The Slice: By the way, don’t eat yellow snow

You can count on a firefighter to come to the rescue.

Last weekend, Spokane’s Steve Edwards was among hundreds of westbound travelers delayed for several hours on Snoqualmie Pass because of avalanche concerns.

Edwards found himself next to a group of Spokane County Fire District 8 firefighters on their way to a training seminar.

“One of the firemen, Nick Henry, took it upon himself to grab a shovel from the back of their vehicle and proceeded to dig into the 8-foot wall of snow bank along the highway,” wrote Edwards.

“After much digging, he created a public restroom for the travelers. You were able to walk up the snow steps and take a quick left and enter a dug-out area with the wall coming up to chest high.”

Once the makeshift outhouse was declared open, a line quickly formed. Men, children and one woman used the facility.

Said Edwards, “Nick Henry definitely lived up to the fire district’s motto of ‘To Protect, Serve and Educate.’ ”

•A harebrained idea: Most kids aren’t squeamish about biting the heads off chocolate bunnies. But occasionally you’ll come across a sensitive youth who has misgivings about sending a rabbity confection to its reward.

So The Slice suggests floating the idea that chocolate bunnies are reincarnated and come back in the next life as real animals. You can make a game of it.

“Mine’s coming back as a lemur!”

“This one’s going to be a coelacanth!”

And so on. Takes the sting out of decapitation.

•’Tis the season: After you have said, “It’s too nice outside to be stuck in here” about a dozen times, it’s probably time to give it a rest.

Otherwise, someone is going to be forced to ask, “What part of being a grown-up with an indoor job don’t you get?”

•Follow-up: Marilyn Wigen’s family didn’t need The Slice to suggest pet names borrowed from “Ben-Hur.” Years ago, they had a calico cat named Tirzah, which is also a biblical name. “I think she looks like a Tirzah,” the girl had said when the feline came home from the shelter.

•Corrections: In Saturday’s column, I said one sender of Twitter tweets goes by the name tinytail. Actually, it’s tinytall.

And on Monday, I used the expression “Easter Week” as if it is synonymous with “Holy Week.” That was, at best, sloppy. This is Holy Week, which leads up to Easter. Easter week starts Sunday.

•Today’s Slice question: What can you learn from eavesdropping on preschoolers?