The Slice: The chance to bark lost its bite

Some little hellions were out in front of my house yelling.

I couldn’t make out what they were shouting, but I could sure hear their squealing voices.

Savoring an opportunity to shift into “mean old man Turner” mode, I opened the door.

The sweet-faced kids explained that they were trying to track down a lost dog named Kayla.

Oh.

Carry on.

Hope they found her.

•Shiloh, when I was young: My sister-in-law in Michigan freely admits that she has officially stopped rockin’.

The other night she told me about attending a Neil Diamond concert. She loved every minute.

I didn’t try to convince her that she was morally wrong to feel that way.

But after we hung up, I realized I had missed a chance. I should have suggested that she ought to move to Spokane and be among those sending me angry notes next time I say something unflattering about the 89-year-old singer.

•Just wondering: Before heading out the door early in the morning, have you ever mistakenly set your home-alarm system so that it will go off the moment still-sleeping members of your family get up and start moving around?

•Slice answers: I heard from a couple of readers who said the aspect of summer about which they had changed their minds is the advisability of wearing shorts. Both said they realized that their shorts-wearing days had come and gone.

In the matter of misinformation about sex, a few of the answers provided me with an opportunity to remind editors that there’s some reader feedback I don’t even consider printing.

•You never know when you’ll find yourself feeling proud of Spokane: Last Friday, before a training session on using the newspaper’s new telephone system, I made small talk with the young woman from Portland who would be teaching the class.

She travels quite a bit. And she said The Davenport was the nicest hotel in which she had ever stayed.

•Lifers vs. Transplants: Transplants can rhapsodize about our “four seasons” and all, wrote Craig Heimbigner. “But NO way do they care about the Inland Northwest like we do.”

•The TV/real life interface: What could a “CSI” unit learn about you by disassembling your keyboard and examining the contents?

•Perhaps this is more interesting to me than to you: After former Spokane resident Kathy Beaver moved to Florida a few years ago, she contacted her local paper and suggested that they try to produce something Slice-like.

“Bits & Pieces” just celebrated the publication of its 500th column.

•Today’s Slice questions: What’s left on your summer to-do list? Is that realistic?

Write The Slice at P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210; call (509) 459-5470; fax (509) 459-5098; e-mail pault@spokesman.com. It turns out that quite a few local families have stories about encountering bears