The Slice: That’d be a real gem for miners

The other morning a Spokane radio announcer mentioned the president’s visit to “Idaho state.”

He must have said it that way to distinguish the Gem State from Idaho, D.C.

Now there’s an idea. Move the nation’s capital to, say, the Silver Valley. And maybe former miners could get high-paying jobs as soulless lobbyists.

“Just wondering: A reader recently returned from a trip to Las Vegas wondered if Spokane residents typically dress differently when they’re in the Nevada gambling Mecca.

“Misspeaking: Spokane Valley’s Joan Williams once found her former father-in-law out in his garden, obviously in the throes of a black mood. She asked what was troubling him.

He explained that the atheists were eating his tomatoes.

He probably meant “aphids,” but either way that would be annoying.

You know how the person in the front passenger seat is said to be riding “shotgun”? Well, a member of Agnes Lesage’s family called that the “pistol” seat.

And in commenting on Spokane’s occasional small-town vibe, one of Sheila Geraghty Leek’s relatives said, “You can’t swing a dead horse in this town without knowing someone.”

So true.

“Analyze yourself: “To become the person I’d like to be, I would need to ….”

A) Care less about what other people thought. B) Get in shape. C) Be willing to get fired. D) Have a spiritual dimension that isn’t phony. E) Be braver. F) Get past my anger. G) Stop talking behind people’s backs. H) Start with some apologies. I) Stop lying. J) Be willing to say the unpopular thing. K) Never again smile when it isn’t sincere or laugh at something that’s not funny (so much for office politics). L) Do good works for which I’ll never be publicly recognized. M) Watch less TV. N) Confront bullies. O) Relax. P) Forgive. Q) Listen. R) Tell the emperor he has no clothes on and add that it’s not a good look for him. S) Other.

“Types of tans: Palouse resident Mickie Sell calls hers a “teacher tan.”

“You know, the strange white rectangle across the top of the thighs from holding a textbook or laptop at swim meets, baseball and soccer games,” she wrote. “No amount of instant tanning product seems to cover it either, so I wear it proudly.”

Several readers noted that drivers who operate vehicles lacking air-conditioning often wind up with asymmetrical “trucker tans” on their left arms.

And Colville’s Jill Howard said rural mail drivers tend to have extremely tanned right arms.

“Warm-up questions: What’s your usual elapsed time between donning a clean blouse or shirt and getting a food stain on it? What’s your favorite story about dealing with a doctor who obviously never even glanced at your file?

“Today’s Slice question: What area barn has the most character?