The Slice: This lookout definitely has its creature comforts

Retired math teacher Harvey Lochhead built a replica of a fire-watch tower in his backyard.

He patterned it after the long-gone Pend Oreille County structure that was his home in the summers of 1950 and 1951.

The model is almost as tall as a basketball hoop and looks out over a woodsy ridge.

It isn’t just a conversation piece. Lochhead reports that marmots enjoy climbing up to the top and taking a little look-see.

But would they give a whistle if they saw smoke?

“Just wondering: Do people from Indiana feel a special connection to Spokane’s Indiana Avenue? Does anyone originally from Nebraska live on Nebraska Avenue?

“Saturday contest: Identify this song lyric.

I don’t know what I’m doing here, I could be someplace else.

I’ll send a coveted reporter’s notebook to at least one reader – not necessarily the first – submitting the correct answer.

“Paperweight: I had invited readers to send photos of felines plopped down on top of the Today section, and Colville’s Lan Hellie came through.

“The neighbor lady who brought her here a dozen years ago named her Sammy Jo, but we have never really called her that,” wrote Hellie. “To us, she is the Boo-Boo Kitty.”

“Slice answer: Spokane’s John Erp said a movie about his last days of high school would be called “Next Stop: Vietnam.”

“Nacho Day: Dona Reynolds joined her granddaughters for lunch the other day at their Spokane elementary school. “Took along my 4-year-old grandson to add to the chaos,” she wrote.

Reynolds is a big fan of this particular school.

But at one point during the meal, she noticed that her first-grade granddaughter was really slamming down the chocolate milk.

The explanation? The girl had unwittingly picked up and used a container of warmed jalapeño cheese with her entree. It was spicy.

“What I’m wondering is how they expected the younger kids and probably many of the older kids to read ‘jalapeño’ (which I had to look up to spell correctly), what’s more know what a jalapeño pepper was,” said Reynolds. “No lunch lady to explain it to them. She was busy giving out scoops of some meat concoction that I wasn’t even brave enough to try.”

Maybe this jalapeño thing is part of an alertness program designed to keep kids awake during the school day. Or perhaps it was a practical demonstration of why it is important to be able to read.

“Bird brains: Slice reader Irene Silverman doesn’t get the appeal of feeding gulls in Riverfront Park, an activity she recently witnessed.

Irene, this could be a tribute to the 45th anniversary of Hitchcock’s “The Birds.”

“Today’s Slice question: Do couples who become obsessed with planning three-ring weddings/receptions ever stay married for long?