ancestors employed burnt bones and charred wood to achieve effect. Later, ground manganese powder provided a darker black pigment.

•The term “black” can often denote something negative — a “black mood,” “a black day,” “a black heart” — but in ancient Egypt, black was considered in a positive light. This was because

it was the color of the rich soil surrounding the River Nile and, therefore, associated with fertility. It was also the color of Anubis, the Egyptian underworld god who protected the dead from evil.

•Roman artisans and craftsmen often wore black robes because it easily covered up the dirt and grime from working such jobs.

•Black has also been associated as the color of power and authority since the 13th century, when judges and other court officials began wearing the color while administering their official duties.

•Most of the world’s police forces wore black until the 20th century, when the color blue replaced it to make police appear less menacing to the general public.

•When Henry Ford was marketing his first mass-produced car, the Model T, he said, “Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants, so long as it is black.” It wasn’t until 1925 when other colors were finally offered.

Thinking out loud: Extremists

By Jackie Henrion Reader Contributor

I use the term “extremists” in many of my Facebook posts with all due respect. In the elegant bell-shaped curve of human beliefs and behaviors, we are better off understanding that there will always be extreme views and destructive forces. We are naive to think otherwise, as so many utopian failures demonstrate.

But here’s the wisdom embedded in our nation’s founding philosophies: The entire population, if educated to some essential degree, will recognize qualities of integrity and virtue when we see it. And our fundamental rights guarantee even the extremists a voice. So it falls to us to develop our and our children’s minds to listen, think deeply about whether their voice is sustainable, then make our own choices as to what is relevant or valuable.

Unfortunately, “marketing science” and propagandists believe they can “influence” us sufficiently to buy almost any truth. One hallmark of such belief is the “banning” of other viewpoints.

Furthermore, we know from behavioral science that if one is raised in an abusive home, we develop those tendencies in our communities. One dismaying example is the book Educated, based on a local family.

But our founders knew that a broad, diverse education and library system helps democracy thrive. The latest news discussion about the Bonner County Library and the attempts by Redoubters in the Inland Northwest plays out like the attempts of the Rajneesh cult in the Portland area.

Moreover, neuroscience has determined that when emotions, such as fear and hate, are ignited, the resultant energy is hysterical and non-reasoning. But a core of decency and humanity is accessible to all of us. We see it eloquently in the Bonners Ferry Library “Read In,” peaceful support of the library, and its policy against rhetoric and threats from extremists.

The more of us who speak up — even in small ways — the more we contribute to recentering toward balance. But balance also implies a seesaw of events, so we must also calmly witness such attempts with equanimity, knowing that our democratic system will work for the benefit of all.

Ultimately our small voices and votes are essential to healing. Perhaps the American poet Edwin Markham said it best:

He drew a circle that shut me out–Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.

But love and I had the wit to win: We drew a circle and took him In!

Jackie Henrion is a local author and poet.

PERSPECTIVES

My little one was nervous for the first day of school. The entire drive found her curled in the fetal position, reciting the mantra, I don’t want to go to school. I don’t want to go to school. It was the torturous metronome by which the many seconds of our 30-minute drive passed.

Finally, she announced, “I quit school. I’m going home.”

I told her she couldn’t. I told her it was the law. I told her about truancy officers, mythical creatures, though they may be. Where would Idaho find the money for truancy officers? We can barely pay our teachers.

She persisted. “I’ve been to first grade. That’s enough.”

No, I told her, it’s not. One can’t make it in the world without a firm grasp on reading and writing. How would she support herself?

“Trees. I’ll sell baby trees. Trees don’t make you read. Neither do clouds, but I don’t know how to make money off those.”

I tried to explain the need for the “three R’s” in any business endeavor, even the farming of clouds, but at that point, we were at school. That’s where the real terror began. Our talk on truancy was shelved in favor of the tending of tears.

I gave her a hug, some reassuring words and a firm shove toward her waiting teacher. The need to learn is non-negotiable.

In our conversation, I brought up education in terms of the law — in terms Sylvie can understand, with her reverence for police officers and certainty that the jail is full of monsters — but I want her in school for so many more reasons than that. Reasons, I hope, she’ll come to understand in time. On her own. Like education’s ability to uplift and inspire. The sense

of wonder and delight evoked by learning. How it makes us better people, how it opens doors, how it can help engender morality and empathy, courage and hope. With everything we learn, we are expanded, after all.

I want my daughter expanded to bursting with all the world’s wonders.

If I had limitless funds, I would return again and again to college. I would collect advanced degrees as if they were strange little spoons from around the world: not particularly useful in my home, but a joy to accumulate, and I am a deeper person for all the places I’ve been.

I want Sylvie to love education as I do. I want her to value it. And, goddamn it, I want that for Idaho, too.

But, alas, that may be asking too much.

Yes, Idaho just OK’d a major education funding boost. Big applause for that (and for Reclaim Idaho forcing lawmakers’ hands).

This has been a long time coming. But how will that money help students in a climate of antagonism toward learning?

The headlines in North Idaho lately have been disturbing for all who value the world of ideas and the freedom to explore it. Take Priest River, as an example. Earlier this summer, the school board there decided on a language arts curriculum and ordered the materials necessary to support it. Not a wacky, straight-outta-Berkeley curriculum or anything. No, just McGraw Hill run-of-the-mill. However, Blanchard Republican Rep. Heather Scott had an eye for the darkness lurking inside those textbooks, bless her freedom-loving soul (freedom as applied to guns, not education, mind you). She rallied the troops.

The school board soon voted to rescind support of the curriculum, one which might espouse social-emotional learning models, thus grooming our children to become an army of trans communists (graphic novel idea, anyone?). The school now must pay $20,000 to ship the materials back and is operating this school year on an expired curriculum no longer supported with workbooks.

Thank goodness our kids won’t be learning about SEL or CRT… in the absence of a curriculum.

Then there are the library debacles. It made national news when Boundary County’s library director departed due to harassment and fear of violence, all related to community anger over 400 books (largely with LGBTQ and race-based themes) that don’t actually reside on the shelves. But, no matter. They might someday. It seems the specter of a book about having two mommies was enough for someone to repeatedly blow a shofar horn outside the library, as

a message of spiritual warfare.

For real.

The children’s librarian in Kootenai County also departed from her post due to threats from her community. Parents were in a rage about books in the collection that their children may or may not ever see — and would not ever see if parents simply monitored their children’s reading habits. However, rather than have a dialogue with their children, these parents were more into yelling at the woman in charge of storytime.

And finally, remember last year when the man who homeschools his kids was elected to the school board? The man who wants to overturn the permanent school levy? Who wants to strip the curriculum of social-emotional learning? Remember that?

All of which brings me to this uniquely North Idaho paradox: Why is it OK for our kids to see vehicles veritably plastered with the f-bomb — the pinnacle of profanity — directed at our president, but heaven forbid that those kids pick up a book about sexuality or healthy emotions? Why is it OK that they regularly see a bumper sticker that says Joe and the Hoe Gotta Go (our vice president being the “hoe” in question, of course), but not books about inclusivity of all genders and races? Why is it that ignorance and disrespect are held in higher esteem than the kind of learning that dispels both evils?

I want my daughter to believe in the power of education, but how might that happen amid a culture that seeks to dismantle access to learning? When the classroom is underfunded and its curriculum undermined, when librarians (for chrissakes) are under siege… what then?

Thus, it is here that I bow

deeply to the teachers, librarians and other guardians of knowledge in North Idaho. I bow deeply to you for your courage and your resolve to serve our entire community, even as certain members of it make your life uncomfortable. I was once a librarian, and I never found anything about it heroic. Today, in this place, librarians are my heroes.

Sylvie’s teacher is my hero for believing in his curriculum, for having a zest for it, for inspiring his charges with that same verve and hunger.

Folks serving on school boards — not for any political agenda, but for the kids — are my heroes. School board meetings have become war zones in recent years. Yet, these public servants return to the trenches.

All the teachers, librarians, professors and mentors who stood by me over the years, they remain my heroes, too. I would not be half the person I am today were it not for the guidance of the brilliant and curious people who have taught me that life is the ultimate classroom, and the best approach is to remain ever curious.

So maybe today, I’ll visit the library and seek out a controversial book. It is Banned Books Week, after all. And I am not afraid of ideas.

And maybe my daughter will willingly enter the halls of her school today. Because she is no longer afraid. She is ready to be expanded.

Jen Jackson Quintano writes and runs an arborist business with her husband in Sandpoint. Find their website at sandcreektreeservice.com. See more of Quintano’s writing at jenjacksonquintano. com.

KNPS features Idaho Conservation League program aimed at protecting our waters

By Reader Staff

The Kinnikinnick Native Plant Society will offer the North Idaho Lakes Conservation Program, presented by Brad Smith and Jennifer Ekstrom from the Idaho Conservation League, on Saturday, Sept. 17 at 10 a.m.

ICL’s program focuses on protecting the waters of the Idaho panhandle from degradation, pollution and poor land-use management. North Idaho staff work with partner organizations and tribes to ensure that places like Lake Pend Oreille, Lake Coeur d’Alene, Priest Lake, the Kootenai River and more are protected now and for future generations.

The program will be offered both on Zoom and in-person in the large meeting room B at the East Bonner County Li-

brary’s main branch, located at 1407 Cedar St. in Sandpoint. Coffee, tea and treats will be available starting at 9:30 a.m. for in-person attendees.

For those wishing to view the program on Zoom, register in advance at bit.ly/3q5bDIA.

The program is co-sponsored by East Bonner County Library District and Sandpoint Parks and Recreation, and is free and open to the public.

no One wants the Olden Days, Except perhaps to sneer

This open Window

and

edited by Jim mitsui

the many ways

Another Summer ends in burnt almond gasps changes day to a reactor core of tears

Lengthening shadows collect in a well of carnivorous egotesticle humans a show of reverse evolution their inner reliquary of infamy when the very last harvest day runs red

But the inner roar gone rumble turn signal of yesterday‘s overlooked roots runs deeper. Collected particles of big orange sun and laughing rain prickles laboriously preserve both hummingbird raves and yellow beans

In the same way water adds years changes wicked poppies into funny riotous transitions we saddle the many days leap another border lose another pound of useless flesh Become more particular

From the assembled word list for September 2022 from the Sandpoint Monday Writers. A book of their works, Sandpointed, will be published this fall by Turtlemoon Publishing.

She saved her children’s baby things, foolishly dreaming of the day when they would swaddle her first grandchild. She wrapped them, oh so carefully, in tissue, dreaming of that special day when her first grandchild would come into this world and move her a step further along in the line of generations

Sometimes, after the kids all grew up and left home she would unwrap the frilly, old fashioned baby clothes lovely bonnets, lacy dresses, booties with ribbons soft pastels in blue and greens and pinks remembering tiny fingers curled around hers first smiles, milky burp bubbles, fine fair hair colic and rocking, loving and softly crooned lullabies then tucking things back away, waiting

Her children fell in and out of love as young ones do, but then settled, oh my careers and waiting for the right time finally the long awaited call “We’re pregnant!”

she pulls out the somewhat ratty old diaper bag, filled with her treasures freshly laundered ready for the one she is so eager to welcome

Lovingly presenting them to her daughter-in-law at the baby shower, so happy to carry on a tradition only to hear as she returns down the hall (you know how often old ladies need to pee)

saddle stories

I found an old horseshoe yesterday while the Gutter Guys, Callan and Dakota, were slaving away on my roof. I gave them my last can of wasp spray they seemed so young and inexperienced.

Callan left his sweatshirt in my rock garden. I see it puddled there this hazy morning. The can of wasp spray balanced beside it.

The horseshoe must have belonged to Peaches. Or “the old hag” as Nathan always called her.

He built her a barn she refused to enter, he was offended.

I miss seeing her far out in the field tall grasses up to her withers shaking her mane and twitching her tail to ward off flies. She usually stood just beyond the fence line she preferred to be outside her boundaries.

Peaches and I we had a lot in common.

She didn’t mean to eavesdrop how she wished she hadn’t heard:

“She gave me this bag of the most hideous, frilly, old fashioned baby clothes you could imagine, bonnets, lacy dresses, booties with ribbons awful colors — and ducks and rabbits on them! I thanked her of course, but there was no way I am going to put my new baby in any of that awful stuff am so offended that she could believe I had such poor taste.”

Thus a heart is broken, dreams unrealized but her grandson is still a joy and a wonder cute as a button in his modern outfits her broken heart heals with his first baby smile

If sometimes she imagines him in a little blue bonnet tiny kicking feet in sweet booties with ribbons tucked in a wicker bassinet with a fuzzy bunny in a blue nursery with baby duck wallpaper they just think it’s the new grandbaby making her eyes misty and her smile so far away

Maureen, originally from Minnesota, after living in various parts of the country, has settled in Bonner County. A musician, she also belongs to a knitting group.

The sensuous season

Anxious spring seedlings simmer in dixie cup soil, give birth to miniscule sprouts.

Urged on by the sun jeweled petals disrupt careful grains of earth and explode in supple profusion.

Newly leafed trees release darting hummingbirds to helicopter above fatly inebriated bumblebees.

Macarena butterflies recklessly deliver love, a letter to every bloom. “Saddle Stories” and “The Sensuous Season” were both written by Sandra Rasor.

FEATURE Community, cake and a time capsule

Museum to host 50th birthday bash for the Bonner County Historical Society

By Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey Reader Staff

This year marks half a century since locals teamed up to officially incorporate the Bonner County Historical Society and, in turn, envision a home for the county’s history with the Bonner County Museum.

Museum Administrator Hannah Combs told the Reader that the mission to catalog Bonner County’s past actually launched much earlier, sometime in the 1940s, when Dr. Ethel Page Westwood and the Gem Club began collecting artifacts of the area’s natural history “to save for a time when a museum would be created.” That museum would become a reality in 1980 with the help of the newly incorporated historical society.

“We’ve been preserving history here for a very long time,” Combs said, “but the organization itself has been around for 50 years this year.”

There will be a birthday bash commemorating that 50-year milestone on Friday, Sept. 16 at Lakeview Park — just outside the museum — from 4-6 p.m. following the museum’s annual membership meeting at 3:30 p.m. While the meeting will be open to the public, only museum members will be able to vote on board matters.

As for the party portion of the evening, Combs said there will be cake, beverages and a couple of history-centric activities, one of those being the creation of a time capsule that won’t be opened until 2072.

“We thought this would be a good time, especially in light of how much the community is changing and developing right now, to just try to save a moment in time and be able to share that with the community 50 years from now,” she said.

Combs said that community members are welcome to contribute “momentos, photos and notes about what life is like in Bonner County” to the glass capsule, which will remain on display in the museum. If it isn’t filled at the party, people will be able to stop by during museum hours to continue adding to the time capsule.

Another feature of the birthday party will be an artifact-gathering

contest, in which attendees are encouraged to bring an item from the 1970s with some sort of tie to Bonner County to contribute to the museum’s collection. There will be a prize for the most interesting item, and Combs hopes the contest serves as an example of how “simple and easy” it can be to help the museum preserve the past.

“It’s partly for fun and partly to help educate people about how the museum operates, and how we rely on donations from the public to build up our collection,” she said.

Another way to wish the museum a happy birthday would be to stop by the Museum Guild Gift Shop, located on First Avenue in the north storefront of the Panida Theater, on Thursday, Sept. 15 or Friday prior to the party to write a birthday message on the museum research room’s original mini fridge, which will be staged on the sidewalk with permanent markers. Combs said it is the museum’s way of bidding farewell to the trusty appliance, which is finally being replaced as part of a research room update funded by local grants.

Combs said that while considering what life may be like in Bonner County 50 years from now feels “incomprehensible,” she hopes the museum can continue to serve as a place capable of cap-

turing everyone’s stories, past and present. The 50th birthday bash aims to be an earnest reminder of that mission.

“I think it’s a neat way that we can bring people together to share [their stories], and save some for the future,” Combs said.

Those with questions can contact the museum at 208-263-2344 or info@bonnercountyhistory.org. Learn more about the museum’s mission and exhibits at bonnercountyhistory.org.

September 15-22, 2022

THURSDAY, september 15

Live Music w/ Sheldon Packwood

6-8pm @ MickDuff’s Beer Hall

No. Rocky Mtn Biodiversity Challenge Sept. 15-18 • For more info: inaturalist.org

FriDAY, september 16

POAC Performing Arts Series:

Maiah Wynne

7:30pm @ Panida Theater

Maiah plays indie-folk music and she spends time empowering local high school students through songwriting workshops. Tickets $25. Doors at 6:30pm

Live Music w/ Hannah Siglin Trio

5-8pm @ Pend d’Oreille Winery

Hannah is a singer-songwriter guitarist playing folk and roots music

MCS Guitar Raffle Drawing

3 chances to win a $300 guitar. Tickets $5 or 5 for $20. Buy then online or at MCS

Karaoke

8pm-cl @ Tervan

COMMUNITY

Panida seeks community members for board and committee volunteers

By Reader Staff

Bonner Co. Historical Society’s 50th birthday party

3:30-6pm @ 611 S. Ella Ave. (Museum lawn)

Annual meeting at 3:30pm, and from 4-6pm enjoy party, cake, tours and a time capsule. Prizes for best 1970s artifact donated to the Museum. Bring a memento for the time capsule! Free to attend for all

Live Music w/ Ron Keiper Trio 7pm @ Eichardt’s Pub

Live Music w/ Kevin Dorin

7-9pm @ The Back Door

Live Music w/ Dangerous Type

9pm-midnight @ 219 Lounge

SATURDAY, september 17

Live Music w/ Pamela Benton

5-8pm @ Pend d’Oreille Winery

With her electric violin, Pamela is always a welcome addition to the Winery music scene

Sandpoint Farmers’ Market

9am-1pm @ Farmin Park

Fresh produce, artisan goods, live music by Folk Remedy

Folk Arts Faire

10am-5pm @ Pine Street Woods

Save the sled hill. Music, food, crafts, demos, entertainment and vendors. $10 admission. Kids enter free

i48 Film Festival (Sept. 17-18)

7pm @ Panida Theater

14 films from people who made them in 48 hours. Starts 7pm Saturday, 2pm Sunday. More info at panida.org

Oktoberfest in Hope

5-8:15pm @ Hope Community Center

Food, wine and beer avail for purchase

Sandpoint Chess Club

“Welcome Back to Dance” event

7-10pm @ Ponderay Event Center

One-hour beginner foxtrot lesson from 7-8pm, followed by general dancing until 10pm. Refreshments, door prizes

Kaniksu Folk School’s Folk Arts Faire

10am-5pm @ Pine Street Woods

$10 admission goes toward Save the Sled Hill (free for kids under 12)

King of the Kongcrete skate comp

9am @ Travers Park (skate park)

Annual event hosted by BoCo Skate Park Assoc. which raises funds for the community. $30, includes T-shirt

Live Music w/ Chris Paradis

7-9pm @ The Back Door

Live Music w/ Miah Kohal Band

9pm-midnight @ 219 Lounge

Karaoke

8pm-cl @ Tervan

SunDAY, september 18

9am @ Evans Brothers Coffee

Karaoke

8pm-cl @ Tervan

monDAY, september 19

Monday Night Blues Jam w/ John Firshi

7pm @ Eichardt’s Pub

Lifetree Cafe • 2pm @ Jalapeño’s “Early Christian Movement”

Group Run @ Outdoor Experience

6pm @ Outdoor Experience

3-5 miles, all levels welcome, beer after

wednesDAY, september 21

NAMI Far North meeting and movie

5:30-8pm @ VFW, 1325 Pine St.

Watch the documentary “My Life Living with Bipolar Disorder” from 5:306:30pm, followed by a general meeting and support group until 8pm

Sandpoint Farmers’ Market

3-5:30pm @ Farmin Park

Open Mic w/ Frytz 6pm @ Tervan

Benny on the Deck • 6-8pm @ Connie’s Featuring guest Kevin Dorin

Live Music w/ Sheldon Packwood

7pm @ Eichardt’s Pub

ThursDAY, september 22

BGH Scrub Sale • 8am-4pm @ BGH classroom

Scrubs, stethescopes, hats, shoes and more. Pay with payroll deduction, cash and checks

Creative and enthusiastic community members are invited to join the Panida team as board and committee volunteers, helping guarantee the theater remains a unique historic venue for generations to come.

By giving time and energy, board members help ensure and grow the Panida’s mission to provide live concerts and classic and current movies, as well as provide support for local and touring theatrical productions and community arts organizations.

“At the Panida children learn to creatively cooperate in productions that build memories, pride and skills,” theater managers stated. “On our stage Sandpoint children have gone on to become nationally known artists. For decades, well-known performers have also filled our auditorium with applause.”

Those who serve on the Panida board in 2022 and beyond will take part in deci-

sions that will affect the arts community in Sandpoint for decades to come. Volunteers will also be part of the 100-year anniversary celebration of the theater and part of a history that the future will celebrate.

Fiber optics connecting art theaters across the world and new digital technology, coupled with creative restoration techniques, will ensure that the Panida remains a historic gem, drawing great performers and patrons — not just from North Idaho but the entire Northwest.

“Your excitement, time, and energy will provide the leadership needed to make a lasting contribution to future generations of North Idaho citizens,” according to the nonprofit organization. “If you love the theater and want to be part of a collaborative, creative, forward-looking, small group of women and men, then your serving on the Panida board will enrich your life and ensure that the Panida thrives.”

Applications are now being accepted on the Panida’s website at panida.org.

Creations with constraints

Panida premiere marks first time Idaho’s i48 Film Fest will screen outside Boise

By Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey Reader Staff

Each year since 2004, teams of filmmakers across Idaho have competed in the Boise-based i48 Film Competition and Festival, during which they are tasked with creating an original short film — three to six minutes long — in fewer than 48 hours.

From writing to casting to editing, these films are made from scratch and must incorporate four elements disclosed to filmmakers only upon the start of the 48-hour window, including a genre, character, prop and a line of dialogue.

Resulting films are then shown a week later at downtown Boise movie theater The Flicks, and award-winning projects are shown again at the nearby historic Egyptian Theatre.

“I am amazed year to year by the creativity, ingenuity and film-

making skill that it takes to come up with a story, write a script, cast the actors, find the locations, find costumes, build props, shoot the movie, and edit and score the films all in 48 hours,” i48 Co-Director Andrew Ellis told the Reader. “The films and shows we watch at the cineplex or on TV take years to develop, produce, shoot and post-produce.

The i48 teams have no such luxuries, and it’s just simply amazing at what they come up with given the constraints of the competition.”

North Idahoans will have the chance to see what the 2022 i48 competitors came up with when this year’s “Best of i48” lineup screens Saturday, Sept. 17 at 7 p.m. and Sunday, Sept. 18 at 2:30 p.m. at the Panida Theater.

Each showing will feature the 14 films that garnered awards in 2022, and marks the first time that a complete lineup of i48 films has been shown outside of Boise.

Organizers stated that “i48 has two self-selecting levels of competition: the Novice Division for those filmmakers just starting out, and the Open Division for filmmakers with more experience.” In 2022, Novice Division competitors were required to include a collector character named Robert or Roberta Cardoza, a jai alai toy as a prop and the line of dialogue, “Do you think this is a game?” Filmmakers in the Open Division had to feature a fabricator character named Miles or Millie Delaney, a baby pacifier and the line of dialogue, “Want to think it over?”

Genres for this year’s competition varied from mystery to comedy to sports film.

“These are amateur films — some of them made by teams making a movie for the first time ever — so the audience should set their expectations appropriately,” Ellis said, “but I think they will

come away impressed and amazed by what the teams accomplished in 48 hours.”

Tickets for adults are $12 in advance and $15 at the door.

Youth tickets are $8. Ticket prices apply to both Saturday and Sunday showings, with proceeds benefiting the Panida Century

Fund. Doors open half an hour before the show.

Learn more about the i48 Film Competition and Festival at idaho48.org. Purchase tickets online at panida.org.

The Thai that binds

My favorite entrees at Secret Thai

By Ben Olson Reader Staff

When describing the prototypical “reporter” smell that oozes from our palatial headquarters on Cedar Street, Reader News Editor Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey listed the lingering aroma of Thai food containers from our shared garbage can, along with newspaper ink bleached in the sun, stale beer and lost dreams. Well, I added the latter, but I digress — this is what the Reader would smell like if we were a scratch-andsniff sticker.

Needless to say, we eat a lot of Thai food at the Reader.

My first experience eating authentic Thai cuisine was in Thailand. I had traveled there after a devastating tsunami hit on my birthday in 2004, killing more than 100,000 people. I volunteered with a humanitarian organization that focused on rebuilding destroyed communities.

After arriving in Bangkok, the first goal was to eat as much local fare as possible. My very first dish was a simple meat-on-rice affair, eaten at a roadside cafeteria frequented by cross-country buses. I don’t even remember what it was, only that the server tried to warn me away. Undeterred, I took one bite and my eyes lit up. The flavors were incredible, like discovering a whole new food group. Then the heat hit and I physically slumped in

my chair, mouth burning while the server laughed at me.

I can handle spicy food, but this was a realm I had only heard about in folklore.

Dragging myself up to the table, I continued with the dish, breaking to mop sweat from my forehead every few minutes. It was the hottest — and most delicious — dish I’d ever tasted.

Nearly two decades later, I’m still a sucker for Thai food. Rarely a week goes by when I don’t eat at one of our two excellent Thai restaurants: Thai Nigiri and Secret Thai. Next week we’ll write about the sushi at Thai Nigiri, so, this week, I’m focusing on my favorite dishes at Secret Thai which bring me back to those hot days in Thailand.

Pad Thai

Being the national dish of Thailand, pad Thai is probably its most globally recognized food. It’s a simple concoction of noodles, tamarind sauce and vegetables that is quite complex in its flavor combinations. Pad Thai is sold everywhere in Thailand, but the best is usually found at cheap street stalls where they’ve perfected the recipe for years.

The key to a good pad Thai is the fusion of sweet and savory flavors, with a slightly salty and nutty taste to the sauce, complemented by the addition of ground peanuts sprinkled on top.

At Secret Thai, pad Thai comes with thin rice noodles, bean sprouts, green onion and egg, with a topping of ground peanuts, of course. You can order with chicken, shrimp, beef, tofu or with fresh vegetables, which means the addition of spinach and other fun stuff. It’s a dish that can be eaten twice — once for dinner, then again for leftovers, since the portions are ample.

Cashew chicken

Though technically a Chinese dish, cashew chicken is so common in Thailand that it has graduated to being Thai food in its own right. The most noticeable difference between the Chinese and Thai versions is that the Thai sauce is a bit more complex — it has that classic savory-sweet combination, with a tart, peppery flavor that already has my mouth watering. It’s definitely a step above the cashew chicken you might have tried at a bland Chinese buffet in the past.

In the world of stir fry dishes, cashew chicken reigns supreme. It contains chicken pieces, roasted cashew nuts, broccoli, onion and bell pepper in an oyster and soy sauce seasoned to perfection at Secret Thai. The flavor combination of meat, veggies and roasted cashews creates a sauciness, which, when added to the white rice accompanying the dish, blends into one of the most

popular dishes at Secret Thai. You can also substitute meats, or order with tofu or fresh vegetables.

Barbecue pork yakisoba

Yakisoba is a street food staple first originating in Japan, but Lyn at Secret Thai has made it her own. It’s a sneaker favorite entree of mine, checking off so many boxes. The noodles are rounder than pad Thai noodles, with a bit more al dente texture. They are cooked in a chili paste sauce with sautéed onions, broccoli, cabbage and bell peppers.

The final — and most delicious — addition to this plate is thinly sliced Chinese style barbecued pork. This comes in a reddish color due to the marinade used to cook it, which contains red bean curds. Unlike American-style barbecue, which is based on tomatoes, the Chinese barbecue flavor contains hoisin sauce, soy sauce and red bean curds, along with other spices. The resulting taste is sweet, with a slight fermented flavor that stands apart from any barbecue you’ve had in the Western world.

Combined with noodles and vegetables, this dish is the first one I recommend to people who haven’t yet eaten at Secret Thai. You can substitute the pork for shrimp or order vegetarian style, but I think much of the taste comes from the meat, so vegetarians be warned.

Pad gra prow gai

Also known in English as “spicy Thai basil chicken,” this is one of the most unique flavors at Secret Thai. Containing chicken stir fried in a rich, spicy brown sauce, garlic and vegetables, the magic comes from the addition of Thai holy basil, which is a variety of basil with rough leaves that has an almost peppery, sour flavor. Thai holy basil is not the same as Thai basil or regular basil. There really is no substitute. If she runs out of this key ingredient, Lyn won’t make the dish because the flavors just wouldn’t be the same without it. This authentic Thai dish is often served with a wok-fried egg on top. If searching for it online, there are multiple spellings, but the dish remains the same.

There are many other excellent dishes at Secret Thai, each served with love by Lyn, (one of the hardest working chefs in Sandpoint), but those listed above are my absolute favorites.

Secret Thai is located in the alley behind Eichardt’s Pub, 218 Cedar St. Ste. 211, and is available for take-out only. Check out their menu online at their Facebook page, or call to order: 208-263-9960.

MUSIC

For the ears and the mind

Singer-songwriter Maiah Wynne to kick of POAC’s performing arts series at the Panida

By Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey Reader Staff

Portland, Ore.-based singer-songwriter Maiah Wynne is a musical chameleon.

Locals will have a chance to see her changing colors in person Friday, Sept. 16 at the Panida Theater, as Wynne and her full band perform the inaugural show of the Pend Oreille Arts Council’s 2022-’23 Performing Arts Series at 7:30 p.m.

“There’s going to be a lot of dynamic range between folk music, pop, indie, a little bit of rock,” Wynne told the Reader. “I like to think that there’s definitely something there for everybody. I write a lot of music in a lot of different genres, but it’s all me, and comes from my singer-songwriter heart.”

The 25-year-old has been pursuing a music career since leaving home at 16, and has collaborated on several music projects — including some for feature film — as well as recently become a member of the band Envy of None: a cinematic rock band also featuring Alex Lifeson of Rush, Coney Hatch’s Andy Curran and Alfio Annibalini.

“It was the future I wanted,” Wynne said. “I was very passionate about it, very headstrong about it, and I just haven’t really stopped and haven’t looked back.”

The self-taught multi-instrumentalist said she draws from

influences across the genre spectrum to create her unique sound, which is highlighted by her breathy, emotive vocals. The artist said she believes dabbling in several genres is “the future of music.”

“Genres are becoming less definable,” she said, “and people are taking inspiration from so many different places and paving new pathways for music.”

Wynne’s Panida performance will be an exploration of this musical future, in which one artist can jump the bounds of genre in a single set.

“You’ll get this upbeat rock song and the next one will be a ballad that will make you cry,” she said. “I like to give you the full range of emotions, hopefully.”

Wynne will soon be dropping a presale link for her first full-length original album, Out of the Dark, and many of those original songs will be played for Sandpoint on Friday.

which will “explain how and why music and the arts are important tools to help us heal from trauma and self regulate.”

“It’s been a long time coming,” she said.

Also as part of her visit to North Idaho, Wynne will be giving presentations to local students — as part of POAC’s educational outreach program Ovations — about practical mental health tools. Wynne has been trained by Seattle-based nonprofit First Aid Arts in order to teach this “Music and Mental Health” workshop,

“All across the country and all across the world, we need to be talking about mental health,” Wynne told the Reader. “It’s a joy for me to be able to talk about all the different methods to improve your mental health on a small scale, and how music can be one of those things.”

Wynne said that working with First Aid Arts has given her the feeling that she’s “doing something good in the world.”

“I think the music industry is really challenging,” she said,

“and getting to take a break from the tunnel vision of that and step outside of it and remind myself why I want to make music and what I want to do in the world and getting to connect with people — it’s just really incredible.”

Tickets to see Miah Wynne at the Panida Theater on Friday, Sept. 16 at 7:30 p.m. are $25. Purchase tickets online at artinsandpoint.org/performing-arts or at the door. Doors open an hour before the show. Those with questions can reach POAC at 208-263-6139.

This week’s RLW by Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey

READ

One of the authors that fostered by love of reading — and, in turn, writing — at a young age was Sharon Creech. Author of the Newbery Medal-winning Walk Two Moons, along with 20-plus other young adult novels, Creech has cemented her place as one of America’s best children’s authors thanks to her unforgettable characters. I’m about to re-read Walk Two Moons, which tells the story of an imaginative young girl on a road trip to Idaho who longs to know what happened to her missing mom.

LISTEN

I am late to the party, but Tyler Childers is fantastic. His 2017 album Purgatory has been on heavy rotation for me this summer, particularly the tracks “Lady May,” “Whitehouse Road” and “Feathered Indians.” Childers is part of the growing trend of old-school country sound going mainstream among modern country music lovers — or, at least, the ones who know what “country music” used to mean.

WATCH

A snapshot of notable live music coming up in Sandpoint

Hannah Siglin Trio, Pamela Benton; Pend d’Oreille Winery; Sept. 16-17

It’ll be a tuneful start to the weekend at the Pend d’Oreille Winery, with two out-of-town artists providing the entertainment Friday, Sept. 16 and Saturday, Sept. 17.

First up is Hannah Siglin on Friday. The Spokane-raised, Boston-taught singer-songwriter might have a bicoastal music education, but she has a sound that’s all Western folk and roots.

A graduate of the prestigious Berklee College of Music, Siglin applies her classical training to vocal and instrumental stylings that are as dreamy as they are refined. Her songwriting chops are also on full display with winsome, poetic lyrics that are perfect for a listening-room experience.

As such, the Pend d’Oreille Winery will be the perfect place to take in the talents of this practically-local artist with a resume as impressive as her output. Listen at

soundcloud.com/hannah-siglin. Up next will be Pamela Benton on Saturday. Originally of San Francisco, now of Coeur d’Alene, to call classically trained violinist Benton a “multi-instrumentalist” is a bit of an understatement. She’s perhaps best known for electric violin, but also performs on acoustic violin; guitar lead, rhythm, slide and finger picking; and mandolin. She also studied classical piano.

Benton’s sound — both solo and with her five-piece band P.B. & Jam — evokes descriptors such as “smooth,” “relaxing” and “easy on the ears,” mingling genres including smooth/light jazz, indie folk-rock and new age. Learn more at pamelabenton.net. — Zach Hagadone

Both shows 5-8 p.m., FREE. 301 Cedar St., 208-265-8545, powine.com

It doesn’t get more Y2K classic than Miss Congeniality, the story of how rough-and-tumble tomboy FBI Agent Gracie Young infiltrates the Miss United States beauty pageant to save its contestants from a terrorist attack. The film is as funny as it is glamorous, and features as many guns as evening gowns. Most importantly, it’s the movie that made many of us millennials fall in love with Sandra Bullock, who both produced and starred in the film.

BACK OF THE BOOK

One week at a time

The strange world of weekly deadlines

From Northern Idaho News, Sept. 16, 1915

MAYOR AND COUNCIL DISAGREE

The social evil was again under discussion last night at the council meeting. The regular business had all been transacted and the council was about to adjourn when Alderman York threw a bombshell into camp with the declaration that he had been told that there were bawdy houses in town and that they were paying regular licenses. It was a condition that he thought ought to be looked into. He did not like, as a member of the council, to hear such statements.

Chief Hurd retorted that he wished that some of the people that knew so much would back up their statements and aid the police with their knowledge. It would be an easy matter to keep the town clean if they would, he said. Mayor Ewing said there was nothing to the report and didn’t think it worth while paying any attention to it.

Upon further discussion it developed that both Alderman York and Himes had been told by Asa Nash, the electrician, that he had been to a certain house in the residence district to collect a bill and had been told by the woman that she could not pay as she had just paid her fine.

Mayor Ewing declared the town is 75 per cent cleaner than in the spring and Alerman Himes inquired why such rumors were afloat if such were the case. The mayor did not answer directly but said if the council would work unanimously to that end, that there would be no difficulty in keeping the town clean. During the past two years, he declared that there had been revenue collected from the redlight district, none of which found its way into the city coffers.

“I am doing the best I can and want your help,” he said.

By Ben Olson Reader Staff

Where in the name of Edward R. Murrow has eight years gone?

That’s how long it’s been since we brought the Reader back from the dead in January 2015. About this time eight years ago, I was filling notebooks with ideas and coming up with strategies over beers with then-editor Cameron Rasmusson to bring this little rag back into circulation.

Since then, every week has been punctuated by a deadline, except for the times when I was able to sneak away for adventures abroad.

It’s a strange life when you live under a weekly deadline. I’m thankful we’re not a daily newspaper, because that would probably reduce me to tears more than I’d care to admit. Regardless, the fact that we’re tasked with putting this thing together each week and pushing it out of the nest every Wednesday night so you can pick it up Thursday morning seems to have given the past eight years a manic, stop-motion quality.

Before beginning my tenure as Reader publisher, I tended to avoid routines. If someone said to me a decade ago: “You will spend every Monday through Wednesday in the exact same place, doing the exact same thing for the next eight years or more,” I’d have probably laughed so hard beer would come out of my nose. Yet here we are.

When Editor-in-Beast Zach Hagadone founded the Reader with John Reuter and Chris DeCleur back in 2004, I was just an itinerant writer who helped fill the pages with my twaddle. I saw their long work-

STR8TS Solution

days, their glassy eyes after staring at a computer screen for 12 hours at a time, their shabby paychecks and tendency to eat at gas stations, and didn’t want any part of running the paper — I just liked writing nonsense articles about killer bees and the occasional investigative piece that pissed off the right people.

But when I took over publishing the paper in 2015, I wasn’t fully prepared for the effect a weekly deadline would have on my body and mind. It’s like I’m laying railroad track and there’s always a train somewhere behind me, blasting its whistle and nipping at my heels. Fall far enough behind and you’ll get run over or the train will derail. Sometimes, when embarking on a long vacation, I’ll lay a few weeks of track ahead to buy some time off the line, but the train is always there, angrily chugging toward me when I return.

Years go by like this, in seven-day increments. Fridays are editorial meetings, where we plan the next week’s edition and make calls to set up interviews, laying the groundwork for the following week. Saturdays and Sundays are usually days off, but not if there are events to cover or meetings to attend. Mondays are production days, filled with interviewing, researching, writing and adding elements to the layout file. Tuesdays are the same, but with a bit of added stress. Wednesdays are the dreaded deadline day, when all of the 300 some odd tasks that need to be done are completed one by one and the paper is sent to the printer with feelings of anxiety and last-minute doom scrolling to find possible typos so we don’t have snarky emails in our inboxes the next day. Thursdays, of course, are for actually

Sudoku Solution

getting the rag out on the streets.

Then it’s rinse and repeat, every single week.

You’d think a life lived one week at a time would make it seem fuller, brighter — as if living in this fixed present state would make you smell the roses more deeply. It doesn’t. When you live on a deadline, your life disappears before you know it.

I have never regretted bringing the Reader back into circulation. I think a healthy community means giving a voice to those who don’t normally have one. I believe in what we’re doing. I believe in journalism. I believe in sharing our collective stories to somehow leave the world better than we found it. I believe in the power of truth.

Still, as Horace Greeley said, “Journalism will kill you, but it will keep you alive while you’re at it.”

If you wear a toupee, why not let your friends try it on for a while. Come on, we’re not going to hurt it.

Laughing Matter

Solution on page 22 Solution on page 22

By Bill Borders

gallantly /GAL-uhnt-lee/

Word

of the

Week

[adverb]

1. in a courageous, spirited, or noble-minded way

“Tom gallantly marched past all the haters and stood on stage, ready for their questions. ”

Corrections: The date of Leon Atkinson’s memorial is actually Thursday, Sept. 15 (we wrote “Wednesday, Sept. 15” last week). Also, we spelled “Tolkien” wrong about a hundred times. As Gandalf would say: “Fool of a Took.” —BO

CROSSWORD

ACROSS

1.Bunch

6.Cheat

10.Part of a book

14.Hawaiian greeting

15.Threaded

16.Black, in poetry

17.Cloudless

18.Anagram of “Rose”

19.Origin

20.The lag in an effect

22.Ponder

23.Doled

24.Bigot

25.Office fill-in

29.Experienced

31.Type of a sharp curve

33.Back up

37.Not down

38.Superficiality

39.If or if not

41.Worry

42.Extreme

44.River to the North Sea

45.Colorful parrot

48.Flow controller

50.Ear-related

51.Going down

56.Legal wrong

57.Decorative case

58.Discourage

59.One single time

60.Not fatty

61.Lacquer ingredient

Solution on page 22

62.Anagram of “Dear”

63.Inactive

64.Evil spirit

DOWN

1.German baroque composer

2.Friend in war

3.Foot digits

4.Talk

5.A group on concubines

6.Sugarcoat

7.Body-shaping

garment

8.Dodger

9.Clutter

10.Perpetual existence

11.Give or take

12.Long-necked migratory bird

13.Go in

21.Amended

24.Safe place

25.Unfreeze

26.Apiece

27.Bog

28.Drawn-out

30.Spin

32.Exclamation of contempt

34.Bobbin

35.Belgrade native

36.Sea eagle

40.Engrossed

41.Oxydize by heating

43.Informal

45.Engine

46.Expiate

47.About

49.Terminated

51.Sandwich shop

52.Expunge

53.Any thing

54.Captain of the Nautilus

55.Smile