The Slice: Wrong time for wonderful reference

Because the actual “It’s a Wonderful Life” reference alludes to Christmas and New Year’s, not everyone gets it when you say “And happy Thanksgiving to you — in jail!”

Let’s move on.

Thanksgiving birthday: Spokane’s Mae Fischbach turns 100 on Thursday. Plans call for a low-key holiday/birthday celebration followed by a major blowout party on Saturday.

Happy as …: “A seagull outside of Dick’s.” — Elisabeth Hooker

“A Husky at an Apple Cup.” — Ted Redman

When one hand doesn’t know what the other hand’s doing: While nibbling on a sugar cookie, Barbara Keene went out to get the mail. Her mail carrier, Don, had left some dog biscuits for Keene’s canine, Bing.

On the way back inside, Keene absent-mindedly resumed munching. Only now the cookie didn’t taste so good.

That’s right. She had taken a bite of one of the dog biscuits.

Speaking of dogs: Denise Marcum saw the question about socks falling from a load of clean laundry. In her home, this triggers rapid response from the resident dogs. “Instantly one of them is there to get it.”

That would be fine if the dog promptly turned it over to the laundry authorities. But the reality is that the pets like to play with it first. That can involve chewing, tugging and drooling.

And when one or more of the dogs had just been out back mouthing something disgusting, some of that oral intake gets transferred to the dropped item of apparel. In other words, the sock no longer qualifies as clean.

Feedback on Thursday’s Slice: “I don’t have any sympathy for people whose birthdays sometimes fall on Thanksgiving,” wrote North Idaho’s Carol Nelson. “My birthday is on Christmas EVERY year.”

You are not a Spokane newcomer if …: Fritz Howard said remembering B-52s overhead is fine. But he can top that. “I remember B-36 Peacemakers,” he wrote. “They would rattle the dishes in the kitchen cabinet.”

Today’s Slice question: How would 1987’s “Planes, Trains and Automobiles” have been different if, instead of Chicago, the odd-couple travelers had been trying to get to Spokane by Thanksgiving?