The Slice: You can reach them on their cell

Loyalty can be a funny thing. We all know about Spokane drivers. They (we) can be exasperating and scary.

So when we are on the road several states away and see a car from here, you’d think the logical reaction would be caution and keeping one’s distance.

But instead, the tendency is to think, “Hey, there’s someone from home — I’ll bet I could count on that person in a pinch.”

And who knows. Maybe you could.

•Think system: Ginny Ressel teaches a combined kindergarten/first grade class in Sprague. Before leading her pupils in writing exercises, she encourages the kids to think creatively and bounce around ideas.

One little girl apparently takes these warm-up discussions quite seriously and doesn’t want anything impairing her ability to take part. So the other morning, as she was getting ready to go to school, she told her mom: “Don’t do my hair so tight today. We have to brainstorm.”

•Slice answers (vanity license plates): “The best one I’ve ever seen was a flashy sports car with the license plate 4MYX2NV,” wrote Cathy DeVleming of Pullman. “As we sat behind it at a red light, we read it over and over again to figure it out. By the time the light turned green, we had deciphered it — For My Ex to Envy.”

Kristina Ohlen, also of Pullman, liked the Idaho plate she saw on a driver’s training car. It read “NOT YET.”

Gary Hicks, who has a 110-pound Rottweiler named Harley, approved of the “ROTYLAR” plate he spotted ahead of him in traffic.

Karen Elkins was underwhelmed by the extra-large, high-priced vehicle adorned with plates that, if you mentally inserted the vowels, read “VERY BLESSED.”

Another reader said he wasn’t impressed with the “I TITHE” plate he saw on what he described as an expensive car.

•How to save time while getting ready for work or school: Instead of gradually transitioning from short sleeves to long sleeves, just pick a day and make the switch. This can eliminate 30 seconds of daily indecision.

•More Slice answers: Lots of readers said they pray. “All the time,” wrote Bev Hatch.

Almost as many reported that their dogs have evolved into bed animals. Referring to his family’s pooch, Abbie, Roy Myers wrote, “Within one week of joining the household, she had perfected the technique of stealth cover-theft.”

Several readers said defying gravity is one trait that suggests breasts have been augmented.

And in the matter of pinpointing Hillyard’s heyday, Jeanette Loucks asked, “Has it happened yet?”

•Warm-up question: At what point during the journey of Lewis and Clark would you have said, “Oh, the heck with this — I’m going back to St. Louis”?

•Today’s Slice question (prompted by a visit to the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument): Where did you experience the most appalling discovery of carelessly discarded cigarette butts?