The Slice: What’s your motivation?

So you are going to be auditioning babies to play the key role in a children’s Christmas pageant?

How should you conduct the interview?

Simple. Just ask these questions.

Can you project a certain divine quality?

Are you comfortable working with livestock?

Are you a twin (in case the director wants to swap without continuity issues)?

Can you play a Middle Eastern youth?

Are you capable of demonstrating miracle potential in a nuanced way?

Would you have a problem if we substitute Baby Zags apparel for swaddling?

Can you take direction?

Do you think you could welcome the wise men without suggesting that you had other gifts in mind?

Could you spend time in a manger without making a “What is that smell?” expression?

Any visible tattoos?

Is your mother your agent?

Can you express your hopes for mankind with a Don Coreleone-like hand gesture?

What billing on the pageant’s program will you require?

If all your outfits were the same: “My closet would be filled with bib overalls, made of high-end flannel (complete with hammer loop),” wrote John Mraz.

In the matter of whether cul-de-sac residents have a secret handshake: “Only to get into the hot tub party,” wrote Steve Wilder.

From The Slice on this date in 1997: The difference between Spokane and TV’s “Green Acres”: The electronic cash registers at a South Hill grocery store were down for one reason or another. So a woman who was ready to make a purchase suggested to a store employee that he just write the transaction details on a slip of paper and enter the information later.

“This isn’t Sam Drucker’s store,” he said.

Just wondering: Noticed “2015 AD” carved in the base of a new building on a local college campus.

Is that so we won’t wonder if it might be B.C.?

For the record: Quite a few readers remember the Spokane-based easy listening band, the Mom and Dads.

Several respondents knew members the group, which had a national hit in the early 1970s and appeared in late night TV commercials for years.

Colville’s Tom and Alice Dailey still have four of their albums: “The Rangers Waltz,” “The Mom and Dads Again,” “Souvenirs,” and “In the Blue Canadian Rockies.”

Today’s Slice question: What’s your secret to not gaining weight at this time of year?

Write The Slice at P. O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210; call (509) 459-5470; email pault@spokesman.com. Slogan fodder: Hayley Murdock said Spokane’s weather is bi-polar.