Slice: Scoot or stay put? How do you roll?

It’s a funny thing.

When riding a semi-crowded STA bus, it’s appropriate to scoot over so someone can share your seat. But the truth is, you don’t really want some stranger plopping down next to you.

No offense. It’s just easier to be alone with your daydreams than to make the countless social calculations that come with sharing personal space.

Still, when people pass you by and look for a seat farther back on the bus, it is possible to feel rejected.

You know. “Hey, what’s wrong with sitting next to me? Do I look like I smell bad? Do I look like a boring small-talker? A religious nut? A masher?”

It’s crazy, I know.

But I wonder if some regular STA riders have any tried-and-true tactics for discouraging people from sitting next to them or even strategies for luring someone who looks interesting or attractive.

Visibly muttering to yourself? Having a piece of string dangling from your lips? Low-key smiling? Let me know.

“Slice answers (bedtime books in heavy rotation): Mike Kilgore’s son, David, insisted on hearing “Go, Dog. Go!” more than once a night for a long, long time.

“He’s 20 now, so this would really embarrass him,” wrote Kilgore. “But hey, it is what it is.”

Gary Hicks said his granddaughter, Emma Rose Price, demands to be read “Sleeping Beauty” night after night.

“After about two weeks, mom Tracy says, ‘No way, that is enough times.’ Then mom feels bad and Emma is good for at least two more weeks.”

“Just wondering: I don’t think this expression gets used anymore. But if it did, who in Spokane might be described as a “man about town”?

“Slice answer (first kiss): “I was glad to see the warm-up question in today’s paper because our first kiss warmed us up for quite a while,” wrote Dave Lewis of Post Falls. “It was spring 1967 and my future wife and I were riding a school bus in rural Idaho.

“It was against the rules to sit together, but I was lucky enough to sit across the aisle from Pam Hobbs (my dream girl).

“Since I wanted to kiss her more than she wanted to kiss me, subterfuge was in order. I don’t remember the shaggy dog story my plan required, but I do remember the woolen hat I placed on her head for effect.

“The hat ‘accidentally’ covered her beautiful eyes for a second and allowed me to surprise her with a kiss.”

The smooch was accompanied by a request that she not whack him in retaliation.

“The kiss was repeated, but not for a while.”

It was a start, though.

“I am still looking forward to our next kiss after 39 Aprils.”

“Today’s Slice question: What local dining establishment is the place where the most deals get done?