Occasionally I'm asked if I have any all-time favorite Slice items.

Sure, I do. Plenty. Here's one from almost 20 years ago.

A Spokane mother told about how she had fallen into a predictable pattern when communicating with a friend in another city. It seemed she only wrote to her friend when there was the arrival of a new baby to report.

She thought about that one day when she was about to go out and mail a letter to that friend. (A letter, by the way, that did not fit the usual pattern.) So after the Spokane woman had sealed the envelope, she decided to write on the outside of it, "This is not a birth announcement."

Apparently, someone else noticed this impromptu postscript.

Because not long after that, when the Spokane woman's daughter was away at summer camp, a letter arrived at the family's home. It was from the little girl at camp.

Written on the outside of the envelope was "This is not a birth announcement."

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