The Slice: Not everyone here is on the same page

Sometimes there is a tendency to think of the Spokane area as an empire of conformity, populated by people who all think alike.

But that would be wrong. As my first witness, I call Tina Johnson of Coeur d’Alene.

“Am I the only person who thinks skunks smell like lemon juice?” she wrote. “I don’t find the smell offensive at all.”

Re: What happens when you try to reason with a yellow jacket: “You will wish you had gone with the navy blue,” wrote John Mraz.

One word that describes how you look in a swimsuit: “Deluded,” said Donald Schaefer.

“Fatnastic,” said Jerry Cartwright.

Two kinds of people: “I am almost always arriving at least 10 or 15 minutes ahead of any scheduled appointment,” wrote Bruce Au. “My wife, however, is not as punctually inclined. She does not like waiting for anything. This can cause some friction when we are going out together.”

But after 40 some years of marriage, they make it work.

If all grandparents around here disappeared: Don Hartvigsen imagined.

“Who would: Read The Slice; worry about the grandkids; pay attention to their P’s and Q’s; and all the yarn shops would close.”

Then there was this from Joe Jovanovich. “Speaking as a school bus driver, who sees and hears of the inner workings of families, I know that if grandparents disappeared from Spokane we would have a whole lot of children of drug addicted families left with no one to care for them.”

Asked and answered: The question was “Do you think Spokane is in the middle of nowhere?”

Jon Cratch, who moved out here from Michigan a few years ago, had an answer.

“Spokane is in the middle of paradise.”

Hug it out: A reader who asked that I not print her name because her friends tease her about how much international traveling she does, shared a story of flying woes that concluded this way.

“The only pleasant thing on the return was that in the Spokane airport while waiting for my luggage, I saw Nigel Williams-Goss and went up to tell him how much we enjoyed watching him play and to wish him good luck in his future endeavors. He gave me a hug and thanked me. This was a big thrill for an 81-year-old woman!”

Today’s Slice question: How sweaty do you have to be before you consider yourself disgusting?

Write The Slice at P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210; call (509) 459-5470; email pault@spokesman.com. Do those who live in Valley, Washington, have to specify that they don’t mean “Spokane Valley”?