The Slice: Maybe they should have carpooled

Sometimes noticing a license plate is just the beginning.

A few years back, Nancy Clemons and her late husband were making a road trip to Vermont. The night before they were to arrive in the Green Mountain State, they stayed at a campground in northeastern New York.

While there, they spotted another vehicle with Washington plates.

“Turned out the couple lived on North Ash below Francis while we lived below Wellesley on North Hawthorne,” wrote Clemons.

That’s not all. “The lady even remembered seeing me in the Shadle Safeway.”

Rodent rules of the road: “Over the weekend, my family was bike riding along the Fish Lake Trail when a marmot dashed right in front of us across the paved route, both startling and amusing my girls,” wrote Dave Meany.

“Moments earlier, I had read a sign about yielding to pedestrians and equestrians … but it said nothing about marmots.

“Naturally, I thought of you. Should we have to yield to marmots on a bike trail?”

Yes, Dave. Marmots have the right of way in all situations, even if they themselves are riding bikes.

Catching a ride: I’m not saying the Spokane area’s transportation-planning professionals are incapable of innovative thinking. But maybe we ought to turn mass transit over to the folks with a proven track record of success.

Why not park the buses and have the team at Silverwood revolutionize Spokane’s approach by building an interconnecting network of roller coasters?

OK, it might be tough to make a project of this scope pencil out. But consider the upside.

Kids would learn that taking mass transportation can be fun.

Spokane would get positive or at least puzzled national attention.

Flush with excitement from their coaster rides, people would arrive at work ready to take on any challenge.

The routes could have names like Manito Mauler, Post Street Puker and Division Doomsday.

Today’s Slice questions: What little kid currently living in our midst is going to be world-famous one day? Why? Will he or she continue living here?