Yep, about the first 5-6 they called they were right on the money as far as Twinkie and I were concerned. I wish that they'd given Jordan (I think his name is) another chance to sing. The tall black guy that they said should try less pop-style songs and more Nat King Cole, etc. I liked his voice. I think he cooked his goose along with the little guy with the glasses for the way they treated Jacey at the beginning. Good thing Scotty apologized and sounded sincere about his part in it. We're really enjoying the show this year. Jennifer and Steven together are really interesting and he has a killer sense of humor without being cruel with it.

Martin, I also wonder sometimes if too much is read into an author's intentions and sometimes a rose is just a rose. At the end of my copy of LOTF, Golding is quoted as saying that the entire book is symbolic in nature except for the very last scene in which the boys are rescued. Also, it says (which lends strength to cjoseph's mention of the Greek interpretation of Simon and the pig's head) that Golding listed his hobbies as thinking, classical Greek, sailing, and archeology and that his literary influences included Euripides. Very interesting. My impression is that the boys' plane was shot down during WWII, and that the parachutist was a victim of the same war because in the first page or so of Chapter Six, it says, ".....but there were other lights in the sky, that moved fast, winked, or went out, though not even a faint popping came down from the battle fought at ten miles' height. But a sign came down from the world of grownups, though at the time there was no child awake to read it. There was a sudden bright explosion and corkscrew trail across the sky....." and then the parachutist's body eventually landed on the island. I'm still puzzling over what happened to the child with the birthmark. I'm thinking that he is even mentioned again close to the end of the book and that no one knows what happened to him. Was he the victim of someone like Roger, perhaps? That doesn't seem to make sense since the boys were still restricted in some ways by the bonds of civilization. Did he wander off during the night and fall into the ocean? I guess I'll never know. It doesn't keep me from wondering, though!

Always write as you "find it" Vee. It makes for a much more interesting discussion! :) Yes, even Nao made much of her name being pronounced Now and how it related to the time theme. Read the link I posted on bullying in Japan. Nao was an outsider who barely spoke Japanese after coming to that country from the states when she was a teenager. She had American customs and not Japanese ones, so of course whe would have stood out from the pack as a non-conformist. There is a racist remark that I have heard here where an Asian/American/Cdn who has lost his heritage is referred to as a banana, yellow on the outside and white on the inside, and that term is usually used by other Asians. That link explains why some teachers tolerated the bullying as a way to help the one picked on conform. Bizarre, I agree. The Jungle Crow? He too was blown off course and ended up far from home, just like the freezer bag and its contents. We do get birds like that here, and then the birders and their cameras camp out in some poor persons backyard so they can see the exotic visitor and cross it off their lifelist of birds. But in the novel there was some sort of bafflegab symbolism going on there, I am sure. Like I said earlier, I was in Ruth's area a little while ago and stayed on one of the islands. On a Friday night, they had what is called an 'open mic' and the villagers show up with musical instruments. Some brought tea, coffee, home made desserts and all were put on a table for everyone to share. At least 100 people showed up to listen. You just sign up if you want to display your musical talents or whatever and it goes in that order. Believe me, there were quite a few eccentric people, including a former US draft dodger who sorta twanged an electric guitar and then gave a stand up comedy routine which was, well, interesting. Some guy from Iran gave a speech on the human race, a native girl sang a song she wrote about bullying, a couple of guys had banjos and played some stuff they wrote. Lots of others, some were really good. Finding someone who speaks French is not hard at all, and there are plenty of Chinese and Japanese as well. The Japanese fisherman actually were an integral part of the fisheries during the 1920's to the 1950's. After Pearl Harbour many of them were gathered up and sent to internment camps, at least 145 of them from one cannery near Prince Rupert, causing the cannery to just about shut down. People on the coast are often aware of currents, especially after the tsunami. I think that was Oliver's specialty, wasn't his brain wired for things like that? Where I was staying, a couple of retired people beachcombed as a hobby. The woman found a Japanese fishing boat washed up on shore and using the numbers, she researched it and determined its original owners and confirmed it was from the tsunami. She actually visited Japan and eventually visited the elderly owners who had lost everything (the fishing...

Hi all, I also recently "discovered" Hakan Nesser and have read the first 6 (or was it 7) titles in his Van Veeteran series. While I like Van Veeteran as a character, as someone said, chess, fine music and wine, with a fair smattering of philosophy, I found that the series got more disturbing as it went on. Darker, more crude. I have not requested any further titles from the library as the last one put me out of sorts. I need a break. Just finished reading This House is Haunted by John Boyne. The blurb claims it to be a "Dickensian ghost story". I think not. It was spooky and dark yet neither gory nor graphic. I think it more of a Victorian style, but Dickensian is much too much praise. It was a fun read, albeit slightly predictable, for the season of All Hallow's Eve. Speaking of ghosts, I also read the latest by Simone St. James, The Other Side of Midnight. The main character is a psychic and she was hired to solve the murder of another psychic. It was okay, not as good as her first two books; The Haunting of Maddy Clare and An Inquiry into Love and Death. I second and third the praise for both Geraldine Brooks and her spouse, Tony Horwitz. I read everything he wrote and most of what she wrote. (I like his stuff much more, if you are curious.) Now reading Six Questions of Socrates by Christopher Phillips. He is the head of the Society for Philosophical Inquiry. In this book, he poses the six questions of Socrates to different demographic groups, in different countries and shares the differences and similarities. I am only on page 23 and find it fascinating. The six questions are: What is virtue? What is piety? What is good? What is justice? What is moderation? What is courage? He simply goes to a public area and starts chatting. Soon there is a Socratic circle discussion going on and wow... nary a cell phone nor a google search in sight. The conversations sound just amazing and I am quite jealous I have not yet stumbled upon one. PAM