Youffraita answers your letter 4/18
Thanks to so many kind people, we sent Youffraita a twenty-four page letter just a bit ago and she has sent back an answer so we can know how she is doing.
Dumbo: Thank you so much for the offer of the Kindle. A user manual would be a real mitzvah. (Dumbo is attempting to recharge it as we write).
Tara: Tara can always make me laugh! Tell her Callie had better rein in those solicitresses-maybe the transom alligators could consider Legal Steaks (as opposed to Boston’s Legal Seafood). Hugs to Packrat & the dogs & many pets for the pooties.
Louisiana 1976: Windy City Blues sounds like lots of fun! Thanks!
annieli and mettle fatigue: Didn’t Carolyn Heilburn write murder mysteries under a pseudonym?
mettle fatigue: Ha ha…those are some orange earplugs! Actually, I probably don’t need them. I get distracted by shows he watches that I actually like & try to read during commercials.
Ellid: Ellid on Jeopardy? Whoa! Must add to calendar & make sure I take that day off!
Catte Nappe: Life Is Too Short to read a truly terrible book all the way to the end. As a famous sf editor once said, “You don’t have to eat all of an egg to know that it’s rotten.”
jabney: He knows what he is talking about…thanks! I think the Kindle from Dumbo will be the way to go.
GAS and Dittany of Crete: Oh, please, MOAR behind-the-scenes theater stories! Those were great!
BMScott: BMScott’s rec of Summer in Orcus sounds good, but it sounds like a middle-grade book to me. Not so?
slksfca: Tell silky I agree: “Also, Bette Middler in Hello Dolly. Wow!” I wish I could get tix to that. Hamilton is getting all the ink, but I think Bette’s going to be fabulous.
Isn’t War Paint the one about dueling makeup empresses? The music & the divas got kudos, but since they never met, as far as anyone knows, the book’s structure is a bit…less than pleasing, dramatically. It recently opened and that is what I surmised from the NYT review.
Mnemosyne: Miss you, too, & hope you are OK. Good luck with the Picketty. It sounds scary-brilliant.
Smoh: Would love to see pics of Smoh’s new babies Loki & Thor. And the duck retriever! Don’t think I’ve ever seen one of those.
MT Spaces: Jazz and Cocktails sounds like a lot of fun…at least if it is written in a good scholarly way, not in the pretentious, stifling prose of bad scholarly writing. And I love the picture. MOAR please!
Radiowalla: I haven’t tracked down the Elena Ferrante novels, but there is a tiny used bookstore in one corner of the library-I went there to get my tax forms & I had to buy a couple of books even though I am reading Caesar. One is the “memoirs” of Cleopatra. Very fat novel-should keep me busy for a while, after Caesar, tho’ I fear the two authors will present very different portraits of him. (And I’m still only half way through the Hamilton).
Blue Jersey Mom: I miss the Great Orange Satan very much, and all the wonderful imps who show up there. Also miss the gardening diaries with those wonderful pics. And the birdies on Sun. A. M.
FarWestGirl/howabout: good idea about the book light clip LED. Thanks!
Kishik: Please let us know how Sunday in the Park with George was. I loved all the Paris stuff, was less enamored of the modern day ending, altho’ Marie is a real card.
FoundingFatherDAR: Thanks for the suggestion of the Julie Andrews memoir. Love behind-the-scenes stuff.
purple cones: Lily, the dog, looks adorable!
Portlaw: Of course, I read Heidi! But my love of goats came much later. Can’t forget the photo of newpioneer’s goat on the hood of the SUV. Hilarious!
Got a Grip: a goat rodeo? What fun! I’ll bet the chairman was really red. Who did the wrangling?
BFSkinner: Wishing you well!!!
Wee Mama: We had asparagus for Easter, too! But ours came from the Farmer’s Market downtown on the square.
River of the West: What is miner’s lettuce? Anyway, we didn’t have much of a winter here-the weeds stayed green the whole time.
Angmar: Thank you for the Frost poem! Best wishes!
cohenzee: I haven’t seen anything recently, either, but my friend Leroy mentioned wanting to go see a play. So we are tentatively on, as soon as I’m off winter hours & actually have some extra cash. I may try to pick up some time in another store…it wouldn’t be billed to my manager that way, so HER boss couldn’t object.
FindingMyVoice: “the seeds of singing=soul” How cool is that? Thanks!!
StellaRay: A Gentleman from Moscow sounds great. Thanks for the rec!
Angela Marx: (There is a problem with the library that I hope to tackle with Youf the next time I write).
Brecht: Oh, Brecht, Brecht…what can I say? For someone in an inherently unstable place, I think I’m doing OK. My new manager seems to appreciate me & my co-workers-it’s her boss who’s horrible.
Wish I could meet your cook at Selwyn House-I am always looking for good recipes for cheap stuff. It does sound as if you had a good school there in Kent. Despite the instability, at least you got to travel a lot as a child-I really think more Americans should get out & see that we are not particularly unique and that the U. S. is NOT the best at everything…if you ain’t rich.
Sunday’s NYT business section had a FP story, “Is Retail at a Historic Tipping Point?” about dept. stores closing, zombie walls, builders making too much retail space, etc. Although I’m in retail, you can’t make convenience stores go away. For one thing, we sell gas & a lot of it. And plenty of drivers don’t know how to use self-service pumps, although by now you’d expect them to (unless they’re from Jersey).
~Waving~ at everyone else and thanks for the good wishes and book suggestions. I hope to be back fairly soon.
Youffraita