Oh, Emily! I just thanked you in my heart a few minutes ago!

Somebody here asked me about the difference between "i.e." and "e.g" and I told him which is which, and I told him the trick I use to remember it, which is totally your trick that you posted in a Natter thread, many many threads ago (that "e.g." is "for example" with the trick of "for egxample", and "i.e." is "in other words" because it starts with an "i"). Thanks! See what a great teacher you are?

Was that me? Excellent! Thanks, Nilly!

Is it just me, or does this name feel a little porny? (without the asterisk, of course, which I put in to fool the google)

It does to me, and I have to say it fifty hundred times a day 'Good morning, EdVant*age, this is Sophia!". And fifty hundred times a day, someone says... "Is this the University of R______?" because Advantage is the name of a prominant credit union in town.

This one is about my neighborhood and my neighbors, Nilly.

It sort of struck me that in just about every interview, the interviewers always said (very matter-of-factly) that "no one knows their neighbors, anymore...especially in New York and LA)."

And I thought, "hm. I know my neighbors."

I grew up in a neighborhood where I knew all my neighbors.

There's at least a handful of interesting backdrops to knowing my neighbors, like the community garden, and the fire in Griffith Park. So I thought it might be interesting to explore community again, but instead of internet, my actual neighborhood.

Bread and Jam for Frances

love this series (and the spelling of the name too) for kids.

Seconding the love. But have people actually come up with alternate spellings for Frances? (Aside from the boy version, I mean.) Weird. After hearing that people spell ND "Dru" I'd believe just about anything though, I guess.

Huh. We know most of ours too. I thought it was just the 'hood we are in.

I keep trying not to know my neighbours. My sister is on warning that when she comes to visit she can't talk to them in case they expect me to continue being social.

But I hate people and her, she'll give exit interviews to patrons leaving a restaurant she's going into. There's never a good enough reason for her to keep her mouth closed.

Eh. She gets good gossip.

I can be very gregarious when I want to be, but on the whole I don't like humans.

That is precisely why I love my neighborhood so much. Everyone knows everyone...or at least, someone knows someone who knows the people you don't know.

Though I have to admit, I joke about never having known my neighbors when I lived in Union City CA, Stockton CA, San Diego CA or Rockville MD.

Emily, that was totally you, and thanks to you I still remember it now, who-knows-how-many electrons later. Thank *you*!

This one is about my neighborhood and my neighbors

You know, this is so interesting. You went from a first book about your community in far away places, connected in the newest way possible, with modern technology and all, to the one you're going to write about next, connected in the most basic way, living in the same place, sharing the same garden, the least amount of "new" stuff involved. And when talking about both these communities, people wonder how come you know these people at all. Huh.

In Israel, you kinda can't avoid knowing your neighbors. I mean, it can get to the point of being too nosy, but nobody would dream giving that up. It's one of the first things people point out as "Israeli" - that immediate connection and openness between people, even if the only thing that connects them is that they have similar addresses on their mail.