The Slice: It might take edge off debate

People in Spokane will never agree about the merits of adding fluoride to the water supply.

That’s a given.

But how about adding antidepressants?

OK, let’s move on.

•Face it: After you lose your employee I.D. badge for the third time, the folks in Human Resources start to doubt your overall competence.

•Memorable political encounters: In 1948, Harry S. Truman’s train stopped in Nampa, Idaho, where Moscow’s Lynda Ballard grew up. Because of her dad’s connections, the 6-year-old Ballard (her last name was Burchfield then) got to go up onto the back of the train. She wound up getting a kiss on the cheek from Truman.

And Sandpoint’s Velta Ashbrook sent this.

“In 1954 or ‘55, Richard Nixon spoke and cut the ribbon on our small California town’s new bridge,” she wrote. “My grade school marching band, in which I played clarinet, performed at the event.

“I do not remember anything Mr. Nixon said that day.”

But it was thought that the occasion might have been the first time the vice president had been welcomed by a grade-school band. “It was the proudest day of my childhood,” said Ashbrook.

•Five reasons some people can’t stand “Riverdance”:

1. They have been told too many times that, because they don’t love it, there must be something wrong with them.

2. They are insecure about their own sexuality.

3. The second half of the word is “dance.”

4. Certain bad sports get upset when these nonfans go bounding through the living room — arms pressed stiffly to their sides, doing mocking impressions of the dancers in action.

5. Not enough bean balls.

•Slice answer: Has anyone having breakfast at a restaurant ever been served scrambled eggs exactly the way he or she wanted them?

“No,” said Peter Nufer. “Never!”

He went on.

“They are always served as dry and gaggy, overcooked lumps of yellow crud. The trick is to get them out of the pan and on to the plate when they are still just a little too moist. They’ll set up before they get to the table.”

•Three common mistakes people in Spokane make:

1. Thinking Washington is bigger than it is. (In terms of square miles, it’s the smallest state in the West.)

2. Assuming that a significant number of hockey players on the Spokane Chiefs are Americans. (Canadians rule.)

3. Believing that everyone at The Spokesman-Review thinks alike. (Nope.)

•This date in Slice history (1993): One reader’s eavesdropping tip: “If people think you are reading a book, they’re willing to say amazing things right next to you.”

•Today’s Slice question: If the Grand Coulee Dam were named after someone, who should it be?