The Slice: What a Wilde discovery

Debra Wilde’s son Elliot is a Spokane educator who was selected to spend a year teaching in our Japanese sister city, Nishinomiya.

After getting there, he was walking through his new school and saw a display of letters and photos sent to Japan by American grade-school children. Spokane grade-school children, in fact.

Now, given the sister cities relationship, that’s not so mind-blowing. But Elliot looked closer.

And there, in one of the prominent photos, was his smiling brother Sam as a fifth-grader at Hamblen Elementary.

“Whaaaaaaaat?” is how Elliot described his reaction in an e-mail to his mom, the former TV anchor.

Now 21, Sam is in the Army and currently serving his second tour of duty in Afghanistan.

And Elliot, 26, has already been asked to extend his stay at the Nishinomiya school where his brother had pen pals about a decade ago.

It really isn’t a small world. But sometimes it sure seems like it is.

From the mouths of Slice readers: “I think we could all benefit from sitting back, shutting off our engine, and watching a train go by.” — Mae Greenwood

Reader challenge: Come up with No. 3.

1. Looff Carrousel. 2. Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist. 3.

A friend’s idea for noting the volcano anniversary next month: “How about if everyone in the Inland Northwest (Empire for oldies) brought their jar of St. Helens ash to a central point and dumped it while we recall those dusty days of yore. Wearing protective masks of course.”

Spokane’s most worn-out bar bet: Might be the one about a horse named Spokane winning the Kentucky Derby in the same year Washington became a state. It’s true.

Today’s Slice question: How did people goof off at work before the Internet?