(The Slice Blog will be back in full swing on Monday. In the meantime, here's something I was thinking about.)

It doesn't happen every time, but often enough.

I'll say something in my column about Inland Northwest lakes and a Crabby Appleton reader will call or write to say that even our area's biggest lakes are nothing size-wise compared to, say, the Great Lakes or some of the big lakes in Canada.

This I already knew.

But square miles aren't everything. I think the reason our lakes don't get respect in certain circles is that they were not a part of any famous battles. At least not any I know about.

After all, the War of 1812 was not partly fought on local bodies of water.

It's worth remembering, though, that there were people here long, long before white settlers. So maybe there were titanic clashes on our lakes that no one today knows anything about.

Or maybe Inland Northwest tribes 500 years ago were wise enough to settle disputes through negotiation.

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