The Slice Tombstone Can Be A Hit To All But Those Under It

Hats off to the office-pool optimists picking Gonzaga to make it to the Final Four.

Memorable tombstones: Spangle’s Sylvia Robison is partial to one right there in her town. It’s for a woman named Cassie MacKenzie, who was born in Canada and died, in 1886, in San Francisco. It reads: “Amiable, she won all. Intelligent, she charmed all. Fervent, she loved all. Dead, she saddened all.”

Debby Davis spotted a special gravestone near Boise. It’s for a child who died in 1984 at the age of 10. The inscription includes the line “A boy who could pet bees.”

And L. Johnson saw the following on a tombstone in an old mining camp cemetery near Lewistown, Mont. “Here lies Zachariah Pease. In the shade, under the trees. The Pease ain’t here, only the Pod. The Pease has gone to be with God.”

Boomers bite it: “The median age of those being let go in layoffs is 42 to 45 years old.” - from an international outplacement firm

Two issues readers want The Slice to address: Chad Stanford seeks the story behind the naming of Spokane’s Tieton Street. And Pat Butterfield wants to know who serves the best clam chowder hereabouts.

Slice answer: How should we spend contributions to The Slice’s Bordering on Lunacy Fund? Bob Johnson faxed this from Coeur d’Alene: “Start at Altamont and Sprague and, heading east, film a promotional video of Sprague for use as a recruiting tool in luring people from L.A.”

Barbara Clark wonders: How can you recycle broken car-seat beads?

Warm-up questions: How much would you pay for a report detailing what became of every kid with whom you ever shared a classroom back in school? Do you remember adjusting the vertical and horizontal hold with those knobs on the back of TVs?

Today’s Slice question: What’s the most amazing thing you’ve seen a magpie do? (Our answer: grab a doughnut and fly off with it.)

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.