Slice Answers Annex
The Slice had asked readers if there is a town somewhere that shares their first name.
Sue Hille said yes. "Sioux City, Iowa."
Dan Lambert noted that there is a Danville, Kentucky. And he had a suggestion. "If Eastern Washington ever was able to secede from the oppression of the West Side of the state, it could be called Danorado."
Does that make you hear John Denver? You know, "High...in Danorado."
And while I had asked about first names, Linda and Chuck Ellis reported on having visited Ellis, Kansas, on their way to Branson, Missouri. "Pulling into this small but beautiful town, we saw Ellis Avenue, Ellis High School, Ellis Post Office, Ellis Town Hall and Ellis Police Department. Most everything had Ellis connected to it. We even chatted with the Ellis chief of police. What a fun day."
Karen Mobley sent this email on Monday.
"Your column this morning reminded me of the time last summer when my old cats, Ed and Mary, decided to try to kill a wild turkey in the backyard.
"First I saw Ed doing his low to the ground stalking maneuver and then Mary doing the same. I couldn't tell what they were going for because I was looking out the upstairs window without my glasses on. About the time they leap, I'm thinking 'Wow, that is the biggest quail on the planet!'
"They hit it full force, one, then the other. A melee ensued. Two white cats hanging from the turkey for dear life. Turkey blustering about making a hideous gasping, clucking sound.
"Eventually, the cats gave up and got under the juniper. I finally put my glasses on and the turkey was last seen walking slowly out of the yard. To my knowledge, the turkey never returned."
In other Slice feedback, Jim Christensen would name a band "Tastes Like Cardboard."
When Jennifer Plumb was a student at Ferris High School in the mid-1980s, she and several friends decided to start a band and call it Oblivious Dreadnaught. One problem. "None of us sang or played instruments. Well, clarinet and viola, but who's kidding who?"
Then there was this from Matt Daniel.
"A couple friends and I decided to have a mid-30s life crisis and start a band. We started by choosing a name: White Van Speaker Scam (after the shysters who waylay you in the parking lot to sell their 'overstock' speakers on the sly). I even designed our first album cover.
"Of course, we had little musical experience outside one member who was in marching band, and we didn't know what kind of music we wanted to play. The band split up shortly after its creation, citing creative differences -- before we actually had to learn to play any instruments.
"Maybe we'll get together in 20 years and have a reunion tour."
John Hancock shared his potato salad story.
"The first time I made potato salad in my mother's kitchen, circa 1980, she freaked out about my countercultural additives: mustard, dill relish celery seed, vinegar and Worcestershire (probably just to bait her) sauce. Departure from her Betty Crocker was apostasy.
"It took another 20 years of Fourth of July picnic for her to admit that my version was 'not so bad after all.'"
Spike Cunningham had another potato salad story.
"Sunday Lunch is a program that has been offering a meal every week at St. Ann's Church for people in the area and transients, since 1983. Periodically we served potato salad.
"Some years ago, Larry Stuckart was one of the chief cooks. Without fail, during preparation, he passed along the secret to good salad with words from his father: 'Potato salad is best the next day...after the dog has slept on it.' He kept those words alive."
In the matter of saying "ice tea" or "iced tea," Jerry Hilton had a different twist.
"A friend of ours once worked for a landscaping company in Calgary. He worked for a new immigrant Romanian named Geno who had not yet learned all the rules of the English language. On those hot summer days they drank a lot of iced tea. Except, Geno pronounced it 'ice-ed' tea.
"For the last 40 years Gail and I always call it ice-ed tea."
Luis Montano had a folk medicine story.
"The tobacco stamp on small sacks of Bull Durham was carefully removed, re-wetted and placed on forehead. Sure cure for headaches. I learned this from my grandmother (she was a tough chick who rolled her own)."
And while it probably doesn't count as folk medicine, Joan Matlack shared her mother's cure for everything. "Take a nice, hot bath."
Often, it worked.
Una Zeck sent a photo of a cat named Stanley sticking his face (eyes closed) up under a lamp shade to absorb heat from the light. Do other cats do that?
And Margaret Broxson, an English war bride, recalled June 5, 1944, the night before D-Day.
She and her husband-to-be, a turret gunner on an American bomber, were walking down a street after seeing a movie. A military police Jeep pulled over and the guys inside hauled Margaret's fiance away.
It turns out that though he had a legitimate pass to be away from his base, all leaves had been cancelled.
It would not be long before Margaret knew why.
