I don't think even he would eat something dredged out of Town Lake. So when was this foraging stuff popular? Was I not paying attention?

It's a four hour drive to the Coast so good luck to her with that.

Well that's perfect. All those years of telling her to quit putting random plants in her mouth. ETA: Also I was going to remark that her book seems pretty dated but then remembered I bought the Dryden.

Kareni, while looking through some past threads to try to fill the holes in my book list, I noticed you had asked, some weeks ago, No I have not. But I've run into several references to it. Sorry to be so oblivious! Finished The Life of Robert Burns, by Catherine Carswell. Well-written and engrossing; recommended for anyone with any interest in the Scottish Bard. Now reading J. Frank Dobie's Apache Gold and Yaqui Silver. Prior, finished Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet, which I think I would have enjoyed more decades ago. Middle Girl loved Rilke, amd felt like he was writing directly to her. I felt like a 27-year-old was telling me how to properly channel my life's griefs and sadnesses, and was a little annoyed. (Thrift store literary find: all four volumes of the Oxford complete poems of Dryden! They were waiting for me as a welcome-home present. Middle Girl found an odd book called Stalking the Wild Asparagus that she's now engrossed in.)

Stacia, do you have the link to the original book bingo post? I remember thinking my reading was too narrow to play it, but now I'm thinking I might be able to shoehorn some books into the categories. Today I actually bought a book for its cover for the first time, I think, in my life! Yes our yearly trip (for dh's work) has had some rough travel years. Was it when British Air let us check our bags at Heathrow without mentioning that they knew the luggage wasn't moving for three days, and Wee Girl's important stuffed penguin Ogo was in it? Dinner btw was early. We all passed out around eight and woke up at three, ready to start the day. I have The Fall of the House of Habsburg.

Whoops! I wonder if they were unsure of the date and looked up when the Declaration of Independence was written (July 2) rather than signed?

Glad your return travels were good ones! We're also safely back home, fifty degrees warmer and glad to be back, much as we loved Scotland. Wee Girl cried on the train into Edinburgh on Monday, because "it's the Fourth of July and nobody cares." So we knew it was high time we repatriated. (I bought cob corn and watermelon and Texas peaches today, and the offering was accepted.)

Loesje, I've had a book about the Hapsburgs sitting on my TBR shelf forever. Maybe I should get around to reading it and join you. Didn't the last od the Habsburgs die five years ago today? Thanks for the warning-off from the Rilke sequel; I just read Rilke's letters and I don't think he would have approved. Interesting that she sees poetry becoming classist as a new development; I'm just finishing The Life of Robert Burns and of course Burns was famously feted by Edinburgh high society but was quickly rejected when the Ayrshire ploughman failed to be grateful and obsequious, and insisted on continuing to write poetry (and to behave, and to marry) as one of his class.

I never read any Streatfield, but Middle Girl discovered her "shoes" books and directed Wee Girl to them. She's having a lot of fun lately directing her little sister's reading habits. (She's responsible for all the Lemony Snicket, too.)

She thought Pym was very strange, but liked it. She found the ending surprisingly satisfying.

It occurs to me that we've all been reading so avidly on this trip that I'd like to post our family booklists. (Dh was working, much of the time on the writing of his own next book, so he gets a pass.) Most recent reading first; *asterisk indicates Scottish books or writers. Wee Girl: Lemony Snicket, The Ersatz Elevator Lemony Snicket, The Austere Academy Lemony Snicket, The Miserable Mill Lemony Snicket, The Reptile Room Enid Blyton, The Strange Umbrella Noel Streatfield, Dancing Shoes *Amanda Mitchison, Alexander Selkirk Lemony Snicket, The Bad Beginning Noel Streatfield, White Boots Roald Dahl, Esio Trot Middle Girl: Rabelais, Gargantua and Pantagruel Pu Songling, Wailing Ghosts Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet Dickens et al., The Haunted House Daniel Defoe, The King of Pirates *Margaret Oliphant, A Beleaguered City Jane Austen, Emma The Observer's Book of Modern Art *John Buchan, Greenmantle G. K. Chesterton, The Secret of Father Brown Poe, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym Radcliffe, The Romance of the Forest *Stevenson, Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde & other stories Rebecca West, The Fountain Overflows Hawthorne, Selected Tales & Sketches Me: *Allan Ramsay, Selected Poems *Margaret Oliphant, A Beleaguered City, & Other Tales of the Seen and Unseen *The Penguin Book of Scottish Verse, ed. Tom Scott Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep J. H. Newman, Verses on Various Occasions Somerset Maugham, The Summing Up *Thomas Carlyle, Heroes and Hero-Worship *J. M. Barrie, Sentimental Tommy Robert Graves, Goodbye to All That *Alexander Smith, Dreamthorp Herman Melville, Moby Dick ETA: I am VERY proud of Wee Girl's reading!!!

We are leaving for home tomorrow and my airplane book will be Catherine Carswell's The Life of Robert Burns. This biography was controversial when it was published in 1930; one anonymous critic sent Carswell a bullet together with the advice to use it to kill herself. There have been more historically neutral bios of Burns since, but Carswell was a talented Scottish writer in her own right, and her Life is generally read as a good novelization of Burns. Earlier this week I finished Oliphant's ghost story collection A Beleaguered City and wanted to give an intriguing snippet from it--inspired by Penguin's "Little Black Penguins" website--but it's been packed. The best and creepiest story, "The Library Window," is set in this very town, two streets away, the crucial scene taking place on St John's Day, which was Friday last. A little too close for comfort on a dark night.

Seems unlikely ... In her letters, she says the men who refused to read it were members of her church congregation. And Dickens was often requesting her to write for him (she wrote one of the chapters of his The Haunted House, which Middle Girl just read) in the years following the publication of Ruth.

Mumto2 -- I'm so sorry. I'll keep your mother and you in my prayers.

When I read Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep a couple weeks ago, it was obvious Penguin had done a scan-and-autocorrect: typos like "are" where the intended word was clearly "arc." I assume they're trying to save money on human labor costs.

On the topic of great quotes, see Penguin's wonderful site advertising their latest collection: http://www.littleblackclassics.com I just bought Middle Girl Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet, from the one-pound little black classics, and their little selection of Yeats. (In that 48 hours when the pound nosedived, making them even cheaper.)

Will do!

Mumto2: Excellent; I'm quite sure Great Girl has a copy of Orient Express she can loan her sister. She should read it soon anyway because even I know who did it in that book. Speaking of generally public spoilers, a remark from Middle Girl a few weeks ago revealed that she didn't understand what "Jekyll/Hyde" references meant. I got a copy of the book into her hands and she had the pleasure of reading it without knowing the ending, to her great satisfaction. My parenting success for this summer.

The recent Texas Supreme Court decision was on an interlocutory appeal, addressing only the question of whether a plaintiff suing a school district is required to first exhaust administrative remedies before the suit can proceed. The Court held that the family didn't have to, because they were claiming that the ISD violated the Texas Constitution, not the education laws, and so the Texas Education Commissioner doesn't have jurisdiction. JennyD explained this all quite well I think in the relevant thread. The appeal and Texas Supreme Court decision had nothing to do with the family's religious beliefs, failure or not to educate, or educational materials (visual or not). Edit: here's a link to the Court's decision. It's not overly technical and is worth taking a few minutes to read it. http://www.txcourts.gov/media/1400120/140732.pdf

Thanks for that helpful clarification. I guess we'll wait and see,

Loesje, I don't know what a lesson fiche or spot prents are ... mostly I don't understand how a direct-democracy referendum works in a multi-party parliamentary system, and everything is complicated more here in Scotland which voted about 60/40 for Remain and has its own Parliament. I think I'll just stand back and watch the British sort this out. Erin, completely agree that Fitzgerald is better with age. Though the husband of a friend says he devoured Fitzgerald in high school: he had alcoholic parents and spent much of his youth in jazz bars. F. really spoke to him. Ali, I read the first book of Kristin Lavransdatter years ago and keep meaning to return to it. You're inspiring me to do so ... though do you think one ought to re-read the first book if its plot details have been forgotten? Stacia, prayers for your mom. And you. Mothersweets, lovely! You must be high on her list of favorite student parents. Jane, I vote for a general meet-up in Iceland. Maybe right after the November election would be a good time. Angela, how trying for you. I'm sorry your family has to go through all this. Wish I had a good book recommendation for you.

Mumto2, Thank you for all that work. Middle Girl recently read some Father Brown mysteries and today was asking me about Christie; but the mystery genre is squarely in my ignorance zone, and she's been pretty sheltered in her reading*. But then I thought: aha! Somebody has conveniently just spent a great deal of time and effort picking out suitable mysteries for me! So you must tell me which Christie mystery would be a good first choice, in your opinion. *She's at a sort of transitional age where I don't necessarily object to bawdy literature - she decided to read Rabelais this summer - but explicit books are still off-limits.

Today I finished The Penguin Book of Scottish Verse, which I have been reading intermittently for the last few weeks and which has prompted the acquisition of several more collections by particular poets, not to mention a need to re-read my Burns when I get home. The editor, Tom Scott, is one of the poets anthologized, and his contribution has me keeping my eye out for more of his work. I've posted a few of the poems from this collection; but here's one last, about Mary Queen of Scots, by twentieth-century poet Marion Angus; this one in modern English rather than medieval Scots (you're welcome). ALAS! POOR QUEEN She was skilled in music and the dance And the old arts of love At the court of the poisoned rose And the perfumed glove, And gave her beautiful hand To the pale Dauphin A triple crown to win – And she loved little dogs And parrots And red-legged partridges And the golden fishes of the Duc de Guise And a pigeon with a blue ruff She had from Monsieur d’Elboeuf. Master John Knox was no friend to her; She spoke him soft and kind, Her honeyed words were Satan’s lure The unwary soul to bind. ‘Good sir, doth a lissome shape And a comely face Offend your God His Grace Whose Wisdom maketh these Golden fishes of the Duc de Guise? She rode through Liddesdale with a song; ‘Ye streams sae wondrous strang, Oh, mak’ me a wrack as I come back But spare me as I gang.’ While a hill-bird cried and cried Like a spirit lost By the grey storm-wind tost. Consider the way she had to go, Think of the hungry snare, The net she herself had woven, Aware or unaware, Of the dancing feet grown still, The blinded eyes – Queens should be cold and wise, And she loved little things, Parrots And red-legged partridges And the golden fishes of the Duc de Guise And the pigeon with the blue ruff She had from Monsieur d’Elboeuf.

Many thanks Jenny! This procedural stuff makes my head spin, but I'm reading through the decision to try to understand what's going on. So I gather then this decision doesn't address whether Texas ISDs can require verification of a bona fide curriculum, but that that might still be determined? Btw the URL currently working is http://www.txcourts.gov/media/1400120/140732.pdf

None of them look toxic, but I'd throw them all out except the iron and zinc, as they're almost certainly no longer usable; they should all be easily replaceable. Google for each chemical with the word "dispose" to see if they can just be safely washed down the sink or wrapped up and thrown away, which probably most/all of them can be. Check your city or county chemical disposal rules on their website for any hazardous substance disposal. Sources for small quantities of replacement chemicals: Elemental Scientific elementalscientific.net Home Science Tools homesciencetools.com Science Kit sciencekit.com Edmund Scientific scientificsonline.com