The Slice Are We Talking Windows?

It was just another scene from a store in Spokane.

This little boy wanted his mother to give him a quarter so he could plug it into one of those geegaw-dispensing gumball machines. So the mother asked him what he intended to do for her in return. The kid thought about it for a second, then came up with his answer. “I’ll clean some house,” he offered.

His mother laughed and forked over the money.

We hereby assign someone/ anyone: To mail colorful Spokane leaves to at least one person in each of the other 49 states.

People in New England might think they own fall. They’re wrong.

Job interview questions: A guy named Dave was applying for an engineer’s position at a computer-related manufacturing plant when he was asked how many hairdressers there are in the United States.

A reader named Kim was asked how she would describe the Earth to a being from another planet.

And a woman named Rita remembered how the manager of a bank branch sneered when, after he asked if she was left-handed or right-handed, she reported that she was ambidextrous.

After the Halloween candy ran out: A friend named Greg handed out Top Ramen and then a frozen loaf of French bread.

Aunts and uncles in the fourth grade: Michelle Vinje, 9, has six nieces and two nephews. And Jacob Leander, 10, also has eight nieces and nephews.

You know people are SO Spokane when: “They can cross three lanes of traffic without signalling and make their off-ramp without spilling their coffee or dropping their cellular phone.” - J. Anderson

Slice answer: Jobs requiring people to decipher doctors’ handwriting got most of the votes after we asked who has it roughest when it comes to having to make out illegible scrawls.

Warm-up questions: Does your vision of the Inland Northwest’s future include your children living here? Do the co-workers you can’t stand know that’s how you feel? In local sixth-grade classrooms, what is this fall’s No. 1 fashion statement?

Today’s Slice question: Why do so many people think there are limits to what Spokane can become?

, 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. If you want a laugh, ask people over 30 what they did on a regular basis to impress the opposite sex back when college age.