The Slice: Despite its age, it can rock all night long

Janet Yoder’s 9-year-old granddaughter, Nyomi, was over visiting.

She was sitting in a hickory rocking chair.

The little girl’s grandfather told her it was more than 50 years old.

Nyomi thought about that for a moment. Then she asked, “How many is that in chair years?”

“Cheers: Several readers said they enjoyed my admission that I prefer mainstream beer to more exotic brews.

Dave Van Boven wasn’t quite so taken with that column. “I get that you are a beer snob (reverse-snobbery is still snobby) but there might be other reasons people like microbrews,” he wrote. “Speaking just for myself, I like variety, and more importantly, I like supporting local businesses when I can. You know, like subscribing to the hometown newspaper at a time when so many people skip local and go directly to the Web or to national papers.”

“No laugh-track needed: Almost any workplace could be the basis for a decent TV sitcom.

Often, it would not take much embellishment. Real people are funny.

Sure, some of our co-workers are intentionally humorous. But the serious laughs would come from accurate depictions of the various neurotics, nitwits, bores and self-important jargon spewers in our midst.

You know what I’m talking about.

If someone wanted to cook up a show based on life at The Spokesman-Review, I would have a long list of observations to share. To be fair, I would include a few of my own annoying behaviors.

But the first thing I’d want to tell them about would be the reluctant good neighbors.

You see, there’s a reporter at this newspaper who has been assigned the task of occasionally profiling local residents deemed by others to be especially good neighbors. What could be nicer, right?

Well, not so fast.

The reporter in question is a bright, personable woman. I sit near enough to her desk to hear her setting up interviews for these good-neighbor pieces. She is good on the phone — friendly but professional.

Anyway, the thing that has turned the good-neighbor stories into this woman’s personal veil of tears is the astonishing tendency of profile subjects to agree at first to be interviewed and then later back out.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard that reporter get these “On second thought” calls. It happens over and over. And it never fails to crack me up.

I think the pattern of these back-outs says something about Spokane, but that’s for another day.

The reporter, though clearly disappointed, is always gracious. So far, she has resisted urgings that she snarl, “That’s OK, I’ll bet you’re not really a very good neighbor anyway.”

“Today’s Slice question: What recurring scene at your workplace would make a good running gag in the sitcom version of your office?