The Slice: Sunglasses may shade identity

IS IT JUST ME or do other people have trouble recognizing acquaintances in sunglasses?

If only I could remember to come right out and admit that I was having a hard time identifying people in their shades. That would be so much better than standing there with a ridiculous expression, babbling inanities.

OK, let’s move on.

•Slice answers: “My policy on determining when a pacifier or bottle needs to be washed before it can go back in a baby’s mouth depends on which baby it is,” wrote Karrie Turner. “For the first baby, you take the dirty pacifier and resterilize it in boiling water. For the second baby, the pacifier gets washed off under running water. For the third baby, you brush the dirt off the pacifier. And thank goodness my fourth didn’t like a pacifier.”

Shayne McCaslin reported a similar relaxation of standards. “With my first baby I was very vigilant about boiling pacifiers and making sure not a single germ ever got into my baby’s mouth,” she wrote. “By the third, I just wiped off most of the dog hair and popped it back in.”

•A small request: Parents, when your kid is riding one of those coin-operated mechanical horses in front of grocery stores, try not to look impatient and bored. It ruins it for the rest of us.

•Slice answers: “I have a ‘98 Super Beetle and didn’t give the Slug Bug thing a thought when I first purchased the car,” wrote Patsy Pinch. “Now that I have owned the car for several years, I have noticed tons of people out there with bruises on their arms. Hmmmm.”

Another reader wrote, “I always wonder what Beetle owners think when my van full of kids pulls up and arms are flailing away slugging each other.”

And Kim Frlan described how the game has evolved in her family. “When my kids were young, they were Slug Bug maniacs,” she wrote. “They played the game incessantly.”

When the new Volkswagens came out a few years ago, it was determined that spotting one of them would be worth two points instead of one.

“The other day, my youngest son, who is now 14, observed that since new Bugs are everywhere now and old Bugs are harder to spot, the old cars should be worth two points.

“I thought owners of old Bugs might be pleased to know that, in our family at least, their cars have gone up in value.”

•Note to readers genuinely upset about the July 25 Slice regarding reluctantly accepting gifts from people’s gardens: Um, I was mostly kidding.

•Slice answers: Readers said you can tell right away that the new neighbors are going to be a nightmare when they park several vehicles on the front lawn, most of their possessions appear to be noise-making children’s toys and their very first conversation with you is about the property line.

•Today’s Slice question: How do kindergarten teachers faced with many “creatively” named pupils keep from despising all young parents?