Which Reminds Me

Yes, I vaguely remember the dog named Spot, who featured prominently in the books that were used when they were teaching us to read. Oh, hi Spot! See Spot run. Run Spot run. Ha ha ha! So?

Which Reminds Me

Yes, you make me sort of wish that I had persevered through that steep learning curve as far as the bar, I tend to think now that I might have even passed eventually, but at the time I was very discouraged at getting a C on the test, although my friend got a D. So maybe I could have improved later, but if you quit early it is harder to reap the rewards of success later. 

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I vaguely it seemed so funny at the time, how they repainted the STOP sign in the parking lot to say SPOT. Ha ha ha! But of course that was only a passing sign, a temporary blip in the continuum. Of course I have to stop at the STOP sign, never mind about the small jokes that he will have to pay for later because he used his work skills to access the paint used to do that.

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I vaguely remember the time when we were crossing the border, returning to El Salvador from Guatemala, and nearby there was a soldier with a gun who asked for a ride to some town not really that far away, and so, fine, we gave him a ride to where he was going. Wouldn't you? Who wouldn't do that?

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I vaguely remember the time when Lois Cooper Stewart was telling us about the time that she violently hit her sibling, and she feels so bad about that now, and she went on to have a normal life. Some people are more fortunate than I, perhaps, in this regard. For some people sibling rivalry can be a torment, requiring that I exercise self-control in order to NOT do that, even when confronted by all the demonic evil creatures, but an only child would not be able to understand these points.  

Which Reminds Me

Yes, it is hard to say where I would get millions of dollars when I cannot do anything without running afould of the Catto-Hobby-Lobby-Green Monstrosity. After a simple choice to work in journalism, suddenly I find them accusing me of trying to get to them, because they owned some newspaper in Houston. Oh, I did not know that. Since when do I care about reconnecting to the snarky people from 9th grade? How do they even know what I am doing for work anyway? What if I wanted to disconnect and/or  stay off their radar screen? They never do anything helpful anyway. Just moving to Siberia or somewhere remote might not solve this problem. 

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I vaguely remember recounting how I had seen those people somewhere when I was 14 or 15 years old, and they have been chewing on that for years, so much so that I was feeling so bad about maybe did I falsely accuse them of something, so that they are always so angry about something, so that I completely forget now what I had originally said about them, and probably never will say anything about them ever again in the future, given that the thought of them was completely wiped out of my mind, and I might not be remembering things correctly anyway.

Which Reminds Me

Yes, you would think that it would be a simple matter, that someone ought to be able to reinterpret these matters in light of a Scriptural context, but anyway, we already know that some people are somewhat deaf spiritually speaking, so these matters become like cement blocks unless the Spirit can move freely. Some of the deaf people need to be sent home to work on their hearing problem.

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I vaguely remember that Gary Arnold at college was berating us in person, maybe for being white people, it was not clear, and then later he was online for a long time making us feel like garbage, even though his opinion was really never that important in the whole scheme of things. Everybody already knows that there always has been and always will be that type of geeky nerd who prefers the exotic foreign woman. So whatever. There was no reason for us to apologize for being who we are. We just are who we are.

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I would not say that I dislike Pyle. She has some good talent in terms of writing satire and humor, and some interesting connections to Dartmouth, but anyway, there are many things too personal to discuss with such an incidental acquaintance. I hope she has a nice life. I am not thinking about that at all, so it would be sort of out of place for her to be inserting some irrelevant letters into the mix. Looking back, I can see that I am better off just leaving Atlanta well enough alone. No need for Dartmouth to stick her foot in matters that are none of her business. The Dim Bulbs of Dartmouth are not that special to me. Needless to say. But if Pyle insists on performing as my secretary, she really should stick to humor and not get too seriously legal about that or there could be a need to prosecute. 

In fact, there is an idea, perhaps we could prosecute the Dim Bulbs of Dartmouth in the same bucket as we would proceed against the vapid clueless bimbos of South Dakota, assuming that brain surgery would not be feasible. They are nothing. I vaguely remember that our college classmate Gary Arnold married some forgettable Mexican who I do not remember. Maybe I should be remembering something about that, but I really do not remember.  They were boring. 

 

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I tend to think it is completely unjust, not serving the interests of justice, to force me to pay for any of the preppy crimes, if there be any in existence or not is no concern of mine, let the police submit their reports if there be any, of that Cerulean Jennie of the Ph.D. in Stupid, to exaggerate slightly. I am really not paying that much attention to her stuff to bother with trying to express something about that.

However, I am old enough to remember that back in the 1970s and 1980s, "preppy" was a popular fashion fad of which she was a noted manifestation on our college campus. After all is said and done, nobody really wants to have anything to do with the preppies. They wear a certain style of clothing, a bit on the stiff side for my tastes, although not terrible if that is what you want people to think about you, and they might say certain cryptic things that, if you don't know the preppy lingo, you might find yourself a bit at a disadvantage as to how to answer if any reply be required given that a preppy dictionary was not really available. You can wear the preppy clothes, but the lingo might be a tricky trap. If you do not really have the bank account or the upper class connections to match the superficial appearance, some people might notice that. You can fool some of the people....

But I forget who was Jennie's college roommate who had a falling out with her. I never keep track of these cheerleader types. I only remember some things that Dauna said about her, and of course she was a noted gossip on campus. And also they were both Italians, so who knows what happened there.   

 

 

Which Reminds Me

Yes, that was not my original context, that is to say, what I originally meant to say, but anyway, at least I have the sense to be embarrassed about some of the weird things I see them doing, in contrast to some other persons who probably know who they are.   

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I vaguely remember that Jan Green was a roommate of mine for about three months during my second semester at Evangel. One day she was doing her hair and confessed to me that her auburn hair is dyed that color, so she imagines that I will condemn and judge her for doing that, which sort of shocked me because I was not planning to say anything about that, had not even noticed actually, but anyway, I tend to think that sometimes people like to dye their hair red so as to act out various stereotypes in their own minds, so I suppose that is a freedom of choice matter. You can dye your hair any color you want. Jan moved off campus maybe two or three weeks before the end of the semester. 

I did not return the next semester to Evangel, and later I heard online that they were going to tell me some things, that I should have stayed there and gone through who knows what else, but whatever, for what do I need a pile of second-hand or third-hand garbage that really belongs ot Jan originally anyway. And which Jan was that? I am gone.

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I am not particularly interested to see the Bail-us family making their cameo appearances as usual. They never really do anything helpful, they just mill about as if that meant something. I don't like the idea of being dependent on the Bail-us people. 

Which Reminds Me

Yes, whatever happened to those unrelat4ed persons who lived down the hall during my first year at college? Candy Bennett and Candy Higgins roomed together actually. It was a bit confusing at moments, to be hearing the name but they can't spell my name correctly so what would they know about anything? 

And since when did I give a hoot about the worthless filthy dirty Clintons and their stupid little yappy dog Monica? I don't quite know how to unravel that nonsense, thanks for the "help." 

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I suppose that some people are yearning for the good old days of "Good Housekeeping" glories (such as my mother's long-time favorite), before women's magazines in general descended to the level of wretched rubbish heap. Is it any wonder that people gather a somewhat negative impression of American women after reading that worthless stuff that is crammed into the women's magazine of nowadays. Why bother to browse there anymore when there is nothing worth mentioning to be found there. But of course a high level of thought is not expected from the silly bimbos of New York. 

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I am so insulted that you people would mistake me for some trashy Italian cheerleader who went and got her Ph.D. in sex and has a program that apparently involves teaching birth control to children in Africa. I do not know anything about that, and neither do I resemble her in any way, beyond writing a handful of shocking magazine articles. I have reoriented my reading habits long ago, and I just don't care to hear about all her clinical experiments on this topic. Shut up, you worthless Italian idiots! I never really heard how many husbands she might have gone through. I just have no idea. We were never really on such friendly terms, actually.

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I vaguely remember that Mark ther carpenter was fired way back when, so there is no reason to bother with his nonsense again, no reason to try to rewrite whatever that conversation was about, when obviously he only hears through bugged wires, which was the reason for his firing, after it was discovered that he had bugged all the phones in the office. And after a phone conversation, he would come around to my desk to add his comments, oddly, about what he really should not have heard anyway.  But he was not discovered until I was already gone, so I only heard about this later. 

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I can easily see, from your parroting of that bit about how I have no good ideas, that your name is really Susie and you have a serious wait problem. Sorry, maybe sometimes my head is a little bit cracked, but anyway, we'll see how that works out later, but maybe not soon enough for you, obviously.

Which Reminds Me

Yes, there you go again, crowing about your wretched friend whose name is "Mara." Nobody likes Mara anymore. There was a time when you were waxing poetic in praise of Mara, but nowadays Mara is loathed and despised as a contemptible person of no account. I am confused. Oh, were you talking about Mara or mara? Huh? My how times have changed and dictionaries must be embellished with new linguistical developments so that we can understand what on earth are you talking about.   

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I am suddenly reminded of that creepy weirdo who was a college friend of my third cousin, Chris Gallup, and who ultimately married some Vietnamese girl. That would be quite a stretch to imagine that I would care to hear from him ever again. Yuk! I thought he was horrible, the way I keep hearing demonic messages from him, but I am too nice and polite to bother with verbalizing all of these forgettable points about persons who I had completely forgotten and who I am not interested in talking to. We never talked. He was nothing. Makes me wonder what did Chris say to encourage this nonsense. It is very distracting to be hearing all of this nonsense. 

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I vaguely remember that they were telling me that Honduras is now the United States, and also Honduras is now Israel. OK, so does that mean that El Salvador is the new Kazachstan? I am confused. Whatever that meant.

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I vaguely remember that I was surprised, maybe 30 years after the war, that there was some Honduran lady online berating us for having been on the Salvadoran side during the war, as if Honduras was the equivalent of the United States, so if you are not Honduran you are no in the United States, So that was a different twist than what I had ever heard of. And what am I supposed to say about that? It wasn't my war. I am only on summer vacation sitting on the patio listening to the wartime broadcasts, looking at pictures in the newspaper. 

Why all of this outburst from our former classmate's older sister, about the treaty demarcation process, undertaken to forge a treaty between the two countries long after the war: I suppose if you are in office at the time at that is your job, you will have to do whatever you have to do. Well, good luck with that. I cannot imagine what that might involve. I was only visiting this planet.

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I vaguely remember that we were living in El Salvador during the Soccer War of 1969, which lasted not more than a week. Following an initial skirmish between Salvadoran and Honduran bombers near the airport, they turned the electricity off throughout the city at 6 p.m. in the evening and the electricity was not turned on again until the next morning. Perhaps the idea was that Honduran bombers would get lost trying to find the city. Anyway, it was good that we had a kerosene lantern and various candles on hand, although it is always good to have these things on hand in case of power outages that may last however long, maybe a few minutes, maybe hours. So in the evenings, in the darkness because there was only a lantern and some candles, we would sit outside on the patio listening to my Dad's shortwave radio. First we would hear the Salvadorans reporting that the wife of the Honduran president had fled the country with a suitcase containing all the money. Then we tuned in to a Honduran radio broadcast where they were reporting that the wife of the Salvadoran president had fled the country with a suitcase containing all the money. So it would seem that the propaganda of either side was somewhat similar mirroring each other's reports. At that time there were some conflicts on the border of which I remember nothing, only that El Salvador considered itself the winner and there was a military victory parade to celebrate the end of the war. The parade route passed down Boulevard Roosevelt, about a half a block from our back door, so we went outside to see what was the commotion. Throngs of people were crowding around to see the soldiers parading in columns and rows on the street and military vehicles and tanks and so on. My Dad took a photo of that which we probably still have somewhere. So that was what was happening at that time near our house due to geographical happenstance.

It was at about that time that we learned from the locals that the nickname for the Salvadorans is "guanaco" and the nickname for the Hondurans is "catracho." It was, as we learned, a deep-seated rivalry that dates back to time immemorial, maybe even tribal days, probably the soccer gane war was only the most recent excuse.

At that time Honduras expelled a number of Salvadorans who had been living in Honduras, so that is how we came to be acquainted with these people who were later attending the church in San Salvador. Honduras did not want them back there. 

Interestingly, there was another missionary family who, their mother lived much of her childhood in Honduras, so maybe they would have a different view of that. I really never discussed that with them.

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I vaguely remember that the text of her column was not what she had originally submitted, and neither did it contain the unauthorized corrections that Kathy and I had made.to it, some spellings and minor little things. Thus, I have withdrawn my association with or interest in that situation. I was not planning to say anything about that, myself being such a nice and tactful person, but if Kathy wants to knock herself out, crowing about her own shrill caterwaulings, fine, go ahead. But leave me out of it. I want nothing to do with that. Of course by this time they must be drowning in a flood of new and recently discovered ways to stab me in the back. Needless to say. 

Which Reminds Me

Yes, it is hard for us to understand why you are so worried about what Woody Guthrie did to Italians. Wasn't that just wartime propaganda. And are we supposed to apologize for whatever the Looney Tunes crew did to Hitler? No. Actually not. It was wartime then. During wartime we have to do whatever the military people say. There is a blackout on information during wartime. Didn't you know that?

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I really am a very conservative person. I don't see how these Italians get off trying to throw me into a Woody Guthrie bucket, referring to that guy who sang, "All You Fascists Bound to Lose." Of course not every Italian was a fascists, but anyway the U.S. won that game, so why can't they just shut up. Life is not really that simple. It is complicated.

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I do not remember ever having a conversation with Bathsheba, so I really have nothing to say about her. I get the impression that she might have been something of a firecracker personality in that Blackie sort of way that is sort of boring to white people, but whatever. To each his own. What can be expected from persons who cannot spell Orpah's name correctly anyway?

And how is Bathsheba related to Carmen? I do not quite see how all these parts connect.   

And didn't Kathy have a flag of Italy tattooed on her forehead. Only they would talk that way to white people who they don't really know. 

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I vaguely remember that the word "banana" reminds me of the nickname of Carmen's creepy weird boyfriend, who was the captain of the Blue Team during high school, but he died his first year after high school, somewhere in New England, so he being long since dead will not be available to reenact our Blue Team's losing performance. Carmen might still be there trying to relive her high school glories, but whatever. The rest of us have moved on by now to other things beyond high school.

Which Reminds Me

Yes, what were her parents thinking, that poor thing, stuck for life with such a name as Hortensia Snickerdoodle. So? So what? 

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I vaguely remember that I thought that movie was so funny, but I recently noticed that you are putting a completely different political spin to that than I had originally thought of. I had thought that it was a humorous and inspirational and imaginative exploration of cross-cultural communication issues, which is an area of research and study that interests me somewhat due to some personal experiences in regards to that. However, I really do not think of that as a political matter. We cannot simply force these people to wear little badges announcing whether or not they are U.S. citizens, and thus suitable candidates for political office in contrast to Canadians, and then later we find them all switching their citizenships later anyway. Needless to say. We all have different national anthems, of which all were sung in morning Bible class so that no one would feel left out. But anyway, sometimes it is not so clear from outward appearance who belongs to which national anthem. Sometimes all those people look the same to me. I really don't see what is the law about that, when I am no longer enrolled in college anyway. But, maybe you would identify yourself the other way. That or else you have no sense of humor. There are some people who just never get it. I never used to get the other side of things, but after the split I now have to live with double vision.   

Which Reminds Me

Yes, scripting demands that I say something about sewing projects, even though my 7th grade sewing skills are not that advanced. It is important when selecting a pattern and fabric, to make note of whether the fabric is with or without nap. It makes a difference because some patterns might not work with nap and also the with nap fabric may require cutting the fabric a certain way whereas without nap it is not going to be so much of a problem to cut it whichever way saves time or uses less fabric. But if your fabric has nap, that is how it is, The instructions are what they are.

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I vaguely remember that I was inexplicably having to explain that my job during high school was not to recruit persons who may wish to immigrate to the United States. Some persons may have immigrated to the U.S. anyway based on their own connections, but that had nothing to do with us. There was nothing that we needed to do about that, you cannot go around telling people where they can go or not. They can always go to the embassy and fill out the necessary forms if they wish to travel to the U.S. (Coincidentally, I went to the embassy to get my Social Security number to use in college applications, but that is a completely different and unrelated matter, and there is a whole other story about that.) 

There are those who talk about recruiting persons suitable for inclusion in the pending Super Race based in the United States, but that was not me saying that, maybe Tom, you could always ask Tom what he was thinking, I am not sure what that was about. That wasn't my problem. 

Which Reminds Me

Yes, many years ago, I remember hearing online someone's Chinese boyfriend talking about how they do not like the way we Americans meddle in the political affairs of China. Ok, fine. That might have been true 100 years ago, but contrary to whatever Tinkers say, the Yellow Fever of yesteryear is mostly extinct, and most people generally speaking in America are not that informed or ever care to be all that well informed about the insider events of China. So, OK, fine. Not to be rude but we just don't care that much, needless to say. 

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I vaguely remember that something sort of strange was happening over there on the other side of the room where they were counting the votes, and some people were upset, but I did not have a handle on what that was all about. I am not sure how I voted then or how I would vote now if I had to do that over again. Would I vote the same way again or would I prefer to arrange for myself to be strategically absent from the room while the two candidates fight amongst themselves? Hmmmm.... I am not sure that I care that much about who won the election for that year, it only matters if there was unfair irregularities, the specifics of which I cannot quite remember. 

Which Reminds Me

Yes, oh, yes, I do not remember there being any law requiring me to discuss these various points with vapid space cadet Lori Reece, but I digress. She wasn't even there so what could she possibly say about that beyond whatever Kathy said. 

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I noticed that you were counting on Kathy from the CIA to protect your distant cousin and maybe even to promote her election to higher office, so who better to explain what happened in that regard? I just have no clue what that was about.

Which Reminds Me

Yes, for all the reasons, there being no desirable options available at the present time, it becomes necessary to evacuate the planet. Needless to say.

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I vaguely remember, while doing my genealogical research, learning that I have an ancestor, via great-grandmother, was named Joseph Smith but he was NOT the founder of Mormonism. Needless to say. Obviously. He lived and died in Hadley, Massachusetts, 1681-1767, so that does not take me to any exotic foreign location.

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I had always thought myself fortunate to be born in the United States, so that there is no question about how I legally arrived here in this country. Coincidentally, my parents were married four years before I was born, so there is no question about how I legall arrived here in this universe. So what is your point, whacko heroine addicts from the Midwest? When are you going to stop this high demand for heroine antics?

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I vaguely remember that when I was about 14 years old, my freshman year in high school, and there was a book that I was studying, and taking off the book cover, i noticed that the inside of the book cover was blank, and I had the notion to put that in the typewriter and see if I could fill the blank space with words, and so that became my experiment with stream of consciousness writing. In the process of filling the blank space with words, it mattered not whether the words would make any sense or have anything worth mentioning, the only goal was to fill the blank space with words, and so in the process I churned up some gibberish from early childhood about my beloved teddy bear, and also took some swipes at little sister and went on and on about nothing much, and I did succeed in filling the blank space with words, even though the words were not really that important, the only thing was to fill the blank space with whatever words came to mind. And then two years later little sister found that and shared it with her friends, which is sort of unfortunate because by then I was long gone from that state of mind and not wanting to go through that again.

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I am so sorry that I missed hearing the part about why we have to feel so sorry for David. Huh?

Which Reminds Me

Yes, oh, I did not know there was going to be a contest later based on that. So, well, if that is how you are going to be, don't be expecting me to ever speak to you again. Never.

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I vaguely remember that Terry was talking about Singapore, but I never really heard what was found there, if anything worth mentioning. Some people live in their own alternate universe that has nothing to do with me. Her real mother is some Chinese woman unknown to us. We don't know much about that. 

Which Reminds Me

Yes, that was somewhat annoying to hear the Trippy-Trapp brothers screaming about nothing much, just because they own Nicaragua, and their father is the boss so we just have nothing to say abou that. Huh?

Coincidentally, I vaguely remember that Jim Hall was the speaker at our fall retreat and such a wonderful and inspiring time was had by all at the campground in Oklahoma. And how is Jim Hall related to Miles and Rowena Hall, who are closely associated with Max? interesting how they all live in North Carolina now.

Yes, wouldn't that be nice if the Sultan of Brunei or somebody would accidentally drop a few million dollars into my bank account? Ha ha ha! But of course that was Fawn Hall's mistake, not my problem. I am not saying that I never made any mistakes, but that does not belong to me. (Thanks to Wikipedia for mentioning this point in the aritcle if just read yesterday.) But if not, maybe I don't need the headache. 

Coincidentally, it has been quite a while now, a few years maybe, since we were hearing the TV rantings of that Pipsqueak Oliver. What was his problem anyway? What is he crowing about nowadays? His screechings never made any sense to me. 

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I am not particularly fond of silly widgets that choke people to death, such as the one that says that if you are not a chicken, that makes you a tart. That is really not a good foundation for Christian life and work, to think that those are your only options, that if you are not a chicken, that makes you a silly tart, so I do not want to hear your silly excuses later. Enough about that nonsense.

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I vaguely remember that during high school, my sister went with some of her friends from school to see the movie musical "Oliver," and she was later talking about that and singing some of the songs from that movie. I think that they had some "Oliver" code, but I do not remember. I did not see that movie with them so for what do I need their "Oliver" coding? She also had some coding from a book she had studied, "The Little Prince," but I also did not read that book so am not sure what that was all about. The author might have had some slight association in that country so that would certainly make it a book to be studied there, but for some reason that was never my assignment.

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I vaguely remember that when I was in maybe 9th grade, our maid Antonia was fired by my Mom after she was caught trying to leave with a suitcase full of our stuff. Later I noticed some other things that were missing in addition to what was in the suitcase. Oh well! It is not like I sit around thinking about this person and how to make her life completely miserable later. I just have  no idea what might happen to her later. I don't know very much about that.

Which Reminds Me

Yes, the last time I checked, those Filipinos never contributed one dime to my paycheck or to my well-being or to my mental health, so there is nothing that I would need to discuss with them at the present moment. That would be so unbelievably stressful for me to have to play ying-yang with those malicious Asian women. Yuk! 

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I vaguely remember that after I became a reporter, the first time I covered a meeting at city hall, my first story was a bit of a jumble, the mayor or one of the commissioners pontificated about how he wants to have his ducks in a row, and so on, but it was not clear what happened there. But later my boss had me meet with the city manager, who explained to me about Robert's Rules of Order, and then I was able to more accurately explain what happened. 

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I vaguely remember that someone was reminding us of that book, "Robert's Rules of Order," whose author was Henry M. Robert. Not Roberts, needless to say, but Robert. So that prescribes how you should be conducting yourself in business in an orderly and civilized fashion, not screaming willy-nilly accusations of malice, whatever that meant.

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I am forgetting who it was I overheard complaining about being carded, having to present their ID card to get in to some nondescript place, I forget where. And I could not understand, if you have to worry about getting in, why would you even want to go there? Who cares? I never had that problem so it is hard for me to understand what are talking about.

Which Reminds Me

Yes, when I was working in Miami, one of my assignments was the international banking scene, but of course ordinary people usually would not bother to go there, their minimum deposit to even thnk of opening an account being quite high. But it is interesting that Miami has so much of that all concentrated in a small area. You could easily go to Miami and fit right in there. 

Which Reminds Me

Yes, thanks for reminding me yet again that I am completely unqualified for the job, which puts me out of the running for anything, thank you very much. 

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I vaguely remember that during eighth grade one of the novels that Mrs. Richardson read aloud to us, during the half-hour time allotted after lunch, was about some Jewish people from Eastern Europe. The heroine was the maid whose job was to meticulously polish the marble stairs every day. Later she escapes to the United States where she meets some other people who convert to Christianity and they all live happily ever after in Canada. I forget what the book title was, I noticed it somewhere years ago but forgot again, do not remember who they were.

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I vaguely remember that Yamaha is a brand of musical instrument, whereas Yasushi T. was our Japanese classmate who during his report in Miss Marken's English class presented his uniquely Japanese perspective on the atomic bombings of Japan during World War II, although probably he is not alone in having mixed feelings about us nuking thousands of people at one blast. But it was apparently the only way to stop the war speedily, so we Americans tend to believe that the military knows what their strategy is even when the rest of us people are just out of the loop. 

Which Reminds Me

Yes, it sort of boggles the mind that Steve would have the nerve to try to make something out of nothing, but I do not want to say something that might encourage further nonsense. Better to let that wind down than to suddenly wake up and find oneself on the opposite side of the fence from where I was supposed to be.

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I vaguely remember that I wrote maybe a couple of stories introductory to the Grace Report, and then I was transferred to another office, and reassigned to a different paper, so I really do not remember what happened after that. Other reporters were assigned to continue that story, so you would have to ask them for any other details about that.

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I am sorry that I did not feed the maid a piece of the delicious cake that I had baked, or else my Mom baked, my Mom sometimes baked cakes, too. It was not that I could not afford to give her a piece of cake. I was not even thinking about that. Sorry. I cannot go back and fix that problem now. And they do such an amazing job of painting themselves as martyrs.

Nor can I erase the clues of aggressive predatory behavior. I am not really that fond of her. I would try to be nice if I had to, but anyway someday things will take a postmodern turn and then we will see the flip side of that.   

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I vaguely remember iu high school study hall, one day Kathy was mocking my "rabbit ears," as if I were not supposed to be overhearing whatever I was hearing. And should I apologize for having "ears to hear." Thank you Lord for giving me ears to hear. No, there was no reason to apologize for happening to hear that, although I forget now what I was not supposed to hear. I only remember the peculiar reference to "rabbit ears." And also, what would Kathy know about the "rabbit ears" of second grade? No, that would be too ridiculous to imagine that Kathy would know anything about the Thanksgiving drama of second grade. It seems logical to suppose that the reference to "rabbit ears" was a mere coincidence.  

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I vaguely remember that when I went into journalism, that I changed my registration to Independent because, well, anyway, propagandizing was not my idea of good journalism, and also what did parties ever do for me? When did it become my job to babysit Kathy's friends from high school? They just sit over there mocking me and taunting me for some reason, I really have no idea what their problem is. Anyway, study hall is a time for doing homework.

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I tend to imagine that I myself am not the only person who ever did something and then regretted it forever. So?

Which Reminds Me

Yes, it is as if I were back in high school study hall, sitting at my desk trying to concentrate on doing my homework, maybe one less book to carry home tonight on the bus, (that's why it is called study hall, right?) while Kathy and her five socialite friends — what were their names, I had forgotten about them — are sitting over there chatting and painting their fingernails. Blah blah blah. Forget high school. 

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I vaguely remember when I was browsing through a used bookstore near here, maybe a half hour to the north, that I noticed on the shelves 8 or more volume set on the history of Freemasonry. Leafing through one of those volumes, the text seemed very dense, two columns in rather small type, and all about some obscured point of their procedures or beliefs. Yes, I really see no need to clutter my house with those heavy books when anyway all you have to do now is to browse Google Books to see there is no scarcity of books on the intricacies of Freemasonry, if that is all you want. 

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I vaguely remember when I was at college, spending some time reading in the Encyclopedia of Religions about some religions to which I do not belong, but some of them are really quite elaborate in terms of their ceremonial requirements. 2 Peter 1:1-3.

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I vaguely remember that someone was talking about the nun who taught a class at our high school. I really don't remember the nun so have no idea what would there be to say about that, given that I am not a Roman Catholic so my opinion really would not matter to them anyway.

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I suppose that there would be a certain type of person who would automatically loathe the Doge program, as we saw with the Grace Report, and how Rick was having some sort of emotional difficulty due to the way that his brain is wired, unlike most people who were sort of indifferent to the matter. Most of us are content to let the lawyers decide what is legal or not about that, because I really have no idea. 

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I vaguely remember that someone was asking me whether I had seen the movie, "Cheaper by the Dozen," and something about the Gilbreth family who had so many children, it was a good thing they were experts in time management and efficiency. And also you referenced the movie, "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang," a movie about a car, which starred that Hollywood actor who moved to San Diego. Yes, I might have seen the first mentioned movie on TV, I was not sure about the second, I really don't see how that has anything to do with me. I cannot make your fictional masterpiece happen of my own accord, even if had wanted that to happen, which actually I don't care. Your lousy screenplay does nothing to finance the lavish lifestyle assigned to me.  

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I vaguely remember that while I was still at high school, and working on the high school newspaper, there was a column in the newspaper about the college plans of various persons. My note was in there also, announcing my plans to go "in" to Evangel College, which is almost the only thing that I said about that, so probably the only piece of information that exists in your empty head that you could possibly remember about that, given that everything you need to know you already learned in high school, and I can easily see that you being a mindless clone of so-and-so, there is really no reason for me to elaborate on that plan now. There were some nice Evangel people, but also some who were threatening to ruin my life, so that plan was destroyed and I moved on to something else. 

Can you imagine if I were to write a book, what they would do to that? No. v

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I vaguely remember, as I have said before, that Patricia Cruz, who sits to the left of me in Miss Marken's English class, might have liked to have herself elected class president, but that never happened. Carmen, who sits to right of me in Miss Marken's English class, was elected as our class president that year. And wasn't Kathy one of Patricia's allies in her bid to take over the election? I really was not paying attention to what was going on with the political aspects of that. 

Years later, suddenly this Teen Challenge guy Nicky Cruz was telling me about his distant cousin, or else Ted Cruz's wife Gwen was saying that I needed to do something about his presidential bid, I was not sure how that happened. There were suddenly talking to me as if I were Kathy, when actually that was probably Kathy who was promoting Cruz, although I really do not remember anything. Nobody was telling me anything about that. I was not paying that much attention to the idea of elections.  I suppose that you could learn some other interesting things by getting yourself elected, but I was happy enough to bake a cake for the bake sale, which sold out. All I got back was the empty pan. That was my only contribution to class politics during high school.     

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I vaguely remember that during the year I was at Evangel, Rhonda Hurd and I were in Jan Chance's room in the dorms, and we were playing a board game, and I made some move that seemed too good to them, so they were accusing me of cheating, and I had to show them in the rules how I can do that. So that was sort of a problem, because that was how they were, they get all wound up screaming and accusing me of stuff when they should already know what the rules are and what I can or cannot do without cheating. We were not on the same page. 

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I vaguely remember Becky Nolin, who lived on the opposite end of my dorm floor the year that I was at Evangel. Becky said that she had lived in Malaysia during her childhood. Becky was close friends with Kenton. I noticed later that they had both married other people so it would seem that their relationship during college had not blossomed into marriage. That is about all that I can say about that. One evening some girls, including myself and Becky, went to the Student Union building and saw Kenton and some other guys sitting around a table playing a board game, I think that Becky said the game was called RISK, but we did not choose to intrude on their guy thing. I often played board games growing up — Monopoly, Clue, etc. — but RISK was not in my repertoire. I have not had occasion to read the rules of how that works.  At the Student Union they were selling the best milkshakes ever, which was our reason for going there. 

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I vaguely remember that there was a Kit person from Malaysia but he lives here in the U.S., although we have not seen him for a long time. He is probably busy doing other things now at his other places that do not involve us so I have not heard any reason to be worried about that.  

Which Reminds Me

Yes, back in the days when I was working as a reporter, there were times when people would call just to talk to a reporter I guess, and to feel my ear with various tidbits that may or may not lead to a story. But then after I am gone from the job, I am not really expecting to see them appear in another context, which happened to me, a bit jarring. What was her name? She is very talkative, very friendly, but if I am not working in Miami anymore I really don't need that now. I don't want to seem unfriendly about not calling for more of that, but anyway I need to move on from that.

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I suppose that scripting demands that I say something about my lack of membership in the National Honor Society. How can it be that a person who is not a U.S. citizen can excel in the National Honor Society while a U.S. citizen did not even know that existed until viewing the yearbook photos of the special honors bestowed upon them? Ok, fine, whatever. Won't I just look like a complete idiot for even daring to comment on this topic? Blah blah blah! But what would a stupid white girl know about such things? 

Which Reminds Me

Yes, Hmmm, who are you channeling today? Bruce Bell or Steve Mock, who was my sister/s ex-boyfriend? Both of them may have San Diego associations, which anyway is not that helpful to my interests that I would care that much about reconnecting to that. I am not in a position to deliver the requisite brain surgery those guys would be due for if I were in command, so I am just going to let them go. It is easier to just forget about them.

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I get that I am being set up to have my brains punched out, I am not as gullible about those tricks as formerly, but anyway, if life gives you lemons, as they say, make lemonade.

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I vaguely remember leaving the college dorm one morning and encountering a chaotic scene. Overnight some persons had perpetrated the used car lot prank, and almost every car in the parking lot had slogans painted on windows and other decor. And nobody had notified me of the pending event beforehand so it was not like I was providing "cover" for that. I only learned about that after the fact, and they were my friends, even my sister was involved, as I learned later. Apparently that prank angered some persons who had to wash their cars before going to work late. But that is the nature of the prank, wherein the pranksters vent their anger and assert their dominance, angering mostly the persons who own cars, whereas persons such as myself who do not own cars are mostly unaffected by the chaos. I probably do not know of half the pranks my sister pulled. I probably don't even know what you are talking about. 

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I am often prompted to comment on the time when my sister and I were in a stairwell, descending, and my sister says to me something about how that girl is so unfeminine, and I was appalled that she would say that out loud, and made no reply, because, for one thing, in stairwells the sound echoes all over the place and that girl who was only a few steps below us might have heard that and her feeling shurt, although she did not visibly react, and also, some people just have no choice, living in this physical world, about being overweight and clunky, and wearing tacky shoes, even though they might be a nice person and have some interesting things to say that we could all learn from. You really should not write people off so quickly upon one slight impression of their appearance.

Which Reminds Me

Yes, Oh, Hi Sandy! I had completely forgotten about her, but I think that I did take notice a couple of times that she was living on the west coast of Florida. However, as I rarely ever go to west Florida, it completely went out of my mind that she was there. Sandy was at our college in California, living on the 2nd floor mostly, but now she lives in Florida with her family and friends. There was a book detailing the whereabouts of the alumni throughout the country, but anyway life happens and then we forget about all these people who are now living so scattered everywhere upon the map. She once visited us here in Florida, but we lived down in Miami at that time.

Sandy has a progressive disease, although different than the disease that Dawn has, which Susie told me about, (muscular dystrophy vs. multiple sclerosis?) but I forget who has which disease. Susie visited Dawn years ago in Washington but I have not heard anything recent about them. 

Which Reminds Me

Yes, there are some things that I don't quite see from where I am sitting, such as, for example, why does Jessica (Roberts) think that she.is related to Pam Roberts? How does Pam Roberts think that she is related to the Oral Roberts family, perhaps only because her last name is Roberts? So what? And if Pam was fired for said double booking, meaning that from her desk in the accounting office she might have been feeding private company financial information to the outside world, what about that? Did you imagine that I was privy to insider information about how that came around to bite her in the butt? No, I only know what my Mom said about that, nothing more. You could always ask my Mom. She might know something more about that than what she told me, but I really don't need that anyway.   

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I vaguely remember telling this story to Pam, about the time when I was asleep at night, and I had a dream that something was crawling up and down all over my legs, and then suddenly I realized that it was not a dream, and I got up and flipped on the light switch, and saw that there was a cockroach in my bed. Yuk!

And then there was the time when we were gone water skiing with Pam and Craig, and two other people, Vic and Linda Lestarjet. And that was my first experience of learning how to water ski. And during that time, Linda suddenly, unprompted, began to explain to us some things that she had learned in her advertising class in college, about the use of phallic symbolism in advertising.  It is a subliminal thing, she was saying, indicated by the use of various symbols that may require deep analysis to actually see. So yes, that could be true. Maybe. There could be much subliminal gunk in the back of our brains of which I am not conscious, or may be suppressed from consciousness long ago, but anyway, if I were conscious of that would I need to say something about that? No, probably not. Or if I could remember something, would I not have already said something about that years ago? I am not saying that was true or not true, but do we have to talk about this at parties? Was I supposed to give these people a prize for being such conversational bores? Is that all you can think about, you primitive jungle critters? 

Faith is the evidence of not seen, so hopefully there is a brighter future ahead for me, liberated from the wretched scum of high school. I feel sort of bad about not being able to witness to them, but they were so unspeakably disgusting. 

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I vaguely remember that I once had, or maybe still have, I am not sure, a tennis racket of the Wilson brand. Also I had a tall can containing three tennis balls, each emblazoned with the name of Wilson. However, it has been many years since I last played tennis, don't know when I would ever do that again. There are other brands probably, but the Wilson tennis balls was all that I got.

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I do hope you were not expecting me to comment on the Wilsons. I have, or at least used to have a tennis racket with that name emblazoned on it, but beyond that I really do not know all that much about them or how they are interrlated. We hard not heard that they were so highly political until later.  

Which Reminds Me

Yes, well, we cannot go back now and rewrite history the way things should have been done, how we should have done things otherwise but didn't. We can only try to do a better job going forward for the benefit of all, or at least agree on a plan to that effect. But I digress.

Which Reminds Me

Yes, to be or not to be. To AB or not to AB. The plan never seems to explain what I am to do with the A half of me, while focusing only on produce all of these half Bs, because after all I am only half a B and half an A, so I never really fit into the plan that was not meant for me in the first place. 

Which Reminds Me

Yes, those guys during college were so funny, such as, for example, Dave and Marty among others. However, after a while you start to notice that they are getting angrier and angrier and saying more and more outrageous things and even insulting people. And that is how I figured out that funny guys are best left behind at the schoolyard because there are other serious things that cannot be discussed with them.

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I do think that I noticed a slight resemblance to a conversation of years ago with someone I seem to have forgotten. Oh well. So many words. could fill a book of nonsense, but why bother?

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I vaguely remember that while I was working in Haines City, one day a black guy called on the phone and was telling me about some alleged KKK event that may have occurred, he was under the impression that it happened maybe two weeks earlier or longer, but he would not give his name, would not talk to the police, there was nothing in the police reports, and no other names of persons to verify the story, only his impression that masked men had staged some event in the night hours. And so given that there were no facts to speak of, it did not seem a matter that rose to the level of something for me to write about. If there were a dead body, would not that appear in police reports? Many things happen under the radar that do not appear in the newspaper. Bad things happen. And people often call newspaper offices to fill someone's ears with various opinions and unverified impressions that do not quite make it into print.  

Which Reminds Me

Yes, perhaps you might have been happy to see Patty Cruz elected as our class president, but that never happened. There was some flap about the voting, but anyway, instead we are stuck with Carmen, who sneers disdainfully at her Caribbean roots, even though I gather from that that she actually had more Caribbean in her past than she is willing to admit. As if I should be stuck in hell with her Caribbean discards while she revels in her newfound U.S. citizenship. So? And how is that my problem? 

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I heard online something about how they are the whales who are into deep dive swimming out in the high seas and/or open ocean, so that might have had something to do with that. But I never really hear that firsthand so I would only be guessing.

Which Reminds Me

Yes, there was something weird about that, when I was maybe 11, or was I 13 years old, and the doctor wanted to check whether on my growth and development, and what are you going to do when the doctor tells you to disrobe? A good idea is to just never go back there later and find another pediatrician, thanks Mom. 

In contrast, I always thought that she was a silly twit, and then when I saw her advertising her butt on Twitter, my previous opinion was confirmed, but I did not want to start a war about that, so have a nice life. I try to not start something else.

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I vaguely remember that while I was living in Central Florida, while rummaging through some old newspapers there in Haines City, I ran across some interesting references to William Jennings Bryan, a famous personage who was a frequent visitor to that area. Apparently he was there at some event in the 1920s speaking to his friends and supporters, so that was interesting. But I did not research into the Scopes Trials, for which his participation is well-known. I feel that my knowledge of science is as yet somewhat incomplete, so I will leave it to the scientists to sort out all of this new information that is continually being found and uncovered.

Which Reminds Me

Yes, there is no way that I am going outside of my house at 3 a.m. to play the role of cranky neighbor and tell you to cut down the wild party noise. The police can explain to you what are the noise laws more easily than I can and with a better level of authority. And that wasn't the first wild party.

Which Reminds Me

Yes, coincidentally, my Dad had a cousin named Dorothy, but she died in 1989, so there really is no connection to that other stuff. No connection to your storybook characters. Sorry.

Which Reminds Me

Yes, there was a time years ago, back in the 1980s, when Keith Green's music was so popular, and then he went to Texas and built himself an apocalyptic commune, and then there was the plane crash. So sad. The last time I tried to listen to his music, it seemed a little bit stale, same whiny complaints from that backlighted soundboard guy, same noodling anecdotes from the Kolbrin book, but that is what happens later. The food is fresh at the time, and then later other things happen, and something fresh and new is wanted by another generation, old truths repackaged in another way. Enough of that. 

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I vaguely remember hearing that my great-grandmother's maiden name was Levines, or alternately Levins. There are various theories about that. Is that French for "the vines"? Or is that a truncated version of "Levites," a theory that fails to win the anagrams trophy. But what would I know about that? My relatives might know some other things that I never really heard. They were mostly Irish Canadians. 

Yes, I suppose that if I were living in NYC I might have occasion to use the subway now and then, but I live in a place where I would need that so much.  

Which Reminds Me

Yes, why am I getting all of these emails from someone purporting to be Johnson & Johnson? I think that they should stick to their trademark drug dealings. If I were to need an aspirin, I don't really check to see which brand it might be, but when you need an aspirin it is good to know that someone is selling aspirin.

Which Reminds Me

Yes, or else it would have been Scrabble, that would have been another game they might have been playing.

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I vaguely remember that, while reading the diaries of great-grandmother, I noticed an entry that describes a game whose players were my great-grandmother, my aunt Anita, my cousin Vanessa, and Eugnia, who was our former maid when we lived in Mexico 3-4 years earlier, and she had come to California to visit us. I was not there at the time so I really would not know what conversation took place there. All I can imagine is that they were probably playing anagrams. My great-grandmother was known to be a wiz at anagrams.

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I vaguely remember that Calvin was much younger than other college students, but I thought that he was maybe 16 years old. I do not remember anything about a 13-year-old.

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I vaguely remember the time when I went to a concert with what-was-her-name, and Bob Bennett was the performer, and he wrote that song, "Still Rolls the Stone." She ridiculed his songs and thought that made no sense at all, but I disagreed. I thought that it was a metaphorical sense, but try to explain to her what is a metaphor. What is a similete. Such a waste of time to try to talk to their stupid people. 

Never again will I discuss my few poems with them, because anyway, it was only a poem.   

Which Reminds Me

Yes, if your client really wanted to "help," maybe he could just write me a check for the full amount instead of trying to work through a middle man who doesn't really care about my interests and what would really work best for me. But of course that would involve trusting me to use the money the way that I see fit, in which ase, anyway, I am not necessarily against the idea of traveling and living overseas, but also there would have to be a real reason for doing that. Many things are possible but not all things are expedient or the most convenient thing to do at this particular moment, as the Good Book says. 

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I would only be guessing if I thought that maybe you are maybe trying to connect through Charlene Foursquare. I never really heard what happened to her later, how did her life happen, I only seem to be hearing online threats about how she hates my guts and wants to make my life miserable. And that is how she would thank us for going over there at night to drag her out of that wild party. Yes, probably her parents asked us to do that. Hmmm.....  But of course Charlene was not attending our high school that I ever heard of, so those people probably never heard of Charlene, who lived not far from us and was often at our house visiting my sister. 

Which Reminds Me

Yes, why are these people still hovering about, saying stuff online, as if I would need to say something about them? My policy is to never hold onto anyone, why should I claim the responsibility of their souls? I would not be able to handle such a huge responsibility, needless to say. Obviously. Sometimes God just grants us enough grace to get from one place to another and that is all there is.

Well, I should express a certain measure of gratitude for the various blessings of work and employment and the benefits thereof. Did I not meet some very nice people during the two and a half years that I lieved in Haines City? But of course that was 32 years ago now, so there is much water under the bridge now.  

I happen to be a person who feels a certain amount of "Blessed Assurance" in terms of who I am, and who they are is not really of that much concern to me. 

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I vaguely remember that you were telling me something about Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, but I forget what was your draft, what specificially were you trying to say about that. Sometimes one may read the famous story on surface level and that is interesting enough, although I probably saw a movie version of that before ever reading the story, being a creature of the late 20th century. But there may be other meanings to that which there might not be time enough in all of history to explore, so I do not see what else I would need to add to that. Oh, and there was a reference to Hyde or the Heidi Hide, but I did not see how that connects. 

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I vaguely remember during high school reading a novel by Eugenia Price, a historical romance novel that tells something about Saint Simons Island in Georgia. Some of her novels are also set in Savannah, Georgia, as well as other islands along the Atlantic coast. Yes, probably not quite the moneyed islands of South Carolina, but whatever. We never had much thought of South Carolina, so why should they be shooting at me from South Carolina? Yes, that was weird that Stacy was talking about that novel, as if she had some way of knowing that I had read that. Since when did I ever share my high school reading list with those Porto Rican people? Probably never, but I can't remember everything. Yes, people seem so nice in books. She gives her friend a beautiful crystal bird as a gift. So nice. But anyway, in real life people give these gifts to other people, not to me. Ok, fine. I do not really need a crystal bird anyway. I will be just fine without that stuff. I will be just fine without your Puerto Rican garbage. Anyway, it was only a book, a fiction book.    

Which Reminds Me

Yes, we tried feeling sorry for him, and got no thanks for what cannot be repaired later anyway, so never again will we try that.

Which Reminds Me

Yes, if I had done something wrong, perhaps I should fear and tremble at the raving pronouncements of this Kangaroo Court TV Judge who is not really seem to be representing anyone whose opinion matters, only her own invalid selfish desire for self-aggrandizement, as if I should care about that. 

Just because your name is Roberts, that does not entitle you to freely and randomly beat on poor people such as myself, rampaging aimlessly for years on end, especially when there is no evidence of you being related to Oral Roberts, so who cares? You are just some dreary vineyard people who have nothing worth mentioning. I never had the slightest connection to the Roberts machine and hope to steer clear of them.  

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I do not seem to have the power to prevent this evil wicked Max from trying to insert unwanted words into my mouth. I used to wonder how did I say such a bad word when I thought that I was only saying mountain "peak," I used to think that was my mistake somehow, that maybe I have some weird uncontrollable glitch in my brain, but I have since learned that something else was happening. It almost worked, their effort to degrade me entirely, but I do seem to have some sort of guardian angel helping me with that.  

Which Reminds Me

Yes, in a way it is sad to throw Max out on his ear, but anyway, enough of that nonsense.

Which Reminds Me

 Yes, I vaguely remember that, after returning from California this last time, I seemed to be hearing online commentaries from someone who seemed to be the wife of Rich Warmonger, someone from Tulare?, although who knows what these demons really are, they may pretend to be someone while actually being someone else baiting for more information that I really don't have. She seems to think that I have some special thing that can help her husband win the election for president, but president of what? President of the district, of the college, of the denomination? And maybe if I just continue to ignore this, it will just evaporate eventually and I will forget how I heard that. She seems to think he needs more white people to support his presidential bid, but I would just be faking if I pretended to be an acquaintance of his during college. Wasn't he in thick with that creepy Honduran weirdo Ron Aguilera? But I should not be saying things that I don't really know and describing anyone that way, besides which there is a tendency to embellish these points unnecessarily when irritated online. And I would only be guessing if I were to say anything about them, because that clique tended to avoid me, so I really cannot say anything about them that would matter ultimately and I really did not care that much about them either. The dislike was sort of mutual. And also, he might have problems running for president if his wife is that dumb. And also, if it was only about that, why are they wasting my time? Besides which, it was not my responsibility to take care of her  in-laws, just because maybe I do know a little Spanish.      

Which Reminds Me

Yes, how interesting, the way you decorate your nightly talk show with such.a wide variety of assorted characters and/or animals, and how many times have you been bleeped for the things that you said in front of God and everyone else. Everyone can hear that although by that time some of us have already had enough of your mouth and are not tuning in to really know more about that.

Which Reminds Me

Yes, how nice for some people, to spend millions of dollars to move to Europe, but anyway, it is not like I asked for them to attach me to their blob of paperwork of which I was not previously aware. Myself having already agreed to evacuate the planet at a future time as yet to be determined, why should the prospect of enjoying what's left of my life here be so rudely interrupted by the politicking of some person of whom I may or may not be dimly aware. I always did think their obsession with the Mediterranean to be somewhat odd, given that, anyway, I do not resemble the local populace so who cares and also too much exposure may cause sunburn and blisters and sun poisoning, so it is really not necessary for me to spend that much time exposed to someone else's ying-yanging political widgets that to me seem quite meaningless. 

Which Reminds Me

Yes, it is always distressing to see persons who drop out of society and completely self-destruct, as for example the sad case of Don Hott or whatever his name was. We have occasionally heard reports of him flitting about South Florida in his weird way, a waste product of Colombia. It is a very sad story but why focus on the dregs of society?

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I suppose that I would be futile to claim any credit for my amazing success in the field of brain surgery, but anyway, there is the benefit of having done the brain surgery even when nobody cares.

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I too was surprised to learn that I started something, but, oh, I forgot, I was four years old at the time, so maybe I was hoping that would not count for anything serious later.

Which Reminds Me

Yes, whatever happened to Melanie? She was one of my mother's projects from work. My mother always feels sorry for these people and is always trying to help people through their hard times, but something went weird after the Melanie project ended. Why am I still getting mail from her ex-husband Jason, who was said to have run away to become a homeless bum, leaving Melanie with a little baby, so my mom was trying to be helpful, so why should I care about so much about that?

Which Reminds Me

Yes, speaking of costume, I vaguely remember that day when I was wearing a headband on my head with antennas protruding from it, bouncing on springs a la Martian style, so hopefully a humorous note, and yet I get nothing but insults from Tim Triplett, who is sort of annoying in other ways also, so not really surprising, I really should not be expecting much from those belligerently obnoxious guys. 

Often at youth service, Tim would confront me by saying, "Has the cat got your tongue?" And what would be the answer expected to this absurd question? Silence is what he deserves from me, basically.

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I hope that you were not expecting me to waste my breath trying to retell the story of Ms. Christina, that I only heard from the viewpoint of Michelle, so I was not sure what to believe in terms of actual facts, because it was sort of vaguely told, something about how she went on a business trip with her boss, and apparently they opened the connecting door of the hotel rooms. Oh? Now, that would be completely stupid, but I never really heard any further explanation elaborated beyond that it maybe happened. I would not be a primary source of information on this topic, you would have to ask Michelle. I did not want to investigate that myself due to flea infestation issues. 

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I vaguely remember that during my second year at SCC, our friend Lynda arranged for us to serve as ushers for a season of concerts at the Crystal Cathedral. One of those concerts included a lovely performance of the light opera "Amahl and the Night Visitor," which features that memorable song about a box, "This is my box, this is my box, I never travel without my box." Without my box, I could only have problems, so I  will not travel that way again.  

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I specifically remember having the chicken pox, a miserably disappointing week when I was not able to attend my own birthday party at school because I was ill, but I do not remember having the measles. I might have been vaccinated against that, so measles was prevented.

Which Reminds Me

Yes, wouldn't that be nice, if I were to have enough money on hand to pay off those annoying Arab people and ship them home to Lebanon where they belong. Maybe they would feel more comfortable there, with bombs falling all around, because certainly they don't seem to interact well with U.S. citizens such as myself, because anyway, just because they own the land, we only get mineral rights, that does not constitute a marriage contract. So they bought the land and later learned that the mineral rights were severed from the land, and they are intent on taking the mineral rights for themselves by hook or crook. So this is a problem, how to get rid of them. If only they would stay on their side of the fence and mind their own business, that would be one thing. But no, they are a colossal nuisance, always punching holes in the walls.  

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I do not suppose that my little bank book from first grade, starting with maybe $1, could possibly be worth all that much, and what other money could I possibly have? 

Which Reminds Me

Yes, my Mom told me that my grandfather was a card-carrying Masonic, although perhaps not known to be particularly advanced or active in that. He preferred to pay his dues and maintain membership in case he ever needed to avail himself of that old folks' home they maintain over there in Texas.

Which Reminds Me

Yes, maybe you do resemble Ann slightly, but I really would not know, what would be the point of meeting her cousin from Ohio? I barely remember some of those people. Some of their names can be found in the yearbook, but whatever happened to them later is not clear.  

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I vaguely remember one day when I was walking around campus, Tim was walking the other direction passing nearby, and at that moment he said something about the hickey on my neck, which was the most ridiculous, patently false lie, there was no Hickey on my neck, where did he get that crackpot idea, maybe the skin on my neck sometimes gets sort of blotched while brushing my hair that morning, but certainly there was never any Hickey on my neck. With an idiot, and that could hurt my reputation if people actually believed that nonsensical stuff that he sometimes says, he is not really that funny. But whatever.

Which Reminds Me

Yes, it is easy for me to imagine that whatever I might do could easily incur some infraction of one or another rule that I was not aware of, so I will be excused from actually having to do anything in future, you understand. Thank you.

Which Reminds Me

Yes, in fact, almost the only things that I keep hearing about her, are exactly what Jill and Linda were saying about her. I never had anything to add to whatever Jill and Linda said. They are much more accomplished at the arts of gossip than myself.

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I am aware of the problem of defamation, and how certain persons were trying to plant certain words in my mouth, as if I were even thinking about them at all, much less to make unwarranted swipes at her reputation, so it is very aggravating to see her poking and lurking around the corner, as if waiting for me to say something, as if I should care about whatever happened to her, when everything is being orchestrated to make me say something that maybe never happened, how would I know? And then I would end up completely stupid if I say anything, so there seems to be no way to end this constant aggravation short of an explostion, because as long as I simply ignore her, she never gets a clue that actually she is not even on my radar screen.  

Which Reminds Me

Yes, how clever of them to orchestrate such a useless mess of dystopian dissonance. Next I would like to see Mr. Clever spit me out a complete refund for all of my valuable time wasted on their self-aggrandizing braggadocious claptrap. A refund would give me an actual reason to believe that God cares about me too, not only them. But maybe there are other factors to consider. I don't know everything.

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I am surprised that you have not yet served Karen Klein's empty head on a platter, because I could not quite see what she was talking about, as if I should flail around for doggie treats while she boasts of having married Larry, the son of the college president, and blah blah blah, whatever that meant.

Which Reminds Me

Yes, it gets very confusing, when you remember that Beverly was my mother's cousin, and Beverly was married to Richard Klein, a person who I really do not remember, and Beverly's mother's maiden name was Tackett And when Beverly lived in California, she lived mainly in Tehachapi, one of those little towns out in the desert. Weird how all these Kleins, presumably Beverly's in-laws, are always swarming about nearby. I am really not related to them, how to politely explain that to me they are only Beverly's in-laws?

Which Reminds Me

Yes, who would have thunk it, to use Ex-Lax as an ingredient when baking a batch of brownies that she dropped off at Terry's house for those guys to "enjoy." We were the witnesses, next day, to a dramatic confrontation that was the result of that. Oh, thanks Karen. Already he is a raving lunatic prone to rambling speeches in which he sometimes says the most nonsensical things, if I had known there was going to be a test later I would have taken better notes, and that elevates him to the level of undisputed martyr, completely unbearable.

Which Reminds Me

Yes, interestingly, I seem to remember overhearing Karen the harpist saying that she will not comply. Comply with what? I was not sure what she meant by that, she was not talking to me.

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I am not remembering who taught us that little dity, "Beans, beans the musical fruit; the more you eat the more you toot; so eat your beans at every meal." Actually, I think that the idea is to not eat the beans so that I will not have to toot a bunch of stuff that I really do not understand.  I like beans line, but maybe not right now. This is not a convenient time to be tooting my own horn.  

Which Reminds Me

Yes, ha ha ha, who is this pathetically low-life Poster Child of Iniquity, who dares to lecture me on these matters of morality. Ha ha ha. Given that we never discussed politics on our one and only date, how is it that you are not recognizing your dearest Russian confidante Dauna, who you had asked out previous to me.

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I tend to think of Indiana as yet another Midwestern state up there in the middle of nowhere. My cousin lived in Indiana for some years, but it was difficult for us to understand why he would want to live there in the middle of nowhere, a place where it gets cold and shows in winter, given that there is really nothing of interest there otherwise. He is dead now, so there is no other reason for us to think about Indiana. Oh, I forgot. Coincidentally, Craig Bowling Ball was from Indiana. Even so, he was nothing, he only gets Pam, all he can get is Pam, nothing more.

Which Reminds Me

Yes, Thanksgiving was the key word in my Spelling Bee victory of second grade. Later there was an informal spelling bee that I did not win, but no matter, the trophy is already mine. 

And then later there was a school assembly, students only, in which my assigned role was to run up on stage and yell "Happy Thanksgiving" and then run off again. I was wearing a pink hat with pink rabbit ears. There was a drama being performed by some students at the time and I am not remembering how that coordinated with my assigned role, or whether the dramatist had added the rabbit merely to acknowledge  my Spelling Bee triumph, thank you very much. Either way, anyone with half a brain would have been at the Spelling Bee and would have gotten the chuckle, one can easily imagine, so there is nothing further that I would need to say about that.

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I have noticed recently that there is not much impetus for going to Puerto Rico, one can easily imagine because some of the overly vocal persons on this topic are gone now, passed away, so there is really no one that I know who cares very much about going there. We tend to th8ink that we should leave the Puerto Ricans to self-determine their own futures, but also we sort of conquered them and made them our territory, and absorbed much of their population into the main;and, so I really have no ideas for what they should do about that next. 

Which Reminds Me

Yes, the only thing that I would know about the alleged mischief of Bonnie and Becky, would be what I heard from my mother, and that only a few years after I had left college, after I already had noticed them trying to attach themselves to me by the back door. I actually have no need of them, I will be just fine without them anyway, but whatever. I cannot quite get a handle on what they were expecting me to do for them after they made an even bigger mess of things, only they have husbands to protect them from their messes, while single me does not, so that leaves at the mercy of whatever hostile snipers.  

Which Reminds Me

Yes, once again I seem to find it necessary to remind all that I won the spelling bee. I was in second grade, and I am the person who remembered to put the 's' in the middle of Thanksgiving,  in contrast to that third grade boy who could not spell 'Thanksgiving' correctly. Last time I checked, there is still an 's' in the middle of Thanksgiving. Last time I checked the trophy is still sitting on my shelf with my name engraved upon it, permanently if I may say so myself. Some people were not happy about that, and were making a lot of noise, but anyway, just stealing my spelling bee trophy would not solve this problem.  

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I can only guess that you are looking for an airplane story, but I really do not know anything specific about their airplane story, I only hear things leaking online about that, myself not being a primary source of information on that topic. But anyway, I really think that I have no need of your silly Fong Phone. For what do I need al those nasty garbage Chinese people screaming in my ear. Their heads are full of Watchman Nee garbage books. I did buy one of those Watchman Nee books once and got about halfway through, and that was about as far as I got in terms of Watchman Nee's theology. I was turned off by his gratuitous sniping against "missionaries," whatever that term meant to him is not clear. He does not specify exactly what missionaries is he talking about, in what socio-cultural-historical context, as if all believers were not "missionaries" in another sense of the term, nor give specific examples of what he meant for further analysis, so it is hard to get a handle on what to say about that, given the diplomatic context. But he unfortunately died a martyr's death in prison, so that only compounds the problem of the hostile snipers, as if all believers were not "missionaries" in their own way, and what to do about that. But it was never my job to ride herd on these idiots cousins of mine, they have their own boring agenda that is of no interest to me.

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I am happy to see that someone finally spelled that out in so many words, which is that they do not want anything from me and it is all their money. Ok, fine. I do not know why some people cannot eeem to hear that. So anyway why am I wasting my breath talking to a pack of people who hate my guts? Life is too short to be bothered about that. Why should I care about that? 

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I am not remembering why we were not in our usual locker room that day, for some reason we were all jammed together in the girls' bathroom, and changing quick to get to class on time. So that was weird, but whatever, not much could be expected of those two little Dummies who talk too much. Oh, and were you expecting me to respect your privacy?  

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I vaguely remember that in the office, Rick Hayden was often bragging on his favorite protegé of the moment, Ms. Orozco, a Latina who seemed to have a knack for writing snappy lead paragraph. Ok, so, that's nice. But whatever. White girl does not want to expend too much energy on fending off these Latina snipera who hate gringa white girl. There is no way to guard against these hostile Latina snipers.  

Which Reminds Me

Yes, it is a bit confusing when you refer to Tom, are you referring to the Wagner, of whom actually nothing is known beyond that he exists, or Thomas Hills, who may be seen posing as a coffee picker when actually he is peddling paint, so that this problem of having to watch paint dry gets sort of boring after a while.

Which Reminds Me

Yes, who was that cynical person who was saying they believe that everyone has a price, that everyone can be bought for a price. I am not remembering, How did you phrase that? And of course there is that game show, The Price Is Right. Of course some things are not for sale. But it is annoying to still be hearing that conversation, as if that were something to take seriously. Of course not. 

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I vaguely remember that one of the first words of the Spanish language that I ever learned was "gringa." That is because the Mexican children who I had met playing on the street had given me that label, and I was sort of OK with being dubbed an outsider "gringa." The term dates back to the Mexican-American War of the 1840s, or so I was told, so that really does not have anything to do with me personally. The Mexican children seem to cherish the delusion of white girl as a soldier from the enemy front, so, yes, there is a context where I could argue about that, but also why expend the emotional energy necessary to fight about these deeply entrenched cultural points. I just have other ways of thinking about that. 

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I really could nor care less about her mental problem, whatever that meant. If she is going to take that personally, she will be up a creek without a paddle, because anyone nobody was talking to her or about her. It was only book report on Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift. Looking back now, I see that my book report was not very in-depth or granular in terms of trying to identify specifically who were they talking about, but anyway it was only high school. I just wanted to get a passing grade and be done with that. Enough about that.

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I vaguely remember that there was a day at work, in the office, when I was told that our newspaper is suing the mayor. And on the lawsuit paperwork it includes some generic "reporters" in the complaint. Oh, I had not been aware of that. Nobody had consulted me or given me any prior notice before the paperwork was filed on that, so I really cannot say what Rick Hayden was thinking on that point. 

Which Reminds Me

Yes, interesting option that of living a life by ying-yanging to the dreary Stone family. I really don't care what they do or did down there. I think that going there myself would only muddy the waters that are quite muddled already thanks to the idiotic rantings of your ex-wife Regina. They really were not that important to me in the whold scheme of things, I think that I would rather live my life without reference to their magazine voyages. I have enough of that on my plate already.

Which Reminds Me

Yes, that was sort of weird, during high school, the way they were yapping about how they are going to send me down to their level of mafia underground, how dare I resist, so that they can trample me underfoot. Makes me wonder if I should do something really bad to fulfill that compelling prophecy, would that make them feel better about themselves? or maybe not. Maybe I am not as bad as they seem to imagine. But it really does wear on the nerves to listen to that day in and day out.

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I agree that I should pay my $25 parking ticket, if only I could remember what happened to the bill, and anyway I cannot quite understand why the sharks are so interested. I am nobody important. Besides which, how would you know about my parking ticket? You are not the city clerk. 

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I seem to be remembering that my U.S. passport is valid through 2033, so if I did have occasion to go somewhere, I do have the basic travel document necessary to get around, assuming that I live that long, and assuming that I would have some reason to go there. If there were millions of dollars in the bank to throw around, that would be a different matter, but as yet nothing comes to mind. 

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I vaguely remember many years ago watching a TV program that depicted Mexicans trying to sneak across the border somewhere near Tijuana, and they were talking about how afraid and terrified they were of being caught by the "migra," which is the abbreviated term that they use to mean the border patrol. 

And of course if I were to see those people at the grocery store or somewhere, how would I know what they were, whether legal or not? They all look the same to me, all with straight black hair and dark eyes and brown skin. They might be long-term U.S. citizens, or they might be somewhere in the stages of naturalization, which can take several years, or have just a green card or other more dubious paperwork. How would I know? 

But I do remember back in the late 1970s or 1980s, when that bumper sticker was very popular in South Florida, which said something to the effect of will the last American leaving South Florida take the flag. The humor has gone stale this many years, because, although South Florida has changed drastically, I have yet to hear of anyone seriously suggesting that the flag be removed from South Florida. It was only a joke, a certain type of joke that sounds sort of antiquated at this point. How would you pledge allegiance to the flag if that were taken seriously? No, that was only a joke.

And, incidentally, we already had this conversation several times over about how I do not wear cross jewelry, because I am a Protestant, and I think that would send mixed signals. But of course if I did wear that, I suppose that it could be useful if I were needing to put some evil vampire back in his place, but of course hopefully I will not need to do that. I hope not. 

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I am noticing that you are getting your information primarily from the bratty Sanchez kids, who so immature and all they want to do is stupid stuff. Enough about them. It was somewhat unfortunate that they were in our school, because they really did not quite belong there, but who am I to say how these things happen. You can only play along with them for so long before they turn weird and completely self-absorbed, and then it is not worth continuing this conversation. Enough about that. That was all Carol's idea so talk to her. 

Which Reminds Me

Yes, what was the name of that guy who let me win the chess game? He was teaching me how to play chess, it was not a very competitive game. How else could I have won? Only an hour earlier I had no idea of how to play chess, so do I owe him something for that? Yes, I have decided that it would be better for me to not pursue a career in chess. It would get too burdensome to have to repay all of these "wins."

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I felt so bad, so guilty of rear-ending that guy's car in a car accident. Sorry about that, but anyway my insurance company took care of that matter and so there was nothing more that I would need to say about that. A year or two later I received some paperwork in the mail in relation to that. Apparently the elderly white man had died, not immediately but several months to a year later, while vacationing in Ireland, and his wife was now suing me for loss of marital relations and whatever else. Huh? He seemed fine at the scene of the accident, at least at first. He was walking around and then later, when questioned by the paramedic guy who stopped to help, said that he did not feel so well, and then he got in his car, and the paramedic got in behind him and was massaging his neck or something, I could not see that very clearly from where I was standing, and then later the ambulance came and carried him away on a stretcher, with some thing around his neck, so apparently the jolt was more damaging than it had at first seemed. But I really am not qualified to comment on the work of the paramedic, whether what he did helped or made it worse, but anyway the Good Samaritan law will prevent the suers from extracting further information about the paramedic. Sorry but I cannot help with that. Besides which, although we might have exchanged the requisite insurance information at the scene of the accident, he never said anything about Motown or whether his wife was white or black. I just have no idea.

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I vaguely remember that they were talking about that girl singer at our school who already had her own record album and had some experience singing for Motown and various rock bands. The idea was that it seemed somewhat incredible that a white girl should be claiming to be a backup singer for Motown, and aren't those people all black? I forget what her name was. And later online someone was telling me that there actually was at least one or maybe more white people working at Motown, but who were they and was that girl one of them was not clear. I forget who she was so this matter is of no great concern to me. I cannot remember what her name was, so you cannot prove anything by me.

Which Reminds Me

Yes, if your client really wanted to finance all of these extravagant lifestyle option, yes, that would be something to at least think about and consider. However, experience gives me the feeling that is all some sort of twisted joke on me, because just some casting director's wanting to cast me as some wealthy globe-trotting heiress does not make it so. Sorry about that.

Which Reminds Me

Yes, my mind just goes blank. I cannot quite imagine what there would be to discuss with some guy who thinks that he is a Mainelander. For what do I need Spelling 101? I am fairly good at spelling, apart from the matter of typos. So whatever that meant.  

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I suppose that if I were going to go to Switzerland, it could be interesting to visit that library and schedule some study time at L'Abri, although I do not know when I would ever get there. However, I did once read a very interesting book about L'Abri and its founders, Lori Way might remember that it might have been her book that I borrowed, but I did not take that book with me, so anyway it was only a book that I read.

Which Reminds Me

Yes, perhaps I should apologize that you did not receive their memo explaining that they think that I am an idiot. They will be dropping me off when they get home to Texas, which means that I often receive messages warning me to never go there. Ok, fine. No problem. Still, that does not explain why I am still getting spam messages from Stephanie. How would Susie and Sammy be acquainted with Stephanie? They attended high school in El Paso, located near the border of Texas, a dreadfully dry border town of no interest to me, so obviously they would not have attended Stephanie's private party for reasons differing from why I also was not in attendance at their party, obviously. So what is this bill to pay for myself not being there? For what? I never really heard that, but it could be interesting to fill in the blanks. I hear them screaming and yelling but I really did not care that much about not being invited to their private party.

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I vaguely remember hearing that if you are an enemy of the "People" then you are not a mainlander and so you deserve exile to some tiny little island of Thai-Wan. Submit to the new One Party system or else. Whatever that Chinese thing meant. Ha ha ha! 

Which Reminds Me

Yes, that was sort of unfortunate that I made that punchy joke, and then they started to confess some stuff about a different party that I had not attended and had not heard about, (Oh, I did not know that), but the bad guys were not them you understand, and there had to be some high-level intervention to remedy the situation. Oh, ok, fine. I am sorry I said that. I did not even know all that stuff until they told me. I was not intending that as any sort of accusation to embarrass everybody, but apparently there was a different context to that than I had not originally imagined. Yes, I should just shut up and not say some ridiculous thing about that.  

Which Reminds Me

Yes, it is really no concern of mine, which counties of Texas are wet or dry in terms of legal terminology. It is not in my power to flip a dry county just to appease a pack of obnoxious whiners. And also killing them would not be a legal option, so I will just leave it at that.

Which Reminds Me

Yes, when my name is on the paperwork, perhaps I may serve a short time as the custodian of the paperwork, although the originals remain at the legal offices so just stealing my copy out of the mailbox at least does not really give any legal power to those control freaks, fortunately.

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I vaguely remember when I was hearing it put that way, years ago, which scared me to death, so that meant there was every reason to never go there and to avoid the horrible Jim at any cost. Why should I try to bake a cake when already they have a graduate of the army-paid-for cooking school making mudpies for them?

Which Reminds Me

Yes, it is a bit disappointing to learn that you are only channeling Steve, who was only a slightly annoying blip originally, but now, well, I can chalk that up to the Detroit bummers. So maybe you are an Ohio guy and here I am surrounded by some very nasty vicious Michigan sharks. And I do not even understand what the problem was.

Which Reminds Me

Yes, it is true that in the gas and oil business paperwork is everything. So where is the paperwork that was mailed to me in September and has not yet arrived in January? Why would the post office care about my paperwork? What wicked beastie postal worker should be arrested for interfering with the due process of mail delivery? And why would I even say such a ridiculous thing about someone? So, have those wretched beasties gone postal now? 

Which Reminds Me

Yes, there is an interesting coincidence to note, which is that my grandmother's grandfather was a certain person named Willis Abner May (1848-1871), who died at age 23 when struck by lightning, leaving behind a wife and one daughter, Ida May, but I don't suppose that would have anything to do with Dogpatch cartoons. That would just be too ludicrous to contemplate. But we already discussed this point years ago. I get no relief from their nonsense so here we go again. 

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I vaguely remember, in reference to Colombia, that it was somewhat unfortunate that Steve Graner and Judy Bartel had cluttered the airwaves with a bunch of verbiage about their own wonderfulness, which sort of makes it confusing as to, whatever, was there something that I was supposed to say about them? I would just as soon not be bothered.   

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I vaguely remember years ago hearing that someone, I forget who, was wanting to make a point about the dilemma of what to do with all of these discarded ex-wives, now that their polygamist husbands have converted to Christianity and/or monogamous practices of Western Civilization. Apparently that is quite a problem in India and some other parts of Asia where the native religions do not strictly prohibit bigamy and/or polygamy. If they are persuaded to come out as Christians, they may decide to keep only one wife and discard the other women or dismiss them from marital duties. Yes, I vaguely remember hearing that someone was saying something about that, but I do not quite see what that would have to do with me. I probably won't lose.much sleep at night worrying about a matter that is not directly my concern. I am not particularly worried about that now, knowing that certain persons seem to be locked away in mental hospitals already, so there is nothing that I would need to say about that. I would not want to discourage the faith of persons who might be choosing to do or not do the right thing. 

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I noticed that you were saying something about Phyllis, a nice lady who worked at the office, but she was not a Philistine, so you are just barking up the wrong tree.

And what would that have to do with those little brats that I remember from maybe 1982? Their name sounded like True-Teen, but no, they were not teenagers, and anyway we were not that close. I heard they were gone Dutch or bankrupt or something. Forty years is a long time to not stay in touch and still remember who they might have been in other circumstances.

Which Reminds Me

Yes, and then there is the Bahamas connection, but you should not try to get that from me. I have never been there and don't know much about it.

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I imagine we will not be seeing very much of them in future, now that they are long gone to explore the frozen tundras of Sweden. And for what do we need Steinbeck's hellish nightmare-vision for America? Sounds like a labor union's armed camp ruled by control freaks, not really a place that I would want to live long-term.

Whch Reminds Me

Yes, how clever of you to notice the odd coincidence of yourself pointing out that Dauna's mother's maiden name is Cross, in contrast to the surname Crouch being some sort of permutation of the name Cross, and then there is also Ted Cruz, whose name means Cross in Spanish, his wife Gwen Nelson being one of those Adventist people, and then there is my high school classmate Patricia Cruz whose relationship to Nicky Cruz is not quite clear as yet, a Caribbean thing, and all of these people congregating somewhere in the vicinity of Charing Cross Road. And who knows what other Cross connections they may have in store for us there. And how would I know that? 

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I suppose that if you are going to go to  the Port of Acajutla, you might want to hire a trucker and make sure that your stuff is taken care of, don't just leave your stuff sitting there on the dock to be carted away by whoever happens along and finds it there. Oh, thanks Mom. There is no guarantee that anything would be left to send along later by the time they finish rummaging through it all.