The Slice: Marmot makes a better story

SOMETIMES CONVERSING WITH a person who has experienced hearing loss takes things in unexpected directions.

A friend named Carolyn shared an exchange she had with her elderly mother-in-law.

Carolyn: “You’ll never guess what crawled into bed with me last night.” (Repeated three times with increasing volume.)

Mother-in-law: “What?”

Carolyn: “A hornet!”

Mother-in-law: “How terrible!” (Long pause.) “So what did your cat think about the marmot?”

“Slice answer: Country girl Dawn Reed-Burton watched the entire first season of “Lost” in one marathon DVD session. The viewfest was interrupted only by a break to go milk the goat.

“Three things you remember when overhearing patients in the emergency room: 1.) Some people are liars.

2.) Some people are in horrible relationships.

3.) Some liars are in horrible relationships.

“When you Google your own name: For Davenport’s Morlan Hutchens, the second thing that pops up is his appearance in an old Slice item.

“She can now buy a drink and start planning for retirement: Kristi Leitholt was alarmed to receive a letter inviting her to register with AARP.

“Now I’m in sort of an identity crisis,” she wrote. “Is 21 the new 50?”

“It ain’t me, babe: My friend Vince’s daughter Emma was home from college for a short visit. She borrowed her grandmother’s car to go see friends at the Museum of Arts and Culture, where she had been a volunteer.

When Emma came back out, she found a note on her windshield clearly meant for someone else’s car.

“Deborah,

“You don’t need to hide. It was a long time ago. We’ve both moved on. You can say Hi, and go about your business.

“Take care!”

“Ridiculous family fights: “My brother and I used to get in huge fights over who got to ride on the passenger side in the back seat,” wrote Heidi Olbekson.

“Crows Department: Joan Ojerio is a resident of Eugene, Ore., today. But back in 1979, she lived in Pullman. That was the year her young son died in an accident.

“The week following his death, crows came to our back yard and stayed for several days in the locust tree,” she wrote. “Not just high in the branches but also low on the trunk of the tree where our family could easily see them.

“Our elderly neighbor, who had lived next to our home since it was built in the early 1940s, remarked that she had never seen crows in the yard. … And we never saw them come to our yard again.

“I like to think that the crows were a conveyor of our son’s spirit, saying goodbye.”

“Today’s Slice question: What individual not involved with the production or facility will wind up seeing “The Lion King” the most times during its Spokane run?