glad you are back and coping (at least it seems you are).

Thanks, I am. My innapropriate sense of humor is keeping me somewhat sane.

I think she means De Nile, but the other answers sound like more fun.

I don't see why it shouldn't. Cyn says the quarter and Uptown are looking pretty decent.

That's good to hear. Now I'm wondering if I can arrange to be in the area around the same time they are in dock.

The part where you wear horrible eye make-up and sleep with very young men named Mark.

Might I recommend some Dacascos? A little Valley (well, there is only little, with Valley)? And never forget the classics.

ita - she's always got a cure for what ails ya.

Mark Wahlberg got a lot cuter as he got older.

So did Donnie.

And my poor Joey? NSM.

All the Israeli children get an ID number (the Israeli equivalent of the USA's SSN) at birth. That's how they're written in their parents' IDs, too.

You're right, it is possible to fall between the cracks in the US. SSNs are not national IDs, or even state IDs. You have to have an SSN to do anything tax-related, like work legally, accrue interest in a bank account, apply for financial aid to college, file taxes/be claimed on taxes, and probably inherit. But if you chose to, you could keep your kid from getting an SSN for a long time. (Illegal immigrants go their whole lives without SSNs, sometimes.) You just have to resign yourself to working "under the table" or illegally, and not have an investment portfolio.

(We Hardy American Individualists are very wary of national IDs, although I think the idea has gotten more traction recently. Part of the problem with using SSNs as IDs is that identity theft and fraud have made keeping one's SSN secret more and more important.)

I think the equivalent English expression is 'fall between the cracks.'

Thanks, tommy. It's pretty similar, but not exactly, the same, the way I understand "fall between the cracks", at least. Also, nicer "scary visual place".

t Waves at Aimée I wasn't online when you posted in "Beep Me", so I didn't know anything at the time, but you were in my thoughts once I did.

But there's still a chance that a child may 'fall between the chairs' (Hebrew expression, meaning 'not here and not there') and not have any sort of 'official' recording?

Absolutely. I'm sure that the survivalist families out in Idaho don't register their children with the government, and many of them probably homebirth as well.