The Slice: The WWP generation checks in

A few Avista customers still make out their monthly checks to “Washington Water Power.”

But banks accept them, so the utility has never seen fit to scold those who prefer living in the past.

“There’s no official policy,” said Avista spokesman Hugh Imhof. “We process an average of 15,000 checks per day so it would be impossible to manage anyhow.”

•Social Flubs Department: You know those long stick-on strips that trumpet the size of a new garment? Well, Spokane Valley’s Jeff Brown neglected to remove one before heading off to a social engagement. “Everybody in the place knew what size pants I wore until a kind person took it off for me.”

•Slice answer: “Just as President Obama started to speak on Tuesday, the phone rang,” writes Mary Lou Wilson of Coeur d’Alene. “It was a long, automated message reminding me of a medical appointment.”

•Misfire: I suspect I wasn’t the only one who noted a certain advertising insert in Thursday’s paper and marveled at all the guns for sale at “Winter clearance” prices.

Apparently those nervous militiamen who rushed out to stock up on firearms pre-Obama could have taken their time. It seems you can still buy rifles and pistols.

I don’t recall if the ad included weapons capable of semi or full auto, so vital for hunting and home defense. But I have a hunch that acquiring personal firepower isn’t going to be difficult anytime soon.

But this raises questions.

What else are a lot of uninformed people wrong about? And how easy would it be to send the herd rushing off in some new direction? Are alarmist talk-radio ranters the only ones who can start a stampede by being loose with the facts?

Hmmm. I think I’ll give it a try.

Ahem. The Slice has heard that in order to prop up Detroit and genuflect before the oil companies, alternative modes of transportation will soon be made illegal.

So you had better run out and buy several bicycles while you can. Don’t delay. Do it today, while it’s still your right.

•It says here: Spokane would immediately cease to function without guys named Tim and women named Sharon.

•Slice answer: A lawyer and Marmot Lodge member in Coeur d’Alene said she has dreamed of opening an English-style pub in North Idaho.

“It will be called the Keep and Bear Arms,” she wrote. “The symbol will be a castle, like a rook in chess, and the sleepy Travelodge bear.”

•Today’s Slice question: Who around here could do the best impression of Ed Sullivan introducing the Beatles on that Sunday night in 1964?

You have a couple of weeks to rehearse before the anniversary next month.