Most of you know I have spent great amounts of time in Antarctica studying the flightless penguin behavior at close range, so how could I not think the widely-spread UTube short - so well done - on penguins flying from The Ice to Brazil — an amazing visual HOAX that one could easily fall for.  Frankly, I had to give it 4 stars for looking believable!!! 

Dear dear Susan … You are fun, you are amazing, you tantalize … and you have us begging to read all 35 beautifully written volumes of your journal where - I am sure - the heat still rises … or so we would like to think!!!  YOU had it all — and we will remember that!  Joan

Advanced lovemaking 101  - a true story

Coming into the city from the suburbs for an appointment at Northwestern Medical Center requires extra time in case of traffic jams.  However, often a free public medical lecture is being held in the building’s theater setting that is an easy way to pass half an hour. 

And so my husband and I found ourselves seated with a well-dressed group of 300 men and women learning about the more advanced stages of heartburn and what could be done when Tums no longer provided relief.  The gastroenterologist was charming, young (!), and answered questions readily.  And there were many.

I am now an expert in case you need help with your heartburn — but I have a feeling you might be more interested in enhancing your love life.  And so I will jump to that portion.  The specialist suggested that raising the head of our beds up to 6 inches would prevent the deadly acid from leaving the stomach.  Hands were raised.  How is that done?  And so he suggested putting the upper two legs of the bed on square pieces of wood. 

My husband - no novice in what hardware stores have to offer - raised his hand also, suggesting that cement blocks would be the right height and would capture the top legs of the bed so they would be much more secure.  (Little did we know that our lives would change with that moment of wisdom!) 

 Almost as an aside then, as people were worried they might slip off the foot of the bed (wrong), the doctor said that the slanted bed might do wonders for your love life.  Anyone snoozing so far was now awake . .  wide awake!!!!!!

The hour was over.  People were reluctant to leave.  Some gathered around the physician below.  But up at the top where we were seated, a line actually formed.  On the stairs no less.  My husband had become the cement block guru.  These were city people.  Condo people.  People that didn’t know what a cement block was.  What did it look like?  There is no Home Depot downtown so where could they go to pick up two?  Some wanted him to draw exactly how the cement block looked and how you would put the top legs of the bed in it?  Had we known — had we had a large supply of cement blocks available right there - well, we could have made a fortune!  We were in demand for at least a half hour after the lecture.  Even the doctor was long gone.  I considered going into love life counseling right then.

Do you think the rush to get the cement blocks was for their acid reflux? Frankly, I don’t think so.  Is there anyone out there that doesn’t want to improve their love lives even more??? 

Now, there are many people on Michigan Avenue downtown with smiles on their faces.  I don’t know why.  We will never know.  I do know that two cement blocks cost less than a weeks’ New York Times.  I will say no more. 

And - as an afterthought - those of us who remember as children the wonderful Louis Armstrong singing I Found My Thrill On Blueberry Hill, I have a question:  Could it have been the slant?? 

Glenda - First, I thank you … and I find that your love, your marriage, your life, sounds so much like mine.  I don’t know if there is a single secret.  I don’t know if we both were just fortunate in the men we met way back then.  I know we didn’t have much wisdom when we were so young.  We too started off in the service, and I had my first baby at the base hospital and was in a single room with 24 other new mothers — none of us older than 22 I think - not knowing what to do but with these little ones in bassinets beside us from birth. 

Like you, I love Sinatra songs - and their lyrics that mean so much.  And yes, we too dance in the kitchen — and just so you know, there is one other on WOW who is just like we are also … dancing in the kitchen no less.  Frankly, we are more interesting - to others - but to each other as we have gone our own routes in our outside life, finding worlds of our own to bring back to our own private times together.  We are proud of each other’s accomplishments, caring when health problems make the world seem to collapse, and we do what it takes happily to make our joint lives work so well.  I do hope you stay on WOW  … promise you will!  Joan

Good one, Liza!  What we are noticing when families are cleaning out their homes, the more often than not drop libraries of old books at the library to be sold at the used book sales.  What we are noticing more now is that people are "squirrelling away" what spare money they might have into the books on their shelves. 

We have found that we must never NOT fan a book open before deciding its fate, as paper money can drift downward on to the floor.  We then try to locate a name in the box of books to return this to family, but occasionally the unexpected largesse of funds - so carefully hidden so long ago - becomes a supplement to the funds needed to supply the library with new books. 

The point:  DO take a look through old books of relatives before discarding them as it is surprising how many believe that books are a safe hiding place - and like squirrels, never find the $$$$ again in the 100s on the shelves.

Ahead of the family - on a curved unpaved path - we could see the watery mist going skyward as the young family were walking to see Niagara Falls for the first time.  The unseen falls sounded like thunder as we strolled closer.  Our little daughter ran ahead.  We gave it little thought as we also were excited to see what lay in the mist.

At the curve of the path we found, the falls were directly ahead … but long ago - unbeknownst to us - there was little protection at the edge.  As we gazed, all that was between us and the rock drop of the falls was a painted two-pipe "fence".  Already ON the second pipe - like a playground ladder-look — was my daughter swinging her little leg over the top. 

I remember we screamed, we ran toward her as she balanced one leg on each side of the pipe.  The ledge and the edge of Niagara Falls lay directly beyond.  A five-year-old with no fear could pitch at any instant.  The noise of the falls muffled our cries.  The 100-yard dash had to be the world’s fastest for us; years later, we still know that the final seconds could have gone either way.  But we reached her … in time.

Generally, these were innocent times in our world.  We were a family actually all together, a park stroll on a lovely day.  . with no signs of danger ahead.  We have no memories of the beauty of the falls.  Our minds still are frozen on that one moment as Debbie straddled what looked - to a child’s mind - like a playground attraction…  but one perched on a drop that was as close to life-and-death as you would ever dream of.

Some moments in life are as clear today as they were then.  These are the ones freezed-framed in our minds forever.

The New York City subway:  long ago when the children were kindergarden age, we were on a vacation to New York and - as a first time for all - were taking the subway.  Waiting for the one we were told to get on, standing in a crowd, the wrong train came up and our small child was caught in the crowd and swept on the train.  The doors were closing.  My husband was forcing open the doors to make it on when he had grasped what happened … and it was the last we saw of them. 

Not knowing what to do and all unfamiliar with the routes, the rest of us decided to go to the restaurant, hoping that my husband not only found our boy in the crush of the subway, but remembered the German name of the place we were to eat.  We found it fine, but they were now way out of the way.  Over an hour later, they appeared - having their own tale to tell of what happened when those subway doors closed, our son was still lost in the car, and they were off in the wrong direction. 

Things can happen in an instant we found. . very scary things that are never really forgotten!

Dorothy Parker says about herself and love:

It’s a small apartment,
I’ve barely enough room
To lay my hat
And a few friends!

The woman fascinated me; her wit was unparalleled.  But poetry like this doesn’t seem to come from her.  . but as long as it did, I would say that Dorothy Parker would have many loves - and one or town perhaps deeper than her one-night-stands - but regrets for what she did, I doubt it.  "It is better to have loved and lost …"  She was one woman that I would have loved to know !!

When you marry young, have your children one after another like stepping stones, no one tells you about division of duties.  In looking back, we both pitched in when it got "too much".  And as I remember, it got to be too much often.  . as caring for children often is.  We did the best job we could to set the kids off in the right direction - and I still believe it was the example we set, the love we gave, that made the difference.  We have fewer worries about them as adults … and wonder of wonders, they seem to have followed in our footsteps - something that doesn’t always happen we have found.

But it was time for us now — and we each had our own high goals in life, quite separate from the other.  Now was OUR hour to begin to shine.  We exalted - as I look back - hugging each other as each moved up the ladders we had chosen - and the pride equated somehow to make the love we felt even stronger.  Each was the other’s strongest advocate; each was the other’s strongest rooting section.  It was like a two trees growing up and joining forces, having strong roots and branches that reached for the light, for the sky.  We were independent in the paths we took after the children had started on their own roads, with goals that took flavors of their own. 

Looking back, I think each of us squeezed in all our separate dreams and ambitions, but drew even closer in congratulation of each other.  In other words, love flourished and still does.  There is joy in our married life … we are not joined at the hip.  We are separate individuals with high, apple pie in the sky hopes - as Sinatra sings - but we (and I think I can speak for my husband) have no regrets - and without a talked-about division of duties, we have fallen in place in that, making it work - and thus having time for ourselves - deeming that own special time the most important and never taken for granted.  

I wouldn’t change it for the world.

MY WAY — the way Sinatra sings it, of course — but particulary this section that makes me so nostalgic: 

I’ve lived a life that’s full -
I’ve travelled each and every highway.
And more, much more than this,
I did it my way.

The way I have looked at it, I have tried my best to make the most of every moment, have more experiences that - looking back - I can hardly believe.  But early on, I wanted to get to all the most remote places on earth and come back to tell the tale after some touch-and-go experiences, and I truly exalt that I have had the life I dreamed of… and I did it MY WAY.  No wonder I smile so much!!   What a life!!

You can always count on a woman to be ten steps ahead of the game!!

The thrust of this interview - the "meat" of it - is that the job of Secretary of State in times that are far more crucial than in recent history is the most demanding, requiring stamina and intelligence that few - if any of us - could even hope to equal.  It is never-ending, requiring a person fast on their feet, with the ability to no only jump from subject to subect, country to country, and remain totally confident and cool in the presence of a wide range of personalities and problems. 

Those that swoop so low that a person’s past, private life, looks, come into consideration when Hillary is representing us as well as anyone could in extremely hard times should be beneath all of us — but obviously isn’t with some.  Try to carry on a grueling schedule flight-hopping from country to country and anyone might have sleep deprivation and eyes that show it.  Why should she "smile more"??  What has that to do with the serious job she is doing? 

Let’s put it this way:  would any of you who denigate Hillary in such ways like it if your neighbors and friends constantly picked you apart from the moment you left your door?  I thought not.  Personal attacks are not needed, not welcome and should be beneath us.  Frankly, political leanings or not, we should be either silent or praising this woman for giving her all for our country in trouble. 

I have found in life what comes around, goes around.  Negativity, picking a person apart in a personal manner, returns to you tenfold.  So thanks, Phyllis, for your positive remarks that reflect mine.  Joan

To Cynthia McFadden:  Congratulations for the most excellent interview you have conducted with Hillary Clinton, covering the entire range of subjects with questions to get at the core of what we - as readers - would like to know.

For Hillary, she is holding a job that requires storing a great deal of knowledge, expertise, and an ability to react and respond quickly when a conference takes an unexpected turn.  I would deem it as hard as it gets, demanding brains but a stamina that few of us could compete with.  Any public statement, an interview like this - even with a friend of sorts as she had here - has to be carefully worded as errors or controversial statements are quickly broadcast ‘round the world.  Keeping many balls in the air as she deals with so many diverse high officials on various subjects I find an ability to be highly commended.  It should make little difference is we like her or not, her handling of this difficult job deserves a huge round of applause from us all.

Thanks, Cynthia, for the great job!