The Slice: The readers always write

You might want to step back.

I’m going to dump out The Slice mailbag.

The birthday that threw you for a loop: “Forty-six,” wrote Sandpoint’s Forrest Schuck. “Thirty was no problem, 40, barely noticed it. Even 50 was a pretty good party. But when I turned 46, I realized that I was actually closer to 60 than to 30. For some reason, at that time, it was a crushing realization.”

Stuffed bear stuff: “You can tell a teddy bear is a grizzly if it plays the Montana fight song when you press his paw,” wrote a friend who is a proud graduate of the University of Montana.

And in the matter of patching up much-loved bears in need of suturing, Bruce Au had a suggestion. “Dental floss is the best repair thread. It is strong and lasts a long time.”

When addressing your HAL-9000: John McTear saw the column item about asking an interactive home computer device to open the pod bay doors. He had this to add.

“My son has Google Home. Its response to the request: ‘I can’t do that … but there’s a spare key under the flower pot outside the pod bay airlock. You can let yourself in.’ ”

Win some, lose some: The question about recalling the Jets upset of the Colts in Super Bowl III in 1969 reminded Terry Hontz of something he posed on an online sports message board. “What were the five darkest days in the history of sports for you?”

His five? 1. The end of the 1960 World Series. 2. Super Bowl III. 3. U.S. vs. USSR Olympic basketball in 1972. 4. Sugar Bowl in 1979. 5. GU vs. Arizona NCAA basketball in 2003.

Doppelgangers Department: “I never met mine but I know she lived in Spokane and was a great bowler,” wrote Florence Young. “In 1969, I was a Kelly Girl temp on a three-week assignment at the old American Sign & Indicator plant. I had three people in one day congratulate me on my terrific bowling at the company leagues games the night before.”

When it’s time to stop driving: “The very last time my Dad decided to take his beloved 1983 Nissan pickup for a drive he got about one block away from his house and ran over a stop sign,” wrote Sheldon Luck.

He came straight home and hung up his keys for good, which showed impressive self-awareness.

Today’s Slice question: What did you learn from sorting through your parents’ collection of family photos after they were gone?

Write The Slice at P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210; call (509) 459-5470; email pault@spokesman.com. Finish this sentence: Spokane is the biggest city between …