The Slice: License to be well-mannered

When encountering drivers with license plates from far away, I sometimes speak up.

If it seems possible that they might be Spokane newcomers and not just passing through, I ask what they liked about the state where they used to live.

“What do you miss about New Mexico?” I said to a woman loading groceries into her car earlier this week.

She mentioned the mountains around Santa Fe. Others have brought up specialty food items, thunderstorms, friends and, well, I can’t remember the whole list.

But almost every time, the person answering my question eventually turns the conversation around to noting things he or she likes about Spokane. This is without any prompting from me.

Maybe I’m skewing my survey sample by choosing people with friendly faces.

Or perhaps they just haven’t learned to complain yet.

From Sunday’s Slice: Liz Cox accepted the challenge of describing how a local person would die.

“Codee Talon Smith died Tuesday the way Spokanites die, in a stolen 1990 Honda Accord after a police pursuit at speeds up to 90 mph that ended when the vehicle careened into a North Side house at 3 a.m., injuring an occupant watching ‘Billy the Exterminator’ on A&E. A friend adding balloons to a memorial at the scene said, ‘At least Codee died doing what he loved.’ ”

Jim Mowreader suggested that 20 or 30 years ago, it might have been a different story:

“John Smith died of natural causes on Friday the way Inland Northwesterners die, when he was run over by a logging truck.”

Pet peeve: “What is it with Spokane drivers that they can’t merge or allow drivers to merge?” wrote Leslie Lindgren.

She thinks a lot of I-90 headaches would be eased if people pulling on to the freeway would get up to speed by the time they are ready to merge and if drivers already on the interstate who don’t want to deal with merging traffic would simply get out of the merge lane.

Today’s Slice question: Who around here has the sleeping bag that has been used in the greatest number of states and provinces?