The Slice This Story May Give ‘Ringing Telephone’ A New Meaning

Sometimes people need more help than you can give them.

Jeff Levitch at Evergreen Jewelry and Loan was on the phone with a woman who said she had just broken up with her husband. She wondered how much she could get for her rings.

Levitch instructed her to hold them up to the phone.

That was supposed to be a joke. But she did it. She held the rings up to the phone. And after a moment, she asked, “Well then, how much?”

No sale: A reader told us about the time her little boy tried to get out of going to school by employing a complaint his older sisters had voiced. He said he had cramps.

Slice answers: Carol Roberts of Libby, Mont., said her mother in Georgia grows the best tomatoes.

Spokane’s Mary Tracy said the best one she ever had was grown by Coeur d’Alene’s Sheran Krall.

And Michael Moreland said Neil Kempen grows the best.

Wally Weishaar of Odessa, Wash., reported that there is a poplar on his family’s ranch which is 230 inches around. “My dad said he first saw the tree about 1910 when he came to this area,” he wrote. “He remembers it because it had a bunch of turkeys roosting on its lower branches.”

Brad and Mary Sulgrove in Clayton, Wash., have a couple of big poplars at their place. One measures 220 inches around. The other has a circumference of 205 inches.

In the matter of summer travels, Derek and Theresa Gerber reported that they saw parts of 30 states.

Ryan Hoke spent time in 23 states. “Idaho is south of Minnesota as far as most East Coasters are concerned,” he wrote.

And Harry Koehler said Pig Out in the Park smells like the Spokane Interstate Fair.

Speaking of the fair, three readers said the midway is one place where plainclothes cops are needed.

Reader feedback: In response to our wisecrack about fraternities, one miffed reader noted that many U.S. presidents belonged to frats. Ahem.

And two women suggested that The Slice was being sexist by asking for bra-shopping stories and not for jockstrap-shopping stories, too.

Yeah, except that we originally got curious about bra-shopping after hearing a story about how professional “fitters” in department stores actually touch customers during the selection process. Last we heard, shopping for jockstraps (or their modern equivalents) does not include that singular experience.

Today’s Slice question: If there were an Olympics-like competition pitting the Spokane area’s doctors against this area’s lawyers, which team would win?

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Drawing

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. A reader wondered what business around here unintentionally displays its “OPEN” sign all night most often.