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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

The Slice Lawn-Care Cowboys Deserve Hand

They’re a vanishing breed.

Still, you occasionally come across someone who prefers to water the lawn by hand. You know, drag a running hose around the yard and use a thumb-tip to regulate spray.

You could almost think of these folks as the last lawn-care cowboys.

Sprinklers, of course, are more efficient. And they save time.

But hands-on hosers get to know the satisfaction of personally quenching a yard’s thirst. Moreover, other than being at work, few settings are more conducive to stress-reducing nonstop daydreaming.

Five things you don’t want to hear from your mentor:

1. “You don’t really have much of a knack for this work, do you?”

2. “Underwear is overrated.”

3. “After I’m indicted, here’s what I want you to tell the investigators.”

4. “This is a dying industry.”

5. “Wanna see the body part I forgot to keep inside the window?”

Career planning: We heard about a 3-year-old girl named Sydne who wanted to grow up to be a princess. Then recently, she announced that she had changed her mind.

Her mother thought that might mean she had decided to focus on something slightly more realistic. But then Sydne revealed her new choice. She wants to be Cinderella.

“I don’t want to be a princess because I just don’t like dragons,” she told her mom.

How can you argue with that?

Slice answers: “Those who don’t have a basement don’t sleep with a shoe next to their bed to kill spiders,” wrote Kimberly Murphy.

Spokane’s Martha Calvert doesn’t have to drive anywhere to see her birthplace. For all but 23 of her 60 years, she has lived in the house in which she was born.

The Ritzville Blues Festival and Riverfront Park on July 4 were among the nominees after we asked where one might go to see the most exposed skin and tattoos.

Flesh wounds of summer: There’s nothing like getting a skinned knee as an adult to make one wonder how anybody survives childhood.

Down below: There’s something almost surreal about the way Grand Coulee Dam looks from the air.

Happy ending: You might have seen a lost-dog poster for Beemer, the Welsh Corgi with canine epilepsy who disappeared from his yard in Newman Lake. Well, much to the Lally family’s delight, he came home.

Today’s Slice question: What’s your theory about why mosquitoes seem to single you out for attention?

, DataTimes MEMO: The Slice appears Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Write The Slice at P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210; call (509) 459-5470; fax (509) 459-5098. Our favorite classifieds include the phrase “big honkin’ ” somewhere in the ad.

The Slice appears Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Write The Slice at P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210; call (509) 459-5470; fax (509) 459-5098. Our favorite classifieds include the phrase “big honkin’ ” somewhere in the ad.