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The Slice: When in Rome, they did as Rick Steves did

Here’s a second helping of autograph stories.

“My husband and I were in Rome at the Tivoli fountains consulting our ‘Rick Steves’ Rome’ book, when we noticed Rick Steves himself taking notes as a guide spoke,” wrote Sonya Mounts. “I introduced myself, and he signed my book.”

“In 1963 I was a sophomore at Immaculate Heart High School in Los Angeles,” wrote Teri Maurice. “One day taking the LA bus home with about four other IHHS girls we were stopped at a red light at Hollywood and Vine. One of us, I think it was me, spotted Richard Chamberlain in a cute convertible pulling into a parking lot right there so we jumped off the bus and before he could even get out of his car we were getting his autograph. He was gracious. Since I wasn’t a big ‘Dr. Kildare’ fan (I liked ‘Ben Casey’ better) I sold his autograph to a fellow student who was a fan for $1 the next day.”

Dennis Anderson encountered Mark Rypien at a North Side gas station not long after his Washington Redskins won the Super Bowl. The quarterback signed the back of a business card.

“The following week at a sales appointment I mistakenly handed the card to a potential buyer, never to be seen again.”

Jim Nelson got band leader Harry James to sign a program at Natatorium Park. His date was impressed.

As a teenager attending a Los Angeles Dodgers game in 1960, Jim Anderson had his girlfriend get Danny Thomas to autograph their program.

In 1947, when he was 10, Frank Kondler was in Japan because his father was part of the postwar force stationed there. The priest who founded Boys Town came through and, at his mother’s urging, young Frank got the cleric to sign a piece of paper. “To my surprise, he signed it merely ‘Father Flanagan.’ ”

Diane Jones got Robert Vaughn’s autograph back in the ’60s when he was in Colorado promoting “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.”

He signed it “Napoleon Solo.”

Slice answer: Renee Resberg has embraced lilacs.

“Have you ever tried to dig up a lilac? You can’t. That’s when you learn to love them.”

Warm-up question: Why do you suppose airlines stick with seats that recline a couple of inches even though it’s well known this practice often annoys the person seated behind?

Today’s Slice question: What’s your Chinese New Year’s resolution?

Write The Slice at P. O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210; call (509) 459-5470; email pault@spokesman.com. Even though we’ve seen it countless times, food mold always comes as a surprise.

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