The Slice: Just keep your precious zucchini

Here’s a question.

Because of this year’s unusual growing season, is there less reason to fear the prospect of gift zucchini?

Let’s move on.

One reader theorized that those on Spokane-bound flights make good seatmates because: If they actually live here, they don’t tend to be as self-impressed as people from a certain other Washington city that also begins with S.

Slice answer: “Ninety-nine times out of 100, cantaloupes in every store and fruit stand are green as grass and rot before they begin to ripen,” wrote Dianne Cook.

“When my family moved here from California in 1980, one could drive out to the Spokane Valley and buy marvelous ‘hearts of gold’ melons, grown by local small farmers. They had actual taste. Why did everyone stop growing them?”

The Slice phone line is open.

But speaking of fruit stands, remember when there was one where Luna the restaurant now sits?

Hi-ho, Hi-ho: On the night before his initial day in the first grade, Janet Hooper’s grandson, Ryder, was nervous. Really nervous.

But then morning came, and he shared a new perspective with Hooper’s daughter: “You know, Mom, if I look at this like I’m going to work, I feel much better.”

Stay with it, kid.

Re: last Sunday’s Slice: “As long as we Spokanites refer to Seattle as ‘The Coast,’ verbally chopping off over a fourth of the state, we have no room to declare ourselves superior in our geographical understanding,” wrote Christy Bristow.

I’m not sure the Olympic Peninsula is quite that big, but I get your point.

Today’s Slice question: You’ve heard about carnivores, vegetarians, fruitarians and vegans. And maybe you are familiar with flexitarians or cheatarians (vegetarians who occasionally have a bacon cheeseburger). Or chegans (vegans who have been known to sneak a piece of chicken now and then).

Some who revere chocolate might even call themselves chocotarians. The list goes on.

But what label would you attach to your own dietary regimen?