The Slice: The Slice plays ball

HERE’S MY IDEA. I want to conduct a series of casual conversations with Slice readers about a variety of local lifestyle concerns. And I want to do it while playing catch.

I’ll bring the baseball. All you’ll have to do is supply your own glove and be ready to answer a few friendly questions.

The time and place will be arranged on an individual basis.

I haven’t played catch since my colleague Jim Kershner and I tossed a ball around at Riverfront Park one lunchtime about 12 years ago. So I’ll be rusty.

But blazing fastballs and impossible-to-catch knuckleballs aren’t what I have in mind.

Let me know if you’re interested.

That famous Adams County twang: “I was at a wedding recently and two senior ladies were quietly chatting in the pew behind me,” wrote Charlotte DiCicco of Liberty Lake.

She overheard this exchange.

First lady: “Now where did you say he was from?”

Second lady: “Washtucna.”

First lady: “Ohhh, that explains the accent.”

Slice answers: Karen Marks said pretty much the whole “Top Gun” soundtrack makes her drive too fast.

For Jeff Danner, it’s Sammy Hagar’s “I Can’t Drive 55.”

For Jeana Allison, it’s Van Halen’s “Runnin’ with the Devil.”

And Deborah Daniels said “anything by Queensryche.”

Speaking of music: Mike Rush saw the item where the Slice reader said most people are capable of sleeping in a moving car or reading in a car without getting carsick, but not both.

He disagreed. He said his 16-year-old daughter, Shelley, is adept at each. And, Rush added, she’s also good at sleeping through rock concerts (including Bruce Springsteen).

“Maybe that’s why she’s a country fan now,” said Rush.

Hmmm. Is anyone in your family famous for falling asleep in public places?

Graduation Speakers Department: The Slice heard from a 1971 Shadle Park High School graduate who recalled that Rep. Tom Foley was the commencement speaker.

But the thing that sticks out in her memory is a post-ceremony party that the congressman attended. He confused the name of the host family’s poodle with her name and called her “Midge” all evening.

“We didn’t have the courage to correct him,” she wrote.

This day at Expo ‘74: National Dancers of Iran.

This date in Slice column history (2001): Waking up in the morning and taking an instant inventory of your anxieties. (Then you realize it’s Saturday and the list shrinks.)

Today’s Slice question: It’s the weekend. You’re out in public. At a distance, you see someone from work. You don’t despise the person or anything. But he or she is just not someone you want to talk to on a day off.

What do you do?