Book Board Chat

Brian, Good to see you again. For years I have been the only male member on this board who was posting. Things are usually very quiet here with posts being few and far apart. I think most people now devote themselves to Facebook. I have a Facebook account but never use it except if someone (grandkids) sends me a message that way.
It is amazing how you find an old coin in a field. There used to be lots of fields around the farm that I was raised on. I don't see how anyone would lose coins in those fields. Maybe while crawling under some farm equipment for a repair or such. Keep up the good work.

My wife and I have just returned from another cruise, this one a short trip around the Caribbean on the Symphony of the Seas. Things have certainly changed a lot from when we first started to sail. On formal night few men wear a suit and tie. I remember one time when men wouldn't be admitted to the dining room if not wearing a tie on formal night. Now men go into the formal dining room wearing t-shirts and sandals. And what is with these sandals? I get on an elevator and all of the men, besides myself, are sockless and wearing sandals. I worry about stepping on all those bare toes in the crowded elevator. Is it such a bother to put on a pair of shoes or Nikes.
My wife and I did not eat in the main dining room at all. We ate in the specialty restaurants instead. The food is much better and the atmosphere is much nicer and quieter. Usually. Note: woman who have had one or two drinks really laugh loud and laugh at everything.

One of my best friends was Jewish. Now I see that anti-semitism is rife in this country. Jewish students are afraid to walk cross campus in college. Is this 1930s Germany? A free press is the cornerstone of democracy. But what happens when that press becomes an arm of one political party and is used to trash the other party? It just seems like something is very, very wrong.

That leap year thing. My birthday is tomorrow. So, I stay young for one more day. (If 80-ish is still considered young.)

My wife and I will be leaving on a three day weekend cruise. She has not been feeling well with sciatica nerve pain. We are taking this short cruise just to get back into the swing of things. I hope everyone else gets to feeling better.

And here is a photo of my old ship "Transcolumbia". I made several trips to Vietnam on her.

That ship striking a bridge in Baltimore and causing it to collapse reminded me of a similar incident back in my seafaring days. I was first engineer on a heavy lift ship called the "Transcolumbia". She was built with massive 30 inch diameter steel booms that could lift up to 200 tons. We were passing under a lift bridge with the booms in a vertical position. One of the booms struck the bridge as we were passing under. There was enough force that it actually bent the 30 inch steel boom but the bridge did not collapse. I guess they built that bridge a lot stronger. An investigation determined that the bridge was at fault. It had not been raised to the maximum height before our ship tried to pass under.

Beth, I remember one time a woman wrote to Dear Abbey that she wanted to go back to school for four years to become a lawyer. She was hesitant because when she got the degree she would be 44 years old. Abbey's reply was to ask how old she would be in four years if she didn't go back to school. If the surgery works you will be fine, no cane. If it doesn't work you will still be in the same situation needing a cane. A 65% success rate (think positive) seems worth trying. I don't like the idea of having to stay off you feet for three months but that seems better than being semi-helpless for the rest of your life.

Diane, Happy birthday. Have a great day and I hope everything turns out okay.

"... most people smoked...". You've got that right. I am reading some old Perry Mason novels written in the late 1930s. When people come into his office he offers then a cigarette and then he also lights one up. In just about every chapter he sits down in a room or in a car and lights a cigarette. Or, he points at things with his cigarette.

It is nice to read novels written long ago to see how different things were. Did you own a car in 1900? There were no gas stations so you would stop at the general store to buy a can of gasoline. Whne starting a 1940s car pull out the choke and the hand throttle (the knobs with a "C" and "T" on them). There are so many different things described in those old novels that most people have forgotten about.

I think 70 years old today is the new 55 years old. All my family and in-laws are well into their 70s and 80s and they still look fine. I was watching an old Grouch Marx show from the 1950s - "You Bet Your Life". Old people looked a lot older back then. There was a woman on who said she was 78 years old. My goodness what a dried up wrinkled old prune she looked like. I told my wife that if I were to run away with a younger woman, it would be her. That got a good laugh.

June, Happy Birthday. Have a great day.

The protagonist in one of John Grisham's novels owned a small town newspaper. He mentions it as having a gold mine. I guess with the advertising and subscriptions it more than paid for itself and the few employees that it would have.

When I was a small boy, a second newspaper started in my small home town. It only lasted a few months and then closed. They said that to stay in business they would have to get advertising from out of town and they didn't want to do that. Many people said it was a better paper with many more small local events such as kids having their own ice skating contests etc. The Letters to the Editor were often a succession or interchange of clever retorts, amusing and light sparring with words.

There is something of nostalgia in going out in the morning in ones bathrobe to pick up the newspaper. I wonder how Garfield is making out?

The days of finding a local paper at the end of the driveway or in the bushes in the morning seem to be over. My sister used to subscribe to our small town (population ~ 15,000) weekly newspaper even when she moved away. The paper was founded in 1852 and since 2021 it no longer exists. A conglomerate took over all the small town papers in that part of the state and closed them, saying that people could get the same news on line at their web site. True, but the site is just a mash of news concerning scores of towns with hundreds of clickable links, not really just the news of your small town. No editorials, letters to the editor, etc.

Anyone read the newspaper this morning? I don't blame you. I think I am the only person around here who gets the local newspaper. It costs $4.50 per edition. I like to read the funnies and my wife looks at the horoscopes. I remember way back when the New York Daily News was $0.08 and the New York Post was $0.10. I was glad when the Daily News also went up to ten cents so I didn't have to wait for the two cents change. Even when the price went up to $0.35 I would grab a paper and leave a quarter and a dime (pocket change) on the counter. Now I guess I would have to leave a $5 bill and wait for my $0.50 change. Madness.

Wonderful things those knee replacements. Have it done and in a week you can play tennis, run in marathons, etc. My wife had one and now she walks slowly bent over using a cane. What about playing tennis and running in marathons, etc. "Well, everyone is different" is now what they say. They never said that before they talked her into having the knee replacement. Before she used to get a knee injection every few months and would stride through the mall with 25 year old grandkids trying to keep up. Now she sometimes uses a walker or even a wheel chair. Getting a knee replacement should be the last thing one does.

Patsy,I sure hope everything works out for you. Be careful and I'm sure they can fix things up.

My wife and I are back from our two week cruise on the Icon of the Seas. It is a nice ship. It has a lot more bars and snack places than other ships and a lot more small swimming pools. Seeing descriptions of it on line reminds me of people who add exclamation marks to the ends of all their sentences i.e. It is a nice ship!! It has a lot more bars and snack places than other ships!! And it has a lot more small swimming pools!!

It seems that this ship is geared to family adventure. There were far, far more children on this ship than on any other ship that I have ever been on, at least ten times as many. In the dining room there were children at the closest eight tables near my table. As long as you don't mind children running around and screaming it is okay.

The ship is not fully loaded so it is much less crowded than other ships I have been on. There are 12 elevators in each elevator lobby. You press a button in the lobby for which floor you want to go to and when the elevator comes it goes to that floor. There are no floor buttons on the elevators. It is really fast.

My wife and I will be leaving tomorrow for back to back one week cruises on the new cruise ship Icon of the Seas.It is Carnival Cruise lines newest and biggest ship. It is a different class from the previous Oasis class and has a lot of newer and different features. Tomorrow is its inaugural or maiden voyage so it should be interesting just cruising the Caribbean.

When I was a small boy at the lunch counter in Woolworth's, I saw a lady order a club sandwich. I was impressed at how classy it looked - three slices of white bread with the crust cut off and joined together with a frilly toothpick. Real class. Now if I order one it is any type of bread, even rolls, and the crust still on. Bummer.

I wonder if soda fountains still exist somewhere, a place where a guy could take his girl for a milkshake? I guess a guy and girl sitting on stools at a soda fountain sharing a milkshake is now pure Norman Rockwell.

I watch some news in a cursory way because my wife either has the news on or HGTV. Freedom of the press may be the cornerstone of democracy, but what happens when that press becomes an agent of one political party and/or prints lies? The New York Times won a Pulitzer prize for one story that the reporter admitted making up a lot of the "facts". It is a sad state of affairs.

Happy New Year from the Symphony of the Seas in the Caribbean.. At our ages my wife and I no longer stay up till midnight to see the new year in. For us it is just one month changing to another.

Merry Christmas to all from the cruise ship Symphony of the Seas. Amazing how most of us remember the HTML code we had to learn twenty years ago to jazz up our auctions. I wonder how many of the younger generation know HTML code or even what it is.

When my wife and I go somewhere we fly into the airport and get a taxi to the hotel. The first time my sister-in-law asked me to pick someone up at the airport, my first thought was, "Is there a taxi strike?" This time I have to go to the airport to pick up my two people arriving on two different airline at two different times. They are going on the cruise with us but had the wrong days so they are arriving two days early with no place to stay. I had to get hotel reservations for them. My in-laws always mess things up and create more difficulties. It would have been so much easier for them to go to the airport the day of the cruise and take a 10 minute taxi ride from the airport to the cruise ship.

This is just going to be a cruise around the Caribbean. My wife and I are are staying on the crusie ship for two weeks. Later in January we are going on the new Icon of the Seas for its inaugural voyage. It is now the largest cruise ship in the world.

Beth, I sure hope things get better for you with the surgery and all. I'm sure they will. My wife and I live in a one bedroom condo with only two closets and we sure got rid of a lot of things. We had a rented store room but we emptied that out this week. It is amazing how little stored items we actually needed. We will be on a cruise during Christmas with some family members so we didn't do much Christmas decoration.

"I don't have a manual for this new computer. How do I turn it on?"

"The manual is on line. Turn on your computer and download it."

Madness

I am heading back to Florida today from Spokane. It will be nice to get into my car again and not have to wait for it to warm up and the ice and frost to melt off the windshield so I can see. The Macy's parade was really nice to watch. It amazes me how the Rockettes can high kick with just their legs and no body lunges or movements.

I had seen that "UPS has a package for you" scam before and had instantly recognized it as a scam. This time I was anxiously waiting for some prescription pills. I had taken the last ones and more were supposed to be delivered today. When I saw that there was a "problem with the delivery", I felt bad that I might not get my pills before I left for Spokane and reacted too quickly. I took care of that and later did get my pills from FedEx as I was supposed to get them.

I almost got scammed. I was expecting a package today. I got an email from "UPS" saying they had the wrong address zip code. I submitted new information and my credit card number to pay for the delivery. Then I saw tha the package I was expecting was going to be from FedEx. I realized the "UPS" email was a scam. If I hadn't been expecting a package I would have known it was a scam right way. I contacted my bank, cancelled my credit card and got a new card ordered. What a way to start the day.

Diane, That is a very nice photo of you.

Well, we made if back.

Actually, that is a photo of us flying over the Atlantic to meet the ship but it looks better than us cramped up in a taxi going home from the ship. Now to relax a bit before flying over to Spokane and the grandkids next week.

My ship, the Odyssey of the Seas, is crossing the Atlantic in the northern section. Sunset is around 4:30 PM. I forgot how soon it gets dark up north. The sun usually sets over an hour later in Florida than it does in Massachusettes. It seemed strange to me when I visited my mother up north how it would be pitch black outside at 5:00 PM or earlier. That "early" darkness made it easy to fall asleep earlier in the evening when an audio book was droning on.

I guess listening to an audio book was like life in the olden days before radio and TV. Members of the family would take turns reading from a book as the other members of the family sat around listening. Ah, the good old days.

My mother was legally blind in her final years. She would get free audio books from an institute for the blind. When I visited for several days, she would put one on at around 10 PM and by 1030 PM or sooner we would be sound asleep. It was always fun trying to find the spot where we fell asleep, restarting and then falling asleep again.

Dog trot house- a Southern thing=

https://www.southernliving.com/home/dog-trot-house

My wife doesn't walk too well anymore so we don't do much walking about touring. Guided bus rides are fine and we have been to most of the cities several times already. It is good to see what a beautiful city Nice is. When the tour group goes off my wife and I find a nice place to sit and dine or just have coffee and relax on the plaza..

Hello from the Odyssey of the Seas in the Mediterranean Sea. We made stops at Rome, Florence, Nice, Mallorca and Valencia and were heading to the Azores. Heavy weather in the Atlantic caused us to pause before heading out there so we will be stopping in Madeira instead. All is well and it should be a nice cruise across the Atlantic to Bermuda and then Florida. I hope Patsy is also having a good time.

Diane,That wedding sounds like a great time. I'm gad you made it and had a lot of fun.

I had my central air conditioning changed out today. The old one was just running for too long to do the job and used a lot of electricity. The evaporator coils were pretty well clogged up with decades of accumulated dirt and grime which severely cut down on efficiency. The weather temperatures have been in the 80s and 90s all summer. Just today when I got the new air conditioner in the temperatures dropped into the 60s. Go figure.

Next week my wife and I are flying to Europe to pick up the cruise ship, Odyssey of the Sea. We will do some sailing around the Mediterranean and then sail across the Atlantic back home to Florida. Since I had nothing to do until then my wife had me pick up some wooden moulding and add that to some plain wood doors in our place to make them look better, more finished. They do look much better.

Patsy, On our last Royal Caribbean and Carnival cruises we did not have to take Covid tests beforehand.

I remember the old eBay book chat room. We members were mostly middle aged and had to learn HTML code to jazz up our ads. Now I would say that most members of this chat room have grown to senior citizens, ages in the 70s and 80s. Hang in there.

I used to plant six beefsteak tomato plants in my backyard in New York. I would get one crop of about 3 or 4 tomatoes and then would get "blossom drop" and no more tomatoes until early fall, another two or three per plant.

I seems like the Covid shut down across the country really affected manufacturers. I had ordered some window enclosures for my balcony and it took about three months, after the order was placed, before they could be made and installed. My son had to wait about 4 months to have some kitchen cabinets made and delivered.

Patsy,Happy Birthday. Have a great day.

Hello from the Adventure of the Seas in the Caribbean. My wife and I decided to take a quick one week cruise to a familiar area. We have a two room suite but it is just a bit too big for the two of us. A one bedroom cabin is just about right with two closets and maybe a half dozen shelves. In this suite with the closets, desks, bureaus, etc. there are over three dozen shelves most of which are empty. My wife and I are forever going around with puzzled looks on our faces mumbling, "Now where did I put the..."

I kept hearing so much about artificial intelligence that I decided to give it a try. I wondered how it would have done on my eighth grade book report so I tried that.

I downloaded an AI program with "plot of Huckleberry Finn in one sentence" and got =

"The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" follows the journey of a young boy named Huck Finn and his friend Jim, a runaway slave, as they navigate the Mississippi River, facing various challenges and adventures while grappling with the complexities of society and morality in 19th-century America."

I thought "...complexities of society and morality ..." was a bit much for an eighth grader so I tried

"Plot of Huckleberry Finn in one sentence as written by a 13 year old boy" and got =

"Huckleberry Finn is about this cool kid named Huck who runs away from home, floats down the Mississippi River on a raft with his friend Jim, and they have awesome adventures together while Huck learns about friendship, freedom, and stuff like that."

I don't think "cool kid" or "and stuff like that" would have gone over well with my prissy English teacher. Still, I would have had something to work with.

I have moved to several houses over the years usually down sizing. My final move was to my current one bedroom condominium. It has two closets and a small storage space. I rent a storage unit for large items such as suitcases, Christmas decorations etc.I used to have hundreds of books but I have eliminated almost all of them except for about a dozen professional books, engineering and photography. But I do have books on Kindle, over 800 or so that I bought (or downloaded for free) over the years.

At my current age I have less desire to do things. If I still had a darkroom I know I would no longer use it. I no longer use film cameras. I used to develop my own film but digital is so much easier all around.

I am back from my trip to Spokane, WA. I was worried about flying through winds on the flight leg from Atlanta to Pompano Beach, Florida. The pilot did not fly directly SE to Pompano Beach but flew due east and then due south in an inverted "L" path. The flight was very calm. It is very quiet on the east side of Florida with the sun shining and only a light breeze. I hope all goes well for the people in the path of the hurricane.

The rain around Spokane must have done something to the fires. The sky is clear of smoke all the way to the horizon. The temperatures are mild only in the 70s and low 80s.

Gail,I guess a lot of that smoke is coming from Kelowna as well as from north of Spokane areas. It looks like there is light rain this morning so that may help.

I am visiting my grandkids in Spokane, WA. There are large fires north of us burning large forest and residential areas. The scene of the city of Spokane center, seen from my hotel room, shows a lot of smoke like heavy fog. It is not unlike the huge fire in Hawaii but i guess this one is not as large. At least it is getting little media coverage.

I was in the supermarket and saw that the price of a good thick steak is $20-$30. That seems a bit high. The price of most steaks was in the teens. I don't go to MacDonalds very often but did stop in the other day for a quick bite to eat. The price of two hamburgers, two fries and two milk shakes was $25. Things do seem to be getting more expensive.

I recently had a Watchman® device procedure to eliminate my need for anti-stroke blood thinner. It was inserted through a main artery into the left heart atrium. It was fairly easy. I was in the hospital in the morning and back home and walking around in the afternoon. My medical coverage paid for it all. Good thing too. I saw the bill and the hospital cost itself was $150,000. Good grief!

Jane, Happy Birthday. I hope you have a great day. Say hello to the Sunshine kids for me.

Watching HGTV this morning and the designers actually used wood cabinets in the kitchen and wood front vanities in the bathrooms. Maybe that is making a comeback. They listed the house and a buyer bought if for $100,000 more than they listed it for. That happens every time on the HGTV shows. I have sold over 1/2 dozen houses and no one has ever offered me more than my asking price; usually they make an offer of thousands of dollars less and then we come to an agreement in between.

When they go to list the house they pay thousands of dollars to "stagers" who come with all sorts of rented expensive furniture, art work, vases of flowers, etc. That really impresses potential buyers. "Wow, this place looks great!" I wonder how they feel when the stagers leave with their stuff and the buyers just have a big empty house.

After that news is called in, I can imagine Diane yelling, "Break out the 96 point type!"

When retired Air Force Maj. David Grusch at a House hearing reported that the U.S. has retrieved "non-human" biological matter from pilots of crashed UFOs, I expected that there would be a mad dash by the reporters to get outside to yell into their cell phones,"Get me copy!" I guess that only happens in 1930s movies.

My wife watches a lot of HGTV house renovations. It seems like color is out. Walls are painted mostly white; kitchen cabinets of oak or cherry wood are torn out and replaced with white cabinets; red brick fireplaces are torn out and replaced with flat white or marble fronts. No wonder they want the books on shelves turned around so the color spines are in the back and only the white pages show.

I see a new trend in decorating is to place books on bookshelves with the title spine in and the pages edges facing out. That is supposed to make for a more neutral look. It just looks dumb to me.

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/5XGeAHAK3p87Zj8ifx7hXB-1280-80.jpeg.webp

I see Tony Bennett as passed away. I once saw him standing and waiting in a deli in New York.I gave him a quick head nod and a " 'lo". He smiled and responded the same way.

I believe that Beth lived not far from the Killington resort area in Vermont. There were some road closures and damage in and around that area. I can only hope and pray that Beth is doing okay.

Alas, it seems that my web page has been reported as a phishing, etc. site and is now banned from working. I am trying to get it unbanned to no avail.

You can click on "ignore the risk" to see the photo of my old camera if you want.

I am a moderator at the photo.net web site. Weeks or months can go by with no questions on the
Beginner Forum. Most people can quickly learn how to use their cell phone cameras. There are still a good many people who like to use film and even have their own darkrooms. The Classic Camera forum has many daily posts from people who collect and use old (and fairly modern) film cameras. Film cameras will always be here in closets and attics. Very few people throw away cameras.

I used to use this 100+ year old camera:

It held a single sheet of 8x10 inch film and since no enlagement was needed, prints made from that large film were very sharp indeed. Now I just stick to my cell phone camera.

There used to be a lot of questions on what camera to buy to take pictures of eBay ads. For simplicity and ease of use the Sony Mavica FD75 was most recommended. Now-a-days every one has a good camera in their cell phones. No need to mess with "real" cameras.

I would say that the tonal range window on my cell phone is actually greater than the tone range on my more professional 35mm film cameras. On a sunny day the shadow from a tree would be black on the ground on a film photo but with a cell phone photo the shadow would still be dark but leaves and grass would still show, much as in real life. I spent a lot of time adjusting development times on my film darkroom to try to bring up shadow detail without burning out highlights,

It seems that these boards which Curt hosts don't get many hits. Many have not had responses for years. The Glass board is very active and the Pottery board is semi-active. I guess many people now interact via Facebook or Twitter. When these boards were part of eBay then newcomers would come in to ask questions and get good responses. Remember the "Little Yellow Post" Red and Blue boards that were on the eBay Book Board?

I started out having a password to open my cell phone but that would take me from 12-15 seconds to put in, longer if I had to take out and put on my eye glasses. I could have used a four digit PIN number but my finger print is almost instant and easy to use.

There is a lot of emphasis on internet security - enter name, password and maybe a security code that was sent. I have a fingerprint ID on my cell phone to turn it on. I see most people just turn on their phones with no security. In my phone I have saved passwords, emails, apps to Amazon(with my saved password) etc. If I lose my cell phone no one can turn it on. For most people anyone could find the lost cell phone and turn it on, look at the person's saved phone numbers, emails and things they have ordered on line, etc. If the password for Amazon has been saved that person can then go to the Amazon and stert ordering things for themselves or just raise havoc by ordering thousands of dollars of items to be sent to the person who lost the cell phone. Why don't people think of that and add security to their cell phones?

Happy Birthday, Curt. Have a fancy feast on me.

My wife and I are back from our last cruise. On leaving the ship my wife fell over a low staging and cracked her upper humerus arm bone. After taking care of that on the ship and in the local emergency room we were trying to make an appointment with an orthopedic doctor for a follow up. The person who sets up the doctors' appointments said that many do not like to take cases involving law suits. We said we were not thinking of suing anyone but her impression was that we probably would so she would set us up that way. It seems like she was trying to encourage us to bring a suit.

My wife and I will never sail with Carnival Cruise lines again.The food was not that good and they didn't provide written menus. One was supposed to use one's cell phone camera to take photo of the QR image on the table card and then get a menu on the cell phone. My brother has an old flip phone and my wife forgot her phone. So it was four people trying to look at my cell phone menu, passing it back and forth. Hand me a written menu that I can peruse at my leisure

I am on a sort of family gathering cruise in the Caribbean. My niece arranged it as a graduation gift for her daughter who just graduated college. The whole group is her and her husband, her daughter and boyfriend, her son, my wife and I and my brother and his wife. It has been a happy reunion so far.

Well, I am back from my trans Atlantic cruise. It was a relaxing two weeks. For some reason instead of moving the clock forward as we reached a new time zone, they moved them forward each day for six straight days. When they finished the sun was setting at almost 11 o'clock at night. Everyone was dead tired from not getting even one full night's rest every other day or so. After a ten hour flight from Italy I am now ready to get a few days rest.

My wife and I are going on a cross Atlantic cruise today. It will be a week at sea and then stops in Spain, France and Italy. It should be fun and relaxing.

Beth, I am sorry to hear of your loss. Since I travel so much I don't keep any pets. I remember how good I felt when as a child my dog Rex would happily greet me as i got off of the school bus.

Happy Easter to all. When my brother, sister and I would wake up on Easter morning we would find that the Easter Bunny had hidden chocolate bunnies, peeps and other candy in our bedrooms. Unfortunately we couldn't eat any until we had received later (much later) communion at church.

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The link below shows a 24 piece jigsaw puzzle. "Marcussss" had solved it in 6 seconds.

http://www.jdainis.com/jigsaw.jpg

I cannot even move my mouse pointer onto each piece in 6 seconds never mind moving the pieces. "Marcussss" is the high solver of most of the puzzles that I see with an average time of moving and placing four pieces per second. Impossible I say, so how does he do it?

I think someone mentioned doing jigsaw puzzles on line. I have tried it and it is fun and interesting. One thing bothers me. It usually takes me a few minutes to solve a 36 piece puzzle. For the best times list I see people who do it in around 9 seconds. That means they put 4 pieces in place every second. How? There must be some trick where if you simply click on a piece it flies into the right place. That doesn't seem like much fun.

Kathleen, It is nice to see you again after almost 9 years. It sounds like all is well with you. Interesting info about your sons and bragging rights are allowed here.

A few days ago I re-watched the old movie Witness for the Prosecution. I was very much impressed with the acting of Marlene Dietrich and Charles Laughton. Marvelous. I was always curious if the ending in the movie was the same as the ending in Agatha Christie's original story. It turns out the story was actually a short story written in 1925. I downloaded it from Amazon. At the end of the original story the lawyer forgives the machinations the wife went through because she knew her husband was innocent. Not at all. She says she did what she did to get him off because she knew he was guilty. He did murder the old woman. THE END.

What a fine O. Henry ending. Of course back in 1955 when the movie was made the Hayes office wouldn't allow a move to be made in which a person got away with a crime. Ergo the movie wife stabs her husband to death and will now face murder charges herself.

I knew the Hayes regulations were passe when I saw the movie, A a Fish Called Wanda, and the whole theme was the thieves getting way with the money they stole. They were lovable so it was all right for them to steal.

I was watching a roving reporter talking to college student vacationers in Fort Lauderdale. He asked one young women who the president of the United States was. Her answer - " I don't know." Gives me real confidence in the future leaders of out country.

Back in high school in 1960, we students would have Kennedy/Nixon stickers, buttons etc. and talk about the candidates, not in any social science classes but just amongst ourselves. But then, we only had four channels on the TV so watched the news. We didn't have Netflix, Tic Tok or other media to insulate us from the world.

Diane, Happy Birthday. Have a great day.

Well, my wife and I are back from our Atlantic crossing cruise. We flew in (9-1/2 hours) from Barcelona last night. It was a very relaxing cruise.

A belated Happy Birthday to Lynn.

Diane, I hope your brother gets well real fast.

June, Happy birthday to you. I also hope you have a great day.

My wife and I often walk arm in arm. I suppose many people are pleased to see such a romantic old couple. Actually, we are trying to hold each other up.

Gail My next cruise it this Thursday, a nine day trans-Atlantic crossing with a few stops in Spain and then flying back to the USA.

Gail,Happy birthday. Have a great day.

Remember the old days when one would tell the attendant, "Fill it up, check the water and add a quart of oil." I guess the old cars used to burn a lot of oil.

I would guess that the vast majority of this book board membership live in the northern climates. Why? In the winter months the northern people stay indoors and read; the southern people go to the beach.

I am back from my trip to Spokane. The grandkids were sad to see us go. In fact, we stayed an extra week because they didn't want us to go. I have had enough of the snow and cold for this year. It is good to get back to the warmth of southern Florida with temperatures in the 70s and 80s.

Diane, Sorry about your eggs. I'd watch an old 1930s Thin Man movie and see Nick Charles (William Powell) making scrambled eggs for a late night meal. I guess eggs weren't considered an only for breakfast food back then.

Things are going well visiting my grandkids and helping my son with his new house in Spokane, WA. The temperature is mostly in the mid 30s during the day. The sky is almost always gray overcast. I have seen the sun for only one or two short period. With no sun the snow doesn't melt. It will be good to get back to the warm sunshine of Florida next week.

I made it to Tacoma,WA, okay. My plane left this morning on time and my connection left on time also. I saw no delays on the departure board for any flights. I guess they fixed the massive airline shutdown that happened on Wednesday, okay.

I see Donna (dragonflybooks) was thankful for being directed to this chat room 11 years ago, posted twice and then never came back. I would think that everyone would check here every now and then if only a month or so apart.

Jane, I hope all goes well with your sister. I wll pray for good results.

I had a flat roof over the bay window in my house in New York. If I didn't shovel it off after a snowfall, the snow would partially melt and then refreeze causing a dam. When the snow would melt again the water would back up under the shingles on the sloping roof and come into the house. What a nuisance that was.

All was quiet for my wife and I on the cruise ship, no boomers. We went to bed early. I only watched the first half of the Georgia/Ohio football game but got up to see that Georgia had won 42 to 41. Huzzah! A two point conversion early in the game turned out to be the game winner.

I hope you all have a happy and healthy New Year of 2023.

The cold weather has hit here in southern Florida. Yesterday it was 76 degrees; today it was 49 degrees in the morning. We went to the cruise ship this morning and everyone was clothed like it was Alaska. The ship delayed sailing to await many passengers that were held up by airplane delays.

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas. I hope Santa was good to you all.

I was watching the World Cup yesterday and they sang the British national Anthem. It seemed a bit strange to hear "God save the King!" after hearing "God save the Queen" for several decades ever since I was a child.

One TV show that accurately followed the book was The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency. The actress who portrayed Mma Precious Ramotswe was exactly as i visualized her with her "traditional figure".

My wife and I are out on another Caribbean cruise. This is a free Loyalty cruise. I am glad to see they have finally changed the menus around. After dozens of cruises the menus all start to look the same.

Happy Birthday, Bob. I can't believe it is about four years since Bob's last post.

I made it back from Spokane okay, turkeyless. I ate plenty while I was there. After we were seated on the plane we had a two hour wait while they had to get a machine to defrost the plane, then someone to run the defrost machine then a wait while they defrosted other planes ahead of us etc. Most of those waits were 1/2 hour or so, thus it didn't seem too bad waiting 1/2 hour at a time. All the rest of the trip was fine and it was good to see the grandkids again.

My wife and I don't have anything scheduled for January so my son wants us to go visit them again.My son bought a new house that he is fixing up and I think he likes to have me and my wife around to offer advice. We shall see.

happy Thanksgiving, everyone. I hope you all have a great day.

My wife and I just back from a Caribbean cruise. Now we have one day to rest up before flying out to Spokane WA for Thanksgiving with my grandkids. It seems strange to think of taking a rest after a cruise. All I do on the cruise ship is rest anyway.

Ann, That Ghostly Ball etc. sure looks like a lot of fun. Great costumes. BTW, people I used to know in the maritime industry have told me that the main reason the Exxon Valdez went aground off Alaska was that the Third mate on watch wasn't paying attention to his duties. He was too busy chatting up a female lookout at the time.

I was watching the old Goucho Marx program, "You Bet Your Life". During the quiz he helped a couple out by spelling a man's name i.e "Capital f-o-r-b-e-s." When is the last time you heard someone say "capital" when spelling a proper noun? At a fifth grade spelling bee I was given Mississippi as the word to spell. That word was part of a joke that I learned in the 2nd grade so I quickly rattled off "emm eye ess ess eye ess ess eye pee pee eye. I was stunned when the teacher told me incorrect, to sit down and asked a girl to spell it. She gave me a smirk and started "Capital M..." Good grief. I knew it started with a capital M.

No one does that any more. When checking into a hotel, the clerk asked me to spell my last name. Sort of as a joke I started "Capital D ..." My wife turned away somewhat embarrassed and the clerk looked some what strangely at me. Excuse me for spelling my name correctly!

Since I left Georgia I thankfully won't have to put up with another month of political ads, etc concerning the senate run off election in December.

I received a letter from the Nielsen TV ratings people with a $5 bill. If I filled out the form and submitted it to them they would pay me another $20. I don't think I will bother. I doubt if I would qualify for a regular Nielsen household member. I only watch two regular TV shows once a week and the only other times I watch are sports on the weekends. The only thing my wife watches are HGTV, Fox News and an occasional Game show program. My TV will be off until 4:00PM this afternoon when the Georgia/Tennessee football game starts. I have watched the World Series games these past nights. Maybe the Nielsen people would like to know that.

BTW, there were a number of question concerning if there were Spanish speakers in the household.

I replaced the hollow core wooden door leading out to my balcony with a glass panelled sort of a French door. Several years ago I replaced four hollow core doors in my Savannah home with solid wood panel doors. They cost about $100 each. Looking at doors now I see them ranging in price from $600 - $1,200. Good grief! It wasn't very long ago I used to buy plywood 8x4 foot sheets to lay a rough floor in my Savannah attic for about $6.95 each. Now they cost about $50 each. Instead of $400 for those doors now I would have to pay about $2,400 - $4,800. Ten sheets of rough plywood rose from $69 to $500. Madness! At least I did find a door for my balcony at "only" $400, installed myself.

JoAnneI'm surprised that you think that scammers must be getting your email address off of chat rooms. I'm sure there are dozens of places that have your email address - from eBay or your doctor/hospital site, pharmacy, etc. It seems that most web sites require you to give them your email address. Some sites even sell you email address to different venues.