The Slice: But they don’t offer a major in doublespeak

Let’s start with a clarification offered by reader Robert McGinty.

“Cheney is not a college town; it is a town with a college.”

Re: actors and actresses admired by the opposite sex: “Did you go to the theater to see the movie ‘Thor’?” asked Kenny Hall. “When Chris Hemsworth (pictured) came onscreen in jeans and no shirt, my wife, as well as every other breathing woman/girl in the theater, sucked every bit of air out of that theater. In my life, I had never heard such a synchronized intake of air followed by a collective sigh.”

Slice answer (not looking like your phone voice): “Before moving to Spokane I worked for the Air Force and as part of my job I talked to people in like positions all over the country,” wrote Nancy Reeves. “Once a year we would have a large get-together with face-to-face meetings. It never seemed to fail that at our first real meeting I would be told by someone, ‘You sound taller on the phone’ (I’m 5’2”) or ‘You sound bigger on the phone’ (I’m 110 pounds). I would give credit for these assumptions to the fact my voice is deep and I have a Texas accent.

“But there was one comment I got that even I can’t explain … ‘I didn’t expect you to have red hair.’ (Yes, I do.) I still wonder, how does red hair sound?”

Go fly a kite: “In Billings, Mont., there is a series of rimrocks circling the city,” wrote Stacey Carr. “In the late 1980s, as a college student, I went up there to fly my new trick kite. Within half an hour I was surrounded by airport police and other law enforcement. Apparently my kite showed up on the airport radar as a suspicious blip.”

Today’s Slice question (prompted by an email from a Spokane woman visiting relatives in Texas): In your travels, where has it been the biggest challenge to obtain a decent cup of coffee?