Slice: Video is great, but we want some sound

You know those views of Spokane traffic they show on cable channel 5?

That’s my favorite reality show.

There is something oddly comforting about sitting all snug at home and seeing cars lined up at downtown stoplights or plowing through fog on I-90.

There’s just one thing, though. I wouldn’t mind eavesdropping on conversations taking place in some of the vehicles.

Right now, the rotating images from the Washington state Department of Transportation cameras are accompanied by public radio. That’s fine. But it might be fun to hear snippets of what’s being said in a few of those cars.

So I would encourage the WSDOT to look into acquiring some sophisticated directional microphones.

Sure, a lot of what we’d hear would be crushingly boring. Still, the prospect of occasionally picking up something good would make an already enjoyable viewing experience even better.

“Just wondering: “Is it just me, or does anyone else jump and jerk around to look out for a car when the radio plays a commercial where a horn honks or a car screeches?” wrote Jackie Waite.

No, it’s not just you. Some of us also twitch when certain horrible songs come on.

“Upping the ante: Sanford Gerber saw the item in which a Slice reader said she didn’t like seeing female TV reporters wearing ballcaps. He would take it further.

“I don’t like to see them on anybody except ballplayers in the field.”

“Slice answer: “Don’t know if I’d call her a ‘day-care thug,’ but Melissa Braddock’s daughter Emma does incite riots at her day care,” wrote one of Braddock’s friends. “That is, if you can call shaking your pigtails during lunch and therefore causing all the other kids to shake their heads and/or pigtails a riot.”

OK, it’s not exactly a prison brawl. But if somebody gets a pigtail in the eye, look out.

“More spelling bee carnage: “My sixth-grade teacher was in a hurry, so he went right down the line asking kids to spell ‘license’ until someone got it right,” wrote Bob Zasio. “I was one of 10 casualties.”

I wouldn’t think there would be 10 wrong ways to spell that. Anything’s possible, though. The other day, in a promo atop the front of the Today section, we misspelled “Coeur d’Alene.”

“Terms of endearment: Deanna DiFilippo was driving on the North Side when she saw a billboard that read, “This Valentine’s Day, increase her collision deductible.”

“As a bride to be, I first thought that my collision deductible was the last thing I would want to have raised,” she wrote.

Then, after a moment, she had to admit that’s more creative than candy and flowers.

Yes, nothing says “Thinking of you” quite like a policy tweak.

“Today’s Slice question: What TV or movie workplace was most like your office?