But a young female person did just now call and leave a message on our land line's answering machine for Neil, my almost-14-year-old ninth-grader, with her phone number. He says that at school, she'd asked for his phone number. He's sitting over there on the living-room couch right now, continuing to play his computer game as if this is no big deal. I told him that it was fine with me if he wanted to take the phone into his room to call her back. "Oh, I'll write down her phone number," he says, not making any move away from his computer. Either he's trying to play it cool or, more likely, he's like all of the nerd boys with whom I fell madly in love at that age who really hadn't yet developed much interest or skill in dealing with girls.
I never had the nerve at 13 or 14 (or at any time during adolescence!) to call a boy. And there's another girl on the school bus with whom Neil watches movies on his laptop sometimes.
Huh. My son, the chick magnet. His voice already breaks as it decides anew each moment what register it will land in. What's next—facial hair? A learner's permit? Ack!
For your amusement, here's a poor drawing (mine) of what my husband, Ed, was working on for a large part of today:
We don't have central air-conditioning (AC) because this 40-plus-year-old home wasn't built with it. Instead, we have several window or wall AC units in the upstairs. The setup in the drawing is what we have in the living room (with the AC unit) and the master bedroom (oscillating fan instead of AC unit). A few years ago, Ed put the two little stereo cooling fans (shown in the drawing as being green) inside the wall to pull some of the cool air out of the living room and into the master bedroom. The setup works really well; on hot days, our bedroom is quite pleasant, temperature-wise, for sleeping in. The job was a big, hairy deal back then, involving cutting a hole through the wall, installing the little fans into the tight space, and framing out the hole on both sides of the wall.
Today he was dealing with the recent problem of one of the stereo fans moaning periodically. It had begun to sound a bit like a bass Moaning Myrtle. Ed had to get into the very small space to take the stereo fans out, replace one because its bearings had worn out, and lubricate both. He's done now, but his work style is vastly different from mine. When he encounters a really difficult task, he bitches and moans loudly throughout the whole process, winding himself up until he achieves mental vapor lock. When I encounter such a task, I keep quiet and remain calm, knowing that if I wind myself up, I won't be mentally clear enough to think through any problems that might come up. Our house is so small that whenever he's in "[wood] shop Nazi" working mode (my term) inside the house, it interferes with my ability to edit because his cursing winds both of us up. There's no quiet place for me to escape to.
I understand having different working styles. I just wish that I could turn off his volume when he's working in my space. Now that he's done and calmed down, I like him again. ;-)
The afternoon mail just arrived, and in it was a postcard from Alaska.
Says my mate, getting ready to start one of his several-times-a-day anti-Republican rants, "If that's Sarah Palin asking for contributions, she can just shove it where the sun don't shine." (Yes, there is a downside to having two self-employed people in the house all day, every day: It's nonstop Rant-O-Palooza here, and it'll stay that way until after the November election.)
"Honey, wait," I reply. "It's from our friends Don and Lisa. Remember? They're vacationing in Alaska." (And as Democrats in Palin country, they had to remain undercover at all times.)
Poor mate. His reason for ranting was just taken right out from under him. Ah, well. He'll have plenty more reasons tonight, when we watch the presidential candidates debate.
Daniel G. Amen, a neuropsychiatrist and brain-imaging expert well known for his work with autism and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, suggests that all U.S. presidential candidates should be required to undergo brain scans so that we know if they have any brain dysfunction:
What do Rudy Giuliani's messy personal life, John McCain's temper and Hillary Clinton's inability to seem authentic have in common? Maybe nothing. They may be just overblown issues in the otherwise normal lives of candidates under the political microscope.
Such symptoms, however, may mean a lot—such as evidence of underlying brain dysfunction. Sometimes people with messy personal lives have low prefrontal cortex activity associated with poor judgment; sometimes people with temper problems have brain damage and impulse control problems; sometimes people who struggle with authenticity have trouble really seeing things from someone else's perspective. ...
Seems a bit too invasive to me, but then again, as Amen wrote:
Three of the last four presidents have shown clear brain pathology. President Reagan's Alzheimer's disease was evident during his second term in office. Nonelected people were covering up his forgetfulness and directing the country's business. Few people knew it, but we had a national crisis. Brain studies have been shown to predict Alzheimer's five to nine years before people have their first symptoms.
President Clinton's moral lapses and problems with bad judgment and excitement-seeking behavior—indicative of problems in the prefrontal cortex—eventually led to his impeachment and a poisonous political divisiveness in the U.S. The prefrontal cortex houses the brain's supervisor, involved with conscience, forethought, planning, attention span and judgment. ...
I haven't posted any photos of my granddaughter, Ana, in a while, so this shot's overdue. This is my adorable 16-month-old girl eating a fast-food lunch. She brought her mommy and daddy over to our house for a visit this afternoon. The way she runs is so cute, and she talks a lot. And of course Grandma and Grandpa just love it when she raises her little arms for them to pick her up. There's nothing more soft and snuggly than a toddler. She grins and lets me kiss her belly and her cheeks fairly often. I'm hooked!
Sydney Schanberg, the Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist who has been reporting on foreign affairs about as long as I've been alive and wrote the book (The Death and Life of Dith Pran) on which the 1984 movie The Killing Fields was based, has written a huge investigative piece about John McCain and McCain's alleged role in a coverup about American prisoners of war in Vietnam. McCain the Vietnam war hero has POW skeletons in his closet that need to come out before some people try to elect the man.
A big chunk of Schanberg's piece has been posted to the online version of The Nation; the print version is scheduled to carry the piece in the October 6 issue. Here are snippets from the online portion:
John McCain, who has risen to political prominence on his image as a Vietnam POW ... hero, has, inexplicably, worked very hard to hide from the public stunning information about American prisoners in Vietnam who, unlike him, didn't return home. Throughout his Senate career, McCain has quietly sponsored and pushed into federal law a set of prohibitions that keep the most revealing information about these men buried as classified documents. Thus the war hero people would logically imagine to be a determined crusader for the interests of POWs and their families became instead the strange champion of hiding the evidence and closing the books. ...
The sum of the secrets McCain has sought to hide is not small. There exists a telling mass of official documents, radio intercepts, witness depositions, satellite photos of rescue symbols that pilots were trained to use, electronic messages from the ground containing the individual code numbers given to airmen, a rescue mission by a Special Forces unit that was aborted twice by Washington and even sworn testimony by two defense secretaries that "men were left behind." This imposing body of evidence suggests that a large number—probably hundreds—of the US prisoners held in Vietnam were not returned when the peace treaty was signed in January 1973 and Hanoi released 591 men, among them Navy combat pilot John S. McCain. ...
McCain has hardly been alone in this hide-the-scandal campaign. The Arizona senator has actually been following the lead of every White House since Richard Nixon's and thus of every CIA director, Pentagon chief and National Security Adviser, among many others (including Dick Cheney, who was George H.W. Bush's defense secretary). ...
And the full piece, with illustrating documents, is online at the Nation Institute, whose Investigative Fund provided research support for the story. A snippet from that longer piece:
... [Staff members of the] Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs ... made the following finding, using intelligence reports marked "credible" that covered POW sightings through 1989: "There can be no doubt that POWs were alive ... as late as 1989." That finding was never released. Eventually, much of the staff was in rebellion. ...
Schanberg's belief is that McCain made a deal with his captors to get him out of Hanoi and that McCain's helping keep secret records showing that POWs were purposely left behind is part of that deal. He implies too that the pressure of keeping all of this inside for decades is what makes McCain such an angry, bitter man.
McCain is a very frightening story in so many ways. Why is the mainstream media so in love with him that it never checks very far into his past?
I am pleased as pumpkin chiffon praline pie* to announce that the second Copyediting-L (aka CE-L) cookbook, More Food for Thought, is available for sale in the CE-L store. I was its production editor.
I am also pleased to say that it looks terrific. That's what happens when professionals write and produce a book! The book is a very reasonably priced at $25 for 320 pages, with 225 recipes from 96 contributors from around the world. It's Wire-O bound so that it conveniently lies flat when it's open.
The CE-Lery (aka denizens of the Copyediting-L e-mail list) are some of the most intelligent, detail-oriented, and helpful people around. Of course, you'd expect nothing less than a fine and sure hand in the kitchen from such folks. In this cookbook, you'll find their favorite recipes for everything from Cheese Scones to Green Chile Bread Pudding, from Tomato Pie to "Mom's on Deadline" Tortellini, from Myke's Escargots à la Romaine to Plummy Mushrooms, from Moambe to Killer Jamabalaya ... and even recipes for potpourri and drain cleaners.
Generous folks that they are, the CE-Lery are donating all profits from cookbook sales (meaning all amounts above the base price charged by store host CafePress.com) and all other items in the CE-L store to charity: to the Grace Meredyth Lovegrove Scholarship at Christopher Newport University in Virginia. Grace was the daughter of CE-L listmate Richard Lovegrove.
At least that's the contention of a top McCain policy adviser, Douglas Holtz-Eakin. Waving his BlackBerry personal digital assistant and citing McCain's work as a senator, he told reporters Tuesday, "You're looking at the miracle that John McCain helped create."
McCain has acknowledged that he doesn't know how to use a computer and can't send e-mail, one of the BlackBerry's prime functions. ...
Um ... reality? No, I don't think that McCain or his staff is familiar with it. Why do you ask?
Copyeditors edit for money and for the pleasure of dealing with words. But sometimes we do our work because we know just how much it helps authors. One of my repeat ESL (English as a second language) clients, an orthopedic surgeon from China who apparently just got a promotion, sent me this lovely message tonight:
Dear Katharine:
I just took a glance of the revised paper. I am deeply moved. You must have spent great effort on revising it.
Now I am the chief of the Adult Reconstructive Surgery department, I am fueling my junior staffs to do more research, so we will continuously need your help. If you get a chance to visit China, please kindly let me know. I am very happy to arrange some part of your trip in Beijing and invite you to visit our department.
Y.Z.
That's the first author note that ever made me feel like crying. What a sweetheart! And what a humbling honor to be so trusted.
Earlier today, this was the predicted path of Hurricane Ike, which may make landfall tomorrow night.
My sister, Becky (yes, my daughter is named after her), and her family live in the area of the lower yellow-and-blue star that I've placed on the map. My brother, Wally, and his partner, Roger, live in the area of the top yellow-and-blue star.
All of them went through the attempted mass exodus from the Houston area when Hurricane Rita blew through in 2005. This time, my sister's saying that she's staying put, but Wally and Roger plan try to head out for Lafayette, Louisiana, tomorrow morning.
I cannot allow myself to think anything but that they will all be fine, especially because Wally is not only my brother but also one of my best friends. I'll be keeping my cell phone on 24 hours a day for the next couple of days. I'll also be fingering the lovely stones on what I use as a worry chain that was made for me my a sweet friend when my nephew, Jordan (Becky's son), was shipped to Iraq as a member of the Marine Reserves.
Updated at 3 p.m., 9/12/08: Got a call from my brother. He, Rita (his dog), and Roger have made it to Lafayette, about 200 miles away from home. Both guys work for the same company, which has a branch there in Lafayette. The staff members there have put aside food and drink for the guys, and there's even a shower available, so they'll have a place to stay for a few days. I'm hoping that they'll be safer there than they would've been in the Houston area, and I really hope that when they get back, their homes are still standing and relatively unscathed. I've called my sister's house, but no one is answering the phone. She is directly in Ike's path. I'm scared.
Updated at 3:55 p.m., 9/13/08: My brother has spoken with people from his neighborhood who stayed put, and his house is fine. He, Roger, and Rita will head back home from Louisiana tomorrow or Monday, depending on road and power conditions.
My sister, who stayed in her home with her children, said her home is fine too. There was some water seepage under her front door but no flooding or wind damage to her home.
And in the seventh year after the fall, the dust and debris of the towers cleared. And it became plain at last what had been wrought.
For the wreckage begat greed; and it came to pass that while America’s young men and women fought, other Americans enriched themselves. Beguiling the innocent, they did backdate options, and they did package toxic mortgage securities and they did reprice risk on the basis that it no more existed than famine in a fertile land.
On the seventh anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the United States, each of us needs to read all of Roger Cohen's column in the New York Times.
Earlier this week, I posted a new entry from the files of My Husband the Master Cabinetmakertm. Ed finished installing the dry bar–media unit today, so go check out the last two photos on this page of his business web site to see the unit in its full glory.
The middle section has glass shelving all around the wine rack, and the four top cabinet doors—one larger one on each side of the wine rack and two small ones above the wine rack—have been installed. All of them have glass faces inside wood frames.
Ed is done for now. The home owner will have to choose knobs for the cabinet doors, which Ed can later install. And the painting subcontractor will install that really tall crown molding—the molding that is atop the beigy wall behind the dry bar–media unit—across the top of the new unit.
And now comes the sweet part: the contractor paying Ed the final portion of his fee.
You know, I've been married to Ed for 15 years now, and I'm still quite impressed with his cabinetmaking skills. So it's time for another episode from the files of My Husband the Master Cabinetmakertm.
I just threw together a quickie page on his web site because I wanted to show you his latest project: a combo bar and media unit. Its lines are very simple and elegant. He's almost finished installing it—needs another day—at the Hamptons summer home of a family from Philadelphia.
The middle photo on that page shows all the lower cabinets, including a small bar refrigerator (the one with vents at the bottom), installed. The top cabinets are in place, but their doors aren't yet on; the doors will have glass inserts.
The bottom photo shows the wine rack glued into place and held there with clamps and a jig (defined by Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 11th edition, online, as "a device used to maintain mechanically the correct positional relationship between a piece of work and the tool or between parts of work during assembly"—in other words, a pattern of sorts) from the project. The mini fridge is out of the way temporarily to allow Ed to climb onto the countertop. The beadboard (wood with vertical lines) inside the left and right top cabinets wasn't bought already done; he scored the wood himself.
When the installation is complete, the job's painters will install that really tall crown molding, which you now see atop the beigy wall in the third photo that appears to head back to the entryway, across the top of Ed's unit, up where it meets the ceiling. I wish you could see the unit in person. The colored varnish that he used on it went on smooth as glass. If you touch it, it feels as if there's no wood under it. It's not my taste—I like to see the wood and its glorious grain without staining—but it's gorgeous.
My guy sure is talented. ... Oh—and he's nice too. :-)
Hey, freelance copyeditors! Dithering about whether joining the Editorial Freelancers Association (EFA) is valuable? Well, dither no more. A colleague just posted this to the EFA mailing list, and I repost it here with her permission:
Check out this new question on the Chicago Manual of StyleWeb site. At first I took offense at the question, but then I read the answer!
Q. I've been unable to find any competent freelance editors. Do you offer any editing services?
A. No, I'm sorry—we pretty much have our hands full here with Chicago's books. You might try the Web site of the Editorial Freelancers Association: http://www.the-efa.org/.
One of the major style manuals in the United States thinks that the EFA is worthy of referrals. And if you become a member (as I have been since 1995), your entry just might be the one that potential clients choose from the online member directory.
If you know very little about attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD) or even nothing at all about it but are in a long-term relationship that's hitting too many road bumps, this post is for you.
Mental-health professionals have been doing married couples and long-term romantic partners a huge disservice for years by not mentioning the possibility that some of the hurtful behaviors in these relationships can be symptoms of AD/HD. And if a therapist brought up this issue to you and your partner, wouldn't you then feel relieved because you had something to work on together to make things better? In all fairness, though, not that many therapists knew, until recently, that adults could have AD/HD, so with all good intentions and without meaning to, they sometimes sent couples in which there was AD/HD down the path to hell—because it was the wrong path.
If this sounds like your life, get yourself over to this web site and read about an essential book: Is It You, Me, or Adult A.D.D.? I've been married for 15 years to a sweetheart of a man whom I've known for 7 years has AD/HD, and Is It You is still helpful to me.
You'll also want to check out author Gina Pera's blogs, here and here. And then buy the book and start understanding your life.
Totally unprepared, unknown Sarah Palin, a heartbeat away from the presidency of the United States. That choice is the clearest sign yet that John McCain has Alzheimer's disease. Please, someone in power—insist that McCain get a medical examination immediately, done by a nonpartisan physician.
Last night, Barack Obama gave the best damn speech he could've given. For all of those folks who constantly claim (falsely) that Obama never gives specifics, he gave them again. Obama is a talented leader who cannot be knocked down. And he's one of us.
The specifics:
Let me spell out exactly what that change would mean if I am president.
Change means a tax code that doesn’t reward the lobbyists who wrote it, but the American workers and small businesses who deserve it.
Unlike John McCain, I will stop giving tax breaks to corporations that ship jobs overseas, and I will start giving them to companies that create good jobs right here in America.
I will eliminate capital gains taxes for the small businesses and the start-ups that will create the high-wage, high-tech jobs of tomorrow.
I will cut taxes—cut taxes—for 95% of all working families. Because in an economy like this, the last thing we should do is raise taxes on the middle class.
And for the sake of our economy, our security, and the future of our planet, I will set a clear goal as president: in ten years, we will finally end our dependence on oil from the Middle East.
Washington’s been talking about our oil addiction for the last thirty years, and John McCain has been there for twenty-six of them. In that time, he’s said no to higher fuel-efficiency standards for cars, no to investments in renewable energy, no to renewable fuels. And today, we import triple the amount of oil as the day that Senator McCain took office.
Now is the time to end this addiction, and to understand that drilling is a stop-gap measure, not a long-term solution. Not even close.
As president, I will tap our natural gas reserves, invest in clean coal technology, and find ways to safely harness nuclear power. I’ll help our auto companies retool, so that the fuel-efficient cars of the future are built right here in America. I'll make it easier for the American people to afford these new cars. And I'll invest 150 billion dollars over the next decade in affordable, renewable sources of energy—wind power and solar power and the next generation of biofuels; an investment that will lead to new industries and five million new jobs that pay well and can't ever be outsourced.
America, now is not the time for small plans.
Now is the time to finally meet our moral obligation to provide every child a world-class education, because it will take nothing less to compete in the global economy. Michelle and I are only here tonight because we were given a chance at an education. And I will not settle for an America where some kids don’t have that chance. I’ll invest in early childhood education. I'll recruit an army of new teachers, and pay them higher salaries and give them more support. And in exchange, I'll ask for higher standards and more accountability. And we will keep our promise to every young American—if you commit to serving your community or your country, we will make sure you can afford a college education.
Now is the time to finally keep the promise of affordable, accessible health care for every single American. If you have health care, my plan will lower your premiums. If you don't, you’ll be able to get the same kind of coverage that members of Congress give themselves. And as someone who watched my mother argue with insurance companies while she lay in bed dying of cancer, I will make certain those companies stop discriminating against those who are sick and need care the most.
Now is the time to help families with paid sick days and better family leave, because nobody in America should have to choose between keeping their jobs and caring for a sick child or ailing parent.
Now is the time to change our bankruptcy laws, so that your pensions are protected ahead of CEO bonuses, and the time to protect Social Security for future generations.
And now is the time to keep the promise of equal pay for an equal day's work, because I want my daughters to have exactly the same opportunities as your sons.
Now, many of these plans will cost money, which is why I've laid out how I'll pay for every dime—by closing corporate loopholes and tax havens that don't help America grow. But I will also go through the federal budget, line by line, eliminating programs that no longer work and making the ones we do need work better and cost less—because we cannot meet twenty-first-century challenges with a twentieth-century bureaucracy.
And Democrats, we must also admit that fulfilling America's promise will require more than just money. It will require a renewed sense of responsibility from each of us to recover what John F. Kennedy called our "intellectual and moral strength." Yes, government must lead on energy independence, but each of us must do our part to make our homes and businesses more efficient. Yes, we must provide more ladders to success for young men who fall into lives of crime and despair. But we must also admit that programs alone can't replace parents; that government can't turn off the television and make a child do her homework; that fathers must take more responsibility for providing the love and guidance their children need.
Individual responsibility and mutual responsibility—that's the essence of America's promise.
And just as we keep our keep our promise to the next generation here at home, so must we keep America’s promise abroad. If John McCain wants to have a debate about who has the temperament, and judgment, to serve as the next commander in chief, that's a debate I'm ready to have.
For while Senator McCain was turning his sights to Iraq just days after 9/11, I stood up and opposed this war, knowing that it would distract us from the real threats we face. When John McCain said we could just "muddle through" in Afghanistan, I argued for more resources and more troops to finish the fight against the terrorists who actually attacked us on 9/11, and made clear that we must take out Osama bin Laden and his lieutenants if we have them in our sights. John McCain likes to say that he'll follow bin Laden to the gates of hell—but he won't even go to the cave where he lives.
And today, as my call for a time frame to remove our troops from Iraq has been echoed by the Iraqi government and even the Bush administration, even after we learned that Iraq has a $79 billion surplus while we're wallowing in deficits, John McCain stands alone in his stubborn refusal to end a misguided war.
That's not the judgment we need. That won't keep America safe. We need a president who can face the threats of the future, not keep grasping at the ideas of the past.
You don't defeat a terrorist network that operates in eighty countries by occupying Iraq. You don't protect Israel and deter Iran just by talking tough in Washington. You can't truly stand up for Georgia when you've strained our oldest alliances. If John McCain wants to follow George Bush with more tough talk and bad strategy, that is his choice—but it is not the change we need.
We are the party of Roosevelt. We are the party of Kennedy. So don't tell me that Democrats won't defend this country. Don't tell me that Democrats won't keep us safe. The Bush–McCain foreign policy has squandered the legacy that generations of Americans—Democrats and Republicans—have built, and we are here to restore that legacy.
As commander in chief, I will never hesitate to defend this nation, but I will only send our troops into harm’s way with a clear mission and a sacred commitment to give them the equipment they need in battle and the care and benefits they deserve when they come home.
I will end this war in Iraq responsibly, and finish the fight against al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan. I will rebuild our military to meet future conflicts. But I will also renew the tough, direct diplomacy that can prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons and curb Russian aggression. I will build new partnerships to defeat the threats of the twenty-first century: terrorism and nuclear proliferation, poverty and genocide, climate change and disease. And I will restore our moral standing, so that America is once again that last, best hope for all who are called to the cause of freedom, who long for lives of peace, and who yearn for a better future. ...
We may not agree on abortion, but surely we can agree on reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies in this country. The reality of gun ownership may be different for hunters in rural Ohio than for those plagued by gang-violence in Cleveland, but don't tell me we can’t uphold the Second Amendment while keeping AK-47s out of the hands of criminals. I know there are differences on same-sex marriage, but surely we can agree that our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters deserve to visit the person they love in the hospital and to live lives free of discrimination. Passions fly on immigration, but I don't know anyone who benefits when a mother is separated from her infant child or an employer undercuts American wages by hiring illegal workers. This too is part of America's promise—the promise of a democracy where we can find the strength and grace to bridge divides and unite in common effort.
Hey, all of you American women watching the Democratic National Convention! Do you realize that we've had the right to vote for only 88 years? Today is our anniversary. We gained the right to vote 88 years ago today.
We've only just begun to show 'em what we can do. After Barack Obama has had 8 years to start turning this country around, we'll elect a fantastic woman for president, someone with higher ideals, fewer corporate ties, and much less Machiavellian than Hillary Clinton.
I had recently set up a profile on Facebook. I've become addicted to playing the word games Scramble and WordScraper with my friends there. No, that's not the stupid part.
I pride myself on knowing better than to succumb to phishing e-mails or spam of any kind. I never, ever click on links in e-mails from people and organizations I don't know, and I use my antivirus scanning software on all attachments that I even think I might want to open. But we all know where pride goeth ...
This morning, before I'd had any caffeine (tea), I stupidly clicked on the link to a video in an e-mail purporting to be from a good cyberfriend and sent through the Facebook interface. It made sense to get such a message from her because she does sometimes send me links to funny and legitimate videos. And then the spam hit the fan, and Facebook disabled my profile. I'd fallen victim to a Facebook worm, which sent out spam to everyone on my friend list at Facebook.
I've written Facebook a polite message explaining the situation, noting that I've eradicated the worm by using Spybot Search & Destroy, and requesting that my profile be reinstated; I'm still waiting to hear back. I'm hoping that they'll find, in their files, my recent complaint about another Facebook profile illegally using my copyrighted artwork (a case that was satisfactorily resolved) and will think, Oh, well, no one complaining about copyright violation would go around spamming people on purpose. But that's just hope at the moment.
Updated 12:14 p.m., 8/26/08: I'm back on Facebook. Yay!
I welcome discussion of—and even disagreement with—my posts. But if you feel the need to call me or others rude or crude names, your comments will be deleted. I won't tolerate racism, sexism, ageism, looksism, weightism, gay-bashing, religion-bashing, culture-bashing, or any other prejudice here. Also, if your only reason for commenting is to link back to your site and not to discuss a post, your comment will be deleted.
Okay, it's only one girl.
happens when professionals write and produce a book! The book is a very reasonably priced at $25 for 320 pages, with 225 recipes from 96 contributors from around the world. It's Wire-O bound so that it conveniently lies flat when it's open.
