About Liz Smith being mentioned in the Glamour magazine article, I took three books with me to Germany recently to read on the plane and Liz Smith was mentioned in two of them more than once (in a positive manner about what she reported): "Mrs. Astor Regrets" and "Lies my Mother Never Told Me" (by James Jones’ daugther who wrote "From Here to Enternity" and other soldier books). Both are excellent books. But the main point is that Liz is becoming quite the celebrity journalist to quote I’m noticing.

Internet shopping makes it simple, faster and cheaper. It takes too long to find what you want at a store when you can do it via internet from home. Also, you’ll get tempted by other things you see before you find the item you were originally in the store for. For those of us without money (I’m unemployed), that doesn’t feel good. It reminds us of what we can’t have.

When I lived in NYC, my boss’ son worked directly for Martha Stewart at her company before the indictment in the upper levels of the financial department. He had nothing bad to say about working for her. He said she’s dedicated and expects the same from her employees. That’s what any employer-employee relationship should be.

It must be put down Martha Stewart day. She certainly paid the price for what she did. I’m happy to see Martha recover in public like so many men have in white collar crime. Yet she’s still being punished as any former felon. She can’t vote nor be CEO again. And there’s so much more she’ll never get back, respect from certain people.

What if your kindle runs out of batteries or breaks down in the middle of the story? They’re easy to drop and break. Do you run out and spend another $300? I still like books but I do read my I-Phone kindle which runs out of battery all the time.

I suppose if unemployment stays as it is now or gets worse, and spending continues while more government controls keep happening, then he will be a one-term President. But it’s not all Obama’s fault. Our country’s situation first started with previous presidents. So maybe our country’s economy is now in such a mess we’ll have one-term Presidents in a row like when we had: Nixon (4 1/2 years), Ford (3 1/2 years) and Carter (4 years) before our country gets better again.

I thought "2012" was a movie of highly entertaining implausible special effects. A plane flying ahead of an erupting volcano…yeah…right…but entertaining! And who has compasion first? The Russians and China with the corrupt U.S. having to give in to compassion. Well, that’s our reputation these days.

Out of four daughters, none of us dress like my mother even though she’s only 21 years older than my older sister, and 26 years older than my youngest sister. Our mother dressed us the same when we were young, cut our hair short, so we looked like each other, except in height. Once we were allowed to pick our own clothes after we were around 10 years old in the 1960s, we each developed our own "style" so that we didn’t look like each other any more. We never liked what our mother wore. Our mother never wore jeans. She favored pants with elastic waists.

My daughter is extremely active in her atheist activities. Actually, they call it something else which I don’t remember right now, something like humanist. She says she became like this because on her father’s side they used the Catholic religion at their convenience, meaning, they practice the Catholic religion only on special occasions. On my side, they practice the Catholic religion hypocritically, meaning, they don’t practice what they preach. Neither I nor her father practiced the Catholic religion at all. We got them baptized and that was it.

Diahann Carroll looks marvelous!!

My daughter’s an atheist who puts up the Christmas tree for her three daughters. Their father is not an atheist but he doesn’t belong to any religion and never has. I’m finding these questions quite interesting since I’m agnostic in the sense that while I don’t believe in organized religion, I believe there is a higher power, just not in the way it was taught to me (Catholic). I’ll have to find out how my daughter and her children’s father represent Christmas to their children (they’re divorced but very friendly). Very thoughtful questions!

"A Wrinkle In Time" about three children traveling through time to save their father.

You are exactly right about all three actors!

That must be why he had kind of chipmunk cheeks in "Law Abiding Citizen" and other movies lately. He looked so good in "Dracula 2000." That was only 9 years ago. Darn…But Gerard’s acting skills are improving dramatically even as his looks are "maturing," like John Travolta.

Of course, the one who really lost his looks is Nick Nolte. And it’s more than age. Booze and drugs I’m afraid. Sigh…Still a good actor though…despite his haze.

My latest candy boy is Gerard Butler…but he does seem to change movie to movie…