The Slice: UI generates long history of successes

Some of my friends who are University of Idaho graduates get tired of hearing about fellow Vandal Sarah Palin – as if nobody else ever went to school in Moscow.

So here’s something just for them.

F. Herbert Bormann, a plant ecologist who was a pioneer in documenting acid rain in the Northeast back in the 1970s, was a Vandal. Well, slightly. He attended UI for one semester before going into the military after the outbreak of World War II.

He died this month at 90, and The New York Times ran an obituary.

Mixed bag of Slice answers: Lots of people look at both the Journal of Business and The Inlander.

Most responding readers said girls today are less likely to be mystified by the onset of their monthly cycle than might have been the case years ago. Which is not to suggest that today’s kids greet the news about their futures with a smile. “My daughter stormed from the room,” said one mom.

Carole Jones said the movie title that captures her summer camp experience is “The Sound of Music.”

The camp, operated by nuns, was near the Russian River in California. “We sang while we hiked/walked in a single line whenever we went anywhere.”

And in a privately owned cabin beyond the outskirts of the camp, there was a teenage boy.

“He practiced the trumpet and played ‘Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White’ (not very well). All the older girl campers were gaga over him.”

Sharleen Hill was among the readers who shared stories about what made their fathers laugh.

“My dad, Kenneth Erks, passed away the day after Father’s Day last year so every memory of him is special,” she wrote. “He laughed about many things. But the one most remembered by him and the one we still talk about happened during Expo ’74.

“My dad was standing on the suspension bridge and overheard a couple talking about how wonderful it was that Spokane created the water falls through the park for the world exposition.”

Hill’s father laughed and informed the visitors that the falls were not man-made.

“Every time we take friends or family from out of town to the park we tell this story and I am certain my dad will laugh forever each time we tell it.”

Today’s Slice question: What’s the biggest Spokane area gathering (of any kind) that features zero racial diversity?