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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

The Slice Post Falls’ Ax Uncovers New Handle On Life

After we asked about tools that had stayed in the family, we heard from Chuck Blanford of Post Falls.

“I have my late grandfather’s hatchet, given to me by my brother,” he wrote. “He replaced the handle previously, and I replaced the head this past winter. It is in fine shape, and I do believe grandpa would be happy knowing that we are still using his hatchet.”

New handle. New head. But the original ax lives on in spirit.

Slice answers: Pullman’s Lisa Giroux, who is from Florida and moved up here with her husband, said the Inland Northwest’s dryness leaves her skin scaly and her hair brittle and lacking shine.

And Jan Ramer said that the relative lack of humidity in our air leaves her skin so dry that, if she has no paper handy, she can always take out a pen and write a note on the back of her parchment-like hand.

Not everyone lives in an upscale house: The reason so many people seem to enjoy wisecracks about the purported tendency of tornadoes to seek out mobile homes is that most people have utterly no idea how many mobile homes there are out there. And the reason they have no idea is the fact that very few characters on TV shows America’s distorted window on our world - live in mobile homes.

Parental warning: Have you ever seen those toy elephants that have a built-in fan? When turned on, the fan serves to extend the trunk and out shoot tissue paper butterflies and what have you. Well, we heard about a 4-year-old Spokane girl who thought it would be fun to see what would happen if she poured a small bag of flour into the elephant’s trunk and then turned on the fan.

Her mother is still cleaning up the mess.

Next week is Employee Appreciation/Secretaries Week: Which reminds us of a scene in “Sergeant York,” the movie about the World War I hero from the Tennessee backwoods. In it, Gary Cooper, who played Alvin York, starts offering an explanation for why he won’t be able to pay all that’s owed in the time agreed for a plot of land.

The man to whom he’s talking stops him short and delivers a line that could serve as a motto for next week’s observance: “I reckon it’s money that talks the loudest.”

Today’s Slice question: Who has the best Inland Northwest housemate horror stories?

, DataTimes MEMO: The Slice appears Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Write The Slice at P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210; call (509) 459-5470; fax (509) 459-5098. You can tell most long-distance directory assistance operators are nowhere near here just from the way so many of them mispronounce “Spokane.”

The Slice appears Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Write The Slice at P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210; call (509) 459-5470; fax (509) 459-5098. You can tell most long-distance directory assistance operators are nowhere near here just from the way so many of them mispronounce “Spokane.”