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The Slice: Just as long as her hair isn’t yellow

Debby Teague’s granddaughter, Lillie, presented her with a bouquet of dandelions.

Teague, of Medical Lake, thanked the little girl, who is about to turn 2. Then she put the dandelions in a vase on the dining table.

Later, as they were about to sit down for a meal, Lillie took a drink of water from the vase.

Said Teague, “I wonder if she will start growing like a weed now?”

“A big difference: There’s a radio commercial for a local casino that includes the words “earn an entry in the drawing.”

But North Idaho’s Brian Burnham swears it sounds like the announcer is saying “earn an injury in the groin.”

Yikes.

That would be an amazingly candid truth-in-advertising metaphor. You know, “Come gamble and take it in the shorts!”

OK, let’s move on.

“Real life as sitcom fodder: The Slice heard from a reader who said her neighbor’s dogs bark at her when she flushes the toilet in her own home.

“Just wondering: As a tribute to Thurston Howell III of “Gilligan’s Island” fame, should all husbands living on Thurston Avenue in Spokane be required to call their wife “Lovey”?

What special rule would your street name suggest?

“Slice answers: Janet Napoles and Janet Culbertson said that in their families the Hawaiian expression “makapiapia” is used to describe the gritty deposits that collect in the eyes during sleep.

“Readers’ tactics for staying awake on long drives include…: Rubbing a piece of ice over your eyelids, occasionally screaming at the top of your lungs, eating sunflower seeds, rolling down the window and eating corn nuts, singing, eating a large bag of popcorn, nibbling at pretzels so that they wind up resembling letters of the alphabet, and occasionally slapping yourself.

“Slice answer: Spokane Valley’s Gary Wentling said that long ago he was effectively kicked out of every bar in a large portion of Vietnam, an injustice he chalks up to a misunderstanding with his commanding officer.

“Pepé Le Pew: A few years ago, Dave Wolfe and his wife entered a North Idaho grocery store and immediately recognized the unmistakable smell of a skunk.

“As we did our shopping, it seemed as if the odor followed us,” he wrote. “The source became clear as we checked out behind a man wearing a shirt advertising his pest control service.”

“Warm-up question: How many Slice readers were teenagers in states where the legal drinking age was 18?

“Today’s Slice question: To what special purpose would you like to see .0001 of 1 percent of local sales tax revenues dedicated?

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