The Slice Puzzling Cries In The Dark

We’re not advocating neighborhood complacency.

But there’s a good chance that the late night scream from next-door was a reaction to someone’s frigid feet.

What we say/What they hear: Deer Park’s Lisa Johnson explained to her 3-year-old daughter, Bekka, that there was a new “house rule” regarding potty training. And after several minutes of explaining the rule, the reasons for it, the benefits and requirements et cetera, Johnson asked her little girl if she understood.

Bekka’s excited response: “Mommy, we have a new house? Where is the new house? What color is the new house? Can we go to the new house?”

A friend wonders: How many people hold their breath when dialing a phone number?

Favorite Christmas pageant moments: One reader recalled seeing a group of 3-year-old “angels” pirouetting across a stage as the pageant director moved alongside to keep them from falling off.

Another caller remembered a service at Spokane’s St. Aloysius Church being interrupted by a toddler in attendance yelling “I want to see baby Jesus!”

A priest came and got the little boy and took him up to the manger scene.

You can run, but…: A couple visiting Grand Cayman Island last winter was asked by a waiter where it was they lived. “Spokane,” they answered.

The waiter’s follow-up: “Do they still have that polar bear at the airport?”

The office Christmas party is officially out of control when: 1. People start telling one another what they really think of each other’s work. 2. The room suddenly smells a lot like the late ‘60s and your boss is giggling about “grass burning.” 3. Someone utters the phrase “sweater meat.”

Overheard in a North Side store (man talking to a woman): “You never did wear those tattoos I got you.” - submitted by A.L.S.

There ought to be a new personals category: “Single white whiners.” - New York magazine

Today’s Slice question: For people in wheelchairs, what is the Spokane area’s No. 1 most irritatingly inaccessible destination? , DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Drawing

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