The Slice: Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto

SOMETHING GOT LOST in translation. I called this 1-800 number to check on the progress of a Northwest Airlines flight that starts in Detroit and stops in Minneapolis and Spokane. It’s automated and employs voice-recognition software.

The computer with a feminine voice asked which destination city I was inquiring about.

I said “Spokane.”

The computer thought about this for a few seconds. Then it reported that “Tokyo, Japan” is not one of cities served by that flight.

Maybe if I had said “Spo-cane” ….

•Our story thus far: “My 9-year-old daughter Cassandra often reads to my 5-year-old son while he is doing a breathing treatment for asthma,” wrote Nola Barrett. “The other night, they got through the first half of ‘Katy No-Pocket,’ and then it was time for him to go to bed.

“The next night, she opened the book to the spot where they had left off and said, ‘OK, Marcus, let’s review.’ “

•Pet Peeve Poll: Which of these bugs you?

1. Virtually every aspect of people’s behavior at airport baggage carrousels.

2. Public restroom exit doors that have handles you have to touch with your hand.

3. Co-workers who assume everyone at the office shares their politics.

4. People who refer to men as men and women as “girls.”

5. TV watchers who are about to become instant experts on every Olympic event.

6. E-mail with blank subject lines.

•Slice answers: “The business that the lemonade stand kids would want next to them would be one selling hot, salty pretzels,” wrote Erline Foraker.

Heather Berndt had another idea. “As a young entrepreneur in Ritzville in 1967, I ran my lemonade stand across the street from a church,” she wrote. “Therefore, I had God’s business on my side for foot traffic.”

But she’s not sure how scrupulous today’s lemonade sellers are about hygiene. So her suggestion for the ideal curbside partner is “an antibiotic stand.”

And if Slice reader Mark Eaton had been the first person to set foot on the moon, he would have said, “Look out universe, here we come!”

•Today’s Slice question: Which comes closest to characterizing your attitude about personalizing your work area at your place of employment?

A) “I like to make my desk area my little home away from home.” B) “If I displayed family pictures and one of the morons I work with made some wisecrack, there would be serious trouble and I’d probably lose my job.” C) “I have a desperate need to convince people that I am zany.” D) “The idea of even hinting at what matters to me in my personal life is not something that would ever occur to me.” E) “I don’t need pictures to remind me what my family looks like.” F) “My little decorating scheme is actually a cry for help.” G) “Personalizing your work area is nonsense. If you want to know the real me, check out my latest haircut.” H) Other.