The Slice: It’s what you would call a bit of needling

When interviewing Christmas trees, it is bad manners to ask, “Where do you see yourself in five years?”

Not-so-hot car heaters: “Back in ’76, I was stationed at Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota, where I owned an MGB convertible,” wrote Hank Greer. “In the harsh winter, it took ten minutes of idling just to get the frozen fan to break loose and start blowing cold air. Cold weather gear was essential in that car. But the two-week summer in August was awesome.”

Gee whiz: The Slice had asked if our area has any littering idiosyncrasies. And Lorri Stonehocker, who has lived in several parts of the country, said she has not observed bottles of urine along the freeway anywhere else – at least not the numbers one sees here.

“They’re dead, Jim”: Kenyon Fields said those deflated blow-up Christmas figures you see in front yards remind him of a “Star Trek” episode in which some unfortunates got zapped and only their crumpled uniforms remained.

Key distinction: Debbie McMurtery’s 4-year-old grandson, Jamie, explained the difference between superheroes and regular heroes.

Superheroes can fly, he said. Regular heroes just walk or use a pogo stick.

Playing catch with the freezer: Megan Gray, sometimes known at the Dairy Queen because of her prodigious production of breast milk, stores some of the yield in the freezer and, well, I’ll let her tell it.

“My older step-kids open the door for ice cream and out come packets of my milk,” she wrote. “The therapy they’ll need!”

And you thought you kept the heat low at your place: Deer Park’s Brian Goldade said his family puts the butter in the refrigerator when they want to soften it up.

Today’s Slice question: What percentage of the people around here talk only to those who share their politics and, as a result, come to believe that almost everyone agrees with them?