Linda Z

Those ABC weasels lied, they lied, I tell ya! I watched anyway, and saw a few scenes I'd missed the first time around. It would have been a good night for people who missed the early episodes to catch up. Oh well. At least next week looks exciting.

I didn't get asked for a password when I was registering. Did I miss something???

From the ABC Lost Web site http://abc.go.com/primetime/lost/ Wednesday, April 27, 8/7c "Lost: The Journey" A provocative new journey through the lives of some of the survivors of Oceanic Flight 815 -- and a closer look at the island they're stranded on -- will be revealed.

A copy was recently sold on ebay for, I think, $58.95.

Galen said: Probably so. I guess it's a good thing I'm not a teacher. :D--> I think teachers today, with all the fear of lawsuits and all the regs they have to follow, have a really difficult job. As do parents. As Tumbleweed Kid said, I'll bet there's lots to this story that we don't know.

LG, I think you're looking at the wrong orange bar. There were 5 people who voted that the police shouldn't have been called.

So Lorna, you think a return to the gun-slingin' Wild West, or maybe the vigilante spirit so rampant in the South in the previous two centuries would solve the problem of child molestation? The hell with relying on law enforcement to keep the peace. And forget the right to a fair trial. Shoot 'em. Shoot 'em all! I don't think so. Sometimes my emotional reaction to hearing stories like these is similar to yours. But then I remember that not all people think like me--sanely. When I think about it more rationally, it quickly dawns on me how many stupid people I encounter in the course of a week. I certainly wouldn't want all of them armed and going around shooting everyone they think is doing something wrong. I'm all in favor of responsible citizen's right to keep and bear arms. But to carry out their own on-the-spot executions? Sometimes there are misunderstandings. Sometimes things simply aren't as they appear. "Shoot first and ask questions later" doesn't fly when hysteria sets in among the citizenry.

Boy, this is a tough one. I've always seen corporal punishment in schools as a two-edged sword. It was legal when I was a kid, and although it sometimes kept the more unruly kids in line, I also saw it abused and overused by some teachers. Given that teachers are only human and can range from firm but fair to bullying and sadistic, I don't think I want to return that right to teachers. (I'm not ambivalent about spanking one's own children. Although some parents abuse it, most parents who spank do not beat their children or cause them harm, IMO.) Krys has wise words about the child needing a physical exam. The family should have counseling, too; perhaps there are events taking place at home that are causing her to get so angry and lash out. It could be something serious, like her mother being beaten by a boyfriend, or something as simple as having to share a room with a new sibling who keeps her up all night. If I'd been a teacher dealing with that child, rather than calling the police (good Lord!), I'd have locked the child in an empty room with nothing but a pillow to sit on and called the mother to come get her. I can't imagine how frightening it must have been to a 5-year-old to be handcuffed and put in a police car. I'm all for some of that "scared straight" approach, but that seems over the top to me. What's with Florida, anyhow? Some of the most bizarre news comes out of that state!

Hugh Grant Four Weddings and a Funeral Andie McDowell (sp?)

I don't mean to offend, but honestly, this reminds me of the "Passing of the Mantle" in twi. Same old heirarchy, very political, followers divided on the choice the cardinals made. The new pope was one of JPII's closest confidantes (wonder if he wrote a book called JP and Me)? If what I heard on NPR is true, he often played bad cop to JPII's good cop in the Vatican's version of the "good cop, bad cop" scenario. I heard a Catholic theologian from Boston College interviewed. He was polite and respectful, but it sounded to me like he wasn't too thrilled with the choice. People on the street who were asked their opinion were divided--some thrilled and some disappointed. Oh well, it doesn't look like the rule forbidding priests and nuns to marry will be lifted anytime soon. I think that's a shame. Although I'm sure there are many priests and nuns who are celibate by choice, I think it should be just that: their choice. I hope this pope will address pedophilia and other abuse by Catholic clergy more aggressively than his predecessor.

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha! If Rosie's a pastor, I'm a billionaire supermodel.

Despite the fact that Wisconsin is known as the big cheese state, 2.5 times more Swiss cheese is made in Ohio than in Wisconsin. Take that, cheese heads! :P-->

That's very cool that you have your ancestor's fiddle. What a treasure. And of course being a roving minstrel is a good thing. I didn't figure these were really your Millers, but it made me chuckle and I had to share the laugh with you. The cemetery where these Millers are buried has a high percentage of Germans buried there. Actually, I was surprised there were gypsies named Miller. I've always picture gypsies as swarthy, dark-haired people, not folks more inclined to blonde hair and blue eyes. :)--> The fiddle makes much more sense with your Scottish heritage. Just think, you could have been a yodeler instead of a fiddle picker!

Hey David, I might have stumbled across info about some of your distant cousins. This could be where you got your "roving minstrel" tendencies! :D--> Check this out, especially the section called "Kings & Queens and funeral traditions": http://oldbrooklyn.com/history110101.html BTW, the Brooklyn Hts. in this newsletter is a city in the Greater Cleveland area.

For nika You mentioned orphan trains once, and I made a mental note to find something I'd picked up on that subject while doing some genealogy research. It's an ad for the book Orphan Train Rider: One Boy's True Story by Andrea Warren, but it contains a pretty good article on the subject of orphan trains. If you'd like, I can either scan it and send you the file or make a photocopy and mail it to you. If you're interested, just drop me an e-mail (address is in my profile). And hello to the rest of you!

Ooh, thought of another. A couple years after I left my job at HQ, I was working for a magazine publisher. I became friends with a woman named Laura, whose cubicle was next to mine. One day, Laura was waxing nostalgic about old boyfriends, and she sighed and said, "I wonder what ever happened to Randy Ginx. She had dated him in high school about 15 years earlier. I vaguely recalled that Randy had lived in the Cleveland suburb where Laura grew up, before he went into the Corps. So without skipping a beat, I said casually, "Oh, he's with a Bible fellowship group called the way, and last I knew he was working at one of the way's campuses in Gunnison, Colorado. I used to joke with him that he should marry me so my name would be Linda Zinx Ginx." She nearly flipped.

Keep posting your adventures, Suz. It's fun to hear about your travels and the people you're seeing. Yeah, the Grand Canyon is really something. God's handiwork, for sure. Love ya, Linda

The Wedding Planner (yawn) Jennifer Lopez Gigli

I'm hooked on this show! Every week when it gets to be about 15 minutes until the end, I think, "Oh, I wish it weren't almost over." I picked up a TV Guide the week before the most recent episode because it had a feature on Lost,. It included a spoiler, telling about the impending death of one of the characters, saying it would be someone who hasn't been featured that much lately. Boone was an obvious guess after having the airplane fall on him, but he was pretty involved in the previous couple episodes (his adventures with Locke), so I thought maybe it would be someone else. I have more questions than answers. I hope they come through with some revelations before the finale! Was Kate really a willing participant in the bank robbery or was she more like Patty Hearst? Was the other robber really her boyfriend? (I expect surprises there.) Is Claire's baby going to be like Rosemary's baby? Is all this happening because Hurley won the lottery with that mysterious number? Is the Asian woman an MD? Will Sawyer's good side or his evil side win out? And why in the HECK are there polar bears on a tropical island? What's with the French woman? This is more intriguing than Twin Peaks! Stay tuned, Lost fans, so the creators of this show can drive you crazy with these questions and more. But they're so yummy!

Chas, of course it's not so unusual and exotic to run across people on GS we knew who used to be in twi, but I think I might have known your hubby many moons ago. If he's who I think he is, I knew him as one of the good guys. Of course, since you married him he's one of the good guys regardless. :D-->

Ex10, that's wild, isn't it? Or maybe not. Maybe these encounters, that seem like they'd be so unlikely to happen, occur for a reason. Whether that's so or not, it's kinda fun when they do!

Happy birthday! 2005 is turning out to be a pretty good year for you, eh?! Enjoy!

Best wishes to the bride- and groom-to-be! From what you both write here, you sure seem to be a great match. Many years of happiness to you both!

Wacky, I don't totally get it, either. It's a complicated mix of emotions and religious leanings and group psychology. I prayed for JP2 and I felt bad for his suffering, just as I would for anyone I knew about and admired. I understand respecting the man for who he was and the good he accomplished, but I don't get standing in line for many, many hours in the burning sun to see the dead body of someone I never met. Even if I were a Roman Catholic I don't think I'd get it. I don't criticize the people who are weeping in the streets, but I don't fully understand. I cried when VP died because I knew him and liked him and had worked with him some. (Had I known some of the things he'd been up to, my tears might have been diminished.) I cried when Reagan died because the media showed all those poignant films and scenes of his widow at his casket, and the whole "event" of his death and burial brought to mind a time in our country that holds fond memories for me. I think whoever quoted "no man is an island" is onto something--our shared humanity links us emotionally to people we've never met. But I think whoever said "it's a happening" is right, too. Some people just want to be where history is happening/has happened, or they just like to be around the hooplah. Odd creatures, we humans! When I attended the wake of a close friend's mother, I met a well-dressed, distinguished, seemingly normal elderly couple there. I asked how long they'd known Mrs. so-and-so. "Oh, we didn't know her," they replied. "We just go to all the wakes in town." Weird, but apparently for some people a local get-togehter isn't to be missed, even if there's a dead body in the middle of the "party." Me, I looked at those crowds and thought, "I'd sooner walk on hot coals than be crammed together with that many people and standing in line that long--for ANY reason." Something no one has mentioned is a sort of mass hysteria that kicks in during events like this. Reminds me of when Princess Di died. I felt awful that such a lovely young woman had met an untimely end, but I didn't want to fly to England to put a flower on her grave. And no, I wouldn't light a candle at Graceland--sorry, Elvis fans. :D-->

Sudo, it was a mixed bag, as far as how the kids were treated. My son had some great non-twi friends in NK, and their families welcomed him into their homes with open arms and had no qualms about their kids hanging out at our house. There were some teachers who went out of their way to be nice to the "wayfer" kids and treated them like everyone else. There were also plenty of people who looked down on our kids, and one high school teacher at the NK school who was downright cruel to them--but then he was a jerk in general, so he's not a good example. There was, on the other hand, the name calling and meanness that went along with it, and there were parents who, I'm sure, wanted their children to have nothing to do with ours. My son still feels like he was a fifth wheel in school because we were with twi, but I try to explain that in this world, someone is always going to look down on you for something, and that most kids, even popular ones, feel left out sometimes. At a small school (I think there were 21 in my son's graduating class--20 after one of his best friends was killed in a car accident just before graduation) this seems to be magnified. I could be wrong, but my sense is that kids in New Bremen and St. Mary's were more readily accepted at school. They were larger towns and not so "inbred." Maybe some of our younger GSers went to one of the NK area schools and could comment. NK was such a small town, and many people had the mentality that if you weren't born and raised there, you were inferior. I've seen that in lots of small towns. Small-minded people are everywhere, unfortunately.