The Slice: Every other city might be tied for first place

One of the ways in which the Spokane area is underrated, I believe, is how we don’t get credit for having possibly the best designated drivers in the world.

You know how certain medical procedures require that someone be available to drive the patient home? Sure. Well, I’ve had my share of chances to watch these drivers in the waiting room when the patients emerge. Their smiles might be among Spokane’s best.

“There you are! You look great!”

It’s hard not to love love.

Slice answer: One more note for the reader wondering if she is right to encourage her son and his husband to move to Spokane. (She had met someone at a party who tried to discourage her.)

“I read Molly’s story and it hit a nerve from the start,” wrote Molly Zammit. “The woman from Seattle labeled Spokane as provincial and intolerant. Labels are general and don’t tell the whole story. So Molly, from one Molly to another, Spokane is filled with many people. Some will accept your son and his partner while others won’t. The same story also exists in Portland and Seattle.”

Before craft beer: “As ridiculous as this sounds, when I was in my early 20s my roommate and I drove from Spokane to Denver to visit friends and they asked us to bring them Rainier beer and we came home with Coors beer,” wrote Keith Hegg. “I’m guessing we were all novice beer drinkers back then.”

Warm-up question: You know those guys who relentlessly hit on attractive married women? Sure. Well, how many of these pests operate on the assumption that countless women are resentful of their inattentive or philandering husbands and might be willing to “punish” those spouses with some ill-advised misbehavior of their own?

Today’s Slice question: It’s a classic Inland Northwest lifestyle choice. But has it become tainted with suspicions?

Does the desire to live way off in the woods now carry connotations of extremism where once it was simply a matter of individual preference? Does remote isolation now suggest membership in some antisocial fringe where once it just meant you didn’t want to hear your neighbor’s dogs or snowblower?

So here’s the question.

If you live way out on your own, do you now ever – when you are in town – encounter those who seem to regard your choice as a sign that you might be a paranoid nut job?

Write The Slice at P. O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210; call (509) 459-5470; email pault@spokesman.com. You aren’t the only one who has dreams about driving in circles in the Sacred Heart parking garage.