The Slice: Only a month left until the real deal

Welcome to December.

Good luck with your New Month’s resolutions.

Let’s move on.

Re: the Thanksgiving/ “Wizard of Oz” connection: “I was terrified of the Wicked Witch of the West as a child, so I didn’t allow our three girls to watch ‘The Wizard of Oz’ until they had reached school age,” wrote Jeannine Hill of Spokane.

“In 1994, the movie was shown on TV on the evening before Thanksgiving, when I was busy in the kitchen preparing for the next day’s feast. My husband gathered our children, including our 2-year-old son, around the television as a way to keep them occupied while I cooked. I fretted the whole time, worried that my son would be traumatized the same way I had been by the wicked witch.

“Sure enough, I awoke to my son’s cries in the middle of the night, and I went to comfort him.”

As Hill held young Nick in her arms, she asked if he had been frightened by a bad dream.

“Yes,” he said. “Toto bit me!”

Special request: “I would like to hear from your readers any stories they have of driving out of the gas station with the hose still attached to their cars,” wrote a North Idaho reader who asked that I not print her name.

Apparently discussion of this topic would hit a bit too close to home in her household.

What others probably say about your handshake: “I think people would say it was a decent, firm grip,” wrote Carol Dikes. “It’s intentional.”

Laura Parker said, “I would hope that someone whom I’ve just shaken hands with would say, ‘She seems genuinely pleased to make my acquaintance.’ ”

“I know exactly what people say about my handshake,” wrote Mary Knowlton. “It is usually something along the lines of ‘Wow! That’s a firm handshake!’ They either say it as we are shaking hands or directly afterward to the nearest person.”

Today’s Slice question: Is there a difference of opinion in your household regarding how much light there needs to be in the living room at night?