Shelley Opens a New Book to... Chapter Three

We had a crazy day of snow and ice last week. I was fortunate not to have lost power though a friend of mine who lives 2 hours away did, for over 9 hours. Some parts of the province north of here are still without power, after a week!

This pic looks altered and weird but somehow, I like how it turned out, even if they are a bit fuzzy. Taken through a widow, of course. Goldfinch and junco.

I spent the day at the ROM (Royal Ontario Museum) yesterday. There were 3 exhibits I wanted to see. The Wildlife Photographer of the Year awards were, as always, magnificent. Many categories including animals, emotions, flora, fauna, young photographers, etc, etc. I don't think I was allowed to take pics (shhh!) but I did anyhow. Here are a few of my favourites:

So atmospheric!


Ermine:

There was also another nature exhibit called Nature in Colour and it was great. It was about how colour manifests in nature and there were many photos and live (well, stuffed, formerly live) specimens. I did take a few pics but I won't put them here as I think this is getting too pic-heavy and the last pic in my previous post did not upload the final pic. I will try to fix it as it was adorable.

The third and final exhibit was called *Auschwitz - Not Long Ago and Not Far Away*. In truth, I debated seeing that one, mainly because I have seen many many Holocaust-related exhibits and read a lot. In fact, I didn't see anything I didn't already know but I am always curious to see how things are presented and what the curators choose to exhibit. There was an audio guide, as well, There were, as to be expected, a lot of historic explanations, in case there is anyone who might not know about that dark time. There were also many actual artifacts. There were also quotes from people who were there, both the victims as well as the perpetrators (from diaries, newspapers, etc). I am including here 3 examples. The first from a Christian pastor, his very famous quote which rings true through the ages, to today, and which we all would be wise to heed.

The second and third speak for themselves and also ring frighteningly familiar....







No thought it could happen then, because the German nation was so cultured, so proper. By the time they realized that it could happen, it had already happened and was too late. It CAN happen...

Eek. Sorry these are so big. Ick

I will try again to upload the pic of the owlets that wouldn't upload earlier.



Fingers crossed it works this time.

And, from my last thread, the new library cards on offer from our public library:



I chose, *freedom to read 'em* as my new card.

The puzzle I just finished, Paris evening:

Believe it or not, I am also reading! I just started a new puzzle and an audiobook, Jimmy Carter reading his memoir to me, An Hour Before Daylight. I sometimes have to concentrate hard because of his accent but it's a delight to have him narrate it.

Also currently reading:
My Grandmother Sends her regards and Apologizes by Fredrik Backman
Word Nerd by John Williams Jr. This is a funny look at the game of Scrabble from the former executive director of the National Scrabble Association.

Still dipping in and out of the essays in Margaret Renkl's Graceland, At Last and David Johnston's The Idea of Canada, both of which I am really enjoying.

Ok, I think I am done here. Tech makes me crazy when I can't figure something out! I need a nap!

Welcome!

>1 jessibud2: I love that opening picture :)

>5 jessibud2: Terrifying, is it not?

>6 jessibud2: Aw, owls! My favorites.

>7 jessibud2: I like them all, but 'Ignite minds not books' is the one for me. I wish I lived up that way. My library card is just plain white - boring in the extreme.

>8 jessibud2: Nice!

>9 jessibud2: Yay for reading!

Happy new thread, Shelley. Hopefully I will keep up much better with this one.

Hi Stasia. My old library was blue. Just blue, also boring. I love their new ones. You, Paul and Mary all chose the same one. Maybe it's the teacher in me but I didn't want one with a negative word (the word *not*). I remember in university, we were reminded that there is always a positive way to phrase something to a child, instead of saying *don't* do something, rephrase it positively. I have remembered and tried to use that during my whole career as a teacher. Mostly, it worked (not always). I do understand and *get* why this new card, at this time in our world, means something positive, but I just chose the one I did.

And, today I hit 100 in wordle, 100 wins in a row, not all of them brag-worthy but no bombs (yet). I hope I didn't just jinx myself for tomorrow's game!

Wordle 1,386 4/6 meaty, soapy, loamy, foamy

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Love all the pics, Shelley, and looks like several fantastic exhibits. Kudos on the puzzle and Wordle. Right now I'm addicted to https://www.jigsawexplorer.com/

Happy new thread, Shelley. I love the puzzle and all the pics!

Happy new thread, Shelley. I love those nature pics. Seems like a great exhibition.

>5 jessibud2: Scary isn’t it?

>6 jessibud2: Love those owls.

Happy new thread! Love your type topper. One of my favorites.

Happy new thread, and great opening picture!

>7 jessibud2: Such a great idea with the library cards!

>2 jessibud2: Actually the picture turned out great! Love it. Hopefully the winter weather does not return.

Happy new thread!

Happy new thread, Shelley.

>1 jessibud2: That is a fabulous topper!

>14 kac522: - Ooo, thanks for that, Kathy. I used to do jigzone.com daily, for years. I am not sure they are still an active site, though. I think their archives are still there to choose from but they just stopped sending me daily puzzles and I was never able to re-activate that. I will explore your link, thanks!

Thanks, Meg, Ella, Mary, Rhonda, Anita, and Paul.

Re >5 jessibud2: - Yes, it is scary and worse, but in the pit of my stomach, I feel that unless someone stops trump, the world is heading that way again. Maybe not exactly but close enough would still be a nightmare, and it already is, for so many. Which is why those lessons of the past need to be retold and people today need to be reminded of what can happen if we don't pay attention.

I chose that topper because it seems the absolute perfect antidote to the outside world!

>21 jessibud2: My husband was at a protest today in suburban Evanston. I chose not to go because I'm not feeling 100% and wasn't sure how long we would need to be standing around. He said it seemed like about 1,000 people there, but not sure how many. He said the speakers were good. In downtown Chicago there were about 30,000 people. He kind of wanted to go downtown, but figured it would be really crowded (and it was), so I'm glad he opted for Evanston.

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>22 kac522: - Hope you are feeling better soon, Kathy. Good that you didn't go stand in the rain if you are not feeling well. I was heartened to see and hear about so many protests everywhere, although I am not a person todo that, myself. I am not a *crowd* person at all, for any reason. It has been eons since I went to a live music event, especially outside. And in this day and age of *crazies*, well, just no, not for me. But I am very grateful that most people aren't like me in that respect.

>24 jessibud2: Understood, Shelley. In fact, my husband said today he was glad he went to the smaller event. He doesn't like the huge crowds any more either (he did a lot of marches in his younger years). He doesn't drive, so downtown always is the more convenient traveling option on public transit, but when I offered to drive him to the Evanston one, he agreed. He can get there via bus, too (and that's how he got home), but it was a lot easier for me to drop him off. Anyway, like you, I'm grateful for all the people who showed up.

Happy New Thread, Shelley! I love your topper! It would make a good jigsaw puzzle , though perhaps challenging.

>8 jessibud2: The puzzle looks great too. Well done!

Wordle 1,389 3/6 meaty, plate, spare Quick for me today.

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Deb, you are right, that topper would make a great puzzle!

I finished another last night but haven't uploaded my photo of it yet. Later. I am debating whether or not to start another today or wait. I am actually heading out on Friday for the weekend so maybe I'll just wait till I get back. I am heading to Montreal with a friend. We will leave Friday morning and return Monday afternoon. It feels a bit weird for me. The last time I was there was when my mum died. This may, in fact, be the first time since she got sick in 2017, that I am going there for no reason other than to be a tourist and have fun. All the millions of visits during her illnesses were related to her care, appointments, etc, etc. This time, it will be all about me, and no one else, lol! We will be staying right downtown, going to 2 museums and going to an *event* (though I have no idea what that may entail) at a tiny indie bookstore, called The Word, right off McGill campus. They are celebrating their 50th anniversary and have some things planned (apparently, it was a favourite place of Leonard Cohen's). All of what we plan to do is walkable from our hotel and as long as this miserable weather clears up (it's SNOWING here in Toronto, as I speak!). But it should, by Friday. We will also get to see that giant mural of LC. I have seen it before but my friend hasn't. I think she said she hadn't been to Mtl since her kids were small (they are both in their 30s now)

I am not even letting any of my family know I will be there. Hehe, (evil laugh). I am quite looking forward to it.

Happy new thread, Shelley. I love all the photos. The Nazi exhibit looks powerful. I love the library cards. I would choose "Ignite minds not books." :)

>27 jessibud2: Have a great time (relative-free) in Montreal! It snowed here yesterday, clear today, more rain/snow tomorrow BUT Fri-Sun is supposed to be nice. Probably similar for you except a day later, so keep fingers crossed...

>29 kac522: - It was snowing when I woke up this morning, Kathy, and is windy and freezing. But things will warm up before Friday and the forecast looks goods. Much warmer than right now!

>28 BLBera: - It was, Beth. As it should be!

Funny, of all the LTers who have commented on the new library cards. everyone - except me! - chose the one you chose, lol! They are all good, for sure.

This is the puzzle I finished last night. I started it a couple of days ago, at the same time I started listening to the Jimmy Carter memoir on audio. It felt like such serendipity, the old timey feel of this pic and his descriptions of his childhood home, chores and jobs as a boy.

>31 jessibud2: Oh, that looks like a fun puzzle, Shelley!

Have a safe and fun trip to Montreal. Your plans sound great!

>31 jessibud2: The puzzle looks great, Shelley! I hope to finish my current puzzle later today or perhaps tomorrow . I’m listening to an audiobook while I puzzle, though I am also reading the physical book from the library. Enjoy your weekend away.

Happy New Thread, Shelley. Love the owl pics.

>32 SqueakyChu: - Thanks, Madeline. I am actually looking forward to it more than I expected to.
>33 vancouverdeb: - Thanks, Deb. The weather looks to be warming up right on time for the weekend!
>34 msf59: - Mark, you would have loved the entire Wildlife Photographers exhibit. Some (most!) of the photos were really fantastic.

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I just heard about this. It has LT written all over it! A new documentary about the public library, coming to PBS, Watch the preview:

https://www.pbs.org/independentlens/documentaries/free-for-all/

>37 jessibud2: Thanks for the heads-up, Shelley. Looks like it will broadcast here in Chicago Tues April 29 at 9pm CDT.

Hi Shelley my dear, Happy New Thread dear friend.

I am back home now. My friend and I had a great time in Montreal. We left Friday, and came home Monday late afternoon. LOTS of train delays, in both directions but we had no appointments so it was mostly just a minor annoyance. We crammed a lot into the 2 full days and one evening we were there: really great food, lots of walking, lots of street art and museum art, a bookstore birthday event and of course, I bought some books.

I will post some photos shortly (the boys are demanding dinner right now so, you know how that goes.....)

My wordle streak continues, 110 days now and counting).

Glad you had such a good time Shelley!
And yes, of course, feed the boys first, and maybe they don’t let on, but cats miss you too.

Thanks, Ella.

Let's start with what's probably the most iconic wall mural, Leonard Cohen on a 22-storey apartment building. Apparently he approved because it was a photo of him taken by his daughter. This is on Crescent Street, just a few streets from where our hotel was



Same mural but at night, with the street lights reflected off the damp roads:



I don't know what this is but it was on a building right off the McGill campus (which was also walking distance from the hotel. Almost everything we did was walking distance from the hotel):

Some street art. I posted a few of these here several years ago but will post the again because I still love them.

This first is called *La Tendresse* by sculptor Paul Lancz:



This next one, shown from both sides, is called *La Lecon* by Cedric Loth. I love the exquisite detail in this! Note the squirrel, the fries, etc.

Our initial purpose in going was for the 50th birthday of a tiny (and I mean tiny!) independent used bookstore about 3 blocks off McGill campus, serving, mainly I'd guess, McGill students. They hosted a party with music, cake, drinks, a table of books for 50% off, t-shirts and canvas bookbags. I bought a t-shirt (I already have probably too many bookbags) as well as 4 books. Legend has it that this was Leonard Cohen's favourite bookstore. It is called The Word. It is the little blue store:



and the next morning, the morning after, so to speak. I wonder why they don't have the name of the store on it somewhere. Maybe everyone knows it and there is no need?:



My book haul:



Although, if I am honest, my very favourite book of the weekend was one I paid far too much for, from the McCord Museum's gift shop. Aislin (real name Terry Mosher) is my favourite political cartoonist and he was also the official sports cartoonist for my (and his) beloved Montreal Expos, the first major league baseball team to come to Canada.



I could not help myself and am reading it now, setting aside my other reads for this. I am loving it.

Montreal also has some wonderful old architecture downtown (as well as in other places but we were only downtown this time). I truly love that these buildings are preserved and repurposed, used now as offices, galleries, restaurants, student housing, etc, instead of being torn down in favour of hideous concrete and glass, as Toronto has done. Shame on Toronto.

Here are a few I loved:

What a wonderful trip! excellent photos.

Lovely pictures, Shelley! Thanks for sharing them.

Great pics--I especially love the old buildings. We are so quick to tear these down; so lovely to see them in good order and being used.

--Any sketches of my heart-throb Andre Dawson in the Aislin book? I still have a bunch of his baseball cards (mostly Cubs, but I have at least one Expo).

--I've always meant to go out to Forest Home to Emma Goldman's grave and the Haymarket memorial. Maybe this summer. We've got a book about the Haymarket around here somewhere.

>45 jessibud2: Montreal definitely did it better than New York or Toronto!

Love the photos! Glad you had such a great trip!

Thanks, Anita, Deb, Kathy, Richard, Mary.

A fun article: https://bradmontague.substack.com/p/librarians-are-dangerous

Nice pictures, Shelley. Yes, please preserve your heritage. Well done for Montreal.

Hi Shelley my dear, i am loving the photos, some fabulous architecture on show, well done to Montreal.

Thanks, Ella and John.

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Happy Tuesday, Shelley. Love all the Montreal pics. I love those old buildings. I am putting out the hummingbird feeder for the first time. We are finally warming up.

Hi Mark. I have my regulars out there already: Mr. and Mrs. Cardinal, a couple of goldfinches and there was even a junco pecking around on the ground. It's windy so feels a bit colder but it will warm up and continue to, all week. Halleluyah!

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>31 jessibud2: I like that one a lot!

>43 jessibud2: >44 jessibud2: Love the street art! Thanks for sharing all the pictures. Also, nice haul!

>45 jessibud2: I love looking at old architecture. When I went to NYC for the first time, I spent a lot of time there looking up at the old architecture on the buildings.

Hi Stasia. I always love old architecture, too. Europe is filled with it. Here in my city, so many beautiful old buildings are torn down to be replaced by ugly concrete and glass monstrosities (tall towers) or what I call *monster homes*. I LOVE the character and craftsmanship of old architecture and look for it wherever I go.

Wordle 1,406 4/6 meaty, quirk, knobs, known

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I don't know what I did wrong in posting yesterday's wordle. It looks weird to me now. Oh well.

Thank you for sharing such excellent images! What a wonderful amount of things accomplished on your time away!

I've gone back a few times to look at the images again and again. I love the one of Lenard Cohen. Years ago, I found a CD of Jennifer Warnes singing Leonard Cohen songs. At the time, I didn't know of the huge amount of writing he accomplished. This CD led to my research of this incredible versatile man.

My favorite on the CD was Song of Bernadette. What an incredible poet!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgwaRMdihOU

Lyrics of A Song of Bernadette

https://www.lyrics.com/lyric/10142921/Leonard+Cohen/Song+of+Bernadette#google_vi...

Well, this was a surprise!

Wordle 1,408 2/6 meaty, weedy. Guess I had gardening on my mind...and so did they!

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>61 jessibud2: Happy spring, Shelley. May all the tasks that come with it magically fail to feed the squirrels and pigeons this year.

>62 richardderus: - From your mouth to the god's ears. :-)

Wordle 1,409 3/6 meaty, dimly, dummy

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Today is our federal election and not that the rule of law matters one iota to trump but he is very vocally interfering and trying to sway our election. That is illegal. If ignoring him could make him go away, that would be great but it won't and I have to wonder why he isn't being called out on this. That said, because he isn't in jail already, it is quite clear that the only laws that matter to him are the ones in his deluded head. And that is scary.

I am more nervous than I thought I'd be today. In my gut I believe that Mark Carney (Liberal) will win but who really knows? Who really thought trump would win (either time). Long, nail-biting hours ahead.....

>59 jessibud2: what I call *monster homes* Kerry and I were driving home from out of town the other day and we saw all these huge houses and I remarked to him, 'they are all big - and they are all ugly.' I do not care for *monster homes* either!

>65 jessibud2: I hope the election goes the way you want it to, Shelley!

Hooray for Mark Carney!! Very happy for my northern friends. We really have just one person to thank for that and you know who that is...😜

Sweet Tuesday, Shelley.

>67 msf59: - Mark, today's *Borowitz Report* said just that, lol!!

I am so relieved that Carney won though it is not quite a majority govt, which is disappointing. But he is truly the only adult in the room when it comes to dealing with trump. Still, I was more nervous than I thought I'd be and this morning is a huge relief.

Yep, congrats to Canada--the adult country in the room!

Glad your election had better results than ours! Phew!! :)

You WON!!!

We did it, Shelley! Yay!

Thank goodness,. I am sorry that the NDP party did so bad. They were responsible for our national dental plan and drug plan.

>73 torontoc: - I agree, Cyrel. My default personal values are NDP but I have found myself voting strategically more often than not, in order to keep the conservatives from getting in. Hasn't always worked, obviously but as you said, very disheartening to see them fall so low.

It’s too bad about the NDP but it was mostly a two party race when it came down to it. The turnout of voters was great especially in the advance polls. I had many long lineups at the poll I manned (womanned).

Nice pics of Montreal, Shelly!

From today's AWAD (A Word A Day). I wonder, how could the Turks know about trump?

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn't become a king. The palace turns into a circus. -Turkish Proverb

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I am in a reading funk lately. I am in the middle of 5 books that I am enjoying, more or less. Can't seem to stick with and finish any of them but they aren't bad enough to DNF them. Yet. I also just bailed on a puzzle I was working on and will begin another today. Also doing a fair bit of outside garden-related work, thanks to the great weather we are having. Heading downtown later this afternoon to see a film on Nora Ephron.

Why it took me so long to get back to puzzling. I got up to get a glass of water. All of maybe 10 seconds. Mr. Innocent doesn't seem to understand that no, this isn't a new napping spot for him. Really?

>81 jessibud2: Same issue here...Molly can be sound asleep on another floor, but if I roll out the puzzle mat she has to be right there in the middle of it.

Being outside in the great weather is such a blessing, and it may clear the funk if you just give in to it. No need to feel bad about not finishing anything for a while.

Thanks. Linda. He really is a good boy (sometimes) but so naughty. Then he looks at me with those big round eyes and, well, it's hard (for me) to be alpha around here....;-)

4th day in a row of 3!

Wordle 1,420 3/6 meaty, trice, tripe

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Oh. My. Wordle in 2 again! I guess it helped that my starting word had 4 of the 5 letters

Wordle 1,421 2/6 meaty, yeast

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>81 jessibud2: Cats will be cats. Your attention is there, and of course he has to be there as well. All innocent looking.

I now have a visiting cat, he’s a ginger too.

>84 jessibud2: Great!

>84 jessibud2: Good one! Took me 5.

>84 jessibud2: ...interesting combo...

Have a lovely Sunday!

I have heard that trying to puzzles with cats can be almost impossible, Shelley. A friend of mine adopted to cats, and she told me that she can't do puzzles for now as they are always on the puzzles and taking them apart. I hope you enjoy this puzzle, and the new Mother Goose one. I just finished another puzzle last night, and plan to start one this evening. Sorry about the reading funk. I hope it is soon over.

It was a perfect gardening day here today. 25C and no humidity! A miracle. I did a fair bit of grunt work: aerating the soil that is packed like clay, then adding triple mix (soil, compost and I forget the third part) to amend it and give it fair shot at being healthy, at least for now. I also pulled weeds, removed a dead plant and moved the stepping stones to build up the level beneath them so they don't look like they are sinking. I used 2 full bags for just the little shade corner and that first half of the side garden. I had to stop, just under the hanging fuschia basket and will try to get as much completed tomorrow as I can before the predicted rain begins.

The side:


The shade corner (I am so thrilled that all 4 of my hellebores are thriving!):

I will soon be having a redo of my tiny front garden and space. The so-called landscapers our condo hires to do the shoveling and such in the winter are maniacs for salting. OVER-salting. They always manage to get it all over my grass and as such, the grass just doesn't grow any more, no matter how many times I have tried to re-seed. I have complained before, sent photos and no one seems to care. So I am taking matters into my own hands. I have hired a landscaper who will remove ALL the grass (everything on the left of the tree is my space), replace it with salt-resistant plants and extend my garden down to it, with a *dry river* (I think that's what it's called; a kind of stream of rocks.). She can't start until late June/early July so it will remain ugly till then. But I have cleaned up the garden part and begun to add my pots of annuals, between the perennials that are coming up.





And these tulips are from Botanical Garden the other day (when I went to buy some plants). Clearly, no squirrels allowed there! I can only drool:

And finally, the birds I see daily:

(I hate when the images come out so fuzzy. Sorry):

chipping sparrow, a new *regular* to the feeder:



The colourful ones: a male and female goldfinch and a male cardinal:



And finally, the damn pigeons. The one from the last few weeks has suddenly become two. Go do that somewhere else, I yelled! They were doing their mating dance right on the driveway! lol! It was actually very cute and I hadn't seen it before. They locked beaks and bobbed up and down and up and down a bunch of times. They just better not be bringing their babies and extended family here any time soon!

>81 jessibud2: HA! Cats certainly have odd spots to rest, don't they? Today I found one of my cats sitting in the grass catcher bag using it like a hammock ;)

Happy rest of the week

I love your garden and bird pictures, Shelley. I wish I could teleport myself into your garden now and sit there with you and Bookgrrl for a visitl Your comments about the pigeons (I know how much you hate them!) made me laugh. I don't have pigeons here, but we do have grackles and house sparrows, both of which are very aggressive and annoying. The good news is that we have a nest of baby chickadees in our birdhouse. Every couple of days, I peek inside with a flashlight just to be sure they are still there. :D

Your front and back gardens look fabulous, Shelley! The botanical garden look lovely too.

>91 jessibud2: Time to prepare...you're their territory now, Shelley. *sigh* Unlike the highrises I prefer to live in, you dn't have the option of spiking your sills to keep their reproduction elsewhere. Sorry, you don't really want to hear this but it's been my experience...you have to make the environment hostile to get rid of pigeons.

>90 jessibud2: Love your garden pictures Shelley. And your plans sound good. Yes to taking matters into your own hands.

>91 jessibud2: That little chipping sparrow looks nice!
My garden has pigeons as well, two different kinds, wood pigeons, and Collared Doves, they are a bit smaller. Those pigeons in your picture live here as well, when I lived upstairs they used to try and make nests on the balcony. I could keep them off by hanging some white plastic bags from the railing. Somehow they found these scary.

Love the colourful pictures, Shelley. Your garden looks good and I had to laugh at your puzzle picture.

<92 - Yes, Anita, for sure. In fact, I had to go out yesterday and couldn't find Theo anywhere. I finally found him deep into his all day nap-athon, inside the cat carrier which I always have open in my bedroom (a second one open in the kitchen). I told him he really needs to have a talk with his brother, who is impossible to get into a carrier!

>93 SqueakyChu: - Never say never, Madeline. It could happen!

>94 vancouverdeb: - Thanks, Deb. I am slowly getting my garden back to its summer glory. This is supposed to be the weekend that it starts to be ok to plant in the ground. Always the May 24 weekend, Victoria Day. Except, even though my printed calendar says *Victoria Day* holiday on it, and Monday is the stat day off, when did May 24 (which is *actually* Victoria Day) get moved to May 17??? I must have missed something. May 24 is NEXT weekend, isn't it? Ok, never mind. I Just googled. Queen Victoria's actual birthday is May 24. But here is what wikipedia just told me and it makes no sense to me at all:

"Victoria Day (French: Fête de la Reine, lit. 'Celebration of the Queen') is a federal Canadian public holiday observed on the last Monday preceding May 25 to honour Queen Victoria, who is known as the "Mother of Confederation". The holiday has existed in Canada since at least 1845, originally on Victoria's natural birthday, May 24. It falls on the Monday between the 18th and the 24th (inclusive) and, so, is always the penultimate Monday of May (May 19 in 2025 and May 18 in 2026). Victoria Day is a federal statutory holiday, as well as a holiday in six of Canada's ten provinces and all three of its territories. The holiday has always been a distinctly Canadian observance and continues to be celebrated across the country.12 It is informally considered the start of the summer season in Canada."

Weird.

>95 richardderus: - You are, of course, correct, Richard. I will let the birds eat the seeds in the feeder until it's empty (another day, maybe 2), then I will stop putting it out for the summer. This always makes me sad because I so love the colourful songbirds that visit but the pigeons are too stupid to take my warnings seriously. I don't want to physically hurt them but I throw things at them to try to make them feel unsafe here. It doesn't work. So, I just stop putting out the feeder. Boo hiss.

>96 EllaTim: - I do like the mourning doves, Ella. They don't congregate in numbers and I love their sound. I don't have the option to hang plastic anywhere to scare off the pigeons, though.

>97 Familyhistorian: - Thanks, Meg. Yes, he is a character. Never-ending entertainment, that's my boy.

PHEW! indeed! Far too many options today and nearly ran out!

Wordle 1,428 6/6 meaty, plunk, shown, frown, brown, grown. It also could have been crown or drown. Just luck of the draw to get my final guess correct!

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>99 jessibud2: That one was a squeaker! Glad it wasn't a reset-the-streak day for you, Shelley. May the pigeons develop an aversion to you.

>100 richardderus: - No kidding! I have a 142-day streak on the line!!!

Dropping in to say hello! I hope you had a wonderful Victoria day weekend.

Weird, is right about the timing of The Victoria Day weekend, Shelley. Thanks for looking up the reason.

Thought you would appreciate this, Shelley. NY Times podcast with 3 professors who are leaving Yale for the University of Toronto:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXR9PByA9SY

Great pictures of your garden, Shelley!

I love your photos, Shelley! Especially the flowers and the Montreal architecture.

Hi Shelley, missing you here?

Just stopping by. I hope the book funk isn't too bad and that all is well, Shelley.

>44 jessibud2: Such a classic Montréal street scene!

The story behind the store: https://www.thewordbookstore.ca/home

>89 jessibud2: Another hellebore lover here, and Aislin too.

>104 kac522: - Kathy, I am just watching this now. I hadn't realized Timothy Snyder moved to Toronto! (Marci Shore is his wife, by the way). A couple of friends and I are looking into how we can audit a course of his. I'll let you know how that works out.

>109 SassyLassy: - Welcome to my thread. And thanks for that link!

I have been a bit MIA, I know. Just a bad few weeks of migraines and low energy. I've been reading a bit though nothing that is grabbing me and not letting go. I have also been puzzling. I will post reviews and photos later but I want to try to sit outside a bit this afternoon, if it doesn't get too hot and if the air is ok (we are getting smoke from the wildfires out west, believe it or not, and have already had air quality warnings).

Theo continues to experience some *plumbing* problems, poor boy and though it hasn't reached the level it was a few months ago, it is still worrisome. He doesn't like the prescription food he now has to be on which isn't helping his energy level. I know I wanted his frenzied kitten years to be gone but he is 5 years old now and I (almost) miss his high energy!

>110 jessibud2: I hope you get to audit one of his classes (or maybe one of his wife's)! He is so smart.

>111 jessibud2: So sorry about the health issues. I'm in Theo's boat, as I've been having "plumbing" issues as well, but hopefully a few more doctor visits and procedures will help diagnose what's going on. Suffice it to say that I can't get more than an hour's sleep at a time 😧 so I'm low energy as well, but at least I can read.

Yep we have smoke here, too--I've spent the last few days indoors (except a doc appt on Thursday) with the windows closed. I went out today--still hazy--but they say it's OK to go outside now. Did a huge grocery shopping today, as the fridge was pretty empty....

(Very small) lightning round. Not many books read, in truth, but I have been doing a lot of paper decluttering which included magazines and a whole file of articles cut out that were meant to be read *someday*. That someday was the last few weeks.

No Two Persons - Erica Bauermeister

I really wanted to like this book more than I did. I adored her first book, liked (but not as much) the second one by her that I read. So I was happy to find another book by this author, and the title and premise were certainly intriguing. However, despite being called a *novel*, in my opinion, that is misleading. This isn't a novel at all but rather, a series of very loosely connected short stories. I am not, and have never been, a fan of short stories and this just reinforced why not. Just when you start getting to know and feel invested in a character, it's over and on to the next. I simply don't like that. I feel cheated.

That said, I have to say, I loved the last one of the stories and how it circled back to a couple of characters from earlier on. And the part of the book I liked best was actually the *About the Author* and the *Behind the Novel* sections, at the end.

100 Headlines That Changed the World - James Maloney

Published in 2012, each chapter (headline) is about 1 to 3 pages long. As one might expect, most of the headlines are about *the bad news*, war, acts of terror, natural disasters, political evil and other nasty things our species can do to one another. But there were plenty of *good news* headlines as well: medical and scientific breakthroughs, miraculous rescues and - thank goodness - the good our species can do if the desire is there.

Not especially well-written (the teacher in me found typos and awkward phrasing and word choices) but overall, a fascinating look back at our history on this planet.

The Wright Sister - Patty Dann

This is the story of Katharine, the younger sister of Wilbur and Orville Wright, as imagined by author Patty Dann. Told in epistolary form, as letters from Katharine to Orville, and as diary entries in her *marriage diary*, the book chronicles mostly the last few years of her life and, through reminiscences, their earlier lives together.

I was a bit surprised (and disappointed) to learn, in the *About the Author* and *Behind the Story* sections at the end, that the author did not do the intensive research that she credits other authors of historical fiction of doing. I'm not sure why not, except maybe that she wanted to follow her own flights of fancy and imagination. Overall, though, it was an enjoyable read.

And still reading now:
In A League of Her Own - Kaia Alderson

Historical fiction but based on real people and events. This is the story of Effa Manley, an ambitious woman in Harlem, NY in the 1930s. From the blurb on the back: "The incredible untold story of Effa Manley, a Black businesswoman in the male-dominated baseball industry and currently the only woman inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame".

Her husband, Abe Manley, buys a Negro League baseball team and appoints her as the team's business manager. Almost overnight, Effa goes from civil right's champion to an interloper in the boys' club that is professional baseball.

I will probably finish this book tonight or tomorrow. It has taken me as long as it has because I seem to stop and google just about every other page to learn about the people and events mentioned in this book. And there are many! For example, one of her best friends was Avis Blake, wife of entertainer Eubie Blake. There are tons of names, most of which I did not know but several which I did, in passing, that I wanted to learn more about, to put the story in context. I do enjoy learning about parts of history that are not well-known. How did I ever read, before google?!

Also just started The Last Masterpiece by Laura Morelli, but really, just started it so nothing to report yet.

Puzzle and garden pics soon/later.

A few recently completed puzzles:

greenhouse:


Bottle caps (this one was hard!):


Peace (I loved this one but it was trickier than expected because ALL the fonts were white with beige striping inside them):

Seed Packets:


I did start and abandon a few others that were just too insane and frustrating. C'est la vie)

Wordle 1,450 3/6meaty, peace, lease

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Happy Sunday, Shelley. I love all the garden pics, along with the bird photos. Hooray for the chipping sparrow. We very rarely see them in the yard or even on my walks but I see them all the time whenever we are camping. Oh yeah- nice puzzles too.

>114 jessibud2: >115 jessibud2: Love the puzzles, Shelley. We have puzzles coming out of our ears. We now have a closet full of saved/owned puzzles, swapped puzzles and thrifted puzzles plus the puzzle we’re awaiting from the puzzle rental company. We’re now awaiting puzzle #67 from the rental company!!

From where do you get all your puzzles? What do you do with them after you complete them?

I love all of the puzzles you have done , Shelley, especially the Seed Packets and the Greenhouse. I just purchased 4 puzzles from Puzzles Canada! I had been waiting for them to get 3 in stock, and then they had a sale and for some reason I had purchase a certain dollar amount( maybe because of the sale ? or the particular puzzles I wanted) so I bought 4. I'll do them all eventually. Another addiction!

>119 vancouverdeb: Deb (and Shelley), this year I joined a puzzle swap group. I found out from several of the members that previous to the pandemic, they didn’t do that many puzzles at all. When pandemic hit, that is when their puzzle hobby (or their addiction?) took off! :D. Same with me!!

>120 SqueakyChu: I think my puzzling addiction started prior to the pandemic, Madeline. My two sister's have been doing puzzles for some years, and I thought - what am I missing ?I started with a 300 piece puzzle, and the rest is history, as they say. But I have heard that a lot of people started puzzling during the pandemic.

>121 vancouverdeb: Our family only used to do one large (like 2,000 pieces) puzzle a year at the beach when we’d go for a week’s vacation. We’d try to finish the puzzle before the week ended. We’d saved all the puzzles, but did not redo them. Then came pandemic and we redid all of our puzzles multiple times. I guess we just got used to having a puzzle going at all times. :D

>117 msf59: - Hi Mark. Thanks for stopping by. My bird feeder is officially empty and put away till fall. Makes me very sad but... pigeons. ;-p

>118 SqueakyChu: - Hi Madeline. I get my puzzles from a variety of sources: yard sales, HomeSense, a game store in the mall near me, thrift stores. Some of our library branches have puzzles for borrowing (my friend's branch does, mine doesn't). My friend and I trade all the time and I am slower than she is so, so far, I am not running out! Ones I don't like or can't finish, I tell her to trade. Ones I keep, go on the shelf. When I visited my cousin in Montreal a few years ago, she had a room of shelves and shelves of them. I thought that was nuts but that was before Theo allowed me to get back into puzzling. Now, I am looking for more space to store them, lol!

>119 vancouverdeb: - Hi Deb. The greenhouse one was very complicated but I loved the picture so even tough it took me longer than some, I persevered. I haven't dared to go to Puzzles Canada. I am not a big online shopper and would rather not tempt myself, lol!

Wordle 1,451 5/6 meaty, quack, piano, hoard, board

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>123 jessibud2: Heh! I'm past that "looking for more place to store them" and now into the "moving them out of my home" stage. LOL! Fortunately, I have lots of venues with which to share them. Today somone took one out of my Little Free Library! Yay! No, I don't put BCIDs (BookCrossing ID numbers) on puzzles. :D

Out of the puzzles you posted, the one I'd most like to try would be the greehouse one. One day when the Mumps regime is gone, we'll come back up to Canada and puzzle together (or you can come here!). :D

>125 SqueakyChu: - What a coincidence. I just got off the phone with my cousin. We hadn't spoken in a few months. One of the many things we talked about was puzzles and she said she wished she knew because she's been giving some of hers away. If she comes to visit in the summer, she will bring me some. I wish she lived here and not in Mtl. She is my favourite cousin (well, she and my other one who lives in Alabama). Her siblings, not so much, lol! I'm hoping she comes also because I have a Rubbermaid bin full of kids' books from my class that I want to give to her grand daughter who is 4 now. When I was going back and forth to Mtl when my mum was sick, I'd bring her a bag of the board books each time I went. But now she is older, she is so interested in books and since her mum (my cousin's daughter) is a librarian, it's no surprise. For all I know, she is probably already reading!

>126 jessibud2: Alabama! Wow, that's quite a ways from you! It would be great if your Montreal cousin could come this summer with puzzles for you to do together.
relaxing!

My granddaughter (for whom you sent books we shared as well!) is now reading. She is seven years old. She complains if I don't give her books that are at least "Reading Level 2". LOL! She's pretty picky, though, and won't take all the books I try to foist off on her. Smart girl! Haha!!

>115 jessibud2: I LOVE that puzzle of the seed packets!! It looks like it would be a lot of fun to put together.

>128 EBT1002:- Hi Ellen. Did you notice >81 jessibud2:? 😁

Wordle 1,452 4/6 meaty, tardy, tacky, taffy

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Way too much guessy-guessy, and not for lack of trying!

Wordle 1,453 5/6 meaty, quash, wrack, bland, plaid

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Whew!

Wordle 1,454 6/6 meaty, phone, finer, wizen, given, vixen

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Wordle 1,456 3/6 meaty, thing, ghost

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Sunny and cool here today. Perfect weather if you ask me. I will sit outside, putter a bit in the garden and read. I will finish a small book today, The Butterfly Hours, then circle back to one of the other 5 (!) books I have started and have on the go at the moment. Can we spell *inattention*? I fell a bit like a butterfly, flitting from book to book to book.... But they are all good so no dnf here. Yet..

Also working on a puzzle that is complex but only in the evening when the tv is on. Can't waste this weather sitting inside.

>115 jessibud2: what great puzzles!

>126 jessibud2: nice! Looks like you will have plenty of puzzles to complete 😁

Just checking in on you, Shelley! I hope all is well there.

Have a marvelous Monday!

>134 figsfromthistle: - Thanks, Anita. I'm having fun with them!

>135 alcottacre: - Hi Stasia, thanks. Good to hear that you had such a great visit with the other LTers!

Does anyone else here use yahoo as their email? This morning, all was fine. Then I went out to run a few errands and now, the entire yahoo look has changed. I am having a hard time with it. The screen space is squished. I am having a hard time finding things. Things just look different. Why?? It's awful. Why change for the sake of change??? There was absolutely nothing wrong with the way it was. Do the people who run yahoo have too much time on their hands?

I used to be able to seamlessly toggle between my 2 yahoo accounts. Now, I can't even figure out how to do that.

It's at times like these that I truly hate technology. I have to say, this seems (so far) to be only on my laptop. On my phone, things are still ok, the same. But it's probably only a matter of time until they realize that and change it all there, too. But there are things I prefer to do on the laptop as I find the phone rather small for some things.

Damn.

I don't know how I lost track of you Shelley, but Starred you now.

Great holiday photos, and some impressive puzzle completion. Years since I did one. Love your garden and feathered visitors.

I hope the migraines have passed now.

>137 jessibud2: I do use Yahoo e-mail, Shelley, and I had that issue a few months ago...it kept asking me if I wanted to switch to the "New" Yahoo, and I kept saying NO. Then one day, it just happened. It would pop up a feedback box every so often, and I repeatedly told them what I thought of the changes (in polite language, mostly). I can't remember exactly how it came about, but at some point I was given the option to switch back to "classic" mail, which I did. I wish I could tell you how that happened. But do browse around on the task bar and the home page when you log out---you might find a way to convert the view back to the one you prefer.

>138 Caroline_McElwee: - Hi Caroline. Yes, that happens sometimes, that stars disappear. Glad you found your way back. My reading has been dismal lately but I'm trying to chug along.

>139 laytonwoman3rd: - I did send a feedback message today when this happened, Linda. Also, politely (though, not so much, in my head, lol). But no one actually reads those feedbacks because in my experience with yahoo, there has never once been a reply. I will probably eventually figure it out because, well, no choice, but I don't have to like it. I do wish I could figure out how to expand the screen so it isn't all squished. That's really annoying.

I am probably the least techy among my friends and family so most people I complain to just roll their eyes. With reason, I'm sure, but still!

I await the invitation to return to *classic* yahoo, lol!

>137 jessibud2: As Linda3rd says, there is a way to get back to the old look, by going to "settings" in the upper-right corner below "home" where you select "more settings" and then selecting from the tool bar on the left "basic mail". It will not look the same. It is not their desire for you to have it the way it is now because it represents their "old look" and that must be extirpated.

There is NOT a way to toggle seamlessly between your addresses any more...by design. That piece of consumer convenience is gone.

>141 richardderus: - Ok. I don't see anything under settings that says *more settings*. I don't see any option for *basic mail*. I typed that into a search box and it came back as not found.

Whatever. I will survive. Hopefully. Thank goodness it is just my email and not any thing else I have saved. Maybe it will urge me to be on the computer less frequently. That can't be a bad thing, right?

Thanks for trying to walk me through this, Richard. To switch between accounts, I will just have to log out, log in, and remember passwords, something I haven't had to do for ages. At least I have those written down!! On paper! lol

>137 jessibud2: Yahoo keeps rapidly delivering 14-20 of the most boring (all caps) news releases across the top of their site.

I start with NYT and CNN, then go to Yahoo for the most up to date frightening stories to ruin each day.
Never look at any of it at night.

Yahoo is deciding what is a priority for me. At the top of my email, there is a menu and *Priority* is underlined. Next to it in that menu is *All*. When I click on that one, nothing happens; it stays stuck on *priority*. I can see on my phone that I have more emails, newer ones but on the laptop, in this new stupid format, they are not showing up.

Why is yahoo deciding what is a priority in MY email? There isn't even any way to contact them to ask. Not that they ever reply but I can no longer find a contact link.

>144 jessibud2: " it stays stuck on *priority*" Oh, that is nasty. I can still switch from one account to another without logging out, and my compy remembers my passwords anyway. The new version may say "More options" rather than "More settings". And there's a "Help" feature which should offer a customer support contact. See if this link does anything for you https://help.yahoo.com/kb/account

>145 laytonwoman3rd: - For some reason I'll never figure out, an option to revert back to the old version just appeared. But only in one of my 2 yahoo accounts. Needless to say, I grabbed it. I also found a way to toggle back and forth between accounts but it's a multi-step thing and does involve a login/logout thing. Sometimes. Actually, that login/logout began a few days ago, I thought out of the blue. Should have caught on that it was a hint of something else coming down the pipes. But it only asks me sometimes. Weird. The old version option hasn't shown up yet in my other account.

One thing I have noticed in the new version which I don't like at all is yahoo (or *someone*, big brother, AI, whatever) is summarizing my emails. My friend sent me a review she had written awhile ago on a book she had read by Brian Wilson, which I have but have not yet read. We had been discussing it. Suddenly, in the new version of yahoo, it says something to the effect of *here's what Madeleine thought of the book* then her email review appears. Why are they doing this?! I feel as if my email is no longer private. Maybe it never was and I was naive to think so but this is kind of crossing a line, I think.

I only have telus email and a gmail account, so no help with the Yahoo issues. I get the summarizing of my emails with my telus account, which is really gmail, but hosted by telus. I just ignore it.

>146 jessibud2: I do hate all the AI "help" I never asked for. Google searching is going that way too. Pffft.

>129 jessibud2: and >81 jessibud2: I had not noticed and I'm so glad you drew it to my attention. That is a fantastic photo. "Mr. Innocent," indeed. Ha. He is pretty darn adorable, though, so we know why he gets away with it!

I HATE AI's "help" with so many things. I continue to look for ways to deactivate it and I have had some (limited) success. I hate the google summaries. I hate the assumptions about what I want or need to know. I hate that it fools (some) people into thinking it is "smart." AI isn't smart. It averages things to come up with its answers. It is another force in the universe working to eliminate variation, diversity of thought, creativity....

Sorry for the rant.

*steps down off soapbox*

Hi Shelley. Sorry for the Yahoo hassles. It sounds really frustrating. Those unasked for ‘improvements’, yuck. I have a new laptop, Windows 11, and it does a lot of that kind of thing as well. Always, when you are in a hurry, there’s that little pop-up window that gets in the way, and you have to agree to this or that, and what does it all even mean?

I haven't looked at my Yahoo account for a while now( I use it for all those emails from commercial stores that ask for an email when you buy something.
I am just getting used to my new phone- I had to get a new one because my old one ( circa 2014) wouldn't do updates.
Good luck with your yahoo accounts!

Best of luck with your yahoo accounts, Shelley. It's frustrating when tech has to change to the latest and not necessarily the best. Like all the invasive AI that is so hard to get rid of, like Co-pilot. I've heard a few complaints about people trying to get rid of that too.

>147 vancouverdeb:, >148 laytonwoman3rd:, >150 EllaTim:, >151 torontoc:,>152 Familyhistorian: - It just feels to me as if someone out there is reading my emails, when those *summaries* appear. Personal mail is supposed to be personal. Next thing you know, I will start being told what I can and can't write to my friends. Hello, Big Brother.

>149 EBT1002: - Rant away, Ellen. I'm right there with you! And yes, Theo knows how to charm anyone, anytime. Now, if I could get him to stop shedding...

I feel I am about to end my 176 day streak in wordle. I have made 5 guesses, have 3 correct letters in the correct spots and I have 4 possible solutions for my final guess. I just know I won't choose the right one. I think I will walk away and come back to it later today. I hate when there are too many choices!

Yep. Starting fresh tomorrow. Pfft

Wordle 1,463 X/6 meaty, brave, inane, whale, place, glaze. So close yet so far.....

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Just finished a small NF book on writing, called The Butterfly Hours - Transforming Memories into Memoir by Patty Dann. I'd guess that many of us here on LT have thought of, if not actually acted on, the idea of writing at some point in our lives. Whether memoir or fiction, doesn't matter. This book dealt with memoir and although a slim volume, I found it quite fascinating. The author teaches creative writing and gives examples of her one word prompts from her classes and how those prompts led to writings from some of her students as well as from her own life. Patty Dann is the author of another book I recently read (reviewed in >113 jessibud2:, The Wright Sister) and when I googled her, I found this title so I got it from the library. Here are a few quotes that spoke to me:

- "I don't think someone who has never played the piano or has had only a few lessons would say, "Do you think you can get me a date at Carnegie Hall?" But there is something about writing, like no other art form, that creates expectations, perhaps because most of us are literate and use the same alphabet to write grocery lists as we do to write Nobel Prize-worthy literature. People say, "I've always wanted to write a book" or "If I had time, I'd write a book". but most people don't tend to say, "If I had time I'd write a symphony or dance en pointe." The fact is, yes, you can take up writing at any age. That's one of the great joys - the alphabet is free of charge for all of us to use. What happens with one's writing is another story..."

- "If you're a writer, you're a farmer. It is your job to till the soil, plant the seeds, tend to the crops, and harvest the grain. And then you have the choice - either to sell the product to market, set up a roadside stand, or feed your own family with what you have reaped. First, you have to get your hands dirty. It's relentless and difficult work, no matter what the weather; it's often tedious; and there is no predicting whether the crops will fail or thrive...."

- "Your first job is to be a watcher and listener in the world. Your second job is to find which details best reveal the people in your stories. Some details, although real, might not honestly show a character. If you don't use enough details or you use too many, you cannot see or hear the person or place you're writing about. Choosing which details to use is one of the most challenging jobs of the writer..."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And yes, a new wordle streak begins today!

Wordle 1,464 3/6 meaty, thumb, thrum. Funny coincidence: I just made the word *thrum* in a scrabble game the other day

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>155 jessibud2: On the list it goes Shelley. I liked the quotes.

>155 jessibud2: This sounds fascinating, Shelley. As a writing teacher, the quotes really resonate with me.

>149 EBT1002: What Ellen said!

Somehow I missed >81 jessibud2:. What a scamp.

>155 jessibud2: The Butterfly Hours makes really great points! "I want to write a book" is something I've heard a lot. Usually asking them, "when's the last time you read one?" stops 'em cold. Brutal, but in the end a lot kinder, because real writers get to thinking about it and get busy.

>156 Caroline_McElwee:, >157 BLBera:, >159 richardderus: - Thanks, Caroline, Beth, Richard. I really enjoyed the book, even though it's such a slim volume. She actually revealed a lot about herself, too, in each chapter and each example, a memoir, of sorts, for her, too. I think the whole book was under 125 pages or so. But yes, writing is hard work and as readers, I think we can appreciate, despite what seems to us to be an endless supply of books out there, how few who attempt it, actually do it really well.

>>158 Caroline_McElwee: - That he is, Caro, that he is!

And speaking of AI (>149 EBT1002:, >157 BLBera:). I had my first encounter yesterday with what I truly believe is AI doing really creepy stuff. I was googling something and you know how sometimes, there is something like a commercial or some such first, then you get a pop-up to skip it and move on to what you were looking for? Well, this *commercial* was Oprah talking about some diet. I generally like her so I listened/watched. As with many of these things, she talked *around* the actual thing because they want you to click on the link at the end of it. It was long and rest assured, I did not click on anything (I never do). But I noticed that twice she referred to her *husband* and once, she referred to her *post-partum* weight. That's when it dawned on me: this can't really be her. For one thing, although Stedman is her lifelong partner, they are not actually married. I have never heard her refer to him as her husband. AND, she has no children. So, I think that somehow (and I guess this is how AI works, though I don't understand how), it looks as if it is actually Oprah in this commercial, saying all that. It was certainly her voice and HER in the video.

It creeps me out. That's all I can say, and I don't like it.

>160 jessibud2: The Fiction Class has a lot of light fun writing inspiration.

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>161 jessibud2: That is REALLY creepy, but not a bit surprising. Imagine how many people watch it without knowing what you know.

>164 laytonwoman3rd: - Exactly, and I wonder if SHE knows abut this. I guess, as a famous person, you have to expect something like this. I mean, I doubt you or I would find ourselves in such a situation but using famous people to suck in an audience is something that I guess comes with the territory of fame. But if they could do this so easily, who - and what - is next? That's what I find creepy.

>160 jessibud2: The Butterfly Hours will land with me tomorrow Shelley.

>166 Caroline_McElwee: - Looking forward to your impressions, Caroline.

My uncle posted something on Facebook from AI today. It seemed obvious to me , as it was King Charles " speaking' about politics and current events, like Trump, Iran etc, but I guess my 80 year old uncle did not catch on. The British Monarchy never speaks publicly about politics , so it was easy for me to figure out

>161 jessibud2: I gave up on AI when it outright lied to me. I deleted the ChatGPT app from my phone.

My situation was while I was watching a DC United soccer game. My favorite player (Aaron Herrera) was not playing. I asked ChatGPT why he was not playing. It said he was either injured or out on a red card (for a foul). Chat GPT wanted to know if I wanted more details. I said yes. It said he was out on a red card. No sooner had it said that, then Herrera was subbed in! He was neither injured nor out on a red card.

Also: In jigsaw puzzling, some companies are opting to go with AI for interesting graphics. Often these graphics have weird mistakes. Regardless of that, though, I'd prefer to support jigsaw puzzle companies that support artists and name the artists on the box. I like that Eeboo also gives a brief biography of the artist for each puzzle right on the box!

>168 vancouverdeb: - That is weird, Deb. Good for you for catching that!

>169 SqueakyChu: - I don't do apps, in fact, I don't do much on my phone other than use it to text, and take photos, and check email. Which is fine by me. The more I hear, the more I dislike (never mind distrust!) AI. I think it's awful the way it infiltrates our lives.

Other than that round puzzle I have by Eeboo, I haven't seen any other puzzles by that company. I do keep looking, though. That is very cool that they credit the artist and give bios. I have subscribed to an online puzzle site (free) and get 2 puzzles in my inbox to do daily. You can change the number of pieces. I think it was either Kathy (kac522) or Beth (blbera) who put me onto that one! I used to get daily puzzles from jigzome.com but I don't think they exist anymore.

>170 jessibud2: That's going to take time away from doing your REAL puzzles! Uh oh!!

And in other AI news...! Yesterday, I had a doctor's apptmt. Her secretary handed me a 3-page thing to read while I waited. "Autoscribe Express Patient Consent" forms. It was all about how the system is now introducing AI, with voice recognition, to record our appointments and transcribe them, ultimately saving the doctor hours of time in note-taking. Apparently, safety features are in place: stored for only 48 hours, then deleted. "Mutuo Health (the provider of this *service*) analyzes each appointment using machine learning, in order to automate and support the healthcare provider's clinical documentation of the appointment...." There was a lot more but alarm bells went off for me immediately. I told my doctor that unless and until I had no choice, there is no way I am agreeing to this. I distrust AI and would not give my consent to it. She understood and I sensed, agreed, but this is the direction things are going now and while I understand that, I don't like or agree with it and will dig in my heels and resist until there is no choice. Hopefully, not in my lifetime.

So often these days, you hear on the news of *breaches* in systems and companies that hold our personal information. Why on earth would I believe it couldn't happen here, with our personal health info?

Grrrr

>172 jessibud2: I 100% agree with you, Shelley. I don't trust AI at all.

>172 jessibud2: Hi Shelley. The AI would record your voice, and analyze it. I would not like that either, and it could lead to misuse, as they can use recorded voices and make them say anything. I don’t know where all this will go.

There are some places where AI can be useful. I like to use an app that identifies a bird or plant for me. That’s AI, and it’s getting better and better. You can then upload the result to a website that keeps a whole database of nature in the Netherlands. But at the website there’s a whole team of people who check the results for accuracy. So the AI is good, and the results are checked. But anyway, there’s nothing personal about that, and no jobs threatened.

>173 SqueakyChu: >173 SqueakyChu: Celadon released a new book - SIKE - which covers your AI concerns on a personal level.

AI is really scary and a boon to scammers as it can use people's voices, like in the call of grandchild to grandparent needing money scam. I haven't come across it in medical offices yet but from your post it seems like it will be coming.

>174 EllaTim: - You are right, Ella, re the voice. Which is why I NEVER answer my phone unless it has a number I know or a caller ID I recognize. I would guess that 99% of the time it's spam. If it's a legitimate caller, they will leave me a message.

>175 m.belljackson: - I have no idea what Celadon is, Marianne, but the link leads me to a book that I would never read.

>176 Familyhistorian: - Oh, it's coming, Meg. It's already here, at my doctor's office. So far, it's *opt-in*, meaning I still have a choice whether to allow it in my appointments or not but I am not naive enough to believe that *choice* will last.

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>177 jessibud2: Hi - Celadon is the publishing company for SIKE - I skimmed it in return for free book review -
only read if you are either an AI fan or want to know how bad it can get in the middle of tons of character angst.

Just finished a book called The Berlin Apartment by Bryn Turnbull. It is historical fiction in that it uses some real events at a real point in history. It follows the lives of 2 people who just got engaged. Uli is from West Berlin, and Lise is from East Berlin but she studies at the Free University in the west, and is hoping to become a doctor. They meet, fall in love. A day after her engagement to Uli, she returns to the east, as she often does for the weekend, intending to tell her family she is engaged, when suddenly, the border closes and the wall goes up. As we all know, families were separated, sometimes forever, and lives were torn apart. I thought I knew a fair bit about this time (I visited the Checkpoint Charlie museum when I lived in Germany for a short while, before the wall came down). But this book does a good job, in alternating chapters, of building the tension of both Uli and Lise, as they try to deal with the situation, each in their own way. Uli (an engineer) and some of his friends decide to build a tunnel. Inge, a Swedish student and best friend of Lise from university, is allowed a day pass so she becomes the go-between. The situation is complicated by the fact that time is of the essence because Lise discovers she is pregnant.

The dire situation, lifestyle and indoctrination of East Berliners is something I had not known much about. It is heartbreaking and there were times I felt angry that Lise did not scream at her brother for betraying her. But realistically, I recognized that there was so little she had a choice about in her life and this was one of those situations where she really had no choice.

There were a few things in the story that annoyed me. One was a lack of fact-checking on the part of the author and editor involving a specific detail that was out of place, chronologically. Easily google-able (I googled to make sure). It was a detail that was only mentioned 3 times and negligibly, at that, so I had to wonder what was the point. Also, it did jump around in time a bit, and sometimes, that seemed a bit unnecessary and confusing, to me. Other than that, though, it was a compelling read.

This could have gone on for awhile if I had not got lucky in my choices:

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>180 jessibud2: It sounds harrowing! The author obviously did a very good job indeed.

Have an AI-free week.

Have a fun Canada Day, Shelley!

>180 jessibud2: this sounds good, but that kind of fact-checking mistake always really annoys me.

Shouldn't Mr. Carney suggest to California, Washington and Oregon that they become the 11th, 12th and 13th Provinces of Canada!?

>182 richardderus: - Thanks, Richard. I sure hope so! And yes, it was a good read.

>183 Familyhistorian: - You, too, Meg. It rained overnight, thank goodness so I don't have to water today. But it's warm and very muggy out there, already this early!

>184 banjo123: - To be fair, Rhonda, I am just weird that way, noticing these things. I would bet that most people wouldn't notice at all In a section of the story, from 1959, the main character suggests to her best friend (both med students at the time) that she should join Medicins sans Frontieres - Doctors Without Borders - so she could travel, which is a dream of hers. I thought that it was newer than that and so I googled. Founded in 1971. Again, I don't think most people would have noticed that.

>185 PaulCranswick: - Thanks for the good wishes, Paul. We are trying to ignore the idiot south of us and his garbage talk about that topic. Not easy but I, for one, don't allow him in my house. If he shows up on the news, I hit the mute button on my remote. I just can't tolerate him in any form. I read what I need to to stay more or less informed but the less news, the better. It's never good so why stress myself more than necessary.

Happy Canada Day, Shelley. The HEAT continues here...Ugh! Maybe July will be better. 🤞🤞

>187 msf59: - Thanks, Mark. Here too although not as bad as those few days last week. Sorry to sound negative but don't hold your breath on it getting better, The summer is just starting! Thank goodness for a/c. I really feel for the people in Europe. They are really suffering under their current heat wave and so many there don't have a/c. There was never the need for it there, before this climate change kicked in. And of course, it's a vicious cycle as a/c actually contributes to the climate problem.

Merry Canada Day, Shelley!

Thanks, Richard.

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>185 PaulCranswick: Maryland, too, Paul. We qualify!!

Happy Canada Day, Shelley!

*Remembering that Canada Day not too many years ago that we spent together. What fun it was!*

>192 SqueakyChu: I guess there would be quite a few takers if Mark Carney offered it up for real, Madeline!

I just saw this on Lit Hub. I do neither kindle nor amazon but for those who do, and if you have ever read anything by Verghese, then this might be for you:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DT7LBVWR/ref=apubna_mq_lh_33465_nl_dp_dp_2507?utm_so...

I have read and loved everything by him, except his newest (waiting for soft cover). I also don't particularly like short stories but given the chance, I'd read this, just because it's by him.

>192 SqueakyChu: - I remember that day very well, Madeline! What a fun time we had!

>192 SqueakyChu: >195 jessibud2: It was great meeting you! ( for dinner? or lunch?)

I hope you enjoyed Canada Day, Shelley!

>172 jessibud2: >173 SqueakyChu: I am with both of you. I do not trust AI any further than I can throw it. Anything that asks me about AI, my response is pretty much an automatic 'No.'

>180 jessibud2: I do not mind an author changing events to suit their chronology if they absolutely need to do so but I expect some kind of addendum addressing the changes the author has made. That kind of thing drives me crazy in books where I am familiar with the actual historical happenings, so the book gets a hard pass from me. I am glad you ended up liking it though!

>194 jessibud2: Thanks for that heads up! I am very much of a Verghese fan.

Have a wonderful Wednesday!

>198 alcottacre: - I honestly don't think it was something that would have been noticed by most people, Stasia. I am just weird that way, lol. It wasn't what I'd call high literature but it was still a good read and I learned more than I had previously known about a part of history so that was a redeeming factor for me.

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Our Toronto Botanical Garden has a summer program of music in the park. Every Thursday evening for 6 weeks you can bring your own lawn chair or blanket (there are also TBG's chairs set up as well) and sit for an hour and a half to listen to live music. It kicked off last night with a terrific local R&B band and you could not have ordered a better evening for it. The weather was perfect: all humidity was gone, there was barely any breeze at all and the music was fabulous. They played music by Sam Cooke, The Temptations, Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Aretha, and many many more from that era and they were really great. There is food on site (my friend and I shared a pizza, though you can also bring your own, if you want) and inevitably, many people were up and dancing. The lineup for the next 5 weeks looks great, too: jazz, folk, pop, Latina music, more blue and R&B, etc. Oh, did I mention that it's free? A real hidden gem in the city.

And then I came home to watch the end of the ball game and am pleased to report that my Blue Jays swept the New York Yankees in 4 straight games. We are now in sole possession of first place in the division! What a night! ;-)

Sounds like a fabulous time! Congrats on your team's doing so well! My sad DC United soccer team are just terrible this year. :(

>201 jessibud2: That sounds great Shelley, and more to come.

>201 jessibud2: As long as the Yank-mes lost I am the happiest of campers. Go Jays!

Have a lovely summer weekend, Shelley.

>202 SqueakyChu:- Thanks, Madeline. This team, this year, is quite exciting. Up and down the lineup, from lead-off to the 9th player, everyone is contributing, and consistently at that. Fun to watch. A good combination of young guys just coming up to the big leagues and some seasoned veterans and there is a real chemistry among them

>203 Caroline_McElwee:- it was such a fun evening, Caro. I look forward to the rest of the series.

>204 richardderus:- To be honest, Richard, not one of the 4 games was an easy win. Last night, for example, Jays had a 7-0 lead after the first inning (@) and eventually an 8-0 lead and they blew that. The Tanks tied the game, but as has happened so often, the Jays dialed it up, came from behind and won it. What they call an ugly win but the *W* is all that matters. Exciting.

I am, as we speak, sitting outside with my book, a bowl of grapes and my water bottle. Gotta soak it up today because I think the big heat returns tomorrow and I don't sit out when I can't breathe that air.

Summer music festivals are great!

Toronto Botanical Garden with music each Thursday sounds lovely, Shelley! Enjoy .

Thanks, Rhonda and Deb. I look forward to more of the same!

Small press. I had not even heard of this publishing house!

https://thewalrus.ca/gaspereau-press/?utm_source=Klaviyo&utm_medium=campaign...

>209 jessibud2: Wow - how do you find their books?

>209 jessibud2: Wow! What a fabulous article! What an amazing business! Have you ever had a copy of one of their books?

It's amazing to me that indie presses can even stay in business. I am friends with Andrew Gifford, founder of the indie press sfwp.com. I once read a book his uncle wrote about the Vietnam war, but I only read that book because it had been an LT Early Reviewer which I won. Following that, I met Gifford in person at a book festival in Kensington, Maryland, where I was chairing a BookCrossing booth. I told him about Bookcrossing, and we've stayed in touch throughout the years. He occasional mails me advance review copies. The books his press produce are always fabulous. The last one I read and reviewed was The Death and Life of August Sweeney. He knows I can't review his books on Amazon (I can't post reviews there because I refuse to buy from them!), but I do circulate his books among Bookcrossing members and post reviews here and on Goodreads (to help his sales). Long live indie presses!

>209 jessibud2:, >211 SqueakyChu: Great article. I follow a woman from Chicago whose booktube channel is dedicated to independent presses (mostly American, I think). She's highlighted some fantastic books and publishers:

https://www.youtube.com/@eyesonindie

>210 m.belljackson: - I have no idea. I only just heard of this press in this article.

>210 m.belljackson: No, Madeline. Since I rarely read, much less purchase, poetry or short stories, it's not likely that this press would have been on my radar. But I do love reading about guys like this and their entrepreneurial dedication to publishing.

>212 kac522: - I will check out your link, Kathy, thanks!

I went to a new documentary film this afternoon, one of those *Exhibits on Screen*, about Vincent Van Gogh, a lifelong fave of mine. It was very good!

https://hotdocs.ca/whats-on/films/eos-van-gogh

It was great in that it was like having a personal guided and curated tour of the exhibit and learning the backstories of each painting, all from the comfort of your seat. The only bad thing was, I couldn't be up close and personal and see the actual paintings with my own eyes. Still, well worth it.

>214 jessibud2: Sounds good, Shelley. Yes, seeing every picture up close and personal is great, but this seems like the next best thing.

>215 EllaTim: - It definitely was, Ella. I never would have seen it otherwise!

So, today I finished a puzzle that I had been working on for the better part of a week. Looks cute and easy (only 500 pieces) but I think it might be the hardest puzzle I've ever done. The pieces were so many different sizes and shapes. Many had flat edges (and I'm not talking about the border! Many of those were NOT part of the border). And there was just so much white! Also, there were 15 *insert* pieces which I naively thought would make it so much easier. Wrong!

Anyhow, as many times as I nearly bailed, I didn't and today I congratulated myself for finishing. Bye bye, puzzle! ;-)

>217 jessibud2: It looks like a cute puzzle. Sorry it was so tough!

Hi Shelley! Your photos from Montreal are beautiful. I love the shot of the Cohen mural at night.

>217 jessibud2: A couple years ago, I did a 750 piece puzzle, a Roz Chast New Yorker cover of a woman sitting in front of a wall of book shelves and it was the most frustrating one I ever did. I finished it out of pure spite and immediately posted it on my local puzzle trading group. lol, I couldn’t wait to get rid of it.

A 500 piece hard puzzle? 🧩 congrats for finishing, Shelley. Music in the park sounds like fun!

Lol, Joanne. I love Roz Chast but have never seen a puzzle by her. I felt happy to finish this one and a friend of mine said she'd take it off my hands and give it a try. Yes Meg, 500 pieces and it was hard! I was surprised! Maybe the better word is *challenging*... ;-)

Those irregular shapes can make for a tough puzzle indeed, Shelley. I hope your next puzzle is more enjoyable .

From The Guardian, a really interesting article about author Barbara Kingsolver, an author doing good with her royalties, and her thoughts on the current trump administration, doing bad. She doesn't hold back:

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/jul/05/the-damage-is-terrifying-barbara-k...

>223 jessibud2: Fabulous article, Shelley. Thanks for sharing it.

I have a BookCrossing-registered copy of Vance's book, Hillbilly Elegy. I really don't know what to do with it. Should I read it out of curiosity? Should I release it in someone else's Little Free Library? Should I take itout of circulation completely. I can't decide!

Re: "I will give this gift to you"

In Jewish tradition, the highest form of charity is from someone who does not know the identity of the donor. This concept appeals to me very much.

Personally, I'd unload the book with a note saying, sorry, I just can't read this, knowing what I know about this excuse for a man.

Do not waste one second of your life on him or any of the MAGAts...

>224 SqueakyChu: I'd try to find a review that lays out the problems with Vance's book, print it and tape it inside the cover; then set it free somewhere.

>225 jessibud2: >226 laytonwoman3rd: I like that Barbara Kingsolver read it and clearly stated what was wrong with it.

Guessy guessy today:

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>223 jessibud2: The Kingsolver article is great, Shelley. Thanks for sharing it.

>227 SqueakyChu: Yes, me too. That article is a bit long for my suggestion, but I guess you could just include the best bits.

>226 laytonwoman3rd: Your suggestion s a really good one. That makes me curius to read it now! :D

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2 quick reviews: We All Fall Down and United We Stand by Eric Walters.

Eric Walters is a very prolific author of literature for kids and young adults. I think I must have picked up *United We Stand* from a Little Free Library some time ago and it wasn't until I got it home and carefully read the cover that I realized it was the sequel to
*We All Fall Down*. So I got this first one from the library and read it practically in one sitting. The entire story unfolds over a 24 hour period. As does the second book, the day after. Although written 3 years apart (published in 2006 and 2009), I think I would highly recommend reading them together, one after the other as I did, for the full impact. I am so glad I didn't read the second one first.

From the blurb on the back of *We All Fall Down*: "Today is September 10, 2001 and tomorrow Will, a grade nine student, will be spending the day at his father's office. As a school assignment, all the students in his class will be going to their parents' workplaces, but Will isn't looking forward to it - he'd rather sleep in and do nothing with his friends. His father doesn't even have an exciting job like his best friend James's dad, who is a fireman. Will's dad works for an international trading company and has to wake up early every morning...."

Will's history teacher sends them home on Monday with the words, who knows? Tomorrow could change the course of your life (or some such thing).

The next day is Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001. Will's dad takes him up to the top of his building, the South Tower of The World Trade Centre. Will feels a bit queasy being up so high and all the different elevators don't do much for his discomfort in small spaces. But he follows his dad around and then, shortly before 9 am, they hear a loud bang. The bank of television sets on the wall (his dad's office is an international trading business and they need to keep on top of goings-on around the world) begin to show the airplane hitting the North Tower building. Will's dad happens to be the designated fire marshall of his floor. He decides to evacuate his floor despite the fact that their building has not been hit. Most people grab what they need and begin to descend the stairs from their 85th floor offices. There is some resistance from one of the offices but most of them obey.

Author Eric Walters sets the story in the first person, from Will's point of view. He really excels at dialogue, inner dialogue and building tension. Although we all know how the story of Sept. 11 ends, I personally haven't read any accounts by people who were inside and managed to get out safely. There is typical parent-teen discord between them and Walters deals with these issues as Will and his dad talk, on their way down 85 flights of stairs. Strained at first, with silences, but dealt with realistically and sensitively, their relationship unfolds and strengthens along the way. The fact that on their way down all those flights of stairs, they heard a faint voice calling for help on one of the floors and pushed open a stuck door to find a woman trapped under a fallen cabinet, adds to the tension. Between the 2 of them - Will is a tall 15-year old and very athletic and his dad is a physically fit guy - they take turns carrying her on their backs down the rest of the way. The second plane hits their building while they are in that stairwell, adding to the anxiety and urgency. They make it to the lobby - just barely - and out into the street as the building implodes behind them, briefly separating them. His dad is injured, though not critically and Will, just very banged up. Physically. Emotionally.

*United We Stand* picks up the next day, Sept. 12. Will's best friend James's dad, is a NYC firefighter and has not made it home. His entire unit is missing (and presumed dead).
Will's mom is a social worker and she talks to him about death, denial, the stages of grief, in order to help him help James. Then Will and his mom go over to James's house to offer support but James needs to get out of the house. He and Will start walking. They end up on the train into the city and although neither can articulate exactly why, they both need to be there, for different reasons. They lie about their age and join one of the many volunteer clean-up crews for a 2 hour shift, before heading home.

There is more to it all, of course. But honestly, I can't recommend these 2 book highly enough, for the perspectives and insights they offer. And from our own distance from it all now.

I remember reading another of Walters' books a few years ago, Safe as Houses. It was the story of Hurricane Hazel that hit Toronto in 1954. It was told from the perspective of a 13 year old girl who was babysitting 2 young kids when the rains began. Remember, 1954: no cell phones, no tv and no way to call for or get help. It was a hard read for me, water-phobic as I am but so well-written.

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Finally caught up with you!

It is scary how real AI created content can appear to be. There are always positive and negative things for anything newly created. So far AI has been creating more problems…*sigh*

Happy week ahead!

>235 figsfromthistle: - Hi Anita. AI has now invaded not only my email on my laptop but now, also my cellphone. I actually had to go into Best Buy and have their techies (Geek Squad) fix things so I could once again find the button to allow me to power off my phone. I do that when I go into a movie or a show but lately, it simply did not work. The power off button never came up, only some AI-related crap. He did fix that but it's in my email on the phone too and I am almost beside myself with this. I almost feel like abandoning technology altogether because I despise it (AI) so much. It is invasive and unwanted, like those garden weeds that you simply can't get rid of...

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Thanks for posting the Kingsolver article, Shelley. Best of luck getting away from AI.

>236 jessibud2: That's the next step for me, Shelley. If it gets so I can not do what I need to do without the AI, I'll have to go back to caveman days.

Another reason I love *Jeopardy*. You listen to it or just read it. Facts matter:

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/16/opinion/ken-jennings-trivia-facts-matter.html...

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Happy birthday, Nelson Mandela, a prophet of current times if ever there was one:

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
A man who takes away another man's freedom is a prisoner of hatred, he is locked behind the bars of prejudice and narrow-mindedness. -Nelson Mandela, activist, South African president, Nobel laureate (18 Jul 1918-2013)

2 more mini-reviews:

Fifty Years in Music and Life. This coffee table book looks back in words and photos on the career of one of the most iconic trios in folk history. This was the perk I chose when I became a donor of PBS, which comes to us here in Ontario from Buffalo, NY. It used to be WNED Buffalo but since partnering with Toronto, it is now known by the call letters BTPB (Buffalo Toronto Public Broadcasting). To be very honest, I hesitated a long time before deciding to give my Canadian dollars to any American outlet since trump, but in the end, decided to go ahead because I watch a lot of PBS and felt it was deserving of my support. Especially these days, more than ever, now that the idiots in the White House have defunded public broadcasting. I am a monthly donor (and my Canadian dollar is at par as a donor, which helps!). I joined at the beginning of this year but the book I chose as my donor perk was on back order so I only received it a couple of weeks ago.

The book is wonderful. It was actually published in 2015, after Mary had passed away but before Peter Yarrow did, earlier this year. He and Paul Stookey wrote the text in the book. There are wonderful photos and a real treasure of memories including some things about them that I did not know. Always fun. I am tempted to pull out my old vinyl records by them. I own several by them as a group as well as some of their individual solo recordings.

Look Ma! No Hands - Gabrielle Drolet. This Canadian author/illustrator published this memoir earlier this year (2025). It originally was written as her thesis, begun a few years ago when she developed a neurological disorder that caused her to almost lose the use of her hands. When you are a writer and an artist, you can imagine how life-altering this was for a woman in her early 20s. The book is both funny and heart-breaking as we travel with her down the long road to find answers and regain control of her life. We watch her navigate the insanity and often dysfunction of the health care system (yes, even here in Canada, even in the 2020s), as well as relationships. I seldom read brand new books but was reading about this one and decided to request it from the library. Glad I did.

This could have gone bad, by the number of options available to me but I did get it. Broke a not-very-long streak the other day by forgetting to go back and finish a game I had started. Oh well.

Wordle 1,496 4/6 meaty, prank, slake, quake

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I'm just finishing up the graphic memoir by cartoonist Harry Bliss called You Can Never Die. I do love memoirs, and love his art, as well. But man, he did a lot of drugs when he was younger! Lots of dysfunction in his family growing up and angst, but also, so much talent and insight. And humour. And of course, there's Penny, the dog love of his life, and cover model. A good read but a heavy hardcover making it sometimes difficult to hold and impossible to carry with me when subway travelling. Still, a good one.

Taking *epistolary* a step further: have you ever heard of *letter-locking*? Such a fascinating history. Read to the end:

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20210616-how-the-forgotten-tricks-of-letterlo...

Wordle 1,498 3/6 meaty, paint, haunt

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Wordle 1,499 5/6 meaty, quire, choke, shone, whole

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Way too guessy-guessy today but at least, the streak broken was much shorter than my last one! Maybe if I had had one more turn, I could have got it!

Wordle 1,500 X/6 meaty, fancy, harpy, dally, jazzy, sassy

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I had an X/6 day a couple of days ago too, Shelley. Oh well, we can't win them all.

Catching up a bit, Shelley. I hope all is well there.

Have a terrific Tuesday!

>250 vancouverdeb: - Back on track today, Deb!

Wordle 1,501 3/6 meaty, edema, omega

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>251 alcottacre: - Thanks, Stasia. Hope things pick up for you soon. You are due!!!

>243 jessibud2: Good for you for supporting PBS, Shelley. The defunding cycle is worrisome.

>243 jessibud2: I'm so glad you decided to support your PBS outlet, Shelley. And I didn't realize there was a collaboration across the border---that's very encouraging. Maybe your station will fare a bit better than some, since I assume it gets some funding from outside the Uncomfortable State of America (I mean in addition to individual donations)?

>253 Familyhistorian:, >254 laytonwoman3rd: - Thanks, Meg and Linda. I have never been a big tv watcher and aside from Jeopardy and the baseball games (in summer), I would guess that 90% or more of what I watch is PBS so in fact, the decision wasn't really a difficult one, except for the trump factor. And as it turns out, he is probably what pushed me to make my decision. If he would concentrate more on being a politician and educating himself about actual facts and doing the right thing for the people he supposedly represents, instead of surrounding himself with morons and waking up every morning asking himself what damage he can do today...maybe things would be different. If he wants to save money, why doesn't he slash or cancel FOX tv, that garbage-spewing voice box of his? In any case, I am proud to support public tv. Thank goodness our election here in Canada didn't go to the dogs (Conservatives, ie, Pierre Poilievre) because one of the things on Poilievre's agenda was to defund the CBC. Talk about morons.....

Ok, off my soap box now!

Wordle 1,508 3/6 meaty, trick, stork

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Nice work with Wordle, Shelley! It took me 4 tries today.

Thanks, Deb.

2 political cartoons I saw yesterday, about the US decision to defund vaccine research. The first is from The New Yorker online. The insanity continues.



And here is an apple that fell very far from the tree:

>259 jessibud2: LOL. It would be funnier if it weren't so scary.

>259 jessibud2: what >260 banjo123: said *shudder*

>259 jessibud2: *terrified*

>259 jessibud2: These are perfect, Shelley. Thanks for sharing. This guy is real piece of work. I sure pray that there is not a serious outbreak with this POS in charge. Shudders...

>260 banjo123:, >261 richardderus:, >262 SqueakyChu: - Agreed. Sometimes, it is truly unbelievable what is going on down there. Every day, it seems, I seem to be saying "come ON, this can't be for real".

Is there even one single person in trump's govt who is even semi-intelligent? Semi-educated? Even one? I haven't seen any evidence yet, to be honest, though, admittedly, I have tried very hard to just tune out. It isn't easy...

I sent these cartoons to a friend and she sent me a link to a youtube clip of rfk, talking about...whatever. I replied to her that I had to shut it down after about 10 seconds. Can't even listen to his voice, never mind what he might be saying. I said, tongue in cheek, surely there is a vaccine for that (his voice)...

>264 jessibud2: Pff, it all is so hard to understand. Why do people listen to this nonsense? Both my husband’s younger brothers turned out to be in the ivermectin/chloroquine camp. So firmly anti-science. They have been into alternative medicine for ages. Yoga, rawfood, alternative philosophy, grain circles. I always saw yoga as a useful addition to western science approaches. Grain circles cringeworthy though. But who thought that all this could be so dangerous? Anti-vaccines is from the same sources, and it really is dangerous.

>265 EllaTim: - You are right, Ella. And even harder to understand how people we would normally think of as *reasonable* can buy into all that. I just don't get it. I do know a few, myself.

Wordle 1,511 3/6 meaty, plume, imbue

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>265 EllaTim: I have a friend who is also crazily into new age medicine. She just had to be hospitalized twice (in ICU!) due to electrolyte imbalance from a "parasite cleanse". She is back home now (you guessed it...doing another parasite cleanse!). She thinks her blood pressure spikes have been caused by hookworms. She is "otherwise" intelligent. *sigh*

I think there is a good balance people can draw between Western medcine and holistic medicine. Extremes of each are dangerous. I personally have refused Western medicines I either did not like taking or were afraid of taking. I try to keep an open mind to both sides of this equation.

>266 jessibud2: What I especially don't like about RFK Jr. is that he is killing off Western medicine and its research!

>267 SqueakyChu: - Madeline, I totally agree that an informed balance of traditional and western medicine is a good idea. But I think that rfk is a product of trump's demented plan of *hiring* completely unqualified people to sit in important roles making decisions they have no right, no qualifications and no business making. I don't think there is one person in trump's govt who is qualified to do the job he has dumped on them. Not one. Including himself, I might add. I am not just being nasty because I despise him so much. I am being - at least I believe I am - realistic. Would trump want someone to fly him around in his airplane if that person was not a qualified pilot? How about operating on him or doing dental work on him if they did not have medical training. So how does rfk jr get to make important decisions about things he knows nothing about?

What if he decided one day that dr. trump's cure for covid (injecting bleach) was a good idea?

And that's just one example...

Truly scary.

>268 jessibud2: Agreed.

>267 SqueakyChu: Hi Madeline. That’s awful!
Some people are drawn into alternative medicine because official western medicine didn’t help them. Some western medicine wasn’t researched sufficiently and is actually not helpful at all.
One of my friends refused vaccinations because her alternative therapist said her clients reacted badly to them. But the strict religious background of her family didn’t help.

>268 jessibud2: I think you are right Shelley. But it’s actually worse than you are saying, if the person appointed has an open mind they would listen to advice from qualified people. Here, that’s not the case. And completely beside the point but the man looks so unhealthy himself!

>270 EllaTim: This same friend refused all flu and covid vaccinations. Yes, over the past few years, she did get flu once and covid once. Fortunately she recovered easily from both of them...however, other people in the past have not been so lucky. Then there's the thing that healthier people can easily recover, but others who are less healthy and exposed needlessly to harmful viruses are on another whole different level of danger.

Well, this was a surprise:

Wordle 1,513 2/6 meaty, minty

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>272 jessibud2: Strange word they chose today. Yay for it only taking two tries!

Happy week-ahead's reads, Shelley.

>272 jessibud2: Nice, Shelley! There aren't many two's in wordle. I use the same two words to start, unless my first word yields quite a lot of info. It is really hot in your neck of the woods. It's hot here too, too hot my liking and Muffin's . I think it was 29 C without the humidex today, and warmed tomorrow. Right now at 11 pm, it is 22C with 29C with the humidex. Ugh!

Thanks, Deb. I thought today's word was a hard one. Although I knew what it meant, I was almost sure it would pop up as not in the list.

Wordle 1,516 4/6 meaty, below, weird, kefir

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We finally got some rain after 2 solid weeks without a drop. It is not nearly enough and is still feeling steamy outside but they say cooler days are ahead, at least for a short while. I'll believe it when I see it.

>275 jessibud2: Another really unusual word on Wordle! Maybe they'll use "aalii" after all. Weather goddess good fortune be unto you.

Yeah, it was a strange one, alright. As for the weather, although on paper, we have cooler temps today, it still feels steamy outside. Enough that I won't sit out to read. I do have a few reviews to get up here one of these days, just been lazy. I'm reading 3 memoirs right now, of 3 very different people. I'd like to finish at least one of them before I head to the library to pick up a few things that have just come in for me. Maybe tomorrow...

I was also surprised at the Wordle word today, Shelley. I know what it is , but it’s not a common word .

Agreed about the wordle. I got it in 4, but really surprised.

Hope it’s cooled down a bit for you, Shelley. It has here and the forecast is for rain. Haven’t seen that in a while.

Cubs are gonna try to even up the series tonight, Shelley. But your Jays are on a roll!

>278 vancouverdeb:, >279 banjo123: - Today's was hard too, Deb and Rhonda. I almost bombed but managed to get it after walking away for a few hours and going back to it. I need to do that sometimes.

>280 Familyhistorian: - Ha! *Cool* is relative, Meg. It has been around 28C for the last 2 days, instead of 33, 334. Plus humidex. We did have some rain in my area but not enough to matter. I still had to water. My poor garden is looking dismal. And I still can't sit outside to read. Too muggy. Is it autumn yet?

>281 kac522: -Well, yesterday did even things up, Kathy and today's game was pretty boring until the 8th inning. Awful to see that injury to your catcher yesterday. I hope he can recover quickly.

Wordle 1,519 2/6 meaty, matte

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>283 jessibud2: Wordle in two ! Wow, Shelley. Nice work.

>283 jessibud2: Nicely done, Shelley!

Ack -"By The Way " is closing this weekend!!!!!

>286 torontoc:- I only heard about it yesterday! So sad!! I went to a film at Hot Docs today and went to By The Way for lunch. Eating in a restaurant alone is something I rarely if ever, do but I had to. It was packed!! I asked what's next (I knew the owners wanted to retire) and they said another restaurant will be in there. But it was a neighbourhood icon for over 40 years and for sure will be missed. It sure won't be the same.

I had the French toast sandwich with Brie and apples and a dipping cup of maple syrup. Delish!!

>259 jessibud2: Unbelievable isn't it Shelley. I hope his pips fall far from his tree, and look to grandpa's values.

Checking in on you, Shelley. I hope all is well there!

It's been a while since I have delurked. I hope you are having a great week so far and enjoying the summer like temps!

Just checking in to see that everything is okay, Shelley. I hope so.

I hope you're out enjoying your garden and cooler temps, Shelley.

Just posting here to keep your thread warm. I hope you return to us soon :)

I saw your post on Mark's thread, so it's good to know you are okay, Shelley!

Shelley: Well, the Cubs blew it, but I'm lending you the blue "W" flag for your Blue Jays--I hope to get it back, though!

Thanks, Kathy. It was an amazing game today. Lots of nail-biting but we came out winning 10-1 so it's all good. Appreciate the flag! Hope your Cubbies will rally.

I will start a new thread tomorrow.

Well, my Blue Jays trounced the Yankees in typical Blue Jay fashion. Now, if they can do it again today, we will be heading to NY on a high note.

Also, I was surprised to discover that this is the 45th time I have got wordle in 2 guesses! Who knew?

Wordle 1,569 2/6

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I *have* been reading, just distracted by RL and not posting much here. I hope to start a new thread today and will post a lightning round of short reviews.

Go Blue Jays!! I wasn't able to watch the game but saw the results this morning. Yah! My Cubbies got hammered. Hoping for a better ending tomorrow night. Go Jays!

Happy Sunday, Shelley.