This week I put The Bottom Billion up on my blog. I'm trying to finish Hayek's "Road to Serfdom" but it's the sort of book you need to read in a quiet library, and since I'm usually trying to read while my kids are doing kung-fu class or something, it's been difficult. I'm almost done with the Aeneid though! My mom found me an old book called "In Search of London," from the 50's. I've barely started it but it's great! It's still in print and even available on Kindle, so if you're any sort of an Anglophile I'd call it a must-read.

...and you know what, I'm pretty grateful that I don't have to do that. Still, it's uncalled for; it's like when you break your leg and someone says "Well, at least you don't have cancer." There's always something worse out there, but that doesn't mean that our own trials aren't difficult too.

Oh, I'm so terribly sorry for you and your family. :grouphug:

The woman who won Best in Show for her quilt at the 2006 Houston Quilt Show had not quilted long--it was her third. Check it out. (Longer description, more photos here.)

For a basic starter machine, I'd look for a mechanical (not electronic) machine, with the basic features Pippen listed. I have to tell you that the sewing machines under $200 are pretty much junk. What I have bought for my girls to learn on is a Janome Jem Gold, which cost $250 and I expect it to last them through high school. I'm a Bernina person, but I did not like the Bernette I started with (the thread tension was always bad)--but still, Bernette has a good reputation and if you want that then that will be fine. I would recommend that you stay away from Brother and Singer.

Of course. They just don't even go together in the first place. When I do a load of bathroom towels, I take all the towels from the racks of one bathroom, dump them in the washer, and wash them. That's one full load. Kitchen laundry has its own bin and gets washed in its turn. When you say "kitchen towels" AFAIK you mean dishtowels. I don't have bathroom-style towels in my kitchen, so it's a little confusing to me.

It irritates my Russian SIL no end that Igor is such a maligned name in the US. She thinks Igor (Gregory) is a fine name and would like to use it. Same with Boris. (I like Boris.)

When I was a kid, the boy down the street was named Cleopatrick J. Wartley III. Oh, and there's a boy I know named Braxton, which would be a fine name if it didn't remind you of labor.

We always close the lid before flushing, and my toothbrush lives in a case. :) My kids are almost never sick. As a dedicated reader of the Straight Dope, that has been my habit for years, and DH agrees. I can't really think of a good reason to leave a toilet lid open. Leaving it closed is more aesthetic, more hygienic, and has less potential for things falling in.

To me the problem is in combining dishtowels (ew) with my nice undies which are going to be all clean when they're washed, as long as they aren't contaminated by kitchen filth. :tongue_smilie:

But...doesn't everyone? :001_huh: This is pretty funny really because I consider myself a relaxed and cluttered housekeeper. I would never have realized that my laundry habits are picky and germaphobic.

Clothes go in hampers in the bedrooms. Dishtowels collect in a bin in the laundry room (which is the room between the kitchen and the garage, so it's also where shoes and recycling live). There is no reason why my underwear would ever come into contact with dishtowels under normal circumstances--that would take planning. When it's time to wash underwear/socks, I sort a whites load out from the bedroom hamper and wash it. It fills a basket, so I would never need to combine it with anything else in order to make up a full load.

I'm sorry, there is no way I can do that. :ack2:

Whoa, now that's a serious problem.

Thanks very much for your thoughts, Sebastian. :) That is helpful.

Yep, that's it. What I can't find is the mix with the quotations in. I think it may not have played everywhere.

...is it appropriate to play songs from the time to talk about what reactions there were? And what if one of the songs is Boingo's "War Again"? And does anyone remember that Styx song that was quite popular, and they mixed it with quotations from people? I can't find a recording of the mix. My kid is only 9, so I'm not sure how much we can discuss about the sentimentalization of the war that the Styx song represented (I was a senior in high school and it was rife there), vs. the video-game mentality the Boingo song was objecting to, and etc.

I'd call the police to check on local noise ordinances first, and if it kept happening I'd go over to discuss it.

I'm pretty sure that SWB recommends immersing yourself in the book first, then going back and doing a 'logic-stage' reading, making marks and such. The problem is that most people don't have time to read a book 3 times, so you wind up skimming and skipping the second/third times. Either way, by all means enjoy the book and just take it in. Then go back and do all that note stuff, if that's how you want to do it. The Literary Analysis Police won't knock on your door. ;)

I read One Amazing Thing and Mendoza in Hollywood (same post). Now I'm tackling Hayek's Road to Serfdom and the Aeneid.

Keep in mind also that 1996 was also before housing prices inflated so much in parts of the US. In 1996, you could easily buy a comfortable middle-class house in San Jose for less than $400K, and people were worrying about the high cost of housing. By 2000, a townhouse was over $500K and rising fast.

PS is not always terrible or anything, plenty of kids enjoy it and do fine. OTOH, it's not terribly individualized, lots of kids can get lost in the shuffle, and there just isn't the freedom we have. School can be such a hassle and I am often amazed at how much my friends put up with. Yesterday was "Grandparents' Day" at our local PS, and we were invited to visit our friend's 4th grade classroom. I decided to call it a field trip! :001_smile: The kids had spent weeks preparing a show of poetry recital and singing. Sounds neat, huh? Well, they performed well. But I was horrified at the 'poetry' (pure doggerel), and the songs were mostly pretty dang bad too, and holy cow they spent weeks learning this vapid stuff when they could easily have done something of quality. Then we went into the classroom, which is quite nice--but crowded. The two kids we know well in that class are often bored or frustrated--the teacher won't give the boy extra work (though she says he needs it) and punishes him for reading in class, one girl has a hard time dealing with the constant 'mean-girl' atmosphere. I ended up chatting with the boy's dad about his frustrations with the school. I was relieved to get out of there. I think my kids would be OK if they went--but the hassle and restrictions and time wastage is just too much for me to handle.

Don't run until it's healed. Constant gentle exercise will work better. I now wear shoes all the time. It's a pain but it's the only thing that works. I found that Dansko clogs are wonderful, and so are hiking shoes with lots of good support.

Actually I'd love to go to that museum, but no, it's my husband--who doesn't in the least care about Russian art or textiles--who is in Minneapolis right now.

I'm interested in seeing the movie, but I think it probably concentrates on a certain set of kids who are indeed very pressured. However, not all American kids have this particular problem. (Many kids I know do, though, esp. the girls--they get perfect grades, look beautiful, play sports, take leadership positions...it's really a "do it all and do it perfectly" culture.)