The Slice: Writing the check can be such fun

Maybe I’m just a grouch.

But I have to guess the folks at Nordstrom wouldn’t want to hear all the answers to the chirpy “Don’t you just love shopping?” printed on the envelope containing the store’s monthly bill.

OK, let’s move on.

“Silver lining: When people talk about road construction projects in their neighborhoods, they’re usually complaining.

Not Madie Ripley.

She lives on Perry Street, south of 29th Avenue. Because of work on 29th, drivers can’t turn off that arterial onto Perry right now.

That’s fine with Ripley. She is “REALLY LOVING” the reduced traffic in front of her home. “As far as I’m concerned, they can take all the time they want.”

“Licensing agreement: A Lincoln Town Car belonging to The Davenport Hotel was on its way to the airport last week when it got slammed from behind by another vehicle. No one was hurt, but the Lincoln was a wreck.

Not long after the crash, a beer truck driven by Jeremy Milne passed by the scene of that accident. The loose license plate from the Town Car — DAV-ONE — got kicked up by traffic and wound up stuck in a dolly attached to the front of Milne’s rig.

As it happens, the Davenport is one of his stops. And the hotel’s head of security, Chris Powell, is one of his neighbors.

So next time he was at the Davenport, Milne handed the roughed-up plate to Powell.

“The only piece of the car to return,” said hotel spokesman Tom McArthur.

“Slice reader Janelle Baker’s new pet peeve: Q6 news going nuts with that Map Tracker graphic imagery.

“From the land of sky blue waters…wahhhters: Seldom have I had more fun interacting with readers than I did Monday morning. Over the weekend, 84 Slicers sang spirited renditions of the old Hamm’s beer commercial jingle on my phone mail. The winner of the notebook is Ron King of Coolin, Idaho. But several dozen entries were excellent, and all were much appreciated.

One thing is certain. This stuff is too good to keep to myself. I’m already in conversation with the S-R Web site team about figuring out a way to share such performances next time The Slice has a similar reader challenge.

“It’s a Spokane world, after all: Years ago, Linda Thomas was in a remote village in Kenya when she saw a Maasai wearing an old Bloomsday shirt.

And, in another matter, the local record for having the fewest Bloomsday shirts is shared by quite a few area residents.

“Warm-up question: What local family has the tree in its yard that pumps out the most pine cones?

“Today’s Slice question: What goes through your mind when you see the police car parked outside Temple Beth Shalom during services?