LOL, Carole, that is one of the reasons I no longer live there. I got the heck out of there when it became very apparent that the city and county government was more dysfunctional than a bad reality show. Those guys are insane in Charlotte. Same thing there as Wake, City of Charlotte controls 90% of what Mecklenburg county does. Mecklenburg county is bad enough on it's own but the city compounds it. And speaking of Charlotte, they would love nothing better than to control all the other counties surrounding Mecklenburg. That is very evident with all the regulatory organizations they create trying to control things outside of the count. Shoot they have even tried to annex outside of the county boundries for big moneymakers to get those tax dollars. But Sorry I got on a rant, I lived in that mess for close to 20 years, and I'm so glad to be out of the crap and crime Charlotte has to offer. I'll hush now and go back to much more plesant things like gardening! :-)

Below is a link to BBC Radio 4 and a reading of 'And His Letters . . .' by the actor Nigel Havers who btw is appearing as Maxim de Winter in Rebecca on the London stage. Perhaps not quite Olivier but he does have that aristocratic 'something' about him. At the BBC site click on Monday And regarding aristocrats, Frieda, maybe some people in the UK feel that a hangman's gibbet should stand outside the House of Lords or that hereditary peers should be replaced by friends of the Government with deep pockets . . . not so different from the old system when you consider how many 'top people's' ancestors obtained their titles. Either way, arriving with William the Conqueror or slightly more recently when various Royal Mistresses demanded positions for their offspring, this group is part of the Establishment. No amount of money, delicacy of character, nobleness of soul makes it possible for the rest of us to join this elite group (and it is amazing how many would like to be Up There). Top actors, pop singers, Party Girls etc hang round the edge but they are almost never admitted into this inner-sanctum. Of course there are some very wealthy people in this bracket; mostly from ownership of land and lots have 'Stately Homes'. Many of you have probably been to Chatsworth, Castle Howard, Warwick Castle etc. who's owners have wisely turned their properties into money-making enterprises. Interesting about the story of the student and her father. Surprisingly over here, for everyone below Royalty if such a thing had happened (a father writing in on behalf of his daughter) any university would have put the application straight in the bin; there is no automatic right of entry to any uni' for sons/daughters of alumni. Re adoption: there are certainly far fewer babies available these days. Although many many more babies are being born 'out of wedlock' (for want of a better expression) this is usually by choice . . . of at least one parent . . . and in both big cities and small country towns the sight of groups of very young females pushing baby buggies, smoking, chatting to boys (the possible fathers?) is very common. Our Govt gives out vast amounts of benefits to this group so the need to put a baby up for adoption is very low and many people only want healthy white children. The Social Services who are usually the first port of call in these matters make the 'process' very very difficult, especially for middle-class couples. It seems that if a child comes from a poorer, perhaps racially mixed background the social workers wants it to be adopted by people from that 'class' without considering whether the child might stand a chance of a better life. Some parents look abroad as I expect they do in the US, but this can lead to even more problems . . . and cost far more than going through the usual channels. When the cases of the Romanian orphans was first aired on TV some people tried to adopt a child, thinking with their hearts rather than...

I've only read the article posted. Was she making the kind of claim that leads to a suit? Not just sharing her pain about the cancer? That whole celebrity thing of my problems will help people? I thought she did go to her regular physician, too. That the emergency room was about the pain so bad it needed urgent attention that happened four times because her regular doctors didn't find anything wrong, but maybe I misread it? Whichever, there's a big difference between a proper discharge of "take this for the pain and see your physician Monday morning", or "we're going to have to send you to a specialist", and "you're fine, you're just fat", no matter who said it to her. In the US, at least, emergency rooms are also for a lot more than strokes, heart attacks and traumas. It's for broken bones, major cuts and burns, etc. Too many people also go there because they have no other access to health care, but that's changing with the new insurance structure. I had a small wound on my thumb that wouldn't stop bleeding on a weekend, and which was beyond my knowledge of first aid. I heard them in the emergency room (small hospital, not a trauma center) arguing over who would have to treat it because it was boring. The guy who did had to be reminded that it had to be cleaned first. He had some sticky stuff I'd never heard of that gives the clot something to form on. He could have just handed it to me and let me do it myself and the result would have been better. I've been to the major hospital emergency room recently with elderly relatives, and they have a much better culture, and were fairly compassionate and quite able. There's more to medicine than racking up interesting cases however.

I'm so glad that you watched and enjoyed it. I thought it to be pretty special. I watched another good one last night...Philomena with Judi Dench. This is based on a true story about a young Irish girl who is 'sent to the nuns' when she becomes pregnant. The girls have their babies, and are forced to work (toil) under poor conditions, only to have their babies sold to rich customers, often from America. Judi portrays the girl when she is elderly and has an opportunity to go to America to search for her lost son. As usual, Judi is riveting in this film. The range of emotions that move across her face......very remarkable. Look for it on Netflix.