She Bags Recycling Contest

Tue., June 6, 2000

By Paul Turner srpaulturner@gmail.com

Mt. Spokane High sophomore Neleigh Olson has been using the same paper bag to carry her lunch to school every day since Nov. 17.

The bag-a-thon, as she calls it, began as a contest. But only Olson’s lunch bag is still seeing active duty. “Everyone else has bagged out.”

It has a marshmallow stain and tape over a rip. And it gets handled with care. “But it doesn’t even feel like paper anymore,” she said. “It’s like cloth.”

* Slice answers: Shelly Pitt said her mom, Linda, might be this area’s whiniest camper.

And Terry Sugalski said the closest thing the Northwest has to the Alamo might be the River Park Square parking garage.

* Par-tay: “My wife Tammy and youngest son Michael (3, almost 4) were out driving in the Palouse where we live (Pullman),” wrote Roger Crawford. “They passed some helium balloons which had become tangled in some trees at the side of the road.

“Tam looked at Michael and said, `Why do you think those balloons are in the trees?’ “

Michael thought for a moment. Then he said, “The squirrels are having a party?”

* Just wondering: Where is the Inland Northwest’s most remote pay phone?

* A Spokane-style compliment: “That guy probably uses half a dozen bags of ice on a weekday.”

* A 14-year-old named Amelia writes: “Dear Mr. Turner: I have a challenge for you. Why don’t you find something nice to say about teens or just shut up? If you choose the former, then maybe I’ll alter my theory about bitter, narrow-minded adults.”

* Overheard at day care: A 5-year-old named Robin asked if there was “such a thing” as phones in the 1970s.

* Keys to adult friendship: Forgiveness, humor and shared disdain for certain kinds of music, vehicles and sandwich spreads.

* Great Dividers: “Another thing that separates people is feelings on showy public proposals,” wrote E. Hamilton. “There is one faction that believes they are sweet and romantic and the rest of us who view them as emotional blackmail.”

* Warm-up questions: Are young women working at espresso stands required by law to wear midriff-exposing outfits? Is it possible to keep politics out of peer review? Who is home to receive deliveries?

* Today’s Slice question: What was your most unusual sunburn?

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