The Slice: Sometimes the home team wins

When it was discovered that Henry the therapy dog had gotten out, guests bailed on Susie Schmidt’s Super Bowl party and searched for the wandering basset hound.

A while later, Susie heard scratching at the back door. It was Henry, the patient canine friend of troubled teens.

“Thank God for cellphones,” said Susie. “We sent out the word and everyone returned to the party.”

Slice answer: “You asked why airlines keep the seats that recline even though reclining them annoys the people sitting behind them,” wrote Donna McDonell. “Well, I can tell you why. It’s because there are far more narcissists (think sense of entitlement) in the world than people who actually care about the comfort of others.”

A few of the reasons 91-year-old Jack Ensley likes living on the Palouse: “Winters are cold and we can make a snowman nearly every year.”

“Summers are warm but the air is dry.”

“You learn to love the hills, no two are the same shape.”

“On a clear night the stars are bright.”

“I can take a deep breath and it smells good and is good for me.”

“If I meet someone while driving on a back road they wave.”

A few things Steven Schneider used to tell his kids and is now telling his grandkids and neighborhood youths: “I tried to child-proof the house and you got in anyway.”

When they are sick and whining … “You’ll either get better or you’ll die.”

When he’s coming into the house … “What bad thing are you doing?”

And he likes to hold babies up to a mirror and say “Who’s the ugly baby, who’s the ugly baby!”

He said the infants love this.

Feedback: “In a recent column, you wondered why people tend to get stuck in Spokane and offered a number of possible explanations for this phenomenon,” wrote Dennis Held. “In my view, it all comes down to simple physics.”

You can find his detailed explanation on The Slice Blog.

Warm-up question: Should middle schoolers be required to spend a few days schlepping hard-shell baby carriers, diaper bags and collapsible strollers everywhere they go?

Today’s Slice question: We all know why it’s important to have plenty of snow in the mountains before the end of winter. But do you ever find yourself thinking of the snowpack in terms of its implications for the awesomeness of the downtown waterfalls come spring?

Write The Slice at P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210; call (509) 459-5470; email pault@spokesman.com. How far from Spokane would you have to travel to reach a state that does not have a Lincoln County?