The Slice: I’ll take snoring sister for $200

So I’m on The Spokesman-Review’s team that will be competing in a trivia contest Thursday night at the Bing Crosby Theater.

I like my teammates. I’m guessing I will enjoy meeting our opponents. It should be fun.

Or it might turn out to be a humiliating, rancorous debacle. We’ll see.

In any case, it’s a fundraiser for the library. So I’m willing to take part, even if it cuts into my TV time.

But the prospect of not knowing the answers to 13 consecutive trivia questions isn’t what I am worried about. No, it’s something else.

You see, my sister-in-law is flying to Spokane from Michigan on Thursday for a visit. The plan is for her to attend the trivia bacchanal with my wife. That’s all good, right?

Well, here’s the thing. My sister-in-law, one of my all-time favorite people, is going to be exhausted Thursday night. And she has demonstrated over the years an uncanny ability to fall asleep in public places.

Do I have to paint you a picture?

OK, it’s no big deal if she nods off just as her brother-in-law is on stage and in the process of forgetting where Bing Crosby was born. If she conks out and slumps over onto my wife’s shoulder, there’s certainly no harm there.

But what if she is so tired that she slips into light, fawn-like snoring?

I can just imagine the scene up on stage.

“Team Inlander, I need your answer.”

“Could you repeat the question? We couldn’t hear it because of Paul Turner’s sister-in-law making sleeping sounds in the audience.”

Again, that would not be the end of the world. I guess.

But what if falling asleep at The Bing embarrassed her? I would throw myself in front of rampaging marmots to spare her any hurt feelings.

What to do? Well, we can always try bolstering her with strong Northwest coffee. Or we can simply keep telling her to ignore her body clock, which will be under the impression that it’s nearly midnight.

Of course, there might be one upside to my sister-in-law sleeping through the whole thing Thursday night.

No matter what happens, I can tell her we won.

Today’s Slice question: Are you poised for a big fourth-quarter comeback?