The Slice She’s A Budding Diplomat

Make up your mind, girl. Spokane’s Emily Parsons, 4, is learning to write. And one of her first messages was directed to her big sister’s first-grade teacher: “I want Alyssa to stay home with me, but that’s OK if she goes to school.”

Coming attractions: Apparently the animators working on “Pocahontas” were instructed to give her a figure something like Barbie’s. How nice, a politically correct movie that still manages to send little girls a swell message about body image.

Great cat pictures: Check out the pet photos on display in The Elk restaurant, in Browne’s Addition.

Loose lips: “We (myself and the secretary) had a trash session for about half an hour one morning in the office about the boss before discovering that he had worked late the night before and had slept in the loft above us. He heard every word. And I’m still employed!” - M.B., Post Falls

When the holiday truce is over: Divorce lawyers see business pick up in January. - The New York Times

“Free” previews on cable: Tonight and tomorrow, it’s Cinemax. Then two days of HBO.

Don Moore wonders: Why are the gull-like birds in the Inland Northwest so soft-spoken compared to their West Side cousins?

Warm-up questions: How do you respond to a kid who says “Why should I learn any computer/high-tech stuff now when it’s all going to be obsolete in about half an hour?”

Today’s Slice question: Can you name three things people in the Spokane area do only when they have company visiting from out of town?

MEMO: The Slice appears Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday on IN Life. Write The Slice at P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210; call (509) 459-5470; fax (509) 459-5098.