The Slice: Choose a name, chart child’s destiny

In Peggy Coffey’s exercise class, they don’t just enjoy the names in the S-R’s births lists.

“We predict what the children’s future occupations will be – lawyer, rock musician, politician, construction worker, drug dealer, pole dancer, et cetera.”

Slice answer: “The ‘most scared of spiders’ title would go to my partner, David,” wrote Steven Wells. “He’d rather hold a dinner party for every box elder bug on our front porch than confront a single arachnid (only a slight exaggeration there). When he reports ‘a HUGE spider’ in whatever room, I usually have to get my magnifying glass to see it.”

Re: Friday quiz: Nobody noted that the thing Spokane sports and the classic sitcom “Bewitched” have in common is that both have an Esmeralda.

Lookin’ good: My friend Scott Miller’s college freshman son, Peter, realized he needed to make some additions to his wardrobe.

“Being frugal (and broke) he started his shopping trip at The Windfall and came back with some really good dress clothes,” wrote his dad.

In fact, one sports jacket Peter acquired at the thrift store really caught Scott’s eye. “I asked him to take it off so I could examine it.”

The jacket turned out to be one Scott had donated just a week earlier.

Inland Northwest accent: “I stand firm in my belief that our regional accent is the closest to neutral in the entire world,” wrote Maria Washington. “What that says about us, I am not sure.”

In the matter of Australians thinking we are Canadians, Pullman’s Ghery Pettit suggested that it probably has a lot to do with Australians realizing that Americans don’t mind being mistaken for Canadians but Canadians don’t enjoy being mistaken for Americans.

Slice answers: Kim Tracy said his great-grandfather, Jake Sharp, would have thought the Internet a marvelous tool. Sharp, who farmed on Moran Prairie with mules, lived to watch men walk on the moon.

A couple of readers reported owning copies of the novel “Spokane Saga.” Neither reviewed it favorably.

I also heard from several readers who will celebrate birthdays on the big TV conversion day next February. Terri Benda in St. Maries said her husband Cliff has decided he will remain analog.

And Gene Moore said he could throw a football pretty far if he were standing on the rim of the Grand Canyon.

Today’s Slice question: What is the single dumbest thing someone hired to do some work at your home ever did?