The Slice: Possible reasons to resent dear old Washington

The other day, The Slice brought up the subject of locals identifying where they live when their travels take them far from home.

You know. Do they say “Spokane” even if they live well outside the city? Et cetera.

Flo Moore shared this. “When we visited Washington, D.C., and took a tour bus, the driver asked for people’s homes. My husband said we were from ‘the real Washington.’ This resulted in boos from other passengers. But it brought some chuckles, too.”

So why do you imagine people would boo the mere mention of Washington?

Go ahead and guess.

A) The people doing the booing all lived in red states. B) Vidalia sweet onions loyalists. C) Never liked Bing Crosby. D) Angry about all the World Series titles the Mariners have won.

E) Jealousy stemming from living in flat ****hole states. F) Went to Seattle once and got hit in the head by a salmon hurled by some bearded hipster. G) Still wishing the British had prevailed back in the 1770s. H) Those booing resent us for having two female senators.

I) Jealous of Grand Coulee Dam. J) Tired of hearing about the Zags. K) They blame everything on Jimi Hendrix. L) They blame everything on Starbucks.

M) They blame everything on Microsoft. N) Angry that their states can’t claim the B-17. O) Resent that Chuck Jones was born in Spokane. P) Can’t stand apples.

Q) Angry at Nordstrom. R) Fear Seattle is going to steal their NHL team. S) Airbus backers. T) Kenny G was born in Washington.

U) Offended by Sir Mix-A-Lot. V) Everyone else on the tour bus was from Oregon. W.) Blame everything on Kurt Cobain. X) Didn’t understand “Twin Peaks.”

Today’s Slice question: What percentage of the time when national news media add “state” to Washington is it utterly unnecessary because, given the context of the story being reported, the possibility of confusing our Washington with Washington, D.C., is approximately zero?

My favorite example? Oh, there are so many from which to choose. But I guess it might have to be a New York Times story a few years ago that talked about perilous mountaineering exploits on a snow-capped mountain in, yes, Washington state.

I’m all for clarity, but c’mon. How many snow-capped peaks are there in the District of Columbia?

Write The Slice at P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210; call (509) 459-5470; email pault@spokesman.com. Slice reader John Span got a kick out of a prominent S-R front-page headline about a bridge earlier this week, “The Plan to Span.”