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The Slice: Taking your show on the road

The Slice asked about singing in your car.

“I need a bumper sticker that reads, ‘I’m not talking to myself. I’m practicing for a show!’ ” wrote Gail Cory-Betz of Newport. “As an actor, traveling back and forth to rehearsals, I use my time in the car to practice dialogue, as well as musical numbers. So I am probably viewed as a nut case quite frequently. And no, I don’t care.”

Natalie Gibb can recall a few occasions when she realized people were looking at her as she sang in her car. Quite often, her audience smiled.

And then there was the time when, well, she can tell it.

“I was at the Rosauers on 14th and Billy Joel’s ‘This is My Life’ came on and of course I had to sit and sing to it. A guy in a big pickup truck pulled up next to me and gave me a dirty look. I rolled down the window and sang the words, smiling all the time. He flipped me off.

“Maybe he didn’t like Billy Joel.”

One downside to the diminishing hours of daylight: We won’t be generating as much electricity from the solar panels we installed this summer, said Lonnie Scott of Spangle.

Their most recent Avista bill was $9.50. “Including the minimum $8.50 standard charge. In other words, we were charged $1 for electricity.”

Halloween memories: “I never really liked dressing up on Halloween,” wrote Ginny Lathem. “It is my birthday and that always seemed to change the focus for me as a kid.

“What I do recall fondly were milk cartons with ‘Pennies for UNICEF’ on them. The teachers would ask how many we wanted and it was always fun to show up with bunches of cartons full of collected pennies after a night of trick-or-treating.”

Here’s one from Karla Sherry. “I grew up in Helena, Mont., so there were many years I wore a winter coat over my costume, which would usually mean someone would ask what I was supposed to be since the costume was hidden. …The really cool thing was that for many years we trick-or-treated at the governor’s mansion which was around the block from our house. Governor Tim Babcock and his wife, Betty would hand out the coolest treats which included a poem written by Betty.”

Today’s Slice question: What taught you to never underestimate the power of a “FREE” sign in Spokane?

Write The Slice at P. O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210; call (509) 459-5470; email pault@spokesman.com. Jeffrey Neuberger, Kirk Jackson, Charles Taggart, Florence Young and others knew a “Navy shower” involves conserving shipboard water by getting wet, turning the water off, soaping up and then quickly rinsing off.

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