The Slice: This Wonderful World is apparently quite small

‘There is a man in Florida who, I am sure, is convinced that only a dozen or so people live in Montana,” wrote Carl Gidlund.

Here’s why.

“During a recent Mediterranean cruise I was stopped during a deck stroll by a man who spotted my University of Montana sweatshirt. He asked if that was home, and I said it had been.”

The man then said that for years he had been looking for a Montanan he had served with in the Marine Corps. And he asked Gidlund if he knew Cliff Blake.

Gidlund answered: “Sure. We were smoke-jumpers together, and he was at my wedding.”

The Floridian was amazed.

“I promised to send him Cliff’s phone number when I returned to my Idaho home. I did, and they subsequently renewed their friendship.”

(If the name Cliff Blake rings a bell, there is a remote possibility that you recall him from his featured role in an episode of “Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color” called “A Fire Called Jeremiah.”)

The last frontier: Christina Lindquist moved to Wasilla, Alaska, four years ago after living in Spokane. She was back in town for a visit this summer.

Here are a couple of questions members of her family have been asked while here.

“Do you have the Internet in Alaska?”

“Do you have yards in Alaska?”

Lindquist said the ability to come up with witty retorts has been hampered by having to first get over being dumbstruck by the questioners’ cluelessness.

For the record: If you see me dumping ice cubes on my lawn, please do not assume you are witnessing one man’s struggle to achieve sobriety.

The cubes were in a glass of iced tea and I occasionally deposit them on one of the patches of grass missed by my modest sprinkler array.

Summertime reminder: For the sake of storytelling clarity, it helps if you refer to the revealing, hygiene-challenging swimsuit style as a “thong” but call the poolside footwear “flip-flops.”

Today’s Slice question: What if EWU had played UW last year instead of next month?