The Slice: Pal’s trip is planned, so zip it

Here’s something to keep in mind. By the time friends announce summer travel plans, they’ve usually made up their minds. They’re not in the market for second-guessing. Affirmation is what they seek.

Here then, are a few things you don’t want to say to them:

“Why would you want to go there?”

“Ugh.”

“Better you than me, pal.”

“You’re kidding, right?”

“Another misheard song title: One day back in the ‘60s, Moscow’s Lynda Ballard went into a restaurant with her young daughter. The girl spotted a jukebox and asked her mother to play “There’s a Crack in the Zebra.”

Ballard was baffled. But a bit later, someone put on a song and the little girl identified it as the tune she had wanted to hear — “Winchester Cathedral.”

“There’s the Review and then there’s the Review: “I saw a woman selling subscriptions to the S-R outside a store today and it reminded me of something that happened years ago,” wrote Nola Barrett.

She had just moved here from Las Vegas to attend Gonzaga University. A guy came to the door on a Saturday morning. He was selling subscriptions to The Spokesman-Review. Barrett told him she already took the paper, which was true. But the salesman wasn’t convinced.

That’s because Barrett kept referring to it as the Review-Journal (a newspaper in Las Vegas). “I must have stood there in my pajamas for 10 minutes arguing about whether the Review-Journal was a real paper,” she said.

“Make a wish: The Slice’s mention of the summer solstice prompted Kerri York to note that she will turn 40 on June 20. “I’d love to have a cure for MS before then,” she wrote. “That would be the best birthday present ever.”

She was diagnosed in 2001.

Earlier this month, she completed a marathon in Vancouver, B.C.

“June 20 is also Father’s Day: Still plenty of time to send The Slice your list of favorite TV dads. Andy Taylor? Homer Simpson? Tony Soprano? Ward Cleaver? Hank Hill?

“Localized versions of the Deadwood, S.D., tourism slogan which plays up the fact that Wild Bill Hickok got murdered there while playing poker (Thursday’s Slice): “Deal me in! Spokane beats aces & eights almost any day.” – Lawrence Killingsworth.

“The world spent the summer of ‘74 in Spokane, most never came back.” – Matt Daniel.

“Add this to your to-do list today: Call anyone you know named William “Wild Bill” at least once.

“Slice answer: “Could I do a decent cartwheel?” wrote Fritz Howard, facilities coordinator at the Whitman Hospital and Medical Center in Colfax. “Yes, I could, in 1968. But I’m feeling pretty good about life as I can still bend over and touch my knees.”

“Warm-up question: Is there a limit to the number of times you can work up concern about the same friend’s romance breakups?

“Today’s Slice question: What’s one thing that could never be said about Spokane?