A brush with greatness or weirdness?

Once again, a reader has turned to this column for help.

“Dear Slice,

“I have never written before, but I am hoping you can clear up a difference of opinion between my husband and me,” wrote a woman who asked that I not print her name.

“He has what I believe is a very unusual habit regarding brushing his teeth.

“Most nights you will find him lying on his back in bed, brushing for a good long time. He proceeds to swallow all of the toothpaste, set his toothbrush on the nightstand and go to sleep.

“He has handled this bit of hygiene this way throughout our whole 13 years of marriage.”

There’s more.

“The other night, he had a large sneeze in the middle of this process, which caused quite a mess, as you can imagine.”

So she told her husband that she would bet him that he is the only person who brushes his teeth this way.

His reply? He bet her $100 that she’s wrong.

So how would you determine the outcome of such a wager? Well, my correspondent had an idea.

“I told him I would write to you, and hopefully your readers would settle the bet.”

Slice answer: Spokane Valley’s Diana and Larry Sanderson met on the Spokane-to-Cheney EWU shuttle bus back in the summer of 1971. They got married in 1972. Their wedding anniversary is Sunday.

As Larry tells it, he was quietly reading his Bible when approached by a bold woman in a revealing yellow dress. She eyed him and said, “Hey, Big Boy, wanna go out?”

But Diana, who is in charge of adult education programs at a local church, insists that his version has no basis in reality.

Can you hear me now: Businessman Mike Kilgore has noticed that fewer people seem to get personal calls on their work phones these days. Instead, friends and family reach them on their cell phones.

Oh, they’re still at work. They’re still having personal conversations on a phone. They just aren’t using the work phone to do it.

Anyway, Kilgore has questions: “Is there office etiquette for ring tones? Or how loud they ring?”

Well, Mike, there are no formal rules at most businesses. It’s one of those situations where we rely on courtesy and consideration for others.

In other words, lots of annoying morons do whatever they feel like and anybody who doesn’t like it can go to blazes.

Proposed title for a locally-set romance novel: “Lady Chatterly’s Lilacs.” — Debbie Mathews

Today’s Slice question: What is the most racially diverse elementary school in the Inland Northwest?