The Slice: Of course, not everybody worries about fact-checking

You can pretty much tell where someone stands on virtually every social issue from his or her attitude about married women not using their husband’s last name.

That has been clear for decades. It’s not a new issue.

And women who keep their own last name are not usually moved by overheated arguments that they are tearing apart the fabric of the American family. But there is one occasion when these women, a few of them anyway, might be willing to admit that having the same last name as the man does make life simpler.

No, it has nothing to do with children or health insurance. It comes up when checking the spelling of last names while addressing Christmas cards.

Slice answers: “I think the obvious reason that no one has hijacked Santa’s gift-laden sleigh is that Rudolph packs heat,” wrote Kay Krom.

Steve LaCombe said Santa’s sleigh has retina recognition protected ignition.

And Victor Buksbazen said potential hijackers are afraid of the reindeer’s sharp antlers.

He doesn’t need to spell it out: “As part of my military experience, I learned the military phonetic pronunciation of the alphabet,” wrote James Dodds. “Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, et cetera. The word for ‘H’ was Hotel. And the letter combination of Alpha and Hotel were a substitution for a common slur which is also a body part. ‘That guy is a total Alpha Hotel!’ was something you could say in polite company.”

James and his wife, Robin, subscribe to a local community newspaper which features many articles about goings on in Airway Heights. “Their headlines always abbreviate the city name as ‘AH.’ This leads to much amusement when I read about ‘AH City Council’ doing such-and-such. Wonder if anybody thinks that way about the Spokane City Council. Nah.”

Feedback: Terri Charbonneau said I left one out in the list of reasons why people don’t wear a hat when outside while it’s snowing. “Too darn hot.”

Slice answer: Vivian Ryan would estimate the local ne’er-do-well population at 20 percent.

Warm-up question: How much mail addressed to persons no longer living is sent to Spokane area households at this time of year from organizations seeking financial contributions?

Today’s Slice question: How often does your hand-washing technique come in for criticism from someone who loves you?

Write The Slice at P. O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210; call (509) 459-5470; email pault@spokesman.com. As always, Jane Austen’s birthday (today) is the perfect occasion to name a new pet Mr. Darcy or Lady Catherine.