Jack Black is kind of like my Bigfoot. I hear he’s spotted everywhere – Tonasket of course, but even at the Molson Midsummer Festival a few years back. Everyone asked me did I seem him, but I guess I just missed him.

This week our intrepid Tonasket reporter Brent Baker has a front page article on the actor/musician. When I told a friend from Seattle, he asked why I wasn’t doing the interview. I just said well, that’s what I’ve got Brent for – he’s our Mr. Tonasket. But, said Geoff, you could have told him about the Tumbleweed International Film Festival. I should have known better. Geoff and friend Mo are the folks that bring the Tumbleweed to Oroville every year and are gearing up for the fourth annual festival the first Thursday, Friday and Saturday of August. Maybe next year Black could enter one of the short online movies he mentioned to Brent in his article.

I guess I could have told Geoff that Black, who’s dad Tom belongs to the same fly fishing club as I (that is if I ever catch up my dues), was as elusive to me as the famous Bigfoot of the northwest. Or maybe Ogopogo would have been a better answer. Whenever my younger brothers and I would travel to Penticton and points north with our folks, dad would tell us to keep a lookout for Ogopogo in Lake Okanagan – never saw him/her as well. And a trip to Scotland and Loch Ness at age 15 didn’t reveal Nessie to me either.

Unfortunately, or fortunately, I’ve been compared to both Bigfoot and Ogopogo. Canadian friends at college likened me to the sea monster because of my swimming style (or lack thereof) and my motorcycle club, made up of mostly Canadians, nicknamed me Bigfoot when I rode my motorcycle with a walking cast on my size 15 foot after surgery. I see a pattern developing here – is it me or just the Canadian sense of humor (or is that humour)?

Going back to a theme from last week’s editorial when we talked about all the excitement being generated on Facebook over Oroville schools cutting down the trees at the elementary – that’s nothing compared to the comments and likes we’ve gotten on Facebook since Brent posted a photo of Black hamming it up at the Tonasket Pizza Company. Most of the comments are positive, but there were a few “Where’s Tonaskets” as well as a few “What’s he doing in Tonaskets.” If Black’s stepmom Linda, the volunteer coordinator at the Tonasket visitor information center, has anything to do with it no one will be asking “Where’s Tonasket.” Maybe having Black on our Facebook page and in this week’s issue will also go a long way towards getting the word out about what a great community Tonasket is.

As for me, I guess I’ll have to settle for seeing Black in movies, or in our newspaper, because I certainly keep missing him when he visits. Like Bigfoot and Ogopogo I know he exists, people keeping telling me so.