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The Slice: College education gives back for holiday

Sending a couple of kids to college can be a learning experience for parents.

For instance, North Idaho father Jeff Lane now knows that a beer bong can be a useful tool when it comes to getting water into a Christmas tree stand.

Slice answer: Pullman’s Matthew Root saw the question about defunct college football bowl games. “My uncle, Jim Root, played in the 1951 Salad Bowl where on New Year’s Day, Miami University (of Ohio) beat Arizona State, 34-21.”

That matchup, in Phoenix, was one of just five Salad Bowl games ever played.

Root’s uncle, a quarterback enshrined in the Miami athletics hall of fame, went on to play pro football and had a career as a college coach.

Feedback: “I don’t know why it bothers you people in East Washington that we choose to call OUR area North Idaho,” wrote Jim Hirning of Sagle. “I think it is time to give this a rest.”

Re: Behaviors that might be corrected by courteous but direct signs: Janet Lake had an idea. “My sign would be posted beside every highway entering Idaho, beginning about 50 miles south of Lewiston, and from there north to the Canadian border. It would say: ‘Welcome to NORTH IDAHO. Please do not feel a need to try to change this label. We like it.’ ”

Dreaming of a you know what: Colbert’s Vinnie and Barb Beck have a daughter who married a Californian a couple of years ago and she now lives near San Diego. The young couple has been dividing up the holidays between the two sets of parents. Last year, it was a wintry Thanksgiving in Spokane and then a palm trees Christmas in California.

The Becks spoke with their daughter right after Christmas. “She admitted that she really had a meltdown having no snow at all.”

But the young couple will be up here for Christmas this year. And the family hopes the Becks’ son-in-law can experience a white one. Just like the ones he’s never known.

Today’s Slice question: If all the snowmen you have built over the years could be combined into one winter sculpture, how big would it be?

Write The Slice at P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210; call (509) 459-5470; email pault@spokesman.com. Hayley Lockerbie knows that she and her fiancé disagree when it comes to interior lighting concepts, but she fully intends to go ahead with the wedding.

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