The Slice: Here’s why we’re running away from you

I haven’t conducted an actual headcount.

But by my rough estimate, there are still a few dozen of us here in the Spokane area who have not come down with a nasty virus this winter.

Knock on wood.

I just wanted to note this so you will understand why we happy few are treating the rest of you like pod people out to get us. (See “Invasion of the Body Snatchers,” 1956 or 1978 versions.)

Please don’t take it personally if we seem to be regarding you as disease vectors to be avoided.

A mom’s reflex: This topic came up in Thursday’s Slice. Here’s another story.

Estellene Shaver was behind the wheel of an old 3/4 ton truck she inherited from her dad’s estate. She and her adult daughter Pam were out hauling a load of bark.

“A young man in an SUV ran a stop sign. I dynamited the brakes.”

She avoided a collision. “I looked at my daughter and asked, ‘ARE YOU ALL RIGHT?’ ”

Pam looked at her and, exaggerating, said, “Yeah, Mom, except for the cracked rib where you held me in the truck seat.”

That was a few years ago. Estellene is 81 today. But some things don’t change. “I still throw my arm out at whoever is the passenger, even with seat belts.”

Now they’re both gone: Are you old enough to remember when 11-year-old boys could ignite a spirited debate simply by saying, “Laura Petrie or Samantha Stephens?”

Finish this sentence: If the marmot sees its shadow on Thursday …

An odd thing people in Spokane brag about: “How they can go for months without using their blinker,” wrote Brent Carlson of East Hope, Idaho.

What it says about Spokane that it is not unusual to hear people say the Spokane Symphony is better than we have a right to expect: “It says that Spokane is blessed to have a superb symphony orchestra that constantly raises our expectations,” wrote Bruce Colquhoun. “I go as often as I can and I would urge everyone to go to at least one performance to see what I mean.”

Warm-up question: Have you ever worked someplace where the office manager had to send out emails admonishing employees to refrain from clogging company water fountains with chewing tobacco?

Today’s Slice question: What Inland Northwest teenager has the messiest room?

For our purposes, let’s distinguish between untidy (that’s what I’m looking for) and a biohazard or a crime scene.

Write The Slice at P. O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210; call (509) 459-5470; email pault@spokesman.com. Janet Culbertson’s mom would leave the home when Janet and her dad had sauerkraut.