The Slice: Why wouldn’t you want a goldfish in a plastic bag?

Let’s start with a multiple-choice question.

Why are you planning/not planning to go to the fair?

A) You always go. B) You think you’re too cool. C) The kids like seeing the livestock and hearing lies about the animals’ life expectancy. D) Too expensive. E) It’s fun to come home smelling of corndogs. F) Not one thing there interests you. G) Other.

•Saturday challenge: You are about to read a dozen song titles. Half are Foreigner songs. (Some remnant of that band will appear locally later this month, partly sponsored by AARP. Seriously.) So the other half of the songs, naturally, are not Foreigner hits. Your job is to identify the Foreigner songs. The answer can be found down below my contact info.

1. “Feels Like the First Time.” 2. “Goodbye Stranger.” 3. “Please Let Me Wonder.” 4. “Cold as Ice.” 5. “Long, Long Way from Home.” 6. “Turn Up the Radio.” 7. “Hot Blooded.” 8. “Double Vision.” 9. “Me and You and a Dog Named Boo.” 10. “Rock You Like a Hurricane.” 11. “Only the Young.” 12. “Waiting For a Girl Like You.”

•Just wondering: What does it say about Spokane that the movies “Billy Jack” and “Strictly Ballroom” both enjoyed unusually long runs here?

•Life with a common name: “I was one of three customers in a small computer-repair shop,” wrote Slice reader Linda Peterson. “When the technician called out, ‘Linda Peterson,’ two of us stepped up to the counter.”

•Finish this sentence: “The closer we get to autumn, the more I feel the urge to head to…

A) Hillyard. B) Green Bluff. C) Airway Heights. D) Tensed. E) The Channeled Scablands. F) Other.

•Ridpath memories: “The ladies room at Ankeny’s was very exotic, in black and gold, and the ceiling was smoked-glass mirror,” wrote Dana Freeborn. “Remember when that was in style? You could sit on the toilet and look up and see down into the stall next to you. The evening I noticed this, I was wearing a jumpsuit — remember those? — and to use the toilet I was practically naked.”

Good times.

Estellene Shaver’s daughter, Tami, was a secretary at the Ridpath years ago. “She invited my mother and I to lunch at the famous restaurant at the top of the hotel.”

Shaver’s mom loved it. “She talked about it for years after. It’s a memory I cherish.”

•Today’s Slice question: Should Spokane’s grandest houses of worship rent their facilities for weddings/funerals to people who have virtually no connection to the church in question?

A) Yes. Whatever it takes to balance the budget. B) No. It’s just wrong. C) Maybe. Just how big is that check going to be? D) Maybe not. Isn’t there already enough hypocrisy in our society? E) Other.