The Slice: Gettin’ turkey with it

If you don’t count the holiday itself, there are 10 days before Thanksgiving.

Are you ready to start the countdown?

10. If you think you will be asked to say a few words before the holiday meal, you might want to start thinking about your material. Something brief. And maybe leave out the political rants?

9. Will you be bringing something? Are you aware that, even though you are loved and admired, people say your homemade eggnog tastes like turpentine?

8. If you will be the gathering’s host, do you want to try for a “no electronic devices” policy or do you sense it would be easier to get attendees to donate a kidney?

7. If you are going to be, ah, let’s just skip ahead to the finish.

1. Be an upbeat version of yourself and have a grateful good time.

Sometimes it doesn’t matter if it’s “sell by” or “use by”: An email arrived from Rick Noll.

“I recently went home to visit my parents (89 and 91 years old) who still live in the house I grew up in. A casual look in the medicine cabinet found some interesting items and a possible question for your readers.”

Everything was past its expiration date. In some cases, way past. The Kaopectate expired on Jan. 1, 1980. (He sent a photo.) “I think I was drinking this stuff before I went into the Navy in 1977. So if your readers go to their medicine cabinets, what would be the most out of date item found?”

Slice answer: “Without a doubt, my very happiest moments are the ones watching my four children, now grown, enjoying each other’s company,” wrote Linda Peterson.

Warm-up question: If you decided to turn your place into a bed and breakfast, what would you call it?

Today’s Slice question: Thirty years ago this week, the Calvin and Hobbes comic strip debuted as a syndicated feature. Its creator, Bill Watterson, then called it a day for the precocious little boy and his tiger about 10 years later.

Is there one particular C&H strip you still remember as your favorite?

Write The Slice at P. O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210; call (509) 459-5470; email pault@spokesman.com. Pat Jesseph said David Condon might be the first president from the Northwest. Debbie Wolcott mentioned Gerry Gemmill. And Dale Roloff noted that Herbert Hoover, though born in Iowa, lived in Oregon from the age of 9 to 17.