The Slice Our Self-Image Myths Have Lots Of Life Left
Here’s a prediction.
The final instance of someone around here telling a reporter that he or she is shocked that a violent crime happened in his or her neighborhood will occur in the year 2021.
They still talk about it in this kid’s family: A little Spokane girl went to church with her grandmother and her aunt. During the service, there was a baptism. When the little girl got home, she reported what she had witnessed. “Mom, they advertised a baby at church today.”
Feel free to call us old grumps: But we sort of liked the phone book better back when you could actually find stuff like area codes.
State of confusion: Loren Mason in Post Falls told us about a surprising fact appearing in a mail-order 1997 appointments book obtained through Montgomery Ward. In a back-of-the-book section devoted to various lists, there’s one for the best places to retire. One of the cities mentioned is our own Coeur d’Alene, Oregon.
A few days before the election: Seven-year-old Andrew Bisenius was eating a banana when he noticed it came with a brand name that definitely wasn’t “Clinton.”
“Boy,” he said. “They’ll put campaign stickers on anything.”
Edifice envy: We know it would violate any reasonable sense of scale and would not be remotely feasible financially. But we can’t help it. We sometimes wish downtown Spokane had a true skyscraper. You know, something, say, 77 stories tall.
In fact, we’ve already picked out some names. See if you like any of these…Rosauers Tower, Sterling Centre, MSC Plaza, Coldwater Creek Castle, the Itron Building, Pegasus Place and Jim’s Home Brew Tower.
Perfect name for the lead character of a set-in-Spokane Great American Novel: Colden Hayfield. - Pam Galloway
Veradale’s Bob Walker speaks out: “Now, for some insane reason, the highest priority on the automobile is to see how many lights can be mounted on the front without regard to the blinding effect it is having on the oncoming driver.”
Today’s Slice question: Who’s usually smarter - the driver of the pickup or the dog in the back?
, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Drawing
MEMO: The Slice appears Monday, Tuesday, Friday and Saturday. Write The Slice at P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210; call (509) 459-5470; fax (509) 459-5098. A reader in Wallace argued that this region’s biggest problem, embodied by The Slice, is a disagreeable closed-minded attitude. For him, the last straw was our apparent dissing of New England’s fall leaves. OK, maybe he’s got a case. But when you have family in Vermont, as we do, it’s difficult to resist piping up about autumn.