The Slice: You aren’t fooling anyone this far ahead

Let’s start with a reader challenge.

Here it is: Come up with a plausible explanation for buying Halloween candy this early. (Be sure to base your scenario on the fantasy that you won’t be eating it all before Columbus Day.)

Good luck.

“Picking songs for a special “Spokane” album: Since it was her idea, it seems only right to let Jean Leonard go first. Here are a few of her picks.

“Watching the River Run” by Loggins and Messina.

“Under the Bridge” by Red Hot Chili Peppers.

“Beautiful Garden” by Toni Price.

“Everyone Knows Everyone” by The Hello Sequence.

“The Fool on the Hill” by Sergio Mendes.

“Family pride: A little boy in a Spokane Safeway was putting on a demonstration of performance burping. Then he interrupted his concert to ask his mother if she would buy him something.

She looked at him with a puzzled expression and asked, “Do I know you?”

“Not quite an emergency: “I was sitting with my cat when she hit the rocket dial on my phone,” wrote Carol Kettleson. “I hung up, hoping she had only hit redial. About a minute later the 911 operator called to see if I was OK.

“A little embarrassed, I explained that my cat had dialed the number. Guess she wanted more attention than she thought I was capable of giving her.”

“Slice answers: Readers named a fair number of co-workers and neighbors in response to the question about the angriest person in Spokane. Some of these nominees would make great characters in a dark sitcom.

Most of those weighing in re: choosing between great coffee and friendly employees said they would patronize the place with the better coffee even if the workers there apparently flunked out of charm school.

But Dan J. Cadagan III noted that, with all the options available around here, a coffee drinker needn’t settle for one or the other.

And it appears that lots of people are saving the Spider-Man comic books from the Sunday paper.

“When interviewing pumpkins for the position of household jack-o’-lantern, be sure to ask: “Where do you see yourself in five years?”

“Train Memories Department: “I was born and spent early years in Fargo, N.D., and my grandparents lived in Eugene, Ore.,” wrote Sandpoint’s Suzie Prichard. “My father always woke me up in the middle of the night, so I could see the Spokane Falls.”

“Warm-up question: What team are you rooting against in the baseball playoffs?

“Today’s Slice questions: What’s the best new TV show? The worst?