The Slice: Insights on the old outhouse

Let’s start with a Bloomsday salute.

What’s your attitude about using a portable toilet?

A) It’s better than a couple of the alternatives. B) I have done it so many times now I no longer give it a second thought. C) When ya gotta go, ya gotta go. D) I do not regard it as part of an elegant lifestyle. E) It’s a tip of the hat to our Western outhouse heritage. F) I try to avoid situations where I have to hold my breath to avoid blacking out. G) I just love handling the door lock and visualizing scary microbes. H) Other.

Slice answer: “My wife, Sue, uses my lips as a halfway touchstone,” wrote sixth-grade teacher David Rolando. “You see, I am fortunate enough to be able to walk to work each day and she walks with me. When we get to Hutton (Elementary School), she kisses me and turns around and goes home.”

Online wedding gift registries might have changed everything: But back when Willene Wick worked in a local department store and dealt with shoppers purchasing wedding gifts, she was regularly amazed by what people said about everything from the couple’s tastes to the bride and groom’s prospects for a lasting marriage.

Re: Tuesday’s Slice: “ ‘Your Home Is Where Her Heart Is’ could be a page from my own life’s book,” wrote a reader whose name I’ll keep to myself. “I’ve been looking for another home, while loving our own, for about a decade now. We’ve lived on ‘College Hill’ in Pullman for the last 20 years and, one by one, the houses on our little cul-de-sac have morphed into student rentals. We’re thinking that when we (hopefully) retire in a few years, we’ll move up to Spokane to escape the joys of nightly beer bashes and early morning ‘walks of shame.’ ”

Long and the short of it: “My whole family was 5-foot-7 and I was 6-feet-4 as a senior in high school,” wrote Mike Nelson. “I passed my whole family in the sixth grade. I remember my mom was always getting asked, ‘Where did Mike get his height?’ ”

She had an answer ready: “The milkman is 6-foot-10.”

Today’s Slice question: Ever had a brainstorm while staring at the downtown waterfalls?