The practice of commenting on the number and kinds of bottles other families put in their recycling bins has been around since, well, ever since there have been recycling bins.

So, if while out taking a walk, you noted that your neighbors appear to be putting away a lot of discount wine or gin, you weren't the first person to have made such an observation. You won't be the last.

No doubt, not being the judgmental type, you simply assumed that those folks have been doing a lot of entertaining. Good for them.

But have you ever seen someone actually loading a recycling bin who might have been drunk?

I might have yesterday afternoon. I was riding my bike home from work. It was about 2:30. I saw a middle aged woman in a dark colored sweatshirt dump a big bag of brown beer bottles into what looked like an already full blue bin out by the curb. It seemed as if there must have been two or three dozen bottles in her bag. And at least half of them slid off the overloaded bin and onto the street. It was a cacophony.

Even as this was happening, she continued dumping out the bag o' bottles.

Now I have no idea if she was tipsy. Maybe she is simply the worst bin-filler on the South Hill. 

Still, this epic fail was a sight to see and hear.

 

This date in Slice history (2000): Today's Slice question: If you got to throw out tradition and replace the Spokane airport's GEG code, what three-letter group would you select? 

 

Finish this sentence: Dollars now spent at Trader Joe's used to go to...

 

Re: Tomorrow's print Slice: I got a surprise after asking readers for ideas about what a little kid could say to a homeowner yelling "Get off my lawn!"

About half of the respondents made the kid out to be the bad guy in the scenario. And they were not trying to be funny.

I've lived in Spokane for more than 20 years, but I didn't see that coming.

A straight-faced defense of "Get off my lawn!" Really? 

Maybe it was my doing, though. Perhaps the way I worded that invitation led some to assume I wanted comeback-line suggestions that might qualify as rude or disrespectful.

That wasn't my intention. Even if I like a pinch of "Question Authority" in a young person's makeup, I don't believe there's anything to admire about a kid verbally flipping off some angry old coot standing on his porch.

Manners matter. But I'm not quite ready to cede the moral high ground to those who regard lawns as sacred. Unless the kid is digging or something, what's the harm in letting a child run around on your grass for a minute? What kind of vision of summer leads someone to value turf perfection over a kid's happy squeal?

I've always enjoyed the whole "Get off my lawn!" thing for its Spokane-parody value. But I guess not everyone is in on the joke.

 

Today's Slice question: Are those who regard high-heel shoes as utter nonsense (at least in situations where the woman has to walk more than 10 feet) a higher percentage of the population here than you would find nationally?

 

Write The Slice at P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210; call (509) 459-5470; email pault@spokesman.com. Uncle Slice says: Try to wash your hands soon after using an inkless stylus to sign your name at a pharmacy or some other store.

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