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The Slice: Messages that stick with you for years

Let’s take a glance at some old Post-it Notes.

“My work computer is covered with sticky notes that get cleaned off whenever I get a new monitor,” wrote Kristie Kirkpatrick in Colfax. “The one that has survived a number of transitions was jotted down many years ago from a Starbucks cup: ‘The humble improve’ – Wynton Marsalis.”

After going out to find a dead battery too many times, a “TURN OFF LIGHTS” note was placed in the middle of the steering wheel of the old Datsun belonging to Valerie Adams and her husband. “It worked for awhile but then neither of us even noticed it again.”

That sticky note was still there when they sold the car, about 12 years after placing that reminder.

One more. “I’ve had a note sticking on the inside of my front door for most of the nine years I’ve lived in my rental house,” wrote Dianne Cook. “So I can’t possibly forget any of the things on it which I need to do when leaving the house, it says in red letters, ‘Don’t forget: cell phone, turn down heat, check burners, bring purse, bring lists.’

“Naturally, it became invisible soon after I put it up, and, frustratingly, I often neglect to do or bring at least one of the items on the note.”

Re: lines from “Planes, Trains & Automobiles”: “My favorite John Candy line from the movie, one which a colleague still uses when a situation or object is obviously trashed beyond repair, is ‘It’ll all buff out.’ ” – Jack Vines

Adventures in flunking: “The only F I received in my life was in a college bowling class,” wrote Anne Martin. “I did not get the premise of the class in the beginning. You were to improve. I bowled my best game the first day and it was downhill from there.”

Gina Bloom got an F when she took ice skating as a PE elective in college in 1988. “Ask my kids why I don’t ice skate and they can tell you the story,” she wrote. “But don’t ask my parents, as I’m sure they’d be shocked to learn the news. Only report card they never saw.”

Today’s Slice question: Do you associate “The Wizard of Oz” with Thanksgiving?

Write The Slice at P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210; call (509) 459-5470; email pault@spokesman. Taking a year off from kids’ tips on preparing a Thanksgiving dinner.

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