The Slice: Stall tactic by the sign maker?

Slice reader Jeff Clausen noticed something odd at the Davenport Hotel last week.

He wrote, “The mezzanine level restroom entries read ‘Gentleman’ and ‘Ladies.’ ”

Heroically bestirring myself to get up and walk across the street, I confirmed this Friday morning.

Clausen wonders why both signs aren’t either singular or plural. “Right now it appears that only one man at a time is allowed in the Gentleman side, while multiple Ladies may enter on their side.”

It’s a fair question. Here are my theories.

1. The Davenport is secretly a nest of polygamy.

2. Everyone at the hotel realized the inconsistency when the signs arrived, but the company that made them has been dragging its feet about addressing the matter.

3. Remember the confused “Stonehenge” stage-prop specs in “This is Spinal Tap”?

4. Ladies outnumber gentlemen around here and everybody knows it.

Slice answer:

“In the Eberly family, we have a different animated reference for neglected or sad possessions,” wrote Dana Eberly.

“Our daughter Lydia crunched her beloved car and it had to be replaced. Lydia said, “Oh, I’m feeling all ‘Brave Little Toaster’ about it.”

And in that moment the Eberlys acquired a new family phrase.

Today’s Slice question:

Has this ever happened to anyone else?

The trash collectors fail to close the lid on the rolling garbage barrel. It snows that morning and an inch or so gets in the barrel.

Thinking that might actually have a freshening effect, you leave the snow in there and proceed to fill the trash barrel through the week.

But it gets warm and the snow in the barrel melts. Then, before the next garbage day, the temperature dips below freezing again. And the bags at the bottom of the barrel become frozen in place. Come garbage day, those ice-trapped bags fail to tumble out of the upended barrel.

Discovering this, you reach in and pull them free of the ice. But then, later in the week after you have filled the barrel with additional bags, the thaw/refreeze cycle repeats itself. And come garbage day, the bags that refuse to leave once again remain adhered to the bottom of the barrel.