The Slice: Back before Homer Simpson gave us “D’oh!”

My Spokane-loving sister-in-law in the Midwest read an item in The Slice Blog about brushes with fame several degrees removed from actual encounters.

You know, talking to the sibling of a celebrity on the phone, et cetera.

It reminded her of a story. This happened quite a few years ago.

She was working in Memphis at the time. And a colleague of hers told this tale on himself.

It seems he was on an airliner, chatting with the woman seated next to him.

She told him her husband was in Kansas.

He responded, “My wife’s in Tennessee.”

Some time later he realized she meant her husband was in the band Kansas.

In an instant, our favorable self-image can become dust in the wind.

If you had a one-sentence message for every 13-year-old in the Inland Northwest: “Follow instructions the first time they are given.” – Kelly Schulz

“There is no ‘try,’ there’s only ‘do’ or ‘don’t do.’ ” – Richard McLachlin

“Don’t be in a hurry to emulate your seniors.” – Gerald Ray

“Start an aerobic activity that you can be able to do for the rest of your life, video games not included.” – Dana Morrill

And Jeff Sleep shared this. “Don’t break your head before Christmas.”

Or after Christmas, for that matter. The expression’s origins would take some explaining. Let’s just say it’s a family phrase.

“We call this the Christmas rule. We use it as a safety caution.”

Remembering Grand Coulee Dam: “Since I grew up in Okanogan my first 11 years, I went by the dam three or four times a year when we had to go to Spokane, so I didn’t view it as anything great or unusual,” wrote Eric Johnson, of Spokane. “It was just a big lump of concrete.”

But an unforgettable lump.

“My strongest memory is of something important missing – the Green Hut cafe on the west bank, partway up the highway maybe a block west of the dam itself. And the little railroad that ran along the base of the hill from the dam to somewhere downstream.

“We always stopped at the Green Hut going and coming for a snack. They had neat high-power binoculars at the side of the parking lot that were free in the early years. Want to look at the cracks in the concrete close up?”

Today’s Slice question: What would fix your life?

Write The Slice at P. O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210; call (509) 459-5470; email pault@spokesman.com. Will Valentine’s Day being on a Sunday cramp your style in any way?