LILACS to the City and the construction workers who finished the Monroe Street renovation ahead of schedule and exceeded expectations on its beauty and utility. It bothered me that there were so many naysayers among the businesses on the street who issued some pretty nasty claims toward the city, but most of them have come around and are cheerfully putting the travail behind them. All’s well that ends well.

LEMONS to restaurants and events that don’t use common sense about asking for IDs from people who are obviously two or three times older than 21. I’m long past the age of feeling it’s a compliment when I get carded; rather I feel it’s an exercise in foolish consistency (the hobgoblin of little minds, as the saying goes). I won’t mention the establishments that use common sense on this, as I don’t want to get them in trouble, yet I’m so tempted to mention the last couple of restaurants where this occurred, but why give them any publicity? 

LILACS to the Lime company for placing bicycles and scooters all over downtown Spokane. It’s great seeing these fun people movers all over the city streets, and I plan to use them fairly frequently to get around myself. Living in the Paulsen Penthouse, it will be freeing to ride instead of walking to Kendall Yards or the Spokane Club, especially when the weather cools, although I suppose hauling groceries by scooter might be a challenge. I’ve enjoyed watching even middle aged businessmen jetting around on scooters—although one I witnessed yesterday seemed a bit tentative about his abilities, leading me to think that we all need to be a little more careful now.

LEMONS to scooter riders who ride on the sidewalks instead of in bike lanes. I’m assuming they are considered in league with bicycles as far as the law goes, so correct me if I’m wrong, but I was almost run over by a scooter driver who whizzed passed me and then cut right in front of me. The scooters don’t make much noise so they can be a little disarming to a pedestrian.

LEMONADE to the Spokane Park Board for voting to remove the kiddie rides in Riverfront Park. In a previous issue, we lemoned the rides for cheapening the entrance to the park. Although they can be fun and festive, they don’t fit in with the park’s planned aesthetics; perhaps they could be considered on the north bank instead. Taking a beautiful park plan and then trashing it is like serving champagne in a dixie cup.

LILACS to Dr. Travis Denton at Washington State University’s Spokane campus for developing a drug that makes smokers lose their urge to light up. The drug replaces the nicotine and other harmful things in tobacco with a harmless drug that emulates the same effects. I’ve known alcoholics and smokers who quit smoking and drinking. Most say that smoking was the harder vice to vanquish. Now let’s get to work on the opioid crisis.

LEMONS to those who do not RSVP. In our events business we occasionally see a bride and groom who’ve paid for a great deal of food find half the chairs vacant. It’s sad that so many don’t live up to their promises. On another note, on Facebook, we understand why there’s a button to push if you’re merely “Interested” in an event so you can take a while to think it over, but as soon as you know you’re going, it would be polite to change your status to “Going.”