Huckleberries: Steinbeck book talk draws national attention

Most of you know that the Coeur d’Alene School Board is considering proposals to send John Steinbeck’s classic “Of Mice and Men” to the B list and to ban all R-rated movies in district schools.

But did you know that the National Coalition Against Censorship in New York City is following the twin controversies very, very closely?

Sarah Hoffman, Youth Free Expression program manager, contacted Huckleberries Online ( www.spokesman.com/ hbo) last week. Her organization advocates against book rating systems and opposes censorship in school curricula.

Hoffman told Huckleberries: “I have to say that I’m very glad to see there’s been a vigorous discussion, and I’m hopeful the board will make the right decision come June.”

The district’s Ad Hoc Curriculum Committee is recommending that “Of Mice and Men” be removed from a required reading list for ninth-graders and placed on an elective, small-group list. Also, the committee wants all R-rated movies banned, even those edited for TV. (For those keeping score at home, 95 percent of my blog readers oppose the recommended demotion of Steinbeck’s novel.)

Prank snafu

Huckleberries has learned that seniors at Coeur d’Alene High, as part of their traditional prank, brought their pets to school Friday – dogs, cats, fish, etc. However, they were met by administrators who told them that their action was against the rules and that they needed to get their animals off-campus pronto or face school discipline. It was a good prank, according to my sources (except that there are a number of students allergic to pets, and the prank was affecting them). The pranksters quietly did an about-face and complied. … There’s love in the air at Kootenai County businesses. On a reader board at Coeur d’Alene’s Appleway Taco Bell: “Let us love you like biscuits and gravy.” On Spokane Street in Post Falls, a White House Restaurant wall proclaims: “You love garlic, we love you.” And at the Texaco station across Spokane Street: “We love you, you love beer, stop in here.” Gimlet-eyed photographer Keith Boe of Post Falls spotted the three signs.

Huckleberries

Poet’s Corner: “Please rest his soul/and keep him Thine,/this good man of/the thin blue line” – The Bard of Sherman Avenue (“A Prayer for Officer Moore”) … And: “Now here it comes and/there it goes:/four hundred thousand/moving toes” – The Bard of Sherman Avenue (“The Bloomsday Transportation Machine”) … Misfire: Sorensen School in Coeur d’Alene received the uber-con Idaho Freedom Foundation’s equivalent of a razzberry last week, for its $4,800 juggling program. IFF awards a “WasteWednesday” honor weekly via Twitter for government waste. Only the program is funded by money raised by parents and support groups. Oops … About the sting at the Coeur d’Alene Casino near Worley that seems to indicate Washington prostitutes are moving into Idaho: One Huckleberries Online wag comments: “I thought the minimum wage is higher in Washington” … Sgt. Jason Mealer found a sweet note on the window of his patrol car during a graveyard shift last week. Returning from a routine business check of the Wal-Mart store, Mealer discovered a card from a 6-year-old boy who said he hoped everyone was OK and then instructed the officer “to be safe.”

Parting shot

More eloquent pens than mine have written about the senseless slaying of Coeur d’Alene police Sgt. Greg Moore. Of all the things written and said this past week, I’ll leave you with a Facebook statement made by former Bonners Ferry Mayor Darrell Kerby: “In a small but meaningful way, we can all honor Officer Moore’s service by honoring Officer Moore’s profession.”

Bingo.