The Slice: A key question of giving: When?

I wonder.

Do some Spokane area residents with charitable impulses specifically avoid giving at this time of year because they assume donations and volunteering will be needed more at other times?

Let’s move on.

Multiple choice: Selecting main Christmas gifts usually requires some serious thought. But what’s your approach when it comes to gathering stocking stuffers? A) Hallucinatory free association. B) Random grabbing. C) Traditional fruit and nuts that no one wants. D) Quantity. E) Aggressively eclectic. F) Satanic possession. G) I pick stuff I hope will be re-gifted back to me. H) Other.

Name a kitten after a Mark Twain character: From all accounts, Mark Twain enjoyed the company of cats. So perhaps, to honor the novelist today on his birthday, you might want to consider naming a feline after one of his characters.

There are plenty of choices — Aunt Polly, Huckleberry Finn, Jim, Becky Thatcher, Muff Potter and Tom Sawyer, just for starters.

Speaking of Nov. 30: You have a month to come up with your 2013 New Year’s resolutions.

Me? I’ve already started my list.

“Handle each piece of paper on my desk no more than 64 times.”

“Make calling friends an ‘old building and loan pal’ an all-year thing.”

“Dress more like Ward Cleaver at home.”

“Before acting, ask ‘What would Elwood P. Dowd do?’ ”

“Discontinue practice of using fire truck for each grocery run.”

Know your song lyrics: In Merle Haggard’s “If We Make It Through December,” what setback has made the 1973 song’s narrator reluctant to embrace the month that starts Saturday?

The answer can be found on The Slice Blog at www.spokesman.com.

Warm-up question: When someone tells you about experiencing some minor misfortune or injustice that you yourself had also encountered recently, are you more apt to say “Join the club” or “Welcome to the club”?

Today’s Slice question: How many women in 2012 would not understand the question if asked whether they are/were a Ginger or Mary Ann, a Mary or a Rhoda?