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For the week of Dec. 22, 1999 through Dec. 28, 1999

Dear Santa


We know, Santa, that you’ve been making your list and checking it twice. We know we’re late with our requests, but we can’t do anything without a deadline staring us in the face. We know the Reindeer Express will have difficulty wrapping and delivering on time, but we also know anything is possible for you and your elves.

We have racked our brains, made a dozen lists and have finally come up with a few requests for some special people for whom its really difficult to shop.

We don’t want anyone to be left out of the big doings this last Christmas of the century.

Here’s our list for you. Don’t worry if the gifts are a day or two late—these folks won’t mind—really.

For the Idaho Dept. of Transportation: Some scale-sized drawings of a proposed 5-lane highway through the Wood River Valley.

For the Blaine County Commissioners: A state-of-the-art computer system that accepts voice input and commands so they can send notices of public meetings in time for newspaper publication to let people know what they’re up to. When you deliver it, Santa, please take away the papyrus scrolls, the quill pens and the pine pitch they use to tack the scrolls on the courthouse door as "public notice."

For the Hailey City Council: An olive branch to use to renew its friendship with its closest neighbor, Bellevue.

For the Bellevue City Council: A pair of boxing gloves and lessons from the Muhammad Ali school of boxing—just in case Hailey doesn’t drop its bully routine.

For the Blaine County Recreation District: Street hockey, street soccer and stick ball equipment, a new sprinkler and a drive-thru teen center to make up for all the stuff it didn’t get in its bond issue.

For St. Luke’s Hospital: A dose of amnesia so it will forget the lights it has insisted on for its signature cross on its new facility.

For the Ketchum City Council: An inflatable wading pool with water piped in from Guyer Hot Springs.

For the Sun Valley Ketchum Chamber of Commerce: A big belly laugh and the good sense to use it when critics say the valley doesn’t need tourism any more.

For Sun Valley City Council Members: A scale model of the universe, a globe of the planet, a map of the continent, a map of Idaho, and a map of the Wood River Valley—for reference when they act like they’re living on another planet.

For the Blaine County Housing Authority: A custom Monopoly game with an "affordable housing" card and instructions on how to play the game.

For Idaho’s senators and Congressmen: Enrollment in a class called "The 20th Century 101" so they can see what they missed.

For the Blue Ribbon Coalition—advocates for off-road motorized vehicles: A guided cross-country ski trip.

For the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Army Corps of Engineers, the Northwest Power Planning Council, the Port of Lewiston and Idaho Gov. Dirk Kempthorne: Stuffed salmon for their offices to remind them of what they’re killing with every delay in implementing a species recovery program.

Santa, we know we’ve left out a few people, but we know you and the elves will come up with some special gifts for them, too.

Happy Holidays, Santa. We’ll have the hot cocoa waiting.

 

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