The Slice: Celebrate new year Potter-style

So I know some of you, my old building and loan pals, are depressed because you believe the season for quoting lines from “It’s a Wonderful Life” has passed.

Well, don’t despair. This is the perfect week to recycle Mr. Potter’s immortal greeting: “Happy New Year to you — in jail!”

First Night ought to have a contest to see who does the best impression.

“Aim high: If you’re not going to stick to your New Year’s resolutions anyway, you might as well make them ambitious. With that in mind, The Slice has a few proposals.

1. Every single time someone tells you that he or she has the flu, say “In all likelihood, what you have is a common cold and you are simply trying to make your condition seem more dramatic.”

2. Let go of all your bitterness about the realities of office politics at your workplace.

3. Build a full-scale P-51 Mustang in your garage.

4. Write and sell a screenplay about a Spokane woman who discovers that she can love again.

5. Relax.

“Just wondering: I realize that “The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet” was not a documentary. (I can’t resist checking it out when KSPS airs a couple of episodes at Christmas.) But I’ve got a question for readers who remember the 1950s.

Does anyone recall having a next-door neighbor who essentially did nothing but stand around in front of his house, wearing a sport coat and bow tie and smoking a pipe while waiting to engage in jovial banter?

“Slice answers: Most suggestions for the name of a college football bowl game played in Coeur d’Alene referred to businessman Duane Hagadone in one way or another.

“Coeur d’Duane Bowl.” — Ken Yuhasz, Rick Garvin and others.

“Coeur d’Uane Bowl.” — Dee Dee Morris and others.

“Hag a’Done Bowl.” — Scott in Colville.

“The Hagadone Hospitality & Black Book Telephone Directory Bowl.” — John Fulton.

And so on. Several readers said the game would be played in the Hagadome.

There were also some unrelated ideas. For instance, Doreen Robbins suggested “Spudweiser Bowl.”

But my favorite might have been Jim Corcoran’s no-nonsense “Fish Bowl.”

“Managing the calendar: “My wife’s birthday is Dec. 5 and mine is Jan. 12,” wrote Donald Schaefer. “To make things even more complicated my mother-in-law’s birthday is Jan. 11. The rule in our household is that Christmas is not mentioned before Dec. 6 or after Jan. 1.”

“Slice answer: “From birth through my teen years I lived in 11 houses,” wrote Chuck Boos. “The first and last are gone but the rest are still livable. I am 87 years old, so that is a long time for those houses to be around.”

“Today’s Slice question: If your upcoming credit-card bills made a sound, what would it be?