The Slice: The reason the Marmot Lodge meeting was canceled

So this customer at the next cash register at the Rosauers on 29th gets my attention and says, “I want to tell you something.”

He seems friendly, so I feel no need to gird my loins.

He proceeds to tell me about a time he was out driving and saw the “Check Engine” light come on. So he pulled over and lifted up the hood.

Out scampered a marmot.

Maybe the rodent just needed a ride and didn’t want to pay the bus fare.

Reader challenge: Today is Ringo Starr’s birthday. Can you name the set-in-the-future movie, partly filmed in our area, in which he is referred to (by his real name) as the president?

Fireflies feedback: “Instead of your harebrained scheme to illegally import those pests for the amusement of culturally deprived Spokane kids, how about giving them a real gift: Travel to the East Coast where they can bring back real memories on what life is like outside their bubble,” wrote Boris Slayman.

One possible reason the band sounds lousy: “Many years ago, back around the mid-’60s, I was a passenger in a car full of drums and guitars and such, with two musicians, headed to Hamilton, Mont., to play for the evening in a tavern,” wrote Sue Hicks. “We were in a mid-’50s Oldsmobile and one of the musicians decided it would be fun to light small firecrackers one at a time and toss them out the wing window.

“Well, sure enough, one of the lit firecrackers did not make it out the window, but bounced off it back into the car, landing on the floor. Bang! My nylons were shredded, None of us could hear worth a darn the whole night so I imagine the music was not very good.”

Slice answer: In the matter of the most common way people around here manage to lose a finger, Nancy Hartley had an answer.

“Not sure about the entire finger, but there are very few quilters out there who have not lost at least a little bit of finger using a rotary cutter. There will be blood!”

Today’s Slice question: Besides taking off your blouse, what might you do in public that would have everyone on the scene reaching for their phone/cameras?

Write The Slice at P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210; call (509) 459-5470; email pault@spokesman.com. Fritz Howard said he knows he needs a shower when a certain person close to him likens his aroma to a “stinking carcass.”