Tutoring, as usual. When you have your own company, and it is as minute as mine is, I need to work every day that I can. I love helping the children I have as students, so it is not an onerous expectation, except for the gas I have to use to get to where this student studies. Other than this one student, I have no other plans. Days at the ocean sound nice, indeed!

Yes, Maggi D, kindness, I agree on the face of it. I do wonder, however, why so many people are fixating on this one senator, when others famous and unknown face dramatic health issues daily and no one knows. It seems so many times that no one cares. Why do we care because his is a famous name? What is being done for people dealing with suicide and depression on a daily basis? We do not hear of them on a national level, but they do the best they can, whatever the circumstances. So many times medical care is simply not an option, given teh national health care status. Ted Kennedy can stay days in a major medical facility because he is a U.S. senator, and a wealthy one at that. Many of us could not afford to stay over one night at a medical center, given that insurance would not cover our stay, and we cannot afford it out of pocket. Please do not mourn for one senator. Work to improve the medical care situation for all of us. Ted Kennedy can afford great care and gets the national attention he so craves and relishes.

Please…This seems so egocentric and unlike the otherwise excellent quality of WOW. Please do not repeat this type of exposure. Please stay with your usual wonderful exchange of feelings, thoughts, and provocative ideas. Pictures of desks? No, thank you.

I figure that even if I were homeless (so won’t consider the home mortgage crisis for now), and the war in Iraq will end eventually, I’ll need to have some type of real medical support in only a few years. Right now I can barely afford to pay my own health insurance, but there will have to be a better manner of providing for the health care of our citizens SOON. I very likely can’t afford the private insurance I do have (but which does not provide for dental or vision or hearing aid coverage) very much longer, so I worry what I will do when my health declines in the future, as I am sure it will.

Lily, What a beautiful site! Is this what is called a blog? It’s your own web page? Is it hard to do? Expensive? The cats are adorable. Thanks for brightening my day. J

Oh YUCK!! Perish the thought.

Here, here! You are so right!

Absolutely, the Bible. Seems like I can’t read it enough! There are so many times when I open it and think to myself, “Have I read this before?” or “Wow, I haven’t seen it THAT way, before. The Bible is sadly so misinterpreted by so many people and mistaken for something other than what it is, a love story.

Wow, Where is the short of the two men beating up the respective companion women in turns FROM??? That is absolutely NOT FUNNY!! I could hardly stand to see it to the end, but wondered how it would end, which woman would have to die first. Then to think it would go on! Please, whomever is choosing the shorts for inclusion in this forum, think again next time! Wow, repulsive and abhorrent! Did laugh at the one of the woman playing a trick on the sap and passing of his key in the hotel. What is the Chinese one about…someone please translate. Thanks for a giggle.

Donna, Right on!

Oh Please! Don’r believe Chelsea would make a decent candidate. let alone person with any power! Besides, she has claimed, as least as of now, that she does not want to be in politics.

How repulsive!! Could we truncate that by not falling prey to the sweet words of the candidates? Why are Americans so gullible?

Lorraine, I quite agree with you on the issue of saying “one” instead of he or she. “He” is used as a matter of English language and being educated. To me, it sounds artificial or stilted for someone to lean over backward to say “she” in places where the use of “he” or “one” would be entirely appropriate and acceptable. Maybe we should educate others again in the language, not worrying so much about gender, just encouraging them to think through the entire thought, first! Don’t even get me started on people saying “you know”!!! When I listen to people speaking at meetings and it becomes painfully obvious that they are interjecting “you know” into the monolouge, instead of thinking first, I have to entertain myself mentally and start counting the “you know”s, because it so irritates me; the speaker is not thinking before he or she speaks, or does not respect the audience, or has little to say. DRIVES ME NUTS!!! Girl? I became a woman many years ago, and no one calls me a girl unless it is in jest or as a joke…the speaker is only allowed to use that term in reference to me if she is a very close friend!

Maggie D, I so agree with you that women are faster to help each other out than men are to help us. I have at least thirty women who would rush to help if I telephoned. Men I know would help if they could think of a way at the moment, but then would drop me in a moment. These women I know would not only help in any way they can think of, but would telephone a few days later to ask after me; if I were still in a bind, they would ask again what they could do to help, in any way.

Sorry, but because I have to get out of the office for the evening, I have to keep my response to this question brief… Oh, why not? Unless one is famous for being a certain type (and one wishes to maintain decorum and reputation of some sort) go ahead and SAY what is true to you!! There is too much fear here now. I believe more people need to say what is true and real for them, not in a coarse or rude way (maybe they need to learn how to do this…thinking of the previous comments of how the Brits say “Let’s do lunch” when they really would rather not see the other person again) but true, according to one’s experience. How else can the younger ones learn what else has been true for others? Not everyone has been afraid to speak the truth. My husband keeps pontificating that teachers lie too much, telling parents through the report card process that their child is of one caliber, when they are really quite incapable of grasping concepts as presented in class. I am beginning to think myself that more opportunity should be allowed children to either fail and be given outside ways of learning the same of similar material that the others in class learned more easily (and thus really earned the higher grades). Not every child can be an A student, thus should not get that grade. Why can’t we resurrect trade schools? Not everyone SHOULD go to college, and we badly need the trades to be respected again. Badly. WHy are so many of the people doing building of houses in my state from Mexico? Maybe because American students are not given the opportunity to go to carpenter school and LEARN how to build houses. It is a skill and a craft. Out children can do it! Let’s tell the truth and encourage them to try something they can succeed in, for the good of us all. Did I get off the track? I think not. I think this needs to be said, and I am not shy to say so. Was this “polically incorrect” (HATE the term) to say our American students should be allowed, encouraged and supported to learn a trade? I think not.