The Slice: Chocolate does a body good

The little girl looked exhausted.

She had just finished skating. She was slumped on a bench. Her expression suggested it might be a while before she would be ready to take to the ice again.

I hadn’t seen her out on the rink. But chances are there were some wobbly moments of slip-sliding panic and plenty of hard falls.

Hey, being a little kid isn’t all cartoons and somersaults, you know.

Then she said something that made me want to give her a hug.

“I need some chocolate milk,” she told the woman with her.

It sounded exactly like a 5-year-old’s version of “I really need a drink.”

I hope they went straight to a dairy bar and ordered her a double.

I know what I would’ve said if I could have gone with them.

“Keep ‘em coming, bartender. This kid’s had a hard day. It’s on me.”

Following up: Remember last Saturday’s column and the woman who bet her husband that he’s the only person around here who brushes his teeth while reclined on the bed?

Well, several dozen readers weighed in with opinions. It was not an especially quirk-tolerant response pool. Every one of them said the bed-brusher has to be nuts.

Nicknames: “Our boss is referred to as Casper,” wrote one Slice reader. “… we never see him.”

Well, at least he’s a friendly ghost. It could be worse.

Nearly right: Wayne Wakkinen up in Bonners Ferry, Idaho, caught a glimpse of the Spokane slogan on TV the other night. But he misread what was on the screen.

Instead of “Near Nature, Near Perfect,” he thought it said, “Near Mature, Near Perfect.”

Before he figured out the confusion, Wakkinen thought the line was a “Refreshingly honest self-evaluation.”

Now that would be something. Just imagine.

“Pretty Good, But We’ve Got Problems.”

“Northwest Smugness and Second-City Defensiveness — Come Taste the Difference.”

“Waiting to Take Off Since 1974.”

Today’s “How I bumped my head” story: “We were getting ready for vacation and airing out our travel trailer,” wrote Linda O’Barr of Coeur d’Alene. “My husband went behind it and ran into the corner of an open window and had to have three stitches.”

A few weeks later, they found themselves airing it again. “This time my son went behind the trailer and ran into the window, requiring three stitches.”

Today’s Slice question: Would Inland Northwest sports fans tolerate play-by-play broadcasters who aren’t homers?