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Last night I passed on my usual Friday movie fix. My second youngest niece flew in from Denver with her boyfriend, my youngest visited from Jersey with her husband, my godmother’s daughter joined us, and we sat around the dining room table of the old house, where my eldest niece is now the sole occupant. We chowed down on pizza and shot the breeze, sharing laughs. Aggie, who served as tour guide to the visitors from Colorado, was the main raconteur. She told of how her mom once tricked her by holding her breath and pretending to be dead while lying in bed, her feet ice cold, and of how a comment to a co-worker about about her “open” marriage was interpreted as an invitation. She had no idea the term had sexual connotation. She’d meant she told her husband everything and didn’t understand why the guy, a 30-year-old resembling Mitch McConnell, called every weekend to set something up between the two couples, and his frustration at being blown off. Then, driving to her house in the Poconos one night, her cell phone rang. Guess who it was. She cited the details and her bafflement about the guy’s behavior to her husband, who abruptly pulled to the side of the road. When she learned what the term actually meant, she exited, nauseated. A cop car stopped behind her and the officer asked if she were all right, and she told him what was wrong. He looked at her as if she were from another planet. Back at work, she asked the swinger not to mention her naivete to staff and he asked that she not divulge his secret. Each stuck to the pact. Aggie is now working out of her home in Florida. She and I left at ten-thirty, missing the impromptu concert the men, excellent musicians, put on. I’m glad they finally got to play together.
The insanity continues, as manifested in an article at foxnews.com: A man and son presented the woodwork below to the Montgomery County Police in Maryland in recognition of National First Responders Day. A county official has banned it from being displayed, dubbing it divisive. It is seen by some as a “blue lives matter” flag in response to the “Black Lives Matter” movement.

Meanwhile in Texas, the Llano High School football team honored the U.S. military in its own way. The video has since gone viral, more than 1.4 million views and 43,000 shares. Here’s a still:

It was a gorgeous day, a slight nip in the air. An Asian woman and her little girl approached the floating book shop. I pointed out the box of childrens’ stuff and the kid sniffed, immediately attracted to a science work book and a pictorial on the human body. I guess she showed me. The precocious ball of fire also chose the Jules Verne classic Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea. My thanks, and also to Lucia, who bought her second copy of Killing, this time as a gift for her brother.
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