Huckleberry Hound has chased me down

I'm going through interrogation today. I have to drive to Coeur d'Alene to endure a half hour's worth of intense questioning, to which in some cases, I may be wise to simply plead the Fifth Amendment and avoid incriminating myself or others. Take, for example, the following question:

What did you and/or your fellow teachers do to Larry Spencer when he was your student to turn him into such a rabid, foaming anti-public school attack pomeranian?

Now, what's a person to say? Larry was, indeed, my student for a time, and Larry's now known as the constituent with deep pockets who has sent out several mass mailings to convince voters to vote "no" on issues he felt would spell doom for taxpayers.

Now, I get along with Larry just fine, but I unequivocally and categorically (isn't that nice politician lingo?) inflicted no Pavlovian tactics on him---ever. Those must've come later in his academic journey. When Larry sat in my English class as a sophomore in high school, we worried more about Word Clues sentences, stabbings of Roman dictators and turning in assignments. Besides, I thought of him as more of a contented Lab back in those days.

And, then there's the question about the "moldy-cheese layer" of Sandpoint. Now, I've been around Sandpoint a long, long time, but I cannot speak with great authority on the "moldy cheese layer" in our community unless it deals with someone's dirty socks. Apparently, it's a term for young unwed mothers, but I've never quite heard of that sociological segment of society referred to in such ways. So, I'll approach that one carefully.

Finally, someone wants to know what I think about showing the movie "Brokeback Mountain" to a class of 12-year-olds----which apparently happened in a classroom somewhere in this nation---probably geology class, cuz those gorgeous mountains sure did have some interesting faults.

Talk about being on the hotseat. I told my friend Ann that if I were that teacher, I would have checked with the principal first and if, by some stretch of the imagination, it progressed from there, I'd send home the obligatory notes to Mom and Dad or to whoever's minding the children. Then, I'd call in sick, have them hire a substitute and blame it all on the sub.

These educational situations are on the minds of folks who were asked to submit questions for me during a half-hour's guest appearance on "Huckleberries Gone Wireless" with my Blogfather Dave Oliveria. There were others---about my thoughts on home school or whether science and math get too much emphasis over other disciplines.

Never dreamed that writing a book about the lessons I learned as a teacher for 33 years would elicit such demand for my modest amounts of knowledge. Believe me, folks, an educational expert/pundit I'm not. A storyteller I am. So, it should be interesting.

Dave tells me I'll sit in his office from 10:30-11 a.m. while he sits with his laptop at the ready, asks me questions and then types the answers. Every five minutes or so, he'll upload the answers to the "Huckleberries Online" blog, so readers can see what the results of this relatively new style of public discussion. The text-only interview will appear on the Huckleberries blog for the rest of the day.

So, if you're interested, tune in to (http://www.spokesmanreview.com/blogs/hbo/) between 10:30-11 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time today. And, tell your friends. It could turn out to be mighty scary or a heckuva lot of fun-----as is any new frontier we embrace.

Now, before heading to Coeur d'Alene, I've got to go off and do some sleuthing about the "moldy cheese layer." Any suggestions? Anyone? Anyone?