Loved it! The library people ... the arena people ... said it was great. Taking it to the Old Farts' Club for coffee hour tomorrow. Spread a little joy around - bring a smile to people's faces. ole joyful ... whose smile is pretty well toothless, now

How about suggesting that they wear a turban when the new growth is showing some?? If they're living in town, it could be called an "urban turban", right? Some of us don't have hardly enough up there to get fussed up about what gradations of colour there may be 'tween the scalp and the far end. ole joyful ... some gray mixed in with the dark - same all the way from end to end (I think - don't see qas well as I usta, either). P.S. How many twits does it take ... ... to make a Twitter?? o j

Rules For Visiting Minnesota 1) Don't order tofu or pasta primavera at Johnson's Cafe. It's a diner. They serve breakfast 24 hours a day. Let them cook something they know. If you upset the ladies in the kitchen they'll kick your butt. 2) Don't laugh at the names of our little towns: Fertile, Moorhead, Climax, Cummings, Gentilly, or we will just HAVE to kick your butt. 3) Don't ask for a soda here. Up here it's called pop. Accept it. Doing otherwise can lead to a butt kicking. 4) We know our heritage. Most of us are more literate than you. We are also better educated and generally a lot nicer. Don't refer to us as a bunch of hicks or we'll kick your butt. 5) We have stoves and use them. We have well over 10,000 lakes and enjoy fishing them. Fresh cooked fish is a delicacy to be enjoyed by all. Don't try passing off sashimi to us, we call that "bait". If you try to get us to eat it, we'll have to kick your butt. 6) We are fully aware of how cold it gets here in the winter, so shut the heck up. Just spend your money and get the heck out of here or we'll kick your butt. 7) Don't order the vegetarian special at the local diner. Everyone will instantly know that you're a tourist. Eat your steak like God intended and have some potatoes with that, for heaven's sake! Also, don't ask what a hotdish is or we'll kick your butt. 8) Don't try to fake a Minnesota accent. We don't have an accent. Stations nationwide come to the midwest to get people because of the lack of an accent. Do NOT mention the movie "Fargo" as that will incite a riot and you will get your butt kicked. 9) Don't talk about how much better things are at home because we know better. Many of us have visited big-city like Detroit, New York, and LA, and we have the scars to prove it. If you don't like it here, Northwest Airlines is ready when you are. And don't call it Delta. It's been Northwest since it changed from Northwest Orient. If you don't like it, move your butt on home before it gets kicked. 10) Yes, we know that ice fishing is "not your thing." We don't care. If you don't understand the beauty of being out on a lake when it's 10 below zero then you should go home and try fishing in New York Harbor. Also, if you hog the beer in the fish house we'll kick your butt. 11) Don't complain that Minnesota doesn't really have 10,000 lakes, we actually have around 22,000, so if you whine we'll kick your butt all the way back to the desert you call home. 12) Don't ridicule our mannerisms. We only speak when spoken to. We hold doors open for others. We offer our seats to old folks because such things are expected of civilized people. Behave yourselves around our sweet, little gray-haired grandmothers or they will kick some manners into your butt just like they did ours. 13) So you think we're quaint or losers because most of us live in the north woods? That's because we have enough sense to not live in filthy, smelly, crime-infested cesspools like New York or LA. Make fun of our fresh air and we'll kick your butt. 14) Last, but not least, DO NOT DARE to come out here and tell us how the Vikings and the Twins suck (only Minnesotans and true fans can knock'em down). If you do, this will get your butt shot (right after it is kicked). Just mention this once and you will go home in a pine box minus your butt. and 15) Have a good day now!

Russ, I think men can write "girl books." Herman Wouk's Marjorie Morningstar is very much a girl book, I think. While I know they are not great literature, a number of Gothic suspense novels have been written by male writers under feminine pseudonyms -- I guess the thinking of the publishers was women prefer to read Gothics by what they think are women writers, which I think in the case of most female readers is bosh. A number of female writers have written quite effectively in the traditionally male bastion of war stories. Olivia Manning's recounting of the Battle of El Alamein in The Levant Trilogy is every bit as good as any male writer's, and Pat Barker's The Regeneration Trilogy is much lauded by both male and female readers. However, whatever the inroads female writers have made, I'm afraid that there's a certain segment of male readers who will pass over their books simply because they are females. An androgynous name, such as Barker's, has probably pulled in some unsuspecting male readers. As for the classics you mentioned, Russ: Tolstoy's and Flaubert's books -- even when their protagonists are women -- are more likely to be read by men than Jane Austen's novels are. Anyanka has already talked above about this disinclination of boys and men. I know present male company is excepted, but it's hard to say it's untrue of male readers in general.