As we look backward, remember the nailgun?

Slice-meister Paul Turner is taking some time off this month, but don’t despair: In his absence, we’re rerunning some of the tastier tidbits from this date in Slice history. Today’s sampling:

FROM 2006:

An emergency room is an odd place to find yourself feeling competitive.

But when a member of my family had to make an unscheduled visit to a South Hill hospital last week, I couldn’t help but notice that the patient behind the curtain in the next bed seemed to be getting more than her share of attention from hospital staffers. Frankly, the parade of drop-ins started to get on my nerves.

Eventually, though, I felt sorry for that woman. She must have been asked to explain her predicament 20 times.

So let that be a lesson. If you don’t want to end up as an ER sideshow, don’t shoot yourself in a fleshy part of the body with a nail gun.

FROM 2000:

One reader’s idea for the perfect movie title: “The Inland Empire Strikes Back.”

FROM 1994:

We heard about two local women who thought they had experienced one of the best-ever huckleberry gathering days.

Until someone pointed out that they had picked chokecherries.