The Slice: Raisinettes? You’ll need line of credit

Given what we all know about Spokane’s penny-pinching tendencies, it is amazing to me that movie theaters here manage to sell a single thing at their concession stands.

Have you seen what they charge for a bottle of water?

OK, let’s move on.

“Feedback: A few North Idaho readers were offended by my asking how many people refer to Sandpoint as Blandpoint.

They weren’t soothed when told that I like Sandpoint and that I first heard about that nickname from a Sandpoint resident.

Others were miffed that I overlooked what they regard as the one, true nickname — Sandpit.

“Consider yourself warned: For years, Corine Brown hid colored eggs outside for her four children on Easter morning. Then one year she decided to do it the night before.

Well, Easter morning arrived and the kids went out to hunt for the two dozen eggs. But all they found were pieces of the shells. It seems an animal had gotten there first.

“Biggest Inland Northwest cheapskate: “My boss owns a very profitable business,” wrote a Slice reader whose name I will keep to myself.

This boss is cheap.

“When the container of liquid soap in the washroom reaches a level of around half an inch, he fills it back up with water. He repeats this process until it is nothing but water.”

“Today’s typos: Ken Stout remembers working for a printing company and delivering some letterhead materials to an advertising agency. Apparently the secondary line on the envelopes that read “Advertising and Pubic Relations” wasn’t quite what they had in mind.

Commercial insurance broker Curt Olsen once saw a claim report that had something to do with a local HVAC contractor. The memorable line read, “Duck cleaner malfunctioned, soiling claimants’ living room.”

Olsen is pretty sure it should have been “Duct.”

And Mike Davidson, a railroad engineer who lives in Spokane Valley, isn’t sure it’s a typo. But he scratches his head about a short tunnel near Whitefish, Mont. On one end, it says “1912.” On the other, it says “1913.”

Davidson realizes the project might have been started in one year and finished in the next. Still.

“Lack of teamwork: “A long-standing practice, still followed in many parts of the country, is to flash the headlights to warn oncoming drivers of a speed trap ahead,” wrote Jack Vines. “This almost never happens in Spokane. Why?”

He offered several theories, including the thought that people here “Actually believe there is a connection between speed traps and traffic safety.”

“Today’s Slice question (proposed by reader Darin Lynch): How many other cities have a name that is also the name of a county, a river, a mountain and a lake?