The Slice: The Slice: Cinco de Mayo is for amateurs

Hi, my name is Paul.

I am a Mexican food snob.

I try not to be obnoxious about it. If you want to believe those enchiladas you seem to enjoy qualify as good, well, everyone is entitled to an opinion. But my snobbery, it’s always there, just below the surface.

My credentials? I lived in El Paso and Tucson for half an hour back in a different century. During that time, I ate more than my share of staggeringly authentic Mexican food.

Much more. At one point in my 20s, I regarded a certain family-owned restaurant’s combo plate called “Juan’s Special” as a distinct food group.

Anyway, that was a long time ago. But so far as I know, there is not a statute of limitations on being a Mexican food snob.

So here’s my question. About what are you a snob?

Slice answer: “The damming of the Columbia River cannot be blamed on the Boomers,” wrote Christy Himmelright.

Today’s hitchhiking story: “Maybe 54 years ago, on the overpass coming out of Ritzville, we were heading home toward Lind,” wrote Sharon Englehart. “My husband drove right by a hitchhiking sailor. Our son, maybe 5 years old, looking out the rear window, yelled ‘Uncle Butch.’ Didn’t think he was right so we didn’t go back and pick the sailor up, but turns out it WAS Uncle Butch! Talk about embarrassed.”

She’s married to Tom Sherry: No, not that Tom Sherry.

“We used to receive phone calls asking about the weather forecast,” wrote Karla Sherry. “Most of them were polite, even in the wee hours of the morning. Fishermen have to be up early, you know. Only once did a woman call and cuss him out on our answering machine for ruining her daughter’s wedding by saying there would be a chance of showers and it poured. I guess she thought he controlled the weather.”

They eventually had their number taken out of the phone book.

Years ago, Karla and her husband met the good-natured weatherman and swapped mistaken-identity stories. And for a time, their children shared a few connections.

“Now we only see him on TV.”

Today’s Slice question: Before wishing a woman you don’t know a “Happy Mother’s Day” do you first ascertain whether she is, in fact, a parent, or do you regard that occasion as a day for everyone because we all have/had a mother?

Write The Slice at P. O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210; call (509) 459-5470; email pault@spokesman.com. Some co-workers you suspect are high might have just come back from an eye exam.