You’ve got this guy all wrong

One of South Hill resident Nancy Pomrenke’s last acts before moving to Florida last week was to ask for help in protecting her son’s reputation.

Her boy, 26-year-old Brandon Pomrenke — a 1999 Lewis and Clark High graduate — is in the Army. He is stationed at Fort Hood in Texas. According to his mom, he is excelling as a military photojournalist.

He is not Brandon Pomerinke, 25, who was arrested by Spokane police last week on robbery and kidnapping charges.

The names are similar, but apparently the two young men aren’t.

Pomerinke, the guy booked into jail, once delivered a pizza to the Pomrenke residence. (The similarity of names came up in a porch conversation.) But there’s no family connection.

Nancy Pomrenke knows some people casually acquainted with her family have seen media coverage of the other fellow and have been asking, “What on earth happened to Brandon?”

Well, she wants them to know her Brandon is doing fine. It’s the other guy who has been making news.

She would be tempted to refer to the allegedly troubled Brandon as her boy’s evil twin. But her son actually has a twin brother. And, well, things are confusing enough already.

•Slice answer: Betty Brueske has an adopted daughter. That young woman had a baby. And Brueske accompanied the two of them to several new-baby medical appointments.

“The pediatrician always remarked about the resemblance between grandmother, daughter and baby — particularly the big feet.”

Brueske and her daughter just smiled.

•Spokane as Mayberry: A man Back East sent a package to a woman in Spokane. But he screwed up her home address. For all intents and purposes, the package was undeliverable.

That is, until someone at a post office here recognized the woman’s name and forwarded the package to her at The Spokesman-Review, where she works.

•Help me choose: A grade-school boy I know who is the editor of his student-run newspaper has asked me to contribute a guest column. “Have a field day with it,” he said.

OK, here are the themes I’m considering.

“Girls — the problem that won’t go away.”

“Paste eaters, barfers and de-pantsings — one elementary-school survivor remembers the ‘60s.”

“Recess agonistes.”

“The day the lunchroom stood still.”

“Sex ed 1964: The boys’ room lecture series.”

“Passing notes — instant messaging in the Mesozoic.”

“Going steady: Gateway to madness?”

“The golden age of junk food.”

“Dodgeball, kickball and troll dolls.”

•Today’s Slice question: What skunk story does your family still tell?