The Slice: Not the stinking rich, but close

If you are having breakfast, you might want to skip this first item.

A Spokane Teachers Credit Union website dedicated to kids recently had a story about a member who showed up at a branch with more than $200 that had been eaten by the family dog.

There were no details about how completely this cash had been digested. The story just noted it was “really gross.”

So how much money did your family’s dog eat?

Secret talent: “I can make balloon animals,” wrote Sue Chapin. “Insider secret: Few people know that the giraffe and the wiener dog are actually the same basic animal, just in reverse.”

Just wondering: The film critic who has proven to be the most reliable predictor of whether I will like a movie is a guy who writes for a national publication about which I have mixed feelings. But experience has taught me that if I ignore Joe Morgenstern’s advice, I do so at my own peril.

How about you? What movie reviewer do you trust?

Was it just me: Or did others find that last week’s “Pioneers of Television” installment focusing on Westerns was emotionally unsatisfying because of the apparent inability to secure the rights to the original theme music from “Gunsmoke,” “Bonanza,” “The Big Valley” and “The Rifleman”?

Slice answers: “The Spokane event that holds great significance at our house is First Night Spokane,” wrote Ted Teske.

It was at First Night in 2003 that he met the woman he would marry. They now have a 16-month-old son.

Sue Lani W. Madsen’s calendar connection isn’t technically a Spokane event. But it’s close enough.

“Every year, when Reardan’s Mule Days comes around, I remember that I met my husband at the Saturday night dance,” she wrote.

Small World Department: In 1979, Fritz Howard was in a Turkish village when he encountered someone wearing a T-shirt from Dr. John’s Jazz Emporium in Spokane.

Today’s Slice question: How do you handle it when your children’s grandparents have political and social views that you oppose?