The Slice: Assessing the secondary grain harvest

This might not be all that appetizing, but it’s certainly seasonal.

Do members of your family refer to the “yield” re: flossing after eating corn-on-the-cob?

Just wondering.

Now, on with the countdown.

When everyone is familiar with an expression except you: “My daughter had a roommate at EWU that had gotten some spray paint on the sidewalk,” wrote Jerry Hilton. “She was trying unsuccessfully to rub it off. She was told to ‘put some elbow grease into it.’ She asked if the hardware store sold elbow grease. All the roommates volunteered to tag along to watch the transaction.”

Something that bugs you about Spokane: “Litter,” wrote Karen Mobley. “People leave litter on the ground after events, in the seats at venues and drop things on the sidewalk even when there are plenty of trash bins and recycling containers. As a kid, I picked up garbage as a service project in Girl Scouts. Maybe we should require trash pickup just like we do for jury duty.”

Funeral music: Vicki Barnes’ mom was a devoted fan of the TV game show “Jeopardy!”

Apparently anyone who had been on the phone with her as “Jeopardy!” was about to start quickly learned that the show came first. “She might call you back afterward but you never preempted that show,” wrote Vicki.

So Vicki and her brothers thought it only fitting that the show’s theme music be played at her mother’s funeral.

Slice answers: “My nephew called my dad, ‘Campa,’” wrote Kathy Wright of Chattaroy. “Some friends’ grown kids still call their grandpa, ‘Pee Paw Jack.’ My sister-in-law says for as long as she remembers, her 96-year-old grandma has been called, ‘Gay Gay.’”

And Carolyn Hebert shared this. “My second born grandchild couldn’t say ‘Grandma’ so she said ‘Bama’ instead. After a few years, when she could say it, she called me ‘Grandma Bama,’ which stuck with my West Coast grandchildren.”

Today’s tale of gullibility: Here’s one from Simone Ramel-McKay.

“I come from Swiss-German heritage, and one day my brother was talking to his girlfriend (now wife) about Switzerland and said the following: ‘The Swiss cows are genetically engineered so two legs are shorter on one side so they can go round and round the Alps making it easier to graze and so farmers don’t have to worry about them toppling over.’”

She believed him.

Today’s Slice question: What happens to people who grow up with a sibling who never stopped talking?

Write The Slice at P. O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210; call (509) 459-5470; email pault@spokesman.com. Do you still have any of those Peter Max Expo ’74 stamps?