The Slice: What’s a good drill sergeant without roll-call skills?

Serving as a name-taking grade school room-monitor when the teacher stepped out for a few minutes was good training for what career?

Let’s move on.

Celebrating Sprinkler Blowout season: Janet Culbertson has an idea.

“I’d like to have a campfire of sorts where a bunch of us could sit around, roast hot dogs and marshmallows while bundled up and pretending that we are at Yellowstone watching the geysers.”

Luggage identifier: The Rev. Mark Nelson uses a bright red tag that says “Because all Lutherans have baggage.”

Of course, no system works every time. One reader told about a piece of luggage that got claimed by the wrong person. When the man who had walked off with it was tracked down, he said he wondered why someone had put colorful ribbons on his suitcase.

A career in the airline industry taught Jeri Hershberger a lesson: “Never buy a black bag.”

Cider story: If you are eating breakfast, you might want to skip this.

Years ago, when Gerald Ray was a teacher in rural Eastern Washington, he invited an old farmer to demonstrate how his cider press worked.

As Ray recalls, the gentleman used apples that had been on the ground. So leaves, stems and dirt went into the press with the apples. Some of that got filtered out. So it was no big deal.

But there was a more troubling consideration.

A few of the apples were wormy. And when that infested fruit went into the press, well, the result was a hearty blend of apple juice and protein-rich worm juice. Yum.

Ray said the kids enjoyed seeing the press in action and talked for some time about the farmer’s visit. But the cider he left?

“Nobody would drink any of it.”

Today’s Slice question: In what way does life in the Spokane area resemble “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”? A) Co-workers who seem to be pod people. B) Communitywide interest in gardening. C) Sometimes a lot happens while you are asleep. D) On occasion, it makes sense to not trust authority figures. E) Presence of those with hard-to-take screechy voices. F) People in our midst embracing conspiracy theories. G) Other.