The Slice: For some, it’s Gloomsday every May

Spokane knows how to do backlash.

The Slice’s recent discussion of who around here has the fewest Bloomsday T-shirts tapped a wellspring of anti-Bloomsday sentiment.

“The only event that will find me running with 50,000 people all in the same direction is the arrival of Godzilla in Spokane,” wrote Stuart Lowe. “Now that is a shirt I would wear with pride.”

“I have zero Bloomsday T-shirts, and even better, I have never ever attended even one Bloomsday race,” wrote Susan Bowen, who has lived in Spokane since 1980. “… It’s become a point of honor to me.”

And so on.

Here are half a dozen theories about why some people don’t dig the big event.

1. A few people resent assumed universality of interest in any situation and especially loathe being told “Ya gotta love it” in connection with recreation/sports.

2. A few local residents regard the May event as pointless.

3. Certain participants can be annoyingly self-congratulatory.

4. Media coverage somehow seems indicative of everything some can’t stand about Spokane.

5. This area has its share of contrarians.

6. A fair number of Bloomsday evangelists who gush about the transcendent wonderfulness of the run are 6 feet tall and weigh 85 pounds.

“Speaking of Godzilla: Which old-time Japanese movie monster would have been most at home in the Inland Northwest? Gamera? Mothra? Rodan?

“More ludicrously localized movie trivia: In what body of water does the character played by Shelley Winters drown in 1951’s “A Place in the Sun”?

Hint: It’s also an Inland Northwest place name.

The answer can be found after my contact information.

“Everything is relative: Those “Spokane is Full, Go Home” bumper-stickers must be amusing to those who have lived in areas with genuine population density.

“Re: Tuesday’s Slice: A reader seemed puzzled about how everyone would speak on Talk Like a Dropout Day.

Apparently she hasn’t watched many interviews of local people on Spokane TV news.

“If “The Graduate” were set in present day Washington…: The Braddocks and Robinsons would live in Mead. Elaine would be a student at the University of Washington. Ben and Mrs. Robinson would get together at the Davenport. Ben would drive a shiny new pickup. And instead of “plastics,” the famous advice would be “alternative energy.”

“Coming Friday: That wedding snapshot I mentioned last week.

“Today’s Slice question: What person once stationed at Fairchild Air Force Base was most like a character in “Dr. Strangelove”?