The Slice: The Slice: For whom the bell rings

What would you do if someone rang your doorbell at midnight?

Here are just a few readers’ answers.

“I’d jump out of my skin,” said Marge Wade.

“First thing I would do would be to arm myself,” wrote Gary Polser.

“I would yell out ‘Come back with a warrant!’ ” wrote Boris Slayman.

A better term than “crones” for older women (Sunday Slice): “Goldens.” – Cheri Moore

“Silver Belles.” – Dagni Harkema

“Silvers.” – Shirley Dicus

“Mentors.” – Jan Jesberger

Nothing says Spokane like … : “Having your car realigned every year due to the potholes.” – Jeri Hershberger

Stuffed animal stories: Years ago, Jan Oman Cooper and her husband took their two young daughters to the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle.

At some point, the youngest daughter lost her beloved stuffed animal. The parents considered what to do as they tried to console their daughter. And then they saw a family that included a little girl holding, you guessed it, the missing stuffed animal.

“Even though we didn’t speak the same language, the mother looked at me and I smiled and pointed to the stuffed animal. ‘Ah ha’ her eyes said; she knew exactly what had happened.”

That woman spoke to her little girl and the animal was quickly returned to Jan’s daughter.

“The whole thing lasted only about two minutes, but left me feeling very good. It doesn’t matter that there was a language barrier. Mothers understand and we all want the best for our children.”

Leonna Bowers shared this story.

“When my cousin was quite small she got a hold of her dad’s electric razor and shaved off quite a bit of her favorite teddy bear’s hair. When told teddy bears don’t grow hair back she allowed that Aunt Emily (my mom) could ‘knit’ her bear some new hair.”

So Leonna’s mom replaced the shorn sections of the toy bruin with new fake fur and returned the bear to, as Leonna put it, “a true believer.”

Today’s Slice question: What’s the answer?

(Let’s turn the tables. You provide an answer and I will then supply the question, “Jeopardy!” style, in an upcoming installment of The Slice. For instance you might say “A coveted reporter’s notebook” and I could then suggest the question is “What is quite possibly the lamest contest prize offered by anyone at an American newspaper?”)

Write The Slice at P. O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210; call (509) 459-5470; email pault@spokesman.com. Feel free to call your home “New Spokane” and declare it a utopian settlement.