The Slice: They’re barking up the right tree

Let’s follow up on Tuesday’s column.

“I work in a hardware store that is frequented by a plumber and his two chocolate labs, Ace and Dusty,” wrote Carol Bending in Moses Lake.

“For about 10 years now, Dusty knows that at the back of the store, up the stairs to my office and in the bottom drawer of a certain file cabinet, is a bag of doggie treats. Always makes my day better.”

To be continued. (More treats tales, and we’ll also hear from readers who think people should leave their dogs at home.)

•Trend spotting: “For a while, it seemed every time I went to the bank I was behind someone in pajama bottoms and slippers,” wrote my colleague Pia Hallenberg Christensen.

“That still happens, but now there’s this: Last time I was waiting in line to cash a check, I heard the distinctive ‘bump bump’ of what sounded like a wooden leg, coming up behind me.”

Arrrrrrrr. Was it a pirate?

“It was not. It was a man with a rather sizable walking stick.”

She now notices at least one tall walking stick every day. “A new Spokane fashion statement?”

Maybe. We could call it the Friar Tuck look. Add a loose-fitting robe and you have the perfect outfit for balance, self-defense and hiding holiday weight gains.

•One week ago: There wasn’t much snow in Spokane Valley. But Denise Marcum saw some kids who didn’t let that stop them from trying to build a snowman.

First they rolled up a base. That used up all the snow in two yards.

So then they started importing snow from other yards. Now, though, they used a landscaping rock as the base.

“Unfortunately, the previously rolled base was too big for them to hoist onto the hybrid base, and it started raining,” wrote Marcum. “Too bad. I would have loved seeing the finished product.”

•Speaking of a week ago: Maggie Fritz mentioned a couple of songs I could have included in my Top 30: “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day” and “I Saw Three Ships Come Sailing In.”

Dick Haugen mentioned John Lennon’s “Happy Christmas (War is Over).”

•Second opinion: Dee James is another Slice reader who went to Mt. Rainier High School over in Des Moines, Wash., back in the ’60s. She wanted to go on record as saying she liked their baby blue and white sports uniforms.

•This date in Slice history (1997): The search for hygienic under-the-mistletoe alternatives.

•Today’s Slice question: What percent of text messages is simply idle chatter?