Say It Ain't So, Potato:
I've been touched -- more than just in the head -- by the response I've received from readers re: Hot Potatoes. Or the lack thereof for the forseeable future. Here's a sampling of the incoming e-mail (more letters on the jump):
Hi Mr. O,
I have enjoyed many a chuckle reading your irreverent snippets at the northidahoness and whowithalls in our community. I be tuning into your blog for sure.. tho, I get sooo distracted on the Internet, I really prefer print media. Thanks for enlightening me and validating my suspicions about the goings on around here.
Jeanette Dunn
Premier Publishing
(Publisher of the Cuisine de Coeur d'Alene food and entertainment guide to North Idaho)
DFO: Jeanette, thanks for the kind remarks. If anything, the blog gives me an opportunity to reconnect with my community in ways that Hot Potatoes never did. Dunno how this thing's going to evolve. But I wouldn't be surprised to see a Hot Potatoes' reprise of some sort on line.
Hello Dave... can't tell you how happy I was to open the paper this morning. When I read in yesterday's (Sunday's) paper that it was your last column.. I was so depressed! You are clever, funny, intertaining and insightful with your colum and I love it!
I'll miss you on Sunday but I hope you will continue to write on Monday morning... it sets the day/week just right!
Diane Sullivan
DFO: As Bogie said to Bacall in Casablanca, we'll always have Huckleberries. Or was that Paris? Thank you, Diane, for your very nice note.
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Dave,
We were sad to read in this morning's issue of the _S-R_ that it was the last edition of Hot Potatoes. Was the column retired at your request?
Will we be able to read your commentary online at "No Holds Barred?"
Cheers,
Kim and Beth Long
DFO: I really needed to get a life. And the column was holding me back from doing so. I'll miss it. Occasionally. But I wanted to pursue some other things. As far as my commentary goes ... I have just begun to write. Keep watching this spot.
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David:
I mourn the passing of Hot Potatoes. It had become my custom upon moving to Minnesota to read the column prior to heading to church on Sunday morning. While I do not think the absence of Hot Potatoes will affect my churchgoing or my spirituality, it will become yet another erstwhile tie to home that goes missing.
See you in the Blog,
Gordon Crow
Ex-Idaho state senator
DFO: Only my mother and sisters call me David. Ee-yew.
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Say it ain't so Spud-boss. Who is left to deflate the Horses ah, fools that abound among us? Who is left to invent new words? What will Webster do for new material? What is the world coming too? Who will the idiots blame for their sorry lives? This Tater grieves...
Herb Huseland
Bayview
DFO: I know how you feel. I'm going through withdrawals without any oafish-als to harangue for Wednesday.
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Two things:
1) I'm said to hear Hot Potatoes are finally going to be mashed. Oh well, as is life. And your blogging seems to garner more readers than HP, as long as Huckleberries stays put I'll be content. (My question is, what else do you do for the SR besides columns? DFO: 3 editorials per week, blog and, soon, a full-length column.)
2) I would like to lodge my objection to the possible charging for online access to the Spokesman Review. I'm a poor college student and online is the only way I get my news these days. To charge for it is just plain wrong in my opinion.
Henry Johnston
UI student
DFO: For now, the current version of the on-line paper continues to be free, unless you want our fancy now product that replicates the print version.
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Always like Hot Potatoes. Didn't always agree but always read it with pleasure.
Sorry to see it go.
priestlakeboy@cs.com
DFO: Huckleberries'll always be there, if you need a fix. As far as agreeing with me goes ... I didn't always agree with me after I read my mashed ramblings the next morning. I guess we all have a little John Kerry in us. (In fact, I don't even agree with what I wrote in the previous sentence.)
