The Slice: At least he didn’t shoot his eye out

Quite a few Slice readers said, yes, they miss seeing red.

But some of these transplants still have relatives living in cardinal country, so occasionally they get a redbird fix on family visits.

Then there was Larry Bauer’s story. “I grew up in the Midwest and learned to appreciate beautiful birds like cardinals and blue jays the hard way. It was the ’50s and everyone in the neighborhood had a Red Ryder BB gun. One summer, it was decided that there should be a contest to see who could shoot the most birds. One day, I got really lucky and bagged about 10 birds, including cardinals.

“With pride, I showed my dad the row of dead birds. Needless to say, I didn’t have a BB gun the rest of the summer.”

Songs sung at O’Doherty’s: “Several friends and I and my husband, Mitch, all stood on the bar and sang ‘When I’m 64’ for Mitch’s 64th birthday,” wrote Kathy Finley.

Michael Sherriffs Hall sang “We Have No Heads” for his wife, Ellen. “I was wearing a kilt, so it was more of a challenge to the young lady standing next to the bar not to look up than it was for me to sing.”

When she knew he was the one: Years ago, in July, Patt Earley met the man who would become her husband. By that fall, he was staying at her house, though he still had an apartment in Browne’s Addition.

That October, Earley’s father needed heart surgery. So her parents came to Spokane from Montana and stayed at her place. “They had never met Ken before.”

Then Earley’s sister came to stay.

The heart surgery was not without complications. Earley’s father remained in the hospital for several weeks.

“So here we have it – my mom, the Earley sisters and Ken and I sharing a pretty small house with a lot of raging fear and arguments going on.

“He never abandoned me. He never said ‘Wow, you have a lot going on and maybe I should go home’ or ‘I think I am in the way here, why don’t you call me?’ He just stayed and helped me sort out what all the fights were about and kept me sane.”

Today’s Slice question: Can you make a decent paper airplane?