The Slice: Three days to ponder mistakes

To help you prepare for the long weekend, here’s a handy checklist.

1. Burst of early Friday productivity.

2. Leave work early.

3. Spend the next three days worrying that, in your haste, you screwed something up.

“Poof – it’s gone: So the folks at the Whitman County Library snagged a special grant. It enabled them to bring a Chicago-based magician to the Palouse for a series of programs. The idea was to get kids fired up about summer reading, said Kristie Kirkpatrick, library director.

But when Kevin Adair’s late flight arrived in Spokane the other night, his case full of props was missing.

He was calm about it, said Kirkpatrick, who then helped Adair try to find improvised legerdemain paraphernalia.

But you have to wonder. Did someone else wind up with that case, believing it was theirs? And did that person open it up and think, “Hey, I don’t remember packing a top hat and a rabbit.”

“A few of the cities in The Washington Post’s listing of national temperatures that do not appear with a state designation attached: Boise, Little Rock, Norfolk, Omaha, Richmond, Syracuse and Wichita.

Spokane shows up as “Spokane, WA.”

The last time I obsessed about this was back in March of 1999, when I looked at how a dozen or so large newspapers across the country treated the Lilac City on their weather pages. As I recall, I left a phone message for someone at the Post seeking an explanation for why Boise stood alone while Spokane got branded with the podunkian “WA.”

Never did hear back from anyone.

Maybe it’s time to call again. “Hi, I’ve been waiting since the last century. …”

“Just wondering: Who gets flipped off the most in the Inland Northwest?

When this came up in 1995, a Slice correspondent in a position to know nominated STA drivers.

“Speaking of getting flipped off: Ages ago, a woman I like told me about doing another driver a favor in traffic. That motorist responded in a most unappreciative way.

Ever since, on those rare occasions when I see my friend from a distance out in public (and I’m confident she has recognized me), I give her the finger. It always takes her by surprise and makes her laugh.

Anyway, we engaged in our little inside joke again on Riverside this week. But after visiting and heading our separate ways, a thought occurred to me.

Someone witnessing just the first part of that encounter might reasonably conclude that I am rather hostile. Oh, well.

Do you have an inside joke that the uninitiated might misinterpret?

“Today’s Slice question: Is there anything unique about flirting styles here?