The Slice: Show some class; flush the grass

I‘ve figured out how Spokane can earn a national reputation for considerate behavior.

OK, you know how some dog owners carry plastic bags when taking the pooch for a walk? Sure. Some actually use them after their canines unburden themselves.

Well, dog urine can also be bad for lawnsm especially if a canine uses the same place over and over. But pouring water on that spot immediately afterward can dilute the problem nitrogen.

So how about if Spokane dog owners who allow their pets to use other people’s grass as latrines start carrying two-gallon water jugs along with the plastic bags. If this caught on, I’m sure some national news organization would turn it into a glowing feature story.

Speaking of national news organizations: Deborah C. Howell, reader representative at The Washington Post, told me that, according to the “weather map editor,” the reason her paper attaches a “WA” to “Spokane” in its national temperature listings is that there is a Spokane in Missouri.

What a ridiculous reason. That place has a population of about 100. It’s not even the largest of the little Spokanes. Nobody – N-O-B-O-D-Y – is going to confuse it with our city.

Moreover, that dim logic doesn’t explain why Syracuse (there’s one in Indiana as well as New York) and Richmond (there are Richmonds all over) go without state designations.

I politely noted this inconsistency and thanked Howell for her reply to my e-mail.

I’m moving on.

Slice answer: Spokane resident Mike Altig suspects he has met the most guys who had their pictures on baseball cards. You see, he worked for the Seattle Mariners for 15 years, the last three assigned to the visiting team’s clubhouse. So he encountered pretty much everyone in the American League.

“The biggest surprise was how nice Carl Everett was in the clubhouse,” he wrote. “The other surprise was how much of a jerk Alex Rodriguez was.”

Just wondering: What was your favorite product that got banned (or at least sent back to the lab for reformulation)? Fizzies? pHisoHex?

Dorothy DeMers did the math: And the Slice reader in Lincoln County said her T-shirt collection would allow her to wear a different one every day from now until approximately Aug. 6, 2008.

Slice answer: “Yes, there is something unique about flirting styles here,” wrote Nadine Joubert, a 56-year-old North Side retail clerk and model. “People don’t do it.”

Today’s Slice question: When making PB&Js for yourself, do you vary the kinds of jelly or would you regard that as sacrilege?