The Slice: Remember: ‘Better half’ can work in both directions

It’s a never-ending quest.

“My 40-plus single friends who are in relationships wonder how to refer to the men we are in relationships with,” wrote Renee Haynes of Spokane Valley. “ ‘Boyfriend’ sounds like teenagers, ‘partner’ seems more often associated with same sex, ‘significant other’ is just too many syllables.”

She asked if The Slice had ever found a better term.

I told her that some single adults were OK with “steady companion.”

Haynes wrote back. “ ‘Companion’ isn’t bad! Although it sounds a little like someone you’re on a bike with.”

Perhaps, but I’ve heard worse metaphors for romance.

Re: Yelling “Balk!” in a meeting: “ ‘Balk’ just happens to be a word that is read at nearly every AA meeting during the intro,” wrote a longtime Slice reader. “Most new people get to reading it and stare at it for a second or two, having never seen it before in that context. I can’t help but think of the cluck a chicken gives when she lays an egg – ‘Baaaaalk!’”

Which is different from the sound the cartoon Super Chicken made. But I digress.

Something a panhandler said to one of my colleagues when she was near a seafood place in Oregon: “Spare change for lobster?”

Re: Friday’s quiz: Quite a few readers knew the quoted song lyric was from “American Pie” and that it alluded to a newsboy delivering papers laden with bad news. Some even left singing phone messages.

Not everyone, however, was delighted to have that Don McLean song ricocheting around in their heads.

February in Spokane: “In like a football player, out like a golfer.” – Rene Penna

TV commercials camped in the brain: Ken Kendall’s young granddaughter had the original “Ghostbusters” on TV.

“Who you gonna call?” he asked her.

She thought about it for a moment. Then the little girl smiled and said “Appleway!”

Today’s Slice question: Do you suspect that the Spokane area exceeds the national average when it comes to the percentage of people who change the oil in their vehicles themselves?