Future Car Buyers Zero In On The Important Extras

Here’s proof that marketing works.

Well, sort of.

Maggie Vaughn, 4, was riding in the family car when she spotted rows and rows of shiny new vehicles in a Spokane auto dealership’s lot. “Oh Mom, can we buy a new car?” she asked with sincere urgency. “They come with balloons. Let’s get the blue car, it comes with two balloons!” Mom didn’t pull over.

In Spokane, you can tell two people are on a first date if…: “One of them is our secretary, Tara,” said attorney Jody Hamilton.

“…the gentleman opens the car door for the lady,” wrote Standlee McMains.

Another reader suggested you can tell it’s a first date if the people are eating without reaching over and taking food off one another’s plates.

In the matter of dog-droppings density in local parks: E. McKee said Shadle Park ranks right up there.

Word power made easy: Pullman’s Mats Johnson, 6, figured out why they call it racquetball. It’s because when you get a bunch of people playing the sport, it makes a, well, you get it.

True North: Fran Larson guessed that at least 50 percent of Spokane-area residents have been to the West Edmonton Mall one time or another.

That estimate strikes us as high. If the correct figure really was somewhere near 50 percent, it seems like we wouldn’t so frequently encounter people around here who don’t know that Calgary and Edmonton are larger than Spokane.

Of course, maybe half our area’s residents have, in fact, gone up there. And perhaps a lot of them were never allowed back in this country.

Under wraps: Our recent praise for people with great bodies who never wear tight clothes was not intended as a request for nominations. But a few readers passed along the names of people who fit that description. Inasmuch as those individuals already offer evidence of modesty, we won’t embarrass them.

But we want to share part of a note written by a guy named Phil. It praised a woman who works at Eastern Washington University. “She is the picture of class, sophistication and professionalism in her daily attire,” he said. “But, she’s got it goin’ on in a two-piece Speedo!”

Warm-up question (for men only): Do you really want a beard that makes you look like John Tesh?

Today’s Slice question: What is the Inland Northwest’s No. 1 status symbol injury?

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Drawing

MEMO: The Slice appears Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Write The Slice at P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210; call (509) 459-5470; fax (509) 459-5098. Remember, it’s “Kor duh Lane.”