The Slice: The Slice: Tuesday talks won’t leave you red-faced

The encouraging thing about facing the day today, as opposed to Monday, is that most of the sunburn conversations are already out of the way.

Let’s move on.

“”Marmot” as a verb: “Having watched marmots awkwardly run back to cover when I approach them while walking the dogs, I submit that the verb ‘to marmot’ refers to a fiftysomething-year-old man trying to hurry across an intersection before the light changes.” — Hollis Bredeweg

“To have no interest in more than your immediate surroundings. The inability to see past your own front yard.” – Craig Heimbigner

And Val Hughes suggested “marmot” might be similar to “ferret,” as in “to ferret out the truth,” only it would imply a more passive, less energetic approach to solving a mystery, et cetera.

“Day-care follies: When Carol LeDuc’s grandson was 4, there was this other little boy whose aggressive antics made life miserable for both the kids and the staff at this one nursery school.

So someone at the center came up with a brilliant plan. Each day, first thing, they would have LeDuc’s grandson – who was about the same size as the troublemaker – wrestle and spar with the problem kid until the day-care demon got tired.

“Needless to say, we found a new school the next day,” said LeDuc.

“Just wondering: Has allergy season started for you?

“Life in Spokane: So I was just about to step out the door and head over to my mother’s for dinner. A neighbor called. She told me she would be out of town for a couple of days.

I volunteered to collect her mail and newspapers. She thanked me and reported that she had just learned a house nearby had been broken into. I could tell this made her uneasy about being away from home.

After I got over to my mom’s, a guy delivering groceries arrived there. He apologized for being late. It seems that while he had been inside a store picking up orders, someone stole his van.

Maybe the burglars needed it.

“In the matter of cyclists and people in cars peacefully co-existing: Gonzaga University student Alexis Curtright said it’s all relative. She recently spent six months in Brazil. And she pronounced Spokane to be “heaven” when it comes to sharing the road.

“Buying a chain saw doesn’t make you an arborist: Sheri Lattimore wishes more people knew what they were doing when it comes to “pruning.”

“Our city is filled with the mangled survivors of these misguided efforts,” she wrote.

“Today’s Slice question: If you made a movie about your last days of high school, what would you call it?