It reminds me of Edwardian wallpaper.

This is also why I tell folks to not be too fast to weed recent award winners based on circulations. It can take a little bit for teachers to work them into reading lists and lesson plans.

Dude thinks he’s Charles Barkley but you have to have some brains and heart behind that mouth.

I think part of the issue with age of the books is that it take a while before award winners get taught in schools. Sold gets more attention now because it’s read in schools now. Younger teachers read it during their ed training and use it.

A couple years ago I saw an early elementary boy get very upset when a girl his age spoke to her mom in Spanish. He tried to demand they speak English. Thankfully, his mom intervened and addressed his frustration of feeling left out. If only all adults could handle their own feelings so well.

Also, the delightful weirdness of that book reminds me of how much I love Diana Wynne Jones’ Hexwood.

I love that book!

I was getting flashbacks of the Randy Johnson pitch that took out a bird.

That is strange. Although, I once had all of mine answered during the interview and had to impromptu scramble to create a couple. Luckily, I’m good at that.

Oh! That’s an interesting time period. (I was a German major)

What time period?

Eh. Sometimes that’s exactly why the joke hits.

I am very thankfully that I like pork and live in a part of the Midwest where it is easy to find high quality cuts at good prices. Really, it’s very versatile.

Not if it’s funny.

The fact that they act like this is new….there is a whole sub-genre of Historical Christian Romance centered on mail-order brides!

That looks like a character in the Christmas cartoons of my youth. The mean ones. I decline its services.

I started it and couldn’t get into it, but it could have been an issue with my mood at the time.

I believe that’s called “scream therapy.” 😂

You know, when I was younger I said I read horror because realism was too scary. (Seriously, Sherwood Anderson and Flannery O’Connor scare the hell out of me).

However, I think I’ve changed my mind.

Yeah! Some have their kids on Life360 and watch the campus cameras.

my older sister, they trusted me to not drink and drive (she notoriously got in trouble for breaking curfews, lying, & partying a lot). The one time I knew I’d be late because I was giving somebody a ride, I called half an hour ahead. And this was before cell phones and tracking.

I never had a curfew, per se. However, I absolutely had to be home when I said I’d be home. I sometimes worked on the weekend until 11, which meant I got out even later, so my parents wanted me to be able to go out and grab a bite to eat with work friends or watch a video after work. Also, unlike

No sleepovers until middle school. Mom was county director of Family & Children Services and thus knew stuff. Also, as I learned later, I wasn’t allowed to go to specific homes if even extended family members had certain types of “business” with her office. She didn’t want us to be targeted.

I have a normal size sedan. People who drive super large vehicles often have no idea how close they are when they drive behind us, and just how much they block out our visual field. I wish they had to experience it before getting to drive the beasts.

Freshman year my parents stayed overnight because it was a 4 1/2 hour drive each way and they wanted to have time to run out to get extras I might need.

Senior year I drove myself with what I could stuff in the back of my car and my mom came a couple of weeks later with my fall/winter clothes.

I was raised Lutheran but sometimes played at the Catholic Church in the summer and hanged out with my Catholic friends and Father Tom. My family had a funeral home in town so we knew all the county clergy. I can think of some folks to excommunicate and would be happy to serve in an advisory role.

This. I know numbers people who are avid poker players. They also know how to play within their limits.

They’re uncomfortable with anybody asking follow up questions of anybody.

When they find out I used to teach English they act like I’m going to correct their grammar. Ma’am, I grew up in the sticks and talk like a hick half of the time.

Sigh. It had its moment, but the sexism can be so jarring on rewatch.