The name game takes a turn for Sandpoint shopper

Carleen Hopkins seldom meets anyone who shares her first name.

But the other day, she noticed that a cashier at a store in Sandpoint had a nametag that said “Carlene.”

Hopkins mentioned the coincidence. The two of them agreed there are not many Carleens or Carlenes out there.

“As we talked, the lady next in line behind me interrupted us and told us that her name was also Carleen,” said Hopkins.

What are the odds?

“I wish I had had a camera so we could have had our picture taken together,” said Hopkins.

•Round and round: An 11-year-old girl named Natalie discovered a rotary phone at an estate sale and was fascinated. “She had no clue how to dial,” said Natalie’s mom. “She was pushing inside the holes on the dialer. When I showed her how to turn the dial she was amazed.”

•Two for Tuesday: 1. The Rocket Market on 43rd Avenue in Spokane is a good place to see small children holding large cookies.

2. The name alone is almost enough to make a person want to check out “Spotucky Radio” on KYRS on Thursday nights.

•Just wondering: What is the one truly reliable sign of spring here?

•Credibility gap: “It’s not ‘street cred’ we are concerned about around here; it’s ‘lake cred,’ ” wrote Lawrence Killingsworth.

One way to establish that, he said, is to know a Dolly Varden from a Dolly Parton.

One is a fish.

•Toughest person in the Inland Northwest: Lorraine Bacon said it is her firefighter husband, Doug, 57. He has waged a trying battle with cancer and not complained. “I’m just so proud of him,” she said. “He’s an awesome man.”

•Great moments in show-and-tell: Teacher Jayce Keeling was in a third-grade classroom at Spokane’s Woodridge Elementary School when a little boy surprised everyone by popping out his artificial eye.

Then he dropped it, and it rolled around on the carpet.

•Cautionary tale: A friend I’ll call Marty reported that a woman he knows now wishes she had not stored nude snapshots of herself in her cell phone. Though, to be fair, those photos were helpful in identifying her when she misplaced her phone recently.

•Warm-up questions: Which song would you rather get stuck in your head – Rogue Wave’s “Eyes” or the theme from “The Rifleman”? How does it complicate life to be a female with a male-sounding first name?

•Today’s Slice question: Wouldn’t it be great if, instead of college students, it was the men and women serving in Iraq who got to go on spring break trips?