The Slice: Allergy levels are true signs of spring’s approach

Thanks for the calls, but….

Robins are not a reliable harbinger of spring.

You can see them around here pretty much all year. But that doesn’t mean the ones you saw in December are the ones you might spot today, said Madonna Luers of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. The robins you see today might have come from the Tri-Cities or be on their way to Colville.

If you really want to know when spring is near, just keep tabs on my histamine levels.

Slice answers: “When I was growing up in Spokane, a horn honk meant ‘Hi!’ ” wrote Claudia Childress.

Not anymore.

Now it tends to suggest something unprintable. Its intent can be prodding, accusatory or punitive. And sometimes it’s just nutcake time.

The other day in traffic, another car pulled out of a side street right in front of Cynthia van Dissel. She had to swerve to miss it. “Then the driver honked, and the passenger flipped me the bird,” she wrote.

Sometimes it doesn’t take any imagination to see why some people want to live way out in the country, away from everybody.

Fast and slippery: Tara Leininger in Metaline Falls, Wash., was scanning an events calendar in the newspaper when she came across a puzzling item: “Single Christian Speed Skating.”

She looked again. “Of course, what I had really read was ‘Single Christian Speed Dating.’ “

Neither are Olympic events.

Slice answer: Spokane Valley’s Rebecca Cook will submit seven different payroll forms with her tax return. Theater positions, teaching gigs and retail jobs are all part of the mix. “Life in the arts is certainly full of W-2s,” she said.

Slice readers’ time-management tips: “Do what can be done fastest first.” — Anne Thomas

“After I have been on the computer for 15 minutes, I get up and do something else.” — Sheila Jacobson

“Just don’t go in to work.” — Jack Thompson

Re: the paper’s new look: “I was quite dismayed to read that so many readers dissed the new S-R format,” wrote Robin Kohler. “I naively thought just the opposite would happen. Personally, I like the new looks of the morning paper. It is both more readable (great fonts) and easier to handle.”

What’s alternative about your lifestyle: “We do not watch television,” wrote Chuck Huber of Cheney. “We subversively spend our evenings doing things like talking to each other or engaging in creative hobbies.”

Today’s Slice question: How do those daredevils who are romantically involved with more than one person handle Valentine’s Day?