The Slice: Talk about a weighted argument

Sometimes we can only fish for an answer.

Is forgetfulness merely another sign of aging? Or is a childhood spent biting down on lead split-shot sinkers to blame?

•Slice answer: North Sider Michael Blackburn likes wolves. People close to him know this. So they give him gifts adorned with lupine imagery.

Blackburn said the list includes T-shirts, socks, suspenders, hats, pocket watches, pocketknives, posters, paintings, statues (about 25 and counting), stuffed animals, boxes of greeting cards, and books.

“If it had a wolf on it, I got it,” he said.

•All-time best name for a newspaper column: Mayberry After Midnight.

•Slice summer rerun: Do you still have anything you got by redeeming Green Stamps?

•Four indicators that something is amiss:

1. The difficulty of having a grown-up conversation about water conservation around here.

2. Spike Lee worshipping Kobe Bryant.

3. Wondering every time you are about to meet some new people in a social setting if they are going to force you to say, “You know, I don’t share any of your loudly expressed political views, could we talk about something else?”

4. Sweat pants.

•Three things you don’t hear all that often in real life: I’ll suggest the first two. The third is up to you.

1. “We’ve picked up a distress signal.”

2. “Are you ready to tell us who you’re working for?”

3.

•Multiple choice: Which pop culture depiction of summer most shaped your own view of the season? A) The Monkees’ recording of “Pleasant Valley Sunday.” B) Mad magazine’s view of suburban life. C) “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.” D) Certain stories from “A Prairie Home Companion.” E) “Jaws.” F) “Goodbye, Columbus.” G) Baseball on the radio. H) Other.

•Summer starts when … : “My family and I eat the first fresh corn of the year from the farmers market.” – Patti Nelson

•Warm-up questions: When he would go around turning off lights and what not, what was your father’s version of “You want us to wind up in the poor house?” Who watched the most war movies last weekend? What’s your reaction when The Spokesman-Review declares that it is about to present itself as new and improved?

•Today’s Slice question: What’s the view from your desk (work or home)?