I don't have a ghost story, only one that makes you go "hmmmm". My best friend from college, Robbie, comes to WI to visit about once a year. He grew up about an hour from where I live but now lives in California. About 25 years ago, Robbie's older brother married a wonderful gal named Kay who quickly became a dear SIL to Robbie. I met her a couple of times and she was a sweet, down-to-earth, funny, loving person. The family was devastated when Kay was diagnosed with brain cancer, but she survived for several years and went through several treatments before passing away. She and her husband had one son. It's been about 15 years since Kay's death and every time Robbie visits, we talk about finding where she was buried, since Robbie would like to see her grave. He didn't remember much about the cemetery or church, so a few years ago, during his visit, we walked for about an hour through a cemetery about 10 miles from my house, since Kay and her husband lived in a small town near here. No luck, and Robbie's details are so vague, I didn't think we'd ever find the grave. Well, last fall he visited and I asked my boss if there was another cemetery in another town nearby. I didn't think there was, but she told me about one. We went there and as usual, Robbie thought this was "the one" and said he vaguely remembered her grave being near the back of the cemetery near the perimeter fence. We drove into the cemetery and found it to be very large. We drove down the main road and Robbie looked and looked for anything familiar. When we got to the end of the road, we could see that the perimeter fence was a ways away and the graves weren't even close to it, so he was doubting this was the right cemetery, either. Well, he told me to turn at the corner and then finally he said to pull the car over so we could just get out and look around. I hadn't even had time to get out of the car before Robbie checked out the closest headstone and found it was Kay's. It still amazes me and I'm certain that we had some kind of "help" finding the exact location after all those years. Here is a link that might be useful: a lucky break or what? :)

Vee, here's my other story.Winters in Iowa can be hellish, with ice and wind storms that often knock out power utilities nowadays, though it was even more common in the early 1960s when the incident I am about to relate happened. My grandfather (Opa) worked for the rural county electric cooperative. He was almost at the end of his career, and though he no longer did manual work, with his experience he supervised crews and told them what to do. Therefore, he was on call for any problems that came up. My mother and I were visiting her parents who, by this time, had moved to town. We had intended to drive home that evening after supper, but the weather was so threatening that we decided to spend another night. The wind was howling and the snow was coming down so thick we couldn't see the streetlight directly across the way while looking out the front door. As he could have predicted and dreaded, Opa got a call to go out to repair some downed power lines. He bundled up and left in his company truck. Mother, Oma, and I finished with the dishes and decided to go to bed early. Now, the physical layout of the house has some importance, so I'll describe it. The large living room was at the front of the house; and its focal point in the winter was the gas heater, around which several chairs were arranged. Opa's armchair was the closest because he liked to take off his shoes and put his sock feet on the fender -- his circulation wasn't very good and his feet were always cold. In the wall directly across from the heater was the door to the long hallway that led to the bedrooms. The bathroom (toilet) was located off this hall, too. Some hours after going to bed, I woke up and sprinted to the bathroom because the floor was so darned cold. Passing the door to the living room, I glanced in to see the blue flames of the heater giving off just enough light to see Opa in silhouette sleeping, as he often did, with his feet propped on the fender. I finished in the bathroom and sprinted back past the living room door. I noticed this time that Opa had changed positions and was hunched over and seemed to be fumbling with his shoes. When I got back into the bed I was sharing with my mother, she was awake and said to me, "Next!" She got up to make her own excursion to the bathroom. After that I apparently went to sleep and didn't even know when mother returned to bed. The next thing I knew it was morning and my Oma was making breakfast. The weather was still nasty, but the kitchen was heaven. As we were setting the table, the kitchen door off the back porch opened and Opa came in, knocking snow off his hat and making puddles on Oma's linoleum. She swatted at him to quit, but asked him, "How did things go?" He said he was just about frozen through; and if she didn't mind, he wanted his breakfast on a tray so that he could eat it in front of the heater. Oma was obliging. As she was arranging things, Opa called to...

I don't think HRC, or any other woman, needs to repress part of her humanity in order to be taken seriously, or simply because she is older (that's ageism). Nor does "sexy" necessarily involve showing skin. Jack Kennedy was very sexy covered neck to toes, as is Obama. You can call it by another name if you like, maybe "glamour," "charm," or "charisma," but it's an important part of the rhetorical toolkit. Human beings are not rational robots, processing only cold facts and logic. We respond to image, looks, body language, the play of expression on the face. Rhetorical persuasion is all about emotional appeal. Michelle Obama knows this, Ronald Reagan was brilliant at this. There's another thing. If HRC is going to smash the glass ceiling, and help in the fight for full equality, then she also should help dissolve the double standards that have constrained women for so long. E.g., act like a rather prim 50's style "lady" at all costs, while being twice as competent and smart as the men, having to work twice as hard, and take less pay too. That's the way it was when I was young, at least. You can see the traces of this constraint in the over-programmed, cautious way HRC expresses herself. That was modern feminism 1.0. But we are in a new century now, and young women don't accept these constraints-- they see it, rightly, as just another form of oppressive patriarchy. For them, feminism means being accepted for who you are, on your merits, and not as the perfect cardboard cutout token "skirt suit." HRC may be older, and habits are hard to change. But she can make a real contribution in this area if she can signal a more relaxed, more authentic self, a comfort in one's own skin. That would help with the trust issue, as well. I hope we see this evolution after the inauguration-- whatever some troglodytes might think, she's already a powerful person, and really has nothing more to prove.

CherryFizz, I watch H&I pretty regularly as well :-) But when I was married I was pretty much force fed all the Star Trek shows....and Battlestar Galactica, Stargate, Babylon 5, etc., etc., etc......so those I now avoid. But I like the other cop shows - NYPD Blues, Nash Bridges. Monk, Jag and The District. And West Wing is available on Netflix, if you get that. I re-watch the entire series every now and again. IMO, one of the best shows to ever appear on TV!!