The Slice: She really put leap year to shame

It just seems this way.

Kari Gilbert’s 5 ½-year-old daughter, Grace, recently drew a January calendar. It has 63 days.

•Rules requested: “When sitting in the waiting room, waiting for an oil change to be done, who controls the remote?” wrote Jackie Bride, a Spokane nurse.

“I sat there for 10 minutes watching an infomercial on how to get physically fit, and I finally got up and changed the channel. I told the strangers in the room that I was now in control of the remote and we were going to watch ‘The View.’  ”

No one objected.

“When I left, I handed off the remote to an elderly gentleman. I think there should be a protocol.”

•That strange sound: Might be the neighbor’s dog not barking.

•Re: kids’ public tantrums: “I had taken my toddler to an outside patio while we were waiting to be seen by her doctor,” wrote Sib Gray. “She was on the ground kicking and screaming. I was sitting with a book in my hand, keeping an eye on her to make sure she didn’t hurt herself.

“A woman approached and began to verbally attack me, telling me how I should be handling this poor little child.”

The stranger said Gray ought to be cooing and cuddling.

Then the stranger asked if she could pick up the child. Gray said OK.

“She was saying ‘soothing’ words to my toddler, who kept screaming. This went on for about two minutes and then my darling little girl bit the woman on the hand. She screamed, put the little one back on the ground and walked away. I smiled.

“I sometimes wonder if that woman ever second-guessed another parent.”

•Feedback: Wayne Pomerleau said he thinks the locally filmed “Always” was at least as good as the original, “A Guy Named Joe.”

Glynis Tucker, who grew up in Goldendale, Wash., said she takes pride in having arrived here with hay in her hair.

And several readers noted that firearms capable of full-auto require special permits and even then are not allowed in certain jurisdictions.

•School daze: Chuck Young is a graduate of Pacific University in Oregon, but a lot of people think he’s referring to the University of the Pacific in California or Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma.

North Idaho’s Kathleen Hubener is a graduate of Lewis & Clark College in Portland. Many think she’s talking about Lewis-Clark State College in Lewiston.

•Today’s Slice question: Didn’t previews of next week’s episode used to provide a meaningful glimpse of the TV show’s next installment, instead of the incoherent snippets and flashes we see today?