The Slice Some Must Depend On More Than Name For Their Identity

Someone has to wonder about this stuff.

How many of the 20 Dave Johnsons listed in the Spokane phone book white pages have met one another? How about the 11 Robert Scotts? The six John Larsons?

Erroneous assumptions people have made about the Spokane Valley’s Shelly P. because she carpools (four are things people have really said and one we just made up):

1. She can’t drive.

2. She is afraid to drive.

3. She can’t afford to drive.

4. Her family owns only one car.

5. She’s one of those wackos who thinks cleaner air might be nice.

Location, location, location: Madge Fackler reports that robins aren’t the only birds that sometimes make questionable decisions when it comes to choosing a site for a nest. In her experience, geese also have been known to prompt the question, “What were you thinking?”

Slice answers: Mike Kilgore offered the following.

“To get along around here, pretend that you know the pecking order: 1. South Hill. 2. North Side. 3. Valley. 9. Idaho.”

And Jenny Wymore said you have to at least pretend to know which lake it is everyone is talking about.

Parking with two wheels on the sidewalk, Part 2: Several readers suggested that we missed an obvious third explanation.

“Stupidity.”

An honar just to bee nominayted: Ken Spiering’s design for last year’s Bloomsday T-shirt was awarded fourth place in Runner’s World’s annual T-shirt contest. But the magazine misspelled the artist’s last name in announcing the winners.

Speaking of Bloomsday T-shirts: Do you suppose there is at least one squirreled away in a closet somewhere in all 50 states? Yeah, probably. But what about the nations of the world? How many would you guess are home to a memory of Spokane’s signature event?

Warm-up questions: If Spokane staged another world’s fair, what would be the theme? If, instead of Minneapolis, the old “Mary Tyler Moore” show had been set at a Spokane television station, how would it have been different?

Today’s Slice question: What’s one thing the Spokane area offers that Seattle and Portland can’t match?

, DataTimes MEMO: The Slice appears Monday, Tuesday, Friday and Saturday. Write The Slice at P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210; call (509) 459-5470; fax (509) 459-5098. The real reason hawks like to perch atop light poles along I-90 is that they enjoy showing drivers of expensive sports cars what “cool” really looks like.