The Slice: She blew the woof off the place

Dozens of Slice readers told about the inspirations for their pets’ names.

Let’s start with a story from Patricia Holland.

“When I was young, I named our new little dachshund puppy, Tammy,” she wrote. “Debbie Reynolds’ 1957 movie, ‘Tammy and the Bachelor’ was one of my favorites as a teenager.”

OK, so far so good.

“I recently got to see Debbie Reynolds perform here in Spokane. I got to sit in the front row.”

When the concert was over, the celebrated performer reached out to shake Holland’s hand.

“I was so flustered that all I could think of saying was, ‘I named my puppy, Tammy.’ ”

So what did Ms. Reynolds think of that?

“She looked a bit stunned but smiled and said, ‘That’s nice.’

“I still can’t believe I said that.”

Death in the comics, continued: Marilee Goldthorpe, Ruthie Larson and other readers recalled how the passing of Lisa the cancer patient in “Funky Winkerbean” got to them.

“It was like losing a friend,” said Peggy Luke.

And 90-year-old Bertha Van Ryn still remembers when it was falsely rumored that Skeezix in “Gasoline Alley” was going to die in World War II.

Slice answer: Leilani Batters and several other readers said that if Elvis were alive and living in our area, he most likely would be found at “The lake.”

If TV’s “Cash Cab” were set in Spokane: “The car would probably get caught in the middle of an OxyContin robbery and get jacked,” wrote Tim Price.

Lan Hellie suggested that none of the contestants would know the answers to the trivia questions.

Slice answer: Mary Jo Moore has a daughter whose birthday always coincided with the Kootenai County Fair. When that child turned 4, the family went to the fair and the little girl thought it was swell that so many people turned out to help celebrate her birthday.

Today’s Slice question: How would you describe the impact hot weather has on this area’s already relaxed dress code?