The Slice: Strangers can get the day off to a good start

It’s not uncommon for me to hear from Spokane residents who have never ridden an STA bus.

Never.

That’s their business, of course. Frankly, the bus doesn’t work for everybody. And if socioeconomic diversity puts you off, well, what can I say?

But I wish more people could observe some of the things I do on winter weekday mornings when riding the No. 43 downtown.

I never get enough of seeing my fellow passengers up at the front give up their seats for elderly riders. Without being asked.

That, my friends, is a glimpse of the real Spokane. And it’s not a bad way to start the day.

Annual question (with Daylight Saving Time set to resume a week from today): Why can’t people who want to fool with the clock just adjust their schedules?

Reader challenge: Name one thing in Spokane that cannot be blamed on bicyclists and pedestrians?

Let’s move on: Nadine Joubert had a question.

“Do you or your readers have any over-used sayings that drive them up the wall? If I hear one more person say ‘It is what it is’ I just might throttle him or her. I’m sick of hearing this asinine response to everything I complain about.”

Whatever.

The perfect ending for local website addresses: Ruth Dillon, a newcomer who likes Spokane, had an idea – .mj. “We’re surrounded by cannabis ads.”

Slice answer: “In the Spokane area, I think that March comes in like a sack full of drunk rattlesnakes and goes out like a red-winged blackbird, singing and swaying on a dry cat-tail.” – Bill Schwerin

Academy Awards warm-up questions: Who would you thank in the unlikely event that you found yourself winning an Oscar? What public policy issue or contentious societal divide would you address in your acceptance speech? What would you say if a streaker crossed the stage behind you?

Hoops warm-up question: Where would someone who is not a fan of college basketball have a harder time avoiding the subject in the weeks to come than in Spokane?

A) Indiana. B) North Carolina. C) Kansas. D) Uranus. E) Other.

Today’s Slice question: If the porridge eating bruins whose home was invaded in “Goldilocks and the Three Bears” had been grizzlies, how would the story have played out for the blond kid?

Write The Slice at P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210; call (509) 459-5470; email pault@spokesman.com. If you are anointing your pancakes with maple syrup this morning, remember that Vermont became the 14th state on this date in 1791.