The Slice: Standard time is the right time

I don’t know about you, but I have big plans for the hour we get back this weekend.

Let’s move on.

Sentence completed: “The thing that I simply don’t give a rip about but The Spokesman-Review seems obsessed with is … WSU football.” – Myron Molnau

Here and there: “I am a Spokane native who has lived away for about 40 years,” wrote Kathy Quinn of Boise. “I visit Spokane yearly but this visit has been 30-plus days.”

And the same subject keeps coming up.

“I have been asked repeatedly for the past month why I don’t move back to Spokane where most of my extended family lives.”

Her answer? “I love Spokane but since I have no desire to be a snowbird, I’m waiting for the city to figure out how to deal with your toxic combination of long snowy winters and steep hills.”

I understand the city is working on that, Kathy. Meantime, let me ask Slice readers something. How would you complete a sentence that begins “I love Spokane but ….”

Family affair: In the matter of choosing a local companion for a drive covering the length of Interstate 90, a couple of readers have already weighed in with their votes for novelist Jess Walter.

The Slice has dutifully noted that there had been no votes for his brother, S-R sports editor and “Fletch” fan Ralph Walter. Well, until now.

“I, for one, will vote for Ralph Walter to drive across the country with,” wrote Craig Heimbigner. “I’d much rather talk sports on a long drive than put up with the fanciful musings of his hippie poet brother.”

Teresa Vanairsdale’s annual Priest Lake litter report: Roadside trash was plentiful. But once again, Bud Light cans won. “Coors probably came in second.”

Raccoon regularity: The Slice’s mention of ringtails Sunday prompted Jeannie Maki to report that the nocturnal animals have stripped her plum/prune trees. One of the critters fell out of a tree while making its escape when Jeannie went outside at night. She said it sounded like a big Ziploc bag full of water hitting the ground.

And seeing as how it was doubtless full of prunes when it landed, well, never mind. Some people still read the paper with breakfast.

Today’s Slice question: How often do kids actually fall off the top bunk?

Write The Slice at P. O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210; call (509) 459-5470; email pault@spokesman.com. Surely Pam Meyer isn’t the only Slice reader to have thrown up on a nun as a grade schooler.