The Slice: Can we get CPS on the line?

I was walking east on the south side of Riverside Avenue downtown.

It was early afternoon and light rain was falling. Hardly anyone was out on the sidewalk.

Coming toward me in the distance was a young woman and a toddler in a pink, hooded coat. They might have just stepped off a bus. As they got closer, I saw that the woman held a phone to her ear.

She paid no attention to the child. And as she walked and talked, the distance between them quickly grew from a little to a lot.

I tried to make eye contact with this woman as we passed, but she was lost in her conversation.

I stopped and watched her continue, waiting for her to check on the kid — who hadn’t even reached me yet. But the young woman never looked back.

By now the am-I-seeing-this gap between them was something like a third of a block. Turning to face the oncoming toddler, I observed that the little girl was getting scared. “Momma,” she said in an anxious tone.

She tried to pick up her pace. But her short legs could go only so fast.

Trying not the startle the kid, I turned and yelled at the woman, who as far as I could tell still hadn’t glanced back.

Nothing. I yelled again. This time, she looked.

In a raised voice I asked if the child belonged to her and pointed at the toddler in pink.

The mother seemed annoyed and gestured for the kid to catch up. She never took the phone from her ear.

Some of us were lucky when it comes to parents.

Some of us weren’t.

Most golf balls lost: “I have no idea what the record will be,” wrote Lloyd Witherow. “But after hitting every ball in my bag into the water with my wife watching, I’m pretty sure she would tell you that I’m right up near the top. We had to walk off the course without any balls to finish the round.”

Today’s Slice question: Who is this area’s most committed Luddite?