She did get ‘Bob’ right, however

You can tell Spokane could use diversity training when …

A few years ago, a friend’s mom was putting names on Christmas packages. One was for a relative-by-marriage whose first name was pronounced “Hey Zeus.”

The mother asked her daughter how that was spelled.

The daughter gave her that time-honored look. “You can get this, Mom,” she said. “You know it.”

Nope. Not a clue.

Eventually hints and prodding illuminated the path to J-E-S-U-S.

“Songs that should be on a “Spokane” album: Les Norton nominated “Saturday in the Park” by Chicago.

Why not? Chances are, you won’t encounter “a man selling ice cream, singing Italian songs” here. But you never know.

When that brassy band was in its heyday, I was a music snob. (I was young and insufferable. Sue me.) So I dismissed Chicago as pop pap.

But after receiving Norton’s e-mail, I started hearing another Chicago song – the rising horns at the finish of “Beginnings.” I’ve had worse start-the-morning anthems ringing in my head.

Only the beginning

Only just the start.

“You might have heard this before: But it never hurts to review.

After The Slice mentioned fortune cookies, an e-mail arrived from Barbara E. Smith. She noted that 99 percent of cookie fortunes read by adults are improved by adding “… between the sheets.”

Sometimes diners just tack on “in bed.” But you get the idea.

“Favorite train-scene movies: Carol Siegenthaler mentioned “Silver Streak.”

Kerri York thought of “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” and “The Polar Express.”

Gary Polser said “Von Ryan’s Express.”

Pam Pierson mentioned “French Kiss.”

And several readers noted “Planes, Trains and Automobiles.”

“Speaking of trains: Here’s another memory.

Hayden’s Phyllis Burrows boarded one in Portland on Christmas Eve, 1943. She was headed to Arizona to see her pilot-in-training husband before he went overseas. The train was full of servicemen.

Remember, this was before D-Day, before the big push in the Pacific.

It was night. “Someone started singing Christmas carols,” wrote Burrows.

Soon almost everyone joined in.

A happy scene, to be sure. But Burrows remembers wondering how many of the uniformed passengers would see the next Christmas.

“Today’s Slice question: Who around here has the most metal-detector- triggering artificial body parts?