The Slice: Stud foes let a few facts slide

The campaign is in full swing to make drivers who use studded tires society’s newest pariahs.

I’m sure you’ve noticed.

I won’t rehash all of the arguments. You can make up your own mind.

But I can’t resist noting one thing that consistently cracks me up.

The critics of studded tires love to point out that the only surface on which studs actually help driving performance is ice.

Well, duh. Maybe that’s why people use them.

In case you haven’t noticed, winters here typically include a phenomenal number of days in which the temperatures straddle the freezing point. And once there’s any kind of snow pack, this constant thaw-and-refreeze cycle tends to leave streets covered with you know what.

For people who routinely do some of their driving before say, 8 a.m., the streets around here can be skating-rink slick day after day.

You could argue that winter driving in Spokane can be more treacherous than in places that experience far rougher weather.

OK, I’m not pretending that studded tires don’t wear out our roads. But at least some who use them would be willing to pay usage fees.

Maybe that wouldn’t come close to offsetting the roadway repair bill. So, yes, maybe they should be banned outright, as West Side legislators have suggested for years.

But it would be nice if some of the critics could manage to be slightly less sanctimonious. After all, not everyone on the “anti” side is a perfect paragon of driving virtue.

I once received a blistering e-mail from a reader who took it upon himself to lecture me about the evils of studded tires. He said those who use them are inept motorists who have insanely poor judgment.

He neglected to mention that he’d once been arrested for drunken driving.

“Slice answer: “There are polite smokers and polite cell phone users,” wrote Carol Woodward. “Most are inconsiderate, though, and an inconsiderate person is inconsiderate no matter if they are puffing on a cig or yapping on a cell.”

“Picks and pans: A reader named Kay wondered what’s up with the suddenly inescapable word “pandemic.”

Kay, a pandemic is an epidemic that has been mutated by the hype virus.

Perhaps you are unaware that everything in modern life has to be bigger, worse, or more extreme than anything ever experienced in human history.

“Things you didn’t tell the cop who pulled you over: Years ago, Jim A. was stopped for speeding on the Maple Street Bridge while rushing a semen sample to a medical office. But he didn’t tell the officer about having his sperm count checked.

“Warm-up question: Have you ever known someone who gave his or her pet such a horrible name that you could never bring yourself to refer to the animal by that atrocious moniker?

“Today’s Slice question: What signals to you that the weekend is almost over?