The Slice: Chop down a tree while you’re at it

Seeing as how it’s Abraham Lincoln’s bicentennial birthday, The Slice thinks every man in Lincoln County should abstain from shaving today.

You know, to salute America’s most famous beard.

OK, let’s move on.

•Take a seat: So I was on an annual outing with a couple of friends. We were in a casual restaurant. We had just sat down after pillaging the salad bar.

After a few minutes, an employee came over and told us our table was being saved for another party. She was nice enough, but seemed vaguely surprised that we didn’t know better than to sit there.

Gee, what could help prevent that sort of confusion? Hey, I know! The restaurant could get little signs that say “Reserved” and place them on the tables in question.

Just a thought.

•Sliceworld: A readable local blog recently referred to yours truly as “curmudgeonly.”

I’ve been called worse. But just for the record, I prefer “phlegmatic” or “grizzled.”

•Gearing up: Last Friday night, at a “Spokane Bike Summit” at the Steam Plant Grill, a proposal was floated to establish a formal coalition or federation of local bicycle groups.

Maybe nothing will come of it. But one of the people proposing this was the doctor who was a key mover behind last September’s wildly successful SpokeFest. So I would not bet against it.

Why should you care? Well, a cycling community with a higher profile and more effective political voice might raise the level of Spokane’s conversations about urban design.

•Transference: Sometimes, when Jim Malm is wearing those chainlike traction devices over his shoes while driving, he has to remind himself that his car tires are not similarly equipped.

•Slice answers: Judy Grollmus and John Mendel said their friend Al Kiefer looks great in bolo ties.

Michele Petrilli said the same goes for her 3-year-old grandson, Martin.

•Just so you’ll know: Deer Park’s Ellen Lewis, 71, declared that she will be the last person on Earth without a computer. “And I am quite happy to say so,” she wrote.

OK, Ellen. Go for it.

“I also have a land-line phone,” she added for good measure.

•Old business: Slice readers are sharply divided on the appeal of crows, online social networks, riding the bus and the proper way to scratch your back.

•Today’s Slice question: How would ambulance and fire truck drivers rate local motorists on their reactions to hearing the sirens coming?