The Slice: Co-workers discover she’s full of hot air

Let’s resume the conversation about forgetting yourself and allowing private behavior to become public.

“I had to laugh about the rash scratching story,” wrote Karen Botker. “I belch. Loudly and unabashedly in private.”

She was used to working alone, but one day found herself in an office setting with others. “I just forgot anyone else was there and let one rip. I immediately heard a gasp, followed by a chuckle from the front desk gal who was around a corner. … Itchy lady is not alone.”

Small World Department: Art Anderson was talking to a couple of other soldiers in Vietnam in 1969 when one asked “Where ya from?”

Anderson told them he was from a place called Mullan in Idaho. “One guy said he’d been through Mullan once, and had stopped at a roadhouse at the base of Lookout Pass. He related about an unusually large cat the owner had.”

Anderson’s jaw dropped. “Not only did I know the owner, but that cat was one given to the owner by my mother.”

In the matter of other presidents the Evergreen State might have been named after: His term in office came several decades after statehood. But a state named for Warren G. Harding might have been just the ticket, according to one reader. “Personally, I think ‘Spokane, Harding’ has a ring to it,” wrote Don Harding.

Thermostat wars: Years ago, Silas Bates told a friend who happened to be an HVAC specialist about how two women in his real estate office constantly dueled over the temperature setting. So the HVAC guy came in early one morning and disconnected but left in place the much-used thermostat. He hooked up another unit – set at Bates’ preferred temperature – and hid it behind a painting. It was not touched for years.

Bates, now retired, ran into one of the women not long ago. He told her about the deception. “She called me a nasty name.”

Today’s Slice question: What’s the best kitchen aroma to encounter when coming in from the cold?