The Slice: Light the fuse and step away

The Fourth of July is coming up, so I have to ask.

Are your top firecracker stories tragedy, comedy or a little of both?

Let’s move on.

Operating the TV remote when it takes two hands to hold a falling-apart sandwich: Mike Buyanovich said the key is to have one of the new remotes that respond to voice commands. “You simply press the microphone button on the remote with your elbow and tell it to go to whatever channel or movie you want.”

Favorite soft drink memories: Doug Fisher still remembers his mom taking him and his three brothers for frosty mugs of A&W root beer on a hot day in the Spokane Valley in the 1950s. “We had very little money in those days so the treat was rare and extremely ethereal.”

Sherri Hyams shared this. “My favorite memory was of stopping at the A&W root beer stand on our way to the lake. We would buy a gallon for me to enjoy by myself! The adults had their ‘adult’ beverages. What a pleasure that was.”

Better late than never: Tomas Kelley Lynch’s favorite teacher was Mrs. Taylor, in sixth grade.

“My parents were getting divorced that year. I guess that I was acting out, so she took me out into the hall to talk. I don’t remember the conversation, what I remember is that I was crying and she gave me a sincere, comforting hug.”

Some 18 years later, Tomas described that moment to a friend. He said he could still feel that hug. The friend asked if he had ever really thanked the teacher.

“That evening I wrote to Mrs. Taylor to let her know how that single moment impacted my life.”

His note was well-received. As it happened, Mrs. Taylor died about a year later.

“My takeaway is that life is short and unpredictable,” wrote Tomas. “Tell people the good that they have done, because you never know when it will be too late.”

Name game: “I have known grandmothers called Gooki, G-Mom, Munya, Nango, Mamo, and Lala,” wrote Linda Peterson. “I’d love to know what other names your readers have called their grandparents.”

Today’s Slice question: How many Slice readers besides Cathy Kraus of Coeur d’Alene remember being kids and fighting over getting to sit in the rear-facing third seat of the family station wagon?

Write The Slice at P. O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210; call (509) 459-5470; email pault@spokesman.com. Steve LaCombe said poodles are smart, formidable pets despite what some who judge the breed on the basis of a few show dogs’ froufrou topiary-style coifs might believe.