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The Slice: The babysitter’s services were no longer required

It wouldn’t rank as the worst thing a babysitter had ever done.

But years ago John Petrofski and his wife stopped using a certain sitter, a teenage boy, after their two young sons reported that the second the couple was out the door the sitter switched off the children’s show the boys were watching on TV and put on “Baywatch.”

The sitter reportedly seemed spellbound by the program.

The little boys had no idea why that show might appeal to a 15-year-old boy. But John did, and it had nothing to do with keeping an eye on the boys.

A remembered scene from the STA Plaza: Mikel Stevenson was listening to a couple of kids.

“These were some of those we stereotype without knowing their story, their circumstance, things they are facing. I heard a young person tell his friend he was too afraid to go home because of his physically abusive father. His friend, a kid most would avoid because of his appearance, told his friend to come home with him.”

Today is George Washington’s birthday: If Idaho had also been named after a president, which one should have been chosen?

Confronting local lifestyle image vs. reality: After reading Thursday’s Slice, Ralph Wilfong had a question.

“I go to Rosauers frequently, drink a craft beer on occasion, and never woo-hoo. Am I abnormal?”

In the “Young Frankenstein” sense? I wouldn’t think so.

Where were you: When the U.S. Olympic hockey team defeated the Soviets in the “Miracle on Ice” game on this date in 1980? How many members of that team have you met?

Change for the better: When I moved to Spokane in the late 1980s, it was not all that uncommon to hear certain people use an offensive term for bargaining. It’s a word for an adherent of a certain religious faith, used as a verb. Almost always followed by “down.”

I almost never hear that any more. I’m absolutely sure it is still said. But not as much.

What would be your example of the power of behavioral reform and/or a lot of funerals?

Warm-up question: What happens when, out of the blue and within earshot of others, you say “And Jerry Mathers, as the Marmot”?

Today’s Slice question: What’s it like to be unrelated but have the same last name as a local politician some people view in a decidedly unflattering light?

Write The Slice at P. O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210; call (509) 459-5470; email pault@spokesman.com. Finish this sentence. Spokane is the city that never …

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