LEMONS to ticket buying services that require you to remember a password and log in every time you purchase a ticket. Sometimes you buy a ticket once every year or two and you can’t remember, so you figure you’ll beat the system and register fresh. But they recognize your email and won’t let you. By the time you go through all the steps to retrieve your password your time has run out. A way to beat this is to walk slowly away from your computer and drive to the ticket office. Voila! You save a ton in ticket fees and get a physical ticket. But was inconveniencing their clientele that much really their goal?

LILACS to the City of Coeur d’Alene for saving and restoring our area’s other major historic carousel. Built in 1922, the carousel was one of the featured attractions at Playland Pier until 1974, the year the famous Nat Park carousel was reopened for the first time since 1968 at Expo ’74. After it was mothballed for years, John and Pat Foote purchased it and donated it to the city, and now we are all about to see it for the first time in 44 years at the beautiful new downtown park on the waterfront. For many of us it doesn’t seem terribly long ago that the beautiful grassy area with the artificial creek running through it next to the beach in downtown CDA was once a carnival with great rides and a wonderful arcade that seemed like stepping into a time warp, even for a kid like me. I was addicted to their baseball arcade game and have never seen one since.

LILACS to the Spokane Park Board for shelving the decision to cover the iconic U.S. Pavilion in Riverfront Park. I say leave it bare. Even the Eiffel Tower was originally meant to be covered, but its bare beauty shone through so strikingly that no one wanted it covered. My opinion and a dollar will buy you a stale cup of coffee, but it’s good that they want to consider the cost and how long the new cover would last before needing possibly expensive repairs.

LEMONS to the local McDonald’s franchisor for tearing down the only original McDonald’s in our region, possibly the only one in the Northwest, to make way for a new design. The sign may be getting old, but it’s as if they don’t know their own history. McDonald’s aficionados from all over the world seek out the rapidly disappearing classic golden arches. Even more rare now is the single-arched sign. We  hope the sign is kept and restored somewhere in town. When built in 1959, it was only the fifth double arched sign built in the state. It’s certainly not the first McDonald’s by any means, but just try getting into the first Starbucks ever built, in Pike Place Market, to see what a tourist draw it is.

LEMONS to cashiers ask whether you need your change. Obviously the change becomes a tip, and some of us don’t feel the need to tip cashiers who do nothing but ring up purchases, and who presumably are already being paid by the hour. Further, we find it increasingly disturbing how many fast food restaurants are asking if we’d like to donate a dollar to a charity. We’re fine with that as long as it’s fully disclosed that the restaurant is also donating, so it isn’t all just a ploy to get a customer back for a second visit with a coupon. Then there are the stores that ask you to round up for charity. I usually say yes, but Plenti cards now have an option where if you accidentally say yes to the wrong question, every transaction from then on gets rounded up. Sometimes, if my purchase is for $2.03, I don’t necessarily want to round up to $3, especially when I’m just buying a quick pop.