The Slice Sometimes That Small-Town Attitude Wins A Few Friends

Ben Kister, a Riverton, Wyo., optometrist, has a son who was in the All-Northwest Choir, which sang at the Opera House last month.

So the family drove up to see him perform. They assumed that they would be able to get tickets at the door. Wrong. It was a sell-out.

“But someone overheard our plight and came up to us and sold us their tickets,” he wrote.

You can guess what the Kisters think of the people in Spokane.

Overheard at Millwood Community Presbyterian Church:

Sunday school teacher: “Does anyone know what e-mail is?”

Eager little boy, raising hand: “It’s a woman.” - submitted by a Swell Paper colleague

Slice answers: Shirley Galli, Beth Calkins, Heidi Olson, and Bonnie Szuch were among the readers sharing the shocking truth about their home life. Yes, most nights, their families have dinner at about the same time, with everyone present and the TV off.

But Leslie Beach said her husband absolutely cannot eat without simultaneously watching TV. She added: “By the way, he is not a couch potato. He is a work-a-holic.”

And in an altogether unrelated matter, Coeur d’Alene’s Jan Jesberger faxed ” ‘Absolutely’ became the word to use when ‘yes’ stopped working.”

Sharon Church attributes the usage to the influx of Californians.

Aged to perfection: Willard “Pete” Thomas didn’t think he was over the hill until, at the KPBX used records sale, a friend greeted him and asked if he was looking for the 78s.

Video schmideo: Spokane’s Amber Johnson, 3, saw “The Lion King” seven times at the theater.

Doctors and doctors: “Percentage of Americans who believe that every holder of a Ph.D has attended medical school: 41.” - Harper’s Index

Today’s Slice question: Seeing as how Toyota is naming a new pickup truck the “Tacoma,” what consumer product should be called “Spokane”?

MEMO: The Slice appears Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday on IN Life. Write The Slice at P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210; call (509) 459-5470; fax (509) 459-5098.