The Slice: The Slice: A failure to communicate

Here are 10 reasons why the big activities calendar on your refrigerator sometimes fails as a family organizing tool.

1. Nobody looks at it.

2. Illegible handwriting.

3. Abbreviations make no sense.

4. Certain denial-practicing family members hoping that dental appointments will simply go away.

5. Certain parties not knowing what day of the week it is.

6. Food smears make it impossible to read.

7. Schedule defies laws of physics. (Mom probably can’t be in three places at one time.)

8. Failure to anticipate time required to find a lost shoe.

9. You wrote down the wrong day/time.

10. (Your reason here.)

Just wondering: What word best describes the meal planning process in your household?

Re: Last Sunday’s Slice: “My wife and I have the AUG license plate also and we find ourselves looking at possible dates,” wrote John Roberts. “As our wedding anniversary is in August, we’d love to find the August 24, 2001 plate (AUG2401) and exchange numbers.”

Finish this sentence: “Spokane is the city that never…”

“Wakes up,” suggested Tomas Lynch. “And I am not saying that is a bad thing.”

An email press release I stopped reading: “Dear Paul, As anyone who lives in Seattle knows…”

You make the call: Andrea Saunders reported that a restaurant sign in Airway Heights said “Shamrock shakes are ack.”

Missing letter or editorial comment?

Remember the old comic strip “Cathy”? Didn’t the title character say “Ack!” all the time?

Slice answers: The majority of responding readers said if Idaho had been named for a president, “Jefferson” would have been the way to go.

This would have been one awful typo: “In reading your baker’s dozen in (Tuesday’s) Slice, I read item number six to my lovely spouse,” wrote Robert McGinty.

“ ‘The right couch can make youth sports a terrific experience.’

“She immediately asked to see the paper and proclaimed, ‘Hon, you need to set up an eye appointment to see about new glasses.’ ”

The word was “coach.”

Warm-up question: You know those voluminous medical histories many doctors’ offices want you to fill out? Sure. Well, in your experience, do you get the impression anyone actually reads those completed forms?

Today’s Slice question: Do people who have spent their lives residing first in Montana and then in Washington have something against Idaho?

Write The Slice at P. O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210; call (509) 459-5470; email pault@spokesman.com. Spokane is like an Alaskan city in the sense that …