The Slice: Perhaps it’s still fun watching the paint dry

Barry Bauchwitz saw the Slice question about people changing their minds many times when choosing paint colors.

Sometimes this happens even after the paint has been applied. Over and over. And I admire the way Barry described a recent such case with which he is familiar.

“There were so many coats of paint on the wall that I’m sure the dimensions of the room had diminished.”

Do you remember…: 1) Spokane telephone exchanges such as Fairfax, Keystone and Walnut?

2) When people here used the direction-first mail addressing convention? You know, “West 999 Riverside.”

Family phrases: In Thor Chellstorp’s family, they had a way of saying that food was bland, ho-hum or generally lacking in flavor: “This dish needs something to get it up off its knees.”

He noted the origin. “I heard that from a fellow customer at a restaurant where I regularly ate dinner in San Carlos, Calif., when I was single. That was in 1957.”

Here are two from Janet Culbertson.

“My father was half Norwegian and my mother is Belgian. Their admonishments seemed normal at the time.”

Here’s one from her dad. “Quit your behaving and learn to don’t.”

And her mother would say, “Your bedroom is so messy a cow couldn’t find her calf in it.”

Slice answer: “Shorts in the workplace?” wrote Carrie Webbenhurst. “Yes, since I’m currently at work and wearing shorts. But not short shorts!”

Just one of the things Nancy Hawley would tell someone about Spokane: “Many fine restaurants and wineries. Spokane was named one of six great small cities for food lovers by The Wall Street Journal in March 2015.”

Thanks: To the readers who left phone messages asserting their ability to recite all of the Ten Commandments.

For the record, I would have taken your word for it. You didn’t need to actually do it.

Today’s Slice question: How do you explain the fact that, once, everyone understood quite specifically what Memorial Day was all about but now there seem to be various interpretations?