The Slice: If they remade ‘The Birds’ in North Idaho

Ken Carpenter lives up at Moyie Springs, Idaho.

The ring-tone on his phone sounds like the cawing of a crow.

So when he got a call while in a grocery store and an employee jerked his head up to look toward the ceiling, Ken had to wonder. Had that market been invaded by the big black birds in the recent past?

Just wondering: What does it say about Spokane that it is not unusual to hear people say the Spokane Symphony is better than we have a right to expect?

One week until Groundhog Day: Still time to make your plans.

How to talk to preschoolers: Make sure they understand that potholes have nothing to do with marijuana.

Parental reflex: You know that move where a mother behind the wheel of a car or truck comes to a sudden stop and instinctively puts out her right hand to keep a child seated next to her from being thrown forward? Sure. I think it dates back to the bench-seat days before children were sitting in the back and belted in.

Well, I was on an STA bus the other day. As it approached my stop, I was heading toward the front, grabbing one overhead strap and then the next.

As the bus came to a halt on the snow and ice, it lurched a bit and the driver put out her right hand, presumably to catch me. It was not necessary. I was holding a strap.

She chuckled quietly and said something about habit and the unlikelihood that putting out her hand would have done me any good.

But as I stepped off the bus, I complimented her the best way I knew how.

“Moms,” I said.

Slice answer: Cheney’s Dan Moriarty saw the question about suitable nicknames for a high-scoring forward line on a Spokane hockey team.

He suggested “The Marmot Line.”

Feedback: That list of names for girls spun from “Berm” (a rerun from 2008 in Sunday’s Slice) left out a good one, wrote Wendy Taylor. “Bermione. I would totally name a girl that.”

Warm-up question: In Spokane, which is the bigger social gulf … people who grew up in sports-obsessed families vs. people who grew up in families that did not care about sports, or people who grew up in politics-obsessed families vs. people who grew up in families that did not care about politics?

Today’s Slice question: What’s the strangest thing people in Spokane brag about?

Write The Slice at P. O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210; call (509) 459-5470; email pault@spokesman.com. It can be interesting to hear grocery store cashiers comment on customers’ liquor purchases.