I SAW YOU
LADY FROM CARDIFF: We had a great chat at Ace Hardware on the South Hill. Wish I had asked for your phone number, so we could chat even more. Let me know if you're interested.
GENEROUS GARLAND MOVIEGOER: We had been waiting in line for half an hour to see Benny & Joon at the Garland Theater for the Sunday show. As we approached the door, a man came out to inform the people in line that the movie was sold out. A woman ahead of us immediately stepped out, looking crestfallen at the news. She was older and had obviously come to the movie alone. There was audible dismay from everyone in line, and we all started looking around to see if anyone could help this woman. You stepped out of line from behind us to run after her down the street telling her you had an extra ticket. She stepped back into line with you, wearing a gracious smile, looking like she had just won the lottery. Your kindness made this woman's day. It's nice to see the spirit of Spokane from the days of Benny & Joon still exists. A few of us teared up, and the gentleman in line ahead of us stated that it was the best thing he'd witnessed all week.
YOU SAW ME
WHAT DID I DO WRONG? At yoga, you yelled at me, saying I snapped at you too much. I apologized profusely and begged you to tell me as I can't imagine snapping at you except the day I started to tell you our grandson's father died and I got emotional. You refused to engage and said never speak to you again, that we're not friends. Please, let's talk and clear the air.
CHEERS
RECOVERED PHONE: Many thanks to the person who recovered my phone at Grocery Outlet downtown on Friday the 21st. You give me faith in humanity.
HUGE THANKS TO SPOKANE POLICE: My '93 Toyota Paseo was stolen on June 16 from the house where I was working as a caregiver. The officer I spoke with was very optimistic, caring and kind. Police recovered it approximately 15 hours later. My car has so much sentimental value as my fiancee had gotten it for me in 2007. He was later diagnosed with terminal cancer and died in 2009. Besides an ambulance, it was the last car he rode in. I can still picture him in the passenger seat sometimes. To say I was devastated by this loss is an understatement. Thank you so very much to the Spokane Police Department for finding it, to All Service Towing for safely towing and storing it, to all the wonderful people on Facebook who tried to help locate it, and to everyone at Preedys Tire and Automotive, who have kept a 30 year old car running like new. I am so grateful!
JEERS
WHAT WOULD YOU WANT DONE? To the white Honda minivan driver that decided it was OK to park so close to my car at My Fresh Basket on Wednesday, July 19, that I could not get into my driver's side door. I asked the store to page you, and you were most inconvenienced that I was not standing by my car (in the hot sun while my cool groceries sat in my hot car) and when we finally connected in the store your replay was "I'm almost done shopping..." Really? Not, maybe, "I'm so sorry to have done this — let me move my car." The store manager walked me out to see if he could help and said there was no way for either of us to get in. It felt really great on my healing, fractured kneecap to have to climb into my car over my center console to leave. What would you hope someone would do for you if this happened to you?
ENFORCEMENT: A big jeers to the city for NOT enforcing the ban on fireworks. They threatened to fine my landlord $500 for having a truck on my lawn, yet this July 5 I went down to the Albi BMX Park parking lot where I saw dozens and dozens of trashed Roman candles and all sorts of other fireworks that are supposedly illegal in our county. Where were the police? This is on the edge of a wooded area, and I think it's total bullshit that the city cannot enforce a rule once a year. Thank God they didn't burn the forest down. I'm all for fireworks. I love them. I love guns too. And I love celebrating our nation's independence, but let's not burn down our neighborhood. JEERS to the city for not enforcing any of their stupid rules except the ones they want to or they can make money off of.
PARTISAN CITY HALL: Wow — it only took the Inlander 37 years to figure out City Hall may be partisan (as it has been since Jim Chase in 1986). Wonder how many years it will take to figure out our Supreme Court, and much of our justice system, is also deeply partisan.
PERSONAL ADS EDITING: Every time I post an ad that references the social challenges of living with an autism spectrum condition, any reference to autism or the word autism itself is edited out. Why? This is an important factor to context in my personal ads as to how my brain works and why I do what I do in regards to whatever or whomever I'm writing an ad about or to. Also sometimes important facts are deleted from my ads that should be kept for clarity. Most of the details are still kept anonymous without deleting so much context. Also, it really sucks to make jokes and have them completely botched and omitted to the point there is no longer a punchline compared to the orginal text.
WHAT ABOUT MEN? Your question on the street — asking what type of Barbie readers would design — appears a bit one-sided. You didn't include any men. Seems backwardly gendered, or were you just afraid of what their answers would be? How silly. As a reader I was curious about the menfolk's thoughts and hoped they'd be featured in the spirit of inclusivity and all. Just saying...
RE: BAD STATE GOVERNMENT: I just don't understand how some of y'all are this dense. Abortions and abortion pills are future Medicaid savings. THINK ABOUT IT: less people, less wear on roads, less mental health services needed, less housing needed, less humans suffering in poverty, less people struggling and having to rely on state services in the future, less future taxes we're paying. That's called a cost SAVINGS! Let women make responsible and realistic choices about their future and what they could financially accomplish by themselves, if they had to. NOBODY wants an abortion. It is a traumatic choice some have to make, when they know they can't take care of another human at this point in time, and the male parent is not reliable or helpful. So forcing them to give birth, usually on state Medicaid, seems like the right decision to all of you? Why are we complaining about our state government helping women and helping our state finances in the future ? I don't even have to know you to know the person who originally wrote this is a privileged white male or a female who has your husband use his brain, instead of you using your own. Disgusting. Find some empathy or get some counseling! Either way, shut up about abortion. You know nothing about it obviously. So quit with your hate speech and blame. Mind your business. Maybe read a book or work on educating yourself about realities that exist outside of your white picket fence.
WONDERFUL BUSINESSES, TERRIBLE LANDLORDS: This jeers goes out to the negligent owners of a certain building on East Main Avenue. I went in with my family last Friday to enjoy some pizza and beers. All was well with our night out until my 10-year-old needed to use the restroom. Not two minutes later and my boy came back to the table complaining that the bathroom "smelled like chemicals" and gave him a headache. I immediately went and talked to the staff at the pizza place, and after apologizing profusely they let me know that there was a homeless man in the restroom doing drugs, that he had been asked to leave twice and that the cops had been called. They also mentioned that the building owners refused to put code-locks on the bathroom doors in fear that it would "exclude a vulnerable population" or some other nonsense. Well now, I'm throwing in my two cents! As a taxpaying mother of two, who loves supporting our wonderful local businesses, it blows my mind to think that a landlord would put the health and safety of their patrons and staff at risk merely to check some PC box. Shame on you!
NO RESPECT FOR PRINCE: Jeers to all the local oldies and classic rock radio DJs in the area who cut and mangle Prince's classics to make them "radio friendly." The brilliant intro of "Let's Go Crazy" gets mashed to potatoes, while songs like "Little Red Corvette," "When Doves Cry" and "Purple Rain" (at the very start of the solo!) are cut short like your favorite Netflix series — they deserve AT LEAST an extra minute. Yet you'll still give full play to "Stairway," "In the Air Tonight," the "Heartbreaker/Living Loving Maid" combo...
REALLY SPOKANE? Loud cars. Big trucks. Tattoos. And graffiti. What more Spokane? ♦
