The Slice: In the case of Turner vs. parking meter, who cares?

How many Spokane residents have gone to court to fight a ticket for a parking-meter violation?

Besides me, that is.

I prevailed. But the judge was mystified about my apparent belief that it was a good use of my time.

He had a point.

Slice answer: Carol Baxter saw Friday’s Slice question about motorized grocery store shopping carts being a menace. “It made my blood boil,” she wrote.

She had issues with the perspective of the reader (a friend of mine) who brought this up. In her view, it’s not the cart drivers who are the problem.

“I occasionally have to use one of those carts and I am appalled at how rude people are. They step right out in front of the cart.”

Or they block the aisle with their own shopping baskets. Or they allow their children to treat the cart driver with zero respect. “I could go on and on,” she wrote.

Baxter argued that the carts don’t go fast and make so much noise that everyone knows they are coming.

“Half the time, I could walk faster than the cart, even with my bad knee and hip.”

Fill in the blanks answer: “(Avista) is just one more reason to (leave) Spokane.” — Larry Hagen

Today’s Slice question: What’s your favorite middle-of-the-night snack? A) Peanut butter. B) Ice cream. C) Pie that’s in one of those rigid plastic containers that make more noise than a B-52 takeoff when you try to quietly pry it open at 2:49 a.m. D) Something so pungent that, five minutes after you have gone back to bed, the person with whom you sleep will be awakened by your mouth fumes and disapprovingly say “What on earth is that smell?” E) Leftover prime rib. F) An apple so crunchy that everyone else in your home will assume that raccoons are foraging in the kitchen after hours. G) A Dagwood sandwich. H) Cold pizza. I) Cookies. J) A spoonful of tartar sauce or something else you would not eat if you were awake and actually thinking clearly. K) Crackers that even your next-door neighbors can hear you munching. L) Other.