The Slice: Did Bing ever toss a marmot in the air?

Perhaps you know that in downtown Minneapolis there’s a statue depicting Mary Tyler Moore’s TV character, Mary Richards, in her famous hat-throwing moment.

Well, if the Spokane area were to have an equivalent piece of art, what would it be?

“Just wondering: Is it too early to start gathering firewood for next winter?

“Nothing is sacred: So it has come to my attention that a columnist at a newspaper in a larger city has taken to awarding reporter’s notebooks as prizes for contests. She even refers to them as “coveted.”

About a year ago, not long after her column started, this other writer credited me by name for another idea she borrowed. That was nice.

But this? Hmmmm.

“It’s just a theory: But I suspect at least a few people are motivated to make charitable donations by a desire to avoid embarrassment when their tax-return preparers ask about that category of deductions.

“In case you were working up a conspiracy theory: A fellow early riser by the name of Bill Wilson e-mailed me the other morning. He had noticed a change in the way the white lights on the Review Tower’s “castle spire” flashed on and off after dark.

“It used to be rings on, rings off, spire on, spire off, all on, all off, then repeat ad infinitum,” wrote Wilson. “Now it is rings on, spire on, all off, repeat.”

Is that observant or what?

Bill struck me as a good guy who was simply curious. But it occurred to me that others might imagine that there was some sinister motive behind this change. So I decided I had better get to the bottom of it.

I started where I often do in matters such as this, with the editor’s alarmingly competent administrative assistant, Patty Franz.

She got in touch with S-R facilities honcho, Jack Filanoski.

“Actually, this is the way it was done years ago,” he wrote. “We have had some of the lighting segments go out and we were testing the sequence of the lights and left it this way.”

So there you have it. Nothing to do with mind control, signaling to flying saucers or hypnotizing the citizens of Spokane into forgetting about the River Park Square parking garage.

“Things people miss, continued: When Colville’s Dee Hunter lived in Japan years ago, she got hooked on televised Sumo wrestling. “We learned who most of the wrestlers were at the time and had our favorites.”

“Today’s Slice question: What’s the highest you ever had a kite?