January 26, 2012 in Features

The Slice: Scarred for life has a bright side

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The ER doctor asked Doug Sather how he managed to cut his hand.

Sather, dressed in his Scoutmaster uniform, said “By doing what I have taught boys not to do for the last 25 years.”

He has since used his five-stitch scar to illustrate a lesson. “No matter what you do, if you are going to use a knife you are going to get cut sometime.”

On this date 50 years ago: Audubon Park neighborhood resident Dexter DuPont played a backwoods angel in a wonderful episode of “The Twilight Zone” called “The Hunt.” Starring Arthur Hunnicutt and Jeanette Nolan, it first aired on Jan. 26, 1962.

Yes, I’ve alluded to this before. It’s one of my favorites.

The show was written by Earl Hamner, Jr., whose early life was the basis for the John-Boy character in “The Waltons.”

In DuPont’s extended scene at the end of the “The Hunt,” he reaches out and confidently puts a gentle hand on a hound dog accompanying Hunnicutt to heaven. That moment went well, DuPont once told me, because he had made friends with the dog before the cameras ever started rolling.

Re: Tuesday’s Slice: Several readers said they anticipate the inevitable “What have we seen him/her in before?” moment when watching television. So they make a habit of having portable computers within reach, sometimes already open to an Internet entertainment-database site.

“I have my iPad on the coffee table, with IMDb app just a touch away,” wrote Lawrence Killingsworth.

Speaking of 2012 technology: Mark Slater saw a baby “teething” on an iPhone. And it makes one wonder how the latest wave of gadgetry stands up to oral attention from the youngest users.

One week to go: Before you launch your ambitious fitness/dietary regimen on Ground Hog Day.

Warm-up question: How many emails do you receive each day from segments of the Valentine’s Industrial Complex?

Today’s Slice question: Ever had to go get your backup eyeglasses when trying to find where you put your other pair?

Write The Slice at P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210; call (509) 459-5470; email pault@spokesman.com. Artist Ken Yuhasz once reached into his work bag and had an X-Acto knife stuck in a finger when he quickly withdrew his hand.

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