Bob Wire Has a Point (It's Under His Cowboy Hat)
Best of Missoula: Here Are Your Corrections, Pt. 2
They wanted your opinion, now I'm giving it to you.By Bob Wire, 7-14-09
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10. Best Car Repair.
Missoula, you know as well as I do that Kent Bros Automotive (currently featuring Lindsey, the first female Kent Brother) doesn’t just repair your car, they also fix your wagon. Shoe-ahh!
11. Best Store for Home Appliances.
I’m making a rare choice of a national chain here, which is a tossup between Sears and Best Buy. Vann’s, the voters’ choice, will never see me darken their doors again, after they yanked all their advertising from NewWest because they disagreed with one of my columns. Can you say censorship?
12. Best Pawn Shop
I haven’t hocked anything since I sold my ex-wife’s classical guitar to buy a ticket to a Beat Farmers show, but I wander through them all the time looking for diamonds in the rough. If you bothered to vote in this category, you should know what a pawn shop truly is. As much as I like Liquid Assets, their stock is largely made up of new items, and “new old stock,” stuff that is unused, but bought at a discount after it sat on a shelf for years. Kevin runs a clean, honest operation, for sure. But I’m going old school: Broadway Pawn and Gun and Montana Sales and Loan on 3rd have my vote (and lots of my money).
13. Best Camera Store
The problem here is the same as with Best Bowling Alley. Why bother? There are only TWO IN TOWN! Oh, and the other camera store? THEY DON’T SELL CAMERAS!
14. Best Jewelry, Best Mountaineering Shop, Best Children’s Clothes, Best Yoga Instructor, etc.
Who cares?
15. Best Place For Kids’ Fun
Hey, I’ve got a couple of kids. They’ve enjoyed Dragon’s Hollow and A Carousel for Missoula (for cryin’ out loud, can we call it the Missoula Carousel yet?) since they were small enough to pick up by the scruff of their neck. But now that they’re 56” tall, they need more stimulation than can be offered by these relatively sedate choices. They need bumper cars. They need mini golf. Water balloon fights. Go-karts. Lazer tag. They need Qwivals. Okay, it’s not technically in Missoula, but let’s not quibble.
16. Best Local Band
If you’re expecting some sour grapes here, you’ll be disappointed. This is one of the rare times when the Best is also the Most Popular. Tom’s a modest, intelligent guy who tries to find the good in everyone. But he’s also talented, opinionated and thoughtful.
Tom Catmull and the Clerics are among the busiest outfits under the Big Sky, what with all the local shows, festivals and fund raisers they play, both fully banded and solo Catmull. But they also offer a huge catalog of original music, which I think deserves a lot of weight when it comes to voting in this category. He’s not just “playing the game”—he’s truly a nice guy who enjoys his life and what he does.
It’s his band that scares me.
[Bob has resumed his sabbatical, but will be posting columns from time to time, when he feels that someone deserves a thumb in the eye.]
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Comments
enjoy the sabbatical....
ps are you really driving around in that ultimately sweet VW micro bus???
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If its any consolation, I got a ration of what comes out of the south end of a north bound horse from my mother because of my comment on your Easter post. I can't boycott her, but my old man won't shop there any more because he got HOSED MAJOR by the Helena branch. There are at least two of ya buyin' yer flat screens somewhere else....