The Slice: Ticket prices can impair your hearing

The trouble with asking friends for their reviews of concerts you skipped is that you can’t always trust people.

Some of those who went to the show might have an agenda that clouds their reporting.

If they spent a lot on their tickets, they might want to justify that decision by trying to convince you that you missed one of the greatest concerts of all time.

And chances are, it wasn’t.

•Slice answer: “My cat doesn’t think he is the sheriff,” wrote Michele Nestor. “But my Chihuahua certainly does.”

•Grandchild of the Year: Patti Skinner took her 9-year-old grandson, Corey, along when she went to renew her driver’s license.

After that had been accomplished, the boy asked to see her new license. Skinner handed it over.

“Oh, Grandma,” said Corey. “That’s a bad picture. You need to go back in there and tell them they need to get a new camera.”

•Readers weigh in: Regarding Hawaiian shirts, Terri Charbonneau wrote, “I think they suggest an ‘on vacation’ state of mind.”

Yes, and that’s what makes them such interesting workplace attire.

And after The Slice recommended an Arbor Day Foundation guide to western trees as a way to clear up arboreal confusion, Jan Hancock wrote, “The only difference I see in the Ponderosa and the Lodgepole pine tree is one is called the Ponderosa and the other is called the Lodgepole.”

Precisely. That’s why many of us need the guidebook. It has illustrations of 23 kinds of pine trees.

•Multiple choice: Which regionally flavored compliment would you most like to hear?

A) “Too bad Lewis and Clark didn’t have you at their side.” B) “That haircut sort of makes you look like a marmot.” C) “You strike me as someone who could actually tell the difference between wheat and barley.” D) “Nice truck.” E) “Hey, I need some advice about tents.” F) “You really know your pine trees.”

•Junk drawers: Peggy and Morgan Sheldon once swapped the contents of two drawers, one containing eating utensils and the other odds and ends. So for a while, out of habit, they found themselves going to the wrong drawer for forks and knives.

“Forty years and several dwellings later, we still refer to our odds and ends drawer as the ‘Oops drawer,’ ” they wrote.

Julie Gagnon said her family doesn’t have a nickname for their junk drawer. But the hamper that is home to socks without partners and such is called the “Laundry Basket of Doom.”

•You aren’t alone: If your fingertips never stop smelling like onions during summer.

•Warm-up question: Ever get going east on Interstate 90 and hear a little voice say, “Hey, let’s stay on this and see how long it takes to get to Boston”?

•Today’s Slice question: Is checking in with the office while you are on vacation a good idea or a bad idea?