Also, check e-bay. What are "wooden" blankets?

How sad it is to lose our fur persons. And how lucky s/he was to be part of your family. :grouphug:

You do now. I graduated in 1982 with a philosophy degree. At that point, Chatham was a women's college. It went co-ed 2 or 3 years ago.I loved my time there.

Look at Chatham University in Pittsburgh, PA. PM me if you want more information.

Love this puppy! Perfect!

I don't know about the Math Lady, but we've been using the dvds from Art Reed. DS has really liked math this year.

For those entranced by Iceland.

Have him take the dorm fridge anyway. He can keep sodas in it and anything else he doesn't want one of his classmates to eat.

I second Auntie Mame (with Rosalind Russell) Also: The Absent-Minded Professor (Fred MacMurray) Flubber Son of Flubber Herbie the Love Bug (and sequels) Gus (Don Knotts)

Thanks for mentioning Janesville. I just ordered the kindle version. Absolutely! Sometimes I feel like I need a palate cleanser between books. For my prime books discount I ordered Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (Selected): An Interlinear Translation and the next book for my IRL Book Club (Emma Straub's Other People We Married. Amazon has a kindle book discount: Buy any kindle book, get 40% back towards your next book.

I too liked $2 a Day. And Nickel and Dimed as well... I've got Catching Out: The Secret World of Day Laborers by Dick Reavis sitting in my TBR pile. Mario Cuomo in a blurb on the back of the book notes that Reavis does for day laborers what Barbara Ehrenreich did for women in Nickel and Dimed. Prime Day Alert! $5 off a $15 purchase of books sold by Amazon - while supplies last (?) - so don't dawdle too long. Code is: PRIMEBOOKS17. And, yes, I already spent my $15. Thanks, Sandy!

Anything with Katherine Hepburn in it. Casablanca Bing Crosby/Bob Hope movies The Long, Long Trailer (with Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz) The Ghost and Mr. Chicken (Don Knotts)

Ask to see their budget coffins.

For fans of Louise Penny.

I meant to add two W&P related books I'm reading: Natasha's Dance: A Cultural History of Russia by Orlando Figes and Andrew Kaufman's Give War & Peace a Chance. Thanks to whomever it was that suggested those titles.

Thanks Jane and Stacia for the book suggestions! Ann B. Ross (of the Miss Julia series) lives in Hendersonville, NC and so provides a light-hearted view, but I also just discovered Wilma Dykeman's work. I'm currently reading her Family of Earth: A Southern Mountain Childhood, but am making slow progress because ... W&P ... W&P snippet on the focus of a soldier going into battle from p. 300, Garnett translation. "The soldier in movement is as much shut in, surrounded, drawn along by his regiment, as the sailor is by his ship. However great a distance he traverses, however strange, unknown, and dangerous the regions to which he penetrates, all about him, as the sailor has the deck and masts and rigging of his ship, he has always everywhere the same comrades, the same ranks, the same sergeant Ivan Mitritch, the same regimental dog Zhutchka, the same officers. The soldier rarely cares to know into what region his ship has sailed; but on the day of battle - God knows how or whence it comes - there may be heard in the moral world of the troops a sterner note that sounds at the approach of something grave and solemn, and rouses them to a curiosity unusual in them. On days of battle, soldiers make strenuous efforts to escape from the routine of their regiment's interests, they listen, watch intently, and greedily inquire what is being done around them." And, then, earlier - a description of Rostov's almost religious ecstasy upon seeing the Emperor from pp. 272-273. "By God! what would happen to me if the Emperor were to address me!" thought Rostov; "I should die of happiness." The Tsar addressed the officers, too. "All of you, gentlemen" (every word sounded to Rostov like heavenly music), "I thank you with all my heart." "How happy Rostov would have been if he could have died on the spot for his Emperor. "You have won the flags of St. George and will be worthy of them." "Only to die, to die for him!" thought Rostov. The Tsar said something more which Rostov did not catch, and the soldiers, straining their lungs, roared "hurrah!" Rostov, too, bending over in his saddle, shouted with all his might, feeling he would like to do himself some injury by this shout, if only he could give full expression to his enthusiasm for the Tsar. The Tsar stood for several seconds facing the hussars, as though he were hesitating. "How could the Emperor hesitate?" Rostov wondered; but then, even that hesitation seemed to him majestic and enchanting, like all the Tsar did. ---------------------- Both of these passages describe the mindset of the soldiers, ranging from ecstasy (the latter quote) to a sort of dissociation from (or numbness to) what is about to happen (the former).

Ha! Mere minutes before I read your post, I started a Word document entitled "2018 Reading Ideas!" I suspect that you're among like-minded nerds. (1) I misread "deserts" as "desserts." Took me a few moments to catch on... (2) What authors from the US rural south do you recommend?

Casablanca Hounded The English Teacher A Ring of Endless Light The Loving Story

Thanks for the Lord of the Rings tip. They also have the Hobbit, as well as Casablanca.

Meant to add: Are you and the kids physically safe? If not, what can you do to be more safe? (You don't have to answer this here.)

:grouphug: :grouphug: :grouphug:

:grouphug: to you and yours.

The owl mail service bit is hilarious! I, um, haven't read any HP yet and haven't watched the movies ... but, perhaps after W&P, I'll finally read HP. Might even dip into Dr. Who. Even though it is our last summer here, we too are hiding from the tourists. No parade for us this morning as we just didn't want to jostle for a parking space and chair spaces. We may head down to the beach this evening for fireworks. Thanks for the Wikipedia suggestion!

Ah! Didn't catch the date! Really sounds like alligators are on the move! As to the multiple books thing: I always have several going. Nonfiction read alouds for homeschool, one of SWB's histories - which keeps getting neglected, whatever literature DS and I are reading, a nonfiction book (history, economic, political, and/or theological), a comfort (fiction) read, and occasionally a classic lit selection (W&P: I'm looking at you!). True confession time: I can't listen to audio books as I fall asleep every. single. time. I also find that I crave fiction as a sort of palate cleanse between heavier books. So now to W&P: I'm closing in on the end of Part II. I'm truly struck by how the soldiers eagerly anticipate the battle. Then, when they're in the midst of it, they dissociate. The anticipation and reality of the battle don't match. How is it that they eagerly anticipate rather than dread the battle?

More on North Carolina Alligators... Because ... Alligators.