The Slice: When folklore feeds the forecast

If you want to know what sort of winter we’re in for, the thing to do is ask some old farmers.

So that’s my mission. If you are an Inland Northwest farmer and consider yourself old, please answer the following questions.

(Hey Farmer Roy, seeing as how we are the same age – two days difference – that definitely includes you.)

1. Can you tell from your animals’ behavior if it is going to be a hard winter? What are they indicating so far this fall?

2. Are you experiencing joint pain or throbbing bunions that usually have implications for the long-range weather forecast?

3. What other signs – frost on the north side of the barn, a dusting of snow on the ground before Oct. 1, etc. – do you look for?

Thank you. Please send me your answers so that I might share.

Agree or disagree: Jim Corcoran said that if two or more women are in an area controlled by the same thermostat, one will disagree about the proper temperature. He knows that sounds sexist. But he said years of HVAC experience inform his observation. “Men do not seem to have the same tendencies, temperature wise.”

The way people talk around here: “I’ve been living here for 23 years so I’m used to this, but I still sometimes have to ask for clarification,” wrote Howard Glass. “It’s the lack of diversity in pronouncing certain vowels when followed by an r. For example, the names Erin and Aaron seem to be pronounced the same. Then there is the triplet: merry, marry, and Mary. If someone asks, ‘Will you marry merry Mary?’ it sounds like ‘Will you merry merry merry?’ This pronunciation seems to be a regionalism that extends way beyond Spokane, so maybe it’s me who has the odd pronunciation.”

Slice answer: Bitter about your hard-earned skill at adjusting a TV’s horizontal and vertical being irrelevant in 2017?

Jim MacSuga isn’t really bitter. But he spent years as a television service technician, starting in 1967. He really knew what was involved in getting the picture to remain stationary on the screen. And now, after he has retired, he realizes much of his life’s work is in the landfill.

Today’s Slice question: In one word, why did you quit being a youth sports coach?

Write The Slice at P. O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210; call (509) 459-5470; email pault@spokesman.com. Jacque Hendrix wrote, “Just wondering how many people (like myself) answer your questions in their head and think ‘I should send this to Paul T.,’ but never do.”