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The Slice: One letter can make all the difference
Chris Mansfield shared this.
“Once I applied for a job as a Quality Engineer, only I spelled it ‘Qaulity Engineer.’ I always imagined my cover letter pinned to the company bulletin board for all to see.”
Sondra Curtis remembers when a friend was the substitute secretary for a few weeks at their church. “One of her responsibilities was to type the next Sunday bulletin. As we were a small congregation and she was the only office staff, there was no one to proofread. So we were all invited to the next Sunday’s ‘diving’ (divine) worship.”
Back in the fall of 1970, Nancy Hawley was at her first teaching job. As the newbie she was made secretary of staff meetings.
“In listing those in attendance, I mistakenly put a T in place of the R in my good friend’s name.”
Her friend was Shirley. That inexplicable letter swap turned her name into something Shirley noted she had never been called before.
“We remained friends over the next 40-some years,” said Nancy.
And Elaine Gladone shared this.
“Many years ago I worked at a small community bank in northeast Oregon. The operations officer was writing an ‘emergency plan’ – you know, what to do in the case of a robbery. Her step-by-step guide listed all the appropriate actions, from tripping the alarm to handing over cash that included the dye pack of bills. Her final piece of advice was to ‘Remain clam.’
“To this day, whenever I am in a situation that activates my stress level, I remind myself to ‘remain clam,’ which always makes me smile, and relax. Hard to stay mad when you’re clam.”
Evolving language: “It surprises me how often I hear ‘Workmans’ Comp’ instead of ‘Workers’ Comp,” wrote Cindy Matthews.
Evolving language 2: “Regarding Betsy Lawrence’s comment (Thursday’s Slice) on ‘manning’ being out-of-date: she may be onto something,” wrote Bill Manning. “Just ask my wife.”
Slice answers: Joe Jovanovich guessed the “we’re not in Kansas anymore” line might be the only quote from “The Wizard of Oz” still in circulation.
But Tori Piecuch said Scarecrow’s “If I Only Had a Brain” still gets recycled at her home.
Today’s Slice question: What’s the key difference between people who refer to “Spokane Valley” and those who say “the Spokane Valley”?
Write The Slice at P. O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210; call (509) 459-5470; email pault@spokesman.com. Because of the proximity of the “d” and “s” keys, Lars Neises has typed his name more than a few times as “Lard.”