Thank you for the reminder! My credit union has this service but I have not investigated it.

Part of what inspired this question was being at the outdoor goods store the other day. They had a sign posted: "Sorry, we no longer take personal checks." My local wine shop loves it when I write a check over using a charge. They make more money on the paper check then on plastic. But apparently checks must be a hassle for some small businesses.

All of my utility bills are paid directly from my account, but my local taxes do not present that option. I can't remember if my auto insurance (paid twice a year) has a debit option--I am in the habit of writing a check. I can't help but wonder if writing checks is a passe habit. I certainly no longer use them at the grocery, for example!

The flooring we purchased came from a storefront (small business) who hired a contractor to do our installation. They were happy to take my debit card. But my plumber and electrician work out of their homes and don't take credit cards.

I loved The Winter's Tale. Thank you so much Rose and Stacia for suggesting this. This is a Shakespearean play in which the women (Hermione, Paulina, Perdita) have great lines.

A recent reorder of paper checks brought this issue to mind. I have some independent contractors doing work on my house. They accept cash or check as payment. Now I don't always know in advance how much cash I would need to have on hand--and frankly I am uncomfortable keeping large sums. So if you don't write a check, how do you pay your plumber, electrician, etc.? Does your town accept credit cards for your property taxes? While I write fewer and fewer checks, it just seems that there are a few cases in which I don't have much choice.

Six months! I have never heard of such a thing! How old was he when this happened?

School officials are not commenting so we really do not have the whole story. I do feel sorry for the child involved but I am not convinced that a media campaign created by the parents is needed.

Link? Is there more to the story because frankly it sounds a bit extreme.

That was really interesting. I have passed the link along.

I want to sing the praises of Google. During an electrical storm a month or so ago, a friend lost a television set. (Power strips with surge protection are a wise investment.) My husband was helping our friend attach the various cables to her television and offered to cart the old one off for her. She told him what was wrong with it and said that if he could fix it and pass it along to someone, that would be great. Turns out that Google revealed a method (not in the manual) for returning to the manufacturer's presets. It took some fiddling but the TV is fixed and has been given to other friends who wanted to replace a really old television but didn't have the money. They now have a nice 40 inch LED television. My husband probably spent an hour or so figuring out what to do to repair this thing. One less device goes to the landfill. Google to the rescue!

My favorite word so far in The Winter's Tale: flapdragoned. In Act III, Scene III, the Clown is reporting on the fate of the ship to which Antigonus returned: A footnote explains: How did I manage in undergrad without Google? Why have I not always referred to raisins, etc. as "flapdragons"? Some of you may want to read more about that festive game played with flaming food called fladragon or alternately snapdragon. Terrific article here with references to Shakespeare, Dryden, Dickens, Lewis Carroll and Agatha Christie. As the article concludes, it is noted: Don't forget to include flapdragons in your holiday plans!

I live in a small town with a weekly newspaper. The closest city has a daily paper. Both papers asked the candidates for my town and all of the other local communities a series of questions. The public radio station in the nearby city held weekly candidate forums with candidates from all of these communities too. They did a wonderful job in their forums which they then linked via their website. My town held one candidate forum and several organizations organized others. We have a plethora of opportunities to hear positions!

Not only did I vote today, I attended one of the candidate forums in person and listened to a recording of another. I also read the section of the local newspaper dedicated to the candidates. We had to vote for three candidates for town council out of the six who were running. I could only support two, hence my obsessive study of candidates and their positions in a search for a third. It was also a pleasure to shake hands with the mayoral candidate for whom I voted while at my polling place. Local political decisions are critical and have a direct effect on our daily lives as was pointed out earlier. Please vote, people.

I finished Charlie LeDuff's Detroit: An American Autopsy last night. LeDuff might utter a choice expletive in response if he were to hear that he is sandwiched between Henry James and Shakespeare in my reading stack. Not because of disapproval, mind you. It's just the kinda guy he is. One of the things that enters the book is LeDuff's own ancestry, namely his Creole great-grandfather who was labeled "Mulatto" in the South and became "White" on paper in the north. Race is such a complicated issue. LeDuff doesn't even try to venture into the conversation gracefully. Interesting book although not one for all, I admit.

This looks quite interesting as do the books in Stacia's link. But none of them are in my library system. Sigh. Eyeing that ridiculous stack of unread books...

And I don't recall this but I read Candide as an undergrad. Another book to revisit.

Rose, There is an interview with an historian on today's All Things Considered broadcast that may interest you. His book his This Gulf of Fire: The Destruction of Lisbon, or Apocalypse in the Age of Science and Reason. The Amazon description reads: Monumental earthquake and Atlantic tsunami--and I have never known of this! Clearly our Western History ignores the losers, in this case Portugal.

If you click on the number in the upper right hand corner, it should isolate a single post in a separate window. This might actually be the best way to save this post since you'll have access to the links. Of course you could always do a copy and paste.

No Smell-o-rama on the computer, but the Thackeray Museum does have a virtual tour. Click to see how the water supply is adjacent to the overflowing privy. Michelle Martin, weekend host of All Things Considered on NPR, had an interesting commentary on memories yesterday. She noted on romanticizing the past:

Having now read Act One of The Winter's Tale, there is a comment that I want to share on this passage: In that medieval bestseller that I am slogging through, The Golden Legend (which I keep calling The Golden Notebook--totally different work!) there are regular descriptions on how the saints and martyrs had sweet odors even after their deaths. Living as we do in the world of artificial scents masking anything slightly offensive, I find this to be revealing. Have any of you toured the Jorvik Viking Center? One of the things that I remember from the place is that they tried to replicate the smell. Anyway Polixenes' note that his reputation may be tainted using the word "savor" or "savour" which now has a positive connotation strikes me as interesting.

Thanks for the link which I forwarded to both my husband and son for their amusement.

I can see why LeDuff may not mesh. He is what I call a cowboy--charging in and full of himself. The Midwest/rust belt politics interest me but this is certainly not a book that I can recommend all around. The friend who suggested I read it lives in Michigan. You can leave this one behind after you look at the photos in the back of the book.

Joining the chorus wishing Mrs. Mungo a Happy Birthday!

Mine is yellow. We read The Tempest in class too. I believe I read The Winter's Tale at some point in my 20's after encountering a reference to it. Obviously it has been a while since I have read it. In retrospect, I wish I that I made note of the dates that I had read the plays. There are a number of plays that I should read or reread. Perhaps this is a good idea for 2016.