The Slice: Looks like Aunt Bev to us

After consulting with page designer Ralph Walter – phone number (509) 459-5471 – I am declaring Cade McConnachie and Clare League to be the winners of The Slice’s Refrigerator Art contest.

Thanks to all who entered.

Cade, a 6-year-old Coeur d’Alene resident, created a narrative piece he called “My Dog Jake’s Dream.” It depicts the family pet climbing the walls of a castle and avoiding a red-tongued dragon to reach some doggy treats.

Clare, a 20-month-old Spokane modern art stylist, employed bold brush strokes to produce an abstract expressionist portrait of her Aunt Bev.

•Slice answer: Peggy Arendt said her husband, Phil, would be tough to beat when it comes to identifying the musical themes to old TV shows in five seconds or less. “He amazes and amuses his friends,” she wrote.

But she added that Phil freely admits that this ability makes him vulnerable to charges that his was a misspent youth.

•Fast-forwarding to fall: According to Consumer Reports, a loaded backpack should weigh no more than 10 to 20 percent of a child’s total weight. So if your kid tips the scales at 70 pounds, well, you can do the math.

But here’s a question. If children in our neck of the woods are more accustomed to hiking and backpacking during the summer than kids in many parts of the country, does that mean they can schlep heavier packs?

•Speaking of backpacks: Has their prevalence put an end to boys offering to carry girls’ books home from school?

I mean, young Duhkotah can’t very well say, “Madison, as you can see, I am already burdened with a spine-bending rucksack. But I would be pleased to tether your load to my tottering torso if you would agree to look favorably on my flirtatious attentions.”

Never work. Besides, Madison would just shoot back, “I’m very proud of being a woman, Dr. Brewster. I can carry my own pack, thank you very much. I said ‘Good day,’ sir.”

•Memories of long-gone ballparks: “My uncle, who lost his legs in the invasion of Normandy in 1944, used to run a newsstand outside Ebbets Field and was on a first-name basis with many of the great (Brooklyn) Dodger players of the time,” wrote Terry Hontz of Spokane. “I was but a kid of 9 in 1957 (the Dodgers’ last season in New York), but I have early memories of going over to Ebbets Field in the early ’50s to visit my uncle while he was running his stand.”

•Today’s Slice question: Did your wedding have its own Web site?