The Slice: Corn on the cob requires more than technique

When eating corn on the cob, it doesn’t really matter if you go side-to-side or vertically.

The big thing, at least around people you’ve just met, is to resist the urge to growl and/or talk about how much you need to floss.

•Corn from a jar: The bluegrass classic “Rocky Top” is usually associated with Tennessee, not the Northwest.

But the longer I live here and the more urban refugees I encounter out in the rural parts of our area, the more I’m convinced that part of that song could almost serve as a local anthem.

Feel free to get this stuck in your head:

I’ve had years of cramped-up city life

Trapped like a duck in a pen

All I know is it’s a pity life

Can’t be simple again

•Seasonally adjusted movie title: “The Creature from the Black Milfoil Eradication Lagoon.” – Charlie Kramer in Harrison, Idaho

•The scourge of plastic packing peanuts: There’s a way to recycle them. Several readers said many shipping businesses and parcel delivery services will accept clean, tidy bags full of these things. Call to make sure first.

Spokane Valley’s Jeff Brown has another tactic. He saves boxes containing the foam pests and then uses them – peanuts included – to mail birthday or Christmas presents.

“The size or composition of the gift is not relevant,” he wrote. “Passing the peanut problem on to someone else is.”

•Slice quiz: What did they call teams from the tiny high school in the fictitious town where TV’s “Northern Exposure” was set? (Jack Black played one of the graduating seniors.)

I’ll send a coveted reporter’s notebook to one reader who comes up with the correct answer.

•Note to JF: No, not yet. But I’m still planning to do so.

•Separated at birth: Slice reader Loretta James suspects that KREM’s Janelle Reichert and KXLY’s Kjerstin Ramsing are secretly twins.

•By the numbers: Gabrielle Lussier of Deer Park turns 8 on 8/8/08.

•Here’s Karen Valandra’s idea:

1. Address 12 envelopes to the Second Harvest Food Bank, 1234 E. Front Ave., Spokane, WA 99202.

2. Each month when you pay your bills, write a check to Second Harvest. “I’m sending $5 in my envelopes.”

3. Feel good about what you’ve done.

•Today’s Slice question: If you were assigned the task of drafting a dress code for Spokane, where would you start?