The Slice: Multiple choice

According to lessons you were taught as a youth, what would happen if you went swimming without first waiting an hour after eating?

A) You would get cramps and die. B) You would contract a bad case of cooties. C) You would be attacked by a great white trout. D) Your swimming trunks would come off. E) You would experience unsightly bloating. F) You would get the bends. G) You would retaste your tuna sandwich. H) You would grow up and make unwise investments. I) You would spontaneously combust. J) Nothing. K) Other.

Catch of the day: Marilyn Othmer shared this.

“We had been fishing with our oldest daughter and her husband and had agreed we’d split the catch, having cleaned and frozen the fish each day in two packages.”

The fish entrails and other piscatory waste went into another bag, to be put in the garbage at some point.

So eventually Marilyn’s daughter and son-in-law waved goodbye.

“After they arrived home from the lake with their fish, we got a phone call thanking us for letting them have that nice package of fish guts.”

They had been given the wrong bag.

Marilyn and her husband laughed about that for the rest of the summer.

If the movie had been “The Planet of the Marmots” instead: Pullman’s Dave Hutton has an idea.

“The last line would be changed to ‘Oh my God, they chewed it up.’ ”

If someone seems baffled by your reference to Jellystone: Wayne Sanders has a suggestion.

“Just say ‘Hey Boo Boo, it’s a pic-a-nik basket.’ Then they really won’t get it.”

Recalling my experience of the Summer of Love (1967): I was 12.

Drugs taken: An asthma medication called Tedral and allergy shots. No LSD.

Sex: Not really.

Social protest: I wrote a letter to the editor of a comic book, complaining about some matter of implausibility. Can’t remember if it was Flash or Green Lantern.

Distance from Haight Ashbury: In light years?

Song listened to on the radio: “Light My Fire.”

How about you? What are your memories of that summer?

Today’s Slice questions: If the most conservative place in America is 100 and the most liberal place in America is 0, what number would you assign Spokane on that scale? How about Coeur d’Alene?

Write The Slice at P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210; call (509) 459-5470; email pault@spokesman.com. A reader’s ringing endorsement of The Slice which appeared on July 30 of 1994: “Nobody forces me to read it.”