The Slice: Answering the call of duty

I’m trying to get back in the groove after a long vacation.

Maybe some quick Q-and-A could be my equivalent of a pitcher’s warm-up throws.

Q: Seeing as how this is Newspaper Carrier Day, do you have any stories you didn’t share last spring when writing about Slice readers who delivered papers back in the day?

A: Yes. One guy told about an afternoon when he was a teenager going around to collect and a scantily clad female subscriber invited him to engage in a highly inappropriate liaison. He declined.

Q: Has all this privacy stuff caused confusion at medical offices?

A: Yes. My mother and I were in a waiting room just the other day. A receptionist called her first name – just her first name. So I jumped up and helped my mother through the door leading to the examination rooms.

When I returned to my seat, the good-natured receptionist called that same name again, this time adding a last name. (Turned out, she had intended to summon another patient.)

Q: Are TV news teams really just big happy families?

A: Maybe you should ask Brian Albrecht.

Q: What do visitors from other parts of the country like about Spokane?

A: The gardens at Manito Park, the relative lack of mosquitoes, the sane scale of the airport, Luna, The Donut Parade, this one dachshund named Polly and Riverfront Park on a sunny day.

Q: Did you really intend to re-watch almost all of “The Civil War” on KSPS last month?

A: No. But I thought maybe this time McClellan would do better.

Today’s Slice question: What personal technology blows the minds of the oldest people in your family?