The Slice: Let’s hope she doesn’t toss that mink coat on the floor

A colleague announced that his 17-year-old daughter had landed a job as a coat-check girl at an upscale Spokane establishment.

“Which is ironic,” he said. “Because she never hangs anything up at home.”

Here and there: A Twin Cities suburb, West Saint Paul, has as its slogan “We’re Close to it All.”

So how far away from “Nature” is that? Near?

Anyway, if communities are going to use proximity as the basis for a motto, additional possibilities come to mind. But I’ll let readers go first.

What would you suggest as a slogan for your town or neighborhood?

Slice answer: Ken Stout saw the question about starting a new pursuit and wanting the approval of someone who excelled at it.

When Stout was about 10, an older boy named Ben moved in next door. Ben was brilliant at constructing, painting and customizing model cars.

Stout took up this hobby and wanted to impress his neighbor, but struggled at first. “After a few years I approached his level of skill, but by then he had moved on to real cars.”

Once upon a time: The Slice asked about seeing members of the 1980 “Miracle on Ice” team in person. And Mary Bird of Sagle, Idaho, can say she’s seen them all.

Bird was a student at the University of Minnesota from 1978-1982, and a member of the women’s hockey team (a club sport at that time). So she encountered the eventual Gopher contingent on that Olympic team — including coach Herb Brooks — lots of times. Plus, Colorado Springs was her hometown, and she watched some early Olympic team tryouts there in 1979.

At an on-campus ceremony after the Lake Placid games, she got to hold and examine defenseman Mike Ramsey’s gold medal.

Warm-up question: What brand of beer did your grandfather drink?

Today’s Slice question: How many thousands of hours have you spent watching kids’ sports?