2025*5 - LizzieD Relaxes into Books

Wordle 1,535 1/6*

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 September 1, 2025!!!!!!!

READ IN SEPTEMBER
52. King's Dragon
53. The Hallmarked Man
54. Prince of Dogs
55. Walking to Samarkand

Into the House in September
108. Prince of Dogs ✔
109. Babel: Around the World in Twenty Languages - Kindle deal through BookBub
110. The Book of Witching - PBSwap
111. The Burning Stone - AMP
112. The Hallmarked Man ✔
113, Katabasis - Kindle - early birthday GC from Stasia!
113. How to Read a Book - Kindle deal through BookBub
114. Career of Evil - AMP - GC again
115. Kingmaker - Kindle daily deal through BookBub
116. Istanbul - AMP

READ IN OCTOBER
56. Joe Country
57. Thin Air
58. The Idiot
59. Knock, Knock
60. The Impossible Fortune
61. Howard's End is on the Landing
62. A Second Chance

Into the House in October
117. Child of Flame - AMP
118. Byzantium - Kindle deal
119. The Fold Series Books 1-3 Kindle deal through BookBub (I had deals on the first 2, but this gave me the third for &cent99;)
120. The Elizabethans - Another BookBub deal today
121. The Golden Road - Kindle with $ off for Kindle Points
122. Thomas Cromwell - Kindle deal again
123. Hidden Pieces - Again
124. Journal of Sir Walter Scott - Do
125. Knock, Knock ✔ - Kindle freebie through BookBub
126. The Impossible Fortune ✔
127. The Paradox Hotel - Birthday GC from Karen!
128. Elizabeth Bowen: A Biography - AMP - also Karen
129. A Change of Habit - Kindle deal through BookBub
130. No Time Like the Past - Kindle - just because Stasia tempted me
131. The Winemaker Detective - Kindle

READ IN NOVEMBER
63. Bleeding Heart Yard
64. The Remembered Soldier
65. In Ashes Born (reread)
66. To Fire Called (reread)
67. Portrait of a Wide Seas Islander + same material and more in The Hands of the Emperor

Into the House in November
131. Wayward - PBS
132. Bleeding Heart Yard ✔
133. Written on the Dark - Kindle deal through BookBub
134, All the Seas of the World - Added long ago and never catalogued
135. Connections in Death - PBS
136. We Are the Crisis - PBS
137. Lower Than the Angels - Kindle deal through BookBub
138. The Bridge Kingdom - Kindle deal through BookBub

OPEN FOR READING IN NOVEMBER


I'm silly, but it wouldn't look like my thread if Life: A User's Manual were not in place; same is now true for The Warburgs *sigh*. At the moment this is what I'm actually reading now: trying to finish *RSoldier*, reading *BS* and *H'sE*, and taking dips into the rest. Hopeless! Happy!

What a Good Reading Year!!!!

BEST OR MOST SIGNIFICANT of the First Three Quarters of 2025
Fiction
Demon Copperhead
The Starless Sea
Crooked Heart

Nonfiction
Evening in the Palace of Reason
Britain AD
Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent
Out of Istanbul
Everything to Lose
Finding the Mother Tree
The Lost Girls
Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles
Walking to Samarkand

MOST ENTERTAINING MOSTLY FOR FUN
Women in Black
Divergence
Floating Hotel
The Cold Cold Ground
A Psalm for the Wild-Built
Cold as Hell
Hello Beautiful
King's Dragon
The Hallmarked Man

>1 LizzieD: What a way to start the month!

Congratulations on your amazing Wordle-in-1 today, Peggy. That has yet to happen to me, but I also don't use the same word every day which probably affects my odds. Did confetti rain from the sky or anything?

Hi, Laura and Linda! HOW ABOUT THAT!!!!! That's the last time unless I change first words, and I can't see that happening anytime soon.

All the confetti is in my heart! *BEAM* I used to change words too, Laura, but since I Wordle the hard way, using this word seems most likely to work for me.

Happy new thread. (((((Peggy)))))

I knew as soon as I solved today's puzzle that you would have a Wonderful Result. Congratulations!!!

Happy new thread and Happy Happy WORDLE IN 1!!!
I couldn't believe it this morning, I was so happy to see the word - and it was really hard not posting at least a :) on your thread!
Can do it now :D :D :D

Happy new thread, Peggy.

Like minded today as I also just started a new one.

Happy new thread, Peggy!

>3 LizzieD: Oh, Kate Elliott is a favorite author of mine!
I've got a hold on The Remembered Soldier and have been checking out and not reading The Warburgs for at least 2 years now.

Got it in one! Yay for you, dear heart. I'm hoping it's an omen for a great September!

*smooch*

Happy new thread, Peggy! I knew as soon as I saw the results to my first word in Wordle today that you were going to get it in one. I honestly thought that they must have used that word already. Congratulations! (I'll never get it in one because my first word has been used, and not on a day I was playing.)

That's a great way to start the month, isn't it?

Happy new one!

Thank you for celebrating Wordle1 with me, Wordle Sisters Irene, Nathalie, Karen, and also my WBL Richard! I've grinned all day!

Thank you for visiting, Susan and Paul!
Susan, I'm still loving the K. Elliott fantasy. I had read Jaran and liked it, but I love this one so far. I think you'll be extremely touched and impressed with *TRS*, and *Warburgs* is Ron Chernow, which is enough said.
Paul, I've never doubted your great mind!

>15 LizzieD: For me Kate Elliott's most likeable series is Spiritwalker Trilogy, but I think Crown of Stars is the most under lauded mega series of its period, overlooked by fans of those guys who didn't (survive to) finish their epic series.

>15 LizzieD: Hahaha that made me smile, Peggy. I have doubted it many is the time.

Good morning, Paul of the Great Mind and Susan of Fantasy Royalty!

Paul, I don't doubt in your case; we will please not discuss mine! I see that your little one has just had a birthday and is blooming. Lovely!

Susan, I am finding *CoS* almost as good as Tad Williams. I reread *Memory, Sword & Thorn* every 10 or 12 years. Nothing else has come close to pleasing me in the same way although you know that I love and adore Victoria Goddard, who is sui generis, and Lois McMaster Bujold for both fantasy and Miles. I'm going on about this because I get to give a program for my study club in October, and I'm going to introduce them to fantasy because I'll bet that not one of them has ever read any. They had never heard of Georgette Heyer - not that she wrote fantasy - but tend to read what's selling best at any given time.

Wordle 1,536 4/6*

⬜⬜⬜⬜🟩
⬜⬜🟨⬜🟩
⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 least, point, tight, might I'm very happy to return to normal.

I'll try to quote somebody later. Right now it is time for you-know-what........... I slept in this morning. Delightful then. Behind for the rest of the day!

>18 LizzieD: Peggy! *smooch*

>18 LizzieD: Tad Williams was one and done for me, but Bujold and Le Guin are goddesses, and Victoria Goddard has become the founder of my community. Which somehow leaves plenty of room for Kate Elliott, Wen Spencer, Martha Wells, Naomi Novik, Rachel Neumeier as providers of reliably absorbing reads. Those I have to keep myself from re-reading so as to shovel in new material.

>4 LizzieD: I am reading The Cold Cold Ground this month, Peggy. Thanks for that one. I am hoping that I enjoy it as much as you did!

Happy new thread!

Oh, Stasia! I trust that you'll enjoy Duffy as much as I do. I started reading these at the same time as I did the Shetland mysteries. I tend to hoard what I like, so I've read more of Jimmy Perez, whom I also like, but I think McKinty is much the better writer than Cleeves.

Oh, Susan. That's too bad. Which Tad Williams did you read, I wonder? Dragonbone Chair? I hope not. I, on the other hand, have read only two Le Guins. I don't actively dislike her, but I'll have to be short of books before I'm likely to try again. I don't know Wen Spencer, so I'll have to check her out some other time.

Richard, WBL! *smooch*

>22 LizzieD: I read the books of Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn as they came out, but they seemed very similar to other books of the period - Raymond Feist and David Eddings being names I associate with fiction of the 80s & 90s, though there were many others who shepherded orphan or usurped royalty onto rightful thrones and a few who played against that with rebel princes.
I like some LeGuin better than others, but she wrote so many different things and so well. It's sad that you didn't like what you tried, but however many were influenced by her work, she pretty much stands alone and delivered what she wanted rather than what a reader was likely to expect.

Ah well, Susan. I never read Feist or Eddings or Brooks or Kurtz, so I continue to find Williams wonderful. I was blown away by *Otherland* at the time, but I'm pretty sure that series is outdated. As for Le Guin, I liked *Left Hand* well enough to read *Dispossessed*, but I could never get into Always Coming Home, and I tried valiantly several times. I do have a copy of The Language of the Night that I will try for my program on some women's fantasy.

Wordle 1,537 5/6*

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⬜🟩🟩⬜⬜
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🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 least, tenor, petty, fetid, fetch Oh well. Also, phew.

NEEDS

That I am totally devoid of sympathy for, or interest in, the world of groups is directly attributable to the fact that my two greatest needs and desires - smoking cigarettes and plotting revenge - are basically solitary pursuits.
~ Fran Lebowitz

NEGOTIATIONS

When a man tells me he's going to put all his cards on the table, I always look up his sleeve.
~ Lord Hore-Belisha

NEWSPAPERS

Instead of being arrested, as we stated, for kicking his wife down a flight of stairs and hurling a lighted kerosene lamp after her, the Rev. James P. Wellman died unmarried four years ago.
~ Anon., from an American newspaper, quoted by Sir Edward Burne-Jones in a letter to Lady Horner

I keep reading between the lies.
~ Goodman Ace

He had been kicked in the head by a mule when young, and believed everything he read in the Sunday papers.
~ George Ade.

I read the newspaper avidly. It is my one form of continuous fiction.
~ Aneurin Bevan (Attrib.)

When I say 'start' let's have five seconds of silence. (pause That's pretty good. That gives something for the news media to quote with absolute accuracy.
~ Bobby Knight

>24 LizzieD: Instead of being arrested, as we stated, for kicking his wife down a flight of stairs and hurling a lighted kerosene lamp after her, the Rev. James P. Wellman died unmarried four years ago.
~ Anon., from an American newspaper, quoted by Sir Edward Burne-Jones in a letter to Lady Horner

I expect that's manufactured, but it's sure as hell funny!

*baa*

Hi Peggy. Hmm. I didn’t post yesterday – way too much stress, I guess. I’m back today!

I hope you're having a wonderful day.

Congrats on your Wordles. Mine was 3 today.

I’ve been busy with stats and August Lightning Round. My cleaning ladies have come and gone. Time to read and nap and etc. This week has been rather cotton-woolly so far.

>24 LizzieD: As always I love the quotes, but especially love the one by Aneurin Bevan.

>24 LizzieD: Always Coming Home is a strange book. I preferred The Dispossessed to Left Hand of Darkness, but my favorite is the wee fable Fisherman of the Inland Sea in the collection of the same name. Fisherman & some of the other stories in that book fit into the Hainish universe.

The first of hers I read was the SF with a fantasy feel Rocannon's World with the other 2 that form a loose trilogy which precedes the other Hainish novels. I recommend those shorter novels, but they vary each from the other quite a bit.

(((((Peggy))))) What a gorgeous Carolina blue sky. Kind regards to your DH and kitty skritches for the Furry Seven.

I'm meeting some former co-workers for lunch here in the Pitt today. Other than that, it will be a day of reading, puttering, and getting the Guest Bedroom more under control.

Wordle in 4, but sometimes it's nice to get yellows then the word with 5 greens!

>24 LizzieD: Catey and I were just talking about Eddings the other day. I read Eddings when I was in my 20s - my mother bought me the entire Belgariad series when I was about 15 and it took me that long to get to them - and I very much enjoyed them. I have since acquired and read the Mandallorean series. He is highly derivative and gives a nod to Tolkien.

I hope you have a thoughtful Thursday, Peggy!

Stasia and Susan, I see I told a Lie! I did read the first 2 of the Belgariad in the past year or so. I had forgotten who wrote them, but I believe I would have liked them more if I had read them earlier. I hate to say that I'm jaded, but maybe so. I realize that Le Guin is normative in the development of scifi, but her work just doesn't resonate with me beyond respect. Oh well.

Happy lunch with your old crew, Karen! I trust that it will be fun and that you will be glad to do what you do when you get home! Kind regards right back, ((((Karen))))! I'm glad to have you back here! We are also 4 Sisters.

Wordle 1,538 4/6*

🟨🟨⬜⬜⬜
⬜⬜⬜🟨🟨
🟨🟩⬜⬜🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 least, prole, elfin, blend

NEWSPAPERS

Everything you read in the newspapers is absolutely true except for the rare story of which you happen to have first-hand knowledge.
~ Erwin Knoll

People everywhere confuse
What they read in newspapers with news.
~ A.J. Liebling

You should always believe all you read in the newspapers, as this makes them more interesting.
~ Rose Macaulay

Early in life I had noticed that no event is ever correctly reported in a newspaper.
~ George Orwell

I hope we never live to see the day when a thing is as bad as some of our newspapers make it.
~ Will Rogers

An editor is one who separates the wheat from the chaff and prints the chaff
~ Adlai Stevenson

{A device} unable ... to discriminate between a bicycle accident and the collapse of civilization.
~ George Bernard Shaw

(I note again that it's much easier to be witty when you're anti- than when you're pro-)
(We're there, Will Rogers. We're there)

Stasia, I send a wish for a Thoughtful Thursday back to you and to any other visitors today! Thank you!

>30 LizzieD: An editor is one who separates the wheat from the chaff and prints the chaff
~ Adlai Stevenson

If we only get the chaff, that really unnerves me as to the nature of the wheat. It is a weird truth that being funny or witty is much easier to achieve when being unkind than kind.

*smooch*

>30 LizzieD: I surprised myself with a Wordle in 2 today. I was just trying to find letters, and it was the word! I would have guessed it had already been used.

‘Morning, Peggy. I hope your haircut is a good one.

Happy Friday to you. It’s gorgeous out.

>30 LizzieD: Ah, yes, newspapers. My first boyfriend was a newspaper reporter, my friend Karen was one, too. Love the quotes and agree with all of them.

Wordle in 2 for me today. Pure luck. Absolutely pure luck. I was looking to eliminate letters.

I’ve got a massage today. Reading and puttering, too.

Hmmmm. When two of you get TWO a day apart, does that make you 2 Step-Sisters? CONGRATULATIONS, Karen and Irene!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I liked writing the high school column for a couple of years in high school, but I never thought seriously about being a journalist. I dated a couple of newsmen too (one for paper and one for TV) but neither very long because I wasn't sure whether they were interested in me or in researching my bi-racial group of friends in the late 60s.

Massage sounds better than eye shots except that I NEED those shots! My young doc's wife is due to deliver twins about now unless she's already done it.

Wordle 1,539 4/6*

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🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 least, point, quirt, drift According to WordleBot, my third guess isn't on The List!

>34 LizzieD: No one who's never ridden a horse would have Clue One about that word, Peggy me lurve, and that's an ever-shrinking number of us.

Weekend-ahead's delights, smoochling.

>34 LizzieD: Two step-sisters? I like the sound of that. I join you as Wordle-in-4 sisters today. And I don't know your third guess.

I hope the eye shots went well!

Hi, Irene and Richard! Alas, I never rode. Like many, many 11-12 year-old girls, I was horse crazy. The difference was that I read everything I could get my hands on about horses (admittedly not a lot), and have retained a lot of vocabulary from that. *smooch* for Richard!

Irene, we're perfectly respectable with our 4!!! Thank you for good wishes for the shots....
These were the easiest in several visits. I did sleep several hours afterbwards, always helpful! Now I'm at the goop stage when it hardens on my lids and lashes and I'm not supposed to get tap water anywhere near my eyes. Artificial tears are allowed, but their relief lasts all of 15 seconds if I'm lucky. Blinks irritate and goop blurs vision, so I should take a nap.

>37 LizzieD: Goopy eye medicines are awful. It takes so long to see again and the eyes just don't feel right.

‘Morning, Peggy! Happy Saturday.

>34 LizzieD: Heh. Step sisters. I like it. I’m sorry about the motives of the men you dated in the late ‘60s.

I’m sorry you have to get eye shots and glad you can GET eye shots. Friend Karen in Montana gets eye shots for her macular degeneration, but friend Rhoda has dry MD.

Quirt isn’t a Wordle word, but quirk is. Go figure.

Laziness is planned, Wordle in 3.

Three is a great Wordle score for that word, Karen!!! As to those men, I really liked the TV reporter until I found out he was married!

Lots and lots of older folks get MD, but most of it stays dry, thank goodness! For a couple of years I had one wet eye and one dry one. Yep. We're living in a good time as far as that's concerned. Happy Saturday to you too!!

You are exactly right, Susan. I'm almost completely rid of the goop, and it's a wonderful thing to be able to see clearly!

Wordle 1,540 4/6*

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⬜🟨⬜⬜🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 least, prole, clime, bulge

>40 LizzieD: Hurray for the eye treatments, but I'm sorry that the goop is so uncomfortable. It's worth it though, to save your vision.

Wordle in 3 for me as well. After my second (lucky) guess, I had 4 of the letters, just had to figure out the order.

>37 LizzieD: Saturday orisons, Peggy me lurve. Old Stuff added a drunk day, oh whee, but at least he was gone while I got my huuuge GBBO report-post done. +1 alcoholism.

*baa*

Three is a great Wordle score for that word, Karen!!! As to those men, I really liked the TV reporter until I found out he was married!

Lots and lots of older folks get MD, but most of it stays dry, thank goodness! For a couple of years I had one wet eye and one dry one. Yep. We're living in a good time as far as that's concerned. Happy Saturday to you too!!

You are exactly right, Susan. I'm almost completely rid of the goop, and it's a wonderful thing to be able to see clearly!

Wordle 1,540 4/6*

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🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 least, prole, clime, bulge

Hi Peggy!

Congrats on yesterday's 4.

I had another 2 today.

I was going to make spaghetti sauce, but since we like ours with meat and I didn't have ground hamburger, it will have to be another day.

I didn't come here today already??? I guess not.

CONGRATULATIONS WORDLE QUEEN KAREN!!!!!!! Another 2~~~~don't mess with you!

Yikes. I don't think I've even looked at Wordle today. I'll be back.

HOLY MOLY! I got it too. I thought the word had been used. I didn't even check; I was trying to nail something down for 3/
Wordle 1,541 2/6*

⬜🟩⬜⬜🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 least, tenor

'Morning, Peggy! Happy Monday to you. It's gorgeous out, and I'm enjoying the fall-like sun angles and weather.

Congrats on your Wordle in two yesterday, too.

Today is another good Wordle day, with another two.

ANOTHER TWO!!!! (((((Karen)))))! If this were Vegas, you'd be barred from the betting floor!!!!!!!!!

Wordle 1,542 3/6*

⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜⬜🟩🟩⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 least, noire, chirp I'm happy.

It is gorgeous! In fact, I wished I had put on longer sleeves when we walked this morning. We had quite a breeze, still do, and the temp was barely 70°. This is October weather, the kind I hope for on my birthday.
I'll be checking in late tomorrow. DH has an out-of-town root canal in the morning, and I'm going just in case he needs a driver. He probably won't, but it's a tooth that our very good dentist friend wasn't eager to tackle himself. Anyway, we haven't been anywhere together oot since my eye doctor was assigned the clinic here once a week.

DIGNITY

It is only people of small moral stature who have to stand on their dignity.
~ Arnold Bennett

I know of no case where a man added to his dignity by standing on it.
~ Winston Churchill

DIPLOMACY
Diplomacy, n. the patriotic art of lying for one's country.
~ Ambrose Bierce

Diplomacy is the art of saying 'Nice Doggie!' till you can find a rock.
~ Wynn Catlin

Diplomacy, n. is the art of letting somebody else have your way.
~ David Frost

Diplomacy is lying in state.
~~ Oliver Herford

I got a call from Haig {US Secretary of State} who offered me the job of explaining the Administration's foreign policy to the Chinese - one by one.
~ Henry Kissinger

A diplomat is a man who thinks twice before he says nothing.
~ Frederick Sawyer

A diplomat is a person who can tell you to go to hell in such a way that you actually look forward to the trip.
~ Caskie Stinnett

... babies in silk hats playing with dynamite.
~ Alexander Woollcott (Attrib.)

>47 LizzieD: Diplomacy, n. the patriotic art of lying for one's country.
~ Ambrose Bierce

Quaint! Back in those days, everyone else wasn't lying. (As obviously lying, anyway.)

*heavy sigh*

‘Morning, Peggy!

>47 LizzieD: Oh my. Best wishes to your DH and his root canal. I love the Diplomacy quotes.

Congrats on your Wordle in 3, with all greens.

I'm a copycat today - Wordle in 3 for me with all greens…

It's so gorgeous out. I'll be wearing a long-sleeved shirt this morning. I do not know where I got it. Perhaps Jenna got it because it was in her clothes when I went through them. Long-sleeved black t-shirt, with

agoodbook.calm

in white on the front.

Book sort, not Virlie's - The Brewery is hosting Dining for Dollars for the Friends. We'll be getting 5% of their sales.

We're finally home! DH says this was the easiest dental procedure he's ever had, including cleaning. Now we'll see how he does for the next few months.

It's a bit overcast here now, and I do wish it would rain some. We don't need a hurricane's worth, but an inch or two would be very good.

Ummm. Nice tee! Hope book sort was fun and the Brewery was a good change for a day. Nice of them!

Wordle 1,543 3/6*

⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨
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🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 least, trunk, trick If only I had thought of the word at #2, but as usual, once I thought of any word not on the used list, my brain shut down. At any rate, I'm happy to be 3 Sister with you, Karen!

Hi, Richard! I don't want those days back, but I surely would be happy to be optimistic about the future.

THE FUTURE

An optimist is someone who thinks the future is uncertain.
~ Anon.

Future, n. that period of time in which our affairs prosper, our friends are true and our happiness is assured.
~ Ambrose Bierce

HISTORY

History is a hard core of interpretation surrounded by a pulp of disputable facts.
~ Anon.

History is the sum total of the things that could have been avoided.
~ Konrad Adenauer

History teaches us that men and nations behave wisely once they have exhausted all other alternatives.
~ Abba Eban

History repeats itself; historians repeat each other.
~ Philip Guedalla

Hegel was right when he said that we learn from history that men never learn anything from history.
~ George Bernard Shaw

History is bunk.
~ Henry Ford, giving evidence in a libel action, 1919

>50 LizzieD: Hegel was right when he said that we learn from history that men never learn anything from history.
~ George Bernard Shaw

Never. Not once. *sigh*

Hanry Fawd were uh arse. *smooch*

‘Morning, Peggy! I’m so glad your DH is doing well. Give him my kind regards.

Rain would be nice here, too. Your county is officially ‘abnormally dry’.

>50 LizzieD: Congrats on your 3, love the quotes. I particularly like this one:

History repeats itself; historians repeat each other.
~ Philip Guedalla

Wordle in 2 for me today.

Good morning, Good Karen and Good Richard ------- I mean, good afternoon!!!! It's much later than I thought, so I'll have scamper, but I'll at least record my Wordle.

Congratulations AGAIN on 2, Karen!!!!!! Are you getting bored with it??????? I'm always surprised when a word like this turns out to be the target.

Richard, I agree with everything except that you should pronounce that last name "Fawerd".......

Wordle 1,544 4/6*

⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨
🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜🟨🟨🟨⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 least, thick, futon, pouty (My spell check doesn't recognize the word. Just saying.)

>53 LizzieD: I got Wordle in 2 today but only because I use the same two starting words and after getting no letters in my #1 it was my #2. (Now I have to go through the thought process of changing my start words again since it's no longer a possibility.)

Oh for goodness sake, Mary! CONGRATULATIONS on your Wordle in 2!!! I didn't even think about changing my trusty first word even though it was THE word the first day of September. Hmmm. Maybe I'll experiment with new words every day, but I don't think that's going to work for me. I could try my same letters in another configuration, but then, I don't ever expect to get it in 1 again.

Checking in on you, Peggy. Kerry got home safely today so needless to say, all is right in my world. Now, I am off to bed. . .

>55 LizzieD: If you try your letters in my configuration, that word has already been used, so it won't help. (Of course, what will they do when they've used up all the words. Will they start over again?)

‘Morning, Peggy! Happy Thursday to you.

>53 LizzieD: I’m not getting bored with Wordle in 2. I like channeling the Wordle Gods. Took 3 today, but I’m still pleased.

>54 bell7: Congrats on your 2, Mary. I guess I’m lucky that my first word was used in 2022 so I can keep using it without the risk of getting Wordle in 1. *smile*

I can still say good morning because we didn't walk: the mosquito sprayer was up and down our route. We have fewer mosquitoes now than we have had all summer, and this will be about the third time the city has sprayed. Go figure. Since I go to study club this afternoon, a walk now looks if-y.

Thank you for visiting, Karen, Irene, and Stasia!!!!!
I'm very glad that Kerry is safely home, Stasia!
I chose a new first word today, Irene and Karen. (I checked out every word I could think of with our letters, Irene, and I believe they have all been used before. Maybe they'll start on six letter words when they've finished the list???) I was amazed that it wasn't on the used list, and the same is true for my second word that might become an alternative first word. I'm very happy with the result, however.

Wordle 1,545 3/6*

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🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 roast. learn, chair

RESPECTABILITY

He must be quite respectable. One has never heard his name before in the whole course of one's life, which speaks volumes for a man, nowadays.
~ Oscar Wilde

RESTAURANTS

GEORGE: I ate on the Motorway. At the Grill n'Griddle. I had Ham 'n Eggs. And now I've got 'ndigestion.
~ Alan Bennett

WAITER (to customer): That fine line between gracious attendance and fawning obsequiousness - tell me, sir, how close did I come?
~ William Hamilton

He ordered as one to the menu born.
~ O. Henry

Chinese Food: You do not sew with a fork, and I see no reason why your should eat with knitting needles.
~ Miss Piggy

Eating places with live plants in their windows are always good. Restaurants with peppermills the size of extinguishers and big red menus with the entrees spelled with f's instead of s's are always expensive. Italian restaurants with more than 120 entrees are always disappointing. There are no good French restaurants in states which have a K in their names. (New Yorque is the exception that proves the rule, whatever that means.)
~ Miss Piggy

>59 LizzieD: Chinese Food: You do not sew with a fork, and I see no reason why your should eat with knitting needles.
~ Miss Piggy

Piggy FTW! Always irritated me; nowadays I just show the staff my hands, and they scrounge up a fork and spoon.

'Morning, Peggy! It's gorgeous out, isn't it?

My, my. A New First Word for Peggy! Congrats on the 3.

Two for me again. I'm still channeling the Wordle Gods. Other than that, I'm extremely cranky and will try to not take it out on my friend Tamsie when we have coffee in a while.

And Tamsie just texted me that she just woke up and could we make it later or another day? I texted back "How about a different day?"

Honestly I'm finished with this day, see my thread.

Oh dear, Karen. O! Dear Karen. I am on my way over to your thread as soon as I post my Wordle here.

We are in perfect agreement, my WBL. Miss Piggy nailed it. Of course, I never learned to use chopsticks at all. Growing up, I only head of chow mien, egg foo young, and maybe egg rolls as examples of Chinese food. I didn't like eggs, so I had no inclination to eat either of the latter two. I think I might have tried canned chow mien once, and that was more than sufficient. What a wonderful world of American Chinese food awaited me!

Wordle 1,546 4/6*

⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜
🟨🟨⬜⬜🟨
🟩🟨🟨⬜⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, roist, tromp, throb I would have done better with yesterday's first word, but I had vowed to alternate them.

Morning and Happy Weekend Peggy! Had some good Wordles this week, but also a 5, today's was a 3.

The Chinese restaurants we went to when I was a kid didn't even offer chopsticks. Food (usually sweet and sour pork and eggrolls) was always served on flat plates anyway, so chopsticks wouldn't have worked well. I learned using them from a friend and then we played board games with them for a while. So when sushi arrived everywhere in the 90s I was prepared.

'Morning, Peggy. Happy Saturday to you. It's gorgeous out here.

Congrats on 4.

The first time I remember eating authentic Chinese-American food was my first year of college, so 1971.

Wordle in 3 for me today.

>62 LizzieD: Morning, Peggy me lurve. I hope your four turns to a two on today's Wordle! *baa*

Good mid-day to you, dear Richard, dear Karen, and dear Nathalie!

While I'm sorry that we were deprived of good Chinese food as children, I'm also a bit happy to know that I wasn't as singularly provincial as I thought! I'll add that my local friends who spent about a month in China as tourists absolutely hated authentic Chinese food, and they had looked forward to it as a major component of their trip. I'll never know.

As to Wordle, I would never have thought of that word without a list although it strikes me as the kind of word that pops into my head and is never correct. I also plugged in my old first word before I could stop myself. So, no 2 today, WBL, but thanks for the wish - *smooch*. Congrats to the two 3 Sisters!!!!!

Wordle 1,547 4/6*

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⬜🟨⬜🟨🟨
🟨🟨⬜🟨🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 least, groan, infra, nadir

SHIPS

The new nuclear submarine we have now is the best. It stays under water for two years and only comes up to the surface so the crew can re-enlist.
~ Dick Gregory, 1960

... a luxury liner is really just a bad play surrounded by water.
~ Clive James

A ship is always referred to as 'she' because it costs so much to keep one in paint and powder.
~ Chester Nimitz, 1949

The Captain was on the bridge, pretty sure that he knew the way to New York but, just to be on the safe side, murmuring to himself, 'Turn right at Cherbourg, and then straight on.'
~ P. G. Wodehouse

STANDARDS

FRANKLIN: Have you ever thought, Headmaster, that your standards might perhaps be a little out of date?
HEADMASTER: Of course, they're out of date. Standards always are out of date. That is what makes them standards.
~ Alan Bennett

STRENGTH

I can lick my weight in wildflowers.
~ W. C. Fields

>66 LizzieD: The new nuclear submarine we have now is the best. It stays under water for two years and only comes up to the surface so the crew can re-enlist.
~ Dick Gregory, 1960

Had his eye sharply focused on Reality, didn't he.

Saturday *smooch*

Morning, Richard! I always appreciated DG!!!!!!!!!

Sunday *smooch* right back!

I'm sorry about last night. I was tired and sleepy and just didn't make it back here.

Wordle 1,548 3/6*

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🟩🟩🟩🟩⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 roast, noise, noisy Could have been 2; should have been 2. I didn't think for that extra 30 seconds or so.

Hi Peggy! I hope you're having a lovely day.

Love the quotes, as always, especially the one by Dick Gregory.

Wordle in 4 today, congrats on your 3.

I did some work in the fiction and mystery areas setting up for the book sale Thursday - Saturday this morning, then went grocery shopping.

I'm going upstairs in a minute or two for some R&R.

Good for you, Karen! I dropped quickly by your thread this morning and didn't remember where you were going. Oh! The book sale! I wish you reviving R&R!

I would be A-1.... Niece and nephew were here since Friday, and we always enjoy them. However, going down the back steps at my mama's house, I wasn't paying attention and fell down the last 3. I'm miraculously OK although the shoulder I fell on aches at about the same level as the site reaction of a vaccination. That's with a couple of Tylenol, so I may have to go to Ibuprofen later. Anyway, older folks, Be Careful!!!!!

Meanwhile, I have friend's copy of The Hallmarked Man and am reading like crazy. It's RG's typical complex mystery with a cast of tens at least and continuing mooning and mulling by Strike and Robin, doggone it.

>70 LizzieD: Less haste, more speed, dear lady. Your limbs need to remain functional. *smooch*

‘Morning, Peggy! I hope you do not have any lasting effects from your fall. Scary.

>70 LizzieD: I’m listening to The Hallmarked Man and am on chapter 16. Heh. ‘cast of tens at least and continuing mooning and mulling by Strike and Robin, doggone it.’ I do like Strike’s calling Murphy “f***ing Ryan Murphy” and his plans to win Robin from him.

Today’s a nice fall-ish day, if a tad warm.

Oh. Wordle in 3 for me today.

Good morning, 3 Sister! Good morning, Richard! Amen to functioning..........and to paying attention!!!!! 3rd step from the bottom: I let go of the handrail and was looking out into the yard trying to see a limb Lizzie thought she heard fall. Can't do that automatic moving these days. (Btw, at your thread I failed to acknowledge the nastiness astigmatism plays in movement - again, something I never had to consider before. I suspect it's the reason that I can't balance well walking with my reading glasses on. I also found out when I had the bandage on the right eye after the cataract on the left and missed the glass I was pouring water into completely. I know you're careful. Be Careful!) *smooch*

Karen, I think it's Ryan F***ing Murphy Hee Hee. I'm reading like crazy and am way ahead of you, chapter 57. Just when the relationship looks really bad, it gets worse.

We walked while it was still cooler. I laughed at Lucy and me last night. She said that their temps had been in the high 70s yesterday, nice and warm. I said that our temps had been in the high 70s yesterday, nice and cool.

Wordle 1,549 3/6*

🟨⬜🟨⬜🟨
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🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, anile, along Too bad about that e I didn't see in my first guess.

COMMITTEES

A group that takes minutes and wastes hours.
~ Anon.

A group of the unfit appointed by the unwilling to do the unnecessary.
~ Carl C. Byers

We always carry out by committee anything in which any of us alone would be too reasonable to persist.
~ Frank Moore Colby

To get something done a committee should consist of no more than three men, two of whom are absent.
~ Robert Copeland

Committee work is like a soft chair - easy to get into but hard to get out of.
~ Kenneth J. Shively

>73 LizzieD: We always carry out by committee anything in which any of us alone would be too reasonable to persist.
~ Frank Moore Colby

Makes me sad, how true it is and is not at the same time. *baa*

‘Morning, Peggy! Still early, but it does look like it’s going to be a gorgeous day.

>73 LizzieD: Yup. Ryan f***ing Murphy.

I can attest to committee work sucking while trying to play nice with two women whose minds work completely differently than mine does. We were trying to include the online book store at this book sale, but once they started asking me to the bulk of the work on the poster design, I balked. For that, and because one of the women didn’t do the 3 other things needed for the sale, we decided to wait ‘til spring.

Congrats on 3 sisters yesterday. 3 sisters for me today.

I can think of a couple of committees that I thought did some good work, but that's about all from my experience. Hi, Richard and Karen! At least on this subject our three hearts beat as one.

We walked in high 60s this morning with sun! It was lovely. Now clouds are blowing in, and I am very much hoping for rain this afternoon. What a happy thing to have nothing to do - especially a committee meeting!!!!!

Oh, Wordle. I could easily have ended my streak today just tossing in words as I did. I'm lucky that I didn't think melty was a word. or I would have tried it too!
Wordle 1,550 5/6*

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🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜
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🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 roast, think, cutey, jetty, lefty

TELEVISION

Television is the first truly democratic culture - the first culture available to everybody and entirely governed by what the people want. The most terrifying thing is what the people do want.
~ Clive Barnes, NYT, 1969

I've been in this business a long time. I was on television when it was radio. When I started people thought television was impossible, and a lot of them still do.
~ Milton Berle, 1976

It's amazing how many people see you on TV. I did my first television show a month ago, and the next day five million television sets were sold. The people who couldn't sell theirs threw them away.
~ Bob Hope, 1950

All you have to do on television is be yourself, provided that is, that you have a self to be.
~ Clive James, 1981

(I'm waiting for comments on the first and last ones!)

‘Morning, Peggy! Yay to chatting with you this afternoon.

In the meantime, not a bad weather day here.

>76 LizzieD: Congrats on your 5, since you didn’t end your streak. Today’s 3 for me.

Ah, television. My mother called it the idiot box. We had one in the late ‘50s and my dad joked that he only saw my back with Mouse Ears as I watched The Mickey Mouse Club. I have a serious love/hate relationship with TV.

I disagree with Barnes – it has always been a commercial endeavor in the US, driven by advertising/marketing/consumption, regardless of PBS, and etc.

And, regarding the quote by the other Clive, people on television are phosphor dots according to Jerry Mander. I read in my early 20s and still on my shelves: Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television. I have another book by him, In the Absence of the Sacred: The Failure of Technology and the Survival of the Indian Nations, which ties nicely in with Richard’s review of the new Patty Krawec book.

Interesting thoughts on TV, Karen. I'm not sure I follow your disagreement with Barnes. Commerce is still giving people what they want (or can be made to want). Apparently, it has to be done at the lowest level possible, so I have long feared for us. We can talk about it this afternoon!!!!!
My mind went immediately went to the entity in the White House when I read the C. James quote. I don't believe there's much self there, and emptiness is to be feared and filled in any way possible.

We're 3 Sisters again with a YAY!!!
Wordle 1,551 3/6*

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🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, pesto, teeth

BREAKFAST!!!!!

>78 LizzieD: Enjoy breakfast, Peggy me lurve.

All you have to do on television is be yourself, provided that is, that you have a self to be.
~ Clive James, 1981
It's the self that the babblebox enables, even requires, that bothers me the most.

'Morning, Peggy!

It looks gorgeous out there. Gonna be a tad warm, but I'll be inside at the book sale most of the day.

Yesterdays chat was such a wonderful way to spend the afternoon. You're such a dear friend and I'm grateful for LT for finding such a treasure.

Amen and Halleluia for chatting with you, Karen, and for finding you on LT!!!!! Same for the 75 group too!!!
I hope that the book sale is wonderful and that you don't tire yourself too much. We walked, and it was cool. I'm heading out later to run a couple of errands, including getting flu and COVID shots.

Good afternoon, Richard! I have other TV quotes to copy, but I'm not sure that I'll get to them today. It's something of a curse but not completely unmixed. I never expected to let modern culture move on without me as much as I have. I wish I could see more clearly what of it lingers in me. *sigh*

Wordle 1,552 5/6*

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⬜⬜⬜🟨🟩
⬜⬜🟨⬜🟩
🟨🟩⬜⬜🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, stone, venue, indie, knife Again. oh well.........

>81 LizzieD: It feels less and less interesting to me, this medium ("aptly named as it is neither rare nor well-done"— who said that?), and so much of the culture surrounding it. Increasingly wondering how much of this is aging and how much just boredom with the sameness of the offerings?

*baa*

I don't know, WBL. I just know "Because you are neither hot nor cold, I will spew you out of my mouth."

‘Morning, Peggy! Happy Friday to you and your DH. Give him my kind regards. Skritches for the Group of Seven…

>81 LizzieD: Yay for keeping your streak alive! 6 isn’t ideal, of course, but it’s better than the alternative.

TV appeals less and less to me, too, as far as visual mediums go, but my laptop and my cell phone and my Kindle appeal to me greatly.

Four for me today, my dear.

Book Sale Day 2. I think it will be relatively easy, given that I’m in the children’s room and sit most of the day. I will spend a bit of time shopping in the room where all the adult books are, of course.

I should hope you will shop some today, Karen!!!!! I hope you find some treasures and otherwise, don't have to work too hard. You won't be bored if nothing is going on.........although I can't imagine that in the children's section. You can always find something to read!!!!!

We walked, I had a late breakfast, and then came in to the sofa for a long nap. I don't know whether I'm just tired or having a little reaction to one of the vaccines. Doesn't really matter. I intended to do nothing today, and am succeeding admirably. Meanwhile, we are 4 Sisters! I used all used words until the last guess. My other first word would have been better, but today wasn't its turn.
Wordle 1,553 4/6*

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🟨🟩🟨🟨⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 roast, triad, earth, later

POLITICS AND POLITICIANS (How did I never see these 2½ pages before?)

Our great democracies still tend to think that a stupid man is more likely to be honest than a clever man, and our politicians take advantage of this prejudice by pretending to be even more stupid than nature made them.
~ Bertrand Russell

A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.
~ George Bernard Shaw

A conservative is a man with two perfectly good legs who, however, has never learned to walk forwards ... A reactionary is a somnambulist walking backwards ... A radical is a man with both feet firmly planted - in the air.
~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

An independent is the guy who wants to take the politics out of politics.
~ Adlai Stevenson

A politician is an animal that can sit on a fence and keep both ears to the ground.
~ H. L. Mencken

Politicians are always deeply shocked to see anything in the newspapers which is not about themselves or their piffling preoccupations, but very few people, in fact, are remotely interested in either.
~ Auberon Waugh, 1984

Politicians who complain about the media are like ships' captains who complain about the sea.
~ Enoch Powell (Attrib.)

All Politics are based on the indifference of the majority.
~ James Reston

THE HALLMARKED MAN by Robert Galbraith

I'll do it tomorrow!

>85 LizzieD: I saw Karen at the sale today. We had a very nice chat. But I had to get up and start looking through the books, otherwise I would have been there all day.

The "Politics" quotes are maybe the best ones yet. All very appropriate, and accurate.

Wordle in 2 for me today. My starting word worked great for this one.

‘Morning, Peggy! It’s gorgeous out at 61F, but will be a late reminder of summer later.

Wordle 4 sisters!

I can hardly go there regarding politicians. Even with my 90% news avoidance, I'm traumatized.

>86 LizzieD: Good for you. I’m on chapter 27…

>87 atozgrl: I feel the same way, Irene. We could have chatted forever. Congrats on your Wordle in 2.

Off to the book sale in 50 minutes.

>85 LizzieD: All Politics are based on the indifference of the majority.
~ James Reston

A depressing truth of All human history. Even the truth "you might not care about politics but politics cares about you...in the bad way" does not ever dent the indifference that enables those who back the Trumps of the world.

Woo Woooo for Irene and Karen! I'm always happy to hear that you managed to get together, especially at the book sale! The three of us must make that happen sometime, somewhere!!!! And CONGRATS, Irene, on your Wordle in 2!!!!!
4 for me again today. I'll take it.

Hope the book sale goes well again, Karen. I'm delighted at your intake yesterday! I have more politics to quote, so you may want to skip these.

Hi, Richard. I'm reminded of a woman I heard interviewed on NPR this spring - well, really, just these two sentences: "I don't care about democracy. I just want to be able to send my daughter to summer camp this year." That indifference is the thing plus the grasping of easy answers to complex questions, that people might not accept if their crazy Uncle Eds offered them, but are happy to latch onto when offered by a famous figure. Gah.

Wordle 1,554 4/6*

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🟨🟩🟨🟨⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, terse, reedy, defer

POLITICS AND POLITICIANS

A statesman is a politician who's been dead ten or fifteen years.
~ Harry S. Truman

Ninety-eight per cent of the adults in this country are decent, hard-working, honest Americans. It's the other lousy two per cent that get all the publicity. But then - we elected them.
~ Lily Tomlin

He knows nothing and he thinks he knows everything. That points clearly to a political career.
~ George Bernard Shaw

The most successful politician is he who says what everybody is thinking most often and in the loudest voice.
~ Theodore Roosevelt.

I have spent much of my life fighting the Germans and fighting the politicians. It is much easier to fight the Germans.
~ Field Marshall Lord Montgomery

If experience teaches us anything at all, it teaches us this: that a good politician, under democracy, is quite as unthinkable as an honest burglar.
~ H. L. Mencken

When you're abroad, you're a statesman; when you're at home, you're just a politician.
~ Harold Macmillan

Being in politics is like being a football coach. You have to be smart enough to understand the game and stupid enough to think it's important.
~ Eugene McCarthy

>88 karenmarie: Agreed, we could have chatted forever! I was really enjoying the conversation.

>90 LizzieD: We definitely need to find some way for all 3 of us to get together. Today I join you as Wordle sisters, as it was back to Wordle in 4 for me.

More good quotes about politics. But Roosevelt's quote is rather painful right now.

Happy Sunday dear Peggy! :)
Wordled in 5 today and needed help. But had a Wordle in 2 on Friday with a word I felt stupid to type because „way too obvious“ :D

Mostly sadly true quotes on politics and politicians.

>90 LizzieD: He knows nothing and he thinks he knows everything. That points clearly to a political career.
~ George Bernard Shaw

...and whiniest voice, for the current craptastic crop...

Well, Peggy me lurve, I'm on a new kick: deforwarding news, more reading of books to make my points. Staying engaged is simply feeding my stimulation addiction to no useful end. It won't go away if I pay close attention; it won't go away if I back up from the examination of its pores. So do what I know how to do and do it as well as I can right now.

I think the solution is:
...stop pretending it's not important, and quit being laser-focused on the parts that aren't really important.

‘Morning, Peggy! Happy Sunday to you.

>90 LizzieD: Congrats on your Wordle in 4.

I’d love to have a Book Sale Meetup with you and Irene. I just went down the rabbit hole of booksalefinder.com and want to go to every single one.

Being in politics is like being a football coach. You have to be smart enough to understand the game and stupid enough to think it's important.
~ Eugene McCarthy Yup.

Wordle in 3. Today is rest, read, recover for me.

Happiness is coming here and seeing that I've had speaking visits from Karen, Richard, Nathalie, and Irene! Thank you every one!

We are 3 Sisters today, Karen, thanks to the used word list for me! Congratulations on Friday's 2 for you, Nathalie!!!! It wasn't all that obvious to me as you see. What's your score, Irene???
We three should meet - book sale or not! I think Karen's has to be one of the best because of her location in the environs of the Triangle and proximity to Fearrington. *sigh*

Right you are, my WBL, and I applaud you for your insight and restraint. I'm frustratingly not there. I can go to other subject for a time, and I will.

(Karen, completely off-topic, that McCarthy quote reminds me of my former principal for whom I had no respect. The AD at the localish university had talked to his HS basketball coach, who said of him, "He could have been a good basketball player, but he couldn't ever learn the plays.")

Wordle 1,555 3/6*

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🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, token, coven

We may walk or I may read and nap.

I have a kid's book that Eugene McCarthy wrote. Got it, and got it autographed, at an ABA convention back in the day, when McCarthy was running for president. So it goes.

>95 LizzieD: I join you as 3 sisters today, Peggy. That was actually the first word I thought of at three--I have no idea why--so I didn't need a list, although I did actually check to see if dozen had already been used before I went with it.

We definitely should meet! I would love a get-together. And I'd love an excuse to get to Fearrington Village, which I haven't visited in many, many years.

‘Morning ,Peggy! A warmish day here, but good if I want to go out and work on the bird feeders and bird bath.

I’m glad the used word list has been helpful. I helped me today, and I got a 4.

Yes!!! I’d love to have you come for a visit. You can visit with Bobbie, Irene, AND me!! The only one missing is Jenn. I think she’s still in Colorado.

Love the quote about the basketball coach. When I actually think about it, I really admire players who remember and actually execute plays. Otherwise, I just enjoy what appears to be the chaos of soccer, and now, just because I’m reading MM romances about them, NHL hockey players. I know, I know… I can see you rolling your eyes from here.

Congrats on yesterday’s 3. It took me 4 today, but I’m not displeased with the result.

>97 atozgrl: There’s a wonderful indie bookstore there, McIntyre’s. I’ll be visiting it Wednesday when I meet a friend for coffee at the Belted Goat, which is right next door.

Good morning (although it won't be by the time I finish this), Karen, Irene, and Bill!

Sighs to Karen and Irene. I can't see myself getting up to you anytime soon, even for a day. I'm not sure how much I trust my driving since I haven't done it in years. I think I'd be OK, but there are also the cats AND the DH. I'd love to though!
Oh that principal! The only time I ever saw him totally at ease in an official duty was when he was renting parking spaces to the HS seniors. I can think of only one conversation I ever had with him in which he didn't insult me. *deep breath *exhale*pet cat* lower blood pressure*.

Bill, I had no idea that E. McCarthy ever, ever wrote a children's book. My best college friend worked hard on his campaign in NC. As she said, "What a charming, brilliant man! Of course, he'd be a total disaster as President." (One doubts that at this point.) (I was just visiting your home page, BTW. My DH would love to meet you; he's both a woodworker and a gardener. I'd love to meet you because you're a reader!!! You are also our age.)

Alas, I would have been pleased with 4 today too, Karen. Congrats to you. My second guess was both dull and rushed. I thought of a way that would have gotten me to the target word, but it was the name of a Dickens character, and I couldn't get past that.
Wordle 1,556 5/6*

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🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 roast, linen, blimy, child, quill

TALENT
I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered together at the White House - with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone.
~ John F. Kennedy, at White House dinner honouring Nobel Prize winners, 1962

TAXATION
TAXMAN: The position is that if I don't have one thousand pounds from you soon, you're going to jail.
BUSINESSMAN: Now you're talking. Here's one thousand pounds in used notes.
TAXMAN: Let me give you a receipt.
BUSINESSMAN: What, a thousand nicker in cash and you're going to put it through the books?
~ Guardian

Why does a slight tax increase cost you two hundred dollars and a substantial tax cut save you thirty cents?
~ Peg Bracken

Any reasonable system of taxation should be based on the slogan of 'Soak the Rich'.
~ Heywood Broun

The income tax has made more liars out of the American people than golf has.
~ Will Rogers (Attrib.)

Income tax returns are the most imaginative fiction being written today.
~ Herman Wouk

>99 LizzieD: Any reasonable system of taxation should be based on the slogan of 'Soak the Rich'.
~ Heywood Broun

Yuh-huh.

*smooch*

>98 karenmarie: I got over to Fearrington a few times when I lived in Chapel Hill. But that was long enough ago that it was mostly country then. I'm guessing it's probably all build up now.

>99 LizzieD: We'll have to figure out some way to meet, at some point.

More good quotes. I agree with Richard on the Broun quote, but the Will Rogers one gave me the best laugh.

‘Morning, dearest Peggy!

I particularly like the Heywood Broun quote because after all, progressive taxation is the moral, ethical, AND financially responsible thing to do.

You're too hard on yourself - 5 is completely respectable and your 4th word was logical.

>101 atozgrl: Fearrington’s not completely built up, yet, Irene. Lots of green space, still have the Belties hanging out across from The Barn.

Wordle in 4 for me today.

My friend Karen has been … asked? coerced? … into teaching a Bible Study course on Hebrews at her church between now and Thanksgiving. I still owed her volumes 15-23 of The Pulpit Commentary, so repackaged the box into two boxes yesterday so I can easily get them inside the PO.

So, I need to go to the PO AND pick up a few groceries today.

Very good day to you all, dear Karen, Irene, and Richard! Yes indeed! Broun says it for all of us who are "just folks," to quote my college roomie's Mr. Republican father about my parents.
If I ever get up there, Irene, at a time when you can come too, we'll visit my closest life-friend who lives with her husband in Fearrington. Karen has met her and loved her, and so will you.
*smooch* my WBL!

We are 4 Sisters, Karen. Feels fine to me! Oh good grief! Hebrews is so HARD - I can't imagine being coerced into taking that on!!!! I am unfamiliar with Pulpit Commentary but see at Amazon that it is 19th century. If she wants something more contemporary, used volumes of The Interpreter's Bible are available there for less than $20 a volume. I've bought 3 so far, all in excellent shape. The one with Hebrews covers from that to the end of the New Testament. Layman's Bible Commentary from '81 might suit her too. Hebrews, James, 1&2 Peter are included for a used copy under $10. It's not verse by verse, but it's good. I know you didn't ask, but you know me! (I own a 19th century series called The Expositor's Bible that belonged to a former NC governor. His grandson and wife are two more of my life-friends. John's mother pretty much insisted that I take them if I wanted his W. Irvings and - heaven help me! - 3 volume set of Gibbons. I did. I'd like to get rid of them. They're better than I expected them to be, but are much dated. Like her though, I can't just dump them.)

Have a lovely day. DH and I were just watching a filmed collision of a motorized wheelchair with a robot. The wheelchair was trying to pass, and the robot was having none of it. Holy Moly! Makes me want to stay inside for the duration!!!!!!!

Wordle 1,557 4/6*

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🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, stoic, tough, mouth Again, a little more thought would have helped. I knew that #3 was a used word, but nothing else was coming to me at the time.

CAPITALISM

The fundamentals of capitalist ethics require that, 'You shall earn your bread in sweat' - unless you happen to have private means.
~ M. Kalecki

The trouble with the profit system has always been that it was highly unprofitable to most people
~ E.B. White

BIG BUSINESS

IBM is making top corporate positions hereditary. The sweeping change is designed to take advantage of new estate tax laws and stimulate child production among the right people
~ Off the Wall Street Journal, 1982

The meek may inherit the earth - but not its mineral rights.
~ J. Paul Getty

If the government was as afraid of disturbing the consumer as it is of disturbing business, this would be some democracy.
~ Kin Hubbard

Nothing is illegal if a hundred businessmen decide to do it, and that's true anywhere in the world.
~ Andrew Young

>103 LizzieD: The meek may inherit the earth - but not its mineral rights.
~ J. Paul Getty

Capitalism writ in stone. Literal stone. *shudder*

Amen to that thought and shudder, WBL. *smooch*

Back from the blood draw with more discoloration from the surgical tape than bruise from the stick. I am such a delicate plant!

Wordle 1,558 4/6*
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🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 roast, fleet, glint, blunt I'm not unhappy. WBot says that my second guess narrowed the options to two, and I guessed the wrong one. I will note that my alternating first words isn't working very well right this minute since they're synchronized wrong. As soon as I switch, they will be right as they were.

PARTIES

It is not done to let anybody be too happy. The moment two people seem to be enjoying one another's company, a good hostess introduces a third element or removes the first.
~ Virginia Graham

The cocktail party is easily the worst invention since castor oil.
~ Elsa Maxwell

A cocktail party is what you call it when you invite everyone you know to come over to your house at six p.,., put cigarettes out on your rug, and leave at eight to go somewhere more interesting for dinner without inviting you. Cocktail parties are very much on their way out among rug-owning, hungry, snubbed people.
~ P.M. O'Rourke (First time I've quoted him. He appears often but not even this funny to me.)

A small boy, who was a stickler for the literal truth, once said to me that it was wrong to say 'Good-bye' when you had not enjoyed yourself at a party. I enquired what should be substituted for it. He suggested 'Bad-bye.' I have never tried this.
~Arthur Ponsonby

I delight in the idea of a party but find no pleasure in the reality. The result is that I can neither keep away from parties nor enjoy them.
~ J.B. Priestley

The cocktail party - a device for paying off obligations to people you don't want to invite to dinner.
~ Charles Merrill smith

Nothing is more irritating than not being invited to a party you wouldn't be seen dead at.
~ Bill Vaughan

There must be some good in the cocktail party to account for its immense vogue among otherwise sane people.
~ Evelyn Waugh

>105 LizzieD: There must be some good in the cocktail party to account for its immense vogue among otherwise sane people.
~ Evelyn Waugh

My parents invited people to cocktail parties if they planned to ask for money, drinks and dinner if the point was seeking investments. Loud drunk people made Mama want to scream. Me too!

Wednesday still, is it...tedious things, Wednesdays. *baa*

>105 LizzieD: I hope the bruises go away soon!

Thank you, Stasia. I still await news about your Bliss.

No cocktail parties here, Richard. It's probably just as well since both of us have alcoholics on both sides of our families. The greater reason is that two introverts are not at all attracted to cocktail chat. I do hope that Thursdays are less tedious than Wednesdays for you. I'm looking forward to my same-old! *smooch*

Wordle 1,559 4/6*

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🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, prate, grape, drape Once again, I choose the wrong one of the two choices left to me.
As I read the Bot's analysis, I see again how it values words that eliminate as many other words as possible. My focus is finding which of the most common consonants + vowels I can use.

Now is the time for me to go to the feeding of cats!

>108 LizzieD: Bliss is not coming in, Peggy. Kerry is not happy about Isla being in here so there is no way I can talk him into Bliss too. *sigh*

‘Morning, Peggy. I hope you have a wonderful day.

Two days of not posting on your thread… mea culpa.

>103 LizzieD: I’ll have to ask Karen about other preacher cheat sheets, which is what I call homilies. I think I’m using the word homily correctly.

A filmed collision of a motorized wheelchair with a robot. *blinks*

Cynical quotes, all pretty much true.

>105 LizzieD: I will note that my alternating first words isn't working very well right this minute since they're synchronized wrong. As soon as I switch, they will be right as they were. A corollary to not changing lines at the grocery store once you pick one.

Bad-bye instead of good-bye. I like it. Although one interpretation of good-bye is that it’s good to be saying bye.

I’m sorry about the bruising. I had a procedure a while back where she tried to put an IV in the crook of my elbow. She was not successful. She tried one place on my wrist, then had to get another tech to try another place. So 2 nasty bruises.

Two errands today – another trip to the PO and a trip to the chiropractor. All in the Pitt, so there’s that.

I'm happy to see you back here, Karen, as I am in and out except for this time.... I'm also glad that you can keep your expedition in the Pitt. Happy homecoming and staying there to read!!! I feel as though we should be stocking up in case the hurricane(s) make it here on Monday. I hate to drive in the Lumps on Fridays when everybody is less responsible in traffic than usual.
I will not recount my blood-drawing horrors except to mention 6 sticks one time and the worse time of 2 fully-grown adults leaning their whole weight on my arm to squeeze out the last drops required for their test vial when my vein gave out after a blood donation - and I had warned them. My whole forearm, all the way around, was black for a month. I'm sure that these are not going to be the worst indignities for either of us.
Just looked up "good-bye", and AI tells me that it was originally "God be with you," God being extended to "good" to match good night or morning or whatever. I'll smile and think it’s good to be saying bye when that's true!!!
COLLISION! Seriously!
I think a homily is a small, focused sermon, but you may be right.
I'm always completely wrong about lines anywhere. World, don't follow me into a line!

I was afraid that was true, Stasia. I'm sorry for you and Isla and sorrier for Bliss. (I've always let DH be the one to decide to let cats into the house, and he's gotten it right so far!)

Wordle 1,560 4/6*

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🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 roast, plead, daily, dally No apologies today!

DECISIONS

You may be sure that when a man begins to call himself a realist he is preparing to do something that he is secretly ashamed of doing.
~ Sydney J. Harris

A decision is what a man makes when he can't get anyone to serve on a committee.
~ Fletcher Knebel

When a person tells you, "I'll think it over and let you know" - you know.
~Olin Miller

All our final decisions are made in a state of mind that is not going to last.
~ Marcel Proust

INDECISION

His indecision is final.
~ Anon.

They call him"Jigsaw" because every time he's faced with a problem, he goes to pieces.
~ Anon.

Nothing is so exhausting as indecision, and nothing is so futile.
~ Bertrand Russell

>111 LizzieD: Peggy, your understanding of "homily" is the way I think of it.

I'm sorry that you and Karen both have had such awful blood-drawing experiences. I've been fortunate to avoid that so far.

>111 LizzieD: When a person tells you, "I'll think it over and let you know" - you know.
~Olin Miller

Nailhead, you been hit.

Off to drag my eyes away from a screen and listen to rain sounds while falling asleep early. *baa*

‘Morning, Peggy! Happy Saturday.

I just checked the NHC again – they’re still calling it potential Tropical Cyclone 9, but it definitely looks like we’ll get some kind of weather from it early next week. If it doesn’t veer off like it’s projected to do, it could be really dangerous for the SE US.

Ugh to your blood-drawing horror stories. Definitely more indignities coming…

daily and dally got me, too

Wordle in 3 for me today, with much use of spreadsheets.

When a person tells you, "I'll think it over and let you know" - you know.
~Olin Miller I phrase it “I’ll take it under consideration.”

Hi, Karen, Richard, and Irene!!!! I'm omeleted - I make it a point to carry on eating at least as long as I took to prepare it - and off to feed cats. I'll try to get back and speak better before tonight!!!

Wordle 1,561 4/6*

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🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 roast, trine, frith, fritz I used my own strange brain for the first three, but had to check the last one. Good grief!

(((((Peggy))))) I hope you have a wonderful day. Kind regards to your DH and skritches to the Group of Seven.

Yum to the omelet.

Wordle in 3 for me today. Arsenal play at 11:30 against the 15th ranked team out of 20. Fingers crossed because you just never know.

Good luck to Arsenal as the game goes on! Same wishes back to you and your dears, dear Karen!

Wordle 1,562 3/6*

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PRINCE OF DOGS by Late Elliott

Ms. Elliott writes well, and this second in the series is good for people like me who enjoy classic fantasy. She has researched daily life in medieval Europe and uses her results to create an alternate reality that still rings true. (It's dirty and it smells bad.) Characters are interesting people. The fantasy part is not overblown. I like it a lot.
Now I will try to read the third book without shoving everything else aside.

>117 LizzieD: I feel Crown of Stars is one of the most underrated fantasy epics ever. It is so full of weird and unexpected thoroughly grounded in a pre-modern world that seems to work.

>117 LizzieD: When I saw your post, I was wondering how you got Wordle in 3 today. It must have been the list. It took me 5, and I thought I did well with that word.

I hope you have a great week!

‘Morning, Peggy!

Thank goodness Imelda will be taking an abrupt right turn before threatening us.

Congrats on your three. Took me five today.

Handyman Trevor is coming over for his debut. He’ll change out some hinges on cupboards in the kitchen and replace the kitchen sink faucet and soap dispenser.

I’m glad you’re reading a fantasy series you like.

Good afternoon as usual, Karen, Irene, and Susan! I'm happy, as usual, to see you here!!!

Amen to hurricanes off to sea!!!! I forgot to do Wordle, so I'll have to make that up and come back. Hurray for Trevor! I hope he's even better than you hope. (Did you get a PM from me Saturday night? I ask because you're so good to reply promptly. It wasn't much, but the new message set-up is not making me happy.}

Irene, it was the list at the third try. I couldn't think of anything but past tense verbs, so I did consult a list. Great week to you too!

I agree, Susan! In fact, I intend to introduce the study club to fantasy by women in March, using Bujold, Goddard, and Elliott as examples. Hmmm. I think I've said that to you before. I'm not sure how happy I'll be with the direction she takes in the fourth book, but I'll surely try it. You understand that I haven't read the third one yet, but I plan ahead!

Off to Wordle!
ETA: Wordle 1,563 3/6*

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WALKING TO SAMARKAND by Bernard Ollivier

This is the second of an initial trilogy that Bernard Ollivier wrote after he walked a Silk Road route during the summers of 1999-2001. (I guess. This segment was done in 2000.) I have a new and growing fascination with Central Asia, especially the ruins and the deserts.
BO began this trek where he had stopped the year before just short of the Turky-Iran border and ended in Samarkand. He was determined to walk every single step, a thing he had trouble explaining to kind people who insisted on giving him a ride. If he accepted a ride, he first got the assurance that he'd be returned to the place he had stopped walking. This was true except for the stretch across the Dasht-e Kavir where he is forced to ride because it's too hot and dry. In August he does skirt the Karakum where temps reach 122°, but by the time he gets there temperatures are falling, and the approach of 85° nights leave him as chilly as they do the natives. (He has a 2 wheeled cart that he pulls, and notes that his feet and the bicycle wheels sink into the tar of the road as he walks. He also drinks water non-stop and doesn't urinate for a full day of walking.)
He has the marks of all distance walkers who can talk at great length about the effects of walking alone for long distances on their core minds and spirits. He also notes how walking takes over so that he is often foolishly driven to keep walking after he's reached his goal for the day if something more appealing is just a few more miles (10 or 12) ahead.
I loved his ability to describe the land as he found it. I loved equally his interactions with the people he met, who were mostly Muslims. Hospitality is their duty and their joy, and he could never have gotten through without their help. The exceptions were the police and other officials, whom he learned to avoid or oppose. That was compelling reading too.

How do, Peggy me lurve. I'm typing my fingers off getting my #Deathtober first week done before Valerie gets here Wednesday. I'm kinda MIA anywhere but in those files....
*baa*

>121 LizzieD: My first read of Crown of Stars I did balk at the changes in direction and setting - but that was attachment to characters and expected plot, and the quality of the characters is solid throughout, and Elliott's swerving plot comes up with it's own (or their own, as really it isn't a single plot) treasures, if maybe not the ones decades of fantasy tell you you're entitled to.

Oh, Richard! I'm happy that Valerie is coming Wednesday!!!! It's always super good to hear that you are having treats with a friend. *smooch*

Susan, the thing is that I dislike some brands of fantasy as much as I'm attracted to others. I'm afraid, just scanning a blurb or two, that what comes after the trilogy may be one of those brands. I'll hold my breath when I get there. *sigh*

I'm going to bail and watch Masterpiece's Mansfield Park. Good Night!!!!!!!

>124 LizzieD: Kate Elliott can keep the focus on the people she has created, however huge a crisis seems to enfold them. Of course, I can't know what it is about the descriptions that make you wary, but if it is a scope issue, I'd trust Elliott to keep her folk real.

‘Morning, Peggy!

Trevor is definitely a treasure.

Congrats on your Wordle three. It took me five today.

I’m running late, of course, and need to eat a bite then get ready to leave for book sort.

Good day to you, Karen!!!!!

You too, Susan!!!! The more I get characters into magic for magic's sake, the less I like the fantasy. This year Starless Sea was an exception for most of the book, but that palled eventually too.

I lucked out today too, Karen. I couldn't see anything else to do, so I tried doubling what I had, and the second time+, it worked!

Wordle 0 3/6*

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'Morning, Peggy.

Congrats on your three yesterday. I got in three today.

Trevor's power washing the front porch. Noisy, but it's going to look so good when he's done. And then, when the weather is right, we'll paint it and the railings. *happy dance*

Wow, Karen! Trevor is a real find, isn't he!!!?!!!

Congrats on your 3 today. I was not brilliant.
Wordle 1,565 4/6*

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LIBERALS

A liberal is a conservative who's been mugged by reality.
~ Anon.

The liberals can understand everything but people who don't understand them.
~ Anon.

A liberal is a man who leaves the room when a fight begins.
~ Heywood Broun

What the liberal really wants is to bring about change which will not in any way endanger his position.
~ Stokely Carmichael

A liberal is a man too broadminded to take his own side in a quarrel.
~ Robert Frost

A rich man told me recently that a liberal is a man who tells other people what to do with their money.
~ LeRoi Jones

I can remember way back when a liberal was one who was generous with his own money.
~ Will Rogers

>129 LizzieD: A liberal is a conservative who's been mugged by reality.
~ Anon.

The liberals can understand everything but people who don't understand them.
~ Anon.

I resemble these remarks! Closely! *smooch*

‘Morning, Peggy! It’s gorgeous out, isn’t it? I hope you and your DH have a wonderful day.

>129 LizzieD: Trevor’s turning out to be a real find. I’ll post some pictures of what he did yesterday on my thread later today.

Four is more than respectable, as you well know. I got it in 3 again today, with a lucky guess on the 2nd word that yielded a good result, leading to the 3rd word.

Sad to say, but Stokely Carmichael’s got it right. Although, I’d rather lose things to liberal change than the dangerous and fascist change occurring now.

I’ve got yet another busy day, but with all good things. Trevor, massage, grocery shopping (if I’m not lazy), and etc.

Good morning, Karen and Richard!!!! I'm early today because I get to see a former student and newly-minted lawyer sworn in today. If I have to say something, as his mom, a good if not close friend strongly encouraged me to do, I'm ready.

All three of those remarks on liberalism I understand in my bones. I'm one of those non-reformed left-wing radicals from the 60s so despised by the fascist/anarchists currently in control. Speaking of which, I just discovered my new expression of surprise from Mick Herron in the mouth of Jackson Lamb in Joe Country: "Trump on a treadmill!"

Hope your time with Valerie is as good as usual, my WBL! *smooch*

Wordle 1,566 4/6*

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🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 roast, title, nifty, width I'm always happy if I'm logical, even when I choose the wrong direction. CONGRATS on your 3, Karen!!!

OPPORTUNITY

Opportunity, n, a favorable occasion for grasping a disappointment.
~ Ambrose Bierce

I despise making the most of one's time: half the pleasures of life consist of the opportunities one has neglected.
~ Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr

I once chanced upon this caption to a math teacher's bulletin board the day before classes started at my high school:

WHERE WILL YOU BE WHEN OPPOTUNITY KNOTS?

I couldn't begin to think how to address it, so I told the head of the math department, who scurried down, read the board, and said to the teacher, "I can't spell either, but we have to fix this." (I thought she was brilliant.)

As to books, I took a hint from one of the NYT reviewers and started The Idiot, a first novel by Elif Batuman. I'm happy that I did. So far it's as smart and funny as the reviews say.

(I know that I now have two one books to comment on. I will but not now.)

>121 LizzieD: for Walking to Samarkand comments

'Morning, Peggy! Happiest of Fridays to you. I hope everybody had a wonderful time at the swearing in.

Congrats on your 4. I got it in 3 today.

Love the opportunity quotes and just roll my eyes at the misspellings. It almost hurts my eyes to read that sentence.

Believe it or not, I have no outside-the-house errands today. Will wonders never cease?

Good morning, Karen!!!! What gorgeous weather! It's so cool that we are waiting until afternoon to walk again. It was bliss to sleep 20 minutes longer and still have time for quiet (for Bible and prayer) and balance exercises before breakfast. I hope that this situation can continue. I'm home today too. Best wishes to both of us!

Congratulations on Wordle in 3 today! Your starter word with a p is really helpful again. As for my effort: modest but my own.......
Wordle 1,567 5/6*

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I have started Howard's End Is on the Landing and find that I read it in 2013. I have remembered nothing about it, so I'll do a reread because friends enjoyed it so much. It is entertaining. Reading that thread confirms to me that I was smarter than I am now. Oh well. What you see is what you get, but I thought I was reading better than I ever had before. Maybe I'm less willing to take the time to think through what I mean or say it clearly? That would be a comforting thing. Sorry.

MODESTY

Modesty is the art of encouraging people to find out for themselves how wonderful you are.
~ Anon.

Modesty is a vastly overrated virtue.
~ J. K. Galbraith (Attrib.)

Modesty, the gentle art of enhancing your charm by pretending not to be aware of it.
~ Oliver Herford

A modest man is usually admired - if people ever hear of him.
~ Edgar Watson Howe

JOE COUNTRY by Mick Herron

Herron does it again! What he does is offer a heart-speeding spy adventure that breaks a reader's heart for the Slow Horses, lays bare the greed for power and privilege, shines a cold light on moral ambiguity, and is often laugh out loud funny.

I'm going to think that everybody has at least heard of Slough House and its denizens by now, whether through the books or the TV series. I haven't watched the latter and won't until it's free on some channel I can get over the air. Meanwhile, I'm rationing the books. They are that good.

Good afternoon to any who happen to land here! *sigh*

Wordle 1,568 3/6*

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I'm not settled quite into October's reading, but I'm enjoying The Idiot although I'm usually not a fan of strings of short incidents and random thoughts. Our narrator Selin has just realized the unity that binds all people. As children we all cheered when Dumbo had a victory and when his foes were banished. We were all Dumbo. Even mean girls were all Cinderella. I like the simplicity of it when nothing much seems simple - if it ever did.

VIRGINITY

There was a young lady called Wylde,
Who kept herself quite undefiled
By thinking of Jesus
Contagious diseases,
And the bother of having a child.
~ Anon.

Nature abhors a virgin - a frozen asset.
~ Clare Boothe Luce

I've been around so long, I knew Doris Day before she was a virgin.
~ Groucho Marx (Attrib.)

VIRTUE

Righteous people terrify me ... virtue is its own punishment.
~ Aneurin Bevan (Attrib.)

What, after all, is a halo? It's only one more thing to keep clean.
~ Christopher Fry

Vice Is Nice
But a little virtue
Won't hurt you.
~ Felicia Lamport

He hasn't a single redeeming vice.
~ Oscar Wilde (Attrib.)

VICE

Vice is its own reward.
~ Quentin Crisp

>136 LizzieD: That first limerick gave me a mighty chuckle. Of course, all your quotes are wonderful, as usual.

Happy to oblige, Linda! I'm now having trouble remembering what I've already posted since I didn't mark any of them as I went.

Good afternoon, Peggy.

Wordle Sister, congrats on your three! I got it in 3 today, too.

I acquired Howard’s End Is on the Landing in 2013. I haven’t yet read it. I’m sorry you feel like you’re not as smart as you were then. I like what I get, Peggy-wise, and your reading is impressive.

Good Modesty quotes. I particularly like the last one, as it’s not cynical.

>136 LizzieD: I’m here, I’m here!! I got diverted watching Arsenal beat West Ham, then found a piece of paper I thought I’d thrown away – a flyer from May that I wrote some notes on regarding how to get photos from my cell phone to my laptop. I folded a load of clean laundry, too.

I hope you’re having a wonderful day.

>136 LizzieD: I so appreciate your quotes! Laughed aloud at the limerick, chuckled through the rest. Thank you for posting!

And I wouldn’t worry about the chance of reposting! I think we here are aware of the gifts of rereading. 😊

Karen O

'Morning, Peggy! Happy Sunday to you.

I got Wordle in 2 today. I even surprised myself.

Nothing planned, although reading and puttering and perhaps even napping will undoubtedly occur.

>135 LizzieD: You make me want to restart the books...I was only lukewarm about them...the TV series is excellent. I feel as though I'm missing an element of appreciation for the show by not seeing what the source materials offered that got the show moving.

I'm slowly returning to my crippled-up normal after being hella busy (by my standards). Today I'll be eating the wickedly extravagant leftovers before returning to gruel and sludge and general blahness. Today it's V's leftover linguine carbonara! *drool*

Hi, Richard! It's lovely to have you back, but I wish your everyday life were a little more toward the extravagant than crippled-up and blah. The Slow Horse books may not be for you at all. I'm a fool for Jackson Lamb, who is an updated version of Reginald Hill's Fat Andy Dalziel. *smooch*

GOOD night, Karen! I hope you got a bit of a nap. A bit was all I managed because Bobbie called mid-nap, and we talked a lot longer than either of us had planned. They have been traveling again but are home for a bit now and looking for the current COVID booster. Have you gotten it? I can't remember. I think that I recall that Irene did, but that she had to have a prescription. Or was that you?
CONGRATULATIONS on your Wordle in 2!!!!! I have used that as a second word very often, but naturally, didn't do it today. I'm very happy to see no more than 3 though.
Wordle 1,569 3/6*

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Hi, Karen O. I miss you and am happy to see you here. I'll get on with the quoting again tomorrow, I trust. Now I'm late for the cats - also as usual!

>143 LizzieD: I suspect you're correct, Peggy me lurve. I think I'm better off binging the show every so often rather than trying to find the show in the books. I suspect I'll be getting Cosimano's Finlay Donovan might be coming to a screen near me which I'll hope is as good as the reads are.

*baa*

‘Morning, Peggy! Another gorgeous day here in NC. Carolina blue skies, 45F now, 72F later. Poifect!

I’ve read the first Dalziel and Pascoe and just used Kindle Unlimited for the second. Will I get to it any time soon? I don’t know, but I do know that I need to finish The Future by then, because it’s our October book club book.

Yay for chatting with Bobbie. I hope she's well.

I just sent a message off to my doctor via mychart asking about flu and Covid vaccines. I hope to hear back today or tomorrow. I asked if I can get them at their office or find them at a pharmacy. I pretty much refuse to use Walgreens, but we have a small, family pharmacy in town and they almost always have all the vaccines. Walk in, fill out the paperwork, get vaccinated, leave. It's right next to the Food Lion.

Thanks re Wordle in 2. Today’s effort took 4. Yay for your yesterday’s 3.

Wait, Karen! How can you have only 72° today when we're already up to 79°??? Humph.
I really enjoyed R. Hill and mourned when he died. Peter Pascoe is OK, but it was Fat Andy and Ellie that kept me going back, plus the fact that Hill composed good mysteries.
Bobbie seems to be well - as upset as we are by the current world. Like my DH, hers gets tired of her fretting aloud about it, so we had a bitching marathon. (That's the only word for it.)
I hope that you can go ahead and get the vaccine. I asked the pharmacist about delaying the flu shot, but she said that she had gotten hers the day before because it's out and around already.

Yay for your Wordle! As usual, I didn't think of the better choice in time. It always seems to be the more upbeat word when it's down to two.

Good morning, my WBL! I absolutely do not need another mystery series, but when I do, I'll surely go for Finlay Donovan. I may break down and get a used mpb copy, but I do need to start putting things on my Kindle. One of these days an mpb will be the book that breaks this poor old house. *smooch*

Wordle 1,570 5/6*

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🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, steak, cause, abuse, amuse *sigh*

GENTLEMEN

A gentleman is one who never swears at his wife while ladies are present.
~ Anon.

A gentleman is one who, when he invites a girl up to show her his etchings, shows her his etchings.
~ Anon.

A true gentleman is a man who knows how to play the bagpipes - but doesn't.
~ Anon.

I do hope I shall enjoy myself with you ... I am parshial to ladies if they are nice. I suppose it is my nature. I am not quite a gentleman but you would hardly notice it.
~ Daisy Ashford, The Young Visitors, 1919

A gentleman is one who never strikes a woman without provocation.
~ H.L. Mencken

... one of Nature's gentlemen, the worst type of gentleman I know.
~ Oscar Wilde

Those are because I was thinking of an old friend, my DH's first bee-keeping mentor. He lived in the country in the family home with a landgrant from George III framed on the wall. The detached kitchen had its original chimney with holes from Civil War minie balls. The methane-powered electricity generator still sat in the yard. His farthest trip from home was to Charlotte and back - once - with his younger brother in a Model-A Ford. He said things like, "That thar is a gentleman's cabbage ...... no warms! Heeeheehee!"

>143 LizzieD: The need for an RX for the Covid booster seems to be state by state. In NY, being 65 or older is automatic qualification. Be warned; it really knocked me out for a day, which is not usual. Or maybe I was just tired! As for the flu shot, my PCP always suggests I wait until the end of October, because he's concerned about flu transmission in early spring, when he says early shots wear down. I'll probably get mine before I see my sibs in Chicago the last week of October.

>146 LizzieD: "That thar is a gentleman's cabbage ...... no warms! Heeeheehee!"
*delicate overbred shudder*

>143 LizzieD: Yes, I was the one who got the COVID shot and had to get a prescription for it--the day before the governor issued his executive order saying that a prescription would not be required for those eligible for the shot. My DH got his flu shot at the doctor's office when he was there for his physical. I had my physical last week, but came down with a cold the day before, and my doctor told me to wait 2 weeks before getting the flu shot. I am mostly over the cold symptoms now.

>145 karenmarie: 72F?!?!? Where did that forecast come from? It was in the 80's here today. We use our local pharmacy as well for various vaccinations. Much better than the chains.

Wordle in 4 for me today, and I was annoyed I didn't get it in 3.

'Morning, Peggy!

I’ll be back – I didn’t get up early enough to post, eat, AND get ready to be at book sort by 9.

Wordle in three.

Just dropping by to check in on you, Peggy. I also wanted to let you know that I am finally going to get to Half Share this month!

Happy Day! Here I am, and I've had visitors!!! Thank you, Stasia, Karen, Irene, Richard, and Judy!!!

Irene and Judy, about the COVID booster........ My understanding is that the CDC is now saying (but I have forgotten the term) that the decision to get the booster must be accompanied by a conversation either with a doctor or a pharamacist. That makes me more than uneasy since it's another roadblock for people who weren't maybe determined to have it anyway. Judy, I had a slighter reaction than you did, but it was also the first time. I had a bit over a degree of temperature and slept the whole next day. This was with Pfizer. I also asked the pharmacist who gave me the booster and the flu vaccine about delaying flu until later. She said that flu is already circulating around here, so getting it now was a good idea. My doctor has said early is OK in the past, but when I see him later in the month, I'm going to ask again. Maybe it has to do with where we live?????

I am sorry to have upset my WBL. I have one more David story that gave me the willies, so I'll warn you when it's about to come up. For now, I'll just recall that he sold eggs to the very genteel older women in my town, who would drive out to his farm together to get them. Referring to one of the nicest, he said, "That Miz D__, she's the lead cow." (I went "heee heee heeeee.") *smooch*

Stasia and Karen, I'm happy to see you. Hope the book sort has been good and that you're relaxing at Virlie's, Karen. YAY for you and Ish, Stasia! Be entertained!

Wordle 1,571 3/6*

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THE LAW

It is illegal to make liquor privately or water publicly.
~ Lord Birkett (Attrib.)

LAWYER (to judge): And as a precedent, your honor, I offer a Perry Mason case first televised four years ago in which ...
~ Chon Day, cartoon, 1969

A jury consists of twelve persons chosen to decide who has the better lawyer.
~ Robert Frost (Attrib.)

DEFENDANT: I don't recognize this court!
JUDGE: Why not?
DEFENDANT: You've had it decorated!
~ Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise

I don't want a lawyer to tell me what I cannot do; I hire him to tell me how to do what I want to do.
~ J. Pierpont Morgan

MORGENHALL ... If they ever give you a brief, old fellow, attack the medical evidence. Remember, the jury's full of rheumatism and arthritis and shocking gastric troubles. They love to see a medical man put through it.
~ John Mortimer

No brilliance is needed in the law. Nothing but common sense, and relatively clean fingernails.
~ John Mortimer

For certain people, after fifty, litigation takes the place of sex.
~ Gore Vidal

LAWYER: What did he die of?
WITNESS: He died of a Tuesday.
~ From our local courtroom

I'm back...

Book sort was good, the after sale meeting was productive, and lunch at Virlie's with ten of us total. After that I was going to go to the grocery store to get lima beans for Vegetable Beef Soup and looked at the pharmacy next door. I thought I might as well go in and see if I can get the Covid booster and flu shot. My doctor said I should get both when I asked him via my chart two days ago.

Got the Covid booster in my left arm and the flu shot in my right arm. I didn't get tons of sleep, so am going upstairs to nap and read.

I'm GLAD that you're boosted, Karen! I hope you have no reaction from either. Napping and reading = great plan!

I just found this meme on a thread of mine from 2014. I sort of liked it then, and I might try it now. Certainly, I have nothing else to do!!!!!
You're writing a paragraph.....

1. A title that includes a color. Use the first sentence.
2 A title that includes an animal. Use the second sentence on page 50.
3. A title that includes a first name. Use the third sentence on page 100.
4. A title that includes a place. Use the fourth sentence on page 150.
5. A title that includes a weather event. Use the next-to-last sentence on page 200.
6. A title that includes a plant. Use the final sentence in the book.

'Morning, Peggy! I hope you have a wonderful day.

I'm glad I'm boosted, too. Another thing off the list.

The 2014 meme. A time sink! A fun time sink. I didn't do it in 2014. Every book was either in the Sunroom or on my Kindle.

In the drowsy heat of the summer afternoon the Red House was taking its siesta. The Red House Mystery by AA Milne first sentence

The Gastrotheca marsupiata clade is somewhat more tractable than its sister-group in terms of its osteological features. Marsupial Frogs page 50 second sentence

Gee whiz, what’s wrong with you? The Calvin & Hobbes Tenth Anniversary Book by Bill Watterson page 100 3rd sentence

Has no one got a full canteen? With Lee in Virginia by GA Henty page 150 4th sentence

There was a large map on the wall, and the Ambassador several times led me to it to illustrate his projects. The Second World War Vol 1 by Winston Churchill p 200 next-to-last sentence

Let’s go in the tent. Nightshade by Michael Connelly last sentence. Technically a family of plants, but I just got it yesterday.

Wordle in 4 with extensive use of the spreadsheets.

No need for me to go out today, so there's that. Stuff to do inside, though - make soup, possibly make cookies, read The Future by Naomi Alderman, napping, and etc.

Good afternoon, Karen. I've located books on my Kindle, but I may not have time to do it all.... I like yours. The C&H is placed ideally!!!!

The Wordlebot says I should have gotten it on my 4th try. The word I used instead got an "In my experience that's not a word that would be used." I am worded with myself for not getting it in 4 or maybe even 3.
Wordle 1,572 5/6*

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🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, saint, panda, mynah, annoy

My Books for the Meme! 1. The Blue 2. The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating 3. The Murder of Patience Brooke 4. The Three Christs of Ypsilanti 5. Too Like the Lightning 6. The Frangipani Tree

Amiability has never been counted more important in a woman's character than it is today. These snails have evolved fewer but longer teeth, which, rather sinisterly, they can fold out of the way to give more mouth room for ingesting their victims. If you do, I'll come at once. "It's untruthful," says Joseph. He looked to Ockham. "....And I have the papers to prove it."

Time totally sunk! Sometimes it works better than other times. It reminds me of what turned out to be a fun strategy after a class had had a basic grammar course. In pairs they put down whatever words occurred to them to fit categories (eg a present participle, personal pronoun, an abstract noun, etc.) These they fit into the blanks of a set form for a "poem." The abstract noun was the title. The only first line I remember was....Opportunity is a monkey bouncing off Wal-Mart.

Walking! Poor hungry cats!!

‘Morning, Peggy! Happy Thursday to you.

The C&H is, actually, yours, a duplicate, for when I visit or pack up a box and take it to the PO. I have 15 books and 2 Great Courses audio books or DVD sets for you. I can’t remember what the Great Courses items are and don’t want to pull them down out to look out of sheer laziness. 12 of the 15 books are Poldark.

I have one of your books for the meme – The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating.

Opportunity is a monkey bouncing off Wal-Mart. cracks me up.

Off to lunch with Rita today.

Oh - Wordle in 3. I know you would have preferred the 4, but take the win...

OOO! OOOOO! OOOOO, Karen!!!! I know that you have a great many stored away for me, but I LOVE being reminded of them. I have the books that I tried unsuccessfully to mail to you and an autographed Sue Grafton that will be a duplicate. I thought you'd like the autograph though.........

Enjoy your lunch with Rita. I am just finishing my second cup of coffee, and I'm pretty sure you're eating or on your way already.

Actually, I was quite pleased with the Wordle in 3, but today I'm back to my 5. Didn't think of the better choice until I'd tried the wrong one - AGAIN. Tomorrow I think I'll try your first word to see what Wordlebot has to say about that. The 2 I'm alternating are supposed to get the bot, at least, to a solution in 3.something tries.
Wordle 1,573 5/6*

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🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 roast, clear, array, harpy, hardy

I haven't gotten to settle down for even a half hour of reading this week, nor do I expect to today with the afternoon gone to study club. Even so, I'm enjoying The Remembered Soldier in the way that I enjoy anything beautifully done and unique. How much our identity is dependent on our memories! The core personality remains (or this was true of my mama who met loss as she had met life) to put together the persona as it is able.
I'm also reading Thin Air just because I haven't kept up with Jimmy Perez in Shetland for a month or so. I think that Cleeves has hit her stride, and this book feels comfortable. I also continue The Idiot, which appeals when I pick it up but doesn't compel as it did for the first hundred pages or so. In snatches I'm rereading the S. Hill *H's End on Landing*. I've just read her chapter on diaries and find I have another couple that she cites besides my F. Partridge diaries that I'm not trying to read right now. Yay! Wellington always waits patiently as does the next *Crown of Stars* fantasy.
I am looking forward to The Impossible Fortune, coming to me from my friend soon!!!!!

CHEESE

Poets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese.
~ G.K. Chesterton

What a friend we have in cheeses!
For no food more subtly pleases,
Nor plays so grand a gastronomic part;
Cheese imported - not domestic -
For we all get indigestic
From all the Pasteurizer's Kraft and sodden art.
~ Iliiam Cole

Claret, dear, not Coca-Cola,
When you're having Gorgonzola -
Be particular to serve the proper wines;
Likewise pick a Beaune, not Coke for
Pointing up a a Bleu or Roquefort -
Bless the products of the bovines and the vines!
William Cole

Cheese. The adult form of milk.
~ Richard Condon

Cheese - milk's leap forward to immortality
~ Clifton Fadiman

CHICAGO
Chicago is not the most corrupt American city - it's the most theatrically corrupt.
~ Studs Terkel
(I wanted to pay some attention to the city under siege. I think often about how bad we thought things were when the government was intact and how grateful we'd be to go back to that time, or better, to claim function for the future. I don't have tears left, but if I did, I'd be weeping now.

>158 LizzieD: Cheese. The adult form of milk.
~ Richard Condon

Awomen. I'll eat cheese before any other milk product.

Apart from that deathless aperçu, I am devoid of sense or sensibility. *smooch*

Ah, Richard, I have just enough sense and sensibility to say *smooch* right back to you! I can no longer drink milk. I haven't had any sort of bad reaction, I just can't lift the glass to my mouth if it has milk in it. Otherwise ½&½ in my coffee (just wave the container over my cup once) and plain Greek yogurt and CHEESE, absolutely!!!

‘Morning, Peggy! Happy Friday.

>158 LizzieD: Do tell… a signed Sue Grafton. I’ll love it.

Lunch didn’t pan out – Rita isn’t feeling well.

Your Wordle in 5 yesterday beats today's 6 for me. I saved my streak, though.

I sent the cheese quotes to Jenna, because she frequently sings “Cheese, it pleases me…” I particularly like Cheese. The adult form of milk. – Richard Condon

It just keeps getting worse and worse.

>160 LizzieD: I still like fat-free milk with cereal, but won’t drink a glass of it, much less a glass of anything not fat free. For cheese, I love provolone, cheddar, pepperjack, mozzarella, and feta. Cheese is one of those things I measure out if I’m going to eat any of it. Roquefort and blue cheese, on the other hand, give me the willies.

I'm sorry about the lunch with Rita. Hope she gets a good long streak of feeling well soon and you get more than one lunch to look forward to.

(A propos of nothing. Disappointment in the lack of the Nobel Peace Prize = higher tariffs. Repetition, repetition, repetition sounds like psychosis, psychosis, psychosis to me.)

I LOVE the big smelly cheeses. I LOVE the subtle mild cheeses. I don't much like parm for some reason - maybe because I've never eaten P. Reggiano?
I trade my DH his decades of salmon patties for occasional blue cheese sprinkles on salad and steamed spinach. (Sorry, Karen!)

Wordle 1,574 3/6*

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🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, leery, lever Stupid second guess with that 4th letter in the same wrong place. After all my 5s, I'm not complaining!
Hooray for continuing streaks, Karen! That's what I've been doing. You'll note that I also forgot to use your first word today to see what the bot thought.

WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE

They told me how Mr Gladstone read Homer for fun, which I thought served him right.
~ Winston Churchill (Attrib.)

He has not a single redeeming defect.
~ Benjamin Disraeli (Attrib.)

... honest in the most odious sense of the word.
~ Benjamin Disraeli (Attrib.)

Mr Gladstone speaks to me as if I were a public meeting.
~ Queen Victoria (Attrib.)

THE PRESIDENCY

If Presidents don't do it to their wives, they do it to the country.
~ Mel Brooks

When I was a boy I was told that anybody could become President; I'm beginning to believe it.
~ Clarence Darrow

You're asking the leader of the Western world a chickenshit question like that?
~ Lyndon Baines Johnson, to reporter (Attrib.)

When we got into office, the thing that surprised me most was to find that things were just as bad as we'd been saying they were.
~ John F. Kennedy

In America any boy may become President and I suppose it's just one of the risks he takes.
~ Adlai Stevenson, 1952

>162 LizzieD: >161 karenmarie: I'm with Karen on the cheeses. I also like Havarti and Gouda. Can't stand Roquefort and blue cheese.

I join you as Wordle in 3 sisters today. I had a lucky guess at 3 and was quite surprised that it was actually today's word.

>162 LizzieD: When I was a boy I was told that anybody could become President; I'm beginning to believe it.
~ Clarence Darrow

Yeup. Believe and detest and revile....I have more pejoratives in my vocabulary than felonious yam has words in his entire head.

*smooch*

Indeed you have more pejoratives than the entity has words - especially words of more than 2 syllables - AND you know how to use them, my WBL! *smooch*

Yay for 3 Sisters, Irene! I did it again today and hope that you and Karen and Nathalie all join me there.
De gustibus non est disputandum! I love your favorite cheeses too!

Wordle 1,575 3/6*

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🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 trope, nasty, stack I used Karen's first word. The Bot says that it's a strong first choice and normally solves the puzzle in 3.8 tries. That's exactly the same number as my current first choices. Today I was very lucky. I'll take it!

THE PRESIDENCY

The best reason I can think of for not running for President of the United States is that you have to shave twice a day.
~ Adlai Stevenson

All the President is, is a glorified public relations man, who spends his time flattering, kissing, and kicking people to get them to do what they are supposed to do anyway.
~ Harry S. Truman
(First half of that is still true; I sigh for the other half.)

Any man who has had the job I've had and didn't have a sense of humor wouldn't still be here.
~ Harry S. Truman (Attrib.)

Any American who is prepared to run for President should be automatically disqualified from ever doing so.
~ Gore Vidal (Attrib.)

The presidential system just won't work any more. Anyone who gets in under it ought not to be allowed to serve.
~ Gore Vidal

>165 LizzieD: We need to move towards a proportional-representation system with many parties, and a figurehead nugatory president. That would threaten "Their" control so will not be allowed.

Ick.

I'm pretty sure we're being worked so that nothing will be "allowed," Richard.

Ick. Ptui.

>167 LizzieD: I'll see your "Ptui" and raise you a "Retch".

>165 LizzieD: Wordle in 2 for me today. My first word was a great one this time.

Any man who has had the job I've had and didn't have a sense of humor wouldn't still be here.
I sure wish that was true. If it were, we wouldn't have gotten the current president for a second time around.

‘Morning, Peggy. I had a post all written out ready to go and must not have posted it yesterday.

Thanks re lunch with Rita. We’re scheduled for next Thursday.

You can have all the cheeses I don’t like.

Congrats on two Wordle threes in a row! And, so glad your use of my first word yielded a good result.

>167 LizzieD: Cynical and oh so true.

Wordle in 5.

I’m within 57 pages of finishing The Future for today’s book club meeting but won’t be able to go – sore throat and temp of 99F. Crap.

Oh phooey, for the temp and sore throat, Karen. Do you think it's a reaction to your COVID booster? If it's gone tomorrow, as I hope it will be, that would be my guess. Thank you for the cheeses. I'll share the ones we both like with you. Meanwhile, I've just eaten 2 more of the Rip Van Romeos. They are good, but so tiny that I have to eat both of them at the same time. Lovely both with coffee and tea!
Our rain and wind continue, so we're not walking. I wore long sleeves and a sweater to church this morning and now have on my sweats with a long-sleeved tee for the first time. Autumn is here as far as I'm concerned.

Good point, Irene, and CONGRATULATIONS on your 2! I try not to see videos of the entity. That said, I don't believe I've ever seen him laugh once.

You win (?), Richard. If I go you one better than "retch," I'll have to clean up around here.

Wordle 1,576 4/6*

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🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 roast, noble, downy, wound Karen, you beat the Bot today - took it all 6!

THIN AIR by Ann Cleeves

I really had a good time with this Shetland offering, and I'm not sure why since I disliked several things very much.
1. I spotted murderer and motive the first time Perez had a conversation with the person. I almost never do that.
2. Although Jimmy was present and solved the mystery, I missed him all the way through the book. In fact, I didn't get much of Sandy and Willow either. Cass didn't show up much, but when she did, I felt her developing character, so that was good.
3. I wasn't best pleased with the Peerie Lizzie thread.
4. The simmer dim and fog made for atmospheric reading, and maybe that's what I liked. Otoh, because of the weather, I had occasional trouble telling what time it was. (((("Simmer dim" is the effect of the sun closest to the northernmost point of Scotland - not quite a midnight sun.))))
5. BIG I didn't quite get why Polly was potentially the next victim. Maybe Grusche was on a roll??? I'd welcome an explanation.
So --- 4 stars instead of 3½

Ha, Karen! Congratulations on your 2!!! If only I had used my alternate first word first, I might have done that too - probably would have. I should be able to claim 2½!
Wordle 1,577 3/6*

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🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 roast, learn, beard Not complaining at all - satisfied, in fact!

BIRTHDAYS

I think it's wonderful you could all be here for the forty-third anniversary of my thirty-ninth birthday. We decided not to light the candles this year - we were afraid Pan Am would mistake it for a runway.
~ Bob Hope, on his eighty-second birthday

(I'm not there yet.)

>172 LizzieD: I'm on the forty-fourth anniversary of my twenty-first birthday. Damn thing's receding even faster than my hairline...though All the hair that's decamped my scalp's landed on my shoulders, the bastages.

Peggy, I saw on FB that today is your birthday so allow me to wish you a very happy one!

Thank you, Laura! Good wishes are much appreciated!!!!!

>175 LizzieD: *smooch*

Happy Birthday, Peggy!

Happy birthday, Peggy!

Wordle in 3 is good. I have no idea how Karen got it in 2 with her first word. It took me the standard 4 today, but I didn't check any lists.

Happy, happy birthday, my dear friend!

Thank you, thank you for birthday wishes, Stasia, Irene, Susan, and Richard!!! It was a good day.

I did check the used list, Irene, or I would have been at 4 too. Karen channels the Wordle woman, I'm convinced!

Stasia, I read a few pages of Katabasis today just because! I'll have to continue reading a book with the sentence, "Alice Law, you naughty girl! You're trying to go to Hell." He means it literally!

‘Morning, Peggy! Happy Tuesday to you.

>178 atozgrl: I always check the 2,309 words list AND the words already used list. And, sometimes after those things are done, it’s just a matter of luck as to which unused word I choose.

Wordle in 4.

Zoe is batting at things and parading in front of me and whining. I’ve already fed her and the kitty door is open. All I want is 5 minutes of her speaking English or me speaking cat. That’s not too much to ask, is it?

Good morning, Karen!!!! Lulu has me well-trained within the small parameter of things I'm able to do. I think in your situation it would mean, "Toss the paper ball to me NOW - and NOW - and NOW, etc., but I'm not sure. Good luck to both of you.

Congrats to you on your Wordle 4. The Latin teacher had to have help today, and a couple of my guesses were real losers. Nevertheless, my streak continues. In a week or so I'll have a badge for a 60 streak - or not.
Wordle 1,578 5/6*

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CONSCIENCE

Conscience gets a lot of credit that belongs to cold feet.
~ Anon.

Conscience: something that feels terrible when everything else feels swell.
~ Anon.

The Nonconformist Conscience makes cowards of us all.
~ Max Beerbohm

Conscience is the inner voice that warns that someone may be looking.
~ H.L. Mencken

Conscience: the still small voice that makes you feel still smaller.
~ James A. Sanaker

Conscience and cowardice are really the same things. Conscience is the trade name of the firm.
~ Oscar Wilde

>182 LizzieD: Conscience: the still small voice that makes you feel still smaller.
~ James A. Sanaker

So very true. Another day where lifting the fallen drunkard off the floor was beyond me so the nurse and an aide got to do it. Happily the picture he dragged down to the floor wasn't broken, its glass intact but the hanger busted. *sigh*

Such is my life here.

'Morning, Peggy! It's an absolutely gorgeous day here, 38F going to a high of 63F.

Wordle in 4 for me.

I always love the quotes you choose, so thank you.

A very good morning to you both, Karen and Richard. I wish you both a better day than yesterday.

Honestly, Richard. How is muscling the drunkard off the floor ever your responsibility???? Maybe if the staff had to do it every time, somebody would get more serious about more intervention. Or maybe not. Anyway, I wish you had a more peaceful environment. I know plants thrive with some stress, but that's an analogy that really doesn't work. Sorry I mentioned it.

Wordle 1,579 4/6* 4 Sisters, Karen!

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🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 roast, spoil, spoke, spoof Love that used word list!!!!!

THE IDIOT by Elif Batuman

EB wrote this as sort of a tribute to Dostoevsky, I think. Her idiot is Selin, an 18 year-old innocent exploring her first year at Harvard in 1995. Selin is very bright, idiosycratically thoughtful, very tall, ambitious to be a writer who understands language. I'm amazed at her first semester courses. She takes first courses in linguistics and Russian, 19th century novels focused on cities, an upper-level art course called something like Structured Worlds, and one more something that involves seeing lots of avant garde, or at least foreign language movies. That's a LONG way from Western Civ, some kind of math, freshman English, etc. that were among my choices as a freshman in the fall of 1962.

We follow her through the notes and musings of her first year and its following summer. Ordinarily, I'd balk at this, but Selin is a bit strange, and I was always interested to read her take on classes, roommates, volunteer work, love, and the conclusions her observations led her to. A lot of the book is taken up with her relationship with the senior math major whom she loves, who loves her but is not in love with her (or is he?). Their emails and later conversations left me a little baffled, but always intrigued. Interesting book!

LOVE

People in love, it is well known, suffer extreme conceptual delusions; the most common of these being that other people find your condition as thrilling and eye-watering as you do yourselves.
~ Julian Barnes

Love ... the delightful interval between meeting a beautiful girl and discovering that she looks like a haddock.
~ John Barrymore

Love is like the measles - all the worse when it comes late in life.
~ Douglas Jerrold

He gave her a look you could have poured on a waffle.
~ Ring Lardner

Pride - that's a luxury a woman in love can't afford
~ Clare Boothe Luce

Love is based on a view of women that is impossible to those who have had any experience with them.
~ H.L. Mencken

>185 LizzieD: Love is like the measles - all the worse when it comes late in life.
~ Douglas Jerrold

Awomen. I love Rob, but am unable to fathom what I'm supposed to do with someone who's having a psychotic break around Chat being sentient and guiding him to heights of success or whatever it is now...I'm old, I've never interacted with any form of "AI" at All, so I have no language to offer a counternarrative. I'm helpless. I hate being helpless, it's like being in the abusive clutches of my "family" again.

So yeah...a lot like measles, it's bad and if there was a way to prevent it I did not get that treatment so now I gotta go through the disease.

>184 karenmarie: That's the second time on this thread that Karen's temperature forecast didn't sound anything like what we had. WRAL reports the high was 77F and the low 49F. It was certainly warm when I went to the grocery store this afternoon.

Wordle in 4 for me too today.

'Morning, Peggy! Happy Thursday to you.

>187 atozgrl: Hmm. I might have accidentally plugged in one of two other locations I check temps for. I just confirmed that today, for Pittsboro, it's 53F going to a high of 70F.

Off to the doctor's office in 45 minutes - his PA got me an appointment with him for today when she called back yesterday.

Wordle in 4 today - congrats on your yesterday's 4.

Well, I hope that you are home with some help for the throat, (((((Karen)))))!

Good morning, Irene! I'm at 4 again today and happy to be there.

Richard, my WBL, I find Robert's falling captive to AI Chat very disturbing. It must be incredibly seductive. You've always referred to Robert as a highly intelligent and perceptive person. If he can be persuaded, what hope is there for the ordinary bumbler? Or maybe only highly intelligent people are attracted to what it has to offer at that level???? At any rate, all I think you can do is ask questions and listen. Does this goal reflect what he values? Couldn't he have gotten to the same conclusion on his own or with help from the people who love him - like you?
I wish you patience and courage and exercise of your own deep intelligence and perceptions.

Wordle 1,580 4/6*

⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜
⬜⬜⬜🟨🟨
🟨🟨🟩⬜🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, shoat, attic, catty (We're good, we three 4 Sisters! The bot needed 5 today.)

TRUTH

It has always been desirable to tell the truth, but seldom if ever necessary.
~A.J. Balfour

I welcome the opportunity of pricking the bloated bladder of lies with the poniard of truth.
~ Aneurin Bevan, replying to a House of Commons speech by Winston Churchill

I should think it hardly possible to state the opposite of the truth with more precision.
~ Winston Churchill, replying to a House of Commons speech by Aneurin Bevan

I never know how much of what I say is true.
~ Bette Midler

Truth is a rare and precious commodity. We must be sparing in its use.
~ C.P. Scott

I never give them hell. I just tell the truth and they think it's hell.
~ Harry S. Truman

>188 karenmarie: Ah, well that would explain the temperature discrepancy. I hope the doctor can help.

>189 LizzieD: Wordle in TWO for me today! That was unexpected. And it took the bot 5? After my first word, I decided to try something ending in ATTY, and this time I did check the used words list to see which of the several words I came up with was available. I honestly did not expect it to be The Word today, but it was.

>189 LizzieD: I never give them hell. I just tell the truth and they think it's hell.
~ Harry S. Truman

What to do about it, well...truthtelling did not work, Chat told him I was the one having a psychotic break, not him. That being what he wanted to hear, That Was Gospel.

It's an old conundrum. We do not control the narratives others fit around us, so how to get one's point across is never easy. It never gets easier that I can tell. I walk away from most such narrative dissonances because fighting is not worth my limited energy. I can't seem to do that this time. Which, I suppose, is telling in and of itself.

I'm sorry, Richard. I suspect that this time the question for you is how much energy you have to continue to water seeds of truth that may or may not germinate anytime soon.

TWO, Irene!?!?!?! You are smart!!!! It's always hard for me to double a letter on the second try.

>192 LizzieD: I think it was more luck than smarts this time. I have often had difficulty using a letter more than once, which has done me in in the past. But today, that was the pattern that occurred to me first, and I was just hoping to find or eliminate some letters. Maybe it was my turn to channel the Wordle gods today.

Hi Peggy! Happy Friday to you.

>189 LizzieD: Peace of mind, perhaps? No other help since he doesn’t consider it bacterial.

Congrats on your 4 yesterday. Today I have an all-green 5 result.

I especially love the Harry S. Truman quote, but appreciate them all. Thank you.

>190 atozgrl: Congrats, Irene.

Good morning, Good Karen and Good Irene! Today I am the smart one! It's so rare that I use the more helpful first word, but today it happened, and with the help of the used list, Bob's my uncle.
Wordle 1,581 2/6*

🟨🟨⬜🟩⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 roast, gross

I have The Impossible Fortune in my hot little hands, thanks to my generous, lending friend. I'm happy to report that Elizabeth and Gang are all in place and taking care of business, which is concerned with Bitcoins!

TECHNOLOGY (These are the only entries in the book, all from the 60s or 70s.)

Sattinger's Law: It works better if you plug it in.
~ Arthur Bloch

Technology has brought meaning to the lives of many technicians.
~ Ed Bluestone

Modern technology
owes ecology
an apology.
~ Alan M. Eddison

Our toaster works on either AC or DC, but not on bread. It has two settings - too soon or too late.
~ Sam Levenson

>192 LizzieD: It could be I'm sick. It could be I'm done. All I'm sure of is I'm really sleepy. Off to nap more.

‘Morning, Peggy! Happy Saturday to you.

>195 LizzieD: Congratulations on the two!!

Wordle in 3 for me, Arsenal plays in an hour.

Good afternoon, Karen and Richard. Cheers to you both!!!

Richard, I hope that you are finally beginning to feel better. It's about time! *smooch*

Karen, enjoy your day. Hope Arsenal plays their best!!!! As you see, we continue to be 3 Sisters!

Wordle 1,582 3/6*

⬜🟨🟨⬜🟩
⬜🟩⬜🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, paten, haven Lucky today!!!

BASEBALL

Getting a ball past his bat is like trying to sneak the sun past a rooster.
~ Anonymous pitcher on Hank Aaron

If people don't want to come out to the ball park, nobody's going to stop them.
~ Yogi Berra

The tradition of professional baseball always has been agreeably free of chivalry. The rule is, 'Do anything you can get away with."
~ Heywood Broun

Say this for big league baseball - it is beyond any question the greatest conversation piece ever invented in America.
~ Bruce Catton

Baseball is very big with my people. It figures. It's the only time we can get to shake a bat at a white man without starting a riot.
~ Dick Gregory

The more we lose, the more he'll fly in. And the more he flies in, the better the chance there'll be a plane crash.
~ Craig Nettles on George Steinbrenner

The secret of managing is to keep the guys who hate you away from the guys who are undecided.
~ Casey Stengel

Baseball is almost the only orderly thing in a very unorderly would. If you get three strikes, even the best lawyer in the world can't get you off.
~ Bill Veech

‘Morning, Peggy. Happy Sunday to you, your DH, and your kitties.

Congrats on your three yesterday. Three for me today.

I love the baseball quotes, especially the one by Craig Nettles.

Reading, puttering, and spending perhaps an hour keeping/tossing/donating things from either the Parlour or Jenna’s Closet. Placing and picking up a grocery store order, too.

I hope that means you're feeling better, Karen! I'm off to walk, but I wanted to report my Wordle before I forget to.....

Wordle 1,583 3/6*

⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜
🟨⬜🟨🟨🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 roast, anile, ideal Such a helpful word, my #2!

'Morning, Peggy, and happy Monday to you!

Congrats on another three for you yesterday. It took me five today, but some of that was alphabet soup.

I've bailed on the Friends Board meeting this morning. Trevor's going to get all the supplies/paint and will start painting the front porch today.

Reading, puttering, and etc.

Hooray AGAIN for Trevor and for your sticking around home! Hope you're feeling well enough to enjoy your day.

I see Brownie early this afternoon, and then I'll grocery shop and likely get an Cookout burger and onion rings since I haven't done that in a couple of months. It will also be the first time since I turned 81 - needs doing!

I got help on Wordle today after trying longer than I needed to.
Wordle 1,584 3/6*

🟩⬜⬜⬜⬜
🟩🟨⬜⬜⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, lofty, limbo I think I'd rather have 5 without help though.

PHILOSOPHY

What if everything is an illusion and nothing exists? In that case, I definitely overpaid for my carpet.
~ Woody Allen

I vastly prefer Sartre's plays to his philosophy. Existentialism works much better in the theatre than in theory.
~ A.J. Ayer

Philosophy is common sense in a dress suit.
~ Oliver S. Braston

My husband, T.S. Eliot, loved to recount how late one evening he stopped a taxi. As he got in, the driver said: "You're T.S. Eliot." When asked how he knew, he replied: "Ah, I've got an eye for a celebrity. Only the other evening I picked up Bertrand Russell, and I said to him: 'Well, Lord Russell, what's it all about,' and, do you know, he couldn't tell me."
~ Valerie Eliot

Most philosophical treatises show the human cerebrum loaded far beyond its Plimsoll Mark.
~ H.L. Mencken

There is no record in human history of a happy philosopher.
~ H.L. Mencken

The point of philosophy is to start with something so simple as to seem not worth stating, and to end with something so paradoxical that no one will believe it.
~ Bertrand Russell

Philosophers are as jealous as women; each wants a monopoly of praise.
~ George Santayana

... if rationality were the criterion for things being allowed to exist, the world would be one gigantic field of soya beans!
~ Tom Stoppard

Philosophy teaches us to bear with the equanimity the misfortunes of others.
~ Oscar Wilde (Attrib.)

(Like Lord Peter Wimsy, I find philosophy a closed book. I am, however, running out of topics that I haven't copied from. For the record, Mencken and Wilde speak to me!)

‘Morning, Peggy! Happy Tuesday to you.

>202 LizzieD: I stayed home, continued to (try to) get better. I still have a sore throat this morning, but at this point I think it’s actually turning into a cold, with some congestion. Blech.

I hope your visit with Brownie went well yesterday. Congrats on your three. I got in three today.

*sob* Cookout burger and OR. I hope you were successful in your mission and reveled in the Cookout joy.

Book sort and Virlie’s today, then Arsenal in the afternoon.

GOOD for you, Karen! I'm glad that you're getting to do your normal Tuesday, and I hope that Arsenal ices the cake this afternoon!

Brownie and I agree that I am very well, thank you. The cheddar style burger (cheese, bacon, and grilled onions) and red hot ORs were all wonderful. I was stuffed, but happy.

Wordle 1,585 3/6*

⬜🟨⬜⬜🟨
🟨🟩⬜🟩⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 roast, tenon, detox I had only one solution left after the second guess, but I couldn't see it until I cheated. Oh well. I like being 3 Sisters with Karen. Irene? Nathalie?

GOSSIP

Girl: Of course I wouldn't say anything about her unless I could say something good. And, oh boy, is this good ...
~ Bill King, cartoon

If You Can't Say Anything Good About Someone, Sit Right Here By Me.
~ Alice Roosevelt, Longworth, allegedly embroidered on a cushion in her sitting room

She always tells stories in the present vindictive.
~ Tom Peace

The things most people want to know about are usually none of their business.
~ George Bernard Shaw

I don't at all like knowing what people say of me behind my back. It makes one far too conceited.
~ Oscar Wilde

It is perfectly monstrous the way people go about, nowadays, saying things against one behind one's back that are absolutely and entirely true.
~ Oscar Wilde

There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.
~ Oscar Wilde

Gossip is when you hear something you like about someone you don't.
~ Earl Wilson

Yep, I join you as Wordle in 3 sisters today.

Those gossip quotes are good, especially the Alice Roosevelt Longworth one.

'Morning, Peggy. Happy Wednesday. It's gorgeous here. Cold, but gorgeous.

Congrats on your Wordle in 3. I got in 3 again today.

I indulged in Onion Rings from Virlie's as takeout and heated them up for dinner.

>205 atozgrl: Yay for Three Sisters, Irene!

Good morning, Karen and Irene!!! We're 2/3; of the way to 3 Sisters again! Double Yay! (Make it a triple Yay!)

Oh, those onion rings!!!!!!!

I'm off to get ready for Aunt Betty's graveside service in just a few minutes. Gayle has promised a very short service, and then we'll go somewhere together for lunch. I'm just finishing my 2nd coffee, so I expect I won't lunch.

Wordle 1,586 3/6*

⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨
🟩🟩⬜🟩⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, stink, stunt

'Morning, Peggy!

I hope things were brief at the graveside and pleasant for lunch.

Congrats on your three. It took me four today. All greens, though, always satisfying.

Possibly off to lunch with Rita at Virlie's unless she has to cancel at the last minute. Other than that, reading, puttering, and etc.

Good morning, Karen!!!

The graveside was not brief although the Louisiana sister said they had asked him to be, and she thought he did the best he could. Cousin-in-law and I disagreed. The lunch was pleasant though. Hope you and Rita can finally enjoy your lunch together.

I'm off right now for the mammogram, so it will be later or not today before I look in my quotations book.

Congrats on your greens and your four. If I had given myself 30 more seconds (or less), I would have gotten it in two. I knew my word had been used, but was impatient. I'm not complaining though!
Wordle 1,587 3/6*

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🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, droll, drill

KNOCK, KNOCK (A gripping psychological thriller with unsettling secrets and twists you won’t see coming.) by Samara Cove

I should have known better. This was a freebie that I put on my Kindle for a quick Halloween read, thinking it was a haunted house story. It was way over-priced.

It didn't start too badly although it was wordy like a Harlequin. I kept reading because the main characters and first person narrators, a married couple with two children, weren't the sterling characters I was expecting. There was a house where bad things happened, all right, but a touch of supernatural would have been a lot more believable than what did go on.
I'll just say that I've never read a first-person narrative where the narrator dies, followed by "....and then there was blackness."
Nor am I impressed when the wife wipes an "accidental tear" from her cheek.

Nobody but me was ever going to give this one a shot, so I can't even say I took one for the group. Part of the title is actually A gripping psychological thriller (It wasn't) with unsettling secrets and twists you won’t see coming (I did). There are two more on offer. (I won't)

(((((Peggy))))) Happy Friday.

I’m glad you got to have lunch out even though it was for a sad reason. Rita and I had a fine time. Ran a few errands, then came home.

Your 3 yesterday matches my 3 for today.

Trevor’s going to paint the porch today. I’m going to read and putter.

Congrats on your 3 today, Karen. I was relieved to get 5! Glad you and Rita had a fine time catching up!

Wordle 1,588 5/6*

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🟩⬜🟨🟨⬜
🟩🟩⬜🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 roast, tripe, therm, tuner, tuber

QUESTIONS AND ANSWerS

Of what question is the following the answer: 'Coal Mine'?
The question: What should you say when asked to identify your lump of coal?
~ Anon. (--- and for good reason)

Of what question is the following the answer: '9W'?
The question: Tell me, is that Richard Wagner with a 'V'?
~ Anon.

Of what question is the following the answer: 'Washington Irving'?
The question: Who was the first President of the United states, Max?
~ Anon.

(All of them are just awful._

PURITANISM
A puritan's a person who pours righteous indignation into the wrong things.
~ G.K. Chesterton, (Attrib.)

We have long passed the Victorian era, when asterisks were followed after a certain interval by a baby.
~ W. somerset Maugham

Puritanism: the haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.
~ H. L. Mencken

>212 LizzieD: Puritanism: the haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.
~ H. L. Mencken

One of his deathless ones. *baa*

>212 LizzieD: I feel I must confess to chuckling after all of the Questions and Answers”!

Thanks, once again, for posting these quotations. They are a real treat!

Have a terrific weekend!

Karen O

>212 LizzieD: I've heard the Washington Irving one before. It took me a bit to get the 9W one.

‘Morning, Peggy! Happy Saturday to you.

>212 LizzieD: You must have a pretty long Wordle streak going. Glad you got yesterday’s. 5 works.

I guess my brain is broken – I did not get 9W or the Washington Irving one. ☹

However, I got Wordle in 2 today.

All quiet on the central NC front. No Trevor, no Arsenal. I’ve got puttering and reading, and a quick trip to the grocery store on tap.

OOOOOoooo, Karen! A Wordle in 2!!!!! ---- and I thought this was a hard word. I remain proud of my 4, which could have been 3 if my spelling had been better!!!!! My streak is just 62 since they lost me one day, and I had to start over.
As to your brain, try German and Jewish (I'm almost too PC for that one) if you still don't have them.

Glad you liked them all, Karen! Glad your German kicked in, Irene. Happy to quote Mencken for you (and me), my WBL. Hope your visit means that you're feeling a lot better! *smooch*

Wordle 1,589 4/6*

⬜🟨🟨⬜⬜
⬜⬜🟨⬜🟩
⬜🟩🟩⬜🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, stave (sort of stupid guess), daube, gauge

LANGUAGE

Everybody has a right to pronounce foreign names as he choose.
~ Winston Churchill (Attrib.)

(My apologies to Texas. Se NC doesn't share all of these, I'm surprised to say!) (My NYC poor kids said, "Miss PeggEE, you talk funny. Are you from Texas???")
Watt is the lightest of colors 'Yew look watt as a sheet.'
Pour is having little or no means of support: 'Them folks is downriot pour.'
Ward is a unit of language: 'Pardon me, could ah have a ward with yawl?'
Owe is an overwhelming feeling of reverence: There's one thang I stand in owe of.'
And Thank: Ah hope yawl enjoyed raidin' this book. But just thank of what yew must sound lack to a Texan.'
~ Jim Everhard, The Illustrated Texas Dictionary

(O.K. I say 'pour' and 'yew' and 'yawl' - but only as a plural - and hear 'thang' but not 'thank.')

The word 'meaningful' when used today is nearly always meaningless.
~ Paul Johnson

Listen, someone's screaming in agony - fortunately I speak it fluently.
~ Spike Milligan

THE IMPOSSIBLE FORTUNE by Richard Osman

HOORAY! The Thursday Murder Club is back! Elizabeth is intrigued by a bomb planted under the car of Joyce's new son-in-law's best man. The gang, with help from Bogdan and Donna, a bit from Chris and a lot from Connie, are on the trail of 350 million pounds in BitCoins.

I think Osman portrays Elizabeth sensitively; she is never going to be the same Elizabeth. However, she appreciates Joyce more, and so do we. We also gain some insights into Joanna with her new husband. Ron's grandson Kendrick is a joy, as is Tia, a protege of Connie.

This is not really a stand-alone although I guess it could be. These comments are certainly for the established fans.

>216 karenmarie: For hints, try reading the Washington Irving question first, then insert a comma between Washington and Irving for the answer. 9W is solved by basically doing the same thing, but as Peggy says, you have to know your German.

I grew up in the midwest, and "pour" and "poor" have always been pronounced exactly the same way, so I don't really get the quote. They're homophones to me.

Wordle in 4 for me today.

>217 LizzieD: Owe is an overwhelming feeling of reverence: There's one thang I stand in owe of.'

Oh myyyy, as Takei would say. It's just not my idea of beauteous sounds.... xo

‘Morning, Peggy! Happy Sunday.

>217 LizzieD: Thanks re the 2. Took me 4 today. Five keeps the streak going, so yay.

Re accents – Bill’s mother was a curiosity in NYC in the 1950s because of her accent.

Love the quotes.

Good Sunday afternoon, Karen, Richard, and Irene!!!!! I hope that you are all well and finding a way to stay in if your day is as blustery and cool as ours. I was not quite prepared for the temperature drop, and I've been having coffee again to warm up before we walk.
I love authentic accents. I despise current faddish distortions. (I'll tell you something else I despise, marking me yet again as an outlier. TV announcers and commentators have started to gasp - mouth open, audible intake of air - when they have more than two sentences to say at a time. I've always disliked the sound, but I hear more and more doing it. I hope that it will go the way of the affected stutter, but it may turn into "like" and "as well" and "In-ter-REST-ed," that is to say ubiquitous. I am old, old, old.)

Wordle 1,590 4/6*

⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜
🟩🟩🟩⬜⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 roast, liege (which apparently eliminated a lot of words although it felt dumb at the time), pluck, plump Four is Fine. Hi, Sis!

COMMUNICATION

Helen: What were you lecturing on in India?
Patterson: Harold Pinter and the failure of communication.
Helen: How did it go
Patterson: I don't know. They didn't seem to understand a word I said.
~ Malcolm Bradbury and Christopher Bigsby

COMPETITIONS
Bloke at work, went in for a competition and won a trip to China. That's right, to China. Fantastic. He's out there now trying to win a trip back!
~ Jerry Dennis

COMPLIMENTS
Fan: You were superb in Romeo and Juliet.
Actor: I'll bet you say that to everyone who's superb.
~ Anon.

CONFORMITY
Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative.
~ Oscar Wilde (Attrib.)

CONFERENCES
A conference is a gathering of important people who singly can do nothing, but together can decide that nothing can be done.
~ Fred Allen

(And 2 offerings on the next)
CONCILLIATION
The one sure way to conciliate a tiger is to allow oneself to be devoured.
~ Konrad Adenauer

An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile hoping it will eat him last.
~ Winston Churchill

>222 LizzieD: An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile hoping it will eat him last.
~ Winston Churchill

Awomen; it never works, either.

Curmudge away, Peggy me lurve, we're All as young as we'll ever be again right this second, so have seen a lot of nonsense take root and choke out valuable things.

You speak truth, my WBL.

>218 LizzieD: I am glad to see that you enjoyed the book, Peggy!

I hope you have a marvelous Monday!

‘Morning, Peggy! Happy Monday to you.

Excellent quotes. I especially love “Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative.” I’ve always reserved the right to be inconsistent and have always been vocal about it.

Congrats on Wordle in 4 yesterday. I got today's in 3.

Trevor isn’t coming over, so no excuse not to work on various and sundry.

Good morning, dear Karen and Stasia!!!!! I'm on my way to get ready for our graveside service for my DH's cousin. We met this couple late (he was not a first cousin), but enjoyed them a lot.

CONGRATS on your 3, Karen. I had to use help to get to 4.

Wordle 1,591 4/6*

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🟨🟨🟨⬜🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 roast, thine, edict, fetid

'Morning, Peggy. Have a wonderful day.

Yay for continuing your Wordle streak. 5s are always better than 6s, too. I got it in 4 today.

I have book sort and Virlie's and my cleaning ladies today. Every other Tuesday is busier because of the ladies.

Horray for getting everything done though, Karen! Especially with the prospect of finding something wonderful at book sort and eating something wonderful at Virlie's - all in the company of some wonderful people, and having a wonderfully clean house in the end! Blessings on the ladies!!! And you!!!!!
We're 4 Sisters today. I had my choice and chose wrong at guess 3 ---- I didn't think it was time for that word yet. Silly me.
Wordle 1,592 4/6*

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🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, silty, golly, holly

In spite of what I'm supposed to be reading, I'm making my way through A Second Chance, thanks to Stasia's reminding me of how long it's been since I visited St. Mary's. I've just seen Hector and Achilles killed, so I'm about half through. I should finish up my month on track to have read the 75 by the end of December. That is very important!!

AMBITION

I want to be what I was when I wanted to be what I am now.
~ Grafito, London, 1980

The vulgar man is always the most distinguished, for the very desire to be distinguished is vulgar.
~ G.K. Chesterton

People Who Do Things exceed my endurance;
God, for a man that solicits insurance!
Dorothy Parker

Ambition is the last refuge of the failure.
~ Oscar Wilde

‘Morning, Peggy! Happy Wednesday to you.

Book sort was good, and I found two somethings at book sort:

Korean Cultural Potpourri by Jeon Kyu-tae, a gorgeous softcover published in 1987 in Seoul. Fellow book sort team member Dav handed it to me, knowing I had a Korean daughter-in-law, and I have decided to keep it.

The American Civil War, a Great Courses CD set. Professor Gary W. Gallagher, 24 CDs, 24 hours total! I have to pay $20 for it, but I think that after I finish The Hallmarked Man, 6 hours to go, I’ll start it.

Lunch with 8 of us was so much fun. I got a chicken salad plate and unsweet tea with lemon. I came home to a clean house, and Esmerelda will pick up her money some time today since I got home after they left. They came early, and now that there are 3 of them, they finish more quickly.

Congrats on your 4 again yesterday. I was lucky today and got it in 2 today.

I love the description of A Second Chance: The third book in the bestselling Chronicles of St Mary's series which follows a group of tea-soaked disaster magnets as they hurtle their way around History.

I’m glad you’re going to be able to get to 75 by year end. Yes, it is important.

Ambition is important. I’m not sure I ever exactly had a work goal. By the time I could think about it, as a sophomore at Pepperdine, I was working in the School of Business and Management’s Computer Center and computers were it for me. All I wanted to do was something I loved, and that checked the box. Personally, all wanted was a child. Not even a husband necessarily, but definitely a child. Got that one, too.

Trevor will be here today. I hope that after he finishes touch up on the porch, he'll bring the furniture back and I can take pics that match the ones I took before he started working on it.

Good morning, Karen!!! Yesterday sounds like a very good one for you with 2 great finds, a fun lunch, and a clean house! Hope today is equally good - variety is a fine thing. I'm looking forward to the pics and hope you can get them. Go, Trevor, Go!

I'm not sure what you'd make of St Mary's. It is a lot of fun, but I can read only one at a time. At least I remember enough of the first 2 to have no trouble with this one although I'm missing details. I won't reread them anytime soon though.

Ambition --- I was ambitious to do my best on the next thing, whatever it was, and I did manage to set myself up for the next thing. That's about all I can claim. We are both among the happy to have done what we loved. I did love teaching when that is what I was doing. I was not crazy about baby-sitting 5 year-olds in 16 or 17 year-old bodies though.

CONGRATULATIONS on YOUR TWO yet again!!!!!
I am quite pleased with my 3 and being able to use both of my alternating first words along with the used list.

Wordle 1,593 3/6*

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🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 roast, learn, glare

HOWARD'S END IS ON THE LANDING by Susan Hill

I didn't remember reading this 12 or so years ago until I saw references to books that I bought because of her praise, some of which I've read and some, not. I think I enjoyed it more this time because I have read more of the authors, if not the same books, that she discusses. Hill has led a privileged life and has made the most of it, I think. I'd love to talk to her and set her straight on a few things where we disagree, but I couldn't hold my own in conversation for even 30 seconds. She is tremendously well-read, and this book is a personal reflection on her year of (re)reading only the books in her own library.
Other reviewers have objected to her name-dropping of literary figures she has met. I don't mind that. I'm charmed that E.M. Forster once dropped a heavy book on her foot in the Elizabethan Poetry section of the London Library. I'm impressed that she lived for a time a "pebble's throw" from the Sitwell house.
I don't ever love lists (except of books, so I'd enjoy her listing of the 1,000 publications of the Everyman's Press). For that reason this memory of talking with Sacheverell Sitwell leaves me cold --- "...the wind roaring round the chimney pots, having croup and bronchitis, smelling camphorated oil, walking along the beach with eyes down in case there was a golden coin among the pebbles." Or speaking of activities in children's books in which the characters have, "...nicer houses, more fun parents, greater freedom to gallop about the countryside on horses, take out boats and bikes, and go hiking and mountain climbing." (This particular set of listings goes on for a half page.) I kind of find it lazy writing.
That's a quibble though. I suspect that I will come back to this book in another ten years if I'm given them with mind and eyes intact. Meanwhile, I've added The Way We Live Now and Journal of Sir Walter Scott to my library with thanks to Ms. Hill.

>231 LizzieD: Ambition is the last refuge of the failure.
~ Oscar Wilde

Oh, Miss Oscar! Such a waspish old queen.

I wasn't as entertained as you by the Susan Hill book. Apart from:

Books help to form us. If you cut me open, you will find volume after volume, page after page, the contents of every one I have ever read, somehow transmuted and transformed into me. Alice in Wonderland. the Magic Faraway Tree. The Hound of the Baskervilles. The Book of Job. Bleak House. Wuthering Heights. The Complete Poems of W H Auden. The Tale of Mr Tod. Howard''s End. What a strange person I must be. But if the books I have read have helped to form me, then probably nobody else who ever lived has read exactly the same books, all the same books and only the same books as me. So just as my genes and the soul within me make me uniquely me, so I am the unique sum of the books I have read. I am my literary DNA.

...which really does explain us readers perfectly, everything else I read made me feel like I was being jollied along, told just enough, and when my back was turned she'd unleash a torrent of the good stuff. English reticence, maybe.

Wednesday well, me lurve.

‘Morning, Peggy! We have gorgeous skies with slowly-moving white puffy clouds. 54F, going to a high of 64F, a wonderful early fall day.

I have the first 4 of the St. Mary’s series, and have read 3 of them. I don’t know why I haven’t read the fourth yet. As I recall, I liked them, but I may have read them one after the other and burned out. I got the fourth one 3 years after the first three, too.

Trevor might change his mind and finish the porch today since it’s dry and the skies are mostly clear.

My goodness. I’ve had Howard’s End on the Landing since 2013, still tbr. It may have lots of objectionable lists, but any book that describes book lover’s DNA needs to be read. I can see it from where I’m sitting, although I need to get the step ladder out to get to it. *smile*

Congrats on your Wordle in 3. I got it in 3 today.

Good morning, Karen and Richard! SUN!!!!! We will be able to walk today, and I will make cabbage soup for myself. I can't persuade my DH even to taste it although he enjoys every single one of its ingredients by itself. No further comment.

I'm still confounded as to how I remembered nothing at all about St Mary's 3. (I didn't if I haven't said so here. I apparently read it in '14.) Surely I would have remembered Troy and the complications of the ending if nothing else. I haven't found any comments on it either, but I have it checked as read and listed as read. Oh dear. Oh dear.
I hope that Trevor gets to the porch today, Karen. I think you'll enjoy *HEiotL*.

Richard, this is funny. I see that we both rated *HEiotL* as a 3½ star book, but I seem to have liked it more than you. I do think that I'm closer to her target audience than you. You are better read than I am.

Seesaw, Karen! Congrats on your 3, but look at me! I typed in my old first word by mistake, and it did the trick with the used list and some luck.
Wordle 1,594 2/6*

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🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 least, lathe

I have just gotten *The Pallisers* on DVD. I loved the series, which led me to read the books, which I also loved. I meant to start watching last night, but I got caught up in looking for proof that I had read St Mary's 3. Tonight!!! I'll also hope to watch tomorrow after my eyes have settled some but aren't good enough to read....shots.

A SECOND CHANCE by Jodi Taylor

Apparently, it's been 11 years since I read this one, but it felt completely new. I felt not one glimmer of recognition, and I didn't think I was that far gone. I thoroughly enjoyed it though. I thought her surmises as to how the Trojan War actually ended were logical if not the stuff of epic poetry and legend. Further research is indicated to see whether this is Ms. Taylor's own creative imagination or an active hypothesis among academics.
As with most time travel stories, I end up confused by how Time works without anomalies. I'm concluding that each world in a complex of universes has its own time scheme, but that's not quite satisfying since "worlds" aren't given the same level of explanation that "time" is. When Mrs Partridge is on the scene, I perk right up. I'm now wondering with Max whether historians aren't sent to other times to make small but crucial interventions.
I'm tempted to plow right into 4 to see what happens with Max and Leon, but my tolerance for these doesn't allow consumption of two in a row. It won't be eleven years before I get to it though.
Fun Stuff!

IDEALISM
An idealist is one who, on noticing that a rose smells better than a cabbage, concludes that it will also make better soup.
~ H. L. Mencken

IDEAS
An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all.
~ Oscar Wilde

IGNORANCE
What he doesn't know would make a library anybody would be proud of.
~ Anon.

INFERIORITY
No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.
~ Eleanor Roosevelt

(I think these are all great 1-quotation topics!)

>234 LizzieD: An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all.
~ Oscar Wilde
When you're right, you're right.

Better read? I'm not sure about that...I've read more widely than most, though. It was intentional.

>234 LizzieD: IGNORANCE. Sounds like you know who.

Wordle in 2 for me, two days in a row. My starting word worked great for both. And I've been waiting for today's word to show up.

‘Morning, my dear! It’s a gorgeous day here – blue skies, 50F, going to a high of 64F.

Congrats on your two!! Way to go.

Well. Vivid image of Rose Soup. All the quotes are perfect.

Trevor will be here soon, and I have a chiropractic appointment at 11:15. Reading and puttering, too, of course.

I hope your eye shots go as well as they can and that you can recover quietly this afternoon. (((((Peggy)))))

Thank you, (((((Karen))))), with return hopes for a healing, relaxing, energizing time with the chiropractor.

WOO HOOOO, IRENE!! TWOs TWO days in a row! That's phenomenal!!! I'm pleased with myself today. And yes, I'm pretty sure that we all see I know who in that quote about ignorance!!!

Oh, Richard, of course, you're better and more widely read! Anyway, I was happy that those single examples included some of our favorite speakers of truth! *smooch*

Wordle 1,595 3/6*

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🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 roast, labor, abhor

'Morning, Peggy! Gorgeous day, isn't it? I hope you are doing well after your eye shots.

Congrats on your Wordle 3. I got it in 2 today. First word serendipity.

>236 atozgrl: Yay for Wordle in 2, two days in a row, Irene.

The chiropractor visit went welll. The day turned out to be a good one.

...
Arsenal play today. Reading and puttering, spreadsheets and Lightning Round to work on.

>238 LizzieD: Hoping your shots yesterday were successful and not stressful. I'm recovering from the surprise of October's productivity...fifty reviews written in spite of pneumonia whacking me in the knees for weeks. Next up is the #Booksgiving festivity after Thanksgiving. Plenty of time....

*smooch*

Happy day! Not only is it beautiful again, but I have visitors!!

The shots were easy enough, and recovery was easier too, my WBL. I maybe didn't regain clarity of sight as quickly as usual, but I had much less drainage and scratchiness. Win! Win! I did congratulate you on your 50 in spite ofs on your thread last night. Enjoy a more leisurely time of happy reading! *smooch*

Yay for your good chiropractor and good day, (((((Karen)))))! Very big congrats for your Wordle in 2 today. I did what was my best.
Wordle 1,596 4/6*

🟨🟨⬜⬜⬜
⬜🟨🟨🟨🟨
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🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, stole, towel, motel Using used words can be helpful when the mind refuses to cooperate!

I am being sucked into the 1970s *Pallisers* BBC series again. They sent me straight to the books, but I doubt that I'll do that this time. Loved it then; loving it now.
I'm also expecting the BBC To Serve Them All My Days on DVD, which has been comfort reading (3 times? 4?) for me through the years, but which I also enjoyed as adapted for Masterpiece Theater. Now I must stop buying stuff and enjoy what I have!

MONEY

Money isn't everything: usually it isn't even enough.
~ Anon.

Money is better than poverty, if only for financial reasons.
~ Woody Allen

All right, so I like spending money! But name one other extravagance!
~ Max Kauffmann

Money is like a sixth sense without which you cannot make a complete use of the other five.
~ W. Somerset Maugham

Money can't buy friends but you can get a better class of enemy.
~ Spike Milligan

The great rule is not to talk about money with people who have much more or much less than you.
~ Katherine Whitehorn

I don't want money. It is only people who pay their bills who want that, and I never pay mine.
~ Oscar Wilde

What's the big deal about money anyway?
~ former student, just turned sixteen and driving the new BMW her daddy had given her for her birthday, for which he paid more than I made teaching that year.

>239 karenmarie: Thanks, Karen. Yesterday was Wordle in 4, but I got back to Wordle in 2 today, without any help. That's a run I probably won't be able to equal for a while.

>241 LizzieD: Hurray for an easier recovery from the eye shots! Somehow I missed the Pallisers back in the 70's. I wonder if I can find that somewhere.

Hi, Irene. Congrats on 2 AGAIN!!!!!

I bought a used DVD set (8 discs) of Acorn's 40th anniversary edition in very good condition (perfect as far as I can tell). It was less than $20, and Amazon Marketplace still has them. Prime Video is the only streaming service we get, and they didn't have it. Like my other DVDs, this set called to me to get it while it was still available. The quality is good. The screenplay, costumes, etc. are obviously of their time. I like that though. It was my time. I appreciate having more dialogue, for example, than current series and movies seem to offer, not that I've seen anything new since before the pandemic. (I'm thinking of the new *Poldark* where there are lots of shots of a horse riding across the distant horizon but not much talking. Aidan Turner is a better Ross than Robin Ellis was, I think, but the rest of the old series was almost perfectly cast - no matter that W. Graham didn't like Angharad Rees as Demelza. I thought she was perfect.)

More than you wanted to know!!!

>243 LizzieD: Thanks, I'll have to check that out. I can't compare Poldark because I missed the original. It was on when I was overseas, either the summer in Europe or the year in Japan. I saw the recent series though.

‘Morning, Peggy! It’s absolutely gorgeous here, hope that 'down south' is the same.

>241 LizzieD: Congrats on your 4. I’ve also used already-used words before to get a jump-start on where to go next.

Now I must stop buying stuff and enjoy what I have! Seriously? No. Just… no.

I especially love the Katherine Whitehorn quote.

>243 LizzieD: Interesting about newer series having less dialog than older series.

Wordle in 3 for me today.

>243 LizzieD: Enjoy your revisit of Poldark, Peggy! *smooch*

Hi, Irene! I have the original Poldark on VHS but haven't watched in a long time. If I hadn't spent so much already, I'd think about replacing them with DVDs. I see that Prime offers only the first 2 seasons to rent or buy. That's not nearly enough! Rees's Demelza is much earthier than the current pretty girl, I think, and Elizabeth prettier and more delicate, while Judd and Prudie are great. My one caveat is that it didn't follow the book in one important episode, but I could forgive this for the depth and perfect casting.

Hi, Karen! That's what I think. I wonder whether anybody else does. When I saw *Gladiator*, I was amazed at how little dialogue there was - first time I had seen a movie in a few years. I don't think I've seen a new one since. Oh well.

Good day, Richard! It's the Pallisers that I'm watching now, but I think my next DVD purchase has to be the old Poldark. *smooch*

Wordle 1,597 4/6*

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🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 roast, rally, raven, rabid

>247 LizzieD: I was totally enamored of the 1970s Poldark series - at especially the early seasons. I'll admit Aidan Turner is a handsomer leading man, but not quite enough of a draw to get me into the whole soap opera again, especially with the different sensibility over the whole Elizabeth tragedy.

>247 LizzieD: Hi Peggy! My daughter Kate recently started collecting favorite movies and TV shows on DVD not so much because of the cost of streaming but because content -- especially older programs -- can suddenly disappear due to access rights. She finds most of her DVDs in thrift shops so for her, "the hunt" is part of the fun, like shopping for used books.

Have a great day my friend!

>247 LizzieD: Pallisers, Poldark, I'm not that clear on the difference...I was never much of a TV watcher until the streaming age. A few have made it into my obsessive zone over the years by neither of those. Poldark's Aidan thingummy is a tasty morsel, so of course that caught my...eye...

Monday orisons, dear lady.

'Morning, Peggy! Happy Monday to you.

Wordle in 4 for me today. It's mostly overcast, although I can see sunlight on some of the trees along the back fence line.

Trevor won't be here 'til Wednesday. If it's not raining, I'm going to get him to bring the furniture back to the porch so I can take some After pictures.

Yay! Visitors, and I thank you all!!!!

We woke up to sun, Karen, but the clouds are moving back in after some rain last night. Yesterday was a LONG day. I'll say it again. I sort of liked it.
We're back on our little Wordle see-saw at least for the day. Happy for you! Happy for me!

Ah, Richard. The two are adaptations of book series. The Pallisers are Trollope's political novels. Poldark is (as Susan says) historical soap opera by Winston Graham. I reread Poldark, but I've read the Pallisers only once. *smooch*

Ah, Laura. Your Kate is a woman after my own heart. I buy only used DVDs, but I don't get the joy of the hunt around here, being dependent on Amazon Marketplace as I am. I've paid what I consider exorbitant prices for some not-so-great-for-box office movies that I love for Kate's reason. The ones that spring to mind are *Don't Tell Her It's Me* (or *The Boyfriend School*) and *The Truth About Cats and Dogs*. The same is true for Masterpiece Theater series like *I, Claudius*, *The Jewel in the Crown*. and the Megan Fellows *Anne of Green Gables*. I've lucked into *Dance to the Music of Time* (done about as well as it's possible to do on 4 discs) and J.G. Farrell's *Troubles*. I lust after some others, but I really have quite a good, very personal collection at this point. Besides, *To Serve Them All My Days* is scheduled to arrive in the mail today.

Susan, this particular soap opera never goes out of season for me. This is by way of confession..... I am repulsed by Robin Ellis's mouth. He always looks like he has too much spit or too much tongue- yuck!

Wordle 1,598 3/6*

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🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, steam, awoke

WOMEN

My vigor, vitality and cheek repel me. I am the kind of woman I would run away from.
~ Nancy Astor

Behind almost every woman you ever heard of stands a man who let her down.
~ Naomi Bliven

There are three things a woman ought to look - straight as a dart, supple as a snake, and proud as a tiger lily.
~ Elinor Glyn

The word LADY: Most Often Used to Describe Someone You Wouldn't Want to Talk to for Even Five Minutes.
~ Fran Lebowitz

A woman will flirt with anyone in the world as long as other people are looking on.
~ Oscar Wilde

Wordle 1,599 3/6*

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🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 roast, lined, venue For some reason, I've been waiting to use this word.

MEN

Meet the Snoid
Now here's a dude with absolute self-confidence! Never had a self0doubt in his entire life! And no qualms of conscience have ever stood in his way! The result: this ugly little creep has more cute girls chasing after him than a 747 jet-plane can haul! There's no law to prevent the landscape from being littered wiih the women this nasty little fellow has used up and thrown away!
~ Robert Crumb, 1980

American men are all mixed up today... There was a time when this was a nation of Ernest Hemingways. REAL MEN. The kind of men who could defoliate an entire forest to make a breakfast fire - and then wipe out an endangered species while hunting for lunch. But not anymore. We've become a nation of wimps. Pansies. Alan Alda types who cook and clean and 'relate' to their wives. Phil Donahue clones who are 'sensitive' and 'vulnerable' and 'understanding' of their children. And where's it gotten us? I'll tell you where. The Japanese make better cars. The Israelis, better soldiers; and the rest of the world is using our embassies for target practice.
~ Bruce Feirstein, 1982

Men have a much better time of it than women; for one thing they marry later; for another thing they die earlier.
~ H.L. Mencken

‘Morning, Peggy! Alas. I never got over here yesterday, what with book sort, Virlie’s, and Arsenal.

>252 LizzieD: I like the Wordle see-saw. Surprisingly, the women quotes left me strangely unmoved.

>253 LizzieD: Congrats on 3. I have words I’m waiting to use, and am only sorry that feral has already been used.

Love the men quotes.

Wordle in 2 for me today!

>253 LizzieD: Men have a much better time of it than women; for one thing they marry later; for another thing they die earlier.
~ H.L. Mencken

Ironic coming from a man who married late, then lost his wife too soon by his own account.

Glad to see you both today! Richard, I didn't know that about Mencken. In fact, I don't know anything about Mencken, not really.

That's funny, Karen. I liked the women quotes better than the men ones. I also noted the small number of men as opposed to women. (I didn't copy all of either.) I think it has something to do with women still viewing themselves as the Other.

WORDLE IN 2!!!! You are again the woman!!! You and Irene....
I made the wrong choice at guess 3 as usual.

Wordle 1,600 4/6*

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🟩🟨🟩🟩⬜
🟩⬜🟩🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, story, sport, short

I continue my DVD binge. Just found used and acceptable discs on AMP starting at $41. Amazon's new is $119. I really want it before they all disappear, but that's hard to justify. I also want to replace my VHS Poldark with DVD and was having trouble justifying $30 for the whole lot. Hmmm. But I don't have *Brede* in any form except ratty pb, which I still reread. To soothe myself, I just ordered the T. Dalton *Jane Eyre* for a reasonable price to replace the VHS.
Meanwhile, I spend my nights awake watching *All Days* and *Pallisers*. *sigh* Ah, sentiment!

WOMEN - THE MALE VIEW

A man without a woman is like a neck without a pain.
~ Graffito, Los Angeles, 1984

But no woman, so he often thought, had any head for cards; the finesse and subtlety of the game was beyond them, and Miss Howard was wise in refusing to play at all. He wished her refusal to play had extended to the use of the piano.
~ E. F. Benson

Women are like elephants to me; they're nice to look at but I wouldn't want to own one.
~ W. C. Fields

Women have more imagination than men. They need it to tell us how wonderful we are.
~ Arnold H. Glasow

A: Do you believe in clubs for women?
B: Only if every other form of persuasion fails.
~ Max Kauffmann

On one issue at least, men and women agree; they both distrust women.
~ H. L. Mencken

When women kiss, it always reminds one of prize fighters shaking hands.
~ H. L. Mencken

>256 LizzieD: When women kiss, it always reminds one of prize fighters shaking hands.
~ H. L. Mencken

...unless they're lesbians, I finally concur with his misogyny. How very ready women are to grab each other by the ankles and yank. I'm still stunned more women didn't turn out for Harris, in numbers unfakeably huge, thus preventing this *gestures*

>257 richardderus: Well, sure about the lesbians, Richard. I found the intent of the quote to be limited by a stereotyped view of women from the first half of the last century. Maybe I've been sheltered. My experience is that women who don't like each other either avoid each other or mince no words. Otoh, I too was stunned by the female disinterest in KH. I'll never forget a conversation with the young black woman who guided me through the process of getting my last driver's license. She was clearly not going to vote at all. I laid out my bottom line without saying, "You're a woman!" "You're black!", but I really, really wanted to.

>258 LizzieD: ...not...vote...at...all...
...
...
*gobsmacked*

How...I mean...what the actual was she thinking?!

Oh, Richard. This is RobCo. We are among the poorest counties in NC. Several years ago my HS. the best in the county and where I taught, was ranked as 209th of 213 or so in teachers' scores on the NTE before it became the Praxis. This young woman was bright enough to have a good job but apparently not inclined to think past her own personal life.

>256 LizzieD: I'm with you, Peggy, on the >252 LizzieD: women quotes vs. the >253 LizzieD: men quotes. The ones on the men didn't do much for me.

Today was Wordle in 3 for me, so no more 2's.

Good luck on the DVD shopping.

Hi, Irene! Because I twoed it today, you're likely to two it tomorrow - and Karen on Friday! The other men quotes that I didn't copy all had to do with how men simply don't understand women.

I can't find the video anywhere else, so I expect I'll dither another day or so and get it. Now that I've remembered it, I think I have to have it. Obsessive much????

Wordle 1,601 2/6*

⬜⬜⬜🟩⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 roast, guise The Bot says that I was very lucky. I prefer to think that I was very logical. Nail down the vowel(s). So there.

Off to the dentist soon! Quotes later.

>262 LizzieD: I think you mistyped your Wordle word—but congrats on getting it in two! It was not an easy word.

Karen O

‘Morning, Peggy! Happy Thursday.

>256 LizzieD: One I like related to the 1984 graffito, is “A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle.”

>262 LizzieD: Wow. Wordle in 2. Took me 4 today.

I hope the dentist visit goes well.

Trevor separated my Aloe Vera monster into 7 plants and we put them into 6 pots, and most likely all will survive.

I’m off to get ready to visit the massage therapist.

>262 LizzieD: Congrats on your Wordle in 2! I think KarenO is right, it doesn't look like that could be your first word today. It took me 3 today, but it was a hard word. I had 3 letters in place after my second guess and still had to look at a list for help. I think it may have been the only possible solution at that point, but it just wasn't coming to me.

I hope your dentist appointment went well.

You are exactly right, Karen and Irene. It took me that long to forget that I had the 4th letter in place already, so now I've fixed it here and am off to see what I did when adding something to the used word list. (I was still straight 10 seconds after getting it right, thank goodness!) I'll tell you: it's not easy being me these days.
Dentist apptmnt. was fine. I still have gums as good as a teen's he says, and then adds, "no better because they don't brush their teeth."

Yay for Karen and Trevor! Double Yay for a massage! I'm off to maybe see the porch pics after I give us more quotes - another full page+ of the male view of women.

WOMEN: THE MALE VIEW

When a man takes an interest in a woman's body she accuses him of only taking an interest in her body, but when he doesn't take an interest in her body she accuses him of taking an interest in someone else's body.
~ P.J. O'Rourke and John Hughes

I used to be in favour of women priests but two years in the Cabinet cured me of them.
~ Norman St John-Stevas, ex0member of Mrs Thatcher's Government, 1982

Women and elephants never forget an injury.
~ Saki

Changeable women are more endurable tthan monotonous ones. They are sometimes murdered but seldom deserted.
~ George Bernard Shaw

A woman's place is in the wrong.
~ James Thurber (Attrib.)

I hate women because they always know where things are.
~ James Thurber

‘Morning, Peggy! Happy Friday to you. It’s gorgeous out, isn’t it?

I love the quotes, especially the last one by Thurber. I do always know where things are. *smile*

Congrats on yesterday’s Wordle in 2. Took me three today, but I’m happy with it.

Good morning to you while it still is, Karen!!!

I always know where things are too..... My DH might if he chose to use more than one hand to push an unwanted thing aside and grab the desired thing with the other hand - or maybe just to look.....
It is gorgeous!!!! DH is scraping and painting some outside while it's nice, but we will walk.
I did totally cave and buy the ultra-ridiculously expensive DVD. I added $10 to get a very good rather than an acceptable disc. I'm sorry to spend that much on myself, but I have no remorse for getting the thing itself at all really.

Congratulations on your 3!! As you see, I was desperate after my second guess and after that stupid third, used a list for an easy fourth - and that after having considered both unidentified consonants.

Wordle 1,602 4/6*

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🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 roast, niner, quire, peril

MEN: THE FEMALE VIEW

Women have their faults
Men have only two:
Everything they say,
Everything they do.
~ Anon.

Every man who is high up loves to think he has done it all himself" and the wife smiles, and lets it go at that. It's our only joke. Every woman knows that.
~ M.M. Barrie (And here I always thought Barrie was a man.)

I refuse to consign the whole male sex to the nursery. I insist on believing that some men are my equals.
~ Brigid Brophy

I'd never seen men hold each other. I thought the only thing they were allowed to do was shake hands or fight.
~ Rita Mae Crown

The male is a domestic animal which, if treated with firmness and kindness, can be trained to do most things.
~ Jilly Cooper

... beware of men who cry. It's true that men who cry are sensitive to and in touch with feelings, ut the only feelings the tend to be sensitive to and in touch with are their own.
~ Nora Ephron

(Back to men next time)

Checking in on you, Peggy! I hope you have a fantastic Friday and a wonderful weekend. I am still not making any progress on Wellington. *sigh*

Good morning to you while it still is, Karen!!!

I always know where things are too..... My DH might if he chose to use more than one hand to push an unwanted thing aside and grab the desired thing with the other hand - or maybe just to look.....
It is gorgeous!!!! DH is scraping and painting some outside while it's nice, but we will walk.
I did totally cave and buy the ultra-ridiculously expensive DVD. I added $10 to get a very good rather than an acceptable disc. I'm sorry to spend that much on myself, but I have no remorse for getting the thing itself at all really.

Congratulations on your 3!! As you see, I was desperate after my second guess and after that stupid third, used a list for an easy fourth - and that after having considered both unidentified consonants.

Wordle 1,602 4/6*

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🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 roast, niner, quire, peril

MEN: THE FEMALE VIEW

Women have their faults
Men have only two:
Everything they say,
Everything they do.
~ Anon.

Every man who is high up loves to think he has done it all himself" and the wife smiles, and lets it go at that. It's our only joke. Every woman knows that.
~ J.M. Barrie (And here I always thought Barrie was a man.)

I refuse to consign the whole male sex to the nursery. I insist on believing that some men are my equals.
~ Brigid Brophy

I'd never seen men hold each other. I thought the only thing they were allowed to do was shake hands or fight.
~ Rita Mae Crown

The male is a domestic animal which, if treated with firmness and kindness, can be trained to do most things.
~ Jilly Cooper

... beware of men who cry. It's true that men who cry are sensitive to and in touch with feelings, but the only feelings the tend to be sensitive to and in touch with are their own.
~ Nora Ephron

(Back to men next time)

"And here I always thought Barrie was a man." Did you mean J. M. Barrie? 'Cause he was a man. (Don't know who M. M. Barrie might be, and neither does Google or its AI drudge, apparently.) I suspect that quote is from Barrie's satirical play, What Every Woman Knows, in which a woman was the key to her husband's political success. (Sorry if your tongue was in your cheek--so hard to "read" a tone in print sometimes!)

Yes, Linda. I was making a joke, but I didn't realize that I had mis-typed J.M. Barrie's name. Sorry for the confusion. It was What Every Woman Knows, and I'll fix my mistake!

‘Morning, Peggy! Happy Saturday.

>270 LizzieD: Congrats on your 4.

Love the Anon. quote. The others, too, but especially that one.

I was channeling the Wordle gods today, and got it in 2.

>272 LizzieD: ;>)

Oh, Karen, CONGRATULATIONS AGAIN!!! If only I had used my first first word, I would have had it in two too. CHAGRIN!!!! Finally, given the choice of two at guess four, I was loyal. Five keeps the streak.
I knew the Anon. doggerel, but I like the Ephron for its application to humans in general.

Wordle 1,603 5/6*

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🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, stear, erase, arose, arise

WOMEN: THE MALE VIEW

The history of women is the history of the worst form of tyranny the world has ever known. The tyranny of the weak over the strong. It is the only tyranny that lasts.
~ Oscar Wilde

The only way to behave to a woman is to make love to her, if she is pretty, and to someone else, if she is plain.
~ Oscar Wilde

Women, as some witty Frenchman once put it, inspire us with the desire to do masterpieces, and always prevent us from carrying them out.
~ Oscar Wilde

Women have a wonderful instinct about things. They can discover everything except the obvious.
~ Oscar Wilde

Hysteria is a natural phenomenon, the common denominator of the female nature. It's the big female weapon, and the test of a man is his ability to cope with it.
~ Tennessee Williams

I've said it before and I'll say it again - girls are rummy. Old Pop Kipling never said a truer word than when he made that crack about the f. of the s. being d. than the m.
~ P.G. Wodehouse

You know, the more I see of women, the more I think that there ought to be a law. Something has got to be done about this sex, or the whole fabric of Society will collapse, and then what silly asses we shall all look.
~ P.G. Wodehouse

>275 LizzieD: Wordle in 3 for me today. But I could have had it in 2. My second guess was an anagram of the correct answer. I guess I should have checked the used words list.

‘Morning, Peggy! Happy Sunday to you. Kind regards to your HD, and many kitty skritches to your 7 fur kids.

>275 LizzieD: Glad you kept your streak going. I love all the quotes. I realize that I need to actually read something by Wilde. I have The Collected Works of Oscar Wilde here in the Sunroom.

Wordle in 3 for me today.

Hello you two 3 Wordle Sisters, never mind different days, Karen and Irene. I had to use a list today and shouldn't have. OH well.

Wordle 1,604 4/6*

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🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, chine, elude, fugue

Maybe I'll quote today, but maybe I won't. The cats are fed, and I need a nap! (Read, *Earnest*, Karen. I would adore to play Miss Prism on stage!!!)

Hello you two 3 Wordle Sisters, never mind different days, Karen and Irene. I had to use a list today and shouldn't have. OH well.

Wordle 1,604 4/6*

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🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, chine, elude, fugue

Maybe I'll quote today, but maybe I won't. The cats are fed, and I need a nap! (Read, *Earnest*, Karen. I would adore to play Miss Prism on stage!!!)

>279 LizzieD: I hope you got your nap in, Peggy, and slept well last night!

Have a marvelous Monday!

'Morning, Peggy! Brrr for today and tonight. What Stasia said!

>279 LizzieD: Wordle 4s are good, too... but I did get it in 3 again today. I found my copy of Oscar Wilde: Complete and Unabridged here in the Sunroom. 1417 pages, 4.35 pounds. I've bookmarked The Importance of being Earnest.

No trevor, no errands or obligations. Definitely stuff to do inside, but nothing major. I should put the bird bath warmer into the birdbath since we're supposed to have a hard freeze tonight.

Onward, upward!

I did both, Stasia, and I thank you! I hope you won't need to get a nap in and sleep well enough tonight!!!!!

Wordle 1,605 4/6*

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🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, alias, patch, tabby.... Luck + devotion to the little red meesles and the gray-whites (that is to say, Archie Sparks, Lulu, Tully, and Hilfy Bit)

MEN: THE FEMALE VIEW

PELLET: Men are all alike.
WENDLE: Only some more than others.
~ Noel Coward
(I'm sorry. In 2025 I find it insulting that editors in 1985 found it necessary to express the woman's point of view as written by men. I'll also note that they included twice as many men on women as women on men.)

Macho does not prove mucho.
~ Zsa Zsa Gabor

The only place men want depth in a woman is in her decolletage.
~ Zsa Zsa Gabor

Probably the only place where a man can feel really secure is in a maximum security prison, except for the imminent threat of release.
~ Germaine Greer

None of you (men) ask for anything - except everything, but just for as long as you need it.
~ Doris Lessing

I require only three things of a man. He must be handsome, ruthless, and stupid.
~ Dorothy Parker

Some men break your heart in two,
Some men fawn and flatter,
Some men never look at you,
And that cleans up the matter.
~ Dorothy Parker

No nice men are good at getting taxis.
~ Katharine Whitehorn

I like two kinds of men: domestic and foreign.
~ Mae West

When women go wrong, men go right after them.
~ Mae West

It's not the men in my life that count; it's the life in my men.
~ Mae West

‘Morning, Peggy! Happy cold Tuesday to you. Brrr. 25F overnight, 35F when I got up at 9. Still cold.

>284 richardderus: Congrats on your furry helpers helping you with the 4!

I love all the quotes, especially Mae West’s domestic and foreign one.

Thank goodness I don’t have to go out today! Cleaning ladies in a few minutes, books, and etc. otherwise.

>282 LizzieD: I require only three things of a man. He must be handsome, ruthless, and stupid.
~ Dorothy Parker

...and look where it got her...unlike Mae West, her love life was deeply unhealthy. I remain convinced I'm somehow descended from Mae West, despite her absence of children and my thoroughly obvious parentage. I'd certainly have a lot less to explain if it were so.

Seasonable cold here, not like y'all's, and am I reveling in it? Why yes...yes I am. They announced the Booker winner and it was a book I disliked so much I Pearl-zruled it without ever thinking to say why. (It was tedious.)

Have a Tuesday to dream on later, Peggy me lurve.

Many thanks for the Tuesday wish, Richard! Hmmm. I'm sure you're the son MW could have wished to have. Like you, I suspect there's as much truth as wit in the DP quote - not one of my favorites.
I haven't even looked at the Booker short list, and I missed the BBC interview with the winner this morning.
You may have your cold with my blessings. *smooch*

Hi, Karen! I intend to stay in today too except for our well-bundled walk. We watched the snow flurries miss us on radar. That's always the way. I quoted a weekday school teacher from my church's past to our interim pastor. She said, "Snow goes around us because L'ton is built on a vent from Hell." He was offended. (I may not have mentioned that I don't like him very much.) Niece in Charlotte texted that it was colder than a witch's .... there. I texted back that our witch's ... had frozen and broken off. That's my wit for the day.

Wordle 1,606 5/6*

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🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 roast, clone, bijou, widow, gizmo After four, which was stupid, I gave up and looked at a list. Streaking still though....

MEN AND WOMEN

Give a woman an inch and she thinks she's a ruler.
~ Stars and Stripes

I married beneath me. All women do.
~ Nancy Astor

The first time Adam had a chance, he laid the blame on women.
~ Nancy Astor

The sad lesson of life is that you treat a girl like that with respect, and the next guy comes along and he's banging the hell out of her.
~ Art Buchwald
(And to think I once shook his hand!)

In the sex-war, thoughtlessness is the weapon of the male, vindictiveness of the female.
~ Cyril Connolly

Most women set out to try to change a man, and when they have changed him they do not like him.
~ Marlene Dietrich

Boys don't make passes at female smart-asses.
~ Letty Cottin Pogrebin

BLEEDING HEART YARD by Elly Griffiths

I really enjoyed this third outing of Harbinder Kaur, Griffiths's Sikh detective inspector, newly promoted and moved to London. The story develops through narrative in the heads of Harbinder and several of the characters involved in the murder of a MP at a high school class reunion. I liked this. Nobody has a complete picture, and the reader doesn't know who is reliable and who is unreliable nor whether the unreliability is purposeful or remembered inaccurately. I certainly didn't spot the murderer, and that's always good.

After reading the Ruth Galloway series mostly because I love Ruth and Nelson, this series is a pleasure because Harbinder is not the focus. We see enough of her to feel we're getting to know her a little, but the other characters are developed more fully. I cared about them, and I was eager to find out what happened and why. That's always another good thing with a mystery. I definitely look forward to the next one in the series!

>285 LizzieD: I hope you stayed warm today, Peggy! Although I hope this kills off all the mosquitos, I don't really like it getting so cold so early in the season.

I used your 4th Wordle word at 3 today. I had a guess for 4, but at that point I checked the used word list and saw it had already been used. Then I also gave up and went for help, so I got it in 4. Not an easy word today.

‘Morning, my dear Peggy! Happy Wednesday.

>285 LizzieD: ‘Vent from Hell’. Love it. Congrats on keeping the streak going. I love the Nancy Astor quotes – gave me a much-needed belly laugh.

Huh. I think I prefer the Dorothy Parker quote - Men seldom make passes At girls who wear glasses published in Enough Rope in 1926. I have the book…

>286 LizzieD: I’ve read the first two, have this one on my shelves. I’m glad you like it. Makes me think I’ll like it, too.

Wordle in 4 for me today.

My day got simplified when I decided to not go to book sort/Virlie’s and although it’s unfortunate, Trevor isn’t feeling well and won’t be over today. Down to one small set of errands in town and a haircut in Chapel Hill.

Well, hooray for the haircut, Karen! I hope your Chapel Hill stylist suits you. I get my trim and shaping today too. I still can't believe that my hair does what it does with no encouragement from me. (It always did, but now it looks like a style!)

Hi, Irene. My 4th guess wasn't stupid as such but because I was keeping one letter in a wrong place, so I didn't learn as much as I should have. Today I was just weird as you see. No help. I can be weird all by myself.

Wordle 1,607 5/6*

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🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, testy, memic, beech, deuce

MEN AND WOMEN

Women complain about sex more often than men. Their gripes fall into two major categories: (1) Not enough. (2) Too much.
~ Ann Landers

A man's womenfolk, whatever their outward show of respect for his merit and authority, always regard him secretly as an ass, and with something akin to pity.
~ H.L. Mencken

On one issue at least, men and women agree: they both distrust women.
~ H.L. Mencken (Attrib.)

God created man, and finding him not sufficiently alone, gave him a companion to make him feel his solitude more.
~ Paul Valéry

A man can be happy with any woman so long as he does not love her.
~ Oscar Wilde

Between men and women there is no friendship possible. There is passion, enmity, worship, love, but no friendship.
~ Oscar Wilde

Women are never disarmed by compliments. Men always are. That is the difference between the sexes.
~ Oscar Wilde

Men play the game; women know the score
~ Roger Woddis

>289 LizzieD: Between men and women there is no friendship possible. There is passion, enmity, worship, love, but no friendship.
~ Oscar Wilde

Disagree. Waspish old queens ought to think before skating off aperçus willy(!)-nilly.

I now know what a "Sydney Sweeney" is, albeit unwillingly. Apparently another link in the chain of "pretty" young blondes with truly reprehensible politics and an eroded fan base. I'd've been content never to know even that much.

I put the Wilde in just because it was Wilde, and I agree with you with a grin. I looked up "SS" and don't know any more than I did before I spent the 30 seconds on her. I can't tell you how content I am to be out of it!!!

>291 LizzieD: Very little in my life pleases me more than not knowing who the current round of "celebrities" are. *smooch*

‘Morning, Peggy! Happy Thursday to you.

>289 LizzieD: My hair has always been curly and therefore rather unruly. Sometimes I’ve gotten good cuts, sometimes not-so-good cuts. You’re fortunate.

Congrats on 5. Took me 4 today.

I find most of those quotes unhelpful stereotypes, but do agree with

A man's womenfolk, whatever their outward show of respect for his merit and authority, always regard him secretly as an ass, and with something akin to pity.
~ H.L. Mencken

…
Quiet day at home with puttering and reading.

Good day, 4 Sister Karen. I was pleased that I was logical today although I tried used words. At least I wasn't weird. *grin*

I agree about those stereotypes and find that Mencken stereotyped too........ respect for his....authority ....... really? I do enjoy seeing how sensibilities have changed since the mid-80s when the book was published. I think I'm through with gender for awhile.
I know how fortunate I am with my hair! I never expected to be except that it was soft and shiny. I forgot to remind her to leave a lot on the sides, and she cut too much. I'm glad it grows quickly. Oh well.

Ah, Richard, this is at least one way I'm finding out what it means to be in the world and not of it!!!!! *smooch*

Wordle 1,608 4/6*

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POLITICS AND POLITICIANS (I see that I quoted from this 3 times and still left out some good ones. If I repeat, I apologize.)

Politics - the gentle art of getting votes from the poor and campaign funds from the rich, by promising to protect each from the other.
~ Oscar Ameringer

There are three groups that no British Prime Minister should provoke: the Vatican, the Treasury and the miners.
~ Stanley Baldwin (Attrib.)

The politician is an acrobat. He keeps his balance by saying the opposite of what he does.
~ Maurice Barres

Here richly, with ridiculous display,
The Politician's corpse was laid away.
While all his acquaintances sneered and slanged,
I wept; for I had longed to see him hanged.
~ Hilaire Belloc

If you take yourself seriously in politics, you've had it.
~ Lord Harrington

Every politician is emphatically a promising politician.
~ G.K. Chesterton

Probably the most distinctive characteristic of the successful politician is selective cowardice.
~ Richard Harris

THE REMEMBERED SOLDIER by Anjet Daanje

If this is not my novel of the decade, the winner will have to be extraordinarily marvelous. I've never read anything like this one. I normally love books with beautiful writing; this one is not exactly that. However, Daanje's language so reinforces and projects the content that I am in awe.

More later when I have fed cats and attended study club.

>286 LizzieD: One of these days I will get to that series by Griffiths, but I am currently entrenched in the Brighton Mysteries series.

>293 richardderus: Amen to that, Richard!

>296 LizzieD: I will definitely have to get hold of that one!

‘Morning, Peggy! Happy Friday to you.

>295 LizzieD: Congrats on your 4.

… selective cowardice… Absolutely.

Wordle in 3 for me today.

Reading, puttering, Trevor, and possibly a grocery store run. I just spent 20 minutes finding the perfect One Year Anniversary card for Jenna and Hwan. Their anniversary is next Friday. I'll mail it at the post office on Monday, and it might make it in time.

Surely if you mail the card Monday, it will make it to them by Friday, Karen! Today we are 3 Sisters! Feels like it's been a long time!

Stasia, you absolutely need to read Griffiths. I don't know Brighton mysteries (I don't think), and I certainly don't need to right now!
I need to finish my review of *Soldier*, but I can't do it right now. I loved it!!!!!

Wordle 1,609 3/6*

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🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 roast, liner, lurid

I feel the need to read something historical that's not literary or British or central Asian or biographical or Roman. Stay tuned.

OPINIONS

Too bad all the people who know how to run the country are busy driving taxi cabs and cutting hair.
~ George Burns

If nobody ever said anything unless he knew what he was talking about, a ghastly hush would descend upon the earth.
~ Sir Alan Herbert

The degree of one's emotion varies inversely with one's knowledge of the facts - the less you know, the hotter you get.
~ Bertrand Russell

The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd.
~ Bertrand Russell

... an unbiased opinion is always absolutely valueless.
~ Oscar Wilde

ERNEST: Simply this: that in the best days of art there were no art-critics.
GILBERT: I seem to have heard that observation before, Ernest. It has all the vitality of error and all the tediousness of an old friend.
~ Oscar Wilde

>299 LizzieD: I'd quibble that it's impossible to form an opinion without bias.

May I presume to recommend an historical novel not literary or Eurocentric? SOFT BURIAL: A Novel by FANG FANG. https://www.librarything.com/work/33309391/reviews/293287129... 4.75* of five.

‘Morning, Peggy! Happy Saturday.

>299 LizzieD: Wordle in 3 for me today, congratulations on your 3 yesterday!

I really love the George Burns quote, and the Bertrand Russell quotes apply in spades to today’s awful regime and supporters.

>300 richardderus: Gads, RD. You're a menace even on other peoples' threads. I'm cheap or I would have bought Soft Burial, outright, but have put it on my wish list.

>301 karenmarie: *preens* I take my victories where I find 'em.

Morning, Peggy me lurve! My day's lookin' up a bit already...now I just need to clip your bibliowing with a book-bullet at last, you agile dodger you.

Richard, it's never presumptive of you to recommend a book to me; I welcome them! Like Karen, I'm cheap - and I've been fighting it so hard that I've way overspent lately, so I have to back off some. As soon as I feel freer, I'll snap up Soft Burial with thanks.
I'm not sure how an opinion can exist without bias either; arriving at a bias is a part of building who we are.
Glad your day's looking up. Mine is a bit problematical - it would be Mama's 104th birthday. The main thing though is that my cousin in CA with lung cancer has only a day or 2 to live according to his doctors. His last chemo+ treatment did nothing against his very aggressive cancer, and he has other things wrong with his lungs too. His siblings are gathering today except for the youngest in Italy, who is ill himself. It's a sad time.

Meanwhile, Karen, thank you for your texts this morning. You're the best! We are 3 Sisters again. I thought surely I'd beaten the Bot, but Bot got it in 2! How on earth do you go from place to clung???
Wordle 1,610 3/6*

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🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, sling, clung

OPPORTUNISM

Dear Prime Minister,
Thank you for your letter. I am delighted to have the opportunism to serve in your Cabinet.
~ Anon.

I would rather be an opportunist and float than go to the bottom with my principles round my neck.
~ Stanley Baldwin

Opportunity

Opportunity, n. a favorable occasion for grasping a disappointment.
~ Ambrose Bierce

I despise making the most of one's time: half the pleasures of life consist of the opportunities one has neglected.
~ Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

>303 LizzieD: I would rather be an opportunist and float than go to the bottom with my principles round my neck.
~ Stanley Baldwin

How I long for more opportunists from the left.

I shall endeavor not to feel utterly disrespected and belittled and ignored by your determined resistance to my attempts to recommend good reading materials to you. ::chinwobble::

I...I must go *sob*

(((((Peggy)))))

I’ve revisited the wish list vs ownership conundrum, and just bought the Kindle version of Soft Burial.

>302 richardderus: Gloating does not become you, RD…

>303 LizzieD: You’re welcome. I keep track of quite a few birthdays, and your mama’s is always one of them. And, I’m so sorry about your cousin Edward.

Three Sisters! Yessss!

👍 for the quotes.

Wordle in 3 for me again today.

We did it again, Karen - 3 Sisters!!!!! Mama appreciated you, and you know that I do too!!!!!!!
I was counting on hearing from Catharin last night after she saw Edward. However, she missed her connection in Detroit and barely got to San Fran. before the rental car place closed at 12:30 AM their time. I'll call at a decent hour for them later.

>304 richardderus: Richard, it's never presumptive of you to recommend a book to me; I welcome them! Like Karen, I'm cheap - and I've been fighting it so hard that I've way overspent lately, so I have to back off some. As soon as I feel freer, I'll snap up Soft Burial with thanks. How is that anything but respectful, enlarging, and affirmed???? ----- unless you want me to go without to get a book right now? Surely not!

Wordle 1,611 3/6*

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🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 roast, lined, wield

'Morning, Peggy! Happy Monday to you.

Congrats on yesterday's 3. I got it in 3 again today.

Off to the Friends of the Library Board Meeting!

Happy Friends and Virlie's with friends, Karen. Congrats on your 3. I was satisfied with my 4 today. I had to try those very common letters before a couple of less common ones.

Wordle 1,612 4/6*

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🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, blast, claim, clamp

MISTAKES

All wrong-doing is done in the sincere belief that it is the best thing to do.
~ Arnold Bennett

If only one could have two lives: the first in which to make one's mistakes, which seem as if they have to be made; and the second in which to profit by them.
~ D.H. Lawrence

Nowadays most people die of a sort of creeping common sense, and discover when it is too late that the only things one never regrets are one's mistakes.
~ Oscar Wilde

Whenever a man does a thoroughly stupid thing, it is always from the noblest of motives.
~ Oscar Wilde

>308 LizzieD: Whenever a man does a thoroughly stupid thing, it is always from the noblest of motives.
~ Oscar Wilde

Yuh huh. As stupid as I've ever been, I've always been *positive* it was The Right Thing To Do.

Peggy, I just posted my thoughts on Semiosis over on my thread. I enjoyed it and gave the book 4 stars. I need to track down the second book. . .

Thanks for the heads-up, Stasia. I'll try to get over there while I'm here this morning! Good to know that you liked it since I have it!

Ain't that the truth, Richard? Ain't that the truth! I've done some stupid things, knowing that they were stupid, but the worst of them was always because I thought I was right. More human cussedness.

Wordle 1,613 3/6*

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ENEMIES

Love your enemy - it'll drive him nuts.
~ Anon.

He hasn't an enemy in the world - but all his friends hate him.
~ Eddie Cantor

Enemies to me are like the sauce piquante to my dish of life.
~ Elsa Maxwell

DWIGHT D> EISENHOWER

I doubt very much if a man whose main literary interests were in the works by Mr. Zane Grey, admirable as they may be, is particularly well0equipped to be chief executive of this country, particularly where Indian affairs are concerned.
~ Dean Acheson

I haven't checked these figures but eighty-seven years ago, I think it was, a number of individuals organized a governmental set0up here in this country, I believe it covered certain eastern areas, with this idea they were following up based on a sort of national-independence arrangement and the program that every individual is just as good as every other individual ...
~ Oliver Jensen, 'The Gettysburg Address in Eisenhowerese'

~ If I talk over people's heads, he must talk under their feet.
~ Adlai Stevenson

The General has dedicated himself so many times, he must feel like the cornerstone of a public building.
~ Adlai Stevenson

>311 LizzieD: The General has dedicated himself so many times, he must feel like the cornerstone of a public building.
~ Adlai Stevenson

Waspish, even bitchy; also true, and very diagnostic. Eisenhower was poor at the intellectual bits of being president, though very good indeed at the political shitwork. He chose poorly every time a choice was put before him that needed subtlety. Which is why he's now "great."

Good afternoon, Peggy.

>308 LizzieD: Busy day with book sort, the prize I snagged, Virlie’s, errands, home, Trevor, and etc. Plus I’ve added all 10 volumes individually, ‘cuz that’s how I roll.

I love the quotes.

Congrats on yesterday’s 4 and today’s 3. I’m also in the Wordle in Three Club today.

IN ASHES BORN by Nathan Lowell

'Morning, Peggy! I hope you have a wonderful day.

Wordle in 3, Trevor arriving soon, reading and puttering otherwise.

Good afternoon, Karen! I'm late and in a hurry. Congrats on your repeat of 3!

Hi, Richard. Poor Adlai had to be bitter to watch an inept man struggle with what he had the nous to do. I guess nobody will ever write an alternate history in which Stevenson was President.

Wordle 1,614 4/6*

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🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, arose, _____, maker I can't remember my third word or my password, which they're demanding and I don't have time to look up.

Quotes later maybe!

>316 LizzieD: Anyone younger than we are has never heard of Adlai Stevenson. If that gets used as an alt-hist PoD, it'll have to be marketed as something else or the yawns from book-buyers will create a supercane like two Katrinas from the low pressure.

I know, I know, Richard. I'm certainly not going to try it.

Meanwhile, NYT has lost my Wordle streak - 87 days to be exact. I found my password and logged in: no dice. WORD!!!!!

Good morning, Peggy! It’s just getting light, and there are dark clouds slowly meandering their way across the sky.

>316 LizzieD: Four is respectable. I have no opinion of Adlai Stevenson. Is ignorance bliss?

>318 LizzieD: Boo hiss. I’m sorry you lost your Wordle streak.

Wordle in two for me today. Pure luck.

>318 LizzieD: Oh all the boo and most of the hiss all over that rotten-souled foul-smelling ugly-assed NYT! Nopenopenope on them root and branch. *there there, patpat*

Thanks for the sympathy, Richard and Karen. That Wordle mess is a curious thing. They have my total number of games and percentage won, but they suggest I subscribe (I'm still using the subscription given to me by our niece), and my streak is now at 1. I don't mind the other stuff so much, but I loved seeing that Win in One badge from September, now gone.

In the case of Stevenson, you'd probably appreciate getting to know him a little. I should know him better. He was a brilliant statesman, serious but witty as you see - enough to dismiss him from consideration by the common man even in the 50s.

CONGRATS ON 2 AGAIN, Karen!!!!
I at least started a streak again. I guess I'll keep playing and not caring all that much. They won't let me use the Bot either.
Wordle 1,615 5/6*

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SPEAKERS and SPEECHES

An after-dinner speech should be like a lady's dress: long enough to cover the subject and short enough to be interesting.
~ Anon.

He's a man who is never lost for a few appropriated words.
~ Anon.

Speeches are like steer horns - a point here, a point there and a lot of bull in between.
~ Liberty

I stand up when he nudges me. I sit down when they pull my coat.
~ Ernest Bevin

I do not object to people looking at their watches when I am speaking - but I strongly object when they start shaking them to make certain they are still going.
~ Lord Birkett

Spontaneous speeches are seldom worth the paper they are written on.
~ Leslie Henson

A speaker who does not strike oil in ten minutes should stop boring.
~ Louis Nizer

When audiences come to see us authors lecture, it is largely in the hope that we'll be funnier to look at than to read.
~ Sinclair Lewis

>321 LizzieD: When audiences come to see us authors lecture, it is largely in the hope that we'll be funnier to look at than to read.
~ Sinclair Lewis

Certainly true! Leis was not terrible to read, like Upton Sinclair or Theodore Dreiser, but he often found a vein and worked it real real real hard.

Porter McKeever wrote a biography of Stevenson but it's 600pp long and frankly as boring as that implies, if also very informative. (That was the time I was into big, serious books, Hitler and Stalin: parallel Lives and Learned Hand f/ex.)

Thanks, Richard. I cared enough to look at the bios of Stevenson here and at Amazon. I'm pretty sure I've rejected them all. I should know more about the man and the time than I do, but not that way.

Working the vein ---- my mind goes immediately to George Meredith. I've started at least four of his novels and ended quickly by throwing each one across the room. I'll never get him. I don't think that I've done that with but two other books: Hopeful Monsters and an ER offering whose title I've suppressed.

Hope you're getting some good rest!

(((((Peggy)))))

I’m sorry you’ve lost your Wordle in One badge and your streak.

Wordle in 3 for me today.

Not much else to add. Reading smut, puttering, and etc. Oh, I’ve been working on message one for when I need to start thread 8.

I'm finally here. We went grocery shopping together - a thing we rarely do. It was fun, but it took a large part of the day!

Wordle 1,616 5/6*

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🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, stile, model, hovel, vowel The grammar teacher bombs again! Congrats on your 3, Karen! I must start a new thread, but......

>321 LizzieD: I'm sorry you lost your Wordle streak and badges. What you describe sounds a lot like what happened to me a couple of years ago. We were just back from a vacation at the end of June, and when I went to do my Wordle, my streak was gone and it wouldn't let me use the Bot any more. I had made sure I was logged in on my phone before I left town, but being logged in didn't help. I think it was tied to my Athletic subscription, which originally included access to the Times, but that added access expired.

I will add that the NYT seem to be doing something with their puzzles this week. I've been doing the Sports Edition of Connections for quite a long time, and then suddenly this week it's like I've started over. It tells me that I've completed 4 puzzles, when I know that I've done hundreds by now.

Adlai Stevenson was before my time too, but I'm probably more aware of him than most people these days since I grew up in Illinois. I still don't know that much about him though.

‘Morning, Peggy! Happy Saturday to you and your DH. Give the kitties skritches from me.

>325 LizzieD: Wordle in 5 is not bombing, of course. Thanks re my three. I got it in three again today.

Reading and puttering, of course. Oven racks to clean, and a plan to go to Lowes to get some Orange Roughy as per the report from Trevor after we discussed it and Red Snapper yesterday. They also have Razzleberry Pie, and I plan on getting two. Food Lion does not carry them any more.

I'm here at last, Karen and Irene. Irene, that sounds like my Wordle experience. I don't know why though. One morning it was fine. The next morning it was gone. I can still sign in for the paper itself, but I can't access it from the updates to my email, and I can't get either the Bot or the weekly news quiz, which I always enjoyed. Oh well. I'm sorry for both of us.
I was 12 or so in 1956, but I was only minimally interested in politics. I can't remember whether we had TV access to the party conventions that year, but as soon as we did, my parents watched avidly. I probably read.

Congrats on your 3, Karen! I had to look up Orange Roughy. If it tastes more like shell than finny fish, I'm all in favor of it. I'll be interested to hear what you think. I meant to look at Marie Callendar pies when we had our shopping marathon Friday, but I didn't.

Wordle 1,617 4/6*

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🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 roast, tonic, twice, thick I knew I was trying two used words, but I couldn't think of anything else. Duh ---- a little word. At least it's better than yesterday!

Just a not to say that my cousin finally died in the early hours of the morning. He lived and interacted with friends and family, including me, a week and a half longer than the doctors said he had. Precious time, but he was so tired.

Hi Peggy. Your NYT sign-in woes sound like a real pain and difficult to figure out how to resolve.

I'm very, very sorry to hear about your cousin. I'm glad you had the chance to connect with him and say good-bye. Sending hugs.

‘Morning, Peggy! Happy Sunday.

>328 LizzieD: My first memories of politics are when my elementary school in Hawthorne voted in the 1964 election. 18 classrooms, ~30 students each. I remember that I voted for LBJ and he won. After that, I didn’t pay much attention until Watergate. First time I voted was in 1971, and I’ve always voted Democratic for the President. I foolishly split my ticket sometimes, but have been back in the fold for a long time.

Thanks re my three. Congrats on your four. I got another three this morning.

I was thinking about your cousin this morning. We hadn’t heard from you about him. I was actually going to PM you about him, but you’ve answered my question here. I’m so, so sorry.

>328 LizzieD: Precious time spent well, I hope, tying up loose emotional ends.

Better day ahead, dear friend.

Thank you for your sympathy, Richard, Karen, and Laura. I'll be back later to do better, but I suppose I must put my Wordle down now........

Wordle 1,618 5/6*

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🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, sting, chunk, mound (an opportunity thrown away), bunny Oh well. Congrats on 3 again, Karen!

Condolences on the loss of your cousin. I too am glad to hear that you were at least able to speak with him. Sending you lots of (((((hugs))))).

‘Morning, Peggy, and happy Monday to you.

>332 LizzieD: Your Wordle 5 has a pleasing pattern of yellow and green.

Took me 4 today.

Reading, puttering, and etc., Lowe’s run for groceries I can’t get at FL and payment of our Spectrum bill at Truist since mailing today won’t get it there and processed by Monday.

Thank you for sympathy and hugs, Irene.

I'm a little better with Wordle today, but I had to have a help in the end just because ..... We are at least 4 Sisters, Karen.
Wordle 1,619 4/6*

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Maybe I can get back to visit around and post some quotations. I need just another few things for after Thursday since I will want to stay in during our RobCo shopping frenzy. sheesh

I don't have much to say today, but I join you both as Wordle in 4 sisters.

I hope you're having a good day!

Gentle ((hugs)), my friend. I hope you get some rest tonight.

(((((Peggy)))))

Yay for being Wordle Triplets with Irene.

I got it in two today. I was channeling the World Gods.

Book sort, Virlie's, the last, final, completely-done grocery shopping at FL today.

Morning, Peggy me lurve, happy Tuesdaying wherever it may take you. Sending hugs

Oh my! Thank you, Richard, Karen, Stasia, and Irene! I can't even get here to take care of business - like speaking appropriately to you. One of these days, I hope, I hope.

Wordle 1,620 5/6*

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🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, tales, wheal, gleam, plead A bit alphabet salad-y if not soupy....... Congrats on your latest 2, Karen!!!!!

Oops. I couldn't believe how far back I was on your thread, but that has been true for me a lot around here. My mind's been on other things, I guess.

I too had my Wordle longevity vanish. Oh well. I don't really mind, but I wonder what they are doing that causes that to happen?

My condolences on your loss.

Sent you a PM, Peggy. December TIOLI challenges are up.

My condolences on the loss of your cousin, Peggy. "Say not with grief, he is no more, but rather say with gratitude, he was."

Morning, Peggy! Happy Wednesday to you.

I'm still being lazy drinking coffee and posting on LT, but will start the rest of my day after I post here.

Wordle in 3.

Reading, puttering, Arsenal. Three of my favorite things.

Ack! I am scattered these days. I need to get ready to walk, but I have a great need to speak and visit around here - and read, read, read - and chop, mix, cook.

Thank you for visiting, Karen! I just finished coffee too, and I'm glad that you get to do 3 things high on your list. Congrats on your consistency with Wordle!!! I am too, just lower down the possibilities.

Thank you, Linda and Anita. I continue to think about his family, but Edward's body betrayed his spirit, and he needed to die. We just learned last night of the death of a hometown friend and neighbor roughly the same age of my cousin, so it's a sad time.

Got it, Stasia, and thank you!

I'm happy to see you here, Judy. I don't have much going on lately except visits from kind friends that are always welcome!!!

Wordle 1,621 4/6*

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🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 roast, loden, holey, hovel I just tried that word within the past week, I think. Oh well.

Turkey Day well-wishes, Peggy me lurve. I'm mid-tornado of activity with the reviews I've been working on for months. Posting them is...fiddly, nit-picky, detail oriented. I haven't made a giant screw-up yet, but that evil god who rules the universe always squats in wait for signs of happiness...she needs something to aim at after All.

*smooch*

>346 LizzieD: I hate to hear that you are experiencing more loss, Peggy. Sending lots of (((((hugs))))).

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!