The Slice: Raise your hand if you’re cold

Let’s start with a few tales of cold hands and warm hearts.

“Growing up, my mother would offer to give my unsuspecting sister and I hugs and then just place her icicle fingers on our warm backs,” wrote Tawnia Penick. “These days, if we know she’s cold, we protect ourselves and possibly offer up a grandchild to hug instead.”

Using the grandkids as human shields … I like it.

Pam Pierson said that, despite the way The Slice phrased the question, seeking permission isn’t always part of the equation when it comes to putting frigid fingers on another’s warm back or underbelly. “Around our household it’s more like shock and awe.”

If you occasionally hear a shriek from off in the distance, maybe that’s it.

Of course, some family members willingly take one for the team. “If my husband, Kelly, even suspects my hands are cold, he pulls his shirt out of his pants and takes my hands and puts them on his warm tummy,” said Terry Martin.

Then there are interspecies scenarios.

“When I arrive home my mini-dachshund, Pepper, always rolls over onto his back for a belly rub,” wrote Stacy Carlson. “Since I just walked five blocks in the cold, I warn him I have cold hands and he might not want them on his warm belly. But he cries until I give in. Good thing his fur grows out for winter.”

Slice answer: “Your question about which prayer, chant or incantation might work best to conjure up a snow day will not get you the best data if you ask students,” wrote Steve Paulson. “To get the best data, you must ask the teachers. They have years and years more experience.”

Today’s Christmas bonus memory: Quite a few years ago, when she worked for a large grocery chain, Carole Jones received one coupon for a free bar of soap and another for 10 cents off on nylons. “It goes without saying my employer also included a pep talk Christmas letter to each of us.”

Today’s Slice question: In Spokane area households with more than one teenage girl, the sound of hair dryers can be heard how many hours a day?