The Slice Nothing Like A Little Geography To Improve Conversation Skills

Don’t ask this guy about Bosnia.

“While shopping in a department store at NorthTown recently, I overhead the following exchange between two older women shoppers, with obvious German accents, and a young male sales clerk,” wrote Donna Clellen.

CLERK: Are you guys from the South?

SHOPPERS: No, from Germany.

CLERK: Oh. That’s like in Africa, isn’t it?

Clellen added that, at that point, she wandered off in amazement.

States of fitness: Of all 50 states, Washington has the second highest percentage of people who belong to health clubs, according to statistics compiled by the International Health, Racquet and Sportsclub Association. Idaho ranks 39th.

What state is No. 1? Wyoming.

Maybe the kid was just expressing stage fright: “My father often told this ‘funniest Christmas pageant’ story,” wrote Coeur d’Alene’s Linda Lewis. “Five small boys, each carrying one of the five letters to spell the greeting ‘H-E-L-L-O’, skipped out on stage for the introduction to the Christmas pageant. In his exuberance, letter ‘O’ ran to the head of the line. (‘O-H-E-L-L’) The audience rolled in the aisles.”

Slice answer: We’re declaring that Karla Litzenberger has the most urban-feeling apartment around here. She lives in the Buena Vista, on South Cedar. And she made her case by sending us a photograph of her two cats, Pooh Pooh and Little Joe, sitting in a window and looking out at downtown Spokane.

The early show: “Earlier this year, while spending the night at the Spokane Club, I was awakened at 4:30 a.m. with music coming in my open window,” wrote Anne Long. “Someone on the street, very accomplished, was playing the harmonica. It was beautiful! I would have enjoyed listening to a much longer concert, even at 4:30 in the morning.”

Warm-up question: What’s the most unexpected present you’ve received from a really young child?

Today’s Slice question: For what should Spokane win an award?

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Drawing

MEMO: The Slice appears Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Write The Slice at P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210; call (509) 459-5470; fax (509) 459-5098.