The Slice:This sounds a bit nicer than ‘liars’

A friend has come up with a name for those minor league con artists who sit in minivans outside supermarkets, occasionally emerging to spew sob stories about lost wallets, being out of gas, et cetera.

He calls them “van-handlers.”

“Slice answer: A reader nominated her garden club as having the most dysfunctional board.

“It’s run by three sisters,” she said. “They pick at and fight with each other during meetings and the president thinks it’s hilarious to air family dirty laundry during meetings.”

What fun.

“Change can be good: Surely I’m not the only one who welcomed changing the name of the downtown performing arts theater from The Met to The Bing Crosby.

The Metropolitan Opera in New York is The Met. End of discussion. Anything else using that name just sounds ridiculous.

I understand about the old relationship with Metropolitan Mortgage. The name still made Spokane seem like Hooterville.

“Shedders: “Our daughter, Missie, moved back in with us a few years back and brought her golden retriever, Jack,” wrote Joe and Kathi Meyer. “We love Jack and he is a well-behaved dog. But every time we vacuum we end up with enough hair to make a small Pomeranian.”

Mrs. Hudson, a cat that temporarily boarded with Patricia Garvin and her husband for 15 years, died a few months ago. But Garvin believes the pet, which technically belonged to an adult daughter, deserves posthumous recognition for her astonishing shedding.

Mrs. Hudson had long, gray fur. She produced a lot of it.

“I am still finding it in places in the house I never knew she had visited,” wrote Garvin. “This could also be a sad commentary on my housekeeping.”

“Fill in the blank: Here’s a quote that appeared in a story about a cultural revival in a usually overlooked “flyover” city. It appeared in Sunday’s New York Times.

“I’m relieved that () doesn’t take itself too seriously in any obnoxious way,” he said. “There’s still a touch of the honky-tonk, and there are still some lingering tones of self-deprecation.”

OK, what city is being discussed?

Nope. It’s Omaha.

My point? It’s simple. A lot of this country has much more in common with Spokane than with the nation’s glamour cities.

“Two things about breaking up with someone: 1. Nobody buys that “accidentally” leaving something at his or her place so you’ll have an excuse to go over there.

2. If your ex has a car that looks exactly like a zillion other cars, try not to let yourself get so distracted in traffic that you become a danger to yourself and others.

“Today’s Slice question: Are you an Easter-only churchgoer?