The Slice: When final bell rings, watch out for jaywalking teenagers

Spokane drivers aren’t perfect. We all know that.

But a fair number of them must be paying attention. How else would you explain the fact that aggressively jaywalking high school kids aren’t run over in the street every weekday?

If you spend any time near a school around the final bell, you know what I’m talking about.

And if you don’t, well, take my word for it. When herds of teenagers are intent on asserting themselves in this knuckleheaded way, it helps to be watching the road and to have good brakes.

“Hug it out: Seven-year-old Cooper Haney was at a recent Spokane Chiefs game with his family. They were watching the preliminary warm-ups. Just before the opening face-off, they saw the home team’s players gather around their goalie for a quick psych-up moment.

Cooper’s mom, Kristi Haney, asked her son what was going on.

He nodded knowingly and said, “Oh, they are in the cuddle.”

Perhaps he meant to say “huddle.” Because, as his mom noted, hockey’s sweet, sensitive side was nowhere to be seen once the game started.

“Much to my son’s delight, there were several fights and hard body checks,” she wrote. “Maybe they need to cuddle longer.”

“The ultimate compliment in Spokane: “Nice truck!” — Vicki Lingow

And about a dozen readers suggested variations on “You’re not from around here, are you?”

“Local angle: “Babies in different states?” wrote Cori Wright. “Oh, no, we were much simpler than that. All five of our children were born in the same room at Valley Hospital. I think they should name the room for us.”

“Just wondering: Without getting into the whole Mars/Venus thing, a North Side hairstylist noted that the men who sit in her chair tend to talk about actions and events while the women she coifs usually discuss feelings.

She wasn’t passing judgment. She didn’t say she found it especially surprising. And she wasn’t suggesting either sex was incapable of other kinds of conversation. She was just describing her workplace reality.

But it made me wonder. What clear gender differences do you observe in your occupation?

“So you think you know Spokane: OK. Let’s hear you give directions to Polly Judd Park.

“Re: a dusting of the white stuff: “Doesn’t everyone call it a skiff of snow?” — Janet Lake

“I’ve always called a light layer of snow a skiff and so did my mom. I thought everyone did.” — Barbara Keene

“Warm-up question: Considering that elementary schoolkids aren’t usually all the fearsome, what local grade school mascot cracks you up the most? (I’m partial to the Wilson Wildcats, Hallett Hawks and Otis Orchards Vikings.)

“Today’s Slice question: How many Slice readers remember the astonishing mid-January blizzard of 1950?