The Slice In Your Summer, Don’t Forget To Keep Slice Posted

Inasmuch as it is almost June, maybe it’s time to answer a couple of questions that have come up recently.

1. Yes, The Slice would love to receive postcards from your vacation.

2. Yes, The Slice wants to see kids’ “Summer of ‘97” letters from camp.

Words to the wise: Vicki Elmore told us about a Portuguese verb, “aproveitar.” It means “to take advantage of,” but not in a negative way. (You should hear her pronounce it. Sounds great.)

And Hayden’s Duchess Emerson passed along a German word, “gemutlichkeit,” which has nothing to do with sneezing. It means harmonious, friendly, et cetera.

Driver’s exam: When you know you’re right, it pays to say so.

Tom Jamison moved to Spokane in 1985 and needed a Washington driver’s license. So he took the test.

Afterward, he was informed that he had answered eight questions incorrectly. He couldn’t believe that. So he asked to speak to a supervisor.

The supervisor confirmed that he had indeed missed eight.

Jamison still didn’t buy it.

So after huddling with two other people for about five minutes, the supervisor returned and reported that the wrong scoring card had been used. It turned out that Jamison had gotten only two answers wrong.

Slice answer: “When your dishrag becomes more holy (hole-y) than righteous, it is definitely time to replace it,” wrote Pat Darty of Bonners Ferry.

Assumptions made by people who hang out exclusively with individuals exactly like themselves:

1. Nobody wants Washington to have a state income tax.

2. Everyone went to college.

3. Everyone hates clouds and rain.

4. All men care about baseball.

5. There’s only one kind of music worth hearing.

6. Income is a reliable measure of merit.

7. Saying “cool” 456,981 times a day is cool.

8. It’s possible to be carefree about swimming in a lake that receives untreated sewage.

9. Everyone agrees ‘50s-style fathers were failures because they didn’t whine.

10. People on one side of the Washington-Idaho state line have one kind of character and people on the other side have another.

Today’s Slice question: What do people who fear fluoride do when they travel to cities (Cheney, Pullman and Sandpoint, for instance) where the water is treated with it?

, DataTimes 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. It’s always fun to hear newcomers boldly announce immediate plans to drive Going-to-the-Sun Road without first checking to see if it’s open.