The Slice: Don’t hope they take their break literally

You know those folks who always seem to get extended vacation time during the holidays, as if it is some sort of birthright?

Sure. Well, it’s not appropriate to hope they break their legs in horrible skiing accidents.

Let’s move on.

“Asked and answered: “I have wanted to ask you this question ever since we were in New York City last Christmas,” wrote Bill Hochstatter of Colfax. “While you are walking to and from work do you notice whether the other pedestrians that you meet usually walk on the right side of the sidewalk? I noticed when we were in NYC that pedestrians walked all over the sidewalk no matter which direction they were going. I got to thinking that most people out here walk on the right side because that is the side of the road that they drive on. Since most New Yorkers don’t drive they have a tendency to wander from side to side on the sidewalk.”

Yes, but I’m sure you noticed, Bill, that they also know how to give and take space on the sidewalk.

I think there is, in fact, a slight walk-on-the-right tendency in Spokane. But it has long struck me that the most notable dynamic here is an inexplicable obliviousness to the presence of others. Over and over, I encounter people who seem utterly unacquainted with the concept of moving just a little to let someone pass by. Haven’t these sidewalk hogs heard of sharing?

Maybe we’re not really rude here. Perhaps we’re just rubes.

The thing that truly amazes me, though, is the fact that the majority of people essentially playing chicken with me would almost certainly come out the worse for it in a head-on pedestrian collision.

Gentleman that I try to be, I almost always make way — which, of course, I would be delighted to do if it were more of a 50-50 thing. But when it feels like yielding to bullying or arrogance, well, all you can do is step aside and mutter, “Your majesty.”

Now every time I bring this up, and I have been occasionally doing so for about 15 years, someone calls me a Spokane basher.

I disagree. I just think we can do better. And maybe Bill’s observation about staying to the right is a place to start.

“Slice answer (paired births): Sandpoint’s Bob Witte told about how his mother and her sister both had babies on Dec. 2, 1958, in the same California town. Adding to the sense of coincidence was the fact that the fathers were brothers.

“The double cousins were born just 20 minutes apart with the same doctor in the same room,” wrote Witte.

As a salute to the season, the babies were named Mary and Joseph.

“Time travel destination: Rick Stillar would go back to 1963, when he was in the third grade and exhaustively explored the banks of the Spokane River. “It was a time when a kid could be a kid,” he wrote.

“Today’s Slice questions: How many people around here will be able to properly celebrate their Feb. 29 birthday next year? How many expecting mothers have the leap day as their due date?