Toys They Aren't

Lately, I have found myself perusing the toy section at the local Walmart. Since I have no children and all of my nephews and my niece are beyond the toy age, the only reason I am there is for myself.

This started with the Wonder Woman film, which thrilled me and acted as a balm across my weary, battered soul. I am tired of seeing women in roles on TV that leave them helpless, silly, or less-than any human with a penis. It also brought back a lot of fond memories of reading comic books and playing with little action figures. It also reminded me of the 1990s, when I could watch Xena: Warrior Princess, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Captain Kathryn Janeway on the Starship Voyager kick butt and take names. Those strong fantasy female role models slipped away after 9/11. (There is a good research paper in there for a college-level class.)

This new interest in toys began as I slid past the toy section as I always had, with barely a glance. Then, to my surprise, a display of Wonder Woman dolls stopped me in my tracks. These were the size of Barbie dolls, larger than I like. I always preferred the 6-8" action figures when I was growing up. I was never big on baby dolls (too sissy) but instead I liked GI Joe, the Johnny West series, and the first small action figure I remember, Action Jackson. These were followed by superhero figures, though I think I had outgrown many of those by the time they came around. My brother, I remember, had a pile of the original Star Wars figures.

Back to the toy department. I looked at the dolls. I wanted one. I am 54 years old, I thought to myself. You don't need a doll. Instead of buying the doll, I wandered the aisles. I ran across a series of Metal DieCast DC figures for $4.97. I bought a Wonder Woman and a Supergirl. (I also love the Supergirl TV show.) Ok, I thought. That's $10 for two things. Good enough.

My odd little metal superheroines,
with a spoon for size comparison.

After I saw the movie a second time (something I seldom do - I can't recall the last movie I saw twice at the theater), my husband and I slipped into Walmart to pick up some deodorant. Despite the fact that the toy section was all the way on the other side of the largest Walmart in the area, I limped over there. I stood in front of the Wonder Woman section.

My husband told me to buy the damned doll. I declined.

"You've looked at them three times that I know of," he said. "Which one do you like?"

I wanted one with the sword but all they had was one with the golden lasso, so I pointed at that one. He picked it up, put it in the cart, paid for it, and we came home with it.

My Barbie-sized Wonder Woman doll.

Today I was in Walmart and I looked at the toys even though I was short of time. I ran across a line of tiny little metal toys. They were 94 cents. Not even a dollar! The Wonder Woman looked cool. I tossed her in my shopping cart.

My very tiny Wonder Woman metal collectible.

But this is not really about my purchasing Wonder Woman items, though that is what has led me to this point. This is about the toys I see on the shelves. I am beyond shocked at the merchandising tie-ins with movies. The stock rotates with every new film. Wonder Woman, Spider Man, Beauty and the Beast. It rotates through once and then again with the films hit the DVDs. The toys are also weird looking. A lot of them have these huge heads and tiny little bodies. Many of them are Lego figures, which have no hands and are square and pixilated and incredibly creepy looking. They must also be quite popular.

The smaller action figures are in the boys' section. Larger action figures, the Barbie-sized ones, are in the girl's section. I do not know why. In the action figures, the manufacturers offer wrestling guys, lots of Marvel Comics characters, Superman, Batman, and a few female superheroes, like the Black Widow. No small Wonder Woman, though. I remember when Stars Wars: The Force Awakens came out, there was a little kerfuffle about the lack of a Daisy Ridley character. This was especially surprising since she was essentially the lead in the film.

I found toys that were remarkably familiar - puzzles, a Slinky, PlayDoh, and games like Sorry! Life! and Monopoly. I saw bubble-blowing goo and bicycles. But most of the items being sold to children these days are simply commercial tie-ins, things to make money for movie stars and the movie studies, including Disney, Pixar, and the like.

I saw too that toys are still divided by gender. Without even thinking about it, I knew which aisle was for girls and which for boys (incidentally, in every store, there are more toys for boys. I don't know what that means but it means something.). The Barbies were on one aisle; the trucks on another.

A part of me wanted to redo the entire department, and mix it all up. Who says girls can't play with dump trucks, or boys with Barbies? How did the smaller action figures become relegated to the boys' section? Are girls supposed to only be happy with Bobble Headed Wonder Woman?

I think a visit to Toys R Us is in my future, if only to get a better sense of what the children are playing with these days. I don't understand the weird looking figures, the crazy Lego items, the completely unrealistic nature of some of the things I saw. I like fantasy, but I also like for it to make sense. A weird-looking little doll with a massive head makes no sense.

My Wonder Woman items, and Supergirl, will go up on the top shelf with my Xena action figure and my Charlie's Angel doll (the Drew Barrymore version). I will consider the collectibles.

I missed a lot of trends by not having children. Perhaps had I spent more time in the toy section, some of the things I see there today would not surprise me. But I always bought books for my niece and nephews. I did not buy them toys. I left that to their parents.

The merchandising tie-ins with movies troubles me. Childhood should not be so commercial. It should be a time of freedom, a time to see a movie and enjoy it. I don't recall ever seeing a movie as a child and then clamoring for the toy that tied in with it. However, now that I think about it, I know I received a watch that had Alice on it, for the Disney Alice in Wonderland movie.

I remember receiving a Batgirl doll that tied in with the old Batman show featuring Adam West. Gumbi, I think, was a cartoon character. Obviously by the time Star Wars hit this merchandizing tie-in was well in place, but I was a teenager by then and into books, music, and boys, not dolls.

As part of our capitalistic culture, it never occurred to me to question the merchandizing of everything. But I think it is past time that I did so.

Something about this whole affair troubles me. I can't quite put my finger on why it bothers me so, except that it is terribly exploitive. Expect to see me revisit this issue again.



Yes, I loved the movie. Yes, I will own
the DVD. I will watch it many times.
I will memorize the dialogue.
I am weird.

Thursday Thirteen

Thirteen reasons to vote a straight party ticket when you're in the election booth.

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13. There is no reason unless you have thoroughly exercised your duty as a citizen and read up on each and every candidate for which you are casting a ballot. If the only reason you are voting for an individual is because there is an "R" or a "D" beside a name, then you are the problem and what is wrong with this country.


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Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; there is a list here if you want to read other Thursday Thirteens and/or play along. I've been playing for a while and this is my 507th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday.

Happy July 4th!

Sunday Stealing: Bud's Last Questions

Sunday Stealing: Last The 40 Questions from Bud

Here is a song for Bud, who is no longer authoring the Sunday Stealing meme. It's called The Last Goodbye. Congratulations to Bev, who is taking it over, at least for a while.


1. My uncle once : Told me I couldn't read when I was three years old, so I picked up a book and read it to him. When he said I was just "remembering" it, I told him to give me something else, and then I read him that. He didn't tell me I couldn't read anymore.

2. Never in my life : Have I gone parachuting.

3. When I was seventeen : I was young and foolish, a dreamer who thought the world had promise. I know better now.

4. High School was : Something I'd rather not revisit.

5. I will never forget : The day I married.

No cake-smashing for us.

6. I once met : A man with seven wives, as I was going to St. Ives. Each wife had seven sacks. Each sack had seven cats. Each cat had seven kits. Kits, cats, sacks, and wives, how many were going to St. Ives?

Alice.

7. There’s this girl I know who : Fell down a rabbit hole and landed on a chessboard, where the Red Queen said, "Off with her head."

8. Once, at a bar : Somebody had a drink.

9. By noon, I’m usually : Done for the day.

10. Last night : I did not sleep well.

11. If only I had : Paid more attention.

12. Next time I go to gym/church : The roof will fall in, as I don't attend either one.

13. Susan Boyle : Is not someone I know anything about.

14. What worries me most : Is the way that people no longer love one another or understand the cooperative nature of society. Where has all the empathy gone?

Looking left in my office.

15. When I turn my head left, I see : Two clocks, a bookcase full of books, some cameras, and a picture of Gandalf the White from Lord of the Rings.

16. When I turn my head right, I see : A picture of three angels, painted by a friend, a plate hanging on the wall that says Friends are the family we choose for ourselves, and a bunch of papers piled on my desk.

Looking right in my office.

17. You know I’m lying when : I flush or blush or something. I don't know. I don't lie often enough to know what my "tells" are.

18. What I miss most about the eighties : Is being younger and more able to do things.

19. If I was a character in Shakespeare, I’d be : One of the witches in Macbeth.

20. By this time next year : I hope to be feeling better and maybe working more.

21. A better name for me would be : Smart ass, according to a number of people I know.

22. I have a hard time understanding : How people can vote against their own interests.

23. If I ever go back to school, I’ll : Get a Ph.D. and become a college professor.

24. You know I like you if : I talk to you.

25. If I ever won an award, the first person I’d thank would be : My husband.

26. When I compare 80s rock to 90s rock : I just don't do that.

27. Take my advice, never : Sniff a dog's butt.

28. My ideal breakfast is : Scrambled eggs, bacon, grits, biscuits and gravy.

29. A song I love, but do not own is : American Pie, by Don McLean.

30. If you visit my hometown, I suggest : That you take a hike up to McAfee's Knob.

31. My favorite Beatle is : Paul McCartney.

32. Why won’t people : Put the food carts into the bins at the supermarket instead of leaving them all over the parking lot.

My couch.

33. If you spend the night at my house : You will have to sleep on the couch, because I don't have an extra bed.

34. I’d stop my wedding for : A fire in the building.

35. The world could do without : Negative political advertising.

36. I’d rather lick the belly of a cockroach than : Jesus, I don't know. I am not much on licking cockroaches.

37. My favorite blonde is : I don't have one.

38. Paper clips are more useful than : Nail polish.

No fingernails for nail polish. I bite my nails.

39. If I do anything well, it’s : Write and be a smart ass, apparently.

40. And by the way : Thank you, Bud, for hosting Sunday Stealing for 10 years even though I've only been playing for about five of those. (I played a while before I "signed up" but I answered the questions.)

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I encourage you to visit other participants in Sunday Stealing posts and leave a comment. Cheers to all us thieves who love memes, however we come by them.

Saturday 9: Yankee Doodle Dandy

Saturday 9: I'm a Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)

From the archives

1) This week's song was performed by James Cagney in the famous movie of the same name. Do you plan on going to the movies this holiday weekend?

A. No. I have been to see Wonder Woman twice at the theater, which is two times more than I normally go. I think I've hit my movie theater limit for a while.

2) Though known for his larger-than-life screen presence, Cagney was only 5'5". How tall are you?

A. 5' 1 1/2". I used to be 5' 2" but I have shrunk a bit.

3) During the Revolutionary War, General Washington celebrated the 4th of July by giving his troops a double ration of rum. Will you imbibe any spirits this holiday weekend?

A. Only if I inhale a ghost. I don't drink alcohol.

4) American history was one of Crazy Sam's best subjects in school. Science was her worst. In which class did you earn your worst grades?

A. Gym. I would have straight As and one B almost every report card.

5) The Fourth of July means we're in the middle of summer. Are you careful about applying sunscreen?

A. No, mostly because I seldom go outside.

6) Mosquito bites can be a major summer annoyance. Are you scratching any itches right now?

A. Not at the moment, thankfully. Skeeters really like me, though, when I do go outside.

7) Emergency rooms report an increase in wrist injuries in summer, with people falling off bikes and skateboards and jamming their wrists catching hard-hit softballs. Have you recently been to the ER or Urgent Care?

A. No, I have not. I did, however, fall in the bathroom earlier in the week and thought for a moment I might have broken something, but everything works and the pain has lessened so I guess it is fine.

8) New York is home to Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest every year on the 4th. Will hot dogs be consumed in your household this weekend?

A. I don't think so. The last time we had hot dogs, both of us had indigestion, so I don't buy them anymore.

9) Atlanta hosts a 10K Peachtree Road Race every 4th of July. Are you a runner?

A. If taking three fast steps counts as running, yes. Otherwise, no. Actually, I'm not even a fast walker. I lope along.


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I encourage you to visit other participants in Saturday 9 posts and leave a comment. Because there are no rules, it is your choice. Saturday 9 players hate rules. We love memes, however.

Thursday Thirteen - The Devil Made Me Do It

1. Never stab the Devil in the back. - Unknown

2. Fear is the dark room where the Devil develops his negatives.  - Gary Busey
 
3. If you get down and quarrel everyday, you're saying prayers to the Devil, I say. - Bob Marley

4. Neutral men are the Devil's allies. - Edwin Hubbel Chapin

5. Ultimately a hero is a man who would argue with the gods, and so awakens devils to contest his vision. The more a man can achieve, the more he may be certain that the devil will inhabit a part of his creation. - Norman Mailer

6. Beauty is mysterious as well as terrible. God and devil are fighting there, and the battlefield is the heart of man. - Fyodor Dostoevsky

7. To talk to someone who does not listen is enough to tense the devil. - Pearl Bailey

8. A nickname is the heaviest stone that the devil can throw at a man. It is a bugbear to the imagination, and, though we do not believe in it, it still haunts our apprehensions. - William Hazlitt

9. It is wonderful how much time good people spend fighting the devil. If they would only expend the same amount of energy loving their fellow men, the devil would die in his own tracks of ennui. - Helen Keller

10. Calvin: Do you believe in the devil? You know, a supreme evil being dedicated to the temptation, corruption, and destruction of man? Hobbes: I'm not sure that man needs the help.

11. When the Devil quotes Scriptures, it's not, really, to deceive, but simply that the masses are so ignorant of theology that somebody has to teach them the elementary texts before he can seduce them. - Paul Goodman

12. Some days, even the Devil sits back and admires my work. - Unknown

13. We are each our own devil, and we make this world our hell. - Oscar Wilde
 


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Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; there is a list here if you want to read other Thursday Thirteens and/or play along. I've been playing for a while and this is my 506th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday.

Remembering Grandma

Ten years ago today, my grandmother passed away.

She was my mother's mother.  Here is a picture of my grandmother with her daughter as an infant:

My mother, the eldest of six children, passed away in 2000, seven years before my grandmother died at the age of 84. I know that was a great loss to her. Losing a child would be among the hardest things a parent would have to endure.

My grandmother was a homemaker. My grandfather, who died in 1976, worked at the Kroger warehouse in Salem. He had a strange shift; he went in very early and was always home by 4:15 p.m. That was also when he wanted to eat, so I remember many early dinners at my grandmother's house.

She kept me and my brother when we were young. My mother's office was only a block from my grandparents' house, so she could drop us off and pick us up without problem. After we started school, Grandma also kept us if we were sick, during school holidays, on the weekends, and during the summers. She did this until I was old enough to take care of my brother and myself all day.

Grandma was not overly strict. We had a few rules I can remember. Don't mess with Granddaddy's tools in the basement. Don't go near the river (she lived on the Roanoke River, in the area that is now a greenway, though her old home is one of the few that still stands along East Riverside Drive). Don't ride your bicycle in the middle of the street. Things like that.

She would rock you and sing A Bicycle Built for Two if you skinned your knee. She made chocolate pudding in the summer for special treats. Occasionally, if we were very good, we'd get a Granddaddy cookie (an Oatmeal Crème Little Debbie Cookie). (My grandfather carried them in his lunch.) She read to us, too, even though she never finished school. I remember one of her proudest possessions was a set of World Book Encyclopedias. I loved to sit and look at them, though I always had to do it with clean hands.

My grandmother's family is from Salem, while my grandfather's family hails from where I now live. My grandmother grew up on Front Street in this house:

My grandmother grew up in the house on the right; in her later years,
she lived with my aunt in the house on the left.**

After my grandparents married, they lived on Front Street, too, but above a general store. My mother was born in this store.

My grandparents lived in the apartment above. My mother was born there.**

Grandma loved to quilt. She gave me a beautiful maple leaf quilt for a wedding present. I have it safely stored away.

My mother, my grandmother, and my aunt
at my wedding in 1983.

Me and my grandmother at my
wedding.

One of my best memories of my grandmother was when I was going to the prom (with a guy not my husband), and I made him drive all the way to Salem so I could show my grandmother my prom dress. She cried.

In 1985, we had a big flood and the Roanoke River, for about the 4th time, invaded my grandmother's house. She lost everything in the basement again. Fortunately the river never got into the main part of the house, but it sure made a mess of the basement.  Grandma was rather depressed after that. She didn't have my grandfather to help her clean up, so my husband and I, along with many other family members, volunteered to help haul away the smelly mess. At Christmas, when she refused to put up a tree, I resolutely went to the store and bought a small one and put it on a table for her. I don't know that it helped, but Christmas at Grandma's had always been special. I wasn't about to let that tradition go away. I did my best to buoy her spirits.

Not long after that, my aunt returned to the area and she built a house next to where my grandmother grew up. She moved my grandmother in there to live with her and my young cousin.

My grandmother fell in the late 1990s and broke her shoulder. After that, she became somewhat timid, and she moved to Georgia to stay with my aunt after my mother passed away. She came back here because she wanted to die "at home," which was in Salem. She stayed at an assisted living facility for several years before she passed away.

My grandmother in her older years.*

I think Grandma had a good life. Her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren have gone on to do interesting things. She took good care of us all.

Most of all, she loved us, all of us, no matter what we did.


*I just today learned that my grandmother's middle name prior to marriage, when her last name became her middle name as it is traditionally done here, was Odell. I found it on Ancestry. Her nickname was Rosie, and that was what most people called her.

** The photos of the houses came from Google Earth, so they are current pictures. Or as current as Google Earth is, anyway.



Poor Baby Bird

I came home the other day and spied a black lump on the patio.

It was a baby bird that had fallen from its nest. The nest, alas, is in my gas BBQ grill.

Incredibly ugly baby bird that pulled at my heart strings anyway.

The bird nest is in the bottom, not in the jar hanging down,
but up in the grill itself, in the burner part.

This is one of the baby bird's parents. I think it's a Carolina Wren.

I took a wide piece of mulch and coaxed the baby bird up on the stick, then, stooping over in a very uncomfortable position, I carried it back to the grill. I even opened the grill, expecting a bird to fly out at me, but the nest was not accessible from there.

I left the little baby as close to the grill as I could. I know next to nothing about song birds and I have no idea if they can somehow lure babies back to nests once they fall out. In my head, I had visions of the parent bird somehow placing the baby on its back and flying it home.

One of the parents showed up after I was inside, and while I ate lunch, I listened to it sing and cry and coax its little one to fly home. The little one attempted to comply, and I could see it lifting its tiny wings and occasionally moving around.

The song bird's trill was excited and anxious, and finally I went into the front of the house where I could not hear it.

When I returned a little later, all was quiet. I could not see the baby bird. I went outside and found that it had somehow flopped itself off the patio and landed upside down. Apparently unable to right itself, it died.

I was sad. The world can always use another songbird.

No sound came from the grill, and I came in and researched the bird to see how many eggs the female would have laid. Apparently, wrens lay about 5-6 eggs. But I'd heard no chirping.

Later, though, I saw the parent bird fly back to the nest with a worm. I opened the back door a crack and I could hear the faintest of little chirps. I felt better knowing the birds had not lost their only little one.

In the meantime, I do not have a BBQ grill to use, but we don't use it that often anyway. This one is 20 years old and I have told my husband that when the birds are through with it, I would prefer he take it to the dump rather than try to clean it out. I am not keen to eat burgers or steak on it after it has been infested with birds and lice and whatever else they may bring with them. The grill is quite old and it looks junky so I don't mind if it goes away.

Nature is cruel because it has no choice. Baby birds die because they fall from nests. That's the way it is.

People have a choice, though. They are not birds. They can pick up a human baby if it falls. Instead, people are just cruel because they want to be.

Human babies die because we choose to withhold care via lack of funding or services. Last year, six out of every 1,000 children under the age of one died in the United States. [CIA World Factbook]

They didn't fall out of a nest. They just didn't receive the care they should have.

Bosnia, Guam, Poland, New Zealand, the European Union, Germany, Ireland, Iceland, and Japan, among others, have a lower infant mortality rate than the United States. In fact, 56 countries have lower infant mortality rates than the United States. Monoco, with less than 2 deaths per 1,000 infants under the age of one, has the lowest infant mortality rate in the world.

And we think we have good health care? Just wait until the vile old white guys in the government finish with it, and you'll see how bad it can be.

How many babies will fall out of the nest then?

How many mothers will sing sad, sorrowful songs?

How many of those songs could be prevented, if we only cared about one another, and not about the dollars in our pocket?

Darling, You Are Growing Old

My mother used to sing a line to me at every birthday: Darling, you are growing old. I don't know if was from a song, or simply something she liked to sing, but nearly every year, especially after I married, she would croon that.

And here I am, old. Well, aging, anyway. I'm still in my birthday month. Still celebrating having made it yet another year.

However, this year so far, two of my high school classmates have passed away (class of 1981). They were, of course, my age. Early 50s.

I am not sure how many of my classmates have gone to the great beyond. I believe there were eight that we were aware of when we had our 30th reunion in 2011, which was six years ago. Now I know of 10. I suspect there are more. We were a class of 212 (I think), so about 5 percent of us - maybe even 10 percent or more, since I haven't kept up with most people - have passed on.

We were a generation that grew up eating bologna, TV dinners, and candy bars. We drank Dr. Pepper and scarfed up cookies. Our moms worked, mostly, and if meals were anything like at my house, they were whatever a poor pooped woman could manage at 6 p.m. Frequently, that was Kraft Mac & Cheese or whatever else she could rustle up.

Food companies of course were eager to help. Who cared if the stuff was full of preservatives, sodium, fats, and who-knows-what? It shut the kids up.

Unfortunately for my mother, and for me, I never liked cooking so I wasn't much help. To this day I still don't understand appropriate nutrition and how food is fuel and what the body needs versus what the body craves. They are different things, aren't they? Craving and needing?

Nor does cooking appeal to me, even now. I don't like naked meat. I don't care to see it sitting there unclothed on my counter, with its thighs or gristle or fat waiting to make my hands slippery and yucky. I don't like flouring it only to fry it and watch the grease pop out all over the stove, making a lovely mess. I don't like trimming fat from pork or steak, nor do I know how to marinate meat so that it has a lovely taste. That I leave to restaurants.

Mostly I know how to stuff meat in the oven and let it bake until it is not red and bleeding, and then we eat it. I don't salt it, because my husband and I both have high blood pressure. Sometimes I fix pork or a chuck roast in the crock pot and I put Mrs. Dash in there.

We eat a rather bland diet, for the things I can cook are bland, and thus when the grocery aisles scream out "cookie" or "potato chip" or "something with taste, for God's sake!" then of course the hands reach out and the item finds it way into the basket.

Now, though, I think the reality of aging is finally conking me upside the head. If I don't take care of myself, I'm not going to have a long life. I'll be gone, like some of my classmates. I've already outlived a percentage of them.

I have to figure this out. I know in my head what I need to do. It's the rest of me that needs to be convinced, especially my taste buds and their unquenchable desire for things sweet and chocolatey.

Always a work in progress over something. But better to be a work in progress than a staid old statue made of clay.

Sunday Steaing: Greenish Q&A

Sunday Stealing: The Greenish Questions

1. What is your current obsession?

A. I am playing a city-building game called Elvenor. You have to gather supplies and ensure you have enough population, trade for provinces, and join a fellowship. I usually don't play multiplayer online games because I don't care for the interaction with real people, especially in those RPGs that can get very fierce and have lots of fighting, cursing, and under-developed little boys of all ages. But this a mild, gentile game and the only competition is to see who can build the fastest, and the only reason to mix with the other folk is to ask if anybody has steel to trade for your silk or whatever.

2. What’s your go-to coffee place?

A. I don't drink coffee. I used to have a tea hang-out but it moved about 30 minutes away so I don't go there any more.

3. Who was the last person that you hugged?

A. My husband.

4. Do you nap a lot?

A. I seldom nap. My husband, however, says taking naps makes you live longer.

5. Tonight, what’s for dinner?

A. Either soup, a baked potato, or leftover chicken, unless my husband decides to take me out.

6. What was the last thing that you bought?

A. I bought a gallon beverage dispenser at the supermarket on Friday. My doctor told me my blood tests indicated I am not drinking enough water (something to do with my kidneys, which I need to discuss with her in more depth because that came from a nurse's call and I haven't seen the lab work), so I thought if I filled this dispenser every day with water and drank it, I could keep track of what I am drinking.

7. What is your favorite weather?

A. A nice, party-cloudy to sunny day, temperatures about 70 degrees, with a light breeze. That would be a perfect day for just about anything. However, I am also very intrigued by storms.

8. Tell us something about one blogger who you think will play this week?

A. Harriet has lots of dogs and a sore knee. Stacy has a grandbaby and last week her daughter was sick. The Gal's best friend is named John and she loves the Cubs. Zippi is trying to get back into her crafts after the loss a loved one. Bud is going to write a book and stop being the caretaker of Sunday Stealing. SmellyAnne recently changed addresses and is now in Boise, making her a Boiseitte (?), at least, according to Sheldon on the Big Bang Theory. Bev posts pretty pictures on Sat. 9. Kwizgiver is a teacher who reads a lot.

9. If you were given a free house that was full furnished, where in the world would you like it to be?

A. Somewhere where it is warm in the winter time. If you throw in a jet and a pilot, I'll take New Zealand, because I could go there in the winter and come back to Virginia in the summer.

10. Name three things that you could not live without.

A. My heart, my head, and my stomach. If you mean outside of my body, then food, water, and shelter. If you mean the trivial things of life, then my computer, a telephone, and a car.

11. What would you like in your hands right now?

A. That's a loaded question if I ever saw one. But I will go with a piece of watermelon.

12. What’s one of your guilty pleasures?

A. Eating chocolate, followed by playing video games.

13. What would you change or eliminate about yourself?

A. I would lose weight and feel the fear and do it anyway.

14. As a child, what type of career did you want?

A. I bounced around from writer (always) to geologist, archeologist, librarian, historian, and teacher. In some ways, being a news reporter allowed me to do all of that as I have written articles on rocks (we have karst topography here which causes sinkholes and creates issues for development), historical digs (archeology) and historical facts (historian), and I considered my writing a form of teaching, plus I spent time substituting at the local public schools and taught for a year at the community college before my gallbladder went splat. So I have managed to wrap it all up into one big blanket and throw it around myself.

15. What are you missing right now?

A. A clean office. Mine is a wreck.

16. What are you currently reading?

A. I just finished reading Truevine by Beth Macy, a nonfiction book about two young men from my area who were taken into the circus prior to the 20th century, and I also just finished listening to Sex, Lies, and Serious Money, by Stuart Woods on audio. I am also reading on my Kindle a book called The Mutual Admiration Society by Lesley Kagen. And then there are newspapers and magazines that I read all the time, like The New York Times, The Roanoke Times, The Atlantic, Vox, Salon, the Washington Post, etc. etc.

17. What do you fear the most?

A. Being old, alone and penniless while living under the overpass at the interstate, eating out of dumpster at Pizza Hut.

18. What’s the best movie that you’ve seen recently?

A. Wonder Woman. I saw it twice at the theater, which is nearly unheard of for me to do, and I'd go see it again and I plan to own the DVD. It is a great movie, a little campy, and it has the best message at the end.

19. What’s your favorite book from the past year?

A. Let me check my list. I reread three of the Harry Potter books, so they would probably be my top favorites, but I also enjoyed The Nightingale, by Kristin Hannah. Among others.

20. Is there a comfort food from your childhood that you still enjoy?

A. I still buy Smarties on occasion, just for me. We (meaning me, my brother, and my two youngest uncles, one who is a year younger than I am and the other three years older) used to eat them as "super pills" when we were children - they would give you special powers when we were playing. We did the same thing with different colors in M&Ms.


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