Here’s how this thing works.

Readers write us some really good letters. Then we stack ‘em up and slap on our byline.

“Let me propose a contest,” wrote Spokane’s Ed Reynolds. “Possible prize name: the Reverse Triumph Award. Contestants submit: Examples of road or highway engineering (maybe any kind of engineering) that fly in the face of common sense and accepted practice.

“I have two nominations for starters: 1.) The second corner on Government Way north of Sunset Highway. This little beauty is banked so as to send cars sliding into the curb at the first hint of ice, and the corner is often icy. 2.) The connection between Regal and the old Palouse Highway just south of Southgate. The ‘Water Over Roadway’ signs might as well be permanent; the road follows the lowest terrain and thus floods in every thaw or worse-than-mild rainstorm.”

Slice answer: “What’s the most interesting mix-up you’ve been a party to when exchanging videotapes with friends?” wrote Alison Hainline. “Boy, do I have a good one for you. A few months ago, my roommate and I wanted to borrow a movie from our guy friends across the hall. They had ‘Tommy Boy’, and we had not seen it. We had ‘Dumb and Dumber’, which they had never seen, so we decided to trade for a while. Well … it wasn’t the trade we had bargained for. Their movie turned out to be ‘Tom Boy’ not ‘Tommy Boy’, and ‘Tom Boy’ was a very dirty porn movie. We were totally horrified. But we had to laugh because we were the real Dumb and Dumber.”

Spokane definitions of “alternative lifestyle”: “A family that doesn’t own a pickup truck.” - Helen Elam

“Married without children.” - Tim Wink

Teresa Lowe’s customer service awards go to: Jaremko Nissan, for helping after her old Dodge overheated nearby. And to Harmon Glass, for not charging her for a job she expected to be expensive.

Kablooie: There’s nothing unusual about beverages left out in the car freezing and bursting. But a few winters ago, Rose Lake, Idaho’s Vicky Kienholz was over in Montana, to pick up a hunting dog. And it was so cold that a can of Pepsi left out in the van exploded with such force that it filled part of the frigid vehicle with “Big chunks of frozen foam.”

Today’s Slice question: What tips you off right away that someone who just moved to the Spokane area is not going to be happy here?

, 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. Jim Clanton wonders how many people remember the names of telephone prefix exchanges.