Paul Turner

When Reginald Lee senses that a white person is clueless about the perspective of African Americans in Spokane, this is what he says: "Imagine if this city was 98 percent black."

"During my Christmas baking, I was cracking eggs, dropping the egg in the garbage and putting the shells in my bowl," wrote a reader who asked not to be identified by name. Slice answers: We heard from a bunch of folks who have cats that are older than 20. A Siamese named Katie, 23, was the champ. Among the runners-up were Mouse, Elsie, Helen and Tai-Ki. But our favorite letter came from Odessa's Shannon Finck: "I just wanted you to know that my cat is older than me. I am 10, and my cat Che-Che is 21." And the winner of our "Best Hot Chocolate" poll was The Riverside Galleria Espresso, at Riverside and Browne in downtown Spokane.

Yes, there is an Inland Northwest accent. At least, according to Dennis DeMattia. He said locals tend to come down hard on each consonant. Matthew Goos argued that people in the Spokane area end sentences with a slight upward inflection.

1. Betty Shear built this snow couple during the first snow of fall. 2. The Gaul family - John, Patty, Mark, Erin, Ryan, Mike and Evan - is re-created in snow 3. Patrick Orthouse leans on his towering achievement. He helped his niece Amanda build her first snowman. 4. Joshua and Megan Graeber with their snowman in Laurier, Wash. 5. Jessica Wright and Dorian Brown made this colorful snowman. 6. Ryan Zandhuisen, 3, with his snow pal. 7. Stephanie Warren rushed out the first day it snowed and built her snowman. The broccoli eyes, carrot nose and berry smile are a nice touch.

The evidence suggests that, yes, it's possible to have a bad hair year. Quote of the day: "Straight men don't talk about sex." - Sallie Tisdale, author of "Talk Dirty to Me: An Intimate Philosophy of Sex," in The New York Times This just in from Bayview, Idaho: Here are Jim Campbell's nominations for the least important news items reported every year: 1.) Crayola introduces a new color. 2.) Whatever song the Space Shuttle astronauts wake up hearing. Slice answer: On two occasions, Dale Stegman has startled deer when he tried to clear his sinuses. Let's hear more from: Idahoans who like mainstream life just fine.

It's not that people around here aren't friendly. It's just that the cumulative effect of tens of thousands of Inland Northwesterners simultaneously suffering from the heartbreak of winter-related dry skin isn't pretty. Slice answers: Mike Cannon said Spokane's most overlooked asset might be the community colleges. Jamie Fiorino nominated Whitworth College and "Anything open 24 hours."

Read 'em and weep. Spokane's Dede McKay showed us a yellowed notebook in which she had carefully listed how much she paid for groceries back in 1941. Brace yourself. Loaf of bread, 10 cents. Bananas, 10 cents. Salad dressing, 19 cents. Milk, 11 cents. Lettuce, 10 cents. Beans, 11 cents. Tomato juice, nine cents. Bacon, 25 cents. Had enough? McKay recalls that her monthly grocery bill was around $20. "And my mother-in-law always insisted that I spent way too much," she said.

We think it might be Jacob's Java. But we haven't really tried enough places to be sure. So you tell us. Who makes the best hot chocolate in the Inland Northwest? Random act of kindness: Elle and Larry Weiser drove up to Mount Spokane last weekend to do some cross-country skiing. After parking, they saw that they had a flat tire, caused by a slow leak. The couple decided to worry about it after they finished skiing. But when they returned to their car, they discovered that someone had inflated the tire.

We know that at least a few Inland Northwesterners resolved to clean up their language in 1995. Good idea. Swearing is, after all, more lazy than expressive.

The thing about customer service that gets overlooked is the fact that a lot of customers enjoy being bullies. Annual reminder: There's no such thing as a "Spokane celebrity." Slice answers: Regarding our question about how chilly it has to get outside before certain people close all the windows, Kasey Kilgore wrote: "As a fresh-air fiend, I have to reply, it does not get that cold in this part of the Northern Hemisphere."

The inferiority complex got old, and the newer "We're happening" smugness isn't really becoming. So how about this for Spokane's 1995 attitude - "We like it here, who cares what anybody else thinks?" OK, it's a day late: But here's our resolution. "Every day, try to visualize readers looking at the newspaper while in their underwear." They're just calling it like they see it: Workplace cynics usually aren't bad apples with chronically sour attitudes, according to an Ohio State University study reported by the Knight-Ridder news service.