Good deeds, and an untimely death

Whitefish is a pacesetter once again, this time with a rescue hovercraft that can skim over ice and water, hover in location and rotate a full 360 degrees.

Jim and Lisa Stack and Mike and Marie Shaw deserve a round of thanks for donating the unique watercraft that will be used by the Whitefish Fire Department for rescues on Whitefish Lake. The Stacks guided the project through to completion, and many contractors pitched in to get a storage building constructed for the hovercraft. It's the type of cooperation and generosity that Whitefish is becoming famous for.

More importantly, though, is the fact that rescue time will be dramatically swifter with the hovercraft ready and waiting at City Beach. The April drowning of a Canadian man is the most recent reminder of the slim odds of surviving the icy water that time of year. We expect that sooner or later, Whitefish's hovercraft will save lives.

A big round of kudos is due to all those people and businesses who pitched in to undo the damage inflicted by vandals at Conrad Memorial Cemetery.

More than 70 gravestones were toppled recently in a senseless crime spree. Originally, surviving families would have been responsible for paying to replace the headstones.

That expense and worry has been lifted from those families, however, thanks to some old-fashioned community volunteerism.

The combined efforts of mortuary, monument and sign businesses, plus some dedicated individuals, has helped cemetery staffers lift gravestones back into place at a minimum cost.

This was a great way to right a wrong.

The death of Steve "Crocodile Hunter" Irwin earlier this week probably should not have come as a shock to anyone. Irwin, after all, had made a career out of taking risks with dangerous animals.

Nonetheless, the entire world WAS shocked to learn of Irwin's nearly immediate death after a stingray's barb penetrated his chest and his heart. He just seemed so certain of his own ability to prevail that he convinced the rest of us, too.

And despite his on-screen shenanigans as "The Crocodile Hunter," by all accounts he was a dedicated conservationist and someone who cared deeply about the natural world.

So we take note of his death, as many no doubt have already, by repeating his trademark catchphrase, which seems to sum up the excitement and unpredictability of life in one deliciciously silly word: "Crikey!"