LILACS to Leroy Eadie, director of parks and recreation, for pushing to bring the huge vinyl butterflies in Riverfront Park back. One is still standing, at the north end, without the vinyl and another has the frame, but is packed away. Their bright, beautiful, iconic, slightly kitschy wings have been clipped, but the artist, Eric Grohe, is consulting with the city on how best to restore these guardians of the gates; well, at least two out of four of them. Donate at spokaneparksfoundation.org.

LILACS to the many artists and patrons who supported the Bozzi Gallery over the past five years. With road construction, the loss of Olive Garden and now the sale of the building, it’s time to move on to other adventures in art. Thank you to gallerists Daniel Boatsman and Melinda Melvin for working hard to keep it going, and to all who joined us on First Fridays for a sip of wine, some snacks from Taste Café, and a chance to hobnob with the brilliant people some of us business types don’t often get to meet. Now we are looking forward to new iterations of the gallery: art events held at Chateau Rive. Stay posted, and artists, keep creating.

LILACS to school districts which took reasonable approaches to the high school walkouts designed to mourn the dead in the Florida shooting and to make a statement about gun laws. Some schools sanctioned it and called it an assembly while others took a hard-nosed approach and cited the children with violations. Which approach is likely to teach a lasting lesson in tolerance and practical thinking?

RIP Toys R Us, Five Mile Pizza, Wolf Creek Lodge, Milford’s, Patit Cellars and other businesses that have had to shut down in the last month or so. As new restaurants and bars open each month, and as online shopping continues to grow, casualties simply must occur. Still, we hate saying goodbye to old friends. If you have a favorite store, restaurant or watering hole, please stop in rather than taking them for granted.

LEMONS to restaurants in Restaurant Week that had a bizarre policy of only allowing patrons to order from the Restaurant Week menu if the entire table ordered from it—something about wanting to bring all the food out at the same time. How likely are we to get two people, let alone four, to agree on anything? Seems incredibly shortsighted, and possibly the corollary of other side of the item above; businesses shouldn’t take patrons for granted, either. P.S. otherwise, we had a fantastic meal, but one in our group is unlikely to return.

LILACS to City Councilman Breean Beggs, who is proposing bringing a public broadband network to Spokane. It means laying a lot of underground fiber, but it could help Spokane jump light years ahead of other cities in terms of technology and access to fast internet, and breaking the stranglehold that one large cable company now has would be a great step in the right direction.

LILACS to the Washington Senate Committee that is proposing a bill to outlaw bringing untrained service animals into stores and restaurants. More and more people are bringing their pets into the stores under the guise of “service,” but oftentimes, the animals are simply their pets. The bill would also allow only dogs and miniature horses to pass muster as service animals. Turtles and peacocks, for example, simply cannot be trained to the levels the Americans with Disabilities Act require.