The Slice: Let Dad straighten her out

Here’s a story that shows teens really do care about others. Dorie Berger’s daughter, Kylie, has her driver’s learning permit. And the girl’s father is helping her become a safe motorist. The other day, he explained what she should do if she hit black ice and her car started to swerve.

Kylie listened to the instructions. Then she had one question.

“But Dad, what about the black guys?”

“Slice answers (least favorite holiday songs): When hearing “Little Drummer Boy,” Charlie Lee quickly finds himself about one “pa rum pum pum pum” from losing it.

“The Twelve Days of Christmas” usually has Phyllis Rollins a-leaping to put on some different music.

And Lisa Pra ranked “The Christmas Song” as the seasonal tune she dislikes most. “Of course, if you know someone whose chestnuts you want to roast then that is the song to sing,” she wrote.

“Just wondering: In Spokane, (fill in the blank) is the surest sign that a manager’s ego is out of control.

“Seasonal adjustment: “Winter has arrived,” wrote Wade Griffith. “It is not the temperature or the precipitation or the music in the stores or the sweet song of studded tires on new asphalt that tells me this. I know it is winter because the weather has once again become the top news story on all three commercial television stations.

“The arrival of winter is NOT news. Talking about it on television is NOT journalism.”

Another reader asked, “Why does the TV news make every little snow flurry into an incoming natural disaster instead of normal winter weather?”

Here are a half-dozen theories.

1. Lots of people love to talk about winter weather.

2. Though longtime Spokane residents act all hardy and rugged when transplanted Californians are in the room, when it comes to snow we are a bunch of big babies.

3. Snow scenes make good video.

4. Doesn’t require getting footage of a neighbor saying, “He was quiet, kept to himself.”

5. Allows the anchors to play that stupefying game where they pretend that Tom, Brian or Kris are to blame.

6. Snow has nothing to do with meth or Jim West.

“Only around here: A South Hill resident raked a big pile of pine needles into the street and then stuck a “Free” sign in it.

“Slice answer (best things about Spokane International Airport): Jon Coffin proposed a toast to bartender Glenda Ates. “She is just great, and makes every trip I take to and from the airport a delight,” he wrote.

“Warm-up questions: Does whacking something actually solve mechanical problems? Can you tell which of your co-workers someone is there to see just from that person’s smell?

“Today’s Slice question: In the Inland Northwest, what expression is the most common utterance immediately preceding the tossing back of an alcoholic drink?