The Slice: Pair of pictures worth 1,000 words – or at least 182

I never intended for The Slice to be a lost-and-found service for snapshots.

But if readers turn to this column for help, what am I to do?

Renee Sande found the picture of the woman and the girl in a book she acquired at a rummage sale at Millwood Presbyterian Church. She thinks the volume in question was a D.H. Lawrence title.

Something about the photo made her hang on to it.

“I didn’t want to just throw it away,” wrote Sande. “It could mean a lot to these women.”

The story behind the other snapshot is a bit different.

Mary Poffenroth took the picture of the couple walking two dogs in the snow at Manito Park. “I enjoyed their happy smiles and decided to paint the foursome,” she wrote.

Now she wants to give the snapshot and the painting to the couple – at no charge. “But I neglected to get a name or phone number.”

Both Sande and Poffenroth hope Slice readers can solve the mysteries by identifying the people in the pictures.

So please contact The Slice with any clues.

“Successful operation: Diane Bisson and Mary Mattie work in the surgical unit at Sacred Heart Medical Center. Once a month, they put on a bake sale at the hospital. Then they donate the proceeds to charities.

In three years, the dynamic duo has given more than $2,000 to food banks, tsunami relief, hurricane relief and other causes.

Bisson is a billing secretary. Her bake-sale specialty is sweets, especially brownies.

Mattie is a nurse who happens to be an excellent bread maker.

“Co-workers purchase items for snacks to go with lunches or to have on breaks,” said Bisson.

The pair thinks it would be cool if skilled amateur bakers at other workplaces started holding similar sales.

“Slice answer: The pronunciation “tempacher” is the one that bugs Nancy Nelson and several other readers.

“Fun with the phone book: A sharp-eyed reader noted that white-pages listings for lawyers whose middle initial is F can look like the professional designation is “F atty.”

“Soccer officiating in real life: The Slice heard from a reader who would’ve raised a red card last week upon seeing a grocery shopper open a bottle of barbecue sauce, stick her finger in, take a taste and then put the lid back on and return the bottle to the shelf.

(My appalled correspondent snagged that bottle and took it to a cashier so it could be discarded.)

“Today’s Slice question: What, besides location, made you choose one grocery store over all the others?