Huckleberries: She's got a chain on him

Mrs. O and I were walking along Front Avenue recently when we saw a familiar face coming our way: dapper Coeur d’Alene Mayor Steve Widmyer.

Mrs. O was the only one wearing a mask. The mayor’s mask was dangling from a light chain while he talked on his cell. After hanging up, the mayor asked me impishly, “Where’s your mask?”

I pulled a blue Adidas face covering from my back pocket and assured Hizzoner that I wore it when I couldn’t socially distance. We were more than 6 feet apart.

“What’s the deal with the chain?” I asked the mayor.

Seems his wife, Marie, issued a mandate after Steve lost two previous masks. Chain ‘er up, she said. Only a foolish husband would ignore such a demand. And Steve is no fool.

Hold the water

And here’s another nugget gleaned from Tom Emerson’s biography, “Fred Murphy: A Legend of Coeur d’Alene Lake”: The famed tugboat captain often ate lunch at the old Templin’s Grill (First and Sherman). As a token of his friendship, Bob Templin reserved a small booth near the front doors for him. Emerson writes: “Fred typically would appear at the bar shortly after 11 for a small libation and then to his booth. Fred would tell the bartender, 'Don't put water in my whiskey. I run my tugboat in that.’”

Last? Alas

Anyone who has played fantasy football with cutthroats can guess the back story of that forlorn guy in a black-and-white print blouse and black gym shorts on Sherman this week. Katrina Wright Swaim spotted him running along our main street, holding a cardboard sign over his head. It read: “Bad at dressing in women’s clothes but worse at Fantasy Football.” Huckleberries suspects that the fella finished last in his 2019 Fantasy Football League – and took his punishment like a man, a cross-dressing one.

Huckleberries

• Poet’s Corner: Our legislators and their flunkies/are more laughs than barrels of monkeys;/but speaking frankly, heart to heart,/I fear they may not be as smart – The Bard of Sherman Avenue (“Congress”).

• Speaking of Fred Murphy, Tom Emerson’s son, Sandy, tells Huckleberries that, after Fred’s unexpected death on Jan. 12, 1986, some locals pushed to raise a statue to his memory. Three Murphy maquettes were displayed around town. But the estimated $50,000+ needed to fund the statue wasn’t raised. It isn’t too late to do so now.

• In the “No Good Deed Goes Unpunished” Department, Nic Casey of the Faithful Geek blog tells of stopping in a Walmart parking lot to let a woman pass in front of him. The woman awarded Nic for his kindness by calling him a (expletive deleted). That damsel was distressing.

• Mike Kennedy of Intermax Networks enjoys the tailored, social distancing signs at the Kootenai County Fairgrounds — you know, the ones that advise: “Keep Two Sheep Apart” (complete with drawings of said sheep).

• A sign near the Buoy Lakeside Restaurant at McEuen Park reads: “Lake Views & Cold Brews.” A passing teen eyed the sign and said: “What can be better than that?” Especially on a hot day.

• Last week, Huckleberries reported the trepidation that former school trustee Tom Hearn felt in pasting a “Biden 2020” sticker to his bumper. Tom has removed the sticker. It isn’t worth the stress, he says: “I love Joe and Kamala … but it is not worth having my car trashed.” And that’s a sad commentary on the incivility gripping the nation – and our community.

• A masked resident from East Portland, Ore., was picking out treats at a local pastry shop when someone coughed behind him. He turned and saw an unmasked, sixty-something female with a gray ponytail. “Mask, please,” he said. In response, she dropped an F-bomb, followed by a “you.” Who said opponents in the Not So Great Mask Debate couldn’t communicate?

Parting Shot

Most of you know that Darrell Dlouhy is an owner of Daft Badger Brewing. But did you know that he was born and lived for his first 12 years in Roswell, N.M.? In mid-1947, seven years before Darrell was born, the “Roswell Incident” occurred. The military says a weather balloon slammed into a farmer’s field. UFOlogists claim a flying saucer crashed and several ETs were recovered. Darrell tells Huckleberries that he doesn’t know anything about that. He recalls hot, dusty Roswell as a “tough environment.” But it was a great place to play Little League baseball on grass fields with real announcers – and “incredible” mountains only 70 miles away. Darrell doesn’t have to squint as hard to see Coeur d’Alene’s beauty.

You can contact D.F. “Dave” Oliveria at dfo@cdapress.com.