The Slight

With all due respect to Paul Turner, I'm going to take a bite out of his "Slice" and call today's posting "The Slight." For those wondering what the heck crazy Marianne is talking about, I'll explain that Paul Turner has a popular tidbitty type column in the Spokane Spokesman Review newspaper. He poses a lot of questions, like today's which goes something like this: "What does Spokane get blamed for that Spokane can't help?"

Well, today feels like a "Slice" day, so to avoid any lawsuits from Paul, I'll label my thoughts as "The Slight." That decision comes from the fact that they do tend to be slight and without a lot of substance.

First Slight: Is it just me or can anyone explain to me what is newsworthy about the large picture on the back page of today's local Blat with a line-up of Panhandle State Bank employees standing in front of a truck? The truck apparently came to town to shred papers for the bank.
Was today an extremely slow news day for the Blat? Or, is there significance that I'm not getting?

Second Slight: Why did the Spokesman have a big story this morning about a new weather feature which was going to appear in today's "Handle Extra?" Only problem is none of us readers in Sandpoint get the "Handle Extra," so I guess we're never going to get a handle on why this weather keeps doing what it's doing-----basically not raining when KREM-TV weatherman Tom Sherry says it's supposed to.

Third Slight: I received an email this morning that told me I'd received a postcard. Those buggers underestimated me because I've read all the warnings in past forwards that implore us NOT to open those messages that say "You have received a postcard."

I really would like to read the postcard, but like a dutiful computer geek, I deleted it before opening it, so if anyone out there did, indeed, send me a postcard, please send me a note that confesses such. Just put "I did it" in the subject line, and maybe I'll open it.

Fourth Slight: This is your brain. These are sick cats. What in your brain does not tell you that your cat is sick if half of its face is missing because of cancer? I actually read that in a feature today about the cat hoarders in Blanchard who had 400-plus cats living in disgusting filth.

They also had a dog with a "tumor on its butt." According to the story, the pooch had been hanging around with them for more than twenty years and didn't "deserve to be euthanized."

Huh? Who out there has had a dog live for more than twenty years? With a tumor on its butt, no less?

Fifth Slight: This one's been bugging me for a long time. Why do so many people refuse to give you a last name when introduced to you? The other day it happened again. I saw a lady coming out of a driveway and thought it might be the owner of the residence driving the car with shaded windows. So, I made a bunch of goofy faces and crazy waves, only to discover that the driver was a perfect stranger.

I apologized for my insane behavior and told her I thought it was XXXX XXXX. Then, maybe foolishly so, I introduced myself as Marianne Love who lived in the neighborhood.

"Hi, I'm Dorcas (name changed to protect the guilty one namer)," the driver said.

I could tell there'd be a struggle if I had the nerve to ask her to throw in her last name, so for once, I let it go.

Why are people embarrassed to give their last names? Do we have a bunch of Federal witness protection designates secretly living here? Have these folks made unpopular statements about Muslims like the Pope and Salmon Rushdie or that dead film maker in Holland?

Are they afraid that if they give their last name in North Idaho that some idiot called Marianne Love is going to use it in her blog? What's the deal anyway?

I felt "slighted," to say the least.

I guess that's enough. Have a happy Saturday.

From "The Slight"