I'm glad to know and 11 year old child didn't know that being stoned on *anything* meant you were on a trip........... I find it an odd name, but he's not my child and it doesn't affect my life so I don't really care! LOL And I knew I heard the name in politics somehow............ thanks Sue! Now just gotta google Linda Tripp to remember exactly who she is. ;o)

Lydia, do you think One Thousand White Women is another novel that suffers from 'Dances With Wolves Syndrome'? I am collecting examples of DWWS now that I have a name to go with the manifestation. If you didn't enjoy the first two-thirds, you probably wouldn't like the last third any better. I finished it, but didn't like the ending. I did enjoy the 'what if' aspect of OTWW, but I concur that the writer was sloppy with his 'stereotypes, anachronisms, and sensibilities' and the violence and cruelty were off-putting (the scene of the prostitute having her insides washed out with hot water has stuck with me, unfortunately). As for it being 'a joke', if I remember correctly, it did seem to be somewhat satirical in tone, something that kept me from taking it very seriously. Ha! I've run across readers, too, who think it's history. Woodnymph, my sister-in-law from South Carolina praised Pat Conroy's writing until his last couple of books (written before SIL's death), but she disliked Anne Rivers Siddons. I don't remember exactly why, but it ran along the lines of what she thought of 'the trap' that southern writers often fall into, which she described as "[the writers] giving the readers what they expect." I think she considered it 'lazy writing', so that may correspond with your opinion that Conroy "has lost his touch." Do you think so?

I went to see the movie of The Hunger Games over the weekend. Heartily recommended. Excellent acting and unusual restraint for Hollywood in handling the violence of the story. I guess they wanted their PG-13 rating but IMO it made for a better movie. I had read the first two books in advance, and am now in the middle of Mockingjay the final volume of the trilogy. I am just about to get in the car and drive to the post office to mail Maddy Clare back to Pam. Thanks for circulating this book! Rosefolly

The black holes of the universe are a theory not yet really proven, but I know for sure that there is a black hole in our house where things disappear in never to be found again.