The Slice Illustrations Add Color To Black, White, Gray Areas

When The Slice crawled out of the primordial soup and onto the IN Life cover a little more than four years ago, reviews were mixed.

But everyone agreed about one thing. Artist Anne Heitner Washington’s contributions were delightful. Her work, of which illustrating this column was just a small part, offered readers a singular charm and wit.

She died in May. She was 46.

But check this out. There will be a show and sale of 140 of her illustrations at Chase Gallery in City Hall, starting Wednesday night at 6. The event continues Thursday and Friday. Proceeds will benefit her three children.

Here’s how to tell when inattention to housekeeping has crossed the line: A Spokane woman who didn’t want to see her name in print told us about how she got behind in cleaning up after the family’s guinea pigs. This, she said, led to a marked increase in the number of flies buzzing around in her home. Not a pleasant thing. So her husband brought inside one of those electric outdoor bug-zappers and turned it on. It didn’t help. Of course, he could have gone ahead and cleaned up the guinea pigs’ cages himself. But let’s not get into that.

A case of black and white: While talking about a beefy black and white cat we regularly encounter, we mentioned that this feline exudes confidence and self-esteem. Now we know that most cats aren’t exactly lacking in the positive self-image department. But this particular kitty, known to bull his way into homes that are not his own, is off the chart.

Anyway, a friend said all black and white cats are like that. Is that true?

Slice statistic: We estimate that 60 percent of the people who say there’s nothing to do in Spokane are in particularly poor position to comment because they never go out and wouldn’t leave home even if the city had a three-ring circus on every street corner.

Two bumper stickers that have now stood the test of time: “Put down the phone and drive.”

“Support the right to arm bears.”

We had to smile: It was shortly before sunrise. And a guy walking on a sidewalk in downtown Spokane, obviously on his way to work, was asked “How’s it going?”

“So far, so good,” he answered.

Right. There was still plenty of time for things to go wrong.

Today’s Slice question: If your dog or cat invited all its human friends to a party at your place, how many of these people would you not know?

, 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. Spending a lot for a good white shirt is never a mistake.