The Slice: Whatever happened to the romantic aspect of a cozy fire?

Here is The Slice’s updated seasonal forecast.

There’s a 100 percent chance of raging debates in certain households over the evocative power of wood smoke vs. the air-pollution/global warming implications of using fireplaces.

“My final reference to Neil Young: A nice woman called and reported that she had helped buy the singer’s breakfast in downtown Spokane last week. She intimated that he looked like someone who could use the help, which rings true. Still, considering the specifics of his concert-tour travel itinerary, it is unlikely that it was him.

“Besides,” said a friend. “There are a lot of guys in Spokane who look like Neil Young.”

“Agree or disagree: The Spokane news media really shouldn’t try to localize quite so many national news stories.

“Just wondering: What Slice reader most loathes this column’s persistent use of “OK, let’s move on”?

“Saturday quiz: In 1944’s “Going My Way,” what is Father Chuck O’Malley’s favorite baseball team? (Father Chuck, charmingly played by Bing Crosby, even appears in the movie wearing a team jacket.)

Be the 25th reader to answer correctly and win a coveted reporter’s notebook.

“Sometimes readers like to deliver their Slice answers in person: The other day, a bright, personable woman stopped me on the sidewalk. She had an idea for how to note the 30th anniversary of “Saturday Night Fever.”

Step 1: Get John Travolta’s relatives who live here to entice the actor to come for a visit.

Step 2: Have him don a white disco suit and then strut that signature Tony Manero walk through downtown Spokane.

Step 3: Then, as if following a cheerful Pied Piper, people would stream out of offices and businesses and — also striding with spirit — follow Travolta to the Grand Reopening of the Fox Theater.

“Two for one: 1. Because of Spokane’s wintertime thaw-and-refreeze cycle, I’ll bet early risers who get on the road well before dawn each weekday tend to be bigger fans of studded tires than slugabeds who cruise into work at 9 o’clock.

2. Certain 4-year-olds will believe it when you tell them that a sprinkler blowout is actually an alarming foreshadowing of seismic activity.

“Not that there’s any connection to the 1971 incident: But there are about half a dozen guys named Cooper in the local phone book whose initials could be “D.B.”

Of course, that wasn’t the hijacker-with-a-parachute’s real name. So never mind.

“Today’s Slice question: What did you tell your young child to do if he or she got separated from you in a crowd and, when that happened, what did the kid actually do?