The Slice: Nothing like spicing up a squirt gun fight

Slice readers had been asked what besides water they had put in a squirt gun and what the consequences were.

“Ammonia; dire,” wrote Forrest Schuck.

Jeff Bringle shared this. “Way, way back in junior high, in the last few weeks of school before summer vacation, a few friends and I would fill squirt guns with Old Spice and ‘tag’ our victims with extreme prejudice. We used Old Spice since its distinctive, quite tenacious smell would follow our targets from class to class through a good part of the day. The downside, of course, was the occasional failure of the plug, causing leakage into the carrier’s own pants pocket. Not cool.”

Rick Straub employed Old Spice as ammo in a 1964 school bus-stop squirt gun shootout. “Got ’em good.”

He wound up getting detention for a week.

In grade school, Steve Marque added mercurochrome to the water in his squirt gun. It left a red spot on the white cords worn by his victim. “He deserved it!”

And Jody Hamilton once saw some genius in a hot tub try to fill a little squirt gun from a half-gallon jug of gin. “It was mostly going into the hot tub, creating the biggest gin and tonic ever.”

Today’s potato salad story: “For our family of five, mom had to make four different versions of potato salad,” wrote Cheri Moore.

(The differences involved pickles and onions, among other variables.)

Cheri said her mother-in-law witnessed this elaborate production and announced that she would be making one variety and people could eat it or go without.

Slice answer: “I am the worst speller I know,” wrote Paul Nunes. “I personally think that if you only know one way to spell a word, you are not very creative.”

Lyrical liberties: Janet Culbertson took up the challenge to write the second line of this revised seasonal classic.

Twas the night before June and all through the house

I rejoiced my decision to not have a spouse

Today’s Slice question: Does the propensity for texting behind the wheel increase when the driver is drunk or stoned?