The Slice: Wonder if Mars will have Venus envy

I usually handle this myself.

But this year, I’m letting readers in on the action.

Your assignment? Rank our solar system’s planets, offering brief explanations for your picks. Use whatever criteria you want.

I’ll share the results when we get closer to Earth Day next week.

“Slice answer (music during memorable moments): This happened in Yellowstone Park in the early ‘80s.

“I had given my husband wrong directions and he had to turn our motor home around on a dime,” wrote Marge Wade. “Tension was running very high, so not a word was spoken.”

Wade slipped a cassette into the player. And the first song was “You are the Sunshine of My Life.”

“We both cracked up,” she recalled.

“Just wondering: Is Spokane novelist Jess Walter’s new column in Out There going to attract readers who never paid attention to that local monthly before?

“Road cheer: Judith Gilmore’s husband recently had a problem with the turn signals on his truck. So he resorted to old-school hand signals to indicate his driving intentions.

And several people waved back.

“Inviting confusion: “My wife Gail has a friend whose cousin got married,” wrote Cheney’s Jerry Hilton. “The wedding invitation included an RSVP phone number that was misprinted. It was a number for phone sex.”

“Nobody asked me: But if I had to guess who in the Spokane news media could turn in the best Bloomsday time, I’d pick KHQ’s Ana Cabrera. (She ran cross country at WSU.)

“Slice answer (What happened after years and years to suddenly improve your opinion of someone?): “I grew up a little myself,” wrote Forrest Schuck.

“Bee loser: North Idaho’s Amy Larson saw a sign nailed to a tree that said “Say No to Imigration!”

“Yes, with one m,” wrote Larson. “I think we should say Yes to spelling.”

“Slice answer (noisy early risers): Judy Robertson’s father recently died at the age of 96.

But she remembers long ago when he worked for a farmer. “There was no alarm clock in the house,” she wrote.

Instead her father had a record player rigged with a timer. And each morning, really early, it played an Enrico Caruso record.

Morning after morning after morning.

“My bedroom was upstairs directly above the darn record player,” said Robertson.

They played Caruso at her father’s funeral.

“Today’s Slice question: With what special doll accessories would a limited edition “Spokane Barbie” come?