The Slice Name’s Great But Rebound Talent Lacking

It’s time to try out your Second Half of the Year Resolutions.

Stumped? OK, we’ll get you started. “As of today, I shall quit whining and admit that my Hoopfest team just wasn’t any good.”

Slice answers: Mark Ruhe said that if he could go back in time and join Lewis and Clark as they headed west, the one thing he would take with him would be “My knowledge that there isn’t anything to eat on top of Lolo Pass in February.”

Kingston, Idaho’s Duane Nansel would bring “A 250 H.P. outboard motor attached to a 500 gallon gas tank.”

Republic’s Bill Hatfield would take “About a wagon load of toilet paper.” (He had lots of company on that one.)

Matthew Lane and several others would pack a video camera. Penicillin and tampons also were mentioned.

“My choice would be a recipe book featuring 101 ways to cook dog,” wrote Wilbur’s Margaret Underwood.

In the matter of the driver’s hand signal that would mean “Oops, sorry, I screwed up,” Trudy Lundy and more than a few other readers said a simple wave usually suffices.

Still others suggested the two-finger peace sign. “Even if I’m concentrating on just one finger,” added one caller.

Another reader said it ought to be a two-step gesture. First you put your hand on your forehead, then make the peace sign.

One innovative thinker offered the idea of holding out your hand with just the pinkie finger extended. And another reader suggested a thumb-extended gesture.

After we asked how readers would describe their mail carriers, Margaret Blomberg sent a snapshot of hers and praised him as a “Jolly Santa Claus in shorts.”

“Super,” is how Eva Eagle characterized hers.

Other readers came up with “spiffy,” “qualified,” “friend,” “anal retentive,” “ragamuffin,” and - this was the reader’s actual word choice - “expletive.”

Swell Paper genealogy columnist Donna Potter Phillips responded to our question about whether family-tracing addicts need a 12-step program. She passed along a list. Among our favorite “steps” was “Be surrounded and supported by a loving family ‘cuz they are documenting the family heritage!”

And after we asked what this area would have been like way back in the Spokanizoic period, a civic booster called and said “It would have been without form and devoid of life, and nothing has changed.”

Today’s Slice question: How many kinds of produce-loving animals eat stuff growing in your garden?

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Drawing

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