The Slice: Words run counter to typical manners

There’s this one counter clerk I try to avoid.

He’s never done anything terrible, mind you. I just don’t care for his personality.

Nevertheless, I sometimes wind up dealing with him.

On the most recent occasion, he confirmed his lack of likability.

He got on a jag of badmouthing the town where he grew up and the Midwest in general. Maybe he thought this was appealing. But afterward, I found myself thinking about how un-Spokane-like that had been.

Oh, sure. We’re capable of some serious Northwest smugness here. Still, with the exception of certain diversity-resenting ex-Californians, I seldom hear transplants truly bash the places where they lived before.

Partly, I suspect, this is just good manners. But I also think that living in a place that isn’t as glamorous as Seattle or Portland gives us a certain perspective.

We know there are people of good will everywhere, even in areas that aren’t trendy.

And, of course, there are a few we could do without.

•Reader challenge: What mammoth bombers, once stationed at Fairchild Air Force Base, were nicknamed “The Peacemaker”?

No, it’s not the B-52. When I say big, I mean big.

•Everybody’s a critic: The Slice heard about a 2-year-old beagle named Ringo who is usually pretty good but recently chewed the heck out of a library book.

Maybe he didn’t like the title: “Sick Puppy,” by Carl Hiassen.

•Product placement: Charlie Lee said “Spokane” could be a brand of chewing tobacco.

•But what if, instead of a product, we named a concept after Spokane: Michal Frye has an idea.

“In the same genre as a Pyrrhic victory, a ‘Spokane strategy’ would be any project which is put off indefinitely due to the reasoning that it keeps becoming more expensive as it continues to be postponed due to its cost.”

•This date in Slice history (1999): Someone apparently unfamiliar with local fauna was overheard chattering about the “giant squirrels” scampering around outside a restaurant on the Spokane River.

Uh, those are called marmots.

•Speaking of rodentia: You know how the word “squirrel” can be used to describe the act of storing, hiding or hoarding? Well, what would “marmot” mean if used as a verb?

•Slice answer (what rendered you speechless): “As a Cub Scout, a tour of the Armour slaughter/packing plant on East Trent.” — Keith Miles, Shoreline, Wash.

•Today’s Slice question: How many people who work at Gonzaga or Whitworth disdain the schools’ religious underpinnings (but not so much that they have any qualms about depositing their paychecks)?