The Slice: A family stitched for life

Sometimes there’s no real mystery about why a moment of misspeaking turns into an enduring family phrase.

North Idaho’s Dianna Mast told about her 8-year-old niece, Paige Stott, putting a question to those at a family gathering.

“Would we rather be buried like her Nona in California, or crocheted, like Papa Dunn?”

Paige’s relatives considered this.

“We all said we’d rather be crocheted.”

You have to admit, it does sound more appealing.

In any event, that malapropism caught on.

Said Mast, “Now everyone, even in our extended family, uses ‘crocheted’ instead of cremated.”

In the matter of speaking to a person situated near a source of indoor noise: “Ask your co-worker a question after the printer next to their desk has started churning out a 10-page document,” wrote Curt Olsen. “ ‘Do you mind if I snare your tickets to Saturday night’s Chiefs game?’ turns into ‘I’m ready to pull my hair out over this weekly weight gain!’ ”

Slice answer: Colbert’s Nancy Nelson said that if she employed “What would Idaho do?” as guidance it would be based on the assumption that she would then do the opposite.

Prompted by a Slice question about fireplaces: Carol Loomer recalled a time many years ago when she hid her son’s Easter basket in a seldom-used wood stove.

Naturally, her husband chose that morning to fire it up for the first time in ages.

Before long the fake grass went up with a whoosh, rivulets of chocolate flowed from the stove and the horrifying stench of Peeps carnage filled the home.

Slice answer: Connie Reed and others said, yes, they routinely don their backup eyeglasses to aid in the search for the primary pair.

Still another Slice answer: “I consider my luckiest genetic break the fact that my son may act just like me (frighteningly so at times) but thankfully he looks like his mother,” wrote Jerry Sciarrio.

Today’s Slice question: Who will be the Inland Northwest’s last pipe smoker?

(Tobacco pipes.)