The Slice This Bikini Would Be A One-Piece

Kelly Hansen, a 4-year-old Spokane Valley girl, was excited about reporting that a friend had gotten a “zucchini” swimsuit.

She probably meant “bikini.” But who knows. Maybe it’s a new fashion inspired by residents of the Zucchini Atoll, previously famous for conducting atomic tests on mounds of vegetables given to them by neighbors with big gardens.

Name game: Debbie Brown’s fourth-grade class at Moran Prairie Elementary School has three boys named Adam (two of whom have last names starting with G), two Dereks, two Kaitlins and a Bryan and a Brian.

Speaking of names: A friend found herself scanning the Swell Paper’s birth listings this summer. She kept track of the monikers given newborns. A few of the creative ones caught her eye: Kajsa Mae Chloe, Kiara Dasherae, Keiann Dollia, Kiona Nichele, Jocdon, Javien Jakell, Mariya Teterin, Sydnie Alivia, Natashai Secrett, Amiayah Marie, Kryshantae Kashielle Trasae, Jewella, Alishia Rhiannon, Zidkijah, Keyper, Rowdy Joe, Aziza, Sierra Oceana, Damlen Xavier Deshaun, Jakiah, Pheonix, Tajre Ruby, Exairius Shemar, Rainey Sky and Kadin Odysius.

“Won’t it be fun for kindergarten teachers!” she concluded.

The two ways your neighbors can react to the fact that, though you clearly live in Washington, your cars have Idaho license plates:

1. They can think you’re an independent-minded tax protester who lives by his own rules.

2. They can think you’re a ridiculous skinflint violating the law.

Slice answer: We heard from several readers after Colfax’s Louise Braun asked if anyone remembered three stores from yesteryear. But only Janis McDaniel of Waverly shared connections to all of them. “I made my first money picking gooseberries and selling them to the Potlatch Mercantile,” she wrote. “I also took inventory in the men’s department…Still have a bedroom set from Williamson’s of Palouse that belonged to my parents…After my grandfather retired from the farm, he helped out at David’s in Moscow and my uncle worked there.”

Old business: A friend noted that one reason for smoking cigars while fishing is to keep mosquitoes at bay.

Today’s Slice question: Who has the area’s messiest garage?

(Feel free to send photographic evidence. And speaking of photos, we want to thank those who mailed in snapshots of their refrigerator doors. We regret that not one was usable. Pictures submitted to The Slice must be in sharp focus and not too dark.)

, 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. Dandelions never surrender.