LEMONS to those trying to make political hay out of the Straub/Cotton/Goodspeed debacle at the police and park departments. In hindsight, Mayor Condon would probably certainly have handled things differently, but this doesn’t rise to the level of a tar and feathering. Cotton wanted this to remain private and the mayor merely complied with Cotton’s wishes, almost certainly believing any kind of sexual harassment was limited to her. To read much more into this story is to make it into a witch hunt. The moral of the story, of course, is no matter how inconvenient, always follow established protocol.

LILACS to the General Store for staying open during the windstorm power outages, even though their own power was out. Candles and flashlights to the rescue! A lot of people really needed to obtain lighting and heating supplies, including generators. The General Store limited purchases to three per person to prevent price gouging, and they did it all without marking the price up on a single item. We hope by now they’ve made up what they lost, since candles just can’t hold a candle to coats, pricewise. Let’s all vow to be more prepared next time.

LEMONS to meddlers who insist we should be calling the Idaho panhandle “Northern Idaho.” We’ll admit that “North Idaho” sounds like a separate state, but it’s an idiosyncrasy we all know and love. And if it’s good enough for North Idaho College, it’s good enough for us!

LILACS to the cities of Spokane and Spokane Valley for simplifying the process for new restaurants to get licensed and permitted. It’s a daunting process to fill out every form and application and pay every permit, but putting everything in one place will help new restaurateurs concentrate on what they do best: bring ingus more wonderful culinary experiences.

LEMONS to the state Department of Corrections for allowing a computer error that they knew about for three years persist, which allowed 3,200 inmates to be released earlier than their sentencing dictated, some by a few days, others up to two years. If those prisoners have gone on to commit crimes while they should have been serving their sentence, shame on the state for endangering others. We understand that errors happen; the real crime was in not fixing the error when it was first brought to their attention by a family who was notified that the criminal who victimized them was getting out a lot earlier than they knew his sentence was supposed to be.

LEMONS to those who expect Muslims to root out and reign in extremists within their religion, while giving a complete pass to Christian extremists. You can’t have it both ways, and it should be obvious by now that radical extremists of any stripe are usually bad news.

LILACS to the Spokesman-Review for administering and promoting the Christmas Bureau fund that tallies up about half a million dollars a year for the needy so that the less fortunate can have a wonderful Christmas. It takes up a great deal of editorial space on a daily basis, plus,it requires the hiring of a writer each year, as well as people who must open the mail and prepare the deposits. It’s not a little thing, and it’s impacted countless people over the past half century or so.

LILACS to Winter Glow in Riverfront Park for creating outstanding Christmas lighting displays at no charge to the public. We’d also like to single out Summit Hydraulics for their gorgeous Christmas tree lights on East Trent.