The Slice Even In A Pizza Parlor, One Must Abide By Standards Of Etiquette

This bit of parental guidance could be heard coming from the next booth Saturday at a downtown Spokane pizza place.

“Don’t wipe your mouth with your sweater,” a woman said. “Use your T-shirt.”

Doing the right thing: When Maureen Rieckers returned to work after her lunchtime workout at a Spokane health club, she noticed her diamond wedding ring was not on her finger. Then, with a sinking feeling, she remembered that she had placed it on an exercise bench. She assumed it had been stolen already.

She was wrong. Someone had found it and turned it in.

“I forget sometimes that honesty should be expected as a norm,” she wrote. “Thank you, stranger.”

Overheard in the San Francisco airport five minutes after the plane arrived from Spokane: Young man: “Wow! I’ve already seen three beautiful women.”

Second young man: “Only three? That’s not that great. But then, we didn’t see any in Spokane.” - submitted by Ingrid Anderhold

Those fellows must have had their eyes closed when they were here.

Slice answers: “When my son was taking his driver’s exam in a Volkswagen, he was shifting when the pin fell out and the gear shift fell off,” wrote Ione’s Melvina Nissen. “Needless to say, he did not get his license that day.”

Then there was this evidence that experience isn’t everything.

“Years ago, when there were no pictures on driver’s licenses, my twin sister got her license,” wrote Elk’s Karen Kennedy. “Since her description also fit me, we only got one license and kept it in the glove compartment of the car so either one of us could drive.

“After about three years of this my sister got married and moved away, taking her license with her. So I had to get mine.”

She went to take the road test. And she failed.

Here’s your chance to be interviewed by a good listener: Does the workplace sometimes seem like a refuge from the disorder and demands of family life? Call reporter Jamie Tobias Neely and share your thoughts about the working parent’s reality. She’s at 459-5443 or jamien@spokesman.com.

Today’s Slice question: Is there anything more hilarious than the advice of visiting urban planning consultants?

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Drawing

MEMO: The Slice appears Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Write The Slice at P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210; call (509) 459-5470; fax (509) 459-5098. Part of the deal when you become an adult is that you eventually have to shut up about what a nice day it is outside and just get to work.