The Slice Going, Going, Gone - For A Minute

Every now and then, something small happens that makes you want to high-five everyone involved.

There was this kids’ baseball game at the Lincoln Heights Elementary field. A 12-year-old boy hit a home run, his first out-of-the-park clout.

The ball sailed over the fence and onto Ray. It bounced once and hopped through an open car window into the back seat of a passing auto.

A little while later, the driver of that car returned with the baseball, just in case the boys needed it.

Side out: A reader good-naturedly accused us of writing something recently that showed our “sidism.”

As in, South Side vs. North Side.

It made us wonder why that phrase isn’t heard more often. The opportunities are there.

People from different parts of town could accuse one another of flagrant sidism.

Local politicians could hint that their opponents’ agendas smacked of thinly veiled sidism.

Or people could award themselves the moral high ground simply by labeling someone else a sidist.

Next: The undercurrent of Valleyism tearing at Spokane’s soul.

Just wondering: How come so many people around here are suspicious of those who move here from elsewhere but regard as heroes those who leave Spokane, become famous somewhere else and never consider living here again?

Car talk: “Our time-honored New Yorker ‘talks’ to us,” wrote a friend.

She explained that the car reports when various systems are operating normally. It alerts the driver when the fuel is low. And if a door is not quite closed, the car says “A door is ajar.”

You’ve probably heard about auto gadgetry of this ilk.

Well, one day, our friend’s grandson, Axton, who was 4 at the time, climbed in and asked her if he was sitting in the car that talks.

When she said that he was indeed, the little boy had a request. “Make it say ‘A door is a box.’ “

Warm-up question: Do the other people in your family essentially believe that you are incapable of making a travel reservation, inquiring about a possible purchase, lodging a complaint, et cetera without being told exactly what to say, what to ask and what tone to take?

Today’s Slice question: If you were drafting a screenplay for a substantially rewritten remake of “Easy Rider” that instead of routing the bikers through the Southwest and South sent them the length of Interstate 90, what would you have happen to the lead characters in Spokane?

, 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. Good luck, Jennifer and Travis.