2026"1: Lizzie's out of the game but still keeping score

HAPPY 2026 - A YEAR BUILT FOR READING!

and

These book pictures are several years old. The first now has three taller piles on the floor. The second has been rearranged at least a couple of times and now features a few more Persephones too. I wish I had made them clear enough to read titles - always a frustration for me in other members' libraries!

Since other people introduce themselves anew, I guess I will too. I'm happily retired for 18½ years after a working life of exploring the accepted careers for women in the mid-60s through the aughties. (Well, I never tried to be a nurse; I would have fainted during the first procedure.) I have directed the education in a church, done AFDC casework, gone back to school to get a teacher's certification, taught in the county school system, taught private piano lessons, and finally taught high school English and Latin in our local high school.

My DH and I have been married for 55 years and are enjoying year 56. We walk every day unless the weather is awful or medical appointments take precedence. Those walks kept me sane while I taught and while I cared for my dear mother, who died almost two years ago at 102. We have somehow acquired 7 indoor cats, and they take up a lot of our day. I retired to read but somehow seem to have less and less time although that doesn't prevent my adding to my library. There. That's more than enough.

OPEN FOR READING IN FEBRUARY



The only one of these I'm not dipping into and out of now is my old companion Life: A User's Manual. Maybe this will be the year for it though! Of course, I won't finish many of these this month. I don't care. I have freed myself from the target number, having spent a couple of years aiming for it. Mostly, I enjoyed reaching the goal, but it possessed me. I have exorcised myself.

BOOKS READ IN JANUARY
1. The Burning Stone
2. Feonie and the Islander Regalia
3. Yellowface
4. Tigana (reread)

BOOKS INTO THE HOUSE IN JANUARY
1. The Raven Scholar - GC from dear LT friend!
2. Buckeye - Kindle deal by BookBub
3. Courting India - AMP - first GC purchase!!!
4. The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny - Kindle deal through BookBub
5. The Last Mughal - #2 of dear home friend's GC
6. Margaret the First - #3 and the last of that GC
7. How the Word is Passed - Kindle
8. Warsaw 1944 - Kindle deal through BookBub
9. Feonie and the Islander Regalia ✔ - Kindle ($2.99 for a 33 page short story --- how stupid am I???)
10. The Wrong End of the Telescope - PBS
11. The Countryside: Ten Rural Walks Through Britain and Its Hidden History of Empire
12. French Windows - Kindle deal
13. An Encyclopedia of Tolkien
IN THE BOX!!!
14. The Complete Ghost Stories of Charles Dickens
15. Haggadah for the Liberated Lamb
16. Something Under the Bed is Drooling
17. Children of Ruin
A replacement of my *Poldark Saga* mass pbs with her lovely,matching trade set which she has replaced
Great Courses: The Renaissance, the Reformation, and the Rise of Nations and From Jesus to Constantine

BOOKS READ IN FEBRUARY
5. In the Morning I'll Be Gone
6. Portrait in Death
7. First Sign of Danger
8. Wellington

BOOKS INTO THE HOUSE IN FEBRUARY
18. Delphi Complete Novels of Maria Edgeworth - Kindle
19. Gun Street Girl
20. The Man Who Spoke Snakish - Kindle deal
21. Dark Earth - Kindle, using points
22. The True, True Story of Raja the Gullible and his Mother ✔ - Kindle with Christmas GC (I forgot to record it here.)
23. Justice for All: Earl Warren and the Nation He Made - AMP
24. My Name Means Fire - PBS
25. Hiero's Answer - Kindle
26. Byron: Child of Passion. Fool of Fame' - AMP
27. Why Can the Dead Do Such Great Things? - Kindle deal through BookBub
28. Coleridge: Darker Reflections - AMP
29. The Mars House ✔
30. Cast in Secret - downsizer (Good Will or me)
31. Cast in Fury - same
32. Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line - Kindle
33. Blood and Iron - AMP
34. The White Octopus Hotel - Kindle deal through BookBub
35. First Sign of Danger ✔

BEST OR MOST MEMORABLE OF THE FIRST QUARTER

A Very HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL!!!!

I can't say how happy I am to be among you again - HAPPY! - and to look forward to kind visitors!

Wordle 1,657 4/6*

🟨🟨🟨⬜⬜
⬜⬜🟨🟨🟨
🟨🟨⬜🟨⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, steal, alley, fable So ---- an omen for a normal year, maybe. I hope.

Here to wish you all the best for 2026, dear Peggy. It's a sunny but very cold morning here with a fresh snowfall all crisp and clean out there. Hope your day is starting off equally auspiciously. Good health and good reads! p.s. Look at those Viragos!

Welcome back, Peggy!

Happy New Year, Peggy. Love those bookshelves at the top! I hope 2026 is a great year for you.

>1 LizzieD: ooooo

I love those shelves!

New Year orisons, Peggy me lurve.

Happy new year! I left a star...

Karen O

New Year greetings from Kuala Lumpur. My project is at least physically completed and an addition to the city scape.

Look forward to keeping up with you in 2026, Peggy

Happy new year Peggy. Love those bookshelves!

Happy New Year, Peggy!

More shelves is always better!

Happy New Year, Peggy! I was going to ask about all the black spine books, then realized they are the Viragos. Happy reading!

I love the new year for the wonderful contact with LT friends. Here I am once again pressed for time because of trying to deal with a missing insurance card and what to do until a new one finally arrives. This was not my plan for the day!
Thank you for coming, Judy, Susan, Laura, Paul, Karen, Richard, Beth, Jim, and Tui!!!!! I'll do my best to get back to you.

Meanwhile, in the frustration with automated responses, I managed to do this with Wordle.
Wordle 1,658 5/6*

⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜
🟨🟨⬜⬜⬜
⬜⬜🟨🟩⬜
⬜🟩🟩🟩⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, roist, juror, brood, proof

Back sooner than later, I hope!!!!!

Happy New Year, Peggy. Can I steal, err borrow, some of your shelves? Pretty please? Lol

ETA: Just to be clear, I want the books on the shelves too.

>15 LizzieD: *gaak* INSURANCE issues *ptooptoo*

May it be less painful than usual.

Happy New Year, Peggy! Add me to those admiring your bookshelves. Sorry about the missing insurance card. It reminds me of a card that went missing for me during COVID, and I had to get a replacement. I hope you were able to find a temporary solution.

Always nice to view other peoples bookshelves and libraries!

Happy 2026

Good morning, Peggy! Happy New Year, and happy first thread of 2026!

>1 LizzieD: I love photos of bookshelves and even if not as clear as you would like them to be, they give me pleasure to look at.

>5 LizzieD: Congrats on your 4 the first day of the new year. Look at you, yellows then one glorious all-green.

>15 LizzieD: Still congratulations on your 5.

Wordle in 3 for me today.

Arsenal play at 12:30. Reading and puttering otherwise.

Well, Karen, you're getting ready to boost Arsenal. I hope they appreciate you! My day will include finishing the SS lesson and maybe a walk if it isn't raining (or raining too hard) and some pleasure reading, I hope. We're 3 Sisters again! I found it hard to believe that that would be a Wordle choice.

Hi, and welcome back Anita! Thank you and Karen and Irene, also Stasia, Susan, Judy, Laura, Richard, Beth, and Tui for admiring my overflowing bookshelves. I always wanted a library. I now find it hard to let anything go because books so clearly reflect who I used to be, am now, and hope to be in the future.

I think the insurance business has been settled to my satisfaction. The phone non-human assures me that new cards are in the works and a human has told me what to do if I need them before the cards get here. I never have the questions that automated systems are interested in addressing. Oh well.

Paul, that building DOMINATES the cityscape. And you may go to EGYPT!!?!?!?!!!!! I'll be checking back to find out and hope that you make the move for my own enlightenment but only if it's good for you and your family.

Karen and Jim, you are both welcome any time at all you come!!!!!!!

Wordle 1,659 3/6*

🟨⬜🟨🟨🟨
🟩🟨🟨🟩⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 roast, strap, sitar

>21 LizzieD: Good morning, me lurve, glad to see you around and about. I'm gobsmacked at how completely I've internalized the idea that my books = me. They're artifacts, they're industrial products, they're made by the billion every year.

And the words inside the objects...each one entered my head after exiting someone else's; changed me in ways big and small, improved...or didn't...my day. It's a miracle. And a joy.

It's why we're All here, so heavy on joy!

>21 LizzieD: I never have the questions that automated systems are interested in addressing. That's my experience as well. And then it's really difficult to get to a human to explain the real problem. I'm glad to hear that it seems your problem has been resolved.

I join you and Karen as 3 sisters today. I too was surprised that Wordle would choose that word.

‘Morning, Peggy! Happy Sunday to you.

>21 LizzieD: I boosted Arsenal. That, of course, is the reason they beat Bournmouth 3-2. It was a nail biter. I do not like nail biters. I want them to score early and often. However, they got it done in the end.

I hope you walked, got your SS lesson finished, and did some pleasure reading. Yay to be 3 sisters. I’m pretty sure that word is not on the original 2,309 word list. It’s not on my spreadsheet of that list.

I might have gotten this quote from you, but if not, it applies to you as much as it does to me:

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.

Howard's End on the Landing by Susan Hill

Wordle in 3 for me today. It was my first thought based on my first word, but I just had to get fancy and tried another word.

As usual, I'm in a hurry to walk, having SSed with the help of the good people in the class and worshiped.

3 3 Sisters is always a delight for many reasons, Karen and Irene!!!!!

Karen, I didn't give you that quote, but it's a good one. I'd add that even if 2 people read exactly the same books, their reactions and connections of it all would be different.

Good for you for your Wordle in 3. I just didn't think of that word and had to check the used list again and again and again before narrowing it down with the help of another list. The streak inches forward.
Wordle 1,660 5/6*

⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜
⬜⬜⬜🟩🟩
⬜🟩⬜🟩🟩
⬜🟩🟨🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, these, dowse, copse, posse Whew!

Happy New Year, Peggy--I was a stranger in 2025 but hope to do better. I LOVE your overflowing bookshelves. And I love your explanation I now find it hard to let anything go because books so clearly reflect who I used to be, am now, and hope to be in the future.

I also hate to let books go but could never have explained it so well.

Oh, Anne! I'm very happy to see you back! I was responding to >22 richardderus: as well as I could, and I had read the Susan Hill that Karen quotes too. I know that feeling is heartfelt for a lot of us! Thank you for your kind words.

'Morning, Peggy! Happy Monday to you.

Wordle in 5 for me today, your Whew of yesterday matches my Whew of this morning.

I've got grocery shopping and bird feeder filling and reading and puttering on my list for today. I might visit Rita at the Library and check out the donations to see which ones belong on my shelves...

Sounds like a good day for you, Karen! I need to work on my study club program on fantasy for Thursday although I pretty much have it down, I think. I'd bet that not one of them reads fantasy, so I hope I can spark some interest. I'm going to give them a handout with books of the 3 authors I'm going to read from and a few other possibilities. (I think I'm a pretty good reader.) I'm targeting three of my favorites, The Curse of Chalion, Tigana, and The Hands of the Emperor. Of course, I'll bore to sleep the ones I normally bore, but some of the rest of them may like it.
I also want to do reading for myself, and I signed up to do another SS lesson, but that can wait until after LSC (Lumbee Study Club, founded in 1912 and meeting every year since except 2020).
Otherwise, I need to put Stasia's Christmas gift in a mailer and mail it. How dumb was I not to change the address at Amazon? It came here instead. That will consume my non-feeding time - both us and the cats.

Wordle 1,661 3/6*

⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
🟨🟩⬜⬜⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 roast, lined, filly We're back on the see-saw, Karen.

If I ever get my thread set up to my satisfaction, I'll start posting quotations again until we have finished the book.

Hiya: The touchstone for The Hands of the Emperor went to Graves' "I Claudius".

>29 LizzieD: Oh, Tigana! I got one as a gift, and was unimpressed first try. Years later I opened it again and was transported. I love being wrong that direction. *smooch*

>29 LizzieD: Two of your 3 are also my favorites. I haven't read anything by Guy Gavriel Kay, pure gender prejudice, but do have The Lions of al-Rassan on hold (for the fourth time).

Susan, I wish you joy when you read GGK!!!!! I have to say, always remembering that we tend to differ a bit on what we most admire in the fantasy that we love, that while I like *Lions*, it is not among my favorites. I absolutely love the setting though: Kay's Moorish Spain with the Jewish woman doctor a major player. I see that I need to reread it. THANKS!!!!!

I'm vastly happy that you ended up transported by Tigana, Richard. I can read a Kay only at longish intervals. He is wonderful to me, but his intense seriousness eventually exhausts me, and I need either to read something lighter or something more directly serious. I wish some of us were in person to help me work this out more clearly. *smooch*

Thank you, Tui. I fixed the Touchstone. I have loved *Claudius*, but it's not the same!!!

Wordle 1,662 4/6*

⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜⬜🟨⬜🟨
⬜🟩🟨🟩⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, stoup, poopy, oomph I think that's a weird progression.

>33 LizzieD: Thanks! I'm less drawn to seriousness, but it's not a deal breaker.

Happy New Year, Peggy! 55 years married is amazing! Hope year 56 is wonderful.

>33 LizzieD:: I'm exactly the same about Kay for the same reason.

'Morning, Peggy! Happy Wednesday to you! 72F today will probably confuse the flora and fauna. Helps with the heating bills, though.

Congrats on your Wordle 4 for the weird progression and weird word. Wordle in 3 for me today.

Trevor's coming over, I have books to read, and puttering to do.

Sounds like a good day for you, Karen! We are 3 Sisters too! *grin* (Irene? Are you making it 3x3?) I'm going to enjoy the next 3 days of 70-some degrees. I don't know about the other fauna, but I'm certainly confused.

Tui, I can't tell you how pleased I am that you not only understood my fumbling reaction to Kay but also agree with it.
I thought that presenting some fantasy to my N.Sparks, SMKidd, KHannah, etc. study club would be easy and fun. I'm finding though that it's hard to settle on passages that give a good feeling for the books while not spoiling anything. I'll do my best.

Anne! You are good to visit, and I appreciate your good wish for our year 56. We're doing our best to stay healthy so that we can continue to enjoy time together. I've missed you this past year and look forward to reconnecting.

Susan, I'll keep my mental fingers crossed for you. There's a LOT of Kay to explore if you need another fantasy outlet.

Wordle 1,663 3/6*

⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜
⬜🟩⬜🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 roast, leman, pecan I'm happy that my second guess forced its way into my consciousness. I can see myself using it in the same circumstances, and I often get that circumstance with that particular first word. I also hope that Mamie had time to play Wordle this morning!

>38 LizzieD: Yes, I did make it 3x3 in Wordle today! Better than my 5 yesterday. I don't know how so many people found that word quicker.

I did my grocery shopping this afternoon, and I was warm enough by the time I got home and got everything put away that I wanted to turn on the fan for a few minutes. I didn't, though. Weirdly warm for this time of year. Maybe I can get outside one of these mornings while it's still warm and clean up some of the dormant plants in the garden. I've got stems and leaves that need to be cut back some.

‘Morning, Peggy! Happy Thursday to you. Another gorgeous day, although it will be a bit cooler than yesterday here.

Congrats on yesterday’s 3 to both of you. Today is a 4 for me.

I’ve got a rather busy day ahead, with one preventative scan and Arsenal at 3. Reading and puttering will occur both before and after each.

Good morning, Karen and Irene! (I DO SO look forward to the time when I can say that to you in the flesh!)

You are both busy in the warm weather. I'll be giving my program on fantasy this afternoon and then grocery shopping. I hope I get home before sunset.

We continue to see-saw, Karen. Four is most respectable. Meanwhile, I finally matched first word with puzzle, and BEHOLD!!!
Wordle 1,664 2/6*

⬜⬜🟩🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 roast, blast Serendipitydoo!

(Anybody here old enough to remember Dippity Do for hair? Oh my goodness!!! I just googled it; they're still in business.)

Dippity DO! I used it all through high school and college!

>41 LizzieD: >42 laytonwoman3rd:

Of course as a chap I am slightly differently situated when it comes to hair care but I am fortunate that I have never once had to use anything on my hair other than decent daily cleans with a good shampoo. No conditioners, no creams, no oils, no tonics, no sprays.

Also never dyed my hair and at 59 it still seems healthy enough (especially compared to the rest of me!).

Hooray for good hair, Paul! I had totally bad hair all my life (except that it was soft and shiny, but that doesn't count if you want to look cool) until it started curling sometime around age 60. Now it's good.

Memories, eh, Linda? I didn't use it but suite mates did and were often unhappy, so we called it Dippity Don't.

Happy new year of reading Dear Peggy. I'll be sure to visit more often this year. Much Love to you.

Much love back to you, Linda. I'm always glad when you feel like being here!

I think I must have tried Dippity-Do as one point in my yoof but my hair (fine hair but lots of it, with latent natural curl) resisted all efforts to control it so it went the way of the dodo.

Ah me. My hair was the bane of my young life, Tui. I felt such kinship years later when my newly married doctor said that he had left his wife fighting with her hair.
(Fine hair here but thick in the wrong places)

Wordle 1,665 4/6*

⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜
⬜🟨⬜⬜🟨
⬜🟩⬜🟨🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, stoke, bidet, eight Back to normal!

My study club program went OK. The ones that I thought would like it, really liked it. The others had 45 minutes to sit and think about whatever they wanted to think about. Now I find myself hot to reread Tigana although I have several unread GGKs on my Kindle. I'll likely get tired of *T* over the weekend.
I am also within 100 pp of finishing the 3rd of 7, I think, Kate Elliott fantasy. I'll do my best to finish that this weekend. 800 pp, but I'll look back on it fondly because the next ones seem to be even longer.

DOGS

He knew what people thought of his kind: 'High Strung,' 'Spoiled Rotten,' 'French.'
But in the next twenty-four hours, He's going to change all that ...
He's SMALL.
He's BLACK.
He's MAD AS HELL..
He's a POODLE with a MOHAWK,
'You'll never cal him Fifi again!'
~ Lynda Barry, cartoon

You will find that a woman who is really kind to dogs is always one who has failed to inspire sympathy in men.
~ Max Beerbohm

A dog teaches a boy fidelity, perseverance and to turn round three times before lying down.
~ Robert Benchley

A dog is the only thing on earth that loves you more than you love yourself.
! Josh Billings

What an idiotic thing for Max Beerbohm to have said.

‘Afternoon, Peggy!

>48 LizzieD: Congrats to your Wordle in 4. Alas, I bombed and ruined my streak of 174.

I’ll pass on the dog quotes.

Book sorting and Virlie’s and the chiropractor went well.

>48 LizzieD: Love the Lynda Barry quote!

Karen O

>41 LizzieD: When I ran out of Brylcream I used to use Winter's DippityDo.

*smooch*

Hmmm. DipDo is striking more chords than I expected, Richard! *grin*

Hi, Karen! Me too! That one and Josh Billings made me smile.

Hi, Karen! Sounds like a good day except for the Wordle. That's always a shock, isn't it? I'm sorry. Every time I do it, I spend a little time considering whether I really want to start back.

Tui, it's from Zuleika Dobson, which I read a lifetime ago and remember mostly for her different colored pearl earrings. I have white and black, and I've thought about trying one of each but never did it.

>48 LizzieD: I’ve met fewer than five people who liked their natural hair.

Are you getting deeper into Crown of Stars?

Curious as to whom I should blamethank for my addiction to Lays of the Hearth-Fire, I checked back and I’m 85% sure it was your mentions that brought it to my attention. I did read the freebie Stargazy Pie the year before, but that didn’t pull me in for more.

Let’s hear it for dogs!

‘Morning, Peggy! Kind regards to your DH and many skritches for the feline contingent.

>52 richardderus: I’ve got way too many brain cells tied up in the Brylcream jingle.

>54 quondame: I hated, hated, my hair ‘til I got to my mid-20s. Then all of a sudden, I loved my strawberry blond tresses.

Wordle in 3 for me today after yesterday’s debacle.

>55 karenmarie: ...but you must acknowledge that a little dab WILL do ya.

Peggy, what was that Beerbohm brute smoking the day he wrote that dyspeptic wheeze?

*snort*

Richard, *Zuleika* long, long ago is my only claim to knowing anything about Beerbohm at all. I'm not even sure why I read it in the first place. I too thought that was most peculiar to say the least. Makes me glad that the most mind-altering thing I'm partaking of these days is coffee. *smooch*

Hi, Karen. Yep. Brylcream. Every teacher in the universe wishes for that staying power for even just one concept. (Mine would be *READ*!!!) And I love and adore your hair!!!!!

Susan, I love my hair now. Even in the winter when the lower humidity relaxes my curls and the salt and pepper gets saltier by the year, I catch a glimpse of it in a mirror and marvel.
I'm happy if I were the one who introduced you to *Hearth Fire*. If I had read *Stargzy* first, I wouldn't have continued either. Of course, I thought *Bee-sting* was wonderful. I am finally about to finish The Burning Stone, and I expect I'll give the crown a little rest. I can't rest too long because I don't want to forget everything, but I'm slogging right now. Zacharias and Co. in the palace of coils is not my favorite part. (See.... I just put it down an hour ago and I'm not sure I'm getting the coil business right and can't remember/can't be bothered to learn S's mother's name.) It's a dandy way to give her reader a glimpse of what's going on among the various characters though.

I have to get out of here, but I don't want to omit this!

Wordle 1,666 3/6*

⬜⬜🟨⬜🟨
🟨🟩⬜⬜⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, nasty, manic

Have a wonderful weekend, Peggy!

>57 LizzieD: Yes, Bee sting Cake is much the more delightful book! Also it has Hal. He’s adorable.

It’s been a long enough time since I read Crown of Stars that only the highlights come to mind, but they are brilliantly high. The rough ground is real though, both for characters and readers.

‘Morning, Peggy! Happiest of Sundays to you.

Thanks re my hair. Congrats on yesterday’s Wordle in 3. Took me 4 today.

Arsenal play soon and I’ll head off for a book club meeting at about 3 or so. I won’t get back in time to make anything for dinner, but I have high hopes for tomorrow. That is, if I can overcome sheer laziness.

Happy 2026 Peggy and happy Sunday!
Just checking in for now and dropping a star.

Sorry, not wordling anymore :(
When at day 85 or 86, I simply forgot(!!) it one day. At first, I was immensely frustrated, and then I realized how much it had stressed me, the closer I got to 100. So now I’m very happy with the Spelling Bee which gives me several days and limitless possibilities to solve it.

I'm very, very happy to see you back, Nathalie!!!! I've thought hard about dropping Wordle too, but I eventually got over being invested in it. If I tank, I tank. If I do well, I'm happy. If I need to look at a word list, I look. It still takes up time, but at least I'm better at it than at Connections. I do that too without reporting on it. Again, my ego isn't involved. I wish you a Happy 2026 right back!

Karen, we're 4 Sisters. I'm not even sure how I got there. I think I get to be sheerly (!) lazy this week. My SS lesson was pretty bad, and somebody else is going to teach next week. YAY!!!!

Hi, Susan. I love all the rest of those Greenwing and Dart books and look forward to the new one. I haven't yielded to the desire to pay for all those surrounding short story/novellas no matter how charming they are - and I'm sure they're very charming.

Wordle 1,667 4/6*

🟨⬜🟩⬜⬜
⬜⬜🟩🟩⬜
⬜⬜🟩🟩⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 roast, learn, chary, quark

We thoroughly enjoyed Lizzie and Wm's visit. They left this afternoon after we had Chinese takeout. I have enough leftovers to avoid cooking for myself for most of this week. YAY! (Talk about lazy!!!)

>62 LizzieD: Finally got back over here for a visit. Sorry I missed the last few days. I join you and Karen as 4 sisters today. Hurray for leftovers! I made a pot roast yesterday, and we've got leftovers for several days.

Checking in on you, Peggy. Have a marvelous Monday!

‘Morning, Peggy, and happy Monday to you. Brrr.

>62 LizzieD: Yay for 4 sisters. I got it in 3 today.

I’m really sorry. What happened with your SS lesson? Glad someone else is going to teach it next week if your YAY!!!! Is anything to go by.

>63 atozgrl: Yay for Three Sisters in Four!

Good morning, Karen, Stasia, and Irene!

Karen, that second servant song is something of a mess. My commentators were mostly riding hobby horses I didn't care to climb onto and suddenly referring to a "she" that I couldn't see. Then, I read one thing that I did like about the last statement that is totally the most significant one in the song - Israel meant to be a light to the nations. His interpretation of how that lives got under the skin of some of our more fundamental members. Time was up, and we didn't have time to discuss it, so everybody left feeling uneasy. I was tired anyway, so I begged somebody else to do the third song, and then I'll take it back or not.

I'm off right now to see what you're up to, Stasia. Somehow, I missed it.

Ummm. Pot roast! Ummmm.

Three Sisters in Four is a good description. I'm happily back to 3 today and very surprised that the word hadn't been used before.
Wordle 1,668 3/6*

🟨⬜🟨🟨⬜
🟨⬜⬜🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, royal, trial

>66 LizzieD: Pot roast *Homerdrool* I'm not sure why the pot roast day here is Friday but I'm just pleased there is one. Pot roast, roasted new potatoes, and Brussels sprouts. It's a thing to look forward to.

Monday orisons!

Hi, Richard! I should think you would look forward to that - especially if the Bs are roasted too!

THE BURNING STONE by Kate Elliott

Finally! Only 12 days into the new year, and I finish the first book!! I had already read half of it last year!!! I was really sold on this medieval fantasy series with the first two, but this one almost got too magic-y for me. I'll also note that each one has gotten a bit longer than the last, and #4 will continue that trend. I bought a copy while I was storming my way through the second one, so I'll read it. I do have an investment in some of the characters, particularly, Alain, Rosvita, Hanna, and the rest to a lesser degree. I won't start the next one yet, and I surely won't buy book 5 until I'm sure I can maintain my interest.

'Morning, Peggy! Another cold morning, although it's already up to 42F. I hope your day is wonderful.

I got a bee in my bonnet at 1 a.m. and pulled all the soft animals/stuffed toys from Jenna's closet. They are on the carpet in the dormer, except for the Beanie Babies, which are in a wire basket because for sure I'm keeping them. I just need to find a place to donate the rest. Heavy sigh.

Wordle in 5 today. Congrats on your 3 for yesterday.

Massage is today instead of yesterday. Nothing like screwing the date up. At least I hadn't left the house, just got dressed and ready to go before a text came through confirming the massage for TODAY.

I would say that realizing you've screwed the date up before leaving the house is a real win. I mess up frequently, and the best I can do is checking while I'm in the car but not out of the driveway. Sheesh!
Good luck with the soft animals. Have you thought about a retirement home's Alzheimer's unit?
It's too late to wish you the top of the morning even if it is still morning - a small win for me. Rest of the day to you!

Phew indeed! I thought this was hard, and congratulations on your 5!
Wordle 1,669 6/6*

⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜
🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜
🟨🟨⬜⬜⬜
🟨🟩⬜🟨🟨
⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 roast, opine, mooch, buxom, jumbo, gumbo

AWARDS

I don't deserve this, but then, I have arthritis, and I don't deserve that either.
~ Jack Benny

Nobel Prize money is a lifebelt thrown to a swimmer who has already reached the shore in safety.
~ George Bernard Shaw (Atrib.)

CONSUMERS
The One Who Has The Most Toys When They Die, Wins!
~ License-plate holder, LA, 1894

I like to walk down Bond Street, thinking of all the things I don't want.
~ Logan Pearsall Smith

CONVERSATION

A gossip talks about others; a bore talks about himself - and a brilliant conversationalist talks about you.
~ Anon.

The trouble with telling a good story is that it invariably reminds the other fellow of a bad one.
~ Sid Caesar

No man would listen to you talk if he didn't know it was his turn next.
~ Edgar Watson Howe

The opposite of talking isn't listening.
The opposite of talking is waiting.
~ Fran Lebowitz

He has occasional flashes of silence that make his conversation perfectly delightful.
~ The Rev. Sydney Smith on Thomas Babington Macaulay

>70 LizzieD: The opposite of talking isn't listening.
The opposite of talking is waiting.
~ Fran Lebowitz

Awomen! Saint Fran's given me many good lines, like "May I be frank? Only if I can be Barbra." and "If no one wants to hear from you, what makes you think they want to hear from your shirt?"

*smooch*

Hi, Peggy! My book club is reading A Gentleman in Moscow this month, so I've finally started the book you sent me. Of course, I found your sweet note again. It's wonderful having bookish friends here on LT!

Wordle in 6 for me as well. So far, every version of the puzzle I've seen posted ended with the same 2 words, though it didn't take everyone 6 tries to get there. Apparently, we were all thinking alike on this one. Several of us, including me, also used buxom. I wonder how many people playing today's puzzle followed that pattern.

>72 atozgrl: Very interesting, about today’s (well, yesterday’s) Wordle. It took me five, but my last three were exactly the same as yours.

Karen O

>3 LizzieD: luckily you are not participating in a "more read than bought" challenge! I love it :) :) :)
I also love the bookshelf pics, even if they are a few years old. I long for shelves with no books stacked horizontally on the tops of rows ... that's when I know I am organised and in control of my stacks. Alas, it is rare.

Happy new year and glad to be seeing you around the threads again this one :)

‘Morning Peggy! Happiest of Wednesdays to you.

Ah, screwing up but not 100% screwing up for the win! LOL.

That’s a good idea – Chatham Ridge memory unit might want some soft animals. Also Second Bloom – they support a battered women/children shelter. Those two first, I think. I need to find appropriate ones, take ribbons/accessories off, and wash. I'm not good with ribbons at all, so they might need to remain ribbon-less if donated.

Gumbo for the Wordle win. It keeps your streak intact, that’s for sure.

All those quotes are great, I really like the one by Lebowitz.

>71 richardderus: Yup, RD. You and me. And the quote about shirt… I need to research Lebowitz quotes.

I’m odd woman out – I did not use buxom.

Wordle in 3 for me today.

>75 karenmarie: She's got a million of 'em!
***
Morning, Peggy me lurve!

Good morning, my WBL! Oh, that Fran L is a gift to the thinking/laughing world! I hope today is the gratifying, heartening, hooraying for the future day! Tomorrow or the next day will do too, just so the result is positive.

GOOD for you, Karen! You might also check to see whether they want to wash the puffies themselves even if you have washed them.
We are 3 Sisters today! Much joy to me!!

Oh the horror of Lizzie in a more books read than bought challenge! I might have done it before Amazon and Kindle Daily Deals but no more! I hear you about the shelves with no books horizontal on top, Megan, but that desire isn't in my genome. (Aunt Jean got every neat and clean gene that might ordinarily have come to me. I am decidedly not normal in that respect. AJ is the woman who vacuumed and then damp-mopped her wool rugs every day of her life until she moved into a retirement community.) I always enjoy following you around the threads!

I'm tickled that you're reading *Gentleman* with your book club, Irene. I hope you love it as much as I did. I'm still gobsmacked that my mother and her best friend who read it too didn't like it at all. I'll be interested to see whether any older members, if you have them, also reacted negatively.
LT 75ers are great, generous people. I'm thankful every day to be among you all!

Wordle 1,670 3/6*

⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜
🟩⬜⬜🟩⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, attic, avoid HA!!

IGNORANCE

What he doesn't know would make a library anybody would be proud of.
~ Anon.

INFATUATION

Doris, I think I'm in love with you. I mean, it's crazy. Really crazy! I mean I don't even know if you've read The Catcher in the Rye.
~ Bernard Slade

Infatuation is when you think that he's as sexy as Robert Redford, as smart as Henry Kissinger, as noble as Ralph Nader, as funny as Woody Allen, and as athletic as Jimmy Connors. Love is when you realize that he's as sexy as Woody Allen, as smart as Jimmy Connors, as funny as Ralph Nader, as athletic as Henry Kissinger and nothing like Robert Redford - but you'll take him anyway.
~ Judith Viorst

I'd be crazy to propose to her, but when I see that profile of hers I feel the only thing worth doing in the world is to grab her and start shouting for clergymen and bridesmaids to come running.
~ P.G. Wodehouse

>77 LizzieD: Thanks, Peggy! I haven't gotten very far yet, but so far I'm enjoying A Gentleman in Moscow very well. I'm loving the writing style.

>73 klobrien2: Well, not quite. Buxom was my third word. I stuck Mumbo in there at 4, which no one else tried, and that was why it took me 6.

But today was Wordle in 3, so I join Peggy as 3 sisters.

Oh my, Karen O. I missed you up there. (Thank you for getting me to look, Irene.) Irene, Karen Marie and I are 3 Sisters today. You want to let me know that you can join us to be FOUR 3 Sisters???

Irene, I took a bit of time to love the book, but it happened well before the half-way mark.

Meanwhile, I am rereading Tigana. *sigh* and enjoying Yellowface at the halfway mark. Not a particularly decent human among the characters so far, but that's OK. I"m glad I never wanted to write a best seller!!! *grin*

>79 LizzieD: “Irene, Karen Marie and I are 3 Sisters today. You want to let me know that you can join us to be FOUR 3 Sisters???”—I would love to be one of the Four 3 Sisters! I have to say that I always make sure to see how you all did every day. Yay for Wordle!

Karen O

‘Morning, Peggy! Happy (coldish) Thursday to you. Looks like you’re above freezing and we’re slightly below freezing.

Congrats on your Wordle in 3. It took me 4 today.

I love the Infatuation quotes. Now that Bernard Slade brought up JD Salinger, I must say that I never particularly liked Catcher in the Rye but I love all the Glass Family and other short stories he wrote. As you may remember, I’m not usually a fan of short stories, but his have always resonated with me.

>78 atozgrl: I devoured A Gentleman in Moscow, Irene. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. I gave it one of my extremely rare 5 stars. Yay for your Wordle in 3.

>77 LizzieD: I'd be crazy to propose to her, but when I see that profile of hers I feel the only thing worth doing in the world is to grab her and start shouting for clergymen and bridesmaids to come running.
~ P.G. Wodehouse

More accurate than "profile" is probably "silhouette" but let's be coy, shall we?

I'm trying to be calm cool and collected, at the very least so I won't shout nastiness at Old Stuff. I try to be silent if I can't be polite in all situations.

It's never quiet in here only because of the idiot box.

OH, Richard. A goal in my life is to have a calm, peaceful core. I don't achieve it. I, therefore, wish you peace in yours since you obviously can't find it in your room. *smooch*
As to the Wodehouse, I suppose an abnormally romantic young man might be infatuated with a profile, but if Sir Plum wants to be coy, I'll skip right over it.

Karen, my heart bled the first time I read *CitR*, but I knew how impossible Holden would be to live with more than about a half hour. I enjoyed JDS's short stories too, and you know that I join you in non-indulgence in them. I certainly had to teach with them for all those years. I will say that I really, really was heartbroken reading Jerome Charyn's Sergeant Salinger. No wonder he became a recluse!!! (It's quite a fine book! I've never gone back to finish my review. I wanted to say that the words he uses to describe Salinger's writing are ones that I would use to describe Charyn's.)
Back to our Wordle See-Saw. Good for your 4.

Karen, Four 3 Sisters RULE, but whatever the formulation, we're GOOD!!!

Wordle 1,671 3/6*

⬜⬜🟩⬜⬜
⬜⬜🟩🟩⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, boast, chasm *beam* (All green too!!!)

ROCK 'N' ROLL

Dicky Hart and the Pacemakers
~ Name of band, London, 1984

Rock 'n' roll is trying to convince girls to pay money to be near you.
~ Richard Hell

... so I think now that Bangla Desh is really, y'know, the most important thing ... and y'know, it's really great the way George has fixed it up, y'know, so you can take care of it, y'know, just by sort of buying the album, y'know. Cos y'know, that's where the Seventies are at, I think, y'know ...
~ Tony Henddra and Michael O'Donoghue, National Lampoon's Radio Dinner, 1972

The greatest line in rock 'n' roll is,
"Awopbopaloobop Alopbamboom'. Top that if you can.
~ Wilko Johnson, rock musician (Attrib.)

I don't know anything about music. In my line you don't have to.
~ Elvis Presley (Attrib.)

For most rockers the only thing standing between them and total illiteracy is the need to get through their Mercedes-Benz owner's manuals.
~ Garry Trudeau

>83 LizzieD: For most rockers the only thing standing between them and total illiteracy is the need to get through their Mercedes-Benz owner's manuals.
~ Garry Trudeau

More like their drivers going through the manual, I'd think, no? What's the point of having All that money if you're not paying people to do the annoying stuff? Coyly, WBL

That occurred to me too, Richard. I'm reminded of the worst boss I ever had - I hate even to type about him for fear I'll conjure him....... He was talking about how he was going to run a business, and the subject of spelling came up. He said, "I'll have a damn secretary do that for me."
I'm pretty sure he's not running a business these days.

(Bless your wooly, coy head, my WBL!)

>85 LizzieD: Peggy, I laughed out loud at this post! Sadly, the worst bosses I've had were women.

>85 LizzieD: It's shocking to me how many good ideas I had, tried to get off the ground and simply...couldn't. I will say in my own defense I never once though "someone else can do my work for me." I wish, once in a while, I could go back and explain to myself why this or that failed. *sigh*

‘Morning, Peggy! Happy Friday to you.

>83 LizzieD: Sigh. I received Sergeant Salinger in 2021 as an ER book. It’s currently MIA. Would I read it if I could find it? Maybe.

Four Three Sisters is impressive. My effort today was not quite that good – it took four.

Cold, clear, gorgeous out. I’m going up to The Belted Goat at Fearrington to meet with friend Tamsie at 2 p.m. Coffee sounds good. We may wander over to McIntyre’s after that. And that’s all that I’ve officially got on the schedule, although you know there’s always reading and puttering, and decluttering.

Amusing quotes about Rock ‘n Roll.

>86 Whisper1: I’m sorry to read about your worst bosses, Linda. The three women bosses I had, Dr. Ruth Attebury at Pepperdine, and Phyllis Lieb at a mfg company in the early 1980s, and a woman whose name I can’t remember, also at a mfg company in the early 1980s, were wonderful and supportive and smart, and etc.

Interesting about women bosses, Linda and Karen. (Welcome to you both!) Two of the profs for whom I worked for my scholarship were wonderful women whom I adored. I got along very well with my supervisor the year I did AFDC casework. My few years as a part-time bookseller at the local Waldenbooks was partly for a woman, whom I also liked. The worst boss was the assistant manager there. Please, Please, RICHARD, don't compare yourself to him. He was beyond his capacity as assistant there, and generally a sad, arrogant, ignorant idiot otherwise. ("Peggy. How long will it take you to teach me to play the piano?..... I mean I want to play well not like the people around here. 2 weeks?" I suggested that it might take a little longer than that. "I don't know why. All you have to do is learn which key to punch next.")

Enjoy your lunch and Tamsie and McIntyre's, Karen!
Love to you, Linda!
I got good news about a friend moving into a retirement community last night, Richard, and am taking that as a good omen that you will be moving soon too! *smooch*

Wordle 1,672 3/6*

🟩⬜🟨⬜⬜
🟩🟩⬜⬜⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 roast, randy, racer I'll take it!!! .... although I don't know why I didn't try the other vowel in my second guess.

REGRETS

The only thing I regret about my life is the length of it. If I had to live my life again, I'd make all the same mistakes - only sooner.
~ Tallulah Bankhead

The follies which a man regrets most in his life are those which he didn't commit when he had the opportunity.
~ Helen Rowland

OLD-AGE PENSIONER (to his wife): My only regret is I did it my way.
~ James Stevenson, cartoon

>89 LizzieD: The only thing I regret about my life is the length of it. If I had to live my life again, I'd make all the same mistakes - only sooner.
~ Tallulah Bankhead

I'm with Granny Tallulah! Awomen...do it sooner.

'Morning, Peggy! Happy Saturday.

Congrats on Wordle in 3. It took me 4 today.

Arsenal play at 12:30, otherwise reading, puttering, and going through a box of mostly cards, possibly a few letters. One by one, alas.

I took 5 today too, Karen, and I had help!
Wordle 1,673 4/6*

⬜🟨⬜🟩⬜
⬜⬜🟨🟩🟨
⬜🟩⬜🟩🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, spire, mitre, fiery Nothing like stupid on #3!

I think I made my mistakes in a timely manner, Richard. That leaves time for more of them now. *smooch*

>92 LizzieD: I'm envious...I always feel behind in this life. Just means I want more of it, I guess. *smooch*

Well, Richard, I'd say that being behind in this life is one of my on-going mistakes. I certainly crave more time to continue going on with it.

FEONIE AND THE ISLANDER REGALIA by Victoria Goddard

This is the first real short story, I think, that I've bought from the *Lays of the Hearth-Fire* books. I liked a lot about it. Féonie does dress Cliopher after he has attained one of his additional high honors. We get a little of her backstory and travel to the Vangavaya-ve to research the court dress that he'll need as he is invested in his last promotion. I wanted a lot more of everything than I got (What did I expect? It's only 33 pages) except the fact that Kip's people gossip about him, in love, but it's gossip.
I think I'll continue to read the novellas but leave the short stories alone.

>94 LizzieD: The short stories - Those Who Hold the Fire, The Tower at the Edge of the World, & Aurelius (to be called) Magnus are the only other Lays ones that come to mind, aren't at all like Feonie - or like each other really.
Now the G&D short works - well, In The Company of Gentlemen is quite good, and I find Stone Speaks to Stone very problematical as told from deeply held Astandalan/colonial worldview.

Thanks for that, Susan. I now remember that I read Saint of the Bookstore and was happier with it than with Feonie. I'm just not a short story fan; that's one thing. I've thought I might want *Tower* eventually, but now I don't know. It's not that I don't have plenty to keep me busy!

Passing by to wish you a very Happy Sunday, Peggy. It might sound strange, but thank you for the regrets quotes, they give me an idea. :)

Sunday *smooch*

I'm glad it's cold and rainy. No really Weather Goddess it make me happy and tingly All over!

*peeks outside to see if sunshine is flooding in yet*

‘Morning, Peggy! Happy Sunday.

>94 LizzieD: …being behind in this life is one of my on-going mistakes. I certainly crave more time to continue going on with it. A very good way of putting it, and a mistake I often make.

Wordle in 4 today. Your 4 of yesterday and re-using the 5th letter when it was yellow is absolutely something I’ve done. Frequently, as a matter of fact.

No need for me to go out today, which makes me happy.

Staying in for the rest of the day makes me happy too, Karen. Forget the steps! I've done 1275 today, and if I get to 2,000, I'll consider that a win.
Two 4 Sisters!
Wordle 1,674 4/6*

⬜⬜🟨🟨⬜
🟩🟨🟨⬜⬜
🟩🟩🟨⬜⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 roast, sauna, suave, sumac

Hmmm. I'll go so far as to say that I'm glad we have a day, Richard. Stay out of it! I intend to do my best. *smooch*

Happy Sunday and New Week right back to you, Nathalie! I'm happy to see you here and hope you've had a good idea! *smile*

>100 LizzieD: Still no sign of any sunshine. The Weather Goddess apparently reads your thread. Just my luck.

'Morning, Peggy! Brrrr. We got a dusting of snow yesterday. It's only just gotten to 32F, and where the sun isn't it still is.

Wordle in 5 for me today. Congrats on your 4 yesterday, Wordle Sister!

I'm glad I don't have to go out today.

Well, Karen and Richard, we have sun after a warmer but rainy day yesterday. I hope you're staying warm, Richard, and I'm glad I don't have to go out today too, Karen!!! I heard a feature on NPR this morning about winter in Kiev, and I'm even more grateful than usual for a warm house. I wouldn't survive there even if the Russian drones didn't get me.

We're Two 5 Wordle Sisters today, Karen. I'll be interested to see if we used the same penultimate word (!). (I remember that you like that word.)
Wordle 1,675 5/6*

⬜🟨🟨⬜🟩
⬜🟩⬜🟩🟩
⬜🟩⬜🟩🟩
🟩🟩⬜🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, paten, haven, waken, waxen

FAILURE

There is much to be said for failure. It is more interesting than success.
~ Max Beerbohm

That poor man. He's completely unspoiled by failure.
~ Noel Coward, of a fellow playwright

There is the greatest practical benefit in making a few failures early in life.
~ H. Huxley

Failure has gone to his head.
! Wilson Mizner, of a still-bouyant bankrupt (Attrib.)

If I were not a gloriously successful person, in England they would have dismissed me as an Irishman and in America as a Socialist.
~ George Bernard Shaw (Attrib.)

We women adore failures. They lean on us.
~ Oscar Wilde, A Woman of No Importance

These strike me as not particularly funny, whereas most topics have at least one big grin quote.

I often think about a line or so from one of my favorite b-movies, Feds. The 2 women accepted to train for the FBI are opposites: a former Marine who is having trouble with the coursework and an Ivy League grad who is having trouble with the physical requirements. Trying to talk her roommate into staying in the course, the Marine says something like, "I've failed lots of times, but you have only ever tried things that you knew ahead of time you'd be good at."

Hello Peggy - I hope you're well, and staying warm! It's cold and dreich here, but I'm grateful for heating and good food. Maybe later this week I'll aim for a 4 figure step count, just give me a few more days...!

>103 LizzieD: "I've failed lots of times, but you have only ever tried things that you knew ahead of time you'd be good at."

I recognize that, primarily when I look in the mirror.

>103 LizzieD: There is much to be said for failure. It is more interesting than success.
~ Max Beerbohm

The soul of fiction distilled into a sentence.

Glad MB redeemed himself for you, Richard!

Oh, Judy, that is exactly the reason it's stuck with me so long ..... that and because Feds is one of my favorites on DVD that I watch every couple of years.

You go, Jackie! It's great to see you here! If ever a day was dreich here, it was yesterday. Today we have had sun and we walked, so my count will be a bit more than 5,000 steps, which is really all I aim for.

YELLOWFACE by R.F. Kuang

Holy Moly! I have no idea what I think of this book. (I'll have to go back and see what Karen and her book club said about it.) It's not so much the description of a train wreck as it is a motorcycle crash in which the rider gets back on, crashes again, gets back on, crashes again, etc., both rider and cycle growing more and more battered.
Juniper Song Heyward watches her frenemy from Yale choke to death on too large a piece of pancake. Before the EMTs arrive, she steals Athena's newly completed first draft of another blockbuster novel and her current notebook. June finds the novel brilliant but unpublishable as it stands, so she does the research, and rewrites it combining Athena's insights and her own more skillful writing. Published under her two given names, the story of the Chinese Labor Corps in WWI, The Last Front is a best-seller and June has everything she has ever wanted - fame, adulation, money, everything. Then the attacks on social media begin; a white woman couldn't possibly have written such a book about the Chinese experience, so she must have plagiarized it from her friend.

There's not one decent human being in the whole book. Athena Liu was a literary vampire. June's new agent and publishers are venal and leave her twisting in the wind as June compounds her appropriation of Athena's work. Her family have never supported her. She has nobody but her own guilty, self-deluding persona. Her first-person narrative is suspect from almost the beginning. The only bit of her supposedly superior writing style is this sentence that detractors use to twit her inclusion of a white missionary's daughter, "She was a lithe young thing, with hair the color of the rising sun and eyes like the ocean, and the men could not keep their eyes off her as she floated past." That's not great writing; it's barely competent.

So why did I keep reading? I kept reading because I couldn't stop. Kuang skewers the publishing industry with its continuing greed and racism ("We already have an Asian woman writer") and the whole modern world of social media with its flamers and trolls. I didn't find it as preachy in the end as Babel, which I enjoyed more, and I will continue to read Kuang as I can.

‘Morning, Peggy! Happy Tuesday to you. It’s a gorgeous and cold day here. Blue skies and below freezing right now.

Yay for being 5 Wordle Sisters. We’re always Wordle Sisters, of course.

Failure. Huh. The quotes aren’t funny, and I don’t understand people who think failure is more interesting than success or that a few failures while young are good thing or wanting a failure to ‘lean on us’ are good things.

The people who’ve been failures who are in my life or who have been in my life are exhausting, whiny, and emotional vampires. (tell us what you really think, Karen)

Anyway.

Wordle in 4 today.

>107 LizzieD: I love what you wrote about Yellowface, and you kept reading for the same reason I kept reading. Most of her books are more than I want to spend right now, but Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators’ Revolution is on Kindle Unlimited and therefore on my Kindle.

My cleaning ladies are coming so I need to go to the bank for cash, no book sort/Virlie’s, and reading, puttering, and etc., are on the agenda.

Well, Karen, I think I understand what you're saying about failure!!!! I'll agree that people who have given in to failure or embraced it are exhausting. On the other hand, we are going to fail at some point. Normal (!) people eventually decide to learn from it even if the only thing they learn is not to give up.
I did enjoy *Babel* for the Oxford and words and magical science part. I was less and less sympathetic with the immigrants' plight as the book went on and on and on - and I'm normally sympathetic to immigrants. I have no idea what you'd think........ well, I have an idea, but people are very surprising.
I'm glad that you agree with what I said about *Yf*. You asked whether I could spot the only possibly decent person in the book, and I guess I have to go with Geoffry in his last encounter with June. Who is it??? That non-entity of a brother-in-law? He did do what she asked............

We are two 4 Sisters today. I kept thinking I'd try a list and then not doing it until I bumbled into the word on my own.
Wordle 1,676 4/6*

⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜
🟩⬜⬜⬜⬜
🟩🟩⬜⬜⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 roast, seize, sunup, sully

I have at last committed the last of my Christmas GC, with thanks to Stasia, Britain After Rome: The Fall and Rise, 400 to 1070, a part of the newish Penguin History series. Lucy is reading it now and enjoying it after we both read and loved Francis Pryor's Britain BC and *AD*. The Fleming book relies on archaeology too.
So I'll have to wait for Rothco.

SUCCESS

Behind every successful man there stands an amazed woman.
~ Anon.

The penalty of success is to be bored by the people who used to snub you.
~ Nancy Astor

If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Then quit. No use being a damn fool about it.
~ W.C. Fields (Attrib.)

There's no secret about success. Did you ever know a successful man that didn't tell you all about it?
~Kin Hubbard

Success didn't spoil me; I've always been insufferable.
~ Fran Lebowitz

All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence, and then success is sure.
~ Mark Twain (Attirb.)

The usual drawback to success is that it annoys one's friends so.
~ P.G. Wodehouse

>109 LizzieD: Success didn't spoil me; I've always been insufferable.
~ Fran Lebowitz I love this. Self-knowledge is SO important.

>109 LizzieD: I hope you enjoy Britain After Rome, Peggy!

Have a terrific Tuesday!

>110 ffortsa: Awomen, Judy!
***
I'm not sure how much longer I'll have to endure the drunkard, but it's too damned long. xo

‘Morning, Peggy!

Oh, I know everybody will fail – I’ve done some of that myownself, spectacularly, too.

I agree about Geoffry, but I was actually thinking about Athena’s mother. She was wishy washy and was easily influenced, but I don’t think she was an inherently immoral or bad character.

Congrats on your Wordle in 4. It took me 4 again today.

The quotes about success are amusing. I do love W.C. Fields.

Looks like we’re both going to get Weather this coming weekend. Time to batten down the hatches.

Trevor's coming over this morning for a bit, then off to the grocery store.

Karen, I congratulate you on your Wordle 4 today. I was in a hurry and did an extra, stupid try - knew it couldn't be the word but didn't want to try that double letter just in case. I was also surprised when my third try turned out to be a word they accepted.
Wordle 1,677 5/6*

⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜
⬜🟨🟨⬜⬜
⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, hoist, wicky, pubic, cubic

Off to get ready to get this HAIR CUT!!!!!!!!!

'Morning, Peggy. Happy calm-before-the-storm Thursday.

Thanks re my Wordle in 4. Wordle accepts most 5-letter words, definitely more than in the 2,309 word list.

Wordle in 3 for me today.

I got up at 4:30 a.m., worried about a text I needed to send to my aunt, composed it, and now, for some reason, it won't go. A test text to my e-mail worked fine. She won't have blocked me, so I don't understand. I'll figure it out eventually, though, although in the meantime I may take what I wrote in the text and put it into an email.

Off to the rescheduled book sort/Virlie's, then a couple of errands before planning to stay in through at least Tuesday.

Happy sorting, Karen. How frustrating when tech doesn't work! I'm trying hard to think of what we need to do before we lose power for the weekend. If it ices (and that's the most likely scenario for us), we'll almost certainly lose it, and we don't have a generator. Aldi was more crowded than I've ever seen it yesterday. For some reason people were buying bottled water. We're not likely to lose water, I don't think!!!!

GOOD for your Wordle in 3. I might have gotten it in 4, but ---- no.
Wordle 1,678 5/6*

⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
🟨⬜⬜🟨🟨
⬜🟩🟩🟩⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 roast, lupin, blind, cling, clink OK

PHOTOGRAPHY

A: Do you know it's costing me more than two thousand pounds to have my house painted?
B: Wouldn't it be cheaper just to have it photographed?
~ Anon.

My photographs do me an injustice. They look just like me.
~ Phyllis Diller

*FOR STASIA*

Some hate broccoli, some hate bacon
I hate having my picture taken.
How can your family claim to love you
And then demand a picture of you?
~ Ogden Nash

>116 LizzieD: Some hate BACON?! This wordings is to making not sense of reason. Must is to being religious nut person.

No power outage whammies on the way! I'm sitting in the dermatologist office waiting to see if my back is getting worse.

I confess I would have thought a little harder of a rhyme for "taken" too. Religious nut person or bit lazy rhymer.

I hope your appointment goes well and that you can stay put when you get back after it. No power outage whammies right back to you!

>118 LizzieD: Checked out fine at the dermatologist...and we have a generator that's kept really tuned up, so to speak. I'm impressed by the infrastructure improvements around here in the last eleven years.

‘Morning, (((((Peggy))))).

This coming ice storm is very stressful. At this point I wish it would just actually get here. Our hatches are battened down.

The only charitable reason I have for people buying bottled water is if they have well water, which would definitely go out if power’s lost. Otherwise, it’s sheer panic mode.

>116 LizzieD: I’m sorry it was clink, not cling… I got it in 3 today.

That’s the perfect poem for Stasia. I’m smiling.

>119 richardderus: eleven years??!! Wow. How time flies.

Stay warm and safe.

I totally understand the need to go ahead and get through it, (((((Karen))))). Otoh, I'll desire power for as long as we can have it. I'd prefer to have a generator (and I'm impressed that your place has a good one, Richard), but my DH is the one who would have to deal with it, and he doesn't think it's worth the effort for the few times we'd need it.
You're right about the well population. That's what we had for most of my childhood, and I remember the storm prep with every possible vessel, including the tub, standing on every horizontal surface filled with water.
Anyway, I'm also eagerly anticipating mail delivery tomorrow before the worst hits!!!!!

I don't mind the Wordle 5 yesterday because look at today!!!!! (And congrats on your 3 too!) The channel was open!
Wordle 1,679 2/6*

⬜⬜🟨🟨🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, baron

It's noon, Richard, so good mid-day to you! I'm relieved that your back is one thing you don't have to have primary concern about today. We takes all the good we can get! *smooch*

SURPRISE

... Aunt Agatha, whose demeanour was now rather like that of one who, picking daisies on the railway, has just caught the down express in the small of the back.
~ P.G. Wodehouse

I don't know if you have ever leaped between the sheets, all ready for a spot of sleep, and received an unforeseen lizard up the left pyjama leg? It's an experience which puts its stamp on a man.
~ P.G. Wodehouse

SURVIVAL

He had decided to live forever or die in the attempt, and his only mission each time he went up was to come down alive.
~ Joseph Heller

SWEARING

Madam Bovary is the sexiest book imaginable. The woman's virtually a nymphomaniac but you won't find a vulgar word in the entire thing.
~ Noel Coward (Attrib.)

Swearing was invented as a compromise between running away and fighting.
~ Finley Peter Dunne

Heck on Earth Heck is a place that God sends people when they say things like 'Aw, shoot' instead of 'shit'. Visionaries see it as a warm cloakroom, or perhaps a bus terminal at 3:00 a.m. in August.
~ Michael McCormick, P.J. O'Rourke and Michael Civitello

>121 LizzieD: Swearing was invented as a compromise between running away and fighting.
~ Finley Peter Dunne

Ha! I delight in the rightness of this.

>116 LizzieD: Woot for Ogden Nash!

>117 richardderus: I do not really hate bacon, but I have not missed it since I became a vegetarian. It was just never a favorite of mine.

>120 karenmarie: At this point I wish it would just actually get here. Our hatches are battened down. I am with you there, Karen!

Stay warm! Stay safe!!

>123 alcottacre: ...not...missed...
...
...
...you're not *obviously* cognitively impaired...was there a terrible fall, or did the brain simply stop behaving normally idiopathically?

>123 alcottacre: I'm also someone who doesn't miss bacon. I haven't fallen out of bed or banged my head and I think most of my faculties are still operational.

Have a great weekend, Peggy.

‘Morning, Peggy!

Congrats on yesterday’s Wordle in 2. Today’s is 3 for me.

>121 LizzieD: Ah, Catch-22. I read it, was disturbed by it, and should really reread it.

Serious ice is heading our way. After that, a deep freeze which will keep anything that fell (ice, sleet, snow) from melting. Or, some might melt a bit then refreeze, which is almost worse. Black ice…

Many hugs to you.

Hugs back to you and Bill, Karen! We're about to walk in a bit, I think. We need to since we won't be trying it tomorrow. I've been texting my HS group all morning. Everybody is more or less ready from Greenville, SC to the 2 of us here in RobCo.

I was blown away by *C-22* (that's a good catch), which led me to read more Heller for awhile. I need to reread it too but not now!

I understand your ability to lose bacon, Paul and Stasia. I expect that Richard reacts more harshly because losing it is not his choice. I'm sorry, my WBL

Congrats on your Wordle 3, Karen!
Wordle 1,680 4/6*

⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
🟨🟨⬜⬜⬜
⬜🟩🟩⬜⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 roast, limey, blind, cliff

'Morning, Peggy!

I can't tell looking online if you've lost power or not.

Congrats on yesterday's 4 for you - I got it in 3 today.

We've only gotten sleet so far, but may get .2-.4" of ice before this thing is ended.

Stay warm and safe.

Morning (when I'm writing this, who knows when you'll see it) Peggy me lurve! It's steadily snowing but not crazy blizzardy awful out there. If it doesn't get worse it will be a serious snow but not the apocalypse. I think that mostly means keeping the sleet/ice from falling and that could be helped by the heat-island effect. One in the lus column for anthropogenic climate change....

I'm happy to say that we got almost nothing in the way of precipitation overnight and what little is there is beginning to melt. We still have power and are not likely to lose it now, but I'm very glad not to have to go out at all. I wish I could persuade my DH of the same, but he will be outside checking things when the melt freezes again.
I'm glad that it's not crazy where you are, Richard and glad that you're doing OK, Karen. Also, congratulations for Wordle in 3!

Wordle 1,681 4/6*

⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜
🟨⬜⬜🟨🟩
⬜🟨🟩🟨🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, roist, wurst, strut I won't even apologize for my duplication in my third guess; I don't know that I would have gotten to the word without it!

EVIL

Between two evils, I always pick the one I never tried before.
~ Mae West

Wickedness is a myth invented by good people to account for the curious attractiveness of others.
~ Oscar Wilde

EXERCISE

I like long walks, especially when they are taken by people who annoy me.
~ Fred Allen

The only reason I would take up jogging is so that I could hear heavy breathing again.
~ Erma Bombeck

MR. UNIVERSE: Don't forget, Mr Carson, your body is the only home you'll ever have.
CARSON: Yes, my home is pretty messy. But I have a woman who comes in once a week,
~ Johnny Carson

EYES

Met a guy this morning with a glass eye. He didn't tell me - it just came out in the conversation.
~ Jerry Dennis

He had but one eye and the popular prejudice runs in favour of two.
~ Charles Dickens

>130 LizzieD: Oh, Mark Twain's story about the woman with a glass eye....
" She was a good soul–had a glass eye and used to lend it to old Miss Wagner, that hadn’t any, to receive company in; it warn’t big enough, and when Miss Wagner warn’t noticing, it would get twisted around in the socket, and look up, maybe, or out to one side, and every which way, while t’ other one was looking as straight ahead as a spy-glass. Grown people didn’t mind it, but it most always made the children cry..."

That's hysterically funny, Linda, and I had never read it before. Somewhere I have a copy of the letter my SiL's boss for some years, a retired lawyer who still came to the family firm every day, sent to the company that made his glass eyes for him. We also have the copy of the letter he wrote to the editor of Time after they inserted a Playboy centerfold into his magazine......and his explanation of Daylight Savings Time.......and other things. She and her henchwoman in the office were merciless practical jokers. That's a thing I could never do, but Betty's stuff was just funny.

>130 LizzieD: The only reason I would take up jogging is so that I could hear heavy breathing again.
~ Erma Bombeck

Ha!

I'm annoyed to report that sleet *ptooptoo* has begun. I've never been happier that I do not need to go outside. *smooch*

>132 LizzieD: It's a mere excerpt, Peggy...the story goes on and on. It's found in Roughing It, I think.

>89 LizzieD: re: women bosses, I have had a few; 2 stand out as being amongst the best. Not only did they refrain from micro-managing but they were both very supportive, open-door policy types.

I have had one rotten female boss who used to chastise me (and others) in front of customers and indulge in belittling and moody behaviour, and who - if she hadn't have also been the HR person - I would have complained to HR about!

‘Morning, Peggy, and happy Monday to you.

Congrats on your Wordle in 4. I was channeling the Wordle Gods this morning and got it in 2. Nobody is more surprised than me.

>130 LizzieD: Great quotes. I’m smiling right now.

We dodged a nightmare. I've got ice on the concrete pad, but see blue skies.

CONGRATS on Wordle in 2 AGAIN, (((((Karen)))))!!! Four for me again today after a dreadful guess at #2. I need to stop doing that!
So did we dodge the really bad stuff although I hate that it's going to be so cold for the rest of the week - at least!

Hi, Megan!!! Humiliating a subordinate in front of an audience is the worst. I am humiliated by the times I remember doing that to a student in class. I hope that those few times were the only times. (The worst was a favorite girl. I had found a dead mouse in the classroom the morning before. We had gotten back from lunch, and for reasons I can't remember, the class had pushed me beyond tolerance. When I saw her shaking crumbs from a honey bun that she was eating, I let her have it with both barrels. She cried, and I was and am deeply ashamed for not calling her outside to say what I had to say.)

Linda, I have a copy of Roughing It and will remember to look at it. Thank you!

May you continue not to need to go outside, Richard! We have warmed up, but I truly hate our projected overnight temps for the next week.

Wordle 1,682 4/6*

🟨⬜🟨⬜⬜
⬜⬜🟨🟨⬜
🟨🟩⬜🟨⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 roast, gnarl, armed, freak

Curmudgeon Time!!!! You may recall that I hate to hear "as well," and maybe that I have heard "as well, as well," several times to my wicked glee. I also hate "you know" when it doesn't really mean "you know" but is just a rhythm maker or time for thought. This morning on Bloomberg I heard a guest financier respond to a question with, "So, yeah, I mean, you know ... blah blah blah....... As you know, you know ...." Fiendish delight!
(I hate "yeah" to begin an answer that didn't ask for a simple positive or negative AND "I mean" when the speaker hasn't said anything that requires an explanation. I know that Americans like introductory words like "well" and "so", but that's as far as I'm willing to go.) *curmudgeon leaving*

'Morning, Peggy! Happy cold Tuesday morning to you.

The temp was 7.2F here at 7:40 a.m., and has only warmed up to 23.2F since. I have no plans on taking the SUV out today, although I might try to fill the bird feeders this afternoon if I can safely get to them. If not, there's still quite a bit of wild bird seed in the two feders.

Congrats on your 4.

I try to avoid filler words but am not always successful.

Wordle in 3 for me today.

>137 LizzieD: Well, you know, as you know the verbal tee-up is a human thing across languages. We're not going to get rid of it, yet we All say it annoys us (like the jumped-up spell check that constantly capitalizes "All" whether I want it to or not).

I hope you can make your peace with human frailty in this regard when there are so many other curmudgeon-bait idiocies in the world. Your digestion and peace of mind are more important than illusory perfection.

>137 LizzieD: Singing my song---about public speakers who CAN'T. I attended a ZOOM meeting yesterday, and the man running it was a "well, y'know....I mean..." mutterer. If you have nothing to say, don't say it! I may be grumpier than you are on this issue---people who start EVERY sentence with "So..." drive me to the mute button, grumbling as I go. I think I became sensitive to this sort of thing as a child. Whenever someone started a sentence with "Well" my grandmother would say "THAT's deep subject". We need a similar response to "So..."

Richard and Linda! I think the thing that is driving me mad at the moment is that I can HEAR people training themselves to use the current expression until it comes out naturally. Teens are especially prone to this, and I wish that adults could outgrow the temptation. Some recent trends that I hear less often are stuttering (from people who are able to talk smoothly), "That's a good question," even "like" and the annoying upspeak and vocal fry. Anyway, my own writing and speaking aside, I am given to paying attention to language use.
Meanwhile, I long for the old days of "uh", "ah", "and um" etc., which did the same thing without using words that actually used to mean something.
Incidentally, Richard, I don't have that jumped-up spell check with Windows 7 that I continue to nurse along.
Linda, sister, I would never say this to a "So..." user, but I can see interrupting with, "Don't you dare call me a So and So."

Karen, I'm glad that you can stay in. I need to go out today or tomorrow, but it will likely be tomorrow or Thursday. I admire your repeating 3!!!

Wordle 1,683 5/6*

⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜
🟨⬜🟨⬜🟨
⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, foist, shuck, musky, dusky Four was a possibility, but as usual, I chose the wrong word.

AUDIENCES

The best audience is intelligent, well-educated and a little drunk.
~ Allen W. Barkley

They made me a present of Mornington Crescent,
They threw it a brick at a time.
~ Albert Chevalior

If they liked you, they didn't applaud - they just let you live.
~ Bob Hope

They were really tough - they used to tie their tomatoes on the end of a yo-yo, so they could hit you twice.
~~ Bpb Hope

>124 richardderus: >125 PaulCranswick: I am with you, Paul.

>137 LizzieD: Checking in on you, Peggy. Glad to hear that you have made it through!

I must push all your curmudgeonly buttons! Lol

Have a terrific Tuesday!

>141 LizzieD: The best audience is intelligent, well-educated and a little drunk.
~ Allen W. Barkley

Vice President Barkley oughta know...he endorsed Prohibition.

>140 laytonwoman3rd: My father used to start all his funny stories with 'So...' One time, when he started, my mother and I starting laughing hysterically. He looked at us with a woeful eye and said 'but I haven't even told you the joke yet!"

>144 ffortsa: I love that, Judy! I don't remember that my daddy told jokes - he was just funny.

>143 richardderus: Oh my goodness! I only felt only the slightest nudge when I saw Barkley's name, but he was Truman's VP. Good grief!

>142 alcottacre: You don't push any buttons, Stasia. We are likely going to have snow this weekend. It's coming up from the South, and that's when we really get hit. We'll be cold enough for it to stay around way longer than I'll want it to. In '72 snow closed I-95 here. The local churches sent out their buses and volunteers with suitable vehicles to rescue stranded motorists. They stayed in the churches or members' homes until the highway was open again.

My free time today went to reveling in a box of books sent by Karen, who has been picking them up from her library sale for quite some time. I'll list them above as I have time!!!! THANK YOU, KAREN!!!!!!!!!

Wordle 1,684 4/6*

🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜⬜⬜🟩🟨
🟨🟨🟨🟩⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 roast, infer, lured, cruel At last! Not 5!!!!!

‘Morning, Peggy! Well. I didn’t post yesterday and am sorry for it.

>145 LizzieD: I find it interesting that our forecast from the National Weather Service says we might get 3-5” of snow on Saturday-Sunday, says Apex (where Irene lives) might get 2-4”, but doesn’t even say you’re getting snow more than a “Winter Storm Watch”.

The box o’ books was fun to collect and fun to send. I gave Trevor cash and the box and he went to the PO for me. He didn’t get “Media Mail” out before the post office clerk sent it what’s now NOT called First Class. It was supposed to arrive Saturday but arrived yesterday.

You’re very welcome, my dear.

Since I lost a day, I’ll simply say that today’s Wordle took me 5. Yay for Wordle, Yay for Wordle Sisters!

Book sort, Virlie's, lunch with Rita. I'll just have a bit of a snack at Virlie's if we finish up late, 11ish, which we might because we're supposed to get a donation of 20 boxes of books this morning.

Good morning, Karen, or good afternoon, or good morning again tomorrow - whenever you read this!!!
As to the box, I'm glorying in it and will get the new, new ones catalogued right now, I think. THANK YOU!!!
As to the weather, the latest that we are seeing is that the coast will get the brunt of the snow, but you and we (basically Raleigh down to Laurinburg) will get the 4-6 inches, 100% certainty. I like to see an inch or two fall, stay a day, and melt away. This much is not in my personal comfort zone. Lucy laughs at my reaction to her cold and snow. That reaction is totally sincere.
I always quote my grandmama, born in 1885 on snow: "We children would be in such a glee .... .... .... foolishness!"
Happy book sort. Glad your Wordle was 5 and not 6 or bust. If Wordle Sisters don't rule, why???

Wordle 1,685 3/6*

🟨⬜🟩⬜⬜
⬜⬜🟩🟨🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, stalk, flaky Long time no see!

SOCIALISM

'Rabbi, can one build socialism in one country?'
'Yes, my son, but one must live in another.'
~ Anon.

GEORGE: Fabled names in the annals of the New Left. All with monosyllabic names ... Stan, Mike, Les, Norm. As if to have two syllables in one's name were an indication of social pretension.
~ Alan Bennett

The function of socialism is to raise suffering to a higher level.
~ Norman Mailer

As with the Christian religion, the worst advertisement for Socialism is its adherents.
~ George Orwell

We should have had socialism already but for the socialists.
~ George Bernard Shaw (Attrib.)

Many people consider the things which government does for them as social progress, but they consider the things government does for others as socialism.
~ Earl Warren

(My man, EW!)

I had Wordle in 5 yesterday, when I decided not to check any lists. Then I saw over on Karen O's thread that Wordle is going to start reusing words on Monday. That removes some temptation. Back to Wordle in 3 for me today.

>147 LizzieD: Some good quotes on Socialism, especially Earl Warren.

>147 LizzieD: Many people consider the things which government does for them as social progress, but they consider the things government does for others as socialism.
~ Earl Warren

(My man, EW!)

Mine too! *smooch*

‘Morning, Peggy! I guess it will be Good afternoon when you read this. *smile*

Collecting books for you over the last … year? … has been a pleasure. One day it just seemed like the time to box and send them off to their new home with you.

Yay for your 3. I got it in 3 today.

>148 atozgrl: I can see several articles about Wordle starting to re-use words, but not a NYT announcement. ?

Stay safe and warm.

Ah Karen, I'm still beaming at the books!
Ah Richard and Irene, Earl Warren was something big, wasn't he. I've just realized that I don't know nearly enough about him, and have just ordered a used copy of Jim Newton's massive bio, Justice for All. I obviously can't die anytime soon although we may have to add some supports for the floor joists to accommodate the influx of books that does not stop. (And doggone Amazon for keeping the price of the Kindle rights at $15 for this 20 year-old book!)

Karen and Irene, congrats on your remembering the word from last week (?) that was the Word today. I got there at last

Wordle 1,686 4/6*

⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜
⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜
🟨⬜⬜🟨🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 roast, clone, odium, jumbo

>145 LizzieD: I am sorry to hear about the snow, but very glad it is not ice.

Yay, Karen!!

I hope you have a fantastic Friday!

Thank you, Stasia. I'm very glad it's not ice too. Our closest local stations say we're in the 6-12 inch zone. I devoutly hope for the least amount possible. Wind chill factor will be ZERO Sunday night. This is southeastern NC, for heaven's sake!

TIGANA by Guy Gavriel Kay

I love GG Kay, and Tigana remains my absolute favorite, I'm happy to say after this rereading. I love his writing and his settings in imagined historical contexts, his characters, their adventures, their loves and losses. I can even tolerate their magic easily when he includes it. This novel is set on The Palm, a re-imagining of Renaissance Italy, with 9 city-states, once ruled by various dukes except for one who is styled "prince." The son of the slain Prince of Tigana has dedicated his adult life to uniting the entire Palm against the two sorcerer tyrants who now divide the peninsula between them.
I love the details of Kay's world: the trialla, a night bird with a song as lovely as its name, the occasional snatches of song and folk-sayings like that of the riselka, non-human, but human-like, slender and elongated with long green hair. "One woman sees a riselka, her path comes clear to her/Two women see a riselka, one of them shall bear a child/Three women see a riselka, one is blessed, one is clear, one shall bear a child." There is a prediction for men too. We also have the Night-Walkers, like the Benandanti, who preserve the earth's fertility from evil.
I've said before that Kay's writing is very intense. It was this time too, and I am choosing a good dose of non-fiction and frivolity for February!

>153 LizzieD: I hate to tell you this, but our wind chill factor here is projected to be anywhere from 0 to minus 5 tomorrow - and this is Texas!!

I really need to re-read Tigana at some point!

>151 LizzieD: There is no bottom to the hole of capitalist greed, Peggy. Makes me feel queasy.

Lovely weekend-ahead's reads, smoochling.

You're right, Richard, and it makes me sad for such tiny little people and queasy too. Be warm and read! *smooch*

I know, Stasia, I know. But you're far inland and slightly north of us, so we're rarely as cold as you, I think. We have a bit of snow on the ground from overnight, and the world looks sinister from here. We've hit our high for the day, 27°, and are falling slowly. *shiver shiver, freeze, freeze*

Wordle 1,687 3/6*

🟨⬜🟨⬜⬜
⬜🟨🟩🟨⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, salty, allot I cheerfully confess that I created a list.

IF my mouse makes it possible, I'll finish my comments on Tigana up in >153 LizzieD:, but since I'm replying to Richard, I think I'll post my quotation here. Kay published this in 1990, I think, and I immediately thought this time of the one I choose not to dignify with a name. Sounds spot-on to me and also gives non-Kay readers a sample of his writing.
This is one of the sorcerer tyrants speaking about the other one.

"I hate that man down there," he said quietly. "I hate everything he stands for. There is no passion in him, no love, no pride. Only ambition. Nothing matters but that. Nothing in the world can move him to pity or grief but his own fate. Everything is a tool, an instrument. He wants the Emperor's Tiara, everyone knows it, but he doesn't want it for anything. He only wants. I doubt anything in his life has ever moved him to feel anything for anyone else ... love, loss, anything."

Good Afternoon, Peggy! Happy Saturday to you!

Quite a few of my books (most, actually), do not have a weight so I cannot trust the Weight measurements. However, I do know that when I started using the shelves in my Retreat, I had to replace brass pegs with plastic shelf support pegs when the brass pegs started failing and gouging the holes. When I saw what a great job the the plastic ones do, I started replacing the ones in the Library, too. Lots and lots of shelf support pegs.

Yay for yesterday’s 4 in Wordle and today’s 3. It took me 4 today. I hadn’t had enough caffeine and felt under pressure to get it before the Arsenal game started.

>156 LizzieD: It’s 18.7F here and snowing. WRAL’s newest says snow for our area, probably not heavy, ‘til midnight.

Off to putter and read and etc. I think it will be Vegetable Beef Soup again tonight, probably the last of it.
...

I had this all prepared, then didn't click Post message.

We got about 5". and it's 18.3F. Absolutely gorgeous, and I will definitely not put one foot outdoors.

One website I just looked at said your town got 4.6".

The Wordle Gods were kind to me and gave it to me in 2.

Wow for Wordle in 2 AGAIN, Karen!!!! You can see my if-y progress below. Given a choice of two words, I should use the one that I don't choose.

We seem to have more than 4.6" here - more like 6 or 7. The curbing is completely covered. I do see an occasional vehicle on our main road though. It's cold. I hate cold, but it is gorgeous. (precip.com shows 6" with snow to liquid ratio of 15/1.)

Wordle 1,688 5/6*

⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨
🟨⬜🟩🟨⬜
🟩🟨🟩⬜⬜
🟩⬜🟩🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, noise, sniff, shiny, spiny

'Morning, Peggy! Wow. 6 or 7". Trevor was in Liberty and they got 10" there.

Jenna called yesterday to tell me that Hwan was approved for her Green Card. Their interview was less than a month ago, and I'm happy for the quick turn around.

Whew and Hooray for Hwan!!!!! I'm happy too, (((((Mama Karen))))).
Where is Liberty??
AND I see that Wordle maker has begun to reuse words. That puts quite a crimp in my enjoyment. At least I only smelled the skunk.

Wordle 1,689 6/6*

🟨⬜🟨⬜⬜
⬜🟨🟨⬜⬜
⬜⬜🟨🟩🟩
⬜🟩🟨🟩🟩
🟩🟩⬜🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩roast, early, friar, vicar, cimar (using a list, obviously -- another spelling for "simar" a scarf), cigar

All the snow is still here except on the main street that we can see out the front windows. Last night one car on the frozen stuff sounded like Sherman's entire army marching past.

Off to feed them, of course.

>160 LizzieD: Our snow and ice are almost gone so I hope yours are gone soon too, Peggy.

Have a marvelous Monday! Stay safe and warm!

Hi Peggy! Hope your snow goes away soon - you sure did get socked with it, didn't you?

>107 LizzieD: I loved your review of Yellowface. I listened to it and I'm sure I actually squirmed while I was. That was probably the point, but it made me acutely uncomfortable - as you say, like watching a crash.

And I'm adding my hoorays for Ogden Nash (Candy is dandy but liquor is quicker). I shared the marvelous The Tale of Custard the Dragon and Custard the Dragon and the Wicked Knight with students for years because the language was just so fun, but I had to retire Custard because it turns out that kids do not have an appetite for bad guys climbing through the window with guns. I still have the books in my library but I no longer read them aloud.

Anne, it is lovely to see you here! I'm glad that we're in agreement about Yellowface. I'm thankful that it's making its way out of my system!
I don't know anything about Custard, I'm sorry to say. I guess my first and favorite is "You shake and shake the ketchup bottle. First none'll come out and then a lottle." (That's probably not quoted correctly, but it's what I learned and love to this day.)

We had a lot of melting today, but we have a lot of snow still out there. We did get socked - at least for us - Anne. And it STILL didn't snow during the day so that I could see it. At least, it started before dark, but the flakes were so tiny as to be invisible. We're warming up though. Another couple of days and it will be gone!

IN THE MORNING I'LL BE GONE by Adrian McKinty

I do enjoy Sean Duffy, the Catholic policeman in Northern Ireland. His chief has managed to get him off the force, but MI5 puts him back on because he was the childhood acquaintance of a man who is now a high-ranking IRA terrorist. They think he is back in the UK planning a major strike. They hope that Sean can find him. Sean is a complex character, and McKinty is a skillful writer. It's all I can do not to jump into the next one it the series. I'm thrilled that it is a series!

Hi Peggy. Isn't Sean Duffy the best? I'm glad Adrian McKinty decided to add to the original 6 books. You have plenty of good reading ahead.

duplicate.

‘Morning, Peggy! Happy Tuesday to you. It’s already 38.8F out here, so we’ll get a lot of melt. Thanks re Hwan’s Green Card.

Liberty is up 421 past where 64 goes west-east into Siler City.

Yes, Laura warned me about Wordle reusing words. I could not find where Wordle actually announced it. I’m glad you got it and thus avoided the skunk.

>163 LizzieD: I love Ogden Nash. Celery raw develops the jaw, celery stewed is more quietly chewed.

A glossina mortisans bit rich Aunt Betsey.
Tsk-tsk, tse-tse.

Edited to fix mortisans.

And etc.

Wordle in 4 for me today.

What a day! I can still say good morning to Karen. "Good morning, Karen!!!"
The city has had every truck it owns, I think in front of our house and around the corner stopping a water leak in the middle of the intersection. Many conferences out in the remaining snow, but they are putting a patch on it now.
I didn't know either of those Nasheries, so thank you for them both!

Wordle 1,690 3/6*

⬜🟩⬜⬜⬜
⬜🟩🟩⬜⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, seize, weigh She found a new one today, and the doggerel, of course, gave it to me. Good for you in 4, Karen. I do like my 3 all dressed in green and white.

>156 LizzieD: I've added your quote from Tigana to my book of 'em. It's just *chef's kiss* for the present moment.

*smooch*

I'm glad you read it and glad that you think it's worth quoting too, WBL. *smooch*

‘Morning, Peggy! I hope the leak got fixed. With all the trucks and conferring and etc., it should have, right?

It’s warm and the snow is melting. But tonight’s forecast is Rain, snow, freezing rain, and sleet before 1am, then a chance of snow between 1am and 5am. Low around 27. North wind 3 to 6 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%. Little or no ice accumulation expected. Little or no snow and sleet accumulation expected.

Chatham County is smack dab in the middle of the Winter Weather Advisory. Sigh.

I love green and white, too, and today’s 4 is green and white.

Have a lovely day. Kind regards to your DH and skritches for all the felines.

Your wish for my day right back in a wish for your day, Karen, with regards and skritches. I'm trying to imagine my DH's response if I switched the two!

That's pretty much our forecast too, I'm sorry to say. I'm getting very low on grapes and have stuff to mail, but even though everything looks fine where I'd have to walk, I'm not going out. They did repair the leak - or at least refilled the hole they dug - and I hope your plumbers were equally successful.

Here we are GREEN 4 Sisters!

Wordle 1,691 4/6*

⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜⬜🟩⬜🟩
⬜🟩🟩⬜🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 roast, voile, whine, chide I guess guess 2 was stupid, but I doubt I would have done better any other way.

MISS PIGGY SPEAKS

... an individual whose appearance was so repulsive I had to have my mirrors insured.

A lot of people will also urge you to put some money in a bank, and in fact - within reason - this is very good advice. But don't go overboard. Remember, what you are doing is giving your money to somebody else to hold on to, and I think that it is worth keeping in mind that the businessmen who run banks are so worried about holding on to things that they put little chains on all their pens.

Dear Miss Piggy,
My car engine turns over, but it doesn't start. I've checked the plugs, the points, the condenser, the coil, the distributor, and I even sprayed carburetor cleaner in the carb, but no dice. What gives?
Stuck
Dear Stuck,
It sounds to me like your car is broken. If you need it soon, I would get it fixed.

What should a woman do if a man stands her up on a date?
If the man is genuinely apologetic, I would let him off with a large bunch of flowers, an expensive present, and a lavish make-up dinner. On the other hand, if he treats it in an offhand manner, he is obviously the kind of person who is not going to knock himself out for you, and you should do it for him.

Diet Tips
Never eat anything at one sitting that you can't lift.
Always use one of the new - and far more reliable - elastic measuring tapes to check on your waistline.

“ he is obviously the kind of person who is not going to knock himself out for you, and you should do it for him.” How absolutely perfect!

>171 LizzieD: Always use one of the new - and far more reliable - elastic measuring tapes to check on your waistline.

...is THAT what I'm doing wrong....

*smooch*

What a joy to visit you, Peggy!
So much to catch up on here! It makes me happy to hear your voice and to see what you’re up to. Happy 2026!

I loved Gentleman, see review; the Fran L quote (The opposite of talking isn’t listening…) is one of my favorites; I have not read Tigana (yet), though really enjoyed Lions and Under Heaven.

It’s been far too long since I popped in. I expect to have more time for reading and posting - I’m moving on to my next act in May.

Hope to be in closer contact!

‘Morning, Peggy! Happy Thursday to you.

I’m glad the plumbers refilled the hole and hope that they actually repaired the leak. Our plumbers found no problems – Bill must have misinterpreted what he heard. However, they put spigot protectors on all outside spigots, so there’s that.

Yay Green Sisters! Today took me 5, with one yellow. Sad, but beats a skunk.

Love the Miss Piggy quotes. Fun with a lot of smarts.

Good afternoon, Karen and REX!!!

Holy Moly, man! What are you doing here at 2:55 AM??? That suggests to me that retirement has started already. I wish you a good one and much time to explore possibilities, commit to one or two, enjoy your family, and READ!!! I look forward to being in closer contact with you too.

I hope they repaired your leak too, Karen. Outside spigot covers are a good thing.

I have spent a morning looking back at my last 2010 thread. I come away thinking that I was sharper than than now. I kept hoping for wisdom .... oh well. I can still quote Miss Piggy.

Five beats a skunk for sure, Karen. As usual, given a choice of 2 words to try at guess 3, I chose the wrong one.
Wordle 1,692 4/6*

⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜🟨⬜🟨⬜
🟩⬜🟩🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, hoist, scoop, swoop

My current first world problem is the delayed and then non-delivery of a much-desired and more expensive book than usual that I purchased from Amazon with a GC. The USPS marks it as 'delivered' yesterday, but I didn't get it. I checked for it many times yesterday and was sitting right here where I could see anybody who passed the house during the time they say it came. Amazon tells me that most people in my situation find the book within 24 hours, so I'm waiting to tackle the deliverator if I can. I'm also waiting for an overdue insurance card to replace the one that wasn't delivered in early December when my DH got his. I realize that our local PO is understaffed, but they change carriers on this route often, and the mail may come as early as 10:00 or as late as 5:00. GRRRRRrrrrrrrrrrr.

MISS PIGGY SPEAKS

Artichokes. These things are just plain annoying ... after all the trouble you go to, you get about as much actual 'food' out of eating an artichoke as you would from licking thirty or forty postage stamps. Have the shrimp cocktail instead.

Clams I simply cannot imagine why anyone would eat something slimy served in an ashtray.

Lobsters although these are delicious, getting them out of their shells involves giving them quite a brutal going-over. The way I look at it, they never did anything to me (although they are quite nasty-looking, and I do not like the way they stare at you from those fish tanks when you come into the restaurant - it is quite rude). On the other hand, if they serve you just the good parts already removed from the shell, that is quite a different matter, since the element of personal participation in the massacre is eliminated.

Snails I find this a somewhat disturbing dish, but the sauce is divine. What I do is order escargots, and tell them to 'hold' the snails.

Foreigners have a very roundabout and confused way of saying things. Here's how I cope. I am in a restaurant, and I want a piece of the delicious chocolate cake I see displayed on a shelf, "Personality who bringulates les munchables," I call, summoning the waiter. When he arrives, I give my order. "If it does you please, transportez (trans-por-TAY) to moi's tablette one gigantical smitereeni de that chocolate cakefication avec as immense a velocité (vee-luss-ee-TAY) as possible." And there you are!

Oh, Miss Piggy quotes! Can’t believe the Muppets are younger than me. I bought the old episodes on DVD some years ago, I wish I had the time to finally watch them, will try to cram in an episode or two over the weekend.. hm, just started the complete Peanuts I’ve also had for years. Must buy one of those elastic measuring tapes :D

Have a lovely weekend!

‘Morning, Peggy! Happy Friday to you.

Everything plumbing-wise is fine here. Bill must have misheard whatever it was that made him think we had a burst or leaking pipe. The plumber came, put covers over all the outside spigots, and headed out to continue dealing with emergency calls.

>176 LizzieD: I completely alphabet-souped S*OOP but didn't get skunked. I’m sorry about your book not arriving and guess that I shouldn’t complain about the between 1 and 4 mail delivery we get.

Heh, Miss Piggy. Excellent quotes and I agree with all of them.

Wordle in 3 for me today.

Jenna never, ever, liked Sesame Street. I liked it when it first came out, as I was babysitting a lot and watching with kidlets was a lot of fun.

Book sort and Virlie's. I cancelled lunch with Jan, will go grocery shopping and then over to Bob's antique barn, 2 miles away. He thinks he has another book case for me. Do I know where I'd put it? Not really... but I'm thinking against the Breakfast Room wall.

Woo Hoo for another handsome bookcase, Karen!!! I hope it's just what you want. Friday booksort and Virlie's - what a winter we are having. We still have little patched of snow on the ground, but I am going to walk and go to the PO today. Your books are finally coming to the right address. I still can't believe that your PO couldn't figure out that "Spring" was likely "Singing" since everything else was correct, and you have been there for some time and getting mail.
We are 3 Sisters today!!!!

Welcome back here, Nathalie! I guess I should have had a child with whom I could watch Muppets, but I didn't, so I only ever clicked past Sesame Street looking for something else. I do adore Miss Piggy though. I do cherish my Peanuts cartoon collections too. I hope your work is going well and that your free time is pleasurable!

No book appeared yesterday. I'll give them (both the PO and people with the same street number in the neighborhood) a reasonable amount of time today and try to catch the mail carrier before I confront Amazon. Besides WANTING the book, I used a GC to pay twice as much as I normally do for a copy. I'll hate to put that much into it again, but I will because I've grown accustomed over the last almost 3 weeks to thinking that I'm going to own it. At least a replacement insurance card arrived yesterday to replace the initial new one that apparently was lost in the mail. Do you sense a theme here????

Wordle 1,693 3/6*

⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜
🟨⬜🟨🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩roast, angel, gavel

MISS PIGGY SPEAKS MORE

One's chapeau provides the perfect opportunity for a profound fashion statement. Your hat should not merely say, 'here is my head' but rather it should convey a sense of allure, mystery, even intrigue. Here moi's chapeau is saying, 'Oui, I have time for one quick chocolate malted in that café with the umbrellas that have tables on their handles, but then I must board the Oriental Express for a rendezvous with the Duke of Candelabra in the lovely, yet sinister, Kingdom of Rutabagia.'

Someone you like is wearing an ugly hat, and she asks you to give her your honest opinion of it.'
'What a lovely chapeau! But if I may make one teensy suggestion?" If it blows off, don't chase it.'

Generally speaking, the length and grandness of a hotel's name are an exact opposite reflection of its quality. Thus the Hotel Central will prove to be a clean, pleasant place in a good part of town, and the Hotel Royal Majestic-Fantastic will be a fleabag next to a topless bowling alley.

Is there a 'cure' for a broken heart?'
Only time can heal your broken heart, just as only time can heal his broken arms and legs.
(*I predict that Susan will like this one.*)

Perfume is a subject dear to my heart. I have so many favourites: Arome de Grenouille, Okéfenôkée, Eau Contraire, Fume de Ma Tante, Blast du Past, Kèrmes, Je Suis Swell, and Attention Si'il Vous Plaît, to name just a few.

Checking in on you, Peggy. I hope you have a fantastic Friday!

An equally fantastic one to you, Stasia!

I'm trying to tamp down my exhilaration. We met our mail carrier on our walk. She had not delivered our mail Wednesday, but she told me what to do, and I pass it on to you. Call the Post Master with the tracking number of a package you suspect has been misdelivered. He can check their GPS set-up and see where it actually went and the mail carrier will attempt to retrieve it. In the case of my book, it went to 1002 James Street only a block away from my 1002 address. Those people are often gone for days at a time, so they may not have even seen it. Anyway, I have a chance of getting it back in a day or two. HOORAY!!!!!!!

>179 LizzieD: I do, but not quite as much as the (slightly) subtler one I called out.

>181 LizzieD: This is useful information! Thanks for sharing it. I'm sorry you're having a problem getting your book, and I hope that the PO can get it to you soon.

That was a surprise to me too, Irene, and I'm glad to pass it on. See below for update!

Susan, I agree with you, but oh, Miss Piggy!

My DH found one of my cameo earrings (the first pair I bought when I got my ears pierced!) in Lulu's water bowl this morning. I didn't realize it wasn't in my ear. The power went out with an electric pole on fire at 10:23 while I was still prepping my omelet. It came back on after only an hour, so I've had my hot breakfast and am stuffed.

*SIGH* I just saw the mail truck go by and found a book in the mailbox. 20 seconds of ecstasy! I thought my missing book had arrived. Then I realized that it was not big enough to be the 1000 or so pp of *Britain After Rome*, and the return address was wrong. It was my bio of Earl Warren, which I am very happy to have, but I could easily have waited another two days for it. *SIGH*

Wordle 1,694 5/6*

🟨🟨🟨⬜⬜
⬜🟨🟨🟨🟨
⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, stale, cleat, pleat, bleat I will not dedicate this to my WBL since it gave me so much trouble!

‘Afternoon, Peggy! Happy Saturday to you.

>179 LizzieD: Here are a couple of pics of it: I need to find a place for it that makes sense, then decide that spending $1050 + tax is okay. I'd never heard of barley twist before.



Yes, this week has been so confusing. I have to literally look on my cell phone many times a day to remember what day of the week it is. I started writing Happy Sunday to you up top…

Yay for 3 Sisters. Yay for the replacement insurance card.

I can’t remember the last time I wore a hat – had to have been a beanie against the cold.

… topless bowling alley… That’s quite a visual.

>181 LizzieD: Good to know. Sheesh.

>184 LizzieD: Alphabet soup for you today, alas. 5 works, though, right?

>184 LizzieD: *baa*

There, there, WBL. *smooch*

Karen, that's gorgeous. I haven't heard of barley twist either, but it's handsome! That is quite an investment though. Make the decision that makes you most satisfied!

I wear a watch cap/toboggan all the time when we walk. Otherwise, I don't. Yep. I thought that was very helpful information that I could have used a couple of times before now..... Five definitely works.

>187 LizzieD: Even after living in the area over 45 years, I still can't get over this weird southern custom of calling a knit winter head covering a toboggan. It still gives me a mental image of someone with a sled on their head.

Wordle in 3 for me today. I could have had it in 2, but I picked the wrong word between the two I was thinking of.

'Morning, Peggy! Happy Sunday to you.

>188 atozgrl: Having lived in SoCal and called knitted winter hats beanies, toboggan sounded funny to me too when I first moved here almost 35 years ago. But now it sounds normal. Yay for your Wordle in 3, Sister.

Wordle in 4 for me today.

Good day, Wordle Sisters with congrats to Irene and kinship with Karen.
Irene, what do you call the "knit winter head covering" then?
Karen, to me a beanie is a little cap with almost no brim at all like freshmen wore during rat week. Pretty much like . I see that the rest of the world is with you though!

Wordle 1,695 4/6*

⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
🟨⬜🟨⬜🟩
⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 roast, blend, imbed, embed My instinct for spelling is like my instinct for naming head wear.

>190 LizzieD: I don't remember that we had a name for them. "Toboggan" and "beanie" both sound odd to me. When I think of "beanie," I think of something similar to you, but one of those things with the propeller that boys used to wear.

>190 LizzieD: Hi Peggy! Sending smooches.

‘Morning, Peggy! Happy Monday to you. Kind regards to your DH and skritches to The Seven.

>190 LizzieD: My Camp Fire Girls Blue Birds outfit, circa 1961, had a cap, just like the one pictured here. A short-brimmed baseball cap?

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

Good morning, Karen, Richard, and Irene! I don't know where my time goes, but I haven't been able to visit anybody here, and I miss you!!! Thank you for coming by.

That cap! There's much less to it than a baseball cap, Karen. I wore one as a freshman in college as Porter is doing in the picture with the book set in the 1930s. I Irene, I thought of those helicopter caps too, but I don't think I ever saw one in real life, and I certainly couldn't think of a way to phrase the question to get an answer from Google. Just another fascinating little dip into our language!
Congrats on your 3 today. I'm chagrined that I didn't think of that word at my #3 guess. Oh well. Irene?

Hi, Richard! Smooches right back!!!

Wordle 1,696 4/6*

🟨🟩⬜⬜⬜
⬜🟩🟩⬜⬜
⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩learn, selfy, jello, cello

MISS PIGGY, THE FINAL PRONOUNCEMENTS (some worth repeating_

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

During dinner, it may be necessary to excuse yourself for a telephone call. However, it is far preferable to have a phone brought to the table ... as a general rule, white telephones go with fish and poultry, and black ones with anything else. If you are calling during dessert, a small after-dinner phone should be used ... if you are satisfied, say something like, 'Yes, it is a very nice, light telephone, with a good. clear tone and a smooth, almost velvety action.

Eating places with live plants in their windows are always good. Restaurants with peppermills the size of fire extinguishers and big red menus with the entrees spelled with fs instead of ss 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.)

There are several ways of calculating the tip after a meal. I find that the best is to divide the bill by the height of the waiter. Thus, a bill of #12.00 brought by a six foot waiter calls for a $2.00 tip.

Continental breakfasts are very sparse, usually just a pot of coffee or tea and a teensy roll that looks like a suitcase handle. My advice is to go right to lunch without pausing.

Public telephones in Europe are like our pinball machines. They are primarily a form of entertainment and a test of skill rather than a means of communication.

>194 LizzieD: Continental breakfasts are very sparse, usually just a pot of coffee or tea and a teensy roll that looks like a suitcase handle. My advice is to go right to lunch without pausing.

Words I have lived by for decades. Since the time I was told not to grow my own french-breakfast radishes, I skip everything except coffee until lunch is served. (Today's was latkes and sour cream, a genuine favorite of mine.)

*smooch*

Ummmm - good for you, Richard! Breakfast has become my favorite meal. I take some time doing it and then don't eat again until mid-afternoon at the earliest.
I won't even ask who told you not to grow radishes. Sheesh.

Still no book. The people were home Saturday night, but DH saw their light too late to call and ask for it. No sighting of them or the book yesterday or today. I'll give the carrier one more day, write and leave a note, and then if I don't have it, I'll order another one. I can't tell you how much I abhor having to order another one.

>194 LizzieD: I've seen a number of propeller beanies in real life - one person in my age group has almost always worn one sometime or another at each SF con I've seen him at, and of course very occasionally others at SF cons wear them as well. If they were regularly a thing in any group it was before I got near that group (or possibly after, I mean it's been a while).

Thanks for that, Susan, and lucky you! And did you call them 'beanies'?

I write from cold NE Pennsylvania where the days are cold and the nights are colder. As I write, it is 2 degrees. It's difficult to leave the warm house when it is so cold, but I need to pick up a prescription tomorrow and get a book that's arrived at the library.

>196 LizzieD: I hope your book arrives tomorrow. I understand the feeling of having to order a book twice.

>198 LizzieD: Yes, but always propeller beanies. Beanie was used for brimless round caps - I've never seen the short beaked cap or heard it referred to, but it may also have been called a beanie - the type John Tenniel's Tweedle-dum and Tweedle-dee wore. I think we called knitted hats stocking caps or knitted caps.

Morning, Peggy! I'm in a lovely, subtropical 27° Long Island! It will almost get to 40° later. I'm thrilled.

Sending Tuesday hugs southwestward.

‘Morning, Peggy! Happy Tuesday to you.

>194 LizzieD: Congrats on your Wordle in 4 yesterday. It was 4 for me today.

I love the additional Miss Piggy quotes, especially the rule for which phone to use at the table.

>196 LizzieD: Ugh. I’m so sorry about the book debacle.

I didn't go to book sort/Virlie's, but have a massage today at 1.

Hi, Peggy! I'm just catching up here.... If you bought your book from Amazon, it should be relatively easy to get a replacement without paying for it again. You have evidence that it wasn't delivered to YOU.

It's so exciting to come in and find that I've had visitors! Thank you for coming by, Linda, Karen, Richard, Susan, and Linda!!! (BEHOLD! A LINDA SANDWICH!)

Linda, I bought it used through the Marketplace. It's not really the seller or Amazon's fault that our mail carrier was careless. It's not my fault either. If the people who have it, haven't returned it in another day or two, I'll see whether I have any recourse but to reorder. I am my Scottish grandmama's "saving" child. If I have to buy a new one, I will have spent $35 on a trade paperback. My DH says I have already worried at least $50 worth about it (or maybe he means I've worried him that much? I've said this before somewhere, I think.) I want that book!!!!

Ah - a massage, Karen. How lovely! Congrats on your Wordle 4 and see my happy result below.

To be above freezing is a lovely, lovely thing, Richard! We are supposed to see high 60s today, I think, with colder nights. I'm glad for it. It's hard for me to think that we're 'west' of anywhere, but we are 90 miles from the coast, so you're exactly right.

Ah, Susan. Stocking cap may be something I've heard, but not often and not around here. Yep. I wish I had thought of T'dum & T'dee. Those are beanies, all right.

Linda, I'm always sorry for you up NORTH during the winter. Your summers are getting so that they aren't all that pleasant either. I nearly froze every night the summer I was a camp counselor in the Poconos. I had no idea that a sweatshirt wasn't enough.

Wordle 1,697 3/6*

⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜
🟩⬜⬜🟩⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 roast, sling, scene Yay - a restrained one. I'm not sure why I wasn't trying an *e* in my second try.

>194 LizzieD: I'm behind, thanks to the Olympics, so just getting to your question now. You asked about my Wordle yesterday. Unfortunately, it took me 5. I had two words to choose from at 4 and picked the wrong one. They were the same last two words as yours, you just got them ahead of me.

Congratulations on your Wordle in 3 today. It took me 4.

‘Morning, Peggy! Happiest of Wednesdays to you.

>202 karenmarie: Well. I got the day confused on the massage but fortunately didn’t actually drive there. It’s Thursday.

>204 LizzieD: Your DH makes a valid point about worrying $50 worth. I hope you get that copy or another copy soon. Congrats on your Wordle three!

Camp Counselor in the Poconos. Do tell.

Wordle in three for me today.

>204 LizzieD: I got a propeller beanie for my 40th birthday. I don't think I've ever been quite so pleased with a gift. It fell apart fairly quickly but who cares...it was hilarious and fun while it lasted!

Now that is a good thing to know, Richard! I'm glad that you enjoyed it, my WBL! *smooch*

Good morning, Karen and Irene. Please look at my most gratifying Wordle achievement today. How often does my first word choice match the letters of the goal so closely? I'll tell you......62 times in 1300+ games.
Karen, I'm so sorry that you have joined my lifelong confusion about schedules even once. I am the worst, and it's not a function of ageing either, I'm sorry to say.
Ah ...... the Poconos. The Christian Herald (magazine or newspaper? I don't recall which because I don't think I ever saw a copy) sponsored NYC slum kids for 3 2-week encampments each summer in a really nice facility just outside East Stroudsburg, PA. I just Googled it, and it's ongoing. LOOK! My only complaint is that I nearly froze every night. Even gentle mountains that far north are cold for a southern girl with only a sweatshirt and raincoat. Why I didn't ask my mama to mail me something warmer, I'll never know. I can just hear the little Spanish voice saying, "Miss pegGEE, you talk funny. Are you from Texas or something????"

Wordle 1,698 2/6*

⬜🟩🟨⬜🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, vegan

HARRY S. TRUMAN

To err is Truman.
~ Republican Party Slogan, 1948

Truman ... seemed to stand for nothing more spectacular than honesty in war contracting, which was like standing for virtue in Hollywood or adequate rainfall in the Middle West
~ George E. Allen

Mr. Truman believes other people should be 'free to govern themselves as they see fit' - so long as they see fit to see as we see fit.
~ I.F. Stone

My choice early in life was either to be a piano-player in a whorehouse or a politician. And to tell the truth, there's hardly any difference.
~ Harry S. Truman

>208 LizzieD: That's a great Harry Truman quote. I got a good laugh out of it. I'm not so sure about the ones about him.

‘Morning, Peggy! Happy Thursday to you, your DH, and the feline contingent.

>208 LizzieD: Wow! Wordle in Two. Congrats.

Thanks for the link to the camp. Impressive that it’s been there since 1894.

I wish I had a campaign button that said “To err is Truman”. The quote by Truman himself is fantastic.

Wordle in 5 for me today.

Books, massage, and Arsenal. The kind of day I like.

>208 LizzieD: Mr. Truman believes other people should be 'free to govern themselves as they see fit' - so long as they see fit to see as we see fit.
~ I.F. Stone

It is a fact of US power projection since Teddy Roosevelt that our idea of what They should do is going to be what They actually do come hell or high water.

Good morning, Richard, Karen, and Irene!!!

Ah, Richard, I reckon you're right. Most of us mere mortals firmly believe in our "should" for everybody else, but that's about as far as most of us go.

I have study club this afternoon, Karen, so I won't be reading much of anything today. *sigh* I have an affection for Harry, and like you, Irene, I don't think he deserved the dismissal reflected in those quotes about him.
As to Wordle, Karen, we're back on the see-saw.
Things to do before this afternoon, so I won't be here long. *2nd sigh*

Wordle 1,699 3/6*

🟨⬜⬜🟨⬜
🟩⬜⬜🟨🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 roast, spire, surge

PORTRAIT IN DEATH by J.D. Robb

I ended up liking this one quite a bit more in the end than I did beginning through middle. I do more and more feel the formula for Eve's cases, but as I said to Stasia, I still like the formula. I thought that I had spotted the murderer early on, but I was wrong. That's always a good sign.
My favorite character is Peabody, and I always enjoy her outlook and now, her relationship with McNab. (I want her to get her gold detective's shield, but I certainly don't want her to lose her function as Eve's assistant.) I enjoy the by-play between Eve and Summerset and applaud Robb for giving us just enough to prevent its becoming stale. This one got the full four stars from me because I loved Roarke's discovery of some of his Irish family.
As ever, I enjoy seeing what's new in 2059 and considering what should have changed and hasn't in Robb's world.

‘Morning, Peggy! I hope your day goes well, even if you have to get things done before afternoon.

>212 LizzieD: Congrats on your Wordle in 3. It took me 5 today.

Ah #16 in the 62, soon to be 63-book series. I still need to acquire 61 and 62.

I, too, love Peabody, and her twitchy, stylishly-dressed boyfriend McNab. And etc.

Errands, Trevor, free afternoon. A few things I should do, but perhaps I'll just put books into Thing Two and re-tag them.

Putting books in Thing Two sounds like a perfect activity for an afternoon to me, Karen!!!! You can see the results immediately, and it's so much fun to play with your own books!

We are 5 Sisters today. At least I ruled out my last possibility before the last try.
Wordle 1,700 5/6*

⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
🟨🟩⬜⬜⬜
🟨🟩⬜⬜🟩
⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 roast, hoist, cough, pooch, mooch

Off to get ready for the eye shots.

>214 LizzieD: I hope the eye shots do exactly as they're intended to do with no surprises or troubles. *smooch*

#sorrynotsorry

Sorry you need them but not sorry because they help preserve your vision.

(((((Peggy)))))

Thank you for kind words, Karen and Richard!!! So far, so good. My doc continues to express surprise at how well I'm hanging on to what I have now. I'm grateful for every single minute and trying not to anticipate when it's no longer so.

>217 LizzieD: What a good result to the injections! I hope your desire to read keeps the peeps movin' over the pages.

'Morning, my dear. Happy Saturday to you.

I hope the shots went well yesterday and you're recovered enough to read today.

Wordle in 5 for me...

>181 LizzieD: Hooray indeed!

>212 LizzieD: I am glad that you enjoyed Portrait in Death in the end, Peggy!

Have a wonderful weekend, woman!

Hi to Stasia, Karen, and Richard! My thanks for your good wishes. My eyes are seeing just fine this morning, DG, and only a little irritation from drops and lid-pulling remain. YAY! I will read today after company leaves ....... the widow of my DH's favorite cousin called this morning to see whether she could come for a visit, being in town. OF COURSE she can!!! We have even straightened some in her honor - or at least we've hidden what we can't straighten.
Stasia, it isn't that I wasn't enjoying *Portrait* before the end; it just wasn't top experience until then.
I'll read until the last light, my WBL. Audio is fine, but my whole being loves to read.

Even with not-the-best guesses, Karen, I lucked out in 4 today. The see-saw isn't moving very far.
Wordle 1,701 4/6*

⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜
⬜⬜🟨🟩⬜
🟩⬜🟨🟩⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 roast, nylon, below, bloom

'Morning, Peggy! Happy Sunday.

>221 LizzieD: Congrats on your 4. We do go back and forth, don't we? Today's effort was 3.

Arsenal, reading, puttering.

For once we meet in the middle, Karen!!! We're 3 Sisters!

I'm back from church, have had a second cup of coffee, may have the remnants for a piece of a third, and I'm ready to stay in and read. It's drizzling and not nearly as warm as I thought it would be.

Wordle 1,702 3/6*

🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜
🟩⬜⬜⬜🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, spoil, skull

New-week orisons, Peggy me lurve. I'm looking out at a light dusting of snow and cloudy skies. Happy I got the books to the library yesterday! I don't want to go out in this.

*smooch*

>234 alcottacre: Library probably isn't open today anyhoo.

‘Morning, Peggy! Happy Monday to you. Gorgeous NC day, isn’t it?

Yay for 3 Sisters. 3 for me again today.

We got almost 1.5” of rain yesterday, heavy at times. Very good for us. We’re in severe drought. You’re in moderate drought – it’s usually reversed, isn’t it?

Yay for coffee, yay for church.

Good afternoon, Karen, Linda, and Richard!!! I love to see that you have thought of me this morning.

Karen, we got mostly drizzles yesterday, and yes, our amounts are usually (whatever that means now) reversed. My DH hasn't checked the rain gauge yet.
Yay for coffee!!! Using a smaller mug, I am able to have about a half cup to treat as my version of cappucchino - strong coffee, ½and½ not steamed, and a wave of caramel syrup over the cup. Nice.

Glad you can stay in and look at the snow if it is pretty today, my WBL.

Cheers for the day, you 3!

We're 3 Sisters again, Karen. I might have been at 2, but no....not me.
Wordle 1,703 3/6*

🟩🟩⬜🟩🟩
🟩🟩⬜🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 roast, roust, roost I'm always happy with 3, and it's a very nice balanced pattern.

I didn't get to read yesterday either. Got a call that the daughter of the Vietnamese couple that my church sponsored in 1981 was in town and wanted to visit. I had helped her mom learn English, and this daughter Sarah and her brother had visited us almost 20 years ago to say thank you to the congregation. (The couple and their oldest daughter moved to California after less than a year here.) Sarah is FBI in DC; I'll leave it to your imagination. She is vibrant and charming! Today we walk, I feed cats, and then I HOPE I get to read!

>227 LizzieD: Lovely indeed to get to visit with Sarah...but to give up reading for it? Such a gift of time is louder than words as to how you feel about her. *smooch*

‘Morning, Peggy! Happy Tuesday to you.

Congrats on your all-green Wordle 3. Today it took me 4.

Vietnamese woman in the FBI… domestic … hmmm. I hope you had a wonderful visit with her.

It would be sad indeed if you didn’t get to read yesterday.

Today’s book sort, Virlie’s, cleaning ladies.

Good morning, Karen and Richard!!! I did get to read some yesterday - mostly the current fantasy but a few more pages in *Wellington*. I'm reading about Napoleon's return and just finished Quatra Bras with Waterloo coming up. I'm not wild about rehearsing battles, so I expect that I'll like the second volume of Lord W's biography more but not right away. QB was more interesting than most of these horrific battles have been.

Yes indeed, time is precious, Richard. Sarah is too. Like her parents, she is brave and smart and strong.

Congrats on your 4 today, Karen. WHEW! I am unhappy that she chose to reuse a word rather than alter it by one letter for an unused word. Oh well.
Wordle 1,704 6/6*

⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜
⬜🟨🟨⬜⬜
🟨⬜⬜🟨⬜
🟩⬜🟩⬜🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, pasty, agism, squaw, squad

I'm currently having the second ghost migraine of the morning. I was happy that I hadn't had one in February since I've been having 2 or 3 a month for the past 3 years. Age or stress? I used to have 2 or 3 a year. Oh well.

>230 LizzieD: Yay for Wellington! Happy to hear that you got at least a few pages read.

Sorry about the ghost migraine! I hope it goes away soon, PA.

‘Morning, Peggy! Happy Wednesday to you.

I’m sorry Wordle took 6 but yay for not gettins skunked. My effort today, with quite a bit of luck, was 3.

I don’t need to leave the house today, which makes me happy.

Boo to ghost migraines and hope you only had the two yesterday.

I had only the two yesterday, Karen and Stasia. They last only about 20 minutes - as long as the aura takes to cross my field of vision. Then I may or may not feel shaky or slightly head achy or not much of anything. They are just nuisances, and I'm exceedingly grateful that they aren't the real thing.

Minimal Wellington yesterday. I have no idea where my time goes these days.

Yay for staying in, Karen!!! I talked to the regular mail carrier again today. The people (person?) who has my book or had it is almost never at home. Since we've been watching, we've seen a car and lights on there only on a Friday night and a Saturday night. So today I'm going to see whether Amazon or the seller will do something to help, but in any case, I'm going to order another copy. If I end up with two, Karen, I'll send you one. (You do understand that it will be used, right?)

Congrats on your 3 today, Karen. I'm glad to be back to 4.
Wordle 1,705 4/6*

⬜🟩⬜⬜⬜
⬜🟩⬜🟨⬜
🟨🟩⬜⬜⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 roast, voile, loony, mogul

PHILOSOPHY

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

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

... philosophy professors are weird guys. You can really freak them out easy. 'Hey, prof, you know how to give yourself déjà vu? Ask yourself this question: Hey, prof, you know how to give yourself déj&a grave; vu?'
~ Bob Dubac

Sir,
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

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

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

(When I get down to philosophy, I must be truly near finishing the book.)

>233 LizzieD: I am glad to hear that the headaches passed fairly quickly, Peggy. I hope they have not recurred today.

‘Morning, Peggy! Happy Thursday.

>233 LizzieD: Glad you only had the two.

I had to guess, I’d say that I have more used books on my shelves than new. If you end up with two, I’ll happily take one!

Congrats on your 4. Interesting guesses. I got today’s in 3.

I did not know what the plimsoll mark was… and now I do. Clever Henry Louis.

Trevor’s coming over in a bit. I persevere with the cleaning out/up.

Thank you, Karen and Stasia for aura sympathy.

Congrats, on 3 today, Karen. Look what I did - and I'd have done it with either of my 2 first word go-tos.
(As my DH aged, he became the Trevor for lots of older-than-he-was people. He didn't so much carry as he did odd jobs, including carpentry, small electrical work, masonry (!), roof patching, and whatever else came up that he could read about. If he could read how, he could do it ---- he built our kitchen fireplace, during which time I learned to clean old bricks quite handily - and a brick fence for a friend.
Btw, Karen, I just finished my second mug of coffee. Speaking to you and sipping, I'm reminded that my preferred (or purrfurred in a cat house like ours) Major Dickason coffee now costs over $1 an ounce at Amazon and is available only in 10 ounce bags. My DH found fresh 8 O'Clock beans at Wal-Mart in a 32 ounce bag for considerably less. It is proving to be an acceptable substitute.
Anyway, happy day to both of you!

Wordle 1,706 2/6*

⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, hoist

GAMBLING

If there was no action around, he would play solitaire - and bet against himself.*
~ Groucho Marx, of Chico (Attrib.)

The way his horses ran could be summed up in a word.
Last.
He once had a horse who finished ahead of the winner of the 1942 Kentucky Derby.
Unfortunately, the horse started running in the 1941 Kentucky Derby
~ Groucho Marx

...one of my most precious treasures ... is an exquisite pair of loaded dice, bearing the date of my graduation from high school.
~ W.C. Fields

The sure way of getting nothing for something.
~Wilson Mizner

There are two times in a man's life when he should not speculate: when he can't afford it, and when he can.
~ Mark Twain

*This reminds me of the story the mother of my mother's best friend used to tell about Mary Louise when she was 4 or 5.
Her mother found her in tears carrying a handkerchief. To her alarmed, "What's wrong???" ML answered, "This mean old hand won't let this sweet little hand hold the handkerchief!"

>236 LizzieD: There are two times in a man's life when he should not speculate: when he can't afford it, and when he can.
~ Mark Twain

The voice of bitter bitter personal experience. Poor guy lost everything several times. He should be heeded! *smooch*

‘Afternoon, Peggy! Happy Thursday.

>233 LizzieD: Glad you only had the two.

If I had to guess, I’d say that I have more used books on my shelves than new. If you end up with two, I’ll happily take one!

Congrats on your 4. Interesting guesses. I got today’s in 3.

I did not know what the plimsoll mark was… and now I do. Clever Henry Louis.

Trevor came over and did a few things for us. I need to go to the PO and the grocery store.

>236 LizzieD: Congrats on Wordle in 2! It took me 5 today, because of alphabet soup, and I didn't check the used words list. (Foist was already used!?!?) And I didn't slow down enough to think of all the possibilities first.

>236 LizzieD: Major Dickason is my fallback coffee selection when Arabian Mocha Java is not available. I still get 1lb bags at Peet’s, and yes they are expensive, but we’re talking coffee here. Quality coffee is a major component of a quality day.

Hi Peggy! Happy Friday to you.

It's Bill's Birthday today, he turned 70. He's loving it and hating it at the same time, but he's got presents and cards from me/cats and will have a nice dinner and homemade cheesecake for dessert.

>239 atozgrl: Hi irene - alphabet soup is sooo sad.

Wordle in 3 for me today.

I'm early enough to still wish good morning to Karen, Susan, Irene, and Richard! Good afternoon too!!!!!

Oh, Karen and Irene! If she had used a used word, I would have been drowned in alphabet soup today. As it was, I lucked out in 4 and am grateful for it. Your 3 is good, Karen. Hope you did that well too, Irene!!! I'll be to your place in a minute, Karen, to wish Bill a happy birthday there. Happy Bill's birthday to you here!
Wordle 1,707 4/6*

⬜⬜🟩🟨🟨
🟩🟩🟩⬜⬜
🟩🟩🟩⬜⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 roast, stale, stamp, stank I think that's an unlikely choice.

Do you expect better days than I do as a general rule, Susan?? Maybe so, but given a choice, I am happy enough with decent coffee and more $ for books. Priorities!

Richard, WBL, I need to read some of my Twain biographies. I know that he didn't have the world's easiest time. Priorities again: I won't gamble or speculate
in the hope of a lot of easy $, and I am protective of what I have for a very good life! *smooch*

THRIFT

Just about the time you think you can make both ends meet, somebody moves the ends.
~ Pansy Penner

MEANNESS

When it comes to paying, he's the first to put his hand in his pocket. And leave it there.
~ Anon.

My Uncle Tom has a peculiarity I've noticed in other very oofy men. Nick him for the paltriest sum, and he lets out a squawk you can hear at Land's End. He has the stuff in gobs, but he hates giving it up.
~ P.G. Wodehouse

They asked Jack Benny if he would do something for the Actor's Orphanage - so he shot both his parents and moved in.
~ Bob Hope

--- and the famous one ---

Robber: don't make a move, this is a stick-up~!
Benny: What?
Robber: You heard me.
Benny: Mister ... Mister, put down that gun.
Robber" Shut up ... now, come on ... your money or your life... (Long pause) ... Look bud, I said, 'Your money or your life.'
Benny: I'm thinking it over!

Here is my red envelope with wishes for good luck in the Year of the Fire Horse! I pass the wish on to you all!!!



I wish the gold showed up better, but it's very gold!

>242 LizzieD: When it comes to paying, he's the first to put his hand in his pocket. And leave it there.
~ Anon.

I was told long ago that being generous was The Way To Be. I'm still sure that's true. I haven't had the means to be particularly generous in ages, but still reserve 20% of my income for donation because, well, I won't go hungry and I don't *need* all that much. Deciding how to allot it can be tough. (I really don't love most charities because they spend so much on themselves.) I found Kiva.org through Kath and have been donating to women who ask for loans to buy female livestock for years now.

>243 LizzieD: Shiny! (said in my best Firefly voice)

‘Morning, Peggy! Happy Saturday to you.

>242 LizzieD: Congrats on your Wordle 4. I scraped by with 6, avoiding the dread Skunk.

>243 LizzieD: Lovely envelope, thanks for sharing.

Quiet day here in central NC, recuperating from Bill’s Birthday. It’s nice to not have any obligations for today.

>242 LizzieD: I think starting the day with the coffee I like best is necessary if I’m to do more than muddle through it. 90% or more if what I want to read is easily downloadable from one of my local libraries, and I’m not on any sort of budget that calls for trade-offs between food and toys (books, collectables, fancy clothing, craft supplies). Space is much more limited than disposable income.

Good for you, Susan! I remain the child who wanted a library, and happiness is having one. Letting a book go continues to be a wrench. Maybe I'll grow up. Maybe not!

Hi, Karen. For whatever reason I'm as sleepy as if it were late night. Sofa calls, and I'm glad to have no obligations today too so that I can respond.

I"m sure that generosity is The Way To Be too, Richard. I have several places that I make monthly donations to and a few others too, but I'm not sure that 20% of my income goes to them. I haven't tried to add it up. *smooch*

Wordle 1,708 5/6*

⬜🟨🟩⬜⬜
⬜⬜🟩⬜🟩
🟩⬜🟩⬜🟩
🟩⬜🟩⬜🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, spate, amaze, agave, awake I HATE reusing words. As Karen says (sort-of), it's not a skunk, so it's good.

>248 LizzieD: Paper books are harder on my hands, so less of a temptation. We have many more than I’ve catalogued, and so many I haven’t been able to fit on shelves. I’m thinking of clearing off the tobacco stained ones that were my father’s and using those shelves for Becky’s Lego builds. He and his pipe were major book defacers.

>248 LizzieD: Pre-blizzard *smooch*

‘Morning, Peggy! Happy Sunday to you.

Congrats on yesterday’s 5. By my reckoning, so far they’ve only reused three words. It took me 4 today.

Another reading, puttering, and lollygagging day.

In a tearing hurry, dear Karen, Richard, and Susan! Be well and enjoy your days... Richard, STAY INSIDE!!!!

Wordle 1,709 4/6*

⬜⬜🟩⬜⬜
⬜⬜🟩⬜⬜
⬜🟩🟩⬜⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 roast, plane, quaff, guava Me too, Karen, and I think 3 is correct for reusing.

FIRST SIGN OF DANGER by Kelley Armstrong

Boy oh boy, do I enjoy this mystery/thriller series. That's not true of everything that K. Armstrong writes, but what I like, I really like!
Haven's Rock is an off-the-grid, hidden settlement in the Yukon wild, created to give people who need to disappear for a few years their chance to get away. Casey and Eric, town detective and sheriff, have their six-month old baby Rory and are making this community work, but new and continuing complications threaten all of Haven's Rock safety.
Encounters (!) with an aging grizzly seeking to fatten up before hibernation are page-flipping grisly. The problems are complicated by many apparently unconnected people. It's a good mystery. My only complaint is missing some of my favorite characters who make only brief appearances. I'll be sad to see the series end with the next book, scheduled to come out about this time next year. *sigh*

>253 LizzieD: I thought I'd read one of these, but it's not recorded here in my library list. Hm. I wonder which one it is - definitely not the one with the bear!

>253 LizzieD: *one twisted hand bursting through the snowdrifts to wave at Peggy*

Oh, Richard, stay in! Stay in!!! *smooch*

Judy, it may be that you read the first Rockton, City of the Lost. The *Rockton* series comes first - same characters in a worsening situation. This series promises to be only four books long after the main characters get funding to build their own community. All of them are mystery/adventure/romance with very little sex - a fine break for me even when I'm not reading anything challenging! Lots of interesting characters and a great Newfoundland puppy/dog!

Wordle 1,710 4/6*

⬜⬜🟨⬜🟨
⬜🟨🟩🟨⬜
🟨🟨🟩🟨⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 roast, batch, catty, attic I actually thought of the word at #3 and then forgot that I had thought of it!

MURDER

From Number Nine, Penwiper Mews,
There is really abominable news:
They've discovered a head
In the box for the bread
But nobody seems to know whose.
~ Edward Gorey

ERIC: It was the corpse. He had a gun in his hand and a knife in his back. Who d'you think poisoned him"
ERNIE: Who?
ERIC: Nobody. He'd been strangled.
~ Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise

If the desire to kill and the opportunity to kill came always together, who would escape hanging?
~ Mark Twain

Murder is always a mistake ... One should never do anything that one cannot talk about after dinner.
~ Oscar Wilde

It's the old problem, of course - the one that makes life so tough for murderers - what to do with the body.
~ P.G. Wodehouse

>243 LizzieD: I hope that the good luck for the year works out for you!

>253 LizzieD: Another series that I need to get to at some point. *sigh* I need to live forever.

Have a marvelous Monday, Peggy!

We all need to live forever, Stasia!!!!!

Good afternoon, Peggy!

Brrr. Still only 42F with a very cold wind.

Congrats on today’s Wordle in 4 for you. I lucked out, and got it in 3.

Great murder quotes.

Home, jammies, and etc.

'Morning, Peggy! Happy Tuesday to you.

Brrrr. Still below freezing here, 26.6F. Book sort and Virlie's, a bit of grocery shopping.

I was able to get 3 in Wordle again today.

Congratulations to you, Karen, on your two threes!!! I'm at four again today, and relieved at that after my less than stellar second try. I see now that I have exactly 100 more fours than threes.
Enjoy the book sort and Virlie's!

Wordle 1,711 4/6*

⬜🟨⬜🟨⬜
⬜⬜⬜🟨🟨
⬜⬜⬜🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, store, wider, buyer

GOVERNMENT

The island is almost made of coal and surrounded by fish. Only an organizing genius could produce a shortage of coal and fish in Great Britain at the same time.
~ Aneurin Bevan, 1945

The only good government ... is a bad one in a hell of a fright.
~ Joyce Carey

The government solution to a problem is usually as bad as the problem
~ Milton Friedman (Attrib.)

CIVIL SERVANT: What I mean is that I'm fully seized of your aims and, of course, i will do my utmost to see that they're put into practice. To that end, I recommend that we set up an interdepartmental committee with fairly broad terms of reference so that at the end of the day we'll be in a position to think through the various implications and arrive at a decision based on long-term considerations rather than rushing prematurely into precipitate and possibly ill-conceived action which might have unforeseen repercussions.
MINISTER: You mean, no?
~ Anton Jay and Jonathan Lynn

It is inaccurate to say I hate everything. I am strongly in favor of common sense, common honesty and common decency. This makes me forever ineligible for any public office.
~ H. L. Mencken

Behold International Booker Longlist, thanks to Richard!

The Nights Are Quiet in Tehran by Shida Bazyar, translated from German by Ruth Martin
We Are Green and Trembling by Gabriela Cabezón Cámara, translated from Spanish by Robin Myers
The Remembered Soldier by Anjet Daanje, translated from Dutch by David McKay
The Deserters by Mathias Énard, translated from French by Charlotte Mandell
Small Comfort by Ia Genberg, translated from Swedish by Kira Josefsson
She Who Remains by Rene Karabash, translated from Bulgarian by Izidora Angel
The Director by Daniel Kehlmann, translated from German by Ross Benjamin
On Earth As It Is Beneath by Ana Paula Maia, translated from Portuguese by Padma Viswanathan
The Duke by Matteo Melchiorre, translated from Italian by Antonella Lettieri
The Witch by Marie NDiaye, translated from French by Jordan Stump
Women Without Men by Shahrnush Parsipur, translated from Persian by Faridoun Farrokh
The Wax Child by Olga Ravn, translated from Danish by Martin Aitken
Taiwan Travelogue by Yáng Shuāng-zǐ, translated from Mandarin Chinese by Lin King

>262 LizzieD: Thanks, Peggy.

‘Morning, Peggy! Happy Wednesday. Kind regards to your DH and skritches for the Kitty Contingent.

Congrats on your 4 yesterday. I got today’s in 5.

Trevor will be here in in a while. We have several things he can work on, including The Tupperware Project. *smile*

You're most welcome, Judy.

Good luck to Trevor in Project Tupperware!!! I could set him on several similar projects over here. *sigh* I return your wishes for the day with greetings from our KC to your KC. (Long distance greetings are best for KCs!)

We're on the see-saw again. Good for you for pulling it off in 5. Hooray for my lucky 3! I can't tell you how badly I wanted to try SHREK for my third guess. I guess I have some ego investment in Wordle after all.
Wordle 1,712 3/6*

🟨⬜⬜🟨⬜
🟩🟩⬜🟨🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 roast, shire, shred

WELLINGTON: YEARS OF THE SWORD by Elizabeth Longford

I started this in July or August of last year, and my conclusion is that I really dislike reading analyses of nineteenth century battles. (More later) I don't know what I thought I was expecting, except maybe to get a real feeling for The Duke as a person. However, I learned a lot about him and straightened out a lot about the Peninsular War, and really felt Waterloo from a broader perspective than I've ever gotten from novels based at that time. (If I've ever read An Infamous Army - which my current brain insists on seeing as *An Infamous Amy* - it was so long ago that I've forgotten it.) That said, I plan to get to the second volume of the biography, which details his political life. I suspect I'll find it more to my taste. We'll see!

As to nineteenth century warfare, I see it as modern killing without modern medicine or communication - a totally disastrous combination. This and the first volume of Shelby Foote's *American Civil War* convince me that 99% of the commanding generals and officers were arrogant, stupid bastards, a fatal combination. They marched their men mercilessly. One of the things that tore at me was Longford's quoting a common British soldier, whose feet were torn up, commenting on how soothing it was to walk on body parts in the last hours of Waterloo. Napoleon himself underestimated Wellington fatally. Late in the afternoon when he directed Ney to make his disastrous cavalry attack(s), Wellington realized that he had never studied W's past battles for strategy and tactics. N dismissed W as the "sepoy general," and that was a huge factor in his loss. On the other hand, Wellington is at the top of my competent 1%. He planned, trained, provided for, and grieved for his men, and he was able to adapt to the changing shifts on the battlefield. He did enjoy some good luck, mostly as bad luck for Napoleon. A lot of N's bad luck was a result of his poor communication and mismanagement of his field marshals. W dismissed him as "a pounder" with some disdain, I think. A good deal of W's bad luck was due to his over-bred, under-experienced young officers. One stroke of good fortune was his happening to ride on the safe side of an aide whose arm was blown off on the other side. Another was the presence of an aide who saw the first Prussian troops turn around to render reinforcement elsewhere when they mistook his withdrawal to the top of a ridge as a mass retreat. The aide got to them in time to turn them around and provide necessary backup.

In short (or is it too late?), I took forever to get through the book, but I'm exceptionally glad that I did!

‘Morning, Peggy! Happy Thursday.

Thanks re Trevor and Project Tupperware. We got everything bagged and out of the house that I’m not keeping. He’s already taken the bags to either the dump’s recycling or the thrift shop/or dump swap shop.
Congrats on yesterday’s 3. Took me 4 today.

KC long-distance greetings are definitely best. Zoe would probably attack and Wash would hide.

I am impressed with your perseverance with the Longford book. Brava.

I’ve read An Infamous Army and still have my ratty mass market paperback acquired well before I joined LT in 2007.

Hooray for Trevor and Tupperware out of the house!!! Any of ours would go into attack mode, I think....or Batman might run. Who knows?

I was fairly motivated to finish the Wellington book, so we'll see whether my perseverance gets me to/through the second volume. Thank you though, Karen.

Congrats on your 4 today. I lucked into the right one of my starter words, and chose the right one of the two I could think of. YIPPEEEE!
Wordle 1,713 2/6*

🟩🟨🟨⬜🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, lance

Off to get ready for hair, grocery buying, and maybe a mixed grill taco salad from El Zerape of Karen, Stasia, and Kerry fame!!!!

>268 LizzieD: I join you as two sisters today, Peggy. I didn't check any lists, but decided to try the word I thought of, although I assumed it was used, to try to find more letters or place the ones I had. I was surprised that it was actually the answer.

I hope everything went well with hair, grocery buying, and the salad!

>258 LizzieD: Go, us!! LOL

>261 LizzieD: It is inaccurate to say I hate everything. I am strongly in favor of common sense, common honesty and common decency. This makes me forever ineligible for any public office.
~ H. L. Mencken

Especially nowadays!!

>262 LizzieD: I have only read The Remembered Soldier and it was a dandy, so that is the one I am rooting for to win :)

>266 LizzieD: Yay for Wellington!! Let me know when you are ready to read the second volume. I have it to hand.

Happy Thursday, Peggy me lurve. I hope the weekend ahead treats your reading life well. *smooch*

Thank you, Richard! My reading time needs a boost for sure! Same back to you. *smooch*

Stasia, We'd better take good care of ourselves..... I can't imagine anything being better than *TRS* this year. As to Wellington 2, I have it, but I need a break. Besides, Lucy and I have plans to read Don Juan this month - and likely next month too for me. You'd be welcome to join us, but as you know, it's poetry.

YAY IRENE!!!! I love to score a Wordle 3, but 2 totally amazes me. I will say that having 4 of the letters in the first word is a big help!
Hair and groceries went well, but I was wet getting the groceries to the car, and decided that I'd skip the salad and the two extra walks in the rain. I got a CookOut cheddar burger and onion rings instead. I haven't had one in a long time, so I didn't even feel guilty. I doubt I'll eat anything else today though.

>272 LizzieD: Oooh, CookOut sounds good! I haven't had anything from them in years. I'm glad your other errands went well.

>272 LizzieD: POETRY?? Ack!!

We cross-posted, Stasia!

The thing about Don Juan is that it's FUNNY!!!!

Irene, I'm here to tell you that CookOut was good. Going at an off-time meant that they had to fry the onion rings right then. They were red hot and yummy.

>275 LizzieD: I will take your word for it, PA!

>275 LizzieD: Yum! Fresh onion rings!

>277 atozgrl: ^^^what she said

Onion rings are one of life's little joys. I'm glad you indulged because it's vicarious joy when you do... and I don't get indigestion! Friday orisons.

‘Morning, Peggy, and happy Friday.

>268 LizzieD: Wow, look at your two!!! And El Zerape. That was quite a wonderful meal and with good company. I hope the hair and grocery buying went well.

>268 LizzieD: Congrats to you, too, Irene!

>272 LizzieD: You asked me on my thread or in a PM if I’d like to join in reading Don Juan. I hesitate to commit. However, I have a gorgeous Easton Press edition and just bought a Kindle public domain copy for $0. Eep. Poetry.

We got rained on yesterday too. Going into Virlie’s it was barely misting, coming out it was seriously raining.

Ooh to CookOut cheeseburger and onion rings. I had onion rings yesterday, too. I always order them crispy. Virlie’s always makes them fresh by order, and ordering them crispy gives them a nice rich brown appearance with additional crunch.

Just checking in on you. I hope you have a fantastic Friday, Peggy!

'Morning the next day! Happy Saturday to you.

Wordle in 4 today.

Nothing that I absolutely have to do. *blinks*

Good afternoon to you both, Karen and Stasia!

I'm not going to do anything today either, Karen, although anybody else could and would see things that I MUST do. I'm going to feed cats, walk in this warmish, overcast day, and read without falling asleep, I hope!

Wordle 1,715 4/6*

🟨⬜🟨⬜⬜
⬜🟨⬜⬜🟨
⬜🟨⬜🟨⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 roast, paler, organ, hydra What a relief! I could see myself drowning in alphabet soup!

Wordle 1,716 4/6*

🟨🟨⬜⬜⬜
⬜⬜⬜🟨🟩
⬜🟩🟩⬜🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, stele, plume, fluke What a lucky guess at #3!

>284 LizzieD: Choice #2 piques my interest. I tried Wordle again last week to see if my stroke-induced dyslexia has passed. Nope. I still can't decode words in highly geometric formats. No earthly idea why...similarly, can't solve geometric problems because I can'r see the results in my head like I used to do.

Weird, no? *smooch*

I'm sorry, Richard. Truly, if you're going to lose anything linguistic, I'd think that was the one to lose. I've never been able to see ANY geometric problems in my head. I'm not even sure I know what you're talking about. In the 2 or 3-day battery of tests my high school took in 1960, along with some 400,000 other students nationwide, I scored in the 26th percentile for visualizing in 2 dimensions. (That was a deal. They have continued to track us over all these years, hoping to see how many of us developed the talents that their tests indicated at the time.)
As to stele rather than steel, what can I say? You know I've been reading a bunch of archaeology lately, right? I also wanted that end letter in place.

*smooch*

I'm making a new thread now. Please visit!