The Slice: Some people get all the breaks, unfortunately

Have you, like Slice reader Dee Hunter, broken all four limbs (one at a time) over the years?

I hope not.

Showing the way to siblings: “Not exactly the question you posed, but as the eldest of six I can tell you that the younger ones learned a thing or two about what you can get away with (and what you can’t),” wrote Forrest Schuck. “Hey, it’s a dirty and dangerous job, but someone has to take point.”

Reading music: There were more options than the two I noted. Nancy Kiehn, Donna Danzer and others learned “Every good boy deserves fudge.”

Edward Sawatzki was taught “Eat good bread dear father.”

Retired music teacher Bruce Pennell recalled using, among other formulations, “Empty garbage before dad flips.”

Slice answers: It turns out lots of people have shaken hands with individuals who shook the hand of a president. For instance, if you ever shook hands with Tom Foley that would give you multiple connections.

Science fair memories: “When I was in seventh grade, we lived in a new town and I was feeling out of place,” wrote John Gross. “The science fair was coming up and normally I would have entered but in the new school I wasn’t interested. Then on the night before the judging I put together a project on the cardiovascular system and won the whole thing. I still have the trophy.

“The following year, I tried something to do with diurnal body temperature patterns of everyone in the house. Everyone.”

But the family cat made it abundantly clear that it did not wish to be probed from behind with a thermometer.

Auditing life: Because of David Michaelson’s TV setup, it takes several seconds to change channels. “At my advanced age I suddenly feared I was losing a lot of time I really can’t afford,” he wrote.

So he did the math and realized he is losing more than a 24-hour day each year because of the channel-change lag.

One more: “Men do read romance novels, they just don’t understand them,” wrote Karen Buck.

Today’s Slice question: Pets on the bed – yes or no?