In a similar, but maybe unrelated, vein, I think it's only fair NOT to
generalize that Moscow's culinary choices are completely gone with the
closing of one popular hangout on Friendship Square. Not too far from the
square, there are still several welcoming and delicious restaurants on Main
Street that are definitely NOT just "fast-food" factories, one more on
Washington, and two on Sixth Street. We should be thankful for the
opportunities these offer to sample alternative cuisine and in several cases
to get to know hosts, families, and cooks from other lifestyles and
cultures. The restaurant business is not an easy one, and all the
proprietors of the restaurants I refer to work terribly hard and take pride
in their service, menus, and the unique ambiances they have created. While
the same could be said for the proprietors of the dissembled "hotel"
businesses, I believe we are bordering on disrespect and insensitivity not
to look around at those restaurant owners who are hanging in there, thank
them for adding interest and choices to the Main Street culture, and take
advantage as often as we can of the new (or tried and true) tastes and
hospitality they offer. K. W.
At 08:12 PM 12/11/97 -0800, Susan Palmer wrote:
>Visionaries,
>
>I'm going to go out on a limb here, and pick up on a thread that has
>come and gone...the Daily News. Counter to popular opinion, I
>think that the Daily News is the best I have seen it in my 10 1/2 years
>in Moscow. Although I am confident that it has a tremendous
>amount to do with the leadership, it also has much to do with the
>staff--their morale, talent, commitment, and so forth. Those things,
>from my vantage point, are the highest they have been (overall) in a
>decade. Specifically, I find the stories by Dan Nailen and Dustin
>Solberg, among others, to be intelligent and well-written. Murf's
>Biz Bits and Vera's Ink are a joy to read. The photographs by
>Geoff Crimmins and Steve Martine are stunning. And the letters
>FROM the editor, Mark Trahant, are worth reading...twice.
>
>I don't count how many stories are about WSU vs. UI, or Pullman
>vs. Moscow. I read a story if it grabs me, and more of them grab
>me now than in the last 10 years.
>
>When arrest reports in the past were printed, they fed my perverse
>curiosity about local gossip (I'm not proud of that), rather than
>inform me about whether the prosecutor was pursuing cases
>adequately.
>
>My memory of the unmistakably Nazi billboard on Jackson (Anglo
>boy posed with a "Heil" arm extended) advertising the DN that
>read, "We deliver to discriminating doors everywhere," is still fresh.
>And that was BEFORE the Napoleonic Frisch arrived on the scene.
>Although I'm not a psychologist, the mega-control and paranoia he
>exhibited was certainly diagnosable. (I had a birds eye view on the
>advisory board.)
>
>My mother, who only recently moved to the Palouse, has a mini-
>conniption every time she sees a typo or blundered headline. I try to
>remind her that this is a farm-team newspaper, likening it to our
>hometown baseball team, the Toledo Mud Hens. Just as the Mud
>Hens will never look like the Detroit Tigers or Cincinnati Reds (our
>teams back when--I'm just starting to warm up to the Mariners), the
>Daily News will never be the New York Times. And like the Mud
>Hens players, when someone notices how good they
>are...POOF...they're gone!
>
>On the list server, I've noted an ample amount of bashing of the
>Daily News. I believe that it comes from one (or more) of three
>sources. First, this community is so accustomed to dissing the
>"Daily Snooze" that it is, in the Fiddler on the Roof sense,
>TRADITION! We take for granted that the local rag must be
>bad...it always has been, according to local legend. Second, as
>social scientists attest, revolutions occur NOT when things are at
>their worst, but when there are rising expectations and hope! I think
>that Mark Trahant has given this community both, and
>consequently, the unified response is...we want more NOW! The
>third has to do with change. As my screen saver still reads, "If you
>want the times to change, you have to change with the times." That
>is far easier said than done, and I am confident that Trahant's
>philosophy and vision challenge and change traditional journalism.
>
>To conclude, although I understand that Hagadone may have
>backed out of purchasing this paper, the threat to losing what we
>have is still there. Butch Alford has new competition to contend
>with. (And I haven't even begun to express my kudos to the LMT,
>which I also subscribe to!)
>
>I know the bottom line is the $$$$. No amount of discourse is
>going to salvage the ownership issue. So...Butch, I'll contribute my
>measly $200 bonus pay to your effort to buy these papers, provided
>that its current relative autonomy is preserved.
>
>I know this post is inconsistent with my customary critical persona.
>I haven't lost my mind completely. I DO think "Jumble," as well as
>"Sally Forth" would enhance the Daily News considerably.
>
>Best,
>Susan
>
>
>*-----------------------------------------------------------------*
> Susan Palmer Phone: 208-885-6616
> Women's Resource Specialist FAX: 208-885-6285
> for Education Outreach, Gender Equity, and Research
> Women's Center e-mail: susanp@uidaho.edu
> [Lecturer, Sociology Dept.]
> University of Idaho
> Moscow, Idaho 83844-1064
> "People convinced against their will,
> hold the same opinion still."
>*-----------------------------------------------------------------*
>
>
>