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The Slice: Don’t try this at home

The Slice had brought up the subject of minor kitchen disasters.

And, well, here’s something that seemed like a good idea at the time.

About 40 years ago, when Mark Anderson was 10 or 12, he and a cousin were playing basketball on his little backyard court. It was a hot day. The boys decided to make lemonade.

So they took a couple of cans of frozen concentrate out of the freezer. But they were impatient. They didn’t have all day to wait for them to thaw. And the idea of stirring the frozen contents didn’t seem like a workable plan.

So they put the lemonade cans on a burner on the stove. They set it on high. Brilliant!

Then they went back outside.

In due course, they heard a couple of explosions in the house.

“You can imagine what a kitchen would look like with lemonade pulp all over it.”

The boys tried to clean up the citrusy mess before mom got home. But, of course, she saw (and sniffed) through their cover-up in about two seconds.

“Not the smartest move,” said Mark, looking back.

Just wondering: Do you ask for a second opinion when you are about to buy a swimsuit?

The Twelfth of Never: The Slice had asked about high school sweethearts who got married.

“My wife (Martha) and I were married in October of 1964,” wrote Lowell Lehman. “We met in 1961. She was a junior and I was a senior in a small town in Kansas. We were featured in the school paper as couple of the month once, wearing our matching shirts. One of the interview questions was ‘Who is your favorite singer?’ My wife’s was Johnny Mathis. After all this time, we finally got to see him in concert recently, when he came to Spokane. We had a ‘date night,’ just like in high school.

“We’ve lived in Spokane since 1970 and have three children, all of whom still live here. After more than 51 years of marriage, we both agree we’d do it all over again, and we’re still very happy and in love, now more than ever.”

Warm-up questions: What does it mean when a house for sale is described as a “little charmer”? Is it just me, or does it seem like every tenth house in Spokane is for sale?

Today’s Slice question: What’s something “everybody” says about Spokane that is totally wrong?

Write The Slice at P. O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210; call (509) 459-5470; email pault@spokesman.com. You’re not really an official resident here until you’ve planted a lilac bush, said Sarah Jensen.

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