HUCKLEBERRIES: Popular author fired a CDA blank

Most people call it a “silencer” — the muzzle device that minimizes the sound of a gunshot. But Dwight Van Horn knows better.

The proper term, says the National Rifle Association director from Hayden, is “suppressor” because it doesn’t silence anything.

Novelist John Sandford opted for the word “silencer” in his thriller that Kristine Wold read on vacation. And he went one step further in describing a scene between a female assassin and a gun supplier.

For an asking price of $2,000 — because “good ones are hard to get,” the supplier “came up with a purple velvet bag that had once contained a bottle of Scotch.”

Sandford continues: “She took the bag, slipped the silencer out. It was a Coeur d’Alene, all right; the absolutely faultless blued finish was the signature. Somewhere, a master machinist was doing artwork. She screwed the silencer onto one of the nines and flipped it out to arm’s length to test the balance.”

Pleased, she said, “Good.”

Dwight Van Horn, an avid reader of Sandford novels, didn’t read that fictional exchange. He would have remembered it. You see, he has never heard of a “Coeur d’Alene” suppressor. And after checking further this week, he still comes up with the same conclusion: “Nothing.”

“I like Sandford’s books,” Van Horn said, “but it sounds like he was using literary license in this case.”

Still, “Coeur d’Alene silencer,” er, “suppressor” has a nice ring to it.

Happy Birthday

And a happy 130th birthday to you — Coeur d’Alene Press. Actually, we’ll have to wait until Sunday before slicing cake and scooping ice cream. On Feb. 20, 1892, Editor Joseph T. Scott — who would be known as “J.T.” to his local readers — printed the first edition of the weekly Coeur d’Alene Press from a rented room in the Wiggett Building. Sixty years later, Publisher Burl Hagadone would note in an anniversary story, that the population of Kootenai County (which then also included Benewah, Bonner and Boundary counties) was 4,108 when the premier edition of the Press “hit the streets.” Scott had come west 10 years before to work for newspapers in Glendive, Mont., and Dickenson, N.D. After he published the Press on Fridays, Scott would take several days off and row his boat on Lake Coeur d’Alene to a favorite spot. Then, reported the Feb. 20, 1952, edition of the Press, “he would fish and perhaps collect his thoughts for the next editorial.” In 1906, Scott converted the Press to a daily. He died on Nov. 28, 1915.

Huckleberries

• Poet’s Corner: An eccentric old fellow named Fred/often catches small perch on a thread./He likes them for grilling/and finds them quite filling/because each one is chock full of lead — The Bard of Sherman Avenue (“Lake CDA Fisherman”).

• On the front page of the first Coeur d’Alene Press, Editor Scott announced: “The citizens can help us in making the Press a newsy sheet if they make it a point to remember items of interest and furnish them to our reporter. Marriages, births, personal mention, such as the arrival and departure of friends and in fact everything of a newsy nature, is what we want.”

• Anna Heisey of Coeur d’Alene was trailing a white electric car on U.S. 95 in Hayden when she noticed the vanity plate: “GAS LOL.” And that’s what you call Alternative Energy Humor.

• On Valentine’s Day 2005, Erin Daniel, then a pregnant journalism adviser, was teaching her sixth period class at Sandpoint High when her water broke. Editor Chris Ginzton of the SHS Cedar Post rushed to Erin’s rescue, and, despite turning the wrong way down a street, drove her to the hospital. Chris kept asking, “Can I help? Should I be helping you breathe or something?” Erin and Emma Marie are still doing fine 17 years later — and counting.

• By the way, if you like local history notes in this column, you can find more of them on my D.F. Oliveria Facebook page. Feel free to send a friend request.

Parting Shot

The kindness of a stranger has renewed Shannon Sunseri’s faith in the human race. On Sunday, the Hayden woman’s daughter, Krystiana, left something behind in the parking lot at Coeur d’Alene’s Dollar Tree — her wallet. You can imagine how Krystiana felt. Said mother Shannon: “For an almost 17-year-old who works and helps her single mom and grandparents on a daily basis, this was a huge thing for her.”

Huckleberries won’t keep you in suspense. A good Samaritan found the wallet and gave it to a Dollar Tree employee. Krystiana and her wallet were reunited Monday. And the world is a little better today.

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D.F. (Dave) Oliveria can be contacted at dfo@cdapress.com.