CHEERS
SPOCAN LOVE: Kudos to our warm Spokane audience who turned out and demonstrated gratitude and love for Bruce Cockburn at the Bing Monday night 4/28. BC is 80 now! He walked on stage severely bent over, with two canes. White hair and long beard... After he settled in and said thank you - he gave one of the most memorable, prophetic, and heartwarming concerts I've ever attended. His guitar work and voice were as beautiful as ever and he still has a message we need to hear.SIGNED, SEALED, DELIGHTFUL: Cheers to the USPS employees at the Rowan location. Every time I walk in, it feels less like a chore and more like stepping into a fun little adventure. Immaculate vibes — always friendly, upbeat, and ready to help. Thanks for making the process of sending mail as fun as it should be. Keep being awesome. You've got fans out here.
DAVID'S PIZZA SATURDAY: This place is the best. Thank you to the server who waited on us while we waited for our pizza. You are awesome and you deserve a raise. You are perfect at your job, and we appreciated it. Thank you for making our experience a memorable one. Peace!
STAY THE COURSE: Be assured, it's good you got ditched by your "friend." Probably one who claims to "live and let live." (Only applicable to them.) Your "value" to them no longer pays dividends. You aren't "supply." There are billions of lovely people on the planet who would be honored to be your friend. We are a few of many amongst you. Reach out. Let people "hate" on you for your beliefs and positions. They are not worthy of the panic and chaos your "friend" wants to fuel. Leave it in your past with the good times to carry you forward to even better. You...will be just fine. You ARE just fine. You've "got this." Haters gonna Hate. Don't spend time "there." Spring. Renewal.
SPOKESMAN-REVIEW: Cheers to the dedicated reporters at the Spokesman-Review. I do appreciate the honest reporting and the balanced approach in your well written articles. I also appreciate the humor in your replies to the incessant FaceBook trolls who jump at any opportunity to claim biased reporting. Especially when you publish a factual article on the insanity of the current Republican (Trumpiblican) Party. Keep up the great work and the humor when responding to the trolls.
JEERS
PLASTIC BAG BAN: Since Washington state instituted a "plastic bag ban" in 2021, at least one study has shown that there is no difference in the amount of plastic discarded before the ban and since the ban. This is thought to be due to several different reasons. One of these is that people are continuing to discard the newer heavier bags just as they did the previous "single use" bags. Another reason is that the plastic is thicker and therefore creates more waste than the previous bags. So, starting in January, the bag thickness will increase again, and the price will go up from 8 cents to 12 cents in an attempt to reduce the amount of waste that is generated by plastic bags. Good job Washington State Legislature! You can't balance a budget, but at least you got the plastic bag problem solved.CUT DOWN THE BRADFORD PEARS: Now that those disgusting white trees have the audacity to bloom again, we all have to suffer. There is nothing worse than the olfactory assault that occurs every time you try to go outside when those white flowers blossom. I can only imagine the conversation city planners had. "These trees are trying to attract flies with the smell of rotting meat, let's put them on every street in the city!" Were they born without a nose? Without a conscious? When I think of all the hard work put into making Sprague beautiful and safe to walk along, only to be completely wasted by these malodorous monstrosities it makes me almost as sick to my stomach as the fetid stench of the trees themselves. Ohio, Pennsylvania, and South Carolina have already woken up to make these invasive, cheap, and gross trees illegal, and it's time Spokane followed suit. Cut down every one and put a real tree in its spot. Cheap is a bad look, and a worse smell.
RE: CAR TABS: BREAKING: Spokane teeters on the brink of collapse... not from crime, poverty, or rising rent—but from expired car tabs. Thankfully, we have a self-appointed squad of basement-dwelling badge fantasizers ready to slap the "LOSER" label on anyone who didn't cough up $$$ to fund the DMV's toner budget. Because nothing screams "community leadership" like weaponizing traffic bureaucracy against people who might be—brace yourself—busy surviving real life. But please, do tell us more about how your moral compass points due sticker. Spoiler alert: Shouting "law and order!" at Becky's 2009 Ford Focus with expired tags doesn't make you a hero—it makes you a hall monitor with delusions of grandeur. Pro tip: If your idea of civic duty is shaming working-class people over registration fees, you're not a law-abiding patriot—you're just cosplaying authority because your HOA won't give you real power. Go take your complaints to the City Council. Meanwhile, "losers" like me will keep driving on. THX
RE: TESLA HATER: I see your finger and raise you a duel. Your taste in vulgarity: ironic; your derangement syndrome: spoon fed. You're as edgy as a pair of rusty scissors: tetanus. They've fleeced you of your mind and you're rolling out the agitprop.
HOMELESS SHELTER: So here we go again, city putting another shelter in the North Central-Emerson Garfield area, without a warning to the people of the area, and as for this church, are they getting a tax break or is the city paying them? Was this the only church in the area to give in to the city? The mayor says she wants to have shelters scattered around the city, what about the South Hill, Five Mile, Indian Trail, Kendall Yards or the Mayor neighborhood which should have been first, to have shelters our area already have homeless problems in the area, SPD is to busy worrying about who is stealing from Walmart, instead of patrolling the neighborhood.
WRONG CHOICE: WSU President Elizabeth Cantwell decided to not join over 550 colleges and universities in a letter to Trump encouraging him to back off on "the unprecedented governmental overreach and political interference now endangering American higher education." President Cantwell needs to learn that WSU is in Washington State. WSU is not in Idaho. Less than 30 days on the job and you make a big blunder. Don't let the door hit you in the rear on your way out.
I DON'T CARE: I don't care that you are a single parent, you can barely afford to feed your kids and keep your lights on. I don't care that you're on a fixed income, just got diagnosed with cancer, and can barely afford your meds. If you can't afford to renew your tabs you are a LOSER. May God have mercy on your pathetic soul.
"THESE WALKS ARE NOT ABOUT OUTREACH." Re: Gavin Cooley's column. "These walks aren't about outreach," says Gavin Cooley. What does this mean? *** When Gavin and his posse finish their walk, they will go to a warm restaurant, where they will enjoy breakfast. Gavin and his posse will not pay for their breakfast. Gavin, it seems, is worthy of a free cup of hot coffee after he's out looking at people on the streets in the cold dawn hours. The people Gavin and his posse look at on the street? They are not worthy of a free cup of hot coffee from Gavin while he is out looking at them in the cold dawn hours. *** It means that, for Gavin Cooley, hospitality is transactional. It means Gavin Cooley is the wrong man for a leadership role as Spokane is trying to learn to think and, thus, live hospitably with each other in this community which belongs either to none of us or it belongs to all of us.
TO THE FANCY STORE DOWNTOWN: Jeers to the fancy store downtown. // That locked the skywalk to the library and made us all frown. // "Move downtown!" They said, "It'll be a treat!" // Now my disabled spouse gets to stumble in the street. // Did taxpayer dollars fund that safe, elevated walk? // Now it looms empty, secured with a lock. // I'm sure the store has reasons for all they had to do. // But isn't it really just because a homeless person might walk through?
RE: CAR TABS: You made some good points. The meager fine for outdated tabs is almost the cost of buying them. With nearly non-existent street patrols, why would struggling people comply? We're all suffering the soaring inflation. Why not make tabs cost WAY lower and the fine for not buying them WAY higher? Help being a law abiding citizen more cost effective. There's a wealth of drivers with expired tabs, broken equipment, breaking speeding and other laws, stolen vehicles, transporting who knows what. Easy marks, we all see them everyday, continuing more prevalent. Squeezing revenue for our roads from these scofflaws may be difficult (or pointless) but for all the folks trying to do the right thing, it would be nice to believe the city has our backs and is trying also.
CHEERS AND JEERS BLOOMSDAY: Cheers to the organizers of Bloomsday 2025 who once again pulled off a great event. Jeers to the people who can't follow directions and make it hazardous for others on the course. The directions for which side of the road to walk is clear for anyone who can follow directions. For those of you who come to a complete stop in the middle of the street to do something with your phone, do you ever think about anyone around you or are they just supposed to avoid colliding with you? For those non-runners or non-walkers who used Bloomsday to protest on the sidelines instead of cheering on runners, good job! I heard the president gets notified by his closest advisers whenever people protest him at Bloomsday. Where is Spokane, again? ♦
