The Slice: Here’s your invitation to take sides

There are two kinds of people.

There are those who would never think of eating berries without washing them.

And then there are those who sincerely doubt that simply running water over the the fruit does a heck of a lot of good.

Language arts: Mike Wirt is not a fan of indiscriminate capitalization of words that no style guide would countenance. He said the paid obituaries seem especially rife with inexplicably capitalized words and expressions such as “military veteran,” “cancer,” and “accountant.”

“My high school English teacher would be appalled.”

Slice answer: Wallace’s Marsha Lilienkamp said their car has never been broken into while parked at a trailhead. “However, on a remote road in the backcountry of Mount Rainier, there was a professionally printed sign in the back window of a car we parked next to. It said, ‘Don’t bother, you got it all last time.’ ”

In the matter of birds “bombing” open convertibles: Karen Buck said their motivation can be explained quite simply. “They fly over, see one, and say to each other, ‘Look, the lid’s up.’ ”

Karen Reinhart said birds operate on a point system that awards the highest scores to those successfully targeting a driver in a convertible with the top down.

And Marilyn Ray said birds view convertibles with the top down as the very definition of a porta-potty.

Asked and sort of answered: A newcomer to our area had inquired about whether you can get a good pastrami sandwich around here. It turns out there are two schools of thought on that.

One camp (Mike Czechowski, Sue Glass and others) holds that you really need to travel far from Spokane to find one. But others (Lonnie Scott, Kevin Fletcher, Wayne Sanders and others) mentioned several area eateries that, in their estimation, serve fine pastrami sandwiches or at least did once upon a time. Among them, Domini’s, Darcy’s, Hay J’s Bistro, Latah Bistro and the Garland Sandwich Shoppe.

Today’s Slice question (for those not born here): In what way did the nickname of the city where you were born predict that you would wind up here?

(Maybe this works only if, like my wife, you were born in St. Louis, “Gateway to the West.” I mean, thanks to the U.S. Air Force, I was born in Fort Worth, Texas. And I’m not sure how “Cow Town” answers this question. But I thought I would ask.)

Write The Slice at P. O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210; call (509) 459-5470; email pault@spokesman.com. My theory is that some people enjoy that British baking competition show on PBS because there is no angry yelling.